Pumpkin Pie Mousse

I have no idea where my week has gone but I have been swamped running errands and going to cooking class last night. I will give you more details soon but for now I wanted to share a very quick recipe I whipped up this morning for breakfast. Here it is:

Pumpkin Pie Mousse
Serves 2

Ingredients:

½ cup raw cashews soaked in water overnight in the refrigerator and well drained
15 ounce can organic pumpkin (nothing added just pumpkin)
2 tablespoons chia seeds
1 tablespoon raw organic maca powder
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon powdered ginger
1 pinch stevia (or to taste)

Directions:

Toss everything in your high speed blender (I used my Vitamix) and process until smooth. To serve top with a little sliced banana, sliced almonds and/or granola if desired.

Nutritional Information (does not include the banana, nuts or granola):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 273.5
Calories From Fat (41%) - 111.58

Total Fat - 13.43g
Saturated Fat - 2.41g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 5.87mg
Potassium - 611.69mg
Total Carbohydrates - 34.72g
Fiber - 11.6g
Sugar - 8.44g
Protein - 9.42g

Comments:

This reminds me of pumpkin pie only without the guilt. I love that in included omega 3 fatty acids (from the chia seeds), and beta-carotene (from the pumpkin). This may be good for you but it tastes delicious.

Signing Out:

Talk to you again soon. I am off to catch up on things at home. I hope to get another post up very soon. Wish me luck.

Dr. Barnard Speaking at Hopkins and a Give Away

Sunday started very slowly at our house because we were up well past midnight last night. It is going to take a lot for us to get back into our 5 am routine to hit the gym before work if we keep staying up this late. I swear it was easier for these two former omnivores to go vegan than it was for us to go from night owls to morning people.

For breakfast Sunday morning we both had oatmeal. I made myself savory oatmeal with nutrition yeast and no-salt seasoning that I topped with peas, carrots and corn, a little of the leftover Indian spiced soup and a few raw sunflower seeds. As you can see from the picture above my little angel Massimo was trying to eat my breakfast. I had trouble getting a decent picture since I was trying to snap a photo and keep Masi out of my food. Eventually I just gave up and said good enough. My cats tend to be very determined and typically it is easier to give them their way.

Dan also had a few healthy cookies that I made him on Saturday. This recipe really is healthy, no oil, no sugar, no flour and still tastes like a cookie. The recipe should be ready to publish later this week.

Dan had his usual oatmeal with wild blueberries, cinnamon, ginger, wheat germ, ground flaxseeds and walnuts.

Next we ran out to drop off books at the library and then head to the talk at Johns Hopkins University (technically just off campus). I had been looking forward to listening to Dr. Barnard speak at Hopkins since I found about it weeks ago.

While Dan was checking the parking meter he ran into Jonathan (from the restaurant) and we walked with him for a little while and chatted after the obligatory hugs of course. Yes I am one of those people that likes to hug in case you hadn't noticed that by now. ;-)

We arrived early to the talk so that we could get good seats, which we did. I was very happy to have front row seats. I used to do the same thing in school. Some things never change I guess. LOL

Here is Dr. Barnard setting up the projector for the slide show during his talk.

This slide showing the prevalence of overweight in US children was extremely disturbing. How in the world did it go from 4% in 1963 to 35% in 2007? An increase like that is almost too much to imagine.

Another slide that I didn’t get a picture of showed that 1909 the average American consumed 3 pounds of cheese per year and the last time it was measured (2009 I believe) it was 35 pounds. Dr. Barnard thinks the increase is due to more fast food (cheeseburgers) and a dramatic increase in pizza consumption. I would have to agree with him that it makes sense. It is hard for me to imagine 35 pounds of cheese per person per year. No wonder our collective health in this country is so out of control. He also pointed out that Americans are eating 75 pounds more meat now compared to 1909 and mostly in the form of chicken. Clearly eating more chicken has not helped improve our health in this country.

Dr. Barnard’s talk was excellent. When I asked Dan what he thought he responded, “I live this stuff and you give me cliff notes so it wasn’t anything new to me”.  Only husbands right?  However we did both feel that Dr. Barnard was engaging, entertaining, funny, and informative. He is a wonderful ambassador for a healthy vegan diet.

After the talk was over Dr. Barnard took questions. Like always people wanted to ask about B12 and he responded that all most people need is a multi-vitamin that contains B12. He did elaborate that a small percentage of people can’t absorb oral B12 and those people will need injections but that sublingual is not necessary. I have also read that oral B12 is absorbed well though most physicians don’t know that. You can read that article here.

