Tag Archives: vegan

The Gift for the Person Who Has Everything

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A lot of us have that person in our lives who have everything. Mine is my stepmom. I get to her birthday and Christmas and I never know what I should get that she will enjoy. I’ve done coffee and chocolate and flowers and wine. A lot of wine. 😉 

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This year, I was hoping to be inspired by something really different and awesome. But what would it be? I was clueless. 

Then I had a unique opportunity come my way. I helped my friend work her clothing shop in Las Vegas for two weeks at the Stetson Country Christmas show. The show was a large marketplace of cowboy and rodeo related merchandise. It was incredible. I would never have guessed that I’d find the perfect item at a rodeo show.

We were lucky enough to be placed next to Stuff It Olives. First of all, Bob and Norine who are the owners, are fabulous people. But secondly, their products are awesome. 

They sell many different kinds of stuffed olives and garlic. My favorite of the olives was the Sicilian Double Stuffed. 

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The smoked garlic is amazing and is their best seller, according to Bob.

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But my very favorite thing they have is the balsamic vinegars and flavored oils. And this is what I got for my stepmom, the person who has everything. 

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The olive oil that’s infused with basil is SO tasty. I knew that would have to be one of my choices. Norine then paired it with the fig balsamic and I was in heaven. What a fabulous taste commotion in my mouth!

I didn’t stop there. I brought home a couple, well, several bottles for myself. I bought a bottle of fig for myself initially. By the time I was getting ready to leave Las Vegas it was halfway gone so I got another bottle of fig. Then pomegranate, chocolate marshmallow, and cranberry walnut. I’m also hoping to get a bottle of chocolate cherry but it was the last bottle and Bob couldn’t find it at the show. We’ll be having breakfast with Bob and Norine on our way back to California so I hope they will have the chocolate cherry for me then. I know I NEED it. 😉

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So there you are. For the person who has everything or the person who just likes tasty condiments. Everything at Stuff-It Olives and Napa Finest is delicious and I know you’ll think so too!

 

The Strawberry Tree

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Yesterday, I videotaped part of my walk so you could see the strawberry tree. Then I ate the strawberry I picked up.

Y’all, those things are awesome! Really, really sweet. The outsde is pretty bumpy and I didn’t care for it so much but the insdie? Delicious! David wouldn’t even try it. His loss. I didn’t die so it’s all good. 😀

Here’s the video. 🙂

 

Mamey…An Interesting Fruit

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What IS that? That’s what I wondered when I saw this football shaped, sort of sweet potato thing on the produce table at the Mexican grocery store. I couldn’t find a sign to tell me what it was so when I came home, I googled “football shaped fruit” and I came up with this photo:

Clicking on the photo told me it was a mamey.

As I was watching the people I follow on YouTube, two of the guys were talking about the mamey sapote and how absolutely delicious it was. Now I was really intrigued.

It’s kind of pricey so I wasn’t willing to try it before hearing that it was really good. Plus, I wasn’t sure how to know if it was ripe. But after watching Fruit and Strength and Whole Future enjoying a mamey in their videos, I was ready to give it a try. 

I bought a mamey and it was quite far from being ripe. I bought it before we went to Oklahoma so I figured by the time we got back it would be ripe and ready to eat. It was.

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I opened it up and took the big seed and stringy things out. Then I tried it. Hmmm. Well, it’s supposed to be the texture of a ripe avocado and it was. But the taste that had been described was not what I tasted. I couldn’t finish it.

I’m not sure if I got a bad one and, maybe if they go on sale one day, I might try it again. Until then, I’m glad I gave it a try and I’m now ready to try jack fruit. I saw one at the regular grocery store the other day but, again, it was pricey. I have no idea how to tell if I’m getting a good one or not so I will save that. 

I found, on Yelp, a fruit market here in San Jose where they will help you pick out a good fruit and they have more exotic varieties. That’s on my list of places to visit! 🙂

Mmmm Summer Rolls!

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One of my very favorite things to eat these days is Summer Rolls. I’ll admit I don’t make them too much because the dipping sauce, which is divine, contains a little more fat than I like right now. But every once in a while, you’ve just gotta.

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I made them for dinner last night and, as well as being delicious, they are super easy.

You’ll need some spring roll wrappers. I got the biggest rounds they had at the Asian market. They have them in some standard grocery stores, too, but there’s a bigger selection (and bigger wrappers!) at the Asian market. 

