Valentine's Day

Happy belated Valentine's Day everyone!

I hope everyone single or attached enjoyed their Sunday.  When I was single I always found Vday to be a great excuse to buy myself flowers and make something nice for dinner.  Now that I'm married I have someone else to buy me flowers, but now I have two people to cook a romantic dinner for (and yes I still want to do the cooking).

So if you haven't been able to tell by now, we like to show our love with food in this house (please see meal #2 below).  I started my Valentine's day with the boys making me a delicious vegan breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, and fruit with yogurt.  It was awesome!

It was absolutely freezing here on Sunday, to the point where it was dangerous to be outside.  I did brave the cold, however, to trek out to the grocery store.  I asked my husband what he wanted for Valentine's Day dinner and I made my pilgrimage to Trader Joe's. 

Dylan requested soup because it was the perfect soup kind of day (i.e. FREEZING!)  I referenced Chloe Coscarelli's Vegan Italian Kitchen cookbook and decided I was making her spicy tomato soup (maybe not so spicy for my hubby).  I love her recipes because they are easy to make and don't require copious exotic ingredients I can only find at Whole Foods for $20.  Anyways, the soup came out amazing and I served the leftovers when my mother in law came over tonight.  Everyone enjoyed it.  

This week my husband is taking me out all week (it's his Vday gift and also we're on school vacation!).  Some of the places we are going are vegan restaurants in the area.  I'm very much looking forward to it and am prepping myself for nostalgia overload!  

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Soup Night

I don't know about you, but I had a major case of the Mondays this morning.  It was tough getting out of bed.  My husband and I started our day with a Vitamix smoothie and we headed off to work.  One of the highlights (and I'm not just trying to justify the purchase) was drinking out of my $32 dollar water bottle (so worth it).  I drank a lot more water today than I have in a long time.  

When we got home we hit the gym together and then had dinner.  I said this dinner really doesn't go together too well, but thankfully neither of us are picky.  

I threw together a dish with mixed frozen veggies and vegan buffalo chicken since I was craving spicy food, though my husband corrected me that you can't crave something you eat all the time.  I don't agree!  I also have a new obsession (pictured above).  It's one of my summer favorites before my vegan days, the classic combo of tomato, basil and mozzarella.  As wonderful as many vegan alternatives are cheese is hard to replace, I'll admit it.  I decided to substitute mozzarella with extra firm tofu.  I pressed it first to get the water out and then sliced it up.  I tossed it in with tomatoes and fresh basil from our "garden" and topped it off with salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar.  I think I'm going to be making this a lot come summer time and hopefully we will have our own tomatoes to add!

We did have some leftovers as well (and obviously bread).  We had a quick visit with my parents yesterday and my mom had soup waiting for us.  I think I ate two and a half bowls in one sitting.  My mom has made a non vegetarian version of this before and she was kind enough to make a veggie version especially for us.  Even my dad was eating it!

Ingredients

• 1 onion (chopped)
• 3 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 32 ounces of vegetable broth
• 2 cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes
• 2 cans of chopped green chills 
• 1 pound of veggie sausage (my mom used LifeLight)

First sauté your onion and garlic.  Once this is cooked add it to the crockpot with the veggie broth.  Then add your canned tomatoes, chills, and vegan sausage.  My mom said she cooked this for awhile in the crock pot, I would give it at least a couple of hours.  The great thing about this soup is you can really play around with it.  You can add vegan cheese, tortilla chips, more broth and additional veggies!  I definitely see this soup in our future!  Happy Monday!

Weekend Warrior (Not)

 This has been a weekend of complete generosity and kindness.  My mother-in-law watched the boy so we could attend our friends' awesome post-Christmas ugly sweater party (they're spectacular hosts), my parents stored all our Christmas decorations in their basement AND made us soup, and my husband earned some major hubby points.   He always takes good care of me (and I like to think I take pretty good care of him!) but this weekend he did so much.  He cleaned and organized our entire apartment (it looks amazing), he drove us everywhere (we did a lot of driving), and he didn't mind that I bought myself a $32 water bottle at Whole Foods.

