Hi Friends! How’s your weekend going so far? What are you up to? We’re having a little Indian Summer heat wave here in San Diego. Low to mid 80s this weekend, sunny, hot; which is awesome by me! I am at total peace and bliss in that temperature range. Sounds crazy, but sometimes the dampness of the air here from the ocean, combined with the sea breeze, and well, sometimes 65F feels chilly to me! I know, you can throttle me. I did grow up in MN and lived in Chicago and know what real winters feel like, but prefer never to feel them again!
I’m glad you liked my Pumpkin Recipes Post from yesterday:
Thanks for your tips on what to do with leftover pumpkin puree. Most of you said just freeze it. Noted. But Katie made vegan GF brownies that use pumpkin puree in them. She just posted the recipe today. Deadly lil buggers, I’m thinking.
And as suspected, most everyone in bloggieland loves their pumpkin and pumpkin puree. There were a couple pumpkin haters and my European readers can’t get pumpkin puree. In my opinion, not a big loss, but to each her own.
However, as Danielle, Aimee, and Evan pointed out, it’s not really the actual pumpkin that tastes so good or that most people come to love and associate with “pumpkin puree”. It’s the nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, lemon balm, pretty much everything that’s in pumpkin pie spice that’s lovely. Aimee mentioned that many times its winter squash in those cans of “pumpkin” puree.
Here’s a quick High Raw Vegan Meal idea:
Un-Chicky Salad Nut Pate
This comes together in a blender or food processor in about 30 seconds and feel free to take liberal substitutions on type of nuts, seeds, spices you use based on what you have on hand.
Tip of the Day: My Give Away for 6 All Natural Vegan Lip Balms!
P.S. For anyone who tried to comment on my Give Away or last post, yesterday (Friday) from about 8-10pm Pacific time, my commenting system, Intense Debate was down. Other bloggers who use it were down at that time, too. It was a universal glitch, not just on my blog. Just letting you know in case you were having issues commenting yesterday for a brief while or needed to enter the Give Away. Everything is back to normal now though.
Questions
1. Best Thing You’ve Ate or Done So Far this Weekend?
Me = I got in a nice Lifting Workout at home. They came from my Workout Tab
Scroll down to the part about If you Can’t Get to the Acutal Gym… That’s what I did.
And we’re about to go on a casual family stroll and enjoy the fabulous weather we’re having!
2. What’s your favorite day of the week and why?
Mine is Sunday because my job is done for a few days, Scott is not working, and he usually takes Skylar out for a couple hours so I can have a few solo hours to catch up on things, alone. And then we do something as a family. Like we did last weekend. Happy Hour and my new favorite vodka anyone? But Saturday is great too!
3. Did you like to swing as a kid?
I remember being able to swing for hours. The higher up I would get, the better! I wasn’t a big fan of merry-go-rounds due to the spins and almost-vomit factor from going ’round and round. But swinging was fun. So were teeter-totters. Slides, just ok. Unless they were at water parks. Water slides rock!
4. What simple things are you cherishing lately?
For me as a mom, seeing the pure joy Skylar has while running free and playing at the park, or picking out a pumpkin together, seeing her smile when we walk by a cute dog and she oohs and ahhs over the doggie-cute-factor, these are what parenthood is all about. Just cherishing the small things, the simple things.
Other things I cherish are being outside in great weather, just being with my family, having unstructured time together; these are truly the simple things in life, but they give me the most reward.
Of course I also cherish my new vegan gluten-free shampoo, my new tattoo, and 20 minutes here and there with my DVR full of mindless Bravo TV and E! Channel recorded shows.
What are the small or simple things you cherish?
