Hi y'all... still haven't had time to catch up on the posts from last month although I read them all. Spent the day in the office, and I have another week of hell then boss is off on vacation and maybe I can get a little breathing room. We're scrambling to get things done before he takes off, so many deadlines this month ugh!

I'm going to make this tomorrow: forksoverknives.com/recipes/french-green-lentil-salad/ looks super good and I had everything already other than the parsley which I got today. I thought the meal planner thing on the FOK website looked interesting. I'm not cooking enough right now to do it, but maybe when/if things settle down at work I will give it a try for a month. A lot of those things aren't really geared for a single person though, and I would end up not making half the things on the plan. I might ask on the Happy Herbivores group if anyone has tried it and get some opinions.

I also made up a good recipe that I've been enjoying the past couple nights, and will have again tonight. I decided to call it a hummus quesadilla (clever name huh?). Take a medium (soft taco size) wheat tortilla, spread with a thin layer of hummus, add chopped red or yellow pepper, red onion, spinach or kale, and a small amount (I'm guessing a bit less than 1/4 cup but I didn't measure) of daiya shredded cheddar style. Top with another tortilla, and heat in a skillet until slightly browned and toasty then flip and do the other side. Cut like a pizza and enjoy. I tried it without the daiya the first time and it was still very tasty, but a little bit of daiya makes it even better and helps the tortillas stick together so you don't end up with half your filling falling out in the skillet when you flip it lol.

I'm definitely feeling more like eating well with the weather heating up. I'm craving lots of veggies and fruit, and my cravings for bread/potatoes/pasta are almost non-existent. Maybe I'll actually start seeing some results again.

Hope y'all are having a great weekend!

Hi all,

Back from graduation weekend. We had a great time. The place we stayed was really great, with beautiful views of the mountains. The college had our weekend jam packed with events. My daughter performed in her last college concert. Then the ivy exercises--she won 2 awards --so proud of her. We listened to Eric Carle, who wrote the Very Hungry Caterpillar, speak, then they had a baccalaureate service. The graduation party started right after the service and lasted till midnight.

Graduation was Sunday morning at 10 am. We were so lucky. The weather reported heavy rain all morning but it stopped at 9:45 am and didn't come back till 3 pm.

All and all a great weekend. One child down, one to go.

I had a really tight weekend until I got home and had no plan. But still I am happy how I made it thru the weekend. Next time though I will have to plan my meals a little better. I lived on green beans, salad, and mushroom burgers. Not a lot of variety.

Now back to the grind until our 25th wedding anniversary trip.

I went to both ohsheglows.com and vegkitchen.com and put summer salad in the search engines... I came up with many delightful hits. I would recommend it if you are tired of the same ol' salads. I think my salads the next few days are going to be:

ohsheglows.com/2011/07/21/heat-wave-summer-salad/

but first on the list of must try: ohsheglows.com/2011/09/27/detox-salad/ because I have everything on hand except for the broccoli and cauliflower. And herbamere, which I had to look up and it's a seasoned salt substitute. I will see if they have it at my organic store. If not I'll substitute.

and this one also looks really good: vegkitchen.com/recipes/summer-garden-quinoa-salad/

Today, still pretzels. Darn it.

B - smoothie same as yesterday
L - Amy's Brown Rice, Black Eyed Peas & Veggie Bowl
D - Red Lentil Kale Soup from the freezer stash
S - lara bar, pretzels... darn those pretzels lol

I've had that Amy's bowl a few times and it is good, I think I'm going to try to recreate it soon. More veggies, more spice.

I've been going back and forth on what i want to do, but with the boss leaving on vacation I think I'm going to go another 4 or 5 days doing what I'm doing, and making sure the exercise has become a habit, and by the end of next week start the 6 week plan again. I think I need to go all in again.

Hi all, sorry to be MIA so much lately. I am super busy with Ruby (puppy) and packing for the move. Between carrying her around and lifting heavy boxes, I managed to injure one of my knees and my shoulder. It is making things very difficult. Plus, I got tripped up in our lawn mower while Ruby was on the leash and so now I'm covered in bruises and scabs. I'm a mess!

I probably won't be able to check in much until the end of the month. My eating hasn't been anything worth writing about in any case. We are starting out with good habits in the new home though! There are already some raised beds on the property for gardening, and we're hoping the previous owners will leave them so we can jump in with some gardening. Not sure what we can do this late in the year.

Sounds like everyone else is doing a better job of staying on track than I am. Even with a few rough days here and there, you all are rocking it! I will be better support soon, I promise! I miss being more involved in the group for sure.

Terri, congrats to you and your daughter on her graduation!

Mihani, thanks for more great recipes. You always pick tasty ones!

Sorry, Lia, no new puppy pics. I'm a bad puppy mom. I should take some soon, she is growing really fast. She is at her first training class this afternoon with my husband while I'm at home waiting for the gutter cleaners to show up. I'll try to remember to take some when she gets home. I'll attach an older one from a few weeks ago. (Her eyes have changed to a greenish hazel since this pic, looks like she's going to take after her dad.) Her fur is super soft!

Lia, hope your move this weekend is going smoothly!

Terri, I'm geared up and ready to start the 6 week plan tomorrow. Glad you're going to be doing it with me! I am stocked with power greens and frozen berries for smoothies, lettuce and other veggies for salads. I also got canned beans and mushrooms, and frozen greens for easy one pot dinners. I am going to try to keep it as simple as possible this time around. I'm figuring saute some onion and garlic, throw in a can of beans, a can of mushrooms, and a bag of frozen greens, and jazz it up with different spices, and dinners are easy through the week. All the GBOMBS accounted for. I am going to make that detox salad today too. I will cut back on the amount of raisins in it though.

