Connecticut Shooting

This time of year is supposed to be such a happy time, especially for the little ones! I was shocked and deeply saddened to heart about another school shooting today. It's horrific to think that ~20 innocent kindergartners died today - I cannot imagine what those families are going through at this time. 

Shame on that 24 year old for killing those kids. What could have possibly been so bad in his life that he had to kill CHILDREN! PLus his own mother and brother? There are no excuses.

Maybe AMERICA should think about having more strict gun laws. The part that I don't understand is how someone can get ahold of a handgun. It blows my mind to think that regular people are allowed to own them. It's SICK.

Give your head a shake America.... 

Here's an article to read from the Globe & Mail and another from The Economist 

Vegan Eggs Benny

I go through phases where I get too grossed out by eggs to be able to eat them - in any form! Below is a recipe that is delicious and pretty much tastes like eggs. Seriously, the embryo attached to the yolk....gnarly!!

Like I mentioned, this recipe is v-v-vegan and could easily be made GF as well. I was going for gf and on a whim I added in some random "bacon" that I had in the freezer.

I want to stress that I am using the word recipe lightly. I didn't really measure anything, especially in making the v-eggs. I like to make food based on what's in the fridge; once my mind is set on something, I really don't want to go to the store to buy the missing ingredient. Such a pain sur ma derriere! 

Veg*n Benedict Adapted from this delicious recipe

Ingredients:

V-Eggs
1/2 block Firm tofu
1/2 Lentils - can omit and use more tofu. I had leftovers.
Few squirts Braggs liquid aminos
Salt, pepper
Dried chives
Cayenne, to taste
Tumeric - to make them yellow
Nutritional yeast (my addiction)
***My fridge was nearly bare that's why there a serious lack of veggies inserted her. This would have been outstanding with kale/spinach/peppers.....

Hollandaise 
1/2 c cashews
1/2 c water
2 T nutritional yeast
dijon mustard
lemon juice - about 1 lemon's worth
cayenne
basil
1/2 t liquid smoke
1 or 2 white mushrooms

Mash tofu and lentils together with a fork. Add in the rest of the V-egg ingredients. Mix. Add some oil ( I used coconut but EVOO would work too) to a pan on med heat. Cook to desired doneness.. maybe about 10 minutes. 

While v-eggs are cooking, chuck everything into your blender (I used my handy vitamix). Blend smooth. Keep your fingers out of it til the v-eggs are ready. 

I made some g-free toast and loaded it up with the v-eggs and put some hollandaise on top. Dee-lish! So great as leftovers too. 

My other half, Mr. nut allergy, was super disappointed that he couldn't try this. Next time I'm going to use pumpkin seeds instead of cashews! yummy yum yummm. 

$ick Day

Boo for being sick. I woke up feeling super dizzy and was puking within a few minutes. Needless to say I had to call in sick last minute which I HATE doing! Aside from losing money, we are usually short staffed as it is so I feel guilty calling in sick.

I just had two midterms this week, so I'm sure my sickness was self inflicted due to stress, poor eating (candy & coffee to keep me going), and not enough sleep.

MMMmmmm Luna Bars and Diet Mountain Dew (from the states, so it DOES contain caffeine!)

Like I said, probably not the healthiest choices, but it could be worse...... rotting flesh, anyone? (I've linked an article that I found interesting). 

So, after hugging the porcelain throne for a while, I crawled my way to the couch where I parked for the entire day. I so wish I could have days like that more often (minus the whole toilet thing). My sweet gramma (who overheard me earlier in the morning) went to the store and bought me some ginger ale! After I downed that, I decided it was time to risk some food.... There were some leftover lentils (Superstore brand from a tin, so good) and a fried egg that I was going to bring to work. My foggy brain thought, why not combine them? Brilliant! Egg, lentils, salt-free spice mix, sriracha. BOOM!

Dan, being the great guy that he is, bought me some flowers and tea on his way home from work.... whatta guy! Sure knows how to cheer a sick girl up!

Easiest pancakes you'll ever make

Life is so busy right now, I hardly have time to post recipes. I wish had more time to cook and bake; it's so therapeutic! But between physics, biology and working 30 hours a week my plate it pretty full (no pun intended).

