Tea & Chocolate

Sun tea! I just used a regular Lipton tea bag with some fresh peppermint leaves and brewed it outside in the sun.

Fresh kale & apple juice with half a scoop of chia.

Spinach Pasta

Blend together all the following ingredients:

2 handfuls of spinach

3 garlic cloves

zest of one lemon

half a can of coconut milk

nutmeg

sea salt

thai sweet basil (just a little)

pohnpei pepper (regular is fine)

nutritional yeast (to taste)

Boil pasta until cooked .

Saute 1/2 mushrooms in olive oil, then add all above ingredients until warm. Eat!

I'm kind of PMSing right now, so I am eating chocolate like it's no ones business! I made some awesome hot chocolate, because the ice cream sandwich wasn't enough. This is only enough for one serving, so double if it's for two.

Coconut Hot Chocolate

1/2 can coconut milk

2 Tbsp cocoa powder

2 Tbsp agave

1 Tbsp raw sugar

(less sugar or agave if you want less)

Nutmeg

Cinnamon

1 vanilla bean

cocoa nibs (added last)

Boil it all together and drink! Using coconut milk to make hot chocolate is amazing. If you have not tried it, you really need to.

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

For breakfast, I had some rose tea with some "sausage" patties and daiya chedder.

I've been craving chocolate milk, so on my lunch break I ran to the store to get some chocolate silk. Mmmm...

Can you guys tell I love avocado yet? I had an everything bagel with avocado and nutritional yeast. My coworker was thoroughly weirded out by the nutritional yeast.

I think I finally have mojitos down. I have made my share of bad ones too, let me tell you. Here is the recipe for what I did.

Basic Mojito Recipe

15 mint leaves
1/2 ouce fresh lime juice (or bottled is fine)
1/2 ounce mint syrup
2 ounce rum (light rum is best)
1 ounce club soda
Ice

Muddle leaves with lime juice and mint syrup. Add ice & rum. Shake well. Top with club soda & mint sprig. Every time I make this recipe it uses up all my spearmint in my garden!

Mint Syrup Recipe

1/2 cup heated simple syrup (simple syrup is just 1 part sugar to 1 part water melted together)
1 cup mint leaves, chopped

Pour both into glass and refigerate overnight. Lasts up to a week.

Yesterday was my friend Roper's birthday. Luckily for me, I was in charge of putting together the kabobs. I was happy because I got to make my own with mushrooms, red, green, and yellow bell pepper, onions, and cherry tomatoes. Normally when I go to these BBQ's I have nothing to eat, so I totally lucked out this time! I was prepared though. I brought my own mushrooms, bell pepper, and daiya cheese just in case.

This is his precious dog Maggie.

And one of my precious guinea pigs, Pancake.

Review: Amy's Pizza

About a week ago, the wonderful people at Amy's sent me a few coupons to try out some of their products. Ever since I became a vegan, I was really bummed and felt like I was never going to get to have pizza again. Until now that is! Amy's makes a large variety of vegan products like pizzas, burgers, pot pies, enchiladas, soups, and more!

All Amy's products are vegetarian. They also offer various tree nut free, gluten free, diary free, and soy free products. I chose the Soy Cheeze Pizza made with organic tomatoes & flour. This pizza is lactose free and non GMO. It was amazing! It tastes like restaurant quality. It doesn't have veggies, so you can add whatever you want for toppings or just eat it plain. I ate it just as it was made and loved it. I am not normally a fan of soy based cheeses, but this was so good! Amy's pizza is my new favorite pizza!

I ate the whole pizza on my own! This pizza goes great with a bottle or two of beer. I put hot sauce on mine, because I like spicy. If you have not tried Amy's products yet, then you need to get on it! They use quality ingredients and try to use organic as much as possible, which is very important to me. I found this on their site, "We have earned a reputation in the farming community as the company with the most rigid standards for quality and consistency. This is as it should be. Just imagine if you were planning a special meal for your closest friends. Wouldn’t you take the time to select the best of everything? Bright green broccoli, perfect potatoes, sweet tomatoes and tangy onions? Sure you would, and because we think of every customer as a guest in our home, you deserve the very best that nature provides."

