Ukelele Journey, Blissful Furkids, Boku Bar, & Dan McDonald's Blending Mastery

A while back I blogged about FINALLY getting a Ukelele.  I want to learn just enough to play along with some songs - just for fun.  I've been a little addicted to this guy!  His name is Aldrine and he's amazing!  I love that he always has a smile on his face.  I LOVE their YouTube Videos and Website!  Thru him and his "Play Along" videos on YouTube I have been able to play along with: "What I Got" by Sublime, "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Let It Be" By the Beatles all pretty well.  Thru another source I started playing "I'm Your's" by Jason Mraz.  I hope to learn a few more songs from their Song Library in the next few weeks.  I'm VERY grateful for this resource they provide!  I recently printed out a PDF of Ukelele Chords, too, from The Uke Lady.

Last night after I did a few things around the house I was playing with the new Instagram features and started to nod off.  It's been a long week.  The "kids" were pretty much in the same 'mode' which was nice.  One time when I 'came to' a little bit I opened my eyes to this.  I just HAD to take a photo!  Paco and Suzie were 'Just Chillin'.  They couldn't have been cuter!  When I took the photo I think they panned over to Riley who was sitting on Dale's Recliner.

It's been a while since I had this Chocolate Fudge Brownie Boku Bar but I took some notes a while back to share it with you at some point.  That point - is today!

Boku Superfood is a neat company!  I've tried a few of their powders and I have really liked them.  I will be blogging more about those down the road, too!  Their bars, are darned-tasty!  This specific Chocolate Fudge Brownie flavor surely lives up to it's name!  It's VERY MUCH Brownie-esque!  It was sweet, chewy, nutty, chocolatey, and slightly fruity tasting.  I really liked that I could "see" many of the ingredients in this product while I was gnawing on it!  This was a VERY impressive bar!  It was tasty, filling, and jam-packed with nutrition!

Guess what came in the mail today!?  YUP!  My new DVDs from Dan McDonald, that's what!  I took a photo of the front so you can see!  I can't wait to jump right in to them!  There are 3 DVDs in this set!  Blending Mastery!  Wooot!  Can't wait!  Speaking of some Blending Mastery - Christine over at The Raw Project - rocks the high speed blenders pretty hardcore and has inspired me to try some of her recipes and I will be posting them later today!
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It's a beautiful day outside today!  I think I might take some time to walk around downtown and take some photos and report back with my findings.

I'm also on the lookout for some easy widgets for my sidebars that would get more interaction going with people who visit my site!  I want to know what you are interested in seeing here, so let me know and be on the look out for some new features!

Art & Vino Venue, Salads, Smoothies, and Creamy Vegan Savory Spinach & Cilantro Dressing

 This past weekend we took our Wildtree stuff to an Art & Vino Event in Youngsville, PA.  This is the 2nd year we have done this event and it was even better than last year!  This is a photo of our table - I'm taking the picture and you can see my sister, mom, and dad here!  My sister Megan is talking to one of our customers.  We were set up beside Allegheny Cellars Winery.  They are some 'friends' of ours that we've known for a few years and done several events with.  There were 3 others wineries there as well!  Burch Farms/Winery, Flickerwood Wine Cellars, and Courtyard Wineries. I've been to 3 out of the 4 wineries and have sampled a little bit of Courtyard's before as well.  It was a lovely event.  Thankfully it was INdoors because we got a bit of snow on Saturday and it was quite cold...like around 30...that after it was 80 degrees on Thursday!  Oye!  Regardless we did GREAT at this event!

Towards the end of last week I did some Smoothies in my Ninja!  Here is the first one!  It contains Mangoes - about a cup, 4 Clementines, and 2 C of a blend of Strawberries, Papaya, Pineapple, as well as about 1 C of Coconut Milk.  It was pretty good!

I mentioned a while ago that I got some new SuperFoods and Powders I would be playing with.  One of them is Boku Organics and I tried their SUPER FOOD last week in a similar Smoothie!  I added a nice level scoop of their greens powder and came up with this...

