So I'm sitting here, "patiently" waiting for the chili which I've been making all day to be done, knowing full-well that it won't be at its best until tomorrow anyway, but wanting the best NOW NOW NOW because I'm hungry!

It's 7pm and I'm a wee bit peckish.  I don't want to eat a different dinner--that would be silly.  So what's a person to do?  I mean really--starve?

Well no, thankfully!  What I've done, is whip together a healthy and delicious chocolate smoothie.

It's called OMG I'm So Hungry I Could Eat a Horse I Need Sustenance to Tide Me Over Until Dinner...smoothie.


Hungry Girl's Smoothie (for short)

1 ripe banana
1 handful baby spinach
3 honey dates
3 tbsp cacao powder
1 tsp dark cocoa powder
1 tbsp coconut oil (preferably raw)
1-2 cups rice milk

Blend!

Don't mind how it looks kind of separated in the pic--it's not, I just couldn't be bothered to super blend it, so that's the cacao powder.  I'M HUNGRY!!!!

Did you know that many of the "fruit and vegetable washes" on the market today are actually full of chemicals?  Doesn't that seems strange?  Why wash your produce to get rid of sprays (and bugs, dirt etc) only to put more on?

HUH?  That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Plus you're paying money for it.  That makes even less sense!

The solution?  A vinegar and water soak!  1/4 to 1/2 a cup of white vinegar (depending on the size of the bowl you're using, or if you are soaking a lot of produce, and want to use the kitchen sink (cleaned first of course), then it's around 1 cup.

Then you just soak for around 20 minutes or so, giving it a stir once or twice to make sure to get anything that might be floating.  After that, just rinse, and you're done!

You can also use the vinegar soak for things like strawberries.  You know how strawberries often develop mould on them, even if you've only had them for a couple of days, and you've been keeping them in the fridge?  Don't you just HATE that?!  Well the vinegar soak will kill and remove the majority of the mould spores which are already on the strawberries you just bought at the market today (but you can't see them).  They should last much longer than they would have otherwise.

JUST BE SURE TO LAY THEM OUT ON A CLEAN DISHCLOTH AN ALLOW THEM TO COMPLETELY DRY (TURNING THEM ONCE) BEFORE PUTTING THEM IN A CONTAINER AND THEN IN THE FRIDGE.

The vinegar and water soak will remove much of the wax/pesticides/critters/dirt which are always on your farmer's market finds, and it's very inexpensive.  Plus it takes little effort!  Can't beat that right?!

Here's my morning snack today (having a late lunch--around 230pm!  Good Lord I'd DIE if I didn't have a snack! LOL

I just soak, rinse, chop, and voila!  Fresh healthy fruit salad!

               

    

This year, my sister and I decided to plant our first organic food garden.  We had to rein ourselves (and our enthusiasm!) in on what we wanted to plant, owing to space and the fact that we're almost total newbies.  You can follow her blog here: Lemon Twist Vegan Girl.

It was her and her husband's idea, actually.  They have gone vegan and vegetarian respectively, and are now going through a tonne of veggies!  How to afford tonnes of organic veggies?  Seems simple to me--plant a food garden!

We wanted to plant stuff we'd eat a lot of, but not so many varieties that we wouldn't have enough of any one thing for actual meals.  So we planted romaine lettuce, green/spring onions, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, zucchini, green beans, spinach, butter crunch lettuce, mescalin mix, peppers and peas, and then in the herb garden cilantro, parsley, dill, 3 types of basil and chives.  There's only so much space in the boxes, so we're going to utilize all available space...by also planting veggies an herbs in hanging baskets!  LOL  Hanging baskets of salad!

This is what it looks like right now:

But one day I hope to have something like this!!

Amazing!!

We're calling ourselves Urban Farmer Gals (UFG...like UFC!! LOL!!).  UFG Unite!!

I was at my sister's place last week for a good part of the day, planting our new food garden (post to come).  For lunch, she made us an awesome veggie skillet (she's a transitioning vegan) which looked pretty easy, and was OM NOM NOM tasty, so I decided to give it a try.

I used chopped carrots, celery, turnip, mushrooms, onion, peppers, a bit of fresh chopped parsley, and added an egg on top.  I was afraid that it wouldn't fill me up without the egg (my sister used some potato too), but next time I won't bother with it--a bowl of the veggies was quite filling!!

Directions:

Chop all veggies.  Sautee in a skillet over medium heat (with either a spritz of olive oil or just water) the harder veggies like the carrots etc, along with the onion.  When cooked about halfway, add the soft ingredients, and sautee until just softened--you don't want them to be smooshy.  Add seasonings like garlic (fresh or dried), onion powder or granules, paprika, etc.  I added Vegeta (you only need a wee sprinkle), the non-msg version.  Fry the egg quickly if you're using it, and add it to the veggies.

It sounds so simple, but it's delicious and VERY filling!!  AND SO GOOD FOR YOU!!

Pizza day was last night again, and I made the following pizza:

Thin whole-grain spelt crust, pesto sauce, bit of mozzarella, blue, and goat cheese, sliced pear, and walnuts.  Sounds weird, but was AMAZING!!!