Vegan Sloppy Joes

Holy moly! These were so good! I had Chelsea and her boyfriend Taylor over the other night for supper to taste test one of my new recipes (now that I look back that was a mistake because I could be eating leftovers right now).As I am typing this I am wishing I made more so I could have one for lunch, silly me, I guess next time I will have to!  When I thought about making these I knew my sister would love them, she is vegan like me, so she appreciates the veganizing of traditional favourites. They were a huge hit with everyone including the meat loving men!

I honestly feel that this is something that anyone would love! Don’t tell them what’s in it because they might have some preconceived notions about lentils. Just let them try it before you tell them and I know they will be hooked on my new take on a Sloppy Joe!  

While I was making these I was snacking on my favourite blue corn tortilla chips and Bush’s vegetarian baked beans. I literally cannot keep these in the house because I eat the whole can by myself as soon as I get home. Not the healthiest snack, but something that I treat myself to on occasion. So as I was devouring my snack I realized that these would taste pretty good in the Sloppy Joes, so I used all of my will power and saved half of a can to throw in. I found that the sweetness of the brown sugar really complimented the spiciness of the chili powder. If you don’t have these at home, or dont like them, no worries because they would have tasted just as great without them!

Side note about Bush’s Baked Beans, all of their products are gluten free, do not contain any dairy, casein. And their vegetarian style does not contain any animal or animal by products! Yay! For more info go to their website.

 

I also thought I would bring to your attention a little nutritional information about my Sloppy Joes. I was thinking about this when I was eating them last night. They were not as heavy as I remember and that was because I had switched out the meat for lentils. So I naturally had to do a nutritional comparison between canned lentils and cooked ground beef, and this is what I found.

All the information is approximate depending on the brand and type of product you are using.

Canned Lentils – 250g

160 calories

1 gram fat

6 grams fiber

12 grams protein

Pan Cooked Ground Beef – 250g

445 calories

18 grams fat

0 grams fiber

66 grams protein

As you can see the calories are over double in the ground beef and 18 times more in fat. Plus the kicker as always, there is no fiber in meat which we all know is good for proper digestion. I know you are saying ‘but there is 66 grams of protein in the hamburger’ and to that I say, 'do you really need that much?' In my opinion no you don’t, at least not in one cup of anything. For more information on daily intake of protein for vegans please check out this awesome video by FreeLee.

Vegan Sloppy Joes Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 yellow onions, sliced

1 small pkg of cremini mushrooms, diced

2 red peppers, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 can diced tomatoes

1 tbsp chili powder

2 tsp paprika

1 tbsp oregano

1 can organic lentils, rinsed

S&P to taste

Optional - ½ -1 can of Bush's Vegetarian baked beans

Directions:

In a frying pan or pot over medium heat, add ¼ cup of the liquid from the tomatoes. Add one onion, peppers, ½ pkg of mushrooms, sauté for 7-10 minutes. Make sure you stir continuously adding more liquid if needed. Add tomatoes and spices and cook for . Pour mixture into a blender and puree until smooth. Set aside.

Using the same frying pan or pot, add some water and cook the garlic and the rest of the onions and mushrooms until soft. Add the blended mixture and lentils, reduce heat to medium and let simmer until it becomes thick, around 15 minutes.

I didn’t use all of my sauce because my frying pan wasn’t big enough, but that just made it so I could add more sauce to my plate to dip it in!

Serve on any type of bread with a salad and enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo -N

Lemon Dill Tomato Sauce with Zucchini Noodles

After that life changing curry dish (well, for me it was) I was thinking that the curry sauce is something that could be made to taste like anything. You could omit the curry and add something totally different, and BAM you got yourself a whole new sauce. So what did I want? Sweet, savory, spicy? I wasn’t sure. That was until I was walking through Safeway and for some reason the flavor of dill popped into my head. Mmm dill… that sounds delicious, I haven’t had anything with dill for a very long time and it is one of my favourite spices. Now what? Dill and… dill and… dill and…lemon! So simple yet so perfect. Lemon dill tomato sauce, with zucchini noodles sounds like an awesome supper.

When I got home from Safeway (after scoring 5 bunches of bananas for $4.50, woo hoo!) I started on my dish and boy did it smell good. I don’t know what it is about dill that just screams awesomeness but it does. Like the curry sauce it has a rich, creamy flavor that some people might be surprised to learn that there is no milk or cream involved. That is one of the benefits of blending your sauces, they come out smooth and creamy without the added fat! I also decided to serve this with some steamed broccoli to add some color, body and extra nutrients to the dish. I could have totally eaten the sauce by itself, its that good, but its nice to have texture and color in my meals, and what a better steamed veggie than broccoli! I hope you enjoy this meal as much as I did!



