Weekend Round-Up & Raw Vegan Giveaway!

This past weekend it was my intention to start my weekend giveaways here but something went wrong so I will start them today instead.

But before we get to the prize at stake I thought I would tell you a little bit about this past weekend!  First up...one of the smoothies I forgot to post last week!  It was delicious!  It had Blackberries, Blueberries, Strawberries, Raspberries, Coconut Water, and Garden of Life Vanilla Organic Plant Protein.  I just LOVE the color of this...don't you?

No...this isn't a vegan ice cream...it's Balsamic Beet Hummus!  I made some over the weekend because I enjoyed the Beet Hummus I bought the weekend before from Trader Joe's!  In this there is...1 C Small Beets, 1 C Chickpeas, 1/3 T Tahini, 2 T Lemon Juice, 1 T Garlic Grapeseed Oil, 1 to 2 T Balsamic Vinegar.

Sunday I cleaned some of the kitchen and frig.  I concentrated on the stove and used one of the new products I got from Norwex and it worked really well.  I did 2 loads of dishes and dried some laundry.  I cleaned the dogs pens out and did some of their blankets.

I finally had time to roast some squash I had.  There were types the Kabocha Squash AND Spaghetti Squash.  I roasted them with Garlic Grapeseed Oil and 2 different kinds of pine nuts (standard and long).

I then took the Spaghetti Squash and used it in the base for the dish you will see in just a little bit and I cubed up the Kabocha Squash and used it as well.  I sampled a bit of each and they were tasty!  Below is the finished product.  It's a Thai Curry Squash with peas and pine nuts.

I ate a bowl as a soup and it was totally YUMMY.  Since I made a HUGE batch I decided to cook up some lentils and rice so I could pair it for meals this week.  For the base recipe I used...1 small spaghetti squash, 1 small kabocha squash, 1 T grapeseed oil and about 1/4 C Pine nuts - I roasted those ingredients at 380 degrees for about a half hour.  I then took 1 sweet onion and cooked it down then added half the pine nuts that were roasted and about 6 basil leaves that were dried and crumbled.  Added 1 can of coconut milk,  I added the spaghetti squash to it and simmered for a few then put in my blender to make a base.  I then added 4 T Wildtree Green Curry Paste/Sauce, the other half of the roasted pine nuts, 1 C Peas, and Black Sea Salt to taste.  It turned out great!

Saturday we sold our Wildtree products at a regional winery.  I'm thrilled because this winery doesn't use purifiers, clarifiers, or preservatives in their wine that tend to be fish or gelatin based!  Next to the door they had this crazy looking guy and they were all decked out for Halloween.  It made all sorts of weird noises and moved.  They had him on an operating table and it was fun to watch the people come in and freak out when the sensor went off!  It was a very windy day and driving home was a bit challenging at times because of the wicked wind!

Saturday night the dogs enjoyed snuggle time on the sofa.  Paco liked that I let him use my pillow, too.  He's doing well but his legs still have good days and bad days.  He's a trooper, tho, because he still trucks around the house in his own special way.  And of course he's still as cute as ever.  Sunday night the dogs seemed to enjoy family time, too!  We caught up on Grey's Anatomy and Reign which are two of the shows we enjoy during the week on Hulu.

Okay!  It's time!  It's time for the giveaway I intended for this past weekend!  All you have to do is be a US Resident and comment on this post with your email addy.  Garden of Life is letting me give away a TUB of their Chocolate Raw Meal!  It's vegan and RAW!  New packaging and everything!  Woot!  I will choose a winner sometime tomorrow and announce the winner on Wednesday!  Each weekend I will have a different giveaway, too, so stay tuned!

Wildtree & Liberty Winery, Cats & Dogs, Smoothies & Super Heroes, Chiropractors & Corvettes, OH MY!

 It's another Monday Mish-Mash of a post, here, hope you don't mind!  I got a nice "sweet and innocent" shot of Charlie this weekend - don't let the feral cat fool you, folks!  But of course we LOVE him anyway!  Charlie is a BIG Cat!  Then there is Gabby who is the Tiny Tot of the family.  Altho the next photo is a little dark and grainy I wanted to post it regardless because it's cute and rare that I am able to capture a moment like this.  I took it last night right before bed! 

Charlie has this thing with my sneakers!  He lays on them and protects them.  Last night I started wearing my new sneakers which I will blog about later this week.  As you can see he and Gabby are BUDs.  You can also see just how BIG Charlie is and how small Gabby is, here.  They are polar opposites!  Gabby is always happy and mowing and purring and Charlie is our little BAD ASS.  But together - they work!

