Weekend Hibernation

This past weekend was CRAZY!  I never left the house.  We received about 2 feet of snow and this morning it was -2 degrees.  My BIL in Erie got about 3 feet of snow and my sister in Bemus Point got about 3 feet as well.

So...I hunkered down...and hibernated, basically.

I made a LARGE vat of soup as you can see above.  I like to call it Creamy Lentil.

1 C Lentils

2 Carrots
4 C Water

Spices: Onion Salt, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder,  Cumin, Parsley, Black Sea Salt...all to taste
2 T Earth Balance Vegan Margarine 

Once all cooked in a large pot I put everything in a high-speed blender.  I added a handful of cashews and more water until I reached the desired consistency.

I've had 3 meals from it so far and the 3rd time I had a bowl I added from Daiya American Cheese and it made a nice Vegan Cheese Soup.  Tonight I might add some veggies and finish it off.

Cricket was less than impressed with the cold.  She will not go outside and she's been doing everything in her power to stick to me like glue and get under the blanket.  This from someone who doesn't usually like burrowing in blankets.  

Check these 'bad boys' out!  I made Tofu Bites!  I basically coated them in All Purposed Flour, Garlic, Smoked Paprika, Onion Powder, Black Sea Salt and Grapeseed Oil.  I baked them at 375 for about 30 or more minutes until somewhat chewy.

But what really MADE these Tofu Bites was the sauce I made for them!  I was overjoyed with the flavor of this sauce and will be making this OFTEN!

1/3 - 1/2 C Just Mayo
3 T Yellow Mustard
3 T Maple Syrup
3 T Sweet BBQ Sauce (I chose one from Wegman's that was clearly marked VEGAN)
1 T Lemon flavored Balsamic (or you can use 1/2 T Lemon Juice & 1/2 T Balsamic)

So needless to say, I was drinking HOT TEA all weekend long and catching up on LOTS of Tea Reviews over at Sororitea Sisters...when it came to my attention that I totally forgot to mention it was Betty White's 97th Birthday last week!  "Rose" from the Golden Girls was the first Funko Pop I bought and I knew I had to post something on IG.  So for those of you who aren't on IG...here is the pic I posted.

I also ALMOST forgot that I still had some Vegan Cookie Batter from EatPastry in my frig so I busted that open and made some Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Dirty Vegan, Vegan Cookies, Vegan Blue Cheese, Pink-Headed Warbler, & BFF Chi's!

Let the next round of Vegan Cookbook Chatter BEGIN!  I know I posted on last week but I received the rest of them in the mail today and I hope to spread them out over the next week or two along with some other FUN stuff!

The Dirty Vegan is one of 8 more on my list to share with you!  Just by thumbing thru it I saw a lot of Vegan Comfort Foods and what I would call 'cheater' recipes that might use store bought vegan items within another recipe but this book also has some really great from-scratch solutions that are quick and easy if you don't want to buy the storebought version of some ingredients!

Here is the other mini-pack of cookies I grabbed while at Mustard Seed Market over the weekend.  They were SO VERY RICH I could only eat one at a time.  This pack had 2 cookies - whereas the Thumb Prints had 3 cookies.  These were Chocolate Cookies with Chocolate Chips in them.

Both cookie options were pretty tasty!  Especially for someone who doesn't eat a lot of sweets.  It was a nice few-and-far-between or once-in-a-blue-moon type of treat.

This is another past-find I had yet to blog about!  I found it at Wegmans a while back and it's vegan Blue Cheese!  It was pretty yummy!  I, personally, would LOVE to find a chunky Blue Cheese but this is good in the meantime.  I do like the texture of Daiya's a bit more than this one but the price was more impressive on this one for the size difference. 

This is quite versatile and I really hope I can find some of the other flavors I have seen online of WayFare's Vegan Cheeses!  Have you tried any of them yet?  If so - what did you think!?

