Tried A New Do & Won A Giveaway Too!

Hello ladies!  Do you remember the upside down braided bun I showed you sometime last week?  Well I decided to give it a try.  Take a look at the original:

photo credit

Mine didn't turn out near as lovely!  I'm usually pretty good at french braids, but I must admit braiding upside down, working up is quite tricky!  I feel that it would turn out much better if someone else does it for you.

So I wouldn't go out with my hair like this! I do plan on giving it another try though.  It was also around 10 at night, and my bun didn't look as smooth as hers.  Have you ever given a new hair trend or cut a try and had it turn out a little less then ideal?

I also wanted to share with you girls that I recently won a giveaway from the fabulous Mimi from What Mimi Writes!  It was a yummy cookie giveaway!  How fun is that?!  The cookies were from Mile End Bakery

. I got to choose a dozen cookies! Sadly I wasn't able to enjoy them because of my nut allergy, but they were more than hapay to send my husband cookies of his choice. He chose 1/2 peanut butter and 1/2 oatmeal cranberry! Doesn't that sound delicious! My husband said they were amazing, and they certainly looked it! Take a look!

 

My husband really enjoyed both cookies but he especially loved the oatmeal cranberry ones! Definitely check them out! Well that's all for now but I hope you all had a lovely weekend!

My First Vegan Restaurant

Hello girls!  I realized I had forgot to tell you about an interesting experience I had the other day, actually it was on my birthday!  I heard about this entirely vegan restaurant about 45 minutes away from where I live, and not too far from where the mall is where I had planned on going shopping for my birthday anyway.  

I had no idea there was even a vegan restaurant that close by!  I found out about it on Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Life website in one of their forums.  It was highly recommended by people who live in that area, so I thought I should give it a try.  And what better time to convince my husband to actually go with me, then when it's my birthday lunch, and I have full dips on choosing where we eat?  I know otherwise, he would never go up there with me!  : P

 I didn't really know what to expect.  I had checked out The Loving Cafe website though, and nothing looked too scary, and somethings looked quite yummy!  Above is a picture of the menu board and below are a lot of organic teas and juices you can choose from.  

My husband wasn't exactly thrilled about it, he is a pretty big meat eater, but we made a deal, he would order something and at least try it and give it a fair try at that, and if he didn't really like it, he could get something more his style at the food court in the mall!  See, compromises work!

He ordered a soup and sandwich combo:

The soup was a mix of sweet potatoes, lentils, and other ingredients I can't remember, but sounded good.

The sandwich had vegan turkey, vegan cheese, vegan mayo, and vegan cole slaw!  We saw it included cole slaw, but we thought it was a side, not actually on the sandwich, so that was a little different.  But it looks good doesn't it?

I ordered their BBQ chickenless meal, that came mixed veggies, and with brown rice and a salad:

The BBQ fake "meat" was actually really good!!  I would eat that again, the flavoring was delicious!  

I also chose a drink not from their display but a wildberry tea, not sweetened with sugar but I think brown rice syrup.  It was yummy!

My husband didn't mind his soup, the sandwich however, although not completely horrible, was not something he particularly enjoyed! 

That's about all he could manage to eat, and you can sort of tell in the photo that his arms are crossed, and he's had enough!  lol But he was brave and sweet for trying!  

One thing I thought was a bit strange though, was the channel they had their tv on, and all these booklets they had lying around.  The people/maybe family that own this particular Loving Cafe (there is another one located in Ohio) are part of a weird religion.  I'm not trying to offend in any way, I'm religious, I believe in Jesus Christ, but for one I didn't expect to see religion incorporated into this restaurant, and two it was a very weird religion, from what I gathered.  Take a look at the tv:

The tv stays on the same channel: the Supreme Master TV channel

Which is a bit weird on it's own, but through the translation we learned that to be a part of this religion you have to actually be vegan!  I had never heard of being vegan as a requirement for any religion!  And then if that's not odd enough, they worship a woman, who is still alive.......that is their "god". 

It was one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen/experienced!  This was how my husband felt about what the tv was saying:

His facial expression just cracks me up! You can tell he was ready to leave!! 

Other then the weird religion aspect, I enjoyed the food, and the restaurant had more customers in there then I thought they would while we were there for lunch.  It seems like The Loving Cafe is doing pretty well for itself. 

I also got a vegan cupcake to go.... It was my birthday you know, and although I've had vegan chocolate bars, I've never had vegan cupcakes.  I thought I would try a chocolate one.  It was delicious!

