Allergic to my House

Dear Mother Nature, 

I would like to help you out by reminding you that it is May. Indeed, it is not just the beginning, but instead half-way through.  

The fact of the matter is this rain, rain really has come to stay. 

My Uggs are soggy (note to self: buy rain boots because neither flats nor sandals are a good alternative), my backpack is drenched, and I have not seen the sun in days. 

Not to mention one of the boys in my class was like a wet dog today, shaking the water he had collected on to all of us. 

Lovely.

Surely this is just a simple misunderstanding. 

Why else would it be so cold? 

I see you are trying to make an effort by keeping the pollen in the air, but that's just not quite as fun. 

So please, Mother Nature, hear me out; I'm just trying to keep you and the weather people on good terms with everyone. 

Love always, 

Mandiee 

Now that that's settled, let's hope that the sun will come out tomorrow (did anyone else just get transported back to their childhood and start singing Annie in their head? I know I did.) Frankly, I need it to. 

As I mentioned before, my house is being redone. Long story short, it's still going on and my nose is definitely not happy about it. 

After seeing my doctor, she resolved that my house has so many allergins floating around that I'm having a bad allergic reaction to it (almost flu-like symptoms). Without the sun and warm weather, we can't open up our house to air it out. 

Lucky for me, J has been kind enough to host me again until it's safe for me to go home. I prefer to sleep without waking up to blow my nose every minute, thank you very much. J's kindness has been a huge relief (thank you, J!). 

However, my camera has been at my house and the theme of my eats has been simplicity due to not having the full contents of my pantry with me (though I may or may not have taken up quite a large portion all of J's fridge with the necessary produce). 

Do you have any allergies? How do you deal with them. If not, how's this crazy weather affecting you?

Anyway, here's what you've missed: 

I made an orange and lemon vegan cheesecake for Mother's day. All naturally sweetened and 100% vegan. I should mention that I managed to use up a whole 23 oz bottle of agave for it + more?! Wowza! 

 It was another Candle Cafe recipe, though sadly it doesn't compare at all to their vegan chocolate mousse pie recipe. My family always begs me to make that one but this time we thought we'd change it up.  

The goo (I wish I could come up with a better word! goo seems kind of gross, don't you think?) on top is an orange glaze that thickened too much. Whoopsies. It did smell quite nice, though. 

I also enjoyed another wonderful sauteed portobello mushroom with millet, carrots, and spinach with cukes. My neighbor works at the farmer's market and is kind enough to give us an insider information and hand pick our produce. I asked her if she had large caps, and oh boy, did she deliver!  

To soothe my allergies, I made a simple dinner with a sweet potato, asparagus, brussel sprouts, and almond butter sauce. The fresh asparagus from my neighbor were definitely the star of the show, though the perfectly soft and caramelized sweet p should not be over looked. Fresh produce that is cooked just right makes all the difference, my friends. 

Just look at that sauce! I simply mixed Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk with Maranatha raw almond butter. To help it mix better, I microwaved it a bit and stirred with a fork. You know, to catalyze the reaction a bit (yes, I did just have a bio test, incase you were wondering.) Then, I popped it in the fridge for all of two minutes (no joke) to let it thicken. Topped with cinnamon, this was favorite food heaven. 

Speaking of favorite foods, remember the hummus-y goodness I told you about last week? This is it. I have no words this kind of goodness. 

This baby was about the size of my head and loaded with broccoli, cauliflower, kabocha, millet, with a hummus blob to finish it off. Am I exaggerating the size and quality of this beastly bowl? Not at all. These are my favorite veggies; I wouldn't kid about such a thing. 

It seems as though this post is already pretty loaded but I still have much more to show. Oh well, I guess that means you'll be hearing from me pretty soon. I really would like to post more often, but my allergy situation is making it a bit hard. If the rain stays away, maybe things will get better.

Do any of you bloggers worry that if you blog more often, less people will see your posts? Readers, how do you feel about this? 

I know it sounds silly, but I honestly worry about this. I guess I just enjoy my eats so much that I want to share them with you all. I know that I enjoy looking at other blogs for combinations so I just want to put my combos out there as well. Hey, if you enjoy broccoli, cauliflower, kabocha, and millet as much as I do, then I've just done my job as a blogger for posting this. Thank you. 

Have a lovely day! 

xox, 

Mandiee

P.S. Thank you all so much for the wonderful response to my Greenies post! I really love this recipe and I'm so excited that you all are intrigued. With a belief in whole foods and that cooking from scratch is all the better, I hope some of you will venture into trying my recipe or even venturing into making your own. Food is all what you like so play around and have fun with it!