Just Food.....

Today's post consist of a few things that I've been eating this past week.  First up is a new restaurant that we went to Tuesday night.  A Cheddars opened up here in Jackson a few months ago, and Tony has been dying to go.  Every time we go by there it's packed with like an hour or more wait.  We decided to go out to eat Tuesday night instead of cooking, so we thought we would try to get in at Cheddars.  It was our lucky night.  We walked right in with no wait.  I was a little disappointed at first, because I didn't see much that I could eat.  I really didn't want to eat just a salad, and I saw a Dijon Chicken Mushroom meal that I thought I could get, but ask them for more mushrooms in place of the chicken.  I asked the waitress if I could do that, but she recommended that I just get the salad and 4 vegetables deal for $6.99.  Mushrooms were not one of their vegetable sides, but she said I could order them any way.  So, I ended up getting a salad and veggie plate.  The salad was a perfect size and had lots of veggies in it.  Sorry, I devoured it before I even thought about taking a picture.  I did manage to take a picture of my vegetable plate though.   The mushrooms were fantastic.  I don't know what seasoning they used to cook them in, but I've never eaten any out that tasted that good.   The rice was great, the steamed broccoli was steamed perfectly, and the baby carrots were cooked perfect also.  I could handle eating that meal every day.  :o) 

Sunday night we had chili dogs.   I tried to find a can of veggie chili at my local grocery store, but all they had was chili with out beans (ugh).  I didn't have time to really make a pot of chili, so I just winged it in making a small pot for our hot dogs.  I used a can of chili beans, a small can of tomato sauce, half of an onion (chopped), 1 Roma tomato chopped up (that's all I had), chili powder, and pepper.  I whipped that up in like 15 minutes, and figured that it probably wouldn't be very edible.  Tony had already decided that he was just having hot dogs until he saw what the chili looked like.  I did a quick taste test to make sure that it wasn't horrible, and to my surprise it turned out pretty darn good for something just thrown together.  :o)

Monday night Tony grilled.  I had grilled BBQ Tofu, grilled asparagus, roasted brussel sprouts, and a sweet potato.  This was my first time to cook roasted brussel sprouts.  For some reason I've never big on roasting veggies.  I almost burned the little brussels, but they were still very good.  I think I'm beginning to get hooked on roasted veggies.

For most of my lunches this week I've been having a small side of the chili that was left over from our chili dogs, stuffed grape leaves, carrots or broccoli, hummus, and pretzel chips.   The grape leaves are so small so I thought I could eat three along with everything else.  Boy was I wrong.  I could only eat two, so I had to take one back home for the next day.  Those little stuffed grape leaves are very filling and very good!  Makes me think that their may be more frequent trips to Whole Foods, or maybe I should find a recipe for them and make my own....hmmmm

For some snacks I've been having a Honey Crisp apple with crunchy almond butter....YUM!

I also bought a couple of soy yogurts to try when we went to WF's last Friday.   I don't like the kind they sell at our local Kroger.  It's not very tasty at all.  The Whole Soy & Co was on sale, so I bought those this time.  I really wanted to try some SO Delicious Coconut milk yogurt, but it wasn't on sale.  I knew my husband was probably going to have a heart attack when we checked out, so I thought I better stop putting stuff in the buggy.  It's very easy to get drawn into everything, and to want to buy it right then...at least it is for me.   I'm sure it would be different if we had a WF's where I live.   I would really love to go to Nashville, which is two hours away, and go to Trader Joe's sometime.  Which do you like the best....Whole Foods or Trader Joe's.  Do you think it would be worth the drive to go check out TJ's?

~Peace~

A Little Food Feud Action

Happy Monday Tuesday (I started my post on Monday, but didn't get to finish...CRAZY day yesterday)!  I took full advantage of the extra hour that daylight savings time gave us Sunday by doing a little baking.  First let me tell you where one of the fabulous recipes that I made came from.  It came from one of FoodFued's zines called Marmalade Umlaut.  I have to say a a couple of things about her zines before I go into the food.  I bought 5 a while back and they are great.  Maud is a so funny.  You can't help but laugh out loud and some of the things she says and talks about. Then there is the serious side of Maud giving up some of her great knowledge and wonderful recipes.   There are a lot of recipes that I plan on making from her zines soon, but what I made Sunday was at the top of the list!  If you haven't checked out Maud's zines, you really should!  :o)   I'm waiting patiently for the new to come out....

