A Snow Story

Hey Snow Angels, I hope you all had a great week. As I am sure you may have heard, we had about 31 inches of snow dumped on us Sunday night into Monday. Baby A's first snow was a record breaker! I can't wait till she is old enough to play in it! ;) For now we've been hibernating inside and staying cozy. I've been flipping through this book, that my mother got me for Christmas. Diana Stobo's Get Naked Fast! This book is great, lots of great high raw and raw recipes. My only gripe is that some of the recipes call for kefir or ghee, both not vegan. But there are vegan alternatives, so it works.

My little angel looking out the snowy window!

Luckily, I haven't been stuck inside without chocolate!!! Before the storm, T ran to Whole Foods for "the essentials"--of course that meant raw chocolate!

You all know I love Righteously Raw's Caramel Bar! And Fine and Raw is some of the smoothest raw chocolate I have tasted. This one had Himalayan Sea Salt in it. I found the saltiness to be weird at first, but now I love it. Perfect balance!

And finally, some snow shots, here is my yard. T had to dig Ginger a maze path. See the fence to our garden! Eeek!

This was during the storm..

Falling snow..

Have a wonderful day and a safe, happy and healthy New Years!!! Any plans? T and I will be making a yummy vegan dinner and watching a movie or 2 (if we can stay awake!).  Ah, the life as a parent! ;)

Warm Wishes

Hello Snowflakes! I hope you all had an AMAZING holiday!!! We sure did and Baby A got waaaay more then she needs! She is the first grandchild so spoiled doesn't even begin to describe the amount of toys, clothes, gadgets she received. Someone else better have a baby soon, otherwise I will need a bigger house for all this stuff! :) Speaking of spoiled, T got me an iPad! Pretty cool, can anyone suggest some good apps? 

Here is our first Christmas picture as a family. Unfortunately, Ginger wasn't in this picture! Baby A slept through Christmas, so we took this picture before changing her and feeding her after she finally woke up. It was a quick improve thing so we didn't grab Ginger (and God only knows where she was with all the people in my Mother in law's huge house). LOL! Don't we look like parents who sleep? Ha ha!

We are having a major snowstorm over here! We are expected to get 20 inches! Yesterday while inside, staying warm all day, I made this delicious lunch: avocado, hummus, raw kraut and cracked pepper on a sprouted grain bagel.

Back tracking a little, we had some amazing vegan food on Christmas and Christmas Eve. I forgot to take pictures, but I did get a couple. These were vegan chocolate covered pretzels my bestie made! Yum!! We also had vegan cupcakes and PB Cups from The Kind Life.

On Christmas Day my plate was filled with vegan eggplant parm, salad, green beans, pasta with broccoli rabe and roasted red potatoes. I had to eat fast because the baby was starting to wake up, so I didn't get a picture! But this was my dinner on Christmas Eve, pasta with kale, peas, tomatoes, garlic, walnuts. Mmm!

Ginger was exhausted from all the festivities!

And so was Baby A! Look at her little Christmas dress, she even had tights on! LOL! Of course both were too big on her! My little munchkin!

How was your holiday? Stay Warm! XOXO

Holidays!!

Hey Everyone! I hope all is well! We are doing pretty good over here! Baby A will be one month old tomorrow! Eeek, I can't believe it! She is such an angel, I am so lucky to have her! I went for my 4 week check up with my doctor yesterday and he said I could start exercising again! Whoohoo! Since I exercised for most of my pregnancy, he approved it early (4 weeks as opposed to 6 weeks). He said I healed nicely and just to start off slow. I hope to get some time to get on the treadmill later. T will be home early so I will go on when Baby A is napping and he can keep a look out. We are so excited for our first Christmas with her!!!


Anyway, for dinner this week, I made brown rice and green beans..

Lentils with Kale..

And for lunch, an amazing smoothie: Frozen Bananas, Sunwarrior, Almond Milk, Maca and Cinnamon. I've been adding cinnamon to my green smoothies (I've had more time to make them! Whoo!) and it's soooo good! I find it lifts all the flavors! My favorite right now is spinach, frozen bananas, cinnamon, vanilla Sunwarrior and almond milk.

