Month: April 2010

Happy Earth Day!

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Happy Earth Day! How are you all doing?

Yesterday I came home to some yummy treats from Blue Diamond Natural.  Unfortunately a few things aren’t vegan such as the almond butter with honey, the Lime n’ Chili almonds and the Salt n’ Vinegar almonds so I brought them to work for the boys to have.

Last night was great at our house.  When we got home we did a 30 minute super clean which I find is always successful; basically we run around the house picking up as much as we can or doing dish or laundry and then we are done for the rest of the evening.  One of the hardest parts of working full time, going to school and commuting is having the motivation to come home and do house work so this helps us to be productive and then we can relax.  Last night we relaxed with some homemade pizza and caught up on Tuesday night’s episode of LOST!

Seriously best pizza I’ve had in a long time!  Now I didn’t make my crust but there is this great little pasta company who also makes whole wheat pizza dough and they sell it in the freezer section of the co-op.  All I have to do is let the ball of dough thaw out and it’s ready for me to roll out and top.  Last night I topped this crust with salt free tomato sauce, marinated artichokes, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, minced garlic, a sprinkle of nutritional yeast and Italian seasoning.  It was delicious!

This morning was all about the oatmeal with banana and almond butter because it had just been too long.

So last week I posted about self-care and about making time for yourself.  How is that all working out for you? Have you taken time for yourself this week?  I just ordered a few things from Amazon for my own self-care that are inexpensive (only a couple dollars each) and are easy daily things you can do for yourself. They are:

  1. Hot Water Bottle: This is an inexpensive treat for your body;  just fill it up with warm water and place on your stomach for 15-20 minutes each evening.  The heat from the water bottle brings more energy and blood circulation to the digestive organs.  The heat is also comforting so jump into bed and place on your tummy before you head to sleep and it can relax your body and aid in a better sleep.
  2. Tongue Cleaner: This strange little thing is super inexpensive and aids in fighting cavities and bad breath.  It also helps with cravings by cleaning the tongue of leftover food which can cause you to crave food when you aren’t hungry.  Two other advantages to cleaning your tongue is that it improves the taste of food and enhances kisses.
  3. Hot Towel Scrub: Now I know that all of you must have a hand towel and/or wash cloth and this is an easy thing you can do every day.  Basically wet a towel/wash cloth with warm water and ring it out; then spend 5-10 minutes gently scrubbing your body.  This is great for relaxation, circulation and detoxification and it rejuvenates the skin.

Q: What have you done for yourself this week?

Boo

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So after staying up way too late last night researching places to go/stay, we’ve come to the conclusion that it’s just not going to happen this year. We won’t be packing up our beach bags and heading anywhere warm anytime soon. I guess we will just be enjoying some local vacations this year to NYC, Boston and lots of camping.  I am ready for our NYC trip Labour Day weekend though, even though it’s months away.

This morning was pretty unproductive since I stayed up way too late and haven’t been feeling well (bad idea) I am exhausted today and just feeling pretty crummy.  I can’t wait to go home and crawl in my bed and sleep. This morning I had one large coffee at Speeders and snacked on a Odawalla Bar. Then I had to run all over town and find a ‘Get Well Soon’ card per the request of my boss.  I’d never imagined it would be so hard to find a nice card that wasn’t humorous, religious or too girly (the card was for a firefighter).  Finally I found a nice simple one at Barnes&Noble and then it was time to get down to business.

Q: How’s your morning been?

A Cold, Red Curry and A Vacation

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I had to take a day off from blogging because I am slightly under the weather.  We had a work meeting yesterday and the place was damp and cold and I came home with a sore throat and a cough.  I hung out in bed all last night and have been lounging around today.  I think my rest, miso soup and fresh green juice has been helping but I’m not 100% yet.  I did get a workout in this morning and a walk this evening with hopes of sweating out some of this cold.

Tonight I made some red curry tonight because what’s better for a cold than something nice and spicy.  Not much of a recipe to tell basically sauteed up some onions and peppers; added the red curry paste; add 2 cups vegan chik’n broth; bring to a boil for 8 min; add bokchoy and a can of light coconut milk; serve over udon noodles.

Now hubby and I are hanging out on the couch with our MacBooks (romantic right) doing some vacation research.  We have almost settled on Costa Rica but are also considering other Puerto Rico and other countries in Central America.  It is a lot of work trying to figure out the place that has everything we want for the right price!

Q: Where is your favorite place to travel?

Lazy Sunday and a Greek Feast

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I decided to take the morning/afternoon off from blogging today so that I could relax with the husband and grocery shop and watch movies. It’s been a lazy Sunday around our house and I am happy to finally have a lazy day. This morning I started off with a bowl of oats topped with cinnamon, Sunbutter, banana and a couple drops of chocolate chips. I haven’t had oatmeal in many days and it was nice to be back in my routine.

This afternoon we did some grocery shopping and hubby requested that I make some banana soft serve with strawberries for an afternoon snack.  He sure had a great idea because this was yummy!

Ingredients:

  • 3 small frozen bananas
  • 8 strawberries
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened chocolate almond milk
  • 1T raw almond butter

Blend this all together and enjoy.  You can make this completely raw if you substitute raw almond milk.

Dinner was the exciting event of the night.  We have been trying to cut back on eating out so hubz and I decided to do themed date nights in.  Tonight we did a Greek feast in memory of our trip to Ft. Lauderdale last September where we had the best Greek food. For our feast I picked up some marinated mushrooms, artichokes, and olives.  I then made some lightened up Greek which included skordalia, hummus, oregano & lemon roasted potatoes and some tomato, tofu, onion salad with Drew’s lemon herb dressing.

