Menu Highlights

As life gets crazy, I find it harder and harder to blog. I have been thinking about only sharing the recipes I think are interesting, instead of having it be a food diary. I would like your thoughts on this. Feel free to comment here, or on facebook. I did change the settings so now anyone can comment.
     I made a few fun dishes this week. Sunday I made a sweet potato, black bean, and quinoa chili.

(http://www.thekitchn.com/vegetarian-recipe-black-bean-sweet-potato-and-quinoa-chili-166739)

When I made this chili I didn't have dried black beans on hand, so I used 2 cans of black beans instead and altered the recipe accordingly. For instance, it didn't need to cook as long, because the beans didn't need to soak up all the water. I also didn't add nearly as much water. I didn't have a chipotle pepper, but I did have a sweeter anaheim pepper that I used in stead. I think those were the only changes I made. And when it was ready to eat, i put some vegan sour cream and green onions on top. I really loved this chili. Brett wasn't a huge fan, but I still recommend it.

On Monday I made pasta for dinner. I used a whole wheat penne. I sauteed some baby bella mushrooms and grape tomatoes in red wine and olive oil. I made sure to cook it long enough so that the alcohol would cook out. While the pasta and sauce were still hot I mixed them together and added some chopped fresh basil and let all the flavors absorb and mix together. This dish was super delicious!

I made enchiladas for Tuesday's dinner. First I boiled and cubed potatoes. While the potatoes were cooking I sauteed onions, mushrooms, and garlic together. Then added in the potatoes and cherry tomatoes. I mixed some red enchilada sauce, rolled the mixture into corn tortillas, placed them in a greased pan, and baked them in a 350 degree oven until they were hot through. I topped my enchiladas with avocado, green onion, and vegan sour cream. One thing I love about enchiladas is that you can put whatever you have in them. And the potatoes are such great substance in veggie enchiladas.

I don't know if anyone reading this has ever tried sesame candy, but if you haven't you need to try this recipe. It is SO simple. Bring to a boil 3 tbs. honey with 3 tbs. brown sugar. Toast 1 C sesame seeds in a skillet, making sure to stir often enough so they don't burn. Mix sesame seeds into sugar/honey mixture and let it cool for a few minutes. Roll out mixture. I rolled mine to between 1/4-1/2 in thick between a silpat (because it gets really sticky). The recipe I used said to use waxed paper, but the first time I did that, it stuck completely and wouldn't peel off. I ended up heating it in a skillet to peel off the paper, but that just seems like too many steps for me. Once it is rolled out and cooled completely you can enjoy these tasty treats! I like cutting them into 1 inch squares. Perfect for snacking. 

This was my lunch and part of dinner yesterday. It is a chick pea, grape tomato, and basil salad. The vinegarette is made of garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and honey. Refrigerate it so the flavors can blend and absorb. The fresh garlic i this is really zesty. I like it a lot!

Today I made some salt and vinegar broiled potatoes for lunch. I will be brief with these because this post is getting long winded (sorry). The trick with getting a lot of vinegar flavor with these is to start by boiling the potato slices in the vinegar for about 8 minutes, then letting them cool down in the vinegar. Then simply coat with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and broil on each side for about 5 minutes.

Hope you enjoyed these fun recipes! Please let me know what you think about the new style!

Singin' in the rain

Idaho has been experiencing rain these lat few days and I am LOVING IT!!! It makes me miss home, but it also helps to cool off after these 95 degree days. Yesterday we had a fun-filled day that involved going to the temple, meeting some friends for frozen yogurt, and heading over to the beautiful Mesa Falls. We somehow forgot to bring coats with us when we left the house, so we didn't actually hike down to the falls, but we still had lots of fun. Pictures will be shown later. 

Thursday’s meals:

Breakfast- cold cereal

Lunch-leftover pita pocket

Dinner- chips and avocado, tomato, pinto bean, corn, green onion dip,

Dessert- vegan chocolate cake (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/vegan-chocolate-cake/detail.aspx)

When I made this cake I used balsamic vinegar instead of white. It was a suggestion at the bottom of the recipe. I like how it turned out. This cake isn't too sweet, so I don't get a sugar overload when I eat it, but it is very tasty.

