I haven’t even used my teensy packet yet while the Chia Joo-buh-lia continues to swirl around me. In the meantime, the fabulous Michele at healingwithjuices is giving away some Navitas Naturals goodness in the form of Chia Seeds!*

I’ve tried the NN Trail Mix and just bought the Cashew Power tonight (serendipity? maybe!), and BEST of all, Navitas Naturals is from my original hometown of Marin County. Holla Marin!

Jump on over for your own chance to win some Chia!

* There is also Chia Powder (with a “d”) which Navitas knows we’re smart enough to know from seeds even though the possibly confusing POWER (no “d”) appears on both bags. Don’t they know we’re sometimes hungry and not thinking/seeing straight when we’re health food shopping? Okay, maybe that’s just me. *grin*

This is a bit of a meals and moves post to catch up on my photo posting. Apparently my computer needs more RAM so I’ll be able to post faster moving forward (sleek and fast seems to be my all-around goal this year!).

So in no particular order, here’s what’s been going on and what’s been going IN:

5 star YUM!

Once I got over my momentary sadness that there was CORN in Quinoa pasta (Why, corn? Why must you be everywhere? Thank Goodness I’m not allergic to you like some kids I know, but I’m not sure I really trust you), I enjoyed every bite of my pasta with homemade walnut pesto, green beans, and Marissa’s Vegan Parm. I’ve been in a mood where once the food processor is out, I like everything in little pieces so in went the green beans. Darn this bowl was good!

Full blown Autumn came today in torrents of rain today (and, of course, my umbrella was in the car where I was not), but before all this blustery weather, we were enjoying quite an awesome extended summer here in the Pacific Northwest. Almost every night, Chris and I would walk through our neighborhood enjoying the sights.

Note the tongue action. That's probably what I did before eating the above bowl of pasta!

That’s our crazy dog, Cady. She could have her own blog, but she won’t. I’ll just let her story unfold as we go along. The short version is she’s a rescue from New Jersey – like a Sopranos dog, with fewer kills and definitely less manners.

Most nights, this is our reward for walking straight uphill for a few blocks:

Those are the Olympics. We don't pay for that view but we can walk to it.

One of the biggest rewards of summer AND our uphill walks is the magnificence of a neighbor’s dahlias. I can’t even describe the joy they bring me. The owner of the house is elderly, and every time I happen to see her I tell her how beautiful her flowers are and how happy they make me.

They are just happy flowers! She says she doesn’t even take the bulbs out of the ground to overwinter. I keep telling myself I’m going to grow my own one day, but I love seeing hers so much it keeps me trudging uphill!

I know my meals aren’t the most exciting, but I work more than 40 hours a week and this is the best I can throw together except on the weekends when I can really get my cooking on…so here it goes:

LOVING my spiralizer!

Shrimp (from frozen) over zucchini noodles with more of the homemade pesto. The shrimp were a little tough, but I love those little buggers (sorry veg-heads). I’ve been making the mistake lately of not having protein at lunch so a dinner like this really satisfies me!

Can you guess which slice is mine?

One of my all-time favorite products and one of the rare things we eat out of a box is Amy’s Rice Crust Pizza. It’s Dairy free and Gluten free. Yeah, it probably violates my no-soy rule but it’s a splurge. I was DYING for pizza, and we almost always have one of these (the one with spinach) in the freezer, but then I added my own fresh tomatoes and spinach and a little bit of garlic powder. This is great for a busy night!

So I should have brought my camera when we explored a new Asian market this weekend, but here’s a photo of our bounty (most of it) instead:

That’s a BIG bag of baby bok choy (say THAT three times fast), some Asian eggplant, and, of course, the beloved Kabocha (69 cents a pound – whoohoo) that Chris is hacking away at right now for the much-anticipated That Pumpkin Soup. Probably won’t be making that till the weekend, but I have permission to post the recipe. I had one of the eggplants tonight sauteed in some broth and Bragg’s, and it was delish.

Whew – I’m almost out of photos but have another round from last weekend’s hike. How do you think Chris ended up 5 feet down a ravine? (I’ll give you a hint, we had a leash but someone else didn’t)

Forgive me Vitamix if you didn’t want me to play Paul Revere on this one but here’s a screaming deal on refurbished Vitamixes with a free shipping code: Vitamix sale!

Free standard shipping with code: 05-0881-09-12 – a $25 value.

My Vitamix is refurbished and has been going strong for at least a year now, and I have it on good authority that Heather’s is a refurbished model too. Hey, we’re healthy, but we’re not Rockefellers!

