A Veggie Afternoon & Okotoks in the Company of Family

I was supposed to write about Hello Kitty today but then, I started thinking that I need the people in my pictures as well as the cat... I know, it sounds a bit complicated Winnie the Pooh,  Hello Kitty... etc etc... but I guess you will all understand next week.

So last minute I decided to change the subject to our two main week-end activities: My veggie afternoon (Saturday) and Okotoks (Sunday). 

My Veggie Afternoon

About a year ago Tavo and I decided to go through this body "cleansing" program.  In a couple of words,  the program involved a lot of celery, grapes and papaya... for about... a month.  Oh yeah... it was hard. We mainly did it for health reasons but I can tell you that in three weeks I was pretty much swimming in my own pants... and Tavo was even worst (why do men loose weight faster than women... why? WHY?) ...

Anyway, the result of our little experiment is that we ended up becoming vegans; read people that do not eat any (yes any!) animal product.  No even my beloved ice cream or milk chocolate. And if you are Colombian, and you are reading this, you might be thinking I'm totally denying my own identify, my "food" heritage... BUT so we did.  Shame on us!! : )

To be honest, after a month we didn't even miss our "regular" food.  You have no idea all you can do with veggies and soy!! Add some almond milk, rice cheese, beans (all kinds) and believe it or not you are kinda of set.  Food actually became a discovery of new ingredients and flavors, quite different than our Criolla cousine. That's until we discovered I was low in iron. Doctor recommended: fish.  So we re-added it to our diet.  And I didn't push back AT ALL because I LOVE seafood!!

So we were semi-vegans for about 8-10 months more.  That's when I started to get very busy at work and due to convenience factors ended up adding chicken and turkey to the mix.  I must say... I am not very proud of myself. Do you all know what they do to chickens and turkeys before they hit your table?! Very ugly things...specially in developed countries. 

However, we decided to take another try at it, not going all the way to vegans and just sticking to vegetarians that eat fish. I am not giving up my seafood!  At least vegetarians eat cheese and eggs. We'll have to do without all the hormones that they put on chicken... don't worry... we'll survive!

This brings me to my Saturday afternoon, when I got together with two wonderful ladies to explore some vegetarian recipes.  First, introducing Karen. 
- As side note... she was complaining about not remembering the recipe if she drank too much wine... uh... dear... you brought three copies of the recipes... remember?

And my next friend, Bianca.  She cheated by bringing her stuff almost done.  After eating it I figured she was just trying to hide the recipe from us so that we can't copy it.  : )  Nahh... but it was delicious!

 Ok. Here's the menu:

Starts

• Vegetable soup on coconut milk
• Vegetarian brushetas based on fresh tomatoes & black olives

Main Dishes - Entrees

• Garlicky roasted potato salad with wilted kale and tahini dressing - The kind just melt in your mouth!
• Ginger tofu 
• Chinese five-spice rice
• Rice with sunflower sauce, spinash and a bit of ginger flavor

Dessert

• Apple pie with soy vanilla ice cream on top

 Any complains about being vegetarian?! Are you kidding?! We had a great meal... and so did Tavo when he came back from walking the dog and got to eat a lot of left overs.

Didn't  mean to make you hungry or anything... so I'll move on fast to our Sunday; not leaving you without a thought... what will our baby think about not having "Carnita Asada" or "Bandeja Paisa" or "Mute Santandereano"? All very delicious but very non-vegetarian?  Hopefully he/she will be so excited about us and moving to Canada that he/she won't miss that Colombian food.  ; )

Okotoks (Sunday) 

I won't make this part very long as you probably have plans to hit the kitchen soon.  All I can say is that we needed to loose some of the calories from the day before and decided to take a drive and walk to a small city close to Calgary (and it's surroundings) called Okotoks.  Here are some pics: 

The three of us in Sheep River Falls. It took us about 7 shots to at least get Duna to sit looking to the front.   
 

The four ladies in front of the giant rock that was brought to this place by a glacier from the Rocky Mountains.  (wow!)

As you can see, the "little" rolls are not so little... 
 

Ok there is an explanation for this picture.  It was supposed to be a nice group pic with Tavo and Duna... until our cute pet decided to jump on top of me, and I totally lost my balance.  Obviously... the pic didn't quite work as planed but I thought I share it anyway!

Somebody said cute pet?

Can't wait to take our baby to our Sunday adventures. 

Until next post, 

LuzM.