Vegan Flower

Taking A Break

2012-01-15T11:12:00.000-06:00

I'm going to be taking a long break for a while- several weeks or maybe even longer. There are quite a few things I want and need to turn my focus on. Also, it's something I've been meaning to do for a while, so only having the use of one arm has made me realize that it's a good time for this. I won't be posting at all and will barely be commenting, but I will be keeping up on reading others blogs. There is a lot that I have in store for when I start posting again that I'm quite excited about!

In the meantime, if you want to see what we're up to, come on over for a picture story on my Flickr. It's one thing I want to turn my attention to more and get more involved with. If you have an account, I'd love to be your contact!

TTFN!

Nature Has Some Mighty Mood Swings

2012-01-13T14:51:00.000-06:00

I'm not only feeling up to doing a post, but also up to using proper capitalization!

We've been very lucky with it being a very mellow winter so far. I'm in no condition for our walks yet, but Mike has taken the pups out and played with them in the yard quite a bit. Emma often likes to chew on her toys with her butt sticking up in the air. She's such an adorable dork.

It went from almost 50 degrees with no snow around at all......

to 20 degrees with a nasty wind chill and our first snow storm of the season. It didn't drop a ton of snow, but there was enough for the wind to make some taller drifts. It also looks like we're going to get actual winter weather for a while now, which for us means below freezing temps combined with a nasty wind and barely any sun. The mostly mellow weather we've had so far will make the winter feel much shorter, at least, and for that I'm very grateful.

I haven't gotten a good capture of Crystal in a while, but got lucky today. She'll be 19 1/2 years old in a little less than a month! Her heart condition and overactive thyroid have been in check which is another thing I'm extremely grateful for.

It's back to work for me on Monday and I'll also (hopefully) be finding out more about the extent of damage in my arm & elbow then. I haven't been able to go for much longer than 6 hours without taking a pain pill, so I'm getting a bit worried about making it through an entire work day without being very uncomfortable. The pain has gotten less intense, though, so I'm hopeful. While I could take the next 5 weeks or so off until this heals, my workplace makes us use up all of our vacation and sick days before taking unpaid days (or getting short term disability). I'm not willing to go the majority of the year with no time off, so I'll just have to deal with the situation. It could always be worse, though, and at least I have a good job, right?

broken arm = all lower case (plus some food)

2012-01-10T14:32:00.001-06:00

not blogging is starting to make me a little sad, so i'm finger typing with one hand this short, and hopefully sweet, post. no caps, no frills i hope nobody minds!

last wednesday while mike was at his basketball game, i made dinner (this was pre-arm break)- african sweet potato and peanut stew.

we had tofu satay with broccoli and quinoa one night, a recipe we've made many times and i can't for the life of me remember where it's from. (mike's been doing all of the cooking since i broke)

also, mexiquinoa from 500 vegan recipes- i topped mine with avocado. it's so good!

i was going to try to make it to work this week but am in too much pain without my pain pills, so i took the week off. been getting to spend lots of time reading, sleeping and resting with the girls. i can't really complain!

on monday they'll hopefully be able to take more xrays to see how bad things are. i might not get a cast at all- only the splint, and he didn't think i'd need surgery. i'm going to try to comment more on everyone's blogs, but can only sit up for short periods of time. my arm swells up something fierce if i don't keep it elevated and iced! i'm still reading everything, though.

i hope you're all having a great week!

I'm Broken!

2012-01-05T22:28:00.000-06:00

so.... i fell in our driveway while walking the pups today and broke my left arm near the elbow. i only have the use of my right hand/arm now, so i'll be quiet for awhile. i'll still be reading everyone's blog posts, though, just won't be commenting or posting because finger typing with one hand takes forever! tomorrow i see an ortho dr. to see if i can get by with a cast or need surgery. i hope to be back in action soon!

Sophie, Snow, Soup & Spiciness

2012-01-03T18:09:00.000-06:00

The little bit of snow we got in December melted, only to be replaced by a little bit more on Sunday It's been bitterly cold lately with a nasty wind, but things are going to get mild again (or mild for this time of year, I should say). Hopefully the snow melts again because we're really enjoying not having it around! Although she doesn't go outside, Sophie was still bewildered about the weather.

We don't have a crockpot but wanted to make the lentil soup that my brother in-law made for Thanksgiving, so Mike cooked it on the stove top. He just put all of the ingredients in a big soup pan and an hour later, it was done! It turned out great and after a day in the fridge, the leftovers were even better. Perfect food for the weather we've been having.

With our simplifying, I've cleared off some space on my nightstand. Emma & Rowan each get their own small blanket at night to keep warm and help their beds stay clean longer, but during the day we fold them up and put them aside. My nightstand is now the perfect place for them while they're not in use because Sophie loves to sit at that window. I adore stuff that can have multiple uses! It's going to be perfect when we can open the window again because we planted a tree outside of it last year. She loves to bird watch!

Poor Sophie, she really puts up with a lot sometimes. Emma will try to hump her from time to time (what's up with that???) and she's often woken up when the girls go on "high alert". I don't know what they saw, but as you can see they're very interested in something out of the dining room window.

Tonight we had Black Bean, Rice & Kale casserole from the Glad Cow Cookbook. It's such a simple, delicious casserole. Mike added black olives while I added avocado. We both added hot sauce to make it spicy!

I hope that everyone is having a great week so far!

Simplifying Our Life- Progress & Resources

2012-01-01T12:45:00.005-06:00

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We've made an amazing amount of progress so far! In a bit less than two weeks, the only areas of the house that we have left to go through are the kitchen, basement and garage. Turns out that although we did have a lot to cull, we really didn't have a lot of clutter. I've always applied minimalism to my life in quite a few ways, so how we've already been living has made a huge difference in making this an easy process.

The criteria for what we're keeping in our lives can be summed up by this quote.

"Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." ~William Morris

This is how we're determining whether to keep (as well as purchase) things. It needs to serve a purpose, whether that's a functional purpose or as something beautiful for us to look at, like a piece of art. Really, though, it goes further than this a bit. Our aim is to keep even those things to a minimum to make what we have mean more.

So far, we've hauled three car loads of stuff to the thrift store, sold many CD's to a local music consignment shop (and donated the rest) and I've listed a half dozen pairs of shoes along with several workout dvd's on ebay. We already have more open space in our house and that feels so wonderful! With that open space comes less stuff to clean & maintain and more peace of mind. The more we declutter and cull, the more decluttered and at peace my mind is.

I'll be posting more specifics in the future along with a lot of tips. For now, I'd like to leave you with a list of resources that I've found extremely helpful and inspirational.

Books

The Joy Of Less by Francine Jay is a book that I can't recommend enough. If I had to pick out only one resource to recommend, this would definitely be it.

The Minimalist Woman's Guide To Having It All by Meg Wolfe is a short e-book that provides you with the basics.

Blogs

Miss Minimalist (Francine Jay's blog)

The Minimalists

Zen Habits

Living Simply and Green

On The Green Road- I especially enjoy this one because it's about 2 women living full-time in a restored, eco-friendly Airstream that they pull with a bio-diesel truck.

Weaselmouth- Another blog of full-time Airstreamers who really simplified their life to live their dreams.

Minimalist Packrat- She even has a list of minimalist blogs on her site if you want to find even more!

If one of your goals for 2012 is to simplify your life, any of these books and blogs are a great place to start.

Our Dreams & Goals

2011-12-30T20:40:00.011-06:00

This list might seem small to some. After all, there's a big push lately about making large bucket lists with what seems to me a daunting amount of things on it. We like to keep things simple by weeding out what's truly important to us without putting high expectations (stress or pressure) on ourselves. There are other things we'd possibly like to do, but we left them off this list because they're things that won't fill us with regret if we never get around to doing them.

To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act. ~Anatole France

Downsize our possessions and simplify. We've done a lot of this over the last few years and want to keep doing it. The practical minimalist lifestyle really appeals to us.

Keep living a lifestyle that helps us stay healthy both physically and mentally. A goal for life, of course!

Be debt free. This and the above two goals are the things we're focusing the most on right now, which will help us achieve the rest of the stuff on this list.

Travel to every state together, exploring as much as we can. State parks, national parks, landmarks, odd roadside attractions and more. We want to see it all! I did consider listing the places in particular we'd like to visit, but that would be an endless list. (visit the bottom of my blog to see the states we've been in so far)

Take a hot air balloon ride. Or two. Or hundreds......

Get more tattoos.

See Cirque du Soleil at least once (we have tickets for it on March 17!!!).

Retire before we turn 60 (at least from full time work, unless if we happen to be loving what we're doing at that time in our lives).

Move to a warmer climate & downsize to a small house (or live in an Airstream full time!). This will most likely go hand in hand with our retirement.

Own an Airstream travel trailer and have a biodiesel vehicle (or other alternative fuel) to pull it with. This will also most likely go hand in hand with our retirement when we can travel for long periods of time at once.

Simplifying Our Life- Media & Online

2011-12-28T20:27:00.003-06:00

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In this post I'd like to focus on what we've done to simplify the media in our life and general computer stuff. While what we're doing may not appeal to everyone, we're really loving how things are going and I hope that this inspires or helps someone out there. Basically, we've gone digital with just about everything, or are working our way towards going completely digital.

MEDIA

Books- As I said in my last post, we decided to take the plunge and buy Kindles. It's something that I've been thinking about ever since they came out, but up until a few months ago, I didn't think that a Kindle could possibly be as good as an actual book. Turns out that it's not as good as a book. It's much better! My only regret now is that I wish we would have gotten them much sooner. We will not be buying actual paper books anymore, only e-books. This has many benefits-

1. It saves on resources. Besides the actual paper, energy and materials used to make a book, there's also the energy used to haul books to stores or to have them sent to you if you purchase them online. Then there's the gas and time you use to drive to the store or library to get books (if you don't have them delivered, that is).

2. It's cheaper. E-books cost quite a bit less than purchasing new books and Amazon offers all of the classics, as well as many others, for free. You can also log into your local library and check out their e-books.

3. It saves on space. We can store up to 1400 books on our Kindles and an unlimited amount of them in our cloud. That's a ton of space and leaves us with a lot less to dust! The cloud also serves as a back up source for our books, which gives us peace of mind.

4. We can sync to our computers and iPhones (when we get them in a few months, that is), so that we can read our books anywhere, whether we have our Kindles with us or not.

5. It's much easier to carry & hold. At 6.5" x 4.5" and weighing a mere 6 ounces, it's a breeze to carry in my purse and hold while reading. One of the books I'm currently reading is over 1000 pages and I definitely prefer holding my Kindle to read it! They'll also be nice to take on our road trips, which will save on space and having to lug several guide books in & out of the places we stay.

Cookbooks- Over the last few years, we've gone from having somewhere around 50 to 60 of them to 5. Even with those five, our plan is to go through them and eventually get rid of them. Right now, I have every recipe that we kept out of every cookbook printed out and kept in a folder, but I'll be making documents for each one and putting them on our Kindles. Depending on how that works, we may still be keeping the printed versions of them in the folder, so we'll see.

Magazines- I recently switched from the print version of the three subscriptions I had to the digital version or cancelled them all together. You can also get magazines on Kindles or other devices like iPhones, but not every magazine has that option yet.

CD's- We have several hundred cd's that we'll be bringing to a shop that purchases used ones. Whatever they don't buy will be donated. From now on, all of our music will be purchased through iTunes and to back it all up, we use the iTunes Match, which puts everything in our cloud. It's a great thing because we can sync to any computer and Apple device. Plus, if something happens to our computer, we have it all backed up in our cloud.

Movies & Video Games- We've never purchased movies, but until our local Blockbuster shut down, we always drove to the store to rent them. Now we go through Blockbuster online for both movies and video games (I don't play them but Mike loves his PS3).   We may be switching to something like On Demand in the future, depending on costs and availability.

Photos- There are about seven photo albums of non-digital photos that we have which we never look at. Our Flickr albums, though, we look at a lot, so I'm going to be either scanning all of our non-digital photos or going through a scanning service to have them made into digital versions. Flickr also serves as a back up source for our photos, just in case we lose them on our computer. I like that you can organize them so much more than a physical album, too, by putting them in sets, collections and adding tags to them.

MISCELLANEOUS STUFF

Backing Up Files- As I said above, backing up our media is important and we have things in place for that. I don't have many documents, but the ones I do have I back up with Dropbox. It's easy and if you don't have a ton to back up, it's also free.

Social Sites- I've cut down on the sites that I frequent and am just sticking to the few that I can really get into. I'm mostly active with blogging (of course!) and Flickr, but I also use Goodreads to keep track of the books I read and have a Facebook page (but I don't use my personal profile anymore, ever). Besides those, I put our videos on YouTube (as well as Flickr, if I can get them to upload there) and Tweet every once in a while. Everything else, I no longer spend time on because I just don't find them worth my time.

Finances- We've gone paperless with all of our bills and bank statements. That's really cut down tremendously on paper, checks, stamps and time. It's also great to see up to date information on our accounts rather than waiting for a paper statement.

Does anyone have any tips to add? I'd love to hear them!

Catching Up

2011-12-27T19:13:00.000-06:00

I hope that everyone had a lovely holiday! Since we celebrated with our family the weekend before last, we had a very quiet, relaxing weekend.

Mike made Popeye Pasta from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan one night, omitting the olive oil but adding some pine nuts to it. The colors certainly went with the season!

We also went out for lunch on Saturday at Beans & Barley in Milwaukee. I had the TLT (tempeh, lettuce & tomato), which was supposed to be on whole wheat but ended up on rye. I can't stand rye bread, but I still tried to eat it and ended up not being able to stomach it. So, I basically took everything out of the bread and made a sort of salad with it. Not too bad! My sandwich also came with some sort of salad, but I didn't care for it. I guess I can be a Miss Picky Pants at times.......

Mike had the tofu burrito, which is a really good tofu scramble. It came with chips, guac, spanish rice, hot green salsa and fresh fruit. He got my pickle so I got some of his chips, guac, rice and salsa. I believe I got the better end of that deal!

Tonight Mike made the Clamless Chowder from Vegan Soups & Stews for All Seasons, omitting the oil, as usual. It's a soup we've had several times before and love.

We don't exchange gifts anymore and don't really celebrate holidays that much, but we did decide to get something that's been on our wish list for a while now- Kindles! We got the basic, cheapest, smallest ones and absolutely adore them. I've already ransacked the free classics that Amazon offers as well as our local library's e-books. Since I'll be carrying mine around in my purse when I go to work, I also treated myself to this gorgeous sleeve to protect it. The bookworm in me is very happy indeed!

Besides that, we really didn't get many gifts, which is fine by me since we're trying to reduce our possessions. My in-laws got us a cooler that plugs in to our car's outlet, which will be super nice for road trips. It has an adapter for wall outlets so that we can keep it cool in hotel rooms. No more plastic bags of ice and messy, soaked food! Plus, no more ice equals more room in the cooler for food.

