10-Minutes or Less Vegan Recipes, Women's Right To Vote Coin, & Hail Merry Chocolate Mint Tart

Yesterday it hit 70 degrees!  Woot!  I sure enjoy that much more than -7 degrees!  I have to say between the weather getting better - or being better for the moment - and my pain management - PLUS - my new volunteering and cookbooks I have been in a pretty good mood as of late!

This book - Real Food, Really Fast is the next book I wanted to share with you!  I'm embarrassed to say that this is the first of Hannah's books I have bought so far (So Sorry) but I have a feeling it won't be my last!  This is a pretty neat book!  I already see LOTS of things I want to try!  And with the recipes being ready in 10 minutes...no one has an excuse, eh!?

Last night I attended a League of Women Voters Coffee & Conversation topic on Refugees.  We had a nice turnout and the feedback on the topic and speaker was great!

Speaking of women and voting...

I recently received this coin from a swapping buddy!  It's the 100-year commemorative coin for Women's Right To Vote in Canada. 

Rumor has is the US might release one for their 100 year - which is 2020.  I hope they do!

I now have 146 different coins present in my Foreign Coin Collection!

This was another item I picked up over the last weekend.  I found this at the Erie Wholefoods Co-Op and it wasn't badly priced.  There were only 2 left so I decided to try it.  Last night I cut it in 4's and only had 1 small piece.  That was really all I needed!  It was very sweet and rich!  Mint Chocolate and Orange Chocolate are my two favorite kinds of chocolate when I do eat it so this was FAB!  Oddly, I thought it tasted a bit like coconut.  I re-read the ingredients and it DOES have coconut oil in it but I doubt it was THAT flavorful.  Regardless it was tasty and I'm looking forward to another little piece tonight after dinner!

One Pot Beer Chili Mac

I was finally able to locate the photo of the Thug Kitchen 101's Skillet Beer Chili Mac attempt.  Here is my version with the changes I made below...mostly because I didn't have a few things on hand and tweaked based on what was in my pantry.

1 T of Grapeseed Oil

1 Onion, chopped

1 Carrot, chopped

1 Orange Bell Pepper

Pinch Cayenne Powder

2 t Cumin

2 t of Smoked Paprika

Black Sea Salt to taste

2 T Tomato Paste

1 can of unseasoned Tomato Sauce

1 C Beer

3 C Water

3 C Kamut Pasta

1 can Chickpeas 

1/4 C Nutritional Yeast

1 T Maple Syrup

1 T Lemon Juice

Garlic Powder to taste

Last Week - sometime - I made a simple Buffalo Chickpea Wrap.  This is what the inside looked like.  The Buffalo Chickpeas were SO YUMMY.  I will have to see if I can recreate them and NOT lose the recipe I did in the near future

Another quick photo of a recipe I made and lost the actually recipe for...Cheaters Tomato Soup.  I used Canned Diced Tomatoes for the base...that's why I named it Cheaters Tomato Soup!

This is one of the many coins I have gotten recently!  The reason I was interested in it so much is because it said Trinity on it!

And...speaking of Trinity...here are some photos of her!  She's already hit the 8 month mark!  I can't believe it!  I also can't get over her smile, here!

And this one makes me laugh every time!  She was trying to eat those veggie puffs that are in the shape of Cheerio's and it ended up on her nose and stayed there for at least 5 minutes!  

We took a day trip today and found some really awesome places and I will be sharing those places and items within the next couple of weeks - so do check back often!

Now I'm off to catch up on YOUR blogs!  Sorry for not stopping by much lately!

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!

Dips, Diddies, Coins, & Vision Boards

Silly me!  I didn't write these recipes down!  Oops!  But you will get to see some of what I have been eating as of late. 

First up is this little diddy.  It's Brown Rice, Chickpeas, Tomatoes, and Seasonings that I made last week.  It was tasty.  I literally just threw it together!

It's been a week or a few weeks of craziness and I just jotting down my recipes totally slipped my mind!

Yup!  There were various dips, too!  Like this one!  I can't recall everything I put in it but I'm sure it was Cashews, Red Bell Pepper, Smoked Paprika, and probably Lemon Juice at the very least.

I really thought I was going to make at least a couple of soups because it has been so cold this week but I didn't have time.  As I type this it's -2F actual and wind chills in the area made it feel like -25 to -30F.  YIKES!

Here's another dip I make last weekend.  I used the last little bit of vegan mayo I had in the frig, garlic, smoked paprika, lemon juice, a handful of cashews - were probably involved - and most likely some black sea salt - but just a pinch.

What dips have you been trying lately?

I told you I was going to start doing monthly Vision Boards.  Here is my first one and it's a mish mash of things but then again I think that what Vision Boards are mostly.  Things you want to do - things to inspire you - things you want to remember - and things you want to work towards!

This month...Start Each Day With A Grateful Heart was the re-used calendar visual I grabbed from my old 2017 calendar in my office.  Instead of throwing old calendars away I re-use them as other art in some way, shape, or form.  I added a lot of peace, love, laughter type things, too!  Also time to play, do yoga, smile, socialize, etc.

While cleaning last weekend this was one of the many  past projects I found so I thought I would rehang it on the wall. 

As you may have noticed I reuse clothes hangers to hang artwork.

I have also been experimenting with my old alcohol inks again.  I hope to post some of those projects down the road, too!

I was able to reach a mini goal of setting aside a space for my yoga again but I have yet to actually do it.  Perhaps this coming week I will be able to check that off my list, finally.

Things seem to be coming along with my mini-goals.

Another mini-goal for next week is to get to the post office and mail more coin swaps!

I'm having fun with the site I found and have already doubled my collection in 2 weeks.  There is a local shop I have found a lot of them for cheap and I got my firs swap in today, actually! 

I currently have coins from 61 countries!  YAY!

Cashewgurt & Numista

The last several days or weeks have totally gotten away from me!  I knew for the last 5 or 6 days I wanted to post something but other things kept popping up!

Finally, as I get back into the swing of things and posting again I thought I would share a couple of things with you starting with this Cashewgurt!  Hillary has mentioned it on her blog a couple times or more and I was so excited I finally found it in my region!  Problem is - because I didn't blog about it right away - I can't remember if I found it at Wegman's in Lakewood or Buffalo Whole Foods!

Regardless, here are the two flavors I found and tried.  I enjoyed both of them.  I think the Strawberry was sweeter but I think the Blueberry was more intriguing.

The most important thing I want to mention here is the texture!  This has the best texture I have tasted to date when it comes to vegan yogurt alternatives!  It's not gritty or mealy or grainy.  It's completely smooth.  I do think it was a bit on the thin side but I would gladly have that over the goofy texture if you know what I mean!

In other news...

I know I have been blabbing about the virtual flags I have been collecting on my flag counter widget but over the last week I went 'dumpster diving' thru my old boxes of memories and found my Foreign Coins from over 20+ years ago!  They are from when I had over 120+ pen pals from around the world.  A few of them swapped low value coins with me.

I decided to finally catalog what I had which ended up being about 90 coins from 26 countries!  I used a site called Numista and it's a wealth of info - that is for sure!