FOOD! - GREEN SMOOTHIE #1!

Let's keep this short and sweet.  I'm interested in eating healthy and following a mostly vegan diet.  I don't have a lot of time in the mornings as I'm typically rushing around getting children ready for school and preparing for my day - whether it's going to the office, volunteering in one of my children's classrooms or going to the grocery alone!  So - I like to make protein shakes and smoothies to get me through my mornings on the go!  Last Monday, I posted an easy chocolate protein smoothie.  Today, I'm posting A Berry Green Smoothie!

A Berry Green Smoothie

In a 24 oz blender cup add the following:

10 oz bag of frozen organic berries

1 handful of walnuts

1 large Kale leaf, lightly torn and without the stem

1/2 to 1 cup of Almond Milk

Blend until smooth and enjoy!

The addition of leafy greens (spinach, chard, kale, etc) makes a smoothie "green".  Although the smoothie isn't always green in color and you don't even taste the greens!  What a great way to get those very important green leafy vegetables without having to choke down another salad!

I use a lot of Almond Milk these days, but any non-dairy milk would be an acceptable substitute, as would plain old water.  If you aren't concerned about keeping this smoothie vegan, you can add your favorite yogurt or regular milk.  And if everything doesn't seem to blend well enough the first time through, add another 1/4 cup of liquid and blend again.

Have more time of your hands and like buying in bulk?  Purchase your berries separately, wash them and freeze them and add as desired.  I like finding the bags of frozen organic fruits on sale and stocking up - especially when berries are out of season.  Super quick and easy!  The frozen fruit creates a thicker smoothie.  Fresh fruit can be used too, but you may want to add ice and less liquid if a thicker consistency is preferred.  

Feel free to add other fruits, nuts, cocoa powder or protein powder to switch this up!  But overall, this is a solid base for an easy green smoothie.  Enjoy!

Food! - Protein Shake #1!

It is the first full week of 2016!  The holidays are over.  The weekend is over.  Time to get serious again about maintaining a more healthy and sustainable diet!  Now I'm not talking about signing up for some fad diet.  I'm talking about diet in general - the food put into one's body.  Looking for a good place to start?  Start here.  Each week in January I will be posting one protein shake or green smoothie recipe.  Shakes and smoothies can be complicated or simple.  I'll stick to simple for now.  No need to overwhelm you right away!

Protein Shakes and Green Smoothies are a great way to get a lot of the necessary vitamins and minerals that your body needs without having to make a huge meal.  They are pretty quick (especially with some planning ahead) and extremely portable!  I like to vary my shakes and smoothies so that I'm not drinking the same thing every day for a week.  After I spent some time exploring hundreds of recipes, I mainly stick to ones that I know I will like and that are not very complex, or I'll just throw some random fruits and greens together on the fly.  As a mother of three young children, who tries to keep up a blog, work a part-time job at an environmental consulting firm and work at sharing my love for Young Living Essential Oils, I don't have time for complex!!!

Since watching "Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret", I have been minimizing the amount of meat, eggs & dairy we consume.  I also wanted to make sure that I was still eating what my body needs, so I happened across two vegan protein mixes at Sam's Club (Naturade Vegan Smart and Purely Inspired 100% Plant-Based Protein).  I was finding that many Protein mixes had Whey in them, which is a dairy product and therefore I wanted to stay away from Whey.  I was also looking to stay away from Soy, as I get plenty of soy in other parts of my plant-based diet.  To my surprise, both of these Protein mixes are Vegan as well as Soy and Gluten Free!  I regularly mix one of these up in the morning for my breakfast, especially if I'm hustling out the door to get kids to school and me to work or an appointment.  

The recipe that I'm posting uses the Purely Inspired 100% Plant-Based Protein - chocolate!!!  Chocolate and good for you???  Get out!  Below I'll show you just how easy and quick it is to make a protein shake using this protein powder mix and I'll also mention a couple easy ways to add some variety to shakes using Purely Inspired Chocolate Protein.