Another person asked about omega-3 fatty acids and flaxseeds and he said that is also not necessary since plant based foods contain trace amounts of omega-3s so that as long as you eat a whole food plant-based diet (translation you aren’t a processed food vegan) you get enough. I like adding a little flaxseed/hemp and chia seeds to function as an insurance policy. But it was nice to hear that flax/chia and hemp isn’t technically necessary for most people. Still we do get our B12 levels checked annually at our physicals.

A physician in the audience asked about educating patients and Dr. Barnard pointed out that they have educational posters that are available for the waiting and exam rooms. He also talked about a program they have in DC where they offer nutrition educators to hold talks about nutrition and diabetes after hours in other doctor’s offices. This way the doctors can recommend the talks to his to patients because don’t have to be there. He said that was working well for all concerned. I thought it sounded very encouraging and it is something I am going to mention to our internist to see if he is interested.

Also he mentioned that the American Diabetes Association is now advocating the efficacy of a low fat vegan diet which I thought was fantastic. For those of you that don’t know Dr. Barnard also has a book on diabetes that I thought was well researched and well written...not that I could get my mother to read it which was my original reason for buying it.

Overall it was very nice event and one that I am glad we had a chance to attend. If Dr. Barnard to coming to speak near you I highly recommend this talk. It was a great way to spend time this afternoon particularly if you are as interested in health and nutrition as I am.

Unlike when I met Jose Andres last month this time I had no trouble speaking to Dr. Barnard. I guess that says something about how in awe I am of Jose. My hubby had to point out to me that he was happy to hear me talk this time. Husbands! *huff*

After the talk we purchased a number of books and waited for Dr. Barnard sign them. I picked up an extra copy of “The 21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart” and had that signed to give away on the blog. I did this because I really enjoyed his new book when I read the one I got out of the library and wanted to share it with you. If you would like a signed copy of the book there are six different ways to enter:

1) comment on this post
2) become a follower of the blog
3) post a link to this post on Facebook
4) become a follower on Facebook
5) post a link to this post on Twitter
6) become a follower on Twitter (@veganepicurean)

If you are currently a follower of the blog here, on Facebook or Twitter please post a separate comment for each of those on this post. When or if you post a link on Facebook or Twitter please also leave a separate comment here. I will be using each comment to this post as an entry to win a signed copy of the book and will use a random number generator to pick the winner. To give everyone time to see this and comment or link to this I will wait until Friday May 6th to select the winner. Good luck to all of you!  :-)

After the talk we decided to make a quick run to Tuesday morning. I can always find things to buy at that store so it really can be dangerous for me to go there.

I loved these letters that spell out the word “BELIEVE”. Seriously, could there have been a more perfect phrase for me? No, I didn’t think so either.

There were also more odds and ends but the big purchase was a giant rooster cookie jar that I had to have. It was made in Italy and hand painted and I fell in love with it. I have a thing for chickens which is odd since I have never seen a “real” chicken walking around but I love them.

While we were out we decided to swing by Whole Foods for a kale run. You know you are kale obsessed when to stop to pick it up in the pouring rain and you don’t have an umbrella. We picked up 4 bunches of organic kale, 2 bunches of collards (hello collard wraps), cilantro, Brussels sprouts and a magazine that happened to leap into the cart. Darn those magazines they always dive into my cart.

By the time we got home it was after 4pm and both of us were definitely hungry. Thank goodness for leftover soup in the refrigerator. We both had a bowl of the tomato based barley and mushroom soup leftover from dinner Saturday evening.

Dan caught up on his sci-fi that he DVR’d while I started writing this post and got caught up on Facebook. Thank goodness we both have our “respective things” that we do to relax and that we can also them in the same room. During this time we were also drinking tea, this time hot because it has been raining and cool all afternoon. At the moment I am making a blend of white tea, tulsi and roses which I really like.

We were both busy, doing our respective stuff and at about 8pm we decided that it would be easier to go out to dinner than to make something. As always we went to our place for a quick bite.

Emily made us some of her signature green iced tea with orange which is terrific.

Then we had a bowl of the red potato soup with spicy chili topping. This stuff was absolutely delicious! Since it was vegan I am guessing Dani or Will made it. When I see them I will check to see if there is a secret ingredient. The spicy topping really took this soup over the top. *ummmm*

Next we ordered the samosa since we love that but rarely have it now since the guys typically make something especially for us.

Vaz sent us out some chipotle rubbed tofu with black bean salad and tomato salsa. Delicious! They don’t always have tofu since it isn’t on the menu now and he thought we would like it. Needless to say he was right. Everyone is so sweet to us we are extremely lucky to have “our place” so close to home.

We chatted with everyone, like always. I know the other customers must wonder who in the heck we are since employees will stop, talk and frequently sit down. That is one of the benefits of having a regular place. ;-) If you don’t have a regular place I highly recommend that you find one.

