Boo!

Happy ALMOST Halloween everyone!

And of course.. Happy Friday!!! I thought it would never get here, but at last, it has!

First of all, an ode to Ginger. Yesterday she was being extra funny, there were many photo opportunities that I just couldn't resist.

I gave her the remains of a So Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt.. She was looking at me like "What did I do to deserve this?".
Cuddled in her bed while I do yoga. Love how her arm is over the blanket like a person would do. I couldn't stop laughing when I took this picture. Then when I was on the ground doing yoga she starred at me and made this face, ears back and all. You know she is serious when her ears are back! She looks like she is wearing Princess Leia hair. HA HA!
Onto food! Earlier this week I made Dr. McDougall's Vegan lentil soup. I bought a couple of different varieties of these soups from Whole Foods to have for lunch. They come in a box that is BPA free, and have no MSG or any other added junk. I like that they are thick and chunky which is usually hard to come by in a pre made soup. Anyway, I added some kale to mine for some extra nutrients. For dinner one night I made an acorn squash stuffed with pinto beans and brown rice. Along side I made mushrooms, peas, onions, and artichoke hearts. This was a tasty flavorful dinner. The squash and mushrooms were locally grown from my co-op box. For those of you that don't know what I am talking about when I mention my "co-op box", it is a box of organic, mostly local produce that I pick up from someone in my town every other week. They have groups throughout NJ and I am a member of the one in my town. There are about 15 people who join and the leader and a volunteer have the truck with all the goods delivered early morning every other Thursday and they sort them and boxes and I pick mine up in the afternoon.
Anyway, I had received a ton of different varieties of peppers and some tomatillos in my last co-op box, so I decided to use them all in one shot and make some vegan chili. There is no fake meat involved, just black, pinto and kidney beans and lots of veggies. I also added brown rice to thicken it up a little. I've never made non-vegan chili before, but I think I am pretty good at making the vegan version! :)
Have a nice weekend everyone! Have a spooky and safe Halloween! :)

Is it Friday yet??

Hey Everyone!

Sorry I have been M.I.A. I didn't take any pictures over the weekend and Monday and Tuesday were pretty hectic days. Read my tweets if you want to know what I am talking about. I don't want to talk about it anymore, since it totally stressed me out. Anyway, I am feeling good, and I plan on staying that way! In fact, Saturday morning I am going for blood work, I hope all my levels are normal. That would be amazing!

Earlier this week, I made a delicious soup. I had received a ton of Swiss Chard in my co-op box so I added that along with carrots, garlic, onion and white beans to some low sodium vegetable broth and voila! A delicious, healthy, warming soup!
Last night I made some risotto with mushrooms and spinach along side some broccolini with garlic and lemon juice. I am in love with broccolini! They are a cross between broccoli and asparagus, two great veggies in one.. so good!

This morning I made my normal gluten free oats with a new twist. I added raw cacao powder, a banana, agave, chia and flax seeds. This reminded me of Cocoa Crispies, or at least from what I can remember since I probably haven't had them in 10 years! :) So much healthier too. Who needs to feed there kids that junk when you can make them a breakfast like this on occasion?!

Have a nice Wednesday everyone! I will try to post again Friday, as long as I have something to post! :)

Nourising Meals

Hey All! TGIF!!

I had a great week, I think talking to my doctor made my week so much better! I also wanted to mention, I am not a boxer. T bought a heavy bag, and bought me some pink gloves and I hit it with him at night, but I can only do two sets of two minutes each. If you saw me, and thought about me boxing, you would be laughing like hell. I am sure my sister is..

Anyway, one night this week I used the leftovers from my burritos and made stuffed acorn squash. Along side is broccolini with lemon juice and garlic. Lemon tastes so good on broccoli and greens! Mmm!
For breakfast yesterday morning, I made my normal gluten free oatmeal and added blueberries, raisins, flax, chia seeds, goji berries and 2 figs right off of my tree!! YUM! There is nothing like picking fruit from your yard and using it fresh! Oh and I love how my oats turn purple from the blueberries. It makes my breakfast look so happy!

For dinner last night I made Sweet Potato Lentil Stew from Alicia Silverstone's book, The Kind Diet. As you can see, I am getting a lot of use out of this book. I love that most of her recipes are clean, no processed stuff. This was really good, T LOVED it!! He was telling everyone he talked to last night about it. Ha ha! I have leftovers for lunch today, he is going to be so jealous when I tell him I am having it! :)

Have a nice weekend everyone. Not much planned here. But I who knows.. we always find something interesting to do!

