Hope everyone is having a great day. I am. I feel full of energy today and I am liking it. For breakfast this morning I took the wonderful granola that I posted on yesterday and mixed it with peanut butter. I was to lazy to actually make bars last night, so we just took the granola and mixed it with peanut butter. Mmmmm, it is so good. I will probably eat the leftover stuffed zucchini for lunch today, but really have no ideas for dinner. I’ll have to see what I come up with. I realized I have yet to post MWM, so I figured I would post them today.

Midweek Munchies: What Cindy is contributing for the week From the Grocery Store: Organic Apple Juice Organic Orange Juice Bananas Organic Apple Sauce Sour dough bread Oatmeal Almonds Maple Syrup Rice Milk Pepperoncinis Garlic Stuffed Olives Artichoke Hearts Frozen Organic Spinach Frozen Organic Corn Frozen Organic Edamame Frozen Organic Green Beans Coconut Milk Mung Bean Noodles Vegetable Broth Mushrooms A Potato Garbanzo Beans Tahini From the Garden: Tomatoes Zucchini Banana Peppers Links to other Midweek Munchies (If you participate, leave your link in the comments and I’ll post it below; or, you can post in the comments)

Click here for the Midweek Munchies code
Click here for Harmonia’s blog

Trackbacks, pings, and comment links are accepted and encouraged!
Technorati Tag: Midweek Munchies

A special thanks to Running2Ks and Rift for all of their help with coding, graphics, and encouragement for this project.

PURPOSE of Midweek Munchies: Put together by a small group of Veg Women, we hope to spread the word about healthy vegetarianism while obtaining idea starters for meals, recipes, learn about new products, and meet other female veg*n bloggers. Visiting and commenting on other participants lists are encouraged but not required. Have fun and Go Veg!

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Okay, so I finally have lot’s of wonderful pictures to post and I even have a new recipe, made up just this morning to post.

Let me start with the picture of the hummus I made the other night, since this is the one I promised last Tuesday I would post.

Next is a picture of cored out zucchini from my garden prior to stuffing it.

And here is the zucchini after I stuffed it. This lovely recipe I call Zucchini Stuffed with Mashed Surprise.

Next, I have pictures of the newest batch of granola that I made tonight. My son made bird feeders at school today. They smoothered peanut butter all over a paper cup and then covered it in bird seed and that left me craving granola mixed with peanut butter.

Now for my new recipe that I decided to call Biscuit Brunch. I have been craving a savory breakfast lately. Since becoming vegan I have only figured out how to make sweet breakfast foods and homefries, so this was my first attempt at something different and it was really good.
Biscuit Brunch

2 tbsp vegan butter spread
6 mushrooms, sliced
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup frozen spinach, thawed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 cups bisquick (the kind with hydrogenated oils)
1 cup rice milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix bisquick and rice milk in a bowl and pour mixture into a greased muffin pan. Bake for about 20 minutes. While biscuits are cooking saute mushrooms, onion, garlic, salt and pepper in vegan butter spread for about five minutes then add spinach and saute another five minutes. Once biscuits are done, let cool, cut in half and place on a plate. Top biscuit halves with spinach and mushroom mixture.

Tonight I am making stuffed zucchini again for dinner. I made them a few months ago and have tons of zucchini to still use up from the garden. I love this stuff. Tomorrow I will definitely be posting pictures, along with the pictures of the hummus and links to the recipes. My zucchini plants finally stopped producing, but I still have so much from this summer. I am impressed with how long they have lasted without going bad. I picked most of them last month. I am still getting bellpeppers, artichokes, tomatoes, and lots of serano chiles. My jalapenos didn’t produce as much as the seranos did. I also think my banana pepper plant is almost done producing, but let me tell you my mint is a jungle and so is my basil.

I am looking forward to the next Vegan Iron Chef challenge on the Veggin’ Out boards. I missed out on the first one, but am looking forward to the next ingredient. Also, if you haven’t seen it, there is a link on the Veggin’ Out boards for a mushroom recipe contest. Top prize is $5,0000. I entered a recipe yesterday. I am hoping a vegan wins, because nobody does plant-based foods like we do. Well, I better get back to cooking dinner if I want to eat tonight. Good luck to any of you who enter these great contests.