Before you get started, it is important to have a blender that can blend/puree ice and other frozen fruits and veggies as well as fresh greens (spinach, kale, chard, etc).  After reading too many reviews, checking out the items in person and thinking of how the blender will fit my lifestyle, I finally settled on The Nutri Ninja - Ninja Blender Duo with Auto iQ.  It's pretty awesome and fast, especially when I use the appropriate amount of liquid!  Do your research!  There are a lot out there at all different price ranges too!

Chocolate Protein Nutritional Shake Recipe - Basic
Use a  16 oz blender bottle/cup/container
Fill about 1/3 to 1/2 with ice cubes
1 scoop of the Chocolate Protein Powder
Add about 8 oz of Water or your favorite Unsweetened Non-Dairy Milk (I use a lot of Almond Milk).
Mix/Blend on Blender until smooth.
Enjoy!

The Ice makes it thicker and keeps it colder longer.

Add-In Options
1 Chopped Banana (frozen or fresh)
Or
1/2 of the flesh of one Avocado
OR
1/4 Cup of Walnuts
OR
1 large Shredded Kale Leaf (Now it's a Green Smoothie!)
OR
Any Combination of the Add-In Options
OR
All of the above!

(I apologize for the video with the huge watermark!  I'm still learning!  I guess my videos need to be quite a bit less than 6 minutes in order to have a nice seamless transition from my phone to blog!)

What is your favorite Protein Shake Mix and Recipe???  I'd love to try some new blends in 2016!

Food! - Vegetable Medley!

What do you make when you have a lot of vegetables that have been waiting patiently to be eaten?  You make a concoction or Vegetable Medley!  Following I'll describe what I did one night when I had a counter full of squash and potatoes that I wanted to use!

Vegetable Medley

This does take a while to prepare, mostly due to the cooking of the Squash, so plan accordingly. 

Ingredients

Feeds about 4+

1/2 of as large Acorn Squash (1 small Acorn Squash would have been perfect)

1/2 of a large Spaghetti Squash (I've really just seen one size of Spaghetti Squash, but if you can find 1 small one, that would work too!)

About 1-2 lbs of Red Potatoes

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 - 8oz carton of Mushrooms

1 Red Onion

A few big handfuls of Baby Spinach

3+ cloves of Garlic

Salt and Pepepr

Seasonings to your taste

Directions

1. Preheat over to 400 degrees
2. Cut both types of Squash in half, sprinkle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and salt and pepper
3. Place Squash cut side down in baking dish, add 1-2" of water to dish to help speed up the cooking and to keep the squash from sticking to the bottom of the dish
4. Cook both types of Squash in oven together for about 30-45 minutes, or to desired tenderness
5. Cut Potatoes into about 1" pieces.  Steam to desired tenderness.  I used my DeMarle Cookware with a little bit of water on the bottom and steamed in my microwave to lessen the mess!
6. Chop Mushrooms & Onion and place in large saucepan with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
7. Mince or Crush Garlic and add to saucepan
8. Add Spinach to saucepan (spinach can be chopped into smaller pieces if desired)
9. Sautee vegetables in Olive Oil until desired tenderness is achieved. 
10. Add the steamed Potatoes to the saucepan with sauteed vegetables
11. Scoop the flesh from the Acorn Squash, shred the Spaghetti Squash and add to the saucepan with sauteed vegetables.
12. Season with additional Salt and Pepper or Seasonings of your choice and warm all ingredients together for a few minutes before serving.
13. I'm just learning about Nutritional Yeast and you better believe that next time I make this I will be adding it!!!

For Herbivores, this is a meal in itself thanks to the heartiness of the potatoes!  For Omnivores this can be served as a side with a meat of your liking.  It is also Gluten and Soy Free!

FOOD! - BLACK BEAN & KALE BAKED YAMS!

As we are trying to consume less meat, dairy & egg products, I am able to experiment with different foods and recipes!  For this particular dinner, I knew I wanted to use the yams that I already had, but I wanted to make it different.  In searching on-line, I came across one with minimal ingredients, and ingredients that I had already or could easily substitute!  Perfect!  Just what I need, a simple recipe!  Following is my version, which I must say tasted pretty darn good!

