I have a couple new items up in my Etsy shop if you'd like to check them out.
If you do thanks for stopping by my store and also if you're not familiar with Etsy take a look around and do some searches if you're looking to buy something in particular. It's really a super marketplace for all kinds of handmade items by crafty inspiring folks!
So VegFest totally rocked this year! It did last year as well, it helped that I didn't get lost this time on the way so I was able to be there for the full event =) I've read that it was the best turn out so far and I really believe it, it was bustling. You get to draw for a door prize when you enter and this year I won something, yea!
These crackers have me rethinking the decision to buy a dehydrator...
I was able to see Rory Freedman before her talk. She was very sweet and kind and indulged me by signing my book and taking a photo with me =) I of course thanked her for coming to Michigan to see us all.
I told you she was sweet ;)
One of the highlights for me was to see Andrea McNinch do her raw taco food demo and speak at the end of the day. It's a goal of mine to attend her classes. I didn't get to stick around to sample the tacos because I wanted to catch some of Rory's talk, but I'm sure they were rawkin'!
here's Andrea
and Rory. Her talk was really great and cute and brought me to tears a couple of times.
-Isn’t man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife by the millions in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billions and eats them. This is turn kills man by the millions, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative- and fatal- health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals. Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and violently, and once a year sends out cards praying for “Peace on Earth.”
Raw Pasta Marinara food demo by Michael Dwyer. This pasta was fab! We eat zucchini pasta here, but I have yet to make raw marinara, I will be making this. It was the recipe from Alissa Cohen's Living on Live Food
I also sampled the best kale quinoa salad from The Detroit Zen Center. I was too late to get some kale to go when I left the festival, but after talking with one of the gentleman I'm looking forward to eat at their cafe.
here's some of the edible goodies that were in our gift bags, pretty geeked to try that kelp bar.
on my way home from Ferndale I stopped into the airport to pick up my parents from their AZ trip. It was my Dad's BD, we took them to Sidetrack for dinner and a catch up after they've been out of town. Here's my beautiful parents.
and us =) can you tell I was kinda ready for bed?
I have to sneak a green smoothie into this post so here's my bfast yesterday. I still had some coconut milk left so to that I added frozen banana and strawberries (that I had let thaw a bit ), almond butter, almond milk, dates, and lots of spinach. I don't know what is causing this desire for decadent smoothies, but it was soooooo good. I wonder if it may be seeing the cast of Brothers & Sisters drink dates shakes on the show this week, could be. Or that my Mom enjoyed one of my favorite shakes at one of my favorite places this week?, could be. D'lish's blueberry vanilla date shake is to live for! Does anyone watch B&S?, it's a guilty pleasure of mine, I totally love it =)
Here's the link to VegMichigan if you're curious about the group or becoming a member.
I didn't hear John Salley's talk this year, but did get to see him afterwards. He looks wonderful and I love that he continues to come back to MI as well. It was also really fun and inspiring to see young kiddos rockin their homemade veg tshirts.
I bought a cookbook, I'd been doing so well (this was a budget buster for me) I ordered it after looking at the menu of Angelica Kitchen. I read about this restaurant on Choosing Raw. I was wanting to eat many of the menu items, especially the dragon bowls, kraut, pickled veggies, fresh slaws and salads. Flipping through I see many recipes I'm excited to try.
Dinner Friday night was Creamy Mushroom Soba from the July/August 05 issue of Natural Health. The combination of dark miso (we used the 3 year barley from South River Miso) and coconut milk with scallions and mushrooms was awesome! I've eaten it cold leftover since. Next time I'd like to use different veggies for the top like snap peas, peppers, and leeks maybe.
I tried a soba made with wild yam and buckwheat. After taking this photo I realized why I had always passed it up before, it's not organic, woops.
We had coconut milk leftover from this recipe.
so the next morning we created some strawberry banana smoothie pancakes. I used the Banana Pancakes recipe from GIR, however we had maybe 1/8 c of wheat flour in the house. I combined it with brown rice and coconut flour, added an extra banana and some ground flax seeds since brown rice doesn't have the gluten that wheat does to hold together. They ended up being a test of patience to flip...so Dave took over the cooking of them and we enjoyed these beauties drizzled with coconut milk, fresh strawberries, and maple syrup, yum!
more coconut milk is this smoothie was delicious. Banana, strawberries, coco milk, almond butter, almond milk, and dates. Decadent and creamy=) I made this for bfast before heading to VegFest yesterday.
Over the weekend we stopped into the co-op for soup to share for lunch while we were out enjoying our Saturday together. We shared a bowl of vegan millet chili, got samples of Coconut Bliss ice cream (&coupons=) They have so many flavors I didn't know about! It was our co-op's 35 birthday. When we got home we added our spoons that are biocompostable to our compost bowl, pretty cool.
