Thayers Unboxing, New Camper, Christmas Recap, LOTS of Veganized Food, Family Update!

I'm ALMOST to the point where I am caught up enough to start posting regular daily posts again!  YAY!  This SHOULD be the last post of 6-pack splash of photos!

In this first photo, you can see the kitchen in our new camper!  I'm sure I will elaborate on that soon!  But...YES...we traded in our 2014 Starflight Travel Trailer and bought a 2017 Cougar 5th Wheel! 

I recently received a WONDERFUL gift box from Thayer's!  I will be doing a full post on this VERY SOON!  Spoiler warning...I LOVE the products Thayers sent me!  There was a soap bar, Lozenges, and 2 Witchhazels!  One was cucumber and a spray and the other was lavender and a large bottle at that!

My father was recently in the hospital.  Right before Christmas, actually.  We were thrilled to have him home in time for the festivities!  He's been a lifelong Asthmatic and had 3 bouts with a terrible cold over the last couple of months.  It turned into Bronchitis.  He was treated by his regular doctor for that but everything they gave him didn't work.  He ended up in the hospital and had Severe Bronchial Spasms.  He was put on at least 3 steroids - among other things!  He would go on hour long coughing jags.  It was very scary!  With all the steroids he was on it messed with his blood sugar.  They tried combating that with other things and that messed with his heart rate.  They combatted that and it messed with his oxygen levels.  Now that he is home he has made a lot of changes to his diet and really keeping tabs on his diabetes.  He's doing much better with the bronchial issues - THANK GOD!  I signed him up over at MyFitnessPal and they are cooking at home a lot more.  Mom and Dad are trying new foods, too!  He's already lost 7 pounds!

The plate of food you see above is one of the meals I ate with them the one night (minus the chicken he added to his plate).  Mom and I made seasoned Sweet Potatoes, Seasoned Cauliflower, and I made some pasta.  Sweet Potatoes are a near freebie for him so we are trying to incorporate more and more into his diet.  I bought them an Air Fryer for Christmas.  This was even before all of the doctors and such.  So far they have tried Sweet Potato Fries and Asparagus in there and enjoyed it.

As you can see in the one photo...my little niece is holding a hella-huge Sweet Potato.  She thought it was a football and started running around the house with it!  GOD...I love her!

Here you can see Trinity in her Christmas Eve Coat.  It's a faux fur type material that her other grandmother made for her.

I've been posting a lot of the Thayers stuff on IG because I love it so much!

A few days before Christmas I was still going over to my parent's house a lot for my Dad's meals and holiday prep!  My mother found crazy leggings at Walmart for $2 each.  She bought a few pairs and we decided to wear them that night and again on Christmas Day...you will see that photo below with my sister and Trinity photo bombing us!

Like I said before, my father is starting to eat more and more Sweet Potatoes!  And to be honest I have been too!  I figured WHY NOT and other than stand alone and fries I haven't done much with them.

I was trying to figure out what to top it with and I'll tell ya...I have a new favorite!  Baked Sweet Potato topped with Salsa and Guacamole!  YUM!

A while back I found Kite Hill Rav's and finally made them the one night for dinner!  I LOVED them and can't wait to get my hands on them again!

On Christmas Eve, my mother made some Vegan Cranberry Orange Muffins!  They turned out GREAT!  We had them on Christmas Morning!  Other Christmas Eve foods you can see above are...Vegan Cream Cheese Pinwheels or Roll-ups that I made with Daiya Cream Cheese...my sister made a Vegan Spinach Artichoke Dip.  She used Earth Balance Mayo, Tofutti Sour Cream, and Follow Your Heart Parm.  Mom made some Spiral Pasta, and we also made some Cheesy Potatoes!  They made a regular version for them and a vegan version for me!   Actually, it was a tag team effort...my mom made the potatoes and left some out for me after cooking them up plain...she then added Daiya Shreds and baked.  She was busy with other hustle and bustle so I took them out of the oven and added Earth Balance Margarine and more Daiya Shred!  They were YUMMY!

Christmas Eve, Trinity wore a cute plaid dress under that coat (pic above).  The next morning she had a blast opening presents and we had an even bigger blast watching her!  She got a Disney Tent/Tunnel thing from my parents as you can see above.

The last two photos on the bottom here show her opening gifts and one of the things Dale and I bought her...a Farmers Market Produce Cart!  Leave it to the VEGAN AUNT, eh!? 

Christmas Morning we always do a big breakfast!  I usually make grits.  To mine, I add vegan cheese.  This year I had some leftover Smoked Gouda I cubed up from the night before.  I paired that with leftover Vegan Spinach Artichoke dip from the night before and it was darn tasty!  I ALMOST forgot to mention that I finally used the JUST EGG and my first attempt with it was a success.  I did a plain omelet.  I'm looking forward to trying other omelets and getting more creative with the product down the road.  I threw a little salsa and gauc on there, too...and a half bagel!

