Chickpea Cutlets Rock!

Happy Hump Day! I hope everyone is having a great day! I'll start of by telling you what I had for dinner last night. I made the chickpea cutlets out of my Veganomicon cookbook. I've made other chickpea cutlets but not these. Everyone has raved about how good they are, so I had to try them out last night. Everyone was right...they are so good! I was curious if the recipe was on line anywhere, so I though I would check it out. What do you know....it is. If you don't have this cookbook, you can find the recipe here. I had some left over corn and fried cabbage to go along with the cutlets. I used sesame oil to fry the cabbage in and added a little garam marsala. I just love that stuff on cabbage! After I put the cabbage in my plate, I added some lemon juice to it....YUM! On Wednesday nights we go to what we call "Life Group" at our church. Every once in a while some one will bring some goodies. I had a request to bring my Oatmeal, Walnut and Dried Plum Cookies that I make from Alicia Silverstone's book, The Kind Diet. If you don't have her book, you can find the recipe here. These are Tony's favorite cookies!

For breakfast I had an all fruit smoothie this morning...no greens in it. I used 3/4 cup of water, 1/2 cup cranberry/pomegranate juice, 1 frozen banana, 1 cup frozen berry blend (blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries), protein powder, flax seeds, and a date. My blender doesn't like the dates very much though. I seem to be finding chunks of the date in my smoothie while drinking it. :o) I can't complain though. At least my blender works. :-)

Lunch was a salad. I had a few chickpeas left over from making the chickpea cutlets last night, so I added them to my salad. I'm starting to get a little tired of salads for lunch. I'm in serious need of buying some raw nuts, so I can make some more raw spreads. The only problem is, no one sells them where I live. Does anyone know of a good place to order them on line? I need cashews and sunflower seeds.

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Tornado Warnings...All Afternoon

Happy Monday...I hope you haven't had to endure the weather that I have today. We have had tornado watches and warning all through out the day. I has just pulled out my lunch and was ready to eat when the tornado sirens went off. I had to leave my lunch and go to the shelter, where we ended up staying for about an hour. It's been like that on and off all day. After we were able to leave the shelter, I called my husband to see how things were at the house. He said it got very bad. Trees were down every where....limbs and derbies were every where too. Tony checked everything out around the house, and we were very fortunate that we didn't have serious damage....just a section of our shingles gone from the roof. Whew...I'm so glad that's over with. I do NOT like tornado weather. Do you have to deal with them where you live? Onto the food....this is a picture of my smoothie for Saturday. It was so good. It consisted of 1 frozen banana, 1 cup of water, a handful of spinach, 1 date, 1 pear peeled and cut up, 1 kiwi, and some protein powder. For lunch today I had a salad. I used the lemon, olive oil, agave nectar, and herbamare mixture for my dressing, which is always so refreshing. I cut up an apple to put on my salad today, which was very good for a change. I was afraid my apples would be all brown looking by the time we got back from the tornado shelter, but luckily they weren't.....YAY. "o)

I didn't cook much over the weekend since Tony was home. We ate out a lot. I guess Sunday night was the first night that I actually cooked dinner. I didn't cook anything special for myself, so I didn't take a picture. I had corn, fried potatoes, and some kale chips. I know...not a very healthy dinner, but I wasn't really hungry for some reason. I did make some kale chips Sunday afternoon. I got the recipe here. I had to use the oven method, as I don't have a dehydrator yet. These are the best kale chips I've had by far. I did however get side tracked and almost burned them, but they still turned out so good. :o)

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Breakfast for Supper

Do you ever eat breakfast foods for supper? I used to love breakfast for supper, so that's what I had last night. I cooked some fried potatoes with some Red Robin's seasoning sprinkled on them....YUM! These were almost as good as Red Robin's french fries....almost. I also made the tofu scramble from my Vegan Comfort Food cookbook by Alicia C. Simpson. I went exactly by the directions except for one little addition. I just had to add a little spinach. :o) The scrambled tofu had the following ingredients in it: onion, minced garlic, chopped red bell pepper, cumin, thyme, paprika, turmeric, sea salt, chopped tomato, and nutritional yeast. It was very good. I was a little unsure of the amount of nutritional yeast that the recipe called for, but it turned out perfect....very good! I also has some Smart Bacon to complete my breakfast. Lunch was another salad. I added some left over tofu scramble to it. :o)

Oh, I left out breakfast. I'm sure you can guess what I had. I didn't take a picture of my smoothie this morning, because it wasn't anything new. It was good as always though.

