1. We saw Star Trek Into Darkness and it was awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAEkuVgt6Aw

Packed with non-stop action, it barely slowed down for character development or a breather, but I didn’t find that to be a problem since it brought all the characters back from the first movie and made a great action-packed summer romp.

2. We tried out a new Thai restaurant, My That Table, where even the waters were fancy with cute little wrapper roses and a mint leaf.

I got the green curry tofu special and the medium spicy level was perfect for me. The tofu wasn’t fried in this dish and it seemed to absorb the sauce flavors better.

For dessert, hubby and I spit coconut mango sticky rice that was beautifully presented.

I’ve never had rice for dessert, but it was delicious served hot with a sweet coconut flavor and little crunch from the sesame seeds, a lot like a sweet oatmeal.

3. I made a messy kale salad yesterday with salsa, chopped avocado, and corn chips mixed in.

The texture and flavors were a fun change.

4. I also loaded my dehydrator with kale chips and now have a huge stash in our pantry that won’t last long.

I coated the kale leaves in the hemp nacho sauce from Kristen Suzanne’s Raw Vegan Hemp recipe book before dehydrating for 8 hours and they came out great with the perfect amount of spicy kick.

5. We got a lot done in the garden, I planted more kale, watermelon, and spaghetti squash plants while hubby did an amazing job weeding and sprucing up the front yard.

So nice to check off the to do list! And I admired the sunflowers that are starting to bloom.

6. Hubby surprised me by preparing dinner last night.

He fried up patties of Trader Joe’s Organic Polenta with mushrooms and seasonings.

While I read the Sunday ads.

With a cute lap buddy. I could get used to this.

And he even did a gorgeous job plating the polenta rounds with a drizzle of truffle oil and asparagus, so pretty.

And so sexy when a man prepares amazing meals, right?

I love that these little plants don’t take up much space in our planter beds and flourish over the summer months.

I also picked up a simple salad from the salad bar and served it in the box – classy, right?

Thursday night I put a little more effort into my salad throwing together an interesting and delicious chia seed rosemary dressing. The ingredient list is a little complex because I had fun adding to the Vitamix as I went along and tweaked the flavor.

I love using carrots as a sauce or dressing base, even organic carrots are inexpensive. They’re low calorie, but add a lot of nutritional value and plenty of color.

I coated a messy salad of baby kale, sprouts, and red bell pepper in the dressing.  Why not? It’s veggie based and adds a lot of flavor.

And topped my serving with plenty of hemp seeds for a main meal salad.

The dressing has a strong rosemary kick with a slight punch from the cayenne paired nicely with a tangy creaminess from the vinegar and tahini.

And I haven’t been feeling too creative in the kitchen this week, there’s lots of stuff I want to do, like dehydrate more kale chips, grow more sprouts, and juice more, but I just haven’t been able to make time for it this week. I threw together a simple tofu broccoli stir fry dinner tonight seasoned with sesame oil, tamari, ginger, and garlic.

Nothing too exciting, but fast and easy.

Last night I tried an experiment for dinner that actually worked well. I still have problems finding recipes for raw cauliflower and broccoli I like, especially raw cauliflower because it can be pretty harsh to digest. But I did try a marinade recipe that came out very tasty.

I tried this Broiled Tempeh recipe to go with the cauliflower.

For an interesting looking, but good dinner.

The cauliflower was still crunchy, but absorbed the flavors of the marinade nicely for a savory and tangy crunch and the smaller pieces were easy to chew.

The broiled tempeh recipe came out good too, the tempeh chunks got nicely crispy edges and absorbed a lot of the flavors from the broiling process. The mushrooms were just okay in the recipe, I got a little mushroomed out halfway through and would probably cut the amount in half next time and add another veggie.

About a mile of the trail runs through flat, wetland nature preserve completely exposed to the wind before heading into hilly trail paths, very challenging and a great workout!

After getting home, cleaning up, and banging out a few chores, I threw together a huge spinach salad for lunch with sprouted mung beans and Gena’s Carrot Miso Dressing.

