this is unrelated, but I came across this old cartoon and it made me laugh.
I can't remember who sent it to me....oh but it brings back memories...

Coconut Dhal, AKA cleaning out the pantry Sunday

Today I was so tempted to go out and buy ingredients for a fun meal. Then I opened the fridge and realized that I had more than enough food if I could just figure out how to use it all! Google to the rescue, I found this recipe for Coconut Dhal: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3794/coconut-dhal and decided it would probably be great served over my favourite base, sliced zucchini (and today, yellow squash!)  This turned out to be delicious and it was super easy to make. I think this will be a regular meal for me!

 I sauteed the onion first, then added the other ingredients:

Sliced up the squash with my V-Slicer:

And served with fresh ground pepper and a healthy dose of sriracha:

Coconut dhal with zucchini and yellow squash

Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cups dry red lentils
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 1/3 cups water
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
- 1 small zucchini, julienned
- 1 small yellow squash, julienned
- salt, cayenne, dried chili flakes & pepper to taste

1. Saute onion in oil of your choice until soft, approximately 5 minutes
2. Add tomatoes, coconut milk, lentils, water, cayenne and chili flakes (I used about 1/2 teaspoon of each)
3. Cook for ~20 minutes until the water is mostly absorbed and lentils are soft. Stir frequently to prevent sticking
4. Pour lentils over sliced vegetables. Add pepper and sriracha to taste

Mexican Week

I saw this post from Cookie&Kate over the weekend and it looked so delicious I had to go for it. I ended up using the components in a bunch of ways over the week! I used quinoa instead of rice throughout. The flavors from everything were really fresh and they all went well together no matter what the combination. I did eat the bowl as Kate described for lunch one day but didn't take a picture.

Changes:
- quinoa instead of rice
- added ~1/2 teaspoon of liquid smoke to the black beans and cooked them until they were partially mushed together
- didn't blend the avocado with the salsa, just chopped/crushed it into it. No time for that!

1. Tacos 
The first night I hadn't make the quinoa yet so I made tacos with the rest:

 Ingredients:
- 1 cup black beans from the recipe in the post above
- kale from the post above
- corn tortillas
- green salsa
- avocado, diced into the green salsa
- cherry tomatoes, halved

Put the tortillas in the oven at 350 for about 3 minutes. Put the rest of the ingredients on the tortillas in whatever order you want. Eat!

2. Bowl 
I got some purple peppers at the farmer's market and put them to use in this dish. They tasted awesome and looked like this:

This one is basically the recipe from Cookie&Kate, just with quinoa and sauteed purple peppers. It was good!

3. Enchilada 
I had half a cup of beans left and no more lime juice for the rest of the kale. So I wrapped the beans in 2 corn tortillas, crushed a few cherry tomatoes, and poured green salsa over the whole thing. Baked at 350 for 15 minutes. Not very glamorous but it was tasty.

Zucchini and Blossoms

I went to the farmer's market today and picked up some zucchini blossoms. I had never seen them before and was really fascinated! The man selling them admitted that he had never tried them but said they are edible. I looked up recipes and found lots that involved deep frying and cheese, so I decided just to saute them instead. It worked out well for a light dinner paired with an actual zucchini!

I've eaten a zucchini for dinner ever day this week, it's just so easy and works well as either a pasta-type base or a salad base. Every sauce I've thought of so far (from roasted tomato to peanut to garlic) has worked well.

Shredded Zucchini with Zucchini Blossoms: 

Ingredients:
- 1 zucchini, shredded (I used a mandoline)
- 3 zucchini blossoms, cut in half lengthwise
- 2 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
- 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil
- 1 teaspoon lime juice

Instructions:
1. Prepare all ingredients.
2. Heat oil in pan, add garlic. When it softens, add zucchini blossoms and cook for about 30 seconds
3. Pour garlic, oil and blossoms over shredded zucchini. Add lime juice and toss together.
4. Eat!

energy boost?

It's been a long time since my last blog - which means I haven't been eating anything spectacular or anything all that great.  =(

As a result... I've been low in energy and feeling like I might be getting sick. 
You really are what you eat.

So my solution to get back on track was to give myself a boost.

I have wanted to try this super green powder mix for a while now, so here goes....

