Finally some eats!

Hello Everyone!

Happy belated Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians!!! Hope everyone had a great day wherever you were in the world:) I puttered around the house, got a workout in, made lunch for my mom, went for a run with the hubby, and made some grilled veggies:) But you know what? I didn't take in any Canada Day events at all...uggh..does that make me a bad Canadian? I hope not because I already gave my shout out to the world about the stereotypical great things about my country! To my defense the weather was not nice at all, yet, the weather network promised pure sunshine for that day..boo! Did you take in some parades, food fairs, or fireworks? I know my American friends are going to be having a celebration too this weekend. Happy 4th of July to you!!

I'm finally going to share with you some eats. Yes, I have been eating some great things!! Even though I haven't posted food in FOREVER! Any readers left out there? HAHA! So, today I'm going to make up it, big time:) Enjoy!

Jicama fries!! I was quite skeptical to make these because I just didn't see how a raw potato -like veggie was going to compare to the cooked version. Oh I was wrong!! These were fantastic and I can't wait to pick up another jicama. Obviously these don't have that greasy, deep-fried, overly salty taste but trust me your taste buds will be happily surprised. And this root veggie is packed with healthy vitamins and minerals like beta-carotene, B complex, vitamin C, calcium, iron, and potassium.

I almost didn't want to save any for the hubby but I was nice and left him half...okay..3 haha! I used the base recipe from Brigette Mars on Care2 but had to adjust it because I didn't have chili powder on hand. Instead I used cayenne powder, paprika, cumin, and garlic salt. Yum!! These are like kale chips, play around with your favorite flavors!

I also had this big bag of Bulgur that I just kept forgetting about! I finally decided it was time for tabouli because my mint plant was just bursting with flavor and I was craving a good grain salad. This salad is beyond simple, super cheap to make, and so healthy! To "cook" the Bulgur I just put hot water over it and let it sit...simple and easy,anyone? I used this recipe as a guideline and had to change it a bit because I didn't have the full amount of parsley (used cilantro for the remainder) and didn't have the full amount of lemon juice (added a splash of rice vinegar). Even with the changes, it was fantastic and made a super huge bowl!!

Dessert:) I bought two of these gorgeous pineapples and they were beyond juicy and sweet.

Oh these pictures make me want to run to the store right now...Mmmm!

I have been loving my local health food store. The owner is super nice and will order in anything that they don't normally carry in store. Love that! Check out this sea salt I picked up. I love that they kept the grey color which is due to a local seaweed:)

I don't use much salt but sometimes a recipe just needs it. I was going to buy some kelp salt that they usually carry but it was sold out. The salt I usually use is the Himalayan salt..but I like trying new products too!

Love the big granules!!

I love Brazil nuts. They are probably my favorite nut! I love the mild, buttery flavor. I read here that you do not need to soak them. Does anyone know if this is the case?


According to Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, she recommends eating 2 Brazil nuts a day as they contain the cancer protective mineral selenium.

I picked up some D3 too! This product is made locally which I thought was pretty cool!

With the essential oil and orange flavor it actually goes down pretty easily! And only 5 drops a day.

I needed to stock up on my sprouting supplies so why not go for the fitness mix?


In case you couldn't see what the seeds were this package contained white radish, mung beans, and wheat!

What's a girl supposed to do when her food processor goes caput and she needs to grind up some chick peas? She gets creative that's what!

Haven't you ever wanted to get some anger out using a frying pan? Well here was my chance to do just that...to a bag of chick peas!

Here is the victim result! Not too bad..could have used more pounding lol! I finished the rest off with a fork!


All that work for some fantastic egg-less salad. This was for my moms as it was not made with vegenaise! Although I need to pick some up because this salad is so awesome..especially loaded with pickles..yum:)

I served the egg-less salad with some organic chibata buns that I scored at my work open house the other weekend.

I also made some of Nikki's hummus which turned out to be more of a yellow zucchini sundried tomato dip. It wasn't as thick as I usually have it because I didn't' have a whole cup of zucchini and I used almond butter instead of tahini (about half the amount she used!). Still tasted amazing:)

I also made a salad with greens out of the garden - butter lettuce, romaine, kale, and mustard greens!

Check out the size of that mustard green leaf! Mmm spicy!

I haven't had chick peas in so long! I love them in salads, there is something about their soft, fluffy centers that makes me digging around the greens for more!!


My mom was so kind to save me a couple handful of bloobs!! OH BLOOBS how I have missed you:) These are my first (but definitely not last!) of the season and they are so sweet and yummy!

