Mostly Food But Some Flowers, Too!

LONG POST AHEAD!

This one will be mostly vegan food finds but I have a gorgeous floral photo to share, too!  I'm still going thru MONTHS of photos to catch-up and I have a lot of event-related, family, and life type photos to share but I'm a little low on time to write thought-out captions and explanations so I thought I would theme this as a food post.  

First up...Dr. Praeger's California Burgers.  Dr. P's might not seem like an awesome find but for me, locally, I have been seeing more and more of this brand popping up and wanted to give credit where credit is due.

From several months ago here is a picture of some tofu nuggets I made at home.  It's mostly flour and spices with nutritional yeast and I baked them.  I know it's not a wonderful photo but I was pretty proud of the attempt!

Here's another vegan product from the candy show that my Dad found a while back.  They were tasty!  A tad iffy on the gums but I just need to learn to pace myself!

I'm sure I have already posted this product from Upton's, however, at the beginning of summer I found it on sale over at the Erie Whole Foods Co-op and I just HAD to buy it.  I enjoyed it while camping!

Another snack from the show.  Just HAD to share!  I LOVE the Cranberry and Pistachio combo!  YUM!

Here was another meal I made at camp this year.  It was when I was running low on groceries but it 'did the job'.  It's the new VEGAN Morningstar Buffalo reformulated jobbers.  I can usually find them cheap at our local TOPS.  Sometimes I see them on sale 3 for $9.  I put Vegan Mayo on the bottom and Organic Ketchup on the top.

I can't remember if my Mom found these at Wegman's or if I spotted them at Walmart but I tried them and they weren't bad.  I'll probably only buy them again if I find a super good deal on them again, however.

You know veganism is going mainstream when you can find these at the local gas station!  Oddly, it was my first and only time to date that I have tried this flavor.  They were pretty tasty!

INSERT random yet beautiful floral photo here!

I saw these in the spring at peak bloom on my way to OR from work.  I park near this church and these really bloomed this year!

I have been seeing more and more places carry Lenny and Larry's and I have to say I am thrilled.  Some I like 'ok' and others I adore...like this one!  YUM!

Another Gas Station Find.  LOVE THESE!

Haven't seen them since at that location but so glad they carried them for a while.

Here's another newer product from Vegan Rob's.  Again...from the candy show.  My dad also grabbed me one of their hats!  These Wild Mushroom Potato Chips were way better than I thought they would be!

I have been telling you about my VEGAN FINDS at Ollie's...well...here's another one!  $2 each - Earth Balance Peanut Butters.  But...not just ANY Earth Balance Peanut Butters...they're flavored ones!  Coco Pretzel Crunch and Coffee Chocolate Crunch.  BOTH were a tad dry-ish so you might not be able to snack on it like you normally would BUT I still need to try them in smoothies thru my Vitamix or BlendTec and report back!

I've had these before and really liked them but when someone finds you a FREE SAMPLE you must cease the day, right?

And speaking of FREE SAMPLES...here is another one!  It's was lovely.

Check these out!  I've seen them before but it's been since this past summer that I had a chance to try them!  They were freakin' figgy I will tell you that - and I enjoyed them!

And just to prove that I have been eating real food and not just snacks...here is one of the wonderful veggie dishes I made a while back.  It's simply...broccoli, purple baby potatoes, regular baby potatoes - in a skillet with coconut oil!  I adored this as-is...

...but I was eager to try is as a leftover so I did.  I added cashew cheese, pico, and lettuce and made them into little burritos or soft shell tacos!  They were fantastic!

Earlier in the summer a group of us brought back our local WWN (Working Women's Network) and had meet-up at a local flower shop that also opened a winery/sampling room.  It was right around that time that the business had an Open House of their own and had a local band perform and provided munchies.  The store owner is a friend of mine.  She actually graduated with my sister.  Her parents and my parents are friends.  Her mom and sister actually do my hair, too!  I had a nice time at the open house and LOVED she included so many fresh fruits and veggies in her munchies/offerings!

I almost forgot about these pea puffs.  Not because I didn't like them but because it's not a great photo and because I haven't seen them since.  I believe I found these at our local Walmart in Spring/Beginning of Summer.

Here is a thrown together veggie curry I made a while ago.  I remember it being good and thinking I should have made more of it at the time.  Fall is here in NY and PA and I am sure I will be making more curries SOON!

Total Evolution has been my go-to the last several months.  They have been coming up with some really great vegan options.  They always have vegan buddha bowls and this is one of them!

