Oh Deer & Girl Power!

Yet another bump in the road!  This time around - my mini disappearance had to do with health issues for DH and surgery and re-coop and the last couple of days me fighting an awful mutant head cold or sinus issue.  But...I'm back!

Last month, a few of the Zonta Club Members participated in a 5k Run/1k Fun Walk to benefit CASA.  It was their annual Superohero 5K Fundraiser and dressing up was encouraged.  We had special Zonta T-Shirts and our Pres accessorized with Wonder Woman garb.  Super COOL!

Cricket has been stuck to me like glue the last several weeks.  Sometimes I can get the cutest pictures of her while she's on my lap in the evening!

I'm blanking when it comes to where I found these somewhat recently but I knew I had to grab them!  I'm thinking it was either Tops or Wegmans because those are the places I've been the last several weeks.  Maybe Walmart???

Maybe it WAS Walmart because I remember finding THIS at Walmart the last time I went and was pretty shocked to see several items were new there that were also vegan!

I know I grabbed that at Wegman's!  I've had 2 or 3 other NEW Amy's Wraps, too!  LOVING that Amy's is coming out with more new vegan options!

I've still been doing a lot of traveling with my job and I am sure that will keep up.  Another thing I have been doing more of lately is taking video footage for TV news reports.  Last week I grabbed video at a local festival, 2 area football games, a local apartment fire, and more...and they were all featured somehow!

These last two photos were taken from my car window.  YES...I was completely stopped and I normally wouldn't even THINK about grabbing my phone to take a pic in a situation like this BUT I had been sitting there a while because these 3 deer wouldn't move.  They were in the middle of the road and I was lucky enough to see them and could stop BUT once I stopped they didn't move.  Because of the road I was on I knew someone would hit them so after moments of them not moving I laid on the horn and 2 out of the 3 eventually ran in to the woods.  The 3rd slowly followed.  They were all safe...THANK GOD!

OH!  By the way...I slightly changed the look of the blog...what do you think?

Scenic Views, Office Plants, Vegan Food, and a Cute Puppy!

I somewhat recently found 2 vegan waffles here is one of them.  When I do eat waffles I tend to eat them dry as a snack.

These were the other waffles I found.  I want to say I found one at Wegman's and the other at Mustard Seed but I'm not completely sure.

Here is another Amy's Kitchen Bowl I recently found at Target.  It was tasty!  I'm thrilled that Amy's is coming out with more vegan options.  I just wish they were a little cheaper.  I usually only grab them if they are on sale OR if it's something I have never tried before.

Here is another Gardein find.  I think I found this at Wegman's but maybe it was Mustard Seed.  I guess that's what I get for waiting so long to post my hauls, eh!?

Of course, this one I found at Trader Joe's!  I have to say I was a fan!  

I blogged yesterday about the VioLife Shred finds but I think they are worth another mention!

These are still in my frig and I'm hoping to eat them soon so they don't go bad.  Has anyone else tried them?  I think I found these at Erie Whole Foods Co-Op.

I've never tried these before but when I saw they were all vegan and all on sale I knew I had to grab them!  Has anyone else tried these yet?

I've been traveling around several different communities the last couple of months - for work - and more than usual.  This is a snapshot from Warren but there are several others I will be sharing over time, too!

This is another from the Warren area.  It's in the Crescent Park neighborhood near the hospital.

At the end of fair week I saw a teenage boy carrying a young puppy around in a bucket.  He said the puppy was newly adopted and overly tired so he wanted to carry him.  This puppy was 'happy as a clam' in this bucket!  It was so funny!

Oh!  I almost forgot to post this photo.  I'm sure I have other photos of this downtown Warren Hickory Street Bridge but it was just a gorgeous day so I had to take another snapshot!

Here is one of my office plants from a few weeks ago!  It's a Purple Waffle Plant.  If you look at the underside of the leaves...they are purple!

And this is my Sunny Star Croton Plant and I LOVE it!  It's one of my FAVES!  I would like to find a Croton that is tri-colored with red, orange, and yellow highlights!

Some Animal Friends

Just a quick post today of some animal friends of late!  Here's one of the many goats that were at a local event recently.  I spend time with them each year.  A regional guy has all sorts of animals that he rescues and takes in and he specializes in goats, it seems.  

