Misc

Hope you are enjoying your evening and that you got a chance to check out Shop 4 A Cause where there a bunch of great items to bid on including 2 that I donated.

It has been insanely hot here in the country….Vermont and I am not lovin’ it; 90F in Vermont is gross because it’s humid and sticky.  I have been trying to keep cool with the hubz tonight but we have a ton of packing to do which means we can’t sit in front of our one fan.  It also meant that going for a run today just wasn’t going to happen.  I know, I know but you can stop re-reading that last sentence because yes I said a RUN. I have been trying to get myself motivated and to run a few days a week because I’d like to run a 5K in the next few months.  I am not a runner and although I am pretty active I am not as a aggressively active as I’d like to be so I’ve slowly been working at building my strength and endurance.  Hubby and I have also decided to try out the Insanity workout; now you can gawk and go what is she nuts?

Tonight was a pretty easy dinner as I had pulled out some great local frozen whole wheat pizza dough from the freezer last night so it was all ready for me to cook up tonight.  I topped our pizza with marinated artichokes, spinach, vegetable pasta sauce, 1 vegan sausage, mushrooms, nutritional yeast and Italian Garlic Gold.

With this I enjoyed a nice glass of seltzer and Cheribundi – it’s amazing.

After doing some super packing/cleaning we sat down with a cup of chocolate almond banana ice cream.

Q: Have you tried the P90X or Insanity workout? How about another workout one?

I know I have been a little absent over the last few days and I am warning you now I probably will be over this week.  Don’t worry though I will be back in full force next week. This past weekend as you saw we were gone camping with friends and this week we have been pretty busy because we are going away this next weekend as well.

Originally we were heading to Acadia National Park to do some more camping but the weather seems like it might be less than desirable so we will be spending the weekend in Portland Maine for our 2 YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY! Time passes by so fast it feels like just yesterday that we were getting married.

So lets talk about food; this week has been all about the curry from curry chickpea salad sandwiches, curry noodle bowls and curry with chickpeas and rice.  I know I’m on a curry kick and it’s crazy because it’s been 90F here all week but I’ve still been loving the hot hot hot food.

Q: Have you been Portland ME? What are you favorite things to do?

Hey Bloggies! I know I have been a little absent the past few days but I am back in full force.  This morning I was feeling something savory so I cooked up on of my favorites: Cheezy Grits!

At work I had a horrible K-Cup of Chai Tea which I shouldn’t be surprised as to how bad it was.  I was being optimistic though but it was a huge FAIL.

For my lunch I brought some trail mix, a banana and a Vega Shake & Go…..which also turned out to be an epic fail.  I really wanted to like the Vega Shake but it just was too sweet and had a funny taste.  I just couldn’t get into it so I am thinking that it might go okay will unsweetened almond milk, spinach and banana but this defeats the purpose of shake & go.

After work I met my Momma for an iced tea and to pick up some camping chairs for our guest.

Since lunch was a pretty huge fail I was so hungry after my tea that I called the hubby and told him I’d be home in 40 minutes so he better the rice on and steam up a few sweet potatoes. When I got home I poured myself a nice glass of wine and prepared our Early Bird dinner.  For dinner we had brown rice, sweet potato, garlic broccoli and cashews and caramelized onions topped with nama shoyu, gomasio and sriracha.  Now we’ll be off to shuffle board and then it’s into bed by 7.

Actually I am working on finding the motivation to make cupcakes and pack for camping.

This morning I felt great and jumped out of bed as soon as the alarm went of at 5:30am and headed directly to the kitchen.  I had a bunch of root veggies calling my name and a recipe in my mind so I went right to work (look out for a post this evening with recipe included).  I love cooking in the morning before I go to work because it means when I get home from work all I have to do is heat it up and cook up some grains and steam up veggies for sides.

This morning instead of starting with a cup of coffee I had .5L of water and then a mug of sencha tea from LeafSpa– it was really nice and made me feel calm and awake.

I was feeling like something fruity this morning so I went with a smoothie for breakfast.

• 1 banana
• 5 strawberries
• 1/2 cup frozen peaches
• 1 cup almond milk
• 2T vanilla hemp protein powder

Blend these all together and enjoy!

I also got my lunch together for the day which will be a green juice (romaine, cucumber, apple and carrot), passion mango coconut yogurt, and some Mountain Mambo train mix.

and an gala apple

Until work I am hanging out at the coffee shop working on some blog posts and enjoying a cup of organic English breakfast tea. I have decided that I really need to cut back on the coffee since I went from 1 cup a week to 1-3 cups a day lately- I blame it on this darn coffee shop! Oh well now I’m moving myself back to tea and I love it.

Q: Are you a coffee drinker or a tea? or neither?

As you may have noticed Cooking For a Vegan Lover is taking on a number of changes; the appearance and features are slowing being updated and are in stage one of this process.  However the most notable change that has occurred is the name change to Cook. Vegan. Lover.