This is what the sauce looks like before you blend it!

Ingredients 2-4 Servings

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 large yellow onion, diced

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 large can of whole tomatoes, chopped in half

½ cup cashews, soaked overnight

1 lemon, juiced

5-7 sprigs of dill, de-stemmed and chopped

Pepper to taste

1 head of broccoli, chopped

In a large frying pan on medium/high heat sauté onions in oil for 10 mins until brown. Add the rest of ingredients and simmer for 15-20 mins. Pour into high speed blender and puree until smooth. While this is cooking, steam broccoli until fork tender.

Zucchini Noodles

1 zucchini per person

Using the julienne blade of a mandolin, slice zucchini lengthwise into long, thin strands. Slice the zucchini just until you reach the seeds in the middle and then stop (the seeds will cause the noodles to fall apart).

NOTE: If you don't have a mandolin you can use a vegetable peeler or a knife.  

If you want the noodles to be hot, put the noodles into the frying pan with desired amount of sauce and cook for 5 mins and serve with broccoli! Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N

Mango Blueberry Salad

I often find myself craving salads, especially in the morning. I guess I have eaten so many salads for breakfast that my body now needs its leafy greens bright and early!! And this morning was no exception. I have been meaning to use up the blueberries in my fridge for a couple days because a couple were going moldy so today I made a mango blueberry salad. It was so fresh and delicious it has quickly become one of my favourites! Technically if you really look at the ingredients this salad is a fruit salad, that is if you count tomatoes as a fruit (I don't, to me they will always be a vegetable). It is super simple to throw together and because the fruit is so juicy there is no need for dressing.

I used my vegetable mandolin to slice up the cucumbers, zucchini and mango but if you don't have a mandolin you could make this a chunky salad, it should all taste the same, right?!

Ingredients for Single Serving

1/2 cucumber

1/2 zucchini

1 tomato

1 mango

1 cup blueberries

Juice Cleanse Day One!

I think it might have been me telling my sister I was feeling sick that prompted her to ask me to do a juice cleanse, not that it matters because I said yes. Why, you might ask? Because I am crazy. Just kidding, I am trying to reset my digestive system before I head to Cancun on Saturday, and Ashley thought that this would be a great way to do it. I was so nervous going into this that I really didn't think I would make it past day one, even though Ashley insisted that I could. Well here I am drinking my supper juice thinking, holy shit she was right, I can do this. 

THEN I think about my fruit fast and how day one was SO EASY! I was shocked that it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. Then day two hit and I was all like, ohhhh this is how it's supposed to feel. Like I am detoxing, so basically tired, sluggish, with bits of energy through the day. 

Today I felt normal with no real differences in my day to day routine. I had lots of energy, felt great and at 6:30pm I just started to feel tired. I plan on finishing my juice and this post then winding down to go to bed early. Devon isn't juice cleansing but he is fast asleep beside me, maybe he is secretly doing it too....?!?!

So, this is how my day one went:

I started out my day with a liter of water and 1/2 liter of hot lemon water. I also did 50 mins of walking on the treadmill followed by stretching.

All of my juices were made by my Magic Bullet Juicer.

Breakfast juice - 9am

4 stalks of kale

3 stalks of celery

2 apples

1 lemon

½ cucumber

1 cup of water

Lunch Juice - 12:00 pm

12 oranges 

Snack - 3:00 pm

1/2 liter of coconut water

Supper Juice - 6:00 pm

2 tomatoes

2 carrots

2 stalks of celery

1 red pepper

1 lemon

1/2 cucumber

Handful of cilantro

1 cup of water

I am, again, a little nervous for what tomorrow has in store for me but I just have to keep reminding myself that its only two more days. Also, without Ashley here to help me I know I wouldn't have done this on my own, so thanks Ash for pushing me to do this! To be honest, day one went by quite fast and I like the fact that I only had one appliance to clean! 
I will keep you posted on how day two goes so stay tuned!

