Sunday, October 30, 2016

An Elf Is An Elf Is An Elf

My goodness y’all, it seems like FOREVER since we last blogged, so there is much to talk about! We did indeed visit some of Big Solid’s friends at The Villages in Florida and had a wonderful time. It was our first road trip together since Big Solid has gone full tilt plant based, so it was kinda fun to discover what we could eat on the road. More about that Later!! AND, we’ve been ever so busy in the Kinky Elfery Kitchen since we returned.
But FIRST, we have to reach back to the week of 10/17 to fill you in on our FatFree Vegan Kitchen recipe for that week, Pasta with Chard and Chickpeas. http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2009/12/pasta-with-chard-and-chickpeas.html
Well, like we said in the last blog, this recipe has just about EVERYTHING in it we love…pasta, chard, chickpeas and portabellos. We did adjust the pasta a bit; we had about three boxes of pasta that, combined, would make up the correct amount of pasta. So, we just used three different pastas—penne, rotini and small shells. Worked out great and we were able to clear out some room in the pantry for, yep, MORE PASTA!

So, while our pasta was cooking, we sautéed our onion,
added the garlic and mushrooms,
and red pepper flakes (and yes, we doubled that amount).
Next up was the tomato paste and chickpeas.
We took some of our reserved pasta water and added it to the chickpea mixture and then stirred in our chard (OH WE SO LOVE CHARD!!)
We let that cook for a bit and then added the pasta(s). And for the final burst of flavor, we added the freshly squeezed orange juice. We LOVED it!
In fact, we took it on the road with us (we did have leftovers) and used it to supplement a salad we ordered at Subway! We found a really interesting recipe to try for the coming week..Somen with Tofu and Asparagus in a Chinese Dressing! An Asian twist to pasta, for sure.


Now we mentioned our trip to The Villages in Florida and how we veganized our eating experience. Well, introducing the Cooler of the Elf--we don't leave home without it!
Our hosts were really concerned about meeting our food needs. We told them NOT TO WORRY…we usually bring a lot of stuff with us AND we can almost always find restaurant food..heck, if they have a salad bar, baked potato or a pasta, we can work with that easily. We loaded our CotE with our non-dairy creamer, vegan cheese, the left-over pasta from Susan’s recipe of the week we just talked about, oatmeal, dairy free milk, and plant-based sausages and chicken. We stopped at a Subway for lunch, one we are very familiar with in the McLain MS area. What your Elf did not know is that Subway now has a chopped salad!! WE LOVE A CHOPPED SALAD!! We both ordered one and dug around in our cooler for some cheese and pasta to throw on top of it.
Quite a lovely little meal in the middle of nowhere! And during our visit, we were indeed treated to a delicious Mexican restaurant with some excellent vegan options; an exquisite restaurant with a fabulous salad bar; a wonderful Italian restaurant that went above and beyond to prepare a lovely pasta primavera and grilled portabello and pasta dish; a delicious Thai restaurant that had several vegetarian options that were easily made vegan. We had sautéed some of our ‘chikun’ and sausages to take with us and offered samples to our tablemates.  Alas, only one took us up on the offer BUT she said, “this tastes like chicken” and “the Andouille sausage was way too hot for me but it was good!” It’s aways fun to introduce folks to plant based meats and watch skepticism turn into a big smile and acknowledgement that it does taste good!

Monday, we hit the kitchen running to bake cookies for the Crossroads Café. We knew they would be out, so that was our first priority. Two dozen each of Oatmeal Walnut Cranberry and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. While they were cooling we went to the grocery to stock up for the week. Other activities from the Kinky Elfery Kitchen this week include:

This was so easy we halfway expected it to be sorta ok..but it’s really good. Very spreadable and tasty.
Then we made a whole batch of the Savory Lentil and Mushroom Burgers just to have on hand for a quick sandwich or snack. (See Blog 9.25.16) We love these great little burgers so much; this time we added a half cup of crushed walnuts to get some more crunch.
Next up, we made two soups to tide us over for lunch/suppers the rest of the week. We LOVE this Fennel/Tomato soup from Vegetarian Times and use our own plant-based Italian sausages instead of store bought. Many folks do not like fennel because of the anise taste. And truth be told, your Elf is not an anise/licorice fan BUT this soup is delicious. http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/fennel-and-tomato-soup
We sautéed our fennel
and added our sausages and fennel seed. The recipe calls for 3 sausages but we used four…what the heck. When the sausages are kinda browned and bits are sticking to the pan, we deglazed with dry vermouth.
Yes, we also doubled that amount from two tablespoons to four…again, what the heck. It adds a nice flavor and gets all those bits incorporated into the soup.
We use our own ‘chikun’ bouillon (The Gentle Chef again) and organic crushed tomatoes. We grow our own Italian parsley, so no problem there. It’s an easy soup to make and very very good. And for those od us who are calorie conscious, it's relatively low in calories.
Next up, we made a Mushroom Hot and Sour soup from Isa Does It by Isa Moscowitz. http://rainydayveggies.blogspot.com/2016/02/mushroom-hot-and-sour-soup.html

