More Good Food and a Couple Puzzles

Hi everyone! For lunch on Thursday, I made the green chili macaroni and cheese from My cat loves Daiya! I’d made it before, so I knew it would be delicious again, and the leftovers have been so good, too!

For dinner, I made oven fries, which I had with Gardein fishless filets and golden wax beans… 

And for breakfast this morning, I had waffles with mixed berries and powdered sugar… 

I figured I would share the puzzles I’ve been doing; the first was a gift from Zach’s family, the second from my mom… 

Here is some more spring happiness from a walk… 

And here is Daisy being absolutely adorable; she wanted to hang out with me yesterday morning while I meditated, so I scooped her up and she snuggled in, gently kneading the air with her paws… 

(When I wasn’t taking this picture, my right hand was rubbing her belly!)

Peace. :)

Some Food and More Signs of Spring!

Hi everyone! Hope you’re all doing well! For breakfast on Sunday morning, I had my leftover baked oatmeal while Zach tried out the Gardein southwest saus’age & veggie breakfast bowl he’d found; his review: “It was pretty good.” 
 

photo by Zach

An easy lunch of leftover rosemary potatoes, Gardein fishless filets, and ½ can of Amy’s lentil vegetable soup… 

With a bag of baby carrots being the only veggies left in the house, I finally went out to Giant yesterday (two weeks since going for groceries). I got three bags of frozen greens (kale and collard greens), two little cans of green beans, two little cans of golden wax beans, and a little can of sauerkraut (I have pierogies in the freezer). I also got two bottles of apple juice since I was running low. Back at home, I made another batch of chex mix, which I’ve been having for a snack at night… 

For dinner, I had leftover fettuccine Alfredo with a Boca burger and some kale!

And today was another easy lunch: The last of the chickenless nuggets from Aldi, two hash browns, and some canned golden wax beans… 

A sign of spring in our front yard yesterday… 

And more signs of spring around the neighborhood this morning… 

To close today’s post, here we have Cringer and Rogue, hanging out together on the couch… 

Peace. :)

Rice Salad with Avocado Dressing (Giant Food)

The new recipe I tried this week was the rice salad with avocado dressing that my aunt had clipped out for me (the recipe can be found online here). I was especially excited for the dressing, since I’ve been enjoying avocados recently, and this one was absolutely perfect when I cut it in half! 

I made some changes to the recipe, though: I was able to grill the zucchini on the panini press/grill but not the corn, so I boiled it instead. I left out the red onion because I’m not a fan of raw onion, and I used just a bit of dried cilantro as a garnish instead of fresh. The dish worked out with these modifications but it took me longer than the recipe’s estimate of 35 minutes, and the end product was just OK. I probably won’t make it again, but if I did, I’d leave out the red wine vinegar (it made the dressing taste a bit odd) and add more salt. 

Served with tortilla chips and salsa.

And here’s what I had for a quick and easy dinner tonight… 

Gardein fishless filets, golden wax beans, and tater tots with ketchup

Here’s the Sharpie sketch that I did yesterday of a cross-looking kitty… 

And the one I did today, of the mini automaton my D&D character is going to be working on building hehe… 

I went to a writers group last night, and I was a little nervous; while it was my third time attending, it was the first time that I’d submitted something to the group to critique. It was a 4,000-word excerpt from a story I wrote for National Novel Writing Month; the first person narration shifts between five characters. I knew I needed to do a better job making each character’s voice more distinct and unique, and this was reinforced in the feedback I got. (Especially since what I’d shared only included the perspective of the first two characters, and they both sounded a bit too similar to the people reading it, haha!) But yeah, everyone provided really helpful feedback, and they all seemed to have enjoyed reading it. I marked up my copy with all the comments, suggestions, and questions that came up, and three people gave me their copies with recommended edits and other notes. So that was pretty cool, and now I have lots of things to think about and rework!

Here is a cute little Leela… 

Peace. :)

Golden Wax Beans and Fruffalo Wings

Hi everyone! The new recipe I tried this week was perfect for all the golden wax beans I’ve been harvesting. It’s really good and super simple to make (instead of the butter, I used Earth Balance to veganize it), and it went perfectly with the spicy “Fruffalo” wings from Field Roast that I found on sale. I’m definitely going to use this recipe again! 

In garden news, I finally started harvesting cucumbers and blueberries (in addition to the snow peas and golden wax beans)… 

Here’s my last flower sketch… 

purple coneflower (original photo)

I’ve switched to fruits now…

strawberry (original photo)

highbush blueberries (original photo)

And here’s Leela; she enjoys hanging out on the crinkly packing paper… 

Peace. :)