Complete lack of meal posts! Sorry!

I guess I have quite a few meals to catch up on, eh?
Well, once again, apologies for the camera-phone quality pics. I promise the food was alot yummier than how it appears in the pictures. I wouldn't post a yucky tasting meal!




This one is Zattaran's Black Beans and Rice with GimmieLean Breakfast Sausage mixed in. Simple. Awesome. However, my only complaint was that the box claimed to be reduced sodium, and the meal was crazy salty.


It's fall, and acorn squash is in it's peak season, so with my obsession with this particular squash, I find myself buying it at almost every kind of market I go to (supermarket, local fruit and veggie market, farmers markets, etc). I have about 6 in a paper bag on my kitchen floor right now.
This meal was acorn squash, cooked with a tiny pat of butter, a tiny sprinkle of brown sugar, a good sprinkle of salt and pepper, chopped walnuts, and I then cooked some wild mushroom cous cous and stirred it into the forked squash. Very very yummy, and almost vegan if you leave out the little pat of butter. I also served a pile of cous cous on the side, because I loves me some cous cous. Plus, its fun to say. Cous cous cous cous cous cous. The green stuff on the cous cous is just parsley for make it purty.


So even when I was a meat eater, some of my best meals came out of desperation for a last minute meal, randomly throwing together whatever I could find in my kitchen. This is cheese tortellini with mushrooms and onions. I sauteed the mushrooms and onions in a pan with (I know it's going to sound weird, but you have to trust me, I ate two bowls of it) a splash of Italian dressing, a few good splashes of Tamari (aged soy sauce), a small splash of Franks RedHot, and a good healthy (and healthful!) shake of wheat germ. The wheat germ adds a nutty flavor, thickens the sauce, and adds Vitamin E and folic acid. Yum! This dish was awesome. Isn't it funny how different sauces or flavors that you usually would never pair together can somehow meld into one amazing meal?


Fall has got to be my favorite time of year. For the obvious reasons: the colors, the air, the smells, Halloween, etc. But also for the vegetables that are in season. I love wrapping up in a warm sweater and strolling a fall festival and picking through farmers markets carts. Squash and zucchini are in season now, which is making me so happy. I have a feeling some fall festivals are going to be in my near future, so expect more pictures.

I think I'm going to get serious about becoming vegan. It's so hard when so many vegetarian options are to turn towards cheese. Raviolis, pizzas, Mexican dishes, etc. But I really feel heavy and weighed down lately, and my weight is yo-yo-ing in a zone I do NOT like it in. I just feel heavy and sloppy and slightly bloated all the time. I want to started chugging down water like I used to as well. I left my favorite purple Nalgene in the freezer at work over the weekend, and the bottle bulged and expanded. Luckily, they make such good quality bottles that the plastic expanded and now has what looks like a belly stretch mark, rather than just bursting. the website says they can freeze up to -145 degrees or something and heat up to 200 something degrees...maybe it's a specific kind of bottle I dont have. Either way, I love my 32 oz. Nalgene and carry it everywhere! It keeps me hydrated, makes me looks oh-so-cool, keep that many more plastic bottles out of the landfills....the benefits are endless! My favorite thing to do latelyis to get those little on-the-go pakcets of iced tea or juice (peach tea is my favorite) and sprinkle a portion of it into the bottle to make lightly peach tea flavored water. It says to use a half packet per regular bottle of water, which is less than my 32 oz. bottle but that makes very strong iced tea. I prefer iced tea flavored water. Less sugar and what not. Flavoring the water this way helps me drink the water fast and makes it more interesting, thus making me want to drink more.

Whew, I've said alot tonight. Until next time!