whats for dinner?!

.....eggs? and zombie self portraits?
ugh lame. unfortunately this is all i am stuck with for the time being, as i am going to be allergy tested tommorow for 3 hours. the only upside is i get to start m weekend a lil bit earlier than everyone else :) the allergy testing consists of me not being allowed to eat from when i wake up until we're done, i am going to die of hunger. but hopefully it will clear some things up for me, for the whey allergy i am absolutely sure about.
speaking of which, i cheated and ate a yogurt today.

I REGRET NOTHING. i discovered the joys of sugary yogurt! i usually don't eat sugary fruit yogurt, because after 15 years straight of just eating pure sugar sweets for breakfast lunch and dinner, sugar loses its appeal after awhile, its only the past two years where i've been a little more sugar resistant.

but this strawberry chobani was just completely out of this world. i mean sure, after it was eaten, i did feel sick, along with sharp pains on my inside, and breathing was a little off, but trust me, i was in lalaland after i ate it. i'm sorry, i just can't find yogurt substitute that i like, they always taste watery, its the one thing i cant seem to shake.oh well.
oh note: i am feeling a healthy cookie recipe for the future! fingers crossed!

Question of the day: do you ever eat something you're not supposed to?
For me its a few things, that i shouldn't eat but i eat anyway, like for instance yogurt, as you already know.

leave a comment and tell me! i'd love to know!

mama's vegan sloppy joes

mmm!

these are my absolute favorite thing in the world. usually i cook my own meals, breakfast lunch and dinner. So this is basically the only thing i let my mom make me, and i let her because it's so good.

she got the idea for the recipe in clean eating magazine, but the original magazine called for ground bison....whatever that is, or beef. so this recipe was swapped around for tempeh instead of meat, and agave nectar for honey. also for the sauce, it comes with a delicious marinara sauce, that you can put on other things beside the sloppy Joe's,

Mama's tempeh sloppy Joe's

•  1 tsp olive oil,
• 1 package of fermented soy, aka tempeh
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium onion diced
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 3/4 tsp mustard powder
• 1/8 tsp cayenne powder
• 1 sweet red pepper chopped
• 1 medium green zucchini diced
• 1 medium yellow squash diced
• 1 and 1/2 cups of marinara sauce (recipe below)
• 1 tbsp agave nectar

in a large pan in medium heat, cook the tempeh and the cloves and garlic and tsp of oil and cook until browned, and add the Chile powder mustard and cayenne and set aside in a separate bowl.

 in the skillet and saute' the red pepper , squash and zucchini, and add the tempeh, garlic, and and onions and mix together for about 10 to 12 minutes again.

finally add the marinara sauce and 2 tbsps of water and cook until the sauce is hot and bubbling, serve on a bun and you're done!

Marinara sauce

• 5cups of canned, jarred diced or strained plum tomatoes
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium onion diced
• 2 medium carrots peeled and diced
• 2 celery ribs diced
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 fresh sprigs of oregano with the stems removed
• 8 basil leaves
• 1/8 tsp Chile flakes (optional)
• 1 tbsp raw agave
• salt and pepper to taste

in a medium sauce pot heat oil over medium high heat add garlic ,onion, carrots, and celery and saute' until onion becomes translucent and vegetables become soft, add the canned tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, basil, and the Chile flakes, and let it sit and cook till it comes to a boil, for 45 minutes.

once done, and well cooked either use and immersion blender, or a food processor, and puree until smooth, and finally add the agave nectar in.

i love this dish, i think its good to make on a Sunday night, so you'll have something to eat for the whole week. it is in fact very reminiscent of sloppy Joe's mainly because it's so hard to keep in sandwhich!

it really reminds me of school lunches when you were a kid and it was sloppy Joe day at lunch, which is basically the only day i ate what they were serving, besides pizza day of course. 

i went through many food phases as a kid though, starting from when i was in grade school, where i went from eating nothing, to only eating peanut butter sandwiches with really processed peanut butter and gooey white bread (ew) 

in middle school i lived off of rice krispy treats, chocolate clodhoppers, and whatever goody they made in the cafe that day, ranging from 2 brownies,  2 cookies, or 2 slices of cake. i would only ever buy a real lunch unless it was sloppy Joe day, or pizza day, from dominoes (i would buy three slices and two brownies....how was i not fat?)

I've really changed a lot since then, but how about you?

was there a lunch you ate during grade school that you would never eat today? what abut weird food habits?

I'd love to hear!

