Veg of the Week

 

...overdue. To be completely honest, I fell off the healthy eating wagon for a while. Now, I still maintained my exclusively vegetarian and vegan eating...I just wasn't eating healthy options. I noticed that when the healthy eating went away, it took my motivation, positive attitude, and energy along with it. And so began the cycle of needing the energy and motivation that healthy eating and exercise give you in order to be able to exercise and eat healthy. Hmpf. Luckily, a few things happened to jolt me back into where I need to be. First...my personal trainer friend who looks fabulous asked me to be in her wedding. This may be a frivolous reason to get back into my healthy habits, but... I want to look good if I'm going to be in a wedding! ;) The other helpful event was that a friend of mine is training for a half marathon. It got me thinking about when I ran one in 2010, and I started exercising. So now I'M signed up for a half marathon, on Oct 21, 2012!

Let me just say my mood is great, and I am getting that amazing internal sense of happiness and motivation back. As hard as it is to keep up with healthy habits, eating healthy and exercising really is essential to live the best life you can. And for me, eating more and more vegan foods makes me feel that much better. It feels like...eating with a purpose. I will look back to this blog post if I start to lose my motivation. 

 

Today I just want to share with you my lunch. I find my craving today peculiar... Although I am the type of person who would be content with summer weather all year- round, my appetite seems to be craving all that is Fall...

 

I couldn't resist a warm bowl of tomato-basil soup and a vegan grilled "cheese" sandwich.

 

The tomato basil soup was just a simple canned soup...200 calories for the whole can. The catch with tomato soup is that if its "Creamy" tomato, it can go up in calories by a lot.

 

For my sandwich, I used 100% whole grain bread, earth balance vegan butter, and Daiya brand vegan "cheese." I put a layer of spinach between the Daiya, because spinach is amazing.

 

 

If you look closely, you'll see the dog salt/pepper shaker.
No post is complete without dogs in it! :)

 

 I love this meal because not only is it good, it's fun to eat!

Perfect for dipping... mmm.

 

 

What vegan meals have you tried lately?

Are you ready for fall?

 

~Riding the healthy habits wagon, -Anna (&The Pooches)

 

Veg of the Week

...healthy super bowl food (minus the super bowl!)

I didn't actually watch the super bowl, but I wanted the food that comes along with it.

The first dish I made was the healthy vegan spinach artichoke dip from Daily Garnish, here: http://www.dailygarnish.com/2011/02/healthy-vegan-spinach-artichoke-dip.html

It's another great vegan recipe blog!

Getting all the ingredients out! Here's what you need:

5 cloves garlic
1 14oz can artichoke hearts
1lb bag frozen spinach
2 tbsp Nayonaise
2 tbsp Tofutti cream cheese
1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup Daiya cheddar style shreds
pinch of salt



So first take 5 cloves of garlic and mince them. Put them in a pan on med-high heat and brown them for a few minutes.

Then add in your drained can of artichoke hearts and cook for a few more minutes.

After that, add in the whole bag of spinach and cook for about 10 minutes.

When you've cooked it for about 10 minutes, put it in the food processor. My processor is what I like to call "vintage" :)

Add in all the other ingredients (nayonaise, tofutti, daiya, almond milk, nutritional yeast, salt) and mix in the processor for 30-45 seconds.

The recipe then says to put it in a 1 quart baking dish but I only had a 2 quart dish, so that's what I used. Use what ya got!

Sprinkle a little cheese on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes and then EAT with yummy chips.

I actually took this to my parents' house and made it later in the night, so I just refrigerated it until I was ready to bake it.

The other dish I HAD to have was pizza, but I didn't want it to be an unhealthy pizza. I used a recipe from a magazine, changed a couple things based on what I had on hand, and veganized it! Here's what you'll need:

(Inspired by Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications)

3 English muffins (whichever ones you like best), split and toasted

Approx 1 cup Pizza sauce

1/2 cup Fresh spinach (the recipe calls for arugula but I had spinach)

fresh tomato, diced

4 pieces of Morning Star veggie bacon, cooked to crispy and crumbled up

1/4 cup of vegan mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup vegan Daiya cheddar shreds

Getting my stuff together...

Get your broiler started on the oven.

Then toast the english muffins to desired crispyness, and set them on a lightly greased pan.

Spoon 1-2 tbsp (or however much you like...) of pizza sauce on each piece of english muffin

Then put spinach leaves on, covering the surface of the english muffin

Then put the diced tomatoes on

THEN sprinkle the bacon pieces on

And finally sprinkle the cheese on. Just have fun with it and put however much of the toppings you want really....

Broil for 1-4 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Just watch them so they don't burn! When the cheese is melted, they are ready to eat!

I was so excited to try this stuff that I forgot to take a picture until half way through eating... YUMMMM!!!!

For dessert I had a macintosh apple cut into chunks with a tbsp of peanut butter melted and drizzled all over the apple pieces. Peanut butter makes my day :)

So I got to have all the "super bowl" type food-veganized and healthy-without the super bowl. A pretty nice relaxing Sunday if I do say so myself :)

~Having fun veganizing pizza, -Anna (&The Pooches)