Pulled Mushroom Sandwich (Vegan)

I got this recipe off of Pintrest. I know shocker. Although like most recipes I use I did change it a bit. I found it called for way too much BBQ sauce and it really wasn't needed. This recipe is seriously good. My entire family loves it.

Chocolate Cherry Soft Serve (Vegan)

This recipe just blew my mind. It was that good. Seriously, go make it right now. I sincerely hope you have some frozen bananas.

Portobello Steaks (Vegan)

This is another really easy recipe. I think mushrooms are so yummy and they have an almost meaty taste and texture. Portabellas make perfect steaks.

Radicchio and Arugula salad with Tahini Ginger dressing (Vegan)

This salad was inspired from a couple varieties I came across while browsing Pintrest. I took ideas from a few I liked depending on what I had laying around and this was the result. Quite good if I do say so myself!

Millet Oat Pancakes (Dairy free)

I was feeling experimental last week and decided to try out a new pancake concoction. I threw in a bunch of stuff I had in my pantry and the result was actually pretty delicious. I’ll definitely be making these again!

Tahini ginger dressing (Vegan)

Dressing

3 tbsp tahini

½ avocado

1 inch of fresh peeled ginger

1 clove garlic

1 tbsp agave

1 tbsp lemon juice

1-3 tbsp water

Add all ingredients into your blender or food processor and blend until smooth and well combined. You may need to add more or less water depending on your desired consistency.

Zelda the Super Foster Mom

Everyone thinks their pet is special. I just happen to be right. Anyone that meets my Baby Z sees it too and falls madly in love with her. Here's her encounter with two 5 day old kittens and her adventures as a foster mom...

Raising a Healthy Hippie Vegan Baby

Raising a healthy hippie vegan baby. Dealing with concerns about Iron, Calcium, Vitamin B12 and fat.

Hippy babies love bongos.

Breakfast of champions aka vegan toddlers

Breakfast of champions aka vegan toddlers
 

Quantity	Ingredient	Iron (mg)	Fat (g)	Calcium (mg)
1 cup	Steel Cut Porridge Oats	4.96	4.5	84
400 mL	Coconut Milk	1.86	73.26	186
2 tbsp	Black Strap Molasses	5.6	0	330
1/3 cup	Ground flax	2.8	11.3	91
½ cup	raisins	3.8	0	100
1/3 cup	Coarsely ground almonds	3.26	35.3	220
+ fruit like strawberries, papaya, pineapple, etc for added vitamin C
Serving Size (1/5 of the batch)		4.48	24.9	202

Cook oatmeal as directed substituting some of the water for the can of full fat organic coconut milk. About halfway through add all other ingredients except ground flax. Once cooked add flax and allow it to cool. Portion out into 5 airtight containers and store in the fridge.

Snack Time "Cookie" for toddlers

Snack Time "Cookie" for toddlers
Makes 12 cookies

Quantity	Ingredient	Iron (mg)	Fat (g)	Calcium (mg)
1 cup	Organic quick oats	3.2	6	44
2	Very ripe bananas	1.2	15.4	22.6
½ cup	Pumpkin seeds	11.2	46	44
½ cup	Raisins	4.2	.5	110
2 tbsp	Black strap molasses	5.6	0	330
¼ cup	Sesame seeds	5.6	3.5	82.5
¼ cup	Ground flax	21	8.5	68.7
½ cup	Coarsely ground almonds	4.9	132.9	1031.8
Serving Size (1/12 of the batch)		3.2	11.7	85.9

In a large bowl peel and mash your banana’s. Add all other ingredients and mix until well combined. On a parchment paper lined cookie sheet spoon out mixture into 12 cookies. Make sure to flatten them out as they don’t spread when cooking. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 for about 10 minutes. Let cool and keep in an air tight container in the fridge to prevent spoiling.

Chickpea Couscous Salad (Vegan)

Inspired by a request by my love for couscous salad here’s what I came up with. It’s pretty quick and makes lots of leftovers (which I love).

1 can chickpeas
1 red pepper
1 orange pepper
1/2 red onion
1 cup couscous
1/2 avocado
arugula
Orange tahini dressing

Cook your couscous and rinse with cold water. While you are cooking your couscous you can dice up all the veg (except arugula) and make your dressing. I leave the avocado out and add it to the top of the salad so it doesn’t get all mushy. Mix all your veg and couscous together and add your dressing. Put in the fridge to cool for about 15 minutes and serve over a bed of arugula (did I mention I’m obsessed?) Enjoy!

Orange Tahini Dressing (Vegan)

This is another super easy dressing. It’d be great on lots of stuff but so far my favorite is on my Chickpea Couscous Salad.

