Batman playing guitar

Batman is awesome; Batman playing guitar is even more awesome! That is all!

Beautiful ES137

Check out this gorgeous guitar! The top on this thing is beautiful, and the color is amazing! Slap a bigsby on that sucker and it's over!

Vegan Chick'n Veggie Pasta

This is a dish we make often because it is so easy to make. It's great for lunch or for a light dinner.

Ingredients:
Pasta - Penne is great or a vegetable fettucini
Light life Smart Strips "chicken"
Broccoli
Grape tomatoes
1/2 tbsp Oregano
1/3 cup Olive Oil
1 tbsp of Chopped Garlic

Super Easy Directions:
Cook pasta as directed
Steam the broccoli for 5-6 min.
Cook the Smart Strips, olive oil, grape tomatoes, garlic and oregano in a large sauce pan over medium heat for 8-10 minutes. Add the broccoli when it has finished steaming and cook for a few more minutes.

Excited about this! Forks over Knives

Junk Food Vegan

On Peta's website there is a page called accidentally vegan. This is a list of a grip of foods you can find at most every grocery store that are vegan. The most interesting items listed are those that are junk food and people would assume since they are not healthy there is no way they can be vegan. Making your vegan diet centered around these foods would not be a good idea, however, vegans can have junk food too right? As of recently, I'm trying to take a step back and take a more natural approach to my vegan diet. I've been researching the raw vegan diet a bit, and it made me take a step back and reflect on how much of a junk food vegan I had become. With that said, I believe that vegans can have awesome junk food or couch potato cuisine, and "pig out" like the rest of the good ol' US of A. (No offense meant to pigs in the last sentence.) Here is a list of my favorite, shockingly vegan* items as listed from Peta's website:
(*some of the items listed on Peta's site actually have trace amounts of animal derived ingredients and you should investigate a bit deeper before diving on in.)




Cereals

• Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch
• Frosted Flakes
• Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs
• Rice Krispies
• Trix
• Fruit Loops

Snacks

• Airheads
• Blow Pops
• Big League Chew
• Brach's Orange Slices
• Bubble Tape Gum
• Cracker Jacks
• Doritos Spicy Sweet Chili Flavored Tortilla Chips
• Dots
• Fireballs
• Fritos BBQ & Original
• Fruit By the Foot
• Chocolove chocolate bars (asst. flavors)
• Ghirardelli Twilight Delight Intense Dark
• Hubba Bubba Gum
• Jolly Ranchers
• Jujubees
• Keebler Vienna Fingers
• Keebler Club Crackers
• Krispy Kreme Fruit Pies
• Lays Potato Chips
• Mary Janes
• Oreos (asst. flavors)
• Golden Oreos
• Peanut Butter Oreos
• Teddy Grahams (Chocolate & Cinnamon)
• Now & Later
• Ritz Crackers
• Sour Patch Kids
• Swedish Fish

Baked Goods:

• Thomas New York Style Bagels (asst. flavors)
• Dutch Country Soft Potato Bread
• Cobblestone Mill Rolls (asst. flavors)

There is way more than that listed on the site, so check it out! Being vegan, you also become a major label reader in the grocery store. I recommend checking the label on items you are curious on and then researching the crazy ingredients they have listed. You might be surprised how many companies use soy instead of milk or have plant derived mono- & di- glycerides. 

Now go get your Junk Food on!

Testing iBlogger app

iBlogger App

This is an update using iBlogger. It's supposed to allow you to add captions to photos you post. We will see how easy this is to use. The first thing I already do not like about this app is it doesn't capitalize the first word in a new sentence automatically. The photo features seem pretty awesome, but you cannot upload more than 1 photo per blog post.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Testing Blogpress app

I'm going to give the app blogpress a shot updating this blog. I think it might be cool to update it using the iPhone. It'd be pretty rockin' to be able to zap a photo at a restaurant and quickly update this sucker.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Vegan Taco Salad

This taco salad is so delicious! For the taco meat I used Fantastic World Foods taco filling. It's quick, easy to make and taste fantastic. My favorite part of this salad is using tons of guacamole. Guacamole is easy to make and taste a billion times better than using a store bought, pre-packaged guacamole.
Here's the recipe for the guacamole:

Ingredients -
3-4 avocados
2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1 lime, juiced
1 small onion, diced
1 tablespoon of chopped garlic

Directions:
Peel the avocados and remove the pits. Place them in a medium bowl, add them lime juice, and mash. Once avocados are completely mashed, stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Super easy and delicious!

For the salad, I layered lettuce, taco meat, salsa, and top with guacamole and some daiya "cheese".

