Almond extract pancakes
Sunday morning I woke up not wanting the same old, same old, but rather….a hot, homemade, stay-at-home morning kind of breakfast. What better time to make pancakes!!! I used the pancake recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance , p. 31, but tweaked a few things. It calls for all-purpose flour, but seeing that I hardly ever use that, I used what I had on hand this time. The first time I made these, I did so with whole wheat pastry flour, and they came out great. This time I had spelt flour. They came out great again!! My conclusion….either works, and both are healthier options than just plain white. My other tweaking was that I only had vanilla soymilk, so that’s what I used. And lastly, I was out of vanilla (I swear…I need to go to Mexico and get a couple of gallons of this stuff). Anyone know of a website to order it in bulk for cheap?! I spend so much money buying the little containers of it at Whole Foods. Instead of vanilla, I used almond extract in the pancakes (about 1/2 teaspoon). It gave it amazing flavor. I also was very generous with the cinnamon. Smothered in earth balance and hot maple syrup, these cakes hit the spot!!
Here’s the husband scarfing his down…
Also on the breakfast front this week…Whole Foods had organic strawberries on sale, so you can bet they will be finding their way into my cereal bowl. This week I bought Uncle Sam’s Original cereal (toasted whole-wheat flakes and flaxseed). I combined it here with a little bit of Nutlettes (some good soy protein).
I LOVE being vegan!!!
Introducing my new two cereals, that are packing some serious fiber and protein (17 grams of soy protein to be exact). The Nutlettes has 17 grams of soy protein in a 1/3 cup serving (130 calories). I mixed that with a serving of the Ultima to make one hearty and healthy bowl of cereal. Combined with a big scoop of frozen blueberries that I had thawed in the fridge, I was one happy girl all morning long. Now, I have to tell you….Eric was SOOOO not pleased with me this morning. I poured him his glass of Superfood Odwalla that he drinks on the way to work. This is a BIG step for someone who never eats breakfast. I thought it would be a good idea this morning to stir in a serving of the Nutlettes seeing that it has all that protein. I thought it would be great for him, being a runner and all. The protein would do him good! Oh he was so not happy…he said it was disgusting. haha I guess juice and cereal don’t go together for him. Sorry love…I won’t taint your morning juice ever again.
Lunch was leftovers from last night, but this time on top of a flour tortilla. Scrumptious!
Isn’t this so adorable?! Don’t make fun of my wee midday dessert. Two Mi-Del vanilla snap cookies around a wee scoop of fruit sweetened It’s SO Delicious vanilla non-dairy ice cream. After this, one may think…it’s so great to be alive!!
Today was a great day of food. I just love being vegan and making such yummy meals. Foods that make you ew and ah, and that afterward eating you still have wonderful thoughts and feelings about. About the taste and how you’ve just given your body great fuel. Foods that you know are great for you and the environment, and that you haven’t harmed anything in the process. It just feels wonderful!
Dinner tonight was spruced up spaghetti!! (Sorry for the weird angle. This was the best picture I got. I’m working on my photography. 
) It was angel hair and shells pasta topped with tomato sauce that I seasoned with Italian seasonings, onions, and garlic. Then I put on a dollop of jarred basil pesto, a few roasted pine nuts, pineapple chunks, frozen vegan meatballs, and vegan Parmesan cheese. I mirrored this dish after the Spaghetti Tropica plate at Spiral Diner. Side salad was with iceberg lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, red and green onion, sprouts, fresh black pepper, and vegan caesar dressing. YUM! I’m taking this for lunch tomorrow for sure!!
For dessert tonight I had a wee cup of Joe (my fake coffee I blogged about) and a couple of squares of my Endangered Species dark chocolate and expresso bean bar. Wow….good eats today! I can’t wait to eat more vegan food tomorrow!!!
Gorgeous Sunday
I woke up eager to make a lovely little breakfast. Making didn’t consist of really anything. I decided on my new granola cereal! First off though, while my tea was heating up, I ate a banana with about a tablespoon of raw almond butter. SOOO good! I love banana and nut butter…it’s a perfect combo. (Notice the banana peel and almond butter jar. ha!) I’ve had the Optimum Rebound banana flax almond match green tea cereal before. It’s wonderful. It was delish with light silk vanilla soymilk. I’m satisfied!
