My opinion on fake meats

I love them. Yes they are processed a bit but they're great for when you want some meat. Especially if you're craving spaghetti, tacos or chili. I will post my chili recipe soon. Jimmys dad said it was the best chili he's ever had and meat lovers love it!
So even though these fake meats aren't the most wonderful thing to put in your body, they're still better than animal flesh. Ew. Its not.laced with antibiotics and hormones. Its not from an animal who has been tortured since birth and the best part? It's easily digested.
Did you know that meats sits and ferments in your colon for THREE DAYS??????!!!! Yes three days. How sick is that? Even organic free range grassfed meats. How can our bodies detoxify with meat just sitting there?! I think I'll take the fake meats, on occasion. Just make sure it isn't GMO.

Some more dishes from the week

The pretty one is the spaghetti squash with an easy sauce (previously posted) but since it was for my sister, I had to dress it up.
Another favorite is quinoa w tempeh and steamed veggies. I can't do tempeh anymore since I had a stomach bug last time I ate it so it's ruined for me, lame!!! So I had a fat piece of chicken. Fake of course.
This week at whole foods I found a huge box of their vegan cookies! I try to avoid sugar but I always need at least a bite of something sweet after dinner. This does the trick...if I can avoid eating the whole box.
Last night I also roasted asparagus and mushrooms in garlic and just a little bit of vegan butter. It was pretty good! Mushrooms make everything amazing.

Spiralizer fun!

My husband ordered me this spiralizer and I'm obsessed. We are trying to start trying more raw recipes and this is a great way! This thing makes raw "noodles" out of veggies (I used zucchini) for pasta. I made fetuccini Alfredo last night. I threw some pine nuts, a full zucchini, some garlic,sage and basil in the nutribullet and made a thick and creamy delicious sauce! I topped it with cherry tomatoes. Delicious!!! The best part is the kids helped me make it and ate it. Its just like that play doh machine. Obsessed!

Teriyaki tofu w brown rice noodles

The picture looks a little sick but this was a good, easy meal. I tried brown rice noodles for the first time since I couldn't find soba at the store. I threw some bok choy and mushrooms in the skillet with some shoyu then sauteed the tofu while cooking the noodles. I was lazy since it was Sunday so I bought some teriyaki sauce at Kroger, and it had sugar in it, and threw it on the noodles. Then I just threw it all on a plate. Easy! And delicious.

Oh polenta. Where have you been all my life?

last night was my first time to try polenta.i stumbled upon it at whole foods so i bought it not knowing what the hell to do with it. i added garlic and cooked them up like grits  amazing. topped w tofu and roasted lemon broccoli and zucchini, it was the perfect friday evening meal. with red wine of course :)

New obsession, spaghetti squash!

I have always wanted to try spaghetti squash but heard it was a pain. Quite the opposite! Cut it in half, gut it, place facing down on pan w a little olive oil and cook on 475 for 30 mins. When you take it out, its beautiful noodle like squash and its fun to peel! I made a homemade tomato sauce consisting of basically 2 tomatoes, tomato paste, sea salt and raw cashews with a little water thrown in the nutribullet until creamy. Then sautee garlic in olive oil and add sauce. Cook low and add either vodka or water to thin. I chose vodka :) add the noodles and whala! This was incredible. I also bought some vegan parm cheese. It tastes just like real. You have to be careful with these fake cheeses bc a lot of them still have casein. I threw some spinach and sprouts on the steamer and this was a simple delicious vegan meal! I will for sure be using spaghetti squash again! Ps raw cashews are great to use for sauces to add thickness and a good source of protein

My vegan creations!

1. Calliflower mashed potatoes. Steamed cauliflower with minced garlic, parsley a little bit of vegan butter topped w tomatoes. Yum!

2. Sered tofu, risotto and Brussels sprouts. So simple!

3. Seared tofu w mushrooms, quinoa, roasted cabbage and broccoli. Delicious!

4. Black beans w whole grain rice flavored w cumin, garlic, hot sauce with steamed zucchini and spinach. Takes 10 minutes to make.

5. Rotel spaghetti topped w veggies w steamed cabbage and spinach. Discover nutritional yeast if you're a cheese lover

6. BLT. Tempeh bacon, lettuce.and tomato topped with daiya cheese on Ezekiel bread. Um, yummy!

7. Calliflower mashed potatoes topped with veggie chicken and sauteed veggies. Takes 20 mins. Simple

8. Seared tofu stirfry on wheat soba noodles. Just throw in any veggies you want with shoyu sauce. One of my faves!

9. Vegan cookies from whole foods. Heavenly!

10. Most important part of my day, nutriblast! Spinach with fruit and add chia or flax seeds

I will continue posting more recipes as I make them but try some of this stuff! Its simple and delicious :) and healthy most importantly. I try to avoid the fake meats bc they're so processed but I need some every so often. And anything is better than dead antibiotic hormone filled flesh from a tortured animal who wanted to live :)

"omg what do you eat?" a typical vegan day

I'm ALWAYS asked "What do you eat?" when telling people I'm vegan. Well, here is a typical day.