P.S. Check out this Halloween Giveaway! Muhaahaha!

Good News!

Good Morning Everyone!

An update on my doctor visit..
He said that I have proved him wrong!! He very much doubted that the LDN would help me along with acupuncture and diet. When he saw and heard how well I have been doing, he said I shocked him! I have to go back in a couple months for a colonoscopy just to make sure all is well! Yay!

I want to give a shout out to my younger sister, Amanda, who now reads (and comments) on my blog. I am trying to talk her into starting her own blog. She goes back and forth with being a vegan, but always makes healthy meals! She is a teacher so she doesn't think she has the time for a blog. Plus, she has an adorable Maltese that Ginger just loves to hump! Ha ha! Also, I shared my blog with a few other friends Lauren and Meghan! I think it's so funny that I never share my blog with people I know, only strangers. How about you, do your family and friends read your blog??

Anyway, I received the most beautiful, fragrant, tasty, concord grapes in my co-op box. My whole fridge smells like grape juice from these bad boys. I had some with my lunch the other day. Aren't they gorgeous?
On Monday night for dinner I made brown rice with adzuki beans and kale. I got the idea for this from Alicia Silverstone's book The Kind Diet. She mentioned eating vegan macrobiotic and one of the staples she eats is a grain with adzuki beans and a green.

I also made Alicia's Clean, Mean Burritos. I used a gluten free brown rice tortillas, black beans, brown rice, avocado, onions and sprouts. I left out the Tofu cream, since I don't eat much soy, but they turned out really well. Very filling!! T had me boxing on his heavy bag in the basement after consuming these, not a good idea..Ha ha!

Have a nice day everyone!

Ginger Love and Weekend Eats

Happy Monday People!!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. T and I were pretty busy most of the weekend, but I Sunday we got to relax a little. T watched his team play football and I sat with him with a heating pad on my stomach because I was having terrible cramps! At one point I got up and look who took my spot..
She loves warm things, when I take blankets out of the dryer she follows me and lays on them as soon as I put them down! She has some personality! Anyway, T's team won! Now he thinks I am his good luck charm, since I never watch and the one time I did, they won! Ha Ha!

Saturday night I made Julia's Mock Pumpkin Curry. I added lots of curry powder, instead of cumin and some chickpeas as well. This was delicious! I am having left overs for lunch today!

Sunday I made Polenta Casserole from Alicia Silverstone's book: The Kind Diet. I didn't add seitan and instead used white beans and I also used more Fall veggies. Hers calls for asparagus, I used broccoli instead. This also has peas in it. We thought this was just okay. We felt it was a little bland. Probably needed some onions or something.

Here is my piece from the casserole. We liked how the top came out so crunchy, Alicia suggests adding Soyu to the top for that crispness, I added Bragg's instead. Sorry for the dark pictures, yesterday was rainy all day, so I had no natural light to use.

This morning I made myself some gluten free oats and added some left over pumpkin, raisins, pumpkin butter, flax, chia seeds and green powder. Yum! Pumpkin Pie Oats!!

Have a nice day everyone! I am going to be seeing my gastro today, can't wait to tell him how well I am doing! YAY!

Review, Food, Book..Face Mask?

Happy Friday Everyone!

Sorry I didn't post much this week. I will make up for it with a jam packed post!

Last Sunday when the girls were over, we took a trip to Trader Joes, they are all very jealous that I have one right in my town! I picked up two new items: Organic Cocoa Powder that is non-alkalized, gluten free and contains only cocoa with no sugar added, and cranberry apple butter for my oatmeal! YUM! I have been sprinkling a little cocoa powder on my oats with blueberries and a drizzle of agave, YUM! Or I use the cranberry apple butter with raisins and gojis..Mmm! I think I switch between 4 different varieties of my oatmeal every morning, I like to keep it interesting!

My new issue is lunch! I never know what to have! I've been having leftovers, but sometimes we don't have any--Hehe! What do you eat for lunch? Please enlighten me!

Earlier this week, I made a cabbage and canellini bean soup. I found the recipe in Fitness magazine. It came out really well (even better for lunch the next day). T really loved this soup!
Another night I made butternut squash roasted like fries and some kale with garlic and olive oil. No perverted butternut squash photos this time. Sorry to disappoint you all! :)

The day The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone came out, I went out and bought it! I just love Alicia, and this book has some amazing, delicious recipes!! She even started a forum and posts videos and blog posts on it. Check it out here. I plan on making some of her recipes next week, so stay tuned!

