Potato Soup!

Tonights dinner was simple! I got it from a blog I have mentioned before.  I love this blog, its focused on making shopping for vegan meals quick and cheap! So because my Wednesdays are so busy I chose to make a quick soup that could finish cooking while I was at class until 9pm.

 This soup only has 7 ingredients and took just a few min to prepare.  Tonight I was patient and let everything cook properly but I was not patient when getting ready to eat it!  I am not a huge fan of cabbage so I left that out and replaced it with a small onion.  I love onions so that was a simple switch for me.  One modification to the recipe that I did was not so vegan.  Looking at it and tasting the soup when it was almost done it reminded me of veggie soup and as much as I love that I was looking for a soup that was hearty and full.  So I added just 2 Tbsp of heavy cream and let that simmer just a little longer. Perfection! I am a basil lover! We grew live basil this summer and were constantly making pesto and using it on everything! I think everything needs basil! So I threw some flakes on top and you might not like that idea but I think everything I cook always needs basil!

If you are looking for a good soup on these cold "spring" days I suggest it!
Have a good night friends and followers! Ill be back tomorrow with curry fried rice!

The Tales of an Impatient Cook

So quick review before we start back up with the blog this week:

• Sorry I am a college student and don't always have time to post in a timely manner!  I am trying my best I promise! Just be patient with me.
• Secondly lets keep in mind that I am a college student so buying things for recipes might not always be feasible for me. Like tonights dinner but we will get to that soon.

After a week of working late and not being in the kitchen I am so very excited to be cooking again this week! Tonight I am trying out a meal that was sent to me from my dad.  It comes from The Splendid Table.  I remember going on rides around town with my dad when I was younger and always listening to this show on NPR.  It looked great and turned out to be quite wonderful! Of course I am not patient so along with talking about the making of the meal and its great flavors I will be telling you about how the trials of an impatient cook.

Cauliflower with Saffron Pasta might seem weird but looking at the picture and reading the ingredients just made me drool! Now here are a few tips when you are cooking it:  Make sure you have the ingredients cut/diced/chopped and ready to go before you start anything! I ended up making my cauliflower mush because I steamed it too long and then it cooked again in the skillet.  Next.... Don't forget about your pasta after leaving it on high.  I was so hungry when I came back from classes that I was ready to cook and eat soon.  With that being sad I just left the pasta on high for too long and I will have pasta to be scrapping off the bottom of a pot later on.  When breakup up the cauliflower to steam I again became impatient and ended up with some small pieces and some really big chunks.  Needless to say my mushy cauliflower was not evenly distributed.  Thinking back on it now maybe the dinner would have been better done with broccoli.  The recipe called for saffron and red pepper flakes. Neither of those made it into my meal. Saffron cost $11 for .01 oz and if I am not going to use it again soon I am not about to pay for that on my budget, so instead I used ground turmeric! It worked out perfectly for me! The reason red pepper flakes didnt make it into my dinner was because I forgot to write it down on my list and between the snow and my hunger I was not about to trek back out and go get it.  I used paprika instead which worked but I would imagine the pepper flakes would give it the kick it needs. Feta cheese was optional and I think with some melted feta on top it would be perfect!

Finding a vegan pasta was not that hard, just make sure you read carefully! I picked a brand that didnt contain eggs but was made in a factory that uses eggs so if you are really strict that might prevent you from using it but now with gluten allergies and vegan eaters getting more attention some companies are trying to use more friendly products for those consumers!

I hope you check the meal out and you enjoy it like I did! I hope you can take a few notes on what NOT to do in the kitchen.

Coconut Water; Sounds Like An Oxymoron To Me!

So yesterday I posed before I went into work and sadly enough I will have to do the same thing today and I haven't done much cooking the past two days.  Hopefully I will have a day off or not have to work through dinner everyday this week so I can post yummy meals I have made!

Todays lunch was simple and hit the spot for me.  I had a whole wheat tortilla, covered in peanut butter and topped off with banana slices.  It was perfect :)  Breakfast was a smoothie with avocado, mango, lime juice, and coconut water.  That made me think... what IS coconut water?