I loved how GREEN it was!  Next time I would probably omit the Papaya in this, tho, That was the only thing that stuck out and didn't quite jive right with the other flavors.  Perhaps there was just too much Papaya in this attempt, not sure, but the rest was lovely. 


I even had enough to take to work the next day!  I put it in my Blender Bottle.

Remember last week when I was telling you about the Butternut Squash I did with Grapeseed Oil and the Wildtree Savory Spinach?  Well...I had left overs and decided to add it to a last Salad for Friday Night's Dinner!  I ended up finishing the Vegan Lemon & Chive Store Bought Salad Dressing I had on hand, too!  I do like that dressing!  I was tempted to buy more of it at Wegman's yesterday but didn't - I'm making more and more of my own these days!

Which brings me to my next tidbit!  The Dressing I made!  I posted this immediately after making it last night and have had people on Instagram ask me for the recipe so here it is!

Creamy Vegan Savory Spinach & Cilantro Dressing

1 small bunch of Cilantro
8 to 10 ounces of Vegan Sour Cream
1 T Lemon Juice
2 T Wildtree Savory Spinach Blend
pinch of Wildtree Lemon Pepper
1 T Minced Garlic
About 4 ounces of Water
A Squirt of Agave Nectar - I used Wholesome Sweeteners Raw Blue Agave

This was tasty as-is but I wanted to see what else I could do with it in addition to putting it on Leafy Green Salads!  So I decided to make a Mini Cucumber & Grape Tomato Salad.

I used my slicer for the mini chukes!  I believe they are actually called Crunches!  Regardless they are wonderful!  I mixed everything together and added some Foods Alive Nutritional Yeast Flakes to the top of it.  I eventually mixed that in as well!  It was very good!  This is something I would make often!

I will be back in a while with another post as this one is already lengthy and I'm trying to squeeze in posts between MADNESS here!  It's been a doo-zee of a week or two and this week is looking like another!

What kind of foods did you eat this past weekend!?  Did you get out and about in your community?  If so - what did you do!?

Some Product Reviews & Near Future Happenings!

I have a few things to share with you today - a few products and such - as well as some things in my near future that I am looking forward to - but I will get to those in a moment.

First I would like to tell you about yet another Raw Revolution flavor that I was luck enough to try a while back!  It was their Cherry Chocolate Chunk and it was marvelous!  The Cherries were awesomely flavorful!  Juicy!  Sweet!  Plump!  It really activated the taste-buds!  The chocolate chunks were HUGE!  Some where even the size of my thumb!  This flavor completely lived up to it's name, that is for sure!  It was VERY Fresh and terrifically chewy!  The cherry flavor lingers with a somewhat creamy and slightly tart finish!  This has been one of my favorite flavors from Raw Revolution YET!

Another product I recently finished was New Earth's Awesome Almonds!  These Almonds are RAW - therefore - a living food!  They've been activated!  Their website explains how and why they do that!  It's quite interesting!  They are crispy and certainly helped curb my hunger!  The best part?  I only needed a small handful of them at a time in order to do this!  So this bag of Almonds DID last me a while!  They have just a pinch of Himalayan Pink Salt - which is GOOD - because I am not much of a salt fan!  The amount they used was perfect for my palate.  These were wonderful! 

Remember my post earlier this week when I used Boku Super Greens in my Fruit Berry Smoothie?  Check out this link!  I really like this product, too!  I'm trying to educate myself MORE about Superfoods and tinkering around with them and the powders and "green" powders more! 

For this specific one - Boku - I do like it because it doesn't have much flavor to it when you blend them in with berries and/or fruit!  I'm going to try this one again, tho, because I have only tried a few teaspoons at a time so far and it says to work your way up to about 4 Tablespoons!  I might take that leap next week!  I think it will be easy to do, actually, based on the successful attempts I have had so far with this product!

This weekend is going to be a nice one...almost a clam before the storm...of busy weekends, that is!  Eventho the weekends of the 20th and 27th are going to be busy I AM looking forward to them VERY much!  Our busy events season is now underway!  Both of those weekends we have Wildtree/Vendor events!  On the 20th we will be at the Youngsville Art & Vino Venue in Youngsville, PA, and the following weekend we will be at Liberty Winery in Sheridan, NY.  I will do my best to take some pics and post them here once they take place!