So, I've been all over super quick recipes lately. The kicker is that I've given up gluten (temporarily... maybe?). I read the book Wheat Belly.... and when I say I read the book, I mean I got an audio book from the library because I do a redic amount of commuting this semester.  Anyways, it's such a great book! It really opened my eyes to all of the harmful affects of wheat.. even for people that aren't Celiac/don't have an intolerance. So I've been doing my best to avoid wheat. Yesterday was the exception - Thanksgiving dinner at my beau's parents and I wasn't going to say no to the vegan butter tarts Dan's mom made especially for me!

As far as the book goes, it goes into great detail on how wheat works (or doesn't work) in our bodies. It suggests cutting wheat out cold turkey if you can and not opting for the easy solution - gluten free alternatives. Dr. Davis suggests replacing wheat with veggies and some fruits. In the last chapter, he talks about all of the foods to cut out aside from wheat because of their affects on blood sugar. Just to name a few: quinoa, rice, black beans, chickpeas, corn starch, tapioca flour, popcorn, chips, ice cream, and sweet & white potatoes.

As someone who eats approx. 85% vegan, 15% vegetarian I don't think I could cut out every food that increases blood sugar (carb-o-holic)! Maybe I'm just being a baby, but I don't know what I would eat - and my poor omnivore boyfriend would NEVER be able to make me a meal! So.. my plan is to eliminate gluten for a while (to see how if I can notice a difference in how my body feels) and decrease the foods that increase my blood sugar.... goodbye popcorn.... I thought you were going to be my favorite GF snack :(

Now on to easy peasy pancakes.....

There are tons of variations that you could make with these pancakes. I adapted mine from this recipe.

Ingredients:

2 "flax eggs" (2 T flax, 6 T water to make 2 eggs)

1 real egg - Organic, cage free

1 med/lrg banana

2 T PB2 (peanut flour)

1/2 t cinnamon

1/4 t nutmeg

I chucked everything into my vitamix for 45 seconds so that I wouldn't get chunky bananas. Heat up a non stick pan. Oil pan - coconut oil is my fav. (don't you just love the smell of that stuff... makes me think i'm somehwere hot... not really but i wish i was somewhere hot). 

Poor batter into pan, wait to flip until the top bubbles.

MANGEZ, MANGEZ! And don't share with anyone...

Voila!

My First Hash

I'm not sure where the idea of a hash started, but I want to thank the person who started it. I didn't really have very high expectations for this dish but Dan and I both went back for seconds. It was even delicious cold on my drive between work and school....that says a lot if you ask me!

Tofu & Veg Hash
Ingredients:

~8 red potatoes, cubed
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped (I used red)
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 t chili
dash cayenne
1/2 t salt free spice mix

1/2 block firm tofu, mashed
3-4 leaves of kale, chopped
1/2 c gluten free tamari
1 t apple cider vinegar
1 t dijon mustard
1 t liquid smoke (you could leave this out but it adds a redic amount of flavor)
1 T black strap molasses
Squirt of sriracha (optional)

Directions:
Get your potatoes ready (I didn't feel like peeling mine) and start sauteing them over med heat in the olive oil. Once you've got them frying drain & mash your tofu. Add the kale thru sriracha to the tofu and let it "marinate." After the potatoes have sauteed for about 15 minutes add in your onion, bell pep, garlic & spices. Let this saute for about 5 minutes (really depends on how cooked you like your veggies, Dan I like a lil crunch). Add in your tofu mixture and heat everything through. Make sure your taters are cooked through! Nothing worse than crunchy taters..... unless they are deep fried... then crunchier the betta!

I've gotten in trouble (not really) with Dan for adding in too much heat to my dishes, so 99% of the time I add in some Franks extra hot or more sriracha! I swear I have the taste buds of a smoker, though I've never smoked a nasty cig in my life! 

Overnight Oats x 3

Overnight oats are perfect for mornings when I'm rushed. Which, to be honest, is pretty much every morning. I can give myself more than enough time to get ready and I still scramble the last ten minutes before I have to leave. On my leisurely days I make green smoothies - usually consisting of kale, orange, pear, raspberries and grapes. I definitely don't have that much time on an average morning, unfortunately. I usually have time in the evening to whip up some OO's. It seriously takes like 3 minutes.

