Earlier this week I attempted a menu plan for the week and well things haven’t gone quiet as planned. I still haven’t been to the market and am feeling like I should probably focus on that whole pantry clean up that I haven’t been focusing on lately. With that being said here is my new menu for the week:
Sometimes my menu planning doesn’t always workout right oh well!
With the time change and my hectic to do list a big glass of water and a cup of coffee has been my friend lately. I have to say though I have been a lazy friend to coffee and rather than taking out the french press and making myself a cup I have been turning to our Mount Hagan Organic Instant Coffee packets that I found on sale at the natural food store a few weeks ago. As much as I love my french press coffee I just don’t have the time or patience to clean it and baby sit it while I wait for my cup of coffee. We are actually thinking about getting a coffee maker- a whole new thing for us- any suggestions?
With my coffee I have been enjoying a big bowl of hot oatmeal with flax seeds, wild blueberries, cashew butter and Bee-Free Honee (giveaway coming later today so keep your eyes peeled.) I have been loving this combination of creamy nutbutter, sweet fruit and a drizzle of honee.
Also wanted to share a tip I learned (by actually reading the label on the nut butter); when you have natural nut butters that require stirring- stir them up real well until it is all combined and then stick it in the fridge and it will come out looking so good (see below). No longer will you have to spend hours stirring your nut butter before you can eat it and you won’t end up with an oily top and dry bottom.
Before I head to the kitchen to make myself a bowl of oats I’ll leave you with a mini updated about our new furry companion; he is settling right in and seems to love being with us. He has the funniest little squeak he makes and when he wants you to give him love and attention he hisses – strange right? He also has come to love to spend his nights sleeping with us.
As many of you know from twitter we lots our fur baby earlier this month due to sickness and old age. We miss her but were prepared (as much as we could possibly be) for the day to come that she would no longer have the quality of life she should. Since then we have been debating over adopting a dog or a cat and finally settled on another cat (for now) due to our current living situation and travel commitments.
We found one kitty that we but in our adoption papers for but never heard anything back from the ASPCA. So after calling all week and never getting to talk to a person and never receiving any returned phone calls we decided that it just wasn’t meant to be. So we headed over to the Chittenden County Humane Society to check out the kitties they had for adoption. We had already been checking them out online so we had an idea of which ones would be a good fit for us based on their profiles. We spent sometime talking and interacting with a number of the cats and final decided after spending some one-on-one time with him that Squeakers (yes he does squeak) was the perfect fit for us. Below is profile from the Chittenden County Humane Society site.
Settling in at his new home
Hey Bloggies,
I have been super busy lately working on finishing up my last month of IIN, focusing on my health coaching practice, working on getting our home fixed up and working on new projects for the blog. I am really excited about everything that has been going on and can’t wait to share more with you.
As for IIN I am now certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners which is all of a sudden making this feel so real. I am also working on some special rates for my husbands company which is a young, health conscious group and already have a number of healthy living initiatives so I am hoping my services will appeal to the group. I also am going to be coming out in the next week with a special readers rate so keep your eyes peeled.
For the blog I am working on a local product project to give you a feature of different vegan Vermont products. This month I will be featuring Nutty Steph’s and Vermont Soy– with that being said if you have specific questions you would like to know about these two places please email me lindsay@cookingforaveganlover.com or comment below. I also am working on another personal project that I am going to feature on the blog as well- keep reading and I’ll discuss this more at the bottom of the post.
With all these projects the Hubz and I haven’t spent much quality time alone together so last night we took the night off and went to The Farmhouse Tap and Grill to enjoy good beer and food. We also did a little shopping because well we both need an update. The Hubz got some new kicks and I got new jeans and a skirt from Ann Taylor Loft (only $12 for both SCORE!).
This morning I started things off right with a bowl of oatmeal with a little sample of Barney Butter (giveaway and review to come son), a banana and Bee-Free Honee (review and giveaway for this too!). I also had a cup of awful instant coffee- Tasters Choice- a free sample I applied for online somewhere- it was awful, then again I’m a coffee snob.
After breakfast I made the Hubz and I lunch; since we went out last night we had no leftovers from dinner (except yummy olives) so I was happy that Cedar’s sent me a few coupons for free products which allowed us to have a yummy Mediterranean feast see below:
After breakfast and lunches came my next challenge for this month- clean out the cupboards before summer. This is the month of the pantry challenge. My goal is to reduce packed items from out cupboards; there really isn’t a much but I am ready to make some changes and increase the dried beans and grains and fresh veggies. In addition to cleaning out the cupboards the real challenge will be to not purchase items that we are already trying to get reduce/crowd out. This is also a pantry challenge to hopefully save a little money on groceries this month because I am a natural food store-aholic- they are my favorite places to shop. So here is what we have to use:
I know it is a nice long list of items and I hope that between Saturday March 5th (shopping day) and April 5th I will be able to work my way through these items and start to build the pantry that I really want. I am excited for this challenge as well because it is going to help me get back into creating recipes. Have you done a pantry challenge? Who else wants to participate?