Your Elf LOVES Hot and Sour soup and spent many of her traveling years sampling as many variations as we could find. BUT, when we saw this recipe, we had to give it a try. It’s good but we think when we make it again, we will kick it up with additional heat and rice wine vinegar as well as cornstarch to thicken it. Here’s the finished product!
In fact, we just had a nice bowl of it…yummy!

Thursday is our second cookie baking day, so we had another four dozen to deliver around 2:00 p.m. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip
And Oatmeal Walnut Cranberry

Remember what a fit we had over the Subway Chopped Salad? Well, we found one of those chopper thingies (just google subway chopped salad and you’ll find several options) and ordered it. SEE!!

Thursday night, we had the Swearengen version of a chopped salad and used FatFree Vegan Kitchen’s Fat Free Balsamic and Raisin dressing to top it off AND a bowl of the Fennel Tomato Soup! Light but very delicious meal!

Also Thursday afternoon, we picked up our CSA box of vegetables from several local farms in the area. HOLY MOLY!! We got turnips/turnip greens, collard greens, mustard greens, heirloom tomatoes, two kinds of squash, and cucumbers. We used one of the heirloom tomatoes in our chopped salad and stored the rest. Friday, we busted out the greens and squashes. While it’s a bit labor intensive to wash and prep the greens, it’s SO WORTH it for fresh vegetables. We combined the turnip greens and mustard greens and cooked them.
Sautéed the squashes along with some onion to use for anyway we wanted to eat them…great to have on hand to top a baked potato or salad.
AND, we prepared the collards by sautéing in coconut oil with sliced mushrooms and a bit of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos. This little Elf ate damn near the WHOLE PAN!. Collards all piled up to cook

Collards cooked down with 'shrooms! SO GOOD!

WHEW!! It looks like we are caught up for the past two weeks! Thanks for hanging in there with us. We look forward to a bit less frenetic week or at least not quite as busy!



So, until we meet again in NOVEMBER!, remember to laugh a lot, practice kind stuffs, eat plants, and DO EPIC! HAPPY HALLOWEEN from GLAMOUR MUMMY ANNIE!
Your Elf!

Sunday, October 16, 2016

"Tangled Up in 'Elf'"

What a cool week it’s been…what a rare mood we’re in. It’s almost like being an Elf. Happy Sunday, Elfsters and welcome to another week in the Kinky Elfery Kitchen. If you haven't already guessed, this week's title honors Nobel Prize winner, Bob Dylan AND  brings back a lot of Elfin memories.

It’s been a strange week as well. After preparing several dishes to have on hand to eat during the week last Sunday, we realized that on Monday, we were having two tooth implants and would not be able to eat any of the things we’d prepared. Oh well…at least Big Solid had plenty of options to eat this week! FORTUNATELY, the recipe we selected from FatFree Vegan Kitchen (Susan Voisin) was SPOT ON for a ‘post-implant’ meal. Portabellas Stuffed with Pesto Mashed Potatoes was absolutely a life saver in terms of having a warm, easy to chew and tasty meal.