Another three day weekend coming up. I hope everyone is having a great week!

Hotels & Lodgings With Fenced In Areas For Dogs

2011-12-23T10:56:00.003-06:00

We've stayed at several places that had fenced in dog runs, which is such a nice thing to have when you're traveling with dogs. I've also made several other guides for traveling and lodgings for dogs. All of the below lodgings have a fenced in area for dogs to run off leash.

In addition to these places, I have a rather large list of campgrounds & RV resorts that have fenced in areas for dogs, listed by state.

La Quinta Inn in Moab, Utah

La Quinta Inn in Albuquerque, New Mexico (Midtown location)

La Quinta Inn in North Platte, Nebraska

Greer Lodge Resort cabins in Greer, Arizona

Sliding Rock Cabins in Northern Georgia

Russian River Getaways Cabins in Northern California (only some have fenced in areas for dogs)

Big Bear Getaway Cabins & Vacations Homes in Big Bear City, California (only some have fenced in areas for dogs)

San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara, California (the Warner cabin has a fenced in yard)

Project Vegan's Welcome To Paradise Guest Home in Tucson, Arizona

Ten Thousand Waves Resort in Santa Fe, New Mexico (several of their rooms have enclose courtyards)

Black Dog Inn in Estes Park, Colorado (the Mt. Olympus cabin only)

Cliffside Cottages In Estes Park, Colorado

Upper Skyline Cabin in Estes Park, Colorado

Acadia Acres in Bar Harbor, Maine (the Jordan Point house has a fenced in dog run)

Hicksville Trailer Palace in Joshua Tree, California

I'll be adding to this list as I find more. If you have any you'd like me to add, please let me know!

From Sunset To Snow

2011-12-22T16:43:00.000-06:00

The sun is setting at 4:15 lately, which allows us to see the sunset while we take our walk with the girls after work. Last night was especially pretty.

Much to our dismay, our snow-free streak ended when we woke up this morning. Although, I must admit that it was very pretty while it lasted. It was the sticky kind of snow that clung to everything, making our world into that so-called "winter wonderland" for a few hours.

While Mike was taking pictures, the girls snuck out of the patio door and ran around in the snow naked. Emma didn't think it was as fun as sunbathing naked, which she has also been known to do.

I have a three day weekend starting tomorrow and since we already had our family gatherings we get to spend all three days with our girls. It'll be quite relaxing!

Simplifying Our Life- The Plan

2011-12-20T20:17:00.004-06:00

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Like many, I grew up in a decade and a family that valued consumerism, being told and believing that I should always want more, better or bigger things. A more expensive car, a larger house, a huge wardrobe, fancy household stuff. Accumulating all of this stuff was just expected, and sadly, still is.

While it's taken me a long time, I'm finally at the point where I don't want so many things and am yearning for a simple material life. In another four to five years, my stepsons will finish school and move out. There's already empty space in this house that we have no desire to fill with stuff. We easily have twice the amount of square footage in this house than we did in our last one, yet we have less stuff than we did when we moved in here 2 1/2 years ago. We're really looking forward to the day when we can downsize and live in a smaller home.

We've been slowly downsizing our possessions over the last few years, but now we're getting more serious about it. It's not just material things we want to downsize, either, but anything that takes away from what's important to us.

In future posts, I'll be keeping things pretty simple and making a lot of lists of specific things we're doing. To start, I'd like to share why we're doing this- to maximize what's important to us-

Reaching & fulfilling our dreams and goals
Spending quality time with each other and our loved ones
The Earth and all her inhabitants
Spending time doing things we love

Our main goal isn't to simplify and minimize everything & anything. If we love something and find it fulfilling, then spending time, money or effort on it is well worth it.

To start, we'll be going through our house, section by section, deep cleaning & getting rid of a bunch of stuff.

There are several things we'll be doing with the things we decide that we don't want. We're not too fond of just throwing something in the trash, so we'll be making every attempt at giving things a new home-

A lot of our furniture and household items will be stored in the basement for my stepsons to help them get started with their own place.
We've already donated many things to a local thrift shop and will continue to do so. We've also donated certain things like blankets, beds and collars to the local shelter.
For things of significant value, we'll sell it- on ebay, Craigslist, a consignment shop or at my parent's yearly garage sale.
We've given certain things to family, friends and co-workers if we no longer need it and they would like to have it, which is something we'll keep doing.
For things that we can't do any of the above with, if they can be recycled, we'll take them to the local recycling center.
If all else fails, we've found that putting something at the end of our driveway with a "free" sign usually makes it disappear within a few hours.

Of course, we'll still be purchasing things from time to time. There's certain criteria we'll be using to determine if we really should purchase it, though-

If it's not a necessity, we'll put it on our "wish" list and let it sit there for a while to ponder whether or not we should get it. Many things will be taken into consideration, such as how much use we'll get out of it, if it'll enrich our lives and what kind of environmental impact it'll have.
If we decide to get it, we have to pay cash for it and will seek out the most eco-friendly option that we can afford.

So there you have it. That's our basic plan! Feel free to share anything you've done to simplify your life. I'd love to hear them !

Reducing Posessions & Simplifying Our Life

2011-12-18T14:47:00.001-06:00

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Mike and I have big plans to reduce our possessions & simplify our life. As we go along, I'll be sharing our journey with that along with tips on how others can do the same if they so desire. For now, I leave you with some inspirational quotes. Enjoy and stay tuned!

You buy furniture, you tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. buy the sofa, then for a couple of years you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve got your sofa issue handled, then the right set of dishes, then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things that you used to own, now they own you.
~excerpt from Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.
~Elise Boulding

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak
~Hans Hofmann

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.
~Henry David Thoreau

Simplicity of living, if deliberately chosen, implies a compassionate approach to life. It means that we are choosing to live our daily lives with some degree of conscious appreciation of the condition of the rest of the world.
~Duane Elgin

Bringing simplicity into our lives requires that we discover the ways in which our consumption either supports or entangles our existence.
~Duane Elgin

Simplicity is an exact medium between too little and too much.
~Sir Joshua Reynolds

The aim should be to obtain the maximum of well-being with the minimum of consumption. The cultivation and expansion of needs, is the antithesis of wisdom. It is also the antithesis of freedom and peace...
~E.F. Schumacher

Free men must live simple lives and have simple pleasures.
~William Morris

Joy comes not through possession or ownership but through a wise and loving heart.
~Buddha

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.
~Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Snow, Food & Deer

2011-12-17T09:10:00.000-06:00

I'm feeling a bit quiet lately, but thought I'd post a little something. I've got a few ideas brewing and have been taking more time with them, which I'm excited about. We're also celebrating the holidays with our families this weekend, making things a little more hectic than usual, of course. The next two weekends are three day weekends that we have all to ourselves, though!

It's been a very mild season so far, making us very happy indeed. This morning we woke up to our first snow. While it was only a light dusting that won't be sticking around, it still counts, right?

Rowan made the first paw prints in the snow.

The other night we had a very delicious dish from the Everyday Happy Herbivore cookbook, Sweet and Sour Tempeh.

A co-worker was very interested in the hot sauces I posted about several weeks ago, so we ordered a few of their hottest "mutt" bottles, made with ghost peppers. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they're made in Milwaukee from peppers that they grow themselves. We're bringing it to my in-laws tonight for dinner, along with the Southwestern Corn Chowder that I originally heard about from Andrea.

Three deer were roaming around in back of our house for a little while this morning. I took a short video of them (sorry for the shakiness- I didn't have time to set up the tripod to steady it). They're so cool!

Chili Sweet Mango Noodles & Some Cuteness

2011-12-13T17:39:00.001-06:00

We tried another new recipe from the Everyday Happy Herbivore cookbook tonight and we both loved it. Chili Sweet Mango Noodles may sound all fancy pants, but like all of the recipes in that book it's designed to be whipped up in a short time with no added oils. It also has one of my favorite combos when it comes to food- sweet & spicy. Definitely something we'll be making again soon!

Now onto the cuteness. Sophie doesn't get the fireplace bed to herself very often, so when she does, she sprawls out and enjoys herself to the fullest.

Emma was pretty tired after taking two long walks on Sunday. I love when they get all content and sleepy.

Only a few days left until I announce the winner of the Crypton Throver. If you haven't entered yet, please do!
I hope that everyone is having a great week so far!

Aistream Spotting & Painted Airstreams

2011-12-10T17:22:00.000-06:00

We don't see many Airstreams around here, so when we do, we get more excited than we probably should. There is one that we see in this storage area for trailers on our way to Milwaukee, which I've been wanting to stop and photograph for a while. Today was the day. It was very cold, but sunny and we had some extra time to kill, so we stopped. I ended up going with black & white because it gave it a nice vintage feel.

There are other Airstreams I've seen online that I would absolutely thrilled to see in person. Other than a few collars and blankets for the pups, I don't have any Hello Kitty things, but I love her nonetheless. This 30th anniversary one of a kind Airstream is as cute in the inside as it is on the outside. You can see more pictures of it here.

The amazing Terrah of Driftwood Jones and The Road To Dog restored her Argosy, complete with this gorgeous paint job. You can see more photos of it on her Flickr, along with the rest of her beautiful photography.

"Big Red", owned by Chelsea Ann of Itty Bitty Birdy is quite the attention grabber! Isn't it great? You can see more pictures on her Flickr.

Speaking of red Airstreams, this one was posted over on Wandering Airstream. I bet it's even cuter when the awning is pulled out!

Poochy Couture & Still No Snow

2011-12-09T20:52:00.000-06:00

Emma & Rowan got new tags today! After much hemming & hawing, I went with these adorable flower designs from Poochy Couture, personalized with their nicknames on the front and their names & our phone numbers on the back. It's amazing how much could be fit on .75 inches! Service was fast & friendly. I highly recommend this shop. The tags aren't flimsy at all, which I can't say about other ones I've seen. These babies should last!

This picture was taken yesterday while I was at home on my lunch. Still no snow and it doesn't look like it'll be coming anytime in the near future. That's just fine by us! We've even been treated to the sun for the past two days, which is kind of rare at this time of the year. Emma & Rowan approve.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Recent Eats & Some Randomness

2011-12-07T20:45:00.000-06:00

We've tried a few new recipes this week. The first was Spicy Portuguese Kale soup from Vegan Fire & Spice. It was really good, but I think the directions might have been off a bit. Next time, we'll be cutting the cooking time in half because the potatoes were somewhat mushy. We'll also be adding veggie broth to it to make it soupier because it turned out more like a very heart stew. It reminded me of garlic mashed potatoes, only with some carrots, kale & kidney beans and spice added.

We made our first recipe from our new cookbook, Everyday Happy Herbivore, which was Cheater G-Nut Stew. This will be made again very soon! It was everything we like- an easy, quick meal made with healthy, whole foods. It basically consisted of garbanzo beans, spinach, tomato sauce and a little peanut butter. So simple but so, so delicious! The only thing we'll be doing different next time is to double the batch.

Tonight we had another recipe from the Everyday Happy Herbivore book, Pineapple Tempeh Teriyaki Stir Fry. The picture does the meal absolutely no justice. It's marinated tempeh that's stir fried with bell peppers & onions, served over rice and topped with crushed pineapple. The marinade has pineapple juice in it, giving the dish a nice sweetness. It's another keeper!

The girls like to jump on & off of our bed a lot, which made us worry that one of them would eventually slip on the floor and get hurt. To make things safer, we decided to get a rug, but wanted an eco-friendly one that wouldn't emit all kinds of chemicals. The solution was this rug made from seagrass! Emma & Rowan both seem to approve of it.

Spooky Vegan posted this the other day and I fell in love with it.

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful week!

The Tree Isn't Up, But The Stockings Are Hung. Plus, My Dad Is Crafty

2011-12-06T19:18:00.000-06:00

While we haven't put up our tree yet (and aren't sure if we're going to), we did manage to get out some decorations this last weekend. One of my favorite things to do is hang the stockings by the fireplace. It's a gas fireplace, not a wood one, but it'll do. As you can see, Emma is enjoying the fireplace, as usual.

On the mantel are several holiday decorations, including some of my favorite ones that my dad just happened to make. He's a crafty guy and was into carving for a while. Since my parents have far too many holiday decorations, they hand a lot down to me (which is where we got about 99% of our decorations from), including these carvings that my dad made.

He was also into making stained glass things for a while. This wreath was made in the 80's by him and has special meaning to me because he gave it to my grandmother for a present one year. She had it hanging in a window of her sun porch all year round. When she died, my dad took it and gave it to me. The candle you see in the center of it is the best smelling candle ever- the Christmas Tree scent from Candles by Phebes. I think it's our new favorite!

He also made several taller snowmen made from wood. This guy has sat on our front porch every year for over a decade. We've had to repair the brim on his hat several times and now I see that I didn't quite get the decoration around it quite right.....

If we ever get around to putting up our tree, it'll be topped by this angel, who my mom made, and adorned with a bunch of clothespin soldiers, who both of my parents made. All of them were made in the 70's, so they're about as old as I am!

Although they aren't a holiday thing, I have to share these birdhouses that my dad made because I think they're just so awesome. I snatched them from my parents when they were going to sell them at a garage sale. The bookshelf they're sitting on was also made by my dad!

Has everyone else decorated for the holidays yet, or are you planning on doing it?

Rowan's 3rd Birthday Weekend!

2011-12-04T14:17:00.000-06:00

Today is Rowan's third birthday! Although the weather hasn't been the best, we made the most out of her special weekend. First, we slept in and snuggled, as always. This morning, I made her birthday cake, which was a vegan cheesy sausage cake "frosted" with cheezy sauce. I topped it off with her name made out of vegan sausage (which I baked in the oven for a while first) and three raw sweet potato "candles". Both of the girls were extremely excited about the cake, but she was such a good girl while posing for me. A bit bewildered that she couldn't have her cake yet, but patient!

Then the time came to finally eat some!

Everything happened so fast that before I knew it, they had both licked their plates clean.

Then it was time to sit around for a while and let that cake digest.

We also played outside for a while, took a walk and will be watching Pitbulls and Parolees a little later. All in all, it was a good weekend. Happy birthday my sweet little thick necked wiggle butt! Mama loves you so much!!

Moso Bamboo Charcoal Air Purifier

2011-12-01T18:07:00.000-06:00

While shopping at a small market this last weekend, we came across Moso air purifying bags and decided to get a small one for our laundry room. They contain 100% bamboo charcoal, which is the most eco-friendly and economic air purifier there is. It's supposed to take a few days to notice a difference in the room and sure enough, we did! Our laundry room doesn't have the best ventilation, the litter box in is there and it's also a half bath, so it's got all kinds of odors going on at times. I was a bit skeptical about it all, but the bag definitely has helped clean up the air in that room.

