Free samples of Greens+ for all readers!

A few months ago, I picked up some Greens+ bars from Whole Foods, because they looked like a good item to take on vacation with me, in case I wasn't getting my usual amount of fresh produce. One serving of Greens Plus delivers the equivalent of 4 to 5 servings of fresh fruits and vegetables. I was pleasantly surprised by the bar and emailed Greens+ to compliment them on their product. Diane from Greens+ asked if I would like to try some other products by Greens+.

I have used the natural Whey Protein Powder in a few smoothies and couldn't taste it in my smoothie (my husband said he could taste a difference). As you can see the powder has a green tint.My plan is to challenge myself for 1 month to try to have some form of Greens+ at least once a day and see if I feel like I have more energy and glowing skin. I'll keep you posted on how I'm using Greens+ and what I think of the Orange Greensicle, because I haven't tried it yet.

These green products may not be for everyone, so Diane wants you to find out what you think for yourself. Greens+ will send samples to anyone who is interested in the products. They just have to e-mail Diane at diane@greensplus.com with your name and address and mention my blog.

Now these will just be samples, not full size products. If you want to get a full size Greens+ product just comment below. For an additional entry post this contest/sample giveaway on your blog and leave a comment with the link to your post. Tweet about this giveaway using my twitter id @ahealthylawyer, and I will give you another entry.

I will pick a winner Tuesday August 4 at 10am.

* * * * * * * *

Unrelated to the above giveaway, I was so excited to find mini Larabars at Whole Foods today!! I have been wanting these to be sold every since I got a few at a race.

Also, I was in NYC last Monday and Tuesday and look who I ran into on the street . . . Seth Rogen. I love him!

Off to enjoy the rest of my day!

A wonderful birthday in the 'Burg!

Wednesday was my 27th birthday, and it was a great day. My husband took the day off work to spend with me. We went on a 15 mile bike ride, went out to lunch, and tried to go get massages, but traffic was bad so we had to reschedule for last night.

Back in June, when we were in Paris, Steve bought be an early birthday present from here...

Steve had MBA classes the night of my birthday, which left the night free for a date with my mom.

My mom took me to one of my favorite restaurants in Pittsburgh : Cafe Zao.

I started with the Zao salad, which I love because the vegetables are so fresh and it even has some hearts of palm and artichoke.


For dinner I ask for a vegan plate (they said they have a vegetarian dish on the menu) and each time I have been here it is totally different. They basically use a different starch and different vegetables each time. The pepper was stuffed with a white bean mixture. There were some portobello mushrooms under this pile. I ate half of this dish and took the rest home for another lunch.

For a starter my mom ordered this ravioli. This was the biggest ravioli I have ever seen!!

For dinner my mom got a chicken breast. This was boneless but I guess they stick that bone in it for presentation purposes. She had a lot of leftovers as well.

Cafe Zao is in the Cultural District of Pittsburgh. After dinner we walked to the Benedum to see Copacabana. I have never seen this musical before, but really enjoyed it. My mom and I have season tickets to the theater and in the summer go to musicals almost every other Wednesday.

I'm off to spend the Saturday with my hubby and puppy. Have a great weekend!

Would Garfield know this Lasagna is vegan?

I think my food processor may be one of my favorite appliances in my kitchen. This vegan lasagna is so simple thanks to my food processor. In a minute I have am awesome filling for my favorite lasagna, or maybe the only lasagna I'll eat. This recipe is from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen.

Instead of the mushrooms called for in the recipe, I used summer squash and mixed it with the Newman's Own Sockarooni Sauce. I used Ronzoni Healthy Harvest whole wheat noodles.

After a layer of sauce I add noodles, the tofu mixture, and then more noodles.

Here is the lasagna out of the oven.

mmm mmm good!

While I'm on the topic of tofu, head over to Amanda's giveaway at Run to the Finish!

