It's raining....Let's burn something

I'm talking about candles you pyromaniacs!

:-)

Please don't burn any food! It's wasteful and toxic to your lungs.

But feel free to burn some non-sooty candles.

And by some I mean at least 10 because today

it's raining and snowing.

Brown Rice Noodles
w/ Tomatoes spinach and nooch sauce

 Did you know Trader Joe's has loads of veg and gluten free foods?

Their Brown Rice pasta is really tasty

(when cooked properly..AKA not too long..oops).

And the texture makes it a great carrier for creamy sauces.

Sometimes dairy free sauces don't adhere to pastas,

but not so with brown rice pasta.

I'm having a romance with Nutritional Yeast at the moment

(Yay b-vitamins!)

and one of my favorite ways to enjoy it is smothering pasta.

Brown Rice Pasta just sounds so healthy,

but who cares about healthy when it tastes so good.

Nom nom nom!

Random side note...

Look how pretty the trees were!

This is a few days ago...

Does the above box look sad to you?

It's probably sad because the contents are:

One sad little past date mango...

 Excuse me.. One sad little past date Champagne Mango.

I bought a case from Whole Foods and was not able to eat that last little guy.

I liked looking at him under the window but then

I realized he was dead...

Okay so technically he started dying when he was picked

but you get what I mean... He was decayed.

I know..

That's gross.

Speaking of Trader Joe's..

They have some pretty awesome prepared foods.

Balela, a savory Middle Eastern salad,

 is pretty high on the craving list right now.

It has chick peas and black beans and a host of spices.

I could make this at home, but it's so convenient

to be able to grab and go.

A budget tip:

 Buy this then mix it with a can of strained black beans and another can of chickpeas.

This will help stretch it out.

It's tasty with rice, pasta, in a wrap, or just over lettuce.

Versatile! Delicious! Protein!

Exclamation Point!

adorable place setting

On yet another a side note....

A few weeks ago I went to a surprise party for my friend T.

It was a surprise Kitchen Warming.

The aim was to surprise the socks off of her

AND

To get her lots of goodies for her baking business

AND

To stock up the appliances in her awesome new kitchen.

Mission accomplished?

Mission accomplished!

She received so many awesome presents

it really made me want to have a reason to have a party

where I get some gifts.

Unfortunately, I'm not graduating, getting hitched, procreating or anything like that.

And my aunt shot down my fake wedding reception idea.

Can't remember why she didn't like that idea..

Something about "fraud" maybe...

I thought it was a good idea.

Any ideas?