Emily’s aunt was generous enough to give her a Vitamix last week. You know that meant we needed to talk recipes right? She mentioned a film about that is coming up at MICA that I might like soon. I will definitely check that out tomorrow. I love chatting to Emily since she is a fabulous photographer and I love photography. She is also interested in nutrition and food which means we can talk for hours.

Donna, one of the owners, stopped to talk for a little while before she left. She thinks I should be writing a book and I am warming up the idea. She has only been mentioning this to me for over two years. This evening she gave me some great ideas about getting my feet wet in terms of writing that I am going to explore. Since her background was in writing and food styling before getting into the food business her perspective is very different from mine and I love to hear her ideas on things. It always makes sense to keep your options open right? As you can tell we had a nice evening like we always do. Is there any wonder that we always end up at our place?

Happy thoughts:

What a good day we had on Sunday. The rain didn’t dampen our spirits in the least. Here are my happy thoughts today:

• It was great to sleep in later than normal so that we could get our 8 hours. I know I always feel better when I have plenty of rest. It was a little sad not going to the farmers’ market but sleep came out on top this time. We will get back to the market next week since we are going to try to make it back to the gym by the end of the week when it opens at 6am. Wish us luck, I think we are going to need it. ;-)

• I have a great time listening to Dr. Barnard talk. I have seen him on PBS a number of times and enjoyed his talked but he is even better in person. He is very engaging and his presentation is informative. If you get a chance to see him speak live please do, I think you will enjoy it as much as we did.

• I am very happy to be having my first give away and for it to be something meaningful to me. I couldn’t not think of anything that fits me better than this book and having it be a signed copy makes to more special in my opinion.

• Spending Sunday with my hubby is always the best. We have a great time whenever we are together and today was no exception. I would not have purchased that chicken unless he was with me (too much money for a cookie jar) but I do love it. There is just something about it that makes me smile. Now I just need to keep my precious little fur babies from breaking it. *fingers crossed*

• I also love the positive message “BELIEVE” that we bought. That is going to brighten my day every time I look it. Can you have too many happy, upbeat and positive messages in your day? Not really! ;-)

• As silly as this sounds I am grateful to have organic kale and collards in the house again. I was starting to have dark green leafy withdrawal. I feel better knowing that we have greens in the refrigerator. No doubt there will be a green smoothie or two in my day tomorrow.

• Dinner was wonderful as usual. The potato soup was excellent, the samosa terrific and we loved the unexpected chipotle rubbed tofu that Vaz sent out. Not to mention it was great to see Donna, Corey, Emily, Jonathan (for the second time today), Janine, Kristin, Doug, and Vaz to name a few. Too bad we didn’t see Ian, Will and Dani but we did get there much later than usual. We will see them soon I am sure.

Signing out:

That is going to be it for me tonight. We still need to give “her highness” Luca Belle her medicine and start to wind down for the evening. I hope that your Sunday was as good as ours way. Talk to you again tomorrow.

Don’t forget t enter the contest to win the signed book by Dr. Barnard “The 21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart”. It is a great book; I know you will enjoy it.  :-)

Back to the Weekday Grind and an Oldie But a Goodie

(I love to see the Dogwoods in bloom)

Monday is my least favorite day of the week. I am not fond of Monday because this is the day that Dan goes back to the office. *ugh* However I try to remind myself that I have much to be thankful for and one of those things is that time flies and it will be the weekend again before I know it.

Like usual I made Dan’s breakfast and lunch this morning not long after I woke up. He had his usual oatmeal with wild berries and walnuts today. Of course it also contained wheat germ, freshly ground flaxseeds, cinnamon, ginger and little bit of stevia.

While Dan was getting ready for work I quickly checked my calendar, email and caught up on my health and nutrition reading. I am finding that it is much easier to share articles on Facebook as I read them. If you want to follow me there here is the link.

After Dan left for work I chatted with Sofia for a little while and then headed outside for some fresh air and a little moderate exercise. I decided to wind my way through the neighborhood as I walked to Loyola University. This was a good walk since it was up and down hills the entire time. I have been trying to take pictures of the things I see every day to help me to notice the beauty that is all around me.

(Clearly little ones live in this house.  I thought this was adorable and it made me smile.) 

(I love the little crocked streets around here.  Also it is nice that everything is starting to get a little green and beginning to sprout.) 

(This house always reminds me of Hansel and Gretel.) 

(I love old stone houses and this one of my favorites. Don't you just wonder what is beyond the iron gate in the stone fence?) 

(Hard to believe this is a yard in the city isn't it?  A major road, two lanes each way, is in the valley just beyond the yard.)