The Cookie Table - a Pittsburgh Wedding Tradition

It is the belief of many people in Pittsburgh, that you can't have a wedding without cookies. Wedding guest are used to skipping traditional appetizers of vegetables and crab cakes and filling up on cookies while waiting for dinner to begin. Cookie Table is actually an entry in Wikipedia

The must-have cookie table is a tradition reflecting the diverse ethnic communities of steel-mill towns, especially in western Pennsylvania, who perhaps could not afford a wedding cake. So neighbors, aunts, cousins, grandmothers, and mothers would all bake dozens of cookies. Most cookies have thousands of cookies and the trays are replenished continuously throughout the night. Boxes or bags are provided so that guests can take cookies home with them.

Usually family or friends try to make some cookies with the bride's wedding colors. In the picture below, you can see some thumbprints with the blue color that match the bride's flowers and the color of the bridesmaid dresses. At my wedding the table had many purple cookies and even purple chocolate covered pretzels.

Most weddings have lots of buckeyes, which are the peanut butter and chocolate cookies on the tray.

Here is a view of part of the cookie table. I couldn't get the whole table in one picture!

We packed up two boxes to take home with us.

At some weddings in the past I have OD'ed on cookies and felt awful the next morning, so I was happy to only have one cookie at this wedding and a half a piece of the wedding cake.

Of course Steve and I did plenty of dancing!

Happy Monday!

Have you ever been to a wedding with a cookie table?

Follow me into my fridge!

If you didn't notice on the right side of my blog, I am now on Twitter, so follow me!


This post is a bit random, because I have been eating a lot of left overs and have not been cooking or baking.


First off let me say that I hopped on the "banana soft serve" train and loved it. I added some peanut butter to the food processor with the bananas.

Next, I missed out when Tina posted all the Blogger Fridge Pictures, so I snapped one this morning.

The top shelf is milk and juice, I use the chocolate soy milk in my coffee (iced and hot) and the almond milk in my smoothies. The second shelf has a bunch of leftovers in the back, and in the front is a huge cabbage from my CSA and a corning ware dish of washed and prepared lettuce for salads. The third shelf has a ton of yogurt, salsa, hummus, eggs, and Trader Joe's nut butters. The fourth self has farm fresh peaches (which I think will need to be used in a recipe because there are so many, Bisquick, and organic grape tomatoes (there is wheat germ and whole wheat and spelt flours in the back of this shelf, but not visible in the picture). Finally, the two drawers are filled with produce from out weekly CSA share.

Finally, Sophie hasn't had much blog love lately, so here she is posing for the camera!

I am attending a wedding tomorrow night, so I should have some pictures from that, including pictures and a post about the Pittsburgh Cookie Table tradition!

Do you have anything fun planned this weekend?

Well rounded dinner, in a pie?

Have you ever had too many veggies in your fridge at one time and were worried that some made go bad before you had time to eat them? Well the following recipe is something I make almost weekly to use up vegetable from my CSA.

With our CSA, there has been a few weeks where we were overwhelmed with greens. For instance, this past week we had chard, beet greens, and brussel spout greens to use. So we washed them and chopped them and turned them into an impossible pie.

Growing up my mom often made me a version of Impossible Pie, and I think it has that name because the pie has no crust to start, but then when it comes out of the oven it turns out as a pie.

When making an impossible pie, anything that is going to go into the pie must be cooked before baking. So, while my husband cleaned and chopped the greens I began to heat some EVOO with some minced garlic and onions, which were also from the CSA. I then added the greens to the pan with a half of a bag of Morningstar Farms crumbles. I seasoned the mixture with salt, pepper, and some Mrs. Dash Italian Medley. I sauteed this mixture for about 5 minutes.

All of these greens were for 2 pies and I still had some sauteed greens left over. I put enough of the filling to cover the bottom of the pie pan. For my husband's pie I covered the top of the greens mixture with some pepper jack cheese.

For the mixture for 1 pie, I used 3/4 cups of liquid egg whites, 1/2 cup skim milk, and 2/3 cup of Heart Smart Bisquick. While Bisquick isn't the cleanest item in my kitchen, this whole pie uses only 2 servings of Bisquick because 1 serving is 1/3 cup. I hope to work on altering this recipe to add some whole wheat.

Here is the pie all done and ready to enjoy.

I have made these pies with broccoli, zucchini, and all sorts of greens. It is a great source of carbs, protein, and healthy fat. If you aren't afraid of too many vegetables in one meal, you can serve this with a side salad or some soup.

