Being broke

I have been pretty broke lately. My husband is unemployed and just does side jobs here and there. So don't mind if my next few posts aren't super exciting food wise, since I will be working with whatever I have in the house.

Breakfast today, sorry for the crappy picture. This is my version of muesli:

1 cup organic oats (soaked the night before in water, not necessary)

1/2 cup coconut milk

and the rest to taste

Goji berries

Cacao nibs

Chia seeds

Hemp protein powder

Organic almonds

Coconut shavings

Sweetener of your choice

My husband works at an acupuncture office part time to help with computer work. He got this for me from the office. How cute huh?

I wanted cookies yesterday, so I looked through my cupboards and I had just enough vegan chocolate chips to make one of my favorite cookies. These are chocolate chai cookies. So so yummy! The recipe is in an older post on my blog HERE. My friend stopped by and I told her, guess what? I made THE cookies! She screamed, YES!!! I gave her a baggie full, and she ate about four just standing in the parking lot. If you love the taste of chai tea, you will adore these.

Nano hates the vet

This was breakfast yesterday and today. Yesterday I had organic peanut butter and organic banana slices on Ezekiel bread. Today I had a smoothie packed with tons of nutrition hence the grey color. I added the following ingredients:

1 cup organic blueberries

2 handfuls organic spinach

1/2 an organic banana

1 scoop raw protein powder

1 scoop chia seeds

2 Tbsp cocoa nibs

1 tsp spirulina

Coconut milk, enough to blend

This was my poor Nano at his vet appointment today. He crawled behind me and smashed his face into the corner. He's had scabby bumps on his head, and I had to find out why. I think it is because him and my youngest cat like to rough house and his head got infected from getting scratched too many times. He had to get a shot for his skin irritation so he wasn't thrilled.

Now he's back and happy to be home.

My husband bought a ton of walnuts at Costco so I have just been using them for anything I can. I made some fresh walnut butter.

Dinner was black bean burgers. Basically the same concept as the garbanzo bean burgers, but with black beans. I ate them with a big spinach salad and some fresh peanut salad dressing and guacamole.

Review: Tofutti

The nice people at Toffuti sent me a few coupons to try out some of their products. I settled on Tofutti's Better Than Cream Cheese-Plain, Better Than Sour Cream-Plain, and Chocolate Tofutti Cuties. Tofutti makes a good variety of dairy-free products for us vegans.

I will start with the Chocolate Tofutti Cuties. First off, Tofutti Cuties have been around longer than any other frozen nondairy ice cream sandwich out there. It comes in the following flavors: vanilla, totally vanilla, cookies and cream, strawberry wave, chocolate, peanut butter, mint chocolate chip, coffee break, wild berry, & key lime. The small health food store near me only carries the flavor of chocolate, so chocolate it is! These little ice cream sandwiches are just what the doctor calls for when you are craving something chocolaty and sweet. They are nice and creamy too! None of the ingredients are organic, but they are vegan! These are nice to just have in the house in case you have a chocolate emergency, which I seem to have often. If you are a chocoholic like me, these are a must in your freezer.

Check out that creamy, chocolaty goodness!

Now let me talk about Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese and Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream. When I became vegan, cheese was my biggest downfall. I could easily go without any meat, milk or butter, but I always loved my cheese! When you taste Tofutti's cream cheese, you will never miss your old cream cheese again! This stuff is amazing! It has exactly the same texture and consistency as regular cream cheese. I LOVE it! The store near my home only carries the plain variety, but that is fine by me. It also comes in flavors that range from garden veggie to french onion to garlic and herb. If you used to love cream cheese, look no further. This is no only comparable, it is better! Their sour cream is the same! It is creamy and light just like dairy sour cream. I like to use it for vegan stroganoff.

These two are must haves in my home, just in case I need to make some crackers with sun dried tomatoes and cream cheese or tacos or bagels & cream cheese or enchiladas. The list could go on and on.

Please note, Tofutti donated these coupons to me. I was not paid for this review. Click HERE for a tasty jalapeno popper recipe using Tofutti's Better Than Cream Cheese.

Monday and I am off!

Breakfast of tofu scramble and cream of buckwheat. I wanted to make a nutritious breakfast. This one has lots of protein, iron, and vitamin C.

Before...

After!

Bibingka

(Coconut rice desert)

3 cups sweet rice

1/2 can coconut milk

1 cup raw sugar with 2 Tbsp organic molasses combined (this is how you make brown sugar. You can also add 1 cup brown sugar instead if you do not want to make it)

1 tsp vanilla (optional)

Preheat over to 350. Cook sweet rice in rice cooker. In a saucepan, combine coconut milk and half of the brown sugar mixture. Cook on medium until thickened, about 20 minutes. Stir constantly or it will burn. Put cooked rice into a bowl. Reserving 1/2 cup of the coconut milk mixture, stir remainder and remaining brown sugar evenly into the hot rice. Pour into baking pan. Top with the reserved 1/2 cup coconut milk mixture. Bake for 20 minutes, then broil for five minutes to set topping. Cut and serve!

Dinner was a Tofurkey dog with some of my kimchi and avocado, lots of mustard and ketchup.

4th of July & Kimchi

Happy 4th of July all my blogger friends! First I would like to show you a few pictures of Sonic, Nano and Panther.

In case you can't tell, someone is scared of fireworks.

