Lilacs In May

Vegan Egg McMuffins!

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Sun, 20 Aug 2017 14:45:00 +0000

Friday night Rodney and I celebrated Hawaiian Statehood Day with a Macadamia Nut and Banana pancakes, Lightlife Sausage and Hawaiian SunGuava Nectar.

It was delish, but I had a lot of leftover sausage. It only lasts in the fridge 3-5 days, so I decided that I would make Vegan Egg McMuffins for Sunday breakfast. I already had tofu on hand, so I picked up some sour doughEnglish muffins, and some Follow Your Heart American cheese. I was ready to rock!

Then I realized that I had to flavor that tofu somehow. I am not the biggest fan of scrambled tofu, but I figured that if I looked at a few recipes I would have an idea of how to proceed. In the end, I mixed up the following:

¼ teaspoon turmeric

1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard (‘cause I am fancy)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon water

I then sliced my tofu and used a round cutter the size of my English muffin to form it. I slathered the mixture on the tofu and let it sit while I got the sausage ready to cook. In the future, I would cut the tofu thinner, press and drain the tofu and let it all sit quite a bit longer.

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To go with my breakfast, I had indented to have a CalfiaFarms New Orleans Nitro coffee. I love that stuff!! Sadly, it turns out that the use by date on the bottle is not just a passing thought and the bottle I had was undrinkable. The good news is that I just got a shipment of coffee from Hawaii… What? I told you I was fancy. See the recipe above…

So, I had some 100%Maui Moka and some Calfia Farms Better Half instead. Delish!

Of course, I couldn't have done anything without my supervisor:

(Also, just so everyone is clear, I do not make money from any of the links in this post.)

Hallelujah! It is Rhubarb Season!

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Sun, 23 Apr 2017 15:26:00 +0000

Today we celebrated the start of Rhubarb Season with coffee cake from Isa Chandra Moskowitz's "The Superfun Times Vegan Holiday Cookbook". It was fantastic! I did make a mistake the made the topping a bit too powdery, next time I need to use a slightly bigger bowl and coconut oil that was a touch softer.. This was totally my fault, because you can trust Isa Chandra Moskowitz cookbook's to have tested the recipes very well.

On the side I had a Nitro Mocha from Califia Farms. So tasty!

~I do not earn money from links on this blog.~

Changes and a New Beginning

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Sun, 06 Nov 2016 15:01:00 +0000

Oh! It has been so long since I posted here. Much has changed and much has stayed the same. I still love to ride bike, to read and to crochet. I am also still baking and cooking, but nowadays that baking and cooking is all vegan. Yes, I said it, vegan. And it is delicious!

Today I made Maple Pumpkin Donuts from My Darling Vegan and severed them with Calfia Farms Pumpkin Spiced Latte. Delicious! (Though I under-baked the doughnuts , so I recommend baking the full 18 minutes she suggests in the recipe.)

This afternoon I am making Vegan Pepperoni Pizza... stay tuned...

Hawaiian Reading: Aloha, Mr. Lucky

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 15:04:00 +0000

January 3013 Rodney and I visited Oahu, Hawai’i and I loved it! We are now planning a second trip to Hawai’i next spring. To prepare for this trip I am reading books that are related to Hawai’i in some way. In my Hawaiian reading I am hoping to find interesting places to visit, learn a bit about Hawai’i and, of course, have an enjoyable read. To that end I am going to rate each book on those three criteria: Interesting Places, Learning and Enjoyment.

I must say it is harder to find non-tourism related Hawaiian books than I expected. I have library cards at three different public library systems and I was only able to find a handful of books about or based in Hawai’i. In the end the first one that I could get ahold of to read was “Aloha, Mr. Lucky” by Corson Hirschfeld.

The first few pages of this book are hard going. There are characters popping up left and right, there is a bit too much subterfuge and not enough clarity, and a few scenes that are just plain ooky. Once you are past those pages though it all starts to make sense and you are rewarded with a fast paced mystery. How did it stack up against my Hawaiian Reading Criteria? Well, let’s find out.

Interesting Places

This book did explore some interesting places, while many are part of the author’s imagination, many can be visited. Some of the places Mr. Hirschfeld uses in the book are: The Nu‘uanu Pali Lookout, Mauna Loa and the volcanos of the Big Island of Hawai’i and a place he calls Pali Uli also on the Big Island of Hawai’i. (I believe that his Pali Uli is a fictional place and not related to the Pali Uli Gardens on Maui or The Pali Uli Plan on Second Life.)