I've mentioned before that I would love to be able to do all my grocery shopping at Whole Foods.  Now I do love that place, but I don't know if my frugal self could ever buy something I know I can get cheaper other places.  I do love to wander around Whole Foods and they will have deals if you look out for them.  I bought Gardein chicken scaloppini (I can't find it anywhere else) and that was $3.99 which is an excellent price (obviously it was on sale).  However, there are some item I get at Whole Foods that I can't find anywhere else…

The Beast Burger:  My husband and I tried the Beast Burger awhile ago so I can attest that it is amazing.  It's not your average veggie burger.  It's juicy and honesty it tastes like real meat.  It was so close to meat that as a vegetarian it was almost concerning.  I recommend this especially if you're a meat eater who is looking to be a little bit healthier, I think it's a better alternative than a turkey burger, especially if you love that beef flavor.  One burger is 260 calories and 23 grams of protein.  

Seitan.  Dining out at vegetarians restaurants has introduced me to seitan.  I've had some delicious dishes (black pepper beef at Grasshopper in Allston especially).  I've a little surprised it is not as easy to find as tofu and tempheh.  Seitan is wheat gluten, the main protein in wheat.  It's a great alternative if you want to get away from soy based alternatives.  I'll make sure I post what I end up doing with these.

Earth Balance Vegan Cheddar Flavor Squares.  I grew up on Cheez-its.  Well not really, but we always had them in the house.  I'm pretty sure my parents have a box of reduced fat Cheez-its in their cabinet right now.  They are delicious and the ultimate snack food if you ask me.  As a vegan, however, they are off the table.  I love Earth Balance, and I always have their butter in my refrigerator.  Their cheddar squares are great, and I will always want to munch on them, vegan or not vegan.  

I also bought a new basil plant since my other one was not successful.  Still getting the hang of this whole "gardening" thing.  Here's to another healthy week!  

Happy New Year!

2015 was an amazing year for me.  I made some positive strides in my career, got engaged, moved, married one of the best guys ever, and taught my dog to sit with a chip on her head.  Oh and I started this blog…

I hope everyone had a good New Year's.  We stayed in for the evening, which is probably my favorite way to spend that particular evening.  I made a plethora of snacks along with some rocking vegan pho. If you've never had pho before you're missing out.  It's a Vietnamese soup, which I loved back during my days as a carnivore.  I made a vegan version with zucchini noodles, and I don't want to brag but it was pretty amazing.  When I make it next time I will share my recipe I will be sure to post it.

Today we are laying low.  I'm making some more English muffin bread and finishing the margaritas we made last night (I know pho and margaritas are a strange combo, but we're strange).  I'm also reflecting on the year ahead.  I'm not really one for New Year's resolutions.  I think we can all strive to improve ourselves, but I'm not about to make an unattainable goal for myself (i.e. exercise seven days a week and never eat bread…no thank you).   The way my family and I eat is always on my mind.  Food is fuel, and it directly effects how we feel and function.  It's easy to lose control (especially if there's chocolate covered pretzels in front of me), but we should always be conscientious of what put in our body (and indulge here and there of course!).  Here of some of my goals for the new year...

• Be a better vegan:  My husband and I eat 100% vegan at home.  I never buy any groceries that contain animal products.  However, that doesn't stop me from scarfing up smoked gouda cheese at a wedding.  I will strive to eat 100% vegan all the time.  
• Eat more fruit:  No explanation needed, I hardly ever buy it unless there's a request.  Fruits and veggie the way to go.   
• Back to budgeting:  I have slacked on this.  I always budget for our groceries every week, but with the holidays and parties it has been difficult.  Obviously if we're hosting a party or people over for dinner I'm going to need to dish out a little more cash to feed our guests.  Our social obligations are winding down, and I would like to stay more true to the budget I have allocated for our groceries.    
• Be more conscious of the personal/household products I purchase:  I've already have been working on this.  Following a vegan lifestyle means you not only don't consume animal products, but you also need to look where all the other products you purchase come from.  I have started buying Seventh Generation and Method products for cleaning products. I feel better cleaning with products that are not tested on animals and are better for the environment.  I especially love the Method products (they even make body wash) because all their cleaning products some in different scents and they all smell great.  I am also relieved Bath and Body Works products are not tested on animals as well.  
• Gardening:  Yes I know, I don't have a yard, but I have a balcony.  I also have an apartment that gets a lot of sun.  My husband bought me a book for Christmas about gardening in small spaces.  I can't wait to test some of their suggestions out in the spring on our balcony. For now I currently am trying to grow some herbs indoors.  I have a mint and basil plant right now in my window.  I'm also trying to keep this whole gardening thing as organic as possible. Speaking of that…
• Going organic:  I know going organic is a little controversial.  Is it necessary or not?  My husband has always pushed for buying organic veggies.  I've seen a lot of documentaries and heard a lot of podcasts that have convinced me that I should try to buy organic products when they are available, even if they are a little more expensive.  I've already switched over to organic frozen broccoli at Trader Joes (it tastes so much better!) and have been making baby steps since then.  

