Giant Salad, Cookies, Goodies In The Mail!

When Musty and I have salad for dinner, we call it "Giant Salad." I think Musty came up with this... I know I didn't! :) Last night we had "Giant Salad" for dinner. My salad had lettuce, spinach, fresh julienned beets, green bell peppers, cucumbers, red cabbage, green cabbage, hemp seeds, beans, and tofu ricotta. YUM!

Also, a few weeks ago, after seeing some cookies on the web... I mused "I gotta get me a cookie press!" Musty, never one to miss an opportunity like this, got me a gift the next day! ha ha. Here's the cookie press he got me - it comes with 20 shapes! Wow!

Unfortunately, all the cookie press recipes have TONS of butter in them. Ugh! I can't stand that idea. So, I adapted VeganYumYum's "Avocado Lime Tea Cookies." I think this is the recipe that made me want the cookie press in the first place! I changed it thusly:

2 1/2 c flour
3/4 c Earth Balance (Still a major ugh... I think you could get away with less)

1/4 c avocado

1/4 t baking powder

1/2 c powdered sugar

1/2 c sugar (add more to taste if you want)

1 1/2 T lime juice

1 t lime zest

1 T poppy seeds

1 t vanilla

Mix wet ingredients. Whisk together dry ingredients. Add & combine. Feel free to taste the batter and add more flour or sugar as desired. Preheat oven to 375. Bake for about 8 or 9 minutes until golden on the bottom. Thanks VeganYumYum, this recipe rocked! It made tons of cookies and I shared them with all my yoga students. They were psyched!

Also... I got some great stuff in the mail lately!!

First, Thanks to Bazu for the great Dr. Kracker giveaway tip off! I sent in my email, and got these three packages of delicious crackers and a super fun tin to keep them in. I really love these crackers, all vegan and hearty. They're a great whole grain snack when I've got the gnoshies.

I also made an order to Vegan Essentials recently. Have you all seen this article about vegans being so much more prone to bone fractures? I got it in an email from Vegan Outreach and it gave me a wake-up call! I'm not as disciplined about eating calcium as I should be... and that article got me online ordering calcium supplements. I ordered Cal-Mint chewables and some gag-sized Cal-Mag Plus swallowables. I'm not very good at choking those giant vitamins down, but I'll give it a try. I also ordered something called Omega 3 Basic, a supplement to add to smoothies or whatever else you want. I'm interested in trying it out. Also, as long as you're paying for shipment - why not throw in some chocolates!? I've really been missing nougat lately (any suggestions??), so I tried the Hazelnut Nougat and Dark Chocolate bar. YUCK! I took one nibble of this today and tossed it in the bin. Certainly not worth the calories. The first ingredient was CORN SYRUP. gag. The Green and Black Hazelnut and Currant bar is pretty good though. Rich, dark chocolate... not too sweet. A nice flavor. Not my favorite chocolate bar ever, but yummy enough to savor and enjoy!

Finally, I ordered some stuff from LUSH lately. Two solid shampoo bars and three bath bombs. I *love* their solid shampoos. They last forever and you can keep them in a snazzy little metal tin. Great for travelling, no plastic packaging, no animal ingredients or testing, super soft and clean hair... a good scene! I also ordered 3 bath bombs: avobath, all that jasmine, and the happy pill. I've tried (and loved) avobath before, but not the others. I'm a dedicated bathtub fan, so it's fun to have a few bath goodies in the cupboard. Lush even threw in a free shampoo bar tin and 3 little soapy samples. Fun! Not all the LUSH products are vegan, but a ton of them are. I started buying Lush products about 12 years ago, when I was living in Seattle and had to drive over the border to Canada to buy them. I really love their stuff.