Dinner wasn’t so raw last night, but it was a fun collaboration of vegan foods hubby and I created, I threw together a curried tempeh and cauliflower skillet while hubby roasted potato wedges and carrots with fresh rosemary for a delicious plate.

Hubby has been trying more and more vegan foods to replace meat in his diet and I’m so proud of him! In the past I’ve had a hard time finding vegan meat alternatives that he’s really liked, but he found these Boca non-GMO Soy Vegan burgers with great texture and flavor.

And he really likes that they’re high in protein while being low calorie.

His favorite way to serve them is to cook two stove top, slice in half and serve in a hearty wrap with romaine, mustard, catchup, and other veggies.

If you’re looking for a hearty vegan burger, give these a try. And he has one attentive fan every time he cooks them.

I dived into a new 5 lb. bag of Nutiva Organic Hemp Seeds from our freezer to create a new dressing tonight.

True, the bag is not cheap with prices fluctuating between $45 – $70. But not expensive considering it usually lasts me 6 months and stores nicely in the freezer. And hemp seeds are just fabulous for making creamy dressings or tossing into salads. Tonight I decided to create a simple, but fiery dressing with a nice savory kick.

The ingredients can be tossed into a blender and blended in minutes.

To create a beautiful orange creamy dressing.

I coated a large romaine sprout salad in it for a meal salad.

And a colorful dinner was served.

It’s been ages since I’ve had a french dressing, but this dressing reminded me of a creamier version with a savory kick from the paprika and a satisfying tang while adding a smooth creamy texture that coated the salad evenly.

The black rice was especially fabulous with a hearty nutty texture and fruity sweetness while the vinaigrette dressing tasted wonderful blended in with the other salads, fun dish for inspiration!

And last night we stepped out for Thai after a stressful work day, I got a simple tofu cashew stir fry dish that was very filling.

But I’m a lucky girl because I got to go to another fabulous vegan brunch today, two in one week! Animal Place, an amazing farm sanctuary in Grass Valley, CA, held their first annual Mother’s Day brunch today. For $40 per person, we got a wonderful vegan brunch with fun new vegan dishes to try, a farm tour that got up close and personal with farm animals, and fun education and history about the sanctuary along with inspirational stories about animal mothers from the farm. And a super goody bag for moms with recipe books, vegan cookies, vegan caramels, and other baked goods – my mom was spoiled!

The outdoor setting for the brunch was perfect with beautiful scenery of the rolling Grass Valley hills in a new shaded outdoor eating area at the sanctuary. And the food was beautiful! I’m a sucker for gourmet vegan breakfast foods and they had plenty! On this table are vegan quiches, sweet berry breakfast quinoa, vegan baked goods, and plenty of fruit salad.

And there was a fabulous chilled seitan salad, crackers and vegan “cheese”, and vegan pastry puffs.

My plate was very decadent! I can’t remember the last time I’ve had a cinnamon roll, the little vegan cinnamon roll from Cinnaholic was a treat! And so was the breakfast seitan using Upton’s Natural Seitan.

Daiya Foods also provided the spreadable vegan cheese that was a wonderful treat. And Annabel’s Lil Rescue Hen Vegan Bakery provided a lot of the vegan treats, yum!

After brunch we got a detailed tour of the farm sanctuary that included meeting young cows that were very friendly.

And feeding apples to pot bellied pigs.

They were fast at finding and eating the apple chunks, wow!

And we got to meet a few of the adult cow residents that eagerly came to the fence to greet visitors when their names were called.

I could have watched and petted them for hours, the black and white cow sweetly cleaned and watched the younger brown cows. And they seemed like such complex and caring animals with a unique social network.

We also headed into the rescued bunny pen where we got to feed fresh basil and cilantro to the bunnies.

After the tour, they had a lovely vegan farm store setup where we could purchase veggie starters, so awesome!

