Blood Circulating Smoothie and Artichokes

Hey everyone!  I can't believe Thanksgiving is in two more days.  What are you having to eat?  We are going to my sister-n-laws to eat with the Tony's family.  I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to eat.  I'm taking a Shepard's Pie as my one dish to take, but now to figure out what to take for myself while everyone else indulges on the "bad" stuff.  :)  I thought about making the Tofu Turkey in Happy Herbivore.  Has anyone ever tried that before?  If so, how was it?

This morning I made a green smoothie to try to help improve my blood circulation.  I stay cold all the time...I mean I literally freeze, so I decided to do some research on the web and I really think that I have poor blood circulation. All the symptoms described me to the T.  I read up on what spices and herbs are supposed to be good for improving your blood circulation.  Ginger and Cayenne pepper happen to be among them, so here's my blood circulation smoothie for this morning. 

1 kale leaf

1 small banana

1 Clementine (peeled)

1 tbs ginger

1 tbs black strap molasses

1/2 apple

1/4 cup frozen mango chunks

1 cup water

a pinch of cayenne

a few ice cubes (I used 3)

Throw it all in a blender and blend until smooth.  I've never been a big fan of spicy drinks, but I have to admit that I really liked this.  Today I used a very small pinch of cayenne, but tomorrow I think I will use a little more.  The smoothie was sweet when I took my first drink, but all the sudden the spiciness came out, which I liked.  Another plus is that it gave me a good boost of energy. I always need energy! 

For my mid morning snack I had a bowl of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal.  This stuff is GOOD!  Thanks Shen for recommending it.

About the artichokes...well, I like them...I mean really like them.  I decided to make FoodFeuds "Artichoke to Death" dish, and all I can say is WOW!  This was one of the best meals!  It was so different, in a very good way.  The tahini sauce was to die for.  I decided to try a bite at first without the sauce and then a bite with the sauce to see which way was the best.  The addition of the sauce was the only way to go.  Maud...you're a genius.  :o)   I think I will try artichokes in a salad next.  Oh yeah....Tony decided that he needed some pineapple with his supper, so he fried some pineapple in some coconut oil....OMG...talk about good!

I tried the chocolate soy pudding for my afternoon snack yesterday.  It was rich and creamy and tasted like the dairy pudding that I used to eat in my pre vegan days.   I'll definitely buy this again.   



I hope everyone has a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving! 

~Peace~

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~

Bean Burgers and Breaded Zucchini Sticks

Happy Wednesday!  Last night for supper I made Melomeals 3 Ingredient Bean Burgers and HH's Breaded Zucchini Sticks.  Melody's bean burger recipe can be found here.    These are some great tasting burgers to make when you are in a hurry and don't have the time to chop up lots of veggies.  For the beans, I  used a can of kidney beans and a can of vegetarian beans.   Lindsay's recipe for the Breaded Zucchini Sticks can be found here.  These were so good!  Way better than the deep fried version that I usually make.  Instead of making my own bread crumbs, I used some store bought whole wheat ones that I had in the pantry.   Also, her recipe says to cook them for 15-20 minutes, which may be great for most people, but we didn't feel like they were done enough for us.  I ended up cooking them for 30 plus minutes and then turning on the broiler to slightly brown the top.  I could have made my meal off the these alone! 

Those pickles you see on my plate are some of my homemade pickles.  :o)   My mom (my food critic) said they tasted good, but they weren't crispy like they were supposed to be (eyes rolling).  I knew they probably wouldn't be crispy from most of the reviews that I read before I made them, but hey....at least she said they tasted good...right?  :o)  Most of the foods that I like, she doesn't like now.  She says I make things too spicy for her.  It's funny how things have changed since I've become a vegan.  I like all kinds of things now and love trying new foods.  I find that my mom only eats a few select foods, and isn't so gung ho on trying new things.  I guess you could say that she is set in her ways at the age of 82.  It's funny how the roles have gotten reversed trough the years.  I never wanted to try anything new when I was a kid.  I only liked certain things and that was it, but she would always try to get me to try them....sorta like I do her now.   ;) 

 Kroger had there Larabar's on sale this past week buy 10 for $10.  Well, you know I had to take advantage of that, so I bought 10.  I searched for the blueberry muffin flavor, but it wasn't to be found, but I did come across this pecan pie bar.   I used to love pecan pie in my pre veg days, so I was pretty excited to try it.  When you open it, it smells exactly like a pecan pie.  I don't know that it really taste like pecan pie, but it's very good.