For lunch I decided to make a wrap in an Ezekiel sprouted grain tortilla. It was comprised of vegan mayo, pan-grilled tofu (with some Braggs), beans, red onion, heirloom tomato, avocado, and fresh black pepper. Perfect lunch! It stayed with me forever too. I didn’t have a snack between lunch and dinner, which almost never happens.
I whipped up a stir-fry over brown basmati rice for dinner. I pan-sauteed carrots, okra, onion, and tofu (I double sauteed this to get it crispier), and then added about a tablespoon of nutritional yeast at the end. I also added some Braggs (substitute for soy sauce) when I was cooking the veggies.
I made a trip this afternoon to Roy’s Natural Market . They have a few things I can’t find anywhere else. For example, this lovely product below. It’s an instant coffee substitute. I love to have coffee after dinner, and I used to drink instant decaf. When I went to the McDougall Celebrity Chef Weekend in California, I was introduced to this product. I guess decaf coffee still has some caffeine in it, so they really recommend that if you are going to drink it on a daily basis, to go for something like this. This is made 100% from barley. Once I add my stevia and soy creamer, it tastes lovely. 
Repeated Breakfasts
Breakfast has been a lot of the same. This doesn’t mean it hasn’t been delicious though. The morning food will be more varied after today though. I went to Whole Foods after work and picked up oat bran hot cereal (which is a first for me….thanks CCV for the recommendation) and some yummy granola cereal. I also got some Silk Light Vanilla Soymilk because I was a teansy bit bored with the Vitasoy Lite Plus. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but everyone needs a little change now and again. You can look forward to pretty pictures of the new breakfast stuff! But for now…. I was inspired this week by Lauren to make good old frozen, wheat-free, flax waffles with earth balance margarine and maple syrup. I woke up one morning and had already poured some cereal into a bowl. I got side tracked and was reading her blog. The yummy waffles she had posted about made me quickly change my plan. Cereal went back in the box and waffles into the toaster. After the first bite smothered in hot syrup hit my mouth, I knew I had made the correct switch. Sooooo good and absolutely hit the spot. It was a proper Sunday morning breakfast!! You see the agave syrup in the picture as well because I only had a little bit of maple syrup left. When I ran out, I ate the rest with agave.
I ate a lot of Uncle Sam’s toasted wheat flakes this week with raspberries. I’ve been craving blueberries so badly, but the prices have gone up again. Today they were $5.99 for this wee little thing (I think it was a 1/2 pint). Of course, I have to have a spoonful of almond butter, my favorite all time food right now.
Labor Day Post (Isn’t that a lovely title?!)
Sunday night we went to Salad Creations because a nice, big yummy salad just sounded good. Boy did it hit the spot! The dressing was the best part. It was called Asian Sesame Ginger Vinaigrette. We had them get out the allergens table to make sure it contained no dairy. I love chickpeas in a salad too! Now I just have to convince Salad Creations to stock tofu.
Monday was Labor Day. I woke up and had this lovely bowl of health. This was a new cereal I just got from Central Market. It’s VERY tasty and is loaded with fiber and has 12 grams of soy protein which is perfect for us vegans.
I just HAVE to tell you a little bit about my yoga experience on Monday. After my lovely breakfast and vegging around the house for a bit, I headed to a free yoga class. It was the 2nd annual free day of yoga in Dallas where a lot of the area studios offer free classes for the day. I forced myself to try a different studio out called Yoga Sport. It was an AMAZING workout, similar to Bikram in that it was pretty warm in the room. It’s a power yoga flow vinyasa class. I really adored it. If you’re interested in yoga at all, you should check out the website. I don’t know much about Yoga Sport yet, but I think they have similar Baptiste studios around the U.S. and world. No worries though, I’m not quitting Bikram all together. I’m going to mix it up and practice at both. After the Yoga Sport class, I headed to Whole Foods to stock up on some groceries for the week. I decided to take pictures this week of our stash! Notice all the fresh ingredients! I ALWAYS make sure I have more fresh things than canned/packaged foods. They’re so much better for you!