Last month I spent some time at the Jamestown Audubon and really enjoyed chatting with the turtles.  This lil guy is Lincoln.  I'm considering donating to his feed and care.  You can do so for at little at $20.  The turtles at the Audubon are rescue situations or those who have been neglected.

About 2 weeks ago I was on my way to work and this adorable dog was playing on a busy street and didn't have a tag.  I stopped my car in the middle of the road and wanted to make sure he didn't get hit.  Before I could get her - she jumped in my car.  She spent 60% of the workday with us in the office and then I took her to the Humane Society to see if she was chipped.  She wasn't.  They kept her.  I was already attached.  Later that day she was reunited with her family so that is good!

About a week earlier this cat followed me to my car.  I think it's a church cat - because that is where I park.  I haven't seen her since but she was pretty cool!

This is one of the cats at our local shelter/Humane Society and she was sitting inside this so matter-of-factly that I just had to take a photo!

And finally...Cricket.  Apparently I disrupted her slumber trying to take this pic!  LOL!

Raw Vegan Tacos, Thrown Together Meals, & Furkid Updates

Yesterday I hinted at something that I have tried lately and LOVED and will be eating a lot of until I run out of the ingredients.  That is Raw Vegan Tacos.  I grabbed Romaine Hearts, Sun Dried Tomatoes, Guacamole (because it was cheaper than Avocados), and Cauliflower at a little mom and pop shop and I already had some Coconut Aminos at the office.

I marinated the Cauliflower in the Coconut Aminos and used it as the bottom layer along with the Sun Dried Tomatoes and topped it with Guac!  I have to say it was pretty awesome!

They are messy but I don't care.  The Guac sort of helps with the mess tho.

I will be doing variations of these in the near future - for sure!

I have been saying that my food efforts have been pretty weird as of late.  I either throw something together at the office, on the road, or in the camper.

We are having some issues with our house and I haven't been able to cook there.

This 2nd photo is something I threw together at my parents house.  They didn't have much that was vegan in their house and I didn't know prior to stopping by that I would be eating there.  I made up some Mac and added stewed tomatoes!  I threw some Earth Balance on there, too!  It wasn't too shabby!

There has been a LOT going on the last several months and I wasn't going to mention it on the blog but I feel like I should.

On of the MANY things we have been stressing about is the furkid situation.

In the past month ALL of our furkids have been at the vet as least once.  Charlie - our 17 year old feral cat - was acting weird and I thought he had a stroke but it was a really wicked double ear infection.  We also found out he has kidney failure.

After treating the ear infections we decided to switch his food to a Kidney Diet to help him with that as long as we can.  Since he's a really wild (feral-like) cat and always has been we don't want to stress him more than we have to by taking him to the vet PLUS there has to be 2 vets there to deal with him.

Moving on to the dogs - Cricket (pictured above) had to go in for a check-up and shots.  Riley had to go in for the same - and he had a double ear infection, too.  He has always had Chronic Ear Infections so we are used to it.  However, this time around they tried a new med on him and it seemed to work well.  He had to go in 3 times.  Then there is sweet Paco.  Oh...sweet Paco!  That poor guy!  He's had such a hard time with everything but he's a fighter!

I had to take Paco in for Kennel Cough - it's the only thing we give him - up the nose - we don't vaccinate him otherwise because of his immune issues.  Then a few weeks later we found out he caught something from the kennel so we treated that.  Then his nose started bleeding a little bit and we had him in twice for that.  After finding something on X-Rays we had to decide what to do moving forward.  We are still trying to decide.  He's be in about 4 times already.  They found something in his nasal passage.  It's either something that he sniffed up and got stuck or it's cancer.  Knowing how hard he has has it with other issues his whole life all I can think of is that it's cancer.  GOD!  I hope it isn't.  I think we have the choice made - and that is to have our vet go in and do exploratory surgery and see if she can remove the thing that showed up on the X-Rays.  But I;m afraid because of his immune issues.  Because he has ITP/IMHA that means he might not clot or might clot weird and it could kill him.  Also - if the vet can't remove it - we can't really do cancer treatments because of his immune issues.  From what I have seen about Nose Cancer in Dogs it will grow and morph his face and/or cause seizures.  It seems like a lose-lose situation.  Our vet was on vacation so I need to call her back to see how we are going to go about this.  In the meantime every couple of days he has a slight bloody nose.  We have been treating it with Epinephrine.   These vet bills have been a lot to handle all at once in addition to all of the other stuff we have been facing the last several months.  But those stories I will save for another day.

