Vegan Chicken Parm

Hello friends! Hope you are staying warm today because it is snowing and cold here in Wisconsin.

A few weeks before Christmas, I tried my hand at a Vegan Parmesean. I actually used a vegan "chicken" breast that I found at Good Harvest Market in Waukesha.

I used a flax egg to have the homemade italian breading/crumbs stick to the mock chicken.

Place in pan with hot olive oil for a couple minutes

Place "Chicken" in baking dish, and cover with marina

Top with some Daiya and place in oven to bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 Minutes

I also had to make some real chicken for some non vegans.

I enjoyed this over some brown rice pasta and it was fantastic.

Nichole

Weekend Indulging, New purchases & Raw Cookies

Hey everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. I like to indulge a little on the weekends, but it's back to business during the week, regarding my eating habits, of course. Sometimes I take a break of exercise and relax a bit more on the weekends, sometimes that is because I am staying up too late and exercising my arms, by drinking! hahaha. All the more reason why I should exercise but, sometimes I just don't feel like it, so I just don't.

Last week I had a sweet craving so I indulged a little in some Raw Oatmeal Cookies. Recipe from Averie at Love Veggies and Yoga.

Combined everything in the Vita-Mix

and roll into balls

Then I like to flatten them with a large spoon, with raisins on top.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1/2 C Oats

1/4 C pitted dates

1/4 C raisins

dash of cinnamon

I used Vanilla Stevia as well (very small amount)

Put oats in blender first, blend.

Add Dates and rest of ingredients and blend again

Take our your cookie dough and shape into balls.

These defiantely satisfied the sweet tooth and are a healthy snack!

You can refer to Averie's recipe here and follow her directions if you like.

As far as other things I did this weekend, I had my new couch delivered. I thought this giant wasn't going to fit into my living room. But it did and I love it. Now I need to buy a new tv.

This couch is a monster, it has a pull out bed next to the chaise lounge as well.

The dogs will not be sleeping on this. I am making sure of it. Keeping them out of that room when I am at work during the day (they have a bed down in the basement, that they sleep on during the day) and making sure they aren't hopping on it when I am home. haha

Hope you have a great week!

Nichole

Cheerleading & My Favorite Restaurant

Today at my house we were all rooting for my favorite football team, The Green Bay Packers!

Kaiya is a Packer fan :)

The Packers beat The Eagles (and Michael VICK HAHAHAHAA) in their first playoff game today. Final score Green Bay 21, Eagles 16.

How was your weekend? I had a nice weekend, I got in some quality family time with my brother and visited my mother as well. Friday night I had dinner with my little brother who lives in Stevens Point, WI because he goes to college there. However he was in town this past weekend and we went and had a healthy dinner.

This was taken when we went out for his birthday in December. Sibling Love <3 I absolutely adore my little bro and I am so proud of him. He is amazing.

Back to the dinner. We went to the never upsetting, always great... Cafe Manna.

Vegetarian, Organic... GREATNESS.

This is what happens when we were too hungry to remember to break out the camera before indulging in the Walnut Guacamole Potato Skins.

These were served with a "ancho cashew sour cream" we loved it.

My brother had the Savory Sandwich.

Portobello mushroom, grilled eggplant, feta, roasted peppers and caramelized onions, served on toasted rosemary olive bread brushed with house made pesto.

I had special, Truffle Polenta Lasagna. It had a macadamia nut cheese, with onions and mushrooms layed inbetween the polenta. Also had a tomato sauce which was sweet and reminded me of my own spaghetti sauce. This was really good, and even though I couldn't finish it there, I took it home and reheated it tonight (Sunday) and it was still yummy.

I really enjoy going to Cafe Manna and it is definately my favorite restaurant.

Moving on to dessert...

Raw Ch-Ch-Cheeeesecake..

Oh. my GOODNESS. We shared this and even though we were too stuffed to finish our dinners we consumed this whole cakey deliciousness.

I definately can't wait to head back to Cafe Manna and try more of their culinary creations.

I also visited my mother and her pups!! How cute :)

Hope you have a great Monday!

Nichole

Keeping Up With The Vegetables

TGIF!! Hope your first week of 2011 went very well. I thought I would recap how my meals went this week:


Part of my goals this year was to eat more veggies daily and get as much leafy greens into my diet as I can. Here are some progress pictures:

Spinach, Tomato & Cuke w/ Balsalmic

Morning Smoothie's

1 cup spinch, 1 cup kale, 1/2 cup almond milk (unsweetened) 1/2 frozen banana, Amazing Grass Amazing Meal, 1 scoop of wheat grass powder and 1 TBSP flax oil

Another Huge Salad - Spinach, Kale, Cukes, Tomatos, carrots, toasted seasame seeds and sunflower seeds + some light balsalmic

Every morning I had a very Green smoothie, every lunch I had some leftover Vegan Chili from New Years Eve. Most dinners have been very green large salads and some vegetables and some Vegan Alfedo w/ broc.

