Old Market

Organic Red Swiss Chard & Apple Juice

Yummy apricots for a snack

I loved this horse and carriage ride! It looked just like cinderella's! I didn't ride but I did ask if I could pet the horses. Normally I get mad at this kind of situation and think that the animals are not being treated properly, but these guys seemed to be ok. It was cool weather and they had hay and water at their resting stop so that made me happy.

Everyone must think I am such a weirdo here. I was freezing and it was in the 50's. Everyone else was wearing skirts it seemed like!

Tofu Stroganoff

As always, I am not sure the exact measurements, but these are the ingredients I used:

Tofu

Mushrooms

Vegetable Stock

Onion

Garlic

Sour Supreme

Earth Balance

Salt

Pepper

Thyme

Fresh Peanut Butter Cups

SO GOOD!

Not totally pretty but hey, this was my first attempt. I have been seeing a lot of people making these lately like my blogger friend River- Wing It Vegan. Here is my version with the ingredients I had available.

1/4 cup Earth Balance

3/4 cup natural (no sugar) peanut butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

Cook together in a sauce pan until sugar is melted.

Pour into sprayed cupcake pan.

In separate pan:

1 cup vegan chocolate chips

1/4 cup coconut milk (or almond, soy)

Cook in sauce pan until melted. 

Pour over peanut butter.

Put in freezer until solid

Edward & Sons Review

This one is LONG past due, sorry Edward & Sons!

Edward & Sons were kind enough to send me a box of goodies! They sent me organic sliced peaches, miso-cup, organic croutons, quick gravy, coconut milk, two gluten free crackers- brown rice snaps & exotic rice toast. What I love about this company is that they have such a wide variety of products to chose from. I enjoyed their organic canned peaches in a peach cobbler that I made and the organic croutons on a few different salads. You guys all know how I feel about things being organic too, so that always makes me happy to see that label on products. My mother in law was happy to know that they carried gluten free options for her as she is gluten free. If you go to THIS page it will tell you which of their products are vegan, dairy-free, corn-free, egg-free, etc. 

I LOVE their organic coconut flakes! I make an awesome raw dessert with their coconut flakes. You can check out the recipe HERE. They also make organic coconut flour which I would love to try! 

Check out their website and products HERE.

Thanks again Edward & Sons!

*As always, I was not paid for this review and Edward & Sons sent me these products for free to sample.*

CSN Winner

Just a quick post to say who won the CSN award.....drumrollllllllll....Emily from Muffin Topped you won!!! I put all your names is order of your comments 1-16 and put your numbers into random.org and number 2 won! Congrats! Hopefully I can do another contest for you guys all soon.

CSN Giveaway

Hey guys guess what? I have a giveaway for ya! CSN contacted me and asked if I would be interested in hosting a giveaway on my site, so here it is! CSN Stores has all kinds of fun things for your home. They have everything from area rugs, to wine racks, to breakfast bar with stools,
dining tables and more! The winner of this giveaway will receive a $40 gift certificate. I have been looking around on their site just to see what all they carry and I listed a few things below that really caught my eye, just so that you guys can have an idea of what they carry.

Bar table with bar stools

Cute dragonfly area rug

Baker's rack

Thank you CSN for this fun giveaway!

Prize: $40 gift certificate for CSN.

To Enter: Follow my blog and post a comment about what you would like from their store :)

Giveaway Closes: September 19, 2010

Prize Ships: To US & Canada only. Sorry all my other international friends!

Good luck!

Most Versatile Blogger Award

For this award, I am to share 7 things about myself and then pass it on to 5 deserving blogs. Thanks Jessica :)

 I broke my back when I was 15 jumping off a water fall. It was in the newspaper and on TV.

 I like animals more than people :)

My personality type is INFP from the book Please Understand Me. It is a very rare personality type.

I love fruit and could eat it all day every day!

Jesus is the Lord of my life and I would probably be dead today without Him.

 I have almost stolen animals from pet stores before because their living conditions were sooooo bad.