Now keep in mind, vegan means not only no meat, but also no products that come from animals, like milk, cheese, eggs, etc...  And in case, you were wondering, I am not vegan, but I do mix in vegan foods in my diet on a regular basis.  Vegan burgers are actually quite good!  So I don't eat meat all the time, a lot of times I do go meat free for meals, but am not ready at this time to go meat free forever. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my experience at my first Vegan restaurant!  Have you ever tried a really unusual type of restaurant?  What was your experience??  Would you ever try a vegan restaurant?

On another note, HAPPY EASTER!  What a wonderful day to celebrate!

Radicchio Pizza with White Truffle Oil

This is what I had for dinner, so yummy and good for you.  I've been eating more brown rice with my meals.  Trying to get a good amount of grains in my diet.  Alicia Silverstone, in her book The Kind Diet, suggests brown rice as a good and easy way to get grains.  I also just picked up some pearled barley which is a great grain as well.  I'm interested to give that a shot.  Hopefully it's good! The rice is just paired with my sauteed veggie mix of zucchini, green pepper, and I added a few sauteed onions too after this photo, simple but delicious!

I also recently made The Kind Diet's  

Radicchio Pizza with Truffle Oil

photo credit

Above is a picture of Alicia's, which looked so yummy, I had to give it a try!  Here is the recipe:

  

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Total time: 30 minutes

Servings: 2

• 1 large head radicchio
• 1 tbsp. of olive oil
• 1 pinch of fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 tsp. of White truffle oil, to taste
• 1 fresh pizza crust (preferably a healthy, whole grain one)

Steps

1. Cut the radicchio in half, then slice each half crosswise into thin ribbons (as thin as possible).
2. Dress with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a few dashes of white truffle oil to taste.
3. Preheat the oven to 415 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. Toast the pizza crust in the oven for 7 minutes, or until it is heated through and slightly golden, but not crunchy.
5. Scatter the dressed radicchio over the pizza crust and return to the oven for another 3-5 minutes, until the radicchio is warm and just starting to wilt.
6. Serve immediately.

I had actually never heard of a radicchio before, have any of you??  

This is what it looks like:

I ended up buying two because I thought they looked rather small.  I only needed about 1 and 1/2 though.

Aren't they sorta of pretty after being cut open?

 It took me a while to find a whole grain crust.  I finally found a good spelt one! 

The pizza was so easy to put together.  That's my type of recipe!  How about you?

I was a bit worried though, about how flavorful this pizza would be so I added some red onions to top it off.  

This is the first time I've ever used white truffle oil.  I was very excited to try it because I've heard how tasty it makes everything.  To be honest though, the flavoring of it was not all that good!  It made the radicchio taste funny to me and my husband.  Maybe I put too much on?  It didn't seem like much to me, when I was mixing it in.  Have any of you used White Truffle Oil before?

Other then the white truffle oil the pizza was very good!  My favorite part was the spelt crust!!!  So yummy!  I would highly recommend using a spelt crust for any type of pizza recipe!

I've definitely been enjoying trying out new foods and recipes lately.  Have any of you tried anything recently that you either loved or hated??  Any amazing stories of cooking successes in the kitchen or total failures?  lol  I'm sure it would be fun to share! :)

Basic Salad

More often then not, I usually have some type of salad or greens with my meal.  I thought I'd share a simple one with you that I made just the other day!

When making a salad, lettuce, spinach, etc, is always a good place to start!  This is obvious!  I only had romaine lettuce on hand that day, so that's exactly what I used.  A lot of times I have a spring mix variety, which is nice.  A mix of greens, and reds....

I added dried cranberries!  Dried fruits are great in salads!  My favorite is dried cranberries, and I often add a sprinkle here, a sprinkle there.

Then I did something completely different from my normal routine:

I chopped up a small red delicious apple and tossed it in.  I know diced apples aren't that uncommon in salads, I've just never had them in my salad before.  A lot of times at restaurants I see salads with apples in them and they sound yummy but they are usually paired up with walnuts, and having a nut allergy, that's a big no no to me!

I wasn't exactly sure what salad dressing to use.  I didn't have any raspberry vinaigrette on hand which I thought would be good along side the fruit.  I tried it with one of my favorite dressings though, Paula Deen's Vidalia Onion Honey Mustard Dressing.  It's a pretty sweet dressing with a vinaigrette consistency, so I thought this would work best.  And I was right!  It was so yummy!!  Thank you Paula Deen!

