As many of you know I just started a new job so my life has been pretty crazy the last few days since I am trying to transition from being a “house wife” to going back to the working world. I am attempting to figure out how to get myself back in the kitchen making interesting, new dishes to blog about as well I have a number of cookbook and product reviews that are on my ‘To Do’ list. Just a heads up that this weeks blogging will be slightly inconsistent but I am still here! I just need to figure out my new schedule and adjust to the big changes in my life.
One of the other big transitions is not being at home to make whatever I want for lunch it’s back to planning and packing. For lunch yesterday I brought:
I had a half portion of dried apricots, dried mangos and habanero bbq almonds- I weighed out the portions on my kitchen scale
Blue Diamond sent me some samples of their products and these yummy nuts were among the mix. I love these! They have great flavor however when I read habanero I expected them to be spicy but they aren’t.
Veggies! lots of carrots, red peppers and cukes!
A mug of half-caf in my new PureVia tumbler which is my new favorite one. I still have to try my PureVia sample - I'll let you know what I think
Lastly some hint water- the grapefruit mango flavor is my favorite
Question:Do you usually pack your lunch or eat out? What do you usually have for lunch?
Yesterday my hubby and I took a drive to Lake George NY to visit the Coleman Outlet. We are heading up to Acadia for our anniversary at the end of May and were in need of a new tent since ours is small and old. Since we have eaten out WAY too much lately I decided to make us some lunch for the road. I packed up some chickpea salad sandwiches, Hint water, veggie straws and a couple Jazz apples.
Chickpea Salad
1-15oz can of chickpea, drained and chopped into small pieces (a food processor works well for this
1/4 of a medium red onion, minced
2T chopped dill pickle
1-2T vegenaise (I like to use the reduced fat kind)
1t triple blend flakes or kelp flakes
1t lemon juice
2T finely chopped parsley
Mix this all together and serve it on a sandwich, salad or with crackers
This is a blend of dulse, laver & sea lettuce- you could always use crumbled nori or kelp flakes - you also could change the flavor a bit and use dill
We had a successful trip to Lake George and came home with a new tent, a few new camping plates and bowls and a camping mattress (I know, I know but hubby is old and his back hurts haha). We also picked up a few new spring duds at the J.Crew outlet which we both love. Dinner was a quick and easy meal to put together. It was hubby’s favorite Garlic Lovers Pasta and a small side salad.
Garlic Lovers Pasta
3 servings of pasta of your choice- I used spinach spaghetti tonight
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2T olive oil
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
3T nutritional yeast
salt and pepper to taste
While the pasta is cooking place the garlic and olive oil in a large saute pan and heat over medium low until the pasta is finished. DO NOT DRAIN PASTA, rather using a spaghetti spoon or tongs take the pasta out of the boiling water and place into the sauce (the starch in the water helps to create a sauce). The sprinkle in the parsley and nutritional yeast and salt and pepper and toss together to coat evenly. ENJOY!
So I’m off for the day to a committee meeting a few hours away and I’m anxious since it’s only my second day of work and I have to take the minutes, eek! However you should stop on over to my Spring Giveaway post and enter to win this great giveaway. If you already have entered remember you can tweet once per day BUT make sure you go back and post a comment letting me know you did.
As I said in one of my post last week I have decided to host a big Spring giveaway. This box of goodies is filled with lots of vegan treats that (I hope) you will love. Since this is a big giveaway I am going to give you an entire week to enter this giveaway and of course you will have lots of chances. Here is what the winning box of goodies looks like:
Hahaha…okay not so funny okay okay now for what is inside the box:
Now for the close ups:
First there are some yummy goodies from Sensible Foods who makes crunch dried snacks- my husband has been loving the Cherry Berry (included in the giveaway) and I have been gobbling up the Sweet Corn (unfortunately not included). These snacks are yummy, healthy and great snacks for anyone in your family – I bet kids love these!.
Next are some SoyGo Soy Creamers – I did a review of these a while back and they are great in coffee or tea. I love to bring them with me when I travel!
