vegan spicy mediterranean mac & "cheese"

I love this time of the year more than any I think.  That fresh Spring is in the air feeling.  Laying out by the pool. Cool fresh veggie dishes.  I just want to quit my job and live out by the pool right now.  BUT life does not permit me to do so.

My weekends have consisted of coffee at my favorite local coffee shop, LONG walks with my Cavalier Daphne and relaxing poolside.  I am thinking I need to rent Daphne out as she really kicks my butt when it comes to great walks! The dog NEVER slows down!

Still working away on cleaning up my health and doing great!  I am in week seven and down about 17 lbs.  -> insert happy dance!!  I feel so much happier, lighter on my feet and really positive!  I did a little tweaking with my diet last week cutting out my morning smoothie and substituting it with veggies.  I found that I feel so much fuller and the weight loss is moving again.

Last night my husband told me I knocked it out of the ball park with dinner!  Always a great complement to hear!  This was seriously like eating junk food that you might get at Olive Garden I kid you not!

vegan spicy mediterranean mac & "cheese"

Vegan Spicy Mediterranean Mac & "Cheese"

Ingredients:
1 box of Quinoa Macaroni Pasta

Sauce:
1 Cup Raw Cashews (soak for 2 hours if you don't have a Vitamix)
1 Clove Garlic
1/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast
3 tbsp. Tomato Paste
2 tsp. Dijon Mustard
1/4 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Red Pepper Flakes (less if you don't like it hot)
1 Cup of Water (or more if too thick)
1/2 Cup Fresh Basil

Spicy Green Bean-Asparagus Stir Fry

This Wednesday is feeling more like a Monday, but trying to power through it.  The best part of the work day is going home, enjoying a great walk, making my husband a nice dinner and then relaxing with him the rest of the night.  Yea, I'm rowdy that way!  Yesterday was SO beautiful out that I whipped up the below Spicy Green Bean-Asparagus Stir Fry recipe and we enjoyed dinner out by the pool.  This was a great quick weekday recipe!

Spicy Green Bean-Asparagus Stir Fry

Ingredients

• Vegetable Broth
• 1 Onion
• 1 Red Pepper, diced
• 1 Jalapeno, diced
• 1 lb. Green Beans (fresh or frozen), ends trimmed off
• 1 bunch of Asparagus, cleaned and ends trimmed off
• Lightlife Organic Smoky Tempeh Strips
• 1 tsp. Fresh Ginger, minced
• 1 tsp. Garlic Powder
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• Pepper to taste
• ¼ Cup Soy Sauce
• 2 tbsp. Sriracha
• 2 tbsp. Peanut Butter (or nut butter of your choice, I used Sunbutter I made)
• Cashews for garnish (or peanuts)
• Soba Noodles

 

fitbit charge hr review

Fitbit Charge HR Review

I have to make a confession - I am a technology nerd.  Yes, it's true I love all techy things!  Being active and healthy again really gets me thinking about my overall health 24/7 and YES there are all kind of fun techy things for being healthy!!  I have several friends who are always posting their daily workouts and steps on Facebook/Instagram/etc. so last week I started looking into Fitbit.  Just this year they came out with the new Fitbit Charge HR.  Hummm...looked interesting - tracks your steps, sleep, heart rate and some other awesome features.  Loved the plum color option and thought it would be small enough to wear daily, so after reading many reviews and searching high and low where I might find it I came up with ONLY two store options on Saturday.

will walk for food!

Are you kidding me, it's Thursday already?!?  Work has been so crazy busy and come the evenings I have no idea where my day has gone!  Arizona got hit with rain Tuesday and Wednesday, so my poor dog Daphne and I would stand outback watching the clouds just waiting for a break so we could get out and walk.  LOL!  I added up my miles this week and I have walked over SEVENTEEN miles!  I am back on that natural high and feeling great!  I remember just a few weeks ago sitting at the kitchen bar munching on a bag of chips...oooh couple of cookies....washing it all down with a couple of beers thinking to myself, "ugh, I have no desire to get outside and walk.  How did I ever do it??"  Thank God I am OUT of that crappy funk!!

So, I have to quickly share a couple of recipes I tried this pastweekend that you MUST know about!  The first is poblano “crema” enchiladas.  Now looking at my photo you may say, "Ummm...that doesn't look like enchiladas??"  Yes, I am A. Too lazy to roll them up, so instead I made mine into a casserole and B. I wanted to cut out the extra calories of putting olive oil on my tortillas to make them softer to roll.  So, there you have it.  They were maybe not as spicy as my husband and I normally like, but very good and worth making!!  The crème sauce makes a LOT of leftovers and works great as a salad dressing!!

Brussels Sprouts "Cheese" Pasta Bake

Wow, where did the week go?!?  Just finished week THREE of cleaning up my health and getting back on track.  Down only ONE sad pound this week, but fitting backing into my smaller clothes and I feel SO great!!  Trying to remind myself that the scale is not the tell all be all of life!  It is easy to become frustrated after stepping off the scale and just saying, "Screw it I give up." BUT I chose to keep moving forward knowing that how I feel today, how great I feel, how happy I feel...that's the reward.  I have also gone these three weeks with absolutely NO alcohol....zero, null, none!  It feels amazing to go to bed and night feeling good and wake up the next morning feeling great.

This vegan redhead is so excited for the weekend (even with the crappy weather coming)...why you ask?  Because there will be a new addition to the kitchen - YES a new food processor!!  LOL!  May not seem that exciting to some, but if you LOVE to cook and have been using a broken food processer for a while....you'd understand my excitement!! After looking around I have decided to purchase the 11-cup capacity processor from Cuisinart.  We have a Cuisinart coffee maker we love, and everything I have read about this one seems to fit all of my needs.  Originally I looked at buying it from Amazon, however Bed Bath & Beyond has it and guess what I have?? Yep, a 20% off coupon!!  Woohooo....makes this vegan redhead a happy-happy girl!

Last night I cooked up a great vegan meal that was pretty easy and VERY tasty!  There are so many different veggies you could add to this and any of my chilies/peppers can be omitted from the recipe if you don't like your food spicy.

Brussels Sprouts "Cheese" Pasta Bake

Ingredients:
8 oz Quinoa Pasta, cooked according to instructions
4 oz. Can of Green Chilies
1/4 Cup Sun Dried Tomatoes
1 Cup Brussels Sprouts, shredded

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!

 

back on the wagon week 2

Week 2 weigh-in was today and I was down a total of NINE pounds!  Woohoo! I was really hoping to somehow see ten, but I'll take nine.  It was a great overall week, eating was fresh and clean, exercise was great....feeling so awesome!!  Love your body and it sure as hell love you right back, that I promise you!  Now to move onto week three!  Going in strong and positive again!!

Tonight will be a grocery shopping date night.  Time to stock our fridge up with tons of veggies and fruit!  My menu is prepared for the week, which helps with over buying and veggies/fruit going bad.  Even have a fun menu for Sunday's Daytona 500 Race!  Yea, we're redneck and proud!