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

A Year Already.....

Happy hump day! I realized something today, and I don't know how it snuck up on me. I have now been a vegan for a year....woohoo! I feel so much better with out all those stomach problems that I used to have in my prevegan days. I look back to when I first became a vegan and I have come a long way, but still have a long way to go. It seems like I learn something new every day, and I want to thank all of you for that. I don't know what I would have done with out your help and knowledge. Reading your blogs and having you to comment on mine has really opened my eyes and taste buds to a whole new world that I love. So....thank you all my blogger friends for all the help and support! Onto the food.... I started my morning off with the usual smoothie. This one had a banana (not frozen), frozen blueberries and mango chunks, a cup of water, 2 kale leaves, a little honey, 1 tsp flax seeds, 1 tbs chia seeds, and some pea protein powder in it. I forgot all about having chia seeds until I spotted them the other day while cleaning out my cabinets. They just miraculously appeared. :o) Yesterday was my nephews 13th birthday, so last night I went over to my sister-n-law's house for his party. I had no idea what they were cooking for supper, but I suspected that they were grilling. When I got there John (brother-n-law) pulled out a couple of portabellas and asked me how I wanted to doctor them up. They had bought me a couple of mushrooms, so I would have something to eat...wasn't that sweet? For supper I had a portabella burger while everyone else had regular burgers. :o) There was a mushroom left over, so they told me to take it home with me. I couldn't believe no one else ate it. They were so good! I rubbed a little olive oil on the caps and sprinkled some kind of pineapple seasoning on them that they had....yum! For lunch today I had a kale salad with the left over mushroom cut up on top. I also added some broccoli and avocado. I'm running low on veggies, that’s why my salad isn't very colorful. Okay, this may sound weird, but I'm about to tell you what kind of dressing I made this morning. I had a small handful of grape tomatoes left, so I threw them in the blender. I added a little olive oil, a little lemon juice, some dried basil (didn’t' have fresh), salt and pepper. I blended all that up ad then poured it over the kale and massaged it in. The kale marinated in that all morning until lunch. I wasn't sure if it would be good or not, but I wanted something different. To my amazement, it was very good. Believe it or not, everything mixed well....very good! You can barely see the tomato dressing in the picture, but you can get glimpses of some red here and there. :o)

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Partial Raw....Day 7

Hey everyone! So, today is day 7, and I feel great! I never knew eating more raw foods could make this big of a difference in how you feel. Today at work we had a potluck for two people that are leaving the company. The man loves tacos, so they fixed up a taco bar for them. I didn't even go over to where all the food was, because I knew there wouldn't really be anything that I could eat. Everyone's about meat where I work, however a coworker in our department made some homemade salsa....uh oh! I love chips and salsa! So, you know what I did...yep...I had a few chips and salsa. The strange thing is, as I was eating the chips and salsa, I could feel my stomach bloating. Now, is that weird or what? After that I stopped eating them. I only had about 10 chips if that many. I couldn't see making myself feel miserable. Anyway, this morning I had a bright green smoothie. :o) It consisted of 1 cup of water, 1 banana, 1 cup frozen mango chunks, kale, and a little cinnamon and ginger powder. Oh, and about a teaspoon of honey. Here's a picture of my wheat berry salad that I made last night. I soaked a cup of wheat berries in about 3 cups of water for 24 hours. I soaked them in a mason jar with the lid on. I set the jar in a corner on my kitchen counter. After 24 hours I drained, then rinsed the wheat berries. I put them back in the jar and put a paper towel over the lid with a rubber band. I did this because I didn't have any cheese cloth. One of these days I will learn to be prepared...ha Anyway, I turned the jar on it side and put it back in the corner where I had it to begin with. After 24 more hours I had sprouts. :o) I decided to make a wheat berry salad out of the wheat berry sprouts. I found a recipe on the food network site that sounded good, but she (Barefoot Contessa) used cooked wheat berries and onions, where as I didn't. I also used a yellow onion, because I didn't have a red one. Click here for the recipe. It was good, but not great. It needed something else. I think some chopped apple would have made it much better, maybe even great. I just may add some chopped apple to what's left and see how that works. I'll let you know how that turns out.

