Spring Fresh Rolls with Vegan Peanut Sauce :)

My Go-To Meal #1

When I came home this morning from my first job at the gym, I was wondering what to make for my breakfast/lunch. You see, I work at a gym from 6am-9am and then go to my other job at Conexus Credit Union from 10:45am-2:45pm. So I don’t get to eat my meals at what you would call 'normal times'. I always start my day off with three or four pieces of fruit at the gym after my workout. Then I come home and prepare my breakfast/lunch. And today, like most days, I make my awesome spring rolls! There was a time in September that I was eating these 4 days a week for lunch, that’s how much I love them. I have two other Go To Meals hence why this one is titled #1, numbers 2 and 3 will be coming soon!

Ingredients

Spring Rolls

1 pkg of 12' Rice Papers

1 pkg of Field Greens Mix

1 small zucchini

1 medium carrot

½ of a cucumber

½ cup of cilantro

Peanut Sauce

2 tbsp of Peanut Butter

1 tbsp of Hoisin

1 clove of Garlic

1 Lime, juiced

This recipe makes about 6 large spring rolls, if you had smaller sized rice papers this could make about 12-15. 

So I start out with my super amazing vegetable mandolin that I picked up at Costco for $30. Probably one of the best buys I ever made and not that expensive! First thing I do is julienne my carrots, cucumber and zucchini, throw them in a bowl and mix them together. Next I chop up the cilantro and wash my greens if needed. I listed field greens on the ingredients, but you can use any leafy greens you like. Such as spinach, kale, romaine, chard, ect. Today I used field green mix I picked up from Superstore and added in some Red Chard I had in my fridge.

Also, if you want to add different vegetables, go ahead! I have added yellow pepper, cabbage, avocado, and cooked beets to mine. I just find I always have cucumber, zucchini and carrots on hand, so those end up being my base.

Then I soak my rice paper in water for 1-2 minutes(depending how hot the water is), just until its pliable and easy to roll, and add my ingredients onto the center. I do my layers like this: Cilantro, greens, then veggie mix. I find the veggie mix weighs down the lettuce and makes it easier to roll. Finally roll it up like a burrito and you got yourself a super fresh spring roll.

The Sauce.

This is my all time favourite sauce, I could (and sometimes do, shhh) eat it by the spoon full. Its super easy to make and the ingredients are pretty basic.

All you have to do is: take the four ingredients, place them in a bowl and mix them together. DONE!

Now you can enjoy your spring rolls with peanut sauce! 


Thanks for reading! 

xoxo -N

Sweet Potato Curry Soup

Brr its cold in here!!

 As the temperatures lower, and the leaves get crunchy, there is one thing I come to realize.... its now soup season! And I like to believe that I make a pretty darn good soup, not a soup whisper per say but maybe a soup fanatic. Last fall and winter I am pretty sure I made soup every week, sometimes even twice. I have made everything from an Indian inspired sweet potato/cauliflower soup, traditional harvest vegetable soup, to my all time favourite Peanut Butter Soup (more on this later). The wonder of soup is that you can pretty much put any vegetable combination into a pot, add broth and your favourite spices and VIOLA! You got Soup! So as you can tell, Soup is one of my favourite meals to make. It’s easy to prepare, easy to freeze, and really easy to eat!

Usually my process starts with me being cold and thinking ‘Man I would do anything for a bowl of soup!” So I go home and search my fridge for ingredients that work well together, grab my largest pot and start chopping! Yesterday marked day one of my soup season and boy did it turn out fricken great. As I said before, I was cold at work and thought "Mmmm soup", so I mentally thought of what I had in my fridge and sweet potatoes popped in my head. PERFECT! They are hearty, sweet, colorful, nutritious, and not as starchy as the regular potato. Then I thought, crap I don’t have celery. For me, I can’t make soup without celery. So I raced into Safeway, grabbed a bunch of organic celery and went home to start this soup.

Ingredients

• 2 medium yellow onions
• 3 mediums carrots
• 5 stalks of celery
• 2 medium sweet potatoes
• ½ head of Broccoli
• 1 tbsp of coconut oil
• 1 cube of dry vegetable broth
• 3 cups of water
• ½ cup of uncooked, strained quinoa
• 1 tsp of curry
• 1 tsp of coriander
• 1 tsp of cumin
• Fresh cilantro

  

My soup starts off like any other vegetable soup... chopped veggies! So I take out onions, carrots, celery, broccoli and the main star – Sweet Potatoes! Chop up all the vegetables into bite size pieces, and place the broccoli aside. Heat up your pot on Medium/High heat, add your oil and sauté the onions, carrots, celery and sweet potatoes for about 10 minutes. Add 2 cups of the water, and continue cooking for another 5 minutes to blend the flavours of the veggies with the water. Reduce heat.

