Vegan Crockpot Black Eyed Peas for New Year’s
(Brings good luck and prosperity in the New Year, but you can eat it anytime of the year.)
What you need:
1 bag of dry black eyed peas
6 cups of broth (no chicken broth is good)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced
1 bag greens (kale, chard, spinach, mixed, etc.)
1 bag of vegan pork (cooked and diced) (Omni brand is good)
1/3 cup BBQ sauce
Dash of garlic powder, salt, pepper
What to do:
Look through black eyed peas for quality assurance, removing impurities or other things that shouldn't be there. Put them in a dish and cover with water just above the top of them. Refrigerate and soak the beans overnight. The next morning, put the peas in a colander and wash and rinse them off. Put all ingredients in a crockpot and cook for 6-7 hours on low. Make cornbread to go with it (add some jalepenos to the wet batter). For the cornbread, you can use Jiffy vegetarian, and use soy milk and applesauce to make it in a round pan (when you use applesauce and plant based milk it turns out vegan). It turns out great!
I find the Omni vegan pork at Walmart in the freezer section, and the Jiffy vegetarian at Walmart next to the non-vegetarian one.
My daughter works at a small whole food type of store and she mentioned to me that she saw a pasta sauce that she wanted to try. When she said it was made by Primal Kitchen I was in, because I know they usually have good ingredients (I love their dressing). I told her to bring it home and we'd give it a try. A couple of nights ago, I needed to make a meal that we could take on the road. My son had a soccer game that was 1.5 hours away from home and due to the timing of it and the drive, I made meals and packed them. He ate his on the way there, my husband and I ate ours when we got there to the field. I decided to use the Primal Kitchen Vodka Pasta Sauce to make dinner that night.
The vodka pasta sauce is vegan. They say "no dairy" on the label, but it is vegan and has clean ingredients. I'm a fan of clean ingredients! So often, I find products that are vegan, but have bad ingredients in them. I don't want to hurt the animals, but I don't want to hurt our intestines either. I want clean ingredients so we are being kind to the animals, our family, and ourselves.
I thought the pasta sauce looked like regular pasta sauce and I really wanted to make it more creamy. So I decided to add in a cup of cashew cream (a cup of cashews, with water to the top and blended smooth), which would make it creamier. I also wanted to add in some protein, so what I do in a dish like this is I sauteed some chopped onion and a package of extra firm tofu all crumbled. Once that was sauteed, I added in the jar of sauce and the cashew cream and heated it up so that it could be put over the pasta. I served it up with some delicious roasted broccoli. I assembled the to-go meals in these glass dishes, so we each had one, and packed them into a hot bag for the road.
We really liked the vodka sauce pasta! It was a bit different than just eating regular pasta sauce, and everyone liked it. I would make it again and use their vodka sauce pasta. I do like adding in the cashew cream to give it more of a creamy texture. Two thumbs up for the Primal Kitchen Vodka Pasta Sauce! By the way, it cost just over $9 for the jar, which is close to what it sells for on Amazon. That is pricy, but I like the clean ingredients and if I were to make it home it would likely cost me as much, because I don't keep vodka in the house.
Here are the ingredients in the Primal Kitchen No Dairy Vodka Pasta Sauce:
Organic Tomato Puree (Water, Organic Tomato Paste), Organic Diced Tomatoes in Juice (Organic Tomatoes, Organic Tomato Juice, Calcium Chloride), Avocado Oil, Organic Pumpkin Seed Butter, Organic Onions, Organic Vodka, Sea Salt, Organic Chopped Onions, Organic Garlic Powder, Organic Dried Basil, Citric Acid, Organic Minced Garlic, Organic Dried Oregano.
Making vegan sour cream is super easy and it tastes great! For several years now, I've been making vegan sour cream with cashews. Why cashews? Because they are great! They are healthy and versatile, so I use them often. I love knowing that when I add some of this vegan sour cream to my food that I'm using a healthy topping. Once you try it out, you will love how easy and delicious it is!