Yet another vegan camping foods type photo!  Indian Vegan Burger, Vegan Italian Pasta Salad, and Zucchini - peppers - and onions in coconut oil.

As you can see it was July when I bought this.  I do LOVE this bread.  When I visit the Erie Whole Foods Co-Op and see it on sale I have to grab some!  It's soooooo filling!

Are you still with me?  I know this has been a monstrously LONG post.  Let me know in comments if you made it to the very end!

I found this flavor of Bobo's at Wegman's along with 2 others and they helped me get thru breakfasts during Fair Week.  I haven't even talked about Fair Week YET but I have so much more to share with you before I get to Fair Week!  YIKES!

Certainly more posts to come SOON.  In the meantime, tell me what you have tried, what you haven't, what you liked, what you didn't, what you have found in your neck of the woods lately, and all that JAZZ!

Vegan Snacks, Vegan Cheese, Vegan Soup, Vegan Pizza Pods!

A little bit of a shorter post today.  Not because I don't have more to blog about but because I'm rather short on time.  I'll mostly be blogging about vegan food today!  I'm kicking things off with a photo of these Cinnamon & Sugar Pop Popcorn Mini Cakes.  They were YUMMY!

I recently came across this Spicy Blanco from Siete and enjoyed it much more than the cheddar flavor I tried a while back.  Not that I didn't like the flavor of the other one BUT I found it to be a bit runny and thin.  This was thicker and the consistency was much better - especially for dipping!  The taste was better, too!

I found that our local Tops had a bunch of stuff on their discontinued shelf.  I'm not sure if they are eliminating them to downsize that section (I hope not) or just trying to make room for NEW products!  Here is one of the items I found that they are discontinuing!  I had not tried this one from Amy's yet so I thought I should grab it before it was gone!  It was pretty good!

And here is the meal I had the last time I was in Buffalo (which was a few weekends ago)!  We went to one of my favorite places...The Pizza Plant!  They have many vegan options there including their famous PODS!  I was able to build my own and went for the vegan cheese and artichokes!  YUM!

Kombucha Journey, New-To-Me Vegan Amy's Kitchen Products, & Ms. Trinity

YIKES!  Yet again...time has gotten away from me!  I have way too many photos to post and things to blab about so I'll have to work towards checking those items off my list and not overload everyone in one post.  Altho...I have a feeling this post will surely be long enough on its own!  First up...an update on my Kombucha Journey!    This was the 2nd batch I did and we did do a 2nd ferment with it!  My parents found a few of these cute bottles at TJ Maxx for cheap!

In the first photo, you will see our first flavor.  It was straight-up Kiwi!  In the 2nd photo, that is pure blueberry!  Both were fizzy and both were tasty!

And finally, this one is orange and kiwi!  We have started our 3rd batch and it should be ready to fruit and 2nd ferment in about a week.  It's been FUN!  We already have quite the SCOBY Hotel going, too!  I think we might have to start doing more than one batch at a time!

A few weeks ago I went to the Erie Target and found a few new-to-me Amy's Kitchen Vegan Labeled Products including this Ravioli!  It was SUPER tasty!  The sauce really MADE it!  The only problem with these Amy's meals is when I find one I really like I could eat like 4 more in one sitting!

Then there were these Asian Dumplings.  At first bite...I thought it was 'ok' but as I continued eating it I found myself really enjoying it!  After it was all gone, I found myself wanting more!  

Paella!  Another winner!  I really didn't have much of an opinion of this going in only because I'm not a Paella Guru by any means.  I think I only had Paella maybe twice before and I made it both times and I made it myself so who knows if it was close to a traditional Paella.  Regardless, I did find this one quite tasty and I would certainly buy it again!

And to finish out this post I thought I would post a pic of my wonderful niece with my parents dog.  I have a series of these photos on IG in case you want to see more.  Ms Trinity calls me Aunt Ja Ja.  She's a gem!  I love her dearly!  

Recent Cheap Eats & Zonta Happenings

Today I have updates on recent cheap eats and local Zonta updates.  I thought I would start off with food stuff and I'm working a little backwards because this is what I had to eat last night for dinner.  I made a couple of sandwiches.  Chickpea Sandwich Spread Sandwiches to be exact.  I still had some canned chickpeas from a Brandless order in my pantry.  I added some Just Mayo, Garlic, Parsley, Black Sea Salt, and Smoked Paprika.  I made a double batch so I still have some for dinner tonight.  I might try and pair it with something else, maybe, to change it up.

