Moving to Wordpress

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have decided to move the blog to wordpress.

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Bacon and Babies

I have tried SO many wonderful food slately and I apologize for not sharing it with you. But I have had this several times and finally took the time to take a picture to show you.

Eggplant bacon, who knew. When I ate animal product I would have never know anything like this even existed. It took me a while to get it just right and tonight I think I perfected.
Tonight I decided to cut it up and put it on a salad The salad included: romaine, red pepper, broccoli, shredded carrots, eggplant bacon, onion and tofu.

The dressing was from the appetite for reduction. It contained: cashews, miso, water, lemon juice, soy, capers, shallots , salt and pepper. This is a wonderful dressing and I have used it quite a bit the last few days. Another favorite way I use the dressing is to top my brown rice, tofu and steamed kale all mixed together with the dressing. Oh so good!

The babies were born! It was last week when my son was here. He took a peak in the basket and pulled away quickly. It was quite a site to see since my son is a 6' 4" football player. After he knew they were born he took a peak out the window quite often. I enjoyed the experience with him.

It was much easier to take these pictures when they were younger. I have to admit I am terrified of birds and have not been brave enough to go out there and look. The mom and dad birds are quite protective.

I tried to take the dog out there with me and I wore a hood and sun glasses and still did not have success taking a picture today. But they are growing quite quickly.

I have learned a lot about the birds by reading online. Hard to believe that they will be out of the nest in little over a week. If I get brave and get a more recent picture I will definately post it.

I am going to be a Momma!

With a title like that I wish I had a way to know how many people had to open this to see what the heck was going on with me. No I am sorry to disappoint you that I am not pregnant nor is my daughter or anyone I know currently. Having said that. A few weeks ago to make the front porch look more inviting and have some curb appeal when selling the house we decided to fill our hanging basket with beautiful flowers. Little did we think that someone might like to use this for some thing else.
Can you see her in there. I had the zoom lens camera and was hoping to get a even closer shot of her but as I attempt to get closer with the zoom camera she was not liking it.

She is a very protective little mother. She is not happy when we are on the porch and I am not quite sure why she decided to pick the hanging basket closest to the front door but she did. As soon as she left the nest I could not resist taking a look. I could not quite see well and was afraid to get to close to the egg in the fear that my scent would cause her not to return to her eggs.

I just held the camera over the basket and clicked in the hopes that I would get a picture. It turned out fabulous. Aren't they most beautiful things you have seen.? Although it isn't really convenient having them there I am kind of excited awaiting the birth. I hope to be able to taking some pictures along the way.

Cupcake Anyone?

Happy Sunday Everyone! We had know showings on the house and I was kind of glad. Although I know that no showing means no interested lookers it was still nice the same.



I always like the weekends because I have more time in the morning to make a delicious breakfast. Anyone who has read my blog knows I love Carbo blueberry pancakes and it was calling my name this morning. I had no bananas and at first I panicked... I always have a mashed banana on my pancakes instead of syrup. What was girl to do? I am not always good at looking out of the box and most times I probably would have ran right to the store to get a banana but this morning was different. I looked in the refrigerator and saw that I had a few strawberries that needed to be eaten.. I had a great idea I would make a strawberry topping. I chopped up the strawberries add a little maple syrup and set it on the stove to cook. This is the result....

Chocolate and strawberries is one of my favorites and this did not disappoint. As you can tell I got my good camera back out today and had some fun taking pictures today. Of course I had to take a few pictures of this guy.

I have truly been feeling more like myself these last few weeks and this has include me back in the kitchen which I have truly enjoyed.

My husband had a tuna fish sandwich for lunch today and it got me thinking about a recipe in this book...

My mom had gotten me this book for Christmas and I have been enjoying making some recipes out of it. Todays lunch was Tuno Temph Sandwich. I had everything in the house and I had planned on making it last week but I have been trying to be good about eating left over before creating something new. Today was the day. I had cooked with Tempeh before but have never simmered it before using. This recipe had you simmer the Tempeh in vegetable stock for 25 minutes before using. I have read some where online that this helps reduce the bitterness that tempeh can some times have.

This recipe also called for Kelp powder which I have used before which helps give it a more fishy taste. I didn't quite get the fishy tase from this maybe I will use more kelp powder next time but none the less the sandwich was quite delicious.

And quite pretty. I had this with a side of carrots and cerlery with a dill dipping sauce that also came from the book. I nice satisfying lunch.

I have had sweets on my mind for quite some times and have to admit they scare the heck out of me. But now that I am trying to find peace in my life I have to come to terms with the fact that it is ok to sweets once and awhile and to avoid it would be cruel and just not living. So I decided instead of making a cake that I would make cupcakes, mini cakes. I saw that abby had posted a recipe for Vegan cupcakes and I knew I had to have them.

