Fast Food

It's no secret that most of us are so busy it makes our heads spin. Sometimes healthy eating can take a back seat behind work and school and family and friends and whatever else we have to do. That's what today's post is for. With a little planning and very little time, you can make lots of healthy meals fast.

I'm not really a huge fan of convenience foods like frozen meals and packaged products, but I do like to make my own so I can have good food fast that you can control the ingredients and flavors of a lot better.

First off, it's important to plan ahead so you're never left with no healthy options. Every two weeks or so when I go grocery shopping, I spend a few hours and make a ton of food that I can freeze for those nights when all you can do is heat something up. I like to make giant pots of marinara sauce and soup and then freeze them in smaller containers.

Here are some of my greatest go-to super fast meals:
Sweet potato and black bean burgers. This recipe is posted under my Fourth of July post. I make a giant batch that makes about 12 burgers. They freeze really well and then you can just pop them in the oven and eat them anytime!

Veggie loaded marinara. I throw in mushrooms and zucchini and spinach and whatever else is in my fridge and always have a container in the fridge. This way, all I need for dinner is to boil some whole wheat pasta and eat!

Also with your marinara you can make lasagna and freeze that right in the baking dish and bake when you're ready. You can do this with mac and cheese or baked ziti or any kind of baked pasta dish.

Vegetable soup. Usually I make this to use up any veggies that I have and maybe add some barley or rice or pasta in too. It's a great way to use up whatever you have on hand and sneak veggies in for picky eaters. Plus you can freeze and defrost a little at a time whenever you need a quick meal.

Sweet potato lentil soup. I've posted this recipe before and it's sooooo good. The ultimate comfort food for me. Plus it uses ingredients I always have on hand. Again, it's something that freezes well.

Veggie stir fry. I make this like four or five times a week. It's so easy to just throw some frozen and chopped veggies into a pan and put that over some brown rice or udon noodles. This literally takes less than 10 minutes from freezer to table. And it's versatile enough to cater to your tastes and what you have.

Wraps and sandwiches. My new favorite go to is avocado, spinach, tomatoes and cucumbers on a whole wheat tortilla with balsamic vinegarette.

Burritos! Who doesn't love burritos?! Just throw some precooked beans, rice and whatever else in a tortilla with some salsa and boom. Dinner.

Baked potatoes, either sweet potatoes or white. Fill with beans and veggies, and top with salsa. These also freeze well after you've baked them.

Poached egg sandwich. I've been eating eggs lately, which is weird for me, but I can't get enough of my newest creation. Some wilted spinach, tomatoes and sliced avocado on an English muffin with a poached egg. Not my usual vegan fare, but so yummy! Kind of like eggs benedict, but healthier and easier. And it takes like 2 minutes to make!

Look at that breakfast!

So there you have it! Some very easy healthy meals. No excuses not to eat healthy!

Hungry Holidays

Hey everyone! Sorry I've been MIA for so long. I've been a busy little bee lately. I promise I won't be so long between posts anymore. To make up for it, I'm going to tell you about my Thanksgiving and share my recipes with you! I know it's late, but trust me, it's worth it.

Thanksgiving was a little crazy this year. We wanted to do a work dinner on Wednesday so my very generous boss bought all the ingredients and I started cooking up a storm. Since my boss is allergic to dairy, all our dishes were vegan except the turkey and gravy. And of course, I made it all from scratch. I also made double of everything so he had enough for the fam the next day. Then I made more for dinner with my family! It was a three day cooking extravaganza.

Here's what I made:
Rosemary and apricot glazed turkey with gravy
Whole wheat cranberry and apple stuffing
Orange scented cranberries
Roasted garlic mashed potatoes
Spicy roasted sweet potatoes
Green bean casserole with caramelized onions
Herb roasted veggies

Rosemary and Apricot Glazed Turkey
I didn't eat this but I was told it was amazing and juicy and tender.
25 lb. turkey
1 cup vegan butter
4 tbsp dried rosemary
1 1/2 cups apricot preserves
1/2 cup water
1 orange
2 onions
4 stalks celery
4 carrots
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the onions into quarters and the celery and onions into big chunks. Cut the orange in half. Line the bottom of a giant roasting pan with the carrots and celery and 1 of the onions. Place the turkey on the top of the veggies and stuff the inside with the orange and the rest of the onion. Combine the butter with 2 tbsp of the rosemary. Rub the butter mixture under and on top of the skin all over the turkey, and some on the inside too. In a small saucepan, heat the preserves with the water, the remaining rosemary, and the salt and pepper. Set aside. Tightly cover the turkey with foil and cook for about 4 1/2 to 5 hours, basting every 30 minutes or so. When the turkey is almost done, remove the foil and pour the glaze all over the turkey and continue cooking for another 30 minutes. Ta da! Perfect turkey.

