nature's candy, trick or treat

Frist of all today, let me give a shout out to the humble medjool date and raw walnut.  These two joined forces and let me sail right through Halloween without even being tempted by any candy.  trick or treat nature's candy!  If you have a large frest date, pull it in half and take the pit out. I like to fit 2-3 walnut halves inside.  There you go!



I still have Get Naked Fast from the library and have tried a couple other recipes.  One is the zucchini hummus and it was really delicious.  I haven't really made a raw hummus that I've liked too well before, I ate the whole batch so I think it's safe to say that I liked it;)  It was fresh and lemony and went really well with raw broccoli. 



Our basil plants are doing great transferred in the house from the garden still so I was able to make the pesto recipe as well. Fresh basil in the fall without spending $15 on organic basil = awesome.



we had leftover cooked brown rice pasta to use one night this week so I tossed together some lightly steamed broccoli, chopped tomatoes, daiya mozzarella style, and stirred some miso in with the pesto. 



and stirred that all together and devoured enjoyed thoroughly!



Something we've been eating a whole lot of since squash has hit the FM is the Creamy Kabocha Soup from the Kind Diet.  It's unbelieveably simple and genius, there is really no need to add anything to the flavor of the kabocha. 

diced squash and water



squashed (haha!) up into a soup



so satisfying.  This squash has such a unique savory with a little sweet flavor and the texture rocks.  I love it so much that we have 5 of them sitting on the bar now and I'll probably continue to buy them each week this month! ;) 



Speaking of fall, some nights what I want is a big warm bowl of oats (recipe also from the Kind Diet), my hubby, and a blanket cuddled up on the couch =)  So here we are. 



I've admitted that I think this is a bad habit we have of eating while watching tv.  Since then I've been thinking about that and have come to the decision that it's probably healthier to just own it, afterall it's what we choose to do.  It's actually a nice time when Dave gets to unwind from his work day, we can chat about how our days were, and maybe most importantly compete with eachother watching Jeopardy.  Hopefully someday we'll enjoy dinner around the table with our family, but now we enjoy this as well. 

I didn't want to miss an opportunity to get our greens in though so we had these beautiful green smoothies before our oats. 



Maggie was caught one day living it up on the table, what a rule breaker!, on fresh laundry no less ;)



and Marley was caught just looking cute.  Oh man I love this face!



haha, and caught mid-yawn.  ROAR.



Marley says don't forget to set your clocks back if you're in an area that does, he loves to get an extra hour of sleep.

new commenting system...

Just a test post to see how the Intense Debate commenting system is working, or should I say if I installed it correctly ;) 

happy in small ways

Good Morning all!  It's starting to feel a bit like winter here.  We've been having nice sunshiney days, but our leaves are pretty much all fallen since it's been so windy.  Hope everyone has had a great recovery week from the Halloween festivities =)  I've been reading updates on Facebook about things folks are grateful for in November.  Something that I'm definitely grateful for are the wonderful farmers and vendors braving the cold at the FM yet and their lovely goods.  Here's our week's loot of greens getting washed up:

lots of curly kale, red romaine, and butter lettuces



I didn't take any pics this week, but we got some delicious and beautiful purple broccoli, Russian kale(one of my favorites), curly kale, bibb lettuce, garlic, kabocha squash, red peppers, and this raw bread that I'm in love with.



It's made my the monks of the Detroit Zen Center, it's SO good and has lots of onion and olive flavor! 



I'm hoping to order our dehydrator later today!  Very exciting, we'll see if I can make raw bread that I like this much =)  I think I've decided on the Excalibur with the silicone sheets. I've been having such a hard time deciding on the plastic (more affordable) vs. stainless steel.  I try to not have plastic around when I have the option not to, it has taken me a long long time, and honestly I'm still a bit undecided...I've emailed Excalibur again today to hopefully learn more about the plastics used.  Does anyone have thoughts on this (I know I've asked before, but I'm still having questions) and know if the low temps affect the plastic?  I do like that Excalibur has silicone sheets now.  What trays do you all use?  I'm kind of unsure of what I'd need.

We've also been enjoying this kimchi from the Brinery, a local fermenter.  He makes a vegan kimchi (sans fish sauce) that I picked out among many other options like sauerkraut, pickled carrots, and beets.  I bet the beets are fabulous, may have to try them next ;)



it's really tasty added on a salad with a good amount of spice.  He uses local organic vegetables too. 



As I was reading HEAB I was intrigued by a recipe for a grain free pumpkin spice bead from a Spoonful of Sugar.  I wanted to try it, so I subbed two medium sized bananas for the eggs.  (I don't usually buy non organic AB, but I had picked this up while travelling. It's pretty much gone now.  We go through nut butters fairly quickly ;)



all mixed up, no grain flour, no sugar, no gluten, and vegan =)



and after baking



mine really didn't drop much at all!  It was nice and dense and yummy.