This is the time of year we usually try and pinch pennies a bit.  First quarter is always tighter than the rest.  I wanted to see what I could buy for very little and will probably be doing more of this in the coming months as I have in Jan-Feb-Mar in years past.  I recently went to our local Tops and bought 6 different frozen veggies, 4 cans of tomato sauce, rice, and quinoa.  I only spent about $8 on this trip!

How was your Holiday Season?

Thai Tom Yum, Snowstorms, & Veganize It!

I had to order this Thai Tom Yum online because I haven't been able to find it in ANY of the stores I have been thru the last several months.  It's a vegan version of Thai Tom Yum and the brand is Dr. McDougall's.  I have to say - I am a fan!

It sure helped with the extreme cold we have experienced the last couple of days.  We had a back-to-back snow storm hit us with COLD temps.  Yesterday I don't think it passed the 15-degree mark.  When I was driving home it was 12.  Over the last 2 days, we have had between a foot and a foot and a half of snow so far.  Eventho I live in the snow belt I still don't like it. 

I've been doing a lot of thumbing thru my new vegan cookbooks as well as a lot of online research of recipes from different countries that I can try and veganize.  ANd speaking of Veganizing...look at my other new book!!  It has some really great ideas in there but there is a large fake meat chunk I will probably never do anything with.  I've also been able to collect a lot more flags on my flag counter which is really exciting!  HELLO to my newest visitors from the countries of Georgia, Albania, Cambodia, Armenia, Costa Rica, Libya, Mali, and United Arab Emirates.  I smiled when I saw newbies from Columbia, Djibouti, Timor-Leste, Serbia, Burundi, Greenland, Somalia, Algeria, Seychelles, and Palestinian Territory.  Plus my new friends from Malawi, Botswana, Ethiopia, and various islands including Pitcairn Islands, Virgin Islands, and Christmas Island.

Veganized World Food Inspiration From Poland, Vietnam, and Pakistan!

I thought I would use this Friday Post to take a look back at some of the World Food posts I  have done that ended up being some of my favorite attempts at veganized versions of worldly favorites.  First up is Polish Creamed Mushrooms over Fettuccine.  You can use this as a pasta topping like I did here and/or you can use it like a soup or side.  I'm betting it would be lovely over mashed potatoes, too!  Are you from Poland?  Are you vegan?  If so let me know of some of your veganized favorites!  I would LOVE to try them!



Here is what I used for the Polish Creamed Mushrooms...

1/4 C Earth Balance
2 Cloves Garlic
10-ounces Mushrooms
1 C Soy Milk
1/4 C Tofutti Sour Cream
1 T Soy Flour (Bob's Red Mills)

This was reminiscent of what I remember Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup being but BETTER.

This was another blast from the past in term of a sauce I really enjoyed and being able to take a nice photo!  I'm currently in the process of re-working a photo space at my house.  I hope to have something like this back up and going soon.  The inspiration for this sauce came from Vietnam.  If you are from Vietnam and know of any vegan or easily veganized dishes I should look into please let me know!  I would love to try them!

The ingredients all went into a blender and it was super easy to make - as are most - if not all of the sauces I attempt here.  I remember this being a little thin the first time I tried it so I would suggest with less liquid when first starting to blend and then add more if you need it.

1/2 C Peanut Butter
1/4-1/2 C Water
2 T Bragg's Liquid Amino's
1 T Frank's Hot Sauce
1 T Wholesome Sweeteners Raw Brown Sugar
1 tea Minced Garlic

I remember a couple of years ago when I wanted to try a simple Pakistani dish and came up with this take on Aaloo Bhaji.  After I posted it a few people told me there are other countries that have their own version of this, too.  Such as Aloo Bhaji from India.  I'm interested in either.  So if you reside in a country that has this dish please let me know what it contains and which country you are from.  

I'm also looking for more dishes from Pakistan to that are naturally vegan or easily veganized.  So if you can help me out with ideas in comments I would greatly appreciate it.

As I have said a few times in the last week or two I want to branch out and attempt more world foods again.  I figured this time of year was a great time to do that.

Here is what I used in this attempt of Aaloo Bhaji.

2 C Potatoes - cooked
Small Handful of Wildtree Onion & Chive Blend (or you could use 2 small onions
1 t Black Mustard Seeds
1 t Red Chili Powder (and/or Cayenne)
1 T Earth Balance (I also used a splash of Garlic Grapeseed Oil)
1 t (or less) of Turmeric

All on the stove top until desired texture and darkness is reached. 