To make the gravy, in a large pot, melt 1/4 cup vegan butter and combine with 1/4 cup flour. Cook this for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Add 4 cups of vegetable broth. Whisk this thoroughly to avoid lumps. You can stop right here for vegetarians or you can add the drippings from the turkey. Simmer over medium heat until this thickens up.

Whole Wheat Cranberry Apple Stuffing
This stuffing is moist and flavorful and low in fat! Much healthier than the boxed versions.
1 loaf whole wheat bread, toasted and cubed
2 apples, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
3 carrots, diced
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup walnuts
2 tsp dried sage
salt and pepper

In a large pan, sautee the apples, celery, carrots, onions, and garlic in the vegetable oil until soft and translucent. In an oven-safe bowl, add the bread and sauteed veggies. Add the cranberries, walnuts and the spices. Pour the broth over the stuffing and mix everything thoroughly. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 until the top gets brown and crispy.

Orange Scented Cranberries
By far the easiest, but most impressive dish I made.
1 bag of fresh cranberries
juice and zest of 1 orange
1 cup water
1 cup sugar

Boil all the ingredients in a large pot for 10 minutes until the berries begin to burst. Take the berries off the heat and chill until you're ready to eat. Seriously. That's it!!

Green Bean Casserole
2 bags frozen green beans (you could totally use fresh, but this way is much easier)
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups unsweetened almond milk (or any other dairy free milk you like)
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 pound mushrooms, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbsp vegan butter
4 tbsp flour
4 tbsp vegetable oil
salt and pepper

In a sautee pan, heat 2 tbsp of the oil over medium-low heat. Add the onions and cook until caramelized, about 30 minutes. In a large, separate pot, heat the remaining oil and sautee the mushrooms and garlic. Set aside. In that same pot, heat the butter and flour for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Add the broth and the milk and whisk thoroughly. Cook this for 10-15 minutes until it gets really thick. Add the mushrooms and garlic back in. Place the green beans into a casserole dish. Pour the mushroom mixture over the top and stir. Arrange the caramelized onions over the top and bake for 30 minutes until heated through. You can add those crunchy onions on top if you want too.

The rest of the recipes were pretty simple so I won't post them here. I think that was enough for one post.

The whole spread

We had a really big table

Carving the turkey!

After dinner, a little debauchery began.

I hope you all enjoyed the recipes! Hopefully you can use them this holiday season. Look out for new posts soon! :)

Cleaning Out the Pantry

It's finally fall and time for some warm, comforting recipes. I have been craving pasta like nobody's business lately. And today I was on the last little bit of my groceries and was trying to use up what I have in the pantry. While digging around in the depths of my pantry, one of my bags of beans ripped and spilled alllllll over the kitchen. There will be black beans hiding in the crevices of the kitchen for days. It was great to clean up. Anyway, I decided to make two giant pots of food so I don't have to cook the rest of the week. I had some tomatoes and some pumpkin and some coconut milk so I made pumpkin chili and tomato cream sauce.

My pumpkin chili is perfect for fall. It has all kinds of fall flavors and it's a really pretty orangeish red color. Plus it's really healthy and full of vitamins! The pumpkin adds really earthy flavor and the beans add lots of protein and heartiness. Aaaand you can make it in the crockpot! So here's my first recipe :)

Three Bean Pumpkin Chili
32 oz. tomatoes (Try to use tomatoes from a jar or a box, or fresh!, rather than from a can so you can avoide BPA in your food)
14 oz. canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling!!)
1 small white onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup corn
1 cup each kidney beans, black beans, and pinto beans
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp each cayenne pepper, dried oregano, and chili powder
1/2 tsp each black pepper and salt

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Sautee the onions and garlic in the oil until it's translucent. Transfer the onions and garlic to the crockpot and add the rest of the ingredients. Turn the crockpot on high and cook for three hours. So yummy! I had some over a tofu hot dog and it was bomb. You can feel free to add some ground beef or turkey or some shredded chicken if you're into that.

