Yesterday we picked up the last few items, bureau, bike and shop-vac, from our old apartment and handed in the keys.  It was strange to see the apartment empty once again but I can’t say that we will miss it.  I am excited to move into our new place and have been looking for new organizational ideas on The Container Store site as well as for new furniture on Ikea.

And now we say ‘GOODBYE’ to our old apartment:

Goodbye kitchen with no counter space and no hood over the stove….

Goodbye bedroom I will miss your wonderfully large his and her closets….

Goodbye double living room/dining room with your painted shut windows…..

Goodbye office; whoever claimed you could be a second bedroom was crazy….

Goodbye ridiculously small bathroom….

Goodbye porch with the gross carpet you served us well-for storage that is….

Goodbye big ugly blue house it was an okay 2 years but it is time to move on.

Now we are living with my parents until our new place is ready which is nice but it’s hard not having our own space since my parents downsized a few years ago when I moved out and their house is really meant for 2 people or a weekend visit but right now it seems it may be a few week visit.  One of the benefits however of living with 2 other people and a father who loves nutbutter is having a wonderful supply of jars for Oats In A Jar. This morning my dad made the coffee and I made OIAJ for the two of us.

OIAJ: (serves 2)

Requires 2 mostly empty nutbutter jars

• 1 cup of oats
• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1 cup water
• 1t cinnamon
• 2t chia seeds
• 1t raw sugar
• 2T maple syrup
• 1 banana, sliced

Bring the oats, almond milk, water and cinnamon to a bowl and then turn down to low until the oats are thick.  Stir in the chia seeds, sugar and maple syrup.

In the bottom of each jar put 1/6th of the banana and then top with oats do this 2 more times and you are ready to eat!

This morning the Hubz and I got up and I decided to make “overnight” oats that Angela over at OSG has popularized with her easy recipe.  I obviously didn’t do mine overnight but you can easily make these in an hour or probably even less.

For the 1 hour oats:

• 1/3 cup regular oats
• 3/4 cup unsweetened hemp milk
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 1 tablespoon Vega Vanilla Shake and Go
• 1 tablespoon vanilla hemp protein
• pinch of salt

Directions: Mix together the above ingredients in a bowl and place in fridge overnight.

To make this wonderful parfait I whipped up some banana soft serve (banana and hemp milk blended until smooth) and some almond drizzle (almond butter with warm water to thin out).  I layered the oats, banana soft serve and almond drizzle and topped with cacaco nibs.  DELICIOUS!

After our morning of oats, farmers market, post office and the selling of our portable washing machine we headed up to my little cousins graduation party.  We enjoyed some Tofurky sandwiches, veggies, strawberries, pita chips and hummus and BBQ Pop chips. After we socialized, ate and played a few “games” of ping pong we headed home to finally relax.  However before we are able to sit in relax I made soup and salad for dinner with yummy Sweet Potato Beer Bread and of course write this blog post.

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots, diced
• 1/2 sweet onion, diced
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 vegan chicken bouillon
• 4 cups of water
• 4 cups of kale, bite sized pieces
• 2/3 cup of Westbrae  NaturalsSoup Beans, or use the beans of your liking
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• salt and pepper

Directions: In a pot heat the oil and add the carrots and onion until soft.  Add in the water and vegan chicken bouillon bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer for 15 minutes.  Stir in the soup beans and the kale and cook until the kale is wilted, then stir in the nutritional yeast.  Taste for salt and pepper and add as needed.