Happy October!

Hi everyone! Leela’s been doing well this week – and being super cute like always! It was cool enough last Friday night that she finally hung out on her warm white blanket; she’d avoided it all summer, haha!

On Saturday, I went down to Bridge Street and had to take a picture of this sign outside Reads & Company, complete with a photobomb by Rose of Diving Cat Studio Gallery… 

She was doing a walkabout and decided to stop in at the bookstore, so I went in with her, and picked out a new book! 

Some of my improved green bean casserole; I added penne, nutritional yeast, and some salt… 

Leela being a goof…

A photo of the foundry building… 

Some fun finds that were on sale at Kimberton Whole Foods – I’m really excited to try the Plant Snacks crackers (I’ve heard such good things about them!), the pizza I’ve had before and enjoyed, and the cream cheese I grabbed for Zach…

And they had these Hippeas snack packs for Halloween, so I figured that would be a nice addition to the candy bowls!

On Tuesday, I made the salad with tofu, rice, and spicy peanut sauce from My cat loves Daiya! (minus the cabbage), and it was so good! 

I also got some treats from Vegan Essentials! I’m so excited to try the Vegan Dude chips (I first saw them on Kittens Gone Lentil), and the Primal Strips Thai Peanut jerky is so good but I haven’t seen it at Kimberton for a while so I decided to stock up... 

And finally, a sleepy Leela from last night… 

Peace. :)

Goals for 2014

Hello there! I hope you had a good start to the new year! In December, I clearly lapsed on my posting-once-a-week goal, but I'm bringing that goal back, and taking on a few others, for 2014.

Trying New Recipes: One of my goals is to cook more from my cookbooks:

Vegan Handbook (Vegetarian Resource Group)

The Cookbook for People Who Love Animals (Gentle World)

Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food (Alicia C. Simpson)

My collection cookbook, which contains tons of random recipes, some handwritten, copied down from who knows where, some clipped out from magazines, newspapers, etc.

I've rarely used these cookbooks; they pretty much just sit on a shelf together, wondering what their purpose in life is, so I'm going to try to pay more attention to them. I would like to get a greater variety in what I'm eating, and I know I'm sure to discover some new favorites in the process.

Reading More: I read a fair amount already, but I want to try to read even more this year, and I have a nice (nearly 2-ft tall) stack of books for 2014, and I'm sure more will be added along the way. I'm currently reading Catching Fire (The Hunger Games series) by Suzanne Collins. I saw the movie before reading it, and overall, I'm liking the book better, but there are a couple parts that I thought the movie handled better.

Self-publishing: Having completed my fourth NaNoWriMo this past November (as well as a Camp NaNoWriMo in April 2013), I feel it's kinda ridiculous that I haven't done anything with the stories I've written (other than just reading and editing them myself). I want to publish them, and I've been saying that for a while, but I keep procrastinating. My goal is to self-publish at least one of the stories. I think I might try my story about Mystery (the 30,000-word one I wrote during Camp NaNoWriMo) first, followed by my NaNoWriMo novel from either 2012 or 2013.

Other goals: I also want to work on exercising more, try meditating, and get back into the habit of walking every day (once it stops being so cold out).

Oh, and one more goal, thanks to Rachel at The Vegan Mishmash, is to submit my turkey sketches to 46millionturkeys.

Well, that's about all for now. I hope everyone's keeping warm; Mystery's strategy to stay extra warm and comfy is to cry until I lie down on the couch and let her curl up on my stomach. While she has me pinned down, I use the time to do some reading. 

"Chop, chop! Time to get more reading done!"

Peace. :)