noodles of squash.

it's Monday... this means another meatless post. I was thinking the other day of food that would be easy to make meatless and I decided that today I would blog about spaghetti squash. It is such a blast to open up and scrape out noodles. I LOVE it! You can really put just about anything with it as it doesn't have a strong taste, but here is a recipe that I use pretty frequently...

click.

handmade in the laundryroom.

fels naptha + borax + washing soda + a ton of water = handmade laundry detergent.

Here's how it all went down when I got together with some friends to make it...

this is not cheese... it's fels naptha. It's like a bar of soap.

after melting the fels in boiling water and adding the washing soda, we poured the mixture in a large container and stirred.

this is the consistency of it once it starts to cool.

Makes my clothes fresh and clean and is much more economical than buying regular laundry detergent.

meat substitutes.

The other night I was browsing through the Vegetarian Times website and came across this list of meat replacements to use when making your dinner meatless. I thought it would be resourceful to post this as my Meatless Monday post this week. Vegetarian Times is a really great resource for recipes and information on a meatless diet.

Ingredient	Substitute
Meat	Beans, cheese, seitan (wheat meat), tempeh (cultured soybeans), textured vegetable protein (TVP), tofu
Meat/seafood stocks	Vegetable stock, water in which beans, pasta, or vegetables have been cooked, vegetable bouillon cubes, miso (fermented soybean paste) diluted with water
Seasoned or smoked meats	Flavored soy meat substitutes, crumbled tofu seasoned with fennel, parsley, and garlic, canned chipotle chiles, roasted vegetables, toasted nuts, smoked tofu, smoked cheeses

almonds + pears + dark chocolate = a happy palette

This dark chocolate bar caught my eye yesterday when we were shopping for groceries while in New Orleans. Dark chocolate infused with pear and almonds. What a fantastic flavor combination!

green monster!

In honor of Meatless Monday, I'm going to start posting delicious veggie blogs every Monday. So today I am blogging about the green monster smoothie my friend Bethany introduced me to this weekend. She drinks one for breakfast every morning, but since I am currently having a passionate love affair with granola, I'm going to start drinking one for lunch each day.

These drinks are packed with vitamins, nutrients and green goodness... there's really not a whole lot of rules. Here is what I've been putting in mine...

You can really put whatever you want in one of these and it's a great meal replacement... or

snack. You can't taste the spinach, so throw it in to make it a monster. Here's what it looks like...

D.

Over the past few days, I have come across several different sources about how great vitamin D is for you. I never really thought about it much, but we generally don't consume it much in our regular diets. Here is why it is so awesome...

• it can help prevent cancer
• it helps to boost the immune system
• it regulates blood pressure
• it gives the body energy... woohoo!
• it works against depression
• it decreases mortality
• it protects against heart disease and diabetes
• it can reduce aches and pains throughout the body

Fantastic! Here's where you can get some...

• sunshine
• salmon
• canned tuna in oil
• fortified milk
• fortified breakfast cereal
• egg yolks
• dietary supplements

I think I'll go get some today!!!

a fantastic find.

thank you, Ashlee for the yoga album you found at the thrift store. It will be spinning on my record player very soon.

eggs!

tonight, my friends and I dyed eggs for Easter. I found a technique using electrical tape to make a cool design on the egg. Here's what I ended up with...

one totally rad egg.

Here are a few more I did...

I heart yoga... I loved that one.