Reflecting on my 30 Day Vegan Challenge + 3 tips for how to do your own ...

Creamy Coconut Spinach

Creamed spinach is a classic side dish that is one of my favorites. I even find myself craving it at times. So tonight I decided to come up with my own vegan recipe for creamed spinach. 

I've seen quite a few different recipes for creamed spinach but of course I never have all the ingredients for them in hand. So I just pulled whatever I had in my fridge and cabinet that I thought would taste good with spinach and low and behold it was AWESOME!!! It also includes an extra veggie that is easy to find at local grocery stores. The chayote squash add extra flavor, thickness, and texture to the dish.

Creamy Coconut Spinach

Serves 4

Ingredients

Bag of fresh spinach

1 chayote squash

Onion

Garlic

3/4 of a can of coconut milk

1tsp of Italian seasoning

Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Dice onion and garlic and add into a hot skillet. Cook until they soften.

2. While the onion and garlic cook, peel and chop the chayote squash. Add to the skillet. 

3. If desired, add salt and pepper to the veggies. 

4  Once the veggies have cooked for about 10 minutes add 3/4 of a can of coconut milk. Let the mixture come to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 5-10 minutes.

5. Add the coconut milk and vegetable mixture to a blender and blend till smooth. 

6. After blending, return the coconut mixture  to the skillet. 

7. Add the bag of spinach to the coconut mixture, simmer for about 5-10 minutes. 

8. And your done! Enjoy!!!

Spiced Carrot and Ginger Soup

When the hubby's away...Mama relaxes by cooking! Just kidding, I cook everyday even when the hubby is home. Cooking has and will always be a form of relaxation for me. So on this quite night at home, I love to take some time out for myself and prepare a comforting meal. Today I choose to make one of my favorite soups. I can't take all the credit for this recipe tho...my sister made a recipe similar to this for me a few months back. I believe when she made this she made it with some sort of milk to make it a bit creamy. I did not add  any milk so this recipe is also VEGAN!

I love simple and tasty vegan recipes and this soup is exactly that.

Spiced Carrot Ginger Soup

Ingredients

1 red onion

2 pounds of organic carrots

Ginger, as much as you desire

1 carton of organic vegetable stock

4 cups of water

2 tablespoons of Earth Balance Butter (or you can just use olive oil spray)

1/2 tablespoon of sweet paprika

1/2 tablespoon of cumin

Directions

1. Dice the onion and ginger and add to a heated stock pot.

2. Peel and cut the carrots into 1/4 inch rounds.

3. Add the carrots to the onion and ginger.

4. Cook the vegetables for about 5- 10 minutes, until the carrots start to get soft.

5. Add in the paprika and cumin. Cook for about a minute.

6. Add in the vegetable stock and water. Bring to a boil.

7. Once the carrots are completely cooked, turn off the heat. 

8. Add the cooked carrots and some of the broth into a blender and blend until smooth. 

9. Add the purée back into the rest of the broth and enjoy!

Curried Sweet Potato and Leek Soup

I'm the the type of girl that LOVES a good bowl of creamy soup. And this Curried Sweet Potato and Leek soup has made it to the top of my favorites list. It is basically a spiced up version of a basic Potato and Leek soup. It's super delicious and easy to make!
...Oh! and did I mention that it's vegan too! It uses veggie broth and almond milk as the base. I baked the sweet potatoes in the oven before adding them in the broth. I just find that baking them brings out the caramelized flavor of the potatoes that I like. You could microwave the potatoes if you are pressed for time or you could even dice them up and boil them in the broth.
When prepping leeks, be sure to clean them properly! Leeks are grown in very sandy soil and I have never come across a leek that did not have dirt on the inside. I always do a double rinse using two mixing bowls and a slotted spoon. I use the slotted spoon to ensure that the sandy water at the bottom is not being dumped back on to of the clean leeks.
Anyway, here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Curried Sweet Potato and Leek Soup 

Ingredients

4 cups of baked sweet potato

3 medium leeks, white and light green part only

2 tablespoons of Earth Balance Butter

1 tablespoon of olive oil

2 garlic cloves, diced

2 tablespoons of all purpose flour

3 cups of vegetable stock

1 cup of almond milk

2 tablespoon of curry powder

1/2 tablespoon of sweet paprika

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Wrap sweet potatoes in foil and bake for 45 minutes at 400 degrees

2. While potatoes are baking prepare leeks. Cut the dark green top off and also cut of the bottom root end.

3. Slice down the center of the leek and dice. Also discard the top two outer layers. (they can be a little tough)

4. Add the diced leeks to a large bowl of clean water and rub the pieces to break them a part and loosen the dirt.

5. Use a slotted spoon to remove the leeks into the second bowl of clean water. And repeat the rubbing process. (You don't have to do a double rinse...I just do because I want to make sure that its clean)

6. Remove the leeks from the water and drain on a paper towel.

7. Add olive oil and butter to a dutch oven or soup pot over medium high heat.

8. Add diced leeks and salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes.

9. Add diced garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.

10. Add the flour and cook for 2 minutes stiurring frequently. Be careful not to burn the flour.

11. Add in the cooked sweet potatoes, (make sure that you peel the skin from the potatoes before adding it into the pot) vegetable stock, almond milk, curry powder, and sweet paprika.

