epic st. paddy's day!

St. Patrick's Day in our house is more than corn beef (and vegan corn beef) it is also the day my wonderful and handsome son was born!  Yesterday my boy child turned 14 years-old!!  Both my husband and daughter had to work yesterday, so for the first time in awhile we had a FAMILY dinner TOGETHER on Sunday to celebrate!  It has been awhile since we all ate together at the table, and it was really nice to see my lovely family all there.

I promised the boy child I would make corn beef just for him (and that was all he ate), but the rest of the meal was 100% vegan.  This was my first St. Patrick's Day meal as a vegan and thank God for the internet as I found my recipes for that evening all on one bloggers website - Fat Free Vegan Kitchen!  I made vegan corn beef (using Tofurky Roast Beef Style Deli Slices for my meat), cabbage, roasted red potatoes and Irish Soda Bread!  All amazing!!  I was a little under the weather all weekend, but the meal was so easy to cook up that we might have to have it again sometime during the year.

Monday night still had to be celebrated, so grandma and I took the boy child out for dinner where his sister worked (about the only way I can get my daughter to do anything for me is visit her at work and MAKE her wait on me LOL!).  We enjoyed pizza (mine vegan) and then his wonderful sister surprised him with cupcakes and birthday candles to blow out!  Later this week for his birthday gift dad is taking him to the Sun's game for a boy's night out!!  They'll have a blast and I'll have a quiet night at home!  I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful son and wish him nothing but a year of luck and love!

Weekend Recap

Earlier last week I cooked up my favorite Spanish Rice and Smokey Black Bean Tacos, but found some creative ways to finish off the leftovers over the weekend.  I made everything from sushi to a topping for homemade roasted sweet potato chips lol.  Saturday morning I took a field trip to Whole Foods and enjoyed a fresh veggie juice, omg so good!  I love spending time just walking around and checking out other vegan options I may not have known about. Somehow, I still only walked out with the Tofurky that I needed and nothing else!  The vegan donuts were KILLING me!!

Skinny Redhead

When trying to live a healthy lifestyle you have to understand that life is always throwing you curve balls from time to time.  It's how you react to those curve balls that is important.  Last week we had a sick family friend (who is now home and doing better!), but it threw us off of our "normal" weeknight routine.  I have been fighting with the last 5 pounds that I want to lose, but I know better than to throw ALL of it away because maybe I ate something I shouldn't have or didn't get my exercise in one night.  The scale plays the game of up-down-up-down-up-down and it is what it is.  The important thing is - to power ahead!!  Remembering that you didn't come THIS far to NOT make it to the finish line.  Today, I wear the cute little size SMALL dress I bought over the weekend at Target and remind myself that I have achieved a lot over the last year, I feel great and wearing a size SMALL dress!  LOL! Reward yourself along the way, praise yourself along the way - we are SO worth it!!