Random Updates & My Parents Went to St. Lucia(...And All I Got Was Digital Photos)

I might be showing my age here...but does anyone remember when they were growing up and someone went on vacation and you either gave or received a T-Shirt that said 'so and so went to (insert location here) and all I got was this (insert adjective) T-Shirt!!  Well, my parent recently got back from St. Lucia and I'm so glad they had a great time eventho I was back here freezing my arse off!

They did, however, send me photos while they were away and I thought I would share some of them with you, too!  Up top, you can see a gorgeous sight, eh?  And here to the left, you can see my father.  Apparently, my parents went on a Pirate Ship Adventure and my dad was able to shoot a canon.  My mom opted to dance with some of the crew!

Not only did they send me photos they also brought home some coins from the island - as well as - Canada - since they flew out of Toronto.  I was greatly appreciated!  St. Lucia is one of the islands/countries that use the East Caribbean States currency.

Since we used to live right near the Canadian border I still had a few low-value coins from a while back but since travel to/from Canada now requires a passport and I still don't have mine it's been several years since I have been up there.

Since my parents know I'm a reggae and Bob Marley fan they sent me a photo of one of the Bob Marley inspired drinks they had while they were there.

I love the colors!

The first full day they were gone we had another snow storm.  Blah!

Other than that, yesterday and the day before were pleasant...the weather was in the 40s each day.  But today we are back to more snow and temps in the 20s.

Can you tell I was jealous of their beautiful weather and sightseeing?

In related yet additional news...DH was also out of town last week - Wednesday thru Saturday.  So it was pretty strange not having anything to do but, to be honest, all I wanted to do is be under warm blankets when I wasn't at work.

As you can see...Cricket had the same idea.

The last couple of days, DH has been REALLY sick.  He picked up some bug that he and at least 6 other people got, too, while at a convention.  I've been sleeping downstairs so I don't get it.

I think the furkids enjoyed the HOME TIME.  Paco has been burrowing under more than one blanket for weeks on end, now!

With all this cold weather, I tend to go into HERMIT MODE.  Sometimes I don't even feel like thinking about what to eat or make to eat for that matter.

One of my default foods is vegan nachos.  Sometimes I go simple with homemade vegan cheese and salsa.  Altho, not pictured here, recently I added some homemade vegan sour cream, too!  Sometimes I add veggies, other sauces, spices, etc.

About a week ago I did do a vegan grocery haul after watching The Vegan Zombie's take on it.  2 items that were not in his video that were also new-to-me items were these two soups you can see here.

As you know, I enjoy making my own soups, and you will see that I have done just that later in this post.  But, I also came across these two at my local Dollar Tree and thought I would give them a whirl.  For a buck - they come in handy at work - when I don't have time to make something else or get something downtown.

Both of these soups were clearly marked VEGAN, not once, but twice!  I tried them both and they were pretty good.  Heck, I would buy them again for a dollar!  Why not!

Here's the other one I found.  In addition to this thrifty vegan grocery shopping, I must tell you about another SCORE at the STORES, lately.  I had won a gift card a while back and wanted to see how many articles of clothing I could buy with it.

I went to our local Label Shopper and to my surprise, they were having their $3, $4, $5, and UP Sale.  I walked away with 16 shirts for a total of $57.  I bought one shirt for $6 but the rest of them were between $2 and $5 each.

This was great because a lot of what I was able to find I could layer for the extremely cold weather we have been having lately.  Which was something I was lacking in work clothes.

And finally, here is that soup I was telling you about!  It's a vegan Black Bean blended soup.  The swirl you see is homemade cashew cream or 'sour cream'.

Ingredients include 1 C Black Beans, 1 C Salsa, 1 Small Onion, 2 Cloves Garlic, 2 Cooked Carrots, 4 C Water, Pinch each of sea salt - cumin - cayenne - celery salt - cilantro.

And then I added some of the cashew cream and a squirt of Sriracha.

Cashew Dill Dip, Coin Update, Pain Update, Vegan Grocery Hauls, Veganized Great Depression Cooking, & Tomato Cakes

I'm really trying to make the most of this crappy weather that we have been experiencing but it's difficult.  Especially when my parents are soaking up the sun in St. Lucia for about a week.  Lucky Stinkers!

I've been testing new recipes, doing research on several topics, and making mini goals for myself.

Yesterday I made this Cashew Dill Dip.  It's made up of 2 C Cashews, 2 C Water, 4 T Lemon Juice, 1 Small Onion, 6 Cloves Garlic, Dill and Black Sea Salt to taste.

Today I had some HAPPY MAIL - about 30 coins from all over the world.  I was VERY excited to add these to my collection.  I'm up to 98 countries now!

I've been trying to tackle ongoing pain issues that seem to mirror Fibromyalgia.  I've upped my intake of Spirulina & Chlorella and hope to up my Vitamin C, B, D, & Magnesium mostly thru foods. 

Today I did 2 mini budget hauls.  This first one was at my local herbs store.  It was unplanned but these items caught my eye because they were on the discount shelf (except for the Hemp Hearts which I needed).  Those were over $8.  Other than that the rest of what you see here was roughly $10.  As an afterthought - I don't think I have ever tried the Kamut Spirals, Spinach Spaghetti, or those Simply Organic flavors before.  The last couple of times I bought Hemp Hearts online they were about $6 so I know they can be found cheaper but since I was already there and it is a small business and locally owned business I thought I would splurge a bit.

As for this other grocery haul - it was 'sort of' planned.  What I mean by that is - I watched The Vegan Zombie's video on Vegan Shopping at Dollar Tree and thought I would see what I could find at ours. I found 2 soups that were clearly marked vegan, Gnocchi, Soy Milk, Bread, Olive Oil, Chickpeas, Black Beans, Sweet Corn, Saltines, and Diced Tomatoes.  The Diced Tomatoes were 2 for $1 and the Corn was 79 cents...other than that the rest was $1 each.  That bought my total to $12.79.