Triple Berry Pie, oh my!

I had a lot of berries in my possession, and wasn't sure how I would eat them all. So I searched the Internet and came across a recipe for Crumble Berry Pie.


I started out by taking my refrigerated pie crust out of the fridge to bring it to room temperature and preheated the oven to 350 degrees. Then I cleaned about 4 cups of fresh berries and put them in a bowl.

I then prepared the filling to add to the berries. I added the following ingredients to a small sauce pot:

1/2 cup splenda (I'm trying to get away from using fake sweeteners, but I have a huge bag of splenda to use)
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 dash salt

Turn the heat to medium and continuously mix with a whisk until the mixture begins to thicken and then remove from stove top. Use a spatula to remove the filling mixture from the pot and mix it into the berries.

After the filling was complete, I prepared the topping. I mixed together:

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oats

1/4 cup butter (I used Smart Balance Light), melted

2 tbsp of POM Juice (added if crisp is too dry, any juice may work)

I only added the POM juice because my crisp was still very dry. Then add the crisp topping to the pie, covering all the berries. Put the pie in the oven for 30 - 35 minutes.

Here is the pie with the crisp topping, after it was pulled out of the oven.

My husband loved this recipe and enjoyed it with some ice cream for his after dinner treat last night.

This was a quick, easy and rather impressive dessert if you need to bring something to a picnic this summer!

Head over to Oh She Glows for an Amazing Grass giveaway. I haven't tried Amazing Grass yet, but boy is it popular in the blog world!

A Cheap Meal and Money Talk

The sun is shining here, which often is a sign of a great day!

Last Tuesday we received another huge head of cabbage in our CSA (community supported agriculture) box. I decided to find a vegetarian cabbage soup recipe. However even this large crock pot full of soup only used half of the cabbage!

I forgot to take pictures until after I ate and started putting away the leftovers. There was so much left over that I put two containers into the freezer.

This is a very cheap meal because of the simple ingredients: cabbage, vegetable broth, onion, carrots, garlic, and a can of white beans.

I found this recipe for French White Bean and Cabbage Soup in Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker: 200 Recipes for Healthy and Hearty One-Pot Meals That Are Ready When You Are. The recipe is also available in a limited preview of the book on Google Books. Just go to Google Books and search for the title of this book and then search the book for cabbage. It is on page 38.

I have been trying to do some extra things to make some pocket money while I am in between jobs. I am still collecting unemployment compensation. At my unemployment rate, I am able to earn a little over $200 a week and still receive my full unemployment compensation payment. So that is why I found a job at Ann Taylor Loft to keep me busy and allow me to maximize my weekly income.

Here are some other things that I have done to make money or save money:

• Spent 1 Saturday set up at an outside flea market and made about $100.
• Listed and sold some old clothes that I no longer wear on ebay. I have sold 3 auctions to date.
• Listed old text books, novels, and video games on half.com. I have sold 4 items so far.
• I have tried to list a few items on craigslist, however I wasn't successful there.
• Cut coupons weekly and tried to only buy items with a coupon or that are on sale.

I have also tried to keep up with my lawyering skills by reading legal publications and volunteering at a pro bono clinic called "Ask the Attorney". I meet with individuals for 20 minute sessions and discuss their legal issues and offer some advice.

What are some suggestions you have for earning extra money during hard economic times?

Check out my guest post on Healthy Ashley's blog! Thanks Ashley for letting me discuss a proud healthy moment!

Running Green!

First of all, thanks to all the new readers for their great comments, I really appreciate your response and input on my posts.

I recently read a book that I LOVED and found really motivational. My husband bought me the Marathon Woman by Kathrine Switzer for Christmas. It is an autobiography about Kathrine is best known as the woman who challenged the all-male tradition of the Boston Marathon and became the first woman to officially enter and run the event. Her entry created an uproar and worldwide notoriety when a race official tried to forcibly remove her from the competition. This book really made me realize how there was a time that women didn't and couldn't enter races like the 1/2 marathon that I have ran 3 times. It was believed that it wasn't healthy for women to run more than 3 miles! Kathrine was also the person to push for the Women's Marathon event in the Olympics, which wasn't an event until about 25 years ago.