I made the Pumpkin Pie Brownies from Issue 9.  I've been wanting and meaning to make these for the last couple of weeks, but just couldn't seem to find the time.  I'm glad I finally took the time, because they are awesome.   They have a rich brownie layer on the bottom and a creamy pumpkin layer on top.  I was going to be fancy and grate some dark chocolate to put on top instead of chocolate chips, but that didn't work out very well.  Since the chocolate slivers didn't work, I melted the chocolate, so I could drizzle it over the top.  That didn't turn out how I wanted it to either, but the taste is what mattered the most here.  Here's an example of Maud' humor.   She made a note beside the recipe saying " I made this.  Oh, and ruined it....sorry".   Then she wrote "Better luck to the rest of you, and do NOT sub a 7" pan for the 9" one...."    I couldn't help but giggle when I read that.

I also made HH's glazed pumpkin biscuits Sunday morning.  I added some cranberries to mine.  Cranberries just seem to pare well with pumpkin for me.  I thought I got the recipe off her website, but I didn't see it there.   I was going to post the link, but I can't seem to find it now....sorry.   They were good and pretty low in calories.  I'm not counting but someone else is.  :o)

I was off work Friday, and as most of you know we took a road trip to whole foods, so I could get some things that I was out of and of course get new things.   We left the house around noon, so by the time we got to Memphis we both were about to starve.  I suggested we go to P.F. Chang's, because we don't have one in Jackson.  I've only been wanting to try it for what seems like forever.  For starters we got a couple of veggie spring rolls (yum). 

For my main meal I ordered the Coconut Curry Vegetables, which was Stir-fried vegetables, crispy silken tofu and peanuts in a mild curry powder and coconut milk sauce...very good.   I no longer have to be jealous of Shen's P.F. Chang's meals, because I have now tried it and know that I like it... and, I will go back.  :o)  Well, I say I won't be jealous...It could be worse now that I've actually tried and liked it!  Thanks for posting those delicious meals Shen!

Here's one shot of some Whole Food's loot that I got.  I know it's nothing new for you guys, but for me it was like hitting winning the lottery.  The mint candy bar and B-12 are for Tony.  I finally decided to buy a can of Artichoke Hearts.  Now I need some help in finding the perfect recipe for them.  Any suggestions on a recipe for a person who's never tried them before? 

Here's some more goodies that I finally remembered to get and some new things that I found that I just had to try.  I finally found Honey Crisp apples...yay...and they are so good!  Tony found the soy pudding (I totally over looked it), so I had to get that to try, you know, since he pointed it out. :o)   I also found the stuffed grape leaves that VaVa and Shen have been eating.  Thanks for telling me where they were Shen.  And I FINALLY found Miso....thank goodness!

It was such a beautiful day on Sunday that we decided to get out and ride around.  We ended up stopping by Tony's sisters farm for a little donkey love.  Her name is Bashful.   She used to be bashful, but she's not anymore.  She is such a sweet heart!

She is so loving....I really wanted to take her home with me!

She loved on Tony a lot more...I think she thought his cologne smelt good.  :o)



I hope everyone had a great weekend!

~Peace~

Back from Vacation

Hey everyone...I'm back from vacation.  We took a family vacation to Okaloosa Island , FL which is actually considered to be part of Ft Walton with Destin on the other side.  It is such a beautiful place!  When I say family vacation that means that Maggie went with us...YAY!   Her first trip ever.  I wasn't sure how she would take the ride there, since the longest she has ever been in a car is about an hour and a half.  This was a 9 hour trip, but we just couldn't leave our 13 year old baby behind this time.  Here she is just relaxing on her bed with all the luggage behind her, and let me tell you....she did GREAT!  Tony laid his back seats down and we made her a bed right behind us, but in between us.  I wasn't sure how she would like that either, because she has always been in the front seat with me.  Maggie was a trooper though!

