3 Vegan Dipping Sauces & Other Tidbits!

I finally bought some potatoes last week.  I know that doesn't sound extremely exciting or out of the ordinary but it's been a while since I last purchased fresh, whole potatoes.  The ones I bought were VERY juicy, too!  Next comes a confession.  Since then...I have made oven fries and wedges 3 days in a row!  What made these special are the vegan dipping sauces I paired with them!  This first one is a Vegan Garlic Tahini Aioli...

1 C Vegan Mayo
2 T Tahini
3 t Garlic, Minced
4 Drops (or more) Orangic Liquid Smoke
1 T (or more) Lemon Juice
Sea Salt (to taste)

Next up is Spicy Paprika Dip...

1 C Cashews
1/2 C Almond Milk
3 T Lemon Juice
2 T Grapeseed Oil
1 T Dried Onion, Minced
1 T (or more) Smoked Paprika
1/2 t (or more) Sea Salt
1 Squirt Sriracha

I enjoyed BOTH of these quite a bit.  I did notice the first one with the Tahini in it was even better the 2nd day after being refrigerated for a while.

Creamy Avocado Dip is the final one of the trio!

2 Avocadoes
2 t Garlic Tahini (or 2 t Garlic, 2 t Tahini)
2 T Lemon Juice
Splash of Grapeseed Oil (optional)
Sea Salt (optional and to taste)
Parsely (optional and to taste)

This one was pretty YUMMY, too!  Of course, I have been craving Avocadoes more than usual lately and was FINALLY able to find a decent price for them.  They were $4.98 for 5 of them.  Not great but still lower than I have seen in MONTHS!


In other news...

A shout out to some of my newest visitors to My Blissful Journey in both Bangladesh and Latvia.  Last night I also had someone stop by from Greece!  I LOVE seeing all of these wonderful neighbors from other countries stopping by!  I will now be doing some research on more vegan recipes from those countries and hope to try more of those foods (and recipes) out soon!  If you have any suggestions I would love to hear about them in comments!

A few things I have been trying to catch up on lately are...

The Walking Dead and the current season.  I'm only into episode 4, I think, but I hope to get caught up this week.

I'm also in the process of thumbing thru the following eBooks...

Get Up and Green: Nourishing Recipes for Abundant Energy & Glowing Skin by Elisa Museles of Kale & Chocolate, Live Vegan Vibrantly presents A Delicious, Healthy, & Nutritious Holiday, Forks Over Knives "A Forks Thanksgiving, and The Everyday Guide to...Mindful Eating from Trish M. Ward.

 What have you been up to?

This Is What Happens When I'm Too Lazy To Eat Vegetable Curry...

Yesterday I posted a recipe I used for 'whatever you have in your kitchen' Curry and I had a lot of leftovers but the problem I was having was I wanted something super simple to digest and I was being lazy and didn't want to be a slob and get the huge broccoli chunks all over me.  So I decided to put it in my blender and pulse and this was the outcome.  I know it probably doesn't look pretty to some people but it sure was yummy!  I added a little bit more smoked paprika and turmeric powder!  Yummers!

I figured I would also take this time to do a bit of catching up on what I have been watching, listening to, reading, writing, etc...

What I'm Watching...

Or...should I say...what I watched?  Yup!  I binged watched it and I'm NOT sorry!  I can't wait for season 3

As for music I always have an eclectic mix.  Lately, it's been flashing back to Fleetwood Mac and Tom Petty while squeezing in some 90's Billy Joel and Guns N Roses.  Not to mention some random show tunes now and again!  Oh yeah...and some Reggae to lift my mood!

As far as what I'm reading and writing...well...

I write commercials for a living (among other things) so I'm always writing something.  But lately, I have gotten back into writing short poems.  I haven't done this in many years.

As for reading, I'm not like most people...I don't ready books cover to cover.  I read collections of poetry, magazines, cookbooks, and such.  

I have so many eBooks that I have been thumbing thru that there are too many to remember but some of them off the top of my head are...