For me this was the perfect way to celebrate Mother’s Day. Before the tour, we got a beautiful presentation about how the farm animal residents of the sanctuary are beautiful mothers too with touching stories about a rescued dairy cow that never had a chance to raise her babies before they were taken from her on a dairy farm, but did get to raise two rescued male calves on the sanctuary. A lot of the stories and information was powerful and emotional, but beautiful and touching – a positive reminder that farm animals often taken for granted in factory farms are amazing and caring beings that want to lovingly raise their young too.

I feel very lucky to have attended the first Mother’s Day event and look forward to making it an annual tradition! It was such a wonderful girls day out with my mom and sisters with gorgeous scenery.

They’ve been carefully watching and following me and being sweet little lap buddies when I finally crash on the couch in the evening, very therapeutic. And running with this song on my playlist has also been great for venting a little frustration.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxxajLWwzqY

I got hooked after hearing it in a few commercials and I’m tempted to scream out the course like a crazy person, I don’t care, I love it. That jives with so many areas in my life now, except the crashing car into the bridge part. And I don’t care how many times Thug Kitchen drops the f-bomb, I love it too. Laughing to brilliantly abusive recipes and a wicked attitude towards processed foods any health nut can relate to.

I kept things simple last night making a variation of this miso soup recipe replacing the tofu with tempeh and adding spiral sliced zucchini for a simple meal soup.

Tonight I decided to get a little crazy with this beet.

Beets are a veggie I don’t buy enough of, I only think to look for them when I’m at Whole Foods for some reason. But I love adding raw beet chunks to smoothies for vibrant color and nutrients. I have not been creative with other ways to enjoy beets raw because too much raw beet can have an earthy flavor and a really good blender is required to blend them. After some tweaking, I came up with a raw soup recipe that worked really with the beets texture and flavor.

I just love the vibrant pink color beets add, hard to believe that’s natural. :-)

I served the soup with sauteed organic tofu chunks for more protein while keeping dinner easy.

And really enjoyed the flavor of the soup, the bright dill flavor, savory garlic, and tangy vinegar complimented the raw beet giving it a brighter, summery flavor. And the avocado added a needed creaminess to the texture countering the grittiness raw beets can have giving it a smooth and creamy texture.

Hopefully this one will last longer than a couple of weeks!

And hopefully I’ll last through this busy week at work. Hubby surprised me last night by planning and preparing a vegan dinner! He marinated firm tofu “steaks”, dipped them in a little cornstarch, and pan fried them.

The texture came out nice and crispy for his first attempt at frying tofu.

We served it with steamed broccoli and a couple of dipping sauces for the tofu.

The texture of the tofu was perfect, crispy on the outside, but soft on the inside. But we’re still working on perfecting the flavor and maybe kicking up the marinade with more spices next time. But a man that can prepare vegan meals is sexy and I could get used to having dinner prepared for me!

Tonight we played dueling chefs in the kitchen while I threw together a new avocado dressing with a tangy basil flavor.

The texture is very thick and creamy, just how I like it for coating a hearty salad. But you can add more water to loosen it up. I love the vibrant green color, wow.

I worked the thick dressing into a huge salad of romaine lettuce, carrots, tomato, peppers, apple, and lots of hemp seeds to create a meal salad.

The dressing has a savory and tangy basil flavor with a nice little garlic kick while not being too strong.

It can coat a large salad and stay in the fridge for a couple of days of easy meals.

1. With all the controversy surrounding GMO foods, especially corn and soy, I’ve decided to try growing my own organic soy and corn this year and added 12 organic edamame plants to our garden.

And 6 organic corn plants.

This is new grounds for me and I’m excited to see how well they do!

2. I tried the Perky Pinto Bean recipe from The New Fast Food pressure cooker recipe book and it wasn’t a total success. The recipe did not call to soak the dried pinto beans first, but I think they should have been because the beans were still a bit crunchy after the cook time. I cooked them for another 3 minutes in the pressure cooker which helped, but the texture was still a little firm.

Still the beans were tasty with the onions and paprika served with a little hummus and veggies, but I will try soaking the pintos next time.

3. Hubby impressed me for dinner last night by finding and trying this vegan recipe for grilled portobello mushrooms.

For a simple ingredient list, it was packed with flavor and the texture was very meaty.