Friday’s meals:

Breakfast- cold cereal

Lunch- veggie sandwich

Dinner- veggie egg rolls, rice, and sweet chili sauce (http://www.fortheloveofcooking.net/2009/04/baked-vegetable-egg-rolls.html)

I had a lot of fun making these egg rolls. They were very simple, and looking at the final product I feel a little bit like a professional. Don't they look great? The first picture is of what is the egg roll mixture on the inside. We ate the egg rolls with some rice and thai chili sauce. I think the chili sauce is a new favorite of mine. 

Saturday’s meals:

Breakfast- energy bar, nectarine, water

Lunch- Chips and dip

Dinner- taco bell 7-layer burrito w/out meat, cheese, sour cream

Dessert- kiwi loco frozen yogurt

Saturday morning started nice and early with an energy bar and some ZUMBA! My tummy always grumbles when I'm on my way home, so I put a nectarine in the car to snack on during my 15 minute drive home. As you can probably tell I have a new favorite obsession. It's eating chips and dip for meals. I don't know how "healthy" it is, but they are corn chips and dip made from fresh and delicious ingredients.

I make my dip using avocado, tomato, beans, corn, and italian dressing. I change it up depending on what kid of beans I have, but the rest usually stays the same. I enjoy it with these awesome tortilla chips  we get from Sam's Club and I can fill up on just that.

Later on Saturday we enjoyed some Kiwi Loco with friends. Now usually they have a "dairy-free" option which I enjoy, but this time their dairy free option was SUPER GROSS!!! It tasted like tang. So I have to admit to all of you lovely readers that I did have frozen yogurt. I didn't eat a lot and I topped it with tons of yummy strawberries, kiwis, and blueberries. Try not to be too upset with me. The temptation was just too great. I think I'm doing pretty well though excluding this event. Oh and I had a burrito at taco bell. I had them take out all the yummy stuff, but it was still pretty tasty.

Now for all of my fun pics. I realize now that I don't have tons, but the ones I do have are pretty adorable.

Isn't the view beautiful? It was really nice to get out of the city for a day and enjoy the scenery.

We stopped to feed the fish in Warm River on our way to the falls.

Sometimes when I take Simon's picture he will hold still long enough for me to change his diaper. I think it worked for a moment here. But isn't he just so cute?

And here is my little monkey climbing on boxes. I just thought it was too cute not to share.

My poor sick baby boy

     Wow it's been a crazy few days. My poor little baby had a fever of 104 and now he has some sort of a rash. I just got back from the doctor's office and put the little bug down for a nap. So I have a few minutes to jot down a post. (below is a picture of my poor sick baby with a bunch of drool coming out of his mouth)

     Monday started bright and early with my alarm going off at 5:30 to make it to Zumba. Lunch was a pretty ordinary vegetable sandwich with tomatoes, cucumbers, avocados, bell pepper, lettuce, and garlic veganaise. When dinner came around I made a dip with tomatoes, avocado, pinto beans, corn, green onions, and italian dressing. I filled up on chips and dip and didn't have room for a real dinner.


Monday’s meals:

Breakfast- energy bar and cold cereal

Lunch-veggie sandwich

Dinner- chips and avocado, tomato, pinto bean, corn, green onion dip.

 Tuesday was another pretty ordinary day. Cereal for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, and an awesome chickpea, tomato, and onion pita pocket.

Tuesday’s meals:

Breakfast- cold cereal

Lunch- veggie sandwich

Dinner- chickpea tomato and onion pita pocket

http://www.underthehighchair.com/2009/04/diy-pita-bread.html

     I tried a different pita bread recipe and it worked so much better this way. The recipe I tried before had the pockets rise and then be flattened out. This recipe has them rise right before they are cooked. It creates nice big pockets inside.

     The chickpea, tomato, and onion mixture was a recipe given to me by my friend Kate! It was a huge success! I sauteed onions and garlic then added a can of diced tomatoes and a can of drained chickpeas. I seasoned it with salt, pepper, cumin, and garlic powder. I didn't have any coriander, but if I did I would have used that as well. Then I topped it with vegan sour cream and diced cucumber. It was SO delicious! I think everyone should try this one. Also don't ever hesitate to share recipes! I love fresh ideas!

     Again I had cereal for breakfast on Wednesday. And when lunch time came along I was quite busy, so a hawaiian shaved ice was all I had time for. But I had a piece of pizza(with all the toppings scraped off) as a somewhat early dinner, a few carrot and cucumber sticks and then leftover pita pocket when I got home later.