For lunch I put the wheat berry salad on my kale salad. There again, it was good, but not great.

I didn't eat as much as I normally do for lunch, so I was pretty hungry by 2:30. I pulled out my chocolate chip cookie dough Larabar and ate half of that. Oh my....that rocks! So far that and the brownie are are my favorite. I really haven't eaten one that I dislike yet. It just boils down to the fact that I love chocolate. :o)

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Partial Raw...Day 6

Happy Monday! Today was day 6 of my partial raw day. This morning I had a smoothie of course. There wasn't much effort put into this one, as I was in a rush this morning. I slept a little longer than I had anticipated. This smoothie consisted of 1 cup of water, a handful of spinach, 1 frozen banana, 1/4 cup frozen blueberries, a few pieces of mixed frozen fruit, 1 teaspoon of flax seeds, 1/2 a pear, some cinnamon and ginger powder. I had half a pear in the frig left over from my fruit bowl yesterday, so I decided to throw it into the blender too. I couldn't taste it in the smoothie though. It was still another yummy smoothie. Is there anything you eat or drink all the time? I seriously don't think I will ever get tired of smoothies. No two ever taste the same. Last night I made the curried walnut pate from Raw Food Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet. When I got finished making it, I got a little weirded out, because it looked like potted meat....bleh. I remember my mom eating that stuff when I was a kid....gross. Anyway, it was bed time, so I did't taste it. I decided to just wait till lunch today.

For lunch today I had a salad with some of the curried walnut pate. I first put some on a carrot to see what it taste like. Wow, I was amazed at how good it was. I was wondering if it would taste anything like walnuts, but it didn't. I don't know how to exlain the taste, but it was very good. I will be making it again. That's for sure. It went great with the salad.

For supper I had a chik'n sandwich with some juice. A friend of mine had a Jack LaLanne juicer that she got for Christmas a couple of years ago but never used it. She called me one day and asked if I would like to have it. Of course I said sure, but I couldn't just take it, so I donated a little money to her husbands missonary fund. I've had it for over a month, but haven't really had the chance to use it. I put it to use tonight though. This juice consisted of 1cup of spinach, 1/2 cucumber, 2 stalks of celery, 4 small carrots, and 1/2 a pear. Juicing is so healthy, so I am trying to figure out an easy way to be able to juice more often.

Over the weekend I sprouted some wheat berries....YAY....this is the first thing that I have sprouted. I am going to make a wheat berry salad with them...I think. I'll let you know tomorow what I did with them. I was so excited to see those little sprouts...ha I can't wait to sprout some beans now. :o)

Have a good night!

Peace~Love~Happiness~

Partial Raw....Day 3

Happy Friday! So, today is day 3 of my partial raw diet, and it is going great. I feel so much better and I have way more energy. Last night when I got home, I cooked supper and then started cleaning house. I never do any kind of cleaning during the week, because I am always too tired. I even got up this morning feeling rested and full of energy. I love how I feel right now!

Last night for supper I had some left over spinach & mushroom risotto, sautéed mushrooms & onions, and sautéed carrots & asparagus. I marinated the mushrooms and onions in some red wine for about 15 minutes and then sautéed them. The asparagus and carrots were sautéed in a little olive oil, and then topped with some herbamare seasoning and lemon juice. I told myself that I was NOT going to eat any bread, but the left over crescent rolls from Tuesday night were screaming my name. I couldn't let them go to waste...right?

I started my morning off with another smoothie (I'm addicted). This smoothie consisted of 1 cup water, 1 large handful of spinach, 1 kiwi, 1 frozen banana, 1/4 cup frozen mango chunks (that's all that was left), 3 frozen strawberries, 1/2 teaspoon maca powder, 1 teaspoon flax seeds, 1 tablespoon of honey, and a dash of cinnamon and ginger powder. Another awesome smoothie! I meant to buy some fresh ginger when I went to the grocery store, but forgot. I think fresh ginger would be much better in a smoothie than the powder.

For lunch I had a salad. This one was much better than the one I had on Wednsday. This one was made up of kale, green leaf lettuce, baby carrots, broccoli, cucumbers, alfalfa sprouts, grape tomatoes, and there's some mashed up avocado in there somewhere. I used some fresh squeezed lime juice as my dressing.

