Happy Herbivore Light & Lean is coming!

I've made no secret of my love for Happy Herbivore Lindsay Nixon.  I found the blog while searching for cleaner and lighter vegan alternatives for the food I love.  Her cookbooks are my go-to when someone asks me for healthy recipes and I've picked up her meal plans from time to time.  Her twists on Southern favorites are loved by the omni family, too, and as I've mentioned before, pleasing the man and boy is not always easy.

When Lindsay made the announcement about her newest book, I pre-ordered it (In March) and scored!  I receive an excerpt with 14 recipes and a bonus book.

Happy Herbivore Light & Lean includes more of the low fat,whole food vegan recipes I love and workout plans. If you pre-ordered,you've seen some of the goodness this book has in store.  The Meatloaf Bites and Carol's Cabbage Soup are particularly yummy.  If you're looking for something sweet, her Blueberry Yogurt Muffins are a delight.  Pair one with fruit or hash browns for breakfast, snag one for a snack with coffee or tea, or have it for dessert.  

For the blog tour, I asked Lindsay three questions about her her favorite forms of exercise and her advice for someone new to the clean plant-based way of eating.  

Me:  In your blog you mention snowboarding a lot.  Besides hitting the board, what is your favorite type
of exercise?

LN: I go hiking almost every day when it's not winter. I also really enjoy yoga year-round.

Me:  That's great!  I love yoga, too. Finding activities I love helps me look at exercise as fun and not a chore. Now on to making a change in general.  Do you have any advice for someone just making the change from a sedentary lifestyle and SAD to active and whole food plant-based?  Should he/she go all in or take it one step at a time?

LN:  I can't recommend the meal plans enough!  Or my 3-day reboot or 10-day cleanse immersion 
 program. Every person is different. I find most people have the best success doing
 a 180-approach, just rip off the band aid, as I say. Other people need a more gradual approach. Make every meal you can a healthy plant-based one, and start walking on your lunch break. Start with 5 minutes if you have to, then add on. Then start walking in the morning before work. Little by little!

Me:  I thought I was a 180-degree person, but with the family I've found it easier to make gradual changes. Converting their favorite recipes is sometimes a challenge.  Have you converted all of your favorite foods into whole food goodness?  How difficult was it?

LN:  Yes! Some recipes proved more challenging than others but for the most part everything has translated quite beautifully and many times, I like the new healthy version way better.

Appreciate your time, Lindsay - thanks!

While I recover and figure out how to get into a sustainable workout routine, eating clean helps me keep on track.  If you want affordable, easy, clean, quick, and delicious recipes with wide appeal, check out the Happy Herbivore blog and books.  Light & Lean is going to be awesome!  Get a sneak peek on Amazon and keep your eyes open for more from me on the recipes.

 

Playing with booze at Charleston's Striped Pig Distillery

Hi.  I'm Sherrie and on occasion I really like my booze.  Vodka is my usual first choice, but rum, wine, and a good pint work equally well.  Hubby and I were fooling around one Saturday afternoon and decided to stop by Charleston's first distillery since Prohibition for a tour. We went for the tour and left with a bottle. 

Striped Pig Distillery opened earlier this year with plans for a grand opening shortly.  The beautiful facility is open to the public (21 and up) from 3-7 pm Wednesday though Friday and noon-5 for tours and tastings.  We were warmly greeted by Todd and our tour started. 

How gorgeous is this still?

Reclaimed wood and lots of light are everywhere.  Ingredients are in plain sight, too. Local non-GMO corn and molasses from Savannah are right there for us to see.  We learned how finely they mill the grains, how long each batch takes, and how excited they are about their products.  After a little ooh-ing and ahh-ing, we moved on to the bar for the main event.

Love the focal point!  A local artist whipped it up.

 

 

Neat bar table, eh?

We tried the Striped Vodka, Striped Shine, and Striped Rum. We started with my beloved vodka.  I liked the flavor and warmth. Striped shine is straight-up moonshine, but with a cleaner taste than expected.  It burned so good.  Rum is something I usually mix, but I easily drink Striped Pig's Striped Rum straight up. It is the best rum I've had to date. 

After all was said and done, we decided we had to have a bottle of limited edition rum.  Sorry if 43 is your lucky number because that one is ours. 