I've been a little too addicted to making sauces and homemade vegan sour creams with a cashew base.  It's been too pricey and I really shouldn't do that in January which is the worst month budget-wise.  So I challenged myself to make a vegan Mac & Cheese with no nuts, no seeds, no potato/carrot-combo, and using just a few ingredients.  This is what I came up with.  It's been a while for a vegan cheese sauce like this for me.  I used a little Vegan Butter Flavored Coconut Oil, Earth Balance, Yellow Mustard, Flour, Almond Milk, Onion Sea Salt, and Nutritional Yeast.  It turned out pretty good.

Saturday I continued cleaning our kitchen that has gotten out of hand.  While I was doing that I was able to take some time to cook a few things for a bit of meal prep...such as Lentils!  But before I get to what I did with the lentils I have to tell you about this dish, first.  What you see in the photo above is a Sweet Potato Spinach Mash topped with leftover homemade vegan sour cream.  It was AMAZING!

Enter the LENTILS!  After I cooked up the lentils I added the leftovers from the Sweet Potato and Spinach Mash and that is what you see in this next photo  I ended up adding quite a bit more vegan sour cream (because...why not) and it was super tasty!

Late last week we had our monthly Zonta meeting.  This month was a lunch (next month will be a dinner).  They are VERY open to vegan options and always accommodating!  This month we did a Taco Bowl Bar!  This was mine!  They set aside the bean and corn salsa without the dressing special for me and they had a taco seasoned chicken that was cooked separately and offered off to the side!  Of course, I passed that over and opted for extra avocado instead!  Mine contained Quinoa, Tomato, Corn, Black Beans, Avocado, Red Onion, and Lime Juice.

During our Luncheon, we recognized 3 women in our community who make a difference.  These are the 3 ladies we recognized.  I knew all 3 of them.  The one I nominated is the person on the right.  She is highly involved with several dozen aspects of our county fairgrounds as well as our local Red Cross.  The person in the middle is involved with many literacy programs, student programs, senior citizen programs, voter registrations, and others.  And the person on the left is involved with early childhood education, child literacy, area fire departments and first responders, and more.

That evening we had a Service Committee Meeting.  That went really well and we planned for the next several months.  In addition, we had another Free The Girls (FTG) Bra Shipping Party!  We shipped another 456 bras in 5 large boxes!  

Juicy Burger Bar - Hamburg, NY

Something I wasn't able to blog about last week due to catching up on other posts was our recent visit to JuiCy Burger Bar in Hamburg, NY. For those of you who aren't familiar with Hamburg, NY, it's just outside of Buffalo.

I was thrilled to find out they had clearly marked vegan options on their menu! I opted for the ALL UP IN MY BEAN-US Burger. You could get a vegetarian or vegan option. The vegan option was a dollar less than the vegetarian option. It was made out of black beans, carrots, quinoa, and mushrooms with greens and the carrot vinaigrette is what you see on the bottom and on top is the pickled red onion. 

I was very pleased with my choice but just have to mention the other vegan options I noticed on the menu, too! There was a Falafel Burger that could be made vegetarian or vegan and again the vegan option was a dollar less. It was made out of tomato, cucumber, onion lettuce, tzatiki. They also had vegan poutine that featured a Smoked Onion Gravy and grilled tofu. If we visit there again I would like to try that. They also offered a Field Greens Salad.

I enjoyed the novelty of the mini fryer baskets to hold the fries when they came out to the table. Another thing I have to tell you is I could have eaten a whole jar of those pickled onions! I think I need to make some of them soon! I was so intrigued by the carrot vinaigrette I wish they would have given me more! I love different and creative vinegars!

I have noticed that Western New York is getting more and more vegan options in non-vegan restaurants! I can't wait to see what else we come across in 2019!

Wednesday Already?

Is it Wednesday already!?  WOW!  Time is flying by - that's for sure! 

This past weekend the fairgrounds housed the Wild Wind Festival which is a large folk art fall fest of sorts here in our region.  It's a Juried Show and has vendors from over 20-some states that attend.  It was said that about 7,000 people were there on Saturday.  Sunday's weather was awful.  But since I was on the grounds anyways...and EARLY...I was able to FINALLY eat the Artichokes from the one vendor that comes each year that I never was able to try up until now.