So sexy when a man gets creative with vegan recipes. :-)

4. I had a wonderful girls day out with my mom and sisters today starting with brunch at The Plum Vegan Cafe, an amazing vegan buffet brunch with tofu scramble, potatoes, tempeh bacon, and other vegan breakfast foods. I started with a wonderful chai tea.

And loaded my first plate with a leafy green salad topped with a chilled black bean and pineapple salad, potatoes, chopped fruit, and fabulous vegan french toast.

And loaded the second plate with vegan biscuits and gravy and this tasty orange, pineapple, cucumber, and mint salad that I must recreate, it’s a perfect summer blend of flavors.

5. Tonight I got creative with Westsoy Seitan to create a simple stir fry.

I stir fried the chopped seitan with chopped apple, red pepper, and bok choy in a little toasted sesame oil. Then seasoned it with rice vinegar and miso paste mixture, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes.

A simple and delicious dinner was ready in minutes!

I took yesterday off work and hubby and I have basically been playing and relaxing the last two days and it’s been wonderful after a strange and stressful work week. I took Friday off because we went to Amy Schumer’s Show at the Crest Theatre Thursday night in Sacramento.  But first we stopped for dinner at Tequila Museo Mayahuel, a fun Mexican restaurant in walking distance from the theater. I picked this place for the lively selection on margaritas and vegan options on the menu.

I started with a spicy mango margarita because that’s what the waiter recommended and he didn’t steer me wrong.

It was a unique flavor blend of sweet mango, dark chocolate, and spicy chili powder salt – very fun.

While I was impressed at the vegan options on the menu, they weren’t very hearty, but also not pricey. I ended up getting the pineapple jicama salad with almonds and raspberry vinaigrette and it was fresh and tasty, but not super filling.

It did leave plenty of room for the house-made chips and salsa which were great, the salsa was nice and spicy while the chips were very thick and crunchy, not like store bought at all.

After we headed to the Crest Theatre a few minutes early to grab our seats and I was reminded that I love this place for the crazy old-style ornate decorations that have been beautifully restored. What a fun ceiling in the theatre.

The theatre was practically empty when we arrived, but filled up fast for the sold out show.

The show was great, Amy’s material it hilarious with great delivery, perfect comic relief after stressing through the week. And it was very cool seeing her live the same week her new show, Inside Amy Schumer, debuted on Comedy Central.

After a late night, I slept in a little bit yesterday – as much as the cats and dogs would allow. :-) Then checked off some tasks that I’ve needed to get to like scheduling vet appointments for the dogs and running errands that are otherwise tough with my work schedule. And I created a new salad dressing for a simple lunch salad.

I coated a spinach salad with peppers, sprouts, tomatoes, hemp seeds, and dried apple chips in the dressing.

And the dressing added a nicely strong sweet and spicy flavor to the salad with a nice curry flavor that wasn’t too heavy and a strong garlic kick which I liked. But you can use half a garlic clove or no garlic in the dressing if raw garlic is too strong.

After lunch, we caught an early afternoon showing of Iron Man 3 like two giddy teenagers and it was perfect timing because the theater was not packed at all, we shared the theater with a cute group of older ladies and what looked like business guys ditching work to see the movie, too funny. It was an awesome movie loaded with action, special effects, and surprising plot twists.

They’ve added a new salad trio to the menu that will be rotated with different salads weekly because I wasn’t already addicted enough to their food! This one has a spicy Indian green bean salad, cilantro lime quinoa, and a spring greens salad with mango vinaigrette. I loved the combination of unique flavors and already looking forward to the next trio.

After a long day today, I wanted to keep dinner simple. But somehow didn’t once I got creating in the kitchen. I started with the lemon kale salad from Raw Foods on a Budget which is a simple blend of massaged kale, nutritional yeast, hemp seeds, and other seasonings. But then I added shredded carrot, chopped tomato, and chopped red pepper. Then a dash of lemon pepper seasoning for more kick and ended up with this salad monster.

And it was a delicious combo! Good thing I have plenty of leftovers for a simple lunch tomorrow.

