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!

More Vegan Finds, Plants, Community, and Such!

With the many months I took off from blogging - I still have TONS of photos and things to share!  I'm trying to schedule a few blog posts in between to try and catch up, too!

Here you can see one of the painted rocks I found this year.

This was on the fairgrounds.

I'm still LOVING these Swapples!  If you haven't tried them yet you should!  They are VERY dense and VERY filling!  Soooo versatile, too!

I ended up grabbing 3 different flavors of these at the beginning of summer and they helped me in between meals during fair week.  They are a little dry but the flavor is good.

I'm having some ups and downs with my office plants lately.  I'm pretty sure it's because fall and winter are coming.  I remember that happening last year.  This is one of the plants that seem to be doing well lately.  It's one of my newer plants.  It's called a Dragon's Tongue.

Near the end of August I attended a community event in Irvine, PA, at the Wilder Museum.  There was a speaker from SUNY JCC highlighting the life of a local suffragist by the name of Elnora Monroe Babcock who was born in Freehold Township and grew up around Columbus, PA.  She went on to do AMAZING things in the Suffrage Movement throughout the state of New York, too!

This isn't one of my plants but it's a hanging basket I got for my mom for Mothers Day and it's still going strong!

This past summer I spotted a new-to-me product from Earth Balance and HAD to try it.  It doesn't taste extremely different from their other vegan butters but it is tasty!

I was going to safe this for a work lunch some day but I ended up having it for dinner one night in stead.  It has been way too long since my last vegan meal from Annie Chun's!

I'm pretty sure my new favorite shreds are from VioLife!  I got these at Mustard Seed but just spotted them LAST WEEK at my local Tops and I couldn't be happier about it!

I also spotted a new-to-new product from Gardein while at Giant Eagle in Erie, I believe.  They are still in my freezer and I haven't tried them yet but I'm thinking it will be SOON!

At first taste I wasn't overly thrilled with this Good Karma product but have since paired it with some things like Salsa and it wasn't too shabby.

This is a product that Hillary and I have been boasting about on IG.  I really enjoyed it and wish I would have bought 5 more!  I'm pretty addicted to it, actually!

And here is one of the new-to-me Amy's Kitchen products I found at the Erie Target a while back.  I really enjoyed this, too!

The Good, The Bad, & The...CUTE!

We'll start with the...CUTE...because it's the easiest and, well, THE CUTEST!  The other day my father sent me this photo of my niece.  Apparently, she has messy hair and doesn't care!

Now...for a little bit of the...GOOD!  I found this a while back and it is darn tasty!  Pumpkin Spice Peanut Butter made with REAL Pumpkin!  I have a few spoonsful for a snack on occasion!

And for another 'nut butter' I am feeling conflicted about this one...while it smells and tastes WONDERFUL the texture is a little hard to deal with!  Sure...I expected the oil to be on top and that I would have to stir but OMG it was SO DRY on the nut butter part that I got oil all over me and couldn't really stir it at all!  YIKES!

The last time I saw this brand I had the spicy queso (I think) and it was ok but really thin and runny.  THIS ONE was MUCH BETTER!  I liked the consistency and the flavor better than the first one!

For the next product...I guess I aimed a little too high with this one.  Perhaps my expectations were too over the top but I have to say I really didn't care for this product.  The noodles were very gummy and a weird slimy texture that didn't jive with my pallet.  Sorry, folks!

This, however, was AMAZING!  The flavor was great and the texture was right on, too!  BUT...locally, speaking, was WAY TOO EXPENSIVE!  I had to try it just once but at $7.99 I can't justify it...no matter how yummy!  Knock 2 to 3 bucks off and I will consider it!

I've had this one other time before but when I found it again I had to grab it not only because I was out of vegan cheese but because it was on sale and I had a craving!

This was the first time I had come across this brand of hummus so I knew I had to try it and was glad I did!  It was great!  And the price was right, too!  I'm looking forward to trying to find it again and trying another flavor!

I did find the new or at least the new-to-me Mexican Classic Blend of Daiya Shreds and I enjoyed them!  YAY!

This was a bit more than I wanted to spend but I rarely find Engine 2 brand items and knew I wouldn't be back to that location for MONTHS.  I gobbled it up rather quickly to say the least!

I tried the Bootleg Bucha Apple Spice and it was pretty good.  Another flavor I had right around that time was a HOPS one and I really liked that one, too!  One of these days I hope to visit a Buffalo Based Booch Place...maybe even Bootleg!  Time will tell!

