Tis the Season....

Well one week from today is March 1st, and you know what that means ladies, tis the season...bikini season that is! I'm running alittle behind in my new year and new resolutions which usually include a new diet and the only thing I can thank for this sluggish non-diet has been our best friend's wedding, lots of January Birthdays (mine included!) and a valentines get-a-way to Santa Fe, a yearly tradition, with my husband! And special occasions call for special food (see below). But alas, the time has come, I need to fit in my white pants and at some point a swimsuit so I'm back to my diet! My favorite restaurant here in town is The Vine, and they make a delish salad called The Bavarian Salad. Its a great cabbage salad, that is dilly-y and vinegar-y, and yumm-yyyyyyy! And so this is my healthy take on it, if i'm going to be eating salads from now til whenever the white pants fit, then it might as well be tasty! Enjoy!

My morning in Santa Fe started with good intentions, a hippie green drink from Pasquals....heaven! (but no worries, my second order there was pancakes...)

 and an afternoon snack of a smoked sage margarita (gosh, I want another one!!) and macaroons.....

 

dinner at Coyote Cafe....mushroom stroodle and some mac n cheese....this vegan splurged alittle....

 And ended the day with this.....a Flight of every icecream available on their dessert menu....YUM....now you see why I need to get in gear!

 Start with a full head of cabbage, I used nappa cabbage, or if you don't like to chop, you can buy the pre-shredded bag.

 Followed by three "bunches" of raddishes....

 Chopped sideways so you get rounds....if you don't find chopping theraputic, these come sliced too in a bag!

 One large chopped Cucumber

 

1/2 chopped green onions (optional if you don't like onions)

 One large handful of fresh dill, chopped and combine all veggies in a salad bowl. Reserve 1tsp for dressing.

 Now the dressing, 1/4 plus 1tbs apple cider vinegar (pinterest and Dr. oz tells me unfiltered organic apple cider vinegar burns fat or something....but any vinegar would be tasty) Plus 1/2c extra virgin olive oil.

 2 tablespoons of honey, and 2tsp salt, 1tsp pepper, plus 1tsp of the fresh dill you reserved from earlier. Whisk until combined.

 Should look like this!

 And there you have it! This salad, will make ALOT, and the dressing should last til the salad is gone! So don't feel bad about the oil! Also, I like to "dress" my salad and then let it sit around 15 minutes or so and let the dressing reallysoak into everything! That pink drink is sadly not a grapefruit margarita or something else fab....its just plain grapefruit juice, which pinterest and dr. oz also tell me burns fat...Here's Hoping!

 

 

Salad

1 head of nappa cabbage chopped

3 bunches fresh raddishes chopped

1 large cucumber diced

1/2c green onions diced

1 large handful (1/2 a cup??) diced

 

Combine all into a large salad bowl and mix!

 

Dressing

1/4 plus 1tbs vinegar (any light color will work, balsalmic will also work but it will just turn ur salad a darker color)

1/2c extra virgin olive oil

1tbs honey

2tsp salt

1tsp pepper

1tsp fresh chopped dill

 

Give it all a good whisk til combined! Serve over salad, and let salad rest "dressed" for about 10-15 minutes and serve!

Ughhhhh Pinterest!!!

So I can definitely say that I am addicted to pinterest....and generally speaking, it is creating really bad habits for me!!! It makes me wanna shop til I drop, and make endless amounts of casseroles and baked goods, I only wish the workout pins made me wanna work out more!! So saturday, I was pinning away and decided I HAD TO HAVE a baked good right then, I didn't even care what it was. So I scoured my kitchen because I couldn't go to the store,  it was 2pm and I was clearly still in Pjs. I ran through several cookbooks, and found a recipe I could create into my own recipe based on the few ingredients I found in my pantry in the cookbook Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan! The whole recipe really was super easy, and only has 2tbs of oil in the whole batch! I know sugar and flour aren't that great for you, but a cupcake whose fat content is limited to two tablespoons of olive oil (thats including frosting people) is pretty dang good! So here you have my creation, Lemon cupcakes! Clearly my recipe needs some attention, as it only made 7 cupcakes, haha!! But that actually worked out great since its just me and Ben, but if you wanted more, double the cake recipe, and do the icing as directed below, I had more than enough left over to lick the bowl for hours! Feel free to leave out the lemon (replace with 1tsp vanilla each for cake and icing) and they would make great plain old vanilla ones too! Nothing wrong with that! Enjoy!

