Food

How Easy Was That?

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Good Morning! Neil and I had a crazy busy afternoon yesterday running errands and then spending a little quality time together over a drink and dinner. Remember our elliptical? Well about 6 months ago it stopped working. KAPUT! Just like that. After having it for just over a year, the display decided to just stop working.  Well, we finally got around to contacting Costco about what they suggest we should do and they told us to return it. We were shocked at first, could it really be that easy? Just take it apart, drive it over and we’ll give you your money back?  We asked my dad to help us move it in his truck and we returned it last night and received cash back for our faulty elliptical.  I am very impressed with Costco’s return policy and their service.  How easy was that? 

We ended up picking up a few goodies on our way out including this giant 4lb bag of organic quinoa (swoon).

Following our Costco trip we took my dad out for a “thank you beer” and then we both headed on our way. Since it was getting late and Neil and I hadn’t spent much time together over the past few days we decided to have a spontaneous date night at El Gato Cantina where we dined on delicious Mexican food and I caught Neil up on Gossip Girl.

A few weeks ago I e-mailed El Gato Cantina to inquire about vegan options and this was the response from their chef:

“So, for our vegan options, we have the vegan taco(sheffield seitan marinated in a sweet and spicy ancho chilie sauce), veggie tamales (the veggies in the tamales changes due to seasonality, as of right now they are sweet corn, pablano peppers and tomato), guacamole and chips, all 4 of our salsas, black beans, all of our meat dishes can be subbed out for seitan, and we have two veggie tacos that can easily be made vegan sans the cheese.”

Just FYI the rice is not vegan but they will happily double up your order of black beans which are amazing.  The staff is also very knowledgeable about which options are vegan. Last night I had my heart set on the seitan tacos but just before we ordered, our waiter informed us that they were all out of the seitan. WAH! Well I decided to try the black bean tostada with no cheese and extra beans and it was amazing.  Neil also ordered the tostada and added a veggie tamale which was so good.

After a busy afternoon and a late night (for us) we headed home to do our yoga session for 30 Days of Yoga.  Probably wasn’t the greatest idea, since I was filled to the brim with Mexican food,  but a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do.

I am now off to get ready to conquer the day which will involve work, organizing my elliptical free office, running and yoga.

What’s on your agenda? 

What I’ve Been Cooking Up

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I know that lately there have been a lack of recipes up on the blog but that is going to be changing soon.  I am back in the kitchen working on a variety of new recipes and will soon be posting a few of them here.  The others I am working on for another project and a possible third e-book.  Here is a sneak peak:

Q: What recipes would you like to see? Any special ingredients you’d like recipes for?  

Pumpkin Beers for Bourne

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Over the past few months Neil and I have been working on watching the Bourne Trilogy with our good friend Laura who is obsessed with  has all three of the movies. Since Neil and I had never seen any of the moveis we  decided to do a series of movie nights with drinks and dinner.

Saturday night we finally were able to get together to watch the final movie, The Bourne Ultimatum. We were going to just do popcorn and pumpkin beers but Neil and I ate a late lunch and then both ran so we were hungry for something more substantial than just popcorn. We decided to pick up a vegan pizza from Leonardo’sto have with our popcorn and beer. The pizza was super tasty but unfortunately my stomach didn’t agree, as good as it tasted I ended up with a stomachache by the end of the night due to all the soy cheese.

THE VEGAN SALVATION- Olive Oil Garlic Sauce, Vegan Soy Cheese, Fresh Chopped Spinach, Freshly Sliced Red Onions, White Mushrooms, Plum Tomatoes, Black Olives

Along with our movie, pizza and popcorn we also tasted a variety of Pumpkin beers. Below are the ones we tasted starting with my favorite to my least. Sorry Blue Moon you were awful.

Tasting Beer- Giving it a good sniff first

Now that we’ve finished the Bourne Trilogy we need to think of new movies to watch …hmmm any ideas?

What is your favorite pumpkin beer?

{Recipe} Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

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While working on my review for the Rabbit Food Cookbook blog tour I came across the recipe for Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies however I didn’t have any chocolate chips.  To top it off although the recipe is already fairly healthy (especially compared to most cookie recipes) and I love the use of natural sweeteners, there was still a little too much oil in the recipe for me.  I decided to swap out some of the oil for applesauce and the chocolate chips for raisins. Below is my variation on the recipe.

Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies with Cream Cheese Filling
Adapted From Rabbit Food Cookbook 

Ingredients:
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup raisins

Cream cheese filing: 2 oz vegan cream cheese mixed with 2 tablespoons agave.

Directions:
Preheat Oven to 325F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Mix wet ingredients (oil through vanilla) in a small bowl. In a large bowl mix together the remaining ingredients, except raisins.

Add the wet to the dry and mix until combined. Fold in the raisins.

Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon measure, scoop the cookies onto the baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet and then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cooled spread a layer of cream cheese filling on the bottom of one cookie and then top with another to create a sandwich. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Progress: October Eat-In Challenge

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  • Things are going fairly well but it is challenging.  I have wanted to go out for a coffee and yesterday was a struggle because we enjoy breakfast out on Saturday mornings but I resisted. As for my budget I am right on track at $150 and almost all the groceries are purchased for the week- we just need some fruit. 
  • This week I made a lot of beans greens and grains, homemade gluten free pizza with caramelized onions and tempeh, oatmeal, and a bunch of veggies.  Today I am roasting up some squash because I have so many of them from our CSA.  
  • I love my coffees out once in awhile. As much as I love making coffee at home and meals at home I also love getting out and enjoying a really great coffee at Mags.