The Smoothie Vegetarians

In the beginning of your vegan joruney, you might discover that Vegan cooking is more of a pain and hassle than it is a benefit. If you discover yourself in this position, you are not alone. However, there is help available for you. Taking some time to really look over all of your options is best to ensure that you are able to get the biggest benefit possible from the healthier lifestyle. Vegan cooking is something that will typically require you to think carefully as well as plan ahead, in this spirit it is extremely important to be sure that you are getting everything planned out ahead of time to ensure you have what you need. One of the biggest suggestions to get the biggest benefit is to look into cooking with the fruits and vegetables that you like the most. If you have a serious objection to eating okra for example you should never dash out and look for a stack of okra recipes. Instead, you need to focus on the recipes that involve ingredients that you like. Of cours

One of the easiest ways to adopt a healthy lifestyle is to throw yourself into it. When it comes to becoming a vegan the best thing to do is to start cooking for yourself, but doing so can be challenging for those who don’t have the proper kitchen tools. But as a vegan, what tools do you need? These are my cannot live without kitchen gadgets for a vegan lifestyle. 1. Juicer A juicer can be super handy for many reasons. If you are like me and you bought all of those bargain bin oranges (even though you knew it would be physically impossible to eat them all before they turned over to the dark side) and now you need them gone, this is the time for a juicer. One of my favorite things to do is add a bit of fresh juice to a smoothie instead of water or almond milk (seriously YUMM). 2. Vegetable Slicer Honestly, I am chopping ALL OF THE TIME. Owning one of these has been a LIFESAVER. I like to do all of my meal prepping at the start of the week and cook from that. This coo

Lately, I have been loving having a lot of different things for breakfast in the morning. For breakfast this week I had some roasted potatoes topped with ranch chickpeas, red bell pepper, mushroom, and avocado. Then I usually season that with onion powder, garlic, and nutritional yeast. Then I will put some fruit on the side. Another thing I like to do is make waffles topped with cashew butter and chocolate chips. I also like to have some yogurts on the side. I have recently started trying some plant based yogurts and I have really been liking So Delicious. I love doing potatoes and greens topped with chickpeas and avocados in the morning. Another thing I like doing is having some good bagels with a lot of toppings on the side. It can be fun to play around with a lot of new breakfast recipes and see what flavors can be combined. I have been doing a lot more of this lately and people always get so excited when they see my food.

Interested in moving to a Vegan lifestyle? Many people are really interested in the concept, but in practice, it can seem extremely scary to actually do. In order to ensure that you are able to get the biggest benefits possible from the Vegan lifestyle, it is important that you make some serious changes that are designed to last for good. This means that it is very important to start from the beginning and begin making some small changes that you can actually sustain for a long time.  In order to really get started with Vegan cooking, you need to start assessing your current eating habits. If you normally eat meat for every meal every day you are likely to experience severe problems switching to a Vegan lifestyle immediately. In order to get started successfully you should typically look for ways that you can start slowly. This would mean limiting the meat that you eat slowly and incorporating additional vegetables and fruits into your diet. To start you need to of course kno

When life gets busy, it can be helpful to have some quick recipes and meal ideas to help with getting through the day. Here are some good ideas for when you want some delicious foods. These recipes can be helpful if you want to snack or you can make larger portions for a full meal. The first idea is a chicken alternative with an Asian themed side dish. Trader Joes seems to have a lot of good frozen options that can go well with this. Gardein can also be bought at a lot of grocery stores and it comes with a lot of good meat alternatives. I like to use either Gardein or one of the Trader Joes meat alternatives to make dishes like these. There is also Kung Pao cauliflower which is also really good. If you cook it for a bit longer than what the package says it will also ake the cauliflower more crispy if that is your preference. On the side I sometimes like to have some veggie spring rolls dipped in a spicy sauce. I will either pair this with rice or noodles.

