Book Club & Weekend Meals

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROBYN!

Last weekend we had our book club meeting, which just happened to be on one of our newest member's birthdays (Robyn)! I made vegan peanut butter cups for the occasion, and she blew out the candles. Fun!

The book we read was called "Into Thick Air: Biking into the Bellybutton of 6 Continents" by Jim Malusa. Since I didn't get my book until WAY later than I expected, I didn't get to read very much...only a chapter! I suck!

I'm very excited about the next book we drew from the pot though - our first Sci-Fi! It's called "Grass" by Sheri Tepper. It sounds very interesting, and I wish my silly book would get here in time so that I could start diving in!

The vegan peanut butter cups turned out SO YUMMY, and they were ridiculously easy to make. These were yet another treasure I found in my How it All Vegan cookbook. If I haven't stressed it enough - this cookbook is my absolute favorite!!

Nikki and her ever-growing baby belly! She's the cutest preggers girl ever, I'm tellin' ya. She just told us a couple of weeks ago that it's going to be a boy, and the name that they're going with is "Nico Matteo" which I think is utterly adorable. So Italian!

Just this past weekend, I went to the grocery store with my little sis, and stocked up on healthy supplies for the week. My first attempt was breakfast! I got oats from the bulk section of Whole Foods, because apparently the non-instant version of oatmeal is much better for you than the pre-packaged "Just Add Hot Water" version.

It was a little mushy, and a different texture than the instant stuff, but I think I could get used to it....

.... adding some almond milk, a 1/2 tsp of maple syrup, and a mound of sliced bananas helped too!

To top it off, I made myself some fresh-squeezed OJ/Grapefruit juice. I had both citrus fruits leftover in my fridge, and wasn't sure if I was going to actually eat them anytime soon. So I squished the heck out of them, and made myself a VERY yummy juice. I don't usually like grapefruit juice by itself, but the combination with the orange juice cut back on the tartness significantly.

After the grocery store I made my lunch.... just look at this GORGEOUS purple potato!! I baked it in the morning when I was making breakfast so that it'd be ready to go for me when I got home. It came in my organic produce veggie box I ordered a couple of weeks ago, so it was time I ate it.

I whipped up my quick version of my vegan gravy (I posted about it here) - but I just threw some onions in a small pot, added some nutritional yeast (pictured), some flour, some sage, almond milk, and a couple of squirts of Bragg's. It turned out a little thinner than I would've liked, but my pan was too small to keep adding to! :)

Then I fried up some lovely green asparagus. I know it may sound wrong to FRY up veggies, but I only used the spray oil, so calm down. ;) Also steaming things is just a pain in the butt for me. I've never found a steamer big enough, and it just takes too long if you ask me. Maybe I'm just making excuses because I prefer fried.

While the asparagus was cooking, I peeled up a Tangelo orange. They are SO delicious right now, and I enjoyed the sweet balance to a savory / salty meal!

Next I dumped the gravy over my baked potato. As you can see, it was a bit runny as I mentioned. I didn't really mind it at all though!

Just when the asparagus was almost done cooking I threw in some mushrooms, and added some seasonings. Then I dumped everything on top of the potato!

I haven't had a cup of coffee in a while, so I treated myself to one along with my very colorful meal! It was really yummy, and I ate all of it while watching a couple of episodes of "Reno 911" (yes, I re-rented one of the seasons from the library) - I love that show!