Episode 1 – Blogland “Cribs”

If you watch MTV often, you have probably have seen an episode of “Cribs” where they take you into celebrity homes, and you get a tour of the joint…

I thought it might be fun to do this in blog land… and since I just finished taking pictures for putting our house on the market, I figured this is a great opportunity!!

You should do it too… and I’ll add a link to my blog to yours!

I was going to do a video component, but then I decided I’m still a little camera shy!!!

Welcome to our home!

*note – we don’t have white birds flying in the sky, or weird black things growing out of the rock, it just looks like we do ;)

Come on in….

Living room

Which moves into the kitchen/dining room

wow… that’s the cleanest our kitchen has ever been!

Of course… can’t miss the best part of cribs… a look into the fridge…

Back to the tour…..  Dining room!

to the right is the laundry room/pantry – which was far to  messy to show !!

Let’s take a peak outside… in the backyard

and our “Dave built” hot tub (that we never use!)

back inside, we go down a little hallway with a bathroom to the left

(We love our bathroom)

There are two undocumented bedrooms – one is green and is the office… and the other is my messy room… which is unexplainable ;)

Then there is our room – which is the only room we haven’t painted yet!!

Well there you have it folks… our small but cute house… it has come a long ways… when we moved in, it had and orange kitchen… with too many cabinets, but D has worked his magic and now it’s a lovely little home!!

Hope you enjoyed!!  

Remember to check back tomorrow for the “Get to know you” guest post!! :)

 

Jess

Vega Vega Vegaaaaaaaaaa

I know Vega products are super loved in blog land…  and I am here to spread my love for my Vega products I received a few weeks ago!!

I got these bars x2

Move over Amazing Grass bars – I have found my new favorite bars… I loved these, they tasted a bit earthy with a fantastic crunch, thanks to sprouted buckwheat!   I love love loved the crunch!  

These bars are RAW, SPROUTED, GLUTEN FREE, ALKALINE FORMING and Ve Ve Ve VEGAN!

These bars pack a punch too with loads of fibre and 9g of fibre per 200 calorie bars! 

I think my favourite was the Green one, but they were all very tasty!!

downside – these puppy’s sell for around $2.99 each.   They will definitely be something I stock up on when they are on sale!!

Next up…

Whole Food Smoothie Infusion!

I have seen this gracing the grocery store shelves for awhile, but because I haven’t been able to buy a smaller sample pack, I haven’t tried it yet  ( I am VERY picky with my smoothie additions) So I was excited to see it in my sample pack from Kelly @ Vega!!

This stuff is brilliant.  It adds great flavor to your smoothie, along with protein, fiber, Omega 3s and greeeeeennnnnnsssss!!!

It’s smooth and makes you feel like you are getting all the goods you need to start your day. 

The protein source is YELLOW PEA protein… and per 30g scoops has 14g protein, 6g fibre!! 

I love this, and would buy it again in a second!! 

The Vega crew has a great website as well as the founder has a very inspirational book and website called www.thethrivediet.com  that has a sample of great whole food/vegan recipes!!  

Plus for all my Canadian readers, Vega is a Vancouver based company!!  SWEET!!

Thanks Kelly for these great samples!

Let me know your thoughts of Vega Products, have you tried any??

ps.  I am looking for a reader to fill out my “get to know you” weekend post… let me know if you want to do it!! 

 

Jess

It’s true… you just know!

So if you follow me on twitter, you know that I found my wedding dress yesterday!!    

The story is kind of funny, because while the lady was lacing up the back – I was standing with my side to the mirror (and hadn’t see the dress yet) and I said quietly to her… “it’s the one” and she said “but you haven’t see it yet” and I said “true… but I just know!!”

So I closed my eyes and walked to the mirror… and when I opened my eyes,  I just smiled and told her that I was right ;)  It is amazing, a bit more extravagant than I was expecting, but it’s VERY close to my dream dress that I have been dreaming of!!

I’m going to try it on again on Saturday, but because Dave reads my blog (hi hunny) I won’t be posting on here… but I may leak a picture on twitter!   We’ll see ;) 

I also think that I found my bridesmaids dresses too, my maid of honour is coming with me on Saturday so I will get her to try it on too!!  It has 35 color choices though, how do I choose?!??!?

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I hope you guys don’t mind my life posts too… I really enjoy sharing all this stuff with you guys!!  I think of my blog as more of a life blog, than a food blog!! :)

Onto food though.  I felt like making a treat yesterday, so I made Dave’s favorite….  PEANUT BUTTER CUPS!!  If you are new to my blog, check out my awesome dairy free recipe!!

I also attempted to make salted caramel/peanut butter ones, but they didn’t taste too good… they looked pretty though!

