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!  

Hear Our Voices!

I try to shy away from politics on this blog eventho I have many thoughts and feelings about any and every topic.  That's NOT what this post is about.

This post is about me attending the Women's March on Saturday in Erie, PA, where they predicted 300 participants and ended up with somewhere between 2,500 and 4,000.

I'm NOT going to go into the reasons WHY I attended but rather how interesting the event was, how wonderful the weather was, and how lovely it was to see UNITY.  Yes...UNITY.  Many media outlets have their way of swaying their stories one way or another and that's NOT what this was.  There were people from all walks of life that attend with all different views and focuses and all I felt while there was LOVE.

If you agree or disagree with what you THINK the Women's March was for or about - one thing everyone can agree on it that it was HISTORIC.

I'm not going to say much more about the March that hasn't already been said.  And I know there are people who are excited about it and others still and always will question it...and that's ok.

I'm simply going to show you some photos of the one I went to.  If you would like to see LOTS of photos from around the world - THIS - is an EXCELLENT showing of many of them.

I will say that I didn't have plans to attend at first.  Once my plans changed for the day I started thinking about it but still didn't make up my mind FULLY until about 20 mins before we actually left.

I caught a ride with a friend of mine who you will see later.

I'm a people-watcher and I will say there was a LOT to see that day.  Much of which will remain in my mind for my entire life.

Beautiful families, veterans, unions, bikers, college students, young children, senior citizens, etc.  People of every background, religion, orientation!

The event started at 2pm at the Court House.  Once we started moving it took us a few blocks down and the long way around Perry Square.  By going the long way around Perry Square that was about 3 to 4 more blocks worth.

Once we congregated in the middle of Perry Square there were many speakers...a veteran, an educational professional, a small business owner, an immigrant, and a woman who was a minister/preacher (altho I'm not sure of which church - but it really doesn't matter).  What matters is that we were all respectful of each other.

I really don't think it could have been a BETTER day!

There were a lot of smiles, a lot of hugs, and the vibes were very positive.

Those with disabilities participated, cancer survivors and others who have survived diseases and illnesses were represented, those who were walking in support of someone else were there, and voters of all types showed up!  There were NO conflicts.  There was very little police presence.  I actually only saw one uniform.

Again...I cannot say enough about this day!

However there are and always will be people who will try and rain on it.  It's ok.  It's what democracy looks like!

Here are some more photos of the event.

With this photo we were about half way to the finish point.  It was a very short march/walk but it seemed to take forever.  We were somewhere in between the front and the middle of the first half of the line.  When we got to the finish point there appeared to be people who still had yet to leave the court house.

The temperature was in the upper 50s and one building in the direct sun even said that it was 63 degrees which is unheard of for January in the snow belt.

Sure there were signs that were more comical or snarky than others but what was really wonderful were the ones that were smart, positive, and powerful.

I have many more photos but wanted to post just a few.  A few of them that went in line with My Blissful Journey...ones that were more positive and powerful.

Regardless of anyone's political stances I think we can ALL agree that we want politicians to LISTEN to their voters.  And that is something that I walked away with after this weekend.  It's being said that over 5 million PEOPLE participated.  So that means that over 5 million PEOPLE want to be heard for one or more reasons - and to ME - that is POWERFUL.

Here are 6 of us at the beginning of the march.  We ended up seeing a few other people from our area.  I know of others that attended DC, Pittsburgh, Portland, and one in California all from our region.

I'm glad I participated and I will always have my own memories of that day and how it differed from what the media has told.

What I Ate Today (Breakfast & Lunch), MidWeek Munchies on Friday, and Inspiring Woman of the Day

The 2nd post of the day!  YAY!  Keep scrolling!  In this point I will share What I Ate Today - at least for Breakfast and Lunch, some more finds that I will LINK UP to with MidWeek Munchies, and an Inspiring Woman of the Day!

I will start with that.  Amy Schumer.  She hosted SNL this past weekend and I thought she did a great job.  I know Christine over at The Raw Project has seen her LIVE and I wish I could at some point.  I really like her because she's not a girlie-girl, she speaks her mind, has things she feels very strong about, and seem like a girl you could go have a beer with!  Her most favorite person in the world is her sister which I LOVE hearing that!  I also love that she goes against the grain when it comes to how Hollywood (or the world) says women should look.  She's her own person and encourages everyone to be their own self, too.  One of her latest adventures is in the fashion industry and dressing for your body type.  Check out this article and video!

Next up...what I ate today for Breakfast & Lunch:

Breakfast:

Strawberry Camu Camu Smoothie, 3 Pumpkin Spice Snakaroons, Mango Ice Cream Black Tea

Morning Snacks:

Handful of Galactic Garlic Onion Pistachios, Lemon Grass & Pandan Herbal Tea

Lunch:

Yet to be determined flavor of McDougall's Soup and a side salad of mixed greens

Now...here are 3 items I ordered over at The Raw Food World!  I've blogged about Awesome Foods products before and I can't wait to try some more!  Starting with Kale Krackers!!!!  Yes...just about all of us have had or at least seen Kale Chips but what about Kale Krackers?  I remember making something like this out of Spinach but I am looking forward to trying these, too!

And speaking of Kale Chips...I thought I would try these from Awesome Foods!  They have other flavors, too, and I am sure that I will try all of them at some point but these jumped out at me this time around!

Then I got more Raw Organic Sunflower Seeds to add to my stash.  I have been using various nuts in a lot of dips, spreads, sauces, etc but silly me I should be using Sunflower and/or Pumpkin Seeds MORE because they are even more powerful and nutritious than nuts AND they are CHEAPER!

Remember to LINK UP for MidWeek Munchies before the end of TUESDAY!!!