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that I have been doing a lot of research.  I like to call it 'personal enrichment' or throw it in the 'more you know' category.  Regardless...check this out!  One of the many things I have been researching lately is Great Depression Cooking.  I have looked into that topic in the past before but the spark was re-lit the past couple of days.  This also falls into 'Eating on a Budget' that I like to do as much as possible.  What you see here are Tomato Cakes.

Tomato Cakes are made up of 2 ingredients.  Canned, Diced Tomatoes and Saltine Crackers.  All I did was crumble up about 30 Saltines and mixed them in with 1 can of diced tomatoes.  I then made patties out of them and pan-fried them with a little oil.  If you want you can kick it up a notch and use Basil infused oil for a twist.  These turned out pretty awesome if I do say so myself.  I topped them with leftover Cashew Dill Dip.  I will be making these again and soon!  They cost $2 or less for an entire batch.  I easily made 10 patties out of these ingredients!

Vegan Pupusas & Sauce

A couple of weeks ago when we were in Erie and visited Giant Eagle I saw these 'bad boys' in the freezer section.  I had never seen them before and I don't think I ever had a Pupusas and even if I did they were very memorable so I wanted to try these.

It was 1 of about 3 items I bought that day.  I really appreciate that the ingredient list was so short on these, too! 

Organic Corn Masa (Organic Corn Masa, Trace of Lime), Water, Black Beans, Corn, Olive Oil, Salt...those are the ONLY ingredients!

Of course, you know me...I have to have a dipping sauce.  I didn't have many ingredients to work with in the frig or in the pantry.  

All I did for this was take some leftover salsa and add a little bit of water, garlic, balsamic Vinegar, and about 2 ounces of cashews to my Vitamix and blend until smooth.  I think it turned out pretty good, actually!

And speaking of cashews...I found 2 ounce bags of them at the Dollar Tree so I grabbed 2 bags to tide me over until I can get a pound of them at Aldi's later this weekend.

I have 2 posts today so make sure you scroll down and check out the other one, too!  Question of the day - do you enjoy a dipping sauce for your Pupusas?  If so I would love to hear about it in comments!  CHEERS!

MidWeek Munchies: Dollar Tree Edition

It's MidWeek Munchies Time!  Everyone is invited to link up below thru Tuesday, December 1st, to any vegan post that has to do with grocery store hauls, garden or farmers market finds, munchies that you created in your kitchen, online purchases, or products that you have come across otherwise that happen to also be vegan!

Today I would like to share with you my haul from my local Dollar Tree!  Because I went with my hubby who isn't vegan/vegetarian I will say that together we spent $41 and bought over 41 items with that $41!!!!  Here's a look at some of MY stuff...

Frozen items!  Including frozen spinach!  YAY!  I also found Tater Rounds and Pepper Stir Fry (as you can see the blend also includes onions)!

I looked at these items over and over again and couldn't find any ingredient that wasn't on the safe list of vegan finds!  I think I scored pretty good this past weekend!

There were additional canned items and frozen items that I didn't include in these photos but they were pretty plane-jane items like canned beans, for example...and frozen and canned corn, too!

Eventho these are labeled 100% vegetarian...they seem to also be vegan!  I'm always excited to find 'breaded' items that are made WITHOUT egg!  So I had to scoop them up!

I also saw these veggie burgers that I never tried before this last trip to the store!  I have tried one already and the flavor is tasty but I have to work on the texture.  I did them with grapeseed oil in a frying pan and they were still a little mushy...I will certainly work on that SOON.  The important thing is that the taste was good, eh!?

Next up and from the same company are Vegetable Empanadas and Vegetable Samosas.  The Empanadas are Black Bean based and take well to my small toaster oven.  The Samosa's are yummers and I have pan fried them.  They have whole seed spices within that pack that lovely punch, too!

I enjoy coming up with different vegan sauces to pair with these and I am sure to do more in the near future.  I ended up getting TWO of each of these as well as the Beans and Burgers you see above, too!

And FINALLY...Jennifer Garden Vegetable Spring Rolls!  Again, no egg!  YAY!  I had these as a part of my hubby's family's Thanksgiving Dinner this past weekend and made a dipping sauce for them which consisted of soy sauce, peanut butter, maple syrup, lemon juice, garlic powder, etc.  It turned out pretty good!  I LOVE these because they are so small and cute!  I also pan fried them.  I think they would be mushy if microwaved.

YOUR TURN!!!!

An InLinkz Link-up

$1 Vegan Cookbook Surprise Finds! Yay!

A few weeks ago I stopped by our local Dollar Tree and found the following 2 books for only $1 each.  I was so excited!  Not only are they vegan cookbooks/vegan books - they were ones I didn't have my collection!

I had read the 2nd one already but not the 1st one, here...Simple Pleasures: Healthy Seasonal Cooking & Easy Entertaining by Cornelia Guest. 

Not only did I like this book for the recipes but for the information and photography, too!  The little 'gems' throughout the book were delightful.

Cornelia broke recipes down my season and occasion throughout the book not necessarily by dish like most cookbooks do.  I thought it was a nice touch.  It was a very neat book!

The Veganist by Kathy Freston I had read before and enjoyed, too! 

When I read it - I had borrowed it from my local library - but - when I saw that Dollar Tree had it for sale for only $1 I just HAD to purchase it!

Kathy's book is certainly more info than recipes but both were appreciated.

Now that I have found these two books at my local Dollar Tree I will be keeping my eyes peeled for more!

Brand new vegan cookbooks for just $1?

Yes PLEASE!