A Super Bowl Spread

Did that just really happen....again?

I'm not sure I can believe it. I didn't sleep well last night, and I woke up once drenched in sweat. I take my sports seriously.

Oh, Patriots...not again. Not again!

We had all our Super Bowl snacky-food at the ready. We had a big plate of OMG Oven-Baked Onion Rings from Appetite for Reduction:

We had a big plate of Sweet Potato Fries and ketchup from Vegan with a Vengeance:

We had a plate of sweet 'n sticky tempeh buffalo wingz, using breading and buffalo sauce recipes from Party Vegan:

We had frosty cold beer:

We had some CCK Deep-Dish Cookie Pie for dessert:

And we had a fire crackling away in the fireplace. 

I mean, we couldn't have been any more ready to watch the Pats win. 

Sadly, it was not meant to be :(

At least we'll have those onion rings. And sweet potato fries. And wingz. And pie, and beer. Hmmph. 

Back in the Kitchen

Wow, I can't believe it's Thursday already! This week has FLOWN by. I'm already getting excited for the weekend!

It's been a busy week. On Monday, my son woke up with a bad cold and it also rained over 5 inches (!!) in my town, so we decided to just stay inside all day and snuggle in my chair. We read books, watched Cars, played with some toys, and were just cuddle bunnies all day :) My son is just the sweetest little thing and it makes me sad to see him sick. But it was good to just take a day and rest. It was not, however, a good day for me and my juicer. Apparently, even some juices are a little too hardcore for me.

I didn't have cucumber, lemon juice, fruit, or anything else to make this taste better. It was straight up collard leaves, celery, ginger, carrot, and romaine. It was not good. I consoled myself with a delicious carrot-ginger smoothie afterward.

On Tuesday, he was feeling a little better, so we made a quick run to BJ's to stock up on the essentials. In my house, the essentials are: 6 cartons of Silk soymilk, 1 large bottle of carrot juice, 2 English cucumbers, 1 lb of baby spinach, 9 lbs of bananas (hey, those smoothies don't make themselves!), a 4-lb bag of raisins, a gallon of Almond Breeze almond milk, and Megamind. (Okay, Megamind isn't technically an essential, but it's very funny...and it was on sale :)

Yesterday, my hubby surprised me by coming home from work at 9:30 in the morning and announcing that he had taken the rest of the day off. This was indeed surprising, as he's only taken one day off this entire year! I was totally psyched. My son seemed to be feeling better, too, so we decided to pack up and head to the beach. I grew up in Newport, RI, and my parents still live there, so we headed on down to their house so we could hit the beach with my Mom.

He could spend hours playing this game: "Where's my foot? Where's my foot? There it is!"

I think he had a little too much fun at the beach, though, because he woke up feeling warm this morning :( So, another day in the house was called for. My son actually asked to cook something with me this morning (*swoon*), so I decided we should make some snacky food. I thought it would be fun to try something out of Peas and Thank You, since I hadn't made anything out of the cookbook yet.

First up: Pumpkin Spice-Roasted Chickpeas (recipe here). Chickpeas, maple syrup, canola oil, cider vinegar, salt, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon are tossed together and roasted until they become crispy. Here are the chickpeas, fresh out of the toaster oven:

 I put them in a little container in the fridge for easy snackin':

We also made Chewy Energy bars (recipe similar to the one here). Maybe these will help me kick my Larabar habit.

After these were done, my poor little guy was needing a nap, so I put him to bed and then came downstairs, pondering what to make for lunch. I was feeling like chickpea salad, so I started grabbing some stuff out of the fridge and pantry, and in 5 minutes flat, I had a tasty lunch ready!

Speedy Chickpea Salad
Serves 4

1 15-oz can organic chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons Vegenaise
1 tablespoon capers plus 2 teaspoons brine
2 medium stalks celery, finely chopped
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon dulse granules (can substitute sea salt, to taste)

Mash chickpeas in a sturdy bowl with a potato masher. Add the rest of the ingredients and combine.

I decided to use it in some collard wraps. I destemmed a large collard leaf, then added some romaine lettuce and a big scoop of my chickpea salad.

I topped this with some sliced grape tomatoes...

And then rolled it up like a burrito.

I also had some stuffed into some little romaine leaves. I actually preferred these to the collard wrap!

I was pretty happy with how my quick 'n easy lunch turned out!