Last night I got a little more creative making a warm and comforting quinoa and split lentil soup.

I don’t think I’ll ever tire of lentil and quinoa stew, they’re cheap staples to keep in the pantry that make a hearty, one-pot meal fast with endless flavor possibilities.

I topped a huge bowl of the stew with Trader Joe’s Vegan Mozzarella Shreds for a comforting meal. The nutmeg added a nice warmth to this savory and hearty blend and the broccoli was cooked, but not too mushy adding a nice texture.

Split red lentils cook much faster than other lentils and turned into mush blending into this stew which was a good thing because they added a creamier texture and better blended flavor.

The leftovers of this stew worked great the next day too served chilled on a bed of spinach and kale.

The color is vibrant and texture very creamy.

I added sauteed tofu to the salad for a hearty protein to make it a meal.

And coated the salad of spinach, sprouts, chopped pepper, tofu, and chopped apple with the sauce.

Then topped my serving with nutritional yeast and dried chives for a little added pizazz.

The sauce is loaded with a strong and tangy flavor, just the right amount of kick from the garlic and a rich creaminess from the sunflower seed butter with a great balance of sweet and savory.

For the dessert, I chopped up more watermelon which hit the spot after a high of 92 degrees today!

Miko agreed since it’s one of his favorite foods too.

And this.

Acting like a big kid.

Trying some tricks and just having fun burning energy. And wow, I forgot how much of a workout it is because I slept well last night and I am feeling it today! But in a good way, I never mind a little muscle soreness, it’s a reminder that I’m getting stronger, right? :-)

The trampoline gym also does hour-long aerobics classes on the weeknights that my sister and I are going to try getting back into this week, should be fun!

Before the party, I ran to Costco where I did a giddy happy dance at the bins loaded with watermelons – perhaps my most favorite food ever. So happy I bought two and took one to party for dessert since the cake wasn’t vegan friendly. The slices were a hit with the kids, especially after the dehydrating trampoline workout.

And the food for the party was tacos where everyone got to build their own plate. I made a vegan monster taco with vegan re-fried beans, roasted peppers, tomatoes, avocado, and plenty of hot sauce.

It was a fantastic day of fun and family. Now I have to decide if I’m too sore to go for a run! :-)

And Miko decided to do a little swiping of his own taking off with a huge kale leaf from my stash.

He loves chewing on the stems and treats them like a bone growling at anyone that gets near it.

He dragged it inside to finish his treat in bed.

While I massaged the rest of the kale for a salad.

And created a kicky and creamy avocado dressing to go on it.

I added alfalfa spouts, shredded carrots, and hemp seeds to the massaged kale and coated it with the dressing.

And topped my serving with nutritional yeast for a little cheesiness.

The dressing has a wonderfully kicky and tangy flavor that isn’t too strong or spicy and the creamy texture compliments the rougher kale leaves perfectly.

Such a sad face. And I feel guilty not spending enough time with hubby and pets during busy weeks, blah.

I’m looking forward to some relax time this weekend and hopefully some time to work in the garden. A couple of years ago I made a rookie mistake of planting mint in one of our garden beds not knowing it will take over a garden! I’m still picking little mint plants popping up in the beds that keep coming back every spring! I learned and have been moving the plants to pots on our patio since it’s supposed to repel mice, flies, ants, and other pests naturally. And harvesting it for tasty recipes!

I adore mint in sweet and savory recipes, it has such a refreshing and crisp flavor that screams summer. So I decided to create an avocado salad dressing with it that’s thick, creamy, and fabulous with sweeter veggies.

I have not been grocery shopping yet this week and having fun using up what’s in the kitchen first, so this interesting salad has carrot ribbons, sauteed tempeh cubes, radish, and orange pepper. But all the flavors worked nicely with the creamy dressing.

It has a cool and creamy flavor with a little bit of spice from the garlic and went perfectly with the radish and sweet carrots.

