Ramble on Rose

I could say that some little sparkly fairies came and swept me away to another land, but they didn't. Wow, it's been so long since I've posted and while I've been up to a lot, I've also been up to not much at all, if that makes any sense. It all started off when I decided to take a small break from blogging a few weeks back. After all, it's been hot and living on fruit and fruit smoothies isn't much to blog about. But then I didn't buy any groceries because I was planning on going away on a short trip. The trip was cancelled because for the last week-week and a half, I've been feeling dizzy. Now, I usually don't do the whole doctor thing. If I don't feel well (which is a rare occasion to begin with), I just let it pass or treat myself naturally. But I was dizzy for about 4-5 days straight, almost falling over, and really not feeling well. I let laundry and dishes pile up and Ray bought me meals from restaurants for a few days in a row. I was getting worried that I didn't know what was going on in my body. Finally, I was forced (by someone who loves me) to go to the doctor so I went to the hospital and it was the biggest crock of shit ever. They didn't do much. After the weekend, I went to the conventional doctor (I'm not getting into that one either) and had a check as well as a blood test. Everything's fine and turns out I have vertigo from either something I breathed in or from something with my ear. It's subsiding, but it makes me a bit dizzy at the computer, hence me not blogging a lot.
But it's been making me crazy not being able to post even though I haven't made any elaborate meals. I've been making re-runs, if anything at all. Of course, special treats as I always like. I have a pathetic MwM list that I am not going to post. It's a bunch of random stuff I've bought over the past few weeks.

Other than from trying to enjoy summertime, not feeling too well lately, postponing a trip and avoiding the 115 degree heat and serial killers and rapists, I am doing ok. I appreciate everyone who has chimed in wondering about me. I have been cruisin around other people's blogs, that doesn't make me dizzy!

This first photo here is my freezer. Typical of me. And this photo is not staged either. I usually have at least 2 ice creams (not including Ray's Organic Stonyfield Farm dairy), and sometimes up to 4 or 5. If you didn't know already and don't get it from the photo, I love ice cream. I try to eat it everyday. The coconut sorbet is the best I've ever had. I also have the new Whole Foods 365 brand of soy vanilla. It's good, very creamy, but I prefer the SO Delicious over that one. It is twice as much ice cream as the Soy Delicious, and the same price. Oh well. Cookies n Cream is my standard, and I love the white chocolate and raspberry one when I'm feelin' fancy.

Let me tell you a story about how I got the top two ice creams. First, the 365 soy vanilla: Ray and I were at Whole Foods Market and I almost fell over and died when I saw they had a sampling station set up with rootbeer floats, including SOY ice cream. This was seriously the best sampling station ever. I had a Virgils rootbeer (also the best kind) with soy vanilla and sprinkles and almonds. She gave me 2 scoops for free! I went right ahead and purchased the 365 soy (and gave into the marketing scheme). That same day, most likely due to my overwhelming excitement of the sampling station, the lady told me there would be 4-5 non-dairy ice cream samples set up the next day. I planned the whole next day around the ice cream sampling time, went to the store, and she wasn't set up yet. I thought we would just come back later, and to our suprise, she took us into the ice cream isle with 8 spoons in hand, and told us to pick out 4 kinds of non-dairy's that we would like to try. I almost fell over again! We tried the CaoBella coconut sorbet and immediately decided to buy it. We also tried Soy Delicious purely decadent Swiss Almond Vanilla which was amazing, Soy Dream blueberry, which was good but I could do that at home, and a rice one that wasn't even that good I can't remember the brand. It was mint chocolate chip. I don't care for the textures of rice ice creams, but the sorbet is a good alternative to soy. Those 2 days at the store were seriously the best ever. Our 4 samples were the ones that were going to be used for the station. I loved that we got to pick them out. I also didn't know that it is WFM policy to let anyone try *anything* they ask for while at the store. They already let me dig through the basil containers. Hmmm...

Below is my very first vegan cheesecake. I purchased it at the co-op from a local baker. I had no idea what to compare it to since I can't remember ever having cheesecake in my life. Most people I know have "issues" with cheesecake, vegan or non. But this was good. It was a marionberry with blackberry cake made with tofu, non-hydrogenated Tofutti cream cheese, raw sugar, soymilk, maple syrup and vanilla. It was 100% organic and mighty fine. It may be a while before I miss it though.
Next up cookies. To all of you people who are baking up homemade cookies (hint hint Dreena!), I have been missing cookies (homemade especially) since December. So many posts lately have been of cookies and I seriously need to offer some big money or something to have someone send me some. This is the closest I've got to pretending they are homebaked. First up, my favorite, Uncle Eddies. These are great, all vegan and the Trial Mix is my favorite. I really wanted simple chocolate chip, but it seems that's what everyone else at the store wanted before me. A few days later, even though I had cookies at the house still, I took a long drive up to Wild Oats for lunch and ended up buying this bag of Wild Oats veg oatmeal raisin cookies. They are good and taste like cinnamon snickerdoodles but with raisins. I am happy.
And something healthier, but not necessarily more nutritional: yellow watermelon. Am I the last person on this Earth to discover yellow watermellon? I saw it at the store and it looked interesting so I got one. Ray cut these (I cut watermellon differently) and they taste just like regular pink watermelon. Maybe not as juicy, and they didn't have seeds. This was organic, of course. Yum.
I finally splurged. I was informed by Kris that the co-op has vegan whipped cream. I was also informed that there is a better brand out there, but this is all I can find so far. I saw it at Wild Oats for fifty cents cheaper. This whip cream was interesting. The first taste was a bit "chemically", maybe the processed soy. But it was a nice texture and creaminess and I really liked it after a few bites. Scroll down and you can see how much I really liked it. Did I mention that it's been 7+ years since I've had whipped cream? And my newest find, Hip Whip, doesn't count.
This smoothie is a mango kiwi smoothie. I forgot that I was gonna keep it yellow, and without even thinking, I tossed in blueberries. Maybe because I always do that. At that point, I knew it wouldn't "look" like a mango smoothie, so I also threw in a red plum. Ingredients: all organic, mango, kiwi, blueberry, plum, vanilla soymilk, hemp seeds. I have been going whipped cream crazy... Oh, and I am not trying to advertise for Pom here. These are the new pom teas and mine was a pomegranite green tea with lychee. Yum. I like these because you can keep the glass. We have a few at the house now, and they are just as good, if not better, than our other glasses.
Next up on the food porn list (or rather whipped cream list) is a Virgil's rootbeer float with 365 vanilla soy ice cream and whipped cream. This was Ray's. I can't handle this much of any type of soda. I only had a few splashes of rootbeer and it was great. I can handle any amount of ice cream though!
And this was my dinner the other night. Don't be mislead by this post, I do eat foods other than ice cream and sweets. After all, I am a nutritionist (and human), but my simple meals of grains, pasta, beans, salads, etc, have all been meals that show I haven't been feeling well lately. I also haven't felt like taking photos of these foods, treats are way better. I'll be back in the routine again soon. For now, this awesomeness was my dinner. It was cookies n cream ice cream, Uncle Eddies cookie, whipped cream and Alaska chocolate syrup. Yum. So, I'll leave you all with this great looking food porn to glaze over for a while.

"Did you say your name was Ramblin' Rose? Ramble on baby, settle down easy. Ramble on, Rose." ~Robert Hunter