Tinker Bell Smoothie (Green Smoothie)

Smoothies are a staple in our house around breakfast time. We make all sorts of flavors, one of my favorites is full of peanut butter and strawberries! But the Tinker Bell smoothie as Addisyn calls it, cause it's green and reminds her of Tinker Bell,  is a huge hit lately. It's also the prefect way to get some extra greens in our diet.

 

Here are some of the ingredients we use, we change it up a bit depending in whats in the house.

Bananas, Kale or spinach, frozen mangos, frozen pineapple, orange or clementine, and water.

Blend and enjoy!

We make extra and freeze them into popsicles, they are a great heathy treat!

Happy blending!

Thanksgiving

Among all the wonderful families we have met here in Monterey we have met 2 vegan ones and as luck would have it they live on our street! We got together this Thanksgiving and together created an amazing vegan meal. Here are a few pics!

Yummy!

Rise Against

Rise against is one of our favorite bands, they are a punk band known for its political lyrics and activism, they actively promote animal rights and all members are PETA supporters and are vegan 

Lonny and I saw them in concert with Bad Religion this summer and they were awesome!

Check out some of their videos in the posts below.

Rise Against - Help Is On The Way video

Rise Against - Make It Stop (September's Children) video

Rise Against - Ready To Fall video

Juicing

We have been juicing here and there for about a year, and we have had fun trying new recipes and making up our own. We recently watched Fat Sick and Nearly Dead and have decided to add juicing to a part of our daily life.

http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/

Check out the website and movie, it's really great.

Here are 2 of my favorite juices from the website

Mean Green
1 bulk of kale
4 stalks of celery
1 cucumber
2 granny smith apples
1/2 lemon
ginger root(thumb size)

Apple Pear
1 apple
2 pears
ginger root (thumb size)

I sometimes add carrots to the apple pear, it's really good and Addisyn loves it! She has been a trooper, she tries them all, some she really likes and some she doesn't.

Juice on!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

We make these all the time, they are super easy quick and very yummy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Joy of Vegan Baking

By: Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

4 1/2 Teaspoons Ener-G Replacer

(equivalent of 3 eggs)

6 Tablespoons water

1 cup Earth Balance butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups unbleached flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1-2 cups semi sweet chocolate chip (most semi sweet are non dairy but some are not)

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees,line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or use non stick cookie sheet.

Whip the egg replacer and water together until it's think and creamy. 

In a large bowl (I use my standing mixer and it works great) cream the butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until well combined.

In a separate bowl combine flour baking soda and salt, gradually add flour mixture to wet mixture until it begins to form a ball, add chocolate chips and nuts.

Bake on a cookie sheet for 8-10 min or until golden brown. I sometimes make them pretty big so I cook them longer, more like 12-14 min. 

Enjoy!!

More Vegan Fun Finds

Here are some of the latest fun and yummy vegan things we have discovered!

Cookies from Trader Joes, they also have a trail mix flavor, but these are Addys favorites!

Jello!!! Yummmmy! Addy loves these! There is also a black cherry flavor that is really good!

This is the most exciting!!! Cream cheese that actually tastes AMAZING! Addy goes in the fridge everyday begging for a mini bagel (she calls them doughnuts) with this cream cheese! They also have a plain flavor that is great! It's great for baking too, I made my moms killer black bottom cupcakes that have a cream cheese filling! (I'll post that recipe another time)

This isn't really a vegan find but I wanted to share cause its our summer addiction! They are so good and there are a bunch of other flavors, mango, strawberry and a few others! The are always on sale in the summer at whole foods so every time I go I stock us up.

My mom gave me this one, I have seen it in the stores but never really flipped though it. Well I should have...it's awesome!! Tons of great info, recipes and articles. I'm totally hooked!

Lonny gave me a subscription to this for my birthday, its a killer magazine with a ton of recipes, much more than VegNews. Even though it's a vegetarian mag there are still quite a few vegan recipes and the ones that aren't can easily be made vegan.

Rhyolite Ghost Town

This summer on our way to Utah we stopped at Rhyolite in Nevada. Lonny and I had been there years ago but I lost the photos I had taken so we were really excited to get back and show Addy around. It was about 100 degrees and we were the only ones there.

I love waking around ghost towns trying to imagine what it looked like in it's hay day and trying to picture what the people looked like and what daily life was like back then. It was an awesome visit and we can't wait to go back...maybe when it's a little cooler!

See ya!

Seashell Hunting

We have become a bit obsessed with seashell hunting, we found a sweet little spot and go once a week. It's a great family activity, Addisyn absolutely loves going down and finding her treasures! We usually get to see all sorts of other creatures in the tide pools as well like starfish, crabs, sea anemone, sea urchins.

We have a few bottles around our house that we have been filling with the shells we find, it's amazing to see the different sizes, colors and patterns. Some of them are so tiny yet so beautiful!

Ready to find some shells!

Hiking down to the beach.

Addys bucket full of treasures!

Another day down at the water seashell hunting.

Check out the starfish!

Yet another day heading to the water.

Checking out whats in the water and playing with seaweed.

Our shells for the day!

Some of our favorite shells we have found.

All American Summer Feast

We love the summer, and we love summer food! Hot dogs, corn and potato salad are a favorite around our house.
This is my grandmothers recipe, I just swapped regular mayo for Vegenaise and I swear you can't taste the difference! It's amazing!!
We use Smart Jumbo Dogs, they fit in the buns better than the regular size and are so tasty!

Grandma Treacy's Potato Salad

6 medium potatoes washed but not peeled. Cook them in boiling water until tender 30-45 min.
Peel and chop potatoes
Add 1 chopped onion
1/2 cup fresh parsley chopped
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
Vegenaise, enough to moisten potatoes

Mix together and chill until ready to serve.

Garrapata State Park

Lonny and I discovered this park a few months back and went for an amazing hike. We brought Addy back for some seashell hunting a few days ago and since we love it so much Lonny and I went back yesterday for a small hike along the coast. While we were on our hike we saw 4 whales! They were amazing to watch, so majestic and so in sync with one another, they literally took my breath away! I turned around to look up at Lonny and over him was flying a group of pelicans in the most perfect V formation, we watched them soar out over the ocean.......the moment was perfect and amazing and made me feel so small in comparison to these amazing creatures. We are a lucky family to live in such beauty and I am a lucky woman to be able to experience it with such an amazing man!