Anyone have a good vegan caramel recipe?

Since I had left over chocolate, I made some chocolate covered strawberries just for fun too!!

I have also been making some yummy kale chips… re-inspired by two of my lovely readers  Angie and Pam!!  They tested out my recipe and texted me with the results!!  They enjoyed them!! YAY!!

I made two flavors - #1 nutritional yeast, salt and garlic…  #2 cinnamon, mesquite and macca!!

They were tasty, as always!!  I like the savoury ones over the sweet ones though!!   It was a good use for this really bitter kale I bought the other day!

Other things I made the last few days…

With my left over red snapper, I made a yummy sandwich.

Red snapper, hummus, spinach, avocado… so good!!  The snapper didn’t have much taste, so it went well with this sandwich!!

Last night, dinner was amazing!!

I made a big spinach and strawberry salad

and we roasted some asparagus (the lighting was amazing last night, so I took tons of pictures)

along with some bbq chicken and spiced French fries!!

It was such a great dinner!!

A few months ago, I was chatting with the crew at Spices Inc, regarding shipping to Canada, and they asked if I wanted to be their trial run… OF COURSE!!  So I ordered (and paid for) a whole swack of spices….

 

 

and they sent some samples

I have to say… totally un-biased – these spices are AMAZING!  We are totally in love with the Manzanillo – it' has an awesome kick to it… and we are also in love with the Cajun (it’s almost gone already), we haven’t tested out the other spices, but the ones we have are 10/10 for sure!!

Our chicken from dinner is spiced with these spices and so were the fries… yummy!!   Thanks for testing out on me!!

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Anyways, time for me to get to my day… bridal bootcamp is in my future!! :)  It’s such an awesome workout!!

Have a great day guys!!

Jess

Giveaway Winner!!

Sorry that I wasn’t around yesterday for the giveaway!  OOPS!!  But it gave a few people some extra time to enter!!   You guys must really have wanted these yummy snacks!!

 Tons on entries!! :)

And the winner is….

Yay Kelsey, Congrats!!!!  Email me at blogname (at) hot mail (com) with your powder of choice and address by Thursday 29th!!

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Other exciting news!! 

I got my official acceptance letter for going back to school

(I have been on the waitlist for awhile).  This is amazing news since I am basing my whole life on going back to school next year and now it’s official!!

YAY!!!  Now I just need the money to pay for the tuition and the $1600 in books!! EEK!!

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Onto food!!!

I made Mama Pea’s delicious Vegan Zuchinni Muffins. 

I followed the recipe perfect and they were really fantastic muffins!!  D liked them too!!   I will probably make more today!!

I especially liked them smeared with peanut butter!!

There was also some delicious salad eaten

with homemade croutons -  I chopped up some bread (Steady Eddie) added about a tsp+ of oil and then tossed on a bunch of spices, and cooked it until they were crispy… So good!!     More fun than just having a slice of bread on the side!!

D and I volunteered at an Earth Day Festival this weekend… I made sure to pack some yummy snacks!

Apples with cinnamon, almond butter and a mulberry and golden berry mix!!

It wasn’t enough to fill the void of hungriness though, so I popped by my very favourite Zen Zero cart and grabbed an AMAZING sandwich!

A veggie sandwich loaded with veggies, vegan butter and ALMOND BUTTER!!

I was a little weirded me out by the almond butter on a veggie sandwich, but my friends, it’s delicious and will be my newest edition to all my veggie sandwiches!!

I also went shopping at my new favourite healthy food store and they had new flavours of kombucha!

Essence of lemon = so good!!

I haven’t been so good at taking photos lately,  we have been pretty caught up in cleaning out house and house shopping, which isn’t looking so good at the moment. 

We decided to take some time and not rush into it right now,  so our house isn’t going on to the market next week…. it’s a little bitter sweet because our house is so cute, but I also really wanted the move so we don’t have to both commute 30-45 mins each way every day…  we’ll see… things change so easily!!

Anyways, hope you guys are all doing fabulous!!   It’s been awhile since I’ve done any blog reading – I miss you guys!! :)

Jess

ps.  Interesting read – New Vegan Becel vs Earth Balance

Wait until tomorrow!

Hey guys!

Sorry, but I have to postpone the giveaway until tomorrow!!  I am out of town today wedding dress shopping for my girlfriend today!!!! :)

Gives you one last chance to enter!!!

Getting to know you…

Happy Saturday!!

I decided that rather than not posting on the weekend, that I would do “Get to know you” once per weekend highlighting some of my readers and their blogs!   Let me know if you would be interested in doing this!!

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Now introducing my very first “get to know you’ lovely lady!

