Some Stuff I've Been Eating and Drinking

Here is a gluten free carrot cake with vegan cream cheese frosting I made last week. The cake was a mix given to me by a neighbor along with the angel food cake mix I made last week. I added shredded carrot and also some crushed pineapple which was suggested in the instructions. It was so moist and you definitely could not tell this was gluten free. I was super proud of the frosting because I have never made cream cheese frosting vegan or not. Most recipes I found online included vegan butter, and I do my best to avoid palm oil so earth balance is out and Miyokos butter was not in the budget this week. So I just mixed tofutti cream cheese with some powdered sugar in my food processor an hoped for the best! I think it turned out pretty well, especially for my first time.

I've also been enjoying this Newman's Own organics dark chocolate. It's more on the milk chocolate side of dark chocolate and I love it so much!

This is an ugly but delicious dish I made up with odds and ends I had laying around. I made a stew with potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onion and celery and made some gluten free dumplings. I had a little bit of butternut squash puree that I added to the dumpling dough. Like a hug in a bowl!

As always I've been eating lots of potatoes. These are Creole seasoned fries with awesomesauce for dipping. I can't recommend awesomesauce enough.

I am not a fan of beets but they are so so good for you, an are also supposed to be naturally energizing so I made myself some beet, pineapple and lime juice. I find pineapple and lime are the best combo for cutting that earthy flavor of beets. Since my body is really resisting my late night hours, I've gotten into a bad habit of having a cup of coffee at work. I used to be a serious coffee addict and I don't want to go down that path again.

Still doing lots of smoothies. This one had banana, hemp seeds, acai, frozen cherries and spinach. We've been having a super mild winter so far here in SLC so smoothies have been on the menu!

Last night I had a sushi bowl minus the usual seaweed snacks. I'm going to have the other half of the avocado in today's smoothie.
I had a rough night at work last night. I fought off a major cloud of depression all day before going to work, an it was one rude customer after another. It took all of my human strength to not walk out. I found a coworker to work for me today. I need a personal day so I don't do something I regret. So today I'm going to tinker in the kitchen an try to get myself in better spirits.

I'm sure these goofballs will help cheer me up. The squirrel who teases/taunts them came by this morning. Poor Etta was getting climbed over by Joan who so badly wants to get it!