Have a safe and wonderful holiday everyone!!! XOXO

Weekend Salads and Snacks

Hey Everyone! I hope you had a great weekend! I can't believe next weekend is Christmas! Wow, and Baby A will be ONE MONTH OLD on Friday! Sheesh, time is going by way to fast already! On Sunday, T picked me up a salad for lunch. This was romaine, artichoke hearts, black barley, Farro, tomatoes, onions and quinoa. I pulled the onions out because I was afraid it would give little A gas. But it was amazing without them!

Saturday I had a salad for lunch as well. This one was romaine, olives, mushrooms, shredded veggies and chickpeas.

During the week, last week, T had to work out of town. Lucky for me, he was near my favorite health food store (the one near our parents). He picked me up some goodies: Kaia Kale Chips.

Brad's Raw Kale Chips (I preferred these over Kaia's). I ate this whole thing in 2 days.

And Raw Breakfast Crisps. These are pretty good, I imagine they'd be great with almond butter!

My favorite fruit is finally in season: grapefruit! I sliced two up and had them for a quick breakfast before nursing one day last week!

Have a great day everyone!

A Review: Ascenta's NutraVege Omega 3

Hey All! Today I bring you a review! The people at NutraVege sent me their vegan omega-3 to try out. I am not a fan of taking omega-3 straight. I usually prefer a pill form (vegan of course). But I was pleasantly surprised with NutraVege.

NutraVege combines echium oil and algal DHA to create a high potency vegan omega-3 supplement. It contains 400 mg of DHA, 420 mg of GLA and 550 mg of SDA. These are really important for me while breastfeeding, I wish I had this while pregnant (I was taking a pill version). I usually like to add the oil to my smoothie, but there is no need to with NutraVege. It has a palatable citrus flavor, so when I take it straight, it doesn't leave my mouth tasting like the ocean floor. The best part is: NO FISH BURPS! Although, the omega-3 pill I take is vegan, it still gave me the occasional fish burp. I was relieved to find out that NutraVege didn't have this nasty side effect. I am so glad I got to review this product since there are so few good vegan omega-3 supplements out there!

Tree Time

Hey Everyone! I hope you had a great week! I sure did, but how couldn't I.. I spend my days with this little angel..

I made a few dinners this week. I am lucky because T comes home around 3-4pm everyday, so I shower and do some things, then I can make din! Well, as long as Baby A isn't hungry. Nursing is so wonderful, but really demanding. Just when I think I have time, Baby A starts looking for the boob! LOL! Anyway, I made my Lemon Lentil Soup this week.

I also made baked sweet potato fries and a Sunshine Burger on a Sprouted Grain bagel with hummus, kale, avocado and raw pickles. I loved my Sunshine Burger on a bagel! What a nice treat!

As I previously mentioned, we put our tree up last weekend. Here it is..

T bought Baby A her first ornament. He always buys ornaments for special occasions. I have a blog post coming up, on my other blog with all the special ornaments we have.

I have been craving green beans! I like my green beans in the most un-raw way possible. I like them OVERCOOKED! He he! So does T! We can't stand squeaky green beans! Along side we had more baked sweet potato fries. They were a little overcooked, but not on purpose. Just happened to be one of those times when the baby was hungry!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Playing Catch-Up!

Hey Everyone! I hope you are having a great week. Over the weekend, we put up our tree and got some things around the house done. I've been staying in with Baby A, while T runs the errands. But we do go with him sometimes and stay in the car. I don't want to bring her out until she is 3 months. But my doctor suggested bringing her in the car for fresh air, and I noticed it helps her sleep better. She loves sleeping in the car! Speaking of cars, we got a new one! :) We traded our Passat in for a White Volkswagon CC! It's super cute and fun, no mini-vans here..lol!

A few of you asked about T's Tofu Cacciatore dish, and let me tell you, simple! He made a tomato sauce, boiled orzo, and sauteed the tofu, then combined all three in one pan and voila! Let me know if you try it, it was really yummy!