 Wet Ingredients, mix 2/3c almond milk (or soy or regular) with 2tbs olive oil (or any other oil you have on hand) 1tbs lemon juice and the zest of two lemons. Dry ingredients, mix together 1/2c sugar, 1c flour, 1tsp salt, and 3tsp baking powder.  With mixer on, slowly add your dry ingredients to wet until combined. If your batter is alittle thick, you can add a tbs of water at a time.

 Fill cupcake tins halfway, and bake in Oven at 350 for approx 20 minutes.

 While cupcakes are baking, make your icing. I did a simple powdered sugar icing. 1 1/2c powdered sugar, juice of 2 lemons, 1tbs water, and the zest of 2 lemons. Mix together. Let icing sit in fridge for approx 30 minutes.

 Once cupcakes have cooled. I poked holes in them with my fork, so that some of the icing could seep down into the cupcake. Place a spoonful of icing on each cupcake.

 Then garnish! Ina Garten of the Barefoot Contessa says you should always garnish with what is actually inside the dish, because then people know what they are about to eat, so I did little mini lemon wedges!

 The longer they sit the firmer the icing, but patient is not a word I would use to describe myself (see below)

Lemon Cupcakes
1c flour
1/2c sugar
1tsp salt
3tsp baking powder
2/3c almond milk
juice of 2 lemon approx 2tbs
zest of 2 lemons approx 2tsp
2tbs olive oil

Icing:
1 1/2c powdered sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
zest of 2 lemons
(water, if icing is too thick and needs to be thinned out)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together flour, sugar salt and baking powder. In a seperate mixing bowl, mix together milk, lemon juice, zest and olive oil. Slowly add dry ingred. to wet ingred. Mix together.  Fill cupcake tins halfway and bake for 20 minutes.

Icing, mix together powdered sugar, lemons, zest and water if needed. Let sit in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm. Apply to cooled cupcakes.

Egg Toast!

So yesterday, I ate my first egg in 1 year and 6 months! WOW thats a long time!! I decided to make one of my favorites, and it couldn't be easier! Egg Toast! It reminds me of living with my sweet cousin Alison, in college, making it together while watching any reality TV marathon together!  Some things never change, love you Ali!! Thanks again to my sweet "Goggie" for the eggs, and also the fresh tomatoes! I can't wait to make another egg creation tonight, Enjoy!!

I used olive oil to grease my pan b/c I was out of Pam, use whatever you prefer to coat the pan! One slice of bread and one egg, make as many as you please!

 Tear a Yolk-Sized hole in the middle of you bread, and toast both sides until very lightly brown over medium heat, I did this on a flat non stick pan.

 Once bread is lightly toasted, crack egg so yolk is in the hole!

 Flip and cook until desired softness, I don't like a runny yolk so I did mine for about 8 min total, flipping occasionally to avoid burning!

 Salt and Pepper to tasate and garnish however you like! I topped mine with some garden fresh tomatoes!

Egg Toast:
One slice wheat bread
1 egg (give some thought to going local and free range with your eggs!)
Something to grease your pan

Pre heat pan to medium heat and grease.  Tear out a yolk sized hole in bread, toast bread VERY lightly on both sides.  Crack egg so yolk falls into center of the bread. Flip until you have acheived your desired softness. I cooked mine for a soft but not runny yolk for aprox 8 minutes, flipping every 2 so that neither side would burn! Salt and Pepper and garnish with your choice!

EGGS

Eggs, probably the one major thing I have missed the most since becoming a vegan, I think maybe even more than Cheese! Eggs are in all of the things that I loved for so long, egg toast, egg salad, French Toast, baked goods, the list goes ON AND ON! One day I was asked by my sweet grandmother "Goggie" what my main objection to eggs is, and I told her, I want to be certain that the Chickens are being treated well, really free roaming (just because the carton says it doesn't mean they are) and that I could truly know that the chickens were living a good life! I know, I know, thats pretty Hippy Dippy of me, tree huggerish, over-the-top, whatever you want to call it, but thats how I feel! So imagine my surprise today, when Goggie found me some great free range eggs, coming from three happy healthy chickens at the same farm she buys her tomatoes at!!??! I am beyond excited, she called to tell me all about the chickens, she asked all the right questions, and they even told me if I wanted to come and meet the chickens for myself, they would be glad to have me! I decided to take Goggie's word for it and eat some dang eggs, and I CAN'T WAIT! So be ready for several eggggggcellent posts, get it!? I'll keep you "posted" get it?? Okay sorry enough cheesy jokes! Until tomorrow!

I wanna be back on Vacay!

