Vegan Diaries - Kale Salad with Quinoa

 RT and I celebrated our anniversary last month at a restaurant in the city.  They didn't have much for vegans (or vegetarians), of course.  Quite surprising since the place was in a young, hip area of the city.  I did settle for their Quinoa and Kale salad.  Sadly, it was just mediocre.  I knew I could do better.

We have kale growing in our garden.  A leftover from last year's garden.  I thought I would try my hand at making this salad.  

Here is the delicious result:

Kale and Quinoa Salad

ingredients:

4 cups kale, de-stemmed and chopped

1/2 TBSP olive oil

1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed

1 cup quinoa, cooked 

1 med. red bell pepper, diced

1/2 red onion, diced

1/3 cup cilantro, chopped

1/2 cup feta cheese *

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup dried cranberries

dressing:

1/4 cup olive oil

2 TBSP vinegar**

Juice of 1 lemon

salt/pepper to taste

directions:

Add kale to large bowl.  Drizzle with olive oil and gently massage until leaves have softened.

Add remaining ingredients (minus the sunflower seeds).

For the dressing, mix ingredients in a separate bowl and mix well.  Pour over salad mixture.  You might not need the entire dressing depending on the size of the salad and taste preference.

Serve topped with sunflower seeds.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

* I used Violife vegan feta for this recipe.

** I used balsamic vinegar.  Feel free to use red wine vinegar, if that is what you have on hand.

If you make this kale salad, let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Enjoy!

National Weed Your Garden Day

 I can't believe there is a National Weeding Day for us to celebrate!

I can't find much of the history of this national holiday.  Maybe my family came up with it because I spend the majority of my time outside pulling weeds?  Maybe this is a day to celebrate all of my efforts in pulling out those nasty weeds!

So, how to celebrate the day?  

How about pulling some weeds?  If you spend as little as five minutes a day weeding, you will be able to keep that weed population down. 

Weeding after a rainfall makes it easier to get the weed and it's roots.

Weed with a friend and it will make the job go a lot faster.  Not sure how many people will take you up on that, but, it's worth a try...

Reward yourself with a nice refreshing iced tea or lemonade and a view of your weed free garden.

I guess we all know how I will be spending the day today.  Looking forward to a nice refreshing drink after all of my hard work today.

Toast

 Toast seems to be a popular topic here on the blog.  Just type "toast" in the search bar for my toast posts (and you thought I didn't know how to rhyme).  With toast you can add a little jelly and it's a go to for breakfast.  It's used as a base for bruschetta (topped with tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, basil).  Popular with vegans by adding a little avocado.  And, most importantly, toast is one of the foods we eat when we are sick.

When sick with the flu or an upset stomach, food isn't that appetizing.  Maybe you munch on a few crackers or have a little noodle soup.  As you start to feel a little better, you make yourself a piece of dry toast.  It probably doesn't sound that appetizing now, but, when you've been sick, you actually look forward to eating that piece of dry toast.  

We eat a lot of toast in our house, even when we aren't sick.

Do you like to eat toast?  

Do you like your toast bready, toasted (with a crunch when you bite into it) or burnt?

Garage Sale

 We just went through another major decluttering event.  The decluttering has been an ongoing occurrence.  I'm always (trying) to get rid of stuff.  The motivator behind this event was a subdivision garage sale.

Yes, I know.  I said that I would never have another garage sale.  I think I said that after the last two sales.  I don't enjoy sitting around for 6 hours and making fifty cents (OK, it might be more like $10).  I would rather just drive it to the donation center and move on with my life.

The community garage sale sounded like a good thing.  Lots of other houses involved.   People can drive around and hit quite a few sales.  And, maybe we will actually sell something.

The sale was on the hottest days (of course).  We don't have any shade in our driveway in the afternoon, so, yea, that was fun.  My goal was to only have to make one trip to the donation center.   

I am happy to say that I survived the sale.  I got rid of quite a bit (only one donation trip).  I kept RT from telling people to, "Get off my property!"  And think that if I ever have the hare-brained idea of having a garage sale, feel free to lock me up and throw away the key I would definitely join in on the subdivision sale.

How To Measure Time

Most people measure time in hours or minutes.  You can use days, weeks, months or years.  Maybe you are into fashion and measure time by when the mini skirt was in style or bell bottom pants.  You can use music to distinguish the years: Rock 'n' roll, disco, punk, rap.  I like to use my children's ages, then do a little math and I can figure out the year. 

 I remember when we moved into our house (N was 6 months old).  When we got our first fence for our yard (A was a newborn). When the kitchen was remodeled (B was 3). 

How do you record your memories?

Do you use the year?  

Music?  

What kind of car you were driving?

National Repeat Day

 Today is National Repeat Day!

Today is National Repeat Day!

I had to look a little more into this holiday and find out why we are happy to repeat ourselves.  I mean, with kids, I feel like I repeat myself all of the time.  "Clean up after yourselves!" "Clean your dishes!"  I can't see how it can be fun saying things over and over again.  It turns out, this day is set aside to repeat positive actions and behaviors, in turn breaking the pattern of negative thoughts and actions.  The day also celebrates the repetition in our lives, repetition is a great way to learn new things and helps form new and good habits.

Today is a great day to practice a new skill.  Doing something over and over will help you to master this new skill.  Since repetition is good for you, maybe the kids can clean a couple of bathrooms today?

Create positive habits in your life.  Take a look at your negative habits and replace them with something positive.

It's also a great day to say and do things twice.  

Have a great day today!

Have a great day today!  

Retail Problems - How I accidentally got high at work

 Time for a quick retail problems post.

I was working at the customer service desk when a customer came in for a catering order.  I could tell that she was pretty happy to be there by the way she greeted me.  She was surrounded by a scent cloud (I think she smoked something prior to entering the store).  I grabbed the catering order form, bumped into my manager and said, "If I'm drug tested right now, I might not pass."  When the manager got to the desk, she was overwhelmed by the scent and told me to find some spray to hide the odor.  This resulted in me giving the area a deep clean so our customers don't think we are getting high on the job.

I guess if you have to go shopping, why not be extra happy about it?