Pierced Ears

Olivia has been asking to get her ears pierced for some time. Her pediatrician recommended waiting until age five so that Olivia could better understand how to care for the piercings and keep them clean. Well, Olivia is five now. And at her recent wellness visit, she got her ears pierced! She was very brave, and now she is counting down the days until she is allowed to change out the studs and wear earrings that express her personality. For example, she informed me that she really wants a pair of taco earrings. 

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that Olivia and I always seem to pick up a few goodies while we are out running errands. Here are some recent treats.

Buddha's Brew kombucha. I couldn't pass up Tangerine and Sea Salt!

Kosmic Kombucha in a more traditional flavor, Ginger Spice. I love both of these local kombucha brewers! Don't make me choose! Haha.

From Rabbit Food Grocery, some mozzarella Teese to try on pizza, and a vegan raspberry zinger (the company, Dillos, also makes vegan Twinkies!)

Also from Rabbit Food, some gelatin-free gummy worms and fruit chews (you can see the kids had already torn into them when I snapped this pic), and Big Island Organics gingerade mate. This drink was super-heavy on the ginger if that's what you're into (and I am!)

From Trader Joe's, Goddess dressing, Mandarin orange faux chicken, some very Gardein-esque chicken tenders, baby carrots, and sliced watermelon.

Soccer snacks: peanut butter dark chocolate Kind bars, juice pouches, and mandarin oranges.

Chips ahoy! First, two new Kettle flavors, Pepperoncini and Red Curry. 

And some local Paqui tortilla chips, in roasted jalapeno and grilled habanero flavors. 

Chillin' on the Whole Foods patio, one of our frequent hangouts. Red Rabbit Cooperative Bakery maple donut and Suja green juice for mama (they cancel each other out, dontcha know!) Lavender donut and apple for my shopping buddy.

I feel like this post needs to end with some Jackson to balance things out.

Poboys

Today I tried a Suja Elements Macachino. I wonder about the cancelling-out effects of consuming maca and caffeine together. It was delicious though.

Dinner: American Vegan Kitchen's seitan poboys, with lime-infused cole slaw, on kaiser rolls. Now this is a sandwich my friends. A very fast dinner since I had a frozen batch of the seitan on hand.

A girl and her pup.

A boy and his Lego creature.

Autumn Drinks

Now that we have turned the heater on, the air in my home gets very dry, and I find myself drinking more liquids to keep myself hydrated.

I had to pick up another Suja Elements Wassail, also known as cinnamon roll in a bottle!  I love it so much. I also tried their Chun Mee Tropical tea. 

Speaking of tea, I could not pass up these flavors. Celestial Seasonings Caramel Apple Dream, for a sweet treat, and Yogi Honey Lavender Stress Relief for sleepytime.

I also bought a pouch of Dandy Blend, an herbal coffee substitute. Now, I don't have any problem with coffee. I drink decaf iced coffees all summer long. But I have enjoyed other herbal coffees so I wanted to try this one out, too. 

Chocolate Pharmacy is an Austin business specializing in raw cacao with added healing spices. I love their raw truffles and when I saw their brand-new line of chocolate potions, I had to place an order. That's when I learned that Jyl, the owner, will personally deliver to your door if you live in Austin. That's service!

The bottle contains raw, unsweetened spiced cacao powder. So you measure out about a tablespoon and mix with warmed milk. I also add a little stevia to mine. The taste is pure, rich chocolate, plus a hint of spiciness that I can't quite put a finger on. It is such a lovely treat in the evenings when I am relaxing in front of the fireplace!

I've also used it to make a "tonic" by blending up with almond milk, spirulina, acai, turmeric, vanilla and stevia. 

It's hard for me to get excited about smoothies when it's cold out, but I try. Here is one with spinach, coconut water, cherries, acai, spirulina, and RAW vanilla protein powder.

I have also been juicing. I think I am in the minority here, but I prefer my juices to have a very "green" flavor, so I will leave out the apple juice or pineapple juice. This one I made today had celery, cucumber, carrots (which add a bit of sweetness on their own), kale, cilantro, and lemon.

