Zucchini Cake, Packed Lunch, and SuTao!

Hi everyone! I made my first chocolate zucchini cake of the year, and I’ve already finished it off, so I’ll be making another later today! 

I packed lunch for working at the pantry on Thursday… 

Salad with cherry tomatoes, sunflower seeds, crispy onions, and Daiya ranch, plus a grilled cheese!

And more SuTao takeout! 

Here are some pictures of the animals I saw on my early morning walk yesterday…   

A blurry hawk

I saw the little bun from the first picture again on my walk back

And Daisy saw a squirrel! 

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. :)

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. :)

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Last week, our neighbor came over to trim back his hedges that had grown over onto our side and also trimmed some of our bushes nicely, so to thank him, I decided to bake him a chocolate zucchini cake. I used this recipe, leaving out only the chocolate chips and the raisins/cranberries. 

It turned out really well (I got to try it when he invited us in to have some with him, haha!), and so the next day, I made another one for myself, baking it for only 35 min this time to keep it a little more moist. Delicious, delicious! 

In other news, look what came in the mail yesterday...

...it's my proof of the book I am self-publishing about Mystery! I've already torn through the first 20 pages with my red pen, and I'm going to work more on editing it again today; I'm so excited!

Here's Leela in her box-fort from Alena... 

...and Buttons hanging out at the base of the fan. 

P.S. The Chester County Vegan Festival takes place TOMORROW (Saturday, August 8) from 12-4 p.m. at Hoopes Park in West Chester, PA. If it's anything like last year's, it will be awesome for sure!

Peace. :)