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!

Presto Pesto!

Here is the run-down on last nights feastivities! Some pita bread, parsley and garlic go a long way in the kitchen. I have been craving a good pesto for a while but never really got around to making it, partly because I hadn't had all the ingredients for it. But that is crazy thinking! It was a night of improvising! I just so happened to have two big fresh green bouquets of parsley, relaxing nicely in the crisper :) I had garlic and some good basil oil. So I thought, you know what? I can do this! No nuts? No problem! I used the same ingredients/ratios as you normally would for a classic pesto and was very happy with the results! I got a beautiful, vibrant pesto with just parsley, garlic, basil oil, and some nutritional yeast (for a cheesy, nutty flavor)! and was able to make pesto pizza! After adding tomato, onion and some Daiya (non-dairy cheese), these were the results! Even for being the die-hard, meat-eating, pepperoni-queen that she is, my sister loved it! Yes, she loved my vegan pizza! Warm, crispy, cheesy, garlicky goodness! Paired with a big, bright, crunchy green salad and tossed with the remaining pesto, presto!

 

A sweet-tooth crept in soon after and, again, the improvising resumed... I had a box of Duncan Hines chocolate chip cookie mix which can be easily "veganized"  if you don't add the animal junk. And they aren't the healthiest either--lots of questionable processed ingredients and chemicals but if you're transitioning and are looking for options to help keep you sane, go for it! and the box was just $1 at the dollar tree! The directions say to add THREE tbsp.'s butter, 2 eggs and some water. Butter and eggs? NO THANKS. I knew the butter was for fat & grease so in lieu of that, I used just a spoon-full of earth balance coconut/peanut butter and to replace the eggs and water, I just used about a half a cup of vanilla almond milk! I even added some ground flax into the batter to add fiber ;) 

And boom! chocolate chip/peanut butter/coconut cookie dough was born! This stuff tasted mmmmmazing!!! Again, my sister loved my vegan cookie dough! I see a trend happening here ;) Sadly, the dough never even made it to the oven as a cookie because we nibbled at the batter until it was gone! Thanks to no raw eggs, we didn't risk the chance of getting sick, only satisfied :)

 

 

No eggs? No butter? No worries! 

Taco twos-day :)

 This would be a photo of my lunch! Tofu tacos from Oasis! I just love this place more and more! This isn't my actual photo because I didn't have my camera with me while I was eating it but this is close enough! Two flavorful corn tortilla's filled with seasoned tofu, pico de gallo, and tofu cream and with a side of brown rice and black beans, to boot! Wow! a little too much food to eat all at once but it was a nice surprise :)

 

 

 

Mini me's

When you get home as late from the gym as I do, whipping up a substantial dinner is not really an option- A. because you're too tired. and B. well, simply because eating late is a sin! lol, but going to bed hungry should be just as frowned upon, right? I hope so. Henceforth, I buckled and decided I had to have something. So I got creative-and a little crazy-and turned my oven on to nearly 400 degrees! It was late enough in the evening, with cool breezes coming in through my kitchen window so it felt quite nice, despite the oven being on :)

 

I only had a few things to work with as I was a little short-handed on "pizza" ingredients, or so I thought! I wondered, "what could I use as my crust without using crust?" Bingo! Finally a light went on and I forgot about something I saw on pinterest recently. Amen! I just happened to have some eggplant on hand and some tomatoes that were in desperate need of something to do aka-they was goin' bad! lol

 

With just a couple of eggplant rounds, brushed with some basil infused oil,  spread on some crushed garlic, layer your toms and for a little crunch, add some thinly sliced white onion. A little sea salt and pepper to taste, a few dashes of hot pepper flakes and then I added some trader joes' non-dairy mozzarella. These are simply things that I had on hand. The beautiful thing is that you can add whatever you want! So, after about 15 minutes or so in the oven, my world was about to change! These came out so yummy and perfect, I can't believe I have not been doing this all along! I also had some pre-made polenta in the fridge. Just two baby slices, topped with garlic and fried in some non-fat/non-stick coconut oil spray. Boom! No carb veggie pizza meal in no time!