For about a year - I have received the Bird of the Week from the Audubon Society.  It has become a weekly 'thing' with DH and I an now my dad's in on it!  When I get the bird of the week I forward it to them!

This was last week's Bird of the Week!  Isn't the Pink-Headed Warbler AWESOME?

Last night when I finally sat down and started relaxing (after a failed Carrot Soup attempt) I looked over and saw Cricket jump up and sit right next to Paco.  They were cheek-to-cheek and I don't mean their faces! LOL! 

I have to pick Paco up every time he wants on the sofa and Cricket usually don't get THIS close to him - but I'm glad he did!

LightLife Bowls, Use-What-You-Have-Casserole, Vegan Thumb Print Cookies

Before I get into a few other finds from yesterday I forgot to mention this Southwestern Quinoa & Black Bean Bowl I found at Wegman's a few weeks ago.  It was fairly good.  I would probably buy it again when and if it's ever on sale.

One of the items I grabbed while at Mustard Seed Market yesterday were these Vegan Thumb Print Cookies!  They came in a 3-pack and were tasty.  They used a whole wheat based flour.  I also bought some Chocolate Cookies and will be sharing those with you in a couple of days!  I decided to treat myself because I don't often have vegan cookies.  One - because I don't bake, Two - because they aren't often found in my area.  And Three - I don't have that much of a sweet tooth that I crave them that often.

Here is a Casserole I threw together based on what I had on-hand.  I threw everything in a glass dish and baked it for about an hour at 375.  I used 2 C Kamut Pasta, 1 small can of tomato sauce, 1 C water, 1/4-1/2 small bag of frozen tater tots, Crushed Corn Chips to layer, 1/2 bag of frozen veggies (I used peas, carrots, corn, green beans), 1/2 can chickpeas, 1/2 Jar of salsa, and 2 handfuls of vegan shredded cheese (I used Daiya Pepper Jack).  Talk about COMFORT FOOD...this was FAB!  And I'm pretty proud of myself...I didn't even use any additional spices!

2 Friday Finds!

I didn't plan on grocery shopping when I went out today but there were two things I couldn't pass up!  The first one was this Veggemo Milk.  I had not seen it around 'these parts' yet so when I saw it was vegan and made from Peas, Potato, and Tapioca I was intrigued!  From what I read online the texture is supposed to be similar to 2% Milk.  Not that I was really looking for that, but still.

The other item I couldn't pass up were Alyssa's Healthy Vegan Bites.  These are another new-to-me-product.  They were REALLY expensive but I figured I wasn't buying all that much and it would be my treat for the week.  You only get 6 small cookies in the package and I believe they were priced at $4.99.  As for the Veggemo the price was right in line with Almond Breeze Brand.  Oh!  I opted for the unsweetened one, by the way!  Have you had either of these items?  What are your thoughts?

I also thought I would take this time to welcome my newest visitors from Comoros, Iceland, Belarus, and Cocos (Keeling) Islands!  Thanks for stopping by!  I'm researching recipes from your regions and hope to veganize some of them soon!

I have 3 more books to share with you in the near future, too, but I wanted to give you more than 'just books' to see here on my blog this week.

This Non-Baker Baked Cookies For MWM (MidWeek Munchies)

I know I always say that I am NOT a baker and I totally stand by that! But I have to at least TRY and remind myself why I don't bake often! All jokes and silliness aside here is a pic of the cookies I made over the weekend. 

At the moment I cannot find the recipe I jotted down for these but they have very few ingredients and what I can tell you is they are mostly made of crunchy peanut butter and maple syrup. 

They were a little flat but they were pretty tasty! I'm not upset with this attempt but there is certainly room for improvement!

I'm posting this for MWM. I haven't really grocery shopped much lately but I do have one other post I will be posting - one lonely item I did pick up this past week but wanted to do a separate post for that so I will be doing at least 2 or 3 posts today because I have another subject I want to post about as well! 

