The Smoothie Vegetarians

This week I will be sharing some ideas for making taco salad and taco boats. What I did this week was I made some taco boats. There are some in the taco aisle of a grocery store and they can be baked and stuffed with any ingredients of your choice. I got some of the taco boats and baked then and while that was in the over, I seasoned some of the Gardein beefless beef and cooked it with some onion. Then when the shells were done I put some salsa and lettuce on top. Then I drizzled taco sauce and creamy homemade sauce. Then I topped it with avocado and crushed tortilla chips. If you run out of taco boats and do not have leftover shells, you can have a taco salad on a plate or in a bowl. I took all of the leftover ingredients and cooked them, then arranged them on the plate. You could also make some nachos with the leftover ingredients. You can customize the ingredients to your liking and you can leave out anything that you may not like or have in your kitche...

Hi All, Happy Monday! The topic of my discussion today focuses around words. What I mean by that is, depending on the words you use to describe something, someone will automatically get the impression whether it is good, bad, cheap, expensive, old or new just to name a few things. First let's talk about food. Meal kits, meal starters, one skillet meals have a nice ring to them but when you look up the word leftovers there is nothing appealing about. If you look up synonyms for the word leftovers you can find words like scraps, remnants and crumbs so who would want to eat that? Maybe we need to change the way we think of leftovers. Personally I love it when I have food leftover because that automatically becomes my "meal kit" that I can use as the basis for a new dish. Yes. you can just reheat your original meal but that can be boring. However if you add some ingredients and change the flavor profile by adding some spices, you have not only saved money but c...

So the new Canadian Food Guide rolled out a week or so ago and it is amazing!! Dairy and meat are virtually gone – ok, not totally gone, but close. They've done away with portion sizes and the focus is more on half your plate being fruits and vegetable and the rest being healthy proteins and grains. This makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. To be truthful, I didn't actually think it would happen. They have, of course, had a whole lot of opposition from groups who make their money off meat and dairy. I am so impressed and proud that this new food guide came out regardless. So, so overdue. I think back to the food guide that I was taught in school so many years ago. We were taught that it was the right way to eat – the only way to eat and be healthy. It was so wrong. Three to four servings of milk for teenagers, as well as two servings of meat. As a teenager, and well into my adulthood, I consumed monstrous quantities of milk. I sometimes had two or three large glasse...

A lot of people think that you have to cut out tasty foods when you go vegan, but good news, it is FAR from the truth! There are many different ice creams out there and cheesecakes that I have tried that I have really enjoyed. One of the first brands I have tried was Haagen Dazs and I have tried three of their non-dairy flavors including chocolate salted fudge truffle, peanut butter chocolate fudge, and mocha chocolate cookie. Also, Breyers has an Oreo flavor that is also wonderful. They also have a peanut butter flavor that I would like to try as well. I had the oreo flavor with some fruit and the original flavor of the Daiya Cheesecake. They also have other flavors of the cheesecake including key lime, strawberry, pumpkin, and chocolate. I also love having some sparkling water, juice, or some kombucha if I am feeling like I want something other than water. This can be a better alternative to sodas if you want something with some fla...

Trying to create a new eating habit and switch to Veganism is something that more people are attempting to do each year. From a lifestyle that used to be quite uncommon, it has grown into a much more popular option and is finding a massive amount of support in all walks of life. People who work two jobs, people who live in multi-million dollar houses and even the rebelling teenager down the block are all likely to be vegans at this point. With so many people turning to veganism it is no doubt that you have wondered exactly what it would mean for yourself as well. Most people think that veganism is exactly like vegetarianism. However, this is actually highly incorrect; they are two completely separate ideas that only share a few similarities. Typically speaking vegetarianism is a much easier lifestyle to adapt and is much less rigid. Vegan is much stricter and can be much harder for someone to change to on a quick basis. This can make it extremely complicated to actual...

