Yep, I am a naughty, naughty blogger.  I haven’t blogged in forever! In my defense, part of the reason I wasn’t blogging was because I was sick with that sinus thing for a while, but part of it was laziness too.

But I’m baaaaaaaaaaack!

A while back, I was approached by the lovely folks at Kretschmer, asking me if I would like to try out there wheat germ. What they didn’t know, is that I have been using Kretschmer wheat germ for years so naturally I was more than willing to blog about their wheat germ!  A big thank you to Kretschmer wheat germ for the opportunity to blog about a product I love!

For a while now, I have only made two types of smoothie:  the one I will share with you today and green smoothies.  Green smoothies have been a fairly recent addition to my smoothie repertoire over the past six or seven years.

I have a hard time eating breakfast, so I find smoothies help me get something in my belly before I start my day. But thanks to my best friend, I have been slowly getting on the smoothie train. She is doing a vegan smoothie challenge and has been drinking smoothies daily for a while now.  I have learned a lot from her smoothie adventures, including the benefits of adding matcha powder and ginger to smoothies.

So here’s my tried and true smoothie: The PB and WG!

The PB and WG Smoothie

1 cup rice, almond, or soy milk (I used vanilla almond milk for this particular batch)

2 teaspoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons Kretschmer wheat germ

Blend all ingredients together in a blender, pour into your favorite glass, drink, and smile!

Personally, I have almost always used unflavored or vanilla rice/almond milk when making this, but I think this would be great with a chocolate flavored soy milk.

I feel it’s important at this point in the blog to say thank you to my 1970s  avocado green Waring blender with it’s three settings:  lo, hi, and off.  I love this blender!  I have been using it for twelve years and it has never let me down.    It was a gift from my Dad when I moved in to my first apartment and it’s what I used the first time I made hummus.  Me and this blender go way back, from margaritas and pina coladas to the exploding hot soup incident.   If you ever wonder why I always write a disclaimer about how you should never put hot soup in a blender to puree it,  it’s because I learned the hard and painful way when this very blender turned into a HOT SOUP VOLCANO!  Remember, never put hot soup into a blender to puree it.

So what else did I get up to over the weekend?  My Saturday was pretty laid back.  I spent a good portion of the day listening to records and drinking my favorite beer, Switchback Ale. For my birthday this year, me, Mark, and my best friend toured the brewery. It was awesome and everyone was so nice. I stocked up on the bottled beer because we only have it on tap in NY. I also stocked up on their Dooley’s Belated Porter. I have a recipe brewing in my head using the porter. Watch this space!

For the record (see what I did there?) that Styx 45 of “Too Much Time on My Hands” has my name written in pencil by my sister. It was one of the first 45s I ever bought and it’s still a favorite song to this day.

On Sunday, we actually had our first real spring day here in the North Country. I took advantage of the free Vitamin D and hung out on the back porch with a magazine and a snack of granola and some home brewed iced tea with a splash of orange blossom water.

I bought the orange blossom water on a whim and didn’t know what to do with it. I Googled for a bit and found that some folks liked to mix it into iced tea so I tried it and I loved it. It might be my new favorite summertime drink, replacing the love affair I had with jasmine iced tea last year. I drink gallons of home brewed unsweetened iced tea a year and I never add lemon, lime or sweeteners. But, the slightly floral taste of the jasmine tea and now the orange blossom water really hits the spot for me.

Phew! What an update! Did you make it this far? If so, I realize that I never blogged about the Nick Cave concert and my trip to Montreal, but since this is already long I will wrap things up. I am going to a concert on Thursday, so maybe I will blog about that show and the Nick Cave show later this week. In case you were wondering, I am going to see Spacehog and I am so excited I could burst!

Shannon!

I meant to  draw my winner last night, but I fell asleep!  Ack!  But anyway, Shannon is our winner!  Enjoy your new EZ Tofu Press!

Big thanks to Ben Aron for giving me the opportunity to give away an EZ Tofu Press.  I love mine and I am so glad one of my readers will be able to see just how much better the EZ Tofu Press makes preparing tofu!

In other news, I still have to tell you all about my Montreal adventures, including eating the best mac and cheese in the world!  Watch this space!

I am writing this in my pajamas with a cat sleeping on my lap and it’s a Friday morning. Why am I not dressed and at work? Well, for the first time in a long time, I have taken a couple of days off of work so my best friend and I can spend the night in Montreal! We are going to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds tonight. I have been a fan for such a long time and it will be the first tiem I have seen him perform. We are going to have so much fun! There will be plenty of eating, drinking, and shopping! I am also going to hit up Lush because we don’t have any Lush stores around here.

It’s been a long time since I have been to Montreal, which is a shame because it’s only about an hour away from where I live.

I have to get up the energy to pack soon. I don’t know what I will wear but I know my new boots will be making an appearance.

Also my first giveaway is still underway, so please follow this link and leave a comment on the blog to enter the drawing.

That said, in case you missed it and because I am so proud of it, here’s my interview with the fella who invented the EZ Tofu Press, which is what I will be giving away:

Now you might have noticed that I didn’t do a Sunday’s Small, Good Things post this last Sunday. To be honest, I am not having as much fun writing them anymore so I am going to discontinue them for a while. I might pull it out occasionally, but for now, it’s in retirement.

I have a few new ideas that I have been throwing around and I would love feedback. I would like to write some posts about items I can’t live without, either in kitchen, beauty products, and the like. I think it would be great to see what some of you folks consider to be your must have items too.

I also have some vegan mayo that I will be reviewing on the blog next week.

Well then, time to pack my bag and get on the road!  Have a great day!

Well, after being sick for three weeks, it’s with great pleasure that I am finally healthy enough to bring to you my first blog giveaway!  That’s right!  I am conducting a giveaway for one EZ Tofu Press right here on The Pugnacious Vegetarian blog!

You might remember me talking about the EZ Tofu Press about a month ago.  If not, read about it here. I am not kidding when I say that this tofu press has completely changed my way of preparing and cooking tofu.

I had the opportunity to interview Ben Aron, the inventor of the EZ Tofu Press and ask him all about this wonderful kitchen tool.  So, not only is this my first giveaway on the blog, but it’s the first time I have ever conducted an audio interview specifically for use on the blog, which brings my day job of radio announcer/voice actor to my blogging side of life.

Please use the link below to hear my interview with Ben and scroll down for the giveaway rules!

Giveaway rules:  You must live in the Continental  US to be eligible for the giveaway.  No exceptions!  To enter, simply leave a comment on this blog post with a way to contact you (website address or email address) and I will draw one winner at random on Tuesday, March 26th.

Please share this with your friends on your blogs, your Facebook page, and Twitter feed.  Let’s make this a big deal!  Who knows!  If this is successful, there might be more giveaways to come!

I am looking forward to hearing from you all!

I might have to give up my love of alteration, because it seems like I can’t ever update this list on time.

Anyway, here’s my really short list:

I have been sick for two weeks and I haven’t felt like doing much.  However, I dragged myself out to my favorite thrift shop and I scored quite well!

And then there is this delicious drink!  I have never had horchata before and I don’t drink dairy milk, so I figured I would never try it.  But, I found this on my trip to Albany and I am glad I picked it up.  Yum!

There you have it!  My list is pretty small this week.  Also, I am in the process of setting up the EZ Tofu press give away, but I have been so sick that I haven’t had a chance to really organize anything yet and I want I want to make it perfect!