So we went grocery shopping and I got everything I need to create Snickerdoodle Vegan Cupcakes and this....

I love Basil and have always had a lot of luck growing it. I have wanted to grow a garden so bad this year and have to admit I am truly disappointed that it won't happen this years with selling the house. So I decided to do the next best thing and will be making several pots full of veggies. The basil will be the start of a pot that I will have full of herbs. I am thinking of cilantro, dill, parsley, chive and thyme.

Ok back to cupcakes.

The only real changes I made to Abbys recipe is that I replace the 1/3 cup of oil and used Apple Sauce instead and I use 1/4 cup of whole wheat pastry flour instead of all the flour being all-purpose flour. It was fun making the cinnamon and brown sugar swirl.

The smell that camesfrom these cooking in the oven was heaven. I have waited way to long to enjoy a litte of heaven. While the cupcakes cooled hubby and I took the dog for a walk. It wasn't as warm as yesterday and no sun. But it didn't rain and I enjoy all the time I can while hubby is home. Abby had a recipe for frosting but I just didn't want to have shortening in my frosting so I started to search blogs for another solution. And who else would provide me with that but my most favorite Vegan blogger of all: Oh She Glows

I made the Fluffy Almond Butter Cream Frosting

I wish I would have had a different tip to frost the cupcakes but I still think they turned out quite cute. I sprinkled the top with a little cinnamon and sugar mixture. I haven't tried the cupcake yet but I will say the frosting is cute good and I had a little too much of that. But life is worth living from time to time and the frosting was definately a part of it. I will have the cupcake as my after dinner treat. Hope you enjoy the pictures today.

Peace

Who said Vegan eating is boring? I have been SO enjoying my food and have really become to have peace around it. I finally just decided that my eating can be about what works for "ME" I can eat well and stay healthy and maybe, maybe losing a little but if I don't I know that I am perfect just the way I am.

I made this the other night and it was quite delicious. It was called cheezy macaroni with a side of broccoli. My new way of eating is to just make sure that I get a protein, carb and veggie with my lunch and dinner. This covered all bases.

I also bought Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and will like to feature of some of the recipes that I have tried. I had one tonight and hope to let you know how it was very soon.

I also have to start taking pictures with the better camera lately I have been just a little lazy to get it out and use it but the pictures aren't the same with out it.

Thank you for all who read and that you have been patient with me while I have begin to have peace in who I am.

Waiting is the "HARDEST" part

For some reason I thought that actually putting the house for sale would be the hardest part but I have to know believe that the waiting is. I some how feel like my life is on hold.
The house has to be picked up at all times and how do you really make any long term plans? I have been investigating taking a Nursing Refresher Course and they have one that starts up in August in Illinois. Just not sure where we will be in August. The big dilema is do I sign up for it anyway? I looked at Google and to drive to the school from wisconsin would be a little over an hour which I guess isn't too bad. The classes are only two days a week and only last until December. So at the moment I am leaning on just signing up and seeing what happens.
We have had about eight showing since putting the house for sale and have another one schedule for this week. So considering how the house market has been I find that very positive. Unfortunately, we haven't find the right family for our home or they haven't found our home.
I continue to try to stay postive and look forward to the day that my husband and I will be back to a normal life together.

For Sale!

It is official the house went up for sale on Wednesday. I have so many emotions going through my mind these last few weeks and that is probably why I have been so absent from my blog. But there are so many wonderful supporting women in the blog world I need to be here for support. This is by far the room that I will miss the most. It is perfect! Why is it that you don't realize how wonderful things are until you have to leave them? Although there are thing I don't like about the house it has been our home for 15 years and it is where my children grew up. I know it is only a house and the memorize will go with me it is still tough. We have no idea how speedy of a sale we will have so we haven't given a whole lot of thought where we go once it sells. This may come back to bite us. Once we get back from my son's spring football game I think we will start looking. We haven't yet decided if we will buy another house or rent for now. For some reason renting seems more appealing at the moment. This will give us time to feel out the area we choose and give it a lot of thought in exactly what we want in a house next time around. We have done a lot of decluttering and getting rid of a lot of "stuff" and I hope to continue weeding out so that when it comes to moving time it won't be quite as bad. You have to remember we lived in this house for 15 years we have gathered a LOT of "stuff" (shit). I went and had a one hour session with Dawn Jackson Blatner yesterday and I have a new course of action on how I want to live my life around food. I am excited to begin to implementing so of this stuff and see where it takes me. I have come to realize that I have lost focus on the ability that I can do this any way "I" want and there is no right or wrong way. I have to continue to believe that I can do this all by myself with a little guidance from time to time. We have three showing today and am not sure what to think. But the house is clean and now we have to figure out what we are going to do for several hours with a 100 pound dog in tow. Could make for and interesting day. Hope everyone is well and I will continue to keep you update day on the progress here.