WIAW The Leftovers

Welcome everyone!

So glad you could join the WIAW Wednesday party hosted by the lovely Jenn of Peas and Crayons.





Today I want to talk about leftovers.

There comes a time in everyone's life when they must eat leftovers and for me that day is today.

Even my breakfast is partly a leftover.

This delicious berry smoothie has a secret ingredient...left over beet juice.

Yesterday I felt a little drained and thought I would stop in at my local natural food store and get a juice.

I THOUGHT getting one with beets in it would not taste like dirt.

OH how wrong I was.  I could only take a few sips and decided I would put the rest in smoothies this week (no need to waste the stuff).

The orange and slice of pineapple in my smoothie mask the dirt taste pretty well, although I do get hints of it.

For snack:

Some Mary's Gone Crackers (in onion) and The Works from Food Should Taste Good.

To be dipped in my raw hummus:

On to lunch:

Pasta with tempeh crumbles and spinach (this was dinner on Monday).  I like it a lot my kids didn't really care for the spinach (oh well I will just keep putting it in their food and maybe one day they will like it).

For dinner:

Veggie stir-fry with quinoa and topped with Trader Joe's chickenless mandarin bites.

This was dinner last night and it is packed with kale, cabbage, carrots, and yellow bell peppers. 

The Trader Joe bites were very yummy.

I am looking forward to this vegan day of eats.

So what did you eat this week that was good?

Be sure to head over to Jenn's and see what other yummy eats people have been noshing on.

Also be sure to enter my Food Lion giveaway as today is the last day :)

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Carrots and Ginger an Improv Challenge

Happy Thursday one and all.

Today is the reveal day for the monthly Improv Challenge hosted by Kristen of Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker.

The two ingredients we were challenged with was carrots and ginger.

As soon as I heard this I knew exactly what I wanted to make, and then I modified it.

Carrot Donuts with Ginger Turbinado Sugar

1 3/4 C all-purpose unbleached flour
1/3 C sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 flax egg (1 Tbsp ground flax meal & 3 Tbsp water whipped)
3/4 almond milk
1/2 C unsweetened applesauce (I used homemade)
3/4 C grated carrots

Combine all of the ingredients together.  If you really want to put all of your dry ingredients in one bowl and mix and then put all of your wet ingredients in another bowl AND then combine the two you can.  I just don't possess a ton of patience and so I combine everything into one bowl.

You can spoon your dough directly into your greased donut pan, OR

You can scoop it into a plastic bag, nip the tip, and pipe the dough into your pan (it just makes it a little neater as long as your tip wasn't nipped too big).

I know I just said I didn't have any patience but I did pipe the dough.

To give the donuts a little extra zing I combined some fresh ginger and turbinado sugar for a couple of days.

The sugar was sprinkled on top of the donuts just before I put it in the oven.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

For a little extra love I added a vegan buttercream on top.

1 Tbsp Earth Balance softened
1 tsp almond milk
a tiny splash of vanilla extract
powdered sugar (add enough for your desired thickness)

The result was pure deliciousness and not much guilt.

Be sure to check out the other wonderful creations my fellow bloggers have come up with. 

Oh and also I would like to announce the winner of my Food Should Taste Good giveaway.  The lucky comment was # 33 from Maggie who write the fantastic blog Kitchie Coo.

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Food Should Taste Good Giveaway

When I saw this on my porch...I got excited:

Check out the ways these are made good and a product everyone can enjoy:

I was given a wonderful opportunity by the good people of Food Should Taste Good to try 5 bags of chips (of my choosing) AND provide a giveaway to you all (my wonderful readers).

Can't get much better than this.

Are you familiar with these delicious snacks?

Well if not let me tell you a little bit about them. 

The company was started in 2006 with a mission to create a healthier snack using quality ingredients.  They are a good source of dietary fiber and come in 16 flavors in their 5.5 oz line: Multigrain, Sweet Potato, Olive, Jalapeno, Lime, Cantina, The Works!, Chocolate, Blue Corn, Cheddar, White Cheddar, Toasted Sesame, Hemp, Jalapeno with Cheddar, Hatch Chile and Kettle Corn.  There is a brand new line of Kettle Cooked Sweet Potato Chips with 4 flavors: Original, BBQ, Salt & Pepper, and Salt & Vinegar.

The flavors I selected were:

The Works, Jalapeno, and Salt & Vinegar (sweet potato chips)

Chocolate and Kettle Corn.

I will start with the chocolate, because I really thought they would be the weirdest (even though Andrea from Clean Up and Eat said they were delish).  These were a good dessert chip.  Perfect alone or with a sweet vanilla yogurt dip. 

Kettle Corn fell in line next just for the sweetness it provided.  They taste just like kettle corn you would get at a street festival or county fair (just made with better ingredients...no GMO's).  I feel these are good just on their own, no need for any dips however I do need to work on a caramel dip and then they would be completely over the top.

Jalapeno I enjoyed in nacho form.  A little homemade pico de gallo and a sprinkling of cheese was all it needed.  These chips do pack a bit of heat, which I LOVE (the rest of the family not so much, but they are wusses when it comes to spice), and a make a great side to any Mexican feast.

Salt & Vinegar has been a chip I started liking when I was pregnant with Caroline almost 3 years ago.  Something about the salt & vinegar combination sat well with my stomach (which was in a constant state of flux from that little girl).  Anyway the sweet potato version ramps it up by adding the slight sweetness on top of the yummy salt and vinegar tang.

The Works...well lets just say these were my favorite (which was a really tough decision to make) but I love bagels, especially Everything Bagels.  That is exactly what these tasted like and I just fell in love.  I used a homemade ranch dip with plain Chobani Greek yogurt and was just in heaven.

Now that I have your mouth watering for some delicious crunchy chips lets get to the business of entering the giveaway.

The Prize: 5 bags of Food Should Taste Good chips (you get to pick the flavors..WINNING)

To enter you just need to do the following:

1) Leave a comment and tell me what your number 1 flavor would be

For additional entries you have the option to do 1 or all of the following:

2) Follow my blog and comment (or let me know you already follow)

3) Follow me on Twitter and comment

4) Like me on Facebook and comment

5) Like Food Should Taste Good on Facebook and comment

If you would like you can get a coupon from their site here.

The giveaway will be open until Wednesday February 15th and is only open to US residents.  I will announce the winner on Thursday's post.

Have a wonderful Monday and I hope you all are ready for Valentine's Day.  I know I am super excited to share my post with you tomorrow.

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