I spent the entire day yesterday cleaning my house. This was no average cleaning day, I did an all over total clean. I can’t believe how dirty it was. I started with my poor dirty kitchen. I cleaned out the refrigerator. I usually do this once a week before going grocery shopping, but have been slacking some lately. This left me with an incredible pile of dishes to do. Not much fun let me tell you. I use Planet dishsoap to avoid harsh chemicals. I like it okay, but I actually prefer Seventh Generation, but I got this one for a steal because our local Vons was discontinuing selling it. Then I cleaned my counters and stovetop with Planet all purpose cleaner. I love this stuff because my lungs do not hurt after using it. When I used chemical cleaners I could taste them in my mouth for a day or two because of all of the crap I absorbed through breathing and through my skin. Then it was time for laundry. Can you guess what type of laundry detergent I use? You guessed it, Planet. Once again I got a great deal on this stuff. Vons was unloading it for $1.50 a container. I bought all the ones that they had left. I like to put a little tea tree oil in with my laundry too. It gives it a nice scent and acts as a natural bacteria cleaner. Next I hit the grocery store. I will share all of my goodies later this week, with MWM.

When I got home I had great fun vacuuming and steam cleaning the carpets. We haven’t steamed cleaned in about 6 months and I can’t believe how dirty the carpets got in this small amount of time. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a natural steam cleaning soap, so if anybody knows of any, I am up for suggestions on this one. After steam cleaning, I cleaned out my sons fish tank. He decided to dump some tap water in their and made a mess. It was a great excuse to clean Nemo’s tank up. Then I really had a great time with cleaning the bathroom. You know one of those really deep cleans, where you scrub every corner. I used Planet cleaner and Lifekind toilet cleaner to get the job done.

I finished up with sweaping and mopping the floors. I did all of this and don’t even have company coming to town. I just really wanted to get my house cleaned up. Needless to say, not a whole lot of cooking went on for me this weekend. But I am making hummus and greek salad tonight and will hopefully have pictures to post of this beautiful food for you tomorrow. I really do want to get more active in posting pictures of my food.

P.S. You should be able to pick-up Planet, Lifekind or Seventh Generation at your local health food store. I have been really happy with these products. They require a little more elbow grease than some of the heavy chemical cleaners, but your family, and your health will thank you tremendously. If you can’t find these cleaners at your local store, you can purchase them in bulk through Amazon. For Planet click Planet, for Seventh Generation click Seventh Generation.

Vegan Fashion Blog is gaining recognition by mainstream fashion blogs. This is very exciting. There was a great write up on Vegan Fashion Blog by Are You a Beauty? entitled Beauty Blog Hunt: Looks That Don’t Kill. This is very exciting because it is highlighting that fashion doesn’t have to include torture and death. If I could get just one person to turn away from leather jackets and fur linings while showing them that they can still be fashionable, then the whole blog is worth it for sure.

Check out this great article on SPEAK, on organization seeking to stop the building of Oxford University’s new animal experimentation lab. FYI, this company has already put a stop to the construction of a similar lab in Cambridge. Go SPEAK.

I came across a great service for any interested in animal activism. Be forewarned, some of what you read will bring you to tears and may invoke the urge to scream (or more). But these are all calls to action to contact local representatives to right injustices. Check out IDA eNews.

Okay, one last great article that is of interest to all us vegans, entitled Cruelty-Free Living. It gives a great definition of vegan, as well as a long list of reasons to become vegan. It is a great read and much less distressing than the previous link.

I have a great reason of my own for going vegan, besides the obvious one of not wanting to perpetrate harm on animals. Lately, I have been eating pretty poorly. By that, I mean I have been eating more starchy foods and more snacks. The good news, because the food is vegan and therefore very difficult to make truly bad, I have not gained a pound as a result. I may not have lost weight (which is my overall goal), but I did not gain any either. Pretty good for someone who hasn’t exercised this week due to being sick and eaten without much abandon. I am feeling better now, though the cough has become a bit annoying.

Last night I made my famous (at least in our family famous) cream of potato soup, except instead of putting in celery I used orange bellpepper from my garden. This is one of my favorite recipes. It screams fall and is so comforting. Cooking has been a bit simple lately. I need to use up the last of my zucchini, though I am getting a bit burned out on it. I should be able to cook up some artichokes from the garden next week, which makes me very, very happy because I love artichokes. I already have two that are pretty much full grown and one more that is on it’s way. Happy eating this week.

Yesterday I was feeling much better and thought that I had kicked the cold, but today it is very unwelcomingly (is that even a word) back. So I am bringing out the big guns, saline nasal spray, tea tree oil steams, twice as much tea and more healing broth. This cold is messing with my workout schedule, which really drive me crazy. It takes more days to build a habit, than to undue a habit. Forgive me, I get a bit whiny when I don’t feel my best.

