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I haven’t updated in a while. I’m a bad blogger. I had a beautiful long, entry typed up when we went grocery shopping last Thursday, and wrote all about our bargains and such, but then I accidently selected “Restart now” on a computer pop up, and my wonderful entry was lost. Than of course, Heather, had to rub in my face that Tumblr.com auto-saves your entry drafts. Sorry Heather! But I am staying true to WordPress.com. Eat my skinny jeans!

Speaking of skinny jeans, I’m totally loving the fact, that I am just about twenty eight weeks pregnant, and I’m still in my size two jeans! I really hope I don’t jinx it! I’m scared to death of getting those really large, palm tree leaf like arms. You know, the ones that they used as fans to cool off a king back in the day? Also, I think going completely Vegan slimmed my body out, my jeans are definitely saggier in the butt and leg areas. And they aren’t sagging because they need a washing. I love that all my new, gained weight is staying right where the source is. Baby Belly! Thank God!

I’ll give you a short summary of how our grocery shopping went. If I hadn’t purchased two extra items, which were congestion medicine and something else..I’m drawing a blank, we would have spent $58.58 total on two weeks worth of groceries! How crazy that I stayed under $60 this time, after I upped my budget to $100. The official total was $62.37. It was nice to be way under budget! So nice, that husband decided to treat me to lunch Whole Foods when we were there. I got vegetable sushi, cucumber and avacado assorted pieces, and husband got the grilled tofu teriyaki bowl, before we stopped eating meat, he had gotten the white chicken teriyaki bowl, and let me tell you, Whole Foods doesn’t make the best grilled tofu teriyaki bowls..I was kind of disappointed when I tried it, and so was he, it tasted like nothing! But my sushi was delicious, and so was my blueberry-acai green tea. I tried to get husband to let me go get him more sauce from the guy that prepared it, but he’s too stubborn and finished it off just how it was.

Since we’ve been grocery shopping, I’ve made a couple new recipes that I listed before in our dinner meal plan.

The Seitan Kabobs-

Husband liked them, but I was quite disappointed when I marinated them for 24 plus hours, and they still didn’t seem to take a whole lot of flavor. This could have been my fault though, I didn’t make the marinade from scratch, I tried a “House-Vinagerette” dressing as a marinade. Husband scarfed down his and mine, for some reason he said when he mixed it in with his potato, it was just like eating steak. Email me if you want the recipe.

Mushroom Seitan Stroganoff-

Absolutely amazing, husband scarfed it down like no ones business, which is ALWAYS a great sign, since he is Mr.Picky eater! I got the recipe from VeganYumYum. I didn’t use the mushroom powder like she suggested, she said you could use soy sauce if you didn’t have the mushroom powder, and it was a little bit too much. I would recommend sticking to the mushroom powder. I didn’t try the Tofutti Sour Cream by itself I just added it like the recipe told me to, and it didn’t taste any different than a real sour cream stroganoff sauce. Also, it says that it makes two large servings, well, those two large servings, are equivalent to about four to five healthy servings. My dilemma was how much pasta to make to sauce ratio. I need to invest in a pasta measurer..

Bean Quesadillas-

I didn’t follow the recipe to a tee. I don’t like cilantro so I left that out, and I had a hard time melting the Vegan Cheddar before the quesadillas were ready to come out, if you are going to make these with the Vegan Cheddar from Follow Your Heart, I recommend cooking them open face. That was Heather’s suggestion to me when I told her what happened, and well, she would know! The quesadillas were really good, overall. I left out the pinto beans and just made them with black beans and onion as the filling. Next time I think I might add some spanish rice into the quesadillas. This recipe ALSO recieved the “Husband Seal of Approval”

(Picture taken from where I got the recipe, VeganYumYum)

I woke up one afternoon not too long ago before husband did, and decided to go ahead and try out the Silver Dollar Pancake recipe I had found, and planned on making for dinner later in the week. I didn’t add enough baking powder the first batch, so I had to re-make the batter, but once I got the correct measurements (I was eyeballing everything, screw proper measuring utensils…) they were fun to make. Husband isn’t a big pancake person, but, these, were demolished! He loved them so much, he asked me to make them every morning..I didn’t have anything else to do, so I doubled the recipe and made two full batches of the Silver Dollar Pancakes, sixty-five of these babies! I sorted them into freezer bags, and now all I have to do is pull them out and pop them in the microwave for a quick reheat!

Between yesterday and today, we’ve been running around til so late, I haven’t had the motivation to cook, last night we got a $5 dollar large pizza from Little Ceasars, my half without cheese, and they charged an extra dollar for it! Husband decided he wants to keep cheese around..until I can find a delicious Vegan equivalent for Mozzarella cheese sticks, any suggestions? Bueller? Bueller? I am not a fan of Little Ceasars and husband actually said he would have preferred to eat my cooking, but was glad I could rest.