My blog started out as a blog to document my experiences in the kitchen cooking for my vegan lover, my now husband. When we started dating I was a vegetarian and had been for many years.  I did practice a vegan diet for a few months in high school but was not responsible or healthy in my approach so I went back to a vegetarian diet.  When my husband and I got together I was in University still and money was tight; we also lived in New Brunswick where vegan options were limited so I cooked we cooked everything at home.  This is where the name Cooking For a Vegan Lover came from- I cooked for my vegan lover.  After about 2 months of dating I noticed how little I ate dairy, eggs, honey and products that included these as ingredients and finally decided a month later that I would take on a vegan diet myself.

For the next two years – can you believe I have been blogging since 2006?- I wrote mainly about what I cooked so Cooking For  a Vegan Lover was still fitting.  In the last 6 months my blog has evolved into a site that features vegan and eco friendly products, lifestyle posts, recipe post and more recently nutrition & wellness posts.  The last addition to this blog is a result of my decision to go back to school to become a certified holistic health counselor. With all these changes it only seemed appropriate to update the blog title to Cook. Vegan. Lover., however for now the URL will stay http://cookingforaveganlover.com for now (I hope to be able to change this in the future as well). After reading this post the husband has created a domain for http://cookveganlover.com but don’t worry http://cookingforaveganlover.com still works!

Cook. Vegan. Lover. embodies what this blog is all about:

Cook: recipes, experiences in the kitchen, what I am eating

Vegan: products, lifestyle, travel, tips

Lover: this one isn’t just about my Hubz although he is included but it also is about loving life, yourself, and others. To love others you have to love yourself and part of this is being healthy, so this is where the healthy lifestyle and wellness comes in.

As part of my blog transformation I took a poll to see what readers would like to see more of.  The top three items were: recipes, tips for health & well being, and summary of my days. I am in the process of incorporating more of this into my blog.  The transformation in process and I hope to be into a more consistent routine by July.  You can look forward to seeing more post throughout the day, new recipes and frequent nutrition and health posts.  I will still have posts that include products, lifestyle and travel as well.

Thanks to everyone who reads my blog and for all your feed back on what you’d like to see more of. Please stay tuned for more improvements over the next few months.

This morning hubby and I headed out to the farmers market but were pretty unsuccessful; we came home with some ruby chard and onions, oh well.  We did however enjoy a steamed red bean bun and a steamed vegetable dumpling with happy hot sauce.

I unfortunately will be spending most of my day working at a country music concert for work – which I am not overly thrilled about doing but oh well it’s part of the job.  After I am done though we are meeting up with our friends for a drink which gives me something to look forward to.  Since we will be basically gone the entire afternoon/evening we are packing up some dinner to save money and eat healthier. Plus we went out to Sarducci’s for dinner last night and had the most delicious dinner which I did not photograph because it was a camera/cellphone/computer/TV free evening.

So for lunch I made some delicious tofurky veggie bagel sandwiches and served up with falafel chips, salsa and a banana. I whipped out a few new gadgets that Microplane USA sent me to help in getting my veggies ready for the sandwich.

I used the straight blade peeler for my carrot and then I used the shredder face of the box grater to well….shred it. I also used the slicer face of the box grater to make thin slices of cucumber for the sandwich.  I thought the peeler did a great job and it was easy and comfortable to hold.  I also loved this box grater because it has a really great handle on the top (which I didn’t get a good shot of) but it makes it so much easier to hold than other ones that I have used.  I thought that the shredder face worked really well but I think I’ll stick to my mandolin for slicing.

As I said above our lunch also includes some falafel chips from Flamous Brands which are honestly my new favorite thing and I need to make some hummus to go with these chips. These  chips are vegan, gluten free, organic and non-GMO.  They are also super tasty and come in regular and spicy- of course loving the spice hubz and I opened the spicy first and they are delicious.

Q: Do you have days/nights/mornings when you turn off all your electronics? If you have never tried this or think that you can’t live without your phone I recommend that you give it a chance even for an hour or two.  It is really freeing and gives you time to just relax and slow down.

Hey Everyone!

I’m so glad it’s finally Friday and the weekend is here! I am finally feeling better so this weekend will be great.  I also started a cleanse which is making my body feel wonderful.  The good people at Garden of Life sent me their Raw Cleanse kit to try out as well as their raw prenatals; no we are not pregnant but I am preparing my body for the future how ever far that might be.

Anyways I am on Day 2 of my 7 day cleanse and it feels great already. Basically there are three steps that you take each day for 7 days and it helps cleanse the body and aid in digestion. Now powders are the most appetizing but if you over look that and consider how your body feels it’s worth it, so far.  I will update you again in a few days and once I have completed my 7 days.

Also news that I am so excited for we ARE going to go on a vacation this year but it just isn’t going to be down south we have traded the beach for the city. You are probably asking….well What city then?

WASHINGTON DC! Now I haven’t been there in like 10+ years and it will be hubby’s first time so I would love suggestions of places to eat, shop, see, drink, ect.  So please send any suggestions my way. Thank you in advance.

Q: Are you a city person or a beach person?