Meal Time: Catch up!









Toasted Coconut Muesli

well clearly I've been neglecting this little area of my life. But I have been keeping up with cooking at home and trying new healthy meat free dishes.

so I'll just do a quick catch up here...

I've been finding a lot of interesting recipes at my (apparently) new favorite "Whole Living"

The brussels sprouts with grapes were a surprising hit for me, I usually gag when it comes to brussels sprouts. But choosing fresh over frozen for Brussels sprouts makes a huge difference (for me)

I also tried kale chips for the first time, and I have to be honest....was not very excited to eat more than one. They were much thinner and papery than I was expecting, but I might be brave enough to try it once more.

 I also included a pic of my breakfast to go, this one I also got from Whole Living but added some extra fruits that were nearing their end.

These are just a few photos I've tried to take on my cooking mishaps and adventures.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Grapes

I will try and get back to a more organized form here.

All the links to the recipes for these dishes are linked up on each caption.

Thanks for bearing with me



Kale Chips with Sesame Seeds

Meal Time: Baked Sweet Potato w/ Salad

Good Evenings folks....

So I saw a recipe for baked sweet potatoes in Whole Living magazine, and it turned into a lingering craving for days.

I don't believe I've ever had a baked sweet potato, and I gotta say it's pretty dang-o-good.

You can find the recipe here.

I added a basic salad with it to use up my aging veggies. I just used some lettuce, red bell peppers and carrots.

The dressing was just a mix of olive oil, lemon juice and pepper.

I was pretty impressed this meal was so good.

AND...I didn't even add salt to anything!

Damn you Martha, you always know how to catch my eye....you snooty frigid talented witch!

Educational Interest: Food Combining from Healthy Vegan

Heather from Youtube's Healthy Vegan posted an interesting video about food combining. I know every person's body is different from another's, but this might be good for me to try since I'm making a dramatic diet change.

I never try and rely or trust one source of information but it's nice to learn a variety of health information. This diet change is completely unknown territory for me, so I could really use all the knowledge I could get.

Chart from Heather's Site

PS.
You should also check out her YouTube Channel for some good looking recipes

Motivational Resource: Whole Living Action Plan

http://www.wholeliving.com/152870/2012-whole-living-action-plan

The latest issue of Martha Stewart's magazine, Whole Living, had a really great article on clean eating. They have a whole action plan to get healthy this year. They feature weekly recipes to get you started. The food on here looks....really really, so good. And they actually don't look too complicated, so I think even I could make these meals.
I'm looking forward to trying these out.

Produce Paradise

I think when one hears Alaska, great fresh produce is not one of the things that would come to mind. Produce here is costly, and more often than not....less than appetizing. Everything comes on a boat or on a plane here, so most of our fruits and vegetables are either too ripe or too green.

Luckily there is a great program that delivers really good, really fresh produce to Alaska. Full Circle Farm is a weekly program that delivers fresh (mostly organic) produce to locations in Alaska, Washington and Idaho. Most of the produce comes from farms in Washington (my home state, can't go wrong there).

I've never run into anything that was rotten or spoiled. It's also nice to get what's seasonal, it makes all my dishes seem that more fresh.

The best part about Full Circle is their customer service. They are crazy helpful, they've always gone out of their way to help me with any questions or requests I've had.

You can check their site out for membership and general info

http://www.fullcircle.com/

here is a link to their blog as well

http://www.fullcircle.com/goodfoodlife/

This is a photo of what I received this week. This is the 'Garden' size box.

Meal Time: Pesto Pasta w/ Roasted Cauliflower

The theme tonight is using up what's in the kitchen.

I made this pasta dish yesterday, but I had plenty of left overs. I also had a cauliflower I needed to use, so I figure it would be a quick heat-and-eat dinner.

Pasta w/ peas and beans

1 pkg Whole Wheat Angel Hair pasta

1 pkg peas, frozen

1 bndl fresh green beans

Pesto Sauce

1pkg Simply Organic 'Sweet Basil Pesto'

1/2 cup water

1/4 Olive Oil

Roasted Cauliflower

1 head fresh cauliflower

2 tblspn Olive Oil

2 tblspn Paprika

I started by boiling the pasta, while mixing the pesto sauce with the water and oil in a large pan. Once the pasta was ready I transferred it directly to the pesto pan, and added the green beans and frozen peas. I continued to stir and simmer the pasta for about 20 minutes.

The cauliflower was super simple, just olive oil drizzled over chopped cauliflower with a sprinkle of paprika.

I baked for about 20 minutes on 350.

I love these quick but filling meals, something I wouldn't expect when cutting out meat and dairy.

I'm still waiting to receive some cookbooks I ordered, so hopefully some more creative dishes will be posted here.

Motivational Resource: VegNews Vegan Starter Kit

I found this Vegan Starter Kit from VegNews today.

This is really helpful and hopeful to continue this process.

I know there is a stigma that comes with the Vegan culture, but being mocked for a healthy lifestyle will be much greater than being ostracized from everyday activities due to my poor health choices.

PS. the link is in PDF format, so it might take a moment to load.

                        http://www.vegnews.com/web/uploads/asset/3560/file/VegNewsGoVegGuide.pdf