It is interesting to me how things looks different through the camera probably because I am taking time to actually see them versus rushing through my day to get to the next task.

Then I came home and did some Pilates and used my TRX and then it was time to get some things accomplished.

Breakfast for me was a huge bowl of savory oatmeal. This time I included: oatmeal, water, wheat germ, freshly ground flaxseeds, cumin, nutritional yeast, oregano, no-salt seasoning, broccoli, salsa, marinated mushrooms and cucumber (for crunch). I bet you have noticed that I never seem to get tired of this, and that is because I don’t. ;-)

We were out of non-dairy milk so I made a batch of soymilk since we last had almond milk. I have been trying to switch between the two milks since they have different nutritional profiles. This time I added 3 tablespoons of oats to the recipe and it does make the milk much thicker and richer than when I add my usual 2 tablespoons of oats.

Since I was in the kitchen I also decided to pressure cook a cup of white beans. We hadn’t had the white bean cheese substitute for months so I turned those beans into that. I decided to toss the leftover okara from the soymilk into the bean cheeze and that worked out well. The okara adds an underlying richness to the bean cheese. The more I use okara the more convinced I am that it will work in just about any recipe.

My lunch was leftover lentil salad, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I also had an orange and Brazil nuts (for the selenium) and an apple.

While I was doing laundry I decided to get back to listening “Veganist” on CD. If you haven’t tried books on CD you should give it a try. I find they make it easy to multi-task. Also the library has a much better selection of health on CD than I would have expected them to carry.

Dan ended up working extremely late so at 10pm we had a light dinner that consisted of a salad of: baby spinach, salsa, artichokes, red bell pepper, mushrooms, cucumbers and the bean cheeze that I made earlier today.

No surprise that Dan had a big bowl of strawberry banana soft serve for dessert.

Happy thoughts:

• It was a beautiful spring day and I thoroughly enjoyed my walk to Loyola University and back this morning. I don’t typically walk in that direction so I got to see some unfamiliar sites which was nice and kept the walk from being boring. Okay so my IPod helped too but you get the idea. I saw an adorable group of older people (aged 70+) out walking this morning. There must have been 15 of them or more. It made me smile to see them out for a little exercise. I hope I am that spry when I am their age.  *fingers crossed*

• I spent some time today doing things around the house that I have been neglecting for the last month. It is good to get a few items crossed off my to-do list. With a little luck tomorrow will also be as productive and maybe more so. That is a nice thought isn't it? ;-)

• My oldest fur baby is responding well to the change in meds. It appears that her asthma is under control now. I am apprehensive about scheduling her dental surgery but I know it is for the best. Needless to say I am trying to concentrate on the positives at the moment.

• I seem to be getting the hang of Facebook and am surprised at how quickly I appear to be picking it up. It is more intuitive than Twitter which has a bit has more jargon to learn before you know exactly what is going on. I suppose this proves that you are never too old to learn something new.

Signing out:

Sorry that I didn’t get this up last night. When Dan worked late it threw me off schedule. My pattern is to finish writing the post after dinner, and after cleaning up the kitchen. By the time that all of that was finished it was 11pm and past when we should have been winding down. However being a day behind will make it easier for me to spend more time writing and refining future posts which will be a good thing.

I hope you had a good Monday and that Tuesday is starting off well for you. Talk to you again tomorrow, unless you are following me on Facebook that is. I am going to catch up on my nutrition and health reading now and will be posting links to the articles I thought were interesting on Facebook next.

Happy Tuesday!

Low Saturated Fat Coconut Milk Replacement

I love the flavor of coconut milk but I am not crazy about the saturated fat content. I know what you are thinking isn’t coconut good for me? Sadly that is only theoretical at this time and until there is hard science regarding the benefit I am going to stay away from concentrated sources of saturated fat whether it is animal or vegetable since we know saturated fat isn’t healthy. When/if there is definitive science on the benefits of coconut fat I will let you know.

Since coconut milk adds lusciousness to food, particularly Indian food, I really wanted a replacement for it to use in cooking. Wednesday I made coconut soymilk and today I made coconut almond milk so that I could compare the two. Here is what I did:

Coconut Soymilk
Makes approximate 1 quart

Ingredients:

1 cup dried organic soybeans soaked in plenty of water over night in the refrigerator then hull
4 cups filtered water, or to the top line in your soymilk maker
3 tablespoons oatmeal, dry
½ teaspoon coconut extract (start with ¼ teaspoon and taste)

Directions:

Follow the directions for making soymilk found here or here. Add the oatmeal to the soybeans and water in the machine. Strain the milk and add in the coconut extract starting with ¼ teaspoon and add more from there if necessary.