Coconut water has become a trend lately and now it has various flavors and many different companies are making it!  To me the title is confusing enough, coconut water.  Water with coconuts in it, water you squeeze from a coconut, or some weird brand of water that has to be shipped in from the highest mountains of Hawaii where they grow magical water trees that produce coconuts?
Well I did some research and now I can sleep tonight knowing :

• It comes from the center of young green coconuts.  Make sure you dont have it confused with the fruits milk or oil which have also become more popular recently.
• The water has a sweet "nutty" taste and every site I looked at mention that it is naturally sweet and lower in sugar.  You should give it to kids because its better than "sports drinks" that are constantly give out at soccer games.
• It provides your body with Sodium and Potassium that you need daily to function.
• Drink Up! Says this NPR article.  Basically its a good healthy drink if you can afford it.  I dont see a down side to it!

Coconut oil and water are use in many vegan recipes as a natural sweeter that is better for you and the earth than processed and refined sugar! So go ahead and grab a bottle of this oxymoron and enjoy!

Fruit Salad, yummy yummy!

Sorry my post have been behind the past few days.  I was in Banner Elk, North Carolina for a retreat.  While I was there I had a splendid talk with a retreat chaperone who has been vegetarian for many years.  We talked about how some times its just not practical to be a vegan/vegetarian while traveling or in some everyday experiences.
I used to be a really strict vegetarian who would never eat salad if it was on the same cutting board as meat or eat a "garden Burger' that had been grilled in the same greasy spot as the burgers. I was always trying to make sure my veggies were not contaminated with meat, but being in college that can be hard and leave me hungry at times.  When I moved in with my current roommate I thought wow this will be great I can cook what I want and I can be a strict vegetarian again.  Well that was all well and good until I realized that she can make some killer chicken and dumplings.  So needless to say that now I claim to be an almost vegan or a vegetarian most days but when she makes chicken casserole or chicken and dumplings I don't turn her cooking down.  So back to this being something practical, at times it would make no sense for me to make a separate meal and dirty up our kitchen a second time just so I can have a chicken free dinner. Now I don't love it so much I am willing to go against what I think about meat companies and start eating meat again.

This weekend in my conversation with Liz and while eating camp food we decided that there would be no easy way to be a vegan and be at this retreat.  One day lunch was chicken sandwiches so the veggie option they provided for my self and Liz was just a grilled cheese (possibly my favorite vegetarian sandwich) and when dinner was pasta with meat sauce the vegetarian option was just mariana instead.

• Grilled cheese: pretty much the most unvegan thing I could have eaten.  Its bread (which in this case was white and I'm sure made with eggs and milk), fried in butter and covered in cheese... For lunch if I would have stuck to being a vegan I would have eaten some peach slices and maybe foraged for some berries on camp grounds later when I was hungry again.
• Pasta: Now this is not as bad but vegan friendly pasta is hard to find and can be costly and I am positive the camp just orders "Sams Club" size pasta when they have big retreat weekends.

So although I love being an "Almost Vegan"  I know that some times will have to be a non vegan and just live with my vegetarian choices.  Some things about eating healthy you have to learn on the road there, not before you start the journey.

With that being said and me now being home lunch and breakfast today were 100% vegan!  For breakfast I had a smoothie with spinach, blueberries, and grapes! YUM!  Now for lunch as I am blogging and eating I have a big bowl of fruit salad.  I am now getting excited that the weather is warming up because fruits that we haven't had in season year are soon to be coming back and that means I will be a much happier vegan!  Now when I prepared the fruit salad I took the lazy route.  Today I threw some grapes, strawberries, and banana slices in a bowl and ate it just like that.  You can get fancy though!  Apples are great to add if you want some crunch and keeping them from getting soggy is easy!  Just cut up the apple how ever you like and toss it in a bag with some lemon juice, shake up and then you have an apple that wont turn brown or get soggy in the salad!  Pineapple is my favorite to add, I could eat it straight or throw it in too! I will sweeten the salad and I think the juices off the pineapple will be great to drink when you reach the bottom of the bowl!

Well bloggers and followers have a wonderful day and check back tomorrow to see what wonderful food I had for dinner! :)

A Not So Vegan Day

Some days I love blending up fresh fruit for a smoothie or making a fresh crisp salad but some days I am tired and my roommate offers to cook so I let her!  Therefore in my dinner of not so vegan buffalo casserole I decided that today will be a day of reflection in my first vegan week.

A few staples of a vegan kitchen I need to start keeping around or get.