We'll see how this all works out for me.  I'm looking forward to posting more recipes on here and hopefully some budding plants as well.  Happy New Year everyone!

English Muffin Bread

I hope everyone had a great Christmas.  I had a wonderful first Christmas as a married lady with my hubby.  As much as I love Christmas, I'm a little bit relieved the holidays are winding down.  I enjoy the whole month of December, with all the decorations and parties, but it is a lot of work (and spending money and not eating so great!).  

One of my gifts this year to coworkers and family was English muffin bread.  If you haven't had English muffin bread before you are missing out.  My gift to you is that I will share my (veganized) recipe for you to enjoy yourself.

I used to beg my mom to make me a loaf of English muffin bread.  It tends to disappear quickly.  My mother's recipe is not vegan but the other week she gave us a loaf…a vegan one!  I didn't think it was possible, but it was so good, and my husband and I polished off half the load before breakfast time.  All it took was two simple substitutions and you too can have a (vegan) loaf of your very own.  

I'll admit.  It's a little bit of a pain in the butt to make and messy.  Well maybe I'm just messy.  Dylan had to clean the kitchen after I was done…flour everywhere.  Once you get the hang of it it's really not so hard to make.  Here's what you'll need…

Ingredients

• 5 1/2 cups four (spoon cups with a spoon to pack lightly)
• 2 packages of active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups unsweeted soy or almond milk (be conscious of allergies!)
• 1/2 water
• cornmeal
• vegan butter (for lining pans)

First you're going to combine 3 cups of flour, the yeast, sugar, salt and baking soda into a bowl.  Heat your milk and water in a separate pan until they are warm.   Since I was making these for coworkers I used soy milk because I wasn't sure if their kids had any nut allergies.  You have to be careful these days.  The soy milk came out fine and I used almond milk for my family at it was perfect as well.   After your water and milk are heated add this to the dry ingredients and stir in more flour to make a stiff batter.  I would recommend using an electric mixer for this.  Grease two 8.4x4.5 inch pans with vegan butter and sprinkle cornmeal on the sides.  Next you spoon your batter into the pans.  Cover your pans and let rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes.  I don't have too many warm spots in my apartment so I keep it in the oven on the warm setting.  

Next cook your breads at 400 degrees for 25 minutes and you're done!  Remove the bread from the pans right away and let the loaves cool.  Make sure you toast this bread before you eat it!  I recommend slicing it nice and thin.  I've also used this bread to make garlic bread.  Yum.  

I have a couple more packs of yeast calling for me to crank out some more loaves of this bread while we are on winter break.  I think I'm in trouble.  As you can see from the meal above, we've been eating very well this holiday!

Sophie get's some mashed potatoes as well!  Merry Christmas everyone!

Wednesday Night

Wednesday night.   It's a good night.  It's almost the weekend (emphasis on almost), the husband and I went for a nice walk since it was beautiful outside, and we had a delicious dinner.  

Here's Soph begging for some tofu...

We had a ton of fresh vegetables in our fridge so I decided to make another round of veggie lo mein.  I was feeling a little adventurous (and thin) so I decided to cut my veggie "noodles" with real pasta noodles.  No regrets.  

I cannot praise sesame oil enough.  It really made this dish.  If you're going to cook with an oil you might as well cook with something that's going to provide a lot of flavor.  Sesame oil is the way to go if you're cooking an Asian-inspired dish.  

I served our dinners in giant Fiestaware bowls my mom gave us to add to our collection.  My theory is you don't need portion control when you're consuming 80-90% vegetables.  