1 orange (add the zest if you want it really orangy)
2 tbsp tahini
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
2 tsp cumin
Salt/Pepper to taste
sesame seeds (to sprinkle on top)


Combine ingredients into your mini food processor and blend until well combined. You may end up with more dressing then you need but throw it in the fridge and use it up on some toast or in a salad. 

Toasted Tomato Sandwich with Avocado Garlic Mayo (Vegan)

One thing I love about summer are fresh outta the garden tomatoes. Nothing is better then a yummy toasted tomato sandwich on a hot day. Since I don't like my family to consume a lot of pre-packaged foodstuffs veganaise is not on my shopping radar. This sandwich needed a little something creamy and yummy to bring it all together. Avocado is a great mayo substitute but the sandwich was still a little lacking. Add some garlic and nutritional yeast and presto! Perfection!

Avocado Garlic Mayo (Vegan)

This was a random chance dicovery that I decided made a better mayo then a dip or dressing. Here ya go!

Ingredients:
1 avocado
1-2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
Salt/Pepper to taste

Throw everything into your mini food processor and blend until everything is well combined and smooth. Voila!

Back in Action

Ok so spring is here and I’m thinking ahead to when it’s going to be 35 degrees (literally balls hot) and I’m not going to be motivated to cook anything. We don’t have a BBQ…yet! We hope to remedy that someday but it’s not in the budget for now. So that leaves me making salads and eating raw veggies and humus etc., not very creative. So my wheels have started turning and I will be posting some new spring/summer vegan recipes very soon!

Chocolate Popcorn (Vegan)

O.M.G.

This is good.

It's salty, it's sweet, it’s delicious.

So there I was, craving something sweet but knowing there was nothing I could get that would satisfy this craving like chocolate. Since I don’t generally eat "convenience store" chocolate (if you can even call it chocolate) bars I was inspired to make something crazy. This recipe is a combination of pure experimentation and the recipe for this yummy cinnamon popcorn I took to a moon gathering last fall.

Seasame Tahini Bread (Vegan)

This bread is another one of my loves favourites. Who am I kidding pretty much any bread I make is a favourite of his. Except the pumpernickel bread I made last week. He wasn’t a big fan of that one. Let’s just say I’ll be working on tweaking the recipe before I post it. This bread is a nice and moist that is great on its own but it also makes a killer nut butter sandwich. I love adding nutritious ingredients to my bread and this is no exception. I replaced the oil with this super powered nut butter that is packed with B vitamins and is an easily digestible source of calcium. Good for healthy cell growth and maintaining healthy bones.

I am a breastfeeding mom and this is my manibreasto.

I come from a family of breast feeders. I was breastfed, I grew up watching my aunt breastfeed her 2 daughters, my cousin breastfed her son. I can remember being very curious when my aunt had her first baby. We were very close at the time, I was around 11 years old and the whole thing was very interesting to me. The pregnancy itself and also the changes the breast goes through, the phases of milk production, the whole thing. I was a curious child and we are a fairly open family.

Block Rockin Beet Pizza (Vegan)

Since I can’t get enough roasted beet humus my love and I found another vehicle for it in this awesome pizza. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out but I was pleasantly surprised. It was extremely tasty with a nice texture and deep flavour. Another win for fake cheese less vegan pizza!

　

Mango Sauce (Vegan)

This one is pretty self explanatory.

Ingredients
1 mango skinned and cubed
1tbsp lemon or lime juice
1tbsp agave or maple syrup

Throw all your ingredients in your food processor and blend until the mango is blended into a thick sauce.

Caesar Dressing (Vegan)

I love caesar salad. You what I love even more than caesar salad? Vegan caesar salad made with kale. It’s seriously so much better! If you’ve never had vegan caesar dressing then you may be wondering how is this possible? Let me tell you on behalf of those in the know that you're missing out. You can’t judge it until you try it. So try it!
 

Roasted Beet Hummus (Vegan)

I am positively obsessed with this humus right now! I have consistently had it in my fridge since the first day I tried it (about a month ago). I eat it multiple times a week on my homemade bread toasted topped with arugula and mango. It had me at the hot pink colour and kept me with the delicious roasted beet, garlicky, lemony taste. Seriously. I’m a big fan.

 

Dill Bread (Vegan)

I love dill. If you love dill you will love this bread. Feel free to add more then the recommended amount of dried dill weed to make it extra dilly. I love a good dill dough. (just kidding but it was begging to be said) Anyway try it out, you won’t be disappointed.

