Alfalfa Sprouts & Orange Tempura Cauliflower

As you can tell from the multiple posts - I LOVE my new sprouting trays!  This week I sprouted Alfalfa Sprouts and here is what they looked like bright and early this morning.  I have been nibbling on them ever since!

Next week I'm thinking Radish Sprouts and/or Broccoli Sprouts!

What would you like to see me sprout?

I borrowed this photo because it was the only one I found online of this box and I already threw away the one in my freezer. 

I found this Ittella Orange Tempura Cauliflower at Sam's Club and the vegan "V" was delightfully displayed right in front!  YAY!

I had this for dinner the other night and have 1 more package left.  The box came with 2 packages and 2 sauces.  I baked them.  They turned out good but next time I want to make them crispier.  OMG they were so YUMMY!  I will certainly be buying these again whenever I see them!  And I hope that it's often!  DH even liked them!

Bulk Shopping, Vegan Sandwich Spread, Leftovers!

This past weekend I was with my parents on a mini shopping spree!  More so them than me but I did grab a 6 pack of these babies at Sam's Club!  I just saw on Amazon that they are between $19 and $21 for 6 pouches...at Sam's I found them for under $10...closer to $9 actually!

The other night I threw together a new homemade vegan sandwich spread.  Here's the recipe:

1 can of Organic Chickpeas

2 Carrots

1/4 C Just Mayo

1 T Yellow Mustard 

1 T Dijon Mustard

1 T Lemon Juice

Handful of Cashews

1/2 T Wildtree Garlic Galore (or minced garlic)

Sprinkle of Onion Powder

Pinch Black Himalayan Sea Salt

Topping: Sprinkle of Smoked Paprika

All in the blender!  YUM!!!

I had it on that new seeded bread I LOVE and then with the leftovers it was good enough to eat as a side with last nights meal.  I had a plate of sides - it seemed - I also had a hefty helping of the brown rice and quinoa you see above.

Vegan Power is doing a $5 a day vegan challenge and I'm game for it, too!  I will mostly be eating from my pantry and/or $5 a day or less if possible.  Mostly this was out of my pantry with the exception of the new quinoa/rice which probably averaged out to be about $1.50.

Confession...I STILL need to be better about breakfasts!  Eeeeeeek!

Much more on the way very soon!  I have some visits and photos to share as well!

Kitchen Garden Update & Fruit Finds of the Weekend

Check out this photo of the progress of my herbs that I'm trying to grow in my kitchen! 

At first - the Basil was the one to sprout and I was afraid the Chives and Parsley weren't going to do anything BUT then the Parsley REALLY took off and there are a few sprouts for the chives now, too! 
As of this morning the Parsley is in first place!  Not that it's a race but I LOVE seeing the progress of each one!

Speaking of progress in the Kitchen Garden Department...here is the Celery I have been attempting.  I ended up cutting it right after I took the photo.  I had been removing the not-so-good parts from the bottom for a while not and it looked like it was at it's peak of growing.  So I grabbed it and gnawed on it.  It was a more intense flavor of celery and I really want to do more of this soon!  I think next time I will try and transplant it...but I will keep you posted on that - if I do it or not.  I really thought it would get taller but - again - it was only my first time trying it.

Now...on to some Fun Fruit Finds for the weekend! 

First up...OPAL APPLES.  I was drawn to these because of the unusual YELLOW color as well as their enormous size!  They are bigger than a good sized grapefruit!  THEN...I saw the name and could help but think of my blogging buddy OPAL. 

What a wonderful surprise to come across these apples!  We bought TWO of them to try.  Last night hubby and I had them for "snack" and neither one of us was able to eat the whole thing!  While reading up on these apples they are one (of the few) apples that never turn brown.  So after cutting them up I covered the slices and took them out the of frig this morning to bring with me for a snack today and this is what they looked like!  They stood up to the claim of NOT turning brown!  How COOL is that!  (No Lemon Juice needed)  I have to say I DO like these apples!  They might be my 3rd favorite at the moment!  I still like the Pink Ladies and Kiku Apples better than the Opal as far as flavor and personal preference is concerned.  But I wanted to mention them on my blog here because it was an interesting find for me...I don't see a lot of the produce that they may see in California, for example.  I know the variety of many produce items is stronger out there!  Oh!  By the way...I purchased these apples at Wegman's.

