Gimmie Some "Moa" of These Please!

I've been thinking about these recently...especially since those little devil cookies seem to be at every entrance to every store I go into! So here is my version of the Samoa Girl Scout Cookie!

RAW SAMOAS!

 

Ingredients:
 (I only made a few so I'm not sure exact measurements.)

For the Cookie

- Almond Butter (I made my own by processing raw almonds)
- Medjool Dates
- Unsweetened Shredded Coconut

Mix...(should be a consistency that you can press down and shape.)

Press and cut into donut shapes. Place into freezer and move onto the chocolate.

For the Chocolate  (I used what I had in my pantry but if you have an amazing chocolate recipe, feel free to use that.)

- Raw Cacao Powder
- Raw Agave
- Cold Pressed Coconut oil (Not Much)

Stir in a tiny bowl until smooth.

Remove cookies from freezer. Spread chocolate on bottom of cookies with a knife. (Couldn't dip them because the chocolate would have needed to be warmed.)Place them back in the freezer upside-down until chocolate is hard. Use leftover chocolate to decorate the top. ENJOY!

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The weather has been AMAZING lately!

We've been enjoying it by...

 

 

 

Bike riding

 

Hanging out on the beach

 

 

"Farmer's Market Adventure" & I'm Back!

It's been 3 1/2 years yall! I'm in the process of updating all my pages but for now I will just jump back into things! So much has happened! I will give you a quick rundown...

1.) I am in the process of changing things up a bit on The Veggie Side! If you were around when I first started this blog, I wanted it to to be a personal journal of my life and memories that I could revisit & share.  At that time I was having some medical issues, doing serious research on food related illness & in school for natural medicine/nutrition.  I began trying different restrictive diets, which led to my becoming Vegan. People began to as me so many questions that I started to give them my blog name and tell them they could read everything there.  So, what began as a personal blog for myself, turned into a food blog. I changed the name from "Life Everyday" to "The Veggie Side".

That being said... now that I am no longer sick or feeling bad, this won't be just a foodie blog...it will go back to being a life journal for me and my family (with a lot of food posts too!) (So I guess I will kinda still be a food blog...)

2.) We moved & are in the early process of building a new home. We live with family which is great and all but I WANT MY OWN KITCHEN!!! I am going to start on our garden soon and will be posting each step along the way.

3.) I am currently on a Fully Raw, Low Fat Vegan Diet.  No particular reason other than it seems to be the most extreme, healthiest, most healing diet out there & I was curious.  I tried a raw diet years ago but it wasn't low fat and I definitely didn't eat enough calories.   
              My sister joined me on this new diet adventure and is doing better than I am at the moment! I will post pics of our amazing farmer's market adventure today!
  
4.) We have a SON!  We adopted our newest little angel in November! He came to us through the foster system & is such a huge blessing in our lives.

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Let's move on to my "Farmer's Market Adventure"!

 

              It's Me! Enjoying the rain!

 

                                                 

  Fresh Watermelon Juice...We couldn't resist!

 

 

 My sister!

 

 

 

              Good Food! We found this Raw food vender & Man were we impressed! This wrap tasted just like a burrito! Guess who will be going back for more.

 

 

 

 

Raw Cauliflower Coleslaw...Yum! 

 

 

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That's all for today! I'm so excited to be back again!

 

 

 

Have You ever tried a Low fat Raw Vegan diet?

 

Do you have a Farmer's Market in Your area?

 

 

 

"Fried Pickles & a Hair Cut"

How do they go together?

Well, they don't...I just thought the title sounded neat. First here's the pickle...

I was basically sulking around the house the other night because I was hungry and wanted SOMETHING but didn't know what...

The genius idea came to me after standing in front of the open fridge for 10 min, I spotted two things...the pickle jar & some G-free pancake batter.

I don't know if Fried Pickles are a southern thing, we have a lot of "different" ways to cook food here in Louisiana & I could have put something way stranger together. Believe me...

Only really cool people cook with towels on their heads.

(The dog in the corner always watches me while I cook.)

"G-Free Fried Pickles"

Ingredients:

*G-Free Pancake Mix

*Almond Milk

*Sliced Dill Pickles

*EVOO

(This pic is terrible but it's all I got people.)