I have read about people making OO's in empty (or nearly empty) jars. Nutella, peanut butter, it all works. So I have a few recipes here: one I made in a jam jar (grammas homemade raspberry jam), one in an empty nutella container that I swiped from Dan's parents house and one in a PB jar.

As an aside, is nutella not the most addicting "food" ever? I cannot buy it because I will sit up til 3am eating spoonfuls from the jar. Lately I've been staying at Dans parents because they live really close to where I go to school (saves me at least an hour of commuting). Aaannnd there is always a Costco size jar or two of nutella kicking around. My favorite is eggo waffles with nutella and peanut butter. Super healthy right? Not! And so not filling! I'm hungry within 45 minutes.

Anyways, back to delicious overnight oats.

PB Jar OO's 

Almost empty pb jar (or anyyyy nut/seed butter)

1/3 C oats (should use rolled oats but I always forget to buy them so I usually use quick oats)

1 C non dairy milk

1/2 t cinnamon

1 T ground flax seeds

1 t PB2 (or any kind of yummy nut butter)

Handful of raisins

Stevia to taste

Combine all ingredients in jar. Refrigerate for ~8 hrs. 

Jam Jar OO's (aka PB&J overnight oats)

Almost empty jam jar (I used rasp but anyyy kind will do)
1/3 C oats (rolled oats)
1 C non dairy milk
1/2 t cinnamon
1 T ground flax seeds
1 t PB2 (or any kind of yummy nut butter)
Handful of raisins
Stevia to taste

Put all ingredients into jar & refrigerate. Try to wait til morning to eat.

I usually take the oats out of the fridge as soon as I get outta bed so they can come to room temp before I leave for work.  In the summer I don't mind eating the oats cold but in the long rainy winters here I like to heat them up for at least 30 seconds.


Nutella Jar OO's
(serves 3)

Almost empty nutella jar

1.25 C oats (rolled oats)

1 C non dairy milk

1 C coffee (if you have hazelnut coffee that would be deeeelish)

2 T ground flax seeds

1 T PB2 (or any kind of yummy nut butter)

Stevia to taste

Put all ingredients in jar. Put in fridge for about 8 hours. 

I don't like to heat plastic in the microwave so I let the oats sit on the counter for at least 45 min before eating. This recipe should serve three. The total recipe has approx. 732 cals, that's 244/serving. There are also 9.8g of protein in each serving.

Lazy Food

Plant and animal biology is so boring, I have to do it in spurts. Basically if I study hard for 10 minutes then I get a break :)

We've been staying at Dan's parents place while they're away because it's so close to my university and close to where Dan is working right now. So, I don't have all the usual stuff that I would cook with (nutritional yeast, flax, seeds, nuts, beans, etc.) and I resorted to buying vegan faux meat. I can't really complain about that because I love it, but I do try to limit it in my diet. 

On one of my many study breaks I made a delicious Cucumber Salad. I honestly thought I wasn't going to like it because I thought it was going to be soggy. To my pleasant surprise it was really tasty! I even took some to work with my the next day and it wasn't soggy!

Cucumber Salad

1 english cucumber - cut into ~1/2 cm thick circles

1/2 T apple cider vinegar

1/2 t lemon juice

1.5 t dijon

1 t extra virgin olive oil

1/4 t dried dill (more if you're using fresh)

Pinch of sugar

S&P to taste

Cut up cucumber. Put all ingredient (except cucumber) into a mason jar & shake to mix. Put everything into a bowl and let sit for about half an hour (I put mine in the fridge). Devour. 

While the cucumber salad was marinating, I cooked up some quinoa, fried up some tofurky beer brats and steamed some broccoli. I combined them all together with a little bit of soy sauce and some sriracha and called it dinner. So quick & easy yet so delicious. I could probably eat this meal every single day. Tofurky sausages are so yummy, even my omnivore boyfriend likes them! I'm in love with the Italian kind, but Superstore was all out so I got the beer brats instead and they were equally delicious. They'd be perfect in place of hotdogs. I read this article about what's really in hot dogs - GROSS!