Dr. Lucy’s Cookies which are Vegan and Gluten Free and did I mention so tasty? These cookies are so yummy- I think we have eaten up most of the samples they sent and I gave some to friends as we got so many. My husbands favorite is the Cinnamon and I am partial to the Sugar Cookie.
There is some Guayaki Yerba Mate Chocolate Tea – whoever wins this has to tell me how this is because it seems like it could be yummy!
And lastly, the generous people at Endangered Species sent me chocolates to giveaway just for YOU! Isn’t that exciting so you have 2 large bars, 2 small bars and a handful of tiny bars and hello they are delicious! My favorite is the Dark Chocolate with Cranberries and Almonds it has sweet, bitter, and crunchy all in one bite. Enjoy!
Did I Mention that there is more:
Kurokan sent me a bunch of Japanese Delight Kombu stir fry mixes to try they come in Teriyaki, Spicy Miso and Garlic Soy. I am giving you a chance to try all three of them! I hope you enjoy them I haven’t tried them yet but I’ll let you know what I think when I do.
Lastly I have a few fun pins from Vegetable Slut for you to have:
To Enter:
Now to enter this giveaway leave me a comment letting me know which item you are most excited to try. Entries will be accepted until April 4, 2010 at 8am. Unfortunately this giveaway is only open to US residents- but don’t worry my world friends I will do another one soon that you can take part in.
Additional Chances to Enter:
Follow me on Facebook. (come back and leave a comment here)
Follow me on Twitter. (1 tweet per day, (come back and leave a comment here)
Tweet about this giveaway “I want to win @cookveganlover Spring Giveaway http://wp.me/pFVWo-C0” (come back and leave a comment here)
Follow my blog in a reader (come back and leave a comment here)
Blog about this giveaway (come back and leave a comment here)
Hubby and I started off our morning with some cheater Indian food from Tandoor Chef. I usually make oatmeal but I wasn’t feeling it since I didn’t have any bananas and we were in a time crunch as my ‘rents and G-Ma were on their way to pick us up to go visit a few sugar houses. So thanks to Tandoor Chef who generously sent me a few samples to try we had pocket sandwiches which were yummy and had a really nice spice to them.
One feature I love about this product is how I can say everything that is on the package and how Tandoor Chef uses all natural ingredients so you can eat yummy food with out the gross additives.
Here is our yummy breakfast
The ‘rents and G-Ma finally showed up and we headed out to Morse Farms to see some sugaring and taste their maple syrup. Unfortunately they hadn’t really started cooking the syrup when we arrived so we took a few fun pictures and headed into the store to taste the various syrups. Before we left we went back to the sugar house to see the sap boiling.
Neil and his ol'buddy
Me and my G-Ma - LOVE HER!
After visiting Morse Farms we decided to stop for some lunch at Julio’s Cantina in Montpelier for summer yummy eats. I got the veggie tacos which were filled with grilled mushrooms, onions, peppers, zucchini and summer squash and hubby got the veggie burger with his favorite fiesta fries. After lunch we headed to Plainfield to visit another sugar house- Braggs. This is my favorite of the two because it is smaller and I love their sugaring house. Neil and I went to get our yearly maple steam facials (haha) – it smells crazy good in the sugaring house and the steam is fun to bask in.
the 'rents- aren't they so cute? You can see the steam from the boiling sap in the back
I love mustard and I picked up a jar of this yummy Mustard today at Braggs
Once we got home Neil and I headed out to AT&T to pick up a cover for my work iPhone (per request of my boss) and I got a really fun dark pink one. Then I cam home and had a great elliptical sesh and then a short power yoga sesh from yogadownload.com. I had worked up a mini appetite after my workout so Neil and I shared a Jazz Apple sprinkled with a little cinnamon. I decided that this was a perfect opportunity to try out my Biokleen Produce Wash which is great not only for washing produce but for cleaning your cutting boards. I will be hosting a giveaway for this product soon! I really loved it and to my surprise did not leave any residue on the apple.
