Homemade Popcorn and the premier of TWILIGHT SAGA - BREAKING DAWN PART 1!!

Don't know about you all but my family are crazy about vampires!! Between our first and ultimate favorite TWILIGHT SAGA!!! 2nd. Favorite is Vampire Diaries!! 3rd favorite for my husband Trevor and I is TRUBLOOD!!

(This photo was taken by my Iphone and as you can see there are a ton of people behind us in the theater waiting patiently as well. Sky was making a crazy face with a mouth full of popcorn. She then added these crazy characters on my phone and I had no idea. I am laughing as I am typing this. She is so funny. I have no idea how to add these types of characters to photos. Very FUNNY!! Movie was beyond amazing and I literally saw it 3 times in 1 week. That's how obsessed I am and a huge fan. Saw it the following Monday with girlfriends and then Tuesday afternoon with Britain.)




Sky, Britain and I have been waiting for over a year to see this film!! We are beyond excited!

We are hitting the Premier tonight at 10 pm to wait in the Theater lobby before the actual start time of 12:01 am

(11/18/2011)!! We are making a huge amount of homemade popcorn! I love my popcorn!! It's old fashion style!!

All you need is: 1 BIG pot (one you'd cook a big order of spaghetti and meat balls in)coated with veggie oil. Add a good coating of popcorn seeds to cover the bottom of the pot and cook over high heat! Or if you don't tend on shaking it back and forth over the flame-Medium heat. Make sure you take the lid off after the popcorn has popped quite a bit and is about to hit the cover. We take off the lid because I make sure to overfill the bottom of the pot with popcorn seeds because its fun! As your popcorn pops over the pot, turn the heat down and listen to the last popcorn seed to pop! I then dump the popcorn into a brown paper bag and add a good amount of Sea Salt. Shake it all up and serve!! This is my and our kids very favorite snack for home and at school! I actually have the neighborhood kids ask for my popcorn all the time as well as our friends and family who hang out and attend our parties! It's a huge hit! I also love the fact that we do not use the microwave anymore and we do not throw microwave bags away and add to landfills! As GREEN as possible in our house!!

So tonight we are going to smuggle our popcorn in to the theater and buy the big size sodas!! To enjoy our beyond favorite movie of all time - TWILIGHT SAGA - Breaking Dawn Part 1!!!

Let me know if you are huge VAMPIRE fan's and if you tried making popcorn old fashion style and what you thought of it!! I promise your taste buds will love you for it!!

Long time no talk!

Hey Everyone! I would like to say a huge "I am sorry for not being on top of my blog as I normally am!" With the holiday's fast approaching it seems life has been put on fast forward!!

My Real Esate business is going great and I have my first deal being processed!! I have another buyer client who is ready to place an offer at the end of December! I am working with a Rental and I have several deals beginning to develop come the New Year!! Trevor is doing great at his work and has exciting plans on starting another business! The kids are doing great! They are becoming more acceptable to our new recipes I am trying out!! I am still currently reading "Complete Idiots guide to Vegan Eating kids!" really great! I would recommend it! It starts off with stating it would be a great idea to have a "introduction meeting" for the entire family and really discuss what is the best way to introduce and handle becoming a Vegan eating family. Make a Mission Statement and BPO's stand for Best Possible Option and this is a great idea as sometimes that's all you can choose to eat or drink in certain circumstances. There are several recipes at the back of the book and I plan on trying them out myself and then taking photos and letting you all know what worked well for us and what the kids actually liked them!

I have been experimenting with The Kind Diet recipes by Alicia Silverstone. Over the weekend I made a gorgeous Winter Butternut Squash soup!! So delicious! We also had an amazing Halloween Party and served a good amount of Halloween Vegan food! I plan on adding photos and recipes and telling you all about our wonderful Halloween night!

There is so much I need to inform you all but have been too busy to keep up. So please bare with me. I have just updated my "birthday blog from Sept. 16th" and my blog about serving vegan food to wonderful dinner guests. Please check them out!

Please look out for many more blogs to come over this weekend! I love all comments and questions!! Keep them coming!!!

Finally feel like a Vegan Family!

Tonight was really nice; for a family of 5 running around with all of our heads cut off it was nice to finally be on time with dinner! Trevor was on his way home, the kids were outside enjoying the fresh air and playing. Something I only get to do one hour a day jogging with Trevor in the pitch dark at 5 am in the morning! I tell you in the New Year one of my New Year resolution is to find another outdoor activity that doesn't consist of picking up the kids’ stuff or mowing etc. Just a fun outside activity for me. What that is I am not sure yet, but I need another outlet that will allow me more outdoor time!