Wednesday’s meals:

Breakfast- cold cereal

Lunch- Hawaiian shaved ice

Dinner- Pizza with cheese removed, veggies, left over pita pocket

     On a slightly unrelated note, I wanted to share with you all a little project I have had going. I heard that you can re-grow green onions, so I tried it out for myself. Whenever I would use a green onion to eat or cook with I would place the stump into a cup of water on my window sill. The onions in this picture are a few weeks old. When I ran out of onions to use I used one of the re-grown onions. They taste great! And it was kind of fun to watch how quickly they grow!

Again don't ever hesitate to share recipes or comments! 

1 incredible month!

Wow! 1 month! Can you believe it? I actually lasted a month! And that month included a BBQing holiday and a few dates with my non-vegan hubby.
     My weight has kind of leveled out with my exercising at a minimum. I have been going to bed late and not waking up for my 6am zumba. I think that I will see more results when I am actually exercising regularly. And I plan on getting to the Doctor's office this week to check my blood lipid levels this week to really see what 1 month of a totally vegan diet has done for me. But for right now I have lost about 8 lbs and as soon as I get blood results I will post those too.
     Now to my meals.

Thursday’s meals:

Breakfast- cold cereal with almond/coconut milk

Lunch- black bean, corn, and vegan cheese quesadilla

Snack- soft pretzel and soda- from Sam’s club (I don’t actually know the ingredients, there may have been non-vegan products)

Dinner- Nachos with vegan cheese, tomatoes, avocado, black beans, and green onion

Friday’s meals:

Breakfast- cold cereal with almond/coconut milk

Lunch- veggie sandwich with tomatoes, cucumbers, bell pepper, lettuce, avocado, and green onion on a bakery sandwich roll

Dinner- vegetable red curry and veggie spring rolls from “Original Thai” in Rexburg

Saturday’s meals:

Breakfast- honey bunches of oats

Lunch- leftover red curry

Dinner-veggie enchilada with rice and beans

Sunday’s meals:

Breakfast- cold cereal with almond/coconut milk

Lunch- bread and vegan butter

Dinner- I kind of just snacked for dinner. Brett took a nap and I ate chips and salsa and a bowl of cereal. It was a lazy dinner day.

I found Simon with a pen and markings all over his face. Isn't he cute?

We went shooting on Saturday and Simon played in the car with someone while the others shot stuff. I decided to have a little photo shoot with him. Enjoy his cuteness!

Procrastination in full force

     I really apologize about my tardiness with this post. Life has been a bit crazy lately. And when I stay up late usually the last thing I want to do is try to put together a somewhat decent blog post. But now that I am recovering from a super fun-filled and busy day yesterday I have a few moments to relax and chug out this post. And I will do my best to squeeze 5 days into a readable/enjoyable amount. 

     First off I will just list my meals then have all the fun pictures follow.

Saturday’s meals:

Breakfast-cheerios

Lunch- an apple (I know this sounds pathetic, but it was a SUPER busy day and I didn't have time to even think about eating a real meal)

Dinner- Rumbi tofu rice bowl with hawaiian teriyaki sauce (I didn't take a picture because we ate at the restaurant and I didn't have my camera with me)

Sunday’s meals:

Breakfast- Cheerios with almond/coconut milk

Lunch/Dinner- Salad

Monday’s meals:

Breakfast- Oatmeal with peanut butter and banana (This was inspired by my bestie Erica Yoder)

Lunch- Burrito (I'm having a hard time remembering what I put in it. Probably just the usual- refried beans, brown rice, tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, bell pepper, vegan sour cream, etc.

Dinner- BBQ- I ate pasta salad, watermelon, and rolls (While everyone else enjoyed Texas Road House BBQ pulled pork, it was quite a challenge)

Tuesday’s meals:

Breakfast- Oatmeal with peanut butter and bananas

Lunch- Bread with avocado and tomato

Dinner-Tofu shepherd’s pie- I am not even going to share the recipe because I didn't like how this turned out. Another day I will make a better one that you can see the recipe for.

Wednesday’s meals:

Breakfast- Vegan pancakes and hash browns

Lunch- French fries, watermelon, and a make-shift salad made from hamburger toppings(lettuce, avocado, tomatoes, pickles, grilled onions)

Dinner- half of a quesadilla with vegan cheese and black beans and then a small piece of pizza(I picked most of the cheese and canadian bacon off. but ended up eating some. I felt a little bad about it at the time, butreally paid for it later with a terrible stomach ache.)