1. Agave Nectar, which is a from of fructose and replaces honey for the really strict vegans that dont even use that.  It is almost 2x sweeter than sugar and easier for your body to break down since it is not as processed.  It is quickly dissolved and can be mixed in hot
2. Oats and Rice: Both of these have been used in recipes I have tired and they are both really flexible!  Oats show up a lot as replacements for ingredients that are not vegan acceptable.  Rice is a great staple for me, and I love cooking it and I could honestly live off it.
3. Protein crumbles or Tofu:  Both of these show up a lot.  I don't honestly think you need either one but some times you need the added protein.  Both are easily added in to a dish and can be flavored to match what ever you are making.  Tofu is best (in my opinion) if you leave it to marinate over night. The protein crumbles resemble ground beef and my mom uses them a lot for chili or tacos (my poor dad doesn't care for our vegan/vegetarian ways).
4. I need a spice rack! I am starting to use a lot of different herbs and spices now and the next thing to buy on my list is a spice rack :)
5. FOOD PROCESSOR!!! I have realized that having one would have made my life a lot better yesterday when I made the salsa! I currently have a cute little single serve blender, like a "Bullet" and its great but when I put the onion in there to chop it up yesterday I made liquid onion and it was efficient but liquid onion is not what I was hoping to go for in my salsa.
6. On my wish list when I get married or end up with a big girl job out of college I plan to get a Vitamix.  My mom got one this summer after we visited family who had one.  They showed us how wonderful it was and now it has become something my mom uses daily and the reason I like to start my day off with a smoothie.  

Hope you enjoy what I have learned so far this week :) If you have hints or tips you would like to share please leave a comment! Have a great weekend bloggers, check back tomorrow!

Cucumber salsa, say what?!

When I started today off planning what I would make for dinner I was thinking about what I would post tonight but my day took a different turn.  Its close to spring break and most students are hitting that point where they are stressed too much and today I hit that point.  I spent my afternoon cleaning everything in sight and trying to calm my self down. Amongst my stress induced cleaning fit I spent some time on Pintrest and found a perfect salsa recipe! I knew I wouldn't be done with classes and home until after 9 so I knew dinner would be eaten around 10 so when I found the recipe I rushed to the store to pick up just one or two things I needed to finish the ingredient list.  Before I tell you all about it though I will briefly share what I had for dinner!

Tonight dinner consisted of roasted potatoes, peas, corn, and "Chicken" for me but a real chicken breast for my roommate.  I took 2 potatoes and cut them up and boiled them for about 5 min.  After that I put them in a gal. bag with some olive oil, minced basil, and salt.  Shake vigorously and them spread them on a baking pan and bake for about 15-20 min on 375.  Now I don't measure things exactly, my mom doesn't and her mom doesn't. We are not patient women and we simply eyeball everything, so if you are looking for measurements for the seasoning above guess about 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 teaspoon of the other things per potato.  They create this wonderfully crisp salty starch to have with your meal.  As far as chicken meat replacements goes I am not sure what brand is vegan and what brand is not.  I use Morning Star or Quorn.  Both have great products and be found in most grocery stores so you don't have to go to Earth Fare or Fresh Market type stores to find it.  My roommate made a Marsala sauce to go on the chicken.  I know that seems random to throw an Italian sauce on a very southern "meat and potato" type meal but some times you need a good sauce and thats something she makes very well! A simple quick meal that was filling and not hard to make!

Now lets talk about this salsa!

I love to make fresh salsa and guacamole but I have trouble finding combinations of ingredients that really go well together and create a good texture. Well today was one that I will be keeping and making very often! WARNING: its not completely vegan but can be tweaked, and so very addictive! We ate almost all of the salsa in one sitting! I have posted a picture of the salsa below but its a little ugly looking, so I also put up a nice filtered picture of the ingredients. So here it goes...

2 cups finely chopped seeded peeled cucumber
1/2 cup finely chopped seeded tomato
1/4 cup chopped red onion
2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
1 jalepeno pepper, seeded and chopped
4-1/2 tsp minced fresh cilantro
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed

Mix these in a bowl together (NOTE: wash your hands throughly after chopping the jalepeno! I spent the rest of my day with fingers I couldn't touch my face with because I had juice around my nails and needless to say it was a painful day with spices on my lips and nose.)

Now:
1/4 c sour cream
1-1/2 tsp lemon juice
1-1/2 tsp lime juice

1 avocado peeled and pureed
1/4 tsp ground cumin go in a bowl together, throughly mix and then pour over the other ingredients! Mix, and then eat with tortilla chips!
Seriously one of the best salsas I have made thus far!