Sometimes Kroger has some great bargains. Here's my great find yesterday. I got 10 Larabars for $10. I'm anxious to try them, as I've only tried one flavor. I probably should have left the Kroger where I was and went to another one that has a bigger health food selection, so I could have gotten a better variety of the bars. The one I was at has the smallest health food section out of the 4 that we have in Jackson. That's okay though. I now have 10 bars that I didn't have before. :o)

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Smoothie....Salad....Sinus Wash (aka Neti Pot)

Happy hump day! Today was my first go at eating raw foods until dinner time. Well....I thought I was doing great this morning until I had downed half my smoothie. I then realized that I had put Almond milk in the blender to make my smoothie. It was store bought almond milk, not raw....bummer! On the up side of that, the smoothie sure was good. My smoothie was pretty simple this morning, because I thought Tony was going to drink some of it. He wasn't hungry though, which left more for me. :o) My smoothie this morning consisted of a frozen banana, 1 cup almond milk, 3/4 cup frozen mango chunks, 1/4 cup frozen blueberries, and a dash of cinnamon and ginger. Another smoothie that was like a milk shake.

I had a pretty boring salad for lunch. I think I should have waited until tomorrow to start the partial raw diet, because I realized this morning that I was in need of raw veggies. I managed to have an all green salad for lunch with a few dried cranberries and sunflower seeds on it (booorrrrring). For my dressing I used lemon juice and olive oil. Tomorrow is going to be a much better day though, because I am going to the grocery store after work.

Yesterday after I got home we went to Walgreen's to get Tony some sinus/allergy medicine. He seems to be getting my crud. While we were there, I decided to check out the Neti Pots. VeganMom suggested that I try it. She said that it helped her a while back when she was sick. I have heard tons of other people talk about them and swear by them, so I bought one. Have you ever used a Neti Pot? Let me just say....it is one of the weirdest things that I have ever tried, and it's very funny to watch some one do it. Tony took the plunge and used it first. It was hilarious. Then it was my turn....it's just WEIRD to pour something in one nostril and have it come out the other! But, I have got to be totally honest here! I think it has helped me tremendously. I seem to be much better today. I did the wash last night and this morning! I'm totally on bored with this whole Neti Pot thing! Click here for some information on it and how it works. I bought the cheaper version, because I didn't want to waste money if I didn't like it. What I bought is below and it is great!

I hope everyone has a great night!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Late Birthday/St. Partricks Day Post.....

So....It's already Sunday, and this is how Maggie and I have been for the last 3 days....

Thursday (St.Patrick's Day) was my birthday, but unfortunately I didn't feel like celebrating very much. I was feeling a bit under the weather. All I really wanted to do when I got home from work was go to bed, but I knew I had to eat. I sure didn't feel like cooking anything. So, after Tony gave me my birthday present, we went out to eat at a Mexican place called Tulum. I'll get back to that in a minute.
For my birthday, Tony gave me two new cookbooks, which I had in my wish list on Amazon. He tried to get me Happy Herbivore, but it was out of stock. He promised that he would get Happy Herbivore for me as soon as it came back into stock...YAY. I'm very excited about the two books that he got me though. The Joy of Vegan Baking is full of delicious treats and sweets that I can't wait to make. Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food is loaded with some simple dinner recipes. I'm all about simple lately. I have found tons of recipes that I want to make right away...that's for sure. Do you have either one of these cookbooks? If so, what do you think about them, and do you have a recipe recommendation for me to try first?

Saturday morning when I got up I wanted some waffles, so I made the Waffles I recipe out of The Joy of Vegan Baking cookbook. I did add some cinnamon to them, but that was it before I cooked them. Something weird happened though as the waffles were cooking. They weren't wanting to cook in my waffle iron. I cooked them twice as long as I normally do, but parts of them seemed to still be raw. I ended up and cooked them as much as I could and put them to the side for a bit. I then put one in the toaster which seemed to do the trick. I then added some sliced banana, a few walnuts, and some maple syrup....very tasty!