Recipe for Vegan Sour Cream
What you need:
1 cup cashews
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar/sweetener
Water
What to do:
The cashews do not need to be soaked, raw or do anything special to them. I use whatever cashews I have on hand and need in the moment. Put the cashews in the blender and add water only to the top of the cashews. Add the other ingredients. Blend until smooth. Taste it to see if it is too sour or not sour enough. If it's too sour, add a little more sugar/sweetener, and blend again. If it's not sour enough, add a little more apple cider vinegar and blend again. Usually the recipe above comes out perfect, but every once in a while I have to make a slight adjustment to taste. Put it in the refrigerator when done and use it to top baked potatoes, tacos, pierogi's, etc. Yum!
I do realize that you can buy vegan sour cream at the store, and for years I did that. However, the more I have learned about ingredients over the years, the less I've wanted to eat those products. They may be vegan, but they often contain ingredients that are harmful to your intestines. I'd rather have something like this, which is healthier and doesn't contain any questionable or harmful ingredients (barring you don't have a nut allergy, of course).
Recently, my husband walked into the house and handed me a large bag of Beyond Steak tips. He had been at BJ's and saw them and was intrigued. He knew I would care about the ingredients, so he took a quick look and didn't see any of the things I commonly try to avoid, so he bought them. He said he'd like us to try vegan steak tacos with it for dinner one night. I was in!
I heated up the Beyond steak tips, and put them on small warmed tortillas that had vegan cheese, lettuce, tomato, and salsa. I ate two of them, while my husband had three. I served them up with some yellow rice.
They were so good! The four of us (my husband and our two teenagers) all really liked the Beyond steak tips a lot. I was surprised! They have a great texture and taste, and I thought they made for some great steak tacos.
We had them again tonight, because I liked them so much and wanted them again already. They are so good!
I really like that the ingredients are not bad either. Far too often a food will be vegan, yet the ingredients are bad. I'm glad that those foods don't hurt animals, but they shouldn't have ingredients in them that will hurt you either. I like vegan food that has clean ingredients.
Two thumbs up for the Beyond Steak tips! They are really good and you could use them for a variety of things. Try them in vegan steak tacos. Delicious!
If there is one snack we like in our house it is chips. There is something about that crunch that keeps us wanting more. But... we grapple with the fact that they are unhealthy, so we have to keep eating them to a minimum, or skip them all together. Well, until now!
This past week, we tried these chips, called Pinole Chips, made by Bob's Natural. Total game changer! These tortilla chips are vegan, and they have protein and fiber. These are tortilla chips that you do not have to feel so guilty about eating, because they have fiber and protein. They have chia seeds and other healthy ingredients.
I really liked them, too! In all honesty, the chile lime ones were too spicy for me, but my husband loved them. I liked the BBQ ones (they tasted like Doritos), and I liked the plain ones. Very good chips!
If you are looking for some healthier vegan tortilla chips, check them out! You can visit the company website here to see where to buy them in your area.
Sometimes you can make dinner be super simple, and yet it's still satisfying and healthy! That's how it is with these simple black bean bowls.
What you see is the dinner I recently served up. It was simple to make, the presentation looked nice, and everyone liked it! I served it up with some small warmed corn tortillas.
I just warmed up a can of black beans (drained them), made some rice, and then added the veggies and vegan cheese. There's also a little dish of mango, which topped it all off.
Keeping it simple when making healthy vegan meals is great. It doesn't take much time and effort, everyone likes it, and you know you are eating and feeding your family a healthy meal.
Looking for a great balsamic dressing and marinade? Look no further than the one by Primal Kitchen!
I've been buying the Primal Kitchen Balsamic dressing and marinade for a while now. I absolutely love it!
The dressing is so darn good, and the ingredients are great. Yay! A winning combination in my book.
It's difficult to find a vegan dressing that not only tastes really good, but that has clean ingredients. I find so many that get ruined by having ingredients that I don't want (i.e., xanthan gum, other gums, etc.). The ingredients on this vegan dressing are great, and I love the taste!
Is it a little pricy? Yes. I'm not going to lie. This dressing is one of the more expensive ones on the shelf, but I buy a bottle every other week (sometimes weekly), because everyone in the house likes it and we use it several different ways. I'm willing to pay a little to get a product that tastes great and has great ingredients.
