Hello, Hallo, Hola!

Surprise, surprise! Oh boy, where do I start? It’s been quite awhile, and I’ve got a lot to share. Everything starts from somewhere so I’ll just start with this…

The past couple of months have been hard for me. For awhile it seemed like all of the conveniences in my life started disappearing one by one. You know when you feel like everything in the world is falling out right from underneath you? That’s how I felt for awhile. But you know what? Over the years I’ve learned from my past demons that talking about how you feel is important. Say it out loud to a friend. That’s partly what they’re there for, and it’s wonderful! Yeah, everyone knows that someone out there in this world has it worse, but it doesn’t make things any better when you just want to vent. As cheesy as this sounds, I get by with a little help from my friends. I hesitated at first to share my burdens with my friends because I had been betrayed a couple times in the past by “best friends”. I think I’m at a point in my life though where I know to choose my friends wisely, and I definitely have. Time and time again my friends reassured me that they will be there for me, and that it’s okay. What a relief. I also reminded myself of the strength I have inside me, the blessings that will always be in my life, and the notion that life goes on. Whatever happens, happens.

Anyway, I know that was really vague, but I’ll talk about it more in my catching up posts.

A live update! With Matilda and some hot chocolate.

Now let’s rerererewind!

Awhile ago I had received a mysteriously large shipment…

Foodbuzz had offered to try out some loaves of Nature’s Pride OvenClassics recipe as part of their Tastemaker program. Oh all of the wonderful things I could use bread for!

Toast for breakfast, capital idea!

One slice of honey wheat with butter, and a slice of the oatmeal kind with mascarpone and honey (oh fancy!). Two thumbs up for both slices! Especially the buttered one.

Now in sandwich form.

The slices were a bit too big for my bean burger, but I didn’t mind. It still tasted good! Usually I go for bakery or sprouted breads, but there’s no comparison when it comes to buttered toast. This kind of bread is perfect for that!  And of course it’s good for other yummy things too. Now that I’m thinking about it… I wish I had made French toast with them!

Around that time I also made some vegan parsley pesto.

I’m not the biggest fan of parsley, but I had a bunch of it just sitting in my fridge. Things don’t go to waste when I’m around… not under my roof. That’s when I decided to make the pesto! Something I would surely like, and I wouldn’t be letting the parsley just wilt away. Pesto can be used for so many things! In sandwiches, as a pasta dressing, a dip for crackers, mixed with an aoli, or whatever else you can think of!

Looking good with some linguine, veggies, and grated pecorino!

Something else I like to make at home... hummus.

Not just ordinary hummus though. For a little kick I made it with some horseradish cream. If that’s your thing you should definitely try it. Just follow a basic hummus recipe, and add in the horseradish cream to your liking.

Spaghetti with a creamy mushroom sauce--more pasta please!

I finally got around to making this recipe that I’ve had my eye on, and I had all of the ingredients on hand. Fantastico!

Now let's hop on over to the opposite end of the taste spectrum!

Remember when I made those raw energy truffles? The ones that reminded me of those delicious Ferrero Rocher chocolates? Well I decided to make some using dates, Bellagio’s gourmet white chocolate cocoa mix, dried strawberries, pistachios, and cashews. Each time I popped one into my mouth I smiled and wished that it could last forever! So satisfying and sweet. Yum!

Perfect for a lady!

(for Halloween I was inspired by the art noveau illustrations by Alphonse Mucha)

And for all sorts of other characters! (from Halloween)

So with that I just want to let you all know that I am back in the swing of things, and I can blog again! There’s no way I would disappear on you guys for forever. Expect some flashbacks and other exciting surprises that I can’t wait to share with everybody. I’m so excited to click the post button! I haven’t done this in awhile! 1… 2… 3… AH!

The Apple of My Eye

Hello everybody! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and for those of you that celebrate Halloween, I hope it was spooky!

The celebration started early for me with a bowl of pumpkin oats!

I think this bowl was too small to contain this porridge of goodness! I sliced a banana, dried cranberries, drizzled on some ginger syrup, and sprinkled a bit of pumpkin pie spice. My big glob of cashew butter just started sinking into the delicious abyss!

Can you make out the face?

I roasted some kabocha and filled it with random things! I saw a can of white hominy which caught my attention because I remembered wanting to try it when I read about on Mitri’s blog. I am now a fan of the big kernels! Seriously, since blogging I have tried so many new foods and I love it. Okay so what’s in this random mishmosh? Cooked cannellini beans, red onions, quinoa macaroni shells, white hominy, pine nuts, parmesan, and salt. Really simple and yummy.

