Black-Eyed Pea and Sweet Potato Chili

It’s very cold here. Chili weather calls for chili on the stove. My husband made a great chili last weekend so I asked him to write down the recipe for you.

It may come in hand if you need a quick meal after the holidays or get tired of Thanksgiving-type food.

Black-Eyed Pea and Sweet Potato Chili

ingredients:

Sweet potato,  peeled and cubed

Red pepper, diced

1 onion, diced

3 cups Black eye peas, cooked

Hot pepper, 1 small (we used mild local one)

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1 small can diced tomatoes, plus liquid

2 cups Water or broth

salt to taste

2 Tbsp Vinegar

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

Sautee the onion in a large soup pot. Add red pepper, sautee. Then add everything else and bring to a boil. and let simmer at least an hour, stirring occasionally.

We chopped up a bit of spinach to add to the chili as we heated it up (it made a big pot) for greens.

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I also found these cookies that are gingery delicious and very seasonal. Gluten-free and vegan. Not sugar-free.

Speaking of gingerbread men, I added some new items to my etsy shop.

And until Dec 2nd, I have a Black Friday offer of FREE SHIPPING for purchase $15 or more, use the coupon code FREETABBY.

Have a happy, compassionate, and safe Thanksgiving to all who celebrate.

Turkey Day

Instead of Caturday, I am taking the time to have a “turkey day”. No, not Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving to me is about the harvest, but plant harvest, not animal. I always do take some time to honor turkeys around this time of year because so many are killed for this holiday. I submitted a few turkey pieces of art to the 46 million turkeys art project, which will be installed in Maine.

I know most people get together with family and feel like they don’t have a choice about whether to eat turkey or not. Even some vegetarians cheat on Thanksgiving. But take a minute to consider the amount of lives lost, and also that turkeys are some of the most interesting and creative birds. I won’t go into details about the horrors they suffer, just honor them here and think of them alive and happy.

Of course a felt one.

If you are vegan or vegetarian, what’s on your compassionate menu this Thanksgiving? For us it’s stuffed squash, mashed potatoes, greens, pumpkin pie, baked tofu, green beans, and maybe apple crisp.

What I Ate Wednesday

What I ate Wendesday…again (ok it was really Tuesday but today is Wednesday).

What does a gluten-free vegan sugar-free lymie eat?

Yesterday I made a Sunshine Loaf from Ricki Heller’s book. It was delicious and I skipped my typical bowl of oatmeal for a few toasted slices with a tiny bit of earth balance.

While I was waiting for it to toast I had a crispin apple with some peanut butter.

I was off schedule because my cat was up at night yowling. We weren’t sure why but were concerned and today took him to the vet. We got a last minute appointment so my lunch was simple, just a black bean burger I grabbed and ate cold, nothing fancy.

I made sure to grab some chocolate too! On my way out the door. This is a 100% Ghirardelli bar (no sugar) that I had melted down and added stevia, raisins, salt, and cocoa nibs too. And then froze (again night before).

We spent awhile at the vet. I was sad that he does have some cystitis and crystals in his bladder. He has to change food and he has antibiotics. Poor guy. Hope he doesn’t cry as much too so we can sleep better.

I came home and had some Brazil nuts, my second favorite kind of nut (first being roasted almonds).

It was my turn to make dinner so I went with a simple Split Pea Soup. I used the recipe in Appetite for Reduction as a blueprint but didn’t have the smoked paprika so I added some vegan bac’uns instead. I chopped some collards for veggies and added some leftover black rice to the bottom of my bowl.

Then some “red hot blues” chips for a treat. I do tend to eat less of these than I might of other chips, because they are spicy. Or so I like to think!

And another piece of no-sugar-chocolate for dessert.

And tonight working on some more sewing on my little gingerbreads. If you are interested, check out my giveaway for one of your own.

Check out other What I Ate Wednesdays.

Grand Opening Gingerbread Man Giveaway

In honor of my grand opening, I am giving away a Gingerbread Man ornament to one of my readers. It is hand stitched with recycled eco-felt.