Recipe number two was to satisfy my pasta craving. I used the rest of the tomatoes and made a marinara sauce but decided that wasn't good enough. This is a healthier, vegan version of a tomato cream sauce. It was fast and easy to make and was so good! Here's recipe number two!

Vegan Tomato Cream Sauce
32 oz. tomatoes
1 can full fat coconut milk
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp each basil, oregano, black pepper, and parsley
1/2 tsp salt

Sautee the onions and garlic in the oil over medium heat in a large pan until translucent. Add the remaining ingredients to the pan and simmer over medium low heat for about an hour until the sauce has reduced a little bit. Serve over some whole wheat pasta.

Steamy and delicious!

The Politics of Health

I don't know if many of you have realized, buttttttttt it's election season. Are you as tired as I am of political calls, debates and candidate bashing?? I'm very hesitant to write a political blog because I really am not here to argue about politics with anyone (ahem, Jordan). I'm not here to tell anyone how to vote, because honestly, I still don't know who I'm going to vote for. I think all politicians are lying weasel scumbags, and that it's really the lesser of two evils in any election.

However, there are a few very important health related issues coming up in this election that I think people should be informed about. These are just issues that are personally important to me, and I understand that what I think is important may not matter to anyone else. The only thing that is important is that you vote and you make it an informed vote and stay true to what matters to you. No one who doesn't vote should be able to bitch about anything, ever. If you don't put your two cents in now, you don't get to later. Feel free to disagree with anything I have to say, but don't get nasty okayyyyy?!

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. First and foremost, for all my California voters out there, you've probably heard about Prop 37. In the food blogger and health food world, this is probably the biggest deal of anything going on. Prop 37, or "The California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act," would basically require genetically modified food products to be labeled and would not allow these products to be advertised as "natural." All it is, is something that would allow consumers to know what they are consuming. It's common sense that this should be mandatory. However, there are some very big opponents of this proposition. Monsanto is a biotech company that was one of the first producers of very dangerous pesticides that are now banned in the U.S. They are also the largest financial contributer to the opposition of Prop 37. Recent studies have shown that rats that consume genetically modified food are more likely to develop cancers and die prematurely. GMOs go almost unregulated in the United States, despite the unknown side effects of these products.

The next issue is one that is very important to most of my friends, being that a lot of you are soon to be entering the health care field. And even if you're not, it's an issue that will affect everyone. Recent polls show that health care is the second most important issue for voters in this election (behind the economy and jobs). The two main presidential candidates differ in their opinions on every aspect of health care. The main component of the difference of opinions is the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Most people think that it is a law requiring everyone to have health insurance, and while true, that this is part of the Affordable Care Act, there are also other provisions that this act would mandate. It would require restaurants to publish caloric and nutritional information on their menus. It would also allow biologic drug manufacturers 12 years of production before generic versions can be developed. These two points, along with a few others were effective immediately. Other initiatives that would become effective over time, are contain provisions to not deny people health insurance coverage based on previous conditions and not require these people to pay higher premiums. Another aspect of this act would be the contraceptive mandate that would require insurance plans to cover many preventative treatments like mammograms and colonoscopies without a copay or deductible. This act also increases Medicaid eligibility and fines individuals and companies that do not have or do not provide health insurance. Keep in mind that this has already passed, and some of these things are already taking effect, while others are scheduled to take effect over the next few years; the issue is not whether or not this will pass after the upcoming election, but whether or not this will be repealed after the election. Since it is such a large overhaul to our existing health care system, there are obviously many controversies within the many aspects of this act, including funding of this system.

(Danielle, you should probably stop reading right here.)

The last thing I want to bring up is (okay ready for the eye roll) the environment. While I think it's great that we are importing less fossil fuels, I think we should be USING less fossil fuels. The United States uses more oil than any other country in the world, and argue if you will, but global warming IS happening. Every step of oil usage is a drain to our planet. Extracting it, transporting it, and then burning it. All bad. And while people may think natural gas is a healthier alternative for our environment, the effects of fracking can be devastating. It would be really awesome if we could explore some green energy sources, and reduce our energy consumption. We only have only planet and it would be cool if we didn't destroy it. Reduce, reuse, recycle. ;)

I know that there are some pretty serious issues going on in this country and to many people, the ones I've outlined here don't even make the top 10, but they are what's really important and interesting to me and most relevant to this blog. These are issues that will affect not only us, but every generation after us. I want my children and grandchildren to live in a safe, clean, healthy world, not some polluted, GMO-filled, cancer cesspool. I just want to emphasize that we are only given one body and one planet, and we should do our best to invest in and protect what we have and try not to fuck it up too badly.

