Where have all the avocados gone!

The Healthy Bitch Daily Feed e-flyer featured the Healthy Voyager on Friday. Here is the yummy looking recipe they posted:

Chickpea Quinoa Veggie Burgers

1 small sweet potato
1/4 cup dry quinoa, baked

1/4 cup dry oats

1 (15-ounce) can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

2 tablespoons parsley

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
 (spelt if you are gluten-free)
2 tablespoons olive oil


Peel, dice, and steam the sweet potato until soft. Cook the quinoa and oats in separate pots. In a food processor or blender, combine the garbanzo beans, sweet potato, parsley, cayenne pepper, cumin, salt and pepper, flour, and one tablespoon of the oil. In a separate bowl, mix the bean mixture with the quinoa and barley. Using your hands, form into six patties. Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a pan on medium heat. Brown both sides of each burger.

Serve on a toasted whole grain bun or focaccia and top with chopped salad greens, dressed with a drizzle of canola oil, lemon, salt and pepper. If you want to nix the bun, serve the patty on a bed of dressed dark leafy greens.

Here is what mine looked like...

Huge Difference.

If you are wondering where the diced avocado is... it's a tragic story. I think I was looking forward to having the avocado more than the burger. Yesterday morning we went to the farmers market. I prefer Haas Avocados but they were a lot pricier than the Florida Avocados. LT said that he thought the Florida ones were just as good so we got 1 humongous Florida Avocado for 99 cents. (There was my clue!) So I put it in a brown bag to add a little ripeness before dinner time, we sliced it open and it was hard as a rock. Tasted it just in case that was how it was supposed to be, and we both spit it out. Totally disgusting! Very disappointing. I almost cried. It went in the trash despite the fact that I HATE to waste food. What would you have done with a rock hard nasty Florida Avocado that tasted like the bottom of my shoe?

Anyways!
I had a little trouble with understanding the recipe, to be honest. For example, I didn't know what it meant when it said, "/4 cup dry quinoa, baked
" in the ingredient list and then "cook the quinoa and oats in separate pots." Also, I was not sure how much I should process the food in the food processor, so I made it a puree. If I were to do it all over again, I would use an even smaller sweet potato, process the food a lot less, and I wold bake them instead of brown them in a pan.

They were still delicious enough to each every last bite! The boys ate 1 1/2 burgers each. It makes me so happy when people eat seconds of my food. Well technically, Daniele helped me make the burgers and she made both side dishes, so it would be our food. The sides were Brussels Sprouts with toasted pecans and cranberries and french fries. Yum!

Today is Fun in the Sun with Angela and Ricky! WooHooo!! =) After church of course. Thanks! Hugs!

Vegan Meals for Dad and Daniele

I've been cooking for my Dad and Daniele for the last few days. Here are some of my creations:

"Steak" and "Potatoes"

 Portobello steak with cali-mash with gravy and creamed kale. Yum!

Mac and "cheese"

Cauliflower to pump up the veggies in my mac and "cheese"

Wheat rotini and plain elbow noodles

Finished! Very cheesy and delish! I love peas in my mac and cheese!

White Chocolate Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Brownies

These did not turn out very well. =(

 But they looked yummy. I can't seem to figure out the vegan baking yet.

Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Pumpkin Seeds

I accidently burnt them a bit. Still pretty yummy. =)

Pumpkin Soup with Fall relish

This was a big hit! Yum!


It's been fun cooking so much lately! Tonight I am going to make the Quinoa and Sweet potato burgers that were in the VegWeb e-newsletter. I'll try to remember to take lots of pics! =)

All this talking about food made me hungry again. LOL!

I have no good excuse!

It's been way too long since I have blogged. A lot has happened but not so many pics to show for it. My Dad and Daniele flew in on Saturday and is here for 10 days. Yay!

We are having a lot of fun so far. We are planning to go to the beach today if the weather is nice.

Quick recap:
Indoor Volleyball season is over. Needless to say, we did not do well but it was a lot of fun!

I have not made too many delicious meals or taken any pics. Mainly we've been eating Black Beans and Rice. LT thinks I am too much of a "Queenie" to do it so I had to prove him wrong. ;) It was him who said, "Let's go out!" (Thanks goodness because I was about to give in.) LOL!

Luke turned 7!

Isn't he so cute! We went to Busch Gardens but didn't take any pics. I didn't want to carry a camera around all day.


What else has been going on?

I started my Mary Kay business. I am very excited about it! The products are amazing. They have such great core values within the company, such as no animal testing, supporting Habitat for Humanity, helping women have a career with no "glass ceiling" and most importanty, God First, Family Second and Career Third. I love that!
I came home on Thursday to find my started kit waiting for me in a pretty pink box.

It was a lot of fun unpacking my things.  The new mineral makeup is awesome! I can't wait until my debut party. My good friend, Victoria, is going to let me practice a facial on her this week. I can't wait!