Bamboo charcoal does all kinds of magical things. It naturally helps to remove allergens, molds, bacteria, moisture and pollutants. The activated charcoal and porous nature of it absorbs these things, then all you need to do to rejuvenate it is to leave it out in the sun for an hour once a month. They last for about two years and after that, you can spread the charcoal in your garden or in a potted plant. It's the ultimate in keeping the air healthy while being eco-friendly.

We are certainly going to be getting more of these because like I've said before, we try to do whatever we can to keep our air clean. With the mold allergies that Rowan and I have, every little bit helps! Speaking of Rowan, the bags are also safe for animals. If they should happen to eat it, bamboo charcoal will not harm them.

One great use for these bags is in a new car or in a room where there's new furniture, carpeting or paint (unless if it's non-toxic, eco-friendly furniture, carpeting or paint, of course). That "new" smell is chemicals being released and the bamboo charcoal will absorb them, making the air much cleaner and safe. Suffice it to say that I am sold on this!

Really, is there nothing bamboo can't do? It's such an amazing plant!

The Crypton Throver

2011-11-30T18:58:00.013-06:00

Getting a couple of Crypton Throvers has been on our wish list for a while now. Since Emma & Rowan have birthdays just two weeks apart from each other, we thought it was a perfect time to splurge on them.

The main reason we wanted to get them is because they're perfect for "after bath time". Since they're allowed on our furniture, they tend to get the couch, chair, their beds and our bed quite wet after they've had their baths. That's not a good thing, especially since we live in a somewhat humid environment and both Rowan and myself have pretty bad mold allergies. So, we do what we can to reduce the amount of mold spores in our house.

Besides being very high quality and durable (we like to purchase things that last!), they're made out of material that is extremely resistant to moisture, odor, bacteria and stains (they use an environmentally safe way of making the fabric resistant). Perfect for around the house, outside and in the car for when the pups are dirty and/or wet. While we did use regular blankets before, those always soaked through to the furniture, which defeated the purpose of using them.

Just like other blankets, we can throw them in the washer and dryer (although line drying them is recommended). We've used them several times already and have been really impressed. Absolutely no moisture has gotten through to our furniture and they're perfect for laying in front of the fireplace while Emma stays warm.

My only complaint is that the brown one we got is more of a slippery material. The black one is softer and not slippery (with the print on one side and a faux suede on the other side), but they're both gorgeous blankets that will last a very, very long time. An added bonus is that the company practices several great eco-friendly practices and has more plans to be greener in the future. We're very happy with them!

Recent Eats

2011-11-29T17:35:00.000-06:00

Here are some of the things we've had lately. As usual, we replaced any oil with veggie broth or just eliminated it.

Disco Stew from 500 Vegan Recipes. The sauce was an interesting combo of ingredients which included peanut butter, lager, tomato paste, mustard, coconut milk and several other things. I love how it turned out. The rest of it was pretty simple, with potatoes, onion, carrots & peas.

Black Bean Sloppy Joes, a McDougall recipe. We add lots of hot sauce to ours and top them with avocado. It also makes a great chip dip!

Tuscan White Bean Soup from Vegan Fire & Spice. This was so good!

After hearing raves about it on several blogs, I finally broke down and made the Marbled Banana Bread from The PPK. We had three old bananas to use up, so it was perfect timing for it. The only changes I made was that I used mostly chickpea flour and replaced the oil with applesauce. It turned out great!

Tonight we had Lentil Orzo Casserole from Dining With Friends. We've had it several times before and although it's made from very simple ingredients, together it makes a delicious meal. Orzo, lentils, onions, carrots, fire roasted tomatoes, complete with a bread crumb topping. I can't wait to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Has anyone had any of the Man's Best Friend hot sauces? We love this one so far and can't wait to try more. The Doberman is a heat level of 8, which has quite the nice zing to it. They make some hotter ones, including a 10++ level one that's made from ghost peppers (one of their "mutt" varieties). I want that one!

They all have some interesting ingredients in them. The Doberman has strawberries while others have things like kiwi, peaches, ginger, plantain, raspberries, blackberries, pineapple, mango and rum. Very interesting!

In somewhat related news, our copy of Everyday Happy Herbivore arrived today and we're already drooling over the recipes! Has anyone made anything from it yet?

Minimalist Monday

2011-11-28T19:13:00.000-06:00

A few pictures & few words today, but hopefully there will be much enjoyment!

I love pop art and decided to make my own version of it in Photoshop, featuring Emma in her favorite color, pink!

This was one of her birthday portraits. I can't believe she's 6 already!

In a nearby neighborhood, these people put this up every year. I love it and am horrified by it at the same time.

The girls are so good when they get a bath. Rowan seems to think that it's all delicious while Emma isn't amused.

Beautiful, snuggly Sophie. She's such a sweetie!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Monday!

Our Vegan Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T15:27:00.000-06:00

While we're not big on the holidays around our house, we do get into them a bit. Last night and this morning, Mike cooked up a storm of food for the day while Rowan watched him from the couch.

After taking the girls for a walk, we loaded up the car with the food and drove to one of Mike's brothers. The food included three recipes from the Happy Herbivore cookbook- cajun meatloaf, stuffing and cornbread, as well as yams (baked with mandarin oranges, pecans & maple syrup), a bottle of wine and a cheesecake, complete with strawberry and mixed berry toppings. All of the food went over quite well with everyone!

My brother in-law made this crockpot lentil soup and was it ever amazing! My father in-law loved it so much that he ate four bowls! I've already printed out the recipe so that we can have it again.

Mike donned a mustache for the day, then shaved it later.

We also got to visit with my brother in-law's pup, Rigsby. He's so soft, fluffy and sweet. I hung out with him and Jonas (my other brother in-law's dog, who was way too squirmy & excited for me to take pictures of) while everyone watched the Packers. Football makes my eyes glaze over & my brain go numb, but dogs never bore me!

I've got to admit that the holidays are most definitely not my favorite time of the year. The sun barely comes out and even when it does, it sets way too early. It's cold, snow is right around the corner and Mike has to work long, exhausting hours (as do I, as of recently). Worst of all, though, is that hunting season has started and consumerism reaches epic gluttonous proportions. Last night while we were walking the girls, we heard several gun shots in the woods nearby. Ugh. With all of that combined, it's easy for me to get into a funk and focus on the negative. This week, I've been finding myself going into a silent withdrawal, which I tend to do from time to time. Instead of staying silent for a while and retreating inside myself, I'm trying to focus on the positive things. Even if it doesn't work, at least I can say I tried, right?

I'm thankful for......

Mike and our sweeties, who make my life complete.

All vegans, who give me some hope for humanity.

Nature and all of her gloriousness.

Health for myself and my loved ones, because I know all too well what life is like without it.

Our jobs. While not perfect, I know how lucky we are to have them.

Our home, which is our sanctuary.

I can think of a jazillion more things, but those are the main things. I hope everyone had a wonderful day!

Emma's 6th Birthday Weekend Extravaganza

2011-11-20T17:00:00.000-06:00

Emma's birthday isn't until tomorrow, but it was only right & proper to celebrate all weekend. She started it off by doing a few of her favorite things- sleeping in and lounging around.

She practically shoved me out of bed to get my spot.

We slept in with her snuggling between us for a while, but she wanted to sleep in much longer, so we tucked her in and got up. Rowan decided to keep her company for a while.

After the birthday girl decided to get up, she went about her morning business and then decided to perch on the couch arm to watch out the window. It was hard work and she soon grew tired.

To alleviate those aching muscles and bones from all of that hard work, she decided to lay by the fireplace for a while.

We also took her for several walks through the woods & fields by our house. Hunting season just started, so this is the next best thing to hiking that we have for a while.

After all of that work & exercise, she was quite famished, so we brought out her cake. It's a carob cake frosted with natural peanut butter, then topped with green pepper that spelled out her name and six baby carrot "candles". She waited very patiently for it.

Very, very patiently.......

Both of the girls were so excited when I finally put slices on plates for them.

The next minute (and that's literally all it took for them to eat the slices!) was a blur of frenzied cake eating, as Emma demonstrates below-

After the cake eating, we sat down to watch Emma's favorite show, Pitbulls & Parolees. She loves all of those handsome, muscley boys! It's so cute how they'll watch the TV when other dogs are on it.

Tomorrow, Mike has to start work at 3:00 am for a 12 hour day, but we'll still be getting a walk in (weather permitting), more cake eating and lots of snuggling.

Happy birthday my sweet snuggle buns! Mama loves you so much that I could burst!

Recent Eats & The Comet Cafe

2011-11-19T18:13:00.002-06:00

I've got to admit, it wasn't the healthiest week for us. Mike had to work a lot of overtime (our place of employment gets super busy before holidays) and we seemed to run out of food in the house faster than normal. Still, we got in mostly healthy food, like this West African Peanut Soup from Dining With Friends. The only difference we made in the recipe was to leave out oil and use veggie broth to saute with instead, as we have been for a while now. It's a great soup for dipping hearty, grainy bread in.

We also had Simply Lovely Quinoa from The Garden of Vegan. It's one of Mike's favorite dishes and it lives up to it's name. Very simple and quite lovely!

Today, we found our cupboards very bare, so we went to The Weather Center for an early lunch of Sandstorm sandwiches. Both of us got half sandwiches since they're very filling. Besides, we try to really limit refined foods like white bread. They're filled with their homemade spicy hummus, tomato, sprouts, red onion & greens, all on toasted, crusty bread. I asked for no olives since I strongly dislike them, but Mike left them on.

In the afternoon, we went to the co-op and I was disappointed to find that they still didn't have Westsoy's chocolate peppermint stick milk stocked. We were planning on going to The Comet Cafe for a late lunch, so we stopped at Beans & Barley since they're on the way there to see if they had it in. They did! Even better, it was on sale!! I stocked up and bought four cartons of it.

We haven't been to Comet for a while now and although the food is delicious, it's definitely not health food. We started off with an appetizer of a half order of the deep fried vegan ribs. It comes with french fries, hot sauce, vegan chive mayo and bbq sauce. I had an Arnold Palmer (unsweetened iced tea & lemonade) while Mike had a Coke.

Mike had the Big Luck Burger, vegan style, which is a hazelnut patty that's topped with pickles, vegan thousand island dressing, lettuce, red onion and tomato. More fries on the side.

I got the seitan philly, which came with yet more fries. It's seitan with red & green peppers, onions and the best nootch cheese I've ever had in my life. It's a bit spicy and so full of flavor. I could only eat a third of the sandwich (it's HUGE!) and that was with Mike taking a few bites of it. Since I dislike pickles unless if they're spicy, Mike also got my pickle. The rest we brought home.

I topped off my meal by getting a coconut cream soy latte to go for the ride home. They have the best lattes which also include flavors like Milky Way, Almond Joy and French Vanilla. All can be made vegan!

So, yeah, we had a brief, guilty love affair with junk food today, but I'm okay with that and won't beat myself up for it like I have in the past. It just makes me want simple, healthy food even more!

Skywatch Friday- Sunrise Over Lake Michigan

2011-11-18T17:05:00.000-06:00

This is my first time participating in Skywatch Friday, inspired by Laurie over at Mehitable Days. I hope to do this more!

Mike and I couldn't resist taking a quick drive to the lake before work to see the sunrise a little. It had just started to get spectacular when we got there and sadly, we couldn't stay very long. I did manage to capture some of it, though. This is an unaltered, straight out of the camera shot-

As we were driving away from the lake towards work, we could see the color spreading through the sky more & more. This was one of those rare ones that make the entire sky look like it's on fire. Just gorgeous!

It was a wonderful, beautiful start to what turned into a very ugly, stressful day (oh the joys of being a manager), so this seemed to be nature's way of giving me something pure & joyful to get me through the day. It certainly did help!

I hope that everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Dog Treat Recipe- Protein Muffins

2011-11-15T18:06:00.001-06:00

If you have some vegan protein powder around, these are great treats to give them some extra protein. It'll give them some extra energy & strength for all of their hard "work"!

Protein Muffins

2 ½ cups flour
½ cup vanilla or plain soy, rice or hemp protein powder
½ tsp. ground ginger
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
½ tsp. baking soda
½ cup natural applesauce
1 Tbsp. blackstrap molasses or maple syrup
2 ½ cups water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, protein powder, ginger, flax, hemp seeds and baking soda. Add applesauce, molasses or maple syrup and water, mixing well. Scoop into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately three dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Emma's Creative Sleeping & Vegan Food Is Delicious

2011-11-14T19:52:00.000-06:00

Emma makes herself comfortable in very odd ways. It all started when she was a puppy and since then, she has only gotten more creative with her lounging. She takes it all very seriously, you see, and claims that only professional loungers know how to get comfy no matter what.

This weekend, she started out on the top of one of the couch cushions, but over time, gravity won out and she slid down. Being the professional she is, though, she learned to go with the flow.

Keeping her rear elevated seems to be a common theme with her lounging, although she's also been known to keep things parallel.

See that sleepy stare of annoyance I'm getting for sticking the camera in her face? I slowly backed away because I dare not invoke the wrath of disturbing her precious sleep. She'll have you know that she works very hard!

Changing subjects abruptly- vegan food is delicious. Mike made one of our old stand-by meals last night, Black Bean & Sweet Potato Enchiladas from the Vegan Planet cookbook. We love that the recipe makes so much and uses simple, cheap ingredients. Last time we had them he put some ghost pepper salsa on them, but this time he went with mango habanero salsa. Still spicy with a bit more sweetness. Either way, they're delicious!

Today Mike had to work 12 hours, so I took over in the kitchen & made a recipe we haven't had before- Indonesian Tempeh Salad from the Vegan Fire & Spice cookbook. It was a bit similar to the Thai Tempeh Salad that we make, but different enough to make us want to have it again. The only thing I changed was using sugar snap peas instead of snow peas since that's all the co-op had. Besides that, it had poached tempeh that was marinated in a delightful peanut sauce (really, all peanut sauce is delightful, IMO), bean sprouts, carrots, green onions and chopped peanuts. Spooned onto some romaine lettuce made it into a very satisfying dinner.

Tomorrow my new treadmill is being delivered! I've been missing having one and am really looking forward to getting a lot of use out of my new toy. Next on the wish list- an iPhone, perhaps? Is is wrong that I only want it for it's camera so that I can more easily (and discreetly!) take pictures of food in restaurants?

Coming up tomorrow- I'll most likely be posting my last dog treat recipe for a while. It'll be #80, which is all I have so far! I have more ideas floating around in my head, though, so it's only a matter of time before I add to my collection..........

Dog Treat Recipe- Peanut Butter Muffins

2011-11-13T15:47:00.000-06:00

To make these extra peanut buttery, spread some natural peanut butter on them before serving them.