My son's up from his nap, and he just told me "I'm upset because you're on the computer." I think it's time for me to sign off :)

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow, life has been crazy lately! With the long holiday weekend, my hubby's birthday, music class, mom's group outings, and other things going on, I've been super busy and haven't had a chance to blog. Truthfully, I've also had several nights lately where I've eaten some "repeats" and thus didn't feel the need to blog about them. But here are some of the yummy things I have had lately...

Green juice with celery, cucumber, ginger, carrot, spinach, and lemon juice:

Creamy Asian Pear and Tempeh Salad with Wasabi Dressing from Veganomicon, seaweed & wasabi rice crackers, and an Asian salad (not pictured):

And, for my hubby's birthday, a special dinner and birthday treat. He requested the Chile Cornmeal-Crusted Tofu Po'Boys from Veganomicon:

This sandwich is the bomb-diggity. For realz. The tofu is mega-delicious and almost sort of catfish-like:

The tofu is baked and served on a crusty baguette with some cholula-spiked Vegenaise, cabbage slaw, and pickles. I had some extra cornmeal mixture left, so I decided to toss some chickpeas in it and roast them. They were really good - all 3 of us loved them!!

For his birthday dessert, he chose something new to try, the Toasted Coconut Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream Frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I did not let my lack of on-hand ingredients deter me - off to Whole Foods I went to get the necessary coffee extract, coconut extract, and vegan shortening. My hubby is an amazing man and I was happy to bake him something special for his birthday! The cupcakes, by the way, were A-MAZING. And I am no baker, believe me!

My son was excited to try one of Daddy's birthday "pupcakes" -- too cute! He liked it, although I replaced his frosting with some coconut butter, which he loves anyway. I wasn't risking a big sugar-high right before bedtime!!

Finally, I hosted my mother's group at my home yesterday. I planned a scavenger hunt/nature hike-themed outing and thought that "ants-on-a-log" would make a fun snack:

It's just sunflower seed butter, raisins, and organic celery. Easy-peasy!

Soup, Pasta, and Popcorn

As is my Monday custom, I made a raw soup and salad combo for dinner. This raw soup is one of my favorites, Kristen Suzanne's Harvest Soup. I have been making this soup for a couple of years now, and it never gets old. I just love it. It is savory, filling, and endlessly adaptable. Sometimes I add some extra veggies or greens in there, sometimes I don't. I usually add another stalk or two of celery, reduce the salt to 1 tsp, and reduce the flax oil to 1/3 cup. And I always, always, always top my soup with some raw pepitas (aka pumpkin seeds) and dulse granules. The pepitas give the soup some nice texture and crunch, and the dulse gives it a nice salty-smoky flavor.

Here are all the yummy veggies and seasonings, pre-blending:

Here's the soup, post-blending. Isn't it a lovely color? It's so creamy and velvety...yum...

Topped with some dulse granules and raw pepitas:

It's so good.

We had our soups with a simple salad of organic baby lettuces, carrots, cucumber, celery, pepitas, lemon juice, flax oil, and Bragg Liquid Aminos.

As I've mentioned, I have a 2-year-old son. I think he's a pretty good eater, but if left to his own devices, he would exist solely on raisins, Peanut Butter Puffins, soymilk, yogurt, and applesauce. Sometimes I am forced to resort to some "Sneaky Mommy" tricks in order to ensure my son is getting all his vitamins and nutrients. This is one of my latest creations that my son, thankfully, has been eating with gusto.

Maybe it doesn't look all that appetizing, but if you can get a 2-year-old boy to willingly eat a bowl full of lima beans, peas, spinach, butternut squash, broccoli, nutritional yeast, flax oil, and brown rice penne, well, you just don't give a hoot how it looks. This is a bowl full of veggies and penne tossed in my special "noochy sauce." :) Noochy sauce = nutritional yeast, Earth Balance nondairy butter, and some flax oil. My son loves it, I love giving it to him, and it takes me 15 minutes to make from start to finish. Winning!

I've also been eating copious amounts of my new favorite popcorn creation.

Spicy and Cheezy Popcorn
Makes: a lot

1/4 cup popcorn kernels
Nutritional yeast (aka "nooch"), to taste
Chili powder, to taste
Bragg Liquid Aminos, to taste

Ready? Pop the kernels in a hot-air popper. As soon as they are popped, sprinkle liberally with the chili powder, then the nooch. Spray a light mist of Bragg Liquid Aminos over the popcorn in order to make the chili powder and nooch stick to the popcorn. Devour the whole bowl by yourself while watching bad reality TV on Bravo.

I'll be back tomorrow with tonight's dinner. It was a meal that I'd made once before, but I tweaked it a little and it came out even better than the first time. I love when that happens!