Bathroom and water pit stop.  :o)   

Our pet friendly condo was right on the beach with a sand dune behind it.  We were on the 2nd floor with a perfect view.  Out side to the right of our condo was a little grass area for the dogs to use the bathroom, and this lead right up to the sand dunes.  On our first morning I took Maggie up and let her sit on the sand dune to view the ocean.  She loved it!!!  I think she could have sat there all day. 

Every morning we sat on the balcony and watched dolphins play while drinking our coffee or tea.  One morning this man was out paddle boarding with the dolphins.  I will do this some day!  I love...love...love dolphins!   I was so glad that we got to watch them play every morning.  This was the first time that I've ever seen dolphins like this while at the beach, and we go to the beach almost every year if at all possible.

One morning we decided to take Maggie out to see the ocean even though there was a BIG sign that said "No dogs allowed on the beach".   Since Maggie is crippled in her back end, I didn't really see what the harm would be in taking her out to sit on the beach by the water.  It's not like she can take off and run all over the beach.  I do wish she could have though.  If she was able to run, she would have been all over that place.  She loves the ocean to. She would just sit there and sniff in the air and look out at all the water.  I'm sure she was wondering what it was.  :o)   Maggie was NOT a very happy camper when she had to go back in.

Maggie hated being inside the condo.  She wanted to be outside.  We would come and go a lot, so she wouldn't be alone for a long period of time.  We hated to leave her inside like that.  When we were at the condo and weren't at the beach, this is where Maggie was....on the balcony.  We even had to make her some shade.  :o)  When we would go inside, she would start crying like a child that wasn't getting there way...ha

Snoozing on the balcony...now this is what vacation is all about!

Yes, there were some chilly nights on the beach.  We had Maggie with us here, but couldn't seem to get her in the picture with us.   You can see the top of her head though. 

Okay, onto some food.  I searched and searched for a vegan restaurant, but never found one.  So, I had to make do and actually had some great meals.   Of course there were a few not so great meals...as always.  One of my favorites was the gnocchi that we got at this little Italian restaurant...OMG...it was sooooo good.

This was actually the first time I had gnocchi, and it for sure won't be the last. I will be trying my hand at making some of these very soon.  Tony got some kind of ravioli that he said was awesome and was the best that he had every had. 
 

One night we went to the Hogs Breath Saloon.  To my surprise they had a fantastic sounding salad.  We started off with an appetizer of fried mushrooms that were the best that I've ever had.  And can you believe that I didn't even get a picture of them....  I did take a picture of my salad though.  I got the Calypso Salad which was a fresh green salad with mango cilantro salsa tossed with an Asian peanut dressing.  Wow, this was the best salad that I've ever had out.  The combination of the salsa and the dressing was out of this world!

Tony was wanting some seafood (I know....), so we went to the Shrimp Basket.  I saw on line where they had a veggie plate, so I was pretty exited about going.  As you can see, they loaded me up with veggies.  The potatoes did have butter on them, so I took them back for Maggie to eat, which she appreciated very much.  Other than that, the veggies hit the spot!

View from our balcony...

One day we were on our way back to the condo from Destin and this is what we saw.  :o)  I guess you could say this if Florida fishing....lol   A chair on a surf board...now this man knows how to fish!

Beautiful sunset on our last night.

 Maggie's view of a sunset from the balcony (her 2nd favorite spot).

On our last night we went to a Mexican restaurant called Tijuana Flats.   Very cool place with a very cool atmosphere.  If I wasn't so shy about walking around in front of people taking pictures, I would have taken tons of the walls.  I wish we had one of these where we live.

 The coolest part about about this place is that the patio is pet friendly.  They had a sign up that said "your well behaved pets are welcome on our patio".  Darn, we could have taken Maggie to eat with us.  Have you ever heard of a restaurant being pet friendly?  They even had dog bowls out for our fury kids.  :o)

I got a veggie burrito with black beans.  Again...the best burrito that I've ever had!   They also had some great salsa.  It had a sweet taste to it...very yummy!