Wednesday night I made Grandma Meghan's Secret Tomato Sauce, by Meghan of Making Love in the Kitchen. This sauce was delicious and filling! T had his with pasta while I had mine on a GF brown rice tortilla--pizza style! Speaking of the glorious Meghan, check out her awesome series of posts on the toxicity of tampons. You can enter to win a free Diva Cup too while you are there!

After this meal, I realized I have been eating a lot of nightshades again. I was reading about them in Alicia's book and how they can promote inflammation (which I already knew), most of her recipes don't include them. So, again, I will be avoiding them and only having them on occasion. Bye-bye tomatoes!

This next picture is not something I ate. Although it did smell good! It went on my skin. It has been really cold and rainy here, what better time for an at home spa day?! So yesterday, I mixed together half an avocado, some oats, olive oil and honey (you can leave this out, if you don't use honey, again... I only use local, on occasion). I spread this on my face and body before I got in the shower and let it dry for about 10 minutes. When you rinse it off you will reveal softer glowing skin! Who doesn't want that?

The Weekly Gab: (Yes it's back--well when I have time I will do it..haha!):

*On Sunday night you can catch Kris Carr's awesome documentary Crazy Sexy Life on Discovery Health and 12pm EST! This is a must watch for everyone, cancer or not! Set your DVR!

*Head over to the Crazy Sexy Life Blog and click on Blog Posse and scroll to the bottom to check out my Crazy Sexy Bio! :)

*Check out Healthy, Happy, Life. For a series of interviews with some of the most amazing women in the veggie community! "Veggie Girl Power" starts this Saturday the 17th and end Saturday October 26th. Wait until you see who will be interviewed!

*Don't forget, tell me your lunch ideas! I am picky too, they must be soy free, gluten free, and nothing processed! :)

Have a nice weekend!

Girls Weekend

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Well, I mentioned that I was going to have a special meal to post... but I forgot to take pictures!!! ARG! T was away all weekend at a football game in Buffalo, NY. So the girls went to Candle79 for dinner. I had my best meal ever there! They just introduced the new fall menu and it was amazing! I want T to take me back ASAP! He really missed out. They even had a vegan cannoli dessert and it brought back so many childhood memories! I am telling you--TO-DIE-FOR! :)

POM was kind enough to send me more samples of new flavors they will be coming out with. Kiwi and Nectarine. T drank both of them (of course, he loves POM) but I did take a few sips and I really liked the Kiwi. The flavor took the bite off of the pomegranate taste. I would say that these new flavors are going to do well.
The other contest that I won last week was from the ladies at Veg Out With Us! I won 4 candy bars from Go Max Foods. They are vegan, contain no trans-fats, cholesterol or artificial flavors and I think a few are gluten free. I haven't tasted them yet. But, T and I will share each one (I promised him, plus the calories/fat are pretty high). I am going to try to save one for Halloween too. Just in case I am craving some chocolate!

Friday night I made a simple meal of sauteed kale with garlic and mushrooms and a side of brown rice. There was more kale then rice, but T plated some of the rice on top of the kale.

I had my first fig of the year from my fig tree!!! I have a few more coming too! I am so happy they came in, we were a little nervous we wouldn't get any since the first harvest of the year, we only got 3. I was sick at the time and didn't get to have any! I am a happy girl now!

So, like I said T was away all weekend. Sunday, my sister, cousin and my best friend (who is also engaged to my brother in law), came up and we did some shopping and dinner. We went to my favorite new age store in town, Success Express. I posted about it before here. I just love this place and I could spend hours looking at all of the cool things they have. I bought some essential perfume oil, a meditation book- Meditations to Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay, some oracle angel cards (which are freaky at how true they are), a feng sui crystal to hang in my window (I have one hanging in my car as well) (not pictured). While I was at the register they had little sachets filled with different healing rocks and crystals and I picked one up and low and behold, it was the one for healing. So naturally, I had to buy it. :)

Have a nice week everyone! I promise more food in the next post!

Luck of the Italian!

Thank you all so much for all the apple ideas! I've been eating 2 a day and T eats at least one, so we've actually been going through them rather fast! I do want to dehydrate some though.