Where Did The Week Go?

Thursday, already?  Not sure where the rest of the week went but I knew I needed to get a blog post on before the craziness of the next few days takes place!  You see - my sisters baby shower is Saturday!  Both near-future grandma's are running around like maniacs and then there is the near-future 'Crazy Aunt' (that's ME) that has been overly busy at work and down and out not feeling well for a few days last week!  I haven't been as much help as I wanted the last couple of weeks!  Anyhow...today I will share with you some things I have been taking snapshots of over the past week and then I will blab about the shower next week!

First up is what I had for dinner last night.  It's the first photo you see in this post and it is LITERALLY something I threw together because I didn't want to fuss with anything special.  I found tortilla boats that happen to be vegan and I filled them with this chickpea mixture!

Smoked Russian Chickpeas:

1 Can of Chickpeas

4 T Vegan Mayo (I used Trader Joe's - see below)

2 to 3 T Ketchup

1/2 t Smoked Paprika

1/2 t Wildtree Memphis Dry Rub

3 Drops Organic Liquid Smoke

I cannot express how AWESOME this turned out!  I'm not going to lie - I kinda wanted to drink the 'dressing' which was a more smoked up version of my Vegan Russian Dressing I have done in the past.

This was the Vegan Spread and Dressing I used that I found at Trader Joe's the last time I went.  I'm partial to Just Mayo but this is pretty awesome on it's own.  It's not what I would call a straight-up vegan mayo but more like a dressing like it states - it seemed thicker and did have a different taste but the taste was pretty wonderful!

Another wrap I did within the last week was this one.  It doesn't look like much but it was a great comfort food!  I used a couple of potato patties, tomato slices, and vegan cheese sauce.  The vegan cheese sauce was the leftover vegan cheese powder I made not too long ago!  It worked well!

I had a huge salad this week, too, and I made this dressing.  It was supposed to resemble a vegan Ranch Dressing using Sunflower Seeds as the base but it totally missed the mark as a Vegan Ranch Dressing taste-alike.  The taste wasn't bad it just wasn't what I was going for.  

I'm grateful on a daily basis that Paco has been doing well the last several months!  A few months ago he wasn't able to do this!  He would barely move let alone look engaged in things!  

I still have to help him up on the sofa and recliner but the WANT and INTEREST is there!  I put him up on the recliner but he managed to get on the armrest all by himself and pose like this!  I couldn't tell you the last time he did that!  For about a year I freaked out when he did try to because his legs were so unstable!  How can these photos NOT put a smile on your face?

Recap of the Week

TGIF!  I'll get the not-so-great-news out of the way, first!  This past week Paco (our Chihuahua who has immune issues) had a puffy nose and I took him to the vet and they are thinking it's tooth related so long story short...they are going to do dental surgery next Thursday.  Because of his immune issues and those issues having to do with clotting and NOT clotting properly they have to treat this a bit differently.  I'm hoping all goes well.  Please send positive thoughts, prayers, vibes our way!  In other crazy news...my Fiat needs 4 new tires!  Blah!  Plus...I'm still without a dishwasher!  AND...our gutter fell off the house...so...YEAH...it's been a rough go-around!

Anyways...on to more positive things...such as FOOD...First photo is part of my lunch from Monday.  It's a Red Cabbage Crunch Salad of sorts.  Raw...carrots, cabbage, onion, pumpkin seeds, parsley, sunflower seeds, etc...

Next photo is simply Oil Roasted Brussels Sprouts with herbs!

I got both of these at Wegman's which are clearly marked whether or not they are vegetarian, vegan, or otherwise.  Why can't every eating establishment be that obvious!?

I was able to meet up with my sister for lunch that day since I was in her neck-of-the-woods.

Not too long ago I made this Pimento Cheese.  It turned out super YUMMY!

