Getting Prepared for the Week!

Hey guys! I made this little video to show you some of the meals I like to prepare for the week. I think it's so important to have your meals nice and ready for you so that you don't have to stress about it during the week. I know I feel so much better when I come home and I don't have to worry about boiling something, or soaking something, etc. Just take it out of the fridge and heat it up in your pan (or microwave if you're in a time crunch). Being prepared just makes eating healthy so much easier.

Healthy Snack before a workout!

Hey guys! What do you usually have for a snack before or after your workout? My typical snack is a protein shake. I add some fruit, veggies, protein powder, and recently I've started adding some Amazing Grass Green Super food in as well. I wanted to try something new today, so I was happy when I checked out Freshly Served's facebook page, and saw this great snack idea. 

Brown rice cake w/hummus, spinach, tomato, pepper, and a splash of lemon. 

You can mix it up with the rice cake. I sometimes add chia seed jam to mine. You can also try nut butter, kale or lettuce instead of spinach, avocado instead of hummus...get creative! :-) 

Kale Chips Part 2

Hey guys! I've posted on here before about making kale chips and how yummy they are. Now I'm posting a video of the simple process of putting together this delicious snack. I know you guys prefer when I post exact measurements for ingredients, so I did my best. You will find though, that for this recipe you will probably add more or less of something depending on your own taste buds. Enjoy!



Recipe:
1 1/2 cup of soaked cashews
1/4 red bell pepper
1 whole lemon squeezed
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
3-4 tbs of water
Pepper
Salt
Blend until creamy and then pour over you rinsed and cut up pieces of kale. Dehydrate for about 10-14 hours (depending on your dehydrator).

Update: This batch didn't turn out as good as previous ones. So, I might try and use the leftover sauce to make some more.

Being prepared for the week!

Hey guys! Check out this video of how I get a couple of food items prepared for the week. :-)




What food do you like to prepare for the week?

My Last Week of My 30 day Bodyrock Challenge!

Wow! It's really hard to keep up with your blog, facebook page, twitter page, and youtube vlog...and the rest of your life.lol I just looked at the date of my last post and shook my head. I have to keep on track with my post. Not just for the sake of posting but because I love to write and this is where it all started with my vegan journey. So, anyway I've been really rocking this month's challenge from Tone It Up & Bodyrock. The workouts have been amazing and I'm feeling stronger everyday. There have been some slip ups with the food, but I try not to beat myself up about it. I love eating healthy and fueling my body but sometimes I do just want to indulge a little. So, if I do slip up, I just know that I have to work harder the next day to make up for it. I'm wondering how the rest of you guys deal with the slip ups. Morning workout was Tone It Up's "Beach Babe Workout."

This morning for breakfast (Meal 1) I had the Tone It Up Quinoa Cereal.

Here's the link to recipe: http://toneitup.com/blog.php?We-LOVE-Food-Friday-Home-made-Maple-Quinoa-Cereal-From-EyeItTryIt-5149. I love this stuff! :-)


For Meal 2 I had some kale chips and home made trail mix with: almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds, and unsweetened dried cranberries. Very happy to be able to use my dehydrator again. This time I used it for the cranberries.

For Meal 3 I had I burrito with black & kidney beans, brown rice, avocado, tomatoes, and lime juice. I had a salad on the side.

This meal was delicious and I was nice and full. I love brown rice and beans. They go together with almost everything...almost. ;-) Afternoon workout was Bodyrock's "Rock Star Booty Workout."

For my Meal 4 I thought I would celebrate Peanut Butter Day with a Tone It Up peanut butter protein shake. I didn't know there was such a holiday as Peanut Butter Day, but apparently there is. Whatever, peanut butter is delicious so I'll celebrate it any time they want me to.

For dinner I had a scrumptious quinoa bowl. I had some leftover quinoa and beans and layered them with some onions & peppers my hubby sauteed, some lettuce, and fresh guacamole. Yum!

I hope everyone had a great day today. Keep up with your workouts and eat the best food to fuel your body. :-)

Day 2 of Tone It Up & Bodyrock Challenge! Spirulina in my juice!

Hey everyone! This is day 2 of my workout challenges and I feel great! I find myself more and more excited to wake up and find new ways to push myself physically and mentally. Because we all know that getting into shape starts with mentally forcing yourself to get your body up and moving. This morning for my Tone It Up Booty Call I did the stairs challenge. Running up and down stairs is definitely a good way to get your heart rate up and get that metabolism going.