The picture here is what the original recipe was but after eating a few bites my roommate and I decided that it needed to be thicker and spicier. So from there I took an avocado and pureed it and then added a spoonful more of sour cream and then more cumin! After adding that it made it so much better! We have loved it so much and it was a great thing to stumble upon today :)

Avocado grilled "cheese"

Hello All! So excited that so many friends shared the link for the blog last night :) I hope more people start to follow it and try some of the foods out! I cant wait to hear more feedback and get more ideas!

So shopping at Earth Fare in preparation of all the new foods I was going to make I got 2 avocados for a great price and thought I might make some guacamole or put some in an "omelet" ( with fake eggs and cheese of course) but last night I thought a grilled cheese sounded great to me! So today I took some whole wheat bread and put some vegan swiss cheese on it, slid it in the oven on broil for just a few minuets and after I pulled it out I sliced up* some avocado and threw a little bit of spinach on top.  

Now this was a great idea... but I dont have the best timing with cooking so the toast as you can see in the picture ended up being a little more crispy than I like it.  The avocado was too ripe and instead of getting beautiful slices I ended up with this nice blob of green looking gross stuff on my cutting board which was ok with me, honestly it made it easy to spread (hence the * above on sliced up).  The spinach was a great idea since I hadn't made a smoothie in the past 2 days but I forgot how much I despise spinach when I can pick it out of something.  SO... in tun the sandwich was not horrible, but the texture ended up being a little too much for me to handle.  It could have used some salt and pepper and maybe some salsa and chips instead of bread.  For all those who are not the most graceful watch out for the stove eye! I dropped a chunk of the avocado right into the stove eye and now I am worried as to what our kitchen might smell like next time I try to cook anything.  

Well I hope some one else had a better Tuesday than I did and some one else can make a winner of this rough idea I attempted today.

One good thing did come out of this meal today even though it was not my crazy idea, I bought pineapple and it was just perfect! It was so sweet! I can not wait to put it into a smoothie later on in the week.

Quick facts I wanted to share today: While reading up on the benefits cucumber water I stumbled upon a website with facts about hot tea.  As long as you don't load it down with Splenda, sugar, or milk it can have a lot of great benefits!  One study showed that people who drank hot tea at least 3 times a week for 10 or more years had stronger bones than their counterparts who did not! (although I am worried as to how they tested this.. did they go about tripping elders who drank tea and then tripped elders who didn't and counted the broken bones??)  Drinking hot tea can give you added vitamins (which as a vegan you need to get them at every source you can) and provides you with natural antioxidants! For those of you who don't drink coffee (I couldn't do it but if you do go you!) it has almost as much caffeine as a cup of coffee, so if you have a headache don't grab a soda and Advil! Go make a cup of hot tea, relax, and don't forget to drink some water too! 

Dont forget to share the blog link and keep up with me daily if you can! :)

Stir Fry. Its whats for dinner!

I dont know if any one else has a love for stir fry veggies and rice like I do but honestly I could eat it for a week straight and still be happy to have it again! It is such a versatile combo.  One night you could make salsa and have it on a whole wheat burrito or with some vegan tortilla chips! Tonight I made brown rice with bell pepper, zucchini, and onion! I paired it with some tofu that was marinated in "teriyaki" sauce so my dinner took a more oriental turn. Its a filling meal that it low in fats and high in protein.  I will be adding some photos of meals but dont always expect high quality photos.
If you would daily photos of meals make sure to check out the twitter page for the blog!

Something you MUST try:  Yesterday I cut up a whole cucumber and put it in a 1 gal pitcher.  After letting it sit over night it was wonderful! I drank almost half of it today! I usually drink water, coffee, and hot tea but those can get old quick (especially when I dont have time for hot tea) and it was a great switch up on the normal routine!  Just one slice of cucumber in 2 quarts of water has vitamins A, C, and  K.  It also has iron which can be hard for vegans and vegetarians to get enough of!

Hope you all enjoy :)  Let me know if you have found any great recipes you want to try out or have any other great vegan sources!

Be a vegan but dont eat rocks!

Today while cleaning the kitchen I was watching "My Strange Addiction" by TLC and there was a woman who was eating rocks!
Here is the link if you wanna check this crazy woman out--> dont eat Rocks!

Now today I am excited to share 2 new foods that I tried out!  The first is a casserole! I made it for dinner tonight and it was wonderful!  This wonderful casserole was really simple to make.  I followed the recipe pretty closely but I used regular cream instead of the "Soy Cream" just because it is a hard thing to find in my small town and I didnt have time to trek all over town to find it (and I am not patient while driving).  I think it is a little heavy with the real cream I used and I only ate half of it but I am sure it will make a delicious lunch tomorrow!  This comes from a website that is dedicated to vegan recipes that are simple and not hard to make!  I think most are made to be single serve though so if you love it and want to make it for your family just keep in mind it would need to be doubled!

