This Would Even Make Lily Allen Smile

Before I put you out of your suspense and tell you what rythmes with meatza, let's go over breakfast!
Ta da!

Heh.  Bagel with Earth Balance.  What??  I can hear your screaming - NO PB & J?  Nope. I like to shake things up a bit.
And cereal

Coffee in the mug I got when Steve and Audra took me to the Buffalo Museum of Science.  Field Trip!  It's like I'm the little kid now.  Are we there yet?  The coastline on the cup disappears when it get hot, simulating global warming.  Makes me want to move to one of those fly-over states.
Lunch was leftover sloppy joes.  Even better the next day!

It looks the same because it is the same.  Doing my part to conserve the Earth by re-using photos.  Actually I just didn't take a new one but I bet you guessed that.

A green monster showed up during the day.  This x 2, it made a lot.
And dinner was...Pizza!  

This was on Hansel's way into the oven.  I sauteed broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, onions, garlic,  kidney beans, and chick peas.  Stop gagging, it's MY pizza!  Before I baked it I added olives and nutritional yeast.  It was delicious 

I make the dough in my bread maker, here's the recipe

Snack later was popcorn during a movie.  Well, during the 10 minutes that I watched of it.  Inglorious Basterds was probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen.  I hate violence of any kind so this was a bad choice.  I spent the evening reading blogs and playing Angry Birds on my phone.  Perfect :)
How about you?  Can you watch violent movies?

Thinking of Dipping Your Toes in the Vegan Pool?

Come on in, the water's fine!  But seriously, if your interested or just curious, one of my favorite bloggers Sarah aka Mama Pea is doing a month long menu plan for one of her friends, with meal choices and links to fantastic recipes.  Bonus - she is designing this as a get healthy/lose weight plan.  The PeaLightful  Plan includes 3 meal suggestions and 3 snacks! If you don't feel you can go vegan cold turkey, she is including an add meat option. Awesome! Sarah is a lawyer turned stay at home mother with 2 of the cutest girls ever.  Her blog is extremely funny and not preachy.  She's got a great  cookbook coming out later this year.  Okay enough of the Mama Pea love!  Do yourself (and your health) a huge favor and click over there right now!  What have you got to lose? (Besides extra weight and bad habits?)  

Boldt Castle at sunset.  I'm posting this because I'm homesick for summer, the Bay, and the Cottage!

Pancakes and Sloppy Joes

I have to admit, yesterday's eats were pretty spectacular.  I'm constantly amazed at the foods I used to love that can be made in a healthy, cruelty free way.  Why didn't I start this years ago?  I just cringe when I think of all the 'pizza pillows' (Totino's pizza rolls)  and hot dogs I used to feed my  kids.  Sorry kids!  And let's not even talk about chicken nuggets.  Did you know that McDonald's chicken nuggets have 26 ingredients? 26.   The only thing I like at Mickey D's is their straws.  I can't even eat the fries because they fry them in beef fat.  I like to think that if people knew what they were eating at fast food restaurants they would stop.  But most of the people interviewed about Taco Bell and their non-beef beef tacos said they didn't care.  That they didn't expect real beef for a buck.  My God people aren't you worth more than a dollar?  Isn't your health worth more?


You hamburglers don't go getting all smug on me!  Do you have any idea how many cows are in your hamburger?  In just ONE patty?  Seriously, you don't want to know.  But all the cows go down the chute and get chopped up all together.   Even the hamburger you buy at the store could have the meat from several different cows in it.   The only way to make sure it doesn't is to buy a hunk of     chuck or sirloin and grind it up yourself.  But you won't do that will you?  I can see you shuddering just at the thought of doing that.  Most people don't like meat if it looks like what it used to be when it was alive.


Anyway, moo-ving on!
Breakfast was pancakes and I was really happy about that.  I was too lazy to make them from scratch (imagine that!)  but luckily Bisquick  is vegan.  Yes that's right.  It's what you put in it (eggs and milk) that isn't.  So I made pancakes using a flax egg (ground flax and water) and almond milk. Look!