Maggie saying good bye to the ocean as the sun rises.   She so loved the beach!  Vacationing with Maggie was a new experience for us.  It was great and I hope that we are able to take her back to the beach again.

Us saying good bye to the beach and ocean...boo...   I will live at the beach one day!  It's my favorite place to be.  What is it about the beach and ocean that makes a person feel revived?   It was so good for Maggie too.  She had life back in her eyes again and actually got around better while she was there
. 

I took some more food pictures, but I think I took them with my phone.  If they're blog worthy, I'll post them later.  I'm sure I have a lot of catching up to do by reading your blogs, so I'll be checking out what everyone has been up to on and off today!   Have a great Sunday!

~Peace~

Sunday Already.....

Hi everyone! I can't believe it's Sunday already. The weekends just seem to go by way too fast. I mentioned the other day that I didn't even want to think about eating out, because we had been eating out so much the first part of the week. Friday afternoon my husband sent me a text saying "Casa Marina" our newly favorite Mexican Restaurant. So, I guess you know where we went Friday night. I really think that I could eat at this place every night. :o) This time I got their veggie taco dinner. It was very good just like everything else that I have gotten there. The only thing was that the tacos had a little shredded cheese on them that I had to take off. No problemo though.

Here's a close up of the veggie soft shell tacos. They had squash, zucchini, red onion, carrots, pico, and lettuce in them.....YUM! I got a side of guacamole...they have the absolute best. If you ever come to Jackson, TN and you like Mexican, you must go to Casa Marina. You will NOT be sorry.

Saturday after I got home from running some errands and visiting my mom, I put the ingredients in my bread machine to make some flax wheat bread. The past times that I have used my bread machine, my loaves always turned out short and dumpy. I decided to use the regular bread setting instead of the rapid setting this time. Yes, it took longer but the bread turned out to be the perfect loaf that I have always hoped for from the bread machine...Yay!

Here's a the recipe and a picture of the slice of bread that I had with my supper.

11 ounces of water

1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons black strap molasses

2 1/4 cups unbleached bread flour

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon vital wheat gluten

1/4 cup ground flax seeds

2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Put all the ingredients into your bread machine. Follow the directions for your bread machine. Mine calls for all the wet ingredients first, then the dry and the yeast last. I added the above ingredients in order into my bread machine. The bread turned out perfect. This is by far the best loaf of bread that I have made in my bread machine.

Next up is the Blueberry Breakfast Cake that I got from Happy Herbivore's website. It was total yumminess! The recipe can be found here. It was very moist and not too sweet. It was perfect with my cup of Kona Coffee this morning.

That's all the baking I did Saturday, but I have something else that I am going to make this afternoon that I have been wanting to make for a couple of months now. I did whip up some dressing for our salad that we had for supper last night. I made the Thousand Island dressing from Vegan Comfort Food. It was awesome! Way better than any store bought kind that I've ever had. Tony even loved it. :o) The picture doesn't do the dressing justice.

Here's my Saturday night salad that was followed up with a piece of blueberry breakfast cake. I think this was one of my better salads too. I added some sun dried tomatoes for the first time. OMG...why haven't I done that before? I think the thousand island dressing and the sun dried tomatoes are what made the salad so good.

That's all for today. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Making Do....

Howdy folks! So it's been a few days since I've posted anything, and that's because I have been super busy and haven't done any cooking. We have eaten out so much lately that I don't want to think about eating out...do you ever get that way? We are also in major need of groceries. I had planned on going grocery shopping last night after church, but it was pretty late and I was exhausted for some reason...probably from eating so much junk over the last few days. :) Tomorrow will turn a new leaf though as I will have a freshly stocked food in the frig and pantry....yay. I have been with out kale for 5 days now and am having serious withdrawals from it. It's hard to believe that I love kale the way I do now. It's good to see that other people love it as much as I do.