We really only have pictures of the final product as the process of this recipe is very easy. Of course, what’s an Elf elf-fort without a screw-up and this was no exception. The directions for preparing the pesto (fat-free) indicate for it to be prepared in a food processor—which your Elf read as VitaMix. Well, the amount of the ingredients is so small, the VM barely got going before all the ingredients were stuck to the side and no amount of using the stopper thingie (tamper) resulted in getting the ingredients toward the blades so they could be pulverized. So, we wound up adding a bit more water and finally got the consistency we needed. NEXT TIME, we’ll use the small food processor that we are supposed to…and YES, there will indeed be a next time. We also chose to stuff large Portabella caps rather than small ones, since we were using this for a meal. So, we had 3 large caps…so large in fact, we microwaved them for 2 minutes to assure that after being stuffed, they would still be cooked all the way through. Sometimes, the larger caps do not bake thoroughly and are too tough if you don’t pre-bake/cook them a bit to release some of the juices and assure a chewy but cooked consistency. We also made a HUGE ‘Kale Madeline’ salad to complete the color palette and make sure all our vegetables were covered. 'Kale Madeline' is a veganized spin-off of 'Broccoli Madeline' made famous by Picadilly Cafeteria. This is the link to the Picadilly recipe, which obviously NOT been veganized.
The one thing we found slightly disconcerting was that the pesto darkens quickly (oxidation, like avocados do). AND, the baking process also contributes to them darkening as well. Nevertheless, we were very happy with the resulting dish, especially your Elf. We were pretty hungry for some ‘real’ food and this hit the spot.
And, you know how we LOVE to kick things up a notch or two with pepper and/or spices. Well, we kept the lid on the cayenne/ghost pepper salt BUT you can rest assured that we will throw it in the next time we fix this recipe. This is a great supper when you add a salad or roasted veggies, so this will become part of our supper repertoire. Keeping fresh basil on hand is the only drawback so a bit of planning is helpful. OR you can keep fresh basil as a window herb during the winter months. We have basil growing outside, so had it handy in the Kinky Elfery garden.
Given the warm temperatures here lately, we may have it for a while yet. However, we’ll be starting an indoor herb garden very soon.

As for next week, we will be in Florida visiting some of Big Solid’s friends so only have Mon-Tues to deliver on our FFVK elf-forts. HOWSOMEVER, since big Solid has joined us as a plant-based eater (and  Dr. McDougall devotee), he’s had a blast re-discovering the joy of potatoes, pasta and other carbohydrates he’s shunned for years. AND that opens the door for further exploration of Susan’s recipes. So, we will be fixin' (preparing) Pasta with Chard and Chickpeas as it looks delicious and has two of our favorite vegetables incorporated.

And, speaking of chickpeas, we jumped into a chickpea adventure this week by making Burmese Tofu. Never in a billion years would your Elf consider herself a Tofu maker but we swear, this recipe looked so good we had to try. The problem is that it makes a TON of tofu, so it’d better be good. Well, we are here to tell you that IT IS!! It is delicious and we can’t wait to see what all we can do with it. We’d never even HEARD of Burmese Tofu until we saw a blurb/you tube video on Facebook the other day. It looked so intriguing AND we had the ingredients on hand.
Indeed, we approached this recipe with trepidation all the way through the preparation, mixing, cooking, stirring, cooling, cutting up, and cooking the final product. But our fears were quickly snuffed out when we tasted it. This stuff is awesome! It’s also really simple to make with the caveat that you really have to pay attention to the directions and that pesky stirring part. But, the results are so worthwhile.  We stirred it into our pot of fully boiling water (VERY IMPORTANT). Now, here’s where we think we made possibly the best decision of all when making this Tofu. The recipe calls for water as the base but also suggests that you can use veggie broth to add flavor. Well, as you know, our GO-TO broth is The Gentle Chef’s Golden Chikun Bouillon (found in Seitan and Beyond by Chef Skye Michael Conroy). We added 1 tsp of that luscious dry mix per cup of water and we are SO glad we did. After stirring/whisking for about 5 minutes, we weren’t quite satisfied with the thickness so we turned up the heat a bit (we have gas burners), put a diffuser under the pot to keep the mixture from clumping up at the hot spots and kept stirring for another couple of minutes.
Then we held our collective Elfin breath and poured it into the parchment paper lined 9"x13" pan. As directed, we let it cool to room temperature and then placed in the refrigerator overnight to firm up.
Then came the showdown…taking it out of the pan, slicing into storable pieces and trying it. It came out of the pan nicely and sliced beautifully into 6 large blocks. We wrapped and froze 4 of them and kept two out to ‘play with’. Just to taste it, we pan fried six relatively thin slices with a small amount of coconut oil until they were crispy. Let them cool and took a bite….then another bite, then another. Before we knew it, 3 slices were gone!
We called Big Solid in for his opinion since he relies a lot on texture for his ultimate endorsement; well, he loved it as well.  Now, we are looking for good recipes to use it in. And, as a matter of fact, we are about to go pan sauté some more with some seasoning to see how that works. IF we have time before we publish this blog, we’ll try baking some as well. Time out for Tofu…of the Burmese persuasion.

