Nourishing the mind, body, and soul along the vegan highway.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Julie's test recipe is the star this week

I am so blessed to be able to be one of Julie's testers from Everyday Dish. This week I made one of her new burger recipes. Probably one of the best veggie burgers I have ever had. Easy to make, incredible taste, texture, and versatile! DH said they were very tasty! They are great for leftovers and just look below at what else we did with them!


Just out of the frying pan resting!

No this is not a burger, but wanted you to see the size of the tomato we got from our CSA! Huge! It is bigger than the large veganaise jar. They are so good!


Here is a perfect veggie burger, thanks to Julie, on a whole wheat bun, lettuce, veganaise, mustard, and rice cheese with a scoop of baked beans. MMMM GOOD!


So, I started back to college today, which meant packing a lunch. I love my laptop lunch system. Sure beats school cafeteria lunches. CSA grape tomatoes, carrots, red grapes, and one of Julie's burgers with mustard in the little blue container. Just what the doctor ordered after going
to my nutrition class. :o)

Remember I said that the burgers were versatile? Well, here they are rolled in little "meetballs" lightly fried and served along some of DH's extra spicy vegan chili. He made a 19 cup pot of this chili today while I was at school. What a guy. We served it over baked potatoes, with corn, and a dollop of vegan sour cream. Thanks Babe!!!

Ok, I promised a birthday picture and here it is!
Happy Birthday to me!!!!


Happy 51st Birthday to me! Brandie took me to Stephanie's Pizza. It is a vegan bakery in Ocean Beach, which is in the San Diego area. Words can not describe how delicious there pizza's are. Maybe telling you that the 2 of us ate the whole thing is proof enough. Well, we couldn't just leave leftovers in the car while we went to the movies. Gross! And you don't waste this pizza! Thank you, Brandie for making my day so special!


The server at the restaurant took our picture together. Brandie you are the best! She gave me vegan fruit sweetened cookies, zevia (rootbeer flavor), and made me a bunch of family cloth with an accompanying wet bag! I love it all!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

The end of our 21 days and doing it all over again

It has been so long that my blog forgot who I was. How sad is that? So, my birthday was Friday and that was the last day of DH 21 day vegan diet. I will get pictures of my birthday as soon as I get them uploaded from Brandie's camera. DH had a few vegetarian days and a couple "chicken" days (at least it wasn't beef). He told me he wants to do it again and do it right so we are continuing on. Here is a quick photo essay of a few of our days.



What better way to start off then to have a green smoothie baby!

This was a spinach, beet, and grape smoothie, which he loved!



Quick dinner this night. Just open a can of Amy's Minestrone soup. We rarely eat these because of the sodium content, but some nights are just too crazy!




DH veganized his habanero chili and it was fantastic! Good job, babe



DH's chili over baked potato. This really hit the spot!



Veggie burgers, with heirloom tomatoes, lettuce, and some delicious zucchini mash. Mash, you ask? Well, I put the zucchini, sunburst squash, and tomatoes in the pan and steamed them until they were just done. After draining them I put them on our plates and the water just kept running on the plate. Not wanting soggy buns they went back in the colander were mashed together with added nooch, "poof" zucchini mash. :o) It was really good!


Here is DH with his new beginning green smoothie of spinach, mango, banana, and super foods Boco green powder.


Wish us luck everyone!


Jr. sure loves to swim!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Busy week and "burgers"

First DH is grateful for all the encouragement. It has not been real easy nor real hard, but he is still trying to hang in there. Well, this week has been busy. We have either been watching our adorable grandson or going to doctors. All is ok, just tests for DH's back. Brandie has been cleaning some houses for some of the ladies in our church, which gave us time with Jr. We get to enjoy playing while she is working hard earning a few bucks. This has been a blessing on both accounts. So proud of you sweetheart. You are such a hard worker. Now on with some food porn. :o)
Look at this healthy Vegan grandson of ours!
He loves smoothies. This one is spinach, bananas, and blueberry.



Snack time at work. Heirloom tomatoes, peach, and carrots all from our CSA.
Can't forget "An apple a Day keeps the Doctor Away"
Apples are near the top of the deadly dozen. They are heavily coated with pesticides.
I only eat organic apples.
Organic Fuji. Yummm my favorite


Green smoothies are the breakfast of choice. Here we have spinach, banana, pineapple, and a little bit of kiwi. Don't you just love the color?



