Easy Meals and Soft Serve!

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing well! I had a lot of easy meals this week, so I’ll share some of them here! First up is the Loma Linda Pad Thai, which was good, but really spicy! 

Then I tried Gardein’s chick’n & rice soup; I really enjoyed it!

Another salad with cucumbers and cherry tomatoes from my garden… 

And finally, the Loma Linda Italian Bolognese, which was still rather spicy, but a bit less so than the Chipotle Bowl or Pad Thai, lol! 

And today’s fun treat was speculoos and chocolate marshmallow soft serve ice cream from Vegan Treats! It was so good, but was melting really fast, so I had to hurry and eat it before it overflowed the cup! 

On the drive home, we passed by parts of the old Bethlehem Steel plant; these are the quick pics I was able to get… 

Here’s a recent garden harvest… 

A little friend… 

And Rogue in her “I don’t have time for pictures” pose… 

Peace. :)

Good Food and Cute Animals

Hi everyone! I had lots of good food this week, and here are the highlights: I did another batch of the delicious spinach and feta pinwheels from Long Island Vegan and had them with spaghetti… 

I made a tofu scramble and added in a hash brown mix (diced potatoes, onions, and peppers) and had that with some fun zucchini pancakes (from My cat loves Daiya!)… 

I threw together some mac & cheese & tomatoes… 

And had more zucchini pancakes, this time with Boca chik’n, tater tots, and homemade pickles! 

And now for the cute animals, the first picture is a sketch I did this week… 

The little bun hangs out under the hedge while I water the garden… 

The praying mantis continues to guard my pole beans… 

And finally, here’s a sleepy Cringer… 

Peace. :)

Avocado Pasta

Hello on the 5th day of the Vegan Month of Food!  For dinner last night, I made some avocado pasta, using this 15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta recipe from Oh She Glows.  My modifications included leaving out the lemon juice/lemon zest, using garlic salt instead of garlic cloves and salt, only using 1 T olive oil instead of 2, and only using a sprinkle of basil (along with the pepper) as a garnish.

Avocado Pasta

 

While the pasta (spaghetti) was boiling, I turned to the last of my two avocados.  

I figured why bother using a food processor when it was so easy to just mash up the first avocado with a fork for the guacamole the other day, so I did the same this time around.  Once it was all mashed up, I added about 1/2 tsp garlic salt and 1 T olive oil, and stirred it up well.  

Next, I strained the pasta and plopped it into the bowl, mixing it in well with the avocado sauce.  For my plate, I sprinkled a bit of basil and pepper on top of the pasta and dug in.  

Overall, I liked the way it came out.  It was definitely very filling, but I'm not used to such creamy textures with pasta.  My mom tried some of the pasta (without the basil and pepper, but with added garlic salt) and enjoyed it, so I'll probably make it again.  My dad was a bit skeptical of the green pasta, but he tried it anyway.

After dinner, I noticed a gigantic praying mantis outside the house.  I snapped some photos before my dad, Uncle Mark, Zach, and I headed out to play some disc golf.  Looking over these pictures now, I definitely think this was a zombie praying mantis.  O_O

At the disc golf course (9 holes), we did two rounds, and I finished last in both of them (+8 and +10), but that's really no surprise since I prefer to play for fun and am known to often give dramatic flourishes--instead of always focusing on accuracy--as I throw the disc, especially when I get closer to the basket.  It was a good time, though, and the course was pretty crowded by the time we headed out, probably because of how nice the weather was.  Yay for fall!  :)  

Uncle Mark and I talked a lot this morning about different healthy foods we like and had a good conversation about the many problems with milk, not just health-wise (the hormones in milk, lactose intolerance, etc.) but also the ethical/moral issues.  He says he wants to stop drinking milk, so I told him about all the different types of plant "milks" (soy, almond, coconut, rice, etc.) he can try in place of cow's milk.

And some cute pictures to bring this Friday post to a close...

Mr. Boogie being adventurous and curious...

...and posing for the camera.

Peace.  :)