I would love to have a few farm animals. I've never lived anywhere where that was possible but if I could I would have one pig, one cow, a turkey (two if he/she wanted a friend), a chicken, a sheep and a goat. They would all be best friends, I decided. If I could only chose one though, it would be a cow. People need to come face to face with the reality of what they are serving for dinner. 

Now, the five people I would like to pass this on to are: 

Tiffany - Bread without Butter

Ali- Vegan Epicurean

Blessed Mama- Blessed Vegan Life

Rose- Dandelion

Crooked Moon Mama

Sorry but I could only chose 5. You know I love you all :)

Hip & Hippie Review

I feel bad because I am way behind on reviews, so here is a review that is way past due! 

Let me just begin by saying that I LOVE Hip and Hippie! If you have been wanting a new candle or two to purchase, then look no further than this company. Hip & Hippie was started by two sisters named Deann and Julie. They are all about everything that vegans stand for! Here is a little information about their products. They use 100% soy wax and essential oils to make their candles. All their candles are earth friendly and recyclable. I love that their candles are so earth friendly because I have heard, though don't quote me on this, that paraffin candles are just as dangerous to the lungs as second hand smoke! A lot of candles also use lead in their wicks which can be very dangerous to your health. I am happy to report that Hip & Hippies wicks are lead-free and made from unbleached cotton. 

Hip & Hippie have something wrapped around their candles called "seeded paper". You can plant this seeded paper and have wildflowers growing in your garden! To learn more about their seeded paper click HERE. Every candle also comes with a cute little metal charm as well. These charms are made from recycled metals and can be used as jewelry or bookmarks! 

All their candles are either in aluminum tins or glass. The glass that they use is a restraunt quality drinking glass and can either be reused (what I plan on doing) or recycled. The lids that Hip & Hippie use on their glass jars are made from recylced paper, nontoxic glues and of course are 100% recyclable. They can also be thrown in your compost! I could go on and on about how much I love this company, but I think you should just go stop by Hip & Hippie and check them out first hand. I always have a link to their website on the very bottom of my page, just in case so that it's just a click away!

 Deann was sweet enough to send me this candle. The scent is Vanilla Bean Sweet Orange.I LOVE it! Sometimes, I just walk by and pick it up and smell it on my way out the door. It is a light sweet orangey vanilla scent. Perfect to light any time and not overpowering at all. I will definitely be purchasing from them again, and I have not yet found another candle company that can compare to Hip & Hippie and everything they stand for.

Right now they have free shipping on all orders over $75, so please check them out HERE!

*As usual, I was not paid for this review and this product was donated to me.*

Hippy Packs

1 organic red beet, 2 organic kale leaves, 1 honeycrisp apple, and 1 gala apple.

Coconut milk yogurt with organic strawberries, chia seeds, and some homemade granola. 

My hippy pack arrived!!! "Hippy packs" or so I like to call them are something that I invented. I have a couple people right now that I do hippy packs with. I didn't really make any rules for them, except that they have to be vegetarian friendly. There is no price limit either. They are so fun to give and to receive. 

In my hippy pack this month, I received a pretty tshirt made by a brand called Threadless, date coconut rolls (made with dates, coconut, and almonds), vegan almond soap, and homemade granola. I love everything in my pack! Thanks Julia for my pack! I love you :) Just to put it out there, if anyone would be interested in doing a hippy pack with me I would be down. Just let me know! 

I ordered another vegan pizza at Whole Foods this Wednesday for $10 Wednesdays. This one had Daiya and spinach. Honestly, it was gross. I won't be getting this combo again. I just tasted really soggy for some reason.

 Tomatillas and roma tomatoes for some salsa.

Red & Green Salsa

4 small roma tomatoes

2-3 tomatillas

1/2 an onion

3 garlic

Cilantro

Olive oil

Cumin

Salt & Pepper

Cilantro Quinoa

1 cup quinoa (cooked in a rice cooker)

1/4 cup olive oil

Cilantro

Green Onions

This does not look super appetizing but it was pretty darn good! This was a filling I made for my tacos. I didn't like the picture of the tacos so I didn't post it. What I added to this was the following:

1/2 green bell pepper

1/2 red bell pepper

1 can kidney beans (black beans would be better)

1/2 onion

1 corn cob 

Cilantro

Cumin

Paprika

Celery seed

Salt & Pepper

1/4 cup Veganese

1/2 cup Sour Supreme

I will be doing my Most Versatile Award next, once I figure out what exactly I have to write about :)

Cat Scratches

I thought people might be tired of seeing my green juice every day so I switched it up. Today's breakfast was some coconut yogurt with raspberries and strawberries.