Peanut Butter Muffins

2 cups flour
½ tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. shelled hemp seed (optional)
½ cup natural peanut butter
1/3 cup natural applesauce
1 ½ cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, flax, hemp seed and baking soda. Add peanut butter, applesauce and water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately two dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Deliciousness + Walks + A Treadmill = A Great Saturday

2011-11-12T17:40:00.003-06:00

What a great day! After taking the girls for a walk this morning, we headed to Milwaukee. Since we haven't been to Whole Foods for quite a few months, I wanted to go, especially since everyone has been posting about the yummy things they've gotten there lately. Disappointment ensued, though. I don't know if it's just because we're in "dairyland", but I couldn't find many things there that I've seen others post about. Plus, they don't stock local things like the co-op does, all I could smell was the meat from the large smokehouse section and it was packed full of people. I got overwhelmed & frustrated, we bought a few things and left. The day was still good, though, despite that little setback. We did walk out of Whole Foods with some delectable vegan truffles, so all was not lost.

Once we got to the co-op (The Outpost), we were once again in familiar, comfortable ground. We had lunch in their cafe first, which was quite good. Both of us got the Southern Fried Tofu sandwich, which came with a pickle (I don't like pickles unless if they're spicy, so Mike got mine) and some vegan red potato salad (most of which I also gave to Mike). The sandwiches weren't very healthy, but they were delicious and extremely filling.

After eating, we stocked up on food for the week and headed home, making one more stop to buy this-

I used to have a treadmill, but after it got to be almost ten years old, it was pretty much shot and quite noisy. On Tuesday, they'll be delivering this sweet baby, setting it up for me and giving me a full tutorial on how to use it. I even get a free chest heart rate monitor with it! This is a step towards one of my goals, which I'm very excited about. Hopefully by the time spring comes I'll be ready to start running outside.

It's especially exciting for me because for the last several years, I had given up on running since several doctors agreed that I had fibromyalgia after not being able to find anything else wrong with me. Before I stopped, I had just finished the Couch to 5K, but then my health problems began. I was told to avoid heavy impact exercise and although I resisted it for a while, I finally did because I hurt too much and was constantly fatigued. Now that I've found out it was my thyroid causing all of those problems for all of those years (and came to the conclusion that most doctors are idiots) and have been successfully treated for it, I feel like I can take on the world again. Every month, I've just been feeling better & better and to celebrate that, what better way than to treat myself to a brand new, shiny treadmill? After all, I feel like a brand new woman!

After we got home, we took the girls for another walk to burn off some of those sandwich calories and ran a few more quick errands. We're watching a movie tonight (the newest Pirates of the Caribbean) and will be spending the entire day home with the girls tomorrow. My favorite kind of day!

I hope that everyone is enjoying their weekend so far!

A Hike In The Dark

2011-11-11T18:15:00.000-06:00

The sun sets at 4:30 now, making taking walks with the girls a bit more challenging. We don't have sidewalks, but we have plenty of night time blinky & reflective things. Still, I'm not a fan of walking at night, especially since the speed limit on our road is 35 (which means most people go 45+), there are no street lights and there isn't much shoulder to walk on.

Tonight, we decided to try something a bit different and drove a few miles to the nearby state park to hike on one of the trails. It was..... interesting. While we probably won't be doing it again, it was something I'm glad we tried. The girls were *very* excited, but even with my glasses on & a flashlight in hand, I had a hard time seeing. There was a gorgeous orange full moon out, plenty of stars and fresh air. Those I loved. On the other hand, it was disorienting and a bit creepy. We're fans of horror movies, so every movie that was set in the woods at night started flashing through my head. Yeah, we probably won't be hiking in the dark again.

For the rest of the night, we'll be watching a few shows we DVR'd (Beavis & Butthead and The Office), surrounded by this-

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Vegan Zine Love- Peace To All Creatures

2011-11-10T17:28:00.000-06:00

I received issue 5 of the Peace To All Creatures zine a few weeks ago and although I've loved every issue so far, this is by far my favorite. The cover always features art that's animal themed. I adore both art and animals, so that's reason alone to love it, in my opinion. When I opened it up to peruse the contents, I found that the first section was dedicated to companion animals, including such amazing articles as How a Crazy Cat Lady Fell in Love With Pit Bulls. Even more exciting was seeing articles by other bloggers I recognized- Amber of Zombie Cats Eating Plants, Roni of Daisy Wares, PJ of Vegan Cinegrub and Dan of The Gay Vegans. The zine itself is put together by two wonderful women, one who also blogs, Pippi of Vegan Bliss and Jessi of the awesome Ginger Card Company Etsy shop.

Other sections include Veg'n, Diet & Lifestyle and Recipes, in which you'll find such gems as Hippie Tips, Alkaline & Acid Forming Energy and recipes for natural skin care products, thousand island dressing, linguini with pesto, lemon cheesecake and cinnamon rolls. The inside front & back covers feature more art and you'll even find an article by yours truly (I've contributed to each issue so far).

If you're looking for some great gifts for the holidays, zines are definitely something to consider. Not only are you buying handmade, but if you get a vegan one you'll be supporting other vegans, as well. Double goodness points! I've posted about a few in the past and plan on getting more soon, so stay tuned for future reviews! In the meantime, take a look-see at the zine's blog and give them some love on Facebook. They also welcome contributions, which you can find information about on their blog. I hope to see more of you lovely bloggers in the next issue!

Dog Treat Recipe- Cherry Muffins

2011-11-09T19:24:00.000-06:00

Emma & Rowan both love dried, sugar-free cherries as treats. Just make sure that they don’t have any pits in them.

Cherry Muffins

2 cups flour
½ tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
¼ cup wheat germ or additional flour
2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
1 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup applesauce
½ cup dried cherries (no sugar added)
1 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, flax, baking soda, hemp seed, wheat germ and nutritional yeast. Add applesauce, vanilla, and water, mixing well. Add cherries & mix. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately two dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ¼ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

A Hodgepodgey Kind Of Day

2011-11-08T17:42:00.003-06:00

It was pretty nice out this last weekend, so we went for a lot of walks. We're lucky to have a trail to walk on by our house, but not so lucky when we found a tick on Emma's neck.

Mike made the Happy Herbivore pancakes for brinner this weekend, which were pretty good. We'd definitely have them again. Mike prefers his with Lightlife sausage links, but I've never been a fan of sausage, vegan or otherwise.

Now that we have a fence that squirrels can climb, we're starting to see them in our yard. While they're ultra cute, this does not make me happy because Emma has a very high prey drive. She's very fast, but so far the squirrels (and a poor bunny that somehow made it in our yard) have been faster.

Sophie decided that she'd like to give the Wii a whirl. She just couldn't figure out how to get the darn thing started!

Last night we had baked chickpea cutlets our favorite way- with a side of linguine and marinara. Simple and delicious. I was very happy to have leftovers for lunch at work today.

Tonight we tried a new recipe and it's a keeper- the Jumpin' Jambalaya from Vegan Fire & Spice. The perfect level of heat with lots of flavor. First time I had jambalaya and it won't be the last!

Not much else going on around here. It's cold, rainy & windy with possible snow developing. Bah! I'll be taking a hot shower and spending the night by the fireplace, sipping on some hot chocolate.

Dog Treat Recipe- Carob Muffins

2011-11-07T18:46:00.000-06:00

Carob can burn easily, so check these more often than you normally would.

Carob Muffins

2 1/3 cups flour
1/3 cup carob powder
1/3 cup wheat germ or additional flour
¼ cup nutritional yeast
½ tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seed (optional)
1 ¼ cups water
2 Tbsp. natural applesauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, carob powder, wheat germ, nutritional yeast, flax, hemp seed and baking soda. Add applesauce and water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 20 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately two dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Soy Candles by Phebes

2011-11-06T15:47:00.001-06:00

I love burning candles. Specifically, candles from Soy Candles by Phebes. With over 100 lovely scents, they have something for everyone. They even have a lime citronella candle that we burn in our outdoor lanterns during the warmer months. They're much better smelling than regular citronella and work wonders! A few of my other favorites-

We've been burning their candles for several years now and I cannot recommend them enough. Let me list the ways that I love them- they're reasonably priced, smell absolutely divine (filling our house with wonderful, magical scents), are hypo-allergenic, eco-friendly (even the packaging is!), hand poured, almost completely soot free and it's a vegan owned and operated shop. We've tried many of their scents over the years and haven't been disappointed once. Besides all of that, you'll get free shipping with any order over $25 and excellent, fast service. There truly is no comparison.

They're also safe for not only humans but companion animals as well (the name of the shop itself came from the shop owner's beloved dog, Phoebe, which I think is such a great way to honor her!). Chemical, artifical scents can bother their sensitive noses and breathing in soot from petroleum based wax is absolutely horrendous for their health (as well as ours). Of course, you need to make sure the candles are in a spot that they cannot get at and you should also keep a watchful eye on it while it's burning, but you can rest assured that these will not be harmful to your furry one's health.

Right now they're having a great deal- buy 5 candles and get one free (as well as free shipping)! We stocked up for the cold months as well as to have gifts around for when we need them. High quality, great smelling candles are always a welcome gift. Besides, it's always nice to support vegan owned businesses!

Dog Treat Recipe- Banana Oat Muffins

2011-11-04T19:42:00.000-05:00

These are packed with nutrients and are very low fat but still delicious!

Banana Oat Muffins

2 cups flour
1 ¾ cups oats
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seed (optional)
3 bananas, mashed
¾ cup unsweetened applesauce
¼ cup blackstrap molasses

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, cinnamon, flax, hemp seed and baking soda. In another bowl, combine mashed bananas, applesauce and molasses, mixing well. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately three dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Recent Eats, 4 Ingredient Salsa & A Haircut

2011-11-03T19:21:00.001-05:00

We had a few really good meals this week. One was the Cheater Pad Thai from the Happy Herbivore cookbook. We did the veggie version of it and it really hit the spot. Anything with peanut sauce is definitely my friend.

Last night, we had the Dragon Bowl that Maud over at Food Feud posted about. I'm pretty picky when it comes to certain things, like sauces, so I ended up putting peanut sauce on mine. Mike adored the Dragon sauce and happily used my portion of it. I had leftovers for lunch at work today and a co-worker was very interested in the delicious looking meal I was having.

Tonight we made the easiest salsa in the world (the recipe is from a co-worker, who found it in a magazine). All you need to do is drain & rinse a can of black beans & a can of corn. Mix them in a bowl with a can of diced tomatoes with green chilis in them (several brands make them) and some chopped scallions. Cheap, fast, healthy and delicious!

I got quite a few inches cut off of my hair today (about 4 or 5 inches). A little over a year ago, I had colored my hair, which destroyed it enough. Add my thyroid issues to that and my ends were dry and brittle as a result. I had all of that chopped off today for a new start. Losing pounds, cutting off crappy hair, getting my health back and kicking some arse. This is the new, improved Molly. I really do need to get a picture of me smiling eventually, though......

I hope that everyone is having a fantastic week!

Dog Treat Recipe- Cheezy Muffins

2011-11-02T18:30:00.000-05:00

Besides providing a lot of great nutrients like B vitamins, dogs love nutritional yeast!

Cheezy Muffins

2 cups flour
½ cup wheat germ or additional flour
½ cup nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seed (optional)
½ tsp. baking soda
2 Tbsp. applesauce
1 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, wheat germ, nutritional yeast, flax, hemp seed and baking soda. Add applesauce and water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately two dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ¼ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Enjoying Nature

2011-11-01T18:30:00.000-05:00

The weather was decent enough for us to take the girls to a trail at the nearby state park on Saturday. It was a great hike!

Easy Wisconsin Chili

2011-10-31T18:10:00.000-05:00

I grew up eating chili that had elbow pasta in it, thinking it was what everyone did. Well, imagine my surprise when I found out later on in life that most chili did not have pasta in it! Keeping true to the Wisconsin spirit, we still put it in our chili most of the time.

Our recipe is pretty loose, so feel free to mess with it all you want.

In a large pot, combine-

28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
28 oz. can of diced tomatoes
14.5 oz. can tomato sauce
8 oz. can tomato paste
14.5 oz. can kidney beans, drained & rinsed
14.5 oz. can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 cup of elbow pasta, cooked
1 green pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
1 or 2 jalapeno peppers, chopped (optional)
chili powder, to taste
cayenne pepper, to taste (optional)

Cook it until it's all nice & thick. Enjoy!

Some Delicious Food & Yet More Free Food

2011-10-30T16:20:00.000-05:00

We found this enormous slice of cookies & cream cake while shopping at the co-op yesterday. I haven't had anything this decadent for a while and although we shared it, I couldn't eat my half all at once. It was delicious, but my tolerance for rich, sugary things seems to have gone down. That's a good thing though, right?

Last night, Mike made the Hawaiian Teriyaki Chickpeas dish from Happy Herbivore. We've made over twenty recipes from the cookbook this month and this is definitely another keeper! I can't wait until her next cookbook comes out in December. It was a very quick dish, especially since we used Mrs. Renfro's mango habanero salsa instead of making our own. Simple, healthy & delicious. A great trio!

The co-op was giving each owner a free butternut squash, which I found exciting. Then, today, my in-laws gave us a huge jar of cider that they made from the apples they grew. We'll also be getting some homemade applesauce from them soon, too. Yum!

While yesterday was a pretty nice day, today is windy, rainy and cold. I'm glad we're not getting snow yet, though, which several other areas of the states seem to be getting. We finally broke down and turned on our heat, the fireplace has been on most nights and Emma is wearing her coats (otherwise she comes inside shivering). So far, the colder weather isn't bothering me as much yet and I've been finding the good things about this time of year. Hopefully that trend continues for the next six months.......

I hope that everyone is having a great weekend!

Dog Treat Recipe- Cheezy Baco Spinach Muffins

2011-10-29T23:55:00.000-05:00

A sneaky way to get your pup to eat their spinach!

Cheezy Baco Spinach Muffins

3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ cup nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
½ container vegan bacon bits
½ cup natural applesauce
2 cups water
1 cup shredded spinach

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, bacon bits, flax, nutritional yeast, hemp seeds and baking soda. Add applesauce, spinach and water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately thirty mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Dog Treat Recipe- Carrot Muffins

2011-10-28T18:18:00.000-05:00

Emma and Rowan love carrots. The baby food in these makes the nutrients in carrots more accessible to dogs.

Carrot Muffins

2 cups flour
½ cup nutritional yeast
½ cup wheat germ or additional flour
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
½ tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. blackstrap molasses or maple syrup
1 cup carrot baby food (about two small jars)
½ cup shredded carrot
¼ cup water (leave out if the batter is runny)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, nutritional yeast, wheat germ, flax, hemp seeds and baking soda. Add carrots, baby food, molasses or maple syrup and water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately two dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Buh Bye To 10 lbs., A Great Sandwich & More Free Food

2011-10-27T17:13:00.001-05:00

Since October 1, I've lost 10 pounds! While I have quite a bit more to lose yet, it's a start and very exciting. Looking back, my health issues started about seven or eight years ago with my weight slowly creeping up as a result. Now that the umpteenth doctor I've seen has finally figured out that it's my thyroid, my meds (which I don't like taking, but it's just one tiny pill a day that prevents a buttload of problems for me, which is worth it to me) along with a few minor lifestyle changes are finally helping me shed that extra weight.