For breakfast this morning, I made some yummy banana oatmeal. I sauteed cashews and bananas in a little Smart Balance and maple syrup and poured them over my oatmeal. The result, delicious. It was almost like eating warm banana bread. Ymmmm, another fall favorite, banana bread. Next week, we are backing off the gluten again for a while. We have been eating a lot more processed carbs lately, which makes my eczema flare up. Back to healthy beans, lentils and rice next week and lot’s and lot’s of veggies. I love veggies, which is probably a good thing:)

I slept most of the day yesterday and am feeling much better today. I still have an annoying tickle in my throat, but otherwise things aren’t too bad. Thanks for the great advice Harmonia. I added an extra couple of cups to my day yesterday, and I truly believe that it helped a lot. Right now I have been on a green chai tea kick. It is one of my favorite. I prefer the loose leaf kind, but will take what I can get. I have posted some information on the Vegan Fashion Blog today, that may be of interest to some of you. The post is entitled Vegan Girl Talk.

I am making a huge pot of Native American Beans today. They have been simmering on the stove for about 4 hours now and smell so good. Nothing like some good old comfort food. Even though it has still been warm (in the upper 80s), the highs only remain for a short time and the quality of the air is different. Fall is definitely in the air, leaving me wanting apple pie. During fall, I love everything apple, apple pie, applesauce, apple juice, apple cider. I look forward to some holiday baking soon. This will be my first holiday season as a vegan. I have been a vegetarian through the holiday’s before, but never vegan, and as you all know, the two are very different in terms of baking. I look forward to adapting many of my favorite recipes this year.

I also look forward to pulling out my sweaters, and maybe picking up a new pair of boots or two for the season. I am a shoe person, and just don’t believe that a person can have too many pairs, unfortunately, my budget rarely agrees with me on that issue. Fall clothes are definitely some of my favorites. They are so warm and cozy, like a big hug.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day.

Okay, so I remember what I like least about my son being in school, kid colds. Last week my son was sick with a kid cold and now my head is stuffed up and my throat hurts. It is time to bring out the big guns, lot’s of tea, vegetable broth with oregano oil, buffered vitamin C, sleep and tea tree oil for my showers. A nice warm blacket and some mindless movies also sound good, nothing that requires me to pay attention or concentrate. Any other suggestions, because I really don’t have time to be sick? I am sure many of you can understand that.

I am so glad that my blog is back up and going. I went for Farmer’s Market on Wednesday, but it was one of the worst Farmer’s Markets I had ever been to. There were only two vegetable stands that didn’t use pesticides and I was very disappointed. I did pick up some organic oranges and got a great deal on pesticide-free raspberries, 3 cartons for $4. I also picked up some organic, fairtrade green chai tea. This is the loose leaf kind and it is so good. I make it by the pot. Let’s see, I also got some pesticide-free onions and I think that was it. Of course, I have so much in my garden that I didn’t need much in the way of vegetables. This weekend we are having a canning party. I am making tomato sauce and salsa for the winter. My dad has a bunch of pear tomatoes that we are going to try to make a salsa out of. I think they will be really good.

Midweek Munchies: What Cindy is contributing for the week This week I didn’t buy a whole lot at the grocery store. Here is what I did get though: Grocery Store Organic Onions Organic Apple Juice Green Beans Mushrooms French Fried Onions Potatoes Organic Vegetable Soup Organic Minestrone Soup Organic Lentil Soup Organic French Fries Sourdough Bread Cilantro Organic Tomato Sauce Vegetarian Chicken Nuggets (for my son) Organic Frozen Broccoli Bananas From the Garden Jalapenos Serano Chilies Basil Oregano Zucchini Orange Bellpeppers Banana Peppers Links to other Midweek Munchies (If you participate, leave your link in the comments and I’ll post it below; or, you can post in the comments)

Click here for the Midweek Munchies code
Click here for Harmonia’s blog

Trackbacks, pings, and comment links are accepted and encouraged!
Technorati Tag: Midweek Munchies

A special thanks to Running2Ks and Rift for all of their help with coding, graphics, and encouragement for this project.

PURPOSE of Midweek Munchies: Put together by a small group of Veg Women, we hope to spread the word about healthy vegetarianism while obtaining idea starters for meals, recipes, learn about new products, and meet other female veg*n bloggers. Visiting and commenting on other participants lists are encouraged but not required. Have fun and Go Veg!

I made it through one day of fasting, but my son was sick Monday night and I was exhausted yesterday from being up with him in the middle of the night. I just don’t have the will power to fast when I am exhausted. I have resumed the vegetable broth fast today, but will only being doing a two-day fast because I don’t like to fast on the weekends. Harmonia asked if fasting one day a week could be helpful for reducing sweet cravings. I definitely think it can. I know when I fast, I find myself craving healthy food. It also clears out the sludge in your body and resets your body. I know when I have been eating junkfood, a good fast is all I need to get back on track.

I am going to farmer’s market today, so I am going to wait until tomorrow to post my MWM, since I should have some good stuff to post about. I look forward to sharing all of my goodies with you. Have a great day!