With them I had a clementine, almond milk and coffee.  Lets take a closer look

Don't the look delicious??  They were!  Do they look any different?  Nope.  I could feed you these and you would never know (but I would tell you!)  I am lucky because we have real maple syrup, right from my parent's land.  Yum!


Lunch was a mix of leftovers!  I love leftovers!  I vaguely remember half of a veggie burger, an eggroll, and maybe some maple potatoes?  It was good anyway!


Dinner was good too.  I had a craving for sloppy joes, and most recently saw them on www.OneSweetVegan.com  Emily's last name is Sweet, and it would be great if she was related to one of our favorite Cottage neighbors Rick Sweet, but since she's from the West Coast I don't think that's likely.  And guess what?  Manwich is accidentally vegan too, just like Bisquick!  Yay!  So I mixed it up with some Boca crumbles, which look and taste like hamburger, and some lentils, just because I like them.
Voila!

Closer?  Sure!

Maybe that's too close!  You can see the lentils but really, Manwich is so spicy that you can't taste them.  Even the husband was eying it.  But he hasn't voluntarily eaten a sloppy joe since middle school and I just couldn't convince him.  I think he would have eaten the pancakes if he was home.  But somebody has to work!

Dessert/snack was applesauce with some red hots mixed in. Mmm.  At some point I had V8 and some popcorn but you know what they look like!
Come back for tomorrow's post, which will involve something that rythmes with Meatza!  Any guesses??

Catching Up

Yesterday turned out to be extremely busy, so I was afc most of the day.  So today only, you get buy one get one free!
Thursday 
Breakfast was rather unconventional.  But it was what I wanted!  Leftover spaghetti

Don't judge!  With it, a side of garlic bread aka pita wedges with Earth Balance, and sprinkled with garlic salt and just a touch of dill.  Mmm I love dill

I jazzed it up with some Frank's and some nutritional yeast, which takes the place of parm.  

Along with the last of my OJ 

And coffee.  I mean, it WAS breakfast!

I love this cup!

I got it when Patti and I went to the Biltmore Estate.  It's so beautiful there!
Almost forgot!  I had an apple too.  

This apple has a history.  When we were in Vegas in December, there were lots of homeless people as usual.  Some of them were funny - like the guy whose sign said "I won't lie, I need beer".  And we loosely did the math in our heads and realized that most of these homeless people make more than we do.  IE if 500 hundred people walk past them in an hour, and 20 people give them a buck, that's $20/hour x let's say 12 hours is $240/day.  But who knows what their situations are and anyway, it's just sad that they're there.  So we would keep apples and drop those in their baskets.  At least we knew they would have something to eat (or trade for a beer).  IF they had a dog with them, we'd also give them a buck.  Suckers!  On a happy note the dogs always looked well cared for.  This apple was the last one I had, as I didn't see anyone homeless on the plane home.
Lunch was okay. Salad!

I can't remember everything that was in it, but I topped it off with some refried beans.  I love those!  Make sure you buy the vegetarian kind, the regular has beef fat.  Yuck.
Lunch may have been on the dull side, but dinner was anything but!

A homemade bean burger, roughly copied from KathEatsRealFood.  I use kidney beans, oatmeal, a little vegan worcestershire  sauce (note-regular has anchovies in it) and S &P.  Cook like a regular hamburger. Looks good right??

On the side, roasted red and sweet potatoes, tossed with maple syrup and a little dry mustard and S&P.  And, broccoli!  It was pretty amazing!  Top on...

I didn't get in any of my usuals (green monsters, V8, Total etc) but I just ran out of time and appetite.


On to Friday.....
Breakfast was good, and actual breakfast foods!

 Oatmeal with walnuts and brown sugar, the usual bagel with pb&j, and coffee.  It's a good thing I carbed up, because lunch was hours later (like, at dinner time) and was this

 Most of which was eaten in the car while driving.  Boo.  However, dinner when it finally materialized, was more than worth wait. First, one (or two) of these!

