Changing it up

I hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend, I am and getting some stuff done. Actually I’ve been a bit bored this weekend, which isn’t a bad thing after all the holiday excitement. Coming down from all the food prep excitement and retail over stimulation left me feeling a little blah yesterday. It didn’t help that hubby was sick and the weather was chilly and rainy. Because we’re crazy and needed a change of scenery, my mom and I ventured to the mall for a retail therapy. Well, hardly, I bought an ornament for an upcoming holiday party and Christmas gifts for family. Yes, it was crowded, but somehow I nabbed a parking spot in the front right away which set a relaxed feeling for the rest if the shopping trip. For me, if parking alone was a stressful, nerve-racking event, it can make me edgy for the rest of the trip. This time I went preparing myself for the worst parking possible, but got the best.

I was craving something different for breakfast and broke out a can that had been sitting in my pantry way too long.

After cooking a serving, I mixed in a little hemp milk, cacao powder and stevia with the oatmeal for hot chocolate joy that was a nice vacation from my usual smoothies for breakfast. On week mornings, I definitely do not have 30 minutes to spare for cooking oatmeal, but it’s sometimes nice on a relaxed weekend morning.

Since we were a little Thanksgiving’d out, we headed to an Asian buffet for lunch where I never have a problem making a high-raw vegan plate.

I love the bright, vibrant colors, especially compared to other sad plates loaded with fried, mystery blobs. As crazy as buffets can be, I get a kick out of seeing what everyone picks when they have access to all types of food. Sesame seaweed salad is one of my favorites, I could eat a couple of plates of that alone and not get tired of it.

For dinner, I had leftover pumpkin chili from Thanksgiving to get creative with and grabbed spinach and Pasta Slim noodles.

After rinsing the noodles, I threw them into a skillet with a little olive oil, then layered spinach and chili on top to saute together.

I mixed in some fresh chopped tomatoes and maybe a little hot sauce for a pretty tasty creation.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the rest of the chili tonight.

Apparently Billy Bob Thornton has been an off and on follower of a raw diet and he has just wonderful things to say about it:

“I mean I don’t have anything against butchering cows, it’s not a moral thing. It’s just a health thing. It allows me to do things I wanna do so I eat really healthy and it balances out the other things I like to do, like smoke.”

Yeah, eating raw to balance out his smoking habit? I don’t think it works that way and maybe he should reanalyze his health priorities! Funny how my curiosity into the raw diet started out for better health, but I’ve developed more reasons to skip meat and stick to a vegan diet as the journey progressed. Oh, and:

“It really doesn’t bother me to be around people with actual food. Everybody else in the family will have the regular meal, turkey, stuffing.”

Raw food is not actual food? Whew, not exactly a positive view of the diet or positive message about it. Pfffft!