Last year I had the pleasure of working with CSN and doing a giveaway for one of their products, a Bodum French Press, so this year I’ve been given the opportunity again and will be doing a review this time.
Did you know that CSN has tons of great products for every room in your home? One of my favorites are these Bathroom Vanities which I could only dream of having one day in our own home. However the ones in our new apartment are a huge improvement over our last two places.
I have a couple products that I have my eye on, I will have that review for you soon!
2 cups of black eyed peas, kidney beans, and chickpeas
1/4 cup chickpea flour
1/2-3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/2t chili powder
1/2t cumin
1/4t garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1T hot sauce (I used VT Pepperworks Chocolate Chipotle)
Preheat the oven to 400F. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Mash the beans up and add in the spices, chickpea flour, panko breadcrumbs and hot sauce. Form the patties into 1/4 cup patties and bake for 10 minutes on each side.
Carrot Fries
5 large carrots, sliced into thin strips
1t Montreal Chicken Spice
Preheat oven to 400F. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Toss the carrots with Montreal Chicken spice and bake for 20-25 minutes.
Sauteed Kale
1 head of Red Russian Kale, cut into bite sized pieces
1/4 cup vegetable broth
1/2t salt
1/2t garlic powder
1T nutritional yeast
pepper to taste
Heat a sautee pan over medium-high heat and add in the vegetable broth and kale. Sautee until the kale begins to wilt and stir in the salt, garlic powder, nutritional yeast and pepper.
This weekend we have been busy with packing and cleaning our apartment that I unfortunately haven’t had time to blog until now. We are moving in a few weeks …to my parents …I know not what we planned but our apartment won’t be ready to move into until early/mid July so we are going to be homeless. We have to put all of our belongings in storage so we are hoping to do that ASAP.
This weekend I have been having major cravings for vegan grilled cheese so both Saturday and Sunday morning I had a yummy vegan grilled cheeze and a Bubbies pickle.
After a yummy breakfast it was time to head to the farmers market to pick up the items for our pantry challenge. I found a number of great items from Pete’s Greens organic produce stand and some snap peas from another organic farm stand. We also headed to another farmers market where I picked up some more organic produce.
Pak Choi $2.50
Red Russian Kale $2.50
Red Bliss Potatoes $1.50
Purple String Beans $1.75
Snap Peas $3
Garlic Scapes $2
Strawberries $6
Total: $19.25 ( I also cheated a bit because we needed bananas for banana soft serve and lunches so I bought $4 worth of bananas from the grocery store)—New Total: $23.25
Q: How is your pantry challenge going?
Saturday lunch was baked sesame tempeh with roasted broccoli and Alexia waffle fries with a sriracha aioli.
Dinner on Saturday was leftover tempeh with pak choi and curry noodles, unfortunately so hungry that I forgot to take a photo.
Lunch today was wonderful. My parents came down to help us pack and brought green beans, potatoes, broccoli and mushrooms which I made into a lunch along with the beans I cooked up. We had balsamic roasted broccoli, soy roasted green beans, mashed potatoes with mushrooms gravy and a trio of beans.
Dinner was great as well- I used up the last of the beans I cooked up and formed them into bean burgers which I baked in the oven along with carrot fries (my new obsession) and then I cooked up some kale with a little garlic and tossed with a large pinch of nutritional yeast.
Alright Bloggies I am exhausted after this crazy weekend so I am going to catch up on some episodes of Parenthood and enjoy an evening treat.
So over the next few weeks the Hubz and I are going to be crazy busy with moving and various events. I am taking this busy time as an opportunity to feature a number of different guest bloggers who will be covering a number of different topics. I will be blogging whenever possible and will keep you up to date on the pantry challenge but for now enjoy the upcoming guest blog posts.
Hello Cook. Vegan. Lover. readers! My name is Lauren, I’m a blogger and I chronicle my journey towards healing Crohn’s disease through a high raw vegan diet, on my blog, Ginger is The New Pink. I’ve had crohn’s for 5 years and became a vegan shortly after diagnosed and noticed a huge difference in my symptoms. I am now pregnant with my first child, due in November and staying vegan, or healthy hasn’t been much of a challenge at all.