Mike and I have made our changes together, which is so much more helpful than doing it alone. We really haven't changed much- I've been keeping a daily food journal, which helps me to be aware of what I'm eating. Besides that, we haven't been cooking with oil, have been focusing on mostly low-fat whole foods and have been eating a bit less all around. I haven't felt deprived in the least!

Tonight, we had the Cooked Vegetable Sandwich with White Bean Spread that Maud over at Food Feud posted about. The only changes we made were eliminating the oil and we didn't have any crusty bread, so Mike toasted some grainy bread. They were delicious and very filling. Yum!

We've been getting quite a bit more free food from friends and family lately, which is just fine with us! My in-laws gave us many more apples and my mom picked up some pumpkin butter for me on a road trip my parents took. I usually have apple butter in the morning with some nut butter on a whole grain english muffin, but have been replacing it lately with the pumpkin butter. It's sooooo good!

My mom also gave us a jar of some jam she made and a friend of ours brought over a huge jar of spicy pickles that he canned. The pickles were already pillaged a bit when I took this photo.....

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful week!

Dog Treat Recipe- Parsley Muffins

2011-10-26T18:40:00.001-05:00

Parsley not only helps to fight that doggie breath, but it’s also heart healthy, cancer fighting and helps to prevent arthritis.

Parsley Muffins

4 cups flour
¼ cup oats
½ cup wheat germ or additional flour
8 Tbsp. dried parsley
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
1 tsp. baking soda
2 ½ cups water
3 Tbsp. natural applesauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, wheat germ, parsley, flax, hemp seeds and baking soda. Add applesauce and water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately three dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Dog Treat Recipe- Brown Grrravy

2011-10-25T19:20:00.000-05:00

This is great for serving over food, mixing with chopped up food or dipping treats in.

Brown Grrravy

2 Tbsp. cornstarch or arrowroot
3 Tbsp. reduced sodium soy sauce
1 ½ cups water
¼ tsp. liquid smoke
2 Tbsp. tahini

In a medium saucepan, whisk the cornstarch/arrowroot and soy sauce together until smooth. Add the water and liquid smoke. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly. Remove from heat and whisk in the tahini until smooth. Let cool before serving and store in the fridge.

New Eats & A Crystal Kitty Update

2011-10-24T17:48:00.000-05:00

Our weekend was quite a few repeats, so I don't have a lot to share today. Mike made the Happy Herbivore cinnamon rolls again, only this time he used a candy thermometer with the milk before adding the yeast. They turned out quite a bit softer and were even more delicious this time around. Then, last night, I made a double batch of the HH chocolate zucchini muffins to bring to work for someone's birthday. They were a big hit when I brought them earlier this month, so I made quite a few people's mouths very happy today. Nothing like representing with vegan food!

We did have a couple of new things, both from the Happy Herbivore cookbook. Last night, Mike made the Cajun Meatloaf, which we would definitely have again. I liked that it had so much flavor and several veggies in it. The meal was very "homestyle", full of comfort food, only low in fat.

Tonight we had Tofu Chilaquiles. This dish is very filling! It's an easy, fast meal to make, too. Next time we'll be replacing the tofu with pinto beans ('cause we love our beans!), but it was really good this way, too.

This next picture is for SV since she asked how Crystal was doing, which was very sweet of her. She's doing so well lately and seems to be even better than she was a few months ago. Her enormous amount of shedding has significantly decreased and her coat looks much better overall (it was really dull & dandruffy). Her thyroid meds must be kicking in more as the months go on, which makes me very happy. Don't you just love her little feet? I can't get enough of her!

I hope everyone's week is off to a great start!

Dog Treat Recipe- Oats & Molasses Muffins

2011-10-23T16:51:00.000-05:00

Blackstrap molasses is rich in B vitamins and iron! As you can see, Emma takes nutrition very seriously while Rowan is just excited about getting food.

Oats & Molasses Muffins

3 cups flour
2 cups oats
1/2 cup wheat germ or additional flour
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
2 cups water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, wheat germ, flax, hemp seeds and baking soda. Add applesauce, molasses and water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately three dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Dog Treat Recipe- Baco Muffins

2011-10-22T20:00:00.000-05:00

I use the organic Frontier vegan bacon bits for these. Since bacon bits are very processed, these are more of a special occasion treat.

Baco Muffins

4 cups flour
½ container vegan bacon bits
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
½ tsp. baking soda
½ cup applesauce
2 cups water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, bacon bits, flax, hemp seeds and baking soda. Add applesauce and water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately three dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Dog Treat Recipe- Carob Peanut Butter Crackers

2011-10-21T18:40:00.000-05:00

These are a special occasion treat because of the higher amount of fat in them. I rarely give my girls shortening, but once or twice a year I’ll make an exception.

Carob Peanut Butter Crackers

1 box of whole grain crackers (the organic Triscuit kind works the best)
Natural peanut butter
1 cup vegan carob chips (preferably sugar-free)
1 Tbsp. vegan shortening

Start by making “sandwiches”. Spread some peanut butter on a cracker, then put another cracker on top of it so that the peanut butter is in-between two crackers. Make about a dozen of these and set them aside.

In a double boiler or saucepan, combine carob chips and shortening, melting them together over low heat. If using a saucepan, stir continuously to prevent burning. Once completely melted, use tongs to dip the cracker sandwiches into the carob, coating them completely. Let the excess carob drip off of them and set them aside on waxed paper.

Once the carob has hardened completely, store in an airtight container in a cool place.

Soup, Cinnamon Buns & Snapshots

2011-10-20T18:07:00.000-05:00

All this week, it's been gloomy, rainy, the wind has been gusting up to 60 miles per hour and the wind chill has reached it's icy tentacles down into the 20's. I got prepared last weekend by putting several soups on the menu, including one of our favorites that we've had quite a few times now, Black Eyed Pea Soup from Michelle over at Lovin Lovin Vegan. The only changes we made to the recipe were to saute in veggie broth instead of oil and since we're not fans of garam masala (I'm picky when it comes to herbs & spices), we replaced that with ginger. This is such fantastic soup.

Mike also treated us by making the Cinnamon Buns from Happy Herbivore. For having no added fat, these were fantastic! Mike wants to make them again because he thinks he heated the milk up too hot, thus affecting the yeast, but I had no complaints. They were a bit more "biscuity" than other cinnamon buns I've had, but again, no complaints here. I used my own recipe for the icing, which is an old one of my moms that I veganized. I'm definitely looking forward to having these again!

Tonight we had the Tortilla Soup from Happy Herbivore along with Corn Bread, another Happy Herbivore recipe. Her cookbook is certainly worth it's weight in gold because these were yet two more amazingly delicious recipes. The soup had just the right amount of spiciness and the corn bread was perfection. The only thing we did different was to not blend part of the soup. We like our soup chunkier vs. creamier, but I'm sure it's quite delicious either way!

I'm sharing some recent shots of Emma & Sophie today. This is Emma on one of our last beautiful days out, less than two weeks ago (*sigh*). I think she's wondering what happened to the warm, sunny days now, but then again, she's really been enjoying laying in front of the fireplace!

Sitting on top of the couch cushion so that she could watch outside. I love capturing silhouettes when they're just right.

Sophie was not happy with me because I was washing her blanket. She had to find another place to lay on until it was finished and chose the rocking chair, which was unusual because she never lays on it. I love when kitties tuck all of their legs underneath them so that you can't see them at all. See how she's looking at me? We call that her "angry kitty" look.

I had just taken Emma & Rowan's bed covers out of the dryer and knowing how much Emma loves warm things, I tucked them around her. Almost immediately, Sophie jumped on top of Emma & the blankets to lay down. They stayed like this for quite a while.

Recent Eats & Some Snapshots

2011-10-19T16:43:00.000-05:00

On Sunday night, Mike made this Soutwestern Corn Chowder that Andrea posted about. Oh my! I'm kind of picky when it comes to soups & stews and this one is definitely going to be made quite a few times over the next several cold months. It's so delicious! The taste is rich and it's very filling. Perfection!

Monday night Mike cooked one of our absolute favorite dishes, West African Spinach with Spicy Peanut Sauce from Vegan Fire & Spice. We always add some seitan to it and put it over black (aka forbidden) rice. Who would have thought that putting peanut sauce, tomatoes & spinach together would result in such a great dish? We've had this many times and never tire of it.

Since I'm crazy for peanut sauce, we had it again last night in a salad. The peanut sauce we use for this varies, but last night I made the one from Vegan Fire & Spice since it doesn't have any added oil to it. It's a pretty simple salad that was inspired by Thai Tempeh subs that we got in Boulder on our last two road trips from this place. Spinach, sprouts, chopped carrots (mixed in the peanut sauce) and baked tempeh (cut up & baked at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes).

I've got to be honest- I'm getting a bit bored with posting about food. However, I'll probably keep doing it after the month is over, but will scale it down to maybe once a week or so. To vary things a bit, I'd like to share some recent shots I've captured.

Most of the trees are bare now, but about a week ago some still had brilliant color on them. I had to cross the street on one of our walks to get a shot of this because the orange, green & blue together drew me.

When we got back to our house from that same walk, we found this cicada hanging out on a mushroom in our front yard. It's weird to see one because they usually stay off the ground. They're huge! This one was about 2 inches long. I'll miss the sound they make in the summer as well as the crickets & birds. Now all we hear is wind......

About a mile from our house is this house with a bunch of sculptures made out of concrete & glass. I felt weird sitting there taking pictures from the sidewalk, but couldn't resist getting one of this dog. The street you see in the background is the one I drive on when I take my scooter back & forth to work. I would see this dog every day & loved it. Their yard is full of sculptures, including a man, lion, giraffe, zebra and probably a few other things I'm forgetting.

I hope that everyone is having a great week!

Dog Treat Recipe- Banana Crunch Muffins

2011-10-18T16:55:00.000-05:00

Get an organic cereal for these, if possible. There are several good brands out there.

Banana Crunch Muffins

4 cups flour
1 ½ cups grape nuts type cereal (sugar free)
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
½ tsp. baking soda
2 bananas, mashed
1 cup water
1 cup blackstrap molasses or maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, cereal, flax, hemp seeds and baking soda. Add bananas, water and molasses or maple syrup, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately three dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Dog Treat Recipe- Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin Muffins

2011-10-17T16:22:00.002-05:00

One can never have too many pumpkin recipes!

Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin Muffins

2 ½ cups flour
¼ cup wheat germ or additional flour
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
1 tsp. baking soda
½ cup pumpkin
½ Tbsp. cinnamon
2 Tbsp. blackstrap molasses or maple syrup
1 ½ cups water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, wheat germ, flax, hemp seeds and baking soda. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, molasses or maple syrup and water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately two dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Dog Treat Recipe- Waffles

2011-10-16T19:03:00.000-05:00

For a special treat, pieces can be dipped into a small amount of pure maple syrup or spread with natural peanut butter before serving.

Waffles

1 cup flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tsp. baking soda
2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
2 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seed (optional)
1 cup water

Preheat a waffle iron, spraying it with non-stick oil spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, baking soda, nutritional yeast, hemp seed and flax. Add water and mix well. Pour onto waffle iron and bake until they’re done.

When cool, cut into desired sizes and store in the fridge.

A Pumpkin Latte & Vegan Food Truck Food

2011-10-15T19:23:00.000-05:00

I started out the day today by making something I've been looking forward to all week, a Pumpkin Spice Latte, recipe via Michelle at Lovin Livin Vegan. It was a very nice start to the day, too! We've had to get up very early for the past two weeks, so being able to sleep in and not have to rush in the morning was a welcome break. The latte had a great flavor to it that wasn't overpowering or overly sweet, which is just the way I like it. I used to get three day migraines once or twice a month, but feverfew & coffee has helped me tremendously. The times that I've quit coffee have proven difficult, but I did it because it bothers me to be dependent on something like this. Even after that initial withdrawal, I'll still get headaches almost daily (and I've quit for up to 2 months at a time). So, I've accepted coffee into my life now, but it's a fine balance. A cup seems to be a good balance for me because more or less than that and I get a headache. Does anyone else drink it to help with headaches or migraines?

We still had a pretty busy day today with lots of errand running. I was very excited to learn that the Chicago Vegan Food Truck was coming to Milwaukee this afternoon, so we timed our trip to the co-op to coincide for when they'd be at the stop closest to it. I got the Steak Fajita Wrap & Mike got the Chicago Cheesesteak while we both got a slice of pecan pie to share. The sandwiches were both pretty good, but they're not something we'd make a habit of. It's the type of food we'll eat when we're on road trips or when we go out to eat on occasion (we like to avoid refined breads and things like white rice). The pictures of the cheesesteak did not come out well at all, so I leave you with the fajita wrap-

We were both too stuffed after eating the sandwiches (Mike had to help me finish my wrap) and decided to leave the pecan pie for later. Neither of us have ever had pecan pie of any kind before, so I really have no comparison, but it was pretty good. It's something I wouldn't get again but I'm still glad we got it because I've always wanted to try it.

Tomorrow we'll be staying home with the girls. The last few weeks have been filled with fence building, cleaning up after fence building, finishing up details on the fence and running errands (several of them having to do with the fence). Needless to say, we're burnt out on the F-in fence stuff. We're going to try to make it up to the pups by having a happy fun day with them and won't be leaving the house except to go on a walk or two. We'll also be sleeping in again and doing lots of snuggling. I'm really, really, realllllly looking forward to it.

I hope that everyone is enjoying their weekend!

More Happy Herbivore Goodness

2011-10-14T16:20:00.000-05:00

So far, we've made ten recipes from the Happy Herbivore cookbook, all in this month! We're just loving them, too. Here are the latest-

Last night we had the African Kale and Yam Soup along with biscuits (another HH recipe). Both were very delicious and filling. Next time we make the soup, we're going to add ginger because we love the stuff.

On Wednesday night, Mike made Portobello & Pepper fajitas. Very tasty!

Both recipes are ones that we'll be having again. We're already looking forward to trying out more!

Dog Treat Recipe- Peanut Butter Carob Muffins

2011-10-13T16:38:00.000-05:00

Peanut butter and carob. What more could a dog ask for? Well, Emma still asks for warm weather & sun year round, just like she experienced in Tucson. I can't blame her, though!