I mixed the whole package (as instructed) with a glass of orange juice.  It turned out very GREEN, but don't worry, it tastes fine...
Last time I was at the health food store, I saw a variety of powders sold in large canisters (about 20-30 dollars for one I think).  I wasn't sure I wanted to purchase a whole jar, so I thought it was brilliant that I could just try one little package to see if I liked it before investing in the whole jar.

Result: I like it and will probably buy a jar to have once in a while (not everyday).  My philosophy: it never hurts to have things in moderation just to ensure you're getting a little of everything.  This way if you find out something horrible about the product I wouldn't have consumed truckloads of it to make me sick, but I've added a little of it into my lifestyle to give me a boost when I need it.

I try to do my research before I try things.  But if I've missed something and you have anything to share about powder mixes in general (good or bad), leave a comment - I'd love to learn more.

Here is my drink, hanging with Spike the aloe.

my DINNER.

Don't judge me for the simplistic dinner.  but I really did want to eat something simple.

So I made beans and brown rice with a vegetable bullion square.

It was so simple and turned out so yummy.

I just used a rice cooker and put all the ingredients in and let it do it's thing.

about half hour later... voila!  you could add this to any dish as a side and it would be delicious!

okay lady - your turn.

do you have the tempeh?

On the plate tonight: tempeh fajitas and quinoa salad

Tonight my man made me a nice vegan dinner.
He doesn't always eat vegan but he tries to support my food choices. 1+ bonus for him.





fajita filling
- one bell pepper chopped
- half and onion chopped
- curry, cumin, salt/pepper
saute the pepper and onion with a shake of cumin, curry, salt and pepper

- one package of marinated tempeh (seasoned already) just had to reheat.  Here is a picture of  what he bought.  You can always buy and marinate your own tempeh but one step at a time.









Quinoa Salad click here to see original recipe
I forgot how much I love quinoa salad.
Here is the original recipe and the very small changes he made.  My apologies for copying and pasting from the source.  Even though he suggested that I blog about his meal he didn't want to write it up himself.

1 cup quinoa 2 cups water 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 2 limes, juiced 2 teaspoons ground cumin 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes chilli powder

1 1/2 cups halved cherry tomatoes 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed 5 green onions, finely chopped 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro salt and ground black pepper to taste

1.	Bring quinoa and water to a boil in a saucepan. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until quinoa is tender and water has been absorbed, 10 to 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
2.	Whisk olive oil, lime juice, cumin, 1 teaspoon salt, and red pepper flakes chilli powder together in a bowl.
3.	Combine quinoa, tomatoes, black beans, and green onions together in a bowl. Pour dressing over quinoa mixture; toss to coat. Stir in cilantro; season with salt and black pepper. Serve immediately or chill in refrigerator.

Hey Lady how did he do?

Healthy Junk Food

Burgers have always been one of my favorite foods and something that I've missed since adopting a (mostly) vegan diet. There's just something perfect about the blend of flavors and the way they're just so easy to eat. Fries are another one of my favorite foods. When I saw this post from Thug Kitchen, I basically rushed home and started cooking immediately (to discover that I didn't have any spinach, but kale worked out well). It was awesome that these were made mostly from pantry staples, they're nut-free and they were so easy!

Original recipe for Smokey Bean and Spinach Sliders: Thug Kitchen

My (very similar) version:
- 2 cups raw kale leaves
- 1 cup roughly chopped onion
- 3 cups cooked red beans
- 1/2 cup cooked brown rice
- 5 cloves of garlic, cut in half
- 2 teaspoons liquid smoke
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I toasted a hamburger bun until there was no moisture left and used that. Lost one in the process by burning it but it worked out in the end)

Preheat oven to 375. Put all ingredients except breadcrumbs in food processor or blender and pulse until everything in in tiny pieces and all mixed up. Dump into a bowl, add breadcrumbs and mix together. The mixture was easily able to be formed into patties and I made 6 full-size burgers with this mixture. I used foil on a baking sheet and sprayed with a coconut oil spray. They still stuck a little bit so definitely don't forget to grease the pan somehow. Bake for 15 minutes, flip and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes. I served these as regular burgers as shown and also broke one up and mixed it into a tomato basil pasta sauce which was also delicious!

The sweet potato fries were really easy, just sweet potato sliced into fry-sized pieces, tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne pepper. Baked at 450 for 20 minutes, flipping once. Inspiration from here: http://cookieandkate.com/2010/baked-sweet-potato-fries/