Spooky S'mores Z-bar

Ran a bunch of errands with my friend before the nighttime festivities commenced!

I got two new dishes from Crate & Barrel when I went on my search for tights. Funny thing, I never found the tights I was looking for! But I was a happy girl nonetheless.

My new casserole dish!

When I saw the casserole dish I knew it’d be perfect to fit some of my meals. I made another random mix of things inspired by pumpkin pasta. I had some leftover quinoa macaroni shells, red onions, cannellini beans, kabocha, all sautéed and cooked with a splash of white wine, sweet basil, salt and freshly cracked black peppercorns. Then I topped it off with some grated parmesan. As I was enjoying this random mix, I couldn’t help but think how much more satisfying it felt eating from my new casserole dish and it was all for me! I also felt like calling my mom and telling her what I was having for dinner because it was so good! But we mustn’t forget the beautiful avocado on the side! I’m so glad I saw these were on sale. Sometimes when I go grocery shopping I make squeals of excitement when I see a great deal. You can imagine when I saw the kabocha on sale as well!

I was Prince John from Disney's Robin Hood

Alas, it was too late for me to go trick-or-treating, but before I headed out for the night I took Matilda on a walk in my costume. Maybe someone would think I was awesome and give me candy! That’s what I love about Halloween. You see things that just don’t make sense! How often are you waiting in line behind Darth Vader to pay for a pack of gum ? I ended up going to a hip-hop/hyphy show with some friends. Afterwards there was a “rager”, but first we had to go through the downpour that was going on outside. At least my apartment was close to the party so I changed from my soaking wet costume into some glam-clothes, but I still kept my crown on of course! So I danced the rest of the night away into daylight savings time. My Halloween didn’t end till 6 in the morning and I ended up falling asleep to the old version of “The Hills Have Eyes”.

Now on to other matters. Since my giveaway has all of the Prana Bar flavors I think it’s only appropriate to give you all a review of these babies; which the people at Divine Foods generously sent to me. First for some background information from their site:

“Divine Foods believes that satisfying our taste buds with healthy food satisfies mind and body. Divine Foods manufacturing facility is free of wheat, cane sugar, GMO’s, meat, eggs and peanuts ensuring our products are gluten-free, soy-free and vegetarian.”

So this makes it a safe bet for many different food allergies!

Look at all the ingredients!

Apricot Pumpkin: It was kind of.. floppy? It tasted good and very dense. You can definitely tell there’s date paste – which is interesting and I liked that. I liked the chewiness. It’s also 75% raw – not 100% but if you follow a high-raw diet then I think these would be suitable.

Apricot Goji: The apricot flavor definitely isn’t as intense as the Apricot Pumpkin flavor. I’d say this has a nuttier flavor. This wasn’t also wasn’t as mushy as the other one, so that makes me think that maybe I had the other one sitting in the sun on my desk for too long.

Cashew Almond: Not my favorite, but I did like the texture. Seemed more solid than the others.

Pear Ginseng: I always confuse ginger with ginseng so I was expecting something else, but I was delightfully surprised. Definitely not too sweet, but has just enough sweetness to make you want to save it for last!

Apple Pie:  Whoa mama! This really tasted like a slice of apple pie! The cinnamon and apple flavors really shine through in this bar. Is something that tastes like this really suppose to give me energy? Heck yes!

Coconut Acai: I think this was my favorite! Actually, it definitely was. I could taste the coconut shreds combined with the sweetness from the date paste and agave – delicious!

I hope this review was hopeful for you all. If you are drawn to any of the names of the bars, then you’ll probably enjoy them. But say, for example, you don’t like apricots, you probably won’t like the apricot flavors. As for availability, I haven’t seen these in stores as much as other health bars, but you can always buy them online from their site – which also offers a mixed flavors box. I also have another exciting review coming up from their other product, Boomi Bar. So far I have been thoroughly impressed with all the Divine Foods products I’ve been lucky to try. And yes, I do consider myself lucky. Speaking of luck…

And now to announce the apple of my giveaway’s eye!

Drum roll please…

Virginia from The Hot Dog Battle!

Congrats m’lady. I’ll be e-mailing you today to get your package sent to you ASAP.

I hope you are all starting your week off on a positive note. This past weekend was full of rain and clouds, but at least Monday’s weather is much better! I’ll leave you all with a little quote that may cheer you up.

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”  – Theodore Roosevelt

Feeling Quite Ghoulish

In honor of one of my favorite holidays, Halloween, this is going to be a post full of spooky things and autumnal eats!