As you know - Today is Wednesday - and that means it's time for MidWeek Munchies! I hope you will participate! If you have anything VEGAN you would like to share and link up with we welcome you and your posts! It can be a grocery store haul, garden or farmers market trip, online purchase, or anything you made and munched on that happens to be vegan!

An InLinkz Link-up

Vegan & Raw Vegan Food Hauls - Wegman's & The Raw Food World

I've been backed-up with posts lately but I wanted to share with you my online shopping and Wegman's hauls! 

First up was my last few shipments from The Raw Food World.  I am waiting on a few other items from them but they should be on their way soon!  Including my new SlowStar Juicer!  Woot! 

I decided to grab some heavy-duty Spirulina Tablets - they were on sale a while back!  I think I ended up getting 500 or so and I want to try and ground them and use in recipes.

I had to re-order Nutritional Yeast and they started getting CGF Organic & Freeze Dried items back in stock!  YAY!  My mother LOVES the Mangosteen!  So I got her some and I wanted to try Durian because we can't get fresh Durian where I live so this will probably be the closest I come to it for a while!  Then I grabbed some dried Pineapple and Mango for my father - he loves both and I wanted to try some dried pitted prunes for myself.

Oh yeah!  Almost forgot!  If you got back up to that first photo you will see I splurged a bit and scored some Ojio Vanilla Powder!  I have been wanting to try this for a while.  I don't usually trust grocery-store vanilla extract and powders but this is organic and Ojio and they pride themselves in quality products so I thought I would try them.  Plus the other products I have gotten from Ojio have been fantastic!

To the left...YUP!  I bought another Spirooli Spiralizer - I already have one and love it and bought this one for my sister.  I did save the one on top for myself tho and that slices ribbons - a bit different from the one I have!

Now...on to the Wegman's run I made WEEKS ago!  I grabbed some of their Organic Applesauce - it looked too good to pass up - and the price was right, too!  I have been a little low on lentils lately and really craving them since that lovely lentil dish while in Florida so I decided to get the sprouted green lentils I found at Wegman's.  PLUS...I had been out of Farro for the LONGEST time so I well passed due to get some more of that, too!  The prices were fair on all three of these products!  I did grab some Daiya Cheese, too, I only get it when it's on sale for 2 reasons...it IS expensive...but I also don't want to eat too much of it because it is a processed food.

In their deli area I found wonderful chickpea salad!  One of the MAIN reasons I LOVE Wegman's is because their label ALMOST everything with the V if it's VEGAN.  Yay!  The flavor of the bean salad was great and I also wanted to try it because of the tri-colored chickpea factor.  Of course the default is your regular chickpeas that you see everyday but there were brown and black ones in this salad, too, and they were pretty tasty, too!  Then I grabbed some of the Wegman's brand Tofu for some Egg Trick Muffins I made (shout out to The Vegan Zombie and Strong Hearts Cafe)

I was running low on mustard - and still am - didn't realize I was also out of yellow mustard, too, but I was able to purchase some of their Dijon and it's GOOD.

I was happy to see that they came out with some flavored beans that also happened to be vegan including these Chana Masala Garbanzo's!  I couldn't resist the Artichoke Hearts - I hope to be making my favorite Farro Dish with them soon and some yellow wax beans!  Yum!

Last but not least I finally broke down and bought some of Eat Pastry's Cookie Dough and let me tell you it's everything I was dreaming of and more!  I have been hearing The Vegan Zombie go on and on about this line for a while and now I finally see what all the hype is about! 

Again, I don't want to get too used to it and over indulge but it is a tasty treat on occasion and in moderation.

Below you can see some of the cookies I made with the dough...but it is certainly tempting to eat prior to baking, too!

Nom, Nom, Nom!

I'm not going to lie...YUM!

So there you have it!  My hauls from Wegman's and The Raw Foods World!

I have LOTS more to share with you so stay tuned!  It's been so busy as of late but things are going fairly well!  How are you and what have you been up to lately!?