A Veggie Kind of Weekend

Lately I have been feeling a little sluggish and tired so I have been trying to decrease my sugar and up my veggies, beans and grains. What follows is my trip on Friday to the grocery store. I usually get most of my veggies at the farmer's market, but since I had nothing to do on Friday night, I really wanted to pick some stuff up to make to eat over the weekend. It had been a long time since I had just gone crazy in the produce section of a grocery store and I really ended up going a bit crazy.

Green Leaf Lettuce
Red Chard
Red Grapes

Brussel Sprouts
Kale
Romain Lettuce
Broccoli
Celery
Mango

Bananas
Lemons
Kiwis
Garlic
Pears
Onions
Limes

I have made a couple of green smoothies over the last week. Kale, soy milk, protein powder, ground flax, banana, a date, some ice cubes and one time I used frozen blueberries. Really good.
I have been having oatmeal for breakfast a few days. I used to eat steel cut oats but this week I have been eating rolled oats because I can cook them quickly.

1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup oats. Cook for 1 minute. Add 1/3 cup oats and microwave for 30 seconds more. Separately microwave a banana until it gets all melty. Add that, a handful of chopped pecans, a pinch of salt, some frozen blueberries, some ground flax, a little protein powder and a tiny bit of maple syrup. This has been really a surprisingly delicious breakfast though I find that I am hungry a few hours later.

I used a small portion of this broccoli to throw together a salad I brought to a family get together yesterday. The salad took less than 10 minutes to throw together and was quite a hit. Unfortunately I do not have a picture but there are left overs so maybe I'll take one later. And then give you the recipe.

These grapes were delicious!

I mixed this sliced kale with some garlic infused olive oil and balsamic vinegar and then let it marinate. And if you can see in the back there, those are presoaked garbanzo beans ready to be cooked. I'm not sure if I have mentioned it here (I probably have) but I am madly in love with my pressure cooker. I used it three nights this week to make beans after work. It is genius.

Love.

My boyfriend recently brought me a bunch of tangerines from the tree at his moms house. Most of them sat in my fruit bowl for a long time as they had a number of seeds and were quite a pain to eat. I decided to juice them and make the orange glazed beets from Vegan with a Vengeance. The glaze never really set up, but the beets were great none the less.

My dinner last night consisted of:

Previously mentioned marinated kale topped with some sliced grapes
Tangerine Beets
Shredded Brussel Sprouts

This recipe was modified from one I found on the internet but I changed it so much that it does not even really resemble the original recipe except that it contains shredded brussel sprouts and toasted walnuts.

I melted some earth balance in my cast iron skillet and then added in the brussel sprouts that I put through my food processor and a tiny bit of liquid smoke. (The original recipe called for bacon) I cooked them for about five minutes and then removed from the heat and mixed in some toasted walnuts and a dressing of apple cider vinegar and a little sugar. I topped my serving with some nutritional yeast. This was a very delicious and nutritious dinner.

And that's mostly what I have been up to the last two days. Got any good ideas for some vegetables? Especially broccoli or chard? How about a smoothie recipe? Or oats combos?

Cats! (For Reals This Time)

I have three cats.  This may or may not qualify me as a crazy cat lady.  As much as I adore my three cats, I will never have three at one time ever again.  Regardless, they do make for some interesting photo ops.

This is Fluffy.

This is Jinx (he and Fluffy are brother and sister)

And this is Precious.  She is ironically named as she seemed Precious when I first got her and then she later turned out to be quite a handful.  She has a number of "quirks" that only a mother could love annoy the hell out of me.  She's darn lucky that I love her regardless.  As I have mentioned before,  Precious has a love of greenery.  This is her nibbling on the top of a carrot I pulled from my garden. 

Wait, you mean I didn't tell you I harvested a carrot?  Here, let me show you!

You know, maybe I have a better picture.  Maybe one without a blurry cat tail in it?

 There, that's bett....oh wait...Jinx!  He is going after the plastic bag filled with vital wheat gluten.  He loves plastic.  I have heard it is like kitty crack (more so than catnip).  Precious and Fluffy may go crazy for my home grown catnip but Jinx is happier with a plastic bag to lick.


Ok, so enough cats and let me tell you about a new discovery.  Gena at Choosing Raw had a guest poster about a week ago from Oh She Glows.  I had yet to come across this blog and was blown away with it.  Angela could not have come up with a better name for her site.  She has such amazing energy and every post seems to glow.  I have been inspired a lot by a number of her posts (not to mention that I want to order some of her Glo Bars) but the one that kept popping out at me as I read further and further into her archives was Vegan Overnight Oats (VOO).  I decided to try it this weekend.  I am happy to report that it turned out fabulous.  I layered the cold oats with some peanut butter mixed with maple syrup for a delicious breakfast.

Gosh darn cats.  Can't escape them. 

I also topped the oats with this chocolate/sunflower seed/peanut concoction I made the night before.

Can't I get one picture without a cat in it?  No Jinx, you can't have my oats.

Finally, a catless picture.  Hope I didn't scare anyone off with my silly cat centric comments.

Be back tomorrow with proof that a creative vegan can eat anywhere.