weekend recap - food, food and more food!

Wow, what a great weekend!  After restocking the fridge on Friday (and getting asked at Sprouts if I juice?!?....no, we just eat LOTS of veggies!) I was ready for a weekend of cooking!!  Saturday before hitting the Fountain Hills Art Fair I whipped up some Raw Vegan Jalapeno Corn Bread to start dehydrating for Sundays menu.  It was a perfect Arizona Saturday morning to be out walking and enjoying great art!  Not to rub it in for those of you stuck in the snow, but it was about 80 degrees!  The find of the day was new cutting boards!  We decided to come back on our way out to buy so we didn't have to carry them around.  Smart move - he marked a bunch down during that time and I picked up TWO corien cutting boards for $5 EACH!!  And oh so perfect for the vegan kitchen, one is shaped like a cow and the other like a rabbit.  LOL!  I now put the poor husband to work helping me chop veggies. 

After walking the Art Fair for a couple hours we started getting hungry and didn't want to fall into the fair food trap of crap, so we headed home for lunch.  For fun I Googled vegan restaurants in the area and hot damn I found one!  I was shocked as it was so close to our house and had NO idea it was there!  The Cutting Board Bakery & Café had great reviews so we HAD to go check it out!  The place was tucked away in a little strip mall and was cute, but really needed better ambiance.  We placed our orders and with only a couple people before us we waited a good 25 minutes for our food....which I can understand as it's all made fresh.  My husband ordered the burrito, which he loved, and I ordered the roasted veggie sandwich, great flavor!  Both came with blue corn chips and yummy salsa.  We really want to come back and try the burger and pizza!  Great food, just not Pomegranate Café that is our all time NUMBER 1 place for vegan food!

 

For dinner Saturday night I was dying to try a recipe I found on Pintrest, Maple & Thyme Potato-Beet-Sweet Potato Stacks!  My husband was a bit skeptical when it came to the beets, but the awesome vegan he is...he tried them and LOVED them! I paired them with my Roasted Veggies and Chickpea recipe (this time I added carrots to the recipe).  The meal was a prefect way to end a great Saturday!

 

Sunday morning was a little "me" time as I have started treating myself to getting my nails done every few weeks.  Once home it was cooking time!  My darling husband was put to work helping me put together the HUGE salad for lunches for the up coming work week.  Since it was Dayton 500 Sunday, the superbowl for us Nascar freaks!  I made up a fun lunch menu to celebrate the race!  First up Strawberry Avocado Jalapeno Salsa topped on my Raw Vegan Jalapeno Corn bread and then Sriracha Cauliflower “Wings”!  The "wings" had AMAZING flavor and I really liked how they didn't have a heavy breading on them like past "wings" I have made.  To make the recipe vegan just use a vegan butter and omit the honey.  Now for the fun part - recipe time! I use the Nesco Snackmaster Pro Food Dehydrator, works great and easy to clean!  A must have for any vegan kitchen!  :)

 

Raw Vegan Jalapeno Corn Bread

Ingredients

1 Cup Cashews

3 Cups Frozen Corn kernels, fully defrosted

1 Jalapeno

1 Yellow Bell Pepper

2/3 Cup Flax Seed Meal

1 tbsp. Lime Juice

1 1/2 tsp. Chili Powder

1 1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder

1 tsp. Salt

 

Directions

Using your food processor, process the cashews into small pieces (don't over process).  Pour cashews into mixing bowl.  Throw the corn and yellow pepper in the food processor. Process until almost smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and process in your food processor until nicely blended, again don't over-process. Pour into mixing bowl with cashews and mix together well.

 

Spread onto two parchment-lined dehydrator sheets, making as thin as you can. Place trays into your dehydrator. Dehydrate at 125 degrees for the first hour and then lower to 115 for the remaining time. Check them after four hours and flip them over. Dehydrate for another four to six hours, depending on how crispy you would like them. Once done put onto a cutting board and using a pizza cutter, slice them into the desired size you would like them.  Serve immediately or store in an air tight container. 

Week 3

Week three is still going strong.  I have done a great job staying away from all alcohol!  I hit the 10 lb. loss this weekend!!  Very proud of myself and looking forward to hopefully dropping another lb or two this week!  The scale was up a bit this morning, but the clothes don't lie.  When you don't feel claustrophobic in your clothes you KNOW you're doing something right.  Keeping it clean and moving my ass!!

 

Happy Healthy Monday!