Here are the ingredients in this vegan dressing:
Organic Balsamic Vinegar (Organic Wine Vinegar, Organic Concentrated Grape Must), Avocado Oil, Water, Sea Salt, Organic Lemon Juice Concentrate, Organic Garlic Powder, Organic Onion Powder, Konjac Root, Organic Black Pepper, Organic Basil, Organic Oregano
All clean ingredients from what I can tell. Yay!
So what all do I use this on? A lot! Of course, I use it on salad, such as the one pictured that I quickly whipped up for lunch today (it also has vegan chick'n strips on it). I also use it to dip my pizza crust and to make my bean salad. It is also a great marinade!
Give it a try! You can buy it at most grocery stores, although I've seen the price per bottle vary by $2 at different stores. They also sell it on Amazon, of course. I have found that it is the most affordable at Walmart and the most expensive at Publix. Shop around to save money on it. I've also frequently seen iBotta refunds on it. They also have other products, but I just haven't gotten around to trying those yet.
Two thumbs up for Primal Kitchen Balsamic Dressing!
For a while now I have been wanting to try Bake Chop in Downtown DeLand. I have looked at their menu many times and was interested in trying the vegan TLT, which has BBQ tempeh and veggies. Well, today was the day that we finally made trying this place happen!
My husband and I decided to spend the morning at Blue Spring State Park. It was a lovely morning there! With schools being back in, it was not busy at all. It was lovely! And we had to big manatees swim under us as we floated down the run (we often have manatee sightings at this spring). Once we were done there, we decided to go to lunch, and I suggested Bake Chop in Downtown DeLand.
Bake Chop is vegetarian and vegan friendly. The menu has a little symbol next to dishes to let you know which ones are vegetarian and which ones are vegan. They have numerous vegetarian and vegan dishes to choose from.
The restaurant is located in Artisan Alley, which is right off the main road going through Downtown DeLand. I love how DeLand makes sure there is plenty of free parking downtown, which makes it easier to go to places in the area. The restaurant was busy, so we took a pager and we were seated in around 10 minutes or so. We already knew what we wanted to order, because we made the decisions while waiting for the table. I ordered the TLT (tempeh, lettuce, tomato sandwich) with fries, and my husband ordered the Stevo, which is a vegan bean burger, and he opted to have it with a side of plantains.
When it was brought to us the woman said the burger was a bit well done and and if it wasn't to my husband's liking she would be happy to swap it out for a new one. He declined and didn't mind that it was cooked that way, he was up for trying it. We decided to swap a little of each other's sandwich, so that we could try both. I age my part of the burger first and I liked it. Then I went in for the TLT and it did not disappoint! I really liked it. The sandwich had the taste of the BBQ tempeh, along with the flavors of the veggies, and the bread. It was really good! I liked the fries, too. I tried my husband's plantains and they were also good.
Everything we tried was good, so we were happy with the experience. The food was good, the options were nice, and we had good service. If you are looking for good vegetarian or vegan options in West Volusia, check out Bake Chop. It looked like they also had some vegan desserts, but I was too full to give them a try.
Two thumbs up for Bake Chop, we will go back again for sure!
Anyone who lives in Florida is familiar with Publix. It's a Florida iconic place! Not only is it a grocery store that people in the state like, including myself, but they are also famous for their sub sandwiches, aptly called the "pub sub." Well, they have vegetarian and vegan options, too!
You can use the Publix app to place an order for a sub, which is what I recommend. Their deli counter gets ridiculously busy and you can wait a while to get a sub made. I always order it ahead of time in the app, so that when I arrive it's sitting there ready and I just grab it and go. They have a veggie sub, a black bean burger sub, falafel sub, vegetarian Philly sub, and a meatless turkey club sub.
I have ordered the meatless turkey club sub many times now. It's a good sub! I will say that the stores are inconsistent in how they make it though. I have found that some stores do a good job making it, while others are not so good at making it. I've been disappointed several times, simply because they messed up in making it. When they make it right, it's really good!
You can get a whole or half, which a half is always enough for me. It comes on a sub roll or you can opt for something else. It's made with Unreal Deli Roasted Turkey, Chao Vegan Cheese, Lightllife Smart Bacon, Vegan Ranch dressing, etc. I could do without that brand of veggie bacon, because the ingredients are not so good. I also like it better without the ranch. I just put vinegar and oil packets on it. I also add lettuce, tomato, onion, etc. There are lots of different veggies you can choose to have added to it.