This is so simple people...You just mix the pancake mix, almond milk & a splash of EVOO till blended. Don't make it too think unless you want a lot of batter on each piece. Toss a bunch of pickle slices into the bowl and make sure they are well covered with the mix. In a skillet, pour just enough EVOO to cover the bottom of the pan. Place the battered pickle slices in the pan till the bottom is covered with a layer of them. Flip when golden brown. Place pickles on a stack of napkins to let some of the oil drain. EAT THEM!

I put a little Celtic salt on top, got in bed with a book, and had a very happy evening!

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I DID IT! I CHOPPED IT ALL OFF!!!!

Short.....

(This is my "day-dreaming" face...this is probably my expression most of the time.)

And even shorter........

Kya said this is my "Normal Face". Hmmm...maybe I need to start paying attention to what my face is doing.

And...there it is...

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I BEAT MY RECORD!!!!!!

Last night me and Sis went Biking/Running. The farthest I've run without breaks is about 3 miles. After a quick 5 mile bike, we ran 3.5 miles straight! (Not very far if you're an amazing runner but AWSOME for me!)

What really impresses me is my Sis! She JUST started running with me and has maybe run a total of 5 times so far. It took me MONTHS to build up to where I'm at now.

Thanks for making me feel weak Sis.

Here we are...I LOVE our road! Everybody has horses & pretty fields, so we get a great view!

I was trying to get us both in the pic but just got my eye and Sis in the background.

(She thought I was still right behind her.)

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So what about you?

What's the strangest Fried Food you've ever tried?

Mine is fried oreos. It's just not right.

"Fun Photo Friday" & "What's in my Fridge"

I may be weird, but I love knowing what's in people's fridge. So to be fair...Here's mine!

I get really excited and clean out the fridge every time we go grocery shopping. I scrub it down & reorganize EVERYTHING! OCD??? Probably.

Everyone should have a 20 pound bag of carrots in there fridge.

This pic is sideways. It's my fruit stash! I love fruit and probably eat way too much of it.

I know you noticed the to go box. I could lie and say it's something super healthy but I won't...

We brought Kya to Chuck e Cheese and what you're looking at is the leftover pizza. I ordered the all you can eat salad but MIGHT have had a slice of pizza...I can't remember ;-}

Here are all my amazing shake goodies! I do feel I need to tell you they all taste like ground grass. Well, they do if you mix them with liquid alone. To cover it, I like to blend it with banana's, strawberries, almond milk, agave....basically I make it into an ice cream.

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now onto...

FUN PHOTO FRIDAY!!!!!!!!

Did I mention that I became a Photographer while I was on my extended blog break? Well I did...

Me & Kya standing in the field we hope to build our house on.

Philip & Kya swinging at the park.

Us dressed up for Camo night at church. I felt so cool wearing this I asked Philip if I could wear it everyday. He said no...

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Now I'm off to run around the college campus. Maybe tonight I'll have the courage to bike in my neighborhood. I'm still spooked from the whole "Getting chaced by massive dogs" thing.

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Question of the day.

What's your favorite food in your fridge right now?

Mine are cherries. (it changes depending on what we have) If we had chocolate well...

Back with a Salad & I almost Got KILLED LAST NIGHT

So...before I bore you with all the details of my life, I'm gonna captivate you with an AMAZING recipe! I don't know what the real name of the Salad is but I named it after the friend who introduced me to it. The original is made with real mayo & refined sugar. I tweeked it a little.

















"SABRINA SALAD"

*Carrots (2 sliced thin) *Lettuce (Shredded)

*Cauliflower (Cut bite sized) *Dried Cranberries

*Pecans (Crushed) *Peas (I used canned cause that's all I had)

*Vegenaise (About 1/2 - 1 cup)

*Agave (1-2 tbsp)

*Croutons (I like to make mine out of g-free bread but I had some that needed to be eaten.)

(I didn't get exact measurememts so you're outta luck if you're a stickler for stuff like that. :)


Dressing:
Mix Vegenaise and agave in small bowl till smoothly blended. You can also add your favorite seasoning to spice it up!

Smooth over the top and serve. So GOOD!!!! And almost Completely RAW!!



