 Hummus! I made a HUGE portion of hummus recently, so I will be eating it for days and days. It's pretty similar to my last one, just a couple differences.

Cilantro Basil Hummus

2 cups dried garbanzo beans (put in the slow cooker for 18 hoursish)

Tahini

Lemon Juice
Garlic
Olive oil

Cumin

Salt

Fresh Basil

Fresh Cilantro

Water

All blended together in the Blendtec on the "dip" setting. So good!  Sorry I didn't put measurements because I honestly don't know how much I put of each.

This was actually dinner. I had strawberries, pita chips, guacamole, and hummus.

My husband brought to a place called Blue Planet Natural Grill a couple days ago. I had the Santa Fe Wrap with Sweet Potato Fries. For the Santa Fe Wrap, I had them substitute tofu instead of chicken and Teese instead of cheese. It was pretty tasty!

This is what my cat decided to do to my face while I was sleeping. This is the consequences of having four cats in one tiny room together. He was playing with the other cats and ran across my face. Below is how it looks now. Almost better, yay! I hope everyone is having a great day today!

An apple a day...

Fruits and veggies getting ready to be super blended.

This is what I drink about every other day. My husband and brother will drink it as well if I add enough apples. I usually add raw apples, raw beets, and raw kale, but I also added spinach in this one. If you have a Blendtec then press the Whole Juice button. If not, then juice all this in your juicer.

Snack and reading break

My husband took me apple picking! I really enjoyed it and they had a great gift shop. My only complaint is that the apples were not organic. I don't think any of the farmers in Nebraska are really into organic farming.

Check these babies out! This was once we got home and I sprayed, scrubbed, and washed them.

These were a few things that I picked up at the gift shop. My friend Mark and I did the wine tasting apple we picked apples in the first orchard. My husband, brother, and Marlana went on the tractor to the further orchard to pick more apples. The wine tasting was fun. You get to pick four different wines that their shop carries and try them all out. We tried the apple wine, cherry wine, strawberry wine, and peach wine. It was $5 to try all four and then they give you a free wine glass after. I thought that wasn't too bad. We both really liked the apple wine and ended up purchasing it. I also bought the tequila jelly and corn cob jelly. What a great day!

Green juice & green hummus

I juiced this with my new BlendTec. How awesome is that!? There is a juice setting and it juices what ever you add in there. I think it's better than a juicer because nothing gets wasted. This juice was:

 1 organic golden beet, 

2 leaves of organic kale, 

and 1 organic green apple.

 It was pretty grassy tasting, so next time I'll add one more apple. I didn't mind it. My husband was a little grossed out though. 

Here was a raspberry lager that I tried.

I made some wonderful hummus for lunch the past couple days. I personally like to use dried beans to make hummus, because I hate using canned anything, but I've been using canned lately because I did not know that the guy we are staying with had a slow cooker! Now that I know, I bought some dried garbanzo beans today.

Cilantro Hummus

1 can organic garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

4 garlic cloves

half an organic lemon's juice, squeezed

1-2 Tbsp organic tahini

1 handful cilantro

2 Tbsp organic olive oil

Sea salt

Water, enough to incorporate 

Blend this all together. Eat!

I went to Whole Foods today and I guess that Wednesday is $10 for a pizza day. I asked if it would still be $10 if I got a vegan pizza and she said yes. She suggested Daiya cheese with vegan sausage, so I said that that sounded good. Not bad for $10 huh?

I forgot to take a picture before I started eating it in the car ;o)

 My boy Sonic playing with his new friend named Dakota.

My big boy Nano giving me a kiss.