Thanks for Reading!
Xoxo, Nikki

New Year, New Possibilities feat. Mediterranean Surprise Dip

With the ever exciting New Year upon us, a lot of us are thinking about what we might do different in the year 2013. Some may even call these New Years Resolutions. I am personally not a fan of making them because I find it very hard to stick with them. Instead I just give myself a list of things that I would like to see change in the new year. Mostly its things like see my family more, clean the house more, put away the laundry after I'm done it, actually DO laundry, ect. My newest addition to the list is eat fewer chips, they are my weakness and I should really try to cut back. I am not going to kid myself and say I am going to quit altogether because who am I kidding, I don’t want too. I feel like the decision has to come on its own, and I can't force it.

This is how I cut out peanut butter from my diet. When I became vegan I was addicted, it was one of foods that helped me transition into veganism. In the beginning I wasn’t going to give it up (no matter how many times Ashley suggested it), but just this past month I began to really recognize that it was making me feel very ill every time I would eat it. I couldn’t concentrate at work, my stomach hurt and I felt really tired. That’s when the light bulb went came on, PING! No more peanuts. It took me a while to get there, but the decision was my own and I wanted to do it!

Of course there are some of you out there who also want to make health changes but might not know where to start. I would suggest watching the Vegucated documentary, its about 3 ‘normal’ New Yorkers who go vegan for 6 weeks. The movie isn’t that long and I found it quite funny at times. I will warn you that there is some graphic footage (I covered my eyes and my husband let me know when it was okay to re-open them, so I will now suggest a buddy system when you watch it, if you are sensitive like me!). You can find it on Netflix and probably on the internet too.

While watching, I heard one of the woman say something that has really stuck with me:

"A lot of people think veganism as a religion, which is totally wrong, its not that you have to live by certain rules. Its about minimizing suffering, it’s not about being perfect”

She is right, it’s about being happy and comfortable with the way you live your life. Furthermore, it is a total different experience for each person. If you want to make a change to vegetarian/vegan and not sure where to start, why not just minimize the suffering? Gradually eliminate things from your diet at a pace you are comfortable with. For me chicken was the first to go, it was something that always bothered me so that made it easier to cut out. Another easy way to minimize suffering in you house hold is buying wild game. My husbands family are now wanting to eat more wild game such as deer, moose or wild boar, for environmental and ethical reasons. We can all share it as a family which makes it more affordable and by eating wild you are not contributing to the slaughter houses. 

My recipe today is inspired by a conversation I had with my friend Rebecca the other day. She transitioned into vegetarianism in July and she expressed that she wanted to go vegan in the new year. This got me excited! Another person to share recipes with, Woo Hoo!

She then asked me “how do you deal with going to family functions and being vegan?” This is something I get asked a lot because its one of the main hurdles people have when going vegan.  My solution is to bring your favourite dish and share with everyone. If they like it, then great you are giving them a chance to try something new! If they don’t like it, then more for you!
One of my favorite dishes to take to family functions is my Mediterranean Surprise Dip, its very simple to make and is really tasty! 

Mediterranean Surprise Dip 

Humus - store bought or you can use my recipe below
1 tomato, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1/2 cucumber, diced
2 green onions, diced
1/2 cup of kalamata olives, diced and de-seeded
Balsamic Vinegar

Humus
1 can of chick peas
1 clove of garlic
3 tbsp of tahini 
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup of water

Put all of the humus ingredients into a high speed blender and blend until smooth. 

Spread all of the humus onto a flat serving tray, then evenly sprinkle the veggies on top. The last thing is to drizzle balsamic vinegar all over. This is a trick I stole from the restaurant Original Joes, it adds a sweet and tangy taste to the dish, and you can use ANY flavor of balsamic vinegar! Serve with pita bread, or my favorite choice, fresh zucchini and cucumber slices. 

Thanks for reading!
xoxo -N

3 Ingredient Vegan Tomato Soup!

So this week I had the most amazing pleasure of getting 3 wisdom teeth out! Yippy Horay! (feel free to picture Mugatu from Zoolander when reading that, I know I do!) I am one of those people who have the hugest fear of the dentist, like crying and looking at all of the exits when I am in there kind of girl. This trip was no exception because this was my first major procedure and I am hoping it was my last. 

Last week I endured 5 days of torture while my bottom left wisdom tooth tried to free itself from my gums. I didn't like this, not one bit. So I finally got the courage to go to the dentist on Thursday to get them checked out, and make sure they were not infected. I was told that there was a month and a half wait to get the tooth pulled but I would be put on the ASAP list and I would be called if something came open. 

