VEGAN MOFO and stuff.

It's that time of year again for Vegan MOFO! November is going to be a month dedicated to blogging about vegan food everyday! I'm really excited about this because it's my first time. I signed up to help me get back into the swing of blogging again. I miss everyone and this will throw me into to it again, for sure. If you'd you'd like to sign up just click on http://veganmofo.wordpress.com/ .   There are so many blogs signed up already, it's so cool!

So Cleo and Merlin weren't too happy about the crowns, obviously eh? 

 It's definitely Fall weather and Halloween is coming quickly. Is anyone going to see Paranormal Activity 2? I just watched the first one yesterday and what made it kind of creepy was that many of us have experienced at least one time in our lives some type of paranormal activity. I know I have when I was about 4 years old and then when my son was a toddler.  Have you?  Okay so I like the scary stuff. 

We've had visitors for the past 2 weekends and coming this weekend.  I love it!!!  I have been cooking and baking but not as many pic's lately because we've just been busy with stuff around the house and I haven't made anything new and too exciting due to finishing up our office and just getting stuff done around the house. 

  I'm still juicing everyday which really makes me feel great!  Here are a couple of  meals that I've made recently.

Fettucine with Delicata Squash, Cremini Mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, sauteed sage in a light white wine sauce.



Stuffed Italian Peppers with brown rice and tempeh mixture.

Green juice-broccoli stems, celery, green apple, romaine, cucumber

I'm officially back on track to blogging so now I need to catch up on your posts.  See you soon!

Raw "tuna" salad

I do love the fall.  Pumpkins, spices, baking, Halloween(my favorite), scary movies. What are some of your favorites?

I finally made a raw "tuna" salad.  I don't know if it's because my tastebuds have changed or that I really wanted it to taste like tuna.  I was very pleasantly surprised.   

This is the mixture in a bowl.  I made a wrap for Dave using this mixture, avocado, lettuce, tomato and Miso Mayo.  

Raw "Tuna" sushi roll. 

There are quite a few versions of the Raw"Tuna" Salad recipe out there but this is how I made mine.

Raw "Tuna" Salad

1/2 C. raw sunflower seeds, soaked 6 hrs or more

1/3 C. raw almonds, soaked 6 hrs or more

2 T. lemon juice

1 T. water 

3 T. carrots, shredded or finely diced

2 T. celery, finely diced

2 T. green onion, finely sliced

1/4 tsp salt or more to taste

1/2 tsp. dill, dried  (optional)

In  a food processor blend until quite smooth sunflower seeds, almonds, lemon juice, water and salt.  In another bowl add carrots, celery, green onion and dill.  Add the seed and nut mixture into veggie mixture.  Stir to combine. 

I read that if you wanted to you could add a little mayo to it if you wanted it more tuna style.  But I don't think you need to.

Colbie Caillat at Ventura Farm Walk 2010 and vegan cooking in school

So this past Saturday a friend and I participated in the The Farm Sanctuary, Walk for Farm Animals in Ventura. Colbie Caillat walked right along with us and after the walk sang one song with guitarist Justin Young.  I didn't actually meet her cuz, well, I'm kind of shy in that area but she seemed very down to earth.

This is Melissa on the left who has been hosting the Farm Walk for the last 4 years and is doing a fabulous job!  I'm on the right with a goofy face(I don't really like my picture taken).  The event was solar powered thanks to her boyfriend.  There were vegan baked goods for sale, I made cranberry pumpkin bread, raffles and a plant based dietician, Julieanna Hever, to answer any nutrition questions.  Julieanna is coming out with an idiots guide to plant based nutrition next year. Check out Julieanna's site at http://www.plantbaseddietitian.com/. 

Colbie Caillat

You can see  more photo's from the walk by clicking here from the newspaper.

Carrot Bread



One of the required classes at my son's school is beginning cooking.  He was able to bring home all of the recipes and we went through and veganized them all.  He's really enjoying the class and the extra perk of making all of the recipes vegan is that he and his partner gets to eat and bring more food home than the rest of the class. He thinks that part is pretty cool.  Like this carrot bread above, he made with another student.  They each got to bring a loaf home whereas the other students had to split up their loaves. The great thing about this class is that they rotate partners so that all of the students get to try their hand with vegan cooking/baking.  The verdict so far is that the students are pleasantly surprised with the outcome of the vegan recipes.  I was told that the vegan carrot bread turned out alot better than the original recipe and that everyone loved the vegan rice pudding over the dairy based one.  So, so far so good.  I just think it's great that the kids are learning that vegan food is just as good or even better.

Walk for Farm Animals!!!!

I'm so frustrated!  I've been using our laptop because our office is out of sorts do to painting, etc. and I now can't seem to download my pic's.  Arghhhhhhhhhhhh.  I'll have to wait until Keaton gets home so he can help me.  I'll be brief this post and explain what we've been doing and why I haven't posted lately.

Dave and I have been busy redoing our office/music/guestroom.  We are also refinishing a piano that was given to us from a neighbor who decided years ago to paint it a white shabby chic style.  It looks like she painted rather quickly and with a flat paint which doesn't clean very well.  We are trying to refinish as quickly as possible so we can bring it back inside the house and so Keaton can get back to playing. I'll post the finished piano when done. Lastly we are working on our yard.  So lots of house stuff!

This past weekend, out here in California, we got hit with a heat wave. We may be under 100 today, yay!  At least the nights are down in the 50's which is good because we don't have air conditioning.

Before I continue my day....Have you signed up the Walk for Farm Animals, Farm Sanctuary Walk?  Tomorrow morning I will be walking for Farm Animals with a good friend of mine. If you don't have a walk near you, you can make a donation on line or go to my fundraising page, First Giving which located on the top right of my page here.  It should be a really good turn out this year I'm really looking forward to it and then afterwards we will all be eating at Mary's Secret Garden, which is a great little vegan restaurant right across the street from where we will start our walk.  I'll post all about it afterwards.

Have a wonderful weekend!