Leela Update

We said goodbye to our dear sweet Leela on Wednesday.

Tuesday morning, we’d gotten confirmation from another vet that not only was the growth in her mouth almost definitely cancer, but that it had gotten significantly worse and started spreading. By Tuesday night, Leela had stopped eating and drinking again, even while on the pain medication that had helped last time.

We had one last night of cuddles in bed with Leela, and even though we knew it was the right thing to do, it was so heartbreakingly difficult to bring her to the vet to be put to sleep when morning rolled around.

My sister Alena came over Wednesday afternoon to keep me company when Zach had to get back to work. On Monday, I’d tried the pierogies I’d gotten from V Marks the Shop, so we had the leftovers for lunch, adding mustard to the kielbasa. 

my pic from Monday’s lunch; served with Tofurky kielbasa, sauerkraut, and homemade pickles

Later, I made mac & cheese for dinner; there were enough leftovers for lunch yesterday and today, so that was nice. 

elbow macaroni, soy milk, Daiya mozzarella shreds, nutritional yeast, turmeric, with frozen mixed veg and Boca chik’n added in

After dinner, Alena headed home and I left for D&D; Zach and I agreed that it would be good for us to get out of the house for a bit that night. Someone from the group brought a vegan banana bread with berries; she does a lot of baking but rarely vegan, so she’d made this with me in mind, which was super sweet of her. I had a slice during D&D and took another slice home for my snack on Thursday; it was really good. 

Here are the last pictures Leela posed for… 

As always, peace…

Cheesesteaks, Trader Joe’s, and Brussels Sprouts!

Hi everyone! Last week my sister and I went to Seed & Soil again after I saw online that they had added cheesesteaks to their menu. We each got a cheesesteak and a pineapple lemonade, as well as the mac & cheese bites to share – the cheesesteaks were great and the mac & cheese bites were really fun! 

On Monday, I finally made it to Trader Joe’s, hooray! I stocked up on some of the fun things I’ve seen recommended on other blogs, as well as fall/Halloween goodies. If there’s anything I missed, definitely let me know so I can keep an eye out next time! 

I found these vegan and gluten-free hamburger buns at Giant on Tuesday, so I figured I would give them a try, and they’re so good! I’ve been using the buns for the Morningstar cheezeburgers, which are also delicious! 

Served with homemade pickles, carrots with Daiya ranch (I want to finish up that bottle before opening the Trader Joe’s ranch dip), and Trader Joe’s tater tots with ketchup.

I also tried a new recipe this week – it was my first time making Brussels sprouts, and it was a success overall! For the Brussels sprouts, I used half frozen, half fresh; the thawed frozen ones were small enough, but some of the fresh ones were a bit too big and didn’t cook all the way through. Also, to make things simpler, I combined the tempeh and its marinade with the Brussels sprouts instead of making a separate sauce for the sprouts. It was really tasty, and I’ll definitely make it again! 

Served atop white rice.

The pumpkin Joe-Joe’s were really good; we finished them off at D&D on Wednesday, haha! I also tried the Pumpkin O’s with some unsweetened soy milk and added dried cranberries as well, which was nice… 

And now it’s kitty time! Here are two sketches I did this week… 

Leela keeping me company while I was meditating…

And Daisy, apparently waiting to be served a meal at the table… 

Peace. :)

Lots of Random Goodness

Hi everyone! In writing news, I’ve been doing some major reworkings on one of my stories – making edits, changing the perspective around, filling in details that I’d neglected to include, and cutting a lot of minutiae. I submitted the new (now shorter) version of the excerpt I’d gotten feedback on, so I’m looking forward to the writers group next week. Today’s blog post will be a bit random because there’s lots of nice things I have to share since my last post, so let’s get started with the deer I saw on a walk… 

One of my favorite recent Phoenixville pictures, taken from the high bridge…

And a quick apple sketch… 

We visited a friend in Allentown last Saturday, so of course we hopped on over to Bethlehem for some goodies from Vegan Treats! I got the soft-serve swirl of pumpkin spice and cheesecake, and it was lovely! 

My praying mantis friend is still hanging around the garden… 

And I’m starting to harvest some pole beans, which is exciting!

On Sunday, Zach and I met up with my family at the Polish-American Festival at the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown. I hadn’t been there in a long time, so it was nice to go back again… 

We had lunch before the festival and there wasn’t much in the way of vegan food while we were there, so on the way home, we grabbed dinner at Wegmans… 

The raspberry white chocolate cheesecake I got from Vegan Treats was so good!

I made some spaghetti with spinach, tomatoes, and Gardein beefless ground…

I bought some fall goodies – cookies and Halloween candy – at Giant… 

Though my most exciting find was the Morningstar Farms popcorn chik’n! I knew to keep an eye out thanks to Sarah, and I was thrilled when I finally saw it! 

And some goodies from Kimberton… 

Of course I made myself some tater tots and popcorn chik’n with ketchup! The popcorn chik’n is really good and super fun! 

The little bunny is still hanging out in our yard; he kept me company while I worked on my garden on Tuesday… 

For a nice treat on Wednesday, I blended together the So Delicious vanilla ice cream and some Justin’s peanut butter cups to veganize what used to be my favorite thing to get at Dairy Queen – the Reese’s peanut butter cup blizzard! I liked my vegan version of it! 

I’ve finally pickled the last of my cucumbers… 

And here’s another cool picture taken in Phoenixville… 

To close today’s post, here’s sweet Rogue… 

Peace. :)

Catching Up After Vegan MoFo

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing well! I’ve set a goal for myself to write at least 400 words each day, Monday to Friday. I decided that blog posts can count toward that, so if you don’t see a post from me, you can assume I’m working on some other writing haha! So, first up today: I realized I never shared my food pictures from Phoenixville VegFest, so let’s remedy that, shall we? Zach got a ham sandwich with coconut bacon, as well as some cheese fries…

I got the loaded pierogies from the Vegan Voyagers food truck (super fun!)…

And Alena got the cheesesteak from VBQ…

Of course we stood in line for Vegan Treats; I got this cute chocolate cupcake with cream cheese filling (yum!)… 

And this funnel cake donut, which was amazing… 

In garden news, I’ve been making lots of pickles; here are the four jars I made in August… 

And here are some cute friends from the yard and garden…

On Saturday I went to the farmers market to pick up some apple cider from North Star Orchard for Zach, and I took this picture of one of my favorite murals in town… 

On Sunday, I went to Seed & Soil again, this time with my sister and her husband. For my drink, I got another watermelon lemonade, though I was curious about the cucumber mint limeade (new on the menu); perhaps I’ll have to try that next time! 

For food, I got the Beyond Italian sausage and also tried the garlic parmesan cauliflower wings (the other options are BBQ and buffalo). The sausage was so, so good, and I absolutely loved the pretzel roll it was served on! The cauliflower wings were really good, too; the garlic parmesan was a fun variation that I’d never had before! 

I also got to hang out some more with sweet Pola and Hobbs…

And finally, since other people have been sharing their fun grocery hauls, I figured I would share the goodies from my quick trip to Kimberton Whole Foods today… 

I’m hoping to get back into sketching this month, so some of those will hopefully make an appearance in future posts! I’ll still aim to try at least one new recipe a week, too; this week’s will be a rice salad with avocado dressing, a recipe my aunt clipped out for me!

Here is a silly Daisy, paused mid-groom… 

Peace. :)