Tradition is Key

You might recall that this past Valentine's day, instead of chocolate, my enablers parents inexplicably gifted me an abundance of marshmallows, biscotti, and various other non-Valentine-related paraphernalia; thank you for being too polite to mention it.

Here's the thing.  I have nothing against marshmallows; I love them, in fact.  But even when dipped in chocolate, they are not chocolates.  And Valentine's Day is nothing if not an excuse to eat chocolates for 3 days straight*.

But somehow my parents were confused.  Besides the absence of chocolate, the delicious, marshmallowy goods were presented in a basket and appeared in my house seemingly independent of human intervention.  Do you see where I'm going with this?  They (or the bunny) had somehow confused Valentine's Day with Easter!

You can see how this would happen, as both celebrations are centered around sugar (and some other stuff).

Regardless of the reason, the bottom line is that despite my otherwise decadent sugar extravaganza on Valentine's Day, I sorely missed having an actual chocolate selection to gorge upon; it was clear I had to take matters into my own hands.  And by "take matters into my own hands" I mean I whined, complained, and offered an exhaustive a compelling Powerpoint presentation with regard to all the reasons why a ginormous box of chocolate should have been part of my Valentine's Day booty (you'll note I wasn't offering to exchange the Sweet and Sara).

As their punishment for the misstep, I did everything I could to ensure that I received actual chocolates for Easter.

Obviously talking about chocolate for the entire month preceding Valentine's didn't work ("I wonder if Vegan Treats will have twix again this year?" and "Did you happen to get the sale email from Rose City?"), so what I resorted to was to call Bobby's in their presence, well in advance of Easter, to confirm the vegan chocolate availability.  Because I wouldn't be so gauche as to go with them to dictate supervise the purchase, I photocopied and posted made available the listing of my favorite candies.  They begged offered to just give me their credit card and make let me go myself, but what fun would that have been?

They came through with flying colors.

Besides the extraordinary bunnies (vegan, chocolate bunnies FTW!)  there was, of course, a personalized assortment.

mint, hazelnut, cherry, cacao, vanilla, cointreau, and peanut butter

So generous; really, you should have!

peanut butter, hazelnut, hazelnut, nut cluster, coconut, cointreau

*Per usual, we munched on our traditional toasted coconut-covered marshmallows for our Passover dessert, which I hope were not only enjoyed, but served as a reminder that tradition is key.

Eating Clean(er)

Remember the cleanse?  I'm still trying to forget.  But most of my friends and fellow bloggers eat extremely clean, so I've been trying to do so too.

raw, dijon marinated, green and purple kale salad

They say you pick friends based upon traits you covet; I pick the blogs I read regularly the same way.  Take Andrea's Easy Vegan Cooking, for example.  I never could have pulled off entertaining a group of non-vegans without knowing how (seemingly) effortlessly she and her family pull together gathering feasts.

mushrooms, red onion, kale (cooked!), wild rice

Foodfeud is probably the healthiest eater I "know".  Whenever I find myself eating something particularly healthy I think, "Foodfeud would eat this!" and I feel slightly better about the fact that I'm much less inclined to partake in the other healthy foods she enjoys regularly- such as green juice and raw desserts.

roasted brussel sprouts

So, I'm making a concerted effort to "eat cleaner", which for me means eating more real food that exists in nature- including actual fruits (!)- and less, um, ketchup flavored potato chips (Istillloveyou).

There have been many a green salad.

mixed greens, 3-bean salad, beets, peppers, onions, sunflower seeds

Including with curly kale's less popular cousin, dino kale.

And less white flour and sweets (boo hiss).

I've even been trying to eat things that I normally wouldn't.  This yogurt didn't kill me.

But this apple almost did.

I've really been enjoying my Irish oats (once I was schooled in how to prepare them properly- thanks, MS).

with maple syrup and raisins

And when the weather really started to heat up I dove into chia pudding.  Well, I dove into the idea; the actual "pudding" not so much.

Chia is an awesome egg replacer- specifically in noodle kuegel, which really requires extra stickiness.  But truth be told, it looks totally gross.  Add in some soymilk and it looks even grosser- especially if your ratios are off.  I couldn't choke this down.  When I can convince myself to try again, I'll approach this recipe with significant fruit modification.

Always a successful snack: kale chips.  Brad's are my FAVORITE!  I like the heat in the raw kale chips, but the taste is a bit too earthy for me.  However, the naked (plain vegan cheese) raw leafy kale chips are the best.  Rest assured: the leaves are destemmed, so no worries about unfortunate, gum-impaling incidents.

I was thinking about carrots the other day (Easter bunny association?), so Choosing Raw's recipe for almond chickpea filling really caught my eye for use as a dip.  It was ridiculously easy to make, but definitely needs to chill in the fridge for a couple of hours in order to for all of the flavors to successfully combine.

It's rather rich, so I decided to use the leftovers in an unapologetically rabbit food sammie: whole wheat wrap, dino kale, carrots, and spread.

Fear not; I'm not turning over a new leaf.  Think of it more like preparing myself you for the spring onslaught of holiday meals and goodies that are right around the corner.