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!

somedays you just can't win

for instance,
not all of your pictures will come out good.
like this one:
Pumpkin nog oatmeal with blueberries and chia seeds

it tastes much better than it looks...trust me. now, i was attempting to get more into the Christmas spirit though i am not really sure if it tastes like egg nog, seeing as how I've never had it before! all i really know about egg nog is that it flavored with allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. so it was in a way a shot in the dark. now if you are also in the mood for a breakfast full of holiday cheer then be sure to check out my gingerbread oatmeal. as you all know, i am more partial to gingerbread :)

in other news.....

i finally got to try chia seeds! i actually really like them, they have no flavor, add bulk to food, and absorb tons of liquid. Chia seeds have always intrigued me, just the fact that they're so versatile you can make them into crackers, put them in soups, in oatmeal, yogurt, etc. and they're full of important plant proteins, fiber, and omega 3's. so I'm interested to see how they play out in my food.

okay, so one thing i did not expect for Christmas, was a cold! i feel so gross, my throat hurts, i am tired, I've been skipping out on workouts left and right it's awful. i feel as though its covered the entire school, last night i fell asleep at 6:30 and woke up at 9. and then, since i took a nap i was up until 1 and i woke up every hour and at 4 o clock i actually got up thinking it was six and i made breakfast. then i actually looked at the clock and realized the time.

so because of that, it was a long day. so when i got home i needed a snack to pick me up

and with that, i am going to go sleep until Christmas
ONE MORE DAY TILL VACATION!

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

baked :) Berry breakfast pudding

wow i haven't posted a new recipe in a while! which is why i am very pleased to present:

The baked berry oatmeal pudding
(serves 1)

baked oatmeal recipe

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp of uncooked oatmeal,
1 tsp canola oil
3/4 cup almond milk
3 tbsp apple sauce
2 tbsp berries (blue berries)
1/2 a banana
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2packets of equal
1 tbsp almonds

preheat the oven to 350 degrees on the bake setting. in a blender, first mix the bananas,almond milk, almonds, applesauce, and vanilla extract, blend thoroughly and add in oil, and add in the oatmeal and sweetener last. before placing in over drop the berries of choice into the mixtures and sort of stir it, and if you really want to you can place a few berries on top just so.
bake for about 30 to 45 minutes.

i was inspired to make this oatmeal after i saw this post, and i wanted to make it for one, so i weened the ingredients down to a single serving. i loved the golden crust on top of the mushy semi thick consistency underneath it, it added a very nice contrast :)

In other news, i have noticed that my food photography definitely needs work :( i want to work harder to learn how to make food look good, but i have alot of trouble scheduling in time, with school and all the after school activities i'm in. SO in order to make the recipes i want to, i have to wake up at 5 in the morning to create them and then i get ready for school at 6:30 so i never have any good light! its way too dark to get the natural lighting i needto take pictures! and then i get home at 4 from school, when the sun has already gone down. it's just a pain in the butt.
but i'm going to keep working at it.

Berries and cream, Berries and cream, i'm a little boy who loves Berries and cream!

good morning!
i find myself sitting on my couch this lovely Sunday morning watching Harry Potter. again. i swear, it is always on ABC family. I feel like every weekend is Harry Potter weekend for them.

Last night, i fell asleep on my couch and forgot to make my oatmeal for the morning. so when i woke up on the couch at 2 in the morning i went straight to scrambling together SOMETHING for the morning ( there was no way i was going to be denied my leisurely Sunday  breakfast)

which is how this came to be:

Berries and cream oatmeal

• 1/2 cup dried oats
• 1/3 cup frozen berries
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 tbsp of pecans
• sweetener of choice

prepare oatmeal at you normally would

the strawberry cream

• 1/2 cup of almond milk
• 1 tbsp sweetener of choice
• 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1/2 tbsp of maple syrup
• 2 strawberries

blend all of the cream ingredients together until a creamy mixture comes about.

mmm oatmealy  :)

POWER BREAKFEST!

hello! i am back! 
how was everyone's thanksgiving? i felt like this was the longest week ever, and i as only in school for three days.  i have a mountain of homework and little to no energy.
i was hoping these protein pancakes would help me overcome my back to school energy slump

i followed a recipe from calorie count, and of course i messed around with it a bit.
i used VEGA chocolate protein powder, unfortunately i didn't taste much chocolate. i mostly tasted the wheat bran the recipe called for, which is an odd sweet munch like, sort of flavor.
I've been really lacking motivation lately.when i came back from Florida and i wanted to do a whole week of low carb and no sugar, but to be honest the low carb thing has just made me tired and edgy and the no sugar part ( fruit, processed food, etc) make me want to binge eat. I've been tired, haven't felt like exercising at all and i have this remaining need to sit down and eat a whole cake......
weird right? so starting Monday i am going to get back on track!