Swing by and pick up your favoite spirit from 10-7 pm Monday through Friday and noon until 5 on Saturday.  Remember, the tour schedule is different from the store hours during the week. Shoppers have t-shirts, barware, and spirits to choose from. I see booze as holiday gifts this year.  

Follow Striped Pig Distillery on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for daily updates on events like their packing party.   We're sorry we missed that one. 

Cheers!

What's shaking? More Vegg, lentils, and other food stuff.

The Summerville, SC area apparently.  Another couple of quakes hit this past week.  Neat, eh?

Other than quakes, it's the same old except in the kitchen.  I'm playing with The Vegg still and loving it more. The french toast and tofu scramble with cheesy grits were awesome!  And easy!  I didn't follow recipes from The Veg Cookbook, but used it in my usual recipes.

Tofu scramble and grits with Vegg, nutritional yeast, garlic, a little Earth Balance,
and hot sauce.  Yeah, baby! 

French Toast made with Vegg, homemade raw cashew milk,
cinnamon, and turmeric.  Agave Nectar-topped with fruit on the side.  

Tonight is breakfast for dinner night, a family fav.  Pancakes, grits, scrambles (eggs for them, tofu for me), roasted potatoes, pear compote, and gluten-free cinnamon rolls are on the menu.  And yes, Vegg will play a role in there.

Today (and tomorrow) the plan is to play with lentils.  I'm challenging myself to come up with several ways to use them without making hubby bored.  So far, lentil soup/stew, curry served with greens, lentil loaf, shepherd's pie, and lentil 'meatballs' with marinara come to mind.  I'l let you know how it goes.

For now, I'm out.  I am so stoked that I get to play with food for a living and for fun.  Feeling lucky, that's me!

Ahh, Vegg. Nummy goodness.

So I received a package The Vegg Cookbook and a package of Vegg.  I wasn't sure what I could do with it before I started playing with it, but so far, so good.

Hubby and the Boy don't always care for my vegan goodness when tofu is a main ingredient, but last night they tore into my experiment.  I had Soyrizo on hand I needed to finish up and wanted a grab and go breakfast besides overnight oats or chia pudding,  A breakfast casserole seemed perfect, so I went for it.

Soyriso Vegg Breakfast Casserole

2 TBS Vegg
1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I used homemade raw cashew milk)
1 lb.firm tofu, divided
4 oz. Soyrizo (Trader Joe's version is gluten-free)
3 small or one large potato, diced
1 medium onion, diced

Preheat oven o 350 degrees.  Blend Vegg and milk, then add 1/2 of the tofu and blend until smooth. Saute potatoes and onion until browned.  Add tofu and cook until heated through.  Add potato mixture to an 8x8 glass dish and pour Vegg mixture over it.  Stir to combine, then bake for 30 minutes.

Inhaled by a tofu-hating teen boy and tofu-tolerating husband.  I call that a win.

What I'm reading these days

Your friendly neighborhood Sherrie has a cookbook problem. I know it and own it.  I read them like novels and can tear through one in a couple of days.  I also have a money problem, so I pick most of my books up from the library, Mr. K's (used and new, but always cheap), and free Kindle books (for reading on my Kindle app).  I've wanted to hold books more than reading text on a screen lately, so I've hit the library practically every week. Here's a sample of what I've gone through in August alone.

I first heard of Angelica Home Kitchen thanks to an early 90's copy of Vegetarian Times.  Back then I was playing with the idea of he veggie life and loved the idea of a all veg restaurant. Good book, great recipes.   

This one needs no intro.  I checked it out for more ideas on healthy whole food vegan goodness.  I like it, but don't think I need to add this one to the permanent collection. 

Between the abundance of rain, a bad spine summer, and crazy schedules,  our garden is a sad, bare wasteland.  Except for mint and huge tomato plants which may or may not bear fruit.  Microgreens, baby vegetables, and sprouts, oh my!

And, you know, I cannot leave anything these two touch unread.  And hubby is a pie addict.  Vegan versions of his beloved blueberry, pecan, and key lime pies will be mastered! At some point.

No pictured are Crazy Sexy Kitchen and Crazy Sexy Diet.   I have the Kindle versions, but can't spend all my time looking a a screen.

So, what are you reading?