Chickpea & Quinoa Dinner. Vegan Mofo Day 3!

Sometimes I come up with the yummiest meals when I'm hungry and I can't think of what to make. This often makes me get super creative when trying to make something fresh and new for dinner. If you check my facebook page then you know I use chickpea patties for lunch and dinner every week. It's best to make a big batch of them, because you can freeze them up and thaw when needed. I have a recipe from the Tone It Up Nutrition Plan, but there's plenty of recipes online if you're not a part of their plan. For this dinner I wanted to make something quick, because I was starving and didn't feel like waiting a long time for a hot meal, so this recipe will be nice and quick. I mashed up two chickpea patties and cooked them in a pan for a few minutes. I added some pasta sauce and stirred the mixture until the sauce done. Then I threw in some broccoli and let simmer a few minutes. I scooped up this goodness and poured it over some leftover quinoa and topped it all with parsley and nutritional yeast. This came out even better than I thought it would. Yay, score one for new recipe! :-)

Vegan Sushi at Kabuki!

Shojin is hands down my favorite vegan sushi place. If I could, I would hit them up every week...maybe even every other day. But, alas this is sadly not the case. For my sister-in-law's birthday, I unfortunately missed another Shojin opportunity when she decided to have her birthday dinner at Kabuki. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find a few vegan options. I ordered the Fresh Spring Roll which was very refreshing. I also ordered a vegetable sushi roll.

Vegan MoFo Day 1!

Woo Hoo! Day 1 of Vegan MoFo (vegan month of food) is here! I'm starting the week off with something most of us start with...Breakfast! I love all types of breakfast foods, especially pancakes...mmm pancakes. Breakfast burritos are also a favorite of mine and I love ordering them when I'm on the go or making them for a Saturday morning brunch. The breakfast burrito below was a team effort. I cooked all the goodies going inside the burrito and my hubby swooped in to wrap them up nice and tight. Okay, let's get to it! I chopped some potatoes, rubbed them with a little olive oil, seasoned them, and spread them on top of a baking sheet lined with parchment paper in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes. While the potatoes cooked up, I took out some tofu and veggies. After chopping the veggies and squeezing the water out of the tofu, I added the veggies to a pan and sauteed them until they got a little soft. I crumbled the tofu on top and continued mixing until the tofu was finished. Once the food was ready, my hubby warmed up some tortillas in the microwave and laid them out. He likes to use two tortillas for better wrapping but you certainly can stick with one if two is too much for you. Next, he layered the tortillas with the potatoes, tofu scramble, fresh spinach, salsa and guacamole. And lastly, he wrapped up the burritos and quickly handed me mine, after watching me salivate. Yum! It was so delicious. :-) What do you like to put in your burritos?

Tofu Scramble with green peppers, tomatoes, red onions, and portobello mushrooms. 

An almost perfect wrap. Some of the burrito insides did spill out, but it was just the condiments, so the good stuff was still inside. :-) 

Healthy Stuffed Mushrooms

What did you have for dinner last night? Well, I had some very tasty stuffed mushrooms. Earlier in the week I made another crock-pot full of Chili to last me and the hubby a few days. But, Thursday night I wanted to mix things up, so after my workout  decided to whip up some stuffed mushrooms. I had evening plans and  knew I wouldn't have time to come up with an extravagant stuffing to fill them with, so I ended up just using some leftover quinoa and frozen chickpea patties.

After thawing the chickpea patties, I chopped up some garlic, shallots, and tomatoes. I threw them into a pan and let them saute with some spinach. When the spinach was halfway done I crumbled the chickpea patties and added them in. While the stuffing was heating up I put a little water in another pan and sauteed the mushrooms for a few minutes. Once everything was ready for the oven, I put some parchment paper on a baking pan and loaded up the mushrooms with some leftover quinoa and the chickpea patty stuffing. I placed the mushrooms into a 450 degree preheated oven and let them cook for about 15-20 minutes. I paired them with some steamed broccoli. :-)

Chili Night & Happy Herbivore's Cooking Demo!

Sunday night I whipped up some delicious chili in my crock-pot. It's been a while since I've had any warm and hearty chili, so my belly gladly welcomed it with opened arms.

Check out the recipe here: http://veganwhat-stephanie.blogspot.com/2011/12/crock-pot-cooking-chili.html.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending Happy Herbivore's Live Cooking Demo at Whole Foods. I've been a fan of Lindsay's for a little while now and I love her idea of making yummy vegan food in a low-fat and healthy way. I have a couple of her books so I was very excited to eat some of the yummy recipes I've been reading about, from the author herself. Want to see what I ate??? Check out the pics and video below!

Minestrone Soup.

Healthy "Cheesy" Mac & Cheese

Quick & Easy Pad Thai

4 Ingredient No Bake Cookies

Black Bean Burgers

Me with Lindsay

I had a great time! I would have taken more pics but the crowd was so quiet in the beginning that I was embarrassed to take a picture with my loud camera.lol Next time I won't be so shy and I will definitely have a book for her to sign :-)

Have you tried Coconut Water?

I'm not a fan of coconut but this chocolate flavored Zico coconut water is delicious. Not only is it yummy but it's full of electrolytes, potassium, and iron. The chocolate flavor has 20 grams of sugar per bottle so you might not want to drink it everyday, but after my tough workout this morning, it was a welcomed treat. :-)

Been gone too long!

Hey guys! I know I've been MIA for a while but I'm back and hopefully I can start posting more consistently again. Here are some of the yummy things I ate last week:

This has become one of my favorite salads. I love making crispy tempeh and adding it to some greens, avocado, tomatoes, onion, chia seeds, and hemp hearts. Topped with some spicy mustard and a little balsamic vinaigrette. 

Here is some delicious veggie soup and lemon vegan shrimp from Lotus Vegan Restaurant. 

Chickpea patty with steamed kale and little potatoes sauteed with spinach and mushrooms.  I know you're not supposed to eat  a lot of potatoes but I just LOVE them.lol 

Have you tried Kelp noodles? They're great for Asian inspired dishes but this time around I used them as a replacement for pasta. They're also raw and gluten free. I added some Gardein crispy chipotle lime fingers. Yum!

Black bean patty w/daiya vegan cheese, tomato, and onion. I grilled the zucchini with an amazing marinade I found online. Here is the link:  http://www.thekidscookmonday.org/2012/07/16/grilled-zucchini-with-herb-marinade/

Brown rice breakfast cereal with Tone It Up's bombshell spell drink. 

Finished the week off with my second trip to Doomies Home Cookin Restaurant. The hubby and I were a bit famished after catching an early movie on Saturday, so we decided to stop by Doomies and munch on some grub. 

Calamari. Tasted a bit more like breaded fish fillets than calamari but it was still yummy. 

Chick'n fingers. 

Vegan Cheese Steak Sandwich. OMG it was good!

Doomies fried Chick'n is my fave. 

So much yummy food! I can hardly stand it. lol