After our run, the hubs and I fired up the BBQ. He had a burger, I went for Asian marinated grilled veggies! I could eat grilled veggies everyday (with lots of raw veggies mixed in, of course)

You are getting very sleepy!!! haha


I made this chocolate dream pudding for the hubby. This amazing recipe is from Kelli's blog. Thank you Kelli for telling me about it because it sure is dreamy and delicious! I was still full from all the grilled veggies so I didn't have any (call me crazy!) plus I'm on the last month of my TT contest so I'm tightening up the diet a bit!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend! I'm going out for dinner tonight with my MIL and her hubby, going shopping with Mom tomorrow, going to hopefully pick some raspberries, and have a bbq at the casa on Sunday! Summer is officially here..wahoo! Let's hope the sun says hello soon. I'm still wearing jeans..in July:( Talk to you all soon!!

PS I appreciate you all and am sending you BIG HUGS!!

Dirty salad and other food musings plus surprising happiness

Welcome Wednesday!

The middle of the week again..wahoo! Hope your week is going well. I just wanted to send a huge hello to my family and friends who are reading my blog. Thanks everyone and miss you all:) Anywho..my week has been going okay ..the usual work/gym/ sleep routine..nothing too exciting. But what has had me excited is the delicious food I was able to make.

First off, I'm glad you guys are incorporating turmeric into your diet. It really is a power player and I'm happy to have it on my team. Sorry for sports analogy, I guess its the hangover from the Olympics..lol! As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to try Meghan's turmeric tea. I followed her instructions and used about a teaspoon of turmeric and man was this yummy! Here it is simmering on the stove...great color hey? I think I might have simmered it too long because when I was straining it it was rather thick. I heated up a bit of rice milk and added that and about a half a teaspoon of raw honey. All the glorious cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves tasted so good and you couldn't even taste the turmeric. I will definitely have this again..yumm! I thought I took a grand finale picture but I searched and couldn't find one. So, you will just have to take my word on it!

I read a post this week on Joanna's blog about bringing your salad to the next level. I'm totally game for that! She had some really great ideas and I'm glad my salads contained some of her listed ingredients. Does that make my salad popular (geek alert)? wahoo! Anyways... I did want to try her mustard dressing as Joanna uses apple cider vinegar and I usually go with fresh lemon juice in my dressings. I liked the dressing but I've come to realize I can't handle too much ACV, its just too sour for my liking. So, I had some "pulp" left over from making the turmeric tea and so I thought I would just add a bit to tone down the sourness. It turned out amazing. So, thanks Joanna for the inspiration! So, I needed some awesome salad to go along with this crazy dressing. I came up with my "dirty" salad. No, I do wash my produce! The dirty part has to do with the kelp powder and intense amounts of dried oregano and basil on top. All in all this salad rocked. It was pretty basic as it only contained romaine lettuce, carrots, cabbage, broccoli but with the dressing..I was in heaven. So good!

I also made Nikki's totally awesome sun-dried tomato zucchini hummus. We are truly addicted to this stuff! The flavor is so unique that I don't think I could enjoy regular hummus ever again (yep, that good!).

If you have a hard time digesting tahini or chick peas from regular hummus, Gena of Choosing Raw just did an awesome post on a more digestion-friendly hummus. So check it out!

For dinner, I blended up a soup from Carmella's blog named Indian Carrot Curry Soup. This was so good and nourishing for our post-workout meal. I had been craving Indian food and this so this was the perfect fit! Raw soups don't have to be scary! If you want something super easy and Delicious give this recipe a try. It literally took me 10 minutes...that's about an hour or so of time saved if you were to make a cooked soup. Bonus! I followed her instructions to blend the ingredients in two batches..and she was right, my blender was full to the brim each time. This makes a lot of soup but its a good thing because you will want more than one bowl. We each had a bowl for dinner and we each had it today for lunch. There is only one bowl left and its going to be a fight as to who gets to eat it...lol. By the way, I usually win those fights (Ryan might say otherwise but that's not important)! I'm loving recipes from Carmella blog. I tried the chocolate-dipped date truffles in this post, and Ryan and I still talk about them. I will be making them again real soon...yumm! So, head on over to The Sunny Raw Kitchen and try something..you will not be disappointed:)

The best of both worlds is what I called my lunch today! Hummus with Ryvita crackers and curry carrot soup. The hubby added some left over quinoa for a little boost in the protein department. mmm!

Back to dinner...We finished off with some cute over-sized chocolate chips from the co-op that are vegan and organic with 70% cocoa. They were so Delicious and the perfect way to end the day:)

My next foodie adventure was to make my own trail mix. The store I usually get it from was out so I decided that it was a good time to experiment. I bought natural almonds, raw cashews, organic dried cranberries, and organic raisins. I had some raw pumpkin seeds and raw sunflower seeds at home so I thought I would use some of these as well. I soaked all the nuts and seeds overnight.