Getting back to the swing of things!

is harder than i thought! i haven't even posted this week, due to getting back to school, and mid terms being in 2 weeks, i needed to start organizing and reviewing for tests. so i am sorry for not posting, but just because i haven't been posting doesn't mean i haven't been cooking!

for example:

Carrot cake Oatmeal

• 1 serving of oats (1/2 a cup)
• 2/4 cup of your choice of milk
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1 tsp  chia seeds
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 dash nutmeg, dash of ginger, dash of allspice, pinch of cloves,
• 1/2 a large carrot grated.
• 1 tbsp walnuts
• 1 tbsp maple syrup or sweetener of choice

mix all of the dry ingredients into a bowl, and separately  mix together the grated carrot bits and microwave for 45 seconds, just to soften them, because you don't want really crunchy bits, that's not very carrot cake like, set the carrots aside, and mix oatmeal with milk and water and microwave to your preferred consistency, when done with that, mix in the carrots, and top with maple syrup, and walnuts.

and mix together again and you're done!

i topped it with a bit of Greek yogurt, which i wasn't sure how it would taste, but i actually was very pleased with the final result, it gave it a little bit of a tangy kick to it.

so last night i came home from school,  and i was literally awake for about an hour before i completely crashed on my couch for a good 5 hours, and then i went to bed and slept for the rest of the night. i cannot believe how tired i was, and we didn't even have a full week of school! 

one of the highlights of the week was definitely when my mom made vegan sloppy Joe's for dinner :)

 a recipe i will post tomorrow! seriously these are so addicting and delicious it's crazy.

well, i have bunch of things i still have to do 

till tomorrow!

Christmas has come and gone,

And i hope it was wonderful to you!

christmas this year, was very low key, we haven't had a moment to ourselves for a couple of weeks, so we wanted to take things very easy and slow, starting out with a big lounge around breakfast! which we all made together as you can see:

my family ate french toast, in challah bread with bacon and sausage, which i could not partake in, i really didn't want to start out Christmas with a stomach ache so i made my version of oh she glows vegan blueberry vanilla pancake recipe, which i basically cut in half to make it into a single serving

Vanilla vegan blueberry pancakes with easy blueberry sauce

1/2cup and 2 tbsp of www flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8tsp cinnamon,

1/8 tsp baking soda

a pinch of salt

1/4 cup almond milk (add more gradually as I'm not too sure about the measurements on this is)

1 and 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup warm water with 

1 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 cup blueberries

Mixed together the dry ingredients and mixed them all together in a large bowl, separately mixed together all the wet ingredients, and mixed together by pouring the wet ingredients in and folding it into the dry. you want to add the blueberries in last so the batter wont turn blue
heat a skillet and use 1/4 cup to spoon the batter on to the skillet, flip once the batter begins to form holes and bubbles on the surface of the pancake
 if you want to get a little more fancy and add blueberry sauce take 1/4 cup of blueberries, 1.5 tsp of chia seeds, vanilla extract and 2 table spoons of maple syrup, blend all together and microwave for a minute, then place in the refrigerator over night, to give it a jam like texture

for dinner we had torfurkey! a new dish for me, which was surprisingly delicious and liked by my whole family!
but now that Christmas has come and gone its time to get  back on track with healthy eating
i started out today with chocolate peanut butter oats which did not come out right unfortunately, and delicious cups of honey dew melon! i love the colors of honey dew, its such a happy and vibrant green

its so pretty!!

 and i had a very healthy smoothie for lunch, with a very small salad on the side

I'll get back to that tomorrow, it was delicious and healthy but I'm incredibly tired so i am unfortunately trying to speed through this post,
i was so tired i ended up just having tofurkey leftovers for dinner..oooh weell :)

well I'm going to go crash, i don't think i can be awake another minute, i haven't slept at all these past 3 nights and i went to the mall today (lesson learned NEVER GO TO THE MALL THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS) goodnight!

killing two birds with one stone

so, as a special treat, i have not one BUT TWO RECIPES TODAY!

i basically didn't leave the house this weekend which left me with long periods of time just sitting on the couch watching tv and eating, it was incredibly unproductive. it took me all the way till Sunday afternoon to stop being a lazy bones and actually get up and make something.

Saturday night, I'm sitting in my bed, it's pretty close to 1 am and just as i am about to drift off to dream land WHAM
a sudden craving for muesli hits me, and you know that in order to make muesli you have to let the oats soak the night before, so i crawled out of my bed down to the kitchen ( to find my sleeping sister splayed on the couch)
to make this:

Midnight Muesli

• 1 banana, chopped, 
• `1 tbsp toasted almonds
• 1 tbsp toasted coconut
• 1 tbsp wheat germ
• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup almond milk
• dried or fresh berries to sprinkle on top
• 1 tsp ground flax seed

directions: the night before, mix together the oats, almond milk, wheat germ, and flax seed along with a dollop of yogurt if you so please, and place in fridge to soak overnight, in the morning, mix together coconut, berries, and toasted almonds and a sprinkling of sweetener if you want.
and you're done!

it was actually really good, so i was surprised seeing as how it was my first attempt at muesli, and it was so simple! i will definitely be making this again

so with the weekend come and gone, i need to get back into the flow of the week, meaning school work, after school clubs, and realizing i wont be able to cook dinner for myself every night this week, so i made more than i usually do for dinner (a single serving is what i usually make) i made an Asian edamame pasta salad