So as I was saying, I was putting together our dinner "Vegan Style" and I finally felt like I was in control of the meal. Like I was not floundering around with left overs, trying to figure out what we were going to eat and feeling very guilty as I normally do not knowing if we are eating a full balanced Vegan Meal. Well tonight I think I covered a lot of balance for us. While I was getting the last minute details to our meal, I had the kids set the table. Sky had the placemats. Britain had the cutlery and glasses. Luke had the coasters and napkins. We use cloth napkins as we have done away with paper napkins for over 3 yrs now. We try to be a very "Green" family. I also asked Luke to help a little more as he's not a baby anymore being 7 and should do more in the house then destroy and become Tasmanian devil! I swear!! So I asked him to vacuum and he was ok with that. No back talk at all! Almost fell over! For dinner tonight I thought I'd pull out the new favorite Vegan dish and it's Kebab’s with salad and other veg. This meal consists of Morning Star Veggie Sausages that taste like real sausage and we heat them up in a pan, slice them up into 4's and add them to pita bread or a wrap or on top of a salad. I slice up tomatoes, cuc's and lettuce. Trevor likes to add lemon juice and I typically would add the Good Season's Italian dressing. This time since we were only down to one bag of veggie sausages I decided last minute to check the freezer and pulled out a non-chicken cutlet filled with onion, corn, black beans and spices!! Yummy!! Has a little kick just so you know!! I also cooked Basmati Rice which is really yummy and Britain surprised me by asking if she could cook Brussels sprouts! I was so in shock at this request. To get any other green veg down my kid’s throats besides green beans and lettuce is a miracle! "Sure", I said! So I let Britain get on with cutting off the ends to the Brussels sprouts and slicing an X at each end of the sprout and she then added them to the pot of boiling water. I also added my Trader Joe's chicken-less chicken cutlet which only needed 5 minutes in the pot to heat up in the boil bag that came with it. We all had salad, rice, Brussels sprouts and the rest of them had veggie sausages to my chicken-less chicken cutlet! Luke of course was not the one of us who ate most. He refused the sprout, munched down on the rice and cuc's and practically was beyond giddy over the sausages that he refused to eat with a fork but was shoveling it down his throat with his hands! Pig!
I told him to use his manners and he just looked at me as if he'd roll his eyes! Sometimes I tell you; kids try your patience! We talked about our day, we laughed, we argued, we then tried to eat the last of anything that was left on the dishes! That's how hungry and eager to eat our dinner we were! We even had time to get Trevor's old collection of Little Miss and Mr. Men books out that were created and produced in England. Luke read to us Little Miss Tidy and did a great job!! We are working on his fluency as he's falling behind in ready this quarter! And with all this great dinner and clean up (our dishwasher died 3 weeks ago and everything is now by hand for an additional hour after dinner!) we still managed to get them in bed on time! Trevor and I are in bed now, he's reading "The Success Principals by Jack Canfield" and I fancied letting you all know what a great night we had with all the crazy thrown in there too! I am still reading and digesting "Idiot's guide to raising Vegan Eating kids". I will be on "Living as Vegan's for Dummies" or I might read “Cooking for Vegan's for Dummies". I think that would probably be the best book to read next.

So anyone of you out there finally hit a good place with becoming Vegan's with all the crazy of just running your lives and trying to manage your time or activities in the process! Let us know!

Answering a Crepe Question Part 2 (Trace Ellen please read)

Just yesterday Thursday, November 3rd around 4 pm I visited Simply Crepe's off of Falls Of Neuse Rd in Raleigh, NC to interview with the Owner Pierre! I loved my experience so much when I took my favorite client and new dearest friend Nina to lunch there, I thought it would be a fun place to work extra hours to help provide a regular flow of income while I build my career by referrals in Real Estate.

Nina thought Simply Crepe's would be a lovely place to eat and thought it would cater to Vegan's! It was pretty close and as a wonderful gesture she paid for my lunch as well! Had such a lovely time with her there! Well it does for Lactose free and veggies (vegetarians) but it's not there quite yet for Vegan's. Still enjoyed it immensely!! I did find out I was wrong about the Buckwheat Crepe mix. There are eggs but there isn't any milk.

