Okay, so I decided to open with the picture of me trying to capture more beautiful views at Stone Mountain park. The picture doesn't capture what I was aiming for, but I like that you can see me taking the pic through the side mirrors. Pretty cool, huh?
Well, this will be quick and to the point to catch you up to speed since I haven't posted since the ending of my cleanse. Well, as I said, I'm glad I did the cleanse. I believe it really did me some good. I've now gotten back to doing my treats in moderation and I'm glad about that. I am also running my first 5K coming up in November for which I've already started training so I continue to do my body good. Long distance running has always been a thorn in my side, but I felt an overwhelming push in my spirit to do this and conquer something that has always been a challenge for me and it's for a good cause. You can read about it here. So, I'll be keeping you updated about that in the coming weeks. The weekend following the cleanse I made some stuffed zucchini with a side of couscous and it was DEELICIOUS.. I stuffed with the zucchinni innards, mushrooms, onions and topped with seasoned breadcrumbs. I also finally ventured out and made some vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and they were fantastic as well!
For Labor Day weekend, JJ and I went to Stone Mountain park. We had scored a free overnight stay at the Marriott there at a poetry reading we attended through a raffle they had, we were excited. I have been to Stone Moutain before and JJ hadn't yet, it was a great little mini getaway. The park is huge and very pretty and the hotel was cool. We checked in on Sunday and early Monday morning we headed out to walk the park and up Stone Mountain. We have been talking about walking Stone Mountain for the longest and we finally did it! All I can say is , WOW, what a workout! Between walking around to get to the walk up trail in addition to actually climbing it, my butt and thighs were screamin'! It was really, really good though and very pretty. If you are in the Atlanta area, I highly recommend taking a visit. They have tons of attractions in the park as well as campsites, various walking trails and if you're not up to trek the mountain they have a sky rail to take you up!
and in other culinary news...
JJ and I made our own homemade Chana Masala and it was sooooo goooood....!!!!JJ is a HUGE Indian food fan so we ventured out to try our hand at our own and it came out great!
JJ' famous sauteed yellow squash with onion and red pepper flakes. So simple and so divine!
This past weekend, we had a reading of Josh's screenplay, you can check out more about that here. AB and TM were there and stayed after to hang out for a while. I unfortunately came down with a cold, but I hung in there. We went to the Dekalb Farmers market to get some sides to go with the black bean burgers I made up. I got the recipe from vegweb.com. It was two cans of black beans mashed, onion, cayenne pepper, salt, egg replacer equivalent to two eggs, seasoned breadcrumbs and some other seasonings to taste. I formed them into patties and the directions said that baking worked best but you could fry them as well. The boys decided to go with the quick option of frying. They were a little crumbly but they were delicious. JJ grilled up some mushrooms and onions to go on top. He and TM took the honors of fixing all the sides while me and AB got to relax. How nice! I had to get a shot of them in the kitchen. Such wonderful guys!
Until next time!!
C