My one regret of the evening was with my chili paste.  Not for me but for my husband.  Sometimes I forget that I am genetically superior when it comes to consuming spicy food compared to Dylan.  He still tries to keep up with me though.  His first round of veggie lo mein was spice-free, the second round he added some chili paste.  He needed a couple of cans of seltzer water after that...  All in moderation my friends.  However, if you are a fan of spicy food I suggest you buy some chili paste.  It's spicy and it's zero calories and most importantly tasty!

We ended the evening with some fresh air popped popcorn.  If you don't have a popcorn maker you're missing out.  My brother got me this one years ago and I love it.  It's a great healthy snack.  I added some melted vegan butter and nutritional yeast to ours tonight.  Better than the movies!

Veggie Lo Mein

Everyday I wake up with the intention to be healthy and active.  Most of the time it happens, not aways though.  In an ideal world I will run, walk, or go to the gym every day, easier said than done of course. On our honeymoon in NYC my husband and I walked 12 miles one day.  Dylan thinks I took him on a death march, but I loved it.  When we got home from work last night we attempted to take a walk with the dog, but it started pouring rain.  I think Dylan was a little relieved.  We opted for a glass of wine on the deck instead, that's good for your heart too right?

So if I can't be active everyday I figured I could at least make something healthy for dinner.  We've been incredibly busy lately.  It seems as though all our friends are getting married, having babies or celebrating birthdays.  I feel like I haven't pulled together a blog worthy meal in while (I'm sure everyone knows how to make pizza right?).  

I have so many fresh and frozen vegetables in our kitchen so it's not too difficult to throw something together that's healthy.  I decided to make a veggie lo mein with zucchini noodles.  Here's what I used:

Ingredients

• 1 zucchini (made into noodles with the Sprialfix)
• 1/2 package of Trader Joe's Healthy Chopped Veggie Mix (I used the other half in a salad last night, you can use any chopped veggies you'd like!)
• 1 onion chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic chopped 
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1/4 cup Bragg's Amino Acid (it's an earthy crunchy soy sauce)

For a little something else on the side I made Trader Joe's Thai Vegetable Gyoza (Japanese dumpling) with their Sweet Chili Sauce on the side.  This sauce is super tasty if you haven't tried it already.  It's great for dipping veggie chicken nuggets in.  

To cut down on oil I made the gyoza in a pan with water, they came out pretty good!

Now back to the lo mein.  I broke out my wok and sautéed my chopped onion and garlic in sesame oil. If you haven't cooked with sesame oil before, you are missing out.  The smell is incredible and it gives whatever you're cooking a real authentic Asian flavor. 

After I sautéed the garlic and onion for a bit I added the rest of my veggies and zucchini noodles to the wok.  I threw in a some leftover veggie chicken as well to add a little protein to the dish.  I topped everything off with the Bragg's sauce. 

I said to my husband this meal was 95% veggies, well that's what I estimated at least.  With the zucchini noodles I honestly don't miss the real noodles.

  So here it is, some guilt free Chinese food.  You'll never have to order takeout again.  Ok, I'm kidding about that...

Monday Night

We went to the gym. My husband is making dinner tonight.  The dog is following his every move.

Life is good.

As much as I love cooking for my family (ask me that in ten years I might have a different response) it's nice to have a night off.  Regardless of whether I'm cooking or not I claimed before we were married sole responsibility of the grocery shopping.  That way when Dylan cooks for me he has plenty of goodies to choose from.

I'd like to do more posts on here about grocery shopping.  I budget $100 a week for groceries which I am easily able to do.  I can usually keep our bill under $80 a week.  I also strive to have minimal food waste.  I read an article recently that stated American's end up throwing out roughly 1/3 of their groceries.  Not in my house!  We rarely ever toss anything out.  I consider my grocery shopping skills as a victory for my family every week.  We eat well and we don't waste.

Now the dog is following me...

Squashin' it

Spaghetti Squash.  I'm not going to lie to you.  It doesn't taste like spaghetti.  Some (people on diets) may try to tell you it does, but I assure you you won't be mistaking a bowl of spaghetti squash for pasta unless you have the taste buds of a 90 year old or it's smothered in sauce.