OK, we are back from trying out baked Burmese Tofu and so far, that’s our favored method. No oil needed, if you bake on parchment paper and lightly spray with Coconut Oil Spray. We baked it at 425º for 15 minutes on each side which gave a nice brown color and crust.
This too was delicious. And, just as a side note, don't you think they look like little bitty turnovers? The internal consistency is still fairly soft so just be aware of that. All in all, this is a definite keeper. We also defrosted one of the blocks we froze yesterday and will see how that impacts the consistency as well. We know that freezing really changes the consistency of regular soy tofu. Will let you know next week how that turned out!

One of the most difficult parts for many when they switch to plant-based eating is ‘eating out’. Most restaurants are WAY behind the times offering plant-based options, especially entrées—and ESPECIALLY in the DEEP FRIED SOUTH. Howsomever, if you get creative, if you can hang in there, if you are willing to experiment with different ethnic foods and if you CALL AHEAD, you can find all sorts of options.  Last night, we went to one of our regular haunts (a STEAKHOUSE no less) and were able to get a pasta with steamed veggies for Big Solid and a baked mashed potato without all the trimmings (cheese, sour cream and bacon bits). Instead we got a side order of sliced sautéed mushrooms (in a bit of olive oil rather than butter). Soft for the teeth 'wannabes' and delicious to the taste. Over the years, we have established a connection with this restaurant (as we have many in our area) and they will allow us to bring some vegan condiments (cheese, Parmesan cheese, plant-based meats and salad dressings). 
 Another concern when going plant-based is the impact it has on others, especially when visiting. Our friends in Florida are quite worried that they will NOT be able to accommodate our ‘strange eating lifestyle’. We have assured them to 
‘keep calm
and
don't stress about the vegans’
for a number of reasons…baked potatoes and salads are almost always on a menu, we will pack a LOT of our own foods (creamer, milks, cheeses, soups, and plant-based alternatives), and we can more than not find options everywhere. 
Y’all have  great week and remember to smile a lot, laugh out loud, share kindnesses galore, eat plants and DO EPIC.

Your Elf with her new Fairy Hair

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Time Waits for No Elf

As the days go hurtling by, we are throwing ours-elfs headlong into this next decade with renewed gusto and vigor. There is NOT a doubt in our mind that being plant-based has provided us with the tools necessary to live strong and healthy. And now that Big Solid has joined up as a plant-based eater, we have lots of fun together planning stuffs to eat, goin’ to the grocery store and figuring out new restaurants to try. Later on in this blog, we will introduce you to Mitchell Moore and talk a bit about his leap into plant-based eating and how he has fared over the past 6 weeks. Don’t miss it!

But first, our FatFree Vegan Kitchen/Susan Voisin recipe this week was a very nice, soothing and tasty dish called Warm Pasta Salad with Roasted Vegetables and Pesto Vinaigrette. http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2013/08/warm-pasta-salad-with-roasted-vegetables-and-pesto-vinaigrette.html
This dish has two recipes in it…one for the salad/roasted vegetables and one for the dressing (the pesto vinaigrette). Actually, we have decided to keep a whole ‘mess’ of roasted or pan roasted veggies on hand because they are SO GOOD and can be utilized in so many way. AND, since Big Solid is committed to more ‘good carbs’, he is now more amenable to wonderful pastas, rice dishes and, of course, potatoes; he’s also more open to trying veggies he’s heretofore not been so fond of only to find that, if prepared in a tasty and well-seasoned manner, are quite good. So, this was a great opportunity to have two of the Elf’s favorite foods (pasta) and eggplant. In order to keep the veggies from getting to mushy, we spread them out over two cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. These were roasted until they were nice and brown to bring out the most flavor.
These nicely caramelized veggies were then added to some whole wheat rotini along with chickpeas and sliced Kalamata olives. Now, the recipe calls for any fat-free dressing but Susan recommends her FatFree  Balsamic Vinegar and Raisin Vinaigrette. Listen up, this stuff is like liquid crack! We keep in on hand ALL THE TIME! It’s so good and so easy to make. This link will take you to the original recipe (who'd have thought to use raisins as sweetener). http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2012/03/spicy-apple-walnut-salad-with-fat-free-balsamic-raisin-dressing.html
To ‘pesto-ize’ this dressing for the pasta salad, we added basil, roasted garlic (you roast it with the veggies in some foil), walnuts and nutritional yeast. Add the dressing to the pasta/vegetables and voila! You have a wonderful meal that is delicious warm, at room temperature and even cold!!
We can attest to that since the little bit we had left over vanished without ever being warmed up again. We got so excited about all the new opportunities (remember pasta, rice and potatoes are fair game now), we’ve already selected our FFVK recipe for next week. Portabellos Stuffed with Pesto Mashed Potatoes. http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/06/portabellas-stuffed-with-pesto-mashed.html