Simon and I went to the zoo with our good friends Orchid and Layla. I didn't take tons of pics, and the lighting was terrible in the first one. But here is Simon and me in front of some goats.

Simon has been making this face a lot. And I was finally able to capture it on film. I think he's pretty darn cute.

 This was taken while waiting for the fireworks to start. It was a beautiful sunset and I tried to capture it as best as I could with a not so amazing camera.Simon was a champ during the fireworks. We were pretty close so they were pretty loud. He was a little scared at first, but then calmed down and fell asleep 10 minutes into the show.

Cook Books!

My new vegan cook books finally arrived! I'm really excited, if you couldn't tell. Here they are! Aren't they lovely?

I haven't made any recipes from them yet, but there are a few dessert recipes I can't wait to make!

Wednesday's meals:

Breakfast- Cold cereal with almond/coconut milk

Lunch- Avocado on french bread with a touch of salt

Dinner- Gnocchi with creamy tomato basil sauce

This Gnocchi was super easy to make. Again you boil the gnocchi for a few minutes just until they float to the top of the water. For the sauce I just used canned pasta sauce and added about 1/3 cup of coconut milk, and bit of freshly picked(from my mini planter garden out front) basil. I tossed the gnocchi into the sauce, to soak up all that creamy saucy deliciousness, a few minutes before I served it. I had a lovely piece of fresh french bread with vegan butter to accompany it.

Thursday's meals:

Breakfast- Cold cereal with almond/coconut milk

Lunch-  Veggie salad- diced tomatoes, sliced carrots, broccoli, lettuce, chick peas, and italian dressing.

Dinner- Veggie pizza

I was really in a veggie mood on Thursday. This salad totally hit the spot. It was fresh, delicious, and filling. I didn't use very much lettuce (because i didn't want that much), but all the other veggies were perfectly splendid.

This pizza was quick, easy, and super delicious. I think it was about 15 min. from start to finish. The trick is having a pizza crust mix. I use Namaste's gluten free pizza crust(pictured below). It is SO tasty! I used marinara sauce, vegan shredded cheese, tomatoes, red and yellow bell pepper, portobello mushroom, fresh oregano, and fresh basil. It was delightful!

I don't always eat gluten free foods, but this crust is so delicious, and easy to make I love to use it. All you do is add water and a little bit of oil and it's ready to be spread on a pizza stone. It cooks in about 15 minutes then I simply add my toppings, heat for a few more minutes and enjoy.

Friday's meals:
Breakfast- Cold cereal with almond/coconut milk
Lunch- Snacks- leftover pizza, chick peas (yes, I ate them plain), green peas, etc.
Dinner- Refried bean and onion lettuce wraps and corn on the cob

The bean and onion wraps probably seem weird, but I watched a vegan cooking video a little while back where he made these. I started out by sauteing the onions. But to save a few calories I started by cooking them down with water first before I added a tad of olive oil to really make them nice and carmely. Then I mixed in fresh oregano, some brown rice, and a can of refried beans(I would have mashed my own black beans, but waited too long to make dinner). I grilled up some corn on the cob in my grill pan and called it a meal! It was actually quite tasty, filling, and really very healthy.


On a different note, It has been exactly 3 weeks today since I started this vegan journey. I don't know what my cholesterol looks like, but I am feeling SO GOOD! And I have lost 6 lbs. so far. I think 2 pounds a week is pretty good. I just need to keep it up!

Istanbul not Constantinople

     In this post I would first like to give a shout out to Kate, for being the inspiration for yesterday's meal. Kate shared a recipe with me, which I am still going to try, but it inspired me to try something else. As for the rest of my meals, I know you are all probably wondering why I keep making the same foods. I believe that my best reasoning is that they are tasty. I have been making a lot of veggie wraps for lunch and burritos for dinner. But they are all so simple to make and delicious to eat. Why fix something that isn't broken?

Monday's meals:
Breakfast- Cheerios with bananas and almond/coconut milk
Lunch- Veggie wrap
Dinner- Falafel in homemade pita pockets with tomatoes, cucumbers, avocadoes, and roasted garlic veganaise
falafel recipe(http://mideastfood.about.com/od/maindishes/r/bakedfalafel.htm)
pita recipe(http://mideastfood.about.com/od/breadsrice/r/pitabreadrecipe.htm)

Maybe I should stop taking pictures of my wraps. They all look the same...