Black Bean & Kale Baked Yams
(Serves 6-8)

Ingredients

4 - Medium to Large Organic Yams or Sweet Potatoes
2 - 15oz cans of Organic Black Beans (or approx 3 cups of cooked black beans or 1 cup of dry beans)
About 4 - 6 cups chopped Organic Kale (Spinach or Chard would work well also)
2 - 3 TBSP Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 - Cloves of Organic Garlic pressed or minced
2/3 Cups of Water
Sea Salt and Pepper to your preference

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat over to 375 degrees.
2. Cut Yams in half lengthwise and place cut side down on lined sheet pan or Demarle Silpat (I love my Demarle cookware!) Poke holes in top side of yams. Cook about 30 mintues or until desired tenderness.
3. While Yams are cooking, chop Kale and prep Garlic.
4. Heat Olive Oil in saucepan, add Garlic and cook until fragrant (usually just a few minutes).
5. Add Kale to Garlic and Olive Oil.  Toss to coat.
6. Add Water, cover saucepan and cook about 5 minutes.
7. Remove cover, toss Kale & Garlic, reduce heat and cook another 15 minutes or until Kale has reached desired tenderness and texture, add more water as needed.
8. Add Black Beans to Kale & Garlic and cook until warmed thoroughly.  Season as needed with Sea Salt and Pepper.
9. When Yams are ready, split down the middle of the cut side and open each half up.
10. Spoon Black Bean, Kale & Garlic mixture onto Yams and serve!
11. No topping is necessary, but if desired, a vegan sour cream does taste good on top (my children liked the added sour cream).

I found the original recipe HERE.  The original called for an avocado dressing, which I omitted because I knew my children would definitely not touch their dinner if it was on there, and I didn't have any avocados!  But I will make this again for myself with the avocado dressing to give it a try!  Enjoy!!!  Be sure to let me know what you think!  

FOOD! - CRUNCHY SWEET POTATO STUFFED PEPPERS!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and ate tons of delicious food!  I know we did!  The best part was, I didn't have to prepare anything as we traveled out of town!  But, if you did host and over-estimated on the quantity of sweet potatoes or yams necessary to feed your guests, I have a recipe you should try to help you use those sweet potatoes up before they start growing in your cabinet!

Crunchy Sweet Potato Stuffed Peppers
Main Dish or Side Dish
Feeds about 4 adults as prepared below.  If using as a side dish, this would feed about 8 adults.

4 medium-large sized Green Peppers, tops cut off and insides removed

Stuffing Mixture
2 large Sweet Potatoes or Yams, peeled, cubed & steamed
1/2 - 1 cup of Almond Milk
1/2 of a large Red Onion, chopped
2 stalks Celery, chopped
Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, to saute onion and celery
1/2 cup dry Organic Quinoa
1/2 cup water 
1/2 cup Organic Low Sodium Vegetable Broth

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Start Quinoa, mix 1/2 cup dry Quinoa with 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup Vegetable Broth.  Cook per package recommendation.
3. Prep and steam Sweet Potatoes. I like steaming my veggies in the microwave.  Its quicker, less mess and all the liquid is retained.
4. Prep and saute Onion and Celery together in Olive Oil until desired tenderness is achieved.
5. Mash Sweet Potatoes with Milk, adding liquid from steam dish as needed for desired texture.
6. Combine Quinoa, Onion, Celery and Sweet Potatoes
7. Prep Green Peppers
8. Spoon stuffing mixture into Green Peppers
9. Place Stuffed Peppers into casserole dish and place in oven uncovered
10. Cook 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

Prepared using the ingredients above, provides you with a satisfying meal that is free of meat, dairy, soy & gluten!  So it is technically Vegan!  If you wanted to add Parmesan Cheese (or non-dairy alternative) to the top of the mixture after stuffing the peppers, that would taste yummy too!    

The celery, onion and green peppers give the meal a tasty crunch!  And thanks to the celery and onion, additional spices or herbs were not even necessary!  But feel free to add what you like.

Let me know what you think!