Finally, Olivia and I made pecan milk. I don't have a nut milk bag or anything fancy. We just blended up 1/2 cup pecans, 2 cups water, 1/2 tsp. vanilla and a pinch of salt. Then I pushed it through a fine mesh strainer to get out the solids. You have to give it a good shake each time before using as it does separate, but it's great.

On to some solid foods. Dinner was the Chimichurri Pumpkin Bowl from Isa Does It. You know how I love my chimichurri sauce. This was lovely. The only thing is, baking pumpkins have disappeared from my supermarket, so I used butternut squash. I roasted it skin-on, which has become my new preference since it adds more flavor. Oh, and I also subbed chickpeas for the black beans, as usual.

Olivia enjoyed a deconstructed version. Little kids and their opposition to mixing foods! It's so funny. At least she ate the same food as the rest of us in some form.

Whole Foods Haul

First off today, a big thank you to Kristy for having the OATrageous Oatmeals giveaway, which I won! I eat oats nearly every morning, so I can't wait to delve into this cookbook. The savory oatmeals intrigue me.

This morning, Olivia and I attended storytime at Whole Foods. Afterwards we joined some friends on the patio, where we read the paper and let the kids run off some steam. I picked up a Suja Elements holiday flavor, Wassail To You. Oh my God, I want a whole case of this stuff! Cinnamon and vanilla...it's like drinking a cinnamon roll, you guys.

We also grabbed a Red Rabbit Cooperative Bakery vegan maple donut to share later.

Wearing Halloween tops after Halloween? That's how she rolls. There is no such thing as a fashion faux pas if you own it.

And we'll keep right on eating pumpkin spice everything, long into winter I'm sure. We brought home some So Delicious pumpkin pops. They have a strong coconut milk flavor that didn't really do it for me. Now they will probably linger in the freezer until after the Halloween candy is all gone.

I also searched for the new Field Roast sliced cheese, but my Whole Foods hasn't got it in stock yet. So I tried this Treeline creamy scallion cheese that always catches my eye, but I usually pass it up due to the price. It's really nice, great on flatbread or crackers. However, having just made a batch of Veganomicon cashew ricotta, I find the textures very similar and the homemade stuff quite a bit cheaper, so this may be a one-time purchase. Now, I need to track down that Field Roast! 

I also picked up a couple of The Bu kombuchas. Tropical flavor, with mango, passionfruit, and hibiscus, and also lavender flavor. $2 each, couldn't pass that up. I wonder why some brands of kombucha are $2 and some are like $4? #kombuchamysteries

A post-bath game of Memory...

She always wins.

All the Food

Started the day early with oats, topped with Brazil nuts, maca, ground flaxseed, bee pollen, and caco nibs. I am trying to cut back on eating processed cereals every morning, choosing either oats or yogurt for breakfast. It is hard! I love cereal.

After we got around, we headed to Wheatsville. Jackson and Olivia snacked on blueberries in the car, hence the blue lips!

Whenever I go to Wheatsville, I want to buy everything! It isn't easy to restrain myself and only buy what I came there for. In fact, it was impossible on this trip because I found so many goodies! Suja Elements organic cold-pressed juice...Olivia chose this flavor, and the kids shared it. Tastes like strawberry and banana!

Wheatsville's Southern-fried tofu, Livin' Spoonful raw pizza-flavored crackers, and my very first Hail Merry raw key lime tart. I sampled a bite of it as soon as I got home, and I've been dreaming about it ever since!

I also grabbed some Living Raw darkest cacao truffles, coated in cacao nibs which are my newest love, as well as a Reed's kombucha because I'd never tried that brand before. It was super fizzy and good.

It was a day of sweet firsts, actually. Besides the Hail Merry tart, I had my first vegan donut from Red Rabbit Cooperative Bakery. I only get a donut craving once or twice a year, and it hit me big time when I saw these in the Wheatsville bakery.  I went with Boston cream pie -- if I'm going to have a donut, I want frosted, cream-filled, the whole enchilada. Jackson and Olivia both chose Mexican chocolate donuts.

After finishing a few other errands, we came home and made wraps filled with Scrambled Chickpeas (from Isa Does It), greens, tomato, and that amazing Southern-fried tofu.

For dinner I had a big salad with lemon-cashew dressing (recipe from Oh She Glows, but her site is down as I write this post) and tons of kalamata olives.