Peanut Butter Carob Muffins

2 ½ cups flour
1 cup oats
½ cup carob powder
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
½ tsp. baking soda
½ cup natural peanut butter
2 ½ cups water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, carob powder, flax, hemp seeds and baking soda. Add peanut butter and water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately three dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothies & Great Moments In Scooter History

2011-10-12T17:34:00.000-05:00

When Food Feud posted about a pumpkin pie smoothie recipe (you have to scroll down to it a bit), it went instantly on my "things to make" list. I tried it for the first time on Monday, then had another one yesterday and yet another one today. I'm officially addicted. It's a good addiction, though, because it's healthy! It does indeed taste like you're drinking a pumpkin pie, which may seem gross to some. To pumpkin lovers like me, though, it's bliss! The picture of it is one I took during my lunch yesterday. It was a gorgeous, sunny 75 degree day, so sitting out on my deck & sipping the smoothie while the pups sunbathed made for a very nice lunch.

Speaking of gorgeous days, if the forecast is correct we just enjoyed our last one for a long time today. That means no more scooter riding, which makes me very sad. To relieve the sadness a bit, I want to share some of my favorite moments on my scooter. Yes, I did have some spectacular moments with it and oddly enough, they all happened in the last few weeks. Fall must be a magical time for scooter riders!

Great Moment #1- I was heading home for lunch, riding down a street lined with maple trees that were at their color peak. The sun was shining, it was warm out, the smell of autumn was in the air and the bright red & orange leaves were swirling around me ever so gently. I couldn't help but smile.

Great Moment #2- Once again, I was heading home for lunch and was riding past the dog park. I turned to see if I could spot any dogs and there, staring straight at me with his tongue hanging out & a big smile on his face was a larger, fluffy yellow dog. He instantly started running at full speed the entire way along the fence (which is pretty long!), trying to keep up with me. I couldn't help but laugh. If anyone would have passed me, they surely would have thought me mad, but I don't care. That totally made my day.

Great Moment #3- It was early in the morning and the sun hadn't even started to rise yet. I was on my way to work in the dark. The moon was full & bright with dark clouds floating in front of it. It was a perfect October moon and looked like a painting. When I arrived at work, it got even better because right below the moon and clouds were smaller smokestacks from the building next door. Although I don't approve of the smokestacks, I very much approved of the gothic type of scene it created. It was a scene straight out of a movie.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Dog Treat Recipe- Coconut Pumpkin Muffins

2011-10-11T16:27:00.000-05:00

As you can see, Rowan loves to lick the bowl when pumpkin is involved!

Coconut Pumpkin Muffins

2 ½ cups flour
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
1 tsp. baking soda
½ cup pumpkin
½ cup light coconut milk
2 Tbsp. natural applesauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, flax, hemp seeds, nutritional yeast and baking soda. Add pumpkin, coconut milk and applesauce, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 20 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately twenty mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Happy Herbivore Makes Me Happy (and other weekend stuff)

2011-10-10T12:00:00.000-05:00

After an extremely busy, exhausting weekend, Mike decided to make a meal last night. We lived off of pizza and other faster foods (but not fast food!) all weekend, so an actual meal was quite welcome. The Portobello Steaks have been high on our list of recipes to try since Mike loves mushrooms and Michelle has been giving them many thumbs up. Besides, we adore portobello burgers. Like all of the other Happy Herbivore recipes we've tried, these did not disappoint. Paired with some steamed kale with garlic and roasted butternut squash, it was a delicious, filling meal.

We ran to the co-op in Milwaukee on Saturday afternoon and found ourselves behind this awesome license plate at a stop sign. I quickly dug my camera out of my purse to snap a shot and the person must have seen me, because they waved at us. I especially love how they changed the "America's Dairyland" to "America's Cow Hell". If the owner of this Element is reading this, you rock!

The reason we were so busy this weekend is because we put up a new fence. It was a tough decision since we just put up the other one two years ago when we moved into this house, but every time we would get high winds (which is a lot here), the fence would break. The shadowbox wood one that we just put up will be so much better. Besides letting the wind through & being much more sturdy, it'll give me peace of mind when the winds are blowing (I've lost way too much sleep worrying about the fence breaking). Most of all, though, it'll keep our girls safe. Besides preventing them from running into the road, it protects them from the coyotes. They live quite close to us and their chatter often sounds like they're right on the other side of our fence at night!

In a mere ten hours, we had the old fence ripped down and the new one put up. Now we just have to fill in the bottoms of it to prevent critters from getting through and cut the posts off on the top. Although, we'll be leaving the corner posts to put some bird houses and a bat house on. Lots of plans for new backyard landscaping & decorating have already been discussed. I already can't wait for spring!

The weekend was gorgeous out, as was all last week. Sadly, the above 60 weather is going to be coming to an abrupt end on Wednesday. I hope that everyone had a lovely weekend!

Dog Treat Recipe- Smoky Cheeze Muffins

2011-10-09T14:00:00.003-05:00

The combination of liquid smoke and nutritional yeast in these makes them irresistible!

Smoky Cheeze Muffins

3 ½ cups flour
¼ cup nutritional yeast
½ tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seed (optional)
2 ½ cups water
1 tsp. liquid smoke

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, nutritional yeast, flax, hemp seed and baking soda. Add liquid smoke and water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 25 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately three dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Dog Treat Recipe- Oatmeal Bars

2011-10-08T14:00:00.002-05:00

When you want to make your pups a simple treat that just requires mixing up some ingredients and throwing it all in a pan, this is your recipe!

Oatmeal Bars

1 cup flour
2 cups oats
2 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seed (optional)
½ tsp. baking soda
½ cup water
¼ cup natural applesauce
¼ cup blackstrap molasses or maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, baking soda, hemp seed and flax. Add water, applesauce and molasses or maple syrup, mixing well. Press into greased square baking pan (8 or 9 inch). Bake for 30 minutes. When cool, cut into squares and store in the fridge.

Forks Over Knives Deliciousness

2011-10-07T12:15:00.001-05:00

First of all, congratulations to Cassie-Vegan Fox for winning the Forks Over Knives book giveaway!

Last night, Mike make a recipe from the book, which was rice, steamed veggies & tofu. The tofu was supposed to be steamed, but he baked it instead. I wasn't really expecting much from this dish and was very pleasantly surprised. It was delicious! It also wasn't something that you really need a recipe for. All you need to do is cook some rice, steam some veggies, bake some tofu strips and mix tahini, water & tamari (which we used, but Braggs or soy sauce would work, too) together for the sauce.

The veggies we had in it were what the recipe called for- kale, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and purple cabbage. Wonderfully colorful!

Pasta, Muffins & Tempeh- Oh My!

2011-10-06T12:20:00.000-05:00

We tried three new recipes in the past few days and have several more on the way! First up is Fusilli with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Artichoke Hearts from The Get Healthy, Go Vegan! Cookbook. We liked this dish because it's kind of a combo of two other recipes we make & love, but without the olive oil that's in both of them. It was good, but a bit bland. We were out of cooking wine, so Mike used veggie broth in it's place. Next time, wine will definitely be used and we'll be adding some toasted pine nuts as well as some red pepper flakes for a little kick. Other veggies would be good in it, too, like broccoli and wilted greens.

There's a baby shower potluck at work tomorrow and I want to bring the Chocolate Zucchini Muffins from Happy Herbivore to it, but since I never made them before I decided to give them a test whirl. I whipped up a batch, which was easy enough to do, and they turned out great! The recipe says to use 1/2 to 1 cup sugar, so I only used 1/2 cup, which was just enough. At 90 calories and 1 gram of fat each, they've given me my chocolate fix for the last few days. For the potluck, I'll be adding 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to the mix so that they're a bit more decadent.

Last night Mike made another Happy Herbivore recipe, Tempeh Joes. I wasn't a fan of tempeh until recently and now, I just love it. These were really good! I had leftovers for work today, which I added quite a bit of hot sauce to. Deliciousness.

I didn't think I'd get into Vegan MoFo that much, but I'm kind of starting to enjoy posting about some of the things we eat. Maybe it'll be a new trend for this blog.......

Dog Treat Recipe- Sweet Potato Peanut Butter Muffins

2011-10-05T12:15:00.000-05:00

Emma & Rowan love this combination as much as I do (as Rowan demonstrates above). While it may sound odd to some, these two ingredients are quite delicious together!

Sweet Potato Peanut Butter Muffins

3 cups flour
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
1 tsp. baking soda
2 Tbsp. unsweetened applesauce
½ cup mashed sweet potatoes or yams
¼ cup natural peanut butter
1 ¼ cups water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, flax, hemp seeds and baking soda. Add applesauce, sweet potatoes, peanut butter and water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 20 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately thirty mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

African Inspired Quinoa Peanut Soup

2011-10-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

Mike had an appointment after work yesterday, so I did something I rarely do & made dinner. It was a beautiful day out, but I was cold from riding my scooter back & forth from work (wind chill- yuck!), putting me in the mood for something hot & spicy. The African Inspired Quinoa Peanut Soup from Vegan Soups and Stews For All Seasons fit the bill nicely.

I turned on some music, started chopping veggies and got to work. Emma & Rowan were my helpers, although I can't remember them doing much other than staring intently at me while I chopped veggies (They did get some celery, raw sweet potato & bell pepper. I weaken under their brain boring stares....). To reduce the fat, I eliminated the olive oil and used veggie broth to saute' the veggies, which works quite nicely. That's 28 grams of fat & 252 calories less! I also added a bit more heat to it. In addition to a jalapeno, I added quite a bit of cayenne & red pepper flakes to give it a slight kick. We topped off our meal with a piece of whole grain bread to dip in the soup.

In other news which is somewhat related, I should have 500 miles on my scooter soon! That's not too bad for only having it for two months, especially since I've resisted urges to take it for joy rides & have only used it to go to work and run errands. Although I do get cold now while riding it, I'll still be very sad when I can't ride it anymore until spring. Until then, I'll just keep eating soup to warm up!

Free Food, Vegan Meatloaf & Critters

2011-10-03T10:00:00.001-05:00

Several people have bestowed free food upon us lately. A lot of free food. Our neighbor & former co-worker (lucky guy is retired now) dropped by the other day to give us spicy relish & hot pickles he just canned along with an entire milk crate full of pears from his pear tree. My parents dropped off a few squash for us (or, as we like to call them, squarsh- we geek out around the kitchen singing songs we make up about "warshing the squarsh" and other silly stuff.....heh) and while visiting Mike's parents yesterday, they gave us a lot of tomatoes, broccoli, jalapenos, green peppers and a ton of apples, all fresh from their garden & apple trees. While we were visiting them, they also treated us to vegan tacos with salsa they just canned (with all ingredients from their garden) and tomatoes that were freshly picked. That's a lot of yumminess! We'll be making salsa with the tomatoes and peppers, but I'm very open to suggestions for ways to use up all of the apples & pears.

Last night we had a pretty simple dinner. It consisted of my favorite winter squash (buttercup) baked and eaten with maple syrup. We also had this vegan meatloaf, using that Lightlife stuff that comes in a tube & omitting the tomato sauce, topped with brown gravy that Mike made from the Happy Herbivore cookbook. It's the first recipe we've made from the book and is one that we'll definitely have again. While we don't eat vegan meats very often, they are okay on occasion. For the most part, though, we're trying to focus on low fat whole foods lately. More on that to come. I focused on the squash in this picture because it's so much prettier than the loaf-

Mike's parents have two dogs and both of them love to scour the garden for treats. Ebony was very happy to find a kohlrabi laying around to munch on.

As you can see, it make her quite ecstatic!

It was a beautiful weekend out, which was very welcome after a week of damp, cold & gloomy rainy days, so we took several walks and drove our scooters to run a quick errand. After we ran our errand, we walked along the boardwalk on the river. Several ducks swam close to us, quaking at us. While they were adorable, it was upsetting because that means people are feeding them a lot.

We also saw this little guy while visiting Mike's parents. They have a few ponds in their yard and a lot of frogs hang out in them. Cuteness!

I hope that everyone had a great weekend and is having fun with MoFo!

Dog Treat Recipe- Sweet Peanut Butter Muffins

2011-10-02T16:42:00.000-05:00

If you have an ultra picky eater, any of my peanut butter recipes are sure to please!

Sweet Peanut Butter Muffins

3 cups flour
2 cups oats
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seed (optional)
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ cup blackstrap molasses or maple syrup
1 cup natural peanut butter
2 cups water
1/3 cup applesauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, flax, hemp seed and baking soda. Add peanut butter, applesauce, maple syrup or molasses and water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately four dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Dog Treat Recipe- Pumpkin Apple Muffins

2011-10-01T08:54:00.000-05:00

'Tis that time of year again for pumpkin recipes! Emma & Rowan love pumpkin, so I have several recipes featuring it. Emma is quite thrilled about that, as you can see above. Happy October!

Pumpkin Apple Muffins

4 cups flour
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
½ tsp. baking soda
½ cup natural applesauce
¼ cup diced apple
½ cup pumpkin
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 ½ cups water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, flax, hemp, cinnamon and baking soda. Add applesauce, pumpkin water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately three dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Vegan MoFo Has Gone To The Dogs

2011-09-29T19:04:00.000-05:00

This will be my first year participating in Vegan MoFo and for the most part, it's kind of going to be a break from blogging for me at the same time. I have over 20 vegan dog treat recipes to share yet, so I'm planning on posting most, or all, of them during October for Vegan MoFo. I'll also be trying to post about food Mike and I are eating, but I make no promises. I've never been one to post about food much and probably never will be, but you never know. Either way, I think that someone needs to represent for all of those pooches out there. After all, dogs love vegan food, too!

So, for the next month, you might not be seeing much from me besides dog treat recipes. There are some things I need to focus on and this gives me a nice break from regular blogging. Happy MoFo'ing, all!

Turning On The Cute

2011-09-27T17:50:00.002-05:00

It was a quiet, rainy weekend and that seems to be spilling into the week, too. We've been playing in the yard and taking the girls for walks during the times when it stops raining, but otherwise have been homebodies. I won't be posting again for a few days, so I leave you with some uber cuteness-

Emma stayed like this for several hours. It was a cool, damp weekend and she takes being warm very seriously!

She was also quite pleased with this arrangement-

I hope that everyone is having a great week!

Snapshot Sunday, With A Focus On Nature

2011-09-25T10:07:00.001-05:00

There have been so many caterpillars on the giant sunflowers lately. They're munching on the leaves and from the looks of it have had quite the feast!

We also have several large spiders in our yard.

This was taken just a few days ago and the colors behind us have changed pretty dramatically since. It seems as though the leaves are changing much faster this year, which worries me. I hope that doesn't mean an early, long winter......

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Dog Treat Recipe- Baco Maple Muffins

2011-09-24T08:12:00.000-05:00

I use the organic Frontier brand for these. If you make them, be prepared to be stared down by any dog within smelling distance, as Rowan demonstrates above.

