New Discoveries

Thank you to Simon for taking over blogging duties for me for a bit. Things have been a little busy. Last week, I logged in 73 hours of work. Whew! This week will be less hectic with only 65.5 hours. Anyhow, onto food.

I had heard about this Gardein brand of vegan mock meat products. I don't remember where, but it was a while ago. Then one day, just as easy as you please, there they were on the grocery store shelf. A bonus - they're Canadian!

I picked up a package of the Chick'n Filets in a Mediterranean herb & spice rub for $4.99. It was only 200g. Ouch! There were about 6 or 8 "fillets" in the package, but they were small fillets. The first try, I just heated them up and ate "as is." Umph. Nothing special. I used the other half of the package making a chick'n salad sandwich with some Stonemill multi-grain bread, lettuce & vegenaise That was better. There are other flavours in the line-up, but I haven't given them a try yet.

A couple of weeks later, I was at Fortino's and I spotted this -

I picked it up to look at it and read the ingredient list and I saw it was made by the Gardein company for President's Choice. I found a much better website for them listed on the package. I figured I'd give them another try. I decided on fajitas with rice & beans.

I had this package of Vigo Red Beans & Rice I found at Ultra Mart. It was also something we hadn't tried before. There were 4 or 5 different kinds of Vigo products on the shelf, but this was the only one I found that didn't contain some sort of chicken.


There was also a special on peppers, so I was able to get a variety of colours to make things all pretty.

The strips were a much bigger hit in this dish, than the plain fillets were. I had whole wheat tortillas, some delicious Neal Brothers Salsa and sour 'creme'.

The fajitas were delicious! I think I ate one too many.

I very much liked the rice & beans too. I will definitely buy this again. It had a very nice flavour. Too much nice flavour I think. We were both too full for dessert. :o)

On another note - one that is sad, disgusting and downright horrific - Michael Vick & the dogfighting case. I am not a football fan of any sort, so I didn't even know who this guy was until I heard about the dogfighting. I am sickened beyond belief. You can sign an on-line petition HERE and another one HERE.

To lighten things up a bit after you've signed the petitions, head over to Sarah Kramer's blog and check out this post for her hubby. I think you have great taste Sarah!!

For TK

Tanya Kristine from Are You My Mother? (or TK to her pals) asked where I was. Isn't she a darling inquiring about moi? I'm always here, but I lead a very busy life. From running around like freak, rubbing my face on the carpet, patrolling the grounds, etc. to terrorizing Pete, a jack-a-poo that lives downstairs who used to rule this building, until I moved in. I showed him who was boss. I bit his bum in the elevator & now he bows down to me - as he should. I hardly have time for my other favorite activites of going for walks or to the dog park, let alone blogging much. But since Mom is working ridiculous hours, I decided to take over the duties for this post and show you all yet ANOTHER of my favorite activites. Destroying toys I'm given.

This is what happens when I get a squeaky stuffed toy. First, I head for the bed and proceed to mess it up as I attack the toy.

Now I've gotten the tag off. My quest is to get the squeaker. If Mommy is in the other room and hears me squeaking it, it always makes her laugh.

Still working hard! The more I chew and fling it around, the messier the bed gets.

What?

Now I'm getting pissed.

Finally! Success!


I'll pull all the fluff out. I take chunks in my mouth, pull it out, spit it aside and dig in for more. This is awesome fun!

Now I've got that damn squeaker. I'll puncture it so it won't squeak anymore.



I'll just dig around for a while longer & pull the last remnants of fluff out. Now I'll rip at the carcass for a while. Then, exhausted.....



It's time for another one of my favorite activities, sleeps!

Veat & Strawberry Shortcake

I decided to update my look. I was getting bored and just needed something different.


An item I discovered in the US a few years ago is Veat. The nuggets are quite versitile and taste really good. The website also shows a fillet that I think is supposed to be a faux salmon, but I've haven't seen that yet. Anyone try it? (Unfortunately, these are not vegan. Contains dairy. Why couldn't they just leave that out.)



I used this package to make this - Tangy Oven Barbecue Chick'n.

I found the recipe at the Campbell's Soup site. The recipe called for chicken breasts, but I used nugget chunks. It worked out very well. There's nothing to this. Just mix up the sauce, pour over the "chick'n" and put it in the oven. That's it. This would probably work with tofu as well. If you'd like the recipe, it's here.

Since the oven was on, I made some herbed, roasted potatoes and just had no fuss, frozen mixed veggies. Dinner was on the table in no time.

Strawberry season has come to an end here, but while they were piled high in all the stores I took full advantage. We usually go picking our own, but Jim & I have both had full schedules, so I had to buy already picked. The crop this year was very good. Strawberries are one of my favorite fruits and who doesn't like strawberry shortcake? I usually like to make my own cake, but I'm so pressed for time lately, I opted to buy some. I HAD to use gobs of Cool Whip because what's a shortcake without the whipped "cream"?

Chubby Vegan

I saw this a few years ago. It still cracks me up.

Cool Stuff In The Mail

First off, sorry I've been neglecting my blog buddies. Things have been busy, busy, busy for me lately and it's been a long time since I even posted here. Nothing exciting has been going on though - except for the cool stuff that I got in the mail. Kleopatra sent me a fun package. It was wrapped up super funky with stickers with this one being my favorite. (click any of the pictures to enlarge)

Anyone who is a Brady Bunch fan will know what this is all about.

Where else but in United States could you get cool postage stamps with super heroes and baseball legends on them? Awesome!

Look at the books and other assorted goodies that were inside my package! Note the Brady Bunch book. Kleo & I have seen all of the episodes numerous time and the movies thankyouverymuch. My favorite episode(s) was the family trip to Hawaii. It was continued over a few weeks and included such cliff hangers as Greg getting hit with his surfboard, going under the water & not coming back up, the giant hairy spider on Peter while he's sleeping and, of course, Vincent Price!

Kleo also sent this classic The Far Side card. I'm a big fan of this comic strip and this one always makes me laugh.

There was also a Bizarro cartoon tucked in there. Check out the halos on the chickens. :o) Thank you Kleopatra for a wonderful surprise package. I love the books and can't wait to start reading them.

A couple of days after Kleo's package arrived, I got an envelope from Sarah Kramer. Every once and a while she throws up a post like this one. I was one of the lucky 13 and this came for me in the mail - a Herbivore button and a temporary tattoo!

I've got another crazy week coming up, but will try to stop by blogs to see what everyone else has been up to. I would also like you all to say a prayer for Mattie who has been quite sick. Let's hope she pulls through and gets back to being her old self again in no time.