Then, you put whatever kind of veggies you want in them. 

This time I had romaine, spinach, carrots, cucumber, tomato and alfalfa sprouts. I will tell you that in my opinion, these guys are NOTHING without the alfalfa sprouts but you decide for yourself. 

You just dip the wrappers into water to soften them up, layer the veggies of your choice inside, and roll them up. Easy peasy!

You will, most definitely,want to dip these in this dipping sauce that I modified from one that Megan Elizabeth shows on her YouTube channel.

I use 2 tablespoons of almond butter, 2 tablespoons of coconut sugar, 1 tsp of Liquid Aminos, 1/4 cup of water and some crushed red pepper for the dipping sauce. I take all of the ingredients and blend them in my little Magic Bullet which does a fabu job of mixing it all up. I have mixed it with a whisk, before I got the Magic Bullet, and it’s a little difficult because the almond butter is very thick. But it can work. 

And that’s all there is too it! A tasty way to eat a bunch of veggies. I can usually eat three of of these and sometimes more if I’m particularly hungry.

Try them, you’ll like them! 🙂

Raw Vegan Avocado Pasta

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I’ve been sitting here the last couple of days marveling at this person I’ve become. It’s Christmas time after all and I’m not planning tons of uber sweet treats for us all to eat. No, instead, things like this happen. The other day I clicked into Pinterest to look at something Nikki wanted to do for the glambaby’s birthday and I saw this:

I clicked through to see the ingredients and immediately became obsessed with eating this salad. Now, I’d heard about hemp seeds before but had never eaten them so I’m not sure why I felt I needed to eat this, I just did. As soon as I could get away, I ran to Akins and bought hemp seeds and hemp oil and came home and made the salad. I wasn’t disappointed. One of the best things I’ve eaten since I started my raw journey.

I find myself finding other recipes that aren’t necessarily raw and trying to figure out how to make them raw and that’s what I did today. I came across this recipe for Avocado Pasta. I loved the idea but there were so many things I don’t eat in the recipe. Still, it leant itself nicely to being modified and I came up with this for lunch today. Oh yum! Seriously one of the best things I’ve eaten. If I had more zucchini, I’d have made myself another huge bowl. 

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I will definitely eat this again and again and again. The only thing I’ll do differently is add more ground black pepper which I adore. Yum!

Last year at Christmas, I think there were more desserts than people here to eat them. This year, my biggest Christmas dinner dilemma is what to do with all of my bananas so we can all sit at the dining table. What a change! 🙂

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Raw Vegan Avocado Pasta
Delicious zoodles with a creamy avocado sauce.
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Ingredients
  1. 4 small or 2 large zucchini
  2. 1 ripe avocado
  3. 1/4 tsp basil
  4. 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  5. 1 tbs lemon juice
  6. 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
  7. Ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Spiralize zucchini into zoodles. Cuz tomatoes in half.
  2. To make the avocado sauce, place avocado, spices, and lemon juice in blender or food processor. Blend. Add water to make a smooth sauce.
  3. Pour over zoodles and tomatoes, toss until evenly coated. Add ground pepper to taste.
Notes
  1. You can use fresh herbs and spices, in fact they're probably preferable but I was in a hurry. Yum yum! 🙂
Adapted from DamnDelicious.net
Adapted from DamnDelicious.net
Lauri Rottmayer https://www.rottitude.com/

Raw Pumpkin Spice Smoothie

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I’m not one of those girls who’s all gaga over pumpkin spice everything. I like the taste but hadn’t had it this year. This morning, I found myself with a banana crisis on my hands. Usually I have the same smoothie for breakfast: bananas, strawberries and spinach. I love it so much I usually have it for lunch! 🙂

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But I used my last “dead” banana yesterday at lunch time. I have frozen bananas and bananas that aren’t quite ripe yet. So last night I had to figure out what I was going to have for breakfast so I’d be prepared. I had used some of the pumpkin I had in the freezer to make Raw Pumpkin Hummus (amazing!) and thought that pumpkin could be a possibility.