We did not visit the Nu’uanu Pali Lookout when we were last in Hawai’i. I am quite excited to add that to our list for next spring. We do not plan to go to the Big Island, but I did enjoy learning a bit about volcanoes in this book. While the Pali Uli in this book appears to be fictional I did get a feeling of the diverse wildlife and plants to be found on Hawai’i from his description of it.

Learning

I did learn about Hawai’i. The author explored a bit of politics, culture and legend. While I am sure that much of what he wrote is farfetched, I can see a nugget of truth here and there. It certainly opened up some ideas of where to explore for more information. He wrote about the Sons of Pele, which seems to be a fictional group, but it makes me want to read some books from a Native Hawaiian perspective. He also went very deep into the legends and lore surrounding Pele. I now want to read more about those legends to see where he was fudging the truth and where he was not.

Enjoyment

Hmmm… enjoyment. Yes, in the end I did enjoy this book. I do not normally read this kind of mystery. I usually read cozy mysteries that do not have quite as much violence. Once it got going I was pulled along by the action and I felt it had a mostly satisfying conclusion. If it were not about Hawai’i though I am not sure I would have made it through the book.

In the end I gave this a Goodreads rating of three stars. Since Mr. Hirschfeld’s other books are not set in Hawai’i, and since that was my biggest draw to this book, I will not be reading them. Though, maybe in the future, if I come upon them at the right time I might read them. I am certainly not going to go out of my way to find them though.

Aloha!

Summer Biking: Week 3

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 01:45:00 +0000

Look a happy little turtle!

I have a new resolve to bike as much as I can without driving myself crazy. I am still hoping to see 1500 miles, but I am taking the pressure off myself. I will do what I can do as long as I am enjoying it. I might even start taking a day off here and there!

This week I took pictures of gas stations. I was surprised when I realized how many Holiday stations are nearby. There is at least one more I could have ridden to on a week with more time to ride. So below you see three different Holiday stations, two Marathons, a Super America, a BP and a Go For It Gas.

Here is something else that I found interesting:

Remember this from April 26th?

And how on May 5th that area looked like this?

Well now it looks like this.

Miles This Week: 37.87

Total Miles June: 98.41

Total Miles 2013: 566.01

Total Miles/Points for National Bike Challenge: 404.92/1342

Miles Needed for 1500 Mile Goal: 933.99

Days in a row of biking: 77

Days in a row of yoga: 77

Summer Biking: Week 2

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 23:36:00 +0000

Oh what a pitiful riding week I have had. I expected my rides to be shorter since I was working, but the cool wet weather has not helped at all either. I only succeeded in 31.1 miles this week. Oh well, there is always next week. I did break 500 miles this week though! Yay me!!

Since I did not ride very far on Monday, I was a bit limited on subjects to take pictures of this week. All I came across that seemed interesting was a For Sale sign. I though I might see something else on Tuesday, but I did not. So I decided to go with For Sale signs. In the end I sort of like how the collage turned out. Sadly, some of the pictures are very blurry and I was not able to pull all of the data off them. Thus I was not able to link to their websites. I will be a bit more careful taking pictures next week

CU Companies Realty

Bridge Realty - This is the realator for the Hmong Church I had a picture of last week.

Exit Realty Nexus

Weichert Realtors

Vandeveer Realty – I find it odd that this guy has a Wikipedia entry.

Counselor Realty

– Larry & Mary Lauer

– Duane & Larysa Matzek

ReMax

Real Estate Properties – MnHomeSpot.com

ReMaxx Results – Jerry Clifford

Grace Realty – This one needs a much better web presence. Though, I would use them before the creepy guy with a Wikipedia entry.

Edina Realty

– Wm (Bill) Haroldson

Prudential Sundial Realty

Side note: mapping is not working the way I had intended. If I can get it to work I will update this post with a map.

Miles This Week: 31.1

Total Miles June: 60.54

Total Miles 2013: 528.14

Total Miles/Points for National Bike Challenge: 367.05/1164

Miles Needed for 1500 Mile Goal: 971.86

Days in a row of biking: 70

Days in a row of yoga: 70

Summer Biking: Week 1 - And the biking continues.