Learning the Ropes

Hey there! I had a really busy weekend so I didn't have much time for blogging :) But sometimes it's good to get away from the computer and enjoy real life!!

I'm still a newbie when it comes to blogging, and as such, I'm learning as I go. I'm also making tons of "rookie" mistakes, such as....

...remembering to take pictures of the food prep, but not the finished product. Duh.

Yeah, this was for Thursday night's dinner. Contrary to appearances, we did not eat a bowl of marinade and 3 sliced avocados. We had Avocado Chimichurri Bruschetta from Vegetarian Times magazine. I think I forgot to take a picture because this is one of our favorite things to eat EVER! I can't even count how many times I've shared this recipe with others. Everyone who tries it LOVES it!! Oh well, I'll have to remember to take a pic next time!!

Another rookie mistake: going out to dinner, but forgetting to take pictures of the food. Double duh. I did remember to take one picture of my hubby enjoying our (shared) flight of beer and veggie calzone Friday night at Mews Tavern:

...but I forgot to change the setting on my camera. So the picture would, you know, come out and all. Silly blogger! And I forgot to take pictures of the rest of our food: sweet potato fries, veggie nachos, and (more) beer. Rest assured...it was all delicious!

I did remember to take a picture of the yummy new snack I picked up at Trader Joe's...

I looooooved this! I love seaweed rice crackers, dulse, arame , and wakame, so I was hoping I'd like these, too. And I did. I'll be buying more next time I'm at TJ's because they're only 99 cents - woo!

I also remembered to take a picture of my newest smoothie creation: Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry!

...but in my zeal to drink this baby, I forgot to add the frozen banana. I was like, WOW, this is really tart. Then I saw my bag of frozen bananas on the counter. Tee hee. I added the frozen banana and it was So.Much.Better! LOL This is what happens when you don't sleep through the night for 2 years.

Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry Smoothie
Makes 1 large serving / 2 small servings

1 cup frozen strawberries
1 large frozen banana
1 1/2 cups water
1 heaping tablespoon raw cacao powder
1 heaping tablespoon raw almond butter
5-6 drops liquid chocolate stevia, or to taste
5-6 ice cubes, to taste

Blend on high until smooth!

Saturday was a busy day with our nephew's birthday party during the early afternoon, and yard work/mowing the lawn in the late afternoon. My hubby and I weren't all that hungry at dinner time, so we decided to just get cleaned up and eat after we put our son to bed. Around 8 pm, we settled in to watch the Red Sox-Yankees baseball game and eat some Amy's frozen meals - I had the Brown Rice, Black-Eyed Peas, & Veggies Bowl, and my hubby had the Black Bean Vegetable Enchiladas. We also noshed on some baby carrots, popcorn, and wasabi peas. We'd both run 5 miles Saturday morning and also each spent 1 hour mowing our lawn (we split it - he did the front, I did the back - but we have a HUGE lawn so it takes 2 hours!!), so we were hungry!

Sunday was a nice, lazy day around the house after church in the morning. Since I had time to cook, I decided to make something new, the Peanut-Lime Tempeh Bowl out of Appetite for Reduction. This is a bowl consisting of cooked quinoa, steamed broccoli, steamed zucchini, shredded raw carrots, shredded cucumber, shredded romaine lettuce, cilantro, and Peanut-Lime Dragon Dressing. I preshredded the carrots and cucumber earlier in the day and stuck them in the fridge...which is why I was halfway through eating dinner when I realized I had forgotten them. *Sigh.*

At least our lunch leftovers had the carrots and cucumber. Good thing, because they made it extra yummy!

I think I'm back on track today. After yoga, I remembered to take a picture of my morning juice:

Mmmm, this may have been my best yet! This one contained a head of organic romaine lettuce, carrots, celery, cucumber, zucchini, ginger, and lemon juice. Definitely NOT hard core...this is a juice even a juice newbie would enjoy!

Later I enjoyed a frosty, delicious Carrot-Ginger Smoothie:

Notice no greens in the carrot smoothie...I was completely out of fresh greens :( Happily, I went grocery shopping this morning so I'm "back in the green!"

Tonight's dinner is an oldie but goodie...a raw soup and salad combo that I've been making for a couple of years now. I love to have raw soup and salad for dinner on Mondays...combined with my morning yoga and juice, it just feels like a nice way to start the week fresh. Especially after a weekend full of beer, fries, nachos, and calzones :) But, hey, I'm a big believer in balance - I can enjoy my occasional beer and pub food because I also have my juices, raw soups, and big salads. Everything in moderation!