How To Catch Up On The Last 3 (Or More) Months?

I guess the BEST way is to just jump in, eh?

Yeah!  It's been WAY TOO LONG since my last post!  There has been a LOT going on and I really hope to share as much as I can with you!  I thought the best way to do it is in screenshots of 6 and go from there!  So with this first set of 6 photo shown above you can see that I have been trying my green thumb at more plants.  My co-worker has really been getting me into it.  The problem is...I can't keep up with buy more and more dirt and potting soil for the ones we are obtaining!

I was able to get my hair done and I have to get it done again soon!  I'm so horrible about being consistent with that!  YIKES!

Cricket is still doing well.  Riley and Charlie are aging by the day!  I have really seen a rapid change in both of them this past year.  Charlie is 19 and Riley is 18.

I have been able to locate some great new and new-to-me vegan items over the last several months in our travels!  I also put in an order online at some point, too!  This Daiya wasn't available to me locally with the 4 cheese style but I was able to find it online!

SWIRLS!  These Vegan Swirls receive a HUGE two thumbs up from me!  I absolutely LOVED them!  I can't wait to find them again!  She's Swiss Cheese I bought online, too, and whereas it wasn't the best vegan cheese slices I have ever had I was able to get them at a low price so I was happy I was able to try them on the cheap!  The Foodies Frittata was ok, too!  Very filling!  Again...found that online over at Vegan Essentials.  Same with the French Bistro product.  I have to fess up and say I wasn't a fan of that product but was super excited to try and was stoked it was one of the 'overseas' vegan products I was able to get my hands on!  The Mustaches were cute and cheesy but really small and easy to eat in one sitting!

We did take a trip to Indiana a while back - more on that in the near future!  

I have been finding some great random vegan deals at our new local Ollie's, too!  Annie's was on sale not too long ago!  There was another Vegan Mac I grabbed from Vegan Essentials that was pretty good and from Germany (I think).  And some more office plants!

Here are some Amy's Vegan Cheese Pizza Snacks that I finally found and enjoyed! 

And the other 5 photos are from Letchworth State Park!  We finally visited it this past fall!  I can't believe I had never been there before now!  We hope to go back in the spring or summer, too!  I really liked the visit!

Our mall is being ripped apart and the guys working on the building were going to trash all of the plants so my co-worker and I grabbed a bunch and tried to save them and propagate them.  Some are working well and others aren't.  

More pics of Cricket and Riley!

In one of our Ohio trips I was able to visit Mustard Seed Market again and found more VioLife Vegan Cheeses which I really like!  And our local Tops has Enjoy Life Cookies!  YAY!

LOTS more on tap!  Just need to take it a little at a time!  Hope you haven't given up on me!

Golden Milk, Vegan Blue Cheese, Witch Hazel, & Nettles Tea

I found a few things I forgot to add to yesterday's post!  First off is this Golden Milk from Wegman's that I had about a week or so ago!  I opted for the 8-ounce. 

You know how I LOVE Turmeric and I try to add it to at least one of my food or beverages a day!

This was pretty good.  It was mellower than I expected.  The Black Pepper sank to the bottom and it was a bit harsh but not overly-so.  I need to make more of this myself - at home.  It's easy and I have all the ingredients on hand.

One of the many 'new-to-me' products I was able to get my hands on this past week and our travels to Ohio was this Blue Cheese!  Vegan, of course!  It's by VioLife.  I have seen The Vegan Zombie and others post about it from Expo West and I thought it was going to be a year or two before it came over to the East side of the US.  So when I saw it - I didn't hesitate to grab it.

I will say...it's ok.  It's not OVERLY awesome.  I don't think it's something I would nibble on by itself.  However, I have tried it two other ways.  One was to melt it on a bagel - that was fairly good.  The other was to do a small dice and mix in with an Alfredo.  That was YUMMY! 

It's something I will continue to play around with.  I'm convinced it has potential.  I'm thinking the crumbles on a salad paired with another vegan creamy ranch or blue cheese type dressing would be stellar.

A few updates...thankfully, I seem to have the Dyshidrotic Eczema under control with the help of Witch Hazel and Nettles Tea.  I'm going to continue to use both of these things because now I have a boil on my leg from a pair of pants that was irritating me.  Both can be used for both issues.  And I'm going to try and drink Nettles Tea each night for the additional benefits while building up my immune system and a bit of self-care for my liver. It's also great for inflammation, pain, and skin so those are things I can put in my mental Rolodex, too!

For some AWESOME info on BOTH:
Nettles Tea & Witch Hazel