So I will be hanging with him...

...all night.

These guys on the other hand could care less.

I started off the day with some zucchini and apple juice in my juicer. I like zucchini/apple juice better than cucumber/apple. It always makes me feel good to juice in the morning first thing. It's an awesome way to start off your day with some fresh fruits and veggies.

This was my lunch at the Thai restaurant in the food court. I had long rice and mild mixed vegetables with a veggie roll.

Tonight I decided to make kimchi, since I am going to be hanging out here all night. My boy Sonic is scared to death of fire works. He is a big baby. He is an outdoor dog, but one day out of the year, he pretty much becomes an indoor dog. I am just hoping that the fireworks aren't too crazy tonight. The less the better. Here are most of the ingredients for kimchi along with two cans of my favorite tea.

Cabbage Kimchi

1 chinese cabbage

Sea salt

1/4 cup mochiko (sweet rice flour)

1 1/2 cups of water

1/2 cup red pepper powder, more to taste

1/2 cup garlic, food processed

1 in knob of ginger

1/2 cup green onions

Rinse the chinese cabbage well and then shake off as much access water as possible. Put sea salt on each layer of cabbage and outside of cabbage. Set aside and let it sit for 1 to 2 hours.

It will start to wilt.

While the cabbage is sitting, cook mochiko and water on stove until bubbling. Pour in large bowl. Add remaining ingredients. Add more ingredients to taste. Spread the kimichi paste onto each leaf of cabbage. Place in mason jars. Set aside at room temperature for 1 hour to 2 days to ferment. It all depends on your taste and how fermented you want it to be.

This was my dinner of a leftover garbanzo bean burger with veganese and avocado. Oh, and a little fresh dill of course.

This was suppose to be a pie, but didn't turn out well. Now, it is a parfait. Happy 4th!

Sunday AND Monday off? Happy 4th of July to me!

Breakfast! I soaked these goji overnight in some water.

I forgot that I had this juice in the fridge. Perfecto! I picked the plump gojis out and dropped them in some juice.

Ok, maybe I am late on this one but for all those of you that don't know, Starbucks makes soy strawberries & cream now!!!!! It is so yummy too! I asked the lady at the register, "Are you suuuuure there is NO dairy in this? And she said, "No, only soy." Yippy Hurray!

I know this is not a huge deal to everyone else, but I just had to share it. My broccoli is finally sprouting a tiny little flower with broccoli on it!

My Thai basil is doing amazingly well. This rain has really helped all my plants these last few days.

My squash has buds on it too now!

My yummy lunch of avocado, veganese, nutritional yeast and fresh dill. My absolute favorite sandwich!

Here was my dinner of pasta and a mojito...or two.

Basil Coconut Tofu

3/4 can coconut milk

Large handful of Thai sweet basil, chopped

1/2 block of tofu, chopped

2 Tbsp Earth Balance butter

3 garlic cloves, chopped

2 Tbsp green onion, chopped

Zest of one lemon

Pohnpei pepper (regular is fine)

Sea salt

Handful of crimini mushrooms, chopped

Saute garlic and mushrooms. Add remaining ingredients and cook on medium for about 5 minutes until warm and flavorful. Eat with cooked pasta or cooked rice.

And this my friends is why everyone needs to spay and neuter their dogs, cats and rabbits.

We get animals like this every day here. Two kittens were found as strays outside someones home. We rescued two and one did not make it. This girl was COVERED in fleas and mites, filthy, horrible conjunctivitis in her eyes, upper respiratory infection, and literally skin and bones. This picture was actually after she got a bath.

This is her now! She is doing so much better, thriving! Her name is Keaka which basically

means "survivor" in Hawaiian. Please pray she finds a loving forever home.

Garbanzo Bean Burgers

I set my smoothie down as I was leaving, and Panther showed up at the window. He didn't want me to leave :'( This is a smoothie I made about twice a week, because it's not my favorite. I drink it for the nutrition, not the taste. I mean, it's not horrible, but I don't like raw hemp seeds.

1 cup organic blueberries

1/2 cup almond milk

1 apple banana

1/2 scoop raw protein powder

1 scoop chia

1 Tbsp hemp seeds

2 dates

I try to take both of these everyday, but seem to forget often.

My lunch from Phuket Thai, spring rolls with lettuce, cucumber and mint.

This recipe is good to make when you don't have much else in the cupboard or fridge. Oh, and it is so yummy!

Garbonzo bean burgers:

Olive oil, enough to saute

1/2 cup purple onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon celery seed

1 teaspoon parsely, fresh is best but dried is fine

sea salt, just a little

1/2 cup walnuts, other nuts if you have to substitute

1 can organic garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

3 Tbsp flour

1 Tbsp arrowroot

Saute the onions, garlic, cumin, celery seed, and salt over medium heat until the onions are cooked well. Food process the nuts until they are a coarse meal. Put garbanzo beans in the processor and process the same way as the nuts. Mix together all ingredients in a bowl. Form the mixture into four burgers. Fry them on a frying pan until lightly brown. Then follow my recipe below to make the burger sauce.

Tahini Dill Veganese

3-4 Tbsp Veganese

1 Tbsp tahini

1 Tbsp fresh dill, less if you're not into dill

1 clove garlic, miced

Mix all ingredients together well and serve on your garbanzo burgers.