I also had a huge plate full of brussel sprouts and asparagus last night which was not photographed due to me extra hungry from working until 8pm at the builder show.

I hope you have a great weekend!!!

Nichole

2 Kinds of Alfredo - Vegan & Not

Good morning!

I thought I would share my 2 alfredo trials today, I made these a couple days ago. My boyfriend is not a vegetarian/vegan so I made 2 versions so he could enjoy as well.

Angela's Quick & Easy Alfredo

Creamy Alfredo Sauce (pictured with shrimp and broccoli)

Let 1/2 cup butter melt over med-low heat

add 8 oz of cream cheese

slowly whisk in 1-1/2 cusp of half and half

add 1/2 tablespoon garlic

pepper to taste

whisk until all lumps are out and warm for 5 - 10 minutes until you reach desired consistancy

This is the first time I have made a homemade alfredo and we were all very pleased with the outcome. Also I wanted to have you know that my love of seafood is dissapearing on me. I didn't eat any shrimp after having 1, and I didn't enjoy it at all. I knew eventually I would give it up but I didn't think it would be this soon. Either way I am happy to do what my body is encouraging :)

Hope you have a great day!!

I am still keeping it GREEN! I will have an update on that later :)

Nichole

Sticking with Resolutions, Goals

Good Morning!
Yesterday was my first day back to work after a week long vacation that was needed for me. I work as a mortgage loan officer and interest rates recently have slightly rose from what they were all summer so business has slowed down a bit and I was able to take a little time off. Back to work after the new year means a few things for me such as cleaning out my desk and files, working the Home Builder Expo at the Frontier Airlines Center in downtown Milwaukee since it is in early January of every year, and cleaning up my customer lists and exploring new marketing ideas. Even though work has slowed down in January, there is always plenty to do.

Ever since my move back in October, it has been really hard sticking to a schedule with exercise. I think that has been partially due to my rental property not being rented and all the time I was spending there. I think we are almost there - found a renter & should be able to not have to worry about that place, hopefully.

I have been able to get in a couple works outs on my new eliptical. Thank you Santa <3

Gold's Gym Eliptical

My Review:

Not a bad piece of equipment for the price. It does the trick, makes me sweat and is challenging so far.

It makes a couple noises but I am normally jamming to my ipod tunes anyway so I don't hear a sound.

My goals this year are to get more green vegetables into my diet on a DAILY basis. Make exercise a priority and there are no excuses when I have this lovely eliptical machine in my home.

So far so good, it normally takes a couple months for the "goals" to wear off, or be forgetten right? hahaha.

I think I had a sucessful 2010.

I traveled to Florida to visit family in April.

Stuck with my vegetarian ways.

Expanded my cooking

Purchased a New Home

Finished remodel on Rental Property

All in all 2010 was a pretty good year for me. I am excited to see what 2011 has to bring!

First I am going to enjoy this coconut milk yogurt.

with walnuts.

Nichole

Bringing in 2011

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope that the new year finds you fortune and happiness and of course love.

For the first time in a couple years I stayed in on New Years Eve, I had a great time with friends and it was nice not worrying about getting home safely. I enjoyed some good eats, cold drinks and great company.

I had jumbo shrimp, taco salad, cookies, homemade salsa, veggie & fruit platters and hummus, onion dip and carrot cake bars. I have lots of leftovers :)

Prime spot for a dog, directly under the table, in case anyone drops food.

We popped bottles at midnight and took jello shots and played drinking games. Fun was had by all. 

Are you making any new year resolutions?

 I am trying to incorporate MORE veggies into my diet, specifically green leafy vegetables, you know the good kind.

I hope you had a great holiday season, today I took down all my Christmas decorations.

(Christmas morning)

This corner is completely empty once again & I am brainstorming with what could be useful as well as gorgeous in this corner.

Good times with family <3

I recieved a lovely order from iherb.com

use my code XUT690

and save $5 on your first order.

I went a little bit crazy.

Raw cashews, organic tanning loition, flax powder, stevia powder, amazing meal, coconut oil, what grass powder and liquid stevia.

and these are pretty good too.

Really good prices at iherb.com cheaper than in the stores and free shipping too!

Have a great night and exciting start to 2011!! :-D

Nichole