Random pictures while moving

It has been super rainy over here so yesterday I broke out of my rut and ordered a hot coffee! I normally never drink hot coffee, only iced. It's just too hot here to drink anything hot. I ordered my drink that I normally only order during Thanksgiving or Christmas time. I got a Venti Soy Toffee Nut Late.
I stopped by the health food store Down to Earth last night and picked this up. I am so bummed because I used to love buying the Synergy brand of kombucha, but I guess they had to take it off the shelves in Hawaii. The reason being that the amount of time it take the Synergy to get here, it is fermenting more and more therefore making the alcohol content higher and higher. So I am not positive, but I think that we will not get it again unless it is sold as alcohol. How sad huh? So I am trying this Vibranz brand today. It is ok. Pretty mild flavor and doesn't taste very fermented at all to me.
This was leftover Thai food that I ate for dinner with my Japanese rice since my rice cooker is already packed.

I just discovered these little gems and hello! Why did no one ever tell me about these before! Totally vegan chocolate bars with no hydrogenated oil!

I just wanted to share my favorite necklace with you guys. My husband bought it for me last Christmas and I thought I had lost it. You find all kinds of stuff while moving! It says his name in the middle Fudge and then my babies around his, Rahj, Panther, Sonic, Nano, Koko, and Noggin. This was before I had my guinea pigs :)

Just sitting on the beach looking at my Hawaii. I will miss the sand and ocean.
~Good night~

PS: What fast food restaurants have vegan options where you live? I need to know for when I get to Omaha.

A few pics of food and fam

Breakfast lunch and dinner of blueberry and chia smoothie, salad at Ruby Tuesdays, and veggies and quinoa for dinner.

My husband brought me to the spot we got married at for one last time before he left.

My nephews and I watching toy story :)

My husband just left on his flight today. I have three weeks left before I get to join him. I'll miss you baby!

Moving along

We are getting so much done in so little time, it's a mad house at our place! My biggest worry is of course my animals being shipped. I have called Continental Air quite every day since I booked their flight with a new question for them. What's this mean? Is this crate big enough? What will happen when they have a layover? And much more!

This is what I eat on the go. Because of the whole process of moving, I don't have much time to eat. I made this mix of raw almonds, dried cranberries, vegan chocolate chips, and raw brazil nuts.

This is Sonic's worried face.

Fast Watermelon Salad

1-2 cups chopped watermelon (seed taken out)

1 handful or less fresh mint -chopped

1 shot or more mandarin vodka

Mix and eat!

We have been trying to use up any gift certificates we have for Hawaii before we leave. We went to Cha Cha Cha Salsaria and I was very happy to see a vegan option on the menu. I got the Toady (non dairy). The Toady included

black beans, rice, blackened tofu, grilled veggies, lettuce, pico de gallo, & tomatillo salsa in a whole wheat tortilla.

In the process of moving

Hello everyone~ Sorry that I have been MIA lately. I am in the process of MOVING! My husband got offered a job in Omaha, Nebraska so that is where I will be off too on August 15. Crazy huh? I just wanted to write a quick post so that you all know I am alive! Above smoothie contains:

1 cup organic blueberries

1 cup organic spinach

1 cup soy milk

1/2 an avocado

1 tsp spirulina

2 Tbsp chia seeds

3 Tbsp RAW protein powder

2 dates

tiny bit of agave

Rahjah is tired out from moving...but Sonic is not!

Homemade Aloe Juice & Asparagus Soup

In my last post, I talked a little about aloe juice and then once I researched it some more, I decided to make my own! My parents have a humongous aloe plant in their yard, so they were more than happy to donate some aloe to me for my project. Aloe vera contains vitamins b1, b2, b6, C, niacinamide, choline, and 18 amino acids. I also heard that it has trace amounts of vitamin b12, but I am not certain of that.

First thing you need to do when picking your aloe is to pick the aloe leafs that are the biggest ones. The smaller ones aren't as old or as good. Once you have some big aloe leaves, wash them well and then cut each end off. Once the ends are cut, run your knife along the the sides of the aloe and take off that pocky side. Then slice the top off as close to the top as you can. The goal is to get as much of the clear inside of the aloe plant. That is the part you want. This is messy too guys, so just a heads up.

Once you have all the clear insides like I have in this bowl above, rinse them as well as possible. You want to get as much of the gooey sap off as possible. The yellow sap can be a diaretic or induce purging. Not pleasant. Even after you rinse the pulp as much as you can, they will still feel slimmy. What I do is fill the bowl with water and about 1/16 of a cup of white vinigar. For some reason, this works to get most of the rest of the sap off. Pour the water and vinigar out and then rinse all your pulp once more. This is a long process if you haven't noticed yet.

This was my finished result. I put my aloe pulp in the blender with the fruit of about 10-15 lychee and then poured it all into a mason jar. I drink 1-2 Tbsp mixed in with the fruit juice of your juice. Mango juice is ideal. Be sure to read up online about drinking aloe juice before you do anything. I have heard that you should not drink it if you are pregnant, nor should children drink it.

Next up...

