Ok it’s official. I am the world’s worst blogger. I guess I have a lot of things working against me. It started with a website crash which required my IT guy (aka my spouse) to re-publish everything. Followed by a lot of things on my plate including civic engagement (I joined a city commission and publish a very informal voter’s guide every year), starting a new side-gig as a group fitness instructor, and planning my wedding reception (the getting married part was way easier).

They say that the way to a person’s heart is through that person’s stomach (actually that’s not quite how “they” say it, but I’m not going to gender it). That’s probably why everyone wants to get their loved ones sweet things for Valentine’s Day. Well, I’m not going to do it. Been there, done that, and you don’t need another blog post on candy this time of year.

I’m talking about ranch!

OK so I tend to binge—both on food and on catching up on blogging. Luckily my actual food binges tend to be on the healthier side and this time it is salads. Yes! I have not one but TWO salads for you to try! Both involve kale because in about two weeks it will be one of the most readily available locally grown vegetables here in MN. 

Creamy Kale Strawberry Salad

Dressing Ingredients:

My mouth decided to fall apart in my early 30s so I of course I had to have yet another procedure earlier this month. Naturally that meant smoothie time! This is one that I have been making since I bought some cheap frozen peaches at the co-op like 7 years ago. There’s not much to it, but it’s a real sweet treat!

This past weekend was Passover and I spent some of the time with my “chosen” (see what I did there) family at Vegan Seder. I learned a lot of things about parsley and salty tears, plagues, parting the sea and being pardoned by the angel of death. I might have missed a few things, but to be fair we went through like 200 pages of content in about 30 minutes. My greatest achievement for the evening however was mastering a vegan matzoh ball. 

Whether it’s Beyond or Impossible, seems lots of folks these days are looking for a better burger. I suppose I’m no different. A million years ago (i.e. 3) when I started down this whole blog path, I was making a different kind of veggie burger every week. I even thought I would do a burger a week. Well like everything else in life I am way behind that, but some beets recently came into my life so I thought I would give it another go. Beets make a great base for burgers because of their brilliant color and their chewy texture.

Sorry for the delay but I just got back from a 10-day excursion in Guatemala (and before that a weekend in San Francisco. I am soooo behind!). It was fun, cheap and super easy to be vegan. Many things intimidate me about traveling abroad, and upholding the ol’ vegan diet thing is one of them. It was really easy to adhere to my diet and I didn’t even have to eat corn and beans the whole time (though lots of times I chose to!!).

This week my friends & I had a pizza and movie night. I’m the kind of person who longs for that fully-loaded supreme pizza replica kind of thing. Of course, no mainstream supreme pizza is complete without pepperoni. Unfortunately, the store near my house doesn’t carry veggie pepperoni, and while most would probably consider it a lot easier to drive across town until I found some somewhere, I for one  (as someone who hates driving and loves cooking) find it much more enjoyable to try making it myself.

I don’t know where it originated but my friend is right; Wisconsin is crazy about “taco dip.” If you are not from Wisconsin, it’s almost what it sounds likeyou’re your idea of a taco is closer to that of Taco Bell’s that Danny Trejo’s. Subtract any meat, substitute corn chips for the shell, and put all the fillings into neatly arranged casserole layers and you have yourself a taco dip. Perhaps an appetizer to some, but my family used to have this as a main course. I never really cared for it too much until I started making a vegan version when I was in high school.

Hello internet! It has been a long time since I have last written. Blogging for me is a lot like journaling these days, I vow to write more often and I’m basically the only one reading it. But once I renewed my domain and paid for the web hosting I realized I really need to do it or I am just throwing money in the garbage, and I really hate throwing things out.