I've been on such a nutB&J craving that I smeared some on top of this bread, sunflower seed butter and strawberry jelly



and I've been enjoying this interesting snack too:  brown rice wrap, banana, raw almond butter, and jelly
(in Massachusetts, Trader Joe's had their own brown rice wraps too, does your TJ have them?)



in other decidedly more healthy food ;)  a wonderful lunch of guac, raw cheddar cheese dip, tomatoes and carrots from the garden, celery, local red pepper, and the monk's raw bread. 



Have a fabulous day!  Mom and I are heading to Anthropologie for some returns that will allow me to get a dehydrator =)  yea!

I've been thinking about this quote the last couple of days:

'In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.'  ~Edith Wharton

Salem, Mass!

I took a trip with a great girlfriend to Salem a couple of weeks ago.  We really had a desire to be in Salem in October, the festiveness of town did not disappoint.  I have lots of pictures to share, hope that's alright!
This girl is a super cool living statue, she made this sound at the tourists that was unreal, although we tried to replicate it we just couldn't quite get it ;)  Her site is here, what an interesting lifestyle!  Having lived in Vegas and been to a few cities in Europe I have seen a few of these statues, her 10 foot tall witch has been my favorite, she's a great artist, the costume alone was amazing. 



So here we are, the Salem seeking travelers, in her harbor, enjoying the ocean.  Man do I love the Atlantic.



The Friendship replica in Salem harbor.



The Joseph Story house, which has been LEED renovated!



other fun pictures from around town:









witch crossing =)





love this!



one of my favorite authors is a Salem native, it was so fun to see her books around town everywhere.  We were visiting a week early to attend a reading and book signing.  Maybe we'll catch up with her someday...



We visited The House of the Seven Gables where I picked up the book as my souvenir.



Nathaniel Hawthorne's birth house is now on the same property and we were able to tour that as well, isn't it beautiful?



I enjoyed this snack while we waited for the tour to start sitting on the lawn of the House of the 7 Gables looking out into the harbor.  I packed our local antique apples and nut butter packs that I picked up from Kroger quickly before we left town.  I was so busy leading up to the trip that I didn't have time to prepare food, so apples, bananas, Odwalla and Go Raw bars, kombucha, Justin nut butters, and water it was!



This along with a banana is what I ate for a meal while waiting in line at the Salem Witch Museum.  This is my favorite road snack lately, so good! 



We also visited the Witch House where one of the trial judges lived.





The beautiful front door



I found the New England Soup Factory of Salem on HappyCow.  They had great veg items, I was craving greens of course and ordered the garden salad with balsamic vin.  What a great salad, sometimes it is honestly really hard to find a great fresh green salad, this was not the case in Salem at all, I loved it!



This super delicious salad was dinner one night from Cafe Kushco.  I would go back here in a heartbeat, the food was fresh, the staff was genuinely nice and helpful.  Check out my salad, I ordered the spinach salad sans cheese and capers (I'm not always a fan) and added avocado.  I know many of you will relate to when you add avocado and are disappointed by the two or three little cubes you get, if they only knew I'd really like to eat an entire fruit ;)  haha!  There was no reason to be disappointed here! (my orange calcite is in the top left corner =)



Our other meal was from Coven, yes we checked it out due to the name =)  Here's the inside, it was cute with lots tons of items to look at on the walls.  We had no choice but to reminisce about childhood memories, I mean there was a popple on the bookshelf!  I had to play with it =) 



I found another green salad that was perfect for lunch with a delicious vegan balsamic dressing.



Our last night in town we were in need of food for the 13+ hour car ride home so we headed to Trader Joe's in a neighboring town since the local health food store was closed on Sundays.  I bought bananas, fruit leather, and Larabars for the ride.  For my dinner I picked up brown rice wraps, spinach, and guacamole (this has to be the same guac that Costco sells, anyone else notice this??).  They ended up being a delicious dinner, I ate three ;) 

Other awesome sightings around town involved a solar powered trash compactor for landfill waste (they also have plenty of street recycling). 





lots of shops with occult, wiccan, pagan supplies, and readings



The other part of my souvenir was healing crystals/stones from Pyramid Books.  I chose orange calcite, blue calcite, and a rose quartz.  I love them!  I didn't take a photo...

I've been fortunate to have travelled to New England quite a few times before, the beauty of the homes and quaintness of the towns still amazes me. 



We walked down Chestnut Street and admired the sweet homes where we even happened onto a personal tour of one being renovated where I fell in love with the kitchen.  It had a fireplace, a wall of built-ins, an island and a big window for growing herbs, swoon.







Another highlight for me was visiting the Old Burying Point.  I like to visit places that have a deep connection with the past.  I make sure not to walk on any graves.  It was surprising that the public is able to walk thru this graveyard. 





Being the Brunonia Barry fans we are and well fans of water in general we visited Salem Willows.  The beach was covered in pretty blue shells.



and this will be the last in my photo story, this ocean feels like home to me. 



Hope you enjoyed my little trip to Salem, have you been? 
My friend wrote of the trip here as well and more importantly touched on the topic of the witch trials and their showing of intolerance and fear associated with ignorance.  Reminds me of a Brett Dennen lyric 'Darling do not fear what you don't really know'. 

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween eve!  There was a sheriff here handing out the treats to lots of adorable trick or treators =)