Fresh from the grocery store, I made us some sandwiches as we were both starving. On the sandwich was Lightlife’s smoky tempeh strips (fakin bacon) pan grilled, an heirloom tomato (which oh my goodness was the most amazing tomato I have ever had), butter leaf lettuce, Nasoya sandwich spread (vegan mayo), yellow mustard, red onion, and fresh black pepper. The chips are Terra’s sweets and beets (sweet potato and beet chips)…the best! Thanks to my darling co-worker Clorinda for the heirloom tomato recommendation. I had never even heard of them before, and when I ran in to her at Whole Foods, she convinced me to buy one. They aren’t cheap, like $6 something a pound, but I got one, and I will definitely go back for more. They are worth it!!!
Dinner was a quinoa recipe given to me by another lovely lady I teach with named Pam. She cut it out of the Kansas City Star paper. I was going to type the recipe in, but I know many quinoa recipes are out there. This one was pretty good, but I don’t know I would make it again. I think there are better ones out there. (So hopefully that explains me not posting the recipe.) We ate it on top of butter lettuce and with corn on the cob.
That was our Labor Day eating. I hope everyone had a nice, long, relaxing weekend!!
Getting out the door
This being the first week of school (with students), my mornings were quite rushed. This meant quick, easy morning food. When I went shopping at Whole Foods this week, I picked up some Bakemmm Whole Wheat bagels in the freezer section. You take a bagel and microwave it for 30 seconds, slice it, and then place it in the toaster for a wee bit. Oh my goodness…they taste like homemade bread straight out of the oven. I lather mine up with almond butter and jelly. This makes for the PERFECT start to the day!
I ate a lot of cereal with fresh fruit this week. I’m a little cerealed out at the moment.
Friday Foods
Quick, pre-yoga bowl of cereal with some Barlean’s flax oil squeezed in for good measure. I know some people will only put flax oil in things where it’s more hidden, like shakes or oatmeal, but it doesn’t bother me. I feel like I’m eating health when I eat it this way.
I had an apple and a super-charge me cookie (from last night) in between yoga and lunch. Lunch was at Quizno’s. I had a small veggie sub on wheat, no dressing or cheese, and add mustard. It was so yummy after I put pickles and banana peppers on it.
Vegan Chocolate Chip Banana Cake I made this afternoon to take to my vegan 101 meet-up brunch tomorrow morning. This was the second time I’ve made this. I found the recipe online (I’ve linked it), and it’s amazingly easy and delicious. I substituted 1/3 cup applesauce and 2 tsp canola oil for the 1/2 cup of oil the recipe calls for. I learned this trick from VWaV. I also only used 1/2 cup of sugar, instead of the 1 cup it calls for. I found with the sweet bananas and chocolate chips, it doesn’t really need a whole cup of sugar. Finally, my other healthy change was substituting whole wheat pastry flour for all of the white flour. It’s so good and healthy!! This will be a recipe I see myself still doing twenty years from now.
I first learned about Genghis Grill when I met Katie from Chocolate Covered Vegan. Ever since then, we go about once a week. They just opened a new Genghis even closer to us, so we had to check it out. It was a very tasty dinner. I put a chili-garlic sauce on my veggies, tofu, and potato mixture this time, along with lemon pepper and more garlic. Served in a very cool, slanted bowl on top of brown rice, I was in vegan heaven.
Blog virgin
It was after eating half of this tofu sandwich today that I decided FOR REAL I was starting a blog. So here I am! The yummy sandwich was on an Ezekiel sprouted grain hamburger bun and consisted of tofu slices, grilled on George Foreman, avocado, red onion, yellow mustard, Nasoya sandwich spread, and fresh pepper.
I have a VERY sweet tooth, and almost always have a wee dessert after lunch and/or dinner. More often lunch AND dinner. Today’s lunchtime dessert was a vegan blueberry cookie that I had just picked up during a Whole Foods grocery trip and vanilla ice cream. I actually ate half of mine somewhere between when I picked it out of the case at WF and lunchtime. The whole cookie pictured, therefore, is the one I got for Eric.
Working backwards now, my pre-Bikram yoga breakfast was cereal, soymilk, and blackberries. Cereal sweetened with some Stevia, my most favorite natural sweetner.
Dinner was Dreena’s Garlicky Broccoli, Corn & Bean Burritos, p. 127 from ED&BV. Oh so tasty and garlicky! I couldn’t get over how yummy the sauteed veggies were. I used a can of Amy’s low sodium refried pinto beans instead of making my own. Topped off with slices of avocado and tofutti sour cream. Served on the side are lime wedges, along with a basic salad of romaine, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and balsamic vinegar. Bon appetit!