This next step is my secret weapon... my blender!! This is something that will change your soup making days FOREVER!!!! I know it did for me. You take half of the cooked vegetables and broth, throw it in your blender and puree.  While this is blending I add my dry broth and spices to the puree while it’s going.

Next pour the pureed vegetables back into the pot and stir in until well blended. This is when you add the last cup of water, broccoli and quinoa and stir. I like my soup on the chunky side (as you can see in the picture) so I don’t add that much water, but if you like more of a watery consistency, add more water until desired thickness or thinness.  Leave on low heat for another 20 minutes or until broccoli and quinoa are fully cooked. Wait for it to cool off a bit, top with fresh cilantro and ENJOY!!

To quote my wonderful husband tonight, “Wow this is really good” followed by “You could make this every week and I would eat this!” and my favourite “I love how this soup tastes like there is cream or milk in it, but it doesn’t!”

That is the beauty of blending the cooked vegetables to add to your base of your soup. It does make your soup creamy without adding any diary to the mixture. So fewer calories, vegan friendly and less ingredients you need to have on hand. Win-win for everyone! So let me know if you try my recipe, I would love to know how you like it and if you did any other variations to it! 

xoxo -N

My First Post!

Hello and Welcome to my blog!! Yippy Horay! I have been thinking about doing this for a while now and today was the day that I decided to just go ahead and do it. My first post will most likely be filled with some spelling and grammatical errors, but please don't judge me! Spelling and Grammar are not my strong suits. Sewing and eating food, now those are my strong points!! I also have the tendency to love my dogs on a large scale, as well as my husband, and my sisters and all my other family and friends. There is also the problem with slapping people... but maybe more on that a little later. 

One of my main reasons I wanted to start this blog is to document and share my journey becoming and being vegan. This is a process that has been going on for about a year and a half and I wish I would have started this sooner. But ohh well, I am starting now!! 

Over the course of this past year and a half, I have encountered a lot of people who ask questions or comment on my lifestyle. Like most vegan/vegetarians they can get everything from great compliments about how amazing we are, all the way to people judging how we live and asking how we get our protein. 

The conversations I have with people , such as recipes, facts about the vegan lifestyle and how my husband has reduced his meat intake (which shocks the HECK out of them), are now basic ways of life for me.  However, for most of them, the topics are foreign and they will question me and my ways. Don't get me wrong, I fully believe that everyone should do what they feel. I just hope that by me talking about being vegan that they might look into the things I mention on their own to get their own opinions about it. 

I am just a baby in this lifestyle and I am learning something new everyday about food and health, which is something that I love. I almost feel like I have uncovered some special secret about health and how we should live. Like seriously?, how is it that I am just learning that I can eat as MUCH FRUIT AS I WANT!! Where has this been all my life?? I distinctly remember being told when I was young that fruit is bad for your stomach lining, your teeth, and that eating too much is bad for you. Now the veil has been lifted and if you do it properly, you CAN eat all the fruit your little hearts desire! 

So that's why I have started to blog, to share this special secret and to show how being vegan isn't as hard as people believe! To scream it out loud through words, because screaming this in public will make me seem cray. I feel that living a vegan life opens up your eyes and mind to things that were not taught to us when we were younger. Such as you don't have to eat meat and diary to be healthy! (I really give props to my mom for never making me drink milk, because I HATED IT!!). I don't think I have ever been happier with my life, health wise. I am back to a weight I am comfortable with, I am rarely sick, I have a lot of energy and I am loving the experimenting with food.

So now you are wondering what you can look forward to? Well I will tell you! 

1. My favorite vegan recipes
2. Vegan facts 
3. My quilting adventures
4. Updates on my Family and their experiences with food and health
5. Books I am reading
6. Fitness

These 6 points are not limited to, but thats the basis of why I started to do this. Oh and most likely you will get updates on my love of Tattoos!! 

I really hope that I am able to keep up with this as much as I want to because so far I am having fun!!! 

Thanks for reading!

xoxo -N