While we were at the party Saturday night, the lead singer of the band and I took some interesting comments for being vegan from a critiquing couple such as, “that sounds awful!” and “what, why?!” I just brushed them off and really was not bothered by them, but wondered if I responded to them as good as I could have. It was a tricky situation since they started the topic, but made it clear they weren’t interested in our actual reasons for going vegan and I wasn’t about to get into a heated debate.  But this Chic Vegan article arms us vegans with simple and positive responses that aren’t preachy or off-putting and makes me feel ready for future events.

I also found time over the weekend to add a huge basil plant to our garden which I’ll probably be replacing soon since they never seem to last long for me! Maybe because I robbed a huge chunk of basil leaves for this feisty sun dried tomato pesto recipe I created to go with a simple spiral sliced zucchini salad with hemp seeds and nutritional yeast for dinner last night.

The color is interesting to say the least…

But the flavor is fabulous! It has a rich and tangy pesto flavor with added zing from the balsamic vinegar and sweet tomatoes and a veggie boast from the spinach.

It was perfect for dipping fork loads of the zucchini noodles for a fun meal.

And I had leftovers to get creative with for dinner tonight. I shop a lot at Costco for bulk buying organic produce and I’ve noticed our local location has started carrying more vegan foods in the last few months with cheap non-GMO tofu, organic chia seeds, hemp seeds, and I found this reasonably priced box of Gardenburger Malibu Frozen Organic Vegan burgers.

Not a lot of protein, but loaded with organic veggies and low-calorie.

It looks like a regular veggie burger and the stove top or microwave cooking instructions are very simple and fast.

I decided to have a little fun with the pesto leftovers, the burger, and Trader Joe’s Vegan mozzarella shreds.

I layered the pesto and the mozzarella shreds on the patty after cooking it.

And served with lightly steamed broccoli for a simple Monday night dinner.

The burgers have a great texture that held together nicely while cooking, I really liked that the edges gained a crispy texture for a little crunch and the large visible veggie chunks in the patty. The flavor was also impressive with a savory herb variety while not being too salty. The pesto added a lot of zing to the patty making another fun dinner.

And I had a dinner guest begging for a sample.

The gig was actually down by a creek with a makeshift stage, generator power, and a huge bonfire party planned. We piled into 4WD trucks to get down there with equipment, what a wild ride!

Setting up was a huge project testing the equipment, turns out sand is not great for pedals and other audio gear.

But the beautiful back drop was worth it.

By dusk the mosquitoes were in full force and I’m usually their first target, thank goodness there was plenty of mosquito spray!

We got to help ourselves to the party food before the band had to play, but it was catered by a local BBQ place and there wasn’t much for a vegan, the mayo-loaded coleslaw, bacon-loaded baked beans, and mac and cheese sides weren’t very vegan friendly! And there was no salad or veggie side dishes, ugh! I ended up with a plate of bread roll sandwiches stuffed with onions, pickles, and spicy BBQ sauce with a side of horderve nuts – not great. But, I prepared for that with a huge protein smoothie for breakfast and a tempeh salad for lunch to get a lot of protein before the gig. And the singer of the band, who’s also vegan, faced my same predicament and ended up making a pickle BBQ sandwich too. I gotta say they’re not horrible with a tangy and spicy flavor and did the job as a make shift dinner.

The band was not scheduled to start until 9PM and getting decent shots in the dark without a flash was a learning experience for me, but the massive bonfire helped.

One thing crazy about Northern California is the temperature variations, it was in the 80s in the afternoon and hot as we were setting up the gear. But dropped to the 50s and maybe even lower by the water once the sun went down, so we crowded by the fire for warmth.

And I got a couple of decent shots of the fire emders and the moon.

And the impressive fireworks set off for the party too, wow!

The band played beautifully, I love an opportunity to watch hubby rock out and felt thankful to be enjoying such an awesome party and an amazing property. The evening felt like a camping/4-wheeling adventure packed into a couple of hours, my type of camping!

When we got home late, the poor dogs were ready to party after being locked in the house for hours and we were ready to crash. Well, after a hot shower to wash all the bug spray and smoke off – ick! And I was very grateful for my kale-loaded smoothie for breakfast this morning after such an odd dinner.

