Are You Like Me? Do You Dig The Vintage Look?

Well, a couple of weeks ago I traveled to Morrow, Ohio. My friend's parents live up there. They just happen to own an outstanding ebay company. Out of the 4450 feedbacks they have received, only 2 were negative! Can't beat that kind of customer service! They specialize in anything from vintage glasses, jewlery, clothing, and records to key blanks and transponder keys to tons of different styles of art. (Hey - it's ebay, what do you expect?) So if your looking for something new or old for a great Christmas gift check out their ebay store, SW Sales.
I helped them go through about 10 bags of vintage clothing straight from the 60's and 70's. It was great fun. My friend Jennifer just had to try on a couple of jewels... I think my favorite had to be the purple body suit with cordinating vest and tie. Priceless!

Thanksgiving's Treats!

So for the actual Thanksgiving dinner we went to my Aunt Cynthia's house. I was asked to bring something that I would eat (since I obviously wouldn't eat the turkey.) I decided on an eggplant casserole. Of course I didn't think of taking a picture at the time, but I wish I did because it turned out beautiful! Everyone that tried it loved it. Well, let me correct myself; my brother didn't like it. But he doesn't care for soy sauce, (that had to be the reason).

I also made a cranberry salsa. Now this is going to have to be a Thanksgiving tradition. This was awesome. I took some whole cranberry sauce, green onions, a regular onion, jalapenos, and chipotle peppers in abobe sauce and mixed it all together. I then poured it over a block of cream cheese. Yumm! The spice and sweetness of it all was to die for. Now I did take a pic of this, but it was from the next days leftovers. (Still just as yummy!)

I'm The Biggest Loser!

So, I've joined the biggest loser online yesterday. I'm pretty excited about it. I just made up a shopping list for Friday and WOW! This is going to be interesting. I'm going to be eating as much food as when I was pregnant. But this time it's going to be quite more health minded. I'm printing out my menus as we speak...

Today I was on the phone with one of my vendors and we were talking about Thanksgiving and I mentioned that I'm a vegetarian. The first think that she said was , "Wow, that's different. What do you eat besides vegetables?" So in honor of her question, (and because I'm really bored right now), Here's my basic shopping list of the week...

Breads / Grains

Kellogg's Ego Lowfat Nutri-Grain Waffles

Whole Wheat Pita Bread

Whole Wheat English Muffins

Lowfat Granola

Cheerios

Bulk Brown Rice

Couscous

Quinoa (This one's new to me, I think it's a grain. I'm pretty excited.)

Produce

Baby Carrots

Salad Greens

Celery

2 Green Peppers

2 Red Peppers

2 Cucumbers

Onion

Salsa

Strawberries

3 Tomatoes

Cherry Tomatoes

Blueberries

2 Bananas

Apple

2 Grapefruits

Garlic

Cilantro

Lowfat Soy Milk

Firm Tofu

Dry / Canned Goods

Orange Juice

Apple Juice

Tomato Juice

Chickpeas

Black Beans

Red Kidney Beans

White Beans

Pinto Beans

Lentils

Raisins

Dry Roasted Peanuts

Raw Almonds

15 oz Can Tomato Sauce (Low Sodium)

Light Italian Dressing

Dairy

Yoplait Light Yogurt

- 1 Fruit

- 3 Strawberry

- 2 Vanilla

Nonfat Cottage Cheese

Reduced Fat Sour Cream

Lowfat Cream Cheese

Now I can cut and paste my list on an excel or word spreadsheet and have a handy-dandy check list. I'm super stoked. Sorry for putting you all through this boredom today...

Fancy Tia Wrap

For a quick snack or a light meal these fancy Tia Wraps can't be beat. This is a recipe that I got from Veg Web. It's a huge database of recipes from members of the site. You can join for free or you can just browse as a guest. It's great because these are recipes from the vegi's themselves. This site has been a great companion for my new lifestyle.

The wrap contains a whole wheat tortilla, peanut butter, raisins, shredded carrots and sunflower seeds. Yumm!!!

Hearty Black Bean Soup

After a long Halloween night Ronnie and I needed some good comfort food for dinner the next day. I made "Hearty Black Bean Soup". I got this recipe from The Pretty Darn Quick Vegetarian Cookbook by Donna Klien. This book is great when you do need something pretty darn quick. Let's face it, we all can't cook from scratch all the time. This whole cookbook provides vegetarian recipes that need absolutely NO PREP! Yeah, I know it sounds strange and even not possible to cook a vegetarian meal with no prep, but it really is! For instance, she calls for a lot of prewashed, precut fresh vegi's and fruits that most supermarkets carry now. Or you can opt for the frozen or canned variety. I wouldn't suggest eating like this everyday if your looking to live a healthier lifestyle, but it's great for when you are in a pinch! This black bean soup is so simple and quick to make. It calls for two can's of black beans, vegetable broth, a can of sliced, stewed tomatoes, and various herbs and spices. It is delicious for how simple it is. It's great for leftover's also. (As you see in this photo - I thought about taking a picture after we had finished our meal, so I decided to take a pic of the leftover's in the fancy plastic tub. My apologies for not making it pretty.)

Boo!

Yeah! Halloween is here! The night before the trick or treat's I had Ronnie try on his costume. He was in love. He didn't want to take it off! But after I did get it off him he was dripping with sweat! He only had it on for about 20 minutes (I didn't want to ruin it for the next day.) I was hoping for a cool night, otherwise, he was going to be hot! I should have gotten his haircut before the "big night" though... He kinda looked like a little girl with the curls hanging out of the hat.

The actually trick or treating was a blast. We traveled to the big city of Walton, Ky where my Aunt Cynthia and Uncle Ron live. They live in a nice suburb where there are plenty of houses giving out candy. My mom and dad met us there. (They never got to take us trick or treating; oh well; that's a long story, and maybe one day I'll go into it. ) My mom actually went out with us while my dad stayed behind with my aunt. We forgot to get him something to collect candy in, so he had to use a plastic shopping bag my aunt had. Oh well. He was still the cutest Halloweenie of them all! The night ended up being perfect. It rained all day and I was afraid that Halloween might be cancelled for my little one. The temperature was great for that big ole' thick costume he had on. I was a good mother too! I only let him have 4 pieces of candy that night, and I think he had maybe two the next day. I then brought the rest to work for everyone else to enjoy. Neither Ronnie or I need that kind of crap in the house!