There are so many different phrases and slang terms that are used to describe a healthier lifestyle that often it is virtually impossible to determine exactly what Vegan is and what it is not. In order to fully understand something it is vital that you be fully aware of what is expected and for many Vegan is just an insult if they are confused accidently with another type of eating style. The primary difference between a Vegan lifestyle and that of a typical person primarily is the lack of meat consumed in a Vegan lifestyle. However, many people believe that vegetarians will still eat dairy products and other similar foods. While this is correct, it is a major difference between vegetarian and vegan. People who are true Vegans do not eat any animal related products, they do not encourage the consumption of animal related products and they also do not wear any animal related products. This would include items such as milk, yogurt, butter, eggs, leather clothing and also an

With all of the greener lifestyles that are being adapted all around the world there are tons of questions about exactly what veganism is, and exactly how it pertains to animals. For the vast majority of people it is extremely important to realize that you simply cannot make a sudden change like shifting from eating burgers every day to living a successful vegan lifestyle overnight. However, it is also possible to make some substantial changes that are on the path to becoming vegan and showing animals the respect that you believe they deserve. Many people in the quest to treat animals better are appalled to learn that many countries use some rather unconventional animals as food; this for many people can be action that triggers their desire to change to a vegan lifestyle, however for others it is simply another reason in a long list of reasons. Many countries such as China make usage of animals such as dog for their meals and many times people are unhappy to learn this, how

Even if you can't be on vacation every day, you will be able to feel like it with this indulgent dessert! Hi Everyone, I was fortunate enough to be able to get away for a few days to St. Maarten. Although I was thrilled to get away from the cold, I must admit that I had a bit of anxiety about this trip since I heard there were a lot of stray dogs on the island. Since some of you may know, I am a huge animal lover and advocate and it would have broke my heart to see this and not do anything about it. Before I even left on the plane I was plotting how I would be able to bring one or more animals back home with me. The good news is that the few dogs I saw seemed to well taken care of and just out on a stroll. They were not fearful, skinny or appear to be homeless which definitely eased my mind. The people there were wonderful, so friendly and helpful. Even though the island had suffered such devastation from Hurricane Irma, it did not dampen the enthusiasm o

Hi All, Hope everyone had a good weekend! I want to talk about breakfast this week. Personally I am not a big breakfast person and I tend to eat more of the breakfast foods for brunch,  lunch, dinner or even a snack. That being said, one of my absolute favorites is porridge of any kind whether it be oatmeal, farina, cream of wheat or grits to name a few.  However, when I visited the Dominican Republic last year I had a fantastic porridge (I believe that is what the sign on the buffet said) which was made from oat flakes and called avena. I have never had such a creamy, smooth oatmeal in my life. When I came home, the search was on, I found it in the ethnic section of one of my local supermarkets. This is a wonderful, inexpensive way to feed a family. So this week, I am going to share my recipe with you! On the actual package it gives directions to make it as a cold drink or a hot dish. Many of the recipes I saw focused on using this to make beverages. In experimenting, I have

When I was in my twenties I wanted to lose weight. I became a Susan Powter fan – she was the low fat guru back in the nineties. Her whole premise was eating very low fat – no exceptions. It worked. I lost about forty pounds and felt great. I never “cheated”. It became somewhat of an obsession. No cake, no butter, no oil, no nuts – none of that. I missed it, but to me it was “bad”. I especially missed eating nuts. I love them. I continued this way for several years. I wasn't always eating healthy though. Lots of unhealthy things are low or no fat – sugar and alcohol being two big ones – and I consumed quite a bit of both pretty regularly. Ways of eating go in and out of fashion. Currently Keto is the big one. I tried this awhile back – I like to try different eating styles and see how they make me feel. For me, it's not sustainable, and it's particularly difficult as a vegan. I've also tried meal shakes, low glycemic index, plain old calorie counting and a fe

One of my favorite things to make in the morning has been potatoes with veggies and chickpeas. I usually also like a sauce to go with that. I also like to have this on the side and it can also be served with some tofu scramble and fruit or yogurt as well if thats what you want to eat. First I roast some potatoes in the oven then when they are done, then after I take them out I top them with nutritional yeast, garlic, and chives. I also like to use Biena ranch chickpea, spinach, and avocado. I love putting a bean salsa on top of the food as well to make it spicy and bring out more flavor. I also like to make onion bagels and I like to use with the GoVeggie or Tofutti cream cheese. I like top to my bagels with nutritional yeast, chives, and pink Himalayan sea salt. I also like to make sandwiches with the bagels sometimes. You can make some vegan sausage patties and put them inside the bagel. Sometimes I also put tofu scramble in them as well. I want to keep playing around with n