Baco Maple Muffins

3 cups flour
½ container vegan bacon bits
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
½ tsp. baking soda
1 ½ cups water
¼ cup natural applesauce
½ cup maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, bacon bits, flax, hemp seeds and baking soda. Add water, applesauce and maple syrup, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately thirty mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Goodbye Summer. I'll Miss You.

2011-09-22T20:41:00.000-05:00

A Visit From Scooby, Donkeys Are Adorable & Sunrises Rock

2011-09-16T19:09:00.000-05:00

The school down the street from us is having some sort of carnival type thing. I had to stop there to get a picture of the Mystery Machine. Although Scooby and his gang were nowhere in sight, I was still thrilled at seeing something come to life from one of my favorite childhood cartoons.

On the way to visit our parents, we always pass this place that has donkeys. Today we stopped to take some pictures. Three of the donkeys were very curious about us, but the fourth was acting coy.

On my way to work this morning, I could see part of the sky over the lake and had to detour to look at it. While the sunrise was still almost an hour away, the sky was starting to look really cool. This picture doesn't do it any justice, but gives the general idea. I have better shots of really spectacular sunrises here, but will hopefully get more soon! We just need to get up a little earlier, which can be hard to do.

Tonight we're watching Forks Over Knives, which is now out on dvd! We were hoping to have a fire, but the night has brought unexpected rain with it.

Happy weekend to all!

Dog Treat Recipe- Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

2011-09-15T19:25:00.000-05:00

Because dogs love this combo too!

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

2 cups flour
½ tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
½ cup natural peanut butter
2 bananas, mashed
¾ cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, flax, hemp seeds and baking soda. Add peanut butter, bananas and water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately two dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Our Calling Card & Activism My Way

2011-09-13T18:52:00.003-05:00

If you've happened to see our "calling card" somewhere, please let me know and leave a comment below!

I just got these made through Vista Print. They're postcard size and are made from 100% recycled materials! I've always had some sort of card to leave at places that we visit and as long as they have some sort of board to post stuff on or an area to put them in, I leave a card. We've left our cards in quite a few places like restaurants, stores & dog parks in several different states. This latest batch I changed the title on from plain old "Vegan Flower" to "Mike & Molly Were Here!" because I thought it was a bit more catching. Although, we're not to be confused with Mike & Molly, the sitcom.....

I have a few reasons for our cards. One is to try to connect with others out there with common interests. Another is to use them to write a note on when I happen to send stuff to people every now & then. The biggest reason, though, is to promote veganism. I'm hoping that non-vegans will visit my blog and become interested in veganism, even if just a little. Although we haven't "converted" anyone in real life, Mike and I have influenced others quite a bit. Several people have changed their habits and started eating more vegan foods because of our influence. Maybe, just maybe, we'll have an influence on a few people out there in cyber world, too.

I think it's important to be an activist and to do it your way. While my way is subtle (I couldn't help the Sid reference), I think it can be effective. Mike is definitely more vocal than I am about it and will bring it up with others while I rarely do. However, I don't hide the fact that I'm vegan and people seem to find me approachable because I get a lot of questions. Likewise, online, I'm not that vocal about my veganism. Other than my blog's title, I think I'm pretty subtle about it. I prefer to reach out to those with common passions, like dog lovers, as I'm sure is evident through the plethora of dog posts I have! After all, when there's a common bond between people, then they tend to be more open to each others viewpoints.

So, whatever you do, be loud or not, but always be proud. Most of all, though, do it your way!

Dog Treat Recipe- Sausage Cakes

2011-09-12T20:29:00.000-05:00

These are great topped with cheezy sauce!

Sausage Cakes

3 cups flour
½ cup oats
1 tsp. baking soda
2 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
¼ cup maple syrup
1 tsp. liquid smoke
¼ cup natural applesauce
1 ¾ cups water
1 cup vegan sausage

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a jumbo muffin pan with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, flax, hemp seeds and baking soda. Add water, applesauce, liquid smoke and maple syrup, mixing well. Add sausage, again mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pan and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Serve plain or topped with cheezy sauce. Store in fridge.

Makes six jumbo muffins, or “mini cakes”.

Snooty Emma, The Last Flowers, Flying Ants & Remembering

2011-09-11T19:05:00.000-05:00

Although we've been getting more & more fall like weather, Mother Nature proved that it is indeed still summer this weekend by giving us hot, humid days. Emma & Rowan took full advantage of it and sunbathed quite a bit. Emma, however, seems to be tired of the "mamarazzi" and got quite snooty looking.

All but a few of the flowers in our garden were dead or just about dead, so I cut them down today. The only flowers left are this sole poppy and some cosmos. It seems fitting that the first flower to bloom was a poppy and now is one of the last.

Rowan was very interested in the garden bed after I cleared everything out, then decided that it made a pretty nice place to lay down. Last night, we moved the chairs over by the garden to enjoy it one last time, up close and personal.

Our maple trees are really turning red now and the giant sunflowers are all starting to droop & drop their petals.

Some of you may remember last year's post about the night of the flying ants. It came a bit later this year, about two weeks ago. Much to our surprise, a second night of the flying ants came tonight! The ants were flying all over the place while seagulls swarmed the air. It was a pretty cool sight to watch, especially with the seagulls not making a peep. Usually they're quite noisy!

Last, but certainly not least, I'd like to mention 9/11 because it's been on my mind all day. I remember seeing the awful, horrendous morning unfold on the television. I remember walking around in a daze, shocked and mournful. I remember worrying about my brother, then being so relieved when we finally heard from him later that day. Like so many others, I will never forget that day or the people & animals who lost their lives because of it.

Dog Treat Recipe- Apple Cinnamon Muffins

2011-09-10T17:15:00.000-05:00

Apples provide vitamin C, dietary fiber, calcium and phosphorus, and they also add to a dog’s skin and coat health by adding omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids to their diet. Cinnamon has anti-cancer and anti-bacterial benefits.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

3 ½ cups flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
½ tsp. baking soda
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 apple, diced (no seeds, though!)
1 ½ cups water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, flax, hemp seeds and baking soda. Add applesauce and water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately thirty mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Few Words Friday- "Cooking Up Some Love"

2011-09-09T20:07:00.002-05:00

That's what kitchens are made for, right?

Dog Treat Recipe- Carob Banana Muffins

2011-09-05T20:00:00.000-05:00

While cocoa is toxic to dogs, carob is safe for them to eat. It also contains vitamins B1, A and iron.

Carob Banana Muffins

2 bananas
2 Tbsp. natural applesauce
½ cup water
1 ½ cups flour
1/3 cup carob powder
½ cup oats
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
½ tsp. baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, mash banana. Add applesauce and water. In another bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients and add to wet mixture, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 20 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately two dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Signs Of Fall

2011-09-04T18:00:00.000-05:00

The nights are getting cooler and the wind is coming back. It feels like fall in the air. While I love fall, I feel like the summer was much too short. It started late and now seems to be ending early. Still, I'll enjoy each season as much as I can because after all, they each have their joys.

Several trees are already starting to change, including the ones in our yard. I noticed the first leaves on the ground today.

Maple trees are my favorite in the fall because they turn such spectacular colors. There are streets lined with them, which I'll be driving down on my way to work each morning. It'll be a gorgeous start to the day!

Our flower garden is now in sad shape. There are still some blooms, but once those are gone, we'll be cutting everything down. The wind has given the sunflowers a pretty good beating, making them fall over a lot, and the wildflowers are almost done blooming. Next year we won't be planting the smaller sunflowers, just the giant ones. Instead, we'll be spreading more wildflower seeds, including ones that attract butterflies. I'm already looking forward to it!

The corn is just about ready to harvest, although most of the corn fields are feed corn. That means that the farmers leave it in the field for quite a while yet until it's dry. So much land and resources are taken up just to feed the animals that people eat. Such a shame. I do love these old barns with the corn field by them, though. They're such an unusual color for barns.

There have been so many brown eyed susans around, but now I've noticed that their petals are starting to get thin. It won't be much longer until they fall off.

Some of the things I'm looking forward to about fall are more fires in the backyard, the beautiful color of changing leaves, weather fit for snuggling, leaves crunching under my feet and most of all- hiking. We can't hike nearly enough here. The winters are too icy & snowy, the springs are still icy & snowy with lots of mud mixed in and the summers are too full of skeeters. So, we get as much hiking in during those seasons as the weather allows and really try to get a lot done in the fall. Here's hoping this is a good hiking season!

What is your favorite season or type of weather? What are your favorite things about fall?

Ghost Pepper Salsa, The Making of Sunflower Seeds & More Randomness

2011-09-03T18:34:00.003-05:00

We found ghost pepper salsa at the co-op today, which I was very excited about. Ghost peppers are one of the hottest peppers there are (401.5 times hotter than Tabasco sauce!) and since I like my spicy foods, I was naturally drawn to it. Soon after getting it home, we cracked open the jar and tried it. It also contains jalapenos, so I was expecting a lot of heat, and I did get almost what I expected. It was a little milder than I thought it would be, but oh so good! Don't you love how the jar has a caution that it's scary hot? How perfect for a Halloween potluck! My only complaint is that it's not organic. For you beer lovers, there is a limited quantity beer out called Ghost Face Killah that contains several hot peppers, including ghost peppers.

Speaking of salsa, we adore salsas of all kinds and I was blown away by a cherry one that my mom picked up for me. She and my dad stopped at a little market on their way home from upper Michigan and bought a few jars of it that some local Amish people made. Does anyone else like sweet salsa? I haven't met too many salsas I haven't liked. As long as it doesn't have a lot of cilantro (not a fan at all), it's all good to me.

Moving on to my next topic- remember when our first giant sunflower bloomed not too long ago? Over the past week, it grew very heavy and started to droop quite a bit. The head kept growing bigger & bigger and now the little buds are falling off to reveal the seeds underneath. Mike has already looked up what to do with them after they're ready to be harvested. As long as the birds don't get them all, we should have a lot of seeds!

It's been cloudy & stormy the past few days, which can make for such a pretty background. I love how this shot turned out.

Today the girls got baths and Emma was pretty chilly afterwards, so I made a warm little bed for her on the couch. She took full advantage of that.

My brother in-law has a Nikon that I'm very jealous of. He sent us these pictures of Mike that he took at our last get together. They did a shoot of Mike making various faces, including this "kung fu" face.

I love this one.

He's thinking about making his other arm a full sleeve eventually, but for now it's my turn to spend extra bucks on tattoos. I'm still contemplating either a half or quarter sleeve.....

We've had a quiet weekend so far, except for some thunder. There was a very loud storm early this morning, during which Rowan suddenly jumped up on the bed to snuggle us. She usually isn't bothered by thunder, but some of it was exceptionally loud! Between the rain, I've been spending time in the yard, enjoying the perfect temps and cool clouds. Do clouds mesmerize anyone else? I find them so relaxing.

I hope that everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Dog Treat Recipe- Cheezy Sauce

2011-09-02T16:56:00.001-05:00

This is great for serving over food or treats (or for sharing with your pup!). The picture was taken almost two years ago, on Emma's 4th birthday. We put the sauce over a vegan sausage "cake", then topped it with four dried sweet potato fries.

Cheezy Sauce

½ cup flour
½ cup nutritional yeast
1 ½ cups plain nondairy milk
1 cup water
2 Tbsp. tahini
½ tsp. liquid smoke

In a medium saucepan, combine flour and nutritional yeast. Add milk and whisk together until the lumps are gone. Whisk in the remaining ingredients. Cook over medium heat until it starts to bubble, then turn the heat down slightly. When it thickens, remove from heat (it will take about 10 minutes for it to thicken). Let cool and serve slightly warm. Store leftovers in the fridge.

Pretty Flowers, A Fairytale Shoot & Sophie Loves You

2011-09-01T18:44:00.001-05:00

I gathered every color of the smaller sunflowers the other day to bring in the house. They're all starting to droop & die, so it was time to enjoy them inside for a while.

We did a Princess & The Pea shoot with the girls, only with pup beds on top of our bed. Rowan would only sit still for one shot.

Emma, being the princess that she is, was all about this photo shoot. She laid right down and didn't move. She must have been exhausted from working so hard all day......

Sophie says that she loves you.

I've been playing with reflections a bit lately. I love how this turned out, with Mike behind me & sort of hidden in the trees. I also love how part of our bedroom is reflected, becoming one with the trees. Can anyone spot where Sophie is reflected?

I also have a bit of news, which is late, but better than never, right? Bark magazine did a small article about me on their blog!

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful week. While I don't have a three day weekend (I'm working Monday), I'm still very much looking forward to it. Plus, I have off on Wednesday, so it's all good.

Kale & Doggie Butts

2011-08-30T17:30:00.000-05:00

I did something tonight that I rarely do- I made dinner! I'm usually the one making the meal & grocery lists each week while Mike loves to cook. That works for us. Tonight, though, Mike's allergies got the best of him, so I told him to take a nap while I cooked. I've been wanting to try Creamy Peanut Kale for a while now and am sooooo glad I finally did. It's delicious! The recipe is easy, quick, healthy and inexpensive. Served over some brown rice, it made for a filling meal. This is definitely a keeper recipe for us.

The girls usually follow me around the house and especially have to be by me when I'm in the bedroom, putting laundry away. The other day they both scooted underneath the bed, butt to butt. Cuteness!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far!

Love Our Planet, Reduce Paper Mail

2011-08-28T16:23:00.001-05:00

I love getting mail. However, I love our planet much more. So, Mike and I have really reduced the amount of mail we receive over the last several years. There are usually a few days a week when we don't even receive anything in our mailbox now. If everyone took steps to reduce the amount of mail they receive by at least a little bit, think of how many resources that would save! Here are a few tips to get you started.

DMA Choice is a site that charges you $1 for their service, but it's definitely worth it. We noticed a significant difference in the junk mail we received after signing up with them.
Opt out of receiving paper catalogs through Catalog Choice. You can also help reduce this by making sure to note that you do not want to receive catalogs when checking out during online shopping. If you do happen to receive a paper catalog, go to the company's website and email customer service, telling them to take you off of their mailing list.
Just like catalogs, if you get something from a company, go to their website and write to them, telling them to take you off of their mailing lists.
For those stubborn junk mailers that keep sending you things, you can send them back their mail if they have one of those postage paid envelopes included in their mailings. Your name & address should be on one of the pieces of paper they sent you, so make sure to circle it and make a note by it to take you off of their mailing list. Then, stuff everything they sent you into their envelope and send it back to them. Since they have to pay postage by weight, odds are that you won't be seeing anything from them in your mailbox anymore.
Another thing you can do to send junk mail back is to not even open it. Circle their address and write "Refused- Return to Sender" on it, then send it back to them.
There are several address removal sites out there for bulk mailings from big corporations. You can be removed from their mailing lists by visiting here and here.
Sign up for email statements for your bills and opt out of paper statements. Almost all utilities and businesses have some sort of e-pay option. They're easy to sign up for and you'll still receive your bill, only by email instead. Tracking things online rather than by paper gives you more control and lets you see exactly what's going on with your account.
Likewise, pay your bills online. Most banks have a bill pay service that's free if a company doesn't have an e-pay option. All you have to do is set it up, which is very easy. Check with your bank and if needed, ask them for help with it.
To stop receiving credit card offers, visit this site. We were getting at least one almost every day for a while and haven't received one in a long time. Opting out of receiving them also helps to keep you safe from people stealing your mail and identity.
If you subscribe to magazines, consider getting the electronic version of it if it's offered. More & more magazines are starting to come out with e-reader versions, too (Kindle, Nook, etc.).
Warranty cards that you fill out & send in to companies that you purchased a product from are mainly used for marketing purposes. If you do send them out, make sure to write "Do Not Sell My Name Or Address" on them. The same goes for forms you send out for contests, surveys, etc..