12. With a large spoon, spatula, or potato masher, smash the potatoes.

13. Bring to boil and then turn to low and cover the pot. Allow to simmer for 20-30 minutes. 

14. Use and immersion or stand blender, blend until smooth.

15. Return mixture to pot. And Enjoy!!!

Makes 4-6 Servings

Quinoa and Edamame Salad~~Experimenting with Veganism.

Recently I have been experimenting with the idea of going vegan. Why? ...You may ask. Well for several reasons, primarily to promote a healthy and energetic body. Also, I want my daughter Alana to grow up eating the most nutritious foods possible. Which in my opioion are fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds,beans, and grains.
So in order to make this transition easier on myself and on my family, I found a easy to follow vegan meal plan to add into our rotation. This Quinoa and Edamame Salad recipe comes from Cassey Ho's blog, Blogilaties.com. It was absolutly delicious and packed full of protein. Since this is not a recipe that I created, I will not be posting the ingredient list. But you can find it right here. I hope you try this recipe and Enjoy!  

A fresh new look!

Hey Everyone!
So it has been awhile since I have done a new blog post. And as you can tell, I decided to give my blog a fresh new look! I'm still working out the kinks, so bare with me. However, I am very excited about it...and I hope you like it too. Since I have not posted in awhile, It's time to update you on my happenings for the past month.
Things have been busy with the past Thanksgiving holiday. It was fun, delicious, maybe too delicious and decadent, but well worth it. Unfortunately, with all of the decadent food came a weight loss set back =( I gained 3 pounds during the holiday season. But was able to get it off when I came back home from being at Pompano Beach with my family. So I am on a better track and trying hard!
What else...pretty much just Thanksgiving, working, and baby/mommy stuff. Anyway, have a great night and talk to ya soon!

To Health, Love, and Happiness,

Recipe: French Onion Soup Burger!

Hey everyone!
I fell like it has been awhile since I have posted a recipe. And what's better than a healthy, juice, tasty burger....maybe a fresh batch of cookies! Yum! But back to the burger. I created this recipe because I love French Onion Soup and I wanted to take those flavors and put it into a burger. I made this burger with ground turkey, but you can used whatever ground meat of your choice, chicken or beef would be great here.

French Onion Soup Burger w/ Roasted Sweet Potatoes

It turned out better than I expected! My boyfriend Travis even called it "A Fan Favorite". LOL He's one of my biggest fans. He even suggested that we start doing burger nights, which sounds like fun to me. Next time tho, I will let the onions cook a little bit longer because I wanted them to be more caramelized.  

The Ingredients

Ingredients:

2- large sweet onions (sliced)

2- garlic cloves (chopped)

1- packet of onion soup mix

1-tbsp of dried thyme

1/2- chicken bouillon cube

1-tbsp of organic tomato paste (optional and not pictured)

1-pound of extra lean ground turkey

Non stick cooking spray

2- slices of reduced fat swiss cheese

*2-slices of reduced fat pepper jack cheese (not pictured)

**1- extra large sweet potato

salt and pepper to taste 

This recipe yields 4 servings

* Travis requested to have his burger with pepper jack cheese. It's his favorite. But you can just stick to the Swiss because it is traditional to onion soups. Well Gruyere cheese is a type of Swiss...right?

** I happened to have an extra large sweet potatoes on hand. Use two regular sized potatoes if that is what you have.

Directions/ Step by step photos:

Step One: slice up your onions. Heat a saute pan and spray with cooking spray. Add the onions, the thyme, and some salt and pepper. 

Step Two: Now cut your sweet potato into cubes.Place in a sprayed pyrex pan, add salt and pepper. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20- 25 minutes.

I did spray the pan with cooking spray, but I suggest also using foil to line the pan also. It was not easy getting these suckers off of the pan!

Step Three: Now prepare your onion soup mix by adding 1/4 cup of water to your packet.

Step Four: Now add the ground turkey into a large mixing bowl. Also add in your onion soup mixture, and the chopped garlic.

Step Five: Now mix that all together, and form into four patties. Cook the burgers on your indoor grill or outdoor grill if you have one.

Just a tip! Make a dimple in the middle of your burger. So that when it cooks and plumps up in the middle, you won't get a bulgy burger. Learned that one from Rachael Ray =)

Remember we are cooking poultry, so no medium rare here. Make sure your meat is well done!

Step Six: By now your onions should have started to get nice and wilted. Now its time to add in the 1/2 chicken bouillon cubed and 1/4 cup of water.

 Step Seven: Now add your cheese, kill the heat to your grill, and let things melt.

Step Eight: At this point I added some organic tomato paste to my onions to add color. You don't have to do this, but I did because I didn't want to wait for the onions to caramelize. I was really hungry by this point.

It should look something like this.

Step Nine: Add your burger patty to the bun of your choice. Whole wheat is best, but whatever you have on hand is fine. Top your burger with your onions and serve roasted sweet potatoes along side of it.

Voila! Looks De-Lish! (Another Rachael Ray reference)

I hope you give this recipe a try! Enjoy!

To Health, Love, and Happiness,