Food(less) Journey

As soon as it snows it is officially pancake season! Yay! Oh wait.... It is ALWAYS pancake season! Triple yay! Just looking at pictures of pancakes makes me want some! Look: Topped with some melty peanut butter and Tastefully Simple blueberry burgundy jam. Oh the benefits of living with a consultant! Whoever thought it was a good idea to combine blueberries and burgundy wine is a complete genius! Get. It. I ate half this jar for research purposes only! *cough* moving on.... Whole Foods dinner..... What is it with shopping for food that makes me too tired to cook? So I didn't even try to fight. Stuffed faux turkey with olive oil mashed potato and faro stuffing. Oh that farro stuffing is so creamy and delicious. steamy That fabulous Italian store Merante Brothers Market in Washington county  still sells the sundried tomato risotto. And my family was nice enough to bring me some when they went there. What sweeties! I made some for lunch today with spinach

Can you believe what is happening outside? It seems like only a few days ago I was saying goodbye to the last wave of the tomato harvest. Waving goodbye to the beautiful leaves of summer as they beautifully decayed in splendid shades of yellow, orange and red. And now it looks like this outside. Beautiful! Right? I need some coffee.... Oh there it is! Tall skinny blonde with soy milk... With one pump of vanilla. Yum! This calls for a big bowl of soup! 1/4 cup of quinoa, 1/2 zucchini chopped, 1/4 cup chopped kale and 1/4 c pepper sauce (pinjur or salsa) 1) throw it all in the pot 2) let it simmer until the quinoa is done 3) warm your insides! Look at the creepy snow outside! Now it's time for chocolate truffle bar. 1/4 c cocoa powder, 4 T sweetened vanilla coconut milk, 1t coconut oil 1) mix the ingredients in a bowl then place in baggie and pop it in the freezer 2) after a 3 or 4 hours (or overnig

Red Lentils and Kale on Olive Pane Do you ever get meal inspiration from something you read? There are some literary works that purposely attempt to inspire hunger, but there are times when my culinary imagination is set afire accidentally. This particular meal was inspired by my Bible reading and research. Can you guess what I was reading about? I'll give you a clue: Twins, Birthright, Red. Got it? You guessed it! Our Sunday lesson revolved around valuing spiritual things and we were discussing the experience of Jacob and Esau at Genesis 25: 27-34. Well, while I was reading this it popped into my head that I had some red lentils in the cupboard and the idea sort of grew from there. I made the red lentils and added kale in the final minutes of cooking along with a sprinkle of lemon pepper and sea salt. Finished with a drizzle of oil. Interestingly, I found out that this olive Pane, which I bought as a splurge item is $3 cheaper at Whole Foods than where I bought it.

Accidental chili! With avocado! Exclamation point!   I have been craving chili like crazy. And you know how I love accidentally creating things. So I was going to make more lentil soup.   Like this:     Using this:   Pinjur by Konex Foods   But I added too much in my zealousness to get more veggies in. And it amazingly turned into chili (see pic above). When I tasted it and realized how much it tasted like chili I did the only natural thing you do when you realize you have accidentally made chili..... grab an avocado!!!!!   Get you some!   I got this accidental chili starter at Big Lots. It's loaded with: peppers, eggplant, tomato paste, garlic. Some of the best things in the world! It tastes great on bread, on sandwiches, in soup, as a chili, on pasta or just on some rice.   Side note: It's from Bulgaria. I suddenly want to go to Bulgaria and eat things. Who knew they had such yumminess?   Lentil Chili : Ser

What do you eat for breakfast? In Italy it was tea and a pastry Or leftover pasta... What's for breakfast? Common vegan question #13. Cracklebred topped with nutbutter, jam, dried fruit and nuts.. Cracklebred topped with Fakin' bacon, tofu eggs...   Scrambled tofu with tempeh bacon and a side of whole wheat toast..     Pancakes for one topped with maple syrup or warm fruit compote..   Oatmeal with coconut butter, peanut butter and strawberry rhubarb jam Oatmeal with nut butter, nuts and dried fruit, jam, etc.. Rice and vegetables.. Leftover pasta... Cold cereal and almond milk... Puffed Kamut with soaked Goji berries and maple syrup  Loaded sweet potato... Sweet Potato with peanut butter, dried cranberries and sliced almonds    My favorite especially when Im trying to control cravings is a smoothie. To add protein my favorites are protein powder, hemp seeds, nutmilk base and/or nut butter topping.   Lunch, Dinner or L

Where do you go to shop (and maybe unwind or decompress)? There are a couple of places I unwind shop at. Fridays are a great day for this because... Do you really need reasons why its great to unwind on Friday?   Oh. Okay. Well one reason is many get paid on Friday. So you know exactly what you have to work with cash wise. I head out shopping with a budget in mind. Spending too much will add stress not decrease it....     Gourmet food deals abound at Home Goods. Coconut butter for $6!!!!  (regularly $12, but now that I know the Maranatha is always $6 at Walmart I want to give that brand a go) On a recent trip, I also bought some dehydrated orange slice which you eat peel and all. Yay vitamin C!   And another perk of Home Goods is that it's right near.... Be still my heart ... I'm not even going to describe the great fun of window shopping at IKEA. You can wander around and pretend you live in the display.   What? Don't pretend I'

Of course I do! But after eating whole foods for so long, my treats tend to be "real food". A treat for me is a trip to Chipotle, Whole Foods prepared foods section, or just cooking something I can't afford regularly (i.e. something with artichokes, avocado, etc.). But that is not to say I don't have non- whole food treats. But feel free to laugh at my list of "naughty" treats. It is kind of annoying when I say I have a craving and my friends laugh because my cravings are relatively "healthy". Anyway, here is a sampling of what I've been indulging in this summer. So Delicious Coconut milk ice cream in Cherry Amaretto with a dollop of Coconut Butter Tortilla chips topped with nooch cheese and tomato sauce Sweet potato fries with peanut butter and coconut butter Soft Pretzel at the Pittsburgh Pirates game Pirates won! Ice coffee with soymilk and maybe a shot of Torani syrup...

Review time! Yay! I guess... As much as I love to share my opinion about things, doing a formal review scares me a bit. It requires deep meditative thinking about textures and flavors. Not a problem. It requires you to eat. Obviously, not a problem. It requires you to express your adoration concisely. Again, not a problem. SO, what's the problem? Sometimes I really dislike a product and I feel bad expressing my disdain for something in such a public way. There's a big difference between telling my mum I don't like something and putting it on here for the world to see. And I feel that it being untruthful if I sugarcoat it. So know that I will not be sugar coating anything, but I will try to be descriptive in what I didn't like. I realize  that what I dislike about a certain food might be just what someone else likes about it. Without further ado... Here is your review! First things first... How much do you love the name of this company?  Cute rig