And then, leftover maple roasted red and sweet potatoes, green beans, and homemade egg(less) rolls!  Just wrappers, filled with shredded cabbage, carrots, diced cucumber, and some left over veggie sausage that I had in the freezer.  Bake at 400 for maybe 25 minutes?  And serve with soy sauce.  Amazing!  Looks like my rolling technique needs a brush up ha!

I just finished breakfast (Pancakes!)  and will have that exciting info tomorrow. Stop rolling your eyes!  I haven't had pancakes in 6 months so it was exciting to me.
What sounds better for breakfast to you?  Spaghetti?  Or pancakes?

While You're Waiting For Today's Post..

For those of you who don't believe I truly live in the Epicenter Of Chicken Wings, let me tell you that the husband has had chicken wings 3 times in the last week.  THREE TIMES.  Once at The Byrncliff, once at Main Street Pizza, and once, at home.  And I have a pretty good feeling that he'll be having them again, tonight.  

Anchor Bar wings image courtesy of BuffaloChow.com.  Because I really can't make myself take photos of them 

The Long Awaited Mac and Cheeze Post

But first, breakfast! Total cereal 

I try and eat this everyday, and this is why

Great nutritional stats!  I also take a multi-vitamin and B-12.  I like to cover my bases.  I always add fruit to it - today it was blueberries.  They're one of the super foods, and with good reason.  I just read an article yesterday about how companies don't use real blueberries, they use 'crunchlettes'.  So please, don't buy food with this ingredient.  Add your own fresh or frozen blueberries!   
Had to have a bag-L too, with PB & J.  Add in some coffee and orange juice.  Got to make sure I get my 5 50 a day ha!

Lunch was the promised mac and cheeze.  I couldn't wait till dinner to make it, so lunch it was!   Amazing

Doesn't it look so good??  Take a closer look

I had some salad leftover from last night, so I ate that too.  I love leftovers!  This is one I call my BLT salad, Baco's being the B (for all you second graders out there that couldn't figure that out)  I'm getting hungry just looking at that macaroni and cheeze, and I just ate!
Dessert - the last of the cupcakes, with some pretty sprinkles, and a cup of energy coffee.

Look!  Sprinkles!

Funny story about the sprinkles.  I didn't read the ingredients until after I verbed them.  They passed my less-than-5-ingredients test (sugar, carnauba wax, confectioner's glaze and red #3)  AND my I-can-pronounce-it test BUT for some reason I thought that carnauba wax was from beetles!  So I was kind of grossed out until I googled it.  Wikipedia laughed and informed me that it's from palm trees.  However, sometimes it's mixed with beeswax so that's kind of a fine line but at least it's not beetles.  Shudder.

Has hummus made an appearance on the blog yet?  If not, I can't believe it.  I heart the stuff and pretty much buy it in bulk.  Here is a little teeny tiny blob of it, with a few pita triangles.

So good!

Hmm.  It's loveliness  just doesn't come across does it?  It might look like a big pile o' poo but I can  assure you it doesn't  taste like it.  That's why this is a tragedy

Hrmmph.

I had to console myself with some peanut butter candy that's easy as 1 2 3.  I found it on a blog called Make It Naked.

Here's the directions - plop some peanut butter on a paper plate (I used wax paper)

 and freeze.  That's it!  And here's what you get

Let's look again

I originally made 3 but scarfed 1 up before I could snap a pic.   Make It Naked makes her own nut butter, but the union rep for my blender said NO.  Maybe when I get a food processor?  Anyway, I used what I had (chunky) and it was so good.  I need to get some Dark Chocolate Dreams from Peanut Butter & Co to frost these babies.  Ha!

Dinner never really happened.  Well, it sort of did.  Husband wanted Meisner's Deli's Wednesday special, Chicken and Biscuits.  I got french fries (they have awesome fries!)

I wasn't really hungry so I only ate a few. I had a little soup too (are you tired of seeing that yet??)

Yikes.  Those are some Stacy's Pita crumbs from the bottom of the bag I swear.  This is turning out to be some crappy post!

Because I didn't eat much dinner, I was 'snacky' later.  This is another one of my favorite 'recipes'  - microwave popcorn.  This comes from Roni over at RonisWeigh.com

Take a paper lunch bag, put in 2 tablespoons of popcorn, and nuke it for 2 minutes.

