Vegan Tomato Veggie Quinoa Soup

Hi friends. So James came home sick from work yesterday and stayed home sick today. He's got a nasty cold, so I thought I'd try my hand at making a yummy soup that soothes and nourishes. What I came up with was pretty tasty. Here's what I did. 

Chop an onion, a couple stalks of celery and a handful or two of baby carrots into smaller than a dime size pieces. Put in the bottom of your soup pot with a little olive or coconut oil. Cook on medium-high until softened. Add basil and oregano.

Add two can of diced tomatoes that you've already blended in the blender, plus a can that you've left un-blended. That's three cans total. Turn the temp down to medium-low.

Now, in a seperate pot, take 2/3 cups dried quinoa with 1 1/3 cups water. Follow directions on quinoa package for cooking. Once properly cooked, add it to the soup mix. 

After about 45 minutes of simmering, add frozen corn kernels (use your judgement on what looks about right. Then chop up some kale and stir that in, too. Serve once the kale has softened.

Don't forget to salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

Smoothie Is A Funny Word

Hi friends. Well, I've been vegan for around 2 1/2 weeks, and I've found that smoothies truly make everything easier. I have one pretty much everyday. 

I make fairly simple smoothies. Here's what I do. Buy both fresh and frozen fruits, a juice that's actual fruit juices and not sugar/concentrate. V8 fusion isn't perfect, but I really like it, so I use it. Don't use V8 splash, that's just sugar. Ok, anyway, I also add spinach because it's amazing for you. Bananas are a good fruit to get fresh, and I usually use frozen strawberries, because it's usually cheaper to buy berries frozen. The blackberries are fresh because I got them on sale at Costco.

Here's another I did. Fresh and frozen mangos with a banana, strawberries, and spinach. So basically just pick fruits you like and go to town. Some people use almond milk instead of juice, but it don't like the almond milk flavor, I feel like it takes away from the fruit flavor, but if that's your game, by all means, go right ahead. Also, if you eat animal bi-products, might I suggest chobani yogurt in your smoothie? Good source of protein and a good fruit flavor.

Other exciting news: I recently joined Pottermore and found out I'm a Hufflepuff. At first I was kind of bummed, but after reading what J.K. Rowling feels about Hufflepuff, I'm pretty excited. Go team.

Ok, that's about it for me. Have a great day!

3 Vegan-Friendly Meat-Alternatives

Hi friends. So, I've been vegan for almost a week, and I've tried out some meat alternatives that I'd like to share with you, along with my reviews and recipes. Enjoy!

 Tofu: made with home-made red sauce and served over noodles

First I cubed the tofu and dipped it in egg substitute. If you're just a straight up vegetarian, use egg. then I sprinkled a small amount of corn starch on the tofu to fry it, because that's what the internet told me to do. I bet you could use flour or corn flour if you wanted to.

The recipe for how to make this red sauce is here. (click on the word "here").

I made tri-color noodles because they look prettier than your average noodle. We got that strainer for free when we moved into our apartment.

This is an attempt at being artsy. It's just the noodles inside the box.

Here's the final product. Sorry that it looks disgusting, the lighting in our kitchen is terrible.

I mixed the tofu into the red sauce and let it simmer for about 2 minutes to help the tofu soak up the flavor, which it did very well. My overall review for tofu is as follows. I think it's pretty good. It has a slightly beany taste, but it absorbs flavor well, and it's a decent source of protein. Be aware that up to 50% of the calories can be fat, and that there are different levels of firmness, so you should check your recipe before buying. I didn't know that, and so James just bought medium firmness, mainly because it seemed like the safest choice. If you're going to use it as a chicken replacer, get firm or extra firm, and to get the right texture, leave it in the freezer for a bit after cutting it into the desired shape.

Veggie-Burger: with Mango Salsa!

Here's all the ingredients (plus jalapeno, but that was an ugly pic) for mango salsa. Chop cilantro, a little onion, a little jalapeno and a full mango up into small bits. mix and let settle. Yum.

My veggie-burger is on the left, James' turkey burger is on the right. Mine has a bunch of veggies and sunflower seeds, his is ground turkey, which is healthier than beef, and it's more cost-effective.

Here's my mango salsa over the veggie burger. My review: the salsa was delicious, the veggie burger was good, but together, it was weird. The burger was too savory for a fresh mango salsa, it needed other veggies, tomato, lettuce, typical burger veggies. Maybe the salsa would work with a Boca Burger. I got these veggie-burgers at Cosco. Decent price, and good tasting with the right toppings.

This is the chickpea-spinach patty. It's amazing. With a little curry to make it savory and a little spicy, these vegan treats are an absolute delight. I had them with broccoli, which is a good source of protein, and with the chickpeas, so are these patties. I also got these at Cosco. Super yum. Love love love.

It's negative temps here in sunny Minnesota, and our dogs have settled in to a long winter's nap. Hope you're all safe and warm wherever you are.

New Vegetarian, New Year

Hi friends. So, this New Years I decided to make a bit of a change. I've decided to go vegetarian, at least for awhile. I'm going all vegan for the month of January, and then after that I'll be a vegetarian for a whole longer, that part is open-ended, and could go on forever, or maybe just a clear or two. Who knows. I've been inching closer and closer to vegetarian for some time now, and New Years seemed like a good time to make the change.

The reason I'm starting the year off by going full vegan is because of these two ladies, Mariana and Amelia Dal Pra. Amelia has been a vegetarian for most of her life, and is now a full vegan, and Mariana has been a full time vegan for almost a year, maybe more, I'm pretty sure it started as a Lent thing and then she just kept it going. Mariana told me all about her research into why it's healthier to be a vegetarian, more specifically a vegan, so I've decided to convert. 

So Happy New Year everyone! I will still be blogging both vegan/vegetarian and meat-related meals, as James is still an omnivore, so you'll still get a variety of recipe ideas here, I just won't be eating some of them. 

A lot of my vegan recipes will come to me through a book Mariana gave me, called "Part-Time Vegan". It's all very exciting. Ok, we'll stay tuned!