The Best Sh*t I've Ever Made by Tess Challis
Mend Your Way To Healthy, Happy, and Strong by Victoria Moran
Heal Your Hunger Workshop from Alex Jamieson
#MakeItYourself Healthy Kitchen Essentials from Happy & Raw
7 Day Healthy Dinner Challenger Quick Start Guide from Happy & Raw

What about you!?

Catching Up On Some Reading...

It just occurred to me that September is just a few days away which means not only is this years Vegan MoFo taking place but that means FALL is on its way and winter is right around the corner.

I suppose is as good as time as any to catch up on some reading, eh!?

I downloaded this eBook months ago it seems.  It was FREE thru Vegan Cuts.  I have yet to tap into it.  Shame on me!

I noticed while thumbing thru that Vegan Yak Attack is behind some of these recipes so I KNOW it will be good!

Of course I have other books I am still trying to catch up on and if you put 'cookbook' into my search bar it will show you some of the books I am talking about!

With my last shipment of goodies from The Raw Food World I received an eBook because I bought some Monkfruit Sweetener and will be experimenting with that soon.

This cookbook has celebrity chefs such as Donna Gates, Katrine Volynsky, Cherie Soria, Elaine Love, Chanetal Roy, and Karen Russell.  Of those chefs the two that I am familiar with are Cherie Soria and Elaine Love and I like them both so I am excited to learn about some more new-to-me chefs and their recipes!

I already see a raw vegan lemon cheesecake that has caught my attention.

I do like eBooks but I also like books that you can touch and feel, too!  I'm not much of a book reader but I'm more into cookbooks and reference books than anything.

And speaking of eBooks...

Earlier this summer I took part in Fully Raw Kristina's "Love Your Body" Challenge.

Because I met all of the requirements I qualified to receive her eBook for free.  This photo was on the cover.  I've always loved her videos and photos because of the color that pops thru.

I really love her raw vegan ice cream ideas, HUGE salads, mono-meal ideas, and JUICES!!!

This eBook has 14 meal plans, too, which I always love to check out.  Even if I don't do them to-a-tee I like to grab ideas from them!

And speaking of meal plans...

I also have this to read on deck!

Adria DeCorte's "My 7-Day Raw Meal Plan: Eating Mostly Fruits and Veggies in Real Life."

This eBook is darned impressive at an exciting 60 pages!

I already see a slew of raw sauces for ZOODLES I'm interested in...and just in time for squash season, eh?

So...these are the eBooks I have on deck to read.  I'm also back a couple of issues of my Vegetarian Times!  So much to thumb thru so little time, eh?

Here's one of the issues I have on standby and the other issues is below.

I've been a subscriber of Vegetarian Times for at least 15 years.

I'm pretty sure I still have most of the issues, too!

I have noticed over the last 5 or 6 years they are incorporating more and more vegan recipes so that is great.  A magazine I used to love even before going vegan was VegNews and I know that the production of it was halted for a bit but I thought I heard and/or saw that it's out and about and on shelves again!  I will have to look into that for sure and SOON!

What are your favorite eBooks?  What are your favorite magazines?

Are you a subscriber to Vegetarian Times?  If so what did you think about these last two issues?

Are you into any of the other eBook Authors I have mentioned in this post?

What about raw foodies?  Which raw foodies do you tend to follow?

I have had a bunch of people ask me which YouTube Channels I watch when it comes to raw and vegan people around the world.  I will most likely be doing a post about this in the near future.  In the meantime I would love to hear about your favorites, too!

HAPPY WEEKEND!  Any exciting plans for anyone?

Garden Diet, Blogging Buddies, Quick Meals, NEW Wildtree Products, The Furkids, & Chajin

Yesterday I wrote about my salads and the leftover dressing I added to them and today I have photos for you!  I also took one with Nutritional Yeast over top of the dressing but I think you get the idea.  My favorite part of this is how colorful it is!  LOVE the colors in food!