I decided to become a MK consultant because I want to go back to school full time to become an Audiologist. As a Hearing Aid Specialist I am able to see patients over 18 yrs old and diagnose and treat hearing loss. It's my dream to work with children so I would have to become an Audiologist first. Also, I love the way Dr. Ashley Nicole Camblin looks! =) So anyway, my goal is to supplement my income so that I can go to school full time. Once I graduate I want to work for an elementary school to work with children with hearing aids and FM systems. I can just see myself, driving into the parking lot of an elementary school in my Pink Cadillac wearing my lab coat that says Dr. Ashley and a bunch of cute kids with colorful hearing aids greeting me as I start my morning. Oh sorry, I was day dreaming a bit. =)
So now that I have my starter kit, my debut party scheduled and a practice facial with Victoria, I need to order my website and business cards.

Well, that's all that's happening here. I will try to do some food post soon.

Hugs!

A perfect summer weekend

Saturday morning LT and I decided to ride bikes. Too bad we didn't get started until 10:25 am when the temp was in the upper 90s!

Our biking gear. LT and I have custom ear molds for our Ipods made by mua! =) Yes I know, where are the helmets? We need to get some. Shame on us!

Thanks for airing up my tires babe!

His and Hers.  The ride was awesome! Next time I am going to bring the camera. The views of the waters were amazing. We rode for 2 hours,  roughly 12 miles. Peew... we were worn out. I know for some people that's nothing but we were exhausted! It felt great at the same time!

For lunch I made Peach "pizzas". I made mine on Ezekial bread. YUM!

Yummy gooey pesto! My best pesto batch ever!

LT's Peach pizza is on  a bagel. He doesn't like the Ezekial bread. Yes I agree... Crazyness!

I like the presentation of the bagel Peach Pizza better than the Ezekial Peach Pizza. =)


Peach Pizza
Pizza Crust, tortilla or bread
Store bought or homeade pesto
Peaches, sliced
Tomatoes, sliced
S&P


Directions: Toast or warm your bread. Spread a thick layer of pesto. Layer tomatoes and peaches. S&P to taste.  Very simple but soo good!


Ashley's Pesto
I don't really measure my ingredients so these are very rough guesses. Taste the pesto as you go and modify amounts. I will make better measurements next time I make it and post it. 
1/2 C Fresh basil
1 C Baby spinach
1/2 C Roasted Almonds
1/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast
1 T Italian seasoning
 2 T Garlic powder (I like a lot of garlic)
S&P
About 1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (evoo)


Throw everything into a food processor except the evoo. Process until crumbly. Drizzle evoo while processing until the pesto is creamy but not oily. I like it like the consistency of crunchy peanut butter.

After lunch, Victoria, Dominic, LT and I headed to Morton's Market for a beer tasting event. It was a lot of fun. I ran into a hearing aid patient of mine. He and his wife are super nice. They introduced us to a younger couple who is in the same field as LT. We might get together with them sometime. The woman invited me to an event on Wednesday in Venice. I love meeting new people!

Me, LT, Victoria and Dominic

After the tasting, we went to Simons for dinner. They were out of the Raw Lasagna. =(  I had Vegan Split Pea soup and a Veggie Panini. Very yummy!

Sunday morning was church. I really look forward to going to church. It's so nice to be able to honestly say that! =)
We are on a series called 24/7. So far it is awesome.  Overview of Series: Real Faith, Real Time, it's all about what a relationship with Christ looks like day in and day out. Each week we're going to look at a part of the book of James. James is all about how real faith works in real time, every day.
Session 1: Real Pain.
Pastor Larry talked a lot about failures and joys.
"If any of you lacks widsom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." James 1: 5
This verse comforts me and challenges me. I love knowing that God will always be there for me but it's scary for me to give up all control.
Right now I am struggling to figure everything out. I love my career. I love helping people hear. I just feel like I need to take it a step further and I'm not sure what direction I want to take. One day I hope to be a Doctor of Audiology. I pray that God will guide me there if that is what he has in his plans for me.

After church we headed to Daquri Deck and then Siesta Key's Beach.

Keith and Karen are visiting us from Texas. Haven't seen them in 16 years. Crazy!

Cheyenne, Kade and Cole. Such sweeties.

Ang and Ricky. Hugs!

Siesta Keys is one of the whitest sand beaches in USA. And it's only 30 mins from my house. =)

Kade and Cold built a hammer head shark in the sand. Great job!

Hanging out at the beach is always fun!

For dinner, we went to Crows Nest.

The picture is no good but this is the Roasted Tomato Polenta with Oyster Mushrooms and Spinach. It's so yummy. I should make Polenta at home more often.

Cole made me these out of Wiki Stix (candle wax). So Sweet!

Karen, Me and Ang.

LT, Ricky and Keith.

It was a great weekend. I am so blessed to have such great people in my life!


Hugs to everyone who reads. I hope you have a wonderful week. Talk to you later!