Silly me...I didn't save the recipe!  I can tell you that it has Cashews, Pimentos, Nutritional Yeast, SeaClear, and more in it, tho!

I've been into more comfort and convenience foods as of late and need to throw in more grains.
I hope to do more casseroles, one-pot-meals, and thrown-together-bowls in the near future, too!

So  many vegan food combos - so little time, eh!?

Last night I did this Plant-Based Cheese and once again I don't have the recipe with me.  It is in need of some tweaking, first, so it might be for the best that I don't post it now but I will tell you that it had potatoes, carrots, cashews, almond milk, nutritional yeast, minced garlic and onion, and a few other little things thrown in.

It turned out ok but I felt it was missing that last little something-something.

Something else I should mention that was pretty awesome this week was that it reached 72 degrees the other day!  Yes...in mid-march...in the snow belt!

Last week I stopped in at a semi-local produce market.  I say semi-local because it it still about 40 minutes away from my house but since I am traveling up that way for work at least once a week now I am able to stop in and see what they have.  It's also one of the few places of its kind that is open year-round in this area.

I found these Honey Tangerines on sale 2 for $1.  I also found Honey Bell Oranges that you can see in the next photo.  The Honey Bell Oranges were 79 cents each.



This might not sound like a deal to some of you in sunny Florida or California where citrus is plentiful but here for this time of year the price was right for me.

So these 4 items made up my lunch that day!

I'm still waiting for a semi-local restaurant to re-open.  It's a vegetarian and vegan restaurant that has been under construction for well over a year.  The owner is doing all the renovations himself so I understand the delay but I won't lie...it's nearly killing me! LOL

I will leave you with this photo of Cricket.  She's doing well and still a crazy lady that is for sure!  Riley is doing good, too, and so is Charlie the feral cat we have!  Here's hoping all goes well with Paco's dental surgery on Thursday!

I will say I have been tempted to adopt another dog from a local shelter...his name is Tipper.  I think 3 dogs is maximum capacity for our house but I will tell you that this specific dog has been 'haunting me' for WEEKS.  I have been visiting him at the shelter and smuggling in treats for him.

Vegan Thanksgiving Foods, Furkids, and Vegan Ranch Dressing

I took a few days off from the 'net' and now I'm back!  Kicking things off with some of the Vegan Thanksgiving Foods I gobbled up last week...from top the clockwise...Garde'in Holiday Roast, Acorn Squash, Wildtree Stuffing, Cheesy Mashed Potatoes, Cheesy Tater Tot Casserole, and in the center are Sweet Potatoes!

My attempted at the Tater Tot Casserole was a last minute discussion but turned out pretty good.

Wildtree makes a boxed blend of Stuffing Mix and my mom made it for me.  It's heavy on the rosemary but it totally works in the blend for the stuffing!

I have to say this year has been the first year I have ever had Leftover Vegan Turkey Sandwiches.  With Just Mayo on top - it was YUMMERS!

One thing I did this past weekend was re-do my cookbook sections.  I have a slew of old vegetarian cookbooks in another section that I don't really use much but didn't want to throw away.  These are my newer ones, my all-time favorites, and such.  I'm so glad I did this!  Now I have to jump in and try something I haven't tried yet from them!  There are many of my favorites missing from these shelves...ones that I have borrowed time and time again and SHOULD probably add to my collection.

Cricket has been pretty high strung lately perhaps it's the change of season (not sure).  Regardless I can't stay mad at her long...I mean...LOOK at this...could you?

She's still only 4 or 5 pounds and doubt she will get any bigger than she is now because she IS 2 years old.  We and other vets and shelter people thought that we was a chihuahua and rat terrier mix but I think because of her size she's probably more like a toy rat terrier and chihuahua mix.  Regardless we adore her!

The cuteness doesn't stop there...

Look at the brothers!

Paco and Riley were bonding more than usual this past weekend, too!  Paco continues to do well and we are VERY thankful for that.  Riley is in the middle of another ear infection but we are used to that happening and always have medication on stand by.

Charlie has been pretty good with the exception of him biting me the other day.  This isn't out of the ordinary for him...he's moody because he was a feral cat.  Again...we LOVE him regardless!

