Easy Weeknight Meals Made With Gardein Meatless Meatballs

Cooking after a night of work and errands is often the last thing one wants to do on a weekday night. I am always looking for tasty fuss free meals that require 30 minutes or less of your time, minimal prep, minimal dirty dishes but loads of flavor! Bonus if I can use leftovers, the products are on sale, come from one store (instead of driving all over) and I can use the ingredients again if there are left overs.

Enter Gardein Meatless Meatballs. These are tasty and my favorite on the market. The spice and texture are right on making them awesome for Italian dishes - one of my favorite go to food choices. I pick them up at Target, 8 good sized balls (heh - I said balls!) for about $5, on sale the price drops down to under $4 a package.

I did sliders recently. The mini (and totally kawaii buns!) are from Trade Joe's. I just cooked the Gardein  Meatless-balls in marinara sauce, melted some vegan moz on top and placed them on the buns. Served up with a side salad and fries this was a yummy meal! The longest cooking time was the fries - I like mine golden crunchy which means there is a 30 minute wait! All the food stuff came from Target and Trader Joe's, the moz was left over from Matt's M-F lunch bag sandwich. I made my own dressing to pour over organic greens (I buy a box of greens from Target - no prep) and if we have left over tomatoes or veggies from the week it goes in the salad. Even left over bread can be cut into cubes and toasted for croutons.

The balls are perfect in pasta, on a bun or in sauce over fries. Next time I am going to soak them in a buffalo sauce for a out of this world (hopefully!) spicy experience!

Renegade SF Winter 2013

I have not blogged much in the last few months, I apologize. I have had no motivation, no real aims or intentions for blogging as I work through my grief. However one of my goals in 2014 is to get back on track with blogging.

The weekend before Christmas (during winter solstice!) Matt and I stayed in San Francisco and hung out in the bay area. We went shopping, ate at some of our fave vegan places and tried new places. The high light was the Renegade Craft Fair (at least for me). It sparked some ideas in my brain, I got to see some friends and buy some fun stuff.

As you can see it was busy, my anxiety was pretty messed up during that weekend, all the crowds did not help.I always pick the best days to travel huh?

Some vegan beauty products I bought/shops I bought from were:

Fat and the Moon: Pimple Mud and Yoni Duster. Both items work great. The mask can be used as a spot treatment or a mask. I like the texture and the way it dries. The yoni dust saved me that weeken when I used disposable pads, I used a bit of dust on each pad and did not get heat rash!
Fanchromatic Nails: I liked how they featured standard and mini sized bottles of their polishes. I picked up Tar and Feathers - a bar glitter consisting of red, black and white - all my fave colors!
Cosmic Bath and Beauty: I am already a fan of the company so I had to buy something. Shop local even if you are 90 minutes away! I bought a cinnamon scented soap, it is so nice. After using it the smell travels through the house making me want snickerdoodle cookies and tea!

I could not leave Renegade without kitties! I always search for cute plushies and anything cat related. I scored a few new friends!

2014 - watch out. I have more crafts, vegan recipes, zines and cool stuff poppin' up on the blog! Get ready!