In other news.....
look at this sweet bowl i bought at Epcot!

i bought it in japan land!

it was an excellent bowl to hold my afternoon snack, light harvest vegetable soup

and to add a bit more protein i added some edamame beans!

i am unfortunately not a soup person. i mean, if i wanted a liquid, i would drink it, right?

i just don't understand the concept of soup.

oh well, off to the gym tommorow! 

How was your thanksgiving?

I'd love to hear if you're willing to share!

wow i haven't posted on this in awhile :/

i'm sorry guys, i've just been so busy lately. not to mention tired! i've barely had time to excersize, or eat whole sit down meal in the past two weeks. you should see the car, it's littered with tupperware with food crumbs from running from point A to point B its been to crazy.
and with tech week next week......i have no idea how i'm going to do the blog and all the rehearsal. and then the four shows we have to do...after the 5th i will have as much time as i want to post on this blog.

so for now here's a few farewell pictures of my breakfast!

saturday night was home coming so heres a picture of me and my sister, in the gold dress. she looked so cool!

pumpkin dried blueberry coconut oatmeal!

see all of you in two weeks!

aah vegan pumpkin pancakes!

AND they're low in fat!

i like to think of Saturday as pancake day, i always have the time to just sit down, make a cup of coffee, and have an elaborate breakfast of one of my favorite breakfast foods, pancakes.

since its October i wanted to make one of my favorite dishes pumpkin pancakes, but i also wanted to make them vegan. so  i took a recipe i often use for pancakes from vegweb as the core of the recipe and just sort of added from there.
So here they are:
Pumpkin spice pancakes
makes 8 small pancakes, and 4 large pancakes

• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• pinch salt
• 2 tablespoons flax seed
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons water or fat free nondairy milk (i use unsweetened almond)
• 1/3cup +1 tbsp pumpkin puree
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup(i use Vermont sugar free)
• sweetener(sugar, stevia, equal, what have you)
• a shake of cinnamon

mix  the dry ingredients of flour, brown sugar, flax seed, pumpkin spice, baking powder and salt, into a bowl and set to the side.
in a smaller bowl, mix together the maple syrup,  nondairy milk,and vanilla extract
mix two bowls together. stir gradually, but dont over mix because then the batter gets all weird and the pancakes get odd too. after all that, then add the pumpkin in, and mix.

set your pan to a low setting and wait for it to heat up.  take 1/4 cup worth of batter (or 1/2 a cup for big pancakes like i like them :D) and spoon gently onto the pan. you should flip it when bubbles begin to appear on the surface,and cook until a golden orange color.

i like putting maple syrup on mine but feel free to do anything with them, like powdered sugar, and a hint of cinnamon, or cream cheese. heck, you can even put walnuts into the batter!

another thign i did yesterday was see 50/50, the new movie with Joseph Gordon Levitt , i means its the second time i've seen it so obviously it was good. my friends and i sobbed our eyes out.

and then we took akward bathroom pictures!

so blurry!

do you ever cry at the movies? 

tell me!

i cry, like every time i see one! heck i cry during the previews sometimes!

ginger bread oatmeal!

hello! wow this week felt really long, which is weird considering i missed all of my main classes on Wednesday due to the PSAT's and monday was a holiday but anyway
A NEW RECIPE HAS APPEARED!

 (this is not a picture of the ginger bread oatmeal...they were all too ugly to post... but looks aren't everything!)


Gingerbread oatmeal

• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1 cup almond milk and 1/2 cup of water
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon of molasses
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• sweetener( how much you put in is really up to you
• 1 banana melted, (in the microwave)
• 1 tbsp pecans
• 1 sprinkling of all spice or nutmeg

make the oatmeal the night before for overnight oats,
microwave banana and pecans together for 1 minute set aside for later. mix all of the dry ingredients along with the vanilla extract and molasses. after that's all done, pour the banana and pecans into the oatmeal microwave if you want hot oatmeal and enjoy!

in other news i learned how to parallel park today at my driving hour!
yaaaay parking!
unfortunately i hadnt eaten anything since lunch so i came home and whipped up a snack of grilled broccoli and asparagus with hummus

aaah delicious!

see you later!

there really arent enough hours in the day

this mornings wonderful breakfast, of overnight oats, almond milk, shredded coconut, sliced bananas, cinnamon, walnuts, and dried blueberries :)

sorry for the bad lighting, i a HATE getting up so early in the morning for stupid school

from there i mixed it with my handheld blender. i seriously love that thing.

do you ever feel like there aren't enough hours in the day?
BECAUSE I DO. this year is so hectic with all the work im getting from my classes. today i had PSATs and i was going in out of sleep during it. it was awful, but other than that it wasnt so bad.

but because of my awful schedule i feel like im not able to keep up with my blog which is really annoying because i try to post whenever i have free time, which is now almost never, and when i do post its always at a different time.
so.i propose a posting schedule.


