Catching up.

Before I begin, I had to post this picture of my dog.

This is his favorite spot, on the bed right in between my boyfriend and I. We have very few pictures of him looking so sweet :)

Being sick and being out of town the weekend before last really set me back in the food prep department. Eating the way that I prefer (healthy, whole ingredients, inexpensive) requires a time commitment. I usually prepare several foods over the weekend to have throughout the week then eat fruits, vegetables, and shakes along with whatever I made. Not only is it a problem because when I don't prepare I have limited food options, but my precious produce starts to go bad!

When I got back from the farmers market, I realized that I still had veggies from the farmers market in Encinitas I bought the week earlier. I pulled everything out of my refrigerator, went through it, washed it in an apple cider water mixture then let everything dry.

It felt good to lovingly wash my veggies. I've been battling a bit of depression since early January, and this was a calming and centering experience. I find I need to hold onto and act out my Self (values, desires, things I enjoy etc.) in order to find my footing. Going to the farmers market also feels wonderful energetically, and I feel that the food I buy there carries a higher vibrational frequency. There's more love involved when you buy food from the grower.

While the produce dried, I made several dishes, to be eaten together or separately. The first was a fresh and colorful tomato salad.

Tomato Salad

2-3 tomatoes diced (I prefer heirloom)

1/4-1/2 cup red onion diced (I added 1/2 cup, but it was very oniony!)

1/2 cup celery chopped

4 tbsp fresh parsley chopped

1 scallion chopped

1-2 garlic cloves minced

Trader Joe's lemon pepper to taste (or juice of one lemon with salt and pepper to taste)

I mixed everything together and ate in lettuce, tortillas, and as a side to my curried split peas. My boyfriend mixed the rest with tuna salad the next day, he said it was delicious! I love Trader Joe's lemon pepper, it is very different from regular lemon pepper! It's sea salt, pepper corns, and dried lemon zest in a pepper grinder so everything tastes fresh. My one complaint is that it's a bit salty, I wish I had more control of how much salt went in with the pepper and lemon zest. But beyond that, I love it. I use lemon juice and zest in almost everything and this is a simple way to get the lemony flavor without the lemon overpowering what ever dish I happen to be making. I also used it in the curried split peas and veggie rice I made for dinner.

I don't have a recipe for the curried split peas, toward the end I was having trouble getting the flavor I wanted and just kept adding seasoning until it worked. It contained split peas, carrots, celery, potatoes, curry powder, paprika, Trader Joe's lemon pepper, and lemon juice.

Here's my friend Patrick enjoying the vegan feast :)

The veggie rice contained Trader Joe's brown rice medley, lemon pepper, 1/2 red onion, broccoli, and garlic. We ate everything with Trader Joe's tortillas and it was fabulous. I prefer not to buy pre-made food, but when I want it, Trader Joe's really comes through!

For breakfast that morning I made a carrot apple smoothie. I can't believe I hadn't done this until then! Carrot apple juice is my favorite! This one has 4 small carrots, 1 apple, and about 2 cups of water blended until smooth.

Last night I was craving something sweet but wanted to stay healthy, so I made superfood mud pies.

Superfood Mud Pies

1 1/2 cups shredded coconut

1/2 cup cashew meal

1/2 cup almond meal

5 tbsp ground flax seeds (you could only use 2 tbsp, I had a dream about flax seeds so I think some one's telling me I need extra aminos!)

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp Trader Joe's Super Green Drink Powder

1-2 tbsp spirulina (I used two, and you can taste it!)

2 tbsp maca powder

5 tbsp cacao

1 tsp vanilla ground vanilla beans

1/3 cup maple syrup

I mixed everything except the maple syrup until well blended then stirred in the maple syrup and formed the batter into quarter sized balls. I think they taste best after being chilled in the freezer, but you can eat them right away! Of course all the powders are optional, just make sure to subtract some of the maple syrup so the batter doesn't get too soft. These go great with a green smoothie!

Also over the weekend, I wove a hair wrap into my hair using yarn my mom spun and dyed. You can kind of see it here.

And more here. It's still a work in progress, I need to buy some better beads before I'm truly happy with it.

I keep forgetting to mention this, but I want to say thank you to everyone out there blogging about raw, vegan, and healthy food, especially those who have been kind enough to visit and comment on my blog. My friends are all very open to different food, but I don't have any vegan friends and I so appreciate having a community of people I can relate to, draw from, share ideas with, and inspire me. These blogs are such an amazing resource, I feel blessed to be here. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Peace & Love,

Tess