Pretty Things

Well, Wes and I are completely moved, but not completely unpacked. We haven’t made an effort to unpack dvds or books so far. I think we’re still trying to decide the best living room lay out before we do that. BUT…I’m back to blogging. I’m gonna shoot for at least three posts a week, and maybe one weekend post.

Before I start though, don’t forget to enter my contest to win a box full of healthy, delicious snacks! You have until next Friday to enter, so I’ll try to remind everyone in each entry.

I’m going to out myself now, as far as how behind I am on actually posting. The week before Fat Tuesday, I reached out to my neighborhood vegan restaurant of awesomeness, The Wild Cow about what (if anything) they were doing for Mardi Gras. I definitely had an ulterior motive. I wanted a vegan king cake and I definitely did not want to make one in the midst of a move or in a new oven that I wasn’t sure was temperature correct. The owner, Melanie, offered to let me order one. I chose to get cinnamon pecan filling. In case you’re wondering, this was the superior king cake style, in that it was a yeasted dough, so it was kind of like cinnamon rolls…except not, and way better. The icing on this bad boy was almond flavored, like the icing on the donuts is at The Wild Cow. This, obviously, made me insanely happy.

Yes, the baby is in the middle instead of inside the cake. Apparently, a bunch of lawsuits in NOLA resulted in people no longer putting babies in the cake. People were swallowing and choking on the baby (SERIOUSLY?? SWALLOWING SOMETHING THAT LARGE? GO AMERICA!)

The weekend after Fat Tuesday was the celebration of one of my bestie’s birthdays. She’s one of the awesome gals over at Americkan Dream. I made her a chocolate cake that involved coffee and buttermilk in the batter. Then i made the best mousse I’ve ever made in my life. I cannot fathom why I have no pictures of this cake. It was AMAZING. I did, however, make another treat for the party. Super sugary deliciousness actually. Using earth balance, dandies marshmallows, and fruity pebbles, I made a treat that was loved by many:

Yeah, dangerous business up there.

I’m an impulse grocery store shopper. I’m trying to break myself of this habit, and I’ve started by not shopping at a variety of six different stores. Yeah, I know, shut up. (ok, but seriously: CostCo, Trader Joe’s, Publix, K&S International Market, World Market, Kroger, Whole Foods. Shit, that’s seven grocery stores.) Anyways, I spotted something that stole my heart. Purple Food.

And then I let it chill in a vegetable drawer for almost 2 weeks. Yeah, I’m that girl sometimes. Anyways, unlike other purple foods, which tend to lose their color when cooked, purple cauliflower’s color intensifies when it’s roasted. I drizzled raw tahini and frank’s hot sauce on this plain roasted cauliflower. So simple and so delicious.

And actually, I loved the tahini/hot sauce combination so much that I put it on the raw spinach salad I ate with this cauliflower. zoomed in:

The above is proof that my diet isn’t all sweets.
I was enjoying my regular Sunday activity of 2-4-1’s

That’s Yazoo Hefeweizen (local, I’m sorry you can’t get it, but come visit Nashville) and whiskey.
When I went outside, there was a lady in a tiara walking her dog…it was her dog Charlotte’s first birthday and this is what the poor thing was wearing

Now you can’t see her face, but this is a pit bill and she looked very, very unhappy about this outfit.

Last night, I made french toast. But I cut the bread way too thick. Sadness. Wasted ingredients. It was kind of pretty though! I had some cinnamon maple syrup on the side.

And, this is apparently what I’ll be snacking on for the next few weeks, since I can’t seem to break up with great buys at CostCo. FYI guys, organic produce, hummus, soy milk and healthy snack foods (GF too even) are SO CHEAP at CostCo.