Sunshine Juice, Purple Power Smoothie & Sunday's Brunch!

Happy Friday!  It's sunshiney in Portland today and I plan on getting outside and doing one of my favorite activities: wandering around my neighborhood, window shopping, & people watching.  I was so excited about this morning's beautiful weather that I went for a 7 mile run right when I woke up.  Then I made this juice:

It was sweet and delicious and perfect for after a long run.  I'm totally hooked on putting fennel in my juice right now.   It really compliments everything I've added it to, and this was no exception.  Yum! 

One of our breakfast smoothies this week was purple:

I got a tub of the Vega on sale and have been adding it to smoothies.  It's flavor is a little strong for my taste, but I've found that if I include peanut butter and berries I can tolerate it.  I do feel good after I use it, so I'm liking the nutrition it provides. 

Last Sunday my bf and I went to one of our favorite neighborhood cafes for breakfast:

He had a Thai waffle with peanut sauce and spiralized veggies on top.  I had the Hot Mess, sourdough with veggie chorizo and pesto tofu scrambled with jalapenos.  They were both fantastic and with bold flavors.  We love adventurous food! Perfect for a special Sunday treat. 

I have some studying to do this weekend, but if the weather keeps up like this I might have to squeeze in the book time after dark!  What are you doing this weekend?  Anything fun involving food? 

I Loved Fennel, Sweetie Peppers & Green Food This Week.

Good Sunday morning!  Sleeping in, playing with the cats and having some extra coffee time felt great today after much busy-ness.  Sweet bf even refilled my coffee while I was still in bed.  He's a keeper!  Work has been taking a little more of my energy because I'm learning a bunch of new stuff (thankfully there's always more to learn in my field!) and I'm studying for certification in my specialty.  I also turned our spare bedroom into an office.  And I was on call for 75 hours on top of my usual work schedule.  Hmmm, this explains sleeping 11 hours last night? 

I'm still on my green food kick.  Work food has been kale salad, carrots & tahini, and fruit:

I actually pack 2 kale salads because I'm at work for 12 hours.  I've been trying to have a green smoothie or juice before I leave the house in the morning.  The difference in my mood and energy level is noticeably better when I have my green drink.  Here are a few juices I made this week:

The addition of fennel was especially good!  For dinner one night I made a cheesey green pasta with some veggie noodles that we get at a Japanese market:

The noodles remind me of udon, but have extra veggies added in.  Of course I Americanized them by putting them in a creamy cheesey sauce with some sweetie peppers and sauteed onion.  The cheese sauce used We Can't Say It's Cheese Cheddar Spread, Daiya Mozzarella Shreds, tahini, lemon juice, salt & pepper, and almond milk.  It was quite a delicious comfort food treat.

And of course we had our favorite non-green food on pizza night:

Rosemary crust brushed with olive oil, red sauce, fresh basil leaves, sauteed fennel & mushrooms, Daiya shreds, and sweetie peppers from the olive bar.  I really love making pizza. 

I hope everyone's enjoying the weekend as much as I am.  See you next week :)

Kale, It's What's For Dinner. And Some Other Green Foods!

Tonight I didn't know what to make for dinner, so I put some kale in a big bowl and just went from there.

I added avocado, tahini and sea salt, then squished it all together.  Then (liberally) sprinkled on some hemp seeds, sunflower seeds and nutritional yeast.  Carrot sticks on the side for color and crunch.  This turned out to be a damn fine salad. 

Last night's lazy butt snack was this:

Avocado with sea salt, lemon pepper, and a few rice crackers.

And to round out the savory green eats, a sweet green smoothie with spinach, mango, banana, orange and almond milk.  In a turtle cup and a zombie cup, for him and me, in that order. 

I guess I'm on a green kick right now.  Which is a good thing.  I'm probably craving it because I was sick and need all the good nutrients and stuff.   Way to be spot on and let me crave the good stuff, body.  Well, it's working because I felt great with lots of energy today!

Oh, and happy Friday!  Weekend!  Woohoo!  Any fun weekend plans?

Lazy Sunday: Vegan Bakery Breakfast, Juice Cart, and A Sunny Walk.

Sundays are lazy days around here, often spent drinking coffee, playing with cats, and watching movies.  We also like to find yummy vegan breakfasts that don't make dirty dishes in our kitchen.  This morning we wandered over to Sweet Pea Bakery .