From hence forth, i will be posting every other day, and i will try to post a new recipe once a week.

i really hope this works out because i love this blog, and its alot of fun posting my kitchen adventures for a healthy lifestyle!

grannies great granola!

morning everybody!

to celebrate our 80 degree weather in new England, i made vegan pancakes! they're not the prettiest but they really were good. It seems like October cant make up its mind. not that I'm complaining. we lucked out so much, because its going to be warm till Monday AND its a three day weekend. thanks Christopher Columbus! though you didn't really do anything...

an then this morning i made....

Grannies cinnamon pecan granola

• 3 cups of oats
• 2/3 of dried cranberries (or any other fruit of your choosing)
• 1 tbsp flax seed
• 1/2 cup pecans
• 1 tsp and 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup of honey plus 1 tbsp of molasses and 1 tbsp of sugar free maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 + 1 tbsp cup of wheatgerm                                                                                               

1 combine your oats, pecans, flax, wheat germ, and cinnamon in a bowl. in a second smaller bowl combine the honey, molasses, and maple syrup with the vanilla extract. mix ingredients together and place of a baking pan.
bake at 200 degrees for 30 minutes, but remember to watch it as it bakes and to checkup on it so you can flip it. it will start to burn really fast, because it doesn't have as much liquid sugar that granola usually has so you have to be careful
once done baking, let it sti for 5 minutes then place in a mixing bowl and stir in the cranberries.

the taste of this granola is really mildly sweet, i didn't want to have a crazy amount of sugar in it, so i cut in half the usual amount of honey in half. but because of this, you MUST cook it on a lower setting so it wont burn, but you still want to achieve that crispy flavor.

personally i love granola, you can use it for so many things, like gifts, snacks, breakfast, and stir it in yogurt!

how do you like to eat your granola?
I'd love to hear!


well, enjoy!
till next time!

where does the time go?

because i have had absolutely none of it lately!
ITS SO COLD! its even hard to type!
i started off my morning with tofu covered in Dijon mustard and cooked in a pan on toast

it was pretty good, not my favorite though.

today i had almost missed a driving hour, because the driving school failed to tell me of this one  (we always write them down on the calender) so the  instructor just kept giving me hard time about almost missing it and how the lady who had been taking private lessons was so mad, and how she was going to complain to the driving school which put me on edge so i didn't drive well at all.

forget driving, I'm going to ride a magic carpet everywhere.

luckily my day got a bit better with this:

a tasty salad with cucumbers, spinach, mixed steamed vegetables, lite poppy seed dressing, apples and walnuts.

a very tasty meal indeed.

till later!

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!

want an easy protein filled breakfast for on the go?

well, you have come to the right place.

look no further, behold :

THE EGG MUG

i originally heard the idea from a hungry girl cookbook and i had to try it.

this recipe is super easy, protein filled, and can be eaten as a breakfast or snacks!

egg mug

• 1/2 cup of egg whites
• 1tbsp onions
• 1 tbsp onion
• 1 tbsp carrots
• 1 tbsp zucchini
• 1 clove of chopped garlic

get a big mug, the bigger the better and place all the ingredients. microwave for two to three minutes

let sit for 1 minute,

and you're done!

till next time

pumpkin pie for breakfast?!!

oh.my.god

oh. my.god.


oh. my . GOD.


PUMPKIN PIE OATMEAL?!
wow. just wow. and its vegan!

i woke up around 4:30 this morning since i have a hard time sleeping so i was feeling pretty low so i needed some sort of pick me up for breakfast which included a HUGE delicious peach and my new masterpiece, the pumpkin pie oatmeal

pumpkin pie oatmeal recipe:

• 1/2 a cup of uncooked oats, (i use a packet of oats with flax)
• 2/3 cups of almond milk ( i add a tsp of water along with this, i like my oatmeal soupy)
• 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• sweetener ( i use 3 equal packets)
• 1/8 tsp of pumpkin spice
• 1/8 tsp of cinnamon
• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp pumpkin puree
• 1 tbsp tofutti cream cheese

you can cook this according to how you like your oatmeal, i put mine in for about 2 minutes usually but for this i put it in for 2 minutes and 30 seconds

the thing about this oatmeal, compared to other pumpkin pie vegan oatmeal is the cream cheese, it defnitley adds a more creamy pie like taste, especially if you let it sit for 5 minutes the texture gets thicker. it really does taste like pumpkin pie and not just pumpkin with some oatmeal!

it was amazing. its such a good way of starting out fall. its vegan, and a very healthy alternative to regular pumpkin pie!

or if you just have a crazy pumpkin craving like i do its a simple quick fix!

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!

all about breakfast

breakfast in my opinion, is the most important meal of the day, but not many people eat it. studies show that only 15% of people ACTUALLY sit down and eat breakfast?
 to me this is just madness. i can't imagine what life would be like without it!

my favorite cereal with bananas and coconut shreds!

egg white omelet with veggies and a banana!

 greek yogurt with irish bread and apple slices!

 simple tofu scramble!

 berry fusion oatmeal with green tea!

 pumpkin banana almond oatmeal!

and last but not least is a veggie egg white microwavable egg mug

so, those were some simple breakfast ideas for people who dont eat breakfast BUT SHOULD

thanks!