Smoky Refried Bean Soup

Ole! Recipe courtesy of Fat Free Vegan.

Brad and I are currently on a health kick right now, trying to avoid sweets, beer, and all of the other enjoyable things we eat and drink. At least we have this tasty soup to get us through!

Farmer's market Friday

In the Williams family we have our routine pretty much set.

Friday =
Go to Target for random browsing and buying.
Go to Farmer's Market for produce.
Go to Nature's/Whole Foods for week's groceries.

This year, the market doesn't seem to be as bountiful as it was last year, and its the only thing that makes me wish I lived in Portland sometimes.

Oh well... on to the haul for this week:



Let's start with the berries, shall we? Clockwise from the top: local strawberries, loganberries (!!), Rainier cherries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Add in some zucchini, green beans and cauliflower, and you're set.

The zucchini and green beans are destined for Minestrone soup later in the week, I'm sure the cauliflower will be snacked on throughout the week... and I'm confident the berries will end up in the Blendtec for one of Brad's famous smoothies!

Best. Combo. Ever.

Is there any denying peanut butter and chocolate?



No bake peanut butter chocolate bars from The Joy of Vegan Baking. I made these for a potluck at work, and even though I get a lot of guff from people about being vegan, they sure ate these up like there was no tomorrow!

My Blendtec is a monster

So I am totally a blender snob and anyone that knows me understands that my Blendtec blender is my pride and joy. So I make a smoothie pretty much every day, but there's nothing like getting fresh fruit from your local Farmer's Market. I went to the one here in Redmond today and got some fresh strawberries and blueberries and threw those bad boys in with some bananas, ground up flax seed, and put a touch of orange juice and this is what came out.

Here is the before picture: (Looks kind of weird with the flax seed)



And the after picture:



Since this blender will literally crush anything, I can put the stems of the strawberries and get the nutritional benefit from them. What a great device this thing is!

Our version of July 4th

For our first vegan food blog, Elaine and I decided to go all out with a ambitious 4th of July dinner. We found some Tofurky vegan brats at the store marinated with Full Sail Ale, made some potato salad, and some baked beans. This dinner turned out to be one of the best I've had in a long time, and appropriately made for the 4th of July.




We also couldn't resist to rent the Jonas Brothers's (Elaine's idea, I swear) concert DVD, which was a pleasant surprise. I can't figure out why these cats are so fascinating... Elaine loves to give me shit every time I tell her that I wish I was a Jonas Brother.

Plenty more to come!

- Brad