 

Sweet Pea is in the vegan mall in our neighborhood.  I know, we're totally spoiled.  Anyways, the bakery is in transition right now between their Sunday brunch buffet (RIP) and a new breakfast menu (see you next week?).   So, we didn't get the biscuits & gravy I was hoping for, but were perfectly content munching on toasted bagels with my favorite bacun scallion schmear.   Hmmm, where did that berry danish come from?

After breakfast and a little more relaxation I decided to partake in an activity I remember from months ago called "walking in sunshine".   For real.  Portland is lit up with sunny blue skies and it's 52 degrees.  Just what I needed to help me feel more alive after the week of the virus. 

 

I bundled up in sweater and scarf (still feeling a little sicky, I guess) and made my way to one of my favorite juice carts for a shot of wheatgrass and a big juice full of kale, apple, lemon, and ginger.  

Then I slowly made my way back home and sunk into the couch again.  The fresh air and sunshine felt great.  Hopefully by next weekend I'll feel up to taking a jog on one of my favorite hilly trails.  That would have been beautiful today.

Tahini Kale Pizza Is Tasty!

First of all I want to thank everyone for the well wishes yesterday.  This morning feels a little better and my brain fog seems to be lifting.  Yay.  Progress.

Last night my body still wasn't cooperating, but my mind was begging me to get off the couch.  Six days of rest was starting to give me a case of cabin fever.  So, I fired up the tea kettle and brewed a strong mug of gunpowder tea, with hopes for a little shimmer of energy.  Thankfully, my favorite hot green drink gave me just enough buzz to make it into the kitchen, clean up some of the dishes, and throw together a pizza for dinner.  Just a little change of scenery, for about an hour, seemed to help.

After rummaging through the produce drawers I decided to make tahini kale pizza with stuffed crust, sauteed mushrooms, avocado and daiya mozzarella shreds.
 

See the creamy, melty cheddar daiya inside the outer crust?  It really makes the last few bites of each piece a special treat.  This pizza was made with:

* rosemary pizza dough
* red sauce
* kale massaged with tahini sauce (tahini, lemon, garlic, water, salt)
* cremini mushrooms sauteed with olive oil, oregano, salt & pepper
* avocado
* daiya mozzarella shreds on top
* daiya cheddar shreds in the crust
* outer edge of crust brushed with olive oil before baking

Bake for 30 minutes at 425 degrees.  Try to be patient and let it cool before diving in or you'll burn the roof of your mouth off.  Unfortunately I have no patience when I have fresh home-made pizza in front of me.  But the pain was worth it.  The tahini gets cheesy when it's baked with the kale and the creamy avocado takes it to another level.

So, is everyone watching the game tomorrow?  I'm not that into sports, but I do look forward to watching Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet.  I also look forward to annoying anyone who happens to be around with, "oooooh... cuuuuute...puppies!... omg.... did you see that?!", every 30 seconds. 

Happy Saturday!

Sicky Eats

This has been an interesting week.  Being someone who is blessed with good health (aside from some issues stemming from allergies) it's not always easy to accept and deal with illness when it occasionally arrives.  I can handle a few days of the common cold, but for the last week I've been fighting a virus and it's turned me into a useless, wimpy, whiny pile of sleepy girl on the couch surrounded by cats, laptops, and piles of used tissues.  Gross, but let's keep it real.

 

Fresh ginger tea has been comforting and warming.  I'm drinking plenty of water and having green(ish) smoothies, too.

But this virus has been a real bugger and I finally broke down and went to the doctor.  It's been years since I've been to a traditional western doctor for anything except the yearly girly visit.  I haven't even had a primary care physician, because I haven't needed one.  I'm happy to report that I got lucky and was assigned to a young, new doctor that's totally supportive of my veggie ways and he's helping me to get over this hump of illness with no pressure to come and see him again unless I feel like I need to.   He said that I appear to be healthy and taking care of myself and he's there for me if the need arises.  Very cool.  

Hopefully I'll be feeling better by Monday.  I really want to get off the couch and back to work and feeling like myself again.  Oh yeah, I had some great oatmeal this week with bananas, sunflower seeds, pecans, cinnamon and maple syrup.  Really good sicky food:

Other sicky eats from the week have been spicy veggie pho, chocolate mint toffuti cuties, the most delicious tomato soup made by Tim, and a yummy recreation of bbq jackfruit sandwiches, also made by Tim.  He's been under the weather too, but handling it much better than I am. 

Happy Friday to all and I hope you have a great weekend! I'm looking forward to Puppy Bowl!