I was nervous to eat a pumpkin raw. Why? I couldn’t tell you. Everthing I’ve tasted raw so far has been delicious. I was so drawn by the hummus recipe that I finally decided to try it. When I got the pumpkin all pureed, I tasted it and was surprised. It was sweet! And yummy. 🙂  I then proceeded to Middle Easternize it. 😉 

So this morning, I decided to make a Raw Pumpkin Spice Smoothie. I used dates, frozen bananas, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. Then , after I took a pretty photo of it, I added a half a bag of spinach because I have just got to have it!  The spinach didn’t take away from the deliciosity of the smoothie, it just took away its pumpkiny color. Here I am making up all sorts of words in one paragraph. 😉

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So here’s the recipe if you’d like to try it. It is a big YUM! I think quite highly of raw pumpkin now, if you hadn’t guessed. 

 

Raw Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
A raw pumpkin spice offering.
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Ingredients
  1. 10 dates
  2. 2 frozen bananas
  3. 1 cup raw pumpkin
  4. 1 cup water
  5. 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  6. 4 1/2 oz spinach, if desired
Instructions
  1. Add dates, water, bananas into Vitamix. Blend well. Then add pumpkin and spice and blend until combined. If you'd like to add spinach, add enough water to mix it in, approximately 2 cups.
Notes
  1. The spinach doesn't take away from the pumpkin-y taste!
Lauri Rottmayer https://www.rottitude.com/

Butternut Squash Soup!

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Welcome fall! It’s soup time. 🙂

The other day, I finally got my Vitamix. I was SO excited. That first night I just started throwing some stuff in: tomatoes, zucchini, red pepper, and I don’t know what else and it was good! I was amazed at how the Vitamix actually made the soup hot without cooking it and it really filled me up.

Today we were out shopping and I saw a butternut squash. I’m trying to remember if I’ve ever eaten butternut squash before but I don’t think I have. I wanted to make soup out of it.  My first challenge was: how do I peel this thing?

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A week or so ago, I got a great julienne peeler that I hadn’t had a chance to use yet so I thought I’d try it. It worked great! Chopping the squash after that was a breeze. 

I loaded the cut up squash into the Vitamix and blended it. Then I added onion, apples, ginger, allspice and cinnamon and blended it all on high for five minutes.

I ended up with this amazing, photogenic soup!

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This was delicious and I will definitely make it again. I think the next time I’ll try some different spices. The ones I used this time were great and lent themselves to the sweetness of the squash and apples but I think maybe something spicier might be nice, too! 🙂

 

Hug A Vegan Day

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This morning I was listening to KRMG when the morning host, Dan Potter, mentioned that it was National Hug A Vegan Day. But then he snarked on, that you should be careful because they’re frail. And they smell funny.

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Say what?

Admittedly, I have only been a vegan since September 1, but in the past 25 days I have seen such amazing changes in my health. And I was already a healthy person! Prior to this month, David and I had been eating a paleo diet since November of 2010. But, for me, it was unsustainable because I have a huge sweet tooth and the cookies eventually called. I also loved beer and gin and felt deprived if I couldn’t have a cocktail. 

In the past 25 days, I have had NO sugar. And guess what? It’s. Been. EASY! I’ve also had no desire to have a cocktail, I sleep better, my joints don’t hurt and I’ve been absolutely flying when I walk in the a.m. I don’t even feel like I’m walking anymore, but gliding. 

13:20 min/miles walking!

13:20 min/miles walking!

More than being just a vegan, I’ve been a high raw vegan and have had cooked food only a handful of times. The raw meals have been awesome and delicious. I’ve lost 24 pounds and I’ve never been hungry because I’m eating close to 3000 calories a day. 

I think people can get a lot out of a vegan lifestyle and I’m not saying it works for everyone but it has for me. 

Oklahoma is the 7th most obese state in the nation. Instead of gross generalizations, I believe Mr. Potter could’ve used his platform to suggest to listeners that after they hug a vegan today, maybe they can ask him about his lifestyle and the health benefits of it.

Oklahoma is the 7th most obese state in the nation

Meanwhile, I’d pit my fitness against just about anyone’s any day of the week. And I’m far from frail. So, please, if you notice me becoming frail or smelling funny, I hope you’ll tell me. In the meantime, bring on the hugs! 🙂 

Skinny Bitch in Love – Book Review

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Skinny Bitch in LoveSkinny Bitch in Love by Kim Barnouin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book! I wanted to eat every single dish Clementine cooked/baked in the book and I am most definitely a carnivore. It was fun to go along with her on her dream of owning her own restaurant and ending up with the unlikely man of her dreams. Once I started reading this book, I did not stop. All in one day! It’s a terrific read. 🙂

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