My first bowl of pumpkin oats!

I just mixed in pumpkin puree with oats, vanilla protein powder, dried cranberries, NuNaturals vanilla liquid, and pumpkin pie spice. Once that was done cooking I topped with with pecans, Butterfingers, and ginger syrup. Yum!

After I was done enjoying my bowl of pumpkin oats, I put on some spooky tights.

More pumpkin goodness.

So I was roasting some acorn squash while I took Matilda on a walk. When I got back I realized I hadn’t even plugged the toaster oven, so no acorn squash for lunch! I improvised and made a mess out of bulgur, sautéed onions and garlic, chickpeas, pumpkin pie spice, coconut oil, and pumpkin butter. Totally random but still yummy.

I actually roasted the acorn squash this time!

The only differences in this bulgur mix was the addition of raisins and subtraction of pumpkin. The acorn squash was baked with maple syrup, cinnamon, and butter.

The black hole!

Kind of like a cherry crumble.

I had a bowl of Nature’s Path vanilla almond granola with sweet dark cherries in warm soymilk.

Fall colors!

I tried a sample packet I got in Florida.

This is an all plant protein made by LifeTime. I tried the vanilla flavor and I was pleasantly surprised. I expected it to have a super “green” taste, but it didn’t at all and it was so yummy and thick. I tried it plain first, then I blended a banana after my taste-testing.

Lunch!

Lunch was delicious! I had a sweet potato with Artisana’s coconut butter a la Liz. Homegirl knows what’s up! This was incredible. I am going to have to get myself a full-size jar of this stuff. One the side I had a mound of wilted spinach and chickpeas cooked in a spicy tomato and cardamom cooking sauce. I dressed it up with some crushed cashews.

Dinner

This was incredibly delicious! I got the recipe from Molly Wizenberg’s blog, Orangette. The recipe? Warm Butternut and Chickpea Salad with Tahini! I used the last of the sample of tahini from Artisana. On the side I had a Japanese sweet potato with butter and 1/2 garlic powder (too lazy to saute garlic), the other 1/2 cinnamon. Japanese sweet potatoes are so delicious!

And here’s what I did with the last of my free white acorn squash…

I adapted my favorite Yummy Mummy, Cate’s white beans and Lebanese cous cous stuffed acorn squash recipe. Since I didn’t have cous cous on hand I just used bulgur.  The acorn squash was too small to fit all the stuffing so I just put th rest of it in a bowl and eventually made it an acorn squash delicious-mess.

Sweet potato and ricotta toasted sandwich.

I roasted some kabocha with cinnamon and maple syrup. Then I put some Artisana coconut butter on each wedge. In the back is some sweet potato with the coconut butter and a sprinkling of cinnamon as well. And my burnt toast? It’s a sweet potato and ricotta toasted sandwich! The original recipe calls for rye bread but I just used whole wheat since I don’t have rye bread. I also realized I forgot the spinach! Oh well! In the mug is a new tea I got: chocolate hazelnut!

Now on for some real Halloween frights! I had a reunion with an old friend of mine and he brought two other friends along. It was my first time meeting them but we had such a bonding experience! We went to a haunted hayride. Actually we visited three different attractions. We were chased by scary creatures with chainsaws, had to go through pitch black mazes while people and other things jumped out and surprised us. At some points we had to get down on our knees and crawl!

Driving to certain doom…

Down a dark and winding country road.

All smiles!

The place is actually a berry farm.

Nightmare numero uno

They took us on a really long hayride out to the woods in the middle of nowhere!

Oh yes he dared!

We’re like naive little baby chickens!

Still naive!

David is such an incredible person bursting with life!

The woods!

So we decided to take a break from being scared out of our minds and stopped for a photoshoot.

Hilarious!

He's such an actor!

I’m suppose to be the scary one, but I look terrified!

He was good at being creepy.

And Iman got to kiss one of the scary guys!

Moreover, don’t forget to enter my 101st Post Giveaway. You have until tomorrow noon time EST to enter!

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Halloween! I’m hoping to go trick-or-treating. I just have to remember to smile really big! And of course there’s a costume in store.

p.s. Make sure to check out Krissy’s glo-ing giveaway!

Putting it Out into the Universe

First thing’s first, my girl Nicole wrote up a super sweet award post about some very awesome bloggers out there. I was so happy and honored that she actually put me in the rankings! I definitely told my mom about it when I talked to her later that night. It really means a lot to me and like I said, Nicole I am so glad that we are friends. Big hugs to you!

