vegan

Perfect No-Soak Instant Pot Black Beans

January 7, 2018

These Perfect No-Soak Instant Pot Black Beans are a must make because they are so easy and they come out so tender. You’ll love that you don’t have to soak them. Perfect for Taco Tuesday or Cinco de Mayo parties!

Post Contains Affiliate Links. Read my full disclosure HERE

These No-Soak Instant Pot Black Beans are made every week in my house. My whole family loves them because the beans are so incredibly tender. And, you’ll love that you don’t have to soak them over night. Just pour dried beans into the pot and in about an hour and a half, you’ll have the most incredible black beans.

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Black Bean Soup

July 26, 2016

I stayed up way too late watching the Democratic National Convention.

The same thing could be said every night last week when I watched the Republican National Convention.

I need to catch up on sleep soon.

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Roasted Tomato Soup

May 12, 2016

So a lot is going on this week.

It’s fantastic and hectic and OMG I need wine. Except I am doing Whole30 so… crap!

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Whole30 #2: Days 4-6 Recap

April 9, 2015

I am documenting my second Whole 30 journey to help me see how far I’ve come from my first Whole30 (Feb 2015) to this one (April 2015). Plus, I don’t want to fall into any food ruts. Hopefully this will keep me inspired through the whole process. I’m looking forward to the transformation in how I approach food, cook with it, and enjoy it. Check out all my Whole30 related posts HERE from why I did my first Whole30, why I am doing this one, and food diaries.

{Day 4}

Saturday, April 4^th, 2015

The weekends are hard for me. I don’t experience the time crunch that I do during the work week, necessarily, but I want to snack more. And I miss the big carb-y breakfasts. I want a waffle damn it!!!

Breakfast

2 Over-easy eggs over sweet potato hash

I wonder how long it will take for Price to bitch about sweet potatoes… ha! I gotta focus on changing things up for breakfast.

Update: First Sweet Potato comment: Day 9. ha!!

Lunch

Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas over cauliflower rice, with tomatoes, pickled jalapenos, and guacamole

I whipped up a batch of cauliflower rice as it’s so easy to do, and it would be a great base to the pulled pork. Nice and filling.

Dinner

Adiele’s Chicken and Apple Sausage with sauteed broccoli and kale sprouts

This was a 1 pot meal. Perfectly low maintenance and quick. I first cooked the veggies, then added the sausage. Price had 3 sausages and I had 2.

{Day 5}

Sunday, April 5^th, 2015

Easter!! I wanted all the chocolate candies! Gimme all the Peeps and Cadbury eggs!!

It was such a great day with family. Plus, they were so sweet to make the effort to make compliant food. Awesome.

Craving: Buttery rich coffee cake with tons of cinnamony crumb on top. OMG couldn’t stop thinking on it.

Brunch

Crudite with homemade ranch dip, hashbrowns, scramble eggs, buffalo chicken wings

I made the crudite with fresh and flash steamed veggies. I made the buffalo wings too- Price’s favorite! I jsut made a big batch of ranch dip and used it for both. So good. perfect nosh food. We also had eggs & hashbrowns that Catherine made for us. yum!!!

Dinner

Bun-less hamburger with sweet potato oven fries. Burger served with lettuce, tomato, guac, mustard, homemade mayo, Frank’s Red Hot

This was such a good dinner to end the weekend. The burger was great as it had all the same ingredients I’d normally eat on a burger, just no bun! Plus, I made baked sweet potato fries. They barely had any oil. I just lightly misted them with olive oil and baked them at 450 for 15 minutes.

Side note: I love hash but the fries were so good as I used less oil than I normally use to make hash. Plus, I ate much slower as I ate them individually, instead of inhaling them with a fork.

{Day 6}

Monday, April 6^th, 2015

Glad we are 5 days in, 1/6th of the way through! I feel good with the progress. I like this challenge.

I have noticed that I am having trouble getting up in the morning. Not sure why it’s so difficult now when I’m getting more sleep than I was when I was nursing. Maybe it’s a deeper sleep so it’s hard to get out of it?

Breakfast

2 eggs over easy on a bed of sweet potato hash and asparagus, lots of Frank’s

I should have peeled the asparagus, it was still a little too woody for my preference. But it was a decent breakfast.

