Today's Green Smoothie, Glass Dharma, Buckwheat Sprouts

Banana
Apple
Flaxseed
Red lettuce
Buckwheat sprouts
Renew Me!
Water
Blend it up in the Vitamix


I was worried about storing the glass straws. I want to use them every day but I don't want them in the way where they might get broken, right?

This is where I've decided to keep the Glass Dharma Straws














Simply standing up in a glass in the cupboard.

Leave me a comment and tell me how you store your straws. Oh, and did you get a little brush with yours? I love that little brush. It hangs right by the sink for easy access.

















It's snowing!













This is today's smoothie photo. The photo above is yesterday's smoothie.


Buckwheat Sprouts, 4 days.















Buckwheat sprouts nutritional info:
Vitamins A, B, C and E
Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Niacin, Phosphorus, Potassium
All Amino Acids
Protein: 15%

The sprout people can tell you better than I can how to sprout buckwheat groats.

I hope you have a wonderful, happy day! Stay warm and stay vegan!

February was a good month!

3/2/10 Blast off!

Grapefruit and orange juice with a GlassDharma straw.















It was a great month, February. I won a couple of contests so that was fun.

I just heard that I won a Bob's Red Mill contest.
I won a Glass Dharma contest. I got four reusable glass straws out of that one. Beautiful, functional and reusable. I got blue, green, red and amber 12mm straight straws. Perfect for a smoothie. The boy drank his apple juice with one but he said it's too big. Fun, though. I don't have to worry about him breaking it because they are made of thick, heat tempered glass. I was actually thinking if anything, the straw might crack the juice glass! If you are a big straw user these are perfect for reducing your waste output with style. They are guaranteed for life so if you do break one, send it back and they will replace it FOR LIFE!

















Two Murano glass bracelets at GW, 99c each.

















I also found these kick ass slippers at GW for 99c.














They have non-skid spots on the bottom, heh.


Anyway it's been a nice month.

We registered a business name and we'll start working hard on that soon. I'll let you know when we unveil. Exciting stuff.

Oh, and Grant Butler is staying vegan. Yes.

Brussels Sprouts for dinner tonight :)

Reuse. It comes between Reduce and Recycle.

Being vegan is about reducing unnecessary suffering. I became a vegan as a direct off shoot of my desire to produce zero waste. Food that doesn't come in packages is mostly raw and vegan, really. The no-poo, the paperless kitchen, composting, and a bunch of other stuff are all about putting out less trash.

Reusing things is important. The less we buy new, the less we throw in the landfill.

Today I made a pitcher to hold my kitchen utensils out of an old blender carafe.

I took the bottom ring off the carafe, removed the blade (important!), replaced the blade with a with a small mouth canning jar lid then screwed the ring back on.


















































Ta-Da!















Leave a comment and tell me about your fabulous DIY Recycling by Reusing projects.

Dinner last night was cabbage and carrots with steamed with cumin, polenta, spinach and a three color tomato and cuke salad. A very good dinner all around.

Making RAW Pickles: Spicy Garlic Mixed Vege Pickle Recipe!

I harvested the last of the jalapenos today. Even the little green one. What to do with all those jalapenos?


Why, make Raw Pickles, of course!














The longer it sits, the better the pickles taste, but if you start this recipe at 7am it can be ready for dinner at 6pm.

Spicy Garlic Mixed Vegetable Pickles

Ingredients:

2 med Cukes sliced into 3/4" coins,
1 med carrot sliced into thick matchsticks,
5-6 cloves garlic, peeled and cut in thick slices,
6 red and 1 green jalapeno, chopped,
1 yellow bell pepper, cut in strips,
2 tsp salt,
one fresh lemon, juiced.

Instructions:

Cut up enough veges to fill a wide mouth, lidded Mason jar.
Pour the veges from the jar into a large bowl.
Add salt.
Stir occasionally. Liquid will start to collect at the bottom of the bowl.
Keep stirring occasionally for about an hour or until all the salt is dissolved.
Pour the vegetables and juices back into the jar.
Put a lid on the jar and let it pickles "cook" in their juices for up to 6 hours at room temp.















Add the juice of 1 lemon (about a 1/4 cup) replace the lid and shake.
Let it "cook" for another 6 hours or longer.
Shake now and then to make sure all the veges get equal time in the juice.
Add enough water to cover the veges and store in the fridge.
These will keep indefinitely in a lidded jar in the fridge but they never last long around here!



















These photos were taken before the lemon juice was added. I love to watch the veges "cook" in the salt.

Note: You don't have to use the same exact veges I did. I make this different every time. Sometimes with only jalapenos.

Hot, Spicy :AND: RAW! DIY Homemade Indian Style Pickled Jalapeno Peppers RECIPE :PLUS: Photos of My Nude Figure Lighter Collection

Today I made RAW pickles out of jalapeno peppers and carrot.
















From left to right:
Headless nude with red light-up nipples. Flame comes out of the neck.
quartz geode
bronze colored with head. She has a look on her face, you can see the close-up down below. Press the left breast and a flame comes out the right.
Jar of pickles
glass bead shaped like a pig in a kimono
USA pottery cat planter. I don't have a plant small enough to fit in his ass right now.*
Day of the dead or Grateful Dead type of bud vase.
Mermaid doll in the bud vase by Rainbow Creatures Inc of Seattle Washington

You can see the look on her face in this photo.

