What’s the strangest vegan compromise meal you’ve ever had?

Currently I switch between Garden of Life’s Raw Protein and Nutiva’s Organic Hemp Protein for smoothies, but this is the first time trying the chocolate flavor and I was impressed. I blended one serving with frozen banana chunks, kale, carrots, frozen berries, and a tablespoon of psyllium husks for a little added filling fiber and my smoothie was more like a chocolate dessert drink.

The protein powder by itself has a smooth and rich chocolate flavor that’s already sweetened and blended perfectly with bananas. So I’m keeping this flavor in my rotation and already set up an Amazon Subscribe and Save regular shipment for it.

The rest of my eats this week have not been too exciting, lots of salads like this one with sauteed tempeh and a creamy tomato avocado dressing.

And I re-mixed my Creamy Dill Salad leftovers by adding spinach, avocado, and artichoke hearts for a fast lunch.

Then there was this salad tonight with sauteed tempeh and Gena’s Carrot Miso Dressing, one of my favorite recipes to make regularly.

I got a little more creative earlier this week throwing together a tofu stir fry with apples and oranges that was very good.

I also had a treat for lunch yesterday, the always fabulous curry panini from Baagan with hubby, such a perfect break during a crazy day.

And last night I created a hearty soup. I had awkward little servings left of green lentils and quinoa in my pantry to use up.

So I simmered them in 4 cups of veggie broth while adding chopped carrots, spinach, and other veggies that needed to be used up. I also tossed in a teaspoon of curry powder, a little cayenne, and more seasonings until it tasted good.

There was something therapeutic about randomly tossing ingredients into a soup pot after a crazy day, especially when the end result was very tasty.

But I’m still glad this week is over! There’s been so much going on at work that I’ve had a hard time keeping work off my mind every evening, running and working out have been stress busting saviors especially while listening to great music. But I could still use a little more happy and I think a lot of people could after this week. I was fascinated by this article 13 Things Happy People Do Differently because I don’t do enough of these things! I need to practice more gratitude, accepting the bad stuff, and practicing other forms of nourishment.

And me frustrated because I want to break in my new running shoes, Nike Lunarglide+ 4.

But I’m not a fan of running in strong wind!

And because I decided to use a spiral slicer I haven’t used in ages for zucchini.

And got thinly sliced zucchini mush instead of angel hair zucchini noodles.

Sigh. Guess hubby needs to fix the blade on it again. I tried to salvage the mush by mixing in carrot ribbons.

To coat the mixture in another simple creamy dill sauce I threw together because I was craving dill.

I coated the zucchini mush and carrot ribbon blend in the sauce.

And topped a large serving with nutritional yeast for a fun dinner salad.

The sauce has a wonderfully tangy and bright flavor that’s perfect for spring. Now if I can just get the wind to settle down for a run!

And Miko is happy to have a new toy. He finally ripped up his stuffed snowman toy, so we picked up a little stuffed pig from PetSmart which he’s thrilled with.

And already protecting it.

My eats have not been too exciting since I’ve been keeping things simple making my usual huge salad to cover lunches for a few days and this super fast curry tofu skillet I threw together Saturday night before heading out to a friend’s concert.

I sauteed crumpled tofu, broccoli, and chopped apple in curry powder, coconut oil, minced garlic, cumin, and red pepper flakes – tasty for just winging it and not following a recipe!

And there have been plenty of thick smoothies for breakfast like this one I practically had to eat with a spoon and it was delicious.

Blended frozen banana, frozen kale, frozen berries, carrots, raw sprouted protein powder, raw ginger chunk, cinnamon, and chia seeds – great combo!

I’m always on the lookout for good vegan sushi that goes beyond boring cucumber and avocado rolls and we scored yesterday at Raku Sushi. It’s a unique sushi buffet that makes rolls fresh to order for an all-you-can-eat price and has a nice little salad bar with plenty of edamame, seaweed salad, and cucumber salad. I started with edamame and oranges.