Anyway, I've been eating simple, quick, easy meals lately. T isn't home all day, so my diet has been a lot of raw bars and fruit, quick and easy. I need to stock up on some raw snacks, it's really hard to make smoothies these days. T would make them for me, and I could make them ahead of time, but he is at work during the day and I like my smoothies fresh! :) 

This was a snack I made of two bananas with almond butter inside. Protein packed and nutritious!

Over the weekend, I finally had time for a smoothie, this was frozen bananas, Sunwarrior protein and spinach.

And here is a pic of me and the princess, this was taken a few weekends ago. The first weekend she was out of the hospital. I can't believe tomorrow she will be 3 weeks!

I made this bowl before I went into labor (I am way behind on blogging!). This was raw kraut, avocado and olives. I've been cutting back on salt since I was so swollen after having Baby A (see above pic!). But now my feet, hands and face are just about back to normal. I've been hydrating a lot!

And this is one of my favorite quick snacks, I made this before going into labor as well: goji berries, mulberries (black and yellow), and pumpkin seeds.

Have a great day everyone! XO

Finally Food!

Hey Loves! I hope you had a great week! We are still adjusting to baby life, it's so beautiful, no sleep and all! :) Baby A seems to sleep every other night, and by sleep, I mean 4 hours, nurses, I change her, and rock her back to sleep. So sometimes I get a total of 8 hours, but the other nights it's more like 4. We are working on it! 


T has been so amazing, he is such a hands on Daddy. He goes shopping at Whole Foods, makes dinner most nights, takes care of the baby so I can rest. Last night he make "Tofu Cacciatore" this was so good!!

I made this smoothie the other day with some Rice Nog that T picked up at Whole Foods. I added 2 frozen bananas, cinnamon and the nog to Lafayette (my Vitamix).

I wasn't too fond of the Rice Nog on it's own. The color had a brown tint and it was pretty watery. When I added bananas, it thickened it up and it tasted much better. I think I'd rather make my own raw vegan version instead.

T picked up some frozen Rising Moon vegan ravioli's and topped them with some tomato sauce. I love these ravs for a special treat, they have a ton of protein!

I made myself brown rice with a huge pile of sauteed kale for dinner one night. Mmm, I love my kale!

I was pleasantly surprised the other day when I received a lovely package of vegan goodies from Lisa..

She sent me some homemade goodies too, macaroons and an assortment of chocolate treats! I've been snacking on these daily!! Thank you Lisa, you are too kind! XO

Have a wonderful weekend all!!!

A very late Thanksgiving post!

So, I totally forgot I had food pics from Thanksgiving. Obviously, we didn't have Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving. I went to the hospital the night before, and had baby A. But before all of that went down, I set up my dining room for my Mother in law and younger Brother in law to come over for Thanksgiving dinner. Since we didn't want to travel too far, just in case I went into labor, they were going to bring dinner to us. T and I were going to make some side dishes like raw cranberry relish, a raw apple crumble. But, as I mentioned, things didn't exactly go as planned. We spent Thanksgiving alone in the hospital, without our baby, I (unable to walk, or leave my room yet) didn't even get to see my little angel. It was pretty sad, T went home late that night and he didn't even have dinner (he even said he was so low he was going to resort to McDonalds...ACK!!!!!, but they weren't opened.. PHEW!). When I was finally able to come home on Sunday, we had our Thanksgiving dinner, with my Mother in law, 2 brother in laws and my bestie! 

Here is my plate: brown rice with walnuts and raisins, green beans with garlic, pineapple sweet potatoes and roasted red potatoes. T and I didn't make our dishes, we were only home for dinner, then went right back to see our baby in NICU (we spent every waking hour with her, besides this dinner).

I also had a stuffed artichoke, stuffed with gluten free bread crumbs.

Here are the pineapple sweet potatoes..

Green Beans (my favorite)..

All of the artichokes..

Brown rice..

Roasted potatoes..

And my house all set up for company (this was taken on the night I went into labor, no wonder I went into labor, look at that nesting!).

I hope you all had a wonderful one.. I hope to make my way around the blog world soon to catch up!

Much Love!