The other night in my Raw Thai class, a woman raised her hand and innocently asked if buying a Vitamix was worth it. You would have thought she said, “Excuse me, you Miss, would you please come over and give me your whole life story in regards to your experience with your Vitamix.” I could see Chris think “Oh no, here she (me) goes.”

I actually spoke to the woman after class (of course I did) and gave her a whole testimonial, stopping just short of inviting her home to my kitchen for a demo. I think I sold her, but now I’m thinking I should have gotten her email so I could send her this deal!

Here’s the skinny…yeah, it’s an investment, but it is an appliance in my kitchen that I use at least once a day, if not more. I can’t think of any other appliance in my kitchen that I use that often except my refrigerator! So for me, it’s completely worth it. I use it every day for breakfast and with winter coming up, I’ll probably be using it for soup multiple times a week.

I’m THAT psyched about my Vitamix! What more can I say?

Just sharing the love, people.

This post is in no way endorsed by Vitamix, nor am I a paid representative of Vitamix. I’m kinda hoping I don’t get a call from their lawyers at this point. Cheers!

Doesn’t it feel like time’s been flying? Suddenly, it’s the end of September and time for our Raw Thai class at our neighborhood PCC! We were slightly late because we tried to take a back way, so we were THOSE people who try to sneak in late but end up making a spectacle of themselves.

Then I realized I hadn’t brought a pen, but I neurotically kept checking my purse which is some eco-friendly number held together with the biggest hunk of Velcro you’ve ever seen. I was THAT girl who kept VRIIIIPPPPPINNNNG open her purse until she was finally too mortified to continue. I survived without a pen.

Our chef/teachers Heather and Lois were from Chaco Canyon here in Seattle. I’ve never been there, but I hear their raw brownies are to die for. Anyhoo, Chaco is vegan and does have some raw items on the menu as well. Heather talked a lot about her raw eating days which she’s trying to get back to full time, and it was very interesting and educational. But let’s get on to the food!

First course: Raw Tom Kha Soup

Now I’m a big fan of the traditional hot Tom Kha. However, I’ve never been a fan of cold soup, and this one didn’t sway me one bit. It was okay, and the recipe taught me about dulse (which I probably shouldn’t have because of my thyroid issue) and Nama Shoyu so that’s something! Those pretty floaty things are orange pepper in case you were wondering. We did learn how to open a young coconut so I’m not saying they lost me on the first dish out. I was still hanging in there.

Next up: Portabello Larb Salad

This salad was very good, and I do love me some Portabellos! Funny, but I never order Larb Salad when going out to Thai – there are just too many other yummy things to choose from, but maybe now I will.

The hit of the night was the Raw Thai Green Curry Vegetables:

This dish, though pretty labor intensive in my book, was serious yum. I would make it over zucchini noodles instead of the red cabbage slices next time. Raw cabbage is NOT my friend, if you catch my drift. Mother of Carbzilla (you’ll get to meet her next month, lucky you!) would NEVER eat this dish because it has a quarter cup of coconut butter and a half cup of cashews per serving. She’d be pretty convinced she’d gain 25 lbs overnight eating like that (and she cannot be convinced otherwise, but that’s another story).

For dessert, there was Coconut Pineapple Parfait:

Guess what those precious little green things are on the top? Kiwi Berries! Grown in Oregon! Aren’t they just the cutest things? They cost over $3 dollars a carton (which is a lot considering raspberries are going about a buck a carton these days), but they get major cute points! They taste like a kiwi but are the size of a grape!

I’m a HUGE fan of dessert and this was good, no doubt about it, but I had pretty much hit the cashew and coconut wall, both of which figure prominently in this recipe. Plus I was just a few minutes away from cabbage bloat that left me feeling like a mob dump floating in the East River. Capiche?

All in all, it was a great class and major kudos to not only the sweet teachers but my awesome hubby who’s pretty much up for any crazy scheme I throw at him. He was even thoughtful enough to post this the next day on his Facebook page:

Dr. Weil's Anti-Inflammatory Diet Food Pyramid

He’s starting to get it! This is exactly how we’ve been eating (except who knew we could eat unlimited cooked Asian mushrooms?), and I was so excited to see it laid out like that. Dr. Weil ROCKS! Of course, I skip the soy level for the most part but I pickin’ up what he’s layin’ down.

Speaking of Asian mushrooms, we bought a whole bunch during our Asian market outing today. I’ll hit you up with that trip next!