~Peace~

Liebster Award and Good Eats

First I want to thank Cassie over at Vegan Fox In The Snow for giving me the Liebster Award.  Thank you so much Cassie....you're so sweet!  I had no idea what Liebster meant, so I'm glad that Cassie explained the meaning behind this award.  "Liebster" is German for 'dearest' or 'beloved' but it can also mean 'favorite'. The idea behind this award is to bring attention to blogs with fewer than 200 followers and show some support.

Here are the rules for winning this award.

1.  Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

2.  Reveal 5 of your top picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

3.  Post the award on your blog.

4.  Enjoy the love and support of some wonderful people on the www!


This is very hard to only pick 5 bloggers, because I love all the blogs that I read, so I'm going to pick the newest ones that I've started following.

Veggie Burgher

Almost Skinny Vegan Food

This is What I Eat

A Diary of an Animal Lover

Zombie Cats Eating Plants

These are all great blogs, so if you haven't already, go check them out....you will NOT be disappointed!

Sunday morning I made HH's cinnamon rolls.   They were just okay.  I know, my first HH recipe that I don't love, but that could be due to the baker and not the recipe.   After I put the cinnamon rolls in the oven, I noticed that my yeast had expired....oops!   They didn't rise, and they were a little on the dry side.   As soon as I get some fresh yeast, I think I'll give them another try.  I can't imagine these not being good.....

Sunday night I made Veganomicon's Scalloped potatoes.  I told Tony what I was cooking for supper and he asked can't you just make them from a box?   Oh my...I told him these would be way better and to just wait.  Score... again.... for the vegans....he agreed that they were very good.  This was actually my first try at making any type of scalloped potatoes from scratch.  I have no idea what in the world took me so long to to try it.  People, forget the boxed stuff!   These are way better and will not disappoint!  I can't wait to make these for a family get together.  No one will ever believe that they are vegan! 

I also made Vecon's Chickpea Cutlets...always delish!  I topped them off with some good ole Country Bob's.  And last, but not least, I had some good ole black eyed peas to round my meal off.  :o)  I actually ended up adding some Country Bob's to the black eyed peas too....man was that ever tasty! 

While I was on vacation I tried several things that I got in my care package from Hally.  One of my favorites was this Candy bar.  If you've never had one and you used to like a Snickers, then you will love the Jokerz candy bar.   I don't have these where I live, but you can bet that I'm about to figure out where I can order them from.  I also had the Buccaneer which taste exactly like a Milky Way....YUM!  I didn't realize how much I missed eating candy bars.  :o)

Just looking at this picture makes me want another one...bad!

What's your favorite vegan candy bar?

~Peace~

Recap From My 3 Day Weekend

Happy Monday!  I hope you had a great weekend.  I was off work Friday, so I made the best of my 3 day weekend.  I did have full intentions of blogging over the weekend, but that didn't happen.  Here's a few good things that I had over the weekend.  Thursday night we had baked ziti.  I had planned on making Sarah's Baked Ziti, but I didn't want to pull the tofu thing on Tony yet.  I ended up leaving out the tofu ricotta and broccoli...this time.   :o)   Her recipe can be found here.  We love pasta, so I knew this would go over well, and it did.  I can only imagine how good it would be with the tofu ricotta.  Sorry for the dark picture....not too sure why it turned out so dark.

Saturday night we had leftover baked ziti and some fried green tomatoes.  Yum..yum..yum!   I picked some green tomatoes up at the farmers market, since we don't have any in our garden.   I was hoping for a large crop of green Romas like we had last year, but no such luck this time.   Maybe next year!

