Tabouli tabouleh taboli

 Here is a photo twosome of hummus and tabouleh salad I made the other night. Thanks to this recipe, I am no currently obsessed with bulgur wheat! Tabouleh is a traditional Arabic dish. I first tried it at my farmers market. There is a vendor there that sells tabouleh salad in little tubs- 3 for $10. Super great deal. I've always loved it but never thought of making it at home until I got a bad craving for some. To accompany this craving, I made some hummus as well.

Greenery scenery

Warm kale salad ♥

 

ingredients;

organic quinoa

organic kidney beans

organic kale

non-gmo nutritional yeast

basil oil

salt and pepper

Breakfast!

Today's breakfast was brought to you by; Trader Joe's Organic oats with organic raspberries, dates, and a little flax meal all in a creamy bath of vanilla almond milk  :)

 

Vegan pumpkin chili

 Fall is upon us and I couldn't help but break out the pumpkin goodies and start cooking! Although, I must admit, my original plan was to use a can of pureed sweet potato I already had but the expiration date was too far gone to even work with (Mar. 2013, yikes!). Luckily I had just went to the store and picked up a can of organic pureed pumpkin that I knew I would soon need, and lo and behold, I did! I was in the mood for chili but not for a bowl of stewed tomatoes as traditionally used so I thought it would be an excellent idea to use a pumpkin base instead and it was fee-NOM!! I experimented with vegan cornbread but I wasn't very happy. I went by the directions on the box and still un-impressed. Just didn't have much flavor. It wasn't hard to "veganize" it. All I did was omit one egg for flax meal instead (1tbsp flax meal to 3 tbsp. of water will replace one egg). It was, however, just yummy if you top your cornbread with the chili..mmmm. For my fall-pumpkin chili I used the following;

 

3 ears fresh roasted corn on the cobb

1 can organic black beans

1/2 purple onion

3 cloves garlic

1 can organic (BPA free) pumpkin puree

1 organic green bell pepper

2 organic tomatoes

3-4 cups cooked quinoa

2-3 cups organic veggie broth

     *season to taste*

add cilantro if you have it! 

 

I even added red pepper flakes and sriracha for some heat!

This was such a yummy, filling, hearty dish. Major comfort food, here. Perfect for a fall evening and no yucky animal fat swimming in the sauce. This had a very "meaty" texture to it, which my friend LOVED (he's a meat-eater!). I bet some vegan cheese will go great on top! Maybe next time ;)

 

 

 

Purple Haze

 Don't you just love the color purple?! Look at these beautiful organic purple carrots I found at the market! I have never seen them before but I was inclined to by them anyway! I love carrots and looove beets, and these were like the perfect hybrid! Earthy and nutty like beets and sweet and crunchy like regular carrots. I did some research on them and I found that purple carrots have all, if not more, of the yummy benefits of their orange cousins! Vitamin A, beta carotene, rich in anthocyanins (have no idea how to pronounce that!), the same antioxidants that give blueberries their pretty blue color, along with super food benefits! Studies show that those blue and purple hues can improve memory, enhance vision, protect against heart attacks, act as anti-inflammatory, and help with weight loss.

 

This is why it is sooo important to shop for color variety in your produce! The colors aren't just there to make your grocery cart look pretty, but there are a multitude of health benefits in the color of your food!

 

So, all I did was chop them up, pretty thin so they'd cook faster---sautéed them in about half a tbsp. of organic coconut oil, salt (Himalayan) and pepper and done! super yummy and tasty. I hope I see these more often! :)

 

Vegan Chili

 Boy, do I love me some chili, and boy, OH BOY do I now love-me-even-more some vegan chili!! So simple an delish! I never even considered this idea until I saw a box of vegan chili mix on sale yesterday (yes, I cheated! but I'm still a little new at this so I think it's allowed :-P)

 

Anyway, I saw this box of chili mix and all it said was to add water and chopped, stewed tomatoes. So simple and it was on sale for .99 cents! Why not try it? So my mental check-list began and right off I remembered I had some red quinoa in the fridge already made from the night before so I thought it would pair well with the chili. I did not have a can of stewed tomatoes on hand, but I had half of a tomato. So that would have to do. I went home and with my handy-dandy processor, I chopped some celery, carrots and a whole white onion to add to the mix. While that was sautéing on its own, I added the tomato (diced) along with some roughly chopped cilantro and a can of organic black beans. Finally, I added the vegan chili mix and about a cup or so of water until I got the consistency I wanted. The mix had a "meaty" texture to it. I noticed on the box it had soy in it, so that is what gives it that meaty-ness. I then topped it with more diced purple onion and some avocado. Perfect! A little Sriracha for some heat and we were off and running, literally! What a beautiful dish this made. Very easy and all I did was add whatever I had on hand. The only thing I think I'll do next time is add some fresh roasted corn! And once again, my meat-eating sister loved it!! Being vegan is extremely easy, there is no excuse in the world to torture an animal for your own personal pleasure. Go Vegan and nobody gets hurt!

 

#myfooddoesntscream

 

 

Strawberry fields

This is a superb dinner idea when it's hot and you're tired! I made up the dressing based on what I had on hand, which was;

strawberries
limes
dates
olive oil

The berries were needing to be eaten and I don't really like snacking on them plain so I thought I would make a light strawberry vinaigrette! Toss everything in your processor (or blender) and season to taste. If it's too sweet, add a little more lime. To the contrary, if it's too tangy, add either another date or drizzle in some agave which is what I did. With a big bowl of fresh, organic ,washed and trimmed Kale, I poured in my dressing and added some thinly sliced purple onion for a little more bite and spice. Let it sit for an hour (if you can wait) to let the lime break down the kale a bit, plus it tastes better a little chilled. Instead of turning on the TV, I took a leisure stroll to the lake and relaxed by the water while the sun set as I waited for my salad to chill. It is so dreamy outside at that time....about 7-ish. So take advantage of the great out-of-doors when ever you can :)

1-2-3-TOSS!