Another wholesale club find! Love you Orville!  And this is what you get

Amazing!  No scary ingredients, nothing.  Just popcorn.  Add your own un-pronounceable stuff if you want to.  I add a little salt.  Perfect.

Even more later (more later?)  I had some Mott's cinnamon applesauce with some craisins.  

I stir in a little oatmeal too, cause that's how I roll.

Happy Birthday to Gabriela from http://www.une-vie-saine.com.  She has a cat that is eerily similar  to ours

Gergie!  Stop eyeing those squirrels!

What are YOU doing to make it a purr-fect day?

Some Days Don't Go As Planned, and a Chocolate Cake Recipe!

Due to a busy morning (dentist appt, drug store, shopping) I didn't eat breakfast till about 10:30. Breakfast was oatmeal with brown sugar, walnuts and pecans, and coconut stirred in, and a spash of almond milk.  Coffee of course and 

  

a bagel, with peanut butter and jelly

Here's the bagels I bought this time.  They were out of the regular sized whole wheat so I got the mini's

And this is the jelly I use.  I get it in the 3 pack at BJ's Wholesale Club.  It's really good!  No added sugar

For lunch, soup!

Soup always tastes better in a Garfield mug! This is one left of a set I got for my birthday back in the 80's! I had some left over tofikken masala too

At some point I had to say goodbye to what was left of a dark chocolate candy bar I bought at the Lexington Co-op back before Thanksgiving! Boo

So good!  I had another Green Monster

But by the time I remembered it's photo op it looked like this

Amazing how just 3 ingredients can taste so good.  And it doesn't taste like banana or spinach.  Weird.

Snack as some point included another cupcake

with my afternoon cup of coffee.  I need coffee in the pm because I work so hard all day.  Heh heh.

Although I promised you macaroni and cheeze for dinner, the husband wanted spaghetti and that is the ONE THING that we both eat.  Translated - I  only have to make ONE meal.  So mac and cheeze got shelved till  today.  I do use store bought sauce, but I add lots of sauted onions, peppers, mushrooms and garlic, so it's semi-homemade.  I also had a huge salad and some green beans.  Almond milk to drink.  Almond milk doesn't taste like almonds btw, it just tastes really good.  I always buy the Vanilla and the plain.  I use the plain in recipes where the vanilla just doesn't work.  But put it on your list to try ok?  Much better than cow's milk I swear!  And since I gave up skim milk  etc, I'm not all 'mucus-y'.  Gross yes but you know what I'm talking about!

Tell me that doesn't look like an awesome meal. 

At some point during the evening I had some V8

And I think that covers my day!  I didn't eat all that much yesterday because I got a late start and because I'm on an antibiotic and that always messes with my stomach and my appetite.  

Okay on to my Mom's recipe!  It's from back when she belonged to Home Bureau and they got together and did crafts and exchanged recipes etc.  Way back in the day.

Here's the book it's from and here's her name! She's famous!

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon soda

Sift dry ingredients into a 9 inch cake pan (I make cupcakes instead).  Add liquids

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons vinegar

1/3 vegetable oil

1 cup water

and mix well.  Bake 30 minutes at 350.  (I bake the cupcakes approx 20 minutes)

Frosting is crisco, powdered sugar, vanilla and almond milk.  Sometimes I add cocoa for chocolate frosting.  It's that easy!

Just a few things worth mentioning - I always try to buy whole wheat products.  SO much better for you.  And there's certain rules I try an go by...

1) Only eat food that will eventually rot. (A Twinkie ten years from now will look, and probably taste,  EXACTLY the same as now)

2) Only eat foods with less than 5 ingredients.

3) Only eat foods with ingredients you can pronounce.

I have more rules, along with the credits they belong to but I'll save all that for another post.  I will say, if you have a chance to read any book by Michael Pollan, do it!

Okay, back tomorrow with the mac and cheeze recipe.  But tell me, have you missed any meat or dairy in my meals yet??  I haven't and I  bet you haven't either!