Now that I've gotten that disclaimer out of the way, let's talk about the spaghetti squash for what it is.  The spaghetti squash is unique in that it has a noodle like texture.  I was introduced to it a few years ago, and it's definitely been a great fall go to.  Depending on where you buy spaghetti squash, it can be a little pricey, especially if you pay per pound.  I bought mine at Trader Joe's, for I want to say $2.99.  One thing I like about Trader Joe's is that all the veggies are a set price, no weighing involved.

Typically with spaghetti squash I've seen people try to pretend it's pasta and smother it with tomato sauce.  However, I am going to show you a vegan dish which celebrates the squash for what it is!  You'll need:

Ingredients

• 1 spaghetti squash, cooked (see below for directions)
• 1/3 cup Italian Dressing (I use Fanny's Lite Italian)
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• red pepper flake (I use a lot on mine as usual!)

First, let's talk about how you cook this thing.  There are several ways to cook a spaghetti squash including a microwave (easy right?).  We don't have a microwave in our home so I'll be cooking mine in the oven.

The trickiest part is cutting this baby in half, I'm terrible at this so I don't really have any help for you there.  Once you have your squash cut in half you'll notice the ewwy gooey innards of the squash is similar to a pumpkin.  Take a spoon and scoop that all that out.  Heat your oven to 375 and cook your squash for about 40 minutes.  You can brush each side with olive oil or seasoning if you'd like, but I'm opting not to since I'm going to add dressing later.

Once your squash is cooked you're going to have to manhandle it, so let it cool! When it's a comfortable temperature to touch, take a fork and scrap the inside of you're squash.  You'll notice when you do this the texture of the squash is stringy, like spaghetti.  Hey that's where the name comes from!

I gathering my squash innards (yummy) in a dish and tossed with the dressing, nutritional yeast and red pepper flake.  I think this makes a great side dish, however I served this as our dinner so I added some veggies and protein.  You can add anything you want, I think peas are a nice addition to the squash.  For our dinner I added peas and Beyond Chicken strips.  Beyond Chicken is one of my favorite chicken alternatives, plus a serving is 120 calories and 20 grams of protein! (Hey that's how vegetarians get their protein, huh!
So here it is, a nice healthy fall meal that is primarily vegetables.  We went apple picking earlier in the day so we have an endless supply of apple crisp in our future.  We also grabbed some wine from the winery at the orchard as well!

 I love fall.

The best thing I make...

This is the best thing I make.  Period.

It's easy.  It's versatile.  It's healthy. It's tasty.  It's chili.

It's fall so therefore it's pumpkin candle, boots, and chili season.  It's one of my favorite times of year, and not just because it's better hair weather.  This is the perfect time to break out the old crockpot and make some delicious vegan chili.

I make this chili all year round.  I love this recipe so much because everyone enjoys it, carnivores and vegetarians alike.  It's got a little spice but not too much spice.  It's got a balance of protein and veggies. And it's perfect to serve with bread, and I am always looking for any excuse to eat bread.

This is my fall variation of this recipe, but the basic chili has four ingredients, all from Trader Joe's.  I've played around with adding different vegetables such as peppers, but the recipe with just the four ingredients covers all your bases.  I hope you love it as much as my family, my friends, and I do!

Ingredients

• one 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes (undrained)
• 1 package of soy chorizo
• 1 can of black beans (drained)
• 1 container of Trader Joe's mirepoix (diced carrots, onions, and celery)

Optional (I used this for this chili)

• 1 can of organic pumpkin puree

Again you can use any veggies you like, you do not need to buy the precut veggies.  I usually prefer to cut my own veggies since it's so much more economical, but the precut mix is so perfect for this chili.  

Basically you are going to drain your beans and throw everything else into a pot and stir together.  Just be careful with the soy chorizo, it's in a plastic package, it's a little misleading if you haven't cooked with it before.  When I first bought it I thought it was a solid sausage, but it's actually a crumble.  Just make sure you squeeze it out of the plastic.  I may be married to  know someone who cooked the plastic once.  Now that I have a crockpot in my life, I'm going to use it as much as possible.  However, I've made this recipe on the stove for years and it's come out great. With the crockpot today I cooked mine on low for five hours.    

I topped my chili with some Daiya cheese and chopped tomatoes.  Everything is better when it's served with a hunk of bread!  Enjoy!