Hi All, How everyone is doing well this fine Monday morning? Right now it is about 7 PM Sunday night and there is no snow in sight but it is freezing out! On a cold day there is nothing I enjoy more than cooking. I wanted to focus my discussion today on a couple of inexpensive, easy dishes that will feed at least two people for two meals. The main ingredient for these two dishes is a single eggplant. For the first dish  after I peeled the eggplant ( you don't really have to but I prefer it without the skin) I sliced it into 3/4 of inch rounds. I picked out 4 of the slices that were roughly the same size. At this point I realized that I did not have any BBQ sauce at home to marinade them. So I had to whip some up.  As you all may have realized I am a firm believer in using what you have at home so I mixed some siracha, ketchup,molasses soy sauce, maple syrup and a bit of brown sugar and created my own. Again if you don't have these ingredients on hand yo...

A few weeks ago my daughter had a friend in town. He'd never been here so I made sure that we planned a few day trips around the area so he could see the sights. He'd never been to the zoo and seemed like he really wanted to go, so off we went. I had mixed feelings about this. As a vegan, zoos are a BAD THING. They're right up there with honey, horseback riding, backyard chickens, and the never ending discussion about what to feed your pets. I wanted the kid to have a good time and I know that this particular zoo is known for doing its best to have reasonable habitats for the animals etc. I hadn't been for probably fifteen years so I decided what the heck – we'll do the zoo. I still have mixed feelings. I've come to the conclusion that it seems to some degree to be an issue of what kind of animal is being housed. I'm not talking about how intelligent they are, more about the fact that some animals require a large territory to roam and don...

During the week, you may want to make quick, but flavorful vegan meals. I have a few awesome suggestions for weekly vegan meals. First off, one of my favorites is ravioli, but it can be made with a healthier twist. The brand rising moon has a  lot of good flavors to choose from such as butternut squash. The brand also has other flavors including garlic and roasted veggie as well as spinach florentine. For this meal, you can put any sort of plant-based sauce. Sometimes I use a tomato based sauce, sometimes I use a red bell pepper based sauce. or I may also use a homemade white sauce. For a white sauce you can blend cashews, garlic, and any other spices you want to create a creamy sauce. I also like to have some veggies sauteed on the side for more health benefits. It can also be helpful to have some frozen things if you are extra busy like myself. The brands Sweet Earth, Beyond Meat,...

While most people are fully aware that becoming a Vegan will require a large amount of dedication on their part there are many others who believe that there are no opportunities for them to eat out as a vegan.  In reality, this might seem true at first glance, but upon a deeper look, it is typically untrue that you will be unable to eat out.  Dining out for social occasions and even the occasional quick meal is something that almost everyone alive is guilty of at some point.  This leaves you with ample reasons to start looking for solutions before the restaurants are needed. The majority of restaurants are becoming much more aware of the desires of consumers.  Just as vegetarianism is much more popular today, so are the reduced carbohydrate diets, low-calorie diets and also the vegan diet.  This means that going out to eat does not have to be an overly painful process.   Typically, most restaurants will offer several different dining choices th...

Hope everyone had a great week! For those of you that don't know me, I do not like complicated. This is one of the main reasons that I do not like to bake, but love to cook. For me cooking allows me to be creative, inventive and even adventurous. I love being able to scour my cupboards to find the perfect ingredients to make a tasty dish. First, let me start off by saying I did a little organizing in my kitchen paying special attention to my spice collection. I discarded any old outdated spices and discovered a world of culinary adventure sitting in my cabinet. I had exotic spices I didn't know what to do with! My quest begin for a new inventive recipe. I chose a spice called RAS EL HANOUT. Although the name may be daunting, this spice actually contains coriander, paprika, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, red pepper, turmeric, ginger, nutmeg, clove and allspice in one little bottle. In during some research, Ras el Hanout means "top of the shop" and has ro...

In the past year or so I've become more aware of the minimalist movement and how I can actually apply that to my life. I've always been pretty disorganized, and I can also be a bit of an impulse shopper. I'll buy something because it's pretty, or I think it's cool (usually online) and then find that it's really not that great and it ends up in a junk drawer or just taking up space on my counter. I moved recently, and in the process got rid of literally truckloads of household items. It was horrifying and rather embarrassing. I really had no idea I had so much useless stuff; clothes, artwork from when my kids were little (ALL their artwork), bits and pieces of lumber, old electronics, papers and documents I don't need anymore etc. It was endless. When it was put together for disposal, my entire garage floor was a huge pile of junk. The thing is, having so much stuff is stressful. It really is. You know it's there – you look at it and then wal...