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 19:58:00 +0000

National Bike Month may be over, but I am still riding my bike. The National Bike Challenge is still going strong and I still need to meet my goal of 1500 miles by October 31. Instead of logging miles on the blog everyday, however, I am only going to post an update of my rides on Sundays. I will only update a single day’s ride if something extremely interesting happens.

I will continue to take photos of interesting sights, but I am also going to have a theme each week. This Sunday, since it only covers two days, I chose religious buildings as a theme. I knew that even in just two days I could manage to pass several. I say “religious buildings” instead of “churches” because I have two Buddhist buildings and a Chapel to include and they do not technically fall under the “church” category.

From left to right starting at the upper left we have:

Presbyterian Church of the Master

Chapel at Morningside Memorial Gardens

Chùa Thièn Àn – This appears to be a Vietnamese Buddhist Youth Organization

King of Glory Lutheran Church

Cross of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church

Minnesota Meditation Center – They do not have a website for this location. Here is a link to the main body.

Peace Lutheran Church

Blaine United Methodist

Blaine Baptist Church

Hmong Alliance Church – They do not seem to have a website for this location. Here is a link for the main church body. This might be because their building at this location is for sale. I was quite sad to see this, because this church is quite close to us and has always been a very good neighbor.

I haven't decided what I will take pictures of next week. I suspect there will be several more weeks of churches to come, though probably not for next week. It might be slides, tennis courts, funky mail boxes or gas stations. We will just have to see.

6-1 is in red and 6-2 is in black. 29.22 miles.

Miles This Week: 29.44

Total Miles June: 29.44

Total Miles 2013: 497.04

Total Miles/Points for National Bike Challenge: 335.95/993

Miles Needed for 1500 Mile Goal: 1002.96

Days in a row of biking: 63

Days in a row of yoga: 63

The Summer of Juice!

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 02:57:00 +0000

Today was the first day of The Summer of Juice! No, I am not going to only consume juice for the next three months, but I am going to focus on juice, smoothies and raw veggies for many of my meals and snacks. All of the biking that I have been doing has been building muscles and helping me to lose a few inches, but I have not been losing any weight. I am hoping that by emphasizing fresh produce I will both be healthier and drop a pound or two. Of course, summer is also the perfect time for smoothies, juice and salads!

I have all the appliances that one might want for the task too. For my smoothie making we have a NutriBullet. (Okay, it is not a VitaMix, but it makes really good smoothies considering it is less than 1/4^th the cost of a VitaMix.) For juice making we have an Omega 8400, which is a fabulous juicer.

Today I had two smoothies (or what the NutriBullet people would call “Nutri-Blasts” - I will be calling them smoothies). The first had chard, strawberries, yogurt, banana, chia seeds and coconut water. It was quite tasty. My second smoothie had dino kale, mixed berries, raw cashews, goji berries, chia seeds, kava and water. It was not quite as tasty as my morning smoothie.

I have been using the NutriBullet since December and today I learned something new while making that less successful smoothie. I did not blend it enough at first and one frozen strawberry was still whole. So I put the blade back on and re-blended it. The longer time in the NutriBullet made all of the components perfectly smooth. In the past I have had many a smoothie with bits of nuts still in them, now I know that I need to let the NutriBullet run longer until everything looks smooth not just mixed.

Any way, I am not going to chronicle my smoothies every day, but this gives an idea of what I will be making. When I make special smoothies, or if I make an interesting juice, I will post them. Mmm… I think tomorrow I will be making Watermelon Juice!

Clipart of bright yellow sun with sunrays available at ClipartPal.comt

National Bike Month: Day 31

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 01:21:00 +0000

3.2 Miles

And so ends National Bike Month. 306.51 miles is not too shabby! I had hoped to have several more miles banked towards my 1500 mile goal, but what can you do?

Today will be the last day I use the Strava app to map my ride. I think that my cell phone is not up-to-date enough to run it properly. I may look for a standalone GPS device. I think it would get a better lock on the GPS signal and save my cell battery to boot.

Well National Bike Month might be over, but I do have some ideas for nest month and beyond. Stay tuned for updates!