Almost lunch snack

100 calorie mini Lara Bar- Apple Pie

These are great to have on hand when I am starting to crash and I’ve done a loop around the office and have had some tea for a pick me up, to stay hydrated.

Lunch

Salad made of mixed greens, tomatoes, asparagus, some hardboiled egg, with homemade ranch dressing, guac

I managed to eat some yolk of the hardboiled egg. Amazing. They are so gross to me but I wanted to try to get over it. Going forward I will still stick with the egg whites but at least I tried it.

I love this ranch dressing!!!!

Dinner

Spiralized Turnip, Mushroom, and Tomato Risotto

This was really good. It called for 1 Cup of grated cheese in the recipe but I skipped it making it vegan and complaint. We both really enjoyed it. It would make this again, maybe add some sauteed kale too! (and def make it post Whole30 with cheese!!)

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What are your favorite Whole30 recipes? Please share!

Are you considering doing Whole30? Give it a try!

Spiralized Turnip, Mushroom, and Tomato Risotto

April 7, 2015

Spring is here! It finally feels like spring!! I am so excited!!!

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Waffled Hashbrowns

February 11, 2015

Here I am 10 days into Whole30.

It’s awesome. It sucks. I feel inspired to jazz up our meals. I hate cooking.

Basically, I just want to bake some damn chocolate chip cookies.

I started to question doing Whole30 when I realized I couldn’t have waffles. What? Huh? Jk! But really, the foods I miss the most are breakfast foods. Sure, eggs are breakfast foods, but so are pancakes, bagels, and waffles. But it’s only a month.

Besides, I can figure out other fun ways to use the waffle iron to bust out some delightfully delicious food.

In this case, I used the waffle iron to make hashbrowns because hashbrowns are great but Waffled Hashbrowns are even better. It makes them extra crunchier.

And it’s super simple too! I used fresh potatoes that I just tossed in my food processor (fine shred), but post Whole30 if I’m feeling chill I will just grab a big bag of frozen shredded potatoes and have at it.

And of course #putaneggonit.

Waffled Hashbrowns

Make 4 Hashbrowns

Ingredients

4 Large Potatoes/ 4 Cups frozen shredded potatoes
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
vegetable oil/olive oil (I used a Misto sprayer, but cooking spray works well too)

Process

If using fresh whole potatoes, shred the potatoes in a food processor or on a box grater.
Season the potatoes with the season salt and black pepper, mix to evenly distribute.
Preheat the waffle iron according to your manufacturer’s directions.
Once preheated, generiously spray it the bottom piece with oil. Add 1/4 of the potatoes to the waffle iron, spray the potatoes and top of the waffle iron with oil, and close. Cook until there is no more steam coming from the waffle iron and it is golden brown and crunchy. Repeat until you have made 4 hashbrowns.

Champions Green Detox Smoothie

April 28, 2014

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

And if I don’t have a good breakfast I feel off for the day.

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Open Faced Summertime Tomato Sandwich {& a Nasoya Nayonaise Review}

July 16, 2013

I haven’t been into cooking during the week. I try to do all my ‘big’ cooking done over the weekend and then just make something simple like boxed mac and cheese during the week. It’s too hot. I’m too tired. I don’t care.

But since I can’t live on boxed mac and cheese alone (or can I?), I’ve been trying to make some simple salads or sandwiches, besides PBJ. One that I have been turning to is a summer time favorite… a tomato sandwich.

I just feel that you can’t beat fresh summer produce so you should take every opportunity you can to enjoy it. And don’t mess around with it too much. Some bread, your favorite mayo, fresh greens, and slices of juice ripe tomato. Plus don’t forget the fresh cracked salt and pepper. Really, enjoy the best of every ingredient since there are only 4.

I recently received some Vegan Nayonsise from Nasoya to try. I’ve really been enjoying it on sandwiches, in dips for fries, and on burgers. Yes, I know. Dumb Dumb puts vegan mayo on a meaty burger. I’m pregnant. That’s my free card to do whatever. But really, because it is so good I’ve been putting it on and in all different things. I think that’s really impressive since I ONLY use Hellmann’s. Don’t try to give me Cain’s or Miracle Whip.