Saturday afternoon I made some juice with my juicer, which I hardly ever use.   I'm really trying to change that.  Here's what's in it - 2 carrots, 1 apple, 1 pear, 1 kale leaf, 1 tbs lemon juice or 1/2 peeled lemon.  This was sooo good! 

Sunday morning I had a Peanut Butter Chocolate Coffee smoothie for breakfast.  This tasted so much like a milk shake that I almost felt bad about drinking it for breakfast.   If I had a blender at work, I'd be having one of these every afternoon.   Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup cold brewed coffee
1/2 cup soy milk
1 heaping tbs peanut butter
1 tbs maple syrup
1 scoop Chocolate Amazing Grass
1 to 2 frozen bananas (I used about one and a half)
3 tbs hemp seeds
dash of cinnamon.

Blend all the ingredients in the blender until smooth and creamy.   If you don't have any of the Chocolate Amazing Grass, you can always use cocoa in it's place.

This morning I made a similar smoothie, but left out the coffee and used a full cup of soy milk.  I also threw in some frozen cherries....delish!

I had to be at work an hour early today, so I didn't have the chance to really fix anything for lunch.  I grabbed this bowl of Annie Chun's Miso soup.  This is actually the first Miso anything that I've ever had, and I totally loved it.  I can't find Miso where I live, but you can bet that I'll be on the hunt for it at Whole Foods the next time I go.

Here's a quick update on Tony's progress at giving veganism a try.  He went one full week as a vegan...YAY.   We had a dinner at church last night, and he did have some chicken with his meal.  I asked him what his take on the whole vegan thing was, and he said that he was sure that he would still eat meat to some extent, but he wasn't sure how often. For now I'll just keep cooking vegan meals for both of us until he tells me otherwise.   And, as of Saturday he had lost 4 pounds.  I am so proud of him for giving it a try.  At least he is more open to trying new and healthier meals now.

~Peace~

Catching Up.....

Happy Hump day! I'm playing catch up today on blogging, since I've been so busy the past few days. I'll start off with my green smoothie that I had this morning. The past two mornings I just had regular fruit smoothies with a scoop of Amazing Grass added in, since I was out of greens. I had to run by the grocery store yesterday after work to get my mom some groceries, so I grabbed a few things for my self and kale just happened to be one of those things. What kind of greens do you prefer in your smoothies? I've been swapping back and forth between kale and spinach, and I'm leaning towards kale as being my fav. This was one of my typical green smoothies with water, kale, a date, a small frozen banana, a dash of cinnamon and ginger, frozen mango chunks, and hemp seeds.....total yumminess!

 

We ran some errands over the weekend and I came across this great little snack.  These little granola clusters didn't last long at all.  Tony and I scarfed them down....very good.  I've got to go get some more of these!  The brand is Mrs Mays.  Have you ever tried any of these snacks?  I hope they have a bigger variety when I go back to get more!

Sunday night I made HH's Mexican Cabbage.  I had brown rice to go with it.  Very..very good!  The recipe just happens to be on her website.  You can find it here. 

For lunch one day I had a humms and tomato sammy with a side of baby carrots for some crunch.  :o)

Monday night we had spaghetti and a salad.  I put some Dulse Flakes on my salad this time.  I bought some when I went to Whole Foods a while back and forgot about them.  I love this little seaweed!  It's a perfect addition to a salad. 

Monday night I made some health bars.  I'm tweaking my moms recipe.  This has always been my all time favorite thing that she made for me.  I would request these for my birthday over chocolate cake (shocker).  I haven't gotten the recipe where I want it yet, but when it gets there, I'll be sharing the recipe with you.  

For lunch today I had a Peanut Sesame Noodle Bowl.  These were on sale yesterday at Kroger, so I picked up 3 different kinds.  This is my first one to try and OMG...delish!  Don't laugh but this is actually the first Peanut Sesame anything to try.  I've been meaning to make my own, but just haven't done it yet.  After having this, I can't wait to make my own. 

