When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie....

THAT'S AMORE............

Matt came up with this super clever title.

So,  in my opinion, the only bad part about being vegan is having a limited amount of "quick fix dinners" to lean on. You can't just go through the drive through, stop at a restaurant for a quick bite, or buy a frozen dinner when you're feeling lazy. You are constantly cooking fresh food, meal planning, grocery shopping, and chopping veggies. It may not be the most convenient way for a busy schedule, but MAN does it help the waistline and bank account. Think about NOT having the option to go out to eat?!?!?! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY WE'VE SAVED?!?

That all changed when we started eating at the Roman Candle Pizzeria in Middleton. They have a pizza called the "Vegan Destroyer" which is absolutely amazing and (wait for it.............) vegan. And after months  of not eating out, missing pizza dearly, and craving a nice big pizza pie --- we welcomed this place with open arms mouths.

AND something incredibly cool about eating a vegan pizza is that you don't have to worry about over eating. Matt and I will destroy (no pun intended) a large pizza in just one sitting (within minutes) and not feel a single ounce of shame. Its a healthy pizza! And ya can't get fat off vegan food, ya'll!

So the more we ate at Roman Candle, the more we fell in LOVE with vegan pizza. Which got me thinking --- This pizzeria is not cheap. In fact, after we buy the pizza, get root beer on tap, and tip - we're spending close to thirty bucks on one meal. I could totally make a vegan pizza at home........

^ Cheapskate, right?! Whatevs.

So I went to the handy dandy Pinterest and searched "vegan pizza", looked through a couple recipes, and finally landed on one that I wanted to try.

OH MY GOD - I am soooooooooooooo happy I did!

Not going to lie, the pizza did take awhile to make. The ingredients did add up in cost (I think my grocery bill was like 28 bucks --- but that was with milk, toothpaste, and as few other extras), but the process of making the pizza was SO FUN (spoiler alert: I love cooking) and I'm going to go out on a limb and say my pizza was just as good, if not better, than the Vegan Destroyer.

Yeah, I said it.  (I may be a little biased). Matt begged me to make another pizza that night for the following day. He seemed to enjoy it, too, and it will most definitely become a weekly staple.

Enjoy the pics:

Making the dough

Reppin Amfam.

Parmesan "cheese" which is really ground cashews, nutritional yeast, and garlic powder. YUM!

I was a little nervous about the dough.

Spinach!

 

The hubs approved.

Mmmmmmm...

Best.Pizza.Ever.

Chili Mania

IT IS FINALLY FALL! I am one happy girl, and WE ARE LOVING THIS WEATHER!

Sweatshirts. Pumpkins. Apple Cider. Salted Caramel Mochas. Donuts. Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Scary movies. and CHILI!

Who couldn't love this wonderful time of the year?

Our most beloved small town - Edgerton, Wisconsin hosted their Chili Mania a couple of weekend's ago. We were unable to go (shucks!), but it definitely got us craving some hot, spicy, YUMMY [vegan] chili.

Matt LOVES chili, so this dish is one of few that I have made over and over again. Always changing the ingredients and quantities. Sometimes without even looking at a recipe. And changing my process a little bit each time. But this last one was SO DELICIOUS I just had to write it down and share it with you.

Its sort of a combination of Robin Robertson's garlic lovers' chili and her sweet and spicy chili (both out of her book "One Dish Vegetarian Meals"). And like I say in every other post, do yourself the favor, venture out a bit, and try this vegan recipe. I promise you won't be disappointed.

So - the day we cooked this fabulous chili, I realized at work that 1) I was craving chili and 2) I needed to go grocery shopping after work to get the ingredients.

Conveniently, I left the cookbook at home (which is usually ALMOST ALWAYS in my purse) so I had to guess/try to remember what my favorite chili recipes called for in the past.

I scribbled the ingredients down on paper as they came to me:

Onion, garlic, chili powder, diced tomatoes, apple juice, tomato paste, green chilies, agave nectar, kidney beans, black olives, and raisins (sounds weird, huh? TRUST ME! Its sooooo good).

The bestest most best, best chili ever!

Ingredients:
Dash of Extra virgin olive oil
One medium white onion
10 gloves of garlic
3 tablespoons of chili powder
3 cans of diced tomatoes
2 cups of apple juice
4 oz of tomato paste
1 4oz can of green chilis
1/2 teaspoon of agave nectar - You can also use a teaspoon of brown sugar
2 cans of kidney beans - drained and rinsed
1 4 oz can of sliced black olives
3 oz of raisins

Directions: 

1) Chop onion and garlic. Cook over medium/high heat with olive oil.

2) After around five minutes (when the onion starts to get soft), stir in chili powder. Note: Three tablespoons is the perfect amount of spice for me. Feeling courageous? Try four. :)

3) Drain juice and pour canned tomatoes in with onion mixture. Stir.

4) Pour in apple juice. Stir in tomato paste.

