Fall, Food, and Furkids!

Fall, Food, & Furkids!  Those three things are what you will find in this post!  This past weekend was a little less busy than the last 3 or 4 months of weekends have been and it was NICE.  Saturday I did a few things around the house and spent a lot of time with the furkids. Hubby about about 30 others went to help a friend who is having back problems gather and cut firewood for the upcoming winter months.  Sunday we went grocery shopping!  I will share more about that on Wednesday for the next MidWeek Munchies LINK UP!  Before I jumped in the car to go to the store I took a few pictures of the changing leaves.  I didn't do that last year and regretted it!

This 2nd photo is part of the tree in front of our house.  It's a Japanese Maple and it's my favorite tree on our property at home.

I have been wanting to get a few photos of the forest/mountains/trees where I live but the photo is ruined by power lines.  The mountains I mention where I live are mountains of trees not like snow covered mountains that you would see in Colorado for example.  I live right by The Allegheny National Forest.
Maybe one of these days I will take some panoramic photos worth posting!

Last week I posted photos of Cricket - our newest addition - and I was so excited when I saw so many comments asking for MORE CRICKET!  Well, ask and ye shall receive!  I have two more photos of Cricket to share with you today!  She seems to be calming down quite a bit which is nice.  And this past weekend I decided to let her roam overnight.  She is crate trained - for the most part - but I don't think she really has to be - Paco on the other hand we do it more for his protection while we aren't there because of his health/immune issues and I would feel awful if he fell off the sofa while we weren't home.  But Paco is completely fine with his crate I think sometime he actually prefers it.

I still can't believe how small Cricket is.  Usually when we adopt dogs they are smaller dogs because we don't have the room for large dogs like Labs, etc.  But Cricket is by far the smallest dog we've ever had.  She's only 4 pounds!  She's such a sweetie, tho!  Eventho she's a Chihuahua mix she acts very much like a Chi that is for sure!  We think she's mixed with Rat Terrier.

One thing we have found out with her is that she doesn't like it when animals are on TV.  She freaks out!  This is REALLY funny because she LOVES other animals!  She's a very social dog and doesn't understand if other animals don't want to play with her.  Plus she has no concept of size either.

One of the QUICK FOODS I made for lunch recently was a Sun Dried Tomato Cashew Cheesy Rice.

It had 1 c Cashews, 1/4 C Water, 1/4 C Nutritional Yeast, 1/2 T Minced Garlic, 2 T Lemon Juice, 2 T Apple Cider Vinegar, 1 T Mustard, About 10 Sun Dried Tomatoes, and Black Himalayan Sea Salt to taste.

I also added about a tablespoon of Sun Warriors Liquid Vitamin Mineral RUSH.  Of course this is optional.

I have been into raw veggies and making them meals lately!  So that means that dips and spreads are KEY!  Here's the one I made this past week - it was a Sweet Dill Dip!
1 C Cashews
1 C Macadamia Nuts
Juice of 1/2 Meyer Lemon
3/4 C Water (or so)
1/3 C Apple Cider Vinegar
3 T Agave Nectar
1/3 C Grapeseed Oil
1 t EACH Of Minced Garlic, Dill, Basil, Onion Powder

Veggies & Shells with Cashew Cheese

Some of these veggies might look familiar.  There were the leftovers I had from a few other dishes and added a Cashew Cheese that I will be using again that's for sure!  It was very tasty!  The veggies included Cauliflower, Spinach, and Carrots.  I also used some Brown Rice Pasta Shells in this too.  I topped it with vegan bread crumbs.  It was awesome.  For the Cashew Cheese Sauce...here's the recipe all made up in my Vitamix!

1 1/2 C Cashews
1 T Lemon Juice

1 C Water

1/4 C Nutritional Yeast *

1 tea Dijon Mustard

1 tea Wildtree's Garlic & Herb Blend

Pinch of Frank's Chili Garlic Salt *
Pinch of Turmeric Extract Powder *

* (Items available at The Raw Food World - see clickable banner on sidebar)

When I was cooking the Spinach (from frozen) I made a broth out of water and about a teaspoon of  GoL's Perfect Food Energizer just for an extra boost.  I absolutely LOVED this vegan cheese sauce!!!!

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Store Bought Vegan Cheese

Last week I bought this Cheddar Vegan Cheese from Wegman's and I have yet to open it.  I might do that tonight or tomorrow night.  Lately I have been tinkering with my own.  I'm really excited about some of the recipes I found HERE on their site, tho!

I know that we are supposed to have a "theme" for our own personal Vegan MoFo and I really didn't know what mine would be so I was thinking to stick to "Blissful Journey" as my blog title states.  Therefore, I am going to "My Journey In Vegan Foods".  This could be things I make and things I purchase - NEW-TO-ME products and attempts, I suppose.  Attempting things - is the first step to journey, right?

What are your fave store bought vegan cheeses?

My MOST favorite thus far is the Whole Foods Co-operative in Erie, PA, and their "home made" Cashew Cheese!  I haven't found anything that has beaten my love for that stuff!  YUM!

Raw-ish Cashew Cheese

• This recipe was inspired by this site and I can't wait to eat this for lunch and snack!
•  
• 2 cups - raw and/or sprouted cashews (soaked overnight)
• ¼ orange bell pepper
• ¼ red bell pepper
• ½ cup of pineapple chunks
• Tablespoon of green onions chopped (or chives)
• Tablespoon of Dill (I used Wildtree's Dill Blend)
• Juice of 1 Lemon (I used Meyer Lemon)

Raw Cashew Cheese

My very first attempt at Raw Cashew Cheese was a success! I sampled it shortly after taking this pic which was right after I took it out of the blender. It has gotten thicker since.

Here's what I did...

2 Cups-ish of raw, soaked for 2 hours Cashews with half to all of the water used to soak
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Sea Salt and Pepper to taste
2-3 T Nutritional Yeast (or to taste)

Add to blender until smooth! YUM!