Last night I went over to my parents house and my mom and I got two shipments in and sorted them.  We had a Wildtree Party last week over at a Salon in Russell, PA, and then we had The Vendor Showcase I blogged about earlier this week in Jamestown, NY.  In addition we submitted another order last night!  We had several people who wanted to order and re-order various Wildtree Products from us.

We also decided to FINALLY do a website last night for our Wildtree Business.  I will add it to the sidebar next week but incase you would like to take a look you can visit it HERE or HERE.  It's the same website but we have 2 different extensions!  If you have any questions about anything with the Wildtree Line let me know!  And/Or feel free to shop 24/7 on the website!

What are your plans for the weekend!?  Have you tried any of these products yet?  I will have more smoothies next week, too!  And more Recipes!  And more Products!  LOTS and LOTS on tap! 

I'm just really itching for Farmers Market Season to get here!  YOU DON"T EVEN KNOW!!!! :)
Have a BLISSful Weekend, everyone!

Cheesy Tahini Sauce, Turkish Bean & Mushroom Stirfry, Berry Smoothie, and Hungry For A Change

It's been a rough week!  I feel the need for a get-away but can't see that happening for months at least!  But enough about that...this blog is for positives and a place to escape in the meantime without getting negative or frustrated!  I will concentrate on the things I CAN do and CHANGE and that starts with my efforts in the kitchen last evening!

I seriously cannot get enough Tahini lately.  I want to try different flavor combos and dressings and sauces any chance I can, lately!  Last night I whipped up a "Cheese-E Tahini Sauce" or even a "Sweet and Nutty" Sauce, even!  Here's what I did with this Sauce:

1/3 C Cashews
1/4 C Nutritional Yeast
3 T Tamari
1 T (Heaping) Tahini
2 T Garlic Grapeseed Oil
1-2 T Lemon Juice
2 tea Grey Poupon Mustard
2-3 T Minced Garlic
Pinch of Each: Paprika, Nutmeg, Wildtree California Garlic Pepper Blend

All in my Ninja!

One thing I did with this sauce once it was finished was I used it on some Pasta!  But not just any pasta!  It was Vegan Rice & Corn Pasta from Orgran!  It was quite good!

I saved a little bit of this for a salad and/or veggie dipping tonight or tomorrow!

This week I am continuing on with my Foods From Around The World Theme after taking a short break last week.  I decided to try and do veg*n foods from Turkey this week.  For my first attempt I decided to do a version of a Turkish Bean & Mushroom Stirfry.  Here is what I put in this dish:

1/2 Pound of Green Beans (Frozen)
1 Sweet Yellow Onion
About 6 Button Mushrooms, Chopped
2 T Garlic Grapeseed Oil
1 T - or less - of Wildtree Dill Blend
Wildtree California Garlic Pepper to taste

I did this in one of my NEW Pots and Pans that I got from Big Lots!  I ended up having to return my Paula Deen Set after it got damaged after 1 use.  Big Lots was GREAT!  However, they didn't have another set to replace it with so I took what they had which was a Rachel Ray Set instead!  So far - so good on these!

This morning I started my day with a Fruit Berry Smoothie.  Here is what I put in it:

2 C of Mango, Papaya, Pineapple, Strawberry Frozen Mix
1/2 C of Frozen Blueberries
2 tea of Boku Superfood
1/2 C Almond Milk
1 C+ Water

It was tasty!  I might to it again tomorrow!  Tomorrow I will also tell you more about the Boku Superfood!

I was finally able to sit down last night and watch the rest of HUNGRY FOR A CHANGE.  Two of the people in this documentary were David "Avocado" Wolfe and Kris Carr.  There were many others involved in this one but I was able to capture a few iPhone Stills off my phone to post here, today!

I've watched some videos on David and subscribe to Kris's Newsletter.

They are both fascinating!

Have you seen this documentary yet?  If so - what did you think?
If you haven't - are you interested in seeing it?

Do you know about David Wolf and Kris Carr?  If so - what are your thoughts?