For some reason lately I've been wanting coffee. I kicked the caffiene habit almost 3 years ago. Occassionally I will get decaf soy lattes, but this week I decided on something from home, teeccino. It's a yummy herbal coffee that is alkalizing to the body. Teeccino is made from carob, barley, dates, chicory almonds, and figs. It is a warm coffee like beverage, but it does not taste like it to me and I cannot try as I may drink it black, where I can savor a cup of black coffee. I use a decent amount of almond milk (still not making it homemade here...Mom and Dad checked on nut milk bags for me when they were AZ this past week, but they were out, guess I'll just have to online order them) and agave. I think our next agave will be this, there is some info on agave useage here on their site. We do use it in moderation in some recipes here, I'm a little unclear of the health benefits/unbenefits, but it's a sweetener like any other not a food staple. A Bitt of Raw has a great post on raw sweeteners here. So anyway, here's teeccino.
Mom and I were shopping in an antique store in Dixboro and I found these glorious jars (I have a little bit of an infatuation with glass;) They're going to be cute food storers for us.
the both had glass sealing tops, I didn't even know there was such a lid.
Maggie gives my new hot water bottle cozy two paws up. Yes, she's on the table and no it's not allowed...;);)
Good Morning!
I'm pretty excited about this, a cozy for my beloved hot water bottle. It's not quite finished and it's all wonky colored, but I love it. I made this first one for myself using up remnant yarn balls, I will be making more for my Etsy store. How many of you use hot water bottles? I've had this one for about 6 months (thanks Mom and Dad=) it's a seriously awesome comfort for menstrual cramps.
Breakfast this morning was overnight soaked chia and oats, recipe here on Oh She Glows. I used vanilla powder instead of the extract, I am not always finding the alcohol in extract tasty lately.
Breakfast yesterday was chia gel, vanilla powder, lots of fresh strawberries and almond butter, d'lish!!!
Our sauerkraut was a success and tasted yummy. Very tangy and crunchy. I would like to season with celery seed and dill next batch, that sounds great. Here's a video I watched yesterday from The Renegade Health Show. The use of starter culture is interesting, they say it is a more controlled way of getting the real good bacterias and crowding out any bad that may be there.
Michael Franti is on the radio right now! love, love , love
Yesterday I was out and about during lunch, I like to plan and pack a lunch with me. I took a salad and my almond balls and water in our much loved Klean Kanteen.
When I pack lunch salads I like to place the dressing on the bottom and then stir when I eat to keep it all fresh and crunchy, although I am not against eating a wilty salad. Maybe you all do this, but it honestly never occurred to me until we were served salad this way on cold plates at the Macaroni Grill I believe. I thought it was pretty genious ;)
Here's my fork packed all clean in it's Plum Creek bag and linen napkin.
I'm often scrounging around for small clean containers here (seems like between Dave's lunch and prepped food they're always preoccupied) I often overlook the handiness of a ball jar and lid. Here's my dessert treat
I made the dessert balls earlier this week and we've been enjoying this yummy treat all week. Here's my ingredients.
1/2 c raw almond butter
2 T of coconut flour (3 T may be better next time)
1 scant T of agave
vanilla powder
goji berries
2 t chia seeds
vegan choco chips
and the balls after firming up in the freezer, store in the refrigerator.
other treats here have been this Larabar, it was pretty good.
and this slice of indulgence
I can't believe I ate this whole slice last night...I think I've satiated my sweet tooth for a while now ;) Please note this is in no way health food I am aware.
ok, now Citizen Cope is on the radio! What is going on? I may have to start listening again...2 or 3 years ago I was diligently annoyingly calling and emailing 107.1 asking them to play Cope, happy to hear him on the airwaves! I'm also happy that we'll be seeing him next week again =) I do love this radio station, but had to take a break, there were too many w*l m*rt commercials on there for me.
alright, back to some food. Last night's dinner was awesome as it knew it would be coming from Get It Ripe. We had the Pesto White Bean Bowl. I used the recipe for pesto from Vegan With a Vengeance going light on the salt.
layers of quinoa, bok choy and pestoed beans
I'm not good yet about using dried beans (I've only done it once), here's the brand that we like to support. Eden is a local company to us, they don't line their cans with BPA ( I believe they never did), and the beans are cooked with kombu seaweed for extra nutrients and to improve digestibility of the beans.
Other eats here have been of course green smoothies
whole trade pineapples from WF
big green salads
The absolute simplest and tasty Portobello Soup from Get It Ripe with leftover raw cheddar cheese on Ezekiel bread.
