...8.25...Over the Weekend...

...I thought I'd try and use up some of the sugar-y mango that I'd gotten on the way back from Virginia at Buck-ees...as it's really TOOOOO sweet to eat out of the bag...so I soaked it overnight...

...which made it look rather unappealing...but I chopped it up...

...and added it to some oatmeal and almond milk...and it was an ok breakfast...the Man did not partake...but hopefully I can use up the rest of the mango...maybe I'll soak the sugar off of it and make a smoothie with the rest...

...y'all know I often get a Poppi while I'm shopping at Aldi...but they cost about $2...so I though I'd try a frugal homemade version to take with me while shopping...

...1/4 cup superfood fruit juice...1/2 tsp Braggs ACV...one can of sparkling water and one grind of pink salt...

...the verdict...it was good...probably won't replace Poppi for me though...haha...

...the weekly shop...

...of note...the Baby Bare apples are about half the price of regular apples...$1.89 for a two pound bag...

...and Aldi had this pasta salad (accidentally vegan) on sale for 37¢...so I got two of them...and there's a recipe on the back for a spinach feta version that should be easy to veganize...

...the baby apples in Mamaw's basket...they're quite pretty even if they are small...

...we went to a street fair...and I got henna done on my hand...I'd never done that before...Our Airman used to get a henna tattoo every year at the beach...

...they had vegan popsicles...

...after the henna chunks fell off...it's quite pretty...but I probably won't ever do it again...have you ever had a henna tattoo...

...I hung the laundry out to dry in a sunny secluded spot in the yard...

...and I think the only food prep I did was to make some tofu sour cream...

...My Version of Tofu Sour Cream...there are 100s out there...

3/4 block of firm tofu
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tbs. Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp. lactic acid
1/4 tsp. nutritional yeast...and I just blend it in the Vitamix until completely smooth and creamy...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

...8.23...Dinner and a Movie...

...since my sweet Sissie had reminded me of the little Chinese restaurant we used to visit with them...for dinner we got Chinese takeout...#91 Bean Curd with Vegetables...it was delicious...of course...

...and the movie was Into the Spider-verse...it came highly recommended by two people much younger than us...haha...so of course we had to watch it...and it was surprisingly good...

...what have you been watching lately?...

~Have a lovely day!d

...8.22...Friday Update...and a couple of mistakes...

...remember when I posted about the Man's McMahon pepper...well...that's not what this is...more on that in a bit...but when I was picking the rattlesnake beans for the day...and there were a ton of them ....probably because we've had so much rain...but I noticed that it (this plant) had been eaten...

...and guess who the culprit was...at least he wasn't eating my Rutger tomatoes this time...

...so he got a free ride over to the slough...

...now...about that plant...it's not a McMahon pepper at all...I'd been picking the little berries and putting them in a bowl in the kitchen to dry...thinking they were like a black pepper berry and you'd grind them up when they were dry...

...this is the description of the actual McMahon pepper...

"McMahon's pepper, also known as McMahon's Bird Pepper or Texas McMahon's Bird Pepper, is a small, round, hot, and decorative heirloom pepper variety introduced in 1813 by Bernard McMahon from seeds given by Thomas Jefferson. The fruit has a medium heat level, typically between 50,000 to 100,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), and is prized for its appearance, which allows it to be strung like cranberries for drying and decoration. The plants are well-suited for container gardening and overwintering indoors."

...so when the Man said that the berries I was picking didn't look like what he remembered when he ordered the seeds...I got out the seed packet...and sure enough...

...that was not this...the McMahon pepper is red before it turns black...and it's an individual pepper...not a cluster...

...I went searching the interwebs for what this plant actually is...

...and this is what I found...further research says that the ripe berries are edible but not the green ones...'the ripe, black berries are generally considered edible in small amounts and can be used in jams and other cooked dishes'...so it's not like 'deadly nightshade' - Belladonna...

...but still...be careful out there in the garden...we thought it was so weird that this imposter pepper wound up growing (possibly planted there by a bird...eeeeuuuwww) in the exact square foot where I had planted McMahon peppers...

...the second mistake was these "bush" beans...and again...that's not what they are...apparently I planted white half runners instead of bush beans...

...I'm totally ok with that...I love WHRs...but they did need strings to support them...we should have a nice crop before frost...