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I'm not going to give any lame excuses for my absence... Basically I've just been a bad blogger, FOR THE LAST 7 MONTHS!!!



At one point, I WAS working on a new blog with a new name because I was worried that "The Veggie Side" was too centered around food and I wanted to write about so much more. But...after MANY (and by many I mean 4 or 5) people's requests, "The Veggie Side" STAYS! YAY!!!


So I'll just jump right back into the blogging world by listing some of the exciting stuff that's been going on in my life.




*Running-The last time I posted about running I was very new at it and training for my first race. I'm proud to say that I'm now obsessed! I even signed up and trained for a triatholon this summer! But before that makes me sound way too awsome, I have to admit that I never actually participated in the TRI...It was canceled because of Tropical Storm Lee. (Not that big of a let down cause I'm a terrible swimmer.) There are two races coming up this month that I'm planning on doing, one's a 5K and the other a Dualathon.


*Biking-Because of the TRI, there had to be a LOT of biking over the summer so now I'm a "Biker". I LOVE it!!! And my neighborhood is perfect for it. Since I started training almost everyday, the neighbors are even joining in! The bad part is that I'm clumsy and with all the traffic, someone is bound to get hurt (ran down) by my "Ultimate Biking Skills" sooner or later.


*Family-My Hubby & Kya are great!!! A river runs by the back of our property, so at the beginning of the Summer we went Kayaking every weekend. That ended as soon as the Louisiana heat set in. I'm SO glad the weather should start cooling off cause we can spend more family time outdoors. One of our favorite things to do is spend the weekend in New Orleans. We hang out around the French Market shopping, the River Walk drinking coffee, the aquarium, and take the to trolly the zoo. So fun!


*Food-Ok, so here's the BIG ONE! I've been a very bad girl... Sugar and Gluten made there way back into my life over the last few months. They are VERY clever & attractive...I should have had more will power but I did not! All the pain, inflammation and other problems from before were back :-( The good news is, everything is back in order as of this week! It's all Veggies & Yumminess from now on!


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Last nights running/biking expirence was the MOST EVENTFULL excersice I've EVER had!!!!


First, I get home and my lights are turned off!!! Thank goodness it's cool today or my dog(1st child) Molly might have had a stroke! Apparently, when I hit the send button for my light bill (I pay it from my phone) it never went through. So I pay the bill and get on my bike to start riding before dark. The whole time I'm praying that they'll come fix it tonight so that I don't have to worry about Molly or my groceries. Well, a few minutes later the Electric truck pulls into my driveway. Worried that I might know him and he'll think I'm an idiot for not paying the bill, I circle the street, driving back and forth in front of my own house. At some piont my Hubby and Kya come outside to talk to the guy. I try to drive by unnoticed when Kya yells "Hey Mommy, the lights are on!" I ignore her, look around like I'm wondering who she's talking to, and race off as fast as I possibly can.



The next Event happened after I ditched the bike to Jog. My sis was jogging with me and Mom was on her bike following behind. We pass by this house that has a tiny dog that always chaces us and barks. He's harmless. Well, the same house also has two large dogs fenced in the back yard. They were NOT fenced today!!! First the tiny dog starts running after us and barking. Then, I hear a very loud bark/growl and think to myself, "this is gonna be bad".
If you were a watching neighbor you would've seen this...Me leading the pack and completely freaking out, hollering "DON'T LOOK AT THEM, DON"T LOOK INTO THERE EYES!" as if they're gonna shoot rays outta them like some Sci-Fi Alien...My sis running right behind & obviously not listening to me as she slows down & yells in the dog's face!...Mom on the bike behind her also screaming at the dogs... A tiny dog...a PIT BULL...& at the back of the line, a ROTTWEILER! I kept thinking to myself "Someone's about to lose a leg"!

We excaped unharmed...

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Now that Ive shared my humiliating evening with you, it's time for me to ask some questions.

*Have YOU ever been chaced by a HUGE animal?

*Do you Kayak?

*Do you ever desert you blog for long periods of time?

*Have you ever been to New Orleans?

Ugly Cookies & The Best Cake EVER!

I have the best co-workers on the planet!!!