If anyone has anymore tips, please share!

Snapshot Saturday

2011-08-27T20:04:00.000-05:00

Last night and today, Crystal came outside for a little bit. She'll usually stick by me and follow me around a bit, but felt like exploring more last night. She was so tiny by the giant sunflowers!

A moth darted out from an area she was sniffing and she tried to catch it. My little old bitty can be so fast and kittenish!

These wildflowers have been popping up all over our yard.

Quite a few of the giant sunflowers have bloomed now. We have a ton of bees around as a result. I love to watch them buzzing around.

Mike and Emma enjoyed the perfect weather today.

Rowan tends to lay in the shade. With her thick black coat, she's not the sun worshiper that her sister is. I don't blame her!

She's addicted to her play ball. That thing never leaves her side when we bring it out!

I hope that everyone has been having a wonderful weekend. To all of my east coast readers- may the storm pass quickly, leaving you safe and untouched! My thoughts are with you all.

Decorating Inside & Out

2011-08-26T20:19:00.003-05:00

When it comes to decorating, I'm kind of a minimalist. However, there is a lot of bare space around here, so we decided to spruce up our house & yard a bit more with things we love to look at. So far, the things we've done have really given our home even more of a warm, homey feeling!

One of the first things we got is this Airstream birdhouse. I've had my eye on it for a while and with Mike's encouragement, I finally broke down and ordered one. It now hangs next to our wildflower & sunflower garden and I've been admiring it every single day.

A few weeks ago we stumbled upon this hand painted gourd birdhouse at the farmer's market. Since it's nice & light, it was perfect to hang from one of our trees.

We put posts at both ends of our deck to hang our lanterns on when we sit outside at night (you can see them hanging in this photo). Since we only hang them out when we're out, I decided to get solar powered lanterns made out of mason jars to hang on the posts when we're not using the candle lanterns. They add a bit of light to our backyard without having to turn a light on when the girls go out.

Indoors, we had some empty wall space to fill. For above the bookshelf, we went with a travel & nature theme, all prints from Etsy.

Here's a close up of the middle print, which is from this shop. We got to pick the colors, cities and what we wanted it to say. Can you see both Mike and I in the glass reflection?

We were in desperate need of a new shower curtain for our bathroom. This adorable tree curtain caught my eye, so we made it ours. It gives some much needed color to our very brown bathroom!

Sticking with the tree theme from the master bathroom, we got this print to hang on one of our bedroom walls. The shop I got it from has so many incredible prints!

This is another print from the same shop that I'm going to be getting for our kitchen.

Decorating can be so much fun!

Unique & Unusual Dog Friendly Lodgings

2011-08-25T19:06:00.003-05:00

Since finding several yurts that are dog friendly, I've been wondering what other unique types of dog friendly lodgings there are out there. It turns out that there are several!

The beagle you see above is a one of a kind type of lodging- The Dog Bark Inn in Cottonwood, Idaho. The inn is a bed & breakfast that's inside a twelve foot beagle (the world's largest beagle, by the way!). During your stay, make sure to visit their gift shop, which is filled with the chainsaw art of the owners of the inn.

I'll be adding to this list as I find more. If you know of any lodgings that should be added, please let me know! If you're a camper, you may also be interested in my other list- Campgrounds & RV Parks With Fenced In Dog Runs (and parks).

Cabooses

Caboose Cabins in Sparta, Wisconsin
Grassy Creek Cabooses in Fancy Gap, Virginia
1926 C&O Caboose in Natural Bridge, Virginia
Caboose Junction Resort in Lampe, Missouri

Teepees

Ramshorn Guest Ranch in Dubois, Wyoming
Red Cone Retreat in Norwood, Colorado.
El Cosmico in Marfa, Texas
Barstow / Calico KOA in Yermo, California
Willits KOA in Willits, California
Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona
Smiley Creek Lodge in Ketchum, Idaho

Houseboats

Ebel's in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota
Timber Bay in Babbitt, Minnesota
Fun 'N The Sun in Alma, Wisconsin
Loon Lake Lodge in Reedsport, Oregon
Voyagaire in Crane Lake, Minnesota
Lake Powell Resorts & Marinas in Page, Arizona
Vermilion Houseboats in Tower, Minnesota
Seven Crown Resorts in Arizona & California
Trinity Alps Marina in Trinity Lake, California

Airstreams & Vintage Campers

Big Sur Guest House Rental in Big Sur, California
El Cosmico in Marfa, Texas
Stockton Delta KOA in Lodi, California
Hicksville Trailer Palace in Joshua Tree, California

Other Lodgings

Winvian in Morris, Connecticut has very unique cottages. Dogs are allowed in the Stone, Connecticut Yankee and Greenhouse cottages.

Kate's Lazy Meadow Motel in Mt. Tremper, New York is Kate Pierson's (from the B-52's) creation. The cabins have 50's style kitchens and really unique decor, all situated on a gorgeous nine acres of land. Dogs are allowed in suites 1, 7 & 9 as well as The Lazy Shack, Cabin & Lodge.

A Few Of My Favorite Things

2011-08-24T18:37:00.000-05:00

Monday morning, I stepped out in our driveway to head to work and was greeted with a full rainbow. What a wonderful way to start the week! I got to follow it for the three miles to work and by the time I got there, another rainbow had started to form above it. Has anyone seen the double rainbow guy's video (Sue, I'm pretty sure you have!)? If not, you must watch it! What does it mean? I know what it means. It means that Nature rocks! Really, though, watch the video, and make sure to watch it all. It only gets better as it goes on. I only had a few minutes to snap a few shots with my purse camera, so they're not the best, but you get the idea. Opposite the rainbow was a gorgeous sunrise coming up over Lake Michigan. I wish I had more time to enjoy it all (and take many more pictures)!

I adore dragonflies and have been wanting to get some shots of them for years now (as well as a tattoo of one!). There have been a lot of them in our back yard, flying around and taunting me, but they never seem to land anywhere! Finally, Mike saw this red one almost at the top of one of our trees. Like the rainbow, it's not the best shot, but not too bad considering that I was standing on a chair with my arms stretched as high as they could go, squinting to see my camera's screen. Hopefully this means that more dragonfly photo opportunities are forthcoming! Speaking of dragonflies, has anyone seen the movie Dragonfly? It's a beautiful movie (in my opinion, at least) that I highly recommend.

Today we had our first giant sunflower bloom! There were ginormous, fuzzy bees on it, hard at work collecting all of that fresh pollen.

The other day Mike took a nap with Rowan. She didn't feel like getting up as soon as he did, though. She's just so cute that I could burst!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far!

Dog Treat Recipe- Parsley Mint Muffins

2011-08-23T18:45:00.001-05:00

A great treat to help that doggy breath!

Parsley Mint Muffins

2 cups flour
½ cup oats
½ cup wheat germ or additional flour
¼ cup nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp. ground flax
1 Tbsp. hulled hemp seeds (optional)
½ tsp. baking soda
¼ cup dried parsley
½ cup fresh mint, chopped into small pieces
3 Tbsp. blackstrap molasses or maple syrup
1 ½ cups water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, wheat germ, nutritional yeast, flax, hemp seeds, baking soda, parsley and mint. Add molasses or maple syrup and water, mixing well. Scoop batter into the muffin pans and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Store in the fridge.

Makes approximately two dozen mini muffins.

Variations

Biscuits- Reduce water by ½ cup and eliminate baking soda. Knead into a stiff dough, adding ¼ cup of flour at a time until it can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin (add a bit of water if it gets too dry). Roll out onto a floured surface to ¼ inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters or knife and bake on a greased cookie sheet until crispy.

Cookies- Add ¼ cup of flour at a time until dough is firm enough to form into balls. Place dough balls on a greased cookie sheet and press flat with your hand or a fork. Bake until crispy.

Bagels- Make the same as the cookies except do not press them flat. Dip your finger in water and poke a hole in the middle of the dough ball. Flatten slightly to form a bagel shape. Bake until crispy.

Earth Fest, Delicious Food & Excellent Music

2011-08-22T18:15:00.001-05:00

This weekend was Earth Fest in Sheboygan and since Vegpod was there both days, so were we! On Saturday, we basically walked around a bit, got a bunch of food from Vegpod and left since we had several errands to run. Yesterday, though, we stayed for a while, especially when we heard the live music. It was The Brothers Burn Mountain, a two man band that's one of my new favorites. I took a few videos of them- doesn't the drummer remind you of Animal from The Muppets? I love Animal, so this is a good thing! They have a lot of videos on their YouTube, too, which are definitely worth checking out. As Mike said, it's great traveling music. I'm already picturing us cruising down the road with the girls, soaking in the sun and listening to them.

On to the food. Since it was a special event, Vegpod had several more choices than usual, so we had to buy more, of course! On Saturday, here is what we got- a slice of pizza with asparagus and I think some sort of Thai spread on it (I can't remember what it was, exactly....), black forest strudel, peanut Thai wraps, bbq wraps, chipotle potato salad & pasta salad with a creamy tomato sauce. We've had the wraps before, but everything else was new. As usual, it was all delicious! The best part is that I had a wrap for lunch at work today and still have one left for tomorrow. Yum!

Yesterday we got there a bit later, so they were sold out of some stuff. However, we still had a good haul- a zucchini cream cheese cupcake, potato & onion strudel with a white bean paste, tabouli and more chipotle potato salad. I'm not a big fan of potato salad, but this stuff won me over big time. It was creamy and had a kick to it. Yum factor = BIG! While I didn't take pictures of Saturday's haul, I did snap one shot of Mike yesterday while we were listening to the band and eating some of the food.

We drove our scooters past Lake Michigan on the way home and had to stop for a while because it was so beautiful. There were many shades of blues & green in the water and fireflies flying around everywhere. The beach part that you can see in this shot is where we scattered Bruno's ashes in the water. It's such a special place for us. He loved it when we took him swimming there.

The rest of yesterday was spent cleaning the house and relaxing with the girls. It was such a gorgeous day out. One of those days that you wish could last forever. Alas, Monday is here once again and it's back to the grind! I hope everyone has had a wonderful start to their week!

Snapshot Sunday & Some Catching Up

2011-08-21T18:15:00.000-05:00

Last night was a gorgeous night out, so we stayed outside quite a bit later than usual. Mike built a fire, we put out the lanterns with citronella candles and enjoyed the night breeze. It was so relaxing listening to all off the animals- crickets, frogs and a screech owl, who I always fall asleep listening to if we have the windows open.

We played with the girls for quite a while, throwing their glow balls for them. Mike had to turn the lights on to recharge them every once a while. Emma & Rowan get especially excited when they get to play outside at night time.

Mike brought a flashlight out to charge the balls with after a while. We didn't tell spooky ghost stories, but he did make some spooky faces with it. Reminded me of the Blair Witch movie.

Crystal was not pleased with us. She only gets to come out in the yard during the day, so I wouldn't let her out, despite her demands. I now owe her a hefty amount of catnip to make up for my insubordination.

After a while, the girls had their fill of play and we all just relaxed, listening to the night. It was much better than any TV show or movie!

In other news, Crystal had a wonderful 19th birthday. She's been doing so well and I'm so thankful that she's still happy & comfortable. Thanks so much to everyone who sent birthday wishes her way!

As usual, we've been having lots of play time with the girls. Rowan will often go back to the hallway closet where we keep their balls, whining until we get them out and play with her. It's so hard to say no to her when she turns the cute on like that! Emma doesn't always play, but when she does, I love to watch her run. She's so fast that the ball usually only gets one bounce in before she snatches it up.

Rowan won't play with her frisbees nearly as much anymore since balls came into her life. We think she may be addicted....... However, she'll sometimes still play with them, carrying them back to us like this.

I took a few self portraits one day and loved how this one turned out. Playing with reflections is always fun.

Emma sleeps in very odd positions sometimes. She's all about pillows lately.

Like play, there has been much snuggling going on, as usual. Rowan is such a daddy's girl. She's got him wrapped around her little tail! I swear that she has hypnotizing abilities.

Sophie has been her usual snuggly, velcro kitty self. She's gotten the kitty crazies in her every morning lately, running at top speeds all wild eyed, scratching on things and meowing her war cry. Her antics definitely help us to wake up with a few laughs.

I've been loving driving my scooter around. We've barely used our car and have spent quite a bit less on gas already. If only I could have a side car to carry the girls in, it would be perfect!

Last weekend my mother in-law had us over for lunch, which was completely vegan. Stuffed peppers, pasta primavera, salad and chocolate cake. She rocks! I brought a vegan cheesecake with strawberry topping that I made for everyone to try, which went over very, very well. Her birthday is coming up next month and both of Mike's parents have requests in for more vegan cheesecake. Keep in mind, everyone, that they're former dairy farmers! Pretty cool how open minded they are. I adore them.

Over the last few weeks, I made a few changes to my blog. I cleaned it up a bit by eliminating a few things that were causing the page to load slower and gave my Pup Stuff page a complete makeover. I have more news about something dog related, but that will have to wait until another day. It's so exciting to me that I'm giving it it's own post.

Okay, enough for now. I have more, but this post is starting to become the length of a short book. I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!

Sunflower Mania

2011-08-20T18:13:00.000-05:00

There are many things I'd like to share about the past few weeks with everyone and I thought it was only appropriate to start with flowers. Our sunflowers are really taking off now and although none of the giant ones have bloomed yet (they will soon!), we have had quite a few of the smaller ones bloom. The colors have been varied and gorgeous. I've been spending a lot of time in our yard, gazing at them and enjoying the beautiful weather. They've been drawing a lot of bees and I've been watching them collect pollen, too. One of the bees makes a guest appearance in one of the shots below.

A new wildflower bloomed, too. Anyone know what it is? It reminds me of candy with the bright colors. So pretty!

I hope all has been well for everyone these last two weeks. Stay tuned for more "catching up" posts!