Back to my birthday dinner. Tony had planned on taking me out to eat Thai, but I just really wasn't feeling it...nothing sounded good, so we just went to Tulum. Tony has been there several times for lunch and just raves about it. They just recently added a vegetarian/vegan portion to their menu, so that's where we went. I just wanted something fast and half way decent, so I could get back home and rest. I ended up ordering the Cozumel which was a burrito that consisted of Beans, Rice, Guacamole, Sour Cream, Lettuce, Diced Bell Peppers, and Pico de Gallo. Of course I had them to leave off the sour cream. It also came with a side of beans and rice. They gave us a little bucket of tortilla chips which were fresh and warm. Tony grabbed us a couple of different kinds of salsa to dip the chips in. My favorite was the tomatillo sauce. YUM!

The burrito was awesome! So were the beans and rice. They put a few shreds of cheese on my beans and on one side of my burrito, but that was no problem....I just moved it off to the side. :o)
I will be going back!

Have you ever had a birthday that exciting...ha Friday I was feeling worse, so I stayed home and decided to go to the doctor. I ended up getting a sinus cocktail shot, some Amoxicillin, Singulair, and Nasonex nose spray. I'm not a big fan of taking drugs, and I'm really not a fan of nose sprays, so for now I am leaving off the nose spray, but I am taking the Singulair along with the Amoxicillin. I can normally shake things like this pretty quick, but this time it has hit me fast and hard. :o( Hopefully in a couple of more days I will be back to normal. Hopefully I will be able to catch up on everyone's blogs today and tomorrow. I've missed reading what everyone has been up to.

Hope you have a great Sunday!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Veggies....Veggies...Veggies

Happy hump day! I'm trying to be happy today, but it's a little hard for me today. I am still dwelling on something that I was told yesterday. Have you ever been ridiculed for your lifestyle (being a vegan)? Have you ever been told that your lifestyle was an inconvenience to others and that you were selfish for being that way? I was pretty much told that yesterday, and I can't seem to let it go. I've never tried to push my diet on anyone and I've never meant to inconvenience anyone. I have always told people to not worry about me. I can always find something to eat where ever we go. When we go to a party or a family get together, I have always told people to not cook for me. I have always been more than willing to bring my own food. I don't know if I am still mad or just hurt. The main reason I became a vegan was for health reasons. Shortly after that, and I mean very shortly after that, I learned how animals were treated and slaughtered. That was the icing on the cake for me. I stand true to my decision in becoming a vegan, and I will not turn back to eating meat for any reason or for any one person. It's who I am now and I have never felt better. I almost felt like I was being told that it was better to be sick than to be healthy. Being ridiculed for being a vegan is one reason why I had rather not tell people, but then again it's who I am, and I am not ashamed of it. I'm just wondering if anyone else ever has to deal with these type of situations? If so, how do you handle it? I did defend myself and I will continue to do so!

Sorry for that rant, but I just felt like I needed to get that off my chest. I'm not the type of person to normally gripe in my blog, but this has really left me in a way that I don't like.

Anyway.....on to supper last night. I had a salad with some mango couscous on top, which was very good. A very easy couscous recipe. You take 1/2 cup orange juice and 1/3 cup of water and bring that to a boil in a sauce pan. Once the liquid starts to boil, remove from the heat and add 3/4 cup couscous. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes. After the couscous has absorbed all the liquid, put the couscous into a bowl and let cool for about 10 minutes. After the couscous has cooled add 1 cup cubed mango, 2 tablespoons of lime and 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and there ya go. I started to add some peppers and onion, but decided not to this time. I massaged a little olive oil and lime juice into the greens before I added the veggies and couscous. Yum.....

For lunch I had Chinese take out....veggies and rice...Yum! :o) I have to admit to something here. It totally weirds me out to eat the stalks of the broccoli. I bite of the tops and throw out the stalks. I know....that's weird, but the stalks just give me the hibbie jibbies. :o) I don't know why I just shared that, but since I did, do you have any weird quirks like that?

Oh, did anyone watch cupcake wars last night? Another vegan won....woohoo. I was watching it because Kim from C'est La Vegan was going to be on there. Sadly she was the first to go. :( Doron Petersan, who owns Sticky Fingers Sweets and Eats in Washington DC did win though. I had never heard of her, but it was cool to see another vegan win, since chef Chloe Coscarelli won last year.