Well I am sure you are all wondering why I decided to interview there besides have a great lunch! I love the ambience, I love the decor and the staff was very friendly. The lunch was brilliant and I got such good energy there! The high frequency of positive vibes just vibrated in this restaurant! I had my hour interview yesterday and I had a great time. Learned a ton as to how Simply Crepe's came about. How its family run. How everything in the decor is 2nd hand, yard sale, or restores items from Habitat for Humanity. Even their straws are green and immediately biodegrade once they hit a landfill! Simply Crepes are "VERY GREEN CONCSIOUS" and this made me love them even more as I am huge "VERY GREEN SUPPORTER AS WELL AS MY FAMILY"!! After an hour interview I got the job! I am a waitress for up to 30 hours per week and 30 plus hours a week in Real Estate. Not to mention the full time job of not losing my mind and enjoying my children as a full time Mom who's hit a stage of breaking out of the "stay at home mold" and trying to swing into a new career change and now 2nd job to help facilitate the first job. My gorgeous hubby Trevor is beat and has been pulling his weight and then some for 11 1/2 yrs and I want to return the favor and swap places as a matter of fact. These new steps will allow both of us to do this! Another cool note, Pierre liked the idea that I was a Vegan and confessed he's been trying to break into serving vegan food to his customer's but has been very afraid. I asked why and he said "truly my being afraid is just ignorance as to not knowing how to prepare Vegan friendly food". I told him "get in line as I am there and only been a "vegan in training" since July 1st. So he suggested I help him with his menu to add more Vegan dishes! How cool is that. Not only will I work in a very cool, hip and green restaurant, I'll also be of help to add some knowledge to the Vegan Menu items Pierre would love to add! I am very excited! If I have some local Raleigh folks who are in the mood for a fun, hip place to eat and receive great service, please check out Simply Crepe's off of Falls of Neuse Rd. www.simplycrepes.com

I'll also update the our pantry and weekly menu with new dishes created at Simply Crepe's that I can tweak and make Vegan for home! Cannot wait to share to you all my new knowledge of Vegan foods restaurant style and maybe in the form of a crepe or two!

1st Annual Gardner's Halloween Party!!! Tons of Fun was had and Vegan food served!!

Wow, what a fun night it is to be any character, monster, or whatever takes your fancy!!! The Gardner's love to dress up for Halloween and this year we thought we'd do one thing extra and throw a party for all our freinds and neighbors to join in and have a blast! I invited over 50 people; about 35 turned up and we had unexpected guests who said they couldn't surprise us with drop by's. So overall we had 40 people. 25 of them were kids! I had bought a Halloween magazine that gave us all the details on how to throw a fantastic party with creepy and ghoulish party food (which we made vegan), decorating ideas and party games!

We have several pictures to add, unfortunately we didn't get all of our guests pictures as I was the hostess and my head was spinning trying to serve and make sure all was happy and had a drink or yummy food to eat! Trevor cooked most of the morning, he made his famous Vegan Chilli!! Everyone ate that up and had to stop for breathe as it's HOT! He also made his yummy Piella dish (vegan of course with a bit of a kick as well!!) The last warm dish we made was vegtable pasta dish. We used to call this dish Pasta Mince as we had hamburger and then turkey burger in it years ago but we've veganized it and taken out the beef! The rest is the same and still very delicious. I need to add the recipes to this on this post, as I do not have them handy. I also will post the recipes to the creepy, crawlly, ghoulish food we made from the magazine and I took pictures as well. I can tell you it was fun making bread sticks in the shape of witches fingers. They had almonds for nails, green food coloring to make them green and knarly, Rice shreds for cheddar cheese for the hair and they were delicous served with spaghetti sauce. I also made an Apple cyder punch with bobbing dead heads made out of Apple's. Very yummy and spooky. We had a over 20 hand dippped candy apples! We added sprinkles to make them more colorful!! We also made pumpkins with worms crawling out of them. Which basically means orange peppers cut into to look like pumpkins and spaghetti with pasta sauce to look like worms crawling out. Made my homemade popcorn and created a ghoulish trailmix with pretzels, peanuts, and some chilli powder! Yummy! The night was a hit and we've decided to make it an annual party for us! New found tradition and we found many other recipes that we can make ghoulish and very vegan. The cool part of then night is the food was a hit and no one had said anything negative serviing vegan food. That made me very happy. If we had a comment or two we'd say; of course it's vegan and what do you think of it? All we got was this is beyond delicious. It's so funny the misconceptions of Vegan food. We did have the typical cupcakse galore at the house as deserts brought by friends. We literally had over 30 plus cupcakes, it was shocking and cool to see so many. Luckily we had enough kids on hand to devour them. Next year I think I'll make all the food and let our friends and family bring side's that are vegan free.