For breakfast I made a tofu scramble with a slice of Ezekiel bread on the side.

Tofu scramble with red peppers, green & red onions, tomatoes, spinach,  and  some avocado on top. I also sprinkled in  some nutritional yeast. A slice of Ezekiel bread to accompany. 

For my snack I had some soaked raw almonds, kale chips, and green juice. I had to eat the almonds on the run because I had some errands. I ate the kale chips and made the green juice when I got home.

Green juice with spinach, apples, spirulina, cranberries, and squeezed orange juice.

I was going to do my workout around this time but Bodyrock was having some loading issues with youtube so I just decided For lunch I had some leftover curry with chickpeas, veggies, and couscous.

Okay, so after lunch they finally put up the workout for Bodyrock. Here is the link: http://www.bodyrock.tv/2012/01/03/day-2-of-our-30-day-challenge-good-feeling-workout/. OMG! This thing was brutal. I was drenched and exhausted by the time this was done. But, I'm so glad I made it through and finished it. After my workout I had my usual favorite, the Tone It Up Peanut Butter Protein Shake. Yes, I have a picture this time...but I gobbled half of it up before I realized that I needed to take a picture...sorry.lol 

Peanut Butter, Almond Milk, Organic Hemp Protein(Vanilla),  Frozen Banana, Ground Flax seed, and I added a scoop of Almond Butter. 

Dinner was yummity yum yum! Sushi night! One of my favorite things to eat is sushi. If you've checked out my post on Shojin, then you know how delicious vegan sushi can be, but sometimes you can't make out for some fine dining and you just have to make the sushi yourself. Well, I did all the chopping of the veggies & "meat" and my hubby does the sushi rollin. I used a gardein "chick'n" scallopin breast and seasoned it with some organic soy sauce & rice vinegar. 

Sushi with brown rice, carrots, cucumbers, avocado, and gardein chick'n.

Alright everyone, this is the conclusion to my day. I hope you all have a goodnight and make sure to get your workout in tomorrow! :-)

Vegan Mozzarella Sticks!

I can't remember the last time I had mozzarella sticks before I became vegan. They were always something I enjoyed but they weren't my absolute favorite snack. But, once you give something up, you start to notice it more...all of the sudden there's tons of commercials for it, or you start to see more and more people with it. It's like you can't escape it!lol Well, once I read online that a vegan restaurant was going to stop serving vegan mozzarella sticks, before I even had the chance to try them, I knew I wanted some. So, imagine my glee when I found out that I could just make them at home. I found a recipe on youtube using Teese cheese and bread crumbs.

Okay, they're not the best looking mozzarella sticks (I'm still working on my technique).lol But, they were absolutely delicious. I wasn't sure how I would like the teese cheese because I'm so hooked on daiya but it was very good and tasted very much like the real thing. I love vegan food! :-)

Tone It Up Check In & Snacking on Kale Chips!

Hey guys! Just wanted to post a video since it's been a little while. Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays and getting ready for the New Year that is approaching us. I'm staying on track with my workouts and just wanted to share with you what I worked on today and the healthy snack I gobbled up! Can you guess what it was??? :-)

Kale Chips!

Looking for a delicious snack that won't break the bank??? You should try making your own kale chips! As many of you know, I LOVE kale. It's packed full of nutrition and flavor and when I first tasted kale chips, I knew I found a friend for life...lol...yes, I'm a little crazy. The first time I tried making these delectable snacks it did not turn out so well. The sauce on the kale was too soggy and a few of them came out crispier than I wanted. So, I gave in and bought some Alive and Radiant kale chips from Whole Foods. They were delicious! Alive and Radiant uses a dehydrator so their chips are raw, with natural ingredients, and tasty. I was hooked and treated myself to a bag of the tasty chips once in a while. But, after a few bags you realize that these treats are way more expensive than you would like them to be. So, I decided to try and make my own again. As much as I would like a dehydrator, I do not have one yet, so I baked my chips. For the sauce I used red bell pepper, nutritional yeast, soaked cashews, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. I blended everything up in my blendtec and mixed the sauce together with the kale. I threw them into a 210 degree oven for about 2 hours.

Tone It Up Quinoa Snack & Sandbag Workout!

