The Weekend's Here!

Oh boy! Vegan pizza - what a treat! The kitchen was a fun place to be this evening :) Everything here is homemade, including the sauce.

Here's the recipe to the dough, and for the sauce I sauteed a bit of freshly pressed garlic, added 2 cans of quality petite diced tomatoes, 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, and a 1/2 teaspoon of oregano (anyone notice the Julia Child influence???) Simmer until thick, mashing the tomatoes with a fork. This will probably take about 25 minutes to get to the right consistency.

Mushrooms make a great meat substitute for any pizza. Just sautee them in a little olive oil and a shake of garlic salt to soften them up before you toss them on your pizza. Yum!



I'm lovin' summertime! Delicious green smoothies help keep me running :)



Since I had a piano lesson yesterday afternoon, I couldn't resist taking a picture from lunch with this beautiful Brahm's book!

Picking piano back up is helping me in so many ways beyond just improving skills. Becoming a student again (not they we ever stop) reminds me to be patient when I teach others. My teachers don't get frustrated with me, and although they put the pressure on me because they care about how far I go they don't get upset when it takes some work to get there. I'm learning, and enjoying the application process :-)



My Pappy took me and my little sister out for ice cream this afternoon. Ahh, heavenly . . .



My cup - peanut butter and chocolate are wonderful compliments :) Joie de vivre!



We had peaches on hand and I thought a peach cobbler would make a delicious dessert to top off last night's meal. I used the same recipe for this as I did the naturally sweetened blueberry cobbler because it's so good, except I used peaches :-)

I made some homemade ice cream too. It's so easy! Here's the recipe:

Freezer Bowl Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream  

2 cups almond milk

3/4 cup sugar in the raw, turbindo sugar

2 cups heavy cream

salt, pinch

Dissolve your sugar with a whisk in your milk and cream (don't skip this step - very important!). Add you sugar. Churn according to your ice cream maker's directions.

Today's lunch - a delicious Greek salad. It was so huge I couldn't finish it!

Yesterday I ran 3 miles. Thus far, I've logged 9.4 miles for this week. I know, a low number in the running world so tomorrow I'm looking forward to running some more to add a few more miles to that total number :-)

What weekend foods are you enjoying? Anyone making pizza? Or running?

July 4th Recap :)

I think I'm spoiled... I've had lots of ice cream in my lifetime, but today's was by far the best! Most things homemade taste better than store bought, in my opinion, simply because you made it with real food ingredients. Add a little love on top of that and - wow! 

This is the fresh, unpasteurized, "pet milk" I was telling you about. There are risks that go with drinking it so I'm not advocating it or encouraging you to try it at all. Do your research and take personal responsibility if you go this route. 

I love how this picture turned out simply because it looks so pure and wholesome.

Since we made the ice cream ahead of time, it was difficult to restrain from using the excuse, "I'm just tasting" over and over again!

 Thick, creamy, and distinctly vanilla. "Out of this world!!!" as Paula Deen would say :-)

This picture is from Tuesday. My brother Bobby (to my left) and I had a lunch date with some old friends at Mi Casita! Yummy :) I ordered vegetarian quesadillas with beans & rice. It was a ton of food and I was stuffed to the gills afterwards - take away boxes are great for such situations! As are brothers, I should add :P

Wednesday morning, July 4th, I tired to think of a way to make my green smoothie patriotic. A red, white & blue smoothie didn't sound too appetizing so instead I just went with this background to snap the picture.

I'd had the fun idea of making blueberry pancakes to celebrate too but that just didn't happen :/ We were up the night before with friends which made the morning a little slower. So, instead I just arranged a semi-patriotic scene for my delicious banana/kale smoothie :)

I keep offering sip samples to other members of the family... hopefully one day they'll be excited about me serving 'em up a glass of this green goodness.

Posin' for a picture in the kitchen with my sweet Momma. She made the gorgeous festive trifle to the right. Delish! I enjoy eating healthy, but I also enjoy special occasions :-)

You can barely see the creamy vanilla ice cream in this picture (with the cow scoop), but it was so, so good. Wish I could share!!!

We went swimming at my grandma Mimi's and did a little cookout at her house. I love events with food, family and fun!

I couldn't remember the last time I'd had a real burger! This was a super big treat!!! I think everyone in my family was really looking forward to this picnic style meal :) Hanging out at my grandma's house brings back great memories from being a kid! It's times like these that make me grateful for my wonderful family, and miss my grandfather - I remember grilling out with him as a little girl. So special. It's interesting how you think things will always be the same, but they won't. Time changes, people change, life changes... Even though there are blessing all around me, I feel I can always be reminded to have a grateful heart :)

Happy Birthday, America! Enjoy this music clip "God Bless, America" from Martina McBride :) How did you spend the 4th with your loved ones? Any good food or fun activities?