Last Friday afternoon my husband notified me that our 1972 Stingray Corvette (with T-Tops) was ready for the warm weather and road-ready for the season.  He did a lot of work on it last summer and I hope he/we get to enjoy it this year!  One of the last things that happened before we put it in storage for the winter we ME getting my Michael Franti CD stuck in there!  Grrrr!  I'm still waiting for the CD, hint, hint!

Last week my father was out of town on business.  He's a Merchandise Manager for a local/regional Convenience Store Chain here and he buys beverages for the stores among other things.  Each year they have a large trade show in Buffalo, NY, and it's themed.  This years theme was SUPER HERO(es).  He decided he was going to dress up like Wolverine from The X-Men Franchise.  The X-Men have been one of my faves!  My father is a shorter type man and in his early 60s.  He has Salt and Pepper Hair (we don't say grey)!  But here he is having a blast as Wolverine along side a co-worker as Captain America.  He had a wig for this but dyed his mustache.  He dye didn't come out so he had to shave it off!  My father has only NOT had his mustache twice in my life!  It just doesn't look right but at least it will grow back, eh!?

Saturday we spent the day at Liberty Winery in Sheridan, NY, and had fun with the staff at the winery as well as our Wildtree Tasting there!  It was a very nice day!  Here is my sister with one side of our display!

And here is the other side of the display.  very sorry if these photos are small than usual...I had to use photobucket for storage and uploading today as the blogger platform was taking forever to upload them.

We have the next few weekends off but then we have 4 weekends straight where we have Wildtree Events planned!  One being the Gus Macker 3-on-3 in Warren, PA - I think we might only do that Saturday of the Basketball Tourney - it's paired with the annual Burger Festival.  Then we have a Strawberry Festival coming up as well as Women In The Outdoors event near Chapman Dam State Park but I will fill you in on those as they get closer!

This photo of Paco was taken Sunday.  I thought it was too cute NOT to post!  Paco was a very good boy this past weekend!  He chilled out most of Sunday/Night.

In other news - I finally got an appointment with a Chiropractor tomorrow - I will let you know how this goes but I am not going to lie - I am nervous as hell!

And, finally, for today, anyways...a SMOOTHIE!

This morning I made a HUGE Smoothie - I have enough for tomorrow, too!

Mixed Berries - Raspberries, Black Berries, and Strawberries with Soy Milk and Oriya Protein Powder!  It was one of my better attempts at smoothies thus far!

How was your weekend?  Do anything special?  Did you take any photos?  Do you have any Wineries nearby that you frequent?  What are their names?  Have you ever gone to a Chiropractor?  For Sciatica?  For Leg/Hip/Arch Problems?  Any tips?

The Pups & Jumpin' Jakes

Yes!  I'm still very behind in my posts!  Sorry!  But I have some pics and stories for you right now!  Including this photo of my 3 Puppers!  I woke up Sunday Morning and Paco wanted out and to play 'like RIGHT NOW", I was up so I figured WHY NOT.  After a while he calmed down.  I caught him in a rare moment of rest as you can see here!  Paco's in front, followed by Riley, and then Suzie is at the end of the sofa! 

Last night I took Paco to my mom and dad's house.  My mother and I put in another Wildtree order!  We are gearing up for another event this Saturday!  We will be at Liberty Winery in Sheridan, NY, and I am very excited about it!  Hopefully we will have nicer weather than we did this past weekend!

Speaking of the dogs of the house...here is another photo of Paco sleeping on my lap over the weekend!  He's so sweet when he's sleeping!

My husband has been snacking on cereal in the evening instead of sweets in most cases and he has been on a Capt'N Crunch kick and apparently Paco is a fan as well.

He has learned to sit with the help of "The Captain".

Riley didn't want to feel left out of the photos this past weekend so he decided to do something CUTE as well!

All 3 of the dogs like getting under the 'covers' and Riley will do that at night usually while we are trying to sleep - as does Suzie!

They sure keep life interesting, don't they?

Also over the weekend we were driving to our nearest Wegman's - which is still 30 mins away and on a rather busy road - TWO Turkey's RAN out in front of us! 

My husband said they were "Jake's".

According to Wiki Answers:

A Jake is an immature male.They look much like hens,but are slimmer.In the winter,young of the year stay with their mothers in large flocks,roaming the winter woods in search of food.Adult males form gobbler flocks,and stay to themselves until spring,when mating season begins.

It was a rare occurrence for us and certainly got our attention!  I'm very grateful that we didn't hit them!  However, they looked quite PISSED at each other and didn't much care that we were in even in the area!  Perhaps they had a 'falling out' or were fighting over 'who gets the girl'.

PS - this photo is a stock photo and not one of the actual bird that we encountered!

Well, I have more planned for tomorrow - how about you!?