When I first found out I was pregnant, I felt great for 2-3 weeks, I was eating well, exercising, meditating, doing all my usual “rituals.” Then came the morning sickness. Or as many call it, “all day sickness”. I found myself not hungry or wanting to eat at all. Exercise.. ha, and anything else that involved moving from the couch, out of the question. I’ve seen a lot of people leave veganism at this time. They tend to crave more bland protein foods like eggs, fish, or chicken, but not me. I had no cravings, and leaving veganism was never an option for me. I got through this time with lots of brown rice and other grains. My doctor assured me that the baby would be healthy because of how I ate before I became pregnant. Phew! What a relief! I knew my mostly veggie, high raw, vegan diet would help the baby thrive, while I couldn’t.
My dear pug Ginger got a lot of use out of my rebounder!
Luckily this phase did pass. At around 10 weeks my appetite started coming back and I was craving kale again! Happy day! Since then I’ve started working out again, doing prenatal yoga, cooking, un-cooking, and just all around enjoying feeling good again! I was so happy to be able to provide my baby with the right nutrients and vitamins I know he/she will thrive on. My doctor questioned my diet at first, but when she realized how much I knew about veganism, and what I should be eating for the baby, she stated that I knew more then she did about nutrition! Score for vegans! I do take a B12 shot once a month, vegan DHA oil, a vegan prenatal and a few other supplements as “insurance.” But I am pretty confident that as long as I eat a wide variety of fruits and veggies and make sure my protein is a little higher then normal, that I will be fine. For iron, I use spinach daily in my green smoothies and Sunwarrior protein powder has made it very easy to make sure I am getting enough protein. Normally, I am not a protein gal, I feel that I get enough protein from different vegan sources, but with pregnancy, I have been extra cautious.
Green Smoothie with spinach, mango, DHA oil, Sunwarrior protein, Maca Powder and Almond Milk
Now I am 16 weeks and loving ALL vegan food! I’ve even been eating more raw then ever. The baby seems to have a fondness for watermelon and kale! I’ve been having some minor aches and pains and exercise definitely helps improve that. I can’t imagine myself eating junk at this time. My baby is thriving on my diet! When he/she comes into this world I will teach him or her to be kind to all living beings, and why would choose not to eat animals. Most children don’t even understand that the chicken they are eating is the same chicken that they learn about in school. I feel it’s very important to educate my child on this, hopefully when he or she is old enough to make his or her own choices he or she will remember kindness and appreciate all that I have taught them about empathy towards animals and the environment.
HEAVEN!
Kale Salad with cherry tomatoes, raw pickles, raw sauerkraut, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, avocado, olive oil and lemon.
Thank you Lindsay for letting me share! I hope you all stop by my blog and watch as my pregnancy progresses, I promise vegan food only! 😉 Lots of love to all your readers! 🙂
I came home this evening and after dinner with sweet tooth was aching so what better to do then make soft serve? I searched through the freezer and found a banana and raspberries- the perfect combination.
1 Frozen Banana, broken into pieces
1/4 cup frozen raspberries
1/4 cup original almond milk
Put everything in the blender or food processor until it is a wonderful and smooth blend.
Just as we were arriving home we received a call that the lady who was supposed to view our apartment an hour earlier had pushed the time back. We said it was fine that she went in that we would hang out on the bench in the front yard so that she could have a chance to check the place out. It was a nice treat for our indoor kitty because we let her come out and rub her face in the grass- she was in heaven. Everything was going fine and about a half hour later we decided that it was time to bring the kitty inside and we expected that by then the lady would have seen enough and be leaving. BOY WERE WE WRONG!
She proceed to tell the rental agent about 30 things that she would like improved or changed if she were to move in. My husband and I were sitting in the living room going ARE YOU SERIOUS! Anyways this went on for another 30 minutes and then finally the Hubz told them that they just had to go…but they didn’t go far they hung out in the yard for another 20 minutes. Maybe I’m too rigid but I think after 30minutes of viewing an apartment that the potential renter had already viewed the week before is just rude.
Okay rant over. Since the viewing ended up going way longer than we expected I just wasn’t feeling like putting together dinner so the Hubz took me out to the Skinny Pancake for vegan crepes; I had the vegan crepedilla and the Hubz had a vegan monster and a Harpoon brew.
After a delicious dinner we came home to enjoy a little Netflix and I had a Pomegranate Seltzer Mocktail and the Hubz had a sour beer.
Q: When you look at a new place to rent how long do you generally spend looking? Do you make certain demands/request before you agree to take the rental space?