Cocoa Nib Pancakes (Dairy free)

Pancakes are so easy to make I really can't fathom why on earth people buy pancake mix. Most kitchens have the necessary ingredients for regular pancakes already in stock and most vegan kitchens will have the ingredients for these pancakes as well. The only thing preventing these pancakes from being vegan is the single egg. We get our eggs from a local free run farm that really cares for their chickens. We don't eat eggs often but I don't really have an issue with having them on hand, when we can get them. You can make this recipe totally vegan by using an egg replacer or just omitting the egg all together.

Green Monster Sauce (Vegan)

I had seen a video on YouTube of a woman making a raw Alfredo sauce with zucchini and I had already been experimenting with kale pesto so I figured I'd combine the 2 and see how it tasted. It was amazing! Probably my best pasta/pizza/dipping sauce to date. (I can't wait to modify it slightly for a spinach dip that will go with my pumpernickel bread). This sauce is meant to be mixed up. Sometimes I use kale, sometimes I use arugula, sometimes I use spinach. What ingredients you choose depends on what you want to use the sauce for. You can leave the avocado or zucchini out and just use oil for more of a pesto sauce. You can leave the kale out and peel your zucchini for more of an Alfredo sauce. You can cook your kale first for a nice mellow flavour or use raw kale for a fresh green flavour. This sauce is just so versatile!
 

Chia Bread (Vegan)

This bread is another favorite in my house. It's loosely based on the Chia bread my love used to get from a local bakery when he lived in Bloor West. It's perfect for basically anything.

Cheesy Popcorn (Vegan)

Another popcorn recipe for all my vegan popcorn lovers out there. Well if you can call this a recipe. This version is one of my favourites. It’s cheesy and salty and greasy. Everything you want popcorn to be. My favourite part of eating this popcorn is gathering up all the stray nutritional yeast flakes from the bottom and sides of the bowl. Yummm! Make sure you taste before you add too much salt since nutritional yeast is pretty salty tasting on its own. You can also make this with coconut oil instead of Earth Balance but I think the buttery taste pairs nicely with the cheesy flavour of the nutritional yeast.

Dill Popcorn (Vegan)

Who says vegans can't have yummy popcorn? Since dropping dairy I have had the best popcorn of my life! What was once an occasional treat in my house has now become a new favourite. I've even considered taking my own home made vegan popcorn to the movies! I have a few different kinds we really like but this one is especially good.

Peanut Butter and Jam Rangoons (Vegan)

The inspiration for this dish came to me courtesy of Pinterest. I had seen a recipe that made won ton wrappers into pepper jelly and cream cheese Rangoon’s. I thought to myself, self, you can make these “Rangoon’s” with peanut butter and jelly! Although I don’t think they can technically be called Rangoon’s since they have no cream cheese in them, but really what do I care about that. This is seriously so easy.

Rosemary Bread (Vegan)

This bread is a staple in our house. My love has it daily for breakfast toasted and topped with my homemade peanut butter. I love it for quick lunch toasted and topped with my beet humus, arugula and mango slices. Trust me, nothing smells better then this bread baking!

Mushroom Filling (Vegan)

I love mushrooms. I know a lot of people who can't stand them and I just don't get it. Especially since eliminating most animal products from our diet I've found mushrooms give that depth of flavour that you might be used to with meat dishes. I found this amazing recipe for perogies and just had to give it a try. Since then I have used this stuffing in phyllo pastry and won ton wrappers and they both came out great. Talk about an easy appetizer.

Having a baby changes your whole life? Get the f*ck out!

No one tells you that having a baby really changes your entire life. Well obviously that's not true. They tell you that you're in for lots of sleepless nights, poopy diapers, mommy groups and anything to do directly with the baby. What they don't tell you is that having a baby can make maintaining certain friendships quite a challenge.

I love this picture. You can't tell I'm literally going off 45 minutes of sleep.

Roasted Red Pepper Bisque (Vegan)

So my love really isn't a fan of soups. I love a good soup but since I'm alone in this at my house I rarely get to make it. Well this past week red peppers were on sale at our favorite grocery store. We bought 4 and they sat in our fridge for about a week before I finally decided that they were destined for soup. I recently roasted one for a batch of hummus that turned out delish so I figure why not? I didn't have a recipe saved to pull from so I just kinda winged it. It turned out so good my love actually said that he wanted me to make it again! Although I'm sure the popovers I made to go with it didn't hurt my case. The soup turned out super thick and creamy and very flavourful.

Green Pizza (Vegan)

I love making pizza. My family loves that I love making pizza. I like experimented with making different types of dough and combining lots of toppings. I mean, who doesn't love pizza? (This question is rhetorical I don't actually want to know if you don't like pizza, I could really care less)

Here goes nothing...

Here goes nothing.....