Before diving into the vegan sushi menu where I ordered this gem – a spiced walnut and squash roll topped with seaweed salad.

Nothing like the plain old vegan offerings I’m used to and very delicious with a hearty crunchy texture and sweet and savory flavor party.

I headed to the mall with my mom after to look through spring sales. Truthfully I’m not much of a mall person anymore, I don’t like spending a lot of money on clothes. But I wanted to go for one specific reason – to try the free electric vehicle charging stations.

That’s geeky, I know. But I’ve been driving an EV for over two months now and this is the first time I’ve used a public charging station. Baby steps, right? That’s how short my work commute is and charging the car at home is costing about a 4th in power of what I was paying for gas with my last economy car.  But I could get used to having reserved premium parking and free “gas” at the mall, maybe I need to make more trips to Lush and Pluto’s!

After a busy day of running around, I got the pressure cooker out for a simple dinner creating the Black Bean Soup from The New Fast Food: The Veggie Queen Pressure Cooks Whole Food Meals in less than 30 Minutes.

And it was a fun excuse to use our immersion blender I forgot we had to blend the soup after pressure cooking.

The recipe called for vegan sour cream to top which I didn’t have, so I blended an avocado, apple cider vinegar, salt, and some lemon pepper seasoning for fast sour cream.

And it was very tasty in the soup even though the glob sank to the bottom.

Thumbs up for the soup, I will make it again. It was a fresher and spicier version of Trader Joe’s Black Bean soup with a heartier texture. And the leftovers were great the next day.

Finally, this is an excellent video to watch even though it’s 13 minutes long because it’s a fascinating look at veganism from a long-time vegan doctor who’s 98-years-old! And retired at 95-years-old!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX58PyQwrcI

His views on adapting to a plant based diet and how we can develop our own tastes and cravings and how people can be very sensitive about what they eat are very interesting.

Finding good vegan shoes for me is an issue with my foot size, many of the nice eco friendly brands just do not go up to my size. It’s even more of a challenge that I need decent looking business casual shoes for my job. But I’m finding that I could live in flip flops when I’m not at work, especially in the triple-digit heat days of the summer. So I have a nice collection of vegan flip flops in various colors and styles. My latest addition is these Sanuk Yoga Mat sandals.

And my first pair ever of Sanuks, but clearly I need to change that since they’re so comfortable! The soul is made out of squishy yoga mat that breathes nicely and the textured material makes them more stylish for khaki shorts.

I’ve been slowly adding more kale to our garden for the summer both in the garden beds and available pots on the patio to have mass amounts for smoothies and kale chips. Miko recently discovered the pots for snacking and has been helping himself.

That’s okay, can’t be mad at him for eating healthy and thinking I need to work on a dog treat kale chip recipe this summer.

I ran to Whole Foods for lunch yesterday to pick up a few things and hit the salad bar.

The Mojita KeVita drink was a new experience and took me back to fun nights in South Beach with a strong minty flavor and zing, would drink again. I also saw a Tesla Model S drive by which was a geeky awesome thing since they’re rare, fabulous, and I’m slightly obsessed with electric cars now and would have one if I ever won the lottery. For now, I’ll be happy with my Honda EV for the next few years, but who knows what will be available when the lease is up!

Hubby and I stepped out for Thai again last night, I didn’t feel like cooking and this local place has great food for a great price. This time I went with a spicy tofu veggie noodle soup and it was wonderful with plenty of fresh cilantro.

I’m thinking I need to create a tempeh version at home, hmmm…

Finally I created another lentil and quinoa recipe over the week. I’m a fan of cooking lentils and quinoa together because they have similar cook times and liquid ratios and complimenting textures.

I used to cheese grater to grate the carrots, fast and simple for small jobs.

And I topped my serving with nutritional yeast and dried chives for a little added spice and texture.

Adding the shredded carrots raw to the cooked mixture kept them nice and crunchy while cooling the mixture down to an “eatable” temp, but still keeping it hot.

The miso, ginger, and garlic flavors cooked into this dish were absorbed well by the lentils and quinoa and it made a hearty vegan main dish.