For those of you that noticed the X-rated butternut squash I posted the other day, thanks for pointing it out. I guess my mind didn't go there.. but yours sure did! Hehe! ;)


I think maybe I should play the lottery because I have been winning things left and right! :) On Ingrid's blog, Raw Epicurean, I won this un-cook book. Alive in 5 by Angelia Elliot. The recipes are so simple and easy, I was drooling just looking at the pictures! I haven't been eating raw much lately, and I feel like my diet now is better for me. I am not stressing or depriving myself of food just because it is cooked. I do plan on adding more salads and other raw foods in the future. I like eating warm foods during the cold! But you can bet you will see some recipes from here!


On Avery's blog, Love Veggies and Yoga, I won this Stevia package from NuNaturals: a big container of Stevia Baking Blend, a box of White Stevia Powder and a Bottle of Liquid Vanilla Stevia. I use Stevia everyday in my tea, so this helps me out a lot! I can't wait to bake something with the Baking Blend!

Earlier this week for dinner I made baby artichokes (they are one of my favorite veggies), along with garlicky kale (another favorite) and some sweet potato fries.

Another night, I roasted some veggies: broccoli, cauliflower, red pepper and white eggplant and ate them over some quinoa.

Last night, I made what T calls "my specialty" Pasta Fagioli, or as we grew up saying "Pasta Fazool." This time I used red kidney and canellini beans. I also used Tinkyada brown rice elbow pasta. I guess I take after my mother and grandmother, I can cook Italian!

Have a nice day and a lovely weekend! I will be back later in the weekend or on Monday with some special meals! I will fill you in then..

What am I going to do with 15 pounds of apples?

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had an amazing weekend! :)

Yesterday we went apple/pumpkin picking with my brother in law and his fiance. We picked 5 different varieties and came home with a 15 pound bag (that was ours, they bought a little less)! We also tasted some along the way..shh!! These are two of my favorite pictures I took. The weather was pretty warm and very sunny. I would of liked it to have been about 10 degrees cooler, but I am not complaining!

Back tracking a little, on Saturday T and I went to Whole Foods for lunch. I had the Curried Apple Pumpkin Soup (which has honey in it and is only 70 calories a cup!). This soup had so much flavor! I can't wait to get it again next weekend!Saturday night T and I shared a butternut squash (which Ginger ate a large portion of, she LOVES any kind of squash) and some sauteed mustard greens with garlic and olive oil.

We stopped by Sweet Avenue Bake Shop earlier in the day since we were in the area. I couldn't resist the Pumpkin Spice Cupcake. T had an Apple Pie one (that I didn't even get to taste because he ate it so fast!). His was filled with organic apple pie filling!! Mine reminded me of a pumpkin muffin. So delicious! I actually like cupcakes that have more of a muffin base to them. It is so dangerous to have a vegan bakery in NJ!! Especially since it's not that far away!

So that was my weekend recap! I hope you all have a great Monday!

Fulfilling Friday!

I am late on posting today! Friday's have become a bit hectic for me, but they are so simple and wonderful at the same time! I especially love Friday's because I go to acupuncture. Ahhh, so fulfilling and relaxing! T and I usually hit up Whole Foods and watch a movie together with some tea on Friday nights. Tonight we also went for a bike ride. We've been doing that just about every night, the crisp air is so amazing right now!

Earlier this week I had my first pomegranate of the season! I get so excited when I see them at the store, I had to pick one up! Ginger and I shared this one along with the apple. What can I say, my dog takes after her mommy!
Last night T wanted to cook (he is a great cook, but I enjoy it, so I do it more). We had a few plum tomatoes left over from our garden. Unfortunately we didn't have many tomatoes at all. A lot of them were eaten by squirrels before they turned red. So we gave some to our families and enjoyed the few that were left. T made a delicious marinara which I enjoyed over Tinkyada brown rice/spinach spaghetti. I haven't had pasta or sauce in awhile, this was a treat!

This morning before I left the house at 7 AM, I wrapped Ginger up on the couch and she went right back to sleep. She lives a hard life!

Tonight was the perfect night for a nourishing bowl of soup. I made red lentils with chickpeas, kale, carrots and celery. I added some Soy-free Chickpea South River Miso Co. and a piece of kombu for some extra minerals. Try riding a bike after a big bowl like this! :)

Have a nice night and lovely weekend everyone!! I'll be back with some adventures from pumpkin and apple picking either on Sunday or Monday! Love and light!!