Then today, the plans were to eat the schedule Baked Potato and Hearty Tomato Soup from YESTERDAY’s menu spot, BUT, husband’s doctors appointment kind of threw us a curveball when we had to get him an x-ray AND an MRI, and then go to the pharmacy, so we decided to pick up some fast food. Husband got some Taco Bell, and I got a sandwich from Quiznos. We definitely got it through our thick skulls tonight, that eating out, at fast food especially, really is painfully horrid! Being vegan has really sensitised my tongue and as Heather put it, it’s like “Comparing a grape to a jolly rancher. More flavorful isn’t always good.” My food and Dan agreed about his, tasted like someone multiplied the ingredients by one hundred for just one serving and then threw in a block of salt. So much sodium and additives in my food, it actually made my lips hurt! Lesson learned, officially. Cooking > Dining out, and that’s that! So really, I don’t miss that food one bit!

And you’d think I’d be making Baked Potatoes and Tomato Soup tomorrow night, but, I am actually going to be making the next thing on the list, Simple Fried Rice. I want to cook one of the new recipes I have, and well, since my Quiznos sucked and I threw it out, I ate some of the soup, a slice of garlic bread, and some grapes that I picked up from Jewel to cleanse my palette after Quiznos. I keep buying stuff which is defeating the purpose of the budget, BUT, a pound of red grapes were only 88 cents! And I also picked up three Bartlett Pears, two apples, and three bananas, so that instead of warming something up when I get my midnight hunger, I can eat a piece of fruit instead. My midnight dinner was much more enjoyable than Quizno’s. And I don’t have to feel crappy about what’s in it. By the way, Progresso Hearty Tomato Soup, is absolutely amazing. Probably my new, all-time favorite canned soup.

I’ve mentioned Heather a lot in this blog entry, she’s beautiful, and my bestest friend. I couldn’t ask for a better sister. She helped me do something exciting tonight. She told me about UPromise! It’s basically a way to save money for college by spending with your debit or credit card! For instance if you fill up at Exxon or Mobile you get one cent added to your college savings and then you can chose to invest your savings in a 529 plan, pay down a student loan, or request a check for college expenses. We have about eighteen years of spending to do, to help us save up for our son, and I think it will actually help with a good chunk. And it’s not just spending on gas, you can get savings money from going out to eat, buying certain items at the grocery store, shopping online (They have an application basically that you can download onto your browser that tells you when you’re online shopping, if the site you are at or the results in the search engine have products that can contribute to your savings.), and it’s FREE. I’m so excited to start using our debit card next check!

I’m trying to think of what else to mention in this update..

OH! Crappy quality picture I know, but it shows you our exciting find. And excuse the mess, I’m reorganizing the closet and needed a spot to hold some things for a hot minute. Yesterday, we were driving down the street our house is on, and we passed a vintage nine-drawer dresser with a sign taped to it that says “Free”. Came to a safe stop in front of it, and I jumped out, nothing was broken on it! So, I went to the front door and asked the woman if she would hold it until we could get it to our house down the street. The woman actually offered to put in her SUV and drive it down there. One Hundred Percent Free and absolutely beautiful! I found an almost identical dresser on Craigs List last night, and it was going for over two hundred dollars! It was crazy timing since the night before we found a dresser we were going to order online when payday comes around, and that saved us about one hundred and twenty dollars! I like finding great things for cheap or free!

We also cleaned out the nursery, and are getting ready to put furniture in it. I really need to stop looking at Etsy though, it’s going to be the death of me, I keep finding things I want to buy our son. I did find one thing though that husband really liked, it’s an old vintage printers drawer, we are going to put it in the nursery for now, until we have a bigger living room, and by the time that happens, we’ll actually have a lot more things to put on it. But for now it’ll hold cute, baby knick knacks. Which could also be a threat to our wallet if I feel the need to fill up every slot, or even just every other one..

Also, we were able to pocket a nice sixty five George Washingtons by finally selling our old Round Glass Top dining set! Now I can buy these as soon as we deposit the cash into the bank:

I love them so much! They remind me of Maple leaves or Autumn leaves, and I’m going to wear them everyday for the rest of my life, even when I deliver the baby, just you wait and see, I’ll post a picture of me through out the labor and delivery process with these babies on. They remind me of my favorite season, Autumn, and now I can have a little bit of Autumn, every single day! Smiles for miles over here!

I think the last thing I will add is that I have decided to really take initiative in pursuing my dream job of providing people with more Vegan food options. One day I will make my dream come true and renovate an old row house into a restaurant/cafe, but for now I’m starting small. I remember a few months ago when I went into the local Health food store, the woman told me they could sell my Vegan baked goods, if they were prepared in a commercial kitchen space. Well, there aren’t any near me that rent out to the public, but I just learned that husband’s aunt, knows the owner of one of the nicest restaurants in town. And I am thinking about asking her to get me some time with her friend, to inquire about renting out some space a couple hours a week to make some cookies, muffins, and mixes. I would like to be able to provide dips, dressings, and sauces, but the preserving and packing process would be a little bit more costly, and I’m not ready to make such a financial commitment. I am also hoping to maybe hold a baked goods sale/tasting at the Health foods store to see how many people would actually be interested in having Vegan baked goods provided to them on a regular basis. I haven’t narrowed down a ton of recipes that I would like to sell, but I do think Maple-Apple Muffins and Crumble Cake (Coffee cake) are going to be two of them.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully next entry won’t be a week from now.

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