To enter, click on the rafflecopter link and follow the directions. Winner will be picked Sunday December 1st.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Gingerbread Cat

Welcome to Caturday!

Since my life is filled with felt lately, I decided to do Caturday in felt. Here is my version of a gingerbread cat. I may be doing more cats or adding a version of this to my Etsy store, but I’m not sure yet.

My lunch today was Miso broth with toasted nori and a red kale salad with carrots, cukes, hemp seeds, my mustardy-balsamic dressing with some Beyond Meat strips for protein. I just realized I forgot to put the pea shoots in there. It felt fine at the time but it was a little light so I had to have a snack of….cookies.

Which were delicious. I used the recipe for Oatmeal Raisin, one of my favorites, in Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie Jar  and de-glutenized it with all-purpose GF flour and instead of regular brown sugar, I used part xylitol and part coconut sugar. I also add a little dash of cardamom too.

I think the next cookies ought to be gingerbread, don’t you think?

Hope you had a very happy Caturday!

My new Etsy shop

I’ve been sort of busy this week! Not busy from blogging obviously. I took on a few projects and one kind of spun into more than I thought it would be but I’m ok with that. I’m still adjusting to some of the treatments my doctor adjusted last week. But I’m still doing a lot better. It’s weird, you think being sick so long you’d be so happy to be better, and yes it’s true. But, it’s also overwhelming because I always had so many things I wanted to do and now I feel overwhelmed with how to do them all. I still have limits, even if they are not as many as before.

So, my exciting news is that I opened up a little Etsy shop. Last year I got into making ornaments and this year I wanted to try to sell some to help raise funds to help pay for other art lessons and for a lyme conference I want to go to this winter. So I appreciate the support! Some of them I am donating a portion of the proceeds to charities.

On the food front things have been very simple so not much interesting lately. Many thanks to my husband who shares equally in dinner creation.

breastfeeding gingerbread mama

I’d appreciate your spreading the word about my shop and giving it a “heart” on etsy if you like it.

I also started a twitter account @TimeTravelTabby if you’d like to follow me there.

Caturday and cupcakes

The cupcakes are for my husband, who deserves it, and I’ve also had my eye on these since I got Ricki’s book Naturally Sweet and Gluten-Free (which is all gluten-free, vegan, and free of cane sugar). Heck even before I got my hands on it. They are delicious and not too sweet. You will never guess what’s in the delicious frosting I will do a more formal review of her book soon.

I sketched Squeakers a week or two ago for a friend.

We worked on gesture drawings this week in art class, but with people. I came home and did several of my cat, so much so that he likely got annoyed at me. Cats move fast so you only have a few seconds to get something down. It was good in getting me to loosen up in my drawing. Now that I look at my gesture drawings, I actually prefer them to others because even though I can’t get details down  (before he runs off) I feel more movement of the cat.

Today I went to get some more ribbon (the use of which will become apparent very soon) and some veggies at the farmstand and now I’m off to the library.

Hope you have a happy Caturday! Stay tuned for a big announcement in a few days!

If your cat would like to participate in Caturday, please contact me!

Improvements

When I feel better, I don’t often stop to think about it, I just move on to all the stuff that was waiting on me while I felt awful. Things I wanted to do, things I had to do, just life. And then other times, when I am feeling better, I tell people then it gets worse right after! It’s some sort of curse. But I have noticed now a pattern of getting better, not just getting one symptom going away and another emerging, like before, but no really better. My head is clearer, I have less fatigue and even now some pain going away. But fatigue being better is the biggest one, because who can do anything if you are tired?

It’s only been since my new doctor who is a naturopath who is special trained by ILADS (International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society) that I have had improvements. It’s been an investment of time, because the traveling is long, and money, because she is not covered by my insurance and there’s a lot of supplements and medicines to take. If I wasn’t getting better, I would not want to spend that time and money much longer. But now, it’s worth it.

I mostly post this because I want to give other lyme patients hope. Now some may say it won’t last, or that I am not really better if I have to take herbs and antibiotics still. I am still in the process of getting better. But even if I have to take some of these things for life, I would rather have a life taking supplements than a life of pain and misery.

