noBOLOGNA

  • ABOUT
  • RECIPES
  • FITNESS
  • DISNEY
  • ARBONNE
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • CONTACT

November 26, 2016

Thanksgiving 2016

Good Morning and Happy Saturday!!

I hope you and your family had a wonderfully blessed Thanksgiving filled with love, laughter, delicious food, and much more.  I enjoyed celebrating my first Thanksgiving in my new home.  I woke up with my sister and we made some “sausage” croissants (a family tradition!)

sausage_croissants

She used a fake sausage crumble of course and then she seasoned it perfectly mixed with cream cheese and wrapped in a croissant, cut into pin-wheels.

heather_vanessa

The remainder of the morning was spent prepping food for lunch with my family.  I made Green Bean Casserole, Cornbread Dressing, Vegetarian Gravy, and Peanut Butter Pie.  My sister made mashed potatoes.  Everything turned out so good!  I have found a new Green Bean Casserole (it’s not the one on the back of the french fried onion box) and it’s completely plant-based except the fried onions.  I’m absolutely in love with it!   The cornbread dressing was definitely not healthy (2 sticks of butter!!) but it was delicious and everything I hoped for.  I tried to find a healthier recipe, but would you believe that one does not exist – That I can find?  Lastly, the vegetarian gravy…. y’all – I can’t even begin to express how delicious this gravy was!  My dad even liked it and he’s all about that meat.  It tasted perfect!  I will never miss meaty bone fat gravy again.  Now, I tried Minimalist Baker’s Vegan Peanut Butter Pie.  I didn’t get to eat it during Thanksgiving because I was a little late making it, but I had a slice this morning and it wasn’t half bad.  I’ll be honest though, when you’re used to creamy peanut butter pie with cream cheese and sugar and all that’s horribly wrong for you – it’s not even close to the same thing.  My dad refused to give it a try though because it contains tofu haha.  You really can’t taste the tofu and I think it’s worth giving a try.  I love the chocolate gonache on top – I’ll definitely be using that on top of some other pies in the future.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any good pictures the remainder of the day.  I did spend a good bit of the Holiday reading my next book club book though and it was so good!

Have you read Me Before You?

me_before_you

I finished it pretty quickly because it wrapped me in.  Their relationship was so sweet and I loved seeing it bloom throughout the book.  I won’t spoil the ending for you in case you haven’t read it, but I certainly was a bag of emotions at the end of it all.  I immediately watched the movie afterwards.  The movie left off a few things I found critical in the book, so be sure to read the book!

I love reading a good book during the holidays.  I mostly read personal development books these days, but this was a nice treat to get lost in another person’s story and life.  I can’t wait to discuss this one with the girls!

After spending the morning lost in the book, I went to a Holiday Open House with local vendors.  It was so much and I went Facebook Live for the very first time!!  Do y’all know how scary that is?!  No room for error, right?  It was fun though and I got more comfortable with it as I continued on.  That’s exactly how life is though – we step outside of our comfort zone and suddenly our comfort zone expands and it’s not as scary anymore.

doterra_oils

charlotte_smith_studios

arbonne_display

holiday_open_house

That about sums up my Thanksgiving Holiday!!  Today I’m going to pick up a tree at my parents and get to decorating!  I love this time of year and I’m excited to spend it with those I love most.  We have a few exciting things on the calendar for the month of December – a first annual Thanksmas party, Nick’s first work Christmas Party (I’m excited to meet some more of his co-workers!) and then of course, my office Christmas Party.  I’m going to miss our Arbonne Christmas party this year because it falls on the same day as Nick’s work party, but that’s okay.

Alrighty, well I’m off to do some more cleaning before starting to decorate.  Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Filed Under: Arbonne, Family, First Home, Food, Reading, Recipes, Vegetarian Leave a Comment

June 22, 2016

Life Update – Food & Things

Good morning!

How is your Wednesday so far?  I’m looking forward to wrapping up a work week today.  At 3:00 AM tomorrow, I’ll be off on a fun road-trip with Katy & Chase to see our co-worker, Jeff, get married this Saturday in Milwaukee.   I haven’t been on this long of a road trip with anyone except Nick and my friends Lacy & Noelle (when we ran the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon.)  I love road-trips and I think this will be so much fun getting to know my co-workers a little more.  We’re taking the Prius of course!

For now, let’s just do some catching up!

  • Nick’s 10 Year High School Reunion

A few weekends ago, Nick and I attended his 10 Year High School Reunion.  It turned out to be a lot of fun!  I saw an old friend, Amanda, that I hadn’t seen in a really long time and we got to hang out with a couple, Will & Anna, that we’ve recently become good friends with.  Anna and I didn’t go to school with these people so she text me right before and asked if I was coming to this shindig and I was ecstatic that her and Will were going to be there because it was a nice surprise to spend an evening with them.

IMG_9101

The lighting wasn’t great at the venue, but the food, beverages, and company was awesome!

IMG_9103

A few things about this picture… 1) That dress is a new favorite!  I found it on sale and the picture doesn’t do it justice.  It’s a good maroon color and is very flattering.  2) My skin has seemed rather oily lately, so I’m trying out a few Arbonne products to help with that.  Hopefully part of it was the lighting in the room.   I’ll get back to you on what the products do for my oily skin right now!  and 3) This girl.. she’s just the sweetest!  It was such a treat to catch up.

  • Cade LOVES his Uncle Nick

This isn’t new news, but I love that Kathryn sent me this snap recently.  Cade seems to think that Ed Sheeran looks like Nick and every time he comes on the TV screen while they have music playing in the background, he starts calling Nick’s name!  It’s the cutest thing.  We miss him so much, but hopefully we have another trip to Disney in store for the near future!

