Hemp Dill Dressing & Dip, Butternut Pepitas, & Savviness!

I don't know why but this cracked me up way more than it should have this morning.  

Yesterday I didn't feel as hungry and I'm chalking it up to the morning Multigrain Hot Cereal I blogged about yesterday.  I had more today.  It was pretty tasty.

It seems like the guys are doing well with their challenge.  The 3 of them - with the 3 significant others - are in a group text and we have been getting updates often.

As for me - my no pasta and no bread streak remains!  

2 nights ago I made a Hemp Dill Dressing/Dip that turned out well.  The only downside is that now I'm almost out of Hemp Seeds.

1/2 C Hemp Seeds

1/4 C Water

1 tea Wildtree Garlic Galore (or Minced Garlic)

1 Quick squirt of Yellow Mustard

1 tea Dried or Fresh Minced Onion

1 T Balsamic 

1 T Maple Syrup

1/4 C Grapeseed Oil

1 T Dill

Sea Salt to taste (I used about 1/2 T)

My parents spent a long weekend in the Finger Lakes touring wine country and brought back some of these for me!  They are marked VEGAN right on the bag and only contain Butternut Squash Seeds and Sea Salt.  I'm glad they aren't overly salty.  They are JUST RIGHT!  A few handfuls of these bad boys got me thru work yesterday!

These seeds are high in Vitamin and beneficial antioxidants like lutein and beta-carotene. These are the same seeds they roast and press to create their butternut squash seed oil.  The seeds have hulls that are softened by brining and roasting and do not need to be removed before eating; they should be eaten whole.

Better Choices

Eventho I cannot remember where I bought this box of Better Oats Organic Maple and Brown Sugar Multigrain Cereal with Flax I'm super excited I found another new-to-me product.  I'm also thrilled it's organic!  I have been seeing more and more organic labeled items in my small town.  That gives me hope that there will be more to come!

It's been frigid all morning and that proves that fall is officially here.  It was 25 degrees on my way in.  A hot bowl of this made it better.  The texture is a little different but the flavor is good!

I'm day 3 on my no bread and no pasta run.  Day 2 on the official challenge.  As I mentioned yesterday - my timing is horrible to start this!  Not only is it Vegan MoFo and I have hardly contributed anything to the month-long blogging celebration - yesterday was World Bread Day - and TODAY is National Pasta Day!  Yikes!

But it's all about BETTER choices.  I'm been rocking the salads for DAYS and now I'm back into making my own salad dressings.

As an added challenge, I'm trying NOT to buy anything new at the grocery store this week and work off of what I have in my pantry already which is NOT MUCH, to say the least.

In case you were curious about the contents of this salad dressing here is the Blender Recipe for this Tomato Paprika Vinaigrette that you are seeing above....

2 C Cherry Tomatoes

4 or 5 Sun-Dried Tomatoes

1/4 C Balsamic Vinegar

1/4 C Garlic Grapeseed Oil

2 T Agave Nectar

1 tea Paprika 

Onion Powder to taste

Wildtree Garlic Galore (or Garlic Powder) to taste

Pink or Black Himalayan Sea Salt to taste

My Timing Isn't The Best...

My husband and 2 of his buddies are challenging themselves to shed some weight.  It started today and ends in 30 days.  One of them is doing a detox program that Arbonne has.  The other one and my DH are doing their own thing.  While I'm not involved in the challenge I decided to throw out bread and pasta.

Over the last year and a half or so - I have gained back a lot of my weight that I lost while first dropping dairy.  There are 2 reasons as to why this has happened.  First and foremost I am terrible at eating breakfast.  Many times I skip lunch, too, so when I get to dinner I'm starving and overeat and then I don't have enough time to burn that off before going to bed.  In addition, I have gotten lazy with my cooking attempts.  I tend to fall back on pasta and bread.  I think with these few choices I can make a difference.

My timing isn't the best...

Today is World Bread Day.  Perfect day to NOT eat bread, right?  Wrong!  But so far I'm doing it!  I'm on day 2.  Last night I had a Romaine Salad and made up some Buffalo Chickpeas to throw in and made some vegan salad dressing.

Easy Vegan Buffalo Chickpeas

1 Can of Chickpeas

2 T Earth Balance

3 T Sriracha

Sprinkle to taste...Garlic, Onion, Sea Salt

Splash of Almond Milk to cook down

all on the stovetop!

For the dressing...I was to the end of my Just Mayo but didn't have the heart to throw what little I had left away.  I added a little splash of Almond Milk, Ketchup, a squirt of Sriracha to the bottle and gave it a good shake.  It made a great salad dressing for this Romaine & Buffalo Chickpea Salad.  

This hit the spot and I will surely do it again soon!