I put the pepper tops in a jar of their own and pickled them with just salt, no spice, to see how they would be. I didn't want them to go to waste and these guys will eat them.















Pickled Jalapeno Peppers
I made these before the recipe is here

You will need a glass jar with a lid. I used a wide mouth mason jar with a canning type ring and lid. There is no cooking involved, this is a RAW recipe!

11 large jalapeno peppers, sliced very thin
1 carrot sliced very thin
1 tbs salt
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp asofoetida**

Mix together in a clean, dry jar and leave for 4-6 hours so the peppers can marinate in the spices. The salt will draw the water out of the peppers and there will be liquid in the bottom of the jar.
Then add
6 tbs lemon juice
3 tbs apple cider vinegar
1 tbs olive oil

Leave jar in a cupboard at room temp for a day and the pickles are ready to eat. Shake them every couple of hours during the time that they are curing to assure that all the pieces are coated evenly.
The next day the pickles are ready to eat.
Store the remainder in the fridge in a covered jar pretty much indefinitely.***


I hope you like these, they are far too spicy for me! I make them for the man so he doesn't keep buying can after can of canned jalapenos. Gotta keep it on the DIY, don'tcha know?

Next Post will be:
Vegan Seitan Burgundy

Hail Seitan!

Footnotes:
*That should get me some hits, huh?
**sometimes spelled asafoetida (by most people :) and also called hing. This is an onion or garlic substitute and adds an unmistakable "Indian" flavor to foods.
***They should smell spicy and tangy and be a little bit crisp. As always, if they smell "off" or "funny" or seem slimy or have a funny texture or smell bad TOSS THEM! It's not worth the small cost of the peppers and salt to get sick over. As always the second, I ain't responsible if you get sick. :P

Vegan Dinner: Baked Breaded Tempeh Cutlets

I made dinner!














I took an 8 oz package of regular old tempeh and cut it in half then sliced each half to make four cutlets.


My new Favorite Marinade Recipe! I am so glad I wrote down the measurements.














1/4 cup ACV
1/2 cup vege broth
1/4 tsp dried mustard
1/4 tsp black pepper, ground
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp herbs de Provence
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt

Mix it well and pour it over cutlets in a shallow pan. Place thinly sliced onions on top (optional).
Let these marinate at least 4 hours








Remove them from the pan and put the marinade in a bowl to use later.





I used the crumbs from about 4 slices of bread. Two slices crumbled on the bottom of the ungreased 9x13" baking pan.
Place the tempeh cutlets back in the pan on top of the crumbs.

Two cups of finely chopped celery goes on top of the cutlets, then the other two slices of bread crumbled on top.
Mix the left over marinade with 1 cup of oat milk and gently pour the liquid over the whole thing. Cover and bake at 350F until it starts to get brown, about two hours














Serves four.

Extreme Close up!!














The money shot

Served with mashed roots, salad is red lettuce, collard greens and raw sweet potatoes, sauerkraut, and a healthy dollop of seed cheese.















This is comfort food with a twist. The breading on the tempeh tastes like a "traditional" stuffing because of all the celery and the tempeh is tender but holds together well.
Absolute Success

S is for Sick Day

The boy stayed home sick again today.

This is a photo of unfermented sauerkraut and a jar after fermenting for 3 days.














I put up two jars of sauerkraut this morning and made wee pies for breakfast. It's just pizza dough with leftovers in a crust. Like a large ravioli or a small calzone. They were filled with the leftovers from a casserole that I made last night. It was flax and zukes and tomatoes. Not a very good casserole but a great filling for a wee breakfast pie. I first made them wee pies yesterday. When I said, "there are wee pies for breakfast" I was greeted with looks of confusion, but they went over well and so I made them again today. Today the announcement of wee pies made them say "Whee!!".

They think the wee pies are special. I put a small piece of dough in the shape of the initial of each person then they are special.
Actually, I made way too much pizza dough but don't tell anyone.

I took no photos of the wee pies but here is a photo of an "S" shaped tortilla that I made special for someone whose name starts with S and is also sick. "S" is for "Sick"













No wee pies tomorrow, all the dough got used up making sculpture this morning

















Tonight for dinner will be enchiladas. I am cooking the bean and vege filling right now, the tortillas are ready to roll out, cook and fill and I made enchilada sauce this morning to bake all the black bean and vege filled tortillas in. I am gonna bake it in one of the new glass baking pans I got this weekend and it's going to be wonderful!

I will update with photos of the finished product later

Went to Goodwill. Bought Some Glass

Some of this stuff was bought today, some in the past couple of weeks...

Two silicone baking pans and a silicone spatula and two glass baking pans, one Anchor Hocking and one Corning (the small one).
















This is a photo of my dishes. All those plates and bowls are Corelle except the big bowls are Pyrex and some of the smaller ramekins are Fire King.
















Some new cups. Corelle Old Town Blue that matches the plates, whee! A nice green ivy and Sunflower that matches some other plates we have.














Two silicone baking dishes and a two sided rubber spatula, bought at the buy 2 get 1 free sale. Yay... I got two bread pans!















A large storage jar. I will put oatmeal in it. The rubber seal is in good condition.
















Salt shaker and pepper mill. The pattern is Carefree Nordic from Syracuse.
















Another storage jar and a cheese plate with glass top.















Two cup and saucer sets. I think these are promos from the 1950s. Both are Anchor Hocking, the one on the left is Bonnie Blue, I don't know the name of the other. Orange and yellow poppies with green leaves.