photos from the weekend

even though we usually do stuff over the weekend i seem to only end up with food and cat photos.
so that’s what you are getting again! even though we did get out and went shopping in center city and out to a bar.

eric and i started off the weekend by fixing a feast of a dinner. we had fajitas with a side of onion rings.

and then we got real crazy and went to sleep by 11pm.

woke up saturday morning and had some no-knead bread with some blueberries.

after breakfast we decided to check out the neighborhood farmer’s market. there were only a few vendors, but we were able to pick up a few good things.

we stopped by 1 shot coffee because they carry vegan treats donuts. there were no donuts to be found, but i picked up a mint chocolate chip cookie and some hot tea. eric forgot his gloves so we sat inside while he warmed up his hands.

due to the weather i really haven’t gotten out much, so we took a short walk through the neighborhood.

for lunch we made salads with some of our produce from the farmer’s market.

then we went into center city. i bought some new workout pants from lululemon and spent more on clothes i will get sweaty in than i ever wanted to in my entire life. but the pants are so comfortable.
we met up with eric’s cousin, emily, and walked around some more, going in and out of shops. eventually we got hungry and went to one of our favorite places good dog.

i need to note that i have been presented with a good dog challenge. sometime soon we are going to go there and i am going to attempt to eat 3 large bowls of their french fries by myself. if you would like to join and cheer me on, please let me know and i will let you know the date.

then like all the cool kids do on saturday night, eric and i went to the grocery store for a few things and came home and passed out. riding your bike everywhere and drinking and eating wear you down.

i woke up sunday morning with a mission to run outside since i haven’t done it in a while. i did 6 miles throughout the city with the weirdest weather ever. some points the sun would be shining and it would be really warm, then the sun would disappear and it would start snowing. this happened the entire run.

after the run i made a salad with more farmer’s market produce.

eric bought new wheels for his car and he spent saturday afternoon putting them on to see how they fit/looked.

as usual we had put a few things in the dehydrator. this week we made kale chips, potato chips and eggplant bacon.

i also made cornbread!

amanda! here is the recipe, sorry i never gave it to you!
1 1/2 C flour
1 1/2 C stone ground cornmeal
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 C “milk”
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 Tbsp oil

preheat the oven to 425 degrees. lightly oil an 8×8-in baking pan (i actually use my cast iron skillet). in a large bowl stir together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. stir in the milk, vinegar and oil until just mixed. pour evenly in baking pan or skillet and bake for 25-30min or until a knife comes out clean. let cool for 10-15min before removing from pan.
i had about 1/4 C of fresh corn just for good measure.

and to wrap up this post here are the cats! i know every animal has it’s weird quirks, well here is one of kitta and griss’. they refuse to drink out of a water bowl. they drink out of cups sent all around the house. their favorite is the glass we keep on the coffee table.

gotta wrap this up because it’s time for bingo!

photos from the weekend

although the weather was nice this weekend i didn’t really get out and enjoy it. eric and i were kind of on opposite schedules, and i enjoyed my time alone at home.

i’ve never really lived with anyone, so i am used to being alone and having my quiet time. moving in with eric completely changed that. we like a lot of the same things so we do a lot of things together.

so i took full advantage of hanging out, reading without disturbance, and watching trashy tv while he was out riding his bike.

eric has a juicer, and i would like to start using it more, but it’s so expensive to buy produce just to juice it. grapefruits were on sale last weekend so i picked up a few with the intention of juicing them. oddly enough, grapefruit is something i really miss about texas. it’s grown there and you can get it extremely cheap. here is so expensive!

the cats enjoyed all the sunshine this weekend as well. we have two windows in our kitchen, but they only like to lay in the sunlight of one window and take turns lounging.

we ended up going out to dinner at memphis taproom.

eric and i like to order a flight of beers and share them. it’s $10 for 3 and let’s us try some new beer.

eric and i ordered the same thing for dinner, the veggie burger with smoked coconut. their veggie burger is amazing. it’s a quinoa/white bean mixture, and the smoked coconut just puts it over the top.

sunday eric went out riding again, which left me plenty of time to get busy in the kitchen.
i started out by preparing things to put in the dehydrator.

i made some more macaroons. unfortunately we couldn’t eat too many because i made these for someone.

i also made carrot falafel from http://www.choosingraw.com . it doesn’t really taste like falafel, but it’s still good and i plan on doing a greek night this week.

i also made corn fritters! i used about 2 cups of corn, 1 cup of almond flour (ground almonds), some cilantro, salt pepper and cayenne. these turned out great, and a lot better/healthier than traditional corn fritters.

in addition to all the raw food i made some cooked food as well.
we both really enjoyed the energy bars i made last week so i made them again.

the only difference? this time i added goji berries! i really liked the addition of the berries. i had bought some a while back and forgot about them. i was happy i remembered to add them to the energy bars.