Well that didn't last long because on Tuesday I got the call to come in the next day to get it done! Again... Yippy Horay! I told Jessica at work that I was going to puke because I was so nervous, and I'm pretty sure she said 'Ya, I would too!' 

So there we have it, I'm getting it pulled.... tomorrow...... holy crap.

The next morning, in preparation for this awesome event, I went to Super Store to get some supplies, Oranges and Mangos for juicing and tomatoes because I wanted to try this soup that popped into my head the morning of the teeth pulling.

Thats when I get the call from the dentist:

"Would you be able to come in right away so we can take out the other two wisdom teeth?" 

My first thought was:

"F*** NO!'

 More pain!?!?! More teeth to be ripped from my face? They weren't even the ones that were bothering me last week, so I am not mad at those ones (however they have bothered my in the past, I just have forgotten the pain they caused me. Women have that ability, forgetting pain, its our superpower) 

But then my reasoning kicked in and I thought that this was a good thing. Instead of going in three times to get each one pulled separately, I could get it all done at once, and only suffer one panic attack. Win-Win!

Needless to say, I survived. The freezing was the worst part, it always is for some reason. So now I am sitting at home with kleenex in my mouth, because the bleeding just wont stop. Which means its really hard to eat and drink. So of course, I am starving, Luckily though, I bought tomatoes to make my awesome tomato soup! I fell in love with this soup at first sip, its so delicious, frothy, and super tasty for only having 3 ingredients in it! I didn't count the Salt and Pepper because some people don't need it. I added a dash of each to mine though! 

Tomato Soup - 2 servings

3 fresh tomatoes

5 fresh bay leaves

4 tbsp of coconut cream, or coconut milk

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Throw everything in a blender and blend until smooth, pour into a pot and heat until desired temperature. 

OR just eat it cold! 

I hope you enjoy this lovely soup as much as I do! 

 Thanks for reading!

xoxo -N

Lasagna Inspired Layered Salad with Avocado 'Cheese' Sauce

I thought of this salad while lying in bed Sunday morning. I was surfing Pinterest and saw a couple of recipes for avocado mac and cheese. I have been seeing a lot of this recipe lately so I clicked on the link to check out the ingredient list. The one I looked at was not vegan but it had the great idea to use avocado in the cheese sauce. PING! An idea light bulb popped in my head. An avocado cheese sauce would be great on lasagna! But.... I didn’t want to cook it, so the next best thing came to mind. A salad! Which is perfect because I can use all of the ingredients that my cooked lasagna calls for, I just won’t cook any of it!

This past month or so, I have been addicted to the homey flavours that lasagna provides: I have made it 3 times!! YUMMMMM. So I am not surprised that this idea sprouted from my brain. Now I can satisfy my homey lasagna craving with this and feel a little better about eating something that is traditionally seen as ‘unhealthy’. 

This salad is pretty easy to whip up, its just all about timing! First you have to put the cauliflower on the stove to get it steamed. While this is steaming I cut up all of my veggies for the salad and layer them in the bowl. Then I pop my sauce ingredients in the blender, blend for a couple minutes and pour that into a jar and rinse my blender out. By then the cauliflower is usually done, so I take it off the stove and run it under cold water to cool it off (we don't want hot cauliflower mixed with avocado, yick). When making the avocado sauce in my Magic Bullet Blender I had to stir it quite a bit to get it all mixed together. I just didn’t want to add any more liquid to the mixture because I wanted it to be a thicker sauce. I already had the tomato sauce, which was already watery, so two watery sauces wouldn’t have jived well in the bowl. Totally worth the extra effort!

Tomato Sauce Dressing – For 2- 4 servings

2 tomatoes

1 sun dried tomato

½ clove garlic

1 lemon, juiced

¼ cup of oregano

¼ cup basil

3 dates, soaked in water for ½ hour

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth!

Avocado Sauce – For 2 - 4 servings

1 whole avocado

1 cup of cooked cauliflower

½ clove garlic

1 lime, juiced

¼ cup parsley

¼ cup cilantro

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth!!

Layer spinach, tomatoes, orange bell peppers, mushrooms and zucchini, top with the avocado sauce and tomato dressing!!

I was so excited about this dish I just had to call my sister Ashley over to try it. Luckily she wasn't busy and was able to stop by to sample my latest creation. Her verdict?..... She loved it! and because of that she decided to make this lovely post on Facebook! Thanks Ash for the pretty picture collage! 