That makes me very happy to hear!

Please note, Amy's donated these coupons to me. I was not paid for this review. Subscribe to their newsletter to be up to date on their newest products HERE.

Random Things I Ate Recently

My husband bought me a huge bag of carrots from Costco. I used a few and then kind of forgot about them. I took the bag out today because they were starting to go bad. I didn't want to waste them, so I ended up juicing almost a whole bag of carrots. I think it was around 5 lb of carrots. So this morning I had carrot juice instead of my normal kale/apple blend. It was funny because my husband said, where's the apple juice this morning? Sorry babe, but there's just carrot juice today. For my carrot juice, I like to add a few spices to change it up a little.

My Carrot Juice

2 cups fresh organic carrot juice

dash of ground cinnamon

dash of ground cardamom (be careful with this spice, it's strong)

dash of grated nutmeg

less than 1/8 tsp ground cloves

Ice

Pour all into glass and drink! I was thinking about the flavor of this juice with the added spices, and it kind of resembles carrot cake! So, I am thinking that if you were to add a creamy milk to it like hemp or hazelnut, it would be like carrot cake! It's just a thought.

I love antique stores, so last time I went to Nebraska I stopped in quite a few. I bought this old wooden bread box with this cute warming tile inside for $1 I think. I love it!

Sun-dried Tomato Focaccia

3 cups unbleached white flour

2 tsp yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 tsp agave

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

1 Tbsp fresh rosemary

1 Tbsp fresh oregano

pinch of black pepper

1 to 2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup sundried tomatoes

I threw all this in the breadmaker and put it on the dough setting. That look about an hour and a half. Then, I put it on the bake setting, because I had to go to breakfast with someone. Normally, I put the mixture in the oven to make the dough, because I like how it turns out better.

And...

...Junk food!

I had "sausage" patties with Daiya cheese for breakfast yesterday. Today's lunch was a fresco bean burrito and a 7 layor burrito minus the sour cream and cheese with a side of guacamole.

Lychee Cupcakes

Before I start with this recipe, I would just like to say something. I think that it is so funny how there are some blogs out there that I have commented on multiple times and asked questions, and never got a response. Some how, they found time to answer EVERYONE elses comments...except mine. It's funny to me how people get all these followers and then all the sudden think they are celebrities or something, and they are now too good for small time bloggers like me. YOU WRITE A FREAKING BLOG! Get over yourself! And, you know what else? We all have this common interest for the most part of being vegan, vegetarian, or health conscious. So I would think that you would want to help out fellow vegans or vegetarians with their journey. It's a good thing that I didn't rely on other people as a support system or I would have quit a long time ago! Ok, I am done.

Moving on...so as you guys know, my friend gave me a bunch of lychee the other day. I have been trying to figure out what to do with them. So here is my experimental cupcakes.

Lychee Cupcakes

2 cups flour (white or coconut works)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/3 cup raw sugar

pinch of salt

1/3 cup coconut oil

4 Tbsp chia seeds soaked in 6 Tbsp water

1/4 cup Kai lychee vodka

3/4 cup coconut milk

1 1/2 cups fresh lychee, chopped

2 tsp vanilla

Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredient separately. Mix everything together. Bakeat 350 for 25 minutes.

Frosting:

2 cups powdered sugar

2 Tbsp coconut butter

1/4 cup coconut milk

Put the frosting on once the cupcakes are cool.

This was right out the oven bare...

...and this is with frosting. The frosting was pretty runny, but I am way more about taste than presentation. These were so tasty! They came out really dense and heavy, definitely not your light and fluffy cupcake. They were packed with flavor though! If you like lychee, you'll LOVE these!

Half day at work

This was my breakfast at work with a little coffee. My friend sent me this pumpkin butter from the Missouri farmers market near her house. She sent it to me in my "hippy pack" :) ! It was soooo good! It tastes like pumpkin pie!

I made some nachos with pita chips, Daiya cheese, avocado, tomato, onion, and garlic.