and i made my favorite bread ever.

no knead! i used the quick rise version, recipe here.
but instead of bread flour i do half whole wheat and half white whole wheat flour. i also add in about 1/4 cup of nuts/seeds. this load had sunflower, pepitas, sliced almonds and poppyseeds.

i could barely wait to have a slice lathered in pesto.

eric eventually came home bearing gifts!

one of his bike friends had gone to vegan treats and picked us up doughnuts. so awesome!

these were demolished.

no kitta pictures this week, but here’s another picture of grissom!

photos from the weekend

we survived snowmageddon!
friday evening we decided to brave the beginning of the blizzard to pick up a few essentials.

we walked up the street to the foodery, which is an amazing beer store.

the foodery is awesome because you can build your own sixpack. it’s a great way to try new beers.

i was really excited for more snow because i love snow, and i had bought new snow boots i wanted to test out. do you know how hard it is to find vegan snow boots?!

it was started to really come down and get windy, so we headed home.

but before we went inside i had to do some impromptu car modeling and snow eating.

here are our goods:
unibroue chambly noire
unibroue blanche de chambly
bell’s expedition stout
bell’s two hearted ale
the duck rabbit wee heavy scotch style ale

we decided to try three friday night.

one time eric and i went to the saint arnold brewery in houston (which is awesome!) and we got these really cute small beer glasses. they are perfect for sharing beer.

snowy saturday mornings call for chocolate chip pancakes! i usually use the perfect pancakes recipe from vegan brunch, except add chocolate chips. this time i added white and dark chocolate chips.

we also busted out the juicer and eric made carrot juice and i had grapefruit juice.

it snowed pretty crazy till midafternoon.

so we prepped a few things to do in the dehydrator. we made crackers using juice pulp.

and i made macaroons. these were really simple and easy to make. it’s just unsweetened coconut, almond flour (we just pulsed almonds in the food processor), agave, and a splash of vanilla.

we also saw this rare sight! kitta marie and grissom cuddling. it lasted about one minute before they attacked each other.

and then somehow, someway, eric convinced me to go on a bike ride.

we rode to the art museum with intentions of going sledding, except our friends with the sleds never showed up.

on our ride back we made a pitstop at the belgian cafe for some beer and fries.

and we made it home and decided to run and ride our bikes through the snow in our alley.

later on we decided to try another new beer. the name sounds really crazy, and it smelled pretty crazy, but it actually tasted really good.

and after that beer i fell asleep, at 8pm, on a saturday. i’m cool like that.

sunday morning i woke up and pulled the macaroons out of the dehydrator. i am happy to say they turned out delicious and taste exactly like real macaroons. i am already planning on making more this week.

eric was in the kitchen most of the day on sunday.
he made homemade veggie burgers for lunch on sunday. he used black beans, almond flour, hemp milk, nutritional yeast, onions, peppers, jalapenos, roasted garlic, carrots, chickpeas, and some spices. he pretty much cleaned out our fridge making these.

and he made hummus. i love his hummus and think he makes the best. this one was roasted red pepper. eric roasted the red peppers, jalapenos, garlic and onions first, then in the food processor he added the cooked mixture to a can of chickpeas. then he added lemon juice, salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil.

and then he made his usual cookie, oatmeal chocolate chip! to make them healthier he used white whole wheat flour. obviously it’s not as healthy as whole wheat, but better than white!

we ended up going to a friend’s for the super bowl and stuffing ourselves, but no photos.

photos from the weekend

this past weekend was our first weekend in over a month that we didn’t have any plans. so we filled it with laziness and cooking.

eric got me a dehydrator for christmas, so we planned on putting it to use over the weekend. i had seen eggplant bacon on a lot of blogs and really wanted to make it.

i don’t have a mandolin so slicing all the eggplant was sort of a pain.

then i let it marinated for about 2 hours.

i’m happy to report that it turned out well, not exactly bacon-esque, but still good.

we also dehydrator some tofu and i made onion bread, which turned out way too onion-y.

the weather was really nice saturday and the cats sunbathed all day.

eric rode his bike while i went running.

we ended up going out to dinner at a local vegan chinese restaurant with some of eric’s car/bike friends. no photos, but i am embarrassed by the amount of food we ate.

i’ve been itching to bake lately, but we still have a ton of leftover desserts from vegan treats. i settled on biscuits. i made the whole wheat one’s from alicia silverstone’s new book the kind life, but i am sad to say they weren’t that great.

we watched way too many episodes of dexter all day (we just started watching and are obsessed!) then decided on pizza for dinner.
eric got started on marinara, which he plans to use for lasagna later.

and he also prepped the pizza dough.

we usually make two separate, large pizzas, for us to eat throughout the week.

i made my pizza with potatoes, squash and kale.

and eric went with a classic, his marinara, vegan cheese and basil.

and then we watched more dexter.