Curried Rice Salad

This really does have a lot more vibrant yellow color to it, but my phone camera is not that great…

I’ve seen different variations of this on the internet and decided to make my own. I’m sure there is one exactly like this out there somewhere but I couldn’t find it. So here is the one I made.

1 cup uncooked rice (I used jasmine), cooked

3 green onions, sliced

Juice of one orange

Juice of one lemon

2 T oil

1 t seasoning salt

1 T yellow curry

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

I just put all the ingredients into a bowl and folded them together until combined. Perfect served warm or cold!

Afternoon Snack

Iced green tea and almonds!

Tomato Rice Side Dish – Vegan

I hadn’t gone grocery shopping for awhile and needed a quick side dish, so I looked through the pantry and fridge and put this together.

Tomato Rice – it was full of flavor and really good!

(sorry about the picture quality)

For 3 servings:

1 cup rice (I used white)

14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (with juice)

1 1/2 cups water

1/4 cup diced onion

1-2 cloves chopped garlic

salt and pepper to taste

I cooked the onions and garlic together in a little oil to soften and then added the rice, tomatoes, water, salt and pepper and simmered it until done!

It was really good and you can add practically anything you want to it!

Tomato Basil “Cream” Pasta & Some Chocolate

This was probably one of the best things I’ve ever eaten! I love pasta, and I especially love creamy, bad-for-you, pasta sauces. But this sauce was not bad for you but still so creamy! I’ll show you the picture first, then tell you more about it. The picture isn’t too pretty, I was to hungry to make it look pretty…

The creaminess in the sauce comes from raw cashews. I was surprised, I thought it would come out chunky or gritty, but it was velvety smooth and delicious and I can’t stop talking about it! I doubled the recipe and froze half so hopefully the frozen sauce will come out okay! I did not come up with the recipe all on my own, I used this one for a base and made my own changes to it. I added extra cashews and I also added tomato sauce instead of tomato paste. I added diced onion, extra garlic and some nutritional yeast. I’ll definitely make it again!

I tend to want to bake on the weekends, so this last weekend, I made vegan double chocolate banana swirl bread! I made it extra chocolatey by adding chocolate chips and extra cocoa powder. It’s so good!

I’m hoping to make Creamy Vegan Broccoli and Rice Casserole and Paella Style Spiced Tomato Rice soon!

Vegan, Gluten Free & Cleansing

Tonight I experimented with gluten free baking, I made a gluten free lemon pound cake! It smelled really good and has a fresh, lemon flavor.

There are also some gluten free cookies from Chucks that are pretty good…

And also some VEGAN ones that are really good!

The other day, I had this for lunch and it was really good, but a little to light for lunch I thought.

I’ve also been making some detox smoothies. It has raw garlic in it, lots. It looks pretty! It also has: grapefruit, lemon, ginger, flax seed oil, acidophilus

Hopefully this week, I can make tomato basil “creamy” pasta and “creamy” vegan broccoli and rice casserole!

Cilantro Rice with Tomatoes & Avocado

If you haven’t noticed already, I’m a big fan of quick and easy meals and tonight’s was as simple as it can get!

Cilantro rice with fresh tomatoes and avocado

There was some beans cooking in the crock pot but I didn’t want any, my husband had the same rice dish but with beans.

Yesterday I had vegan pancakes and sausage, I was going to add some protein powder to the batter but I really don’t like the one I got. I got hemp protein and it is not tasty so I think I’m going to go with soy protein next time.

Hopefully within a week or so, I’m going to start running regularly again, I’m pretty excited about it!

A Super Easy, Fast Snack!

One of my favorite snacks is guacamole with pita chips. It’s also really easy to put together, less than 5 minutes!

I just mash up one avocado, add some tomato, salt, garlic, and flax seed oil. It’s really simple and the avocado and flax are a really good source of healthy fats, I notice that my skin glows when I eat these types of fats regularly and cut out the bad fats.

What are some things you do with avocados?

I forgot how much I love eating this way!

On days that I work, I don’t get to eat full meals so it’s been tough to find things that are healthy and will keep me from getting hungry throughout the day.

For breakfast I generally will have some oatmeal with brown sugar and cinnamon or some Dave’s Killer Seed Bread with PB.
Lunch/Snacks is Odwalla Protein Bars and some fruit.
Dinner is whatever we can throw together quick since sometimes I don’t get home till 10pm or later.

But, on days that I don’t work, I get to eat this for lunch:

Stir-fry with rice (cabbage, onion, zucchini, green pepper & carrots)

Remember the other day when I said I was making a really good wrap? Well, I didn’t. I made a burrito instead and it was really good!

Hummus, homemade pinto beans, salad on a whole wheat flax wrap

And in the oven right now? Homemade vegan banana bread! I can’t wait for it to be done…

Does anyone have any quick easy vegan recipes I can use?

A 100% Vegan Day – with pictures!

I forgot how much I love being on a vegan diet, the first full day back and I already feel better. It’s also easier than I remember! This is a short post, mostly just about what I ate…

Breakfast today was a piece of Dave’s Killer Seed Bread and peanut butter. If you haven’t tried this bread yet, then I definitely encourage you too! It’s sooo good! I also had a raspberry, blueberry, banana smoothie which was good too.

Lunch: Avacado Pasta (which is a favorite from before)

 

Dinner: Rice & Beans

 

Throughout the day I snacked on some Honey Nut Chex Cereal and some applesauce with cinnamon. Pretty uneventful day eating wise but I have been looking for some good, easy recipes and found a few that I want to try out. I’m pretty excited that my husband is doing this with me, it makes it a little easier!

I also did a little baking today, I love baking and I always think that vegan baking is actually easier than regular baking! I made Raspberry Orange Coffee Cake (ingredients are flour, oil, soymilk, white and brown sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, raspberries and orange marmalade):

 

I’m jumping back on the vegan bandwagon! (And a wedding photo!)

Hey guys, it’s seriously been forever! Since I’ve been here last, I’ve gotten married, settled into my new home and new job, and I’ve been busy spending time with my husband working on getting our computer repair business off the ground. It’s been busy times, but good times!

I’ve done a lot of different diets during my life and some helped me drop weight fast and some didn’t work at all.

I lost the most weight doing a low carb/no carb diet, but I also didn’t feel healthy. I am aware now, that a diet like that is not necessarily a “healthy” diet. And I will not be doing that diet anymore.

I felt the most healthy when I was following a vegan diet, it also showed on my outward appearance, and by that I mean my skin was AMAZING! Glowing and flawless. It’s never been that good in my entire life! I also felt better overall.

So tonight, my husband and I have made the choice to follow a vegan diet which is perfect timing because tomorrow is grocery shopping day and I get to shop at my favorite grocery store again! I’m a sucker for Trader Joe’s, what can I say? They’re small but have the best prices! I’ve also discovered a new grocery store – Chuck’s Produce. I like to compare them to Whole Foods (even though there isn’t much comparison). They carry name brand and non-organic items in addition to organic items. They have a HUGE selection of fresh veggies and fruits, and also an area to buy rice, beans, flour, sugar, cereal, and almost anything else you want, in bulk. They also have amazing prices (on most things).

And they have my favorite – carrot cake. BUT, it gets better…….the carrot cake is VEGAN and probably the most amazing cake I’ve ever tasted.

I believe that there is only one Chuck’s location and it’s near me which makes me sad for all of you.

Anyways, it’s really late at night and I’m tired so I’m getting off of here and I’ll be back after making our vegan meal. I’m happy to go back to eating vegan, I’m pretty excited actually!

Here is picture from our wedding:

PS – Please send my your favorite vegan recipes!