A Treat For Me!

Admittedly, Halloween is not my favorite holiday. I worked last night and my brother is playing a show tonight that I am going up to my parents' to see, so I have successfully avoided any parties. Don't get me wrong. Normally, I love a good party. I just hate getting dressed up.

Nevertheless, I still came home to find a treat on my doorstep. It wasn't candy. Not a little black cat. Wasn't a little green goblin. It was...

Granted, I sent this to myself. But still, it got here just in time to be a Halloween treat! And a day sooner than expected!! With recipes for everything from healthy(ish) applesauce cookies to homemade vegan Samoas (you know, the best Girl Scout cookie ever), this is most definitely going to be appearing frequently in my kitchen. I love cookies.

Sadly, I didn't have enough time or resources to make anything in there before bed last night (our pantry situation is dismal, we don't even have oatmeal!!). Plus, I will be away this weekend at my parents' and then Boston Veg Fest Sunday. I think the Veg Fest treats will make up for delaying the baking madness that VCIYCJ will ensue. Hm. I don't like the acronym for this one. I think I'm shortening it to VCI - VEGAN COOKIES INVADE!! --- Very Halloween appropriate.

I hope everyone enjoys whatever it is that they enjoy about Halloween, whether it be the treats, or the little kids in costume, and I will see you Monday with a Veg Fest recap! I also want to thank you all for your Blog-iversary support, I love the comments, and it kick started my little blogger spark. Have a great weekend!

The Vegan Strong Blog-iversary!

I sat here today, thinking about how I was feeling a bit of the blogging slump. How I really wanted to just be excited about cooking again for the sake of cooking and not for blogging. I was thinking, its probably just like anything else, where the initial excitement starts to fade and you have to get through a rough patch to reach your stride. Of course, I say this all with a light heart, as it is, after all, just a blog.

But I started thinking about this in terms of the year and how after I hit a year, it'd probably be on the upswing. Literally, this happened less than a minute ago. Then I realized...it HAS been about a year. So I checked and, it has actually been EXACTLY a year! So, happy Blog-iversary to Vegan Strong. Its been quite a year. Some has changed, and some has not.

Bulgar Wheat and Soy, my second post, is still one of my favorite things.

My Vegan Coat is itching to officially come out of the closet this year (I have a new hat to go with it).

I had a Gluten-Free week, which definitely made me more sensitive to those of you with gluten intolerances/allergies/celiac's/etc.

I tried to involve as much of the "strong" in Vegan Strong as possible with posts about protein, protein powder recipes, and workouts, and while I know they aren't the favorite posts, they're important to me.

I've had a few raw days in there, something I wish I was more diligent about doing on a regular basis!

You were all there with me during my student teaching experience, the good and the bad.

I went to Hawaii and Maine, and moved to New Jersey.

And most recently, you've heard about my complete career change, which I am still really happy with.

All in all, its been quite a year, and I can't believe how quickly its gone by. I am really looking forward to this coming year, especially the upcoming holidays! I hope that I've been able to share some of my personality, my sense of humor, and given you an idea of who I am. Its been really great getting to know a lot of my fellow bloggers and developing relationships and doing exchanges and giveaways with them.

So thank all of you for visiting, reading, and commenting. I really love hearing from everyone, and I hope that I give back to you what you all give to me!

Have a great day everyone! And I hope you'll stick with me for another year!!