Breakfast: I choose from a green shake (spinach with a few fruits) made in the nutribullet, a wonderful device. I have always been a huge cereal junkie so I still indulge in some organic brand of Cheerios (no sugar) and only organic bc Cheerios have recently decided to add lovely GMOs to their food. If you don't know about GMO, research. Its some scary stuff. I also have organic rolled oats with no sugar. I add raw stevia. Artificial sweeteners are the devil btw. I will get to that at some point too.

Snack: I eat all day long so when I'm hungry, I'll do another shake but I only add lots of fruit in the mornings. I will use cucumber, spinach, celery, any kind of green veggie then maybe one piece of fruit and some chia or flax seeds. If I'm out and about, I eat cashews. Tons of them! I love nuts.

Lunch: I usually do avacado on Ezekiel bread (sprouted grains) but sometimes do tomatoes with melted Daia cheese (vegan fake cheese) melted and toasted. Yum! I also eat Annies organic brand vegan soups or wraps. They're all amazing! If I'm on the road and have to do fast food, I eat Backyard Burger black bean burgers. Amazing! Or my favorite, taco bell! Bean burritos have lard in them (ew) so I replace meat with black beans and say fresco style (no cheese or animal products).I know it's not healthy but we all have to splurge on the occasional taco bell (late nights). There are also plenty of restaurants that have vegan options. Some don't but you shouldn't be eating at these places anyway (waffle house). I will list these later.

Dinner: This is why I made this site. There are SO many options! We still do fake meats some but we ALWAYS have a huge amount of veggies. If you don't have a steamer, get one! Other things we eat a lot of, quinoa, rissoto, calliflower mashed "potatoes"...we still indulge occasionally in spaghetti and even tacos. You can't tell the difference! And don't get me started on tofu. It's like my BFF (non GMO tofu of course). Even my husband eats it.

I will post pictures and recipes often so be looking! ;)

Why am I vegan? Why are you NOT?

If you can imagine, I am asked this constantly and most people are questioning my nutrition while looking me up and down and I've even had a few people tell me I'm too skinny (these people have not seen me without clothing and have no idea how untrue this really is) and that I'm not getting enough protein. They're wrong. I'm not skinny, I'm healthy. Big difference. But for the first time in my 31 years, I'm healthy and I wanna shout it it from the mountain tops just how easy it really is...and fun! And best of all, I feel amazing! I've been obsessed with my weight since I was probably 12. I have always fluctuated and I'm always the first to know about the latest trendy diet. I've even popped dangerous pills and starved myself to get to my goal weight. Even at that point, I was never happy with myself. I even remember thinking "will I battle my weight my entire life?" And if I do, omg, I can't handle this! I was so over being stressed about my weight and hungry ALL the time! Little did I know that one day while I was googling "how does Tyson treat their chickens" would change my entire life. I have been an animal lover my whole life. I remember crying watching my dad catch a fish and begging him to let it go. I have always had a problem eating meat but I always convinced myself that they live a perfect life and died by just basically falling asleep... So not the case. I had accidentally opened the door to the horrific world of factory farming and now that it was open, I could never go back. I started trying to do some "organic, free range" meats. Little did I know, this was BS. I decided to go vegetarian and was hoping I would lose some weight in the process. So I cut out meat but now ate a ton of cheese (ew) to replace it and still did "free range" eggs. SO I basically was still eating like crap. It wasnt till a friend told me about the book Skinny Bitch that I learned about how the dairy industry IS the meat industry (veal) and how terrible egg laying hens are treated, so sad. It also talked about how sick meat and dairy are and how they are the main causes of death in America. What? This isn't what we've been taught since birth...So I went vegan and never turned back. Yes I've had a few slip ups with some cheese here and there (caesin really is addicting) but when I do eat it, I feel like crap and hate myself. Its amazing how great I feel not eating animal products and consuming endless amounts of veggies, grains, nuts and fruits. Sounds terrible right? Thats why I'm making this page. To show you just how fabulous and EASY being vegan can be! Let me ask you this question, if you know that what you are eating is contributing to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and even CANCER, why would you still eat it? If you are interested in these facts, please watch Forks Over Knives or any other film I have listed above. All are on Netflix.So, I am going to share with you all exactly what I eat and how EASY it really is to go vegan! And you can still eat at places like Chilis! And finally, if my previously body building, work out freak, runner, weight lifting husband can go vegan, so can you! I have never been a good cook. The kids I babysat for wouldn't eat what I cooked so that excuse is out too! I was the girl who threw a nasty, processed stouffers lasagna in the oven and called it dinner. I will also add, I still have lots to learn. I still eat things that aren't great (processed flour, salted cashews, etc) so I'm still learning too. It's a process! But I'm trying and loving it! Yes I love animals so that plays a part in my choice but my husband doesn't give a damn about animals. He does it because he's learned he can't turn a blind eye to the scary facts. What we were taught is good for us is actually the opposite. There are so many lives that can be saved, human and animal, just by changing our diet!