Tonight we decided it was time to relax on the couch with a little bit of TLC’s Hoarding which my nice daddy recorded for us since we don’t have cable. That show is crazy I couldn’t imagine living like that! We sipped on some new spring beer that I found at the Co-op Anchor Steam Brewing’s Bock Beer. This beer was so tasty I think a new favorite. We also decided to make dinner easy and had some more Tandoor Chef this time Pakora’s and Dal Rajastani. They both were tasty however the pakoras were a bit dry for us. Overall yummy though!
Question: What did you do this weekened? Oh and what is your favorite cheater meal?
Yesterday was my first day of work and it was great! I was super nervous at first and a bit overwhelmed but by the end of the day I was feeling comfortable with the position and I am excited to go back to work next week. My second day I have to travel for a meeting which is fun so we will see how that goes but so far I am loving it (haha okay it’s been one day). Also did I mention that I get to have an iphone for work! Hello colour me pumped!
After work hubby and I decided to stop and get a beer to celebrate my successful first day of work. Since it was dinner time we decided to go out (again) for dinner. I don’t know what is up with us we never go out to eat this much, usually only once every 10 or so days but this week we have been bad about it- I blame the awkward days, poor planning and no real grocery shopping. However this week will be filled with lots of home cooked meals as I went to the market yesterday and picked up lots of yummy produce. Anyways we stopped at The Alchemist but it was packed and there was a 45 minute wait for a table so we left and walked next door to The Reservoir where we had some yummy beers, a huge plate of hummus, salad and grilled bread and a housemade tofu/bean burger YUM!
I was pretty tired out after my first day back in the working world so we spent the rest of the night home hanging out on the couch watching a little L&O. Since we ate dinner so early we were hungry later on in the evening and decided to munch on some Veggie Medley Straws that I was sent to sample from The Mediterranean Snack Food Co. and they were super yummy! I also had another Inko’s White Tea this time Original.
Now I need to get myself in the kitchen and make breakfast and do some dishes before G-Ma and the ‘rents get here so we can go and see all the open sugar houses. Each year on this weekend the Vermont sugar houses are open for the public to come and visit and try their maple syrup and have sugar on snow with a pickle (to cut the sweetness) and a cider donut. It’s a been a tradition with my family to go and visit the sugar houses however since I haven’t been home for many Springs we haven’t all been out together. Neil and I went last year to the sugar house near our house but it was pouring and cold booo!
Last year wet and cold at Morse Farms
Hubby With his New Friend at Morse Farms 2009
Is there a family tradition that you do each Spring?
I recently received some samples of Maria and Ricardo’sTortillas so Neil and I have been on a wrapping frenzy! These wraps are so yummy and come in a variety of flavors. We tried the 12″ Chili Wraps, 10″ Spinach Tortillas, a low carb Tortillas, and gluten free tortillas. These wraps have no cholesterol, are vegan and kosher and have no trans fats! We have had a good time making some wraps and tacos with these tortillas.
The chili wraps are great when you your entire meal rolled up into one hand held meal. You can really fill them with anything and if you want you can bake or grill them. The spinach tortillas were yummy and we had them stuffed with tofu scramble the other day for lunch. Our favorite was the low carb tortillas however which with only 45 calories per tortillas made them feel a little more guilt free. We ate them with yummy homemade refried black beans. Lastly were the gluten free tortillas which i used to make soft tacos- honestly we hated these they tasted like cardboard. So sorry gluten free friends I would not recommend these gluten free tortillas. However all of then non-GF ones that we tried were delicious!
Black Bean salad with Low Carb Tortillas
Spinach Wrap stuffed with tofu scramble and grilled
Disclaimer: Maria and Ricardo’s Tortillas 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.
I can’t post much this morning as I have to get ready for my first day at my new job. I’m really excited and I can’t wait to start. I did a short yoga sesh this morning to relax my body and mind and get ready for the big day. I then dug into a big bowl of oatmeal with my new addiction Sun Butter.
For my one of my fundamentals classes I have been doing some reading on various diets including Macrobiotic, The Blood Type Diet, Sally Fallon Diet, The Atkins and many others. I now am looking for some feedback on what others experiences are; what kind(s) of diet(s) have you tried? What was your experience? Do still prescribe to a set diet or do you have guidelines that you follow?