Hey Peeps! I had a crazy workout today! I'm still all over from yesterday's workout.lol I finally got to make and use my new sandbag, which was awesome and really helped me feel the burn. I used it for my body rock workout this morning and for my Tone It Up Humps workout. I made a snack today from Tone It Up's site. They have this great recipe for Maple Quinoa Cereal. It's tasty and very easy to make, so check it out!

Snack, Healthy Dinner, & Tone It Up Christmas Workout!

Hey guys! I made some delicious dinner tonight before my Tone It Up Christmas workout. So, now I'll be nice and fit for the holidays...well, at least until I get a hold of some cookies! :-) All in moderation of course.lol

I sauteed some green peppers, zucchini, red onions, green onions,  and garlic. 

I added a can of organic diced tomatoes and let simmer. 

I scooped the finished product onto some black beans and rice. 

I made the black beans in the crock pot for about four hours. I used dried black beans and let them soak the night before. I rinsed them this morning and threw them in the crock pot with some garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, herbamare, and some broth I saved from the collards and lentils I made. So easy to make. I love my crock pot!lol :-)

Tone It Up Protein Shake, Workout, & Healthy Snack!

Hey guys! I had a great workout this morning from Bodyrocktv. I did day 2 of their Christmas workout count down. For breakfast I made a Tone It Up Peanut Butter Protein Shake. It was so yummy and creamy, but the banana did upset my stomach a little, so I'll probably only use half of one next time. For a snack this week I made Tone It Up's Krazy Koconut Bites. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they are raw and vegan. So, I'll snack on those yummy bites for the week. Check out the video and pics below. Have a great day! :-)

Krazy Koconut Bites (minus the coconut) 

Kale Hemp Flatbread

A few weeks ago I dove into my Urban Food Crawl Goodie bag and picked out another treat to explore. This time I tried a kale snack from Twin Cakes Bakery. They have a kale hemp flatbread that's pretty tasty. It has some good flavors with a nice little touch of spice. I also like the crunch. I haven't tried too many kale snacks, at least not any packaged ones. I usually just eat fresh kale from home. I would eventually like to try some kale chips...if only they weren't so expensive. I guess I'll just have to make my own. If you like kale snacks, which I'm sure you do, you should check this one out.

Fried Zucchini!

I got my box of veggies from csa last week and I was happy to find some zucchini inside. Zucchini is so yummy roasted but I also love to fry it. Here's a recipe of my fried crispy fried zucchini:

Fried Zucchini 

Zucchini 

Almond Milk (Any non dairy milk will do)

Corn Meal 

Oil for frying 

Take your zucchini and chop it up into strips. Place some of the chopped zucchini into your milk and mix around until they're all covered. Transfer the zucchini into corn meal and coat the them well with the corn meal. Fry in pan until golden brown. Eat! 

Raw Bar!

Hey guys! Yay! I finally got my videos working again, so here is one I did a few weeks ago about this raw bar from Two Mom's in the Raw. I got this raw bar in my goodie bag from my fantastic urban food crawl adventure. It was delightfully sweet and crunchy. I look forward to trying more of their tasty products.

Our Mama Chef’s Recipe: Organic Oat Groats*, Organic Agave, Organic Sunflower Seeds, Organic Buckwheat, Organic Pumpkin Seeds, Organic Blueberries, Organic Millet, Organic Apples, Organic Sesame Seeds, Organic Flax Seeds, Organic Pecans, Organic Almonds, Organic Cinnamon and Sea Salt. *Certified Gluten Free Oat Groats

Nachos for dinner!

Last night I made these hot mess nachos that were deliciously fattening yet a lot healthier than non-vegan nachos. I love being a vegan! :-)

Nachos: organic tortilla chips, black beans, daiya cheese, tomatoes, onions, match meat ground beef, avocado, sour cream, and salsa. OMG!

I melted the cheese by sprinkling some on top of the chips and placing them in the oven on broil until the cheese was nice and gooey. 

Hummus!

I don't know why it has taken me so long to make my own hummus. My husband and I eat hummus and pita bread almost every week.lol So, I guess it only seems right to save some money and just make my own...plus I had this huge bag of garbanzo beans in the cabinet they were in need of some use. Here is a quick recipe for you.