I had a sandwich with hummus, pimentos, pepper, and avocado on sprouted bread. Yum! Oh, and the beer is a new one I am into called LandShark. It's a light beer and goes good with an orange slice if you have one.

sunshine and rain makes my plants happy

I try to juice daily, but some days I can't find the time. If I want to juice I have to remember to wake up early enough before work to give myself time to wash the veggies, juice, and then clean the juicer. I love kale/apple juice. It's one of my favorite combos. I also like to make this one because my husband will drink it and enjoys it. Bonus!

I am so proud of my mini garden. I live in a small townhouse so space is limited. Here I have thyme, dill, Thai sweet basil (still small), chamomile (still small), and catnip. I cannot tell you how much my cats love fresh catnip. It makes a huge difference to give them freshly dried catnip as apposed to store bought catnip that has been sitting there for months.

My spearmint and peppermint always do awesome when it rains. They crave water and like the shade under my air conditioner. I am trying to grow my toothache plant in the black pot there. It has sprouted, but it won't get any bigger. I don't know what to do to help it out.

I think I may have solved the problem of the birds eating my Purple Cauliflower. Chicken wire! Who knew that birds would like such a thing? Every time the sprouts start to get big they get chomped by the birds. Maybe it is the purple stems that attracts them, I don't know. My Bennings Green Tint Scallop Squash is growing higher and higher. No sign of any squash yet. My Manoa Lettuce in the front always grows up fast when it rains too :)

Falafels & Hummus

My dinner last night was falafels with naan, spinach, falafel sauce, avocados, and hummus. I make falafels, not from scratch, probably once a week. It's so easy to make that's why. I either make them into little balls like you are suppose to or I make it into a falafel burger. My favorite part about the falafels is the sauce I make with them.

Falafel Sauce

1/2 cup veganese

2 garlic cloves, chopped fine

1/4 cucumber, chopped in cubes

1 Tbsp dill (I always puts lots of dill though)

pinch of pepper

Hummus

1 can organic garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

3 garlic cloves

3 Tbsp tahini

1/2 of one lemons juice

2 Tbsp olive oil (I used an italian olive oil with garlic and such added)

sea salt

1 tsp cumin

water, enough to incorporate

Two different smoothie combos I have had in the last two days are

Green Smoothie #1

Small handful organic spinach

1/4 an avocado

1 cup organic blueberries

2 Tbsp chia seeds

Apple juice, enough to blend

1/2 scoop RAW protein powder

Green Smoothie #2

1/2 an avocado

1 cup organic blueberries

1 cup coconut kefir

1 tsp maca powder

2 Tbsp chia seeds

Do you guys like my new bumper sticker? My friend and I just started exchanging "hippy packs" as we are calling them. We send each other random "tree hugger" things that we think the other would like in the mail. It's so fun! You should try it!

Pizza & Cookies

First off, the pesto.

1 bunch of Thai sweet basil

2 garlic cloves

1/2 cup soaked cashews

sea salt

1/4 an avocado

enough olive oil to process

Throw it all in the food processor until well incorporated.

I used some naan bread for the pizza crust and then covered it with pesto.

Some apple/kale juice while I'm cooking

My Pizza

2 naan

homemade pesto

handful of organic spinach

handful of crimini mushrooms

half a yellow bell pepper

half a tomato

1/4 an organic purple onion

mozzarella daiya cheese

cheddar daiya cheese

Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.

This pizza was AWESOME! I was so proud of myself. I had some organic chocolate stout with it and didn't really like it.

Next up, almond milk.

Almond milk is so easy.

Almond milk

3 cups purified water

1/2 cup raw almonds

1 Tbsp agave

pinch sea salt

Blend all ingredients on high for 2 minutes. I didn't have cheesecloth so I had to use my tea strainer to strain it after. Strain the milk through the tea strainer or cheesecloth into a clean glass. Drink! Check out the recipe for raw hemp milk HERE.

Lastly, vegan chocolate cookies.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup white flour

1/2 cup wheat flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup raw white sugar

3/4 cup vegan margarine

1/2 cup raw almond milk

1 tsp vanilla

salt

1 cup or more vegan chocolate chips

Mix wet ingredients. Mix dry ingredients separate. Mix them all together. Add chocolate chips last. Bake at 300 for 15-20 minutes.

I had a wonderful day, goodnight :)