Two thumbs up for the Publix meatless turkey club sub! When they get it right it's tasty. You will learn which locations do it right and then you can stick with ordering from that one, which is what I do. It's nice that so many options have been added that can be ordered as a sub. I have tried the vegetarian Philly one, too, but I'm not a fan.
A good friend of ours, Omar (owner of Kale Cafe in Daytona Beach), has told me several times as we have sat under the tent watching our sons play soccer that I need to try black salt on tofu. He said it makes it taste like eggs. Well, I have heard him say it numerous times over the last couple of years, and finally I recently picked some up and tried it. Wow, total game changer!
I like the taste of eggs, but I don't buy them because of what they are and where they came from. I was excited when Just Egg came out and in the beginning I used it often, making things like sandwiches and omelets. I have used tofu for 27 years to make tofu scrambles and tofu salad (what some like to call eggless egg salad). The problem with the Just Egg-type products is that contain questionable ingredients, and they also changed the formula, so it didn't taste as good.
But I have never tried using black salt to give it an egg flavor. Until now...
For the last two weeks, I have been using black salt on tofu to make my breakfast sandwiches. It's so good! I take thin slices of tofu, put them in a pan with a little olive oil, and then grind some black salt over the top, as well as adding in some turmeric. I fry up both sides and then add the pieces to bread to make a sandwich or to a toasted English muffin to make a sausage muffin (this also has a veggie sausage, vegan butter, and some jelly). It's seriously delicious (thank you, Omar!).
The black salt I bought is coarse, so I grind it up. At first, I was grinding it with a spoon, but then I picked up a cheap grinder over the weekend. You will want to adjust the amount used to your taste. You can use this in making sandwiches, tofu salad, tofu scramble, etc.
Pictured above is my morning sandwich (which I eat often for breakfast). It's the tofu with black salt turmeric on Food For Life sprouted bread, which is my favorite. It's sold in the freezer section.
I wish I had listened to him the first time he mentioned the black salt on tofu, but I'm glad that I finally tried it out. It's really good! You can get black salt on Amazon, as well as some local health food stores. I love tofu and eat it often, so this is one more option I have. And before someone says tofu isn't healthy, please read the loads of research saying that it is healthy.
Enjoy!
This weekend, we were in Lake Nona, Florida for a soccer tournament. I did a search to find some vegan food near us, and Veg'n Out came up, which was less than 15 minutes away, so we decided to go there for lunch between the games.
My son wanted an acai bowl, so he ordered one of those with, and my husband and I both wanted to try one of their salad bowls. I got the BLT one, which had coconut bacon, and my husband got a spicy chickpea one. My son usually loves acai bowls, but he wasn't a fan of the base of theirs, so he mostly just ate the stuff off the top. It contained spirulina and I think that may have been the issue that led to him not liking it, but I'm not sure.
The salads that my husband and I got were great! They were loaded with healthy whole ingredients and it tasted great. His had a spicy dressing, along with a cashew dressing, and he thought it was great and the two together provided enough dressing for the whole salad. Mine only had a little serving of cashew dressing with it, which was so good! I loved the taste of the cashew dressing. However, it wasn't enough for the whole salad. If were to go there again I'd order another container of the dressing so that it was enough for the whole salad.
Overall, it was a good place. They don't have but a couple of chairs to sit on, so we had to eat in our car. It's more of a place to take your food to go. The food was good and it's all vegan and whole. Two thumbs up! Check out the Veg'n Out menu here.
Today, I stopped in to try Cafe Del Sol, located in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. It was a two minute walk from where my office is, and I had been wanting to try it since I heard about the place months ago. I kept putting it off, because I was waiting to try it with the friend who told me about it. Since her schedule is always keeping her busy, I decided to try it today with my husband for lunch.
Cafe Del Sol has a great little diner that offers some indoor and outdoor seating. The menu there is all vegetarian, and then anything can be made vegan (or non-vegetarian by adding chicken). We saw numerous items on the menu we were interested in trying. I ordered the quinoa nachos (no feta) and my husband ordered the quinoa wrap.