The Amazing Bisquick

There are so many familiar food products out there you may not realize are vegan.  Everyone has had Bisquick pancakes before right?  Did you know the mix is vegan?  

It is!  And I use it quite a bit.  You may have picked up by now that I like foods that are versatile.  It makes grocery shopping and meal planning so much easier when you have room to play around with what you have in your cabinets.  

Today was a cooler rainy day, the perfect kind of day for soup.  As with most of my attempts at making meals for my family, this was  bit of an experiment.  I knew what I had in the kitchen and decided to could throw something decent together.  

As I've said before, I have to be a little more creative on Sundays.  When I make this soup (or I guess it was more like a stew) I would add more vegetables and maybe even potatoes as well.  For now this is what I used…

Ingredients 

•  32 oz. vegetable broth
• 1 package of Gardein Beefless Tips
• 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables (but you could use any veggie you'd like!)
• 1 cup frozen mixed peppers
• 2 cups of Bisquick mix
• 2/3 cup unsweatened almond milk
• 1 tablespoon crushed garlic
• salt and pepper to taste

I know there are rules to making soup.  I don't really know any of them.  So I'll tell you what I did since it worked for me.

I emptied my vegetable broth into a pot on the stove on high heat.  When the broth started to boil I added my mixed veggies, garlic, and beefless tips.  While everything was heating up I started my dumplings.  Bisquick boxes have directions for all sorts of fun stuff you can make with the mix besides pancakes.  I am drawn to their biscuits and dumplings recipes because the only thing I need to change in the recipe is the milk.  We use almond milk, but there are a lot of other alternates out there like coconut, cashew, and soy milk.  I mixed the almond milk and Bisquick mix together in a bowl.  Once the dough was made I dropped spoonfuls of the dough into the boiling soup.  I covered the pan and reduced the heat to medium and let it sit for about 20 minutes.  I did about of it covered and half uncovered.

What I thought would be a soup came out as more of a stew, and it was delicious!  I admit it didn't photograph well (I know how that feels), but it tasted great.  My husband really loved it.  It's definitely going to be something I'll play around with more this fall.   

Easiest dessert ever...

I'm not much of a baker.  I'm not really a sweets person.  Lock me in a room with a cake and I wouldn't touch it.  Lock me in a room with a loaf of bread however, and it wouldn't be pretty.  During my single days grocery shopping for myself, I would rarely buy any type of dessert food.  Now I have a husband and four year old who can polish off a box of cookies in two days.

I have committed my life to a man with a sweet tooth, therefore, I have committed to making a dessert once in awhile.  I like branching out and vegan baking can be quite a challenge.

However, this dessert is not.  And it was still delicious.  And vegan.

Did you know that you can make a cake with cake mix and 8 ounces of soda?  Thank you Pinterest.  The possibilities are endless.  Plus it's two ingredients, amazingly easy.

I've dabbled with several combinations of cake mix and soda, but this particular one was a home run.  This is the perfect cake to make with kids.  Two ingredients = less of a chance of mess = everybody wins!  Our four year old likes to bake with me so he and I went to pick out ingredients to make a cake for dad.  We originally wanted to make something with root beer (we are both big fans), but we opted for cream soda instead.

As for cake mix everything I've seen from Duncan Hines has been vegan, containing no eggs or milk products.  I had never made a cake like this with spice cake so I grabbed it.  Gotta keep our marriage spicy, right? 

Making a soda cake like this is super easy.  I'll say it again….. easy. I don't even need to list the ingredients.  Basically, you add the soda (I used 8 ounces, but I have seen variations of the amount to use) and the entire cake mix.  Stir it together, and place in a greased pan (I used Earth Balance butter).  I used a 9 x13 pan because that was what I had available.  Cook for the amount of time displayed on the box, however I cooked mine about 7 minutes longer than directed.  

The combinations of cream soda and spice cake mix was delightful.  It smelled great and tasted great.    Our little guy ate it up.

You're welcome.

Not a subpar sub...

My husband casually mentioned meatball subs the other night so I decided to win some wife points and picked up our favorite pre made vegetarian meatballs from Trader Joe's. I would like to dabble with making my own veggie meatballs, but honestly the last thing I want to do after working all day is roll bean balls.  I'll save that for a weekend.  