This past Tuesday I ran some quick errands and I made a quick stop at Mrs. Marshall’s Carytown Cafe for their famous potato salad! The owner of the cafe, Frances Daniel, appeared on Bobby Flay’s throwdown not too long ago! The woman told me that it was a complete surprise to her. I guess the people on the show don’t disclose it to you until you’ve arrived; Frances thought she would just be a part of the regular audience.

Squirting on some of their secret recipe I presume.

Incredible! I don't know what's in it, but it's got a hint of creamy sweetness, and it may be better than my old babysitter's recipe from when I lived in Germany.

Have you hugged a carb today?

Ohh I busted out a special plate!

One side has the rotkohl I cooked with apples and raisins as well, and in the potato salad I mixed in a Tofurky kielbasa sausage. I told you guys I would! I actually read their serving suggestions and I got 2 out 4 covered in one meal. Hmm.. let’s see how else I ate the Tofurky kielbasa.

Sandwich form

Cranberry raisin swirl bread just seemed right for this sandwich. Inside is the Tofurky kielbasa, romaine, onion, relish, mustard, and horseradish hummus. M’mm good.

Oops it's a little dark!

I also incorporated the Tofurky kielbasa into a wrap! In this one I spread on some roasted red-pepper hummus, red onion, relish, romaine, the “kielbasa”, and some dried cranberries. It’s bothering me that I’m forgetting something else I put in there! Bottom point – this was also delish! Any suggestions on which Tofurky product I should try next, since they generously sent me some freebie coupons so I could do a review. By the way, I really recommend trying these sausages out! They’re so much heartier and flavorful than any other “veggiedog” I’ve tried.

Anyway, the other day I went to the bookstore and I was copying down recipes from this one book. Then I realized I was copying down so many of them. That’s about the time I decided that I just needed to buy the book!

"The Accidental Vegetarian" by Simon Rimmer

The cover reminded me of something I made a very long time ago with Haloumi cheese.

I remember there being a tagline on the packaging, "the cheese that doesn't melt, but grills"

Soon this table set-up will be making its appearance on my blog again in T-minus 5 days! I told my mom about all the interesting and super creative recipes this cookbook has; she made sure to tell me to bring it down to Florida when I visit. Actually, it was more of an order. I think someone’s a little excited about my cooking, don’t you think?

It has recipes like Sweet Potato and Pineapple Sandwich.

You should look up his recipes on www.bbc.co.uk. Simon Rimmer has a restaurant in Manchester; so if I’m ever in the area… I am – no questions asked – going! And I’m bringing my book too so he can sign it.

“The Accidental Vegetarian will kill the Jentil and sandal Image of vegetarianism forever!”

Later that day I had my friend Emily over for dinner before we went to the capoeira class. The class doesn’t start till 9 pm so we had plenty of time. We couldn’t decide on what to make, then I started thinking about what ingredients I had on hand. While I was walking Matilda I checked on my iPhone if there were any recipes that had the combination of pumpkin and red lentils. Indeed there was! So we decided on a vegan pumpkin and lentil curry recipe.

Almost all the ingredients.

Chopped cinnamon bark for the rice.

Tada! That knife looks so ominous!

Stir it girl!

Matilda thought she could be sneaky...

Pumpkin & lentil curry garnished with toasted almonds and served with cinnamon brown rice.

We talked about scary encounters we’ve had. I always love hearing people’s personal experiences with things of that nature. Sometimes it’ll make my eyes watery because I get kind of scared, but I love it! Ohhh the stories I could share! Maybe one day I’ll tell one of mine. That would be a fun idea actually… when Halloween gets nearer. I’ll make it worthwhile don’t worry! Speaking of Halloween, does anyone have any costume suggestions? I was thinking I’d be the Goblin King from Labyrinth. Last year I was “everyone you’ve ever known,” but people thought I was the princess from The Neverending Story.

I made the little headpiece in the back out of mirror shards (ouch?), and I randomly found the petticoat in a vintage/thrift store.

I remember as I was making the headpiece and breaking the little mirrors I kept thinking, “I’m going to have such bad luck now.”

On another note, my roommate has this thing shes does that she calls “putting it out into the universe.” Whatever she wants she just says it out loud. I think that act of getting it out of your head and saying those words brings you one step closer to making it a reality. So what am I going to put out into the universe? “I will book my flight to Europe before the month of October ends.” What do you want to put out into the universe?

XOXO

-Gossip Girl

(couldn’t resist!)