I know this isn't a great photo nor does it look overly appetizing but I had to share it with you and will definitely be doing it again and again so hopefully at some point I can get a better pic!

What you see here is Vegan Ranch Dressing that I made and it's my BEST attempt to date!

1/2 C Just Mayo
1/2 C Coconut Almond Milk
1 tea Onion Powder*
1 pinch Garlic Powder**
1 tea Dill***
2 T Nutritional Yeast
Black Sea Salt to taste

*I used Wildtree Absolutely Onion which is now Organic and Vegan (the old version contained Whey Powder this version doesn't)

** I used Wildtree Garlic Galore

*** I used Wildtree Dill Dip Blend

The "Friday Finish"

It's the "Friday Finish"!  I honestly didn't know what to title today's mish mash of a post so there you have it!  Here are some random things I have been doing, catching up on, thinking, feeling, or seeing at any given time.

Earlier this week I mentioned that I was working on Raw Vegan Cheesecake Bites!  Here's the finished product!  You can see the full recipe and write up over at The Raw Food World News RECIPE Section as it's today featured recipe!

Also this past week I finally made it thru all of my leftovers of the Vegan Thai Green Curry base I made.  You can view that post HERE.

As you can see in this last photo before I ate the rest of it - it did thicken up quite a bit.  It was even better the 2nd and 3rd day!  YUM!

It's been extremely windy and rainy all this week!  We've had some flooding nothing major, thankfully, but it is out of the ordinary.  We even had a thunderstorm the other night.  Most of the leaves are off the trees and that proves that Fall is turning to Winter, soon.

It's been 'slim picken's' in the kitchen as I have run low on several personal staples.  I hope to fix that this week.  I won't be going crazy, I want to remain fairly thrifty this weekend but I still need to re-stock a few things.

Here's a quick photo of a thrown together dish.
My husband thought it was Vegan Mac & Cheese but it really isn't.  Here IS what I did do - however...I had some leftover marinara and added some Mac Nuts to it in my Vitamix and made it into a sauce of its own.  It's a red sauce meets white sauce I guess.  I topped it with Basil.
It was tasty!

Riley has been doing pretty good lately.  We can really start to see the 'grey' pop out in his coat, tho!  He's probably around 11 years old or so.  Several times a year his ears pose a problem and he ends up with ear infections.  We deal with the problem as it occurs of course but sometimes he rubs his ears or face on the carpet or sofa and he gets bald spots on his ears.  This time around I noticed he gave himself a scab on the top of one of his ears.  This is something new for him.  I have some ointment to put on it and drops for his ears.  Other than that he's been doing fine.

Cricket LOVES to torment him and he's been really patient with her.  I think he secretly likes it!

The other night I couldn't get back to sleep.  I was up at 1am and never did get back to sleep. At least Cricket was able to get some.

That was the same day we had a live broadcast at work and then I attended a Luncheon for the School Partnership.

It was another crazy week - it's true.  Hubby was able to take in some 'brother time' and attended a hockey game with his brother so that was nice.

I'm looking forward to not only attending a football game in November but a Meatloaf concert, too!  Woot!

My eye detox continues.  The throbbing (from wearing the wrong prescription) has finally subsided.  Sometime in the next month I hope to get in for an appointment and most likely a new pair of glasses.  I blogged before about how my days of wearing contacts have probably come to an end.

This is a selfie of me at work.  Note the Ponytail Palm and Sea Salt Lamp in the background.  I'm trying to Feng Shui up my office a bit more.  I just ordered 2 Quantum Balancing Crystals in the CONE versions.  I ordered one of the YELLOW and one of the ORANGE.  I hope to do a near future post on that soon!  I have been trying to get into the crystals more!

I LOVE my Sea Salt Lamp so much that I ended up ordering TWO MORE!  I did get them already but am trying to figure out where to put them.  Originally I got them for home.  Then I thought about putting them in my office along with this one you see here.  But now I am really thinking that I need to work on the atmosphere at home, too!

I ended up getting 2 of them for my friend at work and I got one for my parents and one for my sister, too!  They really like them, too!

I'm trying to think of fun items to get my family members for Christmas.  I have a few ideas but don't want to post them here because I think a few of them might read it.