Here’s another recipe we tried during the week…it’s been making the Facebook rounds lately and that’s the Avocado/Chickpea/Lemon spread.
Well, we tinkered with that a bit by using a lime instead of a lemon; when the flavor did not particularly soar, we added some sliced tomatoes, ground cumin and cayenne to make it more of a guacamole spread.
It is VERY spicy and quite tasty. We grabbed some sunflower micro-greens from Whole Paycheck/Foods and made a nice little sammich on a whole wheat bun (we actually added more 'greens after this picture as we wanted you to see them up close).

THEN, we got all inspired by Chef Joe’s Sriracha hummus at the Crossroads Café and decided to give it a go ourowns-elfs. Although we keep Sriracha on hand, we made a quick decision to use Sambal instead.
We were NOT disappointed. In fact, just writing about this made us hungry, so we took a break and had a taste.
Now you see it
...now you don't!
And FINALLY, from the Kinky Elfery Kitchen, yesterday was a whirlwind of activity. We made four batches of cookie dough for the coming week, a dozen plant-based sausages (6 Andouille and 6 Italian) and a batch of The Gentle Chef’s Chikun. Pictured here is the dough that turns into Andouille sausages after rolling in foil and steaming.
We are meeting some good friends for supper tonight and will take some of the plant-based meats with us to spruce up a baked potato or salad.

NOW, we mentioned Mitchell Moore at the beginning of this blog and want to tell you that this man is a walking endorsement of plant-based eating. Mitchell is a pastry chef with incredible talent; he owns Campbell’s Bakery (a fixture in the Fonder area of Jackson MS) and recently opened a Madison MS Campbell’s. Here are side by side pictures of Mitchell as he began his journey to health. He is now down 50 pounds. If you can see the detail on the award, his was named best dessert at a recent Livingston Market gathering.

Mitchell is also intensely invested in his wife and daughter, Madelyn (pictured).
His cardiologist told him about two months ago that if he wanted to be around to watch his daughter grow up, he needed to make some changes, primarily having to do with ridding his arteries of evil plaque and his body of cholesterol (the bad kind). Adopting a plant-based diet was suggested and Mitchell hasn’t looked back. He has embraced this change with his ever-present intensity, and looks at what he CAN do/have/develop/make rather than what he CAN’T. See, he’s already hard at work creating vegan bakery options such as these awesome VEGAN Chocolate Chip Cookies! And remember Campbell's Bakery did the incredible Vegan Cupcakes for the Elf's Birthday Bash last weekend.
It’s the mindset of thinking what one CAN’T have that prevents so many folks from going plant based and it’s a bee (no vegan blowback, please) in your Elf’s bonnet. And here’s where Mitchell shines…he’s committed to making his body work better and he posted his bloodwork results after 6 weeks to share the remarkable changes. We have his permission to share and GET THESE NUMBERS!! In Mitchell’s own words (and can’t you FEEL his excitement!): “The first 6 weeks numbers are in as a vegan. Drumroll please…Cholesterol-was 208, now 153; HDL-was 33, now 38; LDL (the bad stuff) was 155, now 89. And that is just in the first 6 weeks. I’m hooked. The best part is that as a vegan, the plaque lining my arteries will slowly, over time, dissipate until they are clean and no more plaque should be introduced. I know I’m going to die one day, but it won’t be from heart disease. Not anymore.” Now folks, we here in the KEK ask you, doesn’t that just thrill you to pieces!! Many thanks, Mitchell, for letting us share some of your story.


OK, that’s a vegan wrap for this week, y’all. We look forward to this week with some trepidation as your Elf is having some ‘toof’ implants. We feel pretty sure everything will be just fine and we’ll be in the KEK in no time a'tall. Until next week, remember to laugh out loud, eat plant-based, share a kindness or many, and DO EPIC!

Your Elf.

Sunday, October 2, 2016

"To Elf-inity and BEYOND!'