The problem with lyme, is that it’s often not just lyme! It’s co-infections, it’s mold, it’s toxins, and that it’s different for everyone. And, now part of what I am dealing with is the fallout from lyme: what lyme destroyed in its path. For me it’s some hormonal things and adrenal and thyroid issues among other things. I wish i could say to everyone to take what I take and you will be better. But this combo may not be best for you. I will say to do what I did: find the best doctor you can, be willing to travel and make an investment in the process for a certain amount of time before you want to see progress.

I really hope I keep improving at this rate, but if I don’t I will still enjoy the time that I am better and try not to be worried every minute that it’s going to get worse. And at this point I’ve also learned how to live better with chronic illness, which helps. I’ve learned my limits and how to work around them. I’ve learned how not to make myself worse.

There were lots of times I wanted to give up but something told me to keep fighting. I kept researching and trying to find ways to improve. I try to connect with other people with chronic illness and lyme who are positive and help relate. I think these things are important and illness can be isolating so finding others who have a similar situation is important. And don’t give up, I care about you.

Gluten-free Quick Bread

Vegan and Gluten-free quick breads often turn out better than yeasted breads, because they inherently don’t rely on yeast and are less reliant on gluten. And much easier to make sugar-free, from what I’ve experienced.

Recently, I used Real Sustenance’s quick bread recipe to make both banana bread and pumpkin bread with delicious results. It rose perfectly, it stayed moist for days (if you know GF baked goods, they get dry quickly), and browned nicely.

Brittany prefers people link up to her recipe that reprint it, even with changes. I did make some changes and used a combination of sugars, but rather than do the wrong thing, I’ll lead you to her site and I’d be happy to help you if you have questions.

Notes:

• In both the banana bread and the pumpkin bread, I used a combination of xylitol or tagatose with 1/2 tsp stevia and only used 1/2 cup dry sweetener, which I find plenty sweet, although she calls for 3/4 cup.
• I used a combination of almond butter and oil instead of all oil.
• In the pumpkin bread, I used 1/3 cup teff flour in sub for some of the AP flour for extra nutrition.
• I added some cocoa nibs in the banana bread, and some chopped crystallized ginger in the pumpkin bread.

Delicious! I wonder what combination I should try next.

Vegfest: the fest

Part 1 of Vegfest!

Last weekend we went to Boston Vegetarian Society’s Vegfest. I had been looking forward to it for so long even though I usually despise car rides and travel for the toll it takes on my body.

It was impossible to really take a picture of all the goodies that were there. It was so crowded that I basically had to wait in line to get to many of the most popular booths, and shove in to get the sample, then creep out.

Some highlights were:

• Samples of small-brand healthy eats like the delicious dried fruits, raw crackers, granolas, kale chips, and chickpea snacks
• Samples from larger vegan-friendly brands like Izze drinks, Raw Revolution Bars, Cedar’s hummus, Daiya cheese, Attune Erewhon cereal, Vega protein powder, Sun warrior protein powder, Beanitos chips
• Specialty Vegan stores with clothing, jewelry and shoes for display
• Sanctuaries and animal rescue groups with a passionate mission
• Publishing companies with tons and tons of excellent vegan books and cookbooks, too many to list
• Vegan sweets such as chocolate, Fomu Ice cream (I tried the pumpkin flavor–yum!) and Vegan Treats cakes and cookies

The festival was very gluten-free friendly. It’s always hard to have a restriction when you feel like everything fits your ethical guidelines. But I barely felt deprived at this festival. Even hummus companies did a good job of having gluten-free crackers. All but one vendor understood what gluten-free meant.
I didn’t want to restrict myself too much so I allowed myself some sugar. The real sugarbomb of the day was that last picture, the GF tandy cake by Vegan Treats which I shared with 2 others (it’s about 4 inches wide). It was so so delicious I do not regret it at all! In fact two years ago I did not get one and I was regretting that decision for 2 years.

After the festival I was a big mess but I had my biomat with me and rested and went to bed very early and things were better in a few days. Festivals wipe me out!

Part 2 will be the speakers I attended.