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!

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!

Chili II

My husband and I have a lot in common.  We're both special education teachers, we're both terrible at putting away laundry, and we both make a mean chili.  Those are actually the three reasons why we got married…

Okay not really, but I think it's nice to have a friendly rivalry when it comes to cooking.  We're having friends over next week and we're planning on making both of our chills.  I've introduced my version on here before, but my hubby's is very different (hence why we can serve them at the same time without being redundant).  His is very…let's say "collegey"???  And not in an educational sense, more like poor college kid throwing everything in his fridge together and some how amazingly making something that tastes good.

.  You'll know what I'm talking about when you see the ingredients…Also, please notice how the dog is stalking my husband in the picture above...

Ingredients

• 1 can vegetarian baked beans
• 1 can black beans (drained)
• 1 can red kidney beans (drained)
• 2 packages of veggie crumble
• 1 onion chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 red pepper
• 1 can diced tomatoes (with the juice)

All you need to do is mix everything together.  We made ours in our crock pot and cooked it on low for six hours.  I was skeptical, but it was delicious.  We threw some sliced jalapeño peppers and Daiya cheese on there and in the words of my husband "BOOM"!

It's certainly a hardy chili with all the protein varieties.  The baked beans add a unique flavor too.  It's something that would satisfy vegetarians and non vegetarians alike.

We'll see who makes the better chili next week though...

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! 

The newest member of our family...

…our Vitamix.

For two people who had a super small wedding we really made out with wedding gifts.  We are so luck y to have so many generous friends and family.  We did not register for a Vitamix but Dylan (the hubby) has been talking about getting one ever since we started dating.  For those who are not familiar with the Vitamix, it's the most amazing (and expensive) thing you can possibly have in your kitchen.  It's basically a food processor, blender, juicer, and so much more in one (and it cleans itself!).

We talked about possibly taking the plunge and getting one with some of our wedding money but my parents beat us to the punch and now we have a Vitamix 750 sitting on our kitchen counter.  I wanted to introduce the Vitamix because I'm probably going to be talking about it a ton.  We use it at least once a day for smoothies, soups, sauces, and more.  I'm looking forward to playing around with it more and and making soups on cold winter nights and well as some frozen margaritas before the end of the summer.  Margaritas are healthy if you make them in a Vitamix, right?

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Hello

Well I'm new to this so pardon my appearance…

I've always wanted to start a blog, but have never actually sat down to do it.  In the last month I've experienced two major life events…moving and getting married!  Both fun and exciting yet so stressful!    Now that we're back from our honeymoon and have unpacked all those beautiful Crate and Barrel boxes I'm starting to get back into cooking.

I joke with my husband that about 90% of our conversations are food related.  I think that's pretty accurate.  We also share a love of animals and do not eat meat (even our dog is a vegan).  My husband has been a vegan/vegetarian for about 20 years and currently he's on a vegan kick.  

So what does this mean for me?  Well I guess I'm the at home vegan.  With a husband that does not eat any animal products I tend to avoid eggs and dairy when I'm out of the house as well, except for that slice of NYC cheese pizza I ate on our honeymoon (totally worth it!) 

Cooking and eating as a vegan isn't as difficult as many people make it out to be, you just have to be  little more creative.  I'm constantly asked about what we eat and I love talking about it hence this blog.  

I'm not out there to preach about vegetarianism and veganism.  It's our choice and it's not for everyone, but everyone can enjoy the food we eat.  One of my favorite things to do is to cook for my meat-eating friends and family and to have them enjoy what I make.  

So I hope some of my ideas and recipes find you.  I thought it would be fun to share a little part of our new life and maybe this blog will help my husband and I cut down on our conversations about food…save it for the blog!