Garlicky Hummus

Ingredients

• About two cups of Garbanzo beans (You can use the ones in a can or cook your own)
• A handful of fresh Parsley
• 1/3 cup of Safflower Oil
• 1/2 cup of Lemon Juice
• About 6 cloves of garlic (I like a lot of garlic but you can use less) 

Place all these ingredients in your blendtec (hit the dip button) or in your blender and mix until your desired consistency. If you want a creamier texture add more liquid.

Vegan Chili Cheesy Scoops!

Chili, queso, and scoops...Yum! Last weekend while one of my dear friends visited from out of town, we decided to make one of our all time favorite snacks, Scoops. Scoops are three simple ingredients packed full of flavor. All you need is vegetarian chili (I get mine from wholefoods), some vegan queso (I used "Food for Lovers"...it's spicy and delicious), and some Frito scoop chips. That's it! Heat the chili and the queso, layer them on top of the chips, scoop them up, and eat and eat and eat! I promise you this is so yummy. It's a quick snack to make and perfect for sporting events...your non-vegan friends won't even miss their old chili cheese treats.

Enjoy! :-)

Food for Lovers Vegan Queso.

Drool!

Vegan Urban Food Crawl!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of joining a group of very hungry people for my very first food crawl. I didn't have much of an idea of what to expect on a food crawl other than eating a lot of food...and I was not disappointed in the food department. I first found out about this event on quarry girl's blog and after checking out urban food crawl's website, I knew that this was something I definitely needed in my life.lol

Okay, so basically Urban Food Crawl is a walking tour of some of downtown LA's vegan restaurants. We visited six different locations in the area, grubbed until our bellies were full beyond capacity, and burned off some calories with a good walk. We even got a little history about the downtown area and a few of the buildings. The tour lasted a little over three hours and at the end of it we got a huge goodie bag. :-) Jen and Shari were our amazing tour guides and they did such a great job at making everyone feel comfortable, explaining the food and giving us some history info., and answering questions to the best of their ability. There were some non-vegans on the tour and they really seemed to enjoy themselves...there were a lot of "yums" and "mmm" going on in each place...they asked questions and took a real interest in the food we were eating.



Our first stop was Two Bits Market. They serve fresh, local, and organic produce...along with deli sandwiches, and snacks. The owner was really cool and very enthusiastic about food...which I love.

Rupee Sandwich
Bean Puree with artichoke, black olives, squash, and arugula puree on a baguette. 

Next up was Nickel Diner...this place is far from vegan but their stuffed avocado is AMAZING! If I had room I would have had two servings of this.

Stuffed Avocado
With Quinoa Salad - black beans, red peppers, squash, corn, and cilantro.

Pitfire Pizza has amazing pizza packed full of flavor and cheesy goodness. We started with a roasted peach salad and some bread. They served us three different pizzas and one of them had gluten free crust...Yum! I guess for some reason I was too hungry to take a picture of the third pizza but I assure you it was delicious.

Roasted peach salad.

hungry peeps!

Heirloom Tomato Pizza
Fresh local heirloom tomatoes and basil with Daiya Cheese. This was everyone's favorite.

Field Mushrooms Pizza
Crimini, Oyster, and roasted shitakes with daiya cheese. This was one good but not my favorite.

We had a pit stop at the Bradbury before our next meal.

Mas Malo a vegan menudo restaurant with a range of classic and unique dishes.  

Traditional style Mexican Menudo made with tempeh, tofu, chiles, and hominy. Veg. ground beef and pickle taco. This taco was the bomb...crunchy, a little greasy, and messy...I loved it!

Casa Cocina y Cantina is a very modern Mexican restaurant with a cool vibe and fabulous outdoor seating. 

Enchiladas de Espinaas y Papas
Sauteed spinach, pan-crisped potatoes, and soy chorizo wrapped in flour tortillas with red tomatilla enchilada sauce. Served on a bed of cilantro rice.

And last but certainly not least we have Babycakes! I posted about my last trip there a little while ago and I was so glad to be back with some sweets!

Blondie Sandwich
Two chocolate chip blondies with frozen vanilla frosting. 

Oh my gosh! I was so stuffed and happy by the end of this tour! If you ever want to hit up some vegan restaurants, meet some new people, or are curious about trying something different please check out Urban Food Crawl, it was such a blast!

Look at all the goodies I got!

Vegan Beef Jerkey.