...like I said...I picked a BUNCH of rattlesnake beans...enough for a whole potful...but I'll combine them with the bag that's already in the fridge...

...these were the ones that got left on the plant for too long...that's ok though...I'll save the seeds from them for next year...

...and these are the cow peas that I picked up from the ground...I need to do a little bit of research and see when I need to pick them as some of them are turning brown still on the plant...

...so I shelled them out just to see what they were like...

...and they're like a small black-eyed pea...

...and the final update is an indoor one...we finished the little foyer rehab by painting the baseboard...you can kindof see in the photo what a difference the fresh white paint makes...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your weekend!...

...8.21...Delicious Vegan Food we ate...

...except for the vegan feta...this is entirely the Man's creation...(vegan feta is just cubed tofu cooked in water 1/4 cup of vinegar and 2 Tbs. of salt for about 10 minutes...and then either baked or air-fried just a bit to dry it out)...

...it's still really hot here so he did all this cooking inside...first he sautéed some zucchini...

...then onions and garlic followed by little tomatoes...

...rehydrating soy curls in some vegan chick'n broth...

...noodz and salt ready for the pot...which is boiling on the back porch...

...he added black olives...

...and air-fried the soy curls...

...then just started adding everything to the pot...zucchini...

...vegan feta...

...soy curls...

...then he gave everything a toss...

...and we had it with bread and a salad...so delicious...

...what delicious food have you been eating?...

~Have a lovely day!

...8.20...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...I have made a little bit of progress on the second sleeve...the leaf pattern band is done...and I'm decreasing with every round so hopefully I'll have some time to finish it this week...

...what's in your workbasket this week?...

~Have a lovely day!

...8.19...Tuesdays with Julia...

...we made the Oignons à la Grecque...they're already vegan...

...and just had them with a 'regular' vegan meal...rice, broccoli and baked tofu...

...and these are good...a nice cool salad-y pickle-y thing...not a typical warm veg side dish...

...and all of the particulars are over at The Vegan Version...

~Have a lovely day!

...8.18...Over the Weekend...

...we had soaked some black beans overnight...and in the morning the Man rinsed them and spiced them up...ready for the Instant Pot...

...out on the back porch...I stir fried the onions and peppers...and garlic...

...and when they had just started to carmelize a bit...

...I dumped in the soaked spiced beans...

...and in no time the black beans were prepped for the week ahead...

...also out in the outdoor kitchen...we cooked a batch of air fryer vegan biscuits...

...and inside made a pot of vegan TVP sausage gravy...

...and the last time I made these biscuits and commented on the different ways we smothered them with gravy...my sweet sissie said she tears hers to bits first...so that's what I did...

...and then slathered on the vegan gravy...

...such a delicious brunch...

...while we had the air-fryer outside...I shredded some tofu for future BBQ on a bun...

...then...the weekly shop...only things of note...we got a loaf of day-old bread at Stuff-mart for 62¢...it's gone up by about 20¢...

...but Aldi had the blueberry pie filling for 59¢...so we got two cans and that definitely made up for the bread price hike...haha...Aldi's cornbread stuffing appears to be vegan...so we got one of those too...

...in the afternoon...I picked a few green Rutger tomatoes from the square foot garden...the Man said I shouldn't eat them green but I should let them ripen...(probably because he doesn't like fried green tomatoes...haha)...

...but I sliced them up...nothing else smells like green tomatoes...right?...

...dusted them with cornmeal and Griddler-ed them...

...the fried green tomatoes made a delicious snack...for one...

...then there was a little bit of food prep in the afternoon...

...we had enough rattlesnake beans to make a small pot of those...

...and we made some pickled beets...

...it only made one quart...and we set it on the counter until we heard the familiar 'pop' of the lid sealing...

...I made a new vegan tofu dip...this one from Nisha Vora at Rainbow Plant Life...

...it was easy...

...and it turned out fine...I don't think it will replace Toby's though...

...then it was definitely time to mop the kitchen/dinette floors...probably past time...haha...

...and finally...it was time to weed the sedum again...arghhh...it's doing well though and we're hoping that once it's better established we won't have to weed it quite so often...

...and we had the black beans for dinner...

~Wishing yo a lovely start to your week!