My mom visited us and brought us a fresh loaf of bread from Panera (she's the best!).  It definitely upped my level of submarine sandwich action.  I didn't document this meal like I usually do because honestly I didn't think it was blog worthy, plus we just got our wedding pictures so I was "slightly" distracted!  I regretted not taking more pictures after the first bite.  When my husband asked for seconds I knew I had to post what I made.  

I can't really take credit for the bread and the meatballs, but the sauce is where I make my creative contribution to this meal.  It's my own recipe and it's simple, tasty, and very versatile.  Once you have your base you can add any veggie or protein you want to it.  I'm including what I used last night but I've played around with all different vegetables and veggie proteins and have not gone wrong yet.  

Ingredients

• 2 one pound cans of unsalted plum tomatoes 
• 1 six ounce can of tomato paste 
• 1 14.5 ounce can to tomato sauce
• 1 onion chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic chopped (again we love garlic…you can use more or less!)
• 1 cup chopped peppers (I used frozen since that's what I had, fresh works great as well)
• 1/4 cup olive oil (I used less that 1/4 this time around the sauce was not lacking)
• 3 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup brown sugar (I didn't use this for this particular meal, the sauce was still tasty but you can't go wrong with a little brown sugar!)

Making sauce also gave me an opportunity to break out another wedding gift, our crock pot!  I'm a crock pot novice, but all my girlfriends rave about throwing something together and coming home to an amazing smelling house.  I usually make my sauce on the stove in a pot and let it simmer, but I opted for the crock pot.  I cut up my veggies and combined them with the canned tomatoes.  I mixed everything together in the crock pot besides the meatballs.  I didn't know how the meatballs would hold up in the crock pot so I added them last.  I cooked the sauce on simmer for 4.5 hours and then added the meatballs when my mom and I returned from shopping.

If I was a super wife I would have toasted the bread with the Daiya cheese before I added the meatballs and sauce.  I slacked off and added the cheese afterwards.  Still delicious, plus I made a side salad so it's all healthy, right?  We used the leftover sauce tonight over pasta.  Kid and husband approved is always a win!

I hoped to not to be one of those women who are obsessed about their wedding, but I'm thrilled with our pictures.  I love every single one of them.  Here's my favorite and the reason why I slacked on taking pictures of packages of meatballs.  

Husband inspired...

Happy Labor Day Weekend!  

Going into this weekend I anticipated (correctly) there would be copious amounts of beer and cook out food, therefore I was extra motivated to get my healthy food in when I can.  I needed to make an additional grocery haul Friday night and my husband had a request…

My hubby always talks about Life Alive in Cambridge.  We've never seemed to make our way there together since usually when we're in the city we tend to gravitate towards Grasshopper in Allston.  I will absolutely write an ode to Grasshopper on here at some point.  Anyways, Dylan would always talk about one particular dish he would have at Life Alive.  I thought it would be a great healthy meal to start off a not so healthy weekend plus making it would win me some wife points. ;)

Ingredients

• 1 heart of romaine lettuce
• 1 tomato 
• 1/4 red onion 
• 1 package of tempeh 
• 1/4 cup Trader Joe's BBQ Sriracha sauce (but you could use any marinade you want or non at all!)
• 1 ripe avodado
• 1 package of precooked squash
• brown rice
• nutritional yeast for topping

This meal is super simple yet unique.  The preparation obviously doesn't require much explanation.  I prepared my lettuce, tomato, avocado and onion while my rice and squash were cooking.  I bought frozen squash to save time.

I don't think I've talked about tempeh too much on here yet.  Tempeh is the new tofu.  I never thought I liked it until Dylan and I had it at a wedding in May.  Tempeh is so versatile.  You can fry it, bake it, marinate it, and it's good for you!  I like to marinate it in teriyaki sauce.  For this dish I sliced the tempeh  and cooked it in a pan with a little vegan butter.  Then I added my BBQ sauce.  

I layered this salad with the warm rice and squash at the bottom then the salad.  I topped everything off with the tempeh and nutritional yeast.  It was so good and honestly didn't need  any dressing.  We balance out this healthy meal with a big hunk of bread and some wine.  Enjoy!