Fried Artichokes!  The photo above was the sample they had out so the sample showed it with mayo and hot sauce.  The vendor just gave me the hot sauce and I went back to my camper and mixed it with JUST MAYO Garlic Mayo and it was FAB!  They use Peanut Oil and the only thing on the artichokes was a cornmeal so it was vegan!  YAY!

I told you about me looking forward to seeing more goats and I did just that.  The guy who brings them had a few new additions.  These lil guys were only 3 weeks old and they didn't get too far away from their parents!  There was another one that was tan and brown that was about 8 weeks old and he was a bit more outgoing than these two.  Regardless, they were adorable!

He also brought a bunch of turtles he had rescued throughout the years.  Here was the biggest one of the bunch.

I was able to spend quite a bit of time with my parents over the weekend which was nice.  It has been wonderful having them at the fairgrounds this summer.  They have been working their butts off, too!

I recently ordered from VeganEssentials so I will be having LOTS of new-to-me things to share once I get them in and sampled so stay tuned for that!

As for my contribution for Vegan MoFo today - it's a bit of a stretch - but here goes...Spicy without the Chillies was the prompt.  Doubt I achieved it but thought this find was worth the mention.

It was pretty sweet but had some nice spices mixed in.  I added a teaspoon or so of Just Mayo Garlic Mayo to it for a little something different.  Yup!  You got it!  I ate this at 'camp'.  I still had some vegan convenience foods on hand that I wanted to finish up before cleaning out the camper for winter storage.  I also had some corn chips with this and it scooped up nicely.

I believe I found this new-to-me Sweet Earth product at the Wegmans in Lakewood.

Animal Friends, Plant Life, Hot Temps, and Colorful Meals!

Last week I took a walk in a nearby park.  This nearby park has a Pollinator Garden in it.  There were some plants that had already 'expired' for the season but there were several that were left blooming and beautiful including this one so I took a picture.

Last weekend I spent commutating back and forth to the fairgrounds.  We still camp there and volunteer each weekend on the grounds.  This coming weekend there is a folk art festival that we will be attending on the grounds, too!  I hope to take more photos of the grounds and of this years festival before we are no longer down there for the winter months.

Since Monday was a holiday I didn't have to work so I decided to take Cricket with me.  She had fun with my mom and dad's dog Lexi and some other dogs that were down there.  She played and walked a lot.  On our way home she was sooooo tired!  She laid down on my lap while I was driving and fell asleep!  She was even sluggish the next day!  So cute and so funny!

Some of you know I adore goats!  Each time I see one I have to spend some time with him/her, make a fuss, talk to them, etc.

This is one of the goats I saw over the weekend - last weekend!  He was giving me kisses and nibbles!

I should be able to see more goats this coming weekend.  Usually, at this festival we go to there is a guy who rehabs animals and brings them for the kids to pet.  I remember blogging about them before/in previous years.

I do have some vegan items to share for Vegan MoFo but first I will get all of the non-food stuff out of the way!

It's been a hot summer but I have to say that the last 3 weeks has been a little NUTS!  I LOVE hot temperatures but I don't like it when the humidity gets out of hand on top of those hot temps!  That is exactly what has been happening these last few weeks. 

The other day it was over 100 degrees AND I swear it was near 100% humidity...then...the power went out for at least 3 hours! 

This is the dash of my new Fiat!  I have to say I love it more and more each day!  I already put almost 2500 miles on it!

Now on to the food!  Today is COLORFUL Meals!  Well, I had to try and fit this into today's prompt for Vegan MoFo!  It's last weekend's Vegan Fair Food Option.  We ended up going to Stoneboro Fair and there was a Mexican Food Truck there and they were SO NICE!  I asked all the 'normal content/ingredient questions' that 'we vegans' tend to - and they told me what everything was made with/how it was made/what it contained!

I opted for these Nachos that I customized.  They had Salsa, Lettuce, Black Beans, and Rice.

They were tasty!  Sometimes...all you have to do is ask, right!?

One of the things I have had at the camper all summer - just in case - I got the munchies and couldn't find anything FAST - and/or didn't feel like a sandwich - or cooking - I had these Salted Caramel Organic Brownie things from Nature's Bakery!  I've tried their other flavors before but this was a FIRST for me with their Salted Caramel!  They are rich, that is for sure!  I have to say...I'm a fan!

Another thing I wanted to mention...my parents went to Erie the other day and brought back one of the Mad Mex's vegan options for the Angry Hippie Burrito...they offer Daiya Cheese and Tofutti Sour Cream as options!  It's been too long since my last trip to Mad Mex!