Even if you aren't a runner you can appreciate this book for the fact that it gives you inspiration that women can do anything!

On an unrelated note, I haven't mentioned it before, but I have joined the Green Monster Movement.

I had a lot of Kale in my last CSA that needed used up, so I decided to add some to a morning smoothie.

I used:

1 cup unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze

1/2 scoop of chocolate whey protein

3 kale leaves (without the stem)

1 frozen banana

1 spoonful of Trader Joe's Almond Butter

Ice

Love this!

Veggie Burgers for Dessert?

I hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July! I can't believe that I have been blogging for a year now. This July 4th wasn't quite as exciting as last year's, but I did get to make something cute!

I haven't talked about it lately, because this is a health / food blog, but since I was laid off from my firm I have only had 1 interview. So I decided to get a part time job, so I'm not bored out of my mind alone at home all day. I am working at Ann Taylor Loft about 12 hours a week. Which means once I'm working as a lawyer again I will have a great wardrobe, but it also means I went from making over $60 an hour to only $8 an hour.

Anyways, I had to work from 2 - 6pm last night. So that meant no picnic. We did stop to visit my mom in the morning and went to visit my mother - in -law in the evening.

Before I went to work I made cute burgers that I saw Ange make, which were also featured by Bakerella.

I wanted to save time so I stuck to pre-made products. For the brownie "patty" I used No Pudge brownie mix that is mixed only with fat free vanilla yogurt (I used Stoneyfield Farms). I used a Pillsbury mix (following the directions on the box but using egg whites instead of full eggs) for the cupcake "bun". I bought the icing and the sprinkles at Michael's craft store, which has an entire aisle dedicated to baking supplies.

I used three different icing tips, so that each of the toppings looked a little different.

I made about 18 burger cupcakes in all.

These were easy and lots of fun to make and serve!

My husband and I might go for a hike today, so I better go plan my day. I hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Nana's Cookie Winner!

Happy Fourth of July! It just so happens to be my 1 year Blog-anniversary. Well I think technically I said "hello" to the blog world on July 3. And my first post was on July 5, but it included all of my pictures from July 4.


I will post again tonight, but I wanted to announce the winner of Nana's cookies. Thanks for entering, and I hope you all visit more often and comment too! The Random Number Generator turned out the number 3, which is

Erica from "I run because I can . . ." said...

I signed up for the newsletter, and I most want to try the chocolate chocolate cookie bar. Who wouldn't want to try a double chocolate cookie bar?!?!

Erica send me your address, and I'll pass along your information to Nana's!

If you didn't win, check out Nana's products sold on Amazon where you can try one of the many flavors of Nana's cookies, cookie bars or cookie bites.

Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage

If you didn't enter my Nana's Vegan Cookie Giveaway, check it out. I will pick a winner on Friday at 9 am Eastern Time.

Last week we received a purple cabbage in our CSA box. My husband is a great cook and a couple years ago he modified his stuffed cabbage recipe to make it vegetarian.

We started by steaming the cabbage in boiling water and then cooling it down in a bowl of cold water.

While the cabbage is boiling, saute a large onion, Morningstar Farms Crumbles, salt and pepper in a little EVOO.

You also will need some brown rice. We used some minute rice that we picked up with a coupon. This is four servings of rice.

Once the onion and Morningstar mixture is done (the onion should be soft) mix it with the rice in a bowl. We tried to use a flax egg (ground flax and water) to bind the mixture, but it didn't quite work (maybe I need more of it), so Steve also added two egg whites to this mixture.

Then gently pull leaves of the cabbage off of the steamed cabbage, fill it with the mixture and roll it.

We use a slow cooker and cover the bottom with crushed tomatoes then place a layer of stuffed cabbage.

After you have a layer of cabbage, add some more crushed tomatoes and continue to layer until all the cabbage is rolled.

We cooked it on low for a couple hours and then just kept it warm until ready to eat. I topped mine with a little organic vegetarian cheese and had a 1/2 of food for life sprouted grain english muffin.

We enjoyed the left overs from this meal for several days.

Does anyone have any other good vegetarian cabbage recipes? We have another large cabbage from Tuesday's CSA!