Here's a picture of it all made up.....yum!  Talk about full...I couldn't even eat it all. 

For a morning snack this morning I had a Gala apple with Almond butter spread on it with a few cranberries sprinkled on top.  It's not the Honey Crisp apples that Sarah's been flaunting around, but I guess they'll have to work.  :o)  I'm so jealous of her Honey Crisp apples.  Tony broke the bad news to me last night that we don't have them where I live....booooo   Gala's are our favorite though...they are sweet and crispy too....just how Sarah describes the Honey Crisp.





~Peace~

Holiday Weekend Recap...Not So Much....

Hello!..I hope everyone is doing well and had a great holiday weekend.    I was pretty bad as far as eating over the holiday weekend.  I did a lot of eating out and ate a lot of processed foods.  By the time Monday afternoon rolled around, I was feeling a little bluh.  We did grill Monday night though.   Have you ever grilled Boca Chik'n patties?  I decided to give it a try Monday night, the outcome was great.  I had a grilled Boca Chik'n Pattie, fried okra (the only way I eat okra), a baked potato with some nutritional yeast on top, a couple of jalapeno poppers, and a roasted yummy bell pepper. 

Tuesday Morning I had a smoothie made out of soy milk, a frozen banana, frozen strawberries, and scoop of chocolate amazing grass.  I was running short on time, so my smoothie had to be a quick fix.  

For my mid morning snack on Tuesday I had a whole wheat English muffin with "bacon" and a much needed cup of coffee.  Seeing everyone else blog about their English muffins made me want one.  :o)  

Yesterday for lunch I had a salad with a left over grilled Boca Chick'n Pattie.  I didn't have time to whip up dressing for my salad, so I thought that I would just get some at work.  I totally forgot about the cafeteria being closed yesterday.  I happen to remember that I brought an orange, so I sliced it open and squeezed the juice over my salad.  To my amazement it was delicious!  Shen, I think you asked me if our cafeteria had a salad bar, and I don't remember if I answered you or not....sorry!  They don't have a salad bar, but they make salads every day and put them into plastic containers. All of their salads have meat and cheese on them though.  There's a very sweet lady that works in the cafeteria that will make a salad just for me when I want one. I just tell her in advance in the morning time that I would like a salad, which I think is super sweet! 

Last night for supper I had made some succotash (my own way)  I actually had a can of succotash, so I dumped the contents into a colander and rinsed it (yes, rinsed all the spices right off).  It was mostly tomatoes with a very few butter beans and corn, so I added some frozen corn, edamame, and some cabbage to it. I added some spices such as salt, pepper, cumin, and graram marsala...mmmm.  I put the succotash over some brown rice and topped that with nutritional yeast.  This was another successful and quick dinner.  :o)  Leftovers are for lunch today!

For breakfast this morning I had oatmeal made with steel cut oats.  I added a little molasses, goji berries (much better used in oatmeal than eaten dry), sliced almonds, and a dash of cinnamon.  I then poured a little almond milk over it.  It was too cold (55 degrees) this morning for a smoothie....brrrrrr  I'm not complaining though.  I had much rather have this cooler weather than the 95 plus temps.

Now that I'm all caught up on my foods from the last couple of days, I should be back to my normal blogging tomorrow with not as many processed foods....hopefully. 

~Peace~

Veggie Pasta and Soooo Ready for the Long Weekend!

