Veggielicious

Vegan Creamy Spagetti with fresh tomatoes

2011-03-29T20:59:00.000-07:00

1) Boil water, add pasta. Cook until "al dente"
2) Drain spagetti, save some of the pasta water (about 3/4 cup)
3) In the pan add a bit of vegan butter, a little flour, and the pasta water.
4) Throw the pasta back in. Add some freshly grated garlic 1-2 cloves.
5) Add about 2 tablespoons of Vegenaise (vegan mayo) or a vegan sour cream.
6) Add a pinch of oregano, several pinches of basil and sea salt to taste.
7) Serve with fresh sprig of basil, or just dried basil like I have here.
8) Don't forget to top it off with fresh tomatoes!!! Enjoy!

:)

Salsa with cucumbers and corn!

2011-03-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

Slice cucumber, this is what it should look like.

Then cut across, to get cubes.

Chop a small bunch of green onions.

Add them into the bowl.

This scoops everything up really quick =)

Cut tomatoes in thick slices.

Cut onion into thick slices too.

Add about a teaspoon of ground cumin.

Mix in the blender. Also add a pinch of salt.

Make sure you have a sharp knife for this- be careful! :)

Cut all the corn kernels off the cob.

Stir in with the salsa mixture & cucumbers.

Pile it up on your veggie meat taco.

Enjoy!

RAWSOME!!!!!!!!!

2011-03-16T23:37:00.000-07:00

So, the latest craze for some time now is going "raw." In reality it's the original diet, Adam and Eve were put in a garden and told they could eat of all the fruit on the trees, but one....but that's a whooole 'nother topic....

So....I've been putting off trying the whole 100% raw thing for over a year now. I thought "Well I'm pregnant, I don't want to "limit" myself... now I'm nursing so I have felt the same way..."Oh I can't be limiting myself" Then it hit me...you're not limiting yourself when you go raw, you are actually opening up new avenues, new taste bud adventures....so I've adopted a "semi-raw" diet....I know, I know, it's not "raw" in the sense that it's not 100%, but hey I'm happy with it!!! =) It's simple too, just means I try to eat something raw with every meal.

For example: Breakfast I'll have museli (basically raw granola) with bananas and a little agave with some chopped walnuts and some type of nut milk. Lunch I'll have bean enchiladas with chopped up tomatoes & onion on top. For dinner I'll have fruit, toast with butter or peanut butter and a soy smoothie.

Of course, I'll mix it up, this isn't what I have EVERYDAY! I gotta have variety. Sometimes I'll make pasta with raw homemade tomato sauce and raw nut cheese or bean pupusa with raw homemade salsita de tomate (which is typically cooked, boiled even) and so on and so forth. Basically with raw you don't need to cook anything, if you do apply heat to anything it's usually in the form of a dehydrator, the reason being is it is believe that food loses it's vitality and enzymes when cooked over 115 degrees (approx.)..... I'm going gaga over the Excalibur 3900....

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=excaliber+food+dehydrator&tag=googhydr-20&index=garden&hvadid=3117817697&ref=pd_sl_132egpk98j_b

Anyway....I love legumes! Especially right now I need all the calories I can get while nursing a big boy!!! (My little love is almost 9 months and over 20 lbs!) Anyway, I love Spanish rice, brown rice, beans, lentils, etc.....and those items as we all know require cooking.

As I type, my professional little crawler himself is crawling all over me trying to take the keyboard buttons off my keyboard! (Thank goodness they snap back on ;) I feel like I'm in a wrestling match with the baby and the laptop is the midst of it all......hahahaha!!!!

All the while hubby is singing in the background while shaving his beard.....

Oh I love the loves of my life.....

Whole-wheat, Agave sweetened, vegan butter, carob-chip cookies with soy milk.....

Something I don't eat anything raw with....COOKIES!!!!!!!!! Can you tell I have a sweet tooth?!?!?!?! ;)

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies & Tea

2011-03-15T01:23:00.000-07:00

Yummy chocolate chip cookies with peanut butter topping....

Good enough to eat for breakfast....with a mug of warm tea....

So why Vegetarian!?