IMG_9118

  • Athenos Greek and Lebanese Cafe

Greek food is becoming my JAM!  We tried a new to us Greek restaurant recently and it was different from what we’re used to.  It had a Lebanese aspect to it and the decor was more “date night” than we expected.  I don’t know about you, but we’re used to a more relaxed atmosphere in a Greek restaurant.  It seemed a little pricier than we expected, but the food was delicious and there was plenty of it!

IMG_9121

I got the falafel wrap with hummus and a salad.  I was pretty impressed with myself for getting hummus and salad instead of fries.  The hummus was great and the wrap was on point.  We will definitely be going back there again!

  • Cauliflower Buffalo Wings

You guys… Can we just hold the phone for a hot minute?!  Cauliflower Buffalo Wings… HAVE YOU TRIED THESE YET???!!!!  I bought a head of cauliflower not too long ago, but it had been in the fridge for about a week.  I had one of those lazy evenings at home and decided I should use up that cauliflower before it went bad.   I had been wanting to try Hot for Food’s Cauliflower Buffalo Wings recipe and although it seemed like a handful of steps, I figured – why not?!  Turns out, it really wasn’t as difficult as I originally thought and they turned out to be my new favorite party food or midnight snack.  I can’t wait to make these for friends.

IMG_9113

They were perfectly crispy and had just the right amount of heat.  It seemed like I burned them, but they didn’t taste burnt at all.  I’m a huge fan now!  Also, cauliflower has a lot of nutritious benefits I realized – lots of protein, fiber, and potassium!  #winning

  • Have you gone to your highschool reunion yet?  What was it like?
  • Do you like cauliflower buffalo wings?  What’s your favorite recipe to use?

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone!

 

Filed Under: Family, Favorite Things, Food, Nick, Recipes, Travel, Vegan 1 Comment

April 3, 2015

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

I am so excited to share this recipe with y’all today.  I decided to buy a bag of brussel sprouts on my last shopping trip.  I had no clue what I was going to do with them, but they looked pretty and I had never had brussel sprouts before.  As a vegetarian, I felt that it was finally time to give into the stereotypical “gross” vegetable and see what I could make of it.  I knew I was going to roast them and I seeked out some recipes on pinterest (of course!) but I didn’t find a recipe that either sounded good or that I had the ingredients for.  What does a blogger do?  Create a random recipe and hope for the best!

roasted-brussel-sprouts

Tuesday night, I made yet another trip to Whole Foods.  The amount of charges on my card from Whole Foods is embarrassing, but I can’t help how I feel about this grocery store.  Plus, I find contentment by just walking around a grocery store, even more so a Whole Foods grocery store because of all the beautiful produce and natural options they provide.  Sorry, back to my story – I was in Whole Foods Tuesday night and they had the owners of Delta Blues Rice sampling their long grain rice and rice grits.  I had never had rice grits, but I gave them a try and instantly fell in love!  I picked up a bag right away.  When I was scrambling to decide on dinner last night, I came up with a combination of Rice Grits and Roasted Brussel Sprouts.

IMG_6545

Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Recipe Type: Side Dish
Cuisine: Vegetable
Author: No Bologna Blog
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 20 mins
Total time: 25 mins
Serves: 1
I served these Roasted Brussel Sprouts over Delta Blues Rice Grits.
Ingredients
  • 1/2 bag of brussel sprouts
  • 2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp sesame seeds
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400*
  2. Wash and cut brussel sprouts
  3. Mix soy sauce, garlic powder, and sesame seeds in a bag
  4. Add brussel sprouts to the bag and shake to coat evenly
  5. On a baking sheet, make an aluminum foil bowl and pour the coated brussel sprouts in the bowl
  6. Roast for 20 minutes, tossing halfway through, adding a small amount of soy sauce if needed
  7. Serve over rice
3.2.2929

The timing turned out perfect with this recipe.  I put the rice on the stove to start boiling and preheated my oven.  While waiting on that, I was able to prepare the brussel sprouts, get them wrapped in aluminum foil, and by that time I was ready to start simmering the rice for 20 minutes and putting the brussel sprouts in the oven for 20 minutes.

IMG_6544

IMG_6549

I’m excited to see what else I can try on these Rice Grits.  They have some good looking recipes on their website that I think can easily be adapted for a vegetarian.  I’m definitely going to try out the risotto.  I love supporting local Mississippi businesses and farmers, I’m so glad that I ran into Whole Foods Tuesday night so I can get introduced to Delta Blues Rice.

If you’re interested in trying out Mississippi farmed rice, you can purchase online at Eat, Y’all! or if you’re a Mississippian, you can view a list of their retailers.

*I was not compensated for writing this blog post and I did not receive free product, I simply found a product I love and a Mississippi company I can support.  I wanted to share that with my readers, especially my local readers.*

  • How do you make brussel sprouts?
  • What store do you have an embarrassing amount of purchases at each month?

Filed Under: Food, Mississippi, Recipes, Vegan, Vegetarian, Whole Foods 1 Comment

Next Page »

FOLLOW ME

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Instagram Feed

Archives

Categories

PINTEREST

Visit Heather's profile on Pinterest.

Disclaimer

The views and statements expressed on No Bologna are my own. You are reading No Bologna at your own risk and I am not providing any type of professional advice. Unless otherwise noted, all material on No Bologna may not be used, reprinted, or published without my consent. I do occasionally have affiliated links on my blog - this does not raise the price of the product, I simply get a very small commission from the regular retail price if something is purchased using an affiliated link on my site. I appreciate any support by you in regards to affiliated links.

Copyright © 2025 Heather @ No Bologna Blog · Pretty Peacock Pride Theme · KALEIDOSKOP · Genesis

Copyright © 2025 · Pretty Peacock Pride Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in