Miles Today: 3.2
Total Miles 2013: 467.6
Total Miles National Bike Month: 306.51
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 306.51
Days in a row: 61

National Bike Month: Day 30

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Fri, 31 May 2013 00:13:00 +0000

4.4 Miles

Yay! I made it to my 300 mile goal! Now tomorrow I can just take a leisurely ride. Today's ride was really quite wet. I had thought that I would ride to Walgreen's to get a card for Rodney (it is our anniversary tomorrow), but it started to rain on my way. So I changed course and rode to Jensen's. The rain stopped by the time I got there, so when I came out I thought I would take the long way home. Well, that was a mistake. It was pouring rain by the time I got home! Oh well, I got my miles in so I am happy...if a little wet!

Miles Today: 4.4
Total Miles 2013: 464.4
Total Miles National Bike Month: 303.31
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 303.31
Days in a row: 60

National Bike Month: Day 29

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Thu, 30 May 2013 00:05:00 +0000

6.1 Miles

Drat! Look how close I am to 300 miles! I wish I had realized how close I was to making it, I would have ridden another mile or so. But now that I look at that map I see that the GPS did not hold its route very well.

Miles Today: 6.1
Total Miles 2013: 460
Total Miles National Bike Month: 298.91
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 298.91
Days in a row: 59

National Bike Month: Day 28

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Wed, 29 May 2013 00:15:00 +0000

3.9 Miles

A short ride today. I am hoping to get a longer ride in tomorrow night. I am so close to my 300 mile goal for the month!

Miles Today: 3.9
Total Miles 2013: 453.9
Total Miles National Bike Month: 292.81
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 292.81
Days in a row: 58

National Bike Month: Day 27

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Mon, 27 May 2013 20:00:00 +0000

Happy Memorial Day!

I hope everybody is having a great Memorial Day. I took a nice ride today up to the Veterans Memorial in Bunker Hills Regional Park. Along the way I rode across the floating wood bridge trail. I find it freaky to ride on, but I was the only one on it today so it was okay. I then stopped for a short yoga session along the trail. The maps at Bunker Hill do not mark the Veterans Memorial, so I had to search for it a bit. When I got closer to it there where signs pointing to it, so that was helpful. I did not mean to ride past the tank, but it turns out the trail I set out on just went in a loop around it!

Miles Today: 9.5
Total Miles 2013: 450
Total Miles National Bike Month: 288.91
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 288.91
Days in a row: 57

National Bike Month: Day 26

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Sun, 26 May 2013 19:15:00 +0000

I saw a small flock of turkeys on my ride today.

Hmmm.... I am not pleased with Strava today. Again, it is probably not the app's fault, it is probably my phone. Still the GPS did not read correctly and says that I rode 11.2 miles, but if you look at the Strava map below you will see that it did some funky things to my route. I remapped the route in Google Maps and it was really around 9 miles. I am going to give Strava another chance on a sunny day, since my GPS works better without clouds, but if it does not work that way I am going to let it go.

Strava was wrong again today it says 11.2 miles.

9 Miles when mapped in Google Maps.

Miles Today: 9
Total Miles 2013: 440.5
Total Miles National Bike Month: 279.41
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 279.41
Days in a row: 56

National Bike Month: Day 25

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Sat, 25 May 2013 14:58:00 +0000

9.5 Miles

The Strava app seems to be working today. I would have rode longer but my right hip was killing me with a horrible cramp. Maybe I will ride some more later today.

Miles Today: 9.5
Total Miles 2013: 431.5
Total Miles National Bike Month: 270.41
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 270.41
Days in a row: 55

National Bike Month: Day 24

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Fri, 24 May 2013 20:52:00 +0000

10.5 Miles

Dang. I tried to use a new mapping app today, but I ended up losing the map. Very frustrating. I have remade the map as well as I can in Google Maps. It is annoying because Google does not recognize that I can ride through some places, so it is hard to remake routes. I will have to try again tomorrow to get the app to work.

Miles Today: 10.5
Total Miles 2013: 422
Total Miles National Bike Month: 260.91
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 260.91
Days in a row: 54

National Bike Month: Day 23

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Thu, 23 May 2013 20:45:00 +0000

Lilacs everywhere!

I saw so many lilacs on my 20 mile ride today! It was a beautiful day to ride; not too hot and not to cold. Perfect. I managed to get lost once or twice, but I found more lilacs that way! I also found this great eagle carving:

Isn't he great!

He looks so real too!

20.16

Miles Today: 20.16
Total Miles 2013: 411.5
Total Miles National Bike Month: 250.41
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 250.41
Days in a row: 53

National Bike Month: Day 22

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:56:00 +0000

It was only in the 40s when I got up this morning. After our warm spell it feels especially cold. I took a short sweet ride again today. Tomorrow I feel a long lilac-filled ride coming on...