The result, the milk has a nice coconut aroma and is reasonably thick from the additional oatmeal. Before I made this I considered adding a couple of tablespoons of raw cashews for richness but I didn’t think it absolutely needed it. This was very easy and tasty. I loved the heady coconut aroma that wafted off of this each time I opened the jar. It is definitely good stuff.

Then it was time for the Coconut Almond milk. Here is what I did:

Coconut Almond Milk
Makes approximately 1 quart

Ingredients:

1 cup almonds (which I did not skin)
filtered water to make 5 cups in the blender
3 tablespoons oatmeal, dry
½ teaspoon coconut extract starting with ¼ teaspoon

Directions:

Place the almonds in your high-speed blender. Cover the almonds with water to the 5 cup mark. Add the oatmeal and process on high until the nuts are thoroughly ground (about 3 minutes but I didn’t time it). Strain through a fine wine sieve. Add ¼ teaspoon of coconut extract and taste the milk. I ended up using ½ teaspoon. Refrigerate until needed.

Comparing the Two Coconut Milks:

I liked them both but thought the almond milk version was a little richer. Not to mention the almond milk is faster to make. However I was very pleased with both versions and will be using them both again. If you want to more closely mimic the richness (i.e. fattiness) you can try adding raw cashews to the milk. I would start with a tablespoon at a time. Additionally you could try adding a little unsweetened shredded coconut (but I suspect that will need to be strained).

I am not including nutritional information for either recipe since it would be a SWAG (scientific wild as..d guess) on my part.

Thursday:

You have probably already figured out that my Thursday was hectic. I spent some time making orange marshmallows that were chocolate dipped some with coconut and some with walnuts. Even though we don’t eat the marshmallows I do like to make them for others. There is something fun about the process for me. Jonathan and Brittany are celebrating their anniversary today so I was happy to help out with some homemade sweets. I made extra to take to the restaurant since everyone there also enjoy sweets and have had my marshmallows before. What? You don’t take food to your local restaurant? LOL, I know I am not right.  ;-)

We got the restaurant late, late, late. Knowing that they stop seating at 9pm I called ahead and placed an order for dinner so that we weren’t holding up the guys in the kitchen.

No surprise Dan wanted a vegan whole wheat pizza and Brandon picked our toppings and Mike executed it and the result was delicious. Thanks guy’s great job as always!

We also ordered our new favorite Tuscan carrots

and a plate of roasted veggies.

Then we hung out on the patio for a while with Jonathan and chatted with Jenn, Steph and Corey. If you don’t have a restaurant where you are a regular I am sure our stories seem very odd.  As you can probably tell we have gotten to know everyone fairly well.  ;-) We wouldn’t go out to eat nearly as much if we didn’t have such a nice time every time we are there.

Happy Thoughts:

• I heard from Jonathan this morning and Brittany loved the marshmallows. *happy dance* I love doing things like this. I suppose deep down I have a bit of “food pusher” in me like Ian. LOL

• Thursday was hectic but not as bad as the last couple of weeks. I feel like life is starting to return to normal again. *huge sigh of relief* I am looking forward to having time to get back to my routine.

• Our weather has been very nice lately. The spring bulbs are all up and the garden is starting to come to life. My newly planted herbs are doing well. I can’t wait to spend a little time in the garden. Spring is my favorite season.

• I have been getting back into juicing again with the change in season. Needless to say I am enjoying starting my day with a big glass of fresh veggies.  This one contained beet, lemon, kale, garlic, celery and chia seeds.

• Is there a better day of the week than Friday? I am always in a good mood on Friday. Saturday is supposed to be rainy but Sunday we should be sunny and 66. *woo hoo* Then our temperatures are forecasted to get into the 70’s next week. I love spring!

Signing out:

Since it is Friday I am running errands today and getting ready for the weekend. I hope you have some fun things planned for the weekend. Talk to you again soon, hopefully tomorrow.

Dinner With Friends and Cute Cats

Like usual I had a very hectic Friday. I had so many things to do today that I bailed on most of my food on Friday, sorry. I will describe the first two meals at home and then go into more details about dinner.

I went for my usual morning walk but held it to two miles today since I was so short on time. Given the time constraint I opted to go up and down hills to get a little extra oomph in this morning. Darn those hills can be tough. ;-)

When I got home breakfast was green smoothie containing the usual suspects: raw kale, banana, chia seeds, cinnamon, powdered ginger, wheat germ, water and ice.

After breakfast I walked to the grocery store to pick up provisions for the evening with friends. I had a few things that I knew I needed to make but dessert was up in the air. I considered a few dessert items: tofu chocolate mousse, avocado chocolate mousse, fresh fruit salad, and chocolate dipped pineapple with coconut. However the beautiful organic strawberries that I found out the market dictated that chocolate covered strawberries were a strong contender. I did also buy soft tofu in case I decided to go with the mousse.