So naturally, I was hesitant to try the Original Nayonaise. But I was really pleasantly surprised with how much I liked it. No, this is not your typical mayo since it is Dairy and Egg Free, which means it is not going to taste the same or look the same as a ‘normal’ mayo but it really is very good. I think it is a great solution for someone to enjoy if they are vegetarian, vegan, or have a food allergy.

I had done some side by side comparisons while playing around with the Nayonaise by making some foods with it and some with regular mayo and mixing them up. If you were not really looking out for the difference I think you would not really notice it. The taste is subtually tangier than Hellmann’s, but I don’t think that is a bad thing. I never experienced a funny after taste with the Nayonaise either. I think the biggest difference I noticed was that it has a different texture compared to mayo. When mayo is pretty smooth, it is rather gummy, but I didn’t notice any problems mixing it up or spreading it on my sandwich.

Besides it being a great product for vegetarians, vegans, or people with food allergies, I think it would be great for people who are watching their figure. Compared to the average mayo that has 90 calories, 10 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat per serving, the Nayonaise has only 40 calries, 3 grams of fat, and .5 grams of saturdated fat per serving. The Nayonaise has slightly more sodium with 115 grams compared to 90 grams but overall a very healthy mayo alternative.

For real… look at this amazing perfect summertime sandwich.

Nom, Nom, Nom!!!

Open Faced Summertime Tomato Sandwich

Makes 4 ‘sandwiches’

Ingredients

1 boule of sourdough bread
your favorite mayo, such as Nasoya’s Vegan Nayonaise
2-4 super fresh tomatoes, depends on size
4 leaves of romaine lettuce
salt and pepper

Process

Slice the sourdough into 1/4″ thick slices. Lightly toast, if desired.
Slather on a generous amount of mayo.
Lay on torn pieces of romaine lettuce. Top with 1/4″ thick slices of tomatoes.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

*While I did receive this complimentary jar of Nayoniase from Nasoya, these opinions are entirely my own.

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Spiced Carrot Soup

June 17, 2010

What to do with a 10 pound bag of carrots? What to do? While my rabbits enjoy carrots they can’t just live off them (seriously, if another person expresses shock when I say this…) and by the time they get to them they will be bad. So I turn to carrot loving recipes to help this bag disappear. I saw a great carrot soup recipe on A Chow Life. I really love the recipes on there and the stories that precede them. Once such recipe, and story, that jumped out at me was for a carrot soup. This has been in my to-do list of recipes for awhile and if having a 10 lb bag of carrots in the fridge is not reason enough…

I thought that the original recipe, posted on A Chow Life, sounded great but I did not have the spice mill needed for the cumin seeds, which I did not have either. So I figured I would use the recipe as a starting point and go from there. I love the flavor and smell of cumin so I kept that, but I used powder. Turmeric and cumin seem to be best friends so I added turmeric to the party. Instead of adding honey, I used agave nectar. I like honey but I have a very dark intense honey that I reserve for tea so I knew that using it would have made the carrot soup go all wrong. The agave nectar would provide some sweetness, without the floral honey taste. Lastly, I added white pepper to the recipe. I often see recipes that call for S&P at the end, as complete after thoughts, but I wanted the white pepper flavor to stand out so I added to in to the soup. You could use black pepper but I love how white pepper blends in and gives a rich pepper flavor without saying ‘ Hey look at me!!!”

You can make this vegan but swapping out the butter for oil and use vegetable stock instead of chicken broth. I have not tried that but I’m assuming it would work well.

Spiced Carrot Soup

3 tablespoons of butter

1 onion medium onion diced

1 1/2 pounds of carrots

4 cups of chicken broth

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon white pepper

juice of half a lemon

1-2 tablespoons agave nectar

serve with plain yogurt (a swirl to a 1/4 cup- depending on preference)

salt

Melt butter in a pot. Sauté onion in butter for a few minutes, until they are beginning to become clear. Add carrots and broth to pot and bring to a boil, simmer carrots until they are soft. Once the carrots are tender, add to a blender in batches until the carrots and onions are pureed and evening mixed with the broth. While there is still a batch of soup in the blender, add the spices, lemon juice, and agave nectar. Blend to incorporate. Combine all batches of pureed soup to mix spices evenly. Serve with a swirl, or generous dollop, of plain yogurt.