Only 2 Miles today and no GPS.

Also, somewhere along the line my totals became wonky. Below are the corrected totals. (Happily the numbers went up!)

Miles Today: 2
Total Miles 2013: 391.34
Total Miles National Bike Month: 230.25
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 230.25
Days in a row: 52

National Bike Month: Day 21

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:46:00 +0000

Another day for a ride between raindrops. Actually, it was a ride through raindrops! In order to get credit for riding each day on the National Biking Challenge you have to ride at least one mile. So I. set off today with the goal of getting at least a mile in. In the end it I succeeded in 1.33 miles. Nothing much fun to write about, but enough to get my daily points. I fear that tomorrow will be a short ride too, but maybe on Thursday I will be able to get a nice long ride in.

1.33 Miles

Miles Today: 1.33

Total Miles 2013: 382.39

Total Miles National Bike Month: 225.2

Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 225.2

Days in a row: 51

National Bike Month: Day 20

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:38:00 +0000

Nothing exciting about my ride today. It was hard to gauge the weather, but I was able to get in a short 2.97 miles between storms.

2.97 Miles

Miles Today: 2.97
Total Miles 2013: 381.06
Total Miles National Bike Month: 223.06
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 223.06
Days in a row: 50

National Bike Month: Day 19

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:59:00 +0000

10/59 Miles

Miles Today: 10.59

Total Miles 2013: 378.09

Total Miles National Bike Month: 220.9

Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 220.9

Days in a row: 49

National Bike Challenge Local Position: 17^th *(out of 499 riders.)

~ I am in 3^rd place for women riders in Minnesota!*~

National Bike Challenge National Position: 1071^th* (out of 20791 riders)

~I am in 136^th place for women Nationally.*~

*This number will change as people enter mileage. It is my position at the time I entered my miles for the day.

National Bike Month: Day 18

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Sat, 18 May 2013 21:27:00 +0000

It was a turtle-ishous sort of day! I was riding along the trail and I saw this little guy first:

He/she is a little Snapping Turtle. It was just bigger
than a quarter and a bit smaller than a fifty cent piece.

I picked him up with my jacket, I have no idea
if they bite at this size, and moved him off the trail.

Since he was right in the path for walking/biking I moved him off the trail and into the grass. I actually had to stand over him to keep him from getting hit by a second bicyclist. He was only about 4 feet from the creek when I set him down. Good deed done, I set off down the trail. A few blocks away I saw this:

A large mud turtle! I would say just smaller than a
manhole cover. 18 inches maybe?

I keep my distance from this turtle. I don't think it needed any help. Though, I also did not want to draw too much attention to it. I did not want it to get hurt. I think this the largest mud turtle that I have ever seen. (As a side note: the largest Snapper I have ever seen was about three feet across and I got out of its way!)

12.01 Miles

Miles Today: 12.01

Total Miles 2013: 367.5

Total Miles National Bike Month: 210.31

Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 210.31

Days in a row: 48

Backyard Birds: Baltimore Orioles pay a visit!

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:20:00 +0000

I have a growing passion for feeding birds and bird watching in general. To that end I added a couple of bird feeders to our backyard. I also decided to put out some citrus hoping to attract Baltimore Orioles, and I did! In these pictures the male is eating the tangerine in the tree and the female is snacking on suet.

National Bike Month: Day 17

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:05:00 +0000

There is rain in the forecast for the next several days, but I was able to get out for my ride between rain showers. I saw a few interesting sights today:

Birdhouse along trial.

Close-up of flowers by birdhouse.

A trail bridge in the Coon Rapids Dam Park.

Deer.

Deer close-up.

15.07 Miles

Miles Today: 15.07

Total Miles 2013: 355.49

Total Miles National Bike Month: 198.3

Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 198.3

Days in a row: 47

National Bike Month: Day 16

noreply@blogger.com (Ronda Kisner) — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:55:00 +0000

I woke up grumpy and out of sorts after a bad night's sleep. A ride in the afternoon made me feel much better. And I saw a road sign I had never seen before:

There was another one like it further down the road.
Strange.

11.63 Miles

Miles Today: 11.63

Total Miles 2013: 340.42

Total Miles National Bike Month: 183.23

Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 183.23

Days in a row: 46