Knowing that I would be eating too many calories for dinner I decided a giant salad was a great idea for my lunch. This one was simple consisting of organic mesclun, salsa, cucumbers, shredded carrots, red peppers, and raw pumpkin seeds.

Then it was time to prep everything that I was taking to Walid and Jackie’s for dinner. First up were the chocolate dipped strawberries some that I rolled in nuts. These are very simple you melt chocolate (either chips or candy bars ... it isn't hard to find vegan chocolate) and then dip the strawberries and roll them in chopped nuts. Refrigerate them on parchment until the chocolate is hard. This is a very simple preparation and everyone loves them.

Since I had leftover melted chocolate I made some quick chocolates with fresh blueberries that I finished with chopped walnuts. For the mold I used a silicon heart shaped ice cube tray from IKEA. The only mistake I made with these was not putting a little chocolate in the mold first, then blueberries and finishing them with more chocolate. These disappeared quickly so I don’t think anyone minded. Both Walid and Dan really liked the combination of blueberry and chocolate.

I also made a batch of my cheeseless queso which Jackie had requested since both she and Walid really like it. Next time we get together I am going to make this with Jackie because they would definitely make this even though they aren’t vegan. Can you get any higher praise than that for a healthy vegan dish? ;-)

In addition I thought we needed some artichokes tossed with dill because you can never have too many artichokes. I am fairly sure my love for artichokes is an Italian thing.

I baked some tofu to take with us since Jackie was making a veggie stir fry for the entrée. Later in the evening we water sautéed the veggies and they turned out great. Jackie and Walid added shrimp to their stir fry and we added tofu.

Jackie had put together some crudités, hummus, pita, marinated cauliflower, peppers, olives, salsa and grapes. Do you think we had enough food? LOL, we were laughing that we had enough food for double the number of people that we in the house. Oh well, leftovers are good right? The funny thing is that we never even got to the soup I brought. I left some of that so they could try it later.

There was lots of talking (nonstop actually) and carrying on like usual. We had a great time as evidenced by the fact that we didn’t get home until after 2:30 in the morning. Just imagine how long we would have stayed if Jackie didn’t have to work on Saturday? LOL

Here are a couple of pictures of her adorable felines (Buddy has long hair and Skipper short hair) who were also part of the festivities. I adore Jackie’s cats because they behave just like ours. The entire evening they were right in the middle of everything that was going on.  I think the pictures of the cats say it all. They are so laid back and content. For years I have said Jackie is the only person I would trust to watch my fur children.

This is a picture of our friend Walid who is one of the nicest men I have ever met. Sorry I didn’t get any pictures of Jackie and I, we were both too busy talking. Something tells me all the ladies understand that.

Here is Dan looking a little tired but it was after 1am by the time I took this so he should look tired.

Sunday we were both dragging all day after being up so late. At least Dan managed to sleep in later than I did. For some crazy reason I was up by 8 that morning. I will try to get up an abbreviated Saturday post later today. There isn’t much to share about Saturday other than a German inspired mushroom soup that was well received.

Happy thoughts:

• We both had a fabulous time Friday night. It was great to spend time with Walid, Jackie and the boys (Buddy and Skipper). There is nothing like spending time with friends.

• Saturday we were fortunate not to have anything pressing to do so that we could take it easy after so much fun Friday night. ;-)

• I am pleased with how the German inspired mushroom soup turned out on Saturday. Even though my husband and father both have German backgrounds I typically make my favorite Italian food. However I do like German flavors so I should make that more often if for no other reason variety.

• The farmers’ market was great Sunday morning. We are back to our usual routine of helping Rudy unload his truck. We came home with more plants for the herb and tea garden (basil and lemon balm) as well as leeks, baby collards, beets and organic hot house tomatoes. With the beets and collards I had to break out the juicer this morning. It is nice to be back into juicing season.

Signing out:

Since yesterday was extremely unproductive we have a lot to get done here today. I am hoping to get another post up about yesterday’s soup late today. At least I documented the recipe so I need to do now is the write the post. ;-)

If any of you want to follow me on Facebook send me an email at veganepicurean@gmail.com that way I will recognize your friend request. I hope you are having a great weekend. Talk to you again soon.

Chocolate and Walnut Covered Banana Pops ........

This is a tease for chocolate and walnut covered banana pops that I made tonight. ;-) They are incredibly easy and you may have all the ingredients on hand.

Where did Friday go? Sorry I didn’t have a chance to get a post up yesterday. I was busy running from place to place and by the time I got home all I wanted to do was kick back and relax. October should be a little more laid back for me which I hope means I will be back to blogging daily.