Alright so that is the update around here now it’s time get ready for work!
Sunday night the Hubz and I had a our friend Laura over to watch the Oscars and enjoy some yummy appetizers and play a few games.
We had lots of yummy eats the first of which was the trio of hummus recipes from Appetite For Reduction; I made the Curried Green Onion, Shabby Sheik and Roasted Red Pepper & Kalamata. All of us agreed that the Shabby Sheik Hummus was the best of the three.
The hummus was served with bread sticks, tortilla chips and salsa and olives.
Next we have the warm roasted artichoke and red onions salad which was tossed with Garlic Gold balsamic dressing, parsley and dijon mustard- served warm/room temperature and so good.
One of our favorite appetizers were the Truely Gritty Corncakes, this was inspired by the Hubz and True Girt and were delicious. I made polenta and then spread it out on a sheet pan and let it cool and then used a biscuit cutter to make the rounds. I then did a three step process to coat the corncakes–1. flour 2. almond milk 3. Italian breadcrumbs and then lightly brown on each side in a large skillet over medium high and then broil for 2-3 minutes to crisp up. SO GOOD!
Lastly are the Black Swan inspired cupcakes; the fluffy white coconut covered frosting is made to look like the white swan tu-tu and inside of the cupcakes is the black swan aka the chocolate hazelnut mousse.
In addition to yummy eats we played Oscar Bingo as well as filled out our ballots on who we wanted to win each category.
We all won a round of bingo.
But Laura was took home the big win by getting the most correct predictions!
Laura and her winnings
What did you do for the Oscars?
Saturday night we hosted a vegan potluck at our house with a number of local vegans as well as my friend Laura (vegan friendly omnivore) and Allie stopped in for a break from paper writing. Everyone brought a really great dishes including Laura who brought these tasty cheeze and chive biscuits that were so delicious but so not good for you.
Other items we enjoyed were:
Garlic- Scallion Yellow Rice
Vegan Kale Frittata
Extra Spicy White Bean and Upton's Naturals Ground Seitan Chili
Lasagna
Potato and Black Bean Chimmichangas
We also snacked on veggies and hummus while we waited for everyone to arrive and we ended the night with blackout cupcakes which I forgot to get a photo of. Overall we had a wonderful time having everyone over, sharing stories and enjoying yummy food together.
Over the years it has become a tradition that I cook a special Valentine’s meal for the Hubz. Our first Valentine’s meal that I created for the Hubz was on the Valentine’s of 2007 and I decided that this year I would attempt to recreate that meal. I luckily blogged about the meal back then and was able to help me in remembering exactly what I created as well as see how far I have come.
Back in 2007 I made a 5 course meal that even included RC Cola with heart shaped ice cubes. I re-created the entire meal on Friday night with the exception of the dessert which I was lacking on time to make. Take a look at then and now:
One of the dishes I made on our first Valentine’s Day was roasted red pepper soup; a recipe that I had found on VegCooking.com and now looking back at the recipe I am appalled at how much vegan margarine was in the recipe- gross. For mine this year all I did was saute a diced onion and two diced carrots in 2 teaspoons of olive oil until soft and then added two cups of vegetable broth and brought a simmer for 15 minutes. I then purred it with 1 cup chopped roasted red pepper and added a splash of unsweetened almond milk. Not only is the recipe better and healthier but it looks better too.
Next is the sun-dried tomato pesto pasta- a dish that I made back in 2007 using oil packed sun-dried tomatoes, crushed red pepper and Italian seasoning. This year I made a twist on things; I soaked 5 sun-dried tomatoes and 1 dried chipotle pepper in hot water until soft and added it too a mini chopper with 1/4 cup of walnuts, 1 tsp Italian seasoning, 1Tbsp olive oil, 1Tbsp nutritional yeast and about 2-3Tbsp of the soaking water. I tossed the pesto with Jovial Fusilli whole grain pasta. Now this was a huge improvement over my first attempt at sun-dried tomato pesto and the Hubz loved the auce which I will be recreating with a more detailed recipe for the blog.
So this is the dish that I think made some of the biggest improvements, it went from mushroom stuffed crescent rolls to mushroom pate puffs. I sauteed mushrooms, onions, garlic and a little sweet soy, white pepper and salt and then processed until smooth. I spread half the mixture out onto a rolled out piece of puffed pastry and then rolled it up, cut and baked. Easy as that but fancier, tastier and better for you.
For the last dish I made stuffed portobello mushrooms that I marinated in balsamic vinaigrette and stuffed with a mixture of sauteed Gimme Lean Sausage, Italian breadcrumbs (whole foods brand is vegan) and the second half of the mushroom puree. Then I baked at 400F for about 20 minutes. They came out wonderfully.
My Valentine’s Do Over was a fun way to bring us back to our first Valentine’s Day and have a giggle over my blog post from back then and how far my cooking and blogging has come.