Yesterday was an indulgent day:
B - avocado toast with sliced tomato
L - black bean soup with whole wheat baguette
D - quesadilla (wheat tortillas, refried beans, onion and red pepper, spinach, and daiya served with salsa and avocado)

Today's plan:
B - oatmeal with berries
L - black bean soup
D - not sure, going to a small gathering, but there will be food and wine!

That sounds okay Terri, I had a good ETL day except for some almond vanilla creamer, it's used up now and I can be 100% starting today.

Yesterday B - smoothie (water, power greens, frozen berries, chia seeds)
L - salad (lettuce, chickpeas, tomato, carrot, balsamic, sunflower seeds)
D - steamed broccoli and cauliflower, black bean soup

Today's plan B - smoothie same as yesterday
L - salad same as yesterday, apple
D - going to make that detox salad finally

Yay, Terri! So happy you are feeling better and have figured out the major foods to avoid. Too bad one is coffee! But definitely worth it.

Mihani, great looking food day yesterday. You too, Terri. Happy for you both going on the reboot. It is inspiring.

Lia, hope the moving is going well!

Our move is this coming Monday. We have to move out on the same day our new buyers are moving in, so things could get a bit crazy. We got a 26' truck, but looking at all of our stuff that we started gathering in the garage, I don't know if we'll be able to fit it all.

I decided that this last week I'm going to stick to Dr. F berry oatmeal for breakfast. It is easy to make and most other things have been packed up! We've been eating a lot of prepared foods, but trying to at least stick with Amy's and other similar brands.

Yesterday was my husband's and my 7th Anniversary, and we only remembered the day before! Things have just been too crazy. We went for a walk in the park with Ruby but were too tired to go out in the evening. We are going to go out to a vegetarian Indian restaurant for lunch today or tomorrow to celebrate.

Detox Salad review ohsheglows.com/2011/09/27/detox-salad/ It tastes very green. You all should know what I mean by that, like fresh mown grass lol. I like it, but if anyone isn't a fan of that green taste I wouldn't try it. I do think that a drizzle of maple syrup when serving as called for in the recipe would be nice, but I didn't want to add that while doing the 6 week plan. I also cut the currants back to 1/2 cup and the raisins to 1/4 so my version isn't going to be as sweet as the original regardless. It makes a lot so I think the amount of raisins and currants I used was reasonable for the 6 week plan.

I'll let you know what I think after it sits overnight and the raisins/currants have a chance to add sweetness throughout. I'm considering a little cayenne to spice it up. I found that processing the broccoli resulted in pulp so I switched to the shredder tool on the food processor for the cauliflower and it worked much better. I didn't have herbamere but I used an all purpose no salt seasoning that I had in the cabinet, and a good amount of fresh ground pepper.

Day 2: Excellent mostly too busy to eat
B: quinoa w/ coconut and blueberries
L; none
Morracan Spiced Vegetable Ste
watermelon
S: 9 strawberries, 2 tbs sunbutter, 13 vegan gf crackers

So busy today at work--glad I have the day off tomorrow with my daughter

Carla: good luck with the move and Happy Anniversary!

Nice ETL day Terri. Hope you enjoyed your day with your daughter.

Carla, this was the best cantaloupe. I wish we could be sure every melon is sweet and perfect, but it doesn't work that way does it? Glad you're feeling better. That's funny Ruby wants to chase after joggers. Good luck with the move and hope you won't be offline too long.

B - smoothie same as yesterday
L - more of the detox salad... this is a favorite thing now for sure, I may make more for next week
D - going to eat leftover cauliflower and chickpeas, and have a side salad with grape tomatoes and radishes
S - about 15 grapes

Glad you had a fun day with your daughter Terri.

B - banana
L - the last of the detox salad, cantaloupe
D - going to make a huge salad with spring mix, radishes, beets, carrots, grape tomatoes, chickpeas. Not sure yet about dressing I'll look at Dr. F's recipes or I'll just fall back on my usual plain balsamic. For the chickpeas I think I will cook them lightly in the cast iron skillet again with some spices. I really like them that way, more flavor, but they aren't crispy like they get when you roast them. I like the roasted ones, but for salad I'd rather have them not as crunchy.
S - soy yogurt, grapes

Bought a watermelon at the grocery today. Can't wait to cut into it. I love watermelon.

Got on the scale this morning, down 3 pounds!

Been working all weekend, as usual. Left the office around 2:30 and brought some files home so still lots to do tonight. I got a little caught up with the boss gone, but not enough. It's never enough!

Yesterday...
B - banana and cantaloupe
L - hummus wrap in a whole wheat soft taco size tortilla with lots of lettuce, red pepper, red onion
D - salad with spiced chickpeas, grape tomatoes, sunflower seeds, balsamic, nooch
S - watermelon and grapes

Today...
B - smoothie (water, spinach, frozen mixed berries, chia seeds, 1/4 tsp vanilla)
L - hummus wrap same as yesterday
D - plan a salad with romaine, black beans, tomato, avocado, mango, and salsa for dressing with watermelon for dessert

It is SO hot here ugh. I am not getting in my cooked veggies. I plan to get some broccoli and cauliflower to roast and eat cold on salads. The idea of eating anything hot is completely unappealing!

Carla that is so disappointing your closing got postponed... sometimes it is like all the dominoes are lined up, but nobody can get them to fall! Fingers crossed it is all straightened out and your move goes well Tuesday.