5) Add green chilies and agave nectar.

6) Bring to a boil then turn heat to medium and simmer for 30 minutes, covered.

7) After 30 minutes, add kidney beans, black olives, and raisins.

8) Cook for another 5 minutes to blend flavors.

9) Serve with garlic bread. (Can also be paired with pumpkin beer).

10) Enjoy your hot, spicy, a little sweet, punch of garlic flavored chili and watch a scary movie.

Happy PSL Days!

Excuses Excuses

So I'm sure you all remember my post "promising" that Matt and I were going to become gym members (on August 18th) and start training for the Iron Man Triathlon in 2016........

I gave you ALL permission to call us out if we hadn't started or started and slacked off --- and ya know what!? ONLY ONE OF YOU DID!!!! (Thank you, Karen)

Well, in honor of last weekend's Iron Man in Madison -- I decided now would be a great time to update you:

We haven't even gone on a gym TOUR. Not at all. Not even once. In fact, I only called one gym to get prices. That's about as far as we got.

What the heck is wrong with us?!?!?!?

Gosh - I can talk the talk but I can't walk the walk (or run....or swim... or bike....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

So WHY haven't we started - you ask?

Bring on the excuses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I apologize in advance............

1) LIFE HAS BEEN CRAY CRAY - like really, really - crazy! I can't wait to give you all updates on the exciting things that are happening in the Fennel household -- and I promise it will come in time -- but just trust me for now when I say that life has been out of control, bonkers!!!!

2) Matt has a bad knee. For real. We've always known that he's had a bad knee, but it has progressively gotten worse -- conveniently after we committed to working out. Like --We'll just be walking our normal pace through the grocery store, or at work, and BAM -- Matt's knee buckles and he's stumbling to catch his balance. Its so weird. And it hurts. He's promised he will set up an appointment with the doctor by the end of the month -- but this hasn't happened yet. Remember, we're SO busy!

3) We really, really tried. Well sort of...... You see, American Family has this annual walk/run event for their employees. When we were HUGE on our Iron Man kick, Matt and I signed up for [what we thought was a] 3K run. We had the option of either walking or running it -- and adventitiously - Matt and I decided that WE'RE RUNNING IT!!! Mind you, we don't run...... at all.

So, the big day was yesterday. And the first words that came out of our mouths when we woke up was: Let's just walk it..... (the true words of future triathletes). THEN we went back and forth all day long about walking vs. running - and when we finally went down around noon to start -- we're had our minds set that DAMNIT - we are running it. I mean, its's only 1.864 miles, right?! We better be able to run at least that!............

OH

MY

GOSH

We were dying...........


Let me first take a step back and say that I don't have running shoes. My spare bedroom closet is FULL of heels, flats, TOMS, boots, flipflops, Coach tennis shoes, and a pair of Skecher's Chuck Taylor's look alikes. So, yesterday morning when picking out my tshirt and yoga pants -- I had a "lightbulb" moment and thought, "Shit -- what am I going to run in?!" I quickly grabbed the knock off Chuck Taylors and went on my way. Sad, I know.

So, before going to register, Matt and I ran out to the car to grab our "running clothes" and "running shoes" (AKA knock off Chuck Taylors with sparkles -- for me, at least) when Come to find out -- I FORGOT SOCKS, TOO!

OMFG! I looked like a no socks wearing, Chuck Taylor running,  fool.

Amazingly enough - we got far into the run before we had to stop to walk. And (here comes another excuse), I have really bad asthma around Fall (due to the changing of the seasons) and my lungs were on FIRE. So we paced for a little bit and started back up again. But we could not get over HOW LONG the run seemed. I remember looking down at my phone at one point and noticing that we had been running for close to thirty minutes. For 1.864 miles?!?!?! Seriously!?? Once we got to the finish, we were SO PROUD of ourselves and SO EXHAUSTED at the same time.

Running through the finish line.

They had people standing at the finish line with poms (corny, I know) and a table set up where we could get our free tshirt and delicious red apple. OhMyGosh that apple tasted SO GOOD. We walked over to a table to eat the apple and rest THEN discussed how much that run had just kicked our ass.

"If we were doing a half Iron Man, we would of had to SWIM that entire thing. PLUS run 13 miles and bike 57."

Yikes!! Were we too ambitious?

Maybe.

After the run, we went back to the break room to eat a yummy carb loaded bowl of spaghetti.  While enjoying our lunch, a coworker came up to us (who we saw while running) to tell us that the run was actually a 5K and the walk was a 3K.............

(there were separate paths)

Ummmmmm..... whaaaa??

"Sweet. We just ran a 5K. 3.10 miles verses 1.864. Now THAT makes sense."

Needless to say, we're proud. We were shocked, but proud.

Now - we may not be competing in the Iron Man anytime soon, but we are DEFINITELY doing the JINGLE BELL 5K RUN!

Happy Friday!