New Pedalboard Progress

 

Got in my Pedaltrail PTPRO board! Just loaded a few pedals on it and it is absolutely huge! I'm going to put my wah off to the side so I have room for all the pedals that I plan to put on it: See that info here. I'm going to start slowly putting the rest of the pieces together starting with another Pedal Power II so I can actually power everything on the board. This is going to be a super versatile board and the Boss LS2 is going to keep me from doing a bunch of tap dancing. I'll post more info when I get more pieces of the puzzle put together....

Alarmed for iPhone

I know this is not a normal topic for this blog, however, this is one of my favorite apps & the most useful apps on the iPhone:
Alarmed by Yoctoville

This app is awesome! It can be used as an alarm clock, for reminders, as a checklist with alarms, or even a calendar for repeated items.
I use this app everyday, all day! I have it set for repeated daily reminders like taking medication, emails to send, or calls to be made. It is a perfect app for weekly or monthly events that appear on the same day of each. 
The app has a “super reminder” feature that allows you to set the frequency that you want it to repeat. It can be set to nag you repeatedly until you complete that task. In the Super Reminder, you can edit the sound of the alert and make notes to give you more information on your reminder. There is also a chunk of sounds you set to help distinguish between each alarm. 


My favorite feature on this app is the ability to set all of your monthly task to repeat and annoy you until you complete them. There are plenty of calendar or task apps that allow for repeats, but this app is like someone tapping you on the shoulder until the task you created is completed. Since I started using this app a few months ago, I have not forgotten to complete any of my recurring items that are on my calendar.

Download this app!

Eating Out

Here’s a list of my favorite vegan food to order at restaurants & fast food joints:

Chick-Fil-A
Plain Bagel
Hasbrowns

Domino’s Pizza
Veggie Pizza on thin crust with no cheese

Johnny Rockets
Streamliner Burger with Fries

Genghis Grill
Tofu w/Vegetables and white rice

Macaroni Grill
Create Your Own Pasta: Penne, Broccoli, Garlic, & Sun Dried Tomatoes.
Bread with no butter


McAlister’s Deli
Spud Ole with Veggie Chili and no cheese

Moe’s
Art Vandalay Burrito with Tofu

Papa John’s
Veggie Pizza no cheese

Panera Bread
Mediterranean Veggie with no feta on Country Bread
Black Bean Soup
Vegetable Soup with no Pesto

Pizza Hut
Veggie Pizza on thin crust with no cheese

Pei Wei
Pad Thai Tofu with no egg
Sweet & Sour vegetables and tofu with white rice
Spring Rolls
Edamame

P.F. Changs
Spring Rolls
Ma Po Tofu
Stir-Fried Spicy Eggplant (I’ll also ask them to make the Ma Po Tofu w/ the eggplant sauce)
Sichuan-style Asparagus
Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps


Qdoba
Vegetarian Burrito w/Black Beans, Rice, Corn Salsa, Habanero, & Guacamole.
Vegetarian Mexican Gumbo w/Black Beans, Corn Salsa, Hot Sauce, & Guacamole.


Quiznos
Veggie Sandwich on Wheat Bread with Guacamole


Subway
Veggie on Italian


Taco Bell
Fresco Bean Burrito
Fresco Crunchy Taco with Beans instead of Beef
Crunchy Potato Soft Taco w/potatoes only
Mexican Pizza with no cheese and beans instead of Beef
Nacho Chips no cheese
7 Layer Burrito with no cheese and no sourcream

I’ll add more as I think of them.

Vegan Staples

Here are some of my favorite Vegan items to have around:

Agave Nectar
Cliff Bars
Buddy Fruits Fruit Bites
Nuts & Dried Fruit
Tofurky Slices
Nature Valley Almond Bars
Peanut Butter
Orbit Gum
Fig Newmans
Ginger O’s
Go Max Go Candy Bars
Tofu Scrambler
Gimme Lean Sausage
Daiya Cheese
Oatmeal Revolution
Tazo Lemon Ginger
V8 Low Sodium
Yves Meatless Ground
Smart Dogs
Annie Chun’s Noodle Bowls
Silk Vanilla Soy Milk
Naked Juice
Green & Red Apples
Miso Mayo
Alternative Baking Company Cookies
Amy’s Vegan Rice Macaroni
Anything from Gardein

Sausage & Cream Cheese Casserole

Recipe Courtesy of Ashley McBryde:

2 Crescent Roll (8 count)
2 Gimme Lean Sausage Packages
1 Tofutti Cream Cheese
roll out 1 package of crescent rolls in a
13x9 casserole dish.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.
Heat the crescent roll base for 5-7 minutes.

While crescent rolls are cooking, brown two
packages of the sausages in a skillet. After
lightly browned, remove from heat and mix in
the entire package of cream cheese.
Remove the base from the oven and add all
of the sausage/cheese mixture.

Roll out the remaining crescent roll package
on top of the sausage.
Cook at 375 for 13-15 minutes or until the
dough on top has browned.