The pita pockets didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, but I found another recipe that I like better, so stay tuned for bigger and better pita pockets. I would have just used store bought pitas, but I just went grocery shopping before I decided to make them and didn't want to go back to the store. The falafels were quite tasty though. I definitely recommend them. Also if I had sesame seeds I would have made a nice tahini to go with. Maybe next time.





Tuesday's meals:
Breakfast- Pita bread and juice (Yes, this is a weird breakfast but it's what I ate. It was just that kind of morning)
Lunch- Leftover falafel, homemade hummus with cucumbers, carrots, and pita bread
Dinner- Tofu and veggie red curry over coconut brown rice

I made the hummus by putting a can of chickpeas (with some liquid from the can), olive oil, garlic, and salt&pepper into my food processor. It was decent, but not to die for. I think the quality of my food processor played a big role. It couldn't get all the little chunks as smooth as I would have liked. But overall a nice tasty snack. I might just opt for store bought hummus next time.

This dinner was probably my favorite so far. But I did take a little short cut. I used a jar of red curry sauce instead of making my own using coconut milk, curry powder, and anything else it requires. I cut up yellow and orange bell pepper, broccoli, mushrooms, potatoes, and tofu. I put them in a pan with the jar of "Thai Kitchen" red curry sauce and let them simmer until the vegetables were soft enough. While this was going on I had brown rice in my rice cooker cooking in a half coconut milk half water mixture. The rice was so creamy and flavorful and the curry was just plain awesome! I recommend this recipe to anyone!

I really appreciate comment and suggestions. So if you have recipes or just opinions I would love to hear them!

Busy little beaver

     The weekend is coming to a close and I find myself wishing for another day to actually relax.  Saturday was a super packed day for me. And my wonderful husband was so willing to take care of Simon all by himself all day long. Friday was pretty uneventful (at least from what I can remember). Saturday morning I did a booth at a Saturday's market with a couple other Mary Kay consultants. Then I headed straight to Rexburg and held 4 appointments. I got home and flopped on the couch after a very warm and very tiring day. Today has been lovely. We finally got our swamp cooler fixed, so we aren't dying of heat exhaustion.

     Well enough about me, on to the meals. Friday my friend Melissa let me go pick strawberries out of her garden. This picture was taken after I had already eaten quite a few. Mmmmm don't they look tasty? Well other than snacking on a few at a time I didn't even use them until Sunday. But boy did I use them!







Friday's meals:
Breakfast- Cold cereal with soy milk
Lunch- veggie wrap
Dinner- Chinese cabbage salad (http://jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-08-31T00%3A05%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=3) you have to scroll down the blog a ways to find it.

Inside my spinach wrap is vegan cream cheese, roasted garlic flavored veganaise, yellow and green bell peppers, tomatoes, avocados, and spinach.

This picture really doesn't do this salad justice. Before I was vegan I would make this recipe with chicken. And I have to say that it tastes amazing either way.









Saturday's meals:
Breakfast- Cheerios with strawberries, bananas, and soymilk
Lunch- Salad
Dinner- Tofu burrito

     Like I said earlier Saturday was a busy day. So I didn't actually get any pictures taken. But my breakfast was tasty, lunch was at Pizza Pie Cafe (I ordered the salad bar), and dinner was put together quickly because I came home starving and wanting fast food. My burrito was delicious though. It had tofu fried in coconut oil, refried beans, tomatoes, avocados, cilantro, vegan sour cream, and vegan shredded "cheese".

Sunday's meals:
Breakfast- Cheerios with bananas and almond/coconut milk
Lunch- vegan pancakes (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/vegan-pancakes/) with homemade strawberry syrup and hash browns
Dinner- snacks

This may not look very appetizing, because my photography skills and camera quality are not the best. But boy is this stuff TASTY!!!!! This is homemade strawberry syrup. I blended fresh strawberries and a handful of frozen huckleberries with a cup of water. Then I added about 1/2 cup of agave nectar. I used this mainly so I wouldn't have to heat up sugar and water to get it liquified. I found that it didn't need anything else.






Again a not so wonderful picture. I poured a lot of syrup on top, because it's so delicious, then realized you can't even see the pancake. Speaking of the pancakes, they are super duper tasty. I think I even like them better than regular pancakes.










And to finish off my post today, I wanted to show you my adorable son. We were playing with packing peanuts from my delivered product. They are made out of rice, so when they get wet they stick. And i decided to see how many Simon would let me stick to his head. This is the end result:

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer as much as I am and having as beautiful weather as Idaho is!