While I am writing up a post about world foods I would love to give a few shout outs to some visitors that stopped by the last couple of days!  Hello visitors from Czechia, Israel, and Finland - as well as those from Singapore, Turkey, and Lesotho.  Again if you are from any of these countries and are vegan I would LOVE to hear some of your favorite dishes!  And if you are from another country please feel free to let me know in comments, too!  The more the merrier!  I hope to do more shout outs and food inspiration posts like this in the near future!  

I Acquired 25 Pounds of Mushrooms Over The Weekend...FREE...And Other Weekend Happenings

Over the weekend our region had one of the largest seasonal folk art craft fairs in our area and one of the vendors asked if any of the volunteers wanted free mushrooms so a friend of ours said that he knew someone who would want them.  They were already washed, sliced, etc and ready to go.  When he brought the box of mushrooms over I was SHOCKED!  There had to have been a good 25 pounds of mushrooms in there!  Here are some of them!

 After sharing with 4 other people who only grabbed about 5 pounds each I still had LOTS left.  So last night I made soup!  LOTS and LOTS of soup!  More on those soups in future posts but today I thought I would post some other random photos from the weekend.  After 4 large batches of soup - my mother and I did a few other things with them including a favorite from my childhood that we veganized.  POM (Peppers, Onions, Mushrooms).  We cooked them in Earth Balance Vegan Spread instead of the butter/margarine we used to when I was a kid!

At this same folk art fair was this lil guy...a Prairie Dog!  My father and I adore them!  There is a man who brings his fur friends each year - and we have seen him at other events - I believe he rescues a lot of the animals - you can tell he really LOVES them!  Each animal has a name and he remembers ALL of them!  He also currently has about 300 goats and mini goats, too!  He was telling a lady that he will NOT bring a goat who doesn't want to come that day.  They all want to go (he doesn't force them).  He says "ok - who wants to go" and a bunch of them will run over to the truck(s)!  He had some turtles, large rabbits, and a mini horse, too!

Oh yes!  And the goats!  They were adorable!  All so friendly and well behaved!  I really connected with a few of them!  I have wanted 2 goats for a while now but don't know the first thing about caring for them.  Regardless they are so cute!

I can't believe it's fall already!  Oye!  It bums me out because I know that snow is right around the corner!

I will cherish the non-snow weather for as long as I can, tho!

In other news...

The decorated rocks are popping up all over for various groups so we decided to do them for the radio station.  Here are a few that I started already!

I'm not the best drawer but I try and it's FUN - it gets me out walking a bit more and it helps relieve some stress!

Random Leftovers & Sauces & Wraps

I hope everyone had a nice weekend!  The weather here certainly was more pleasant than the earlier part of the week was.  I'm hoping the snow is done and over with for this winter and we can continue on with your adventure of SPRING!

My post today will be a little all over the place.  I've been eating some strange food combos but everything has turned out pretty YUMMY!  I want to be sure I am not wasting food and using what I have before buying much more.  So far this has been going well.  I'm on a bit of a wrap kick but more on that shortly.

First I need to share with you one of the new dips I created last night.  It's a vegan version of a pink sauce that I saw on Giada.  It was on at DH's Grandmothers yesterday and I knew I could do a vegan version of it fairly easily!

Here is what I did for the vegan version I made...

1 C Vegan Mayo
4 or 5 Mini Sweet Red Peppers (or 2 Medium)
1 T Minced Garlic
2 T Lemon Juice
Sprinkle of Smoked Paprika

It was pretty YUMMY but next time I will be adding more sweet red bell peppers and more garlic!  Because that's the way I roll!

The veggies pictured in the first photo were left over from DH's Grandmothers House...we had a belated birthday for both him and I as our birthdays are only 6 days apart.  I treated myself to a Daiya Pizza and So Delicious Mint Chocolate Ice Cream (both vegan, of course)

The other night I had Vegan Mac & Cheese.  You have probably seen a LOT of Vegan Cheese Sauces I have done here on my blog so I figured I would share yet another one with you!

This one is a Nut-Free Version

2 Mini Red Bell Peppers
1/4 C Lemon Juice
3/4 C Nutritional Yeast
3/4 C Tahini
2 T Minced Garlic
1/2 C Water
1 Squirt of Yellow Mustard
Black Himalayan Sea Salt to taste

Now on to the leftovers, eh!?

I had a very little bit of my Tater Tot Casserole that I froze.  I threw that on top of the stove along with some corn and some leftover tofu cubes.  I took a wrap and warmed it up with a slice of Daiya on it - enough to melt it.  Then I threw the rest of the warm ingredients on top of that and made a wrap!  But not before adding about a tablespoon of salsa on top!