I'm inspired by other people when it comes to Juices, Smoothies, Dressings, and other Home Made Foods.  Two of my favorites are Opal and Christine.  I would recommend these two blogs to anyone!  Both of these ladies are wonderful people - very nice - knowledgeable - and compassionate!  They are very hard workers and busy gals but always drop by to say HI on my blog!  I LOVE that!  And I want to thank them both for being such good blogging buddies!  Christine has been ROCKIN' the Avocado Dressings lately and I finally took the step to try one of my own!  I'm glad I did!  Now I am looking forward to my next attempt!

And it was Opal who originally introduced (virtually) me to Storm and Jinjee and I have been following them on Social Media for about 5 or 6 years now.  I get their emails and updates and have learned a lot from them both!  They have a beautiful family!  This morning I received on of the emails from them with a special deal in it.  In short, I could get 22 of their eBooks for just $19 - as well as some of their fave recipes and lifetime access to their Message Board/Site.  After some thought I decided to take that step, too!  I went ahead and tapped into my secret stash and bought the $19 package!  Read more about what that includes HERE.

Lately I have been adding Organic Lemon Juice to my water!  I know it sounds easy enough and it is.  Lemon is detoxifying, helps fight bacteria, helps fight pain and inflammation, and much more!   I want to do at least 1 large glass a day of this.  Throughout the day I drink plain water and various teas and herbal tonics.  I have also been increasing my smoothies and I do like juicing on occasion, too!  Other than those things I don't really drink much else.  (As a treat some wine or crafted ale).

Yesterday I also told you about the Vegan Mac & Cheese I did and how I had SO MUCH left over Vegan Cheese Sauce!  Well, last night I made some White Rice (I usually use other rices and haven't been using as much White Rice Lately but I am trying to use what little I have left to get some more shelf space cleared as well as more empty Mason Jars). 

Anyhow...

I made this Vegan Cheesy Rice & Veggies Dish with the sauce I had left over!  I used some mixed veggies, here, as well!  It was a super simple and QUICK dish and I had it for an early lunch today.

Last week we 'got word' of a few new products that will be available in our Wildtree Line including 3 USDA Organic Drink Mixers and 2 Seasonings.  They will be on the website and available for purchase this weekend!  I haven't tried them yet but I have had a lot of people comment on them! 

I'm also very excited to see the new LABELS and LABELING that Wildtree is rolling out!  VERY EXCITING!  Again, we are rearing up for tomorrow's tasting and pairing at Liberty Winery in Sheridan, NY, and it's going to be a GREAT TIME!

I was so happy to get some mail from Japan today!  I received Sayama Aracha Sencha Green Tea from Yunomi.us produced from the Morita Family Tea Garden in Japan.  Along with it I received this note!  I'm so excited to be Chajin AKA "tea person" or "Lover of Tea".  I will be reviewing this and other teas over at the Sororitea Sisters Website that I co-founded with my Sororitea Sister Anne a few years ago!

Last night the "furkids" were being even CUTER than usual so of course I had to snap some quick pictures on my iPhone.

Here is Paco!  What a HAM!  He's sitting on the Love Seat all in a perfect circle.  He does this when he gets tired at the end of the day...right before bed.

I tried to get photos of the cats but Charlie was sleeping and it turned out fuzzy and Gabby was in the dark and I didn't want to interrupt her slumber either.  Soon, tho, I will have a CAT Day!

Riley has been doing pretty good after his oral surgery!  His panting isn't as bad and thankfully his breath isn't as bad either.  SOON I will be getting Parsley from my mother's herb garden and giving them each a little bit each night.  Parsley is a great Breath Freshener.

After I took Paco's photo on the Love Seat - Riley barged thru - so I had to take a photo of him on the Love Seat!  I swear they are totally like human children!  "Mom...he took my seat!"

:)

The leader of the pack - Suzie - prefers being up HIGH so she was the rebel and jumped up on the back of the Love Seat and sat there. 

For an older lady - she is still quite the SPIT FIRE.

So there are some updates and photos on the "kids"...but not before Paco gets his last word in - with a 2nd photo!

So...what are your plans for the weekend?

What dishes did you make this past week that you were happy with?

Any mini-goals for the next week?

Who are some bloggers and buddies that inspire you?  What are their websites/URLs?  I would love to pay them a visit!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, everyone!  Drop me a note!