My 14 faves of '14: #1

I suppose this is a list.

I have done this before.  A couple of years ago I did a post about my favorite products. I have also written about my favorite women. And men.

This month I had been thinking of all of the wonderful things that have happened in my life this year. I'd like to share them.

These will be in no particular order, except for the post on the 31st which will be my absolute #1 favorite of the year!

So here is my first fave of '14!

Vegan Heartland's Vegan Chicken Pot Pie!

One day at work I pulled up his blog and saw a photo of his Chicken Pot Pie. I salivated all day. On the way home I picked up a couple of products. When I got home I pulled out the recipe and got to work.

Remember, I am not a cook. And I have never made a crust in my life!

A few months later I have made this over a dozen times! Why, because it is easy to prepare and absolutely delicious. For us it makes a great dinner and then an awesome lunch with the leftovers.

You must try this recipe!

Here you go: http://www.vegan-heartland.com/2013/05/vegan-chicken-pot-pie.html

Thanks for reading!

A recipe! Stuffed Peppers

I know. This isn't a food blog. I like to do reviews on vegan food, on restaurants and once in a while on vegan products. I have hardly ever passed along a recipe.

Last week Mike and I weren't sure what we wanted to do for dinner. I had bought green peppers at the farmer's market and thought I would finally try to make stuffed recipes. They came out so good that I just have to share my recipe.

This takes less than 15 minutes to prepare, and then the bake time. And so easy!

This is what you need:

green peppers, cleaned out, as many as you are doing dinner for (I made three)
a little olive oil
tomato paste, one 8oz can
Beyond Meat Chicken strips, cut in pieces (I think you could use the Beyond Meat meat crumbles too)
Daiya cheese shreds, your choice of flavor
Veggies, cut and diced up. You're for the picking. I used broccoli, onions, cabbage, kale and mushrooms
black beans, one bag
quinoa (optional) I thought of this afterwards!
salt
pepper
garlic powder
cayenne pepper
.
Preheat the oven to 350.

In a saute pan or skillet, add all of the ingredients minus the green peppers.  Cook on medium heat and mix well. Add in the salt, pepper, garlic powder and cayenne powder, to taste.

Remove from heat and add the mixture to all of the green peppers. Place the stuffed green peppers in a big enough piece of aluminum foil so the pepper can be fully wrapped. I add a little water in the wrapped foil so the pepper can steam.

Bake for 30 - 40 minutes. You want them to bake enough so the green pepper can be cut with a fork when eating.

Ready to serve. I served this with an arugula salad. The stuffed peppers were delicious. Play around with the spices, and use whatever veggies you like.

You can make this a completely non-processed dish by not using the Beyond Meat and Daiya cheese.

Please let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading!

VeganMofo Day 16: Vegan fast food

This is Day 16 of Vegan Mofo, a month of vegan food blog posts, and this post is about vegan fast food. Since I am not a food blogger, most of my posts for Vegan Mofo will not be recipes, rather experiences I have with vegan food and sharing people, places and things that have brought me and continue to bring me amazing vegan food.

Unless you live in a vegan Mecca like Los Angeles, New York City or Portland, having access to vegan fast food might only be a dream. Of course these days, with the popularity of vegan food and people overall wanting to be healthier, you never know where a vegan fast food joint may pop up. I recently heard that there is a Veggie Grill coming to Boulder, CO, about 45 minutes from us, and that would be awesome.

The type of vegan fast food that I am writing about, however, is vegan fast food in your own kitchen. For people who have just become vegan, and for some of us who have been vegan for years, veganism is such much easier if we become comfortable in our own kitchen. The more comfortable we are in the kitchen the better we are going to eat and probably the healthier too!

My standard go to for quick vegan food is beans and rice. In a skillet I take a can of black beans, add cooked brown rice (you can even use the instant brown rice, and some salt and pepper. I like cayenne pepper so I add a pinch of that. When the beans and rice are hot, I add fresh kale, spinach or Swiss chard. Done.

With leftovers, grab some tortillas and make burritos for later in the week.

Mike's version of fast food is his Chik'n and Dumplings. These are delicious and one day soon I will have recipe. I love coming home on a chilly day to the smell of his Chick'n and Dumplings. He basically throws into a pot mixed veggies, water and bouillon and tops it off with Bisquick dumplings. You can add Beyond Meat strips or not, depending on your taste. I remember bringing these to a non-vegan potluck with over a hundred people and a woman from Texas came over to Mike to tell him that his dumplings were perfect!

 This as leftovers makes a great lunch.

I have gotten to the point where I can whip out a great Tofu Scramble in under ten minutes. I've posted my recipe here and it works great for a quick, healthy breakfast and also for breakfast burritos for later in the week.

On the not so healthy side, grilled cheese sandwiches are awesome. Bread and Daiya cheese and you are good to go. I use soy butter to make them but you could use oil or nothing at all with the right skillet. Add some delish soup and boom, another quick meal.

We try (or I should say that Mike tries!) to make a great, delicious sit-down dinner every night, it just doesn't work out all of the time. Having quick options and a few things in the fridge for a last minute dinner will make life so much easier for you!

Salud!

Thanks for reading!

Date night -taking care of ourselves

There is a lot going on in our world. Both Mike and I seem really busy with work, civil unions were just passed, the US Supreme Court is hearing arguments on Prop 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act (rulings on both could affect marriage equality) and the list of emails/letters to write in support of animals is endless.

So what do we do?

Date night.

Mike is at his bi-weekly boot camp and I am cooking dinner. The furries have eaten and when Mike gets home we get to enjoy each others company, talk about our days, love on each other.

One of my firm beliefs is that in order to be a strong voice for the voiceless, in order to be a warrior for equality, I need to take care of myself first. That includes eating well, exercising, prayer and meditation, time with friends and definitely date nights with my husband.

When was the last time you had a date night with your other half?

Sometimes it's dinner out. Or a hike. Lately it also includes a run as we both train for our first half marathon. Regardless, it's time alone, just us.

I love it. I highly recommend it.

On date nights we both reinvigorate personally as well as a couple. It's not that we can't do that every day, it's that with the list of things going on that I wrote of above, it's easier to do when the focus is on date night.

Tonight's dinner is simple: blackened tofu with black beans, kale, butternut squash and corn. I tossed in some cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. It's all just cooking together on a low heat. It smells delish.

Of course date night can also include cooking together. That's a blast. When we do that Mike does most of the cooking and I do most of the talking!

We'd love to hear of your date nights!

Take care of yourselves. Make good decisions, ones that are healthy for you, your relationship, the animals and our world.

Thank you for reading!