keeping it cool in the kitchen & a work in progress

Arizona summers can make cooking dinner an agonizing chore.  The heat of the stove top, heat of the oven...no thank you.  Since discovering raw cooking this past winter I KNEW this was my summertime cooking answer!  Last night was one of my favorite go to quick raw meals.  Bonus - it's SO easy to make!! Tip: If you do not like your food spicy just leave out the chipotle pepper.

Raw Vegan Spicy Avocado and "Pasta"

Ingredients:
2 Avocados, ripe
1 Lemon
1 Chipotle.Pepper
1/2 Red Onion, diced
2/3 Cup of Sliced Cherry Tomatoes

1 T. Olive Oil
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 T. Red Pepper Flakes
Raw Sunflower Seeds (optional)
2 Large Zucchini

a weekend of love and food

Valentine's Day

I hope everyone had a happy and healthy Valentine's weekend!  Both my husband and I took Friday off to make for a relaxing LONG weekend.  My husband knows that the way to my heart is either jewelry or cool kitchen appliances, and this year he did great surprising me with my first dehydrator!!  This worked out PERFECT as I was planning on attempting a raw veggie vegan bread in the oven for dinner.  No need for the oven now!!  I have to say this is a VERY easy to use dehydrator so far.  Thank you honey, I LOVE you and my gift!!

With my first 5k on Saturday we spent Friday getting the grocery shopping all done, but did take time out to try a new vegan restaurant.  24 Carrots in Tempe. They just moved into a new location, which took us a while to find as they did not have a sign up yet lol.  Our normal vegan restaurant has a much larger menu, but 24 Carrots offered some yummy choices.  The meal portions were smaller, but over all good....great? No, but good.  It was fun just trying something new.  Makes you wonder if in the near future you will find more and more vegan restaurants pop up?

food better than a football game

Hope everyone had a healthy, safe and enjoyable Super Bowl!  The game was a blow out, but the food...amazing!  I felt like we ate and ate, but thank goodness come Monday morning for my work weight loss challenge weigh-in I did NOT gain a pound (down a total of12 lbs.)!!  Woohoo!!  Here are some links to the amazing raw dishes I whipped up:

First up, Red Pepper Stuffed with Confetti Guacamole (less the red peppers) and served it as a dip, AMAZING!! Also to save TONS of calories we used collard greens to wrap all of our dips up in (FYI only 10 tortilla chips have 74 calories).  I promise, we didn't even MISS the chips!!  You will also notice the cheese sauce in the photo, you can find that HERE.  Again, raw and YUM!

who's ready for some weekend?

So excited for Super Bowl weekend...heck, just excited for the weekend period!  This will be our first "raw" Super Bowl AND no beer!!  Yikes, we might actually remember how the game ends lol!  I am really looking forward to making my first raw pizza!  I do not have a dehydrator yet, so using the oven on the lowest setting.  Fingers cross it's as good as the football game should be! 

Big News - I signed up for my first 5k yesterday!!  It's not until the middle of March, but I am really looking forward to it!!  My super duper husband will be there cheering me on.  :)

Last night we enjoyed a wonderful tofu dish.  I found this on Vegan Richa, but made a few changes.  My husband does not care for cubed tofu, so I sliced the tofu super thin and cooked it until crisp which ended up being awesome!

Spicy Orange Tofu and Peppers

hello?....hello?....oh, yes there you are!

I know, I suck.  I truly suck and I apologize for missing for so long.  Not sure what happened.  Work got busy.  Stopped being a healthy vegan.  Stopped working out.  Well - That all changed the beginning of this month when the husband and I realized we REALLY needed to get back to our healthy vegan self's!!

To make sure I really stayed on track I talked my co-workers into another weight loss challenge starting the beginning of January running until May (I'm down 10 lbs. already!!).  Back outside getting my walk (some times run) back on.  My husband and I have also gone more raw vegan which we are loving!  Also gave up the drinking.  Since losing all of my weight and introducing beer back into my diet I started have HORRIABLE stomach issues.  Quit drinking - GONE.  Life is SO much more enjoyable now!!

One of the benefits of eating raw - IT'S SO FAST making dinner!!  Even on the nights the husband works I can whip up something delicious in minutes!  For example, this little gem I made last night.  The original recipe is from Skinny Limits, but I myself was "Limited" with the ingredients I had on hand and came up with this:

 

Raw Vegan Carrot Noodles with Pesto and Mushrooms & Onion

 

Noodles:
 3 large carrots, peeled into noodles (I used just my standard peeler.

Mushrooms:
1 cup of mushrooms, diced.
1/4 cup of red onion, diced.