Clean Eating Vegan Challenge

I don’t know about you, but I’m the type of  person that can eat the same thing for a couple days and never get tired of it.  So when I decided that I was going to do a clean eating challenge where all my meals or at least two meals would be clean I knew I wouldn’t get tired of the redundancy. So with a little bit of research and preparation I made a simple meal plan of  easy clean vegan type meals that i can  prepare or find if I decide to eat out.  With Starbucks  and Whole Foods it was  pretty much a cakewalk. Of course you don’t have to frequent those places to find vegan items , but it sure make life easier. Below I added a few examples of the type of meals I eat when on the challenge.

Breakfast

Hot Tea or Coffee  (unsweetened) with:

Green Smoothie(16 ounce)

or

Super-Antioxidant Oatmeal/ Plain oatmeal with seeds and nuts

 

Morning Snack

Green Smoothie (8-16ounce)

or

Fresh Fruit or Trail-mix

 

Lunch

Hot Tea or Kombucha with:

Lentil Tabbouleh with Kale and  Hummus

or

Nut Butter and Jelly Sandwich with a banana

or

Super-Antioxidant Oatmeal/ Plain oatmeal with seeds and nuts

 

Dinner

Hot Tea or Kombucha with:

Whole Grain Spaghetti with Kale, and California Blend Vegetable (Cauliflower, Broccoli and Carrot)

or

Sauteed spinach and Kale with onions and peppers  with sweet potatoes fries

 

The meals can be interchangeable or tweaked to your liking.The products can be fresh or frozen but avoid canned foods, preservatives and additives as much as possible. Check the ingredients if buying frozen and dried fruits and veggies, and stick to products that have simple ingredients. Check out the recipe  for my Super-Antioxidant  Oatmeal below:

 

Super-Antioxidant  Oatmeal

• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1 cup water or almond milk
• handful of organic raisins,organic goji berries and organic prunes for sweetness
• handful of organic pumpkin seeds and organic hemp seeds for nuttiness

Mix the oatmeal and almond milk and cook for 3-5 minutes, then top with the seeds and nuts of your liking. If  you want more of a sweetness add honey or maple syrup.

FYI: This can be made as overnight oats as well, just add the toppings in the morning.

Happy Cooking!

 

Banana Nog

It’s my favorite time of the year! Not just because its the holiday season, but because its the only time of the year where you can buy an unlimited supply of egg nog. Growing up egg nog was always a staple at all our family festivities, so I’ve grown accustom to looking forward to it.  So while grocery shopping for Thanksgiving this week, I went searching for some new egg nog to try out. I found plenty of  new brands to try but to my dismay all the brands contained carrageenan.  There’s been numerous talk about this additives being bad for your health and possibly carcinogenic so I personally stay away from products that contains it. So I decided this year I would make my own “egg nog”.

I’m personally not a fan of eggs so I chose to do an egg-less egg-nog with very simple ingredients. This recipe was so thick and creamy and easy to make that I will definitely be making this year round. I hope that you do too! Happy Thanksgiving!

Banana Nog

• 3 Frozen Ripe Bananas (diced)
• 1 Cup of Almond Milk (Unsweetened)
• Vanilla Extract
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Whipped Cream (optional)

Blend till you get a thick smooth consistency and top with whip cream for a festive look.

Tip: If you want it more thick add more bananas , more thinner add more milk. If your banana aren’t ripe add some of your favorite type of sweetener.

Home-made Gourmet Pizza

I’ve blogged about my love for Whole Foods Pizza and also Papa Johns veggie pizza  at one point since I started this blog, but lately they weren’t  the same. In the past weeks my family and I have tried different pizzas from various local pizza shops and they all seemed to be lackluster and blasé.  So my sister and I decided to make our own pizza for a change, and boy was it amazing! The pizza was so easy to make , yet tasted  gourmet and cost nearly half the amount it would cost delivered. I took a short cut and used a pre-package Whole Foods wheat pizza crust that comes with 2 medium to large size crusts. The taste was very similar to Whole Foods pizza crust served at their pizza station and not sour doughy like most pre-made crusts.  The ingredients added where pretty simple and basic, but we added a few simple ingredients that made the pizza taste fancier than your ordinary cheese pizza. We topped the pizza with sliced provolone cheese  in addition to the shredded mozzarella , as well as fresh spinach. We than sprinkle dried basil, red pepper flakes, cracked black pepper, garlic powder and onion powder sparingly over the pizza and voilà : Homemade Gourmet Pizza! One bite out of this, and you’ll wonder why you never made your own pizza.

Happy Baking!

 

 

Blueberries Galore

 

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and when its added with chock-full of antioxidants and good for you nutrition it’s even better.  Berries are high in antioxidants and polyphenols, which help fight chronic disease and cancer but they also have high levels of compounds that help widen arteries, which helps blood to flow smoothly. With all these types of benefits why wouldn’t you want to pile them on your plate. With berries being in season at this time of the year, finding them at a reasonable prices at any store is possible. Berries are great on desserts and smoothies but I for one  love them in my breakfast. I love them topped over my waffles or pancakes to get all the benefits that they provide. Listed below is my favorite 5 minute go to breakfast or any time of the day meal that provides a great amount of protein, fiber, grains, and sweetness  to satisfy you throughout the day. I’ve listed the brands I  used to make this dish but really these products can be swapped out  with any product you have at hand or swapped out for your own homemade version which would be even better and more nutritious.

Blueberry Nut Delight

2 Kashi Blueberry waffles

1/2 a cup of  Fage Plain Greek yogurt (I used nonfat in this recipe but full-fat is perfectly fine to use)

Honey or Syrup for the waffles

Handful of Bare Naked Banana Nut Granola ( My favorite granola!!)

Handful of blueberries

 

Prepare the waffles as you regularly would, and top the rest of the ingredients to your liking. This recipe is so good , you probably might find yourself eating it for lunch or dinner too!

 

 

 

Kale and lentil tabbouleh salad

 

Tis the season to catch the flu, and boy did it catch me. With a new semester beginning I really didn’t have the time to get sick. So I upped my vitamin C intake to battle the symptoms but my body just wasn’t having it. So I raised the white flag and gave my body some rest.  For days I had no appetite and longed for my green smoothies , but soup and tea was the only thing on the menu. When I finally had some relief  and an appetite I decided to make me a big salad mixed with kale and lentil tabbouleh. This was my first time using baby kale, which in my opinion is very bitter compared to whole leaf kale but it was nutritious nonetheless. This is definitely  going to be a staple salad  for me,its nutritious and tasty and only took five minutes to make. I’ve attached the recipe below:

3 handful of Kale

2 Hass avocados diced

2 Tomatoes diced

1/2 cup of any brand Lentil tabbouleh salad

Enjoy!

New year, New day!

Its a new year and a new day! I’ve been on a a little hiatus from updating you guys but with things changing up a bit I plan on having more time to blog with you guys.  Around this time of the year,  I usually do a fast for 40 days In preparation of that  I went to the  farmer’s market to purchase some produce.  From kiwis, pears, starfruits, clementines, bananas  and lemons, I was well equipped to make  tropical green smoothies for days for under 15 bucks. Though its great to buy green juices or smoothies on the go, the cost adds up. With a little bit of time and preparation 15 bucks of produce can stretch well into a week. I for one love the fresh taste of Kale in my smoothies because it gives it a fresh grass taste but Kale goes bad really quick. So in order to prevent that I wash my kale in vinegar and  water  and zip lock them, keeping one bag in the fridge and one in the freezer. Though the frozen batch never taste the same as the fresh batch its close compared to the frozen bagged Kale found in grocery stores. Check out my recipe below:

Tropical Oasis Green Smoothie

Fresh Kale

Fresh/ Frozen pineapple chunks

1 or  2 clemetines (peeled)

handful of frozen grapes

Coconut water or Water

Blend and enjoy!

FYI: I almost always use frozen pineapples so I rarely incorporate ice in my smoothies.

Grilled Eggplant Mozarella Sandwich

Oh what a joy to get a break from it all,  the semester is finally over and all I want to do is just sleep and eat. This being the hardest of all summers for me , i couldn’t wait for the semester to be over. With this 2 week break from school i planned to enjoy my  break to the fullest as much as possible.First up on the list was making a dish from this vegetarian book i recently bought. This was originally a breakfast recipe but i tweaked it a bit to be a lunch or dinner recipe. I recently bought a grill pan so it was a breeze grilling  the eggplant, but this can be  sauteed as well.The recipe is listed below:

• Eggplant sliced (grilled)
• Sliced tomatoes
• Sliced mozarella Cheese
• Pesto
• Sun dried Tomatoes (optional)
• Toasted Bread of any kind

Layer everything and pop in the oven till the cheese is melted, and you’re done!

Next thing on my list, a Netflix marathon of Dawson’s Creek lol.. Don’t judge me :-p

Half Day Cleanse -Blueberry Oats and Green Pineapple smoothie

The summer is made to have fun, unfortunately this summer my face has been stuck in the books. I’m realizing more and more each day that the life of a grad student is not so fun.  With the added stress of school along with work i really haven’t been eating the way I’ve like to. Fries, Pizzas, Cake, Lasagna  and anything fried has been on the menu for the past few weeks. So i decided i need to change things up and do a half day cleanse, where the first half of the day its smoothies and a light snack if need be with a  late lunch and dinner as usual. With plans in mind of doing this cleanse, i went to whole foods looking to find a new source of protein , and found hemp seeds. I usually buy hemp protein powder but i hate the chalky texture protein powder in general leaves so i was hoping that this would work.

So in replace of ordinary protein powder,I milled handfuls of  Raw Rolled Oats, Flax-seeds, chia seeds and hemp seeds in my Nutri-Bullet and use it as protein powder.  I used it in my Blueberries Oats smoothies and Green Pineapple smoothie that’s picture below. I also  tried a new addition to my smoothies for a sweeter taste this time: 2 medjool  dates and one dried fig in each batch. They didn’t blend thoroughly but i didn’t mind the the sweet bits that they brought. Down below are the recipe for both smoothies.

Blueberry Oats

• Blueberries (Frozen)
• Protein Mixture
• Coconut water
• Water
• 2 medjool dates
• 1 dried fig
• extra cup of oatmeal (for heartiness)

Green Pineapple

• Spinach(Frozen)
• Pineapple (Frozen)
• Protein mixture
• Coconut water
• water
• 2 medjool dates
• 1 dried fig

I made three for the day, underestimating the power of my protein mixture and only drank one and a half  that morning. If you’re looking to do a full day cleanse, you can do six jars a day with water in between each. I for one prefer smoothies than juicing cleanse for the mere fact that they are more filling  to me. But what’s great about these recipes is that they are so  tasty that they can be made for cleanses or anytime of the day.

One year mark

It’s been a year!!! Never would have I Imagine that I’d get to the one year mark blogging and guzzling green smoothies daily. I’m not gonna lie, There’s been days where i slipped throughout the year and tried meat. Case in point: My sister birthday at an Argentinian buffet style restaurant.  Those days though few made me realized that you can train your body to do anything. Prior to transitioning i wasn’t the biggest meat eater but i held my own when it came to meat. But as these  months went by the littlest bit of meat would make me feel sick surprisingly even organic chicken. I didn’t stop at just meat… sweets ,snacks and soda did a whole 36o in my daily food intake. Coke is something I use to have almost daily , now I only drink probably once every 2 weeks maybe . Earlier in the transition I choose to eat closer to nature, so when i started trying to incorporate Little Debbie snacks and chocolate back in . The sweets just seem so artificially sweet that they made me feel sick. I now drink my tea and coffee black, no sugar, honey or syrup or hazelnut creamer that i use to love. When it comes to smoothies, i cant do fruit smoothies anymore… I need some type of vegetable in there or its unbearable. At times I feel like an old lady with my bitter teas and  green smoothies but i now know how my body works, back than i didn’t know. Trust me when i say I’m not perfect, i have those days when i binge on fries, veggie pizza and donuts. But once that is over and i feel like crap, I make me a green smoothie to counteract all that.  It’s all about putting more good in and less bad, eventually with time you’ll find yourself only wanting to put only the good in.

 

 

Switching things up a bit: Tropical Oats Smoothie

One thing about me is that i like trying new things, Food wise but I’m not much of a risk taker in other aspect. So since transitioning  I’ve been a green smoothie drinker addict. I went from one smoothie a day to sometimes three, I went from super sweet smoothies to barley  sweet smoothies the list goes on.  But I wanted to switch things up a bit cause a girl can only take so much green smoothies. So i decided to do  raw oatmeal smoothies instead, trust me I’m not sure how i came to that decision but it made perfect sense at that moment.   This is very similar to the No cook oat smoothie i did when i first started transitioning, but this has more nutritional and tasty  ingredients. I was excited and nervous to try this recipe because I’ve been on a mission to avoid food and drinks high in arginine for personal reason. So oatmeal was an issue, but i kept it to organic raw rolled oats ( it is said that instant oatmeal has a high arginine content but who knows).  Since I was avoiding nuts all together due to the foods i was avoiding  almond milk was a no go , so i opted  for SO Coconut milk unsweetened vanilla and Chobani Vanilla Greek yogurt.

So after i had those main staples ingredients, i  then added mix ins of fruits, juices and teas and water all to my liking. On this particular day this was what  i like to call my Tropical Oats Smoothie. If you follow me by now, you should know i  free hand everything so i  don’t have exact measurements. But, here’s the run down on my hearty nutritious smoothie

• Organic Raw Rolled Oats
• Coconut Milk Unsweetened (can use sweetened if preferred and any kind of milk)
• Greek Yogurt Vanilla
• Flax seeds
• Chia seeds
• Tropical Blend Frozen Fruits (Banana, Pineapple, Mango)
• a small ripe banana
• Coconut Water (optional)
• Unsweetened  Green Ice Tea ((optional)
• A couple dashes of cinnamon

Mix all that together and you get a satiating tropical  oatmeal smoothie. I find that using the NutriBullet give a  smooth silkiness that i never achieved with my blender ,but if you’re having  a hard time mixing add more liquid to the blender till you get the consistency that you want.

FYI: I don’t add protein powder because I’m not a fan of the gritty taste. If you want a hearty high fiber smoothie for breakfast,  sans protein powder double up on the the yogurt and oatmeal. This smoothie can be made a head of time and stored in the fridge in an air tight container for 1-2 days. A great on the go breakfast option but great for any time of the day as well!