They surprised me with an early Birthday "Cake"! Everyone was acting a little strange, but that's sort of normal, so I had no idea they were gonna stick a candle in a pan of fruit and sing happy b-day to me...What a great idea!

I'm so lucky to have people in my life who support my strange ways and don't whisper that I'm crazy when I'm not in the room.

I don't really know for sure what they're saying since I'm not in the room & probably am a little crazy so...lets get back to the cake.

Can you spot the candle?

This is what we do when we're supposed to be working. Make fruit people!!!

My co-worker (and BFF!) Danelle fixed this plate for me. It took 10 more fruit people to fill me up!

In honer of my B-Day, my hair got a makeover! (If you don't already know, I work in a salon.)

We cut some seriously short layers and touched up my new growth. Goodbye greasy-looking, dark roots!

We had a photo shoot!

Fo real! We took some pictures for the Salon's web page.

That's a princess book I'm holding over my face cause I have no makeup on.

Tonight, we had some old fashioned home cook'n.

They were the cutest potatoes ever! And organic!

Cook a small bag of these little guys till tender. (Use olive oil or vegan butter.) Add green beans, mushrooms, and a large red onion (sliced). Add water as needed to help cook down. Eat up!

This bowl of sticky rice was in my kitchen.

I added a little Miso Mayo and called it a snack!

Now it's time for some ugly...

Long story short...

I was baking & something obviously went wrong...
Black & white effects make it look more serious...
They were still tasty but stuck to the foil so I did what anyone would do...
Pealed them off piece by piece & ate every last one!

Now I'm off to do some time on the elliptical.

I have to be fitted for a bridesmaid dress tomorrow!

This is not good since I spent most of the week curled up in bed watching Netflix & eating Ugly Cookies.

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What do you think about my new do? I was tempted to cut it all off! Maybe next time...

Have you ever gone "Extreme" with your hair? Cut it all off? Had a major color change? I love when my clients walk in and say they want something completely different!

Have a great weekend!

Making it simple!

Hi everyone!


I've had quite a few requests for more posts on quick & easy meals. They are coming from new Vegans, people who are just trying to live a healthier life, and some who work full time and have literally NO time to prepare a meal from scratch.


It's good to keep things simple. Even though I love to cook & come up with new recipes, it's not like I want to spend ALL my time in the kitchen. One of my favorite things to do is what I call "Healthify" traditional foods. Like lasagna, pizza, burgers, you get the picture.
(Portabella Burger recipe Here)

These requests came at the perfect time. I've been under the weather and unable to spend a lot of time preparing a meal. So here are a couple quick fixes from my kitchen.

For Breakfast...There were oats.


First cook your oats. I add water till it's the right consistency for me. Then I put them in the microwave for about 1 min. (I don't like using the microwave that often, but sometimes "you gotta do whatcha gotta do".) To the cooked oats, I added one smashed banana (I took a bite or two before I smashed), a handful of dried cranberries, some almond butter & granola. Stir it all up & enjoy!

These oats were really good. The smashed banana made the whole thing very sweet.

"Veggie Rice Paper Wrap"

I just cut op whatever veggies were in the fridge, cooked them down in a little coconut oil (you can use olive oil or water if you don't have coconut oil), & added a pinch of sea salt. I added some Miso Mayo to the mix. (You can add your favorite dressing too.) Wrap it up in rice paper or your favorite whole wheat wrap and that's it!



I'm excited to share... my first FAQ!

"What is Miso"

To put it simply...Miso is fermented soybean paste. (Doesn't sound very appetizing...I know.) The Japanese use it in soup..."Miso Soup". It's known for it's health benefits. One study I've read about showed that women who drank Miso Soup on a daily basis reduced their risk of breast cancer by 40%. You can buy the paste in a little container. It comes in White, Yellow, ans Red. The White Miso that I use is aged one year and has a very mild taste. Miso mayo is made from white miso paste. I get bottled Miso Mayo from Whole Foods but you can make your own at home. For my homemade miso mayo & more Miso recipes click Here.

Do you try to keep things simple? What's your favorite meal to "Healthify"? Right now, mine is sandwiches but I'll be working on pizza soon!

That's all for today. I'll have more recipe's later this week. I'm pretty sure chocolate will be involved!