Good morning and happy Sunday! It’s been a busy, but productive weekend here so far. We spent a couple of hours sterilizing the house and catching up on chores after a busy week and poor hubby being sick. But feels great to have that under control and I have a huge load in the garage now to drop off for donations. I cleaned up and minimized the pet bed situation in front of the fireplace because it was getting a little crazy with blankets and the chihuahuas are starting to use their cozy cave beds finally!
Leela is still off and on pouting at me for not having a chaotic pile of blankets to burrow into, but I hope they’ll get used to this since the weather is warming up.
Sweet Miko has been a little lap buddy with hubby this week.
Chilling with him while playing games and relaxing.
And I’m back to morning smoothies this week after splurging on vegan french toast for Easter and getting creative with how much good stuff I can add in to start the day. I’ve been enjoying adding Spiral Spring’s Choco Spring powder with spirulina, it adds a nice protein and nutrient boast with a fun chocolate flavor.
The powder has a slightly sweet chocolaty flavor and helps thicken smoothies too.
I’ve also been saving raw broccoli stalk in a veggie scrap container in the fridge to add to smoothies, it’s loaded with fiber and nutrients too and undetectable when blended with frozen banana and flavored plant-based protein powder.
Of course kale! What smoothie is complete without kale? And these cute little leaves came from our AeroGarden in the kitchen.
After adding all that green stuff to the smoothie, one quarter of a small, raw red beet turned it a vibrant pink color. So pretty!
We had an office lunch party this week that Round Table pizza was ordered for, a horrible choice for vegans or anyone with dairy allergies since they put milk in all their dough making getting a vegan pizza impossible. I was told the day before they could order a salad for me and visioned a pile of iceberg lettuce with flavorless, over chilled GMO tomatoes and decided to pack my own lunch for the party.
I was a little annoyed and insulted by this because there are so many great local pizza places that offer quality vegan options – why this horrible choice? Well because it’s cheap and the limited quality of the food shows it! I wasn’t the only one burned, a couple of gluten-free co-workers also had to pack their own lunch too because Round Table does not offer a gluten free option either! And the pizza that was delivered looked awful, too much greasy crust, cheese, and meat – I don’t think I saw green on any of the pizzas. I kept thinking of Dr. Greger’s analogy if hitting your health with a hammer at every meal as I watched co-workers load up multiple plates of it. I decided to not be insulted knowing that’s a free lunch that will cost more down the road.
We also played board games for a team building break from work and I got into an engaging game of Redneck Life.
Basically like the game of Life with a redneck theme that lands you with missing teeth, too many kids, multiple divorces, and massive dept at the end. The player with the most teeth left at the end wins and it wasn’t me.
It was a crazy week at work and being on call for work, so my eats were a little interesting. Like this veggie miso soup using Explore Asian Protein Soybean Spaghetti and broccoli and carrots hurried chopped in the simple pull chopper.
I used leftovers from that dish poured over simple steamed broccoli for dinner another night.
Simple salad with avocado ginger apple cider vinegar dressing whipped up in the Vitamix.
Another simple salad dressed with balsamic vinegar and nutritional yeast.
Thai tofu green curry with eggplant from our favorite local Thai restaurant.
And finally this lentil quinoa dish I simmered in a wok with chopped cabbage, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and broccoli seasoned with miso paste, curry powder, cilantro, and a dash of cayenne.
The weather is perfect today and I’m looking forward to a scenic and hilly tapered long run on a pretty trail to decompress from the crazy week and maybe some more yard work. But first the list!
I would like to see someone ask this couple where they get their protein.
Texas Rangers concessions serving up vegan options.
This oil free vegan cake looks amazing.
Here are 9 fun vegan mac n’ cheese recipes.
Quick vegan recipes for busy weeks.
Inspiration for high protein satisfying vegan smoothies.
That cave dog bed is too cool! Also love your idea for saving broccoli stalks for smoothies! So smart.
Thanks, it’s taken them awhile to use them, lol! I trying to get better about not wasting edible parts of fruits and veggies, next I want to try adding organic banana peals to smoothies!
You dogs look so cute in those beds! I just had to buy my dogs a few new beds themselves and finally took them to the vet to have a professional cut their nails after hitting the quick myself when I tried! My efforts were in vain. Oh well. I love dropping stuff off to the donation center and clearing out to – so refreshing!
Thanks and I need to take mine in more for nail trimmings since it’s tough to trim them myself! And agreed on donations, the pile continues to grow in the garage.
Those beds are great. My Gizmo would love one, but not Coco, she’s a lap and blanket dog.
My husband has that workplace lunch issue all of the time. He’s been known to make a lettuce and tomato sandwich because no one thought to order a vegetarian meal.
It can be so frustrating when there are so many other good options available! But I had to suck it up and look happy eating my salad and not be a pouty vegan. :-)
Nothing drive me more nuts than when traditionally vegan food is made non-vegan! Like why add sour cream to guac? Or cheese to hummus? Or put cheese in a red sauce when people can just sprinkle it on afterwards! So frustrating!
Agreed! Such a great, plant based dish ruined! Only one type of dough with milk and gluten?! Why?!
This is awesome! I also have a bag of that Choco Spring powder and wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. I don’t make nearly enough smoothies so I’ll have to take your lead here.
It’s great for smoothies, especially chocolate banana ones!
My whole living room is covered in blankets and pet beds for the pups. It’s kind of crazy. I should think about clearing some of it out too. Leela and Miko look so cute in their beds.
Your food looks great again this week. I keep forgetting to take pics of my food to do posts on it too.
Great idea about putting in the broccoli to your smoothie. I’m going to try that!
Ours was too and they get dragged all over the house.
Thanks, the broccoli stalk is fine blended with banana and flavored protein powders.
LOVE the new furkid beds! Food looks awesome as usual! The smoothie has a great color, too!
Thanks, poor Leela is still pouting about the blanket situation, we gave her one back last night to burrow into which she promptly moved off the bed and pouted again about it, lol!