I then had to leave them spread out on plates and baking sheets to air dry as I don't have a dehydrator. I quickly realized this was going to take too long so I put them in the over, turned the heat on low for a bit then turned off the oven. This was way more efficient (duh!). Aren't those almonds huge? They pretty much doubled in size after soaking them!

Ta-da..the final product! It made so much that I'm going to have to go buy a larger glass storage container as it wouldn't fit into anything I had on hand. One down side was that I really wish I could have dehydrated the nuts and seeds so I could get that "crunch" that I associate with trail mixes. Next time I think I will leave out the cashews and maybe go for a brazil nut or pecans. I would add more raisins and cranberries or maybe add some goji berries. The possibilities are endless! I felt like I went back to an older time where you had to make everything you eat. So, I definitely felt more connected to my food. Have you made something that made you feel more in touch with your food?

So, I really didn't measure what I used so I'm not sure how to determine if it was cheaper to make my trail mix or buy it..but I'm going try.

sunflower seeds - $1.00

Pumpkin Seeds - $.50 (didn't have much left)

Almonds - $3.71

Cashews - $ 2.19

Cranberries - $0.88

Raisins - $1.00

TOTAL = $9.28

I'm thinking that it's about the same price as the trail mix I currently buy but everything in this mix is organic. So if I compare it to organic trail mix prices, I think it's a better deal. Gotta love that!

Have you tried making your own trail mix? How did it go?

Last but not least, I tried a new kind of chewing gum that I picked up at the co-op. It is sweetened with xylitol which is, according to their website, ".....a naturally occurring sugar-alcohol found in corn cobs and stalks, and is shown to reduce tooth decay by up to 80%." The good thing is it is non-GMO but I'm still a bit iffy about corn sugars. Although, I think using xylitol is better than aspartame or sucralose. So, have you tried Spry gum? Or is there a gum you recommend?



So, what's my surprise happiness? Well, I wrote about my woes with our current tenants last week. Now, this week we decided to side with them and go ahead with a large repair that was not necessary (even though they claimed it was vital. We called them to make sure the time was okay. Then about 2 hours later they call back and say they are moving out..this month. Seriously, these people are all over the map. Good thing we could cancel the repair but not we have to find new tenants. Yet, amongst this mess I am smiling because they are leaving. Huge relief! At least I'm more prepared for looking at new tenants!

Well that about sums up my week so far! It's been fun! Hope the rest of your week goes well. I'm going to leave off with a picture of the King...well at least the king in our house...lol

Do vegetarians look like skinny, shriveled vegetables when they get old?

Hey all!

To answer my title question.... I think not! I can talk about the numerous studies that talk about the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle. We have heard it over and over that vegetarians live longer, have fewer diseases, and generally have a lower BMI (body mass index). Yet, when someone says the word "vegetarian" or "vegan", visions of weak, skinny, or crazy animal activists come into people's minds. I have seen many veg*ns and the majority do not fit into any of those categories. This stereotype has got to change. And I have the person to do just that! No not me, silly! I would like you to meet Mimi Kirk. Mimi was one of the winners of PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian Over 50. Julian was voted the other winner, he's 51 and has been vegetarian for 33 years! Amazing hey? Now, you may been wondering, "how old is Mimi"? Well, brace yourselves, she is 71, YES 71 and she's been veg*n since she was in her 30's! Isn't she gorgeous? I just asked the Hubby how old he thought she was and he said late 50's, early 60's. I hope I get this response when I'm in my 70's. She is truly inspirational and so positive about life. Yesterday I listened to an audio interview with her and Jim Dee on Pure Jeevan's site. I liked how she made it clear that she lived, and is continuing to live, a normal life with challenges like everybody else. She only recently sold her business, she has 4 children and 7 grand kids, and has a boyfriend 19 years younger than her. In the last two years she has become 100% raw and said it has given her even more energy!

She is a thriving example that us veg*ns will continue to look fabulous well into our senior years! Still any skeptics out there? No? I didn't think so!

I just became Mimi's friend on facebook which is where she mostly communicates with her fans and answers questions. So, add her as a friend today (She is under Mimi Kirk)! You know you want a sexy 70 year old veg as one of your friends. Who can say they have that?

Ps. I just made Nikki's Sundried tomato zucchini hummus, and let me tell you, it totally ROCKS! It's so yummy and you really have to try it. I also made some banana oatmeal raisin cookies from A Grateful Life on the Gone Raw website. This is a raw recipe but I don't have a dehydrator so i improvises. I turned on my oven to the lowest setting for a couple minutes then turned it off. Placing the cookies in the oven when it cooled down a bit (my lowest setting is 140). These were great but I think I should have taken them out a bit sooner. Super yummy too! Sorry no picts as I'm still waiting for my laptop charger to arrive.