a weekend of love and food

Valentine's Day

I hope everyone had a happy and healthy Valentine's weekend!  Both my husband and I took Friday off to make for a relaxing LONG weekend.  My husband knows that the way to my heart is either jewelry or cool kitchen appliances, and this year he did great surprising me with my first dehydrator!!  This worked out PERFECT as I was planning on attempting a raw veggie vegan bread in the oven for dinner.  No need for the oven now!!  I have to say this is a VERY easy to use dehydrator so far.  Thank you honey, I LOVE you and my gift!!

With my first 5k on Saturday we spent Friday getting the grocery shopping all done, but did take time out to try a new vegan restaurant.  24 Carrots in Tempe. They just moved into a new location, which took us a while to find as they did not have a sign up yet lol.  Our normal vegan restaurant has a much larger menu, but 24 Carrots offered some yummy choices.  The meal portions were smaller, but over all good....great? No, but good.  It was fun just trying something new.  Makes you wonder if in the near future you will find more and more vegan restaurants pop up?

We are not ones to venture out on Valentine's night for dinner.  Instead I planned a lovely dinner for us to enjoy in the relaxation of our own home.  I had prayed all day that my raw veggie vegan bread in the dehydrator was cooking as it was suppose to be (the house did smell amazing!).  I am happy to report EVERYTHING turned out perfect!!  We stuffed ourselves silly.  Here is our Valentine's food porn photos from the evening -

Raw Veggie Vegan Bread with Avocado and Asparagus

Eggplant Parmesan with Zucchini Noodles

Raw Vegan Chocolate Avocado Truffles

We finished up the evening relaxing with a good movie.  A perfect day!!

First 5k

Saturday we woke up bright and early for some overnight oats I had made the evening before.  Before leaving I whipped up some Raw Carrot Cashew Bread for the dehydrator, but forgot to take a photo of it when it was done...we, okay I, ate it up QUICKLY!!  Anyways, Prada had no idea where we were going, but she was up to go!  Registration began at 7am and it was a bit chilly out until the sun finally came out.  The start was a little delayed as this was their first 5k event, but we took off about 8:20am.  Runners without dogs first, then runners with dogs and finally walkers with dogs.  We wedged ourselves between the runners with dogs and walkers.  With everyone running in front of us Prada took that as a sign to run along with them!  Now yes, I do own a Greyhound and they are known for their racing - however, Greyhounds are VERY lazy and really do not like exercise!  I kid you not, they are more like a HUGE cat lol.  I wasn't sure if Prada could actually finish a 5k BUT we did it!!  We even finished in about 45 minutes (if that!).  Poor Prada was dragging a bit at the end, but I was very proud of her for doing such a great job and making my first 5k a total blast!  Thank you also to my wonderful husband for supporting us!! xoxo

Weekend of Cooking!

Sunday I had more fun cooking and playing with my dehydrator.  I sliced up two apples and tried my hand at dried apples - OMG they turned out amazing!!  I also made some Blueberry-Raspberry Chia Jam (used it today on my breakfast!).  This was very easy to make and only took minutes! Here is the original recipe.

Blueberry-Raspberry Chia Jam

Ingredients
1 cup Frozen Blueberries
1 Cut Frozen Raspberries
2 Tablespoons water
2 Tablespoons Chia Seeds
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 Packet of Stevia (if needed)

Directions
In a sauce pan bring berries and water to a boil while mashing with a spoon.  Remove from heat once it boils and stir in chia seeds, vanilla and Stevia until well mixed.  Stir again a few minutes later and store in refrigerator in Mason Jar.

Breakfast topped with jam!

I also baked up some acorn squash fries, but I think I will save that one for tomorrow.  ;)  I am making myself WAY TOO hungry right now.  LOL!  I hope everyone out there also had an amazing weekend!!