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Peanut Butter Mousse

Happy Monday! It was a busy weekend of studying for me, so there wasn't much cooking going on. My mother-n-law gave me a couple of Food Network magazines last week when she made us that delicious soup. Do you ever look at the Food Network magazine? I found several vegan recipes in it and I have found several that I am going to veganize. I made this peanut butter mousse from the magazine last night. Oh my...It was so good and did it ever hit the spot. Most of you guys have probably made something similar to this before, but this was my first try in using tofu in any kind of dessert. I was very impressed with how good it was. Here's the simple recipe.

1 package of silken tofu (12.3oz)
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup confectioners sugar

Put the three ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Pour into 4 glasses and cover with saran wrap. Put in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before eating.

I added some dark chocolate shavings to mine right before I ate it. Talk about yummy! No, Tony wouldn't try it. :o)


Now I'll take you back to my dinner. I had to get dessert out of the way since it was so good! For dinner I had a salad made of kale, leafy green lettuce, broccoli, carrots, avocado, sunflower seeds, and a few dried pomegranates. For the dressing, I whisked together some lime juice, olive oil, and pepper. I poured the dressing over the kale and lettuce first and massaged it into the greens, then added my other veggies. This was one awesome salad.

I also had a side of roasted potatoes that Tony made. He put Red Robin seasoning, paprika, and some dried oregano on the potatoes and then cooked them in the oven. These were awesome too! My dinner and dessert rocked last night and not much effort at all was put into it. Now that's the way to go! :o)

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Mini Crustless Tofu Quiche

Happy Friday! As most of you know, I was off work yesterday due to snow. As I was reading blogs and posting my blog on the laptop in the den yesterday, my husband called me into our office to come look at the snowman that a friend of his just made. Check out what she did...isn't he too cute. I just had to share her snowman (dog) with everyone, being as most of us are huge animal lovers.

The picture below is what I came back to after I got up out of the floor to go check out the picture of the snow dog. Maggie had been sitting by me all day and just couldn't seem to get close enough. She was in a VERY loving mood yesterday. I think she was happy that I was home. Anyway, I had been sitting on a small pillow while I used the computer that was on the coffee table. I lost my seat when I got up. I came back and Maggie had claimed my pillow. :o)

For lunch today I had an awesome salad that was inspired by FoodFued. I mixed Kale with some leafy lettuce and threw in some shaved carrots, dried cranberries and pepita seeds. I marinated the kale and leafy lettuce as FoodFued suggested. She was right on about how awesome it was. I sure wish I would've had some avocado and tomatoes to add to the salad though. They are on my grocery list for the next time though. I also had three leftover Quiche's to go with my salad....YUM!

Last night for supper I had Tuscan Risotto, Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches, fresh corn on the cob, and a crescent roll. Has anyone ever tried this Risotto? It was very good! My husband spotted it when we went to Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago. This was one of the things that he wanted to try. Yep...he liked it.Here's what my plate looked like last night. I made the Mini Crustless Tofu Quiches from Fat Free Vegan. You can find her recipe here. I was overly impressed with these Quiches. I honestly didn't know what to expect, but they were fantastic. These would be perfect for an appetizer or a great finger food to have at a party. This recipe is definitely a keeper! I think everyone would love these!

Here's a close up picture of the Quiches. These were also great warmed up!

I hope you have a great weekend!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

This and That....Snow Day

Happy Thursday! It snowed here late yesterday afternoon, so I ended up staying home today. It's great to be home, but not so great to not get paid for it. Oh well...it's given me a chance to get some things done that I've been wanting to do.

Since I was home today, I made some kale chips for a mid-morning snack. I just made enough for me, because I knew Tony wouldn't eat them. However, he did try them, but didn't like them. At lease he tried them...yay!


Last night for supper, I had a Boca burger patty melt. You can't really see my Boca burger patty.....It's lost under the onions, and it really got lost in my large slices of bread. I spread some Veganaise, and Country Bob's on my toasted bread and then added my burger patty. I topped that with some sauted onions and a tad bit of shredded vegan cheese. It was scrumptious! I had just enough tater babies left in the freezer for us to have with our burgers. My burger was so good last night that I had another one for lunch today. This time I added Veganaise, Stone Ground Mustard and spinach. I had some chips and salsa to go along with it.