Both dishes were great! The food at this place is healthy and has clean ingredients. The nachos were delicious, filling, and made with healthy ingredients. Two thumbs up!
We will be going back to this place for sure. Lots of good options to try! This restaurant also has a location in San Rafael, California and Tam Junction. Check out their menu and options here.
While in the area for a soccer tournament, I did a quick search to see what vegetarian and vegan restaurants were nearby. I came across Dark & Light Cafe, which is located in downtown Mount Dora. I love downtown Mount Dora! The whole area has such a good vibe, with lots of cafes and shops you can check out. It's lots of fun! So, we drove the 10 or so minutes over to the cafe for some lunch.
Dark & Light Cafe is in a collective, meaning that it's in a building that has numerous businesses in it. We found theirs in the back and headed in. The cafe is small, but nice and it was clean. Online we saw empanadas, which is what appealed to us and brought us in. We spotted them in the case as soon as we went in and they looked great. It took us a few minutes to decided what to order, because there were quite a few options that sounded good.
We ordered a variety of empanadas, including spinach and eggplant. We also ordered a vegan quesadilla, a lentil burger, and a "chicken" burger made of chickpeas. The burgers came with a salad and roasted potatoes. After about 15 minutes, the food was all ready and we were ready to dig in!
The empanadas did not disappoint! They were really good. My husband and I shared the burgers, taking half of each. They were both really good. I also liked the potatoes and salad. The beets on the salad were great! They were cut into a great long spiral. Our guest ate the quesadilla and liked it.
Two thumbs up for Dark & Light Cafe in Mount Dora. If you are looking for vegetarian or vegan cafes in the area this place is worth checking out. Everything is vegetarian, but many dishes are vegan or can be made vegan. The food is homemade and done so from good ingredients. Yum!
Looking for a way to help improve your digestion, heal your gut, and feel great? Give L-Glutamine a try!
This Gut L-Glutamine is vegan, too! There are no extra filler ingredients that shouldn't be in there. You have to be careful when you take any kind of supplements, because often times you will find that there are unnecessary ingredients that have been added. Sometimes those added ingredients are even harmful to the gut, despite the fact that you are trying to heal it. This one is different. It doesn't contain any extra ingredients, which is great.
L-Glutamine helps to improve gut mucosal barrier, helps with gut inflammation, and more. It's often used to help with leaky gut, improve digestion, get rid of bloating, and support the immune system.
If you have digestion issues or know someone who does, consider whether or not taking a supplement of L-Glutamine may be able to help you out. I have had several IV's of glutamine, and now I'm going to give this supplement a try!
My son's girlfriend recently told me about a place that she likes that she though I may like - Stoked Poke, located on the corner of Dunlawton and Ridgewood in Port Orange (next door to 7-11). I took a look at the online menu and was interested. I stopped in there twice this week, once Friday and once Saturday. You can get vegan bowls at Stoked Poke, both hot and cold bowls.
They offer both hot and cold bowls to choose from. The cold bowls come with an option of a small or large ($9 and $12), and the base can be acai, dragon fruit, or mango blend. I opted for acai both days, because I love acai. You can choose the cold bowls based off of three that are already named and have a list of things that come on it, or build your own. I opted to build my own. The first day I got acai, mango, kiwi, and banana, topped with coconut flakes, granola, almond slivers, and peanut butter. It was so good! Today, I got the same acai base, and topped it with mango, kiwi, raspberry, coconut flakes, granola, almond slivers, and peanut butter. Delicious!
The acai bowls are so good, seriously! And the $9 bowl size is perfect. I was full both days after eating it. It's such a refreshing meal.
I am also interested in trying the warm bowls one of these days. They are only available in the larger size. You can choose a base of rice, quinoa, etc. I would like to try the quinoa one and top it with veggies. But on these hard days I really like the refreshing nature of the acai bowls. They also have a cute little seating area in there where you can eat.
If you are looking for something different, refreshing, and delicious, give Stoked Poke a try! I really liked it a lot and I'm sure it will be one of my go-to places now. They also have a location in One Daytona located in Daytona Beach, so if you are looking for some tasty vegan food stop by and check it out.
Check out their menu here.
Jacqueline
September 2022