Dinner Thursday:

As expected Dan worked late so by the time he came home I wasn’t in the mood for a heavy meal. I ended up defrosting some veggie soup from my freezer inventory and topping that with walnut parmesan. We both had a big bowl of soup and called it a night. It is nice to have things like this in the freezer for nights when I am not in the mood to cook. I am also enjoying reducing my freezer inventory to make room for new things.

Friday:

Thankfully the rain finally stopped during the morning. I was ready to see a little blue sky, which was all we got. However a little blue sky was better than the torrential downpour we had been experiencing so it was fine with me.

Breakfast:

Dan had a big bowl of oatmeal with frozen wild blueberries, cinnamon, powdered ginger, and walnuts for his breakfast today.

Since I was going to be running errands I made a smoothie to go. This smoothie contained 1 frozen banana, 3 kale leaves/stems chopped, 1 tablespoon chia seeds, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger, cold processed green tea sufficient to process. I poured this into a mason jar and stored it in the freezer while I got ready to leave.

I drank my smoothie at traffic lights while I was driving from place to place. I wish I had photographed some of the priceless looks I got from people who saw me drinking something bright green out of a jar. The first person caught me off guard so I didn’t have time to react. However I was ready for the second person and winked at them when they stared. I did this every time someone was looking at me strangely. It turned out to be quite a giggle for me. I am sure they thought I was nuts but it amused the heck out of me. LOL

Since Jackie, Nadia and I didn’t make it to Marshall’s in Towson on Thursday due to the rain I decided to start my errands there this morning which was a bad plan. When I got there they were pumping water out of the store and had a sign up that said temporarily closed. Talk about a bummer. That is the closest Marshall’s to me so I was not happy. I hope they reopen soon.

Next I had to stop at the pharmacy and pick up a couple of scripts. Then I needed to drop papers off at two doctors. When you have more than one doctor it is easier to deliver reports and lab results yourself than relay on front office staff to do it for you. Since the offices are on the way to Costco it wasn’t a problem just a diversion.

Since there was also another Marshall’s on the way I stopped there to see what I could find. I ended up with a few nice long sleeved T’s in various solid colors (Talbot’s, Jones of NY, and Liz Claiborne). I also found a pair of black slacks (Dockers) and a funky jacket by Carole Little that is an off-white black ground with black designs. It is wilder than I usually buy but I thought why not. Worn with black pants and a black turtleneck it should be a cute outfit.

Then it was on to Costco. I went in for 6 things on my list and somehow spent $200. Clearly I bought a cart full, far more than I had actually planned to buy. How does that always happen? I also completely forgot that I had the annual rebate check in my purse. *shakes head* Sometimes I think I would forget my head if it weren’t attached. Costco is again carrying organic canned tomatoes if anyone is interested. I also noticed they had pocket hand warmers which I may need to buy on my next trip. There is nothing worse than cold hands in the winter in my opinion.

Lunch:

Since I got home so late from shopping I wasn’t exactly in the mood for anything time consuming for lunch. I ended up having a giant bowl of grapes instead because it was very easy and that was my top criteria once I got home and had everything put away. I am not sure why but 5+ hours of running errands is exhausting. All I really wanted to do when I got home was put my feet up and relax.

After the grapes I had few walnuts, a banana and some leftover soup from last night. I was so tired I didn’t even think about taking any pictures. That was went I knew I was exhausted from all the running around. I think driving is the problem. Why people feel the need to drive so recklessly is a complete mystery to me.

More thoughts on weight:

First I want to say you guys send very insightful comments by email. One of you mentioned gaining weight even though you were eating better and exercising more. This comment made the light bulb go off in my head. Muscle weighs more than fat and if you have stepped up your exercise any weight increase you see is most likely due to adding more muscle than fat lost. Muscle is denser than fat so even though the scale goes up you will lose inches which you will see if you keep track of your measurements. Alternately you could buy a scale that calculates body fat. The body fat scales are much cheaper now than they were 10 years ago when they first hit the market.

Speaking of measurements have you heard that your waist measurement should be no more than ½ your height? In other words, if you are 5’4” (or 64) inches your waist should be 32 inches or less. When I heard this I thought it made a lot of sense since it equates your circumference with your height. This article gets a little more complicated but the math is the same in the end.

I find it interesting that weight is a subject that all women seem to have thoughts on. I suppose this is because we have been ingrained to think we have to be model thin to be beautiful. It is so easy to forget that most pictures we see have been airbrushed and stretched and that the women in those pictures don’t look like that way either.