Asparagus soup

1/2 a sweet onion, chopped

12 asparagus sticks, chopped

1/2 cup organic vegetable broth

Bring to boil and then simmer until asparagus is soft. Once soft, pour mixture into a food processor and pulse until smooth. In pan, melt together:

2-3 Tbsp Earth Balance butter

2-3 Tbsp organic white flour

Salt & Pepper to taste

Once this is melted together, add:

1/2 cup to 1 cup organic vegetable stock

your pulsed asparagus mixture

2-3 Tbsp nutritional yeast

1/2 to 1 cup lite soy milk

Taste test this to see if it needs anything else. This recipe can have many different kinds of additions so just have fun with it.

I baked some mochi for the topping on my soup.

This was my sad attempt at a nice picture. I added a dollup of Sour Supreme to make it a little creamier and my mochi squares. This was so tasty!

I love green

Hulk Green Smoothie

1 handful organic kale

1 handful organic spinach

1/2 an avocado

1-2 organic bananas

2 Tbsp chia seeds

2-3 Tbsp organic agave
1 Tbsp organic hemp seeds

Enough soy milk to incorporate

I forgot to add spirulina too, but that would be ideal!

For lunch I went over to the sushi place next to us called Ninja Sushi. I got the spring mix salad and vegetable tempura maki w/out shrimp. I don't know why there is shrimp in the vegetable maki in the first place, but whatever.

Look what I found! I am so excited about it! Little soy sauce/braggs bottles! It was $2 for this little bag. I've been looking for something like this forever!

Aloe juice is one of my favorites. I like this one because it is Aloe + Mangosteen + Mango juice. It has 50% vitamin C and 15% iron.
Sonic waiting for his bedtime snack.

Koko waiting for me to get in bed so she can lay on me.

Sorry that I haven't had a recipe post in a while. I will be posting one tomorrow hopefully. I made some good stuff and took pictures and it all got erased. So I will try again next time :)

Genki Sushi

Today's breakfast smoothie was:

1 cup organic kale

1 cup organic blueberries

1/2 an avocado

1/2 an organic banana

1 tsp spirulina

2 Tbsp chia seeds

1/2 tsp maca powder

Agave

I also had a bagel with tofutti cream cheese while watching my new show that I am into "True Blood". I'm only on session two so don't tell me what happens next!

I had some organic carrots, organic celery, hummus, and a pickle for a snack.

My husband and I went out for dinner at Genki Sushi. I got my usual of green bean tempura maki, eggplant maki, and avocado maki. I was mad at myself for forgetting to ask for the eggplant without fish flakes on top. I just had to pick everything off the top and put it on another plate. It was gross.

Aside from the fish flakes, I had a great meal. Love me some sushi!

Lunch box

Smoothie for breakfast. Today's smoothie included

1 cup organic blueberries

1 cup organic spinach

1 organic banana

1 tsp spirulina

2 Tbsp chia seeds

1 Tbsp organic agave

2 Tbsp shredded coconut

Apple juice, enough to incorporate

My loving note to my husband reminding him to drink his smoothie :)

I am making some organic alfalfa sprouts in my sprouter. Just a couple more days!

Lunch today is half an organic avocado, some fresh hummus, 1/4 an organic grapefruit, organic baby carrots, organic almonds, a Bubbies pickle, & two slices of Ezekiel bread. I brought some nutritional yeast on the side too of course.

Do you guys like my reusable zip lock from WasteNot Saks? Cute huh? They are a little small, I will have to buy the bigger ones next.

Luau options

Breakfast was some celery/kale/apple jucie. Mmmmm...green goodness.

Lunch was from Bale (a Vietnamese restaurant). A veggie sandwich w/out mayo. The veggie sandwiches here are so good! All it is is cucumber, cilantro, and pickled carrot and daikon. I love it! Depending on which one you go, sometimes they add more things like jalapenos.


Yummy bubble drink with Thai iced tea. I am pretty sure they have these everywhere but just in case they don't, bubble drinks are drinks with large tapioca balls in the bottom. I actually had bubble drinks at my wedding.

Yesterday, I had to go to a graduation luau. Unfortunately for me, there is not a whole lot available for vegans at these things. Everything I did have, I love though. My menu from the top left is haupia (coconut dessert), poi (taro root pounded out and fermented), bananas and strawberries (stole from the dessert table), suman (sweet rice wrapped in banana leaves), and kimchi. I felt a little bad for the girl sitting across from me. She was a vegetarian, but a picky one. She only ate rice. She didn't want anything I had on my plate! Her lose!

Taxes

Guess what guys and gals? Our state refund came in! You know what that means? Groceries! Thank you Lord! God is good all the time! So, I got to go on a Wholefoods run.

Dinner was the salad bar at Wholefoods. I had a samosa, mango chutney, lemon rice, and a yummy salad. Then, I my husband got me some guava gilato and mango gilato.

I got organic kale (four bundles), organic apples (a bag), five organic avocados, two organic zucchini, an green bell pepper, an organic grapefruit, a bunch of organic celery, spinach seeds, and alfalfa sprouts.

I also got some vegan chocolate chips, a sheet of mochi, organic coconut oil, Bubbies pickles, mushrooms, dried kidney beans, and garbanzo beans.

Panther is pouting because it's raining outside and he can't go out.