Yesterday I made Baked Granola and it turned out great as well! Again I didnt follow everything exactly but it was still good! I didnt have any trail mix in my kitchen and just didnt feel like going out to get any so I used raisins and some crushed up almonds!  I didnt get any bars out of mine like the picture shows but if you get bars instead of crumbles let me know :)

Have a great weekend friends! Ill be back tomorrow or monday with more updates!

Day 1

Alright so lets talk day 1!

Breakfast started out with just a banana and an apple. Simple I know but most of my breakfast choice have to be quick and easy! If you wanted to shake it up and do something more interesting you could throw both of those in a blender with a splash of milk or orange juice and have a quick smoothie! Or add a spoonful of peanut butter with a rice cake and you have a balanced breakfast!

For lunch I love to make smoothies and this will be a frequent go to for me! Usually this is meal where I try to do some more quick options and they can be easily made into something bigger if you want to.
So yesterdays flavors consisted of about 12 fresh strawberries, 1 cup of spinach, 2 "cuties" or clementines, 1/4 cup of raspberries, and just a spoonful of yogurt just to make it smoother.  Now if you are calorie counting that smoothie has about 220 calories and is packed full of fruit and veggies.  If you wanted to leave the spinach out (because I know when I first heard about putting spinach in smoothies I thought HECK NO) you can totally do that.  I like adding it because it is a really healthy leafy green I would not normally eat so it gives you a chance to get some added vitamins.  Lunch for me also consisted of a mini bag of baby carrots.  If you are trying to get healthy I high suggest Carrots.  Carrots and bananas are both really sweet naturally.  I am at the point were I would pick a bag of carrots over a bag of chips! They are crunchy like a chip but much lower in calories and a lot better for you.

Quick Tip: Avoid using dips and sauces! They are packed full of fats and if you are looking to count calories and eat less fat that is one quick way to cut a lot of bad foods out of your diet.  I love ranch as much as the next American but just 2 tbs (which is less than a normal serving at a restaurant) is packed full of high calories fats that are so bad!
Soon I will have a resources tab and be able to post links with great ways to make salad dressing that has more flavor and is much better for you!

Dinner: for dinner I had a family member in town who I don't often get to see so we went out for Thai.  Although fast food and restaurants have essentially no vegan options Thai is almost as close as you can get.  I had "drunken noodles" with tofu instead of chicken and it was wonderful! Some times you just gotta cheat a little ;)

Feel free to comment and tell me some great restaurants with vegan options or tell me how I am doing!

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2626/2   (site with spinach info!)
 (thats where I had the wonderful Thai food)  http://www.jadesmarket.com

The Beginning

So before you start reading recipes and getting exciting about eating delicious healthy foods with me let me start off with a few basic things.  

• First be patient with me, I do not promise perfect spelling and grammar! I am a college student looking to eat healthy and hoping to inspire people to join me but I have finals and work too so not all my post will be timely.  

• Secondly the title of my blog is the AMOST vegan because sometimes I really want a glass of real milk or some times I want to eat a slice of real cheese.  I also really enjoy yogurt! So this will be a site with great resources but not everything will be completely vegan.

• Third there are aspects of being a vegan that I do not completely agree with and thats why I am being a really strict vegetarian if you would like a more correct label.

Some of you might say well why vegan? What is a vegan? Lets get all the terms straight first! A vegan is some one who eats a diet that does include any animal products.  For instance a lot of breads and pastas are made with eggs or milk and because of that they are not vegan.  Now I don't choose to be a vegan or vegetarian (that is a person who eats NO meat ie. chicken, beef, pork, fish and some times eggs) because I want to save all the animals in the world.  I choose to eat this way because of all the harmful chemicals that companies are pumping into the animals so the can produce big animals with a lot of meat for little money.  I will post some resources if you would like to look more into why I eat this way.

Now the idea for the blog came to me when I was eating Taco Bell one day and I just felt awful afterwards.  I know that seems strange but I ate really healthy this summer and also became a gym junkie.  Remembering how I felt this summer compared to how I felt then I knew I had to get back to the basics and eat better.  

So in turn the blog was born! I plan to post food ideas almost every day and keep up with my progress in weight loss and how I feel! I want to inspire you to eat healthy or at least be a vegan for a few days and tell me how you feel better too!