Any great Halloween Recipes you could share with us?

Bad Day Story , Trivia Questions and Wonderful Rice Dream Vanilla Rice Dream Rice Drink facts!

My day yesterday started off lazy and then lead to too many errands and overall a bad day! But boy was I mistaken. Listen to this story of a truly bad day for a nice nurse who chose to make me laugh and smile.

Ok. was having a bad day with loads of errands thrown in.I had to go to the kids clinic to pick up Britain's ammunization chart for the past 5 1/2 yrs. I need to fillout a sibling form for her attending Franklin Academy where Skylar goes. Well the nurse that was helping me retreive this information saw I was upset and tried to make me feel better and told me her very crazy "Bad Day Story!" Here it is per her words.

"maybe I can help you with your day by telling you about my bad day!" She then says "got up this morning and it was one of those crazy with my head cut off kind of mornings. I have 3 kids; a boy, girl and boy. Ages 19, 13 and 10. I asked them to help me find my purse as we couldn't go anywhere until I found my purse with the keys." She then tells me "the kids finally get up and start helping me, in pursuit of looking for my purse I overhear my youngest son tell all of us "I saw Mom's purse in the freezer!". She looks at me and says can you beleive he see it there but does nothing to help me actually get it!". So she proceeds with "my eldest son goes to the freezer and low and behold it's there!" My purse and the entire contents have been frozen! I had put my purse in the freezer the night before and the worst part is I am wondering why I did this. I walk into the pantry and there on the shelf is the whole chicken and several pounds of hamburger meet!!" She said so now after work I have to go shopping again I said " I am so sorry but you are right you win! It is a not so good day for you!!" I said "well, you can go vegan like me!" She said oh, that sounds nice!What about my family? I said " do what I did and have them become Vegan's too!" She started laughing, I got my form and left! What a crazy bad day she had huh! It's all in perspective and the meaning you give to it.

Loving the Rice Vanilla Milk and on the back of the carton is several Triva Questions!

Thought you'd enjoy them!

1. In what country is a typical greeting "Have you had your rice today?"
2. How many grains are in one pound of long grain white rice?
3. What state in the US produces the most rice?

Answers:
1. China
2. More than 29,000
3. Arkansas

Rice Dream Rice Drink (vanilla)Facts:

1. low in fat (Rice Dream is 99% fat free and is a cholesterol free food.)
2. Lactose and Soy Free (Rice Dream contains neither diary nor soy, making it a great choice for vegans and those with dietary restrictions.)
3. Complete Nutrition (Rice Dream is enriched with Calcium, Vitamins A, D & B12).

No Added Sweeteners!

Let me know if you've enjoyed this fun story and if you've decided to try Rice Milk!

Answering a Crepe Question?

Earlier this week I got a comment from a fellow "newbie" Vegan Tracy Ellen who asked if the Buckwheat Crepe I ate last week at lunch with my dear friend Nina was "egg and dairy free". In my haste of enjoying my lunch and time with Nina I completely forgot to ask this vital question. 

In my "newbie vegan" head I'd taken off the cheese, I had a crepe full of salad, tofu and balsamic vinaigrette. I never thought twice that changing the flour from regular to "Buckwheat flour" was maybe not fully vegan.

I just got time today to call Simply Crepe located off of Falls Of Neuse Road in Lafayette Village in Raleigh, North Carolina. If any of you are locals want to check it out and have a fabulous time please do, you'll be glad you did! http://www.simplycrepe.com/


I found out that unfortunately the Buckwheat Crepe did indeed contain both milk and eggs! So OPPS my bad! Just another reminder that I am in "learning mode" and I need to be more specific and detailed with my questions. Tracy Ellen also asked me if I could get the recipe from Simply Crepe and they said they couldn't do that as it's a trade secret. Totally understandable.

I have learned so far as a "newbie Vegan" you can substitute eggs with apples sauce. 1 cup of applesauce equals 1 egg. Also 1 banana equals 1egg. For milk substitution we are using Almond Milk with Vanilla or Rice Milk with Vanilla. So far we are not fans of non-sweetened coconut milk. Any butter can be replaced with non dairy butter and we use Earth Balance. You can buy it whipped or not.

Any other questions please comment as I love reading them and learning from them as well!!

If you have any cool crepe recipes we can all learn from, try and enjoy, please let us all know!

Happy Halloween!!

Life is Good,
Kerri