This salad was so simple.  Easy to put together, and took like 2 minutes (mainly just to chop the apple).  Eating healthy doesn't have to be time consuming or hard!  So don't be scared to try a simple, yet healthy salad today!

Are you a big salad eater? 

What do you like to add to your salads?  

Anything that's unusual, that people wouldn't normally associate with salads?  

I'd love to know!

What's in My Skillet

Hello all my fabulous readers!  More often then not, I'm chopping up veggies and sauteing them up in a skillet.  One of my favorite veggies these days, that I almost always include, is a zucchini!  So tasty and simple to enjoy!  Sometimes I pair it with yellow squash or some onions.  I also love adding green peppers to the mix.  And that's exactly what I did the other day.  Take a look! 

 You should now which is which. : )

Chopped up and in the skillet.  I actually chopped up the whole zucchini and about 1/4 of the green pepper. 

Adding a touch of 100% extra virgin olive oil.  A good source of fat! That's right I said a good type of fat, there is such a thing!  Unsaturated to be exact!

I also did add a wee amount of Smart Balance Heart Right Light spread to it as well. 

Seasoning is a must, at least for me!  One of my favorites to add is this blend of Garlic and herb!  Very tasty!

The final product!

I paired it with a salad and sat down next to my beautiful flowers from my husband.  

Sauteing veggies is so easy and hardly takes any time.  You can add any vegetable you want to the mix! Any type of squash/and or zucchini is a great start and just simply pair it will another vegetable or two that you enjoy!

What's your favorite veggie?  
How do you like it prepared? 

Healthy Snacks

Just wanted to share with you girls a few yummy things I recently came across.  I'm trying to find new options for healthy snacking and I found a semi local store that had some random organic items scattered throughout.  This was the first item I came across:

Bare Fruits: Organic Dried Mango

 I enjoy dried fruit, but not all the ones you find in the stores are organic,  this company Bare Fruit, which was new to me, offers several options for dried fruits and fruit chips.  All organic, all made in a NUT FREE facility (which can be difficult to find sometimes, so I cherish companies like this, when I find them, since I have a nut allergy!)  It's gluten free, no added sugar, preservatives, or additives.  Mango is the only one I have tried so far, but they offer dried pear, which I want to try next, as well as, dried apples (different varieties) dried cherries, and a few others.  Check out their website here.  So good, you won't be disappointed!

Another tasty organic treat I came across is:

Go Naturally Organic Hard candies 

I bought a bag of the pomegranate flavor and it was very delicious! Made handmade in America, gluten free, natural flavors and colors.  You get 4 pieces for 60 calories.  The picture isn't the greatest quality but they offer flavors such as apple, cherry, ginger, honey, honey lemon, and of course the pomegranate.  Check out their website here. 

I also wanted to mention one of my favorite companies that I came across this last year.  It's called:

Enjoy Life.  

This food company avoids 8 of the major allergens out there!  Which is why I love them!  They never use or come in contact with the following eight:  

wheat/gluten, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish or shellfish
 
Having a nut allergy I have to pay attention to labels all the time on foods, especially sweets.  Having this company avoid them entirely makes me confident in my purchases!  Some of you may not know how difficult it is to find chocolates that a person with a nut allergy, can actually have.  Before I came across Enjoy life, I was limited to Andes Mints and Junior Mints.  Enjoy Life has actual chocolate bars that I can munch on!  When I found these in my local Martin's store and the health food store I bought all the 3 varieties of their chocolate bars!!  As well as some chewy snack bars. 
 

 The Boom dark chocolate bar and the rice milk chocolate bar are both vegan as well!!
 The chewy snack bars I've mentioned are just as good and also vegan!

I've had the caramel apple and the cocoa loco flavors but they also offer sunbutter crunch, and a very berry flavor.  Enjoy Life makes a wide range of products, like cereals, granola, cookies, bagels, and more.  Please check out their website here. 

Have you girls found any organic healthy snacks out there?  I'd love to know what ones you enjoy!  There may be some that are new to me, that I would love to learn more about!

I also always try to snack on plenty of fruits.  Here lately, I've been loving grapefruits!  So yummy and rich with vitamin C!  I recently tried an Asian pear for the first time, and it was so delicious!  I love regular pears but this type of pear is different.  It's crunchy like an apple!  Love it!  Apples are another favorite of mine as well! How about you?

When you snack healthy, what do you eat?