Dinner:

Since you know who didn’t get home from work until 10pm a heavy dinner was not going to happen. It was so late I wasn’t actually hungry. I made Dan a batch of strawberry banana soft serve since he needs the calories. I had a couple of spoons but that was enough. Going to bed with a full stomach seems to disrupt my sleep so I try not to do it anymore. Do any of you find that eating before bed disrupts your sleep? I seem to need 3 hours to digest before bed in order to sleep well.

Saturday:

Since it is Saturday you all know by now that means no alarm clock today. Woo hoo! This is our one day to sleep in and we take full advantage of it. I woke up around 7:30 to a brisk fall morning. The sky was a beautiful cloudless blue and the temperature was 55 degrees. It was the perfect morning for a nice long walk if you were dressed warmly. Not knowing when Dan was getting up I stayed home so I didn’t miss anytime with him since I knew he needed to work this weekend.

When he got up he told me he really needed to go to the office today since he is more productive there. I wish he could get more done at home but I understand that it is easier to work at the office with all his documents readily at hand. As soon as I know he was going downtown I preheated the oven and cut up a large acorn squash into bite sized cubes and started that roasting in a 350 degree. In the past I would have coated the squash in olive oil but it isn’t necessary. My squash roasted without anything on it and the flavor still concentrated and the squash got tender.

Breakfast:

While the squash was roasting I made us both a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. Dan gets 3/4 cup oats, 1 ½ cups water, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger, 1 ½ cup wild blueberries, a pinch of stevia and ¼ cup of walnuts. This is Dan’s favorite oatmeal combination. I like that it contains a blue food (blueberries) and omega 3 fatty acids (walnuts). It also seems to have enough calories to keep him satisfied until lunch.

My oatmeal serving is smaller. For myself I prepare: ½ cup oats, 1 cup water, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger, 1 cup wild blueberries, and 6 walnut halves. This is more than enough to get me going in the morning. I prefer to have smoothies in the morning (for nutritional reasons) but on some cold mornings oatmeal is just more appealing.

Lunch:

Since I had not planned on Dan going downtown today I also defrosted another batch of soup from my freezer inventory. This one was corn, mushroom and potato soup. If you haven’t tried making large batches of soup and freezing them for later I would suggest you give it a try. They are very handy when you don’t feel like cooking and have much less sodium than most canned soup. The soup in the picture above is my lunch serving.

To go with the soup I made a quick salad of edamame (from the freezer), thinly sliced radish, thinly sliced carrot, shredded romaine and chopped walnuts. I tossed the veggies (not the lettuce) this with a quick dressing of Dijon, mirin and red miso and packed the lettuce and nuts separately. I made myself the same thing for lunch which is what is pictured above.

Before Dan left for work we talked about what we were going to do tomorrow. Specifically whether he was going to the office or would be working from his home office. The plan is for him to work from home tomorrow which is always nice. With the cool weather we are having I thought a huge pot of chili was in order. Chili makes great leftovers because you can eat it as chili or use it to make taco salad. I am hoping to have enough chili to be able to freeze some, but we will see if that actually happens since we both like chili so much. ;-) This batch is particularly good. I will post the recipe tomorrow since I think this may be my best chili recipe yet.

Today I have been busy reorganizing my closet and cleaning. Not exactly fun stuff but it needs to be done so it makes sense to do it when Dan is busy working.

Dinner tonight is completely up in the air. I have no idea what we will have since Dan will undoubtedly be late since he didn’t leave for the office until after noon. I suspect salad may be what is for dinner tonight.

Dessert:

I wanted to make Dan a treat for this evening. This is more of method than a recipe. I cut bananas in half and slid the halves onto sticks. I froze them until they were solid. Then I melted dark chocolate (which I flavored with coffee extract) and coated the bananas in chocolate and sprinkled them with chopped nuts when the chocolate was still wet and slid the banana pops back into the freezer so the chocolate would harden.

This is not an original idea. I first saw the basic idea in “Eat Clean Recharged” and knew Dan would love it so I needed to make them sometime when he needed a little something special. I think they will be best when slightly defrosted. I was chatting with Courtney and she gave me a suggestion on how to make them a little differently. Once I have a chance to try her technique I will post that method as well. I suspect this first batch will disappear rapidly so I will be making more soon. ;-)

Signing out:

Sorry I got so far behind again. My week has been a bit hectic with too many errands and time in the car (not my favorite). But it has been a very productive week which is a good thing.

I finished reading two more books from the library that were both very good. I will try to get those reviews posting in the next few days while the books are fresh in my mind.

I hope everyone had a great Saturday. Tomorrow we will be back to the farmers market to load up on my produce. I am hoping we find more fall veggies, like Brussels sprouts on the stalk. Talk to you again soon.