Thanks for reading!

xoxo- N

Confession of a Salad Eater...

I'm not going to lie to you guys, my confession is I LOVE FOOD. Oh right I already stated that... crap. Well I will say it again. I love food. I love the different combinations, flavours, colors, textures, ect ect ect. It really is something I am constantly thinking about during the day. What can I make for lunch, or supper, or my second supper?? I take a lot of joy in creating great tasting meals for me and Devon, and even greater joy when they turn out.

Some days however my stomach has ADSHD (Attention Defecate Super Hyperactive Disorder). I literally cannot decide what to eat for supper, I want too many things!

Last night was one of those nights...

I started out during the day with cantaloupe for breakfast, a great salad for lunch, a couple apples for a snack at work, then a second snack when I got home of blended apples, grapes, dates and a little bit of spinach, just to tie me over until supper. I guess I should just clarify that my breakfast is at 7am, my ‘lunch’ is at 9:30am my snacks are between noon and 1pm and my second snack is at 3:00pm. It’s a really messed eating schedule, but I have found a way to work around it (‘It’ being my angry, hungry stomach.)

The Raw Vegan Wraps I picked
 up at Alternate Roots

So last night we ended up going to the mall to pick up the new HALO for my husband and we stopped to get some things at Zellers. Unfortunately one of those things was a bag of plain, ripple Ruffles chips. I can see all of your heads shaking, I know I know, chips are bad, but honestly, to me, they taste so good. They are my one craving that will be very hard to crack. I originally thought dairy was going to be the hardest, but sadly no, chips are.  So I sneak them home, from whom, not too sure, but I feel like I should hide them or something. I set them on the table and start to make supper. I have decided I am going to make Raw Vegan Wraps, using these new Coconut Curry wraps I picked up on Tuesday from Alternate Roots. I sliced up tomato, cucumber, zucchini and added some leafy greens, wrapped them up and gave her a try. They were really good!! Unfortunately my ADSHD stomach was like, nope you want something more... so I opened the chips! Yup I did it, eating my super healthy wraps with a side of potato chips. I should have felt the irony, but I just couldn’t muster it up. Maybe it was all the crunching....  After a couple of trips to the bag of chips, I sit down at the computer and get to work on my Harry Potter post. After 20 mins, my stomach literally shouts at me, YOU WANT A GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH!! Damn, I thought she was asleep. I already gave her something healthy and something greasy, What more does she want? Apparently she wants a grilled cheese.

So off to the kitchen I go to make myself a vegan grilled cheese. Basically it’s the same thing as a regular grilled chhese, you just use coconut spread, like Earth Balance in place for your butter, Daiya Cheese in place for the cheese and make sure your bread is Vegan. BAM. Grilled Cheese. Which of course turned out quite yummy.

So now I have given my stomach 1 healthy and 2 unhealthy things tonight. She MUST be done now.... NOPE. Not done just yet. Because of the 2 to 1 ratio, she thought it was time to end on a good note. She wants a salad now (recipe at the bottom of the page). One of the really good ones with tomatoes and dates on it.  Fine! FINE! I will make one last meal but that is it! No more..... Haha who am I kidding.

So that is my confession. Yes, I really do love my healthy food, I think it tastes amazing, its satisfying and is better than most junk food out there. But sometimes your crazy ADSHD stomach just won’t shut up and so you give in. And that’s okay. Now, right now is where I would probably say, “as long as its in moderation its okay!” but I won’t. Why? Because my mother in law brought it to my attention that NO not everything is good in moderation “Heroine isn’t good in moderation, Crack isn’t good in moderation, killing people isn’t good in moderation.”
There is one thing that I do believe. If I can continue on this path of eating more Raw food, I know my cravings for the other junk will subside. It’s just a matter of wanting to get there, because if you don’t truly want to do something you will never fully follow through.  

My Go To Meal #3

"The Salad"

6-8 cups of leafy greens, I used Kale and Romanie

2 medium tomatoes, diced

1/2 of a cucumber, shredded

1 small zucchini, shredded

1 yellow pepper, shredded

5 dates, diced

1 lemon, juiced

If you wanted to put other ingredients in it like mushrooms, carrots, beans or even QUINOA (which I do when ever there is left overs) by all means do that. These are just my staples that I always have on hand. Throw it all together and you got yourself a great meal. Yes this is one meal, not to be shared between four people! Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!
xoxo - N