Monday morning I made a smoothie, but I was all out of fresh greens. I used some frozen spinach to replace the fresh, which I don't think I will be doing again. I wasn't a big fan of the frozen stuff. I could taste that it wasn't fresh...for sure. It's been so long since Monday, so I don't really remember exactly what all I put in the smoothie. I think it was water, frozen spinach, flax seeds, frozen banana, frozen pineapple, some shredded coconut, cinnamon, protein powder and maca powder. I drank it, but that's about all I can say for this one....not the best tasting smoothie that I've had. I think it probably would have been great with fresh spinach or kale.

Yesterday for lunch I ate out. I order the Bean Curd with Broccoli from the #1 Chinese restaurant down the road from my work. I haven't had it in a while so it hit the spot.

Tuesday night we had a birthday party to go to which was held at another steak house (The Old Hickory Steak House). I was hoping that their salads wouldn't be like the last one that I got at Dixie Castle about a month ago. It consisted of iceburg lettuce, with a slice of tomato, 2 slices of cucumber and 2 slices of onion...not much of a salad. I have to say that I was very impressed with this steak house. I was so shocked when they brought my salad out. I ordered a small Greek salad with out the cheese. It was AWESOME, and can you believe that I didn't even take a picture of it....what's wrong with me? I guess I was too busy talking and enjoying my salad. Anyway, it was made of fresh greens (no iceberg), tomatoes, red onions, olives, peppers, and cucumbers. It had a Greek dressing on it that was made up of olive oil, vinegar, and spices. Totally yummy! I got a baked potato also. Oh, we ordered some fried mushrooms as an appetizer too. Oh man...they were so good! I must make some!

Today for lunch I had a "bacon" wrap. I scrounged around in the freezer and frig to find enough stuff to make a wrap for lunch today. I had like half a head of cabbage in the frig, half a red bell pepper, and a little bit of shredded carrots. I also had some vegan bacon in the freezer and a little store bought hummus in the frig. I used all those things to make my wrap for lunch, which was really good!

That's all for today. Hopefully I will be back with some good home cooked or raw food in the next day or two. :o)

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Weekend and Monday Eats

Happy Monday...I hope everyone had a great weekend. It was perfect weather here in the south, so we worked out in the yard all day Saturday. We got our garden spot all plowed up and ready for the veggies to be planted. This is going to be our first official garden. We've planted squash and tomatoes in our flower beds the last couple of years and had pretty good luck. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will have good luck with our small garden. I didn't realize there was so much work involved in getting a place ready to have a garden though. I think we picked grass out for half the day. :o) It sure will be worth it though.

Friday night we went to one of our favorite Mexican places to eat, Casa Marina. I got the Veggie Chalupa this time and it was awesome. You can't tell much about the chalupa here, but underneath the lettuce and guacamole there was sauteed yellow squash, zucchini, red onion and carrots. I was very surprised when they brought my food out though. I've never been served black beans at a Mexican restaurant before, but it was a great change. I've never had a bad experience Casa Marina...everything always taste so fresh. I looked their menu up on line, but they don't have the vegetarian section listed. We both love this place so much that we almost went again Saturday night. Their chips and salsa are by far the best in our town! Here's a close up of the Chalupa, but you still can't tell much about it. I should have mixed the veggies up so you could see how good it looked.

Sunday night Tony wanted me to cook him some baked spaghetti, so I made myself a little batch of plain spaghetti. I cooked some white beans/w collard greens to have along side my spaghetti, but I ended up mixing it up all together.....very yummy! Of course at our house you can't have spaghetti with out garlic toast, so I made some garlic toast out of some Oroweat whole wheat sandwich thins that I had on hand. I spread a little Earth Balance on the bread and then sprinkled some garlic powder and basil on top. I then toasted it in the oven.....YUM!

For lunch I had a salad. I added some raw cabbage to my salad this time, but apparently it's underneath the leafy lettuce, because you sure can't see it in the picture below. This is the first time that I have ever eaten raw cabbage in a salad...very yummy though. For the dressing I mixed some lemon juice, a little olive oil, a dash of herbamare, and a small quirt of agave nectar together. I massaged the dressing mixture into the greens and then added the other veggies (shredded carrots, chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, dried cranberries, and sunflower seeds).

~Peace~Love~Happiness~