great balls of falafel!

While on Instagram yesterday a gal I follow shared a Falafel recipe that not only looked good, but looked easy AND I had just about everything at home to make!  Score for me!!  When the husband works I love cooking up something for myself with enough leftover for him to have for lunch the next day.  I made a few tweaks to the original recipe and decided to use up the last zucchini in the fridge and top with a Cashew Lemon Cream sauce.  This was a quick and easy dinner, enjoy!

Chickpea & Veggie Baked Falafel with Zucchini Pasta

and Cashew Lemon Cream Sauce

Ingredients
For Falafel

1 Can Chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 Red Onion
1/4 Cup Fresh or Frozen Peas
1/4 Cup Fresh Basil or Parsley
1/2 Red Pepper
2 Garlic Cloves
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper
2-4 Tablespoons of Ground Flaxseed, Flour or Breadcrumbs

etsy store items being added!

CRAZY busy day, but I have gotten one new tee shirt design up on my Etsy store!!  This is one of my favorite style of tee shirts, and the mix of color in them makes them rock!  It comes in several colors and printed on the front is KALE and back reads "it's a vegan thing!"  This shirt is a junior size, so please use the sizing chart.  I would normally wear a medium and buy a large in this one (and that is still fitted).  Pick yours up today!!

Happy Wednesday!!

non-pasta vegan mac and "cheese" - oh yeah, it CAN be done!

I have been DYING for vegan Mac and "Cheese" but with my weight loss challenge going on at the office I knew that I really didn't need the calories.  But come on, Mac and Cheese is sooooo good!!  All of that creamy goodness who am I to say no?!  So, what is a vegan chick to do?  Come up with a non-pasta version!!  My thought was if I was to cut out the pasta I would replace it with zucchini and then bulk it up with some more veggies!!  Here is what I came up with:

Spicy Vegan Non-Pasta Mac & "Cheese" with Mushrooms and Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients
3 Zucchini, spiral cut, then cut into smaller pieces
2 Cups Mushrooms, sliced
1-2 T Vegetable Broth
2 Pounds Brussels Sprouts, sliced in half ends trimmed and yellow leaves removed
1 Cup Bread Crumbs

enchiladas or tacos?

The husband worked Tuesday night and I thought it would be better to pre-cook dinner for Wednesday since there was a lot of slicing and dicing involved (and I wanted to walk before dinner on Wednesday!).  My plan was to take this Black Bean Enchilada recipe but cut out the tortillas to save some calories.  I bought Romain lettuce to wrap up the enchiladas but, my error - I should have bought collard greens.  However, the best part about being vegan - Is you can create dinner as you go!  So, for the last two nights we have enjoyed Black Bean Tacos topped with Chipotle Cream Sauce and Spanish Rice!

vegan snacks to die for!

I will be the first to admit - I LOVE junk food!!  After becoming vegan I found that I LOVE vegan junk food too!!  I quickly realized as I finished my first weight loss challenge and gained 14 of the 30 pounds I lost back, that vegan's can be overweight too thanks to vegan junk food.

Beginning of January this year i decided it was time to give up the processed vegan junk food and get back to eating smart and healthy.  My #1 go to snack - hummus!  Oil free hummus at that!  Well, this week I found a new recipe and I'm sorry but this is HUMMUS CRACK!  The creamiest best tasting I have yet to discover.

Roasted Red Pepper & Almond Hummus

by Dreena Burton

Ingredients ½ cup raw almonds (with skins left on) 2 tbsp red wine vinegar 2-2 ½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil (optional, can reduce or omit for oil-free) 2 cups cooked chickpeas (rinse and drain if using canned - one can is usually about 1 3/4 cups) ½ cup roasted red peppers (from jar), excess liquid drained off 1 medium clove garlic (or to taste), sliced ½ tsp Dijon mustard ½ tsp sea salt freshly ground black pepper to taste 2 - 4 tbsp water (to thin dip as desired) ¼ - 1/3 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped (for garnish, optional) 1 - 2tbsp almonds, chopped (for garnish, optional)

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?

love is in the air...and smoky green chile white bean hummus!

Yes, tomorrow is the day for LOVE or steak and sex night as my husband use to call it before our vegan days lol!  Before I chat about Valentine's Day plans for tomorrow I wanted to share an awesome oil free hummus recipe!!  I made this up Sunday and both my husband and I loved how it turned out.

Smoky Green Chile White Bean Hummus

food and yet MORE food!

Things have been busy!  I came down with a cold last Friday which slowed me down a bit over the weekend, but since Monday I have been feeling great again.  Last night was another one of those....where did this evening go?....days.  Our foster puppy iLean was adopted!!  So, before the family came over the husband and I got a great walk in (weather in AZ is amazing!!). 

Then there was dinner...OMG.  I took a few bits and pieces and came up with this must have again dinner:

Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Lentil Cashew Cakes
all topped with Roasted Red Pepper Cashew Cream

While the Brussels Sprouts were roasting it gave me plenty of time to make the Lentil Cashew Cakes and blend up the cream sauce.  My husband and I both have never been "Brussels Sprouts" people, but since eating vegan we have grown to crave them all of the time!

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!