Shawna from www.balancingme.com

How long have you been a reader of Dairy Free Betty and what keeps you coming back? I've been reading DFB for about 3 months now. While I'm not necessarily dairy free, your blog offers great ideas for healthy meals and snacks with an upbeat attitude, which I love!

What inspired you to start blogging? I love the whole blog community, and I think everyone is so inspirational even though we are all so very different. I love learning about new trends in cooking and health, and I love sharing the things that I know about nutrition, health and cooking with others. It keeps things fresh which helps keep me motivated.

Give us a quick bio of who you are? I'm 34 years old and I live in MA. I've been with my husband since I was 17, but we've only been married for almost 6 years. We have a 3 1/2 year old daughter, Little Miss C, who constantly keeps us on our toes, and I work from home as a Marketing Communications Manager. I'm currently completing my first round of P90X!

What are 3 foods that you always have in your house? Eggs, cheese and spinach - I get very antsy if these 3 items are not available to me.

Favourite recipe?  Ooh, I have lots, but my homemade hummus is rocks and it's a staple in my house and at any party I attend. Recipe link: http://balancingme.com/quick-and-delicious-supper/

What is your food eating style? (Whatever I see; clean; veggie; vegan; etc) As Clean as possible, but I do allow the occasional splurge. I try to eat 90% clean and relax the other 10% of the time. It's all about balance, baby!

If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life… what would it be? Cheese!!!

If you were a crayon, what color would you be and why? Green. It's always been my favorite, even when other little girls were saying purple and pink, I always said green. It just makes me think of summer and being outside, and that makes me happy. :)

If I gave you a million dollars, and I told you that you had to spend it in 1 week – what would you do with it? Easy. I'd pay off my house, and I'd buy a vacation home on the beach in Cape Cod, home of the most beautiful beaches in the world. And not to be too selfish, but if there was any left, I'd give some to family and donate the rest to our war veterans.

If you could have one super hero quality – what would it be, and why? Speed! There's not enough time in the day to get everything done, so I need a little help picking up the pace.

If you were having a “themed” dinner party – what would be the theme, and what would you cook? I've actually had a 70's party! I love the 70's; I'm such a hippie at heart. We had everyone dress in 70's clothing, lava lamps, bead curtains and disco balls, but we didn't really have much in the way of 70's foods. I guess if I were to do it again, we'd have some granola? I don't really know what they ate in the 70's LOL! It was probably better food than the stuff the typical American family eats today, though

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Hope you guys enjoyed! Thank you Shawna for being my first victim!!! 

Please send me a message if you would like to do this in the future!!  You don’t have to have a blog either!!

Have a great weekend!

Jess

TGIF

Hey guys!  Hope you guys enjoyed yesterday’s post!!  It was a really delicious meal!!

A few people have asked about my exam – it went VERY well.  I was shocked at how easy it questions all were!! I guess 6 days of studying paid off!!   Thanks for your thoughts!

I thought I’d post a few yummy meals I’ve been having lately!

I am currently IN LOVE with this stuff

Mama Pea is always using this stuff for her icings, and I finally bought it, and so glad I did!!   I actually think I do enjoy it more than the taste of regular cream cheese!!

My yummy breaky…  (this was one of my favourite breakfasts before going dairy free)

I’ve also been slathering on my Steady Eddie bread…

Wendy from Silver Hills sent me coupons for this bread… it’s yummy, flour free… and has 5 grams of fibre PER SLICE!!   Beat that wonderbread!

I also made this crunchy yummy salad, topped with imitation crab and Annie’s Goddess dressing!!  (I love this stuff)

Also I made Katies sweet and sour meatball recipe!  We both really enjoyed it, but will probably tweak it a bit… add some pineapple next time!!  

Yummy!!  Great as left overs too!!  Can’t wait to make it again!! Thanks for the recipe Katie!!

I also received an amazing package from Jason at Global Health!

No joke it was like Christmas!!

So much yummy stuff!  I can’t wait to test it all out!!

I am totally in love with these!!  Sparkling Hibiscus – they are loaded full of vitamin C – and very tasty. I liked the pink one the best!  If you see these out and about, give them a try!!

I am also loving the coconut water for my smoothies!  The flavour is very different, but in a smoothie, you get all the benefits of it, and it masks the flavour a bit ;)   I find that after a few sips, I get used to it, and start to enjoy it!! haha

I’m pretty sure I would buy this again, especially in the summer… it’s great for electrolytes (wayyyyy better than gatorade!)

Well that’s it from me! I hope you have a beautiful weekend!!  We are back to house shopping!! Ours is going on the market in just over a week!! (Which reminds me I better start cleaning!!)

Take care!!

Jess