I just mentioned that I had Country Bob's on my burger last night. Have you ever had this stuff? It's da bomb! I got it out of the frig last night to check the ingredients out and low and behold...no animal products in it. I was so exited, because I have really missed this stuff! I guess it's a southern thang!

Tuesday night I had a salad and some leftover seitan steak. I cut it up into smaller pieces and was going to try to fry it up a little, but that didn't work out as I had planned. I think one big problem was that I didn't use my nonstick skillet, so they stuck (bad) to the skillet that I was using. The seitan was much better left over. It went perfect with the salad. Tony said they looked like croutons, which they did.

Time for me to get back to working on some of my little projects and figure out what I'm going to cook for supper. Hope you're having a great day!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Fried Apricot Pies

Happy hump day. :o) I hope everyone is having a great week. I was told one of my concoctions for supper on Monday night was "odd". I had a chik'n patty, fresh corn out of the freezer (always yummy), baked apples (I added some cinnamon and maple syrup to them as they cooked), and jasmine rice. I felt like I needed a little green, so I cooked a large handful of fresh spinach and added it to my rice after I put it on my plate. Now is that odd or weird? I thought it tasted very good...my husband just doesn't know what he is missing....ha


Have you ever had Lundberg's Risotto? I spotted this at Kroger the other day for the first time, so I grabbed it to try. I'm glad I did, because it was really good! I saw a couple of different kinds, but the spinach mushroom was the one that got my attention. We have 4 Krogers in Jackson. Two of them have a fairly large health food section. Well, I say it's fairly large only because the other two don't have much at all. I have to try to remember which Kroger has what when I get ready to go shopping. I think this is why I hate grocery shopping. That's right....I do not like to grocery shop!


Anyway, last night for supper I had the Risotto Florentine, and fried eggplant. I topped my eggplant with some of my homemade green tomato salsa. The first salsa that I made is sweeter than the second. It reminds me more of a relish, so that's the one I used. I coated the eggplant in some Italian bread crumbs. There's not much color on my plate is there...a little bland looking isn't it? Don't let that fool you though, because it was good!

Okay, so I saved the best part for last. For my entire life, my mom has made fried apple and peach pies. You may make them where you live, but call them something different? I've always wanted to be able to make them like my mom, but the few times I've tried in the past, they never turned out anything like hers. I guess you could say they were a flop! Anyway, last night I decided to try again. I went with making apricot though, only because a lady that goes to our church made some Saturday night that were out of this world. She told me step by step how to do it. I wrote it all down on a paper towel, so I wouldn't forget. :o) They turned out great. The two changes that I will make the next time though, will be to put less filling in them and to roll the biscuits out a little thinner if I can. You want the dough to be thin as possible and with just a thin layer of filling. I did a medium layer of filling, which was a little too much. I thought they were great this way, but Tony thought less filling would be better. His grandmother makes some of the best pies also, so he is used to her way....very little filling. You know nothing is ever as good as grandmas! :o)

Here's what I did: For the filling, put an 8 oz bag of dried apricots in a sauce pan and cover with water (about an inch over the apricots). Bring the apricots to a boil and simmer. When half the water has evaporated, add some cinnamon, nutmeg, maple syrup and a teaspoon of brown sugar. I didn't measure the spices and maple syrup....sorry (just spice and sweeten it up to your liking). Continue simmering until almost all the water has evaporated. Once the mixture has cooked down, mash the apricots a little and set aside to cool. While the filling is cooling, open a can of biscuits, and set the biscuits out at room temp for about 15 minutes. Once the biscuits are room temperature, roll each biscuit out, onto a floured surface, as thin as you can get them. Once you have your biscuit rolled out put a thin layer of filling onto half of the biscuit. Be sure to leave about 1/2 inch space around the outside edge for sealing the pie. Fold the other half of the biscuit over the filled part and pinch around the side to seal it so the filling doesn't run out. Once you have all the pies made up, it's time to fry them. :o) I used Wesson's Best Blend oil to fry the pies in. Heat a moderate amount of oil in a nonstick skillet. Place pies in hot oil and brown on each side (around a minute per side). You may have to add more oil as you go along. You must eat these warm! They are delicious!

Oh, BTW...thank you all very much for all the cookbook suggestions. I now have new cookbooks added to my Christmas wish list. Your suggestions were great!

~Peace~