Boca burger dinner. DH loved these. I coated them with just a bit of BBQ sauce, added lettuce, onion, yellow heirloom tomatoes and mustard. Along side is some CSA zucchini and potato salad with cherry tomatoes from our garden.


Now isn't that a priceless picture. Two very important men in my life. DH and Jr.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

DH loves green smoothies

Morning all! DH loves green smoothies. So far his favorite is blueberry. This morning we had spinach, strawberry, and banana. Yum! Can you believe that DH is drinking 4 cups of spinach in the mornings. His body is celebrating and throwing a party. He said that he woke up hungry this morning, but feels good. Today for Linner (we combine lunch and dinner on Sundays), we are having burgers and potato salad. Fingers are crossed on the veggie burger. DH has had Boca burgers, but these are going to be homemade thanks to Joni! Testing for her was so much fun!

Dinner to be posted later!
Question of the day: What is your favorite veggie burger, bought or homemade or your favorite side? Oh feel free to link to any good recipes. :o)
Now to get ready for church.
Hugs all!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

DH made it through day 1

I know, I know, two posts in one day? lol... DH made it through day one. He razed me all day for a diet soda (bad stuff), and notice his anonymous comment? He laughed his head off razing me. All and all he said he survived. He liked dinner, but we both agree that the eggplant should be skinned before cooking. The cheese sauce is amazing as is the tomato sauce. I am going to use them both to make pizza one night this coming week, so stay tuned. On to our dinner photo.


This is Susan's Vegan Eggplant "Parmesan" along with a fresh garden salad of romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, and avocado.

Definitely worth making. Enjoy!


DH going vegan for 21 days!!!

Hi all! Well here is the latest and greatest news! My DH has made the decision to go VEGAN for 21 days. Now all of you may or may not know that my DH is a 100% carnivore! So there maybe some grumpy days, but he wants to do this. Detoxing is not always easy. He is a great advocate for veganism and knows it is best for him. He is my best supporter, always telling everyone he talks to how healthy a vegetarian diet is. Today is the day he marked as his starting day. I am going to be eating a very healthy vegan diet to help him along. He wants to detox a bit so he is hoping to have breakfast, lunch, and snacks HIGH RAW. Pictures are worth a thousand words. :o) You can do this honey! I believe in you! Enjoy!!



Green smoothie breakfast. Spinach, banana, and blueberries. Look at that awesome watermelon! It is huge, sure hope it tastes as good as it looks. :o)



He is so melodramatic!

His last words before drinking his green smoothie were, "No More Steaks!"



All gone! 2 quarts consisted of 4 cups of spinach, 1 banana, and blueberries. I added a bit of stevia because DH has an awful sweet tooth. His last words after drinking his smoothie were,

"Hey this was really good!"


Snack time and he was ready! We had been out working in the yard, garden, and pool so his morning calories were burnt. 2 organic white peaches and an ounce of raw mixed nuts.
I only had a peach, but man was it a good peach. I love my CSA!


Lunch time! DH had CSA cucumbers, carrots, and tomatoes along side a chocolate protein drink. His drink is made with chocolate rice milk (yes he loves chocolate), banana, and Sun Warrior Raw Brown Rice Protein Powder. Veggie girl turned me on to this and I love it. DH said it was a good lunch, but the drink was a bit grainy.

He said he will get used to it because the flavor was great.


Here is my lunch. Cherry tomatoes fresh from the garden, cucumbers, and carrots. My protein drink is made from vanilla hemp milk, Sun Warrior Raw Brown Rice Protein Powder, and a bit of orange juice. I was trying to get a "50- 50 bar flavor" Kinda worked.

Dinner tonight is going to be Eggplant Parmesan from Susan at Fatfreevegan.com.

I will keep you posted on DH's success! I am hoping that he will feel so good and see such great results that he will want to continue on with a vegetarian diet.

Oh you ask, why 21 days? Because my birthday is in 21 days so it

just seemed like a good number. :O)

Thanks for visiting!