What a week we have had! Not only did we get to help out at the Crossroads Café again (and up the donation amount to ARF of MS), we made cookies (and we understand that a woman came in and bought ALL of the Double Chocolate Chip to take to a tailgate at the Ole Miss game!) and turned SEVENYTEEN! But first, we need to report out on our FatFree Vegan Kitchen recipe this week…the Mushroom Barley Soup with Cannelloni Beans and Cabbage. http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2010/02/mushroom-barley-soup-with-cannellini.html
We’ve not cooked much with barley in the Kinky Elfery Kitchen but we will  most certainly up the usage of this high protein grain. This is an easy and lovely soup that offers a lot of nutritional value, great tastes and a sense of fall that we have been waiting for since practically the first day of spring here in Mississippi (understanding that the First Day of Spring in Mississippi is the ONLY day of Spring…we go immediately to hot/humid). Gosh when you have mushrooms, cabbage, beans, and barley…how can you go wrong! We cooked up the barley first and as it was cooking, sautéed the onions until they started to show brown (always adds such a nice nuance of flavor).
Then added the mushrooms and garlic and let that infuse with the mushrooms.
 Next up, we added the thyme and sherry (yep, we doubled the sherry) and let the alcohol cook off.
Since we cooked the barley in our Gentle Chef’s Chikun Bouillon, we KNEW that flavor would be awesome, so adding the mushrooms, cabbage and paprika just added another level of great taste to the mix. Now, we know Susan used red cabbage in her recipe but we used green.
And another neat thing about this recipe is the use of two smoked paprikas, one being just plain ole smoked and the other spicy smoked. We LOVE smoked Paprika in the KEK, so always have e different kinds at the ready—hot, bittersweet (our favorite) and sweet. We completed our little early fall meal with a vegan pimento cheese sandwich on a whole wheat bun (and a little Pinot Grigio).
It was excellent and just the right amount of substance! Not too little and not too much. One of the things we LOVE about Susan’s recipes is her inclusion of the nutritional values. So many cookbooks and recipe sites do not do that but for those of us who like to track things like sodium, sugar and fat intake, it makes things so much easier!! So, thanks Susan!! You can find Susan’s recipes at her FatFree Vegan Kitchen site and we encourage you to sign up for her newsletter as well.

THEN!! We got on a soup roll with an exotic Moroccan soup from the Isa Does It cookbook called Harira.
It was an easy way to ‘hide’ eggplant from Big Solid. AND, since we are trying to get more ‘starch’ (remember we are loosely following some of the John McDougall ideas on potatoes, rice and pasta), this recipe also has angel hair pasta that really adds more substance than a thinner soup might have. This soup is delicious and shows off the exquisite tastes of Moroccan cuisine. 

And finally, we did indeed have a milestone birthday Friday and continued to celebrate on Saturday. Yes, your Elf turned 70 (and yes, I am calling it seventyteen because I SWEAR I feel much younger than 70). A HUGE SHOUTOUT to Mitchell Moore and the folks at Campbell’s Bakery Madison for the awesome job done on the cupcakes!
Mitchell hisownself has opted for a plant-based diet as a means to become a more healthy person, so who else would the Elf call on for a special order. Yes, the cupcakes were vegan, the ice cream was dairy-free and the champagne was vegan friendly. We had a MOST marvelous time and the non-vegan participants came away with a new awareness that plant-based does not necessarily restrict you from enjoying some of the more ‘decadent’ offerings in the dessert world. So, thanks MITCHELL and CAMPBELL’S BAKERY/MADISON for a job well done!! Here are a few pics of the day!
The Elf and Mail Order Annie. MOA kept the neighborhood aware of all the aging going on in the KEK.
Big Solid, The Elf having a little bubbly!
MiniPearl found a home on Corinthia's shoulder. She wanted to go home with Corinthia!
The Elf and her friend Gigi (one of the Veganistas!). Gigi was preparing to participate in a half-ironman triathlon relay today, so we wish her the BEST!! So, there you have it for the week and for another year gone by for your Elf. We are totally convinced that one reason we feel so good is eating a plant-based diet. We'll have to surprise you next week with our FatFree Vegan Kitchen recipe..since it's getting cooler, we'll dive into more hearty fare and see what happens. In the meantime, remember to laugh out loud, do a kindness (or more), eat plants, and DO EPIC!
Your Elf -- To Elf-inity and BEYOND!!