Now enough with the politics, let's make some food!! :)

Pumpkin Cookies OMG.

There is nothing I love more about fall than pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I wait all year for them to start appearing in the grocery store. Every once in awhile you can catch them during the summer but the cinnamony-pumpkiny-chocolatey goodness is just not the same when it's hot out. So this week, in honor of the most perfect weather to ever hit Las Vegas, I decided to veganize them. I mayyyy have gone a little overboard because I made 6 dozen cookies. 6 dozen. 84 cookies. Good thing I've been working out a lot. What am I going to do with all these cookies?! Anyway, they are delicious and cakey and fluffy and exactly what I was craving. Here's my recipe for heavenly fall cookies. :)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
4 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups brown rice syrup
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling!!!)
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used safflower oil)
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup vegan butter, melted (you can substitute the coconut oil and the vegan butter for more oil, but I like the flavor of this combo)
1 bag vegan chocolate chips (Ghiradelli chocolate chips are vegan!!)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine the syrup, oil and butter in a really big bowl. Combine the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl. Slowly stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. The batter will be very wet. Scoop out about a tablespoon of dough per cookie onto cookie sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes until cooked through. (P.S. Vegan cookie dough means you can safely eat it raw. You're welcome.)

Seriously, try not to eat them. 

Enjoy with a (soy) pumpkin spice latte, or my favorite, a soy chai. Yummm. Happy October everyone!!

Best Day of My Life.

If you know anything about me at all, you know I have a huuuuuuuge Jason Mraz obsession. I love love love Jason. I even have a Jason Mraz tattoo.

Smilers never lose and frowners never win, so let the sun shine in :)

Let me just break down the reasons I am a Mraz Maniac. First of all, he is so talented and witty and funny. His music can put me in a good mood no matter what. His voice makes my knees weak. He is a vegan!! (and I recently read an article where he said that being a vegan makes him better in bed! :o !!!) He lives on an avocado farm (and I love guacamole) in San Diego (one of my favorite places). He is a total hippie and cares about the environment and saving the planet and all that good stuff. But most importantly, and the biggest reason I love me some Mraz, is that he is exactly as awesome up close and in person as he is on stage and in videos and anywhere else you see him publicly.

Last year, my aunt and I drove 5 hours to and from San Diego just to go to his concert and turn right back around and come home. I thought that day was magical because I got to meet Toca, his drummer for that tour.

I know it's blurry, but it's what I've got.

Well yesterday, I topped the magic of that day. I went to Jason's concert here (yay!!! Thank you for coming to Vegas!!!!), and it was aMRAZing!!!!!!! I had much better seats this time (thanks Deedee!).

Anyway, aside from the spectacular performance, I got to meet Jason (and some other band members)!!!!!! 

Pinch me. That really happened.

Me and Mona Tavakoli

Praying that I can have his children??

By far, greatest thing that could ever happen to me. I'm still shocked that it did. I'm literally the happiest person on the planet. Anyway, I just wanted to share with you all my aMRAZing, perfect, spectacular, happiest day ever. 

"I've got peace in my heart, got peace in my soul, wherever I'm going, I'm already home." <3

Vegan Oatmeal Cookies!!

The best part of baking vegan treats is that you can lick the spoon (ok and the bowl) and not get sick from salmonella or other weird things. So today, on my favorite day of the week, while watching Lifetime movies (seriously, who comes up with these plot lines?!), I decided to make oatmeal cookies! They are super delicious and pretty healthy too. They are similar to the recipe in Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet, but I made a lot of alterations. Here's my recipe! :)

Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup rolled oats
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp each cinnamon and nutmeg
1/3 cup brown rice syrup
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup apple sauce
1/4 cup oil (I used half coconut oil and half Earth Balance, melted, but any oil will work)
1/4 cup chopped nuts, I used almonds
1/2 cup dried fruit, I used 1/4 cup each dried cherries and golden raisins

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients. Add the wet to the dry and combine thoroughly. The dough will be very wet. Stir in the fruit and nuts, and roll the dough into 1 inch balls (I just dropped mine in a little circle-like blob). Bake for 9-11 minutes. It makes about 28 delicious cookies!

Ta-Da!!! Heavenly.