Happy FRIDAY!!!   I am so glad the weekend is near, and so glad I have 3 days off work.  Do you have big plans for the long weekend?  We'll be staying home and hopefully painting/redecorating our home office.  I'll have to take a before and after picture for you and post that on Tuesday.  I doubt I'll be doing much if any blogging over the holiday weekend, so that's why I say I'll post it on Tuesday.  :o)

Yesterday was Maggie's "Spa Day" at the vet.  As you can tell in this picture, she was not very happy to be getting dropped off.   I do believe she was saying "Mom, do you really have to take my picture, and PLEASE don't leave me here!"  Poor baby!   After I picked her up from the vet yesterday, I took her to the chiro to see what he could do to help her to walk better.  She hasn't been in a while, and she hasn't been getting around so well lately.  She had a big hump in her back, so I knew something was out of whack.  He did some adjusting on her and it seemed to help a little.  It was hard to tell at the chiro's office how much it was really going to help, but after we got home she was getting around a lot better.  She was only able to walk a few steps before she would fall down in the sitting position.  She's able to walk a lot farther now.  Chiro's are wonderful...even for pets!   And her eye, well it looks great.  She looks like she's winking all the time.  She has fully adjusted to it being gone now.  My baby has such a big heart!  

Bananas are back in my house, so I've been able to make my smoothies again.  This one was a VERY green smoothie!  This one consisted of water, banana, a date, frozen mango, fresh ginger, and a LOT of spinach. 

Wednesday night for supper I made some veggie pasta...it totally hit the spot and was very yummy!  I used whole wheat pasta, zucchini, spinach, chickpeas, Roma tomatoes, minced garlic, olive oil, and some red wine.  I  also made Happy Herbivores Corn Cakes to go along with it.  They were very good also.  They reminded me of the Jiffy corn bread mix.  That was the first time that I had ever actually put flour in the mix to make cornbread.  I've always just used straight corn meal.  They turned out great though.

 

For 3 nights in a row, our dessert has been chocolate covered strawberries.  I love chocolate covered strawberries!  I don't know why I don't make them more often.  Every night they would get eaten before I got a picture of them.  The last night we had them I had just sat on the couch beside Tony with the plate and thought of a picture.  We both were ready to dig in, so Tony took the plate and held it under the lamp and snapped a picture of them.  This is why the berries are all over the place on the plate.  :o)

Have you ever tried any of the Odwalla smoothie drinks.  I got this superfood one the other day at Kroger and it was pretty good.   Not as good as the Naked though.  :o)

I hope everyone has a great and safe Labor Day weekend!

~Peace~Love~Happiness~

Dill Pickles and More

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I had some things that I wanted to get done over the weekend and I succeeded...yay!    I love it when I get my goals accomplished...don't you?   This morning I had my usual smoothie.  This one was made with green tea, a date, frozen banana, frozen peaches, and some blueberries.  I normally like to add some kale or spinach, but I'm all out.  Looks like I'll have to run to the grocery store today after work.  



Saturday night I had some black eyed peas (one of my favs), some olive oil garlic pasta, and some Sesame Garlic Tepeh strips.  Have you ever bought any of those marinated strips?  I think they are by Turtle Island Foods.   They were on sale at Whole Foods when I went a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to buy them to try.  I thought they were okay, but not my favorite.  I doubt I'll buy them again.  The strips look like they were put in the spot light on my plate, but I didn't think they were spot light worthy.  Apparently the sun did though.  :o)

We've been getting tons of bell peppers out of our garden, so I've started freezing some of them.  I cut them up into strips then lay them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer for a couple of hours.  After they are frozen, I then put them into a freezer bag.  Have you ever frozen bell peppers like this?   I figure they'll at least be good to cook with.

I finally tried my homemade pickles yesterday, and they were yummy!  They aren't real crispy, but the taste is perfect.  I had told you that if the outcome was good that I'd reference the recipe that I used.   So, here's the link to the the recipe..  http://southernfood.about.com/od/picklesrelishes/r/r80820g.htm .   The recipe is definitely worth sharing!  I'll be making these again next year. 

Okay, this next picture is for Molly since she likes Dragonflies.  I snapped this picture last week as I was walking to feed the turtles on my break.  I knew Dragonflies ate insects, but never would have dreamed that they ate moths. This little guy was chowing down.  I know it's kinda gross, but it really was cool to stand there and watch him eat.

That's all for today.  I hope everyone on the eat coast is safe!  I've had you all in my thoughts and prayers.

~Peace~Love~Happiness~