Edamame pasta Salad
serves 5 or 6

• a whole box of whole wheat pasta
• 1/4 cup tbsp of rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup carrots
• 1/2 up of zucchini chopped
• 1/4 cup of broccoli
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp of sesame oil
• 2 tsp oyster sauce
• 1 and 1/4 cup edamame
• 2 chopped gloves of garlic

Directions: at a high temperature boil a large pot of water, once boiled, add in box of pasta and edamame. This should cook until the pasta is a little less than chewy, to the side place all vegetables in a pan to slowly and lightly stir fry. drain the pasta and mix in chopped garlic, once the vegetables are done also mix in with the pasta. in a small separate bowl mix together the sesame oil, the soy sauce, oyster sauce, and rice vinegar and whisk together until it is all together. After that pour into pasta while slowly mixing it together, let sit for a little bit, maybe 20 minutes so that the flavors can  mix together

i just don't like mondays

nothing to interesting happened today,

for breakfast i had

brown sugar oatmeal with bananas, coconut, and cinnamon, and maple syrup. i tried to use a voluminous oatmeal trick, but it failed......i forgot to microwave it when i made it the night before so it turned oat miserably.

i love coconut. though i can never tell if the saturated fat in it is a good kind of saturated fat or the bad kind. or is that an oxymoron?

AND then for dinner i had

seitan and spinach with garlic, whole wheat pasta, carrots, lima beans, cauliflower, peas, and marinara sauce.

it was so good.

i seriously cannot believe it was so good. AND on top of that it was easy to cook!

well, till next time!

easy breakfast quinoa!

i got up early to do my morning workout routine and i really needed an energy boost to start off the day
this is a good recipe if you're bored of you're regular oatmeal,cream of wheat, etc.

SOME BREAKFAST QUINOA

Breakfast quinoa recipe

• 1/4 cup of quinoa
• 3/4 cup of almond milk
• 2 tbsp sugar, or truvia
• 1/4 tsp of cinnamon
• a dash of allspice
• 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract
• a few drops of almond extract

put all items into a small pot, mix together, you want to put on a really low heating setting so it can simmer. DONT FORGET to keep stirring it, or it will get stuck to the pan. cook it until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the quinoa

serve and enjoy!

here is an unflattering picture of my breakfast quinoa with bits of banana in it.

i tried baking it but it was a fail....the bananas dried out really fast and started burning in the middle inside out....

OH WELL.

HERE is my dinner, i have discovered a new protein love next to tofu and it is called:

SEITAN!

i just bought a box of it and oh.my.god.

i cooked it in soy sauce with some sugar in it with onions an garlic.

i served it on a side of steamed veggies,  roasted potato, and a side salad of cucumber and peppers with italian light dressing

oh my god it was so good!

wait until you see tomorrows recipe!

see you soon!

in the afternoon of the indian summer

hurrah to the second day of fall!
for some reason, in new England where i live its going to be extremely hot this week. lie 70 degrees to 80 degrees.
But you know what they say: "welcome to new England, if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes. it will probably change"
i came home from my friends party and i was feeling super tired, which is odd since i spent most of the night like this

(i hate my friends)

so i got home and immediately needed toe at breakfast, which happened to be chock full of protein 

Greek yogurt with Irish bread and apple slices :)

it was amazingly delicious.

my sister and her boyfriend went apple picking and brought home  TON OF APPLES

and made this:

their very own VEGAN APPLE CRISP they combined a bunch of recipes they found online and made they're very own :)

so proud!

this is my dinner :

i was feeling lazy so i just steamed some tofu and vegetables with whole grain pasta and soy sauce
with roasted sweet potatoes : )
sadly no recipe today but soon!

question: how crazy do you get when you go to a party?
I'm usually the kid who falls asleep around 8 and i love my alone time, but parties are always nice.
till next time!

tofu bake and charmed

hey everyone!

its 6 o clock, I'm about to head out to rehearsal,
but of course i got distracted since the first episode of charmed is on right now.

this really was a great show. i really miss it being on, along with Buffy the vampire slayer.

what shows o you wish were on TV still?

i started my morning off with a fall inspire breakfast,
Pumpkin banana almond oatmeal

It was really good, but oatmeal never fills me up. how unfortunate :(


later that evening i decided to get tricky in the kitchen,
and i made a simple marinated baked tofu

with this marinade

(its really spicy so it was meh. but i added a little bit of sugar, with soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.)
i baked it for about an hour at 375 degrees


and served it on top of brown rice, spinach and steamed vegetables.

catherine, on the other had ate some teeth for dinner...
my sister is so weird.

my mom went to the dentist today and found out she had to get one of her teeth pulled! when the dentist went to throw it away she said no! let me keep it! my children will love it!

aaaw mom <3
well, I'm off to rehearsal. till next time!