Hummus

Ingredients:

  • 1T lemon juice
  • 1/3 cup chickpea liquid
  • 1-28oz can of chickpeas
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • salt and pepper
  • 3 cloves of garlic

Blend in a food processor until smooth and top with paprika and chopped olives.

Skordalia

Ingredients:

  • 1 large potato, boiled
  • 3 cloves of chopped garlic
  • 2T olive oil
  • 1T white wine vinegar
  • salt and pepper

Toss in a food processor and blend until smooth.

Lemon and Oregano Roasted Potatoes

Ingredients:

  • 1 large Yukon Gold Potato Sliced
  • 1/2 the juice of a lemon and 1/2 a lemon sliced
  • 1t oregano
  • salt and pepper
  • 1T olive oil
  • 3 cloves of minced garlic

Preheat oven to 425F. Place potatoes in one layer in a roasting pan and sprinkle with lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and oregano.  Place the lemon slices on top and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Now I am stuffed and am enjoying a nice pom-vodka spritzer and watching New York, I Love You. Q: What are you doing this evening?

Afternoon Coffee and Evening Tea

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After our busy morning of working out, market and cleaning we decided to spend a few hours down at the local coffee shop to get some work done.  My classes at IIN officially start May 3rd but there are a number of warm up/fundamentals classes. I decided to get a single soy latte to start.

As the afternoon went on we got hungry so hubby and I shared a bagel with hummus and tomato and a bowl of veggie chili.  The veggie chili was really hearty and filled with tons of veggies and beans.  It was filling and I spent another hour working on readings for IIN.

We returned home after a successful afternoon of school work and decided that it was time to spend 30 minutes doing a mega pick up around the house so that we could just sit and relax for the evening with a little future vacation research and catching up on Criminal Minds.  For dinner I decided to head the kitchen and see what came to me.  We had a number of vegetables that we had to use up so I created a few fun dishes.  We had roasted broccoli and mushrooms, sauteed cabbage and onions and a chickpea mash with a yummy Red Hen Rustic Roll.

The roasted broccoli and mushrooms were so easy and delicious to make! I think that this is going to be a new go to dish.

Ingredients:

  • 4 cups of broccoli florets
  • 1.5 cups of baby bella mushrooms, quartered
  • 1T olive oil
  • 1T soy sauce
  • a sprinkle of black pepper
  • 1T palm sugar (you can use regular sugar but cut back by half)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425F.  Toss all of the ingredients together to coat.  Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until broccoli is soft and tips are slightly browned.

Now hubby and I are relaxing on the couch with a big mug of Art of Tea Earl Grey Creme and a couple of Lucy’s Sugar cookies.  Q: What are you up to this evening?


Cold Rainy Days

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This morning I slept in for once and by slept in I mean I got up at 8:30 which is late for me.  The weather was gloomy but hubby and I got ourselves dressed and outside to do a little run/walk before we headed up to the winter market to pick up a few things.  We weren’t too hungry when we got up so we split a Crunchy Peanut Butter Cliff Bar before our work out.

After our workout we stopped back home and picked up our reusable bags and our empty kombucha jar so that we could return it and get ourselves a new jar. There is a lady at the market who makes a number of different flavors of kombucha and we have taken to them.  This week we picked up the memory tonic which I’m excited to try.

Disclaimer: N’Take provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

Aren’t these the cutest reusable bags?  N’Take sent me some of their reusable bags to try and I have been loving them! I love to have reusable bags with me and take these ones everywhere.  My favorite is the insulated bag because well the design is just too cute one side says Stays Warm and the other says Stays Cold.  I also just was checking out their website again and noticed they actually make the Sobey’s Compliments bags in Canada which I have tons of from when we used to live there and frequent Sobey’s often.

After our workout and market rendezvous I came home and made some brunch for us.  I purchased a big block of tofu last sunday that I’ve slowly been using this week so what better way to use it up then make some yummy tofu scramble and serve it with Red Hen Multi Grain Rolls.

Ingredients:

  • 8oz extra firm tofu, drained
  • 1/2T oil
  • 1/2 medium onion, minced
  • 1/4 red pepper, minced,
  • 10 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/2 large tomato diced
  • 1 T salsa
  • 2 handfuls of baby spinach
  • 1/2t each of onion powder, garlic powder, italian seasoning, chili powder, paprika and 2T nutritional yeast mixed together with 1T water to form a paste
  • 1T soy sauce
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat the oil in a medium sauce pan over medium high heat.  Saute the onion, mushrooms and peppers until soft then add the tofu and spice paste and mix to coat.  Add in the soy sauce, salsa and tomatoes and mix together, saute for 3 minutes.  Stir in the spinach.

I topped ours with a tomato and served it with rolls and lots of hot sauce.

After our breakfast we tried to get down to business with cleaning, organizing and packing up our house.  We aren’t moving for another 2 months but we have about a million things going on in the next few months and our daily commute to work makes it more difficult to maintain our apartment.  We basically are packing up anything we won’t need to use in the next few months so that when we do move we have less work to do all at once.  This also gives us the chance to actually go through all of our things and weed out what we’ve been moving from apartment to apartment and don’t need or use.  We are planning a big yard sale in June with hopes of getting rid of as much as we can and whatever we don’t is going to Goodwill.

Q: How/Do you keep your home organized and clean? What tips can you give others?