This was super YUMMY and certainly a comfort food for the WIN!

 Like I said I have been on a wrap kick lately so here is another I did.  This is a Vegan Breakfast Wrap.  My main goal here was to use multi-colored baby potatoes I bought at Aldi's not too long ago but needed to start using SOON as well as finish up the Daiya Shreds I had on hand.  Mission Accomplished!  Let me tell you what is in this one, shall I?

Leftover Cubed Tofu
Leftover Corn
White & Purple Mini Potatoes
Daiya Shreds

I also threw in some Egg Trick Seasoning that I had leftover from when I did my Egg Trick Bagel last week!  This worked out VERY WELL!  It was tasty!

Last Day of Vegan MoFo '15 ~ Fusion & More

Today is the last day of the 2015 Vegan MoFo.

I'm sad it's ending.  This has been my favorite year YET!  I want us all to keep in touch year-round!  I've been thinking about this for half of the month!  And I hope you will join me!  I will be making a personal blog roll of those of us who would like to A) Keep in touch year-round B) Visit and comment on each others posts on a regular or semi-regular basis.  Those are the only two things to consider prior to signing up for this blog roll!

Let me know in comments if you are interested and I will try and maintain this on going list and blog roll.  Feel free to tell others about this and grab these little graphics to post on your blog and link back to this post.  After today I will have the list at least started.  Feel free to copy and post that list if you wish! (Building and maintaining Blog Roll at the end of this post or see side bar.)  I had some thoughts of doing once a month blog hops with this list, too, but could use some help with it as I do have some time constraints.  Let me know if you would like to help.

Yes...this is going to be a very long post for several reasons.  One because of my little 'pity party' over MoFo ending and how I will 'miss everyone' and because I'm following suit with my fickleness and couldn't post just one thing based on today's prompt which was "Fusion".  I goofed earlier in the month when these were swapped out for seasonal foods but I figured I would post a little bit more of potential fusion dishes today from my archives or more specifically WORLD FOODS that I have done in the past and want to try and do again in the very near future!

First up...

Foods from Vietnam!  THIS POST featured the photo you see here which was Vegan Vietnamese Peanut Dipping Sauce next to Vegan Store Bought Spring Rolls.  Oddly the original post was from the 2013 MoFo.

In that same post you will see my attempt at West African Sweet Potato Peanut Bisque, too!

Next up was my first attempt at Panelle and you can check that original post out HERE.

This Vegan Panelle was inspired by and LOOSELY based on a Sicilian recipe I saw years ago!

I have to say that the Garlic Dijon Aoili really completed this!

Another country I featured was Turkey with this Turkish Red Lentil Soup.

From Denmark I tried to veganize a Parsley Sauce HERE.

Check out this Casablanca Cous Cous I did a while back, too!  I will have to do another Cous Cous very soon!  I've been HUNGRY for it - that's for sure!  And it's SO versatile!

During this years Vegan MoFo I blogged about some of the Irish Foods and Norwegian Foods I have tried to veganize and I want to do more of that in the near future, too!  If you have ideas of dishes and/or countries you want me to try let me know!

Another 'first attempt' I was pretty tickled with was the first time I tried to make Vegan Fried Green Tomatoes!

Check that out HERE.

I didn't have a lot of Fried Green Tomatoes growing up because I was very much a 'Yankee'.  My husband, on the other hand spent a few years of his childhood in the south and often tells me about the foods from that region.

Friend Green Tomatoes being one of them.

Black Eyed Peas being another.  But I will get to that in a moment.

Also in the Friend Green Tomato Post you will find this next photo for Veggie Fried Rice!

This turned out YUMMY and it was when I was using the VEGG product that was sent over to me.  That is a neat product if you can find it!

I really LOVE all of the color in this dish!

I have to give a special 'shout out' to the one and only time I made a recipe from Moldova, too!  It was a soup!

Check that out HERE.

Now...back to the Black Eyed Peas...

I rarely ate them when I was young.  Again - because I was from the north and my family wasn't really 'into' them.  I have since tried incorporating them into some recipes and foods I have eaten.  They aren't my favorite bean.  But I'm ok with them either way...just not one I would reach for first if you know what I mean.

But this dish could just be the FUSION recipe this post needs?  It's a Boston Black Eyed Peas Variation I did a while back.  It's something from the New England States.  North AND South...FUSION.  What do you think?  A stretch?

Vegan MoFo 2015 "Off Season" Community Blog Roll

Jennifer @ MyBlissfulJourney

Vegan Power/Vegan Peace @ My Cat Loves Daiya

Tea and Sympatico @ Tea and Sympatico
Emma @ Walks, Talks and Eats

Add Your OWN:

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