It’s that time of year already, my birthday. Well, not until early next week, but I’m taking a couple of days off work to make it a long celebration weekend. And the weekend started off nicely when I came home to these gorgeous roses from hubby.
Then we headed out to The Chef’s Table for a fancy dinner out. There is typically not a lot of vegan options on their menu, or any at all in this case.
But they’ve never had a problem doing a custom vegan dish since there are talented chefs whipping up plates at the bar. And last night it was a lovely vegan risotto with local tomatoes and mushrooms.
A beautifully colorful and light dish with a delicate drizzle of oil and baby greens.
It’s been a lazy and relaxing day here today which has been nice after a crazy work week, Miko has been getting lots of tickles.
We had a nicely long workout at the gym this morning and I was craving something hearty for lunch after hitting all the weight machines and made a huge kale, tempeh, and hemp seed salad for lunch.
After lunch we ran boring errands to PetSmart and Target before ending up at Whole Foods to grab some fun dinner ingredients. Since it’s my celebration weekend, I grabbed a splurge snack food – Earth Balance Vegan Cheddar Squares. This is a total splurge food that I would rarely by, but it’s a special occasion and curiosity got the best of me after seeing many people gush about these online.
These are the vegan equivalent to a certain popular snack food that I haven’t had in ages, so long that I wouldn’t remember what they tasted like. But the crackers look a lot like them.
And they’re darn tasty! Very cheddar like with a hearty toasted crunch. Maybe just a tad greasy, but that’s okay for an occasional snack treat, right?
For dinner I re-mixed my kale salad leftovers with a new dressing recipe that I scratched down on a whim because I was craving fresh ginger and translated that into a dressing using the ingredients we had.
Raisin Ginger Dressing
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup shelled hemp seeds
- 1″ thick chunk of fresh ginger
- 1 small clove of garlic
- 2 tbsp. lemon juice
- 2 tbsp. tamari
- 1/4 cup of water
Place all ingredients into a high speed blender and blend to a smooth and creamy texture. Makes 4 servings.
The texture of the dressing is thick and creamy, perfect for coating.
And the flavor is wonderfully fun with a sweet and savory gingery garlic kick, great for balancing the stronger texture and flavor of raw kale.
Hubby also created a fun vegan plate for dinner, he made his own vegan cheddar jalapeno burger with onion rings using Daiya Vegan Cheddar Slices and a Boca Vegan burger.
A plate that’s guaranteed to appeal to many guys, right?
Nice eats! Happy Birthday Early!!!!!! I have been seeing those crackers online but haven’t seen them locally yet and have been wondering how they were! Sound GOOD to me :)
I was just here writing in my kitchen after making some Hemp Milk in my Vitamix and thought I would hop over to see what you were up to :) Back to work tomorrow – for me anyway – sigh – enjoy your few days off!!!!
Thanks! It took awhile for our local Whole Foods to keep the crackers in stock, they were gone every time I checked and once the last box was snipped before I could get to that section of the isle! LOL! But the hype seems to be settling down, so hopefully you’ll see them soon.
Getting a few days off is nice, I’m taking mini vacations here and there this year since we’re not taking any huge trips – I need to find a dog sitter for Skipper which is a challenge with his insulin needs.