So we just returned from a fabulous weeklong family trip to Scottsdale, AZ! We had a blast! Our daily activities included wake up, workout, lounge by the pool, lunch, nap, dinner, repeat-- with only a few exceptions of going to a Diamondbacks game and the local Casino! Of course, one of my most fun things to do on any vacay involves food and we made the most delicious grilled paninis! Some friends of my parents opened up their vacation home to us so we were lucky enough to have full kitchen etc. all the works! Even had a swim-up bar and grill in the pool! We took advantage by grilling out our paninis which is such a great way to make the average sandwhich special! We used ciabatta bread and I added hummus, avocado, red onion and lettuce, while my family added ham, cheese, whatever floated their boat for the day! Stack it the way you want it and grill both sides until crisp! So hear you have it, the meal so nice we had it thrice!

Me, mom and Kayla 

Once! Along with grilled Asparagus and watermelon!

and Twice! We thought about it all day so we had it for dinner!

 Thrice!!! Along with potato wedges and black bean and corn salsa!

The New Kitchen!!!

So the house is OFFICIALLY completed! I am starting to feel like I am on a home improvement show, and I have been wondering how on earth those shows complete such major remodels so quickly!?? But the house is done and I have been enjoying making all sorts of things in the new kitchen, and having enough room for both Ben and myself to chop veggies at the same time without using the stove for counterspace!! I am always thankful I never set anything on fire while using the stove as a surface for all my cutting boards haha! So yesterday was finally a beautiful day so we decided to grill out and enjoy the weather! I grilled all sorts of veggies to put on a sandwhich, so here are a few pics! You could also put these veggies on homemade pizzas, salads, pastas, the possibilities are really endless! Hope you enjoy!

Here is the new kitchen!! 

 I made thick slices of the following veggies, squash, zucchini, eggplant, and red onion, salt and pepper both sides and brush with olive oil!

 Grill for approx 7 minutes on each side until desired tenderness!

 I put mine on sandwhich thins with veganaise. I think this would also be great as a panini with pesto spread! Also would work in salads, pasta, homemade pizzas, etc.! Enjoy!

The Last Supper....Stuffed Peppers!

Okay, Okay, Okay....I know......I haven't blogged in a WHILE! But I do have a good excuse, which is I've been in the process of moving and re-doing our new home!!! So while I won't change the title of my blog, I am happy to say that I am no longer cooking in a small kitchen! Yay!!!!! I am thrilled to be finally moved in and done with the renovations so that I can get back to the passtime I love the most (besides watching the Rangers) cooking!! Ben and I have had enough fast food to last us a lifetime, and moving so closely to a Chic Fil A has allowed for too many quick stops for Waffle Fries and Polynesian sauce! But I did one last meal at the old duplex that I would like to share, Stuffed Peppers! Its easy and delicous, and it actually makes me a little sentimental looking at these pics in my old kitchen, but here's to some new memories (and hopefully alot of new Blog Posts!!!!) So here you have it, the last meal from my "small" kitchen, Stuffed Peppers!

Begin by hollowing out 6 bell peppers (any color will do) Put in a large pot with water, until the peppers are covered. Bring to a boil and cook for approx 10-15 minutes until peppers are soft but not falling apart.

 While peppers are boiling.  Add 2tbs olive oil to a pan along with 1 diced onion, 1 diced poblano, 1 diced annaheim (or any pepper combo you choose).

 Once softened, add 3tbs of Cumin (I know this is not an accurate way to measure....)

 3tbs of Chili Powder

 1/2 tsp of Cayenne Pepper (optional, just adds heat)

 1tbs salt, 1/2tbs pepper

 Next add one can (regular sized) of corn, hominy, and black beans

 Followed by one can of tomato sauce. And 2 cups of rice, or quinoa, or what I did, 1c quinoa with 1c brown rice. Mix together and fill each cooked pepper with mixture. Put all in baking dish and cook for approx 10 minutes at 350!

 Serve with your favorite sides, I did mine with a skinny marg, chips, avocados and tomatoes! Enjoy!

Stuffed Peppers

6 bell peppers stems and seeds hollowed out

2tbs olive oil

1 onion diced

1 poblano diced

1 annaheim diced

3tbs cumin

3tbs chili powder

1/2tsp cayenne pepper

1tbs salt

1/2tbs pepper

1 can black beans

1can corn

1 can hominey

1 can tomato sauce

1c brown rice

1c quinoa

Cover bell peppers in a large pot with water, bring to a boil and cook for approx 10-15 minutes until desired softness is reached (some people like a crunchier bite to the pepper than others, I like mine to be fairly soft!) While peppers are cooking add to a pan olive oil, onion, poblano and annaheim. Cook until softened. Add cumin, chili powder, cayenne, salt and pepper. Stir and add beans, corn, hominey, tomato sauce, and grains. Line peppers up in a shallow baking dish. Fill peppers with mixture and cook for approx 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven.