Sundried Tomato Pasta Salad

Pioneer Woman is probably one of the most un-vegan cooks out there, but I do love her recipes! (Probably has something to do with my love for cheese). It was actually pretty easy to vegan-ize this recipe, I just took out the parmesan cheese! It was still delicious. My sister, Dan and myself basically finished the whole dish last night. Success!



Edits - no parmesan cheese, I omitted the cherry tomatoes and used less pasta (gemelli, yum!)

Her full recipe can be found HERE

Source: Pioneer Woman website

Raw-some Pasta & Marinara

After reading some blog entries on raw pasta, I decided to purchase a veggie slicer...I needed to get in on the spiralizing action! It came today, and Dan and I tried out some zucchini pasta & marinara sauce, along with some random potatoes. The potatoes were so delicious, but they came out of the oven the most hideous bunch of thin curly crisps...so no pictures. We actually set the fire alarm off - luckily Ben slept straight through!

Back to the raw-some pasta meal! Anyway, the spiralizer was very fun - the zucchini took about 1 minute to make.



The marinara sauce was interesting. I found it to be a bit sun-dried tomato-y, but Dan loved it. I might have added too much garlic also. Who knows. I might tweak it next time or find another raw marinara to experiement with. Or *gasp* just use some jarred sauce.

Raw Tomato Sauce
Soure: Hallelujah Acres

Ingredients
•4 tomatoes (cut 3-1/2 into quarters for blending, dice and keep 1/2 for adding after blending)
•1 Tbsp olive oil
•1 clove garlic
•1/4 tsp unrefined sea salt
•1/4 cup fresh basil leaves (add other Italian-style spices if desired)
•Handful of sun-dried tomatoes (use more for a thicker sauce)

Directions
1.Blend all ingredients (except diced tomato) in a high speed blender until creamy.
2.Pour into a bowl and add diced tomato. Hand-mix well.
3.Serve chilled with pasta, or use as a pizza sauce or appetizer dip.



Overall, our first meal with the Spirooli was a success! Very happy with the outcome and how easy it was to use.

Birthday Bruschetta

Ben's first birthday was this past Sunday...can't believe a year has gone by since the little guy came into this world. It seems as if he has always been here! Anyway, we made this yummy appetizer on his birthday. I have never made fresh bruschetta, and boy, is it worth the time! I am never a fan of the bruschetta you order out...it just never is exactly what I like. This recipe, however, is amazing!



The best part is the leftovers are even better...the balsamic soaks into the tomatoes. Mmmmmm....

Source: Found on A Healthy Passion blog

Mock Chicken Salad with Vegenaise

This is genius. I can't believe I never knew about this before! I bought Vegenaise and have been really excited to try it out (and also really nervous). Then on Rachel Ray the other day, Gwyneth & Rachel are discussing their love for Vegenaise, even though neither of them are vegan. That made me really excited to try it! But, the problem - what to try it with? I am not eating tuna, or turkey...what else do you put mayo on?

Then I came across this recipe for "Mock Chicken Salad". Basically you just mash chickpeas and add vegenaise and it's delicious! I tried out 2 types - some with relish and then with kalamata olives. The relish won by a mile! It's amazing! I just threw on a roll, and I felt like I was eating chicken salad. Enjoy!!

Kalamata Olive love

The other day I jokingly told my sister I wished I could crawl inside a kalamata olive. I was *almost* kidding. I love these things. I probably never even had one until recently, but Dan and I can't get enough of them! It's also quite convenient that our food store (attached to our building) has a fresh olive bar that I raid almost daily. This is a recipe Dan and I make at least once a week - usually twice. You can add chicken or feta cheese to it (before I was doing the veg thing, we did this). But it's even delicious just plain! All you need is:

- About 20 kalamata olives, halved
- Avocado, diced
- Grape tomatoes, halved
- olive oil
- red wine vinegar
- Rice

Put tomatoes & olives into a small frying pan with olive oil and plenty of red wine vinegar. Cook for a few minutes. We then put the olives, tomatoes & avocado over rice (we use rice pilaf, but brown rice would be good too). Add extra red wine vinegar if you are strange like me.



Then, voila! Easiest meal ever!

Product Review: Gardein Chicken Strips

Since Dan had a work dinner, my sister & her husband came over to keep me company tonight. (Noticing a pattern? I hate to be alone...) Anyway, to repay them for spending their evening with me and a cranky baby, I made them dinner!

I decided to try out these new Gardein Chicken strips I bought the day I decided to go veg. I just popped them in the oven and served them plain (Jeff and I used buffalo sauce, Laura ketchup...we are like children). They were fab! So delicious! I thought they tasted very chicken-like and are a great chicken sub. I am pretty sure Dan is going to enjoy them also.

A+ for Gardein! Can't wait to try out their other products.



My next review will be on Vegenaise & Vegan parmesan cheese...I'm scared.

3-Day Cleanse (aka the worst idea ever)

I decided to tackle the Kaeng Raeng cleanse...basically 3 days where you replace all meals with 3 fruit shakes. It's all natural, vegan, non-GMO, etc etc etc. I have been battling at least 5 pounds of baby weight that won't budge, and thought on top of cleansing my body of all the toxins I take in, maybe this will help me lose those last few pounds.

Day 1 - I had the blueberry, blackberry & banana shake first (b/c it looked the least appealing). It was gross. I feel nauseous. Not a great start! For lunch I do the peach, mango & pineapple which is a little more tasty. Still feeling pretty nauseous. I go out and buy some grapes and carrots to snack on....I need something else! For dinner I have the strawberry, banana & pineapple...still gross. Suck it down, thinking I might cheat & have something like a kalamata olive to get this nasty taste out of my mouth. But I don't...I go to bed and have completed the first day without cheating!! Yay!

Day 2 - Already down about 3 pounds this morning! I'm going to do the same order for breakfast, lunch & dinner again today. That seemed to work. I am wondering how I will get through 2 more days of this, though. That kalamata olive in the fridge is calling my name. (I loooove kalamata olives. I want to marry them.)

Later in Day 2 - I almost broke down. I wanted to cry. I was this close to vomiting all over myself. I was in a bad place. So I made the executive decision to not have a death shake for lunch, and instead to munch on something super tiny. Success! After a few bites of a tortilla, I didn't want to kill myself anymore. I then went on to enjoy my dinner shake, and that was that! Not bad.

Day 3 - Had my 3 shakes, and a lot of watermelon. (And maybe a few of Ben's cheerios that he was throwing at me during breakfast.) I love watermelon. But it's no meal. For dinner I decided to have corn on the cob with my shake. Why not? Jersey corn is in season and it's healthy. It's not exactly part of the cleanse but the corn was calling my name. It was either that or pasta. Corn seemed more cleanse-ish. I still am pretty damn proud of myself.

Conclusion: I love food. And cleanses are stupid.

The only upside to this experience was I lost about 5 pounds or so (no scale here in LBI but I was down 4 pounds this morning). I'll most likely re-gain it all back as I inhale my Tofu Burrito (minus the tofu-yech, extra hot sauce) from Living on the Veg tomorrow night. Yum!

Beach Eats

Ben and I had such an amazing week on LBI with my family, and before we knew it, it was the weekend and Dan was there too! My Aunt Eileen even came Saturday, and we all had such a nice evening. As part of dinner, we tried a new twist on pasta salad....chickpea salad! It was delicious. And super easy.



Ingredients:
Chickpeas (we used 2 cans)
kalamata olives
fresh basil (from Dad's garden, yum!)
grape tomatoes
Olive oil & Red wine vinegar (equal parts...we used 1/4 cup of each)
Optional: artichoke hearts, kidney beans, pasta, feta...really anything you like!

Mix everything together, and well that's it. Let the salad sit in the dressing for a bit. It was even more delicious as leftovers the next day.

Source: Got this recipe from Harper's Happenings...great blog HERE