2011-03-08T12:58:00.000-08:00

I think this is the all time question of meat eaters...why...meat taste soo good and its a great source of PROTEIN!!

Well actually beans, brown rice, spinach, carrots and most, if not all, other plant -based foods have protein...Plus vitamins, enzymes, and fiber that you can't get from meat....

If your a meat-lover....I'm not telling you to stop buying your meat....just consider buying LESS of it and if you're going to go for it PLEASE buy the ORGANIC, GRASS-FED kind!!! Your body will thank-you for it =)

Now, please take a moment to read and contemplate on the following statistics:

"Americans eat about the same amount of meat as we have for some time, about eight ounces a day, roughly twice the global average. At about 5 percent of the world’s population, we “process” (that is, grow and kill) nearly 10 billion animals a year, more than 15 percent of the world’s total" **

"Though some 800 million people on the planet now suffer from hunger or malnutrition, the majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds cattle, pigs and chickens. This despite the inherent inefficiencies: about two to five times more grain is required to produce the same amount of calories through livestock as through direct grain consumption, according to Rosamond Naylor, an associate professor of economics at Stanford University. It is as much as 10 times more in the case of grain-fed beef in the United States." **

"Because the stomachs of cattle are meant to digest grass, not grain, cattle raised industrially thrive only in the sense that they gain weight quickly. This diet made it possible to remove cattle from their natural environment and encourage the efficiency of mass confinement and slaughter. But it causes enough health problems that administration of antibiotics is routine, so much so that it can result in antibiotic-resistant bacteria that threaten the usefulness of medicines that treat people." **

"Those grain-fed animals, in turn, are contributing to health problems among the world’s wealthier citizens — heart disease, some types of cancer, diabetes. The argument that meat provides useful protein makes sense, if the quantities are small. But the “you gotta eat meat” claim collapses at American levels. Even if the amount of meat we eat weren’t harmful, it’s way more than enough." **

"Americans are downing close to 200 pounds of meat, poultry and fish per capita per year (dairy and eggs are separate, and hardly insignificant), an increase of 50 pounds per person from 50 years ago. We each consume something like 110 grams of protein a day, about twice the federal government’s recommended allowance; of that, about 75 grams come from animal protein. (The recommended level is itself considered by many dietary experts to be higher than it needs to be.) It’s likely that most of us would do just fine on around 30 grams of protein a day, virtually all of it from plant sources." **

Not to mention America has an epidemic of obesity and type II diabetes, diseases which can be prevented by the choices we make in our day to day living and food plays a central role in the overall equation. (We can talk about other things that play a role on another post, including exercise, stress, faith, the products we use on our bodies and in our homes, etc.

So I encourage you to try adding some meat-free ideas to your yummy food repertoire....

And remember my slogan... "Vegan Shmeegan" haha! No, this isn't a slam on veganism/vegetarianism it's just a reminder that you don't have to be intimidated by eating vegan/vegetarian! It's actually really FUN and EXCITING! If you have any recipes that you would like converted to vegan or vegetarian please write in the comments below and let me know so I can attempt to re-create them!!! =)

Health and Happiness,

Kat

**http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.html

"Meaty" Breakfast....

2011-02-03T16:32:00.000-08:00

So I decided to make some breakfast my tastebuds would love and my heart would love me for too! I made tofu scramble with veggie sausage (hot dogs actually) and french fries!! Yep, french fries! They are baked though so they are much healthier than the average fry.

So I first sauteed some onions in a frying pan once they were clear, I added the chopped up veggie hot dogs and let them cook for a bit, then I threw in the tofu. I smashed up the tofu in the pan with a mixing spoon and added some "Better than Bouillon" vegetable based bouillon about a tablespoon, then a pinch of sea salt. ( I also added a small pinch of the curry powder for a little spice and color)

For the fries I just preheated the oven for 350 degrees, put the fries on a cookie sheet and let them bake for about 12-15 minutes. Then Voila!

Finish with a glass of OJ and it is a quite satisfying breakfast for when you are craving something "meaty" :)

Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies! (With cashew pieces:)

2011-01-27T16:30:00.000-08:00

Raw Vegan Cheesecake!

2011-01-20T12:45:00.000-08:00