Another great Fruit Find of the weekend were these grapes!    I couldn't find too much info about them, really.  I see that some of the Wholefood Markets have sold them on occasion.  I ended up getting them at Sam Club.  I think they were like $6 or so for 3 pounds!  It was CRAZY!  It has Gioia as the brand/name and they are Extremely Sweet Pinkish Green Color Grapes that are supposed to be seedless.  Eventho I have only had a few handfuls so far - I have found about half of them to have seeds and the other half of them to be seedless.  I think they might be similar to these grapes but they look a tad different.  Each grape seems like half is a pale and fading green that morphs into a pale and fading pink.  They are really interesting!  At first I thought they might be the Cotton Candy Grapes that Christine blogged about a while back but they aren't.  They don't fit the taste profile.  These grapes taste more like a cross between an orange, grapefruit, and grape.  So...if anyone has seen or ate these grapes before let me know your thoughts and if you can find them online - I wasn't able to find a website for them, specifically.  Since this post was a little long winded I think I will stop there but I do have a lot more to blog about from the weekend so swing by again soon!

Smiles, Savings, & Sprouts!

 This was my husband's fortune in his fortune cookie the other day!  It cracked us up!  Immediately we thought of Mike Meyers' LOVE GURU.

 If you read my post from yesterday you will see I went shopping!  Sure I spent some - but I also saved!  I found these babies at our local Big Lots!  I love finding random goodies there!

 Like I said I started sprouting again and here is a pic of the Lentils I am sprouting!  More coming soon on these and what I will do with them!

 And if you have been to my blog before you know I have been posting a lot about my cats and dogs!  Well, here are some more pics of my pups!  The top two are Suzie and Riley.  They are BUDS!!!

 And here is Senor Paco!  This was taken Sunday Night...he totally did this himself.  He sure knows how to bundle up!

 Okay...more produce!  These are from Sam's Club.  I bought 3 pounds for $2.99!  OMG!  I LOVE these Zima Tomatoes!

I bought 3 different kinds of Granola at Big Lots the other day!  This was one of them!  All 3 I bought were free of animal products - thus being - VEGAN!

Like I said...I have LOTS to post!  So stay tuned!  These are just a few of the many things that have made me smile lately, the sprouting I have been up to, and the savings I have found!

How about you?

Participating Post In:

Raw Food & Mono Meals

 I took a few days off but I'm back and have LOTS to post about!!!  This is one of them!  Fresh Produce!  Raw Food!  Mono Meals!  Clean & Healthy eating and Snacking!  I also posted these on Instagram.  I'm working on adding additional tabs to my site, here, and will try and connect other places you can find me.  I've made some new friends on Instagram and have really enjoyed their posts.  I've also found out a lot of them have blogs so I will be linking up to them soon!  Let me know if you are on Instagram and I will FOLLOW you on there, as well.  As you can see I have Apples I bought this past weekend!  They are Organic Gala Apples.  My area is a little short on Organic foods so when I find them at a good price I try and buy them!  I found these at Aldi.  This post is also a little earlier for my Midweek Munchies Post but I really stocked up so I will have more to post on Wednesday - stay tuned for that too!

 I also found Avocados!  They tend to be expensive here so when I saw them for 68 cents at Aldi's I couldn't resist.  I just found out they will be even cheap on Wednesday so I hope to go back!  They should be 48 cents then!  Woot!  I bought two this past weekend and ate one already.  I usually try and buy at least half of them ripe and the other half not ripe so I have time on them.

 I also got some Blackberries!  Another thing I usually don't buy because of the price...but these were only 99 cents!  YAY!  I brought them with me today and might have them for my lunch today or breakfast tomorrow!  I'm thinking about using them in with Grapenuts & Coconut Milk!

 Mangoes!  LOVE Mangoes!  Another fruit that is pricey here but they had these crates of 6 at Sam's Club for about $6...I HAD to get them!  As you can see I already ate half of them.  I'm getting my husband into them, too!  But they have to be almost over-ripe for him to eat them!  We had 1 each and split the 3rd for a snack yesterday!  It was AWESOME!

And I got these little cuties at Aldi's too!  Mini Sweet Red Peppers!  I haven't eaten any of them yet but might try and do something with at least half of them tonight.  I am thinking at least half of them I might slice up and dip in hummus and/or Guacamole.

Now that we are Sam's Club members I hope to get more bulk fruits and veggies but the closest one is a good 40 minute drive from our house so it won't be consistent...but when we do I hope our trip is meaningful.  I'm also sprouting again which I will do another post about in the next few days!  Right now I am sprouting lentils!  So far - So Good - on the attempt!

Since it's just ME that eats this way in my house...it's EASY for me to do Mono Meals.  Much of what I have learned about Mono Meals came from Dan McDonald (AKA The Life Regenerator) and Dara Dubinet!  Both of which are on YouTube as well as many other Social Media Outlets.  I have Dara on Facebook and I'm super excited because Dan recently LIKED one of my photos on Instagram!  It was of my Lentil Sprouts!  Woot!

Participating In:
Marvelous Monday
Monday Mellow Yellows