Happy St. Pattys!! Vegan style

Today for St. Patty's we made traditional Irish colcannon but we made ours with earth balance and paired it with more veggies and vegan sausage. We made a vegan gravy with veggie broth. (make sure if you use veggie cubes you get the kind without any msg or additives) 

After my Irish feast I had some vegan vanilla ice cream topped with vegan cookies and organic blueberries. Yum Yum Yum

I always make a snack plate when I am extra hungry. I either the same salad every night with olive oil and vinegar or I make a simple veggie plate with baby carrots, cut up cucumbers and rice crackers. I always add a dollop of hummus for some protein or some vegan cheese slices. 

Veggie Grill review

This is seriously my new favorite place to eat! The staff is super friendly and the food is amazing! It is advertised as entirely plant based with no dairy, meat etc so I was pretty excited!!! :D I was like "What??? An entire vegan restaurant right next to Palo Alto!!" It is located in Mountain View right next to the edge of Los Altos and Palo Alto. I was very happy, elated actually. I always get sick of having to sift through all the ingredients in restaurants but to have one that caters to vegans is really rad. It went beyond my expectations. I honestly wan't expecting to have another vegan nacho that could rival the one at Real Food Daily in L.A. I was sad because I couldn't find any vegan nachos here in the Bay Area and always had to make my own so I decided to order the Mondo nachos and also a side of onion rings to share with my husband and a vegan chocolate chip cookie to top it off. Their cookies are pretty big so I will be sharing that too. the portions are very nice. I could feed several friends with the nachos. My dad and mom and I munched off of them and finished them off. My mom kept looking at me wide eyed "These are vegan??" the cheese sauce is sooo good and I loved the protein veggie chkn bits on top mixed in with the taco sauce. The guacamole was to die for and the whole thing was topped with yummy dairy free sour cream type sauce and it was delicious. Usually I don't think much of onion rings but they had some of the best I have ever tasted. They weren't overly saturated with fats and they didn't have a weird after taste like some do. I usually make my own but these will do in a pinch. I can't wait to try their other veggie options. I think I have found my new place to eat. If you try the Veggie Grill please let me know what your favorite dishes are! :D

Vegan Comfort Food

       It has been a while since a post. I am going to be updating a lot more. I have been living elsewhere for quite some time and also traveling so I haven't been on here much lately but I will be posting some delicious food soon.

     Even when it is Spring/Summer months I love vegan comfort food. In SF and Oregon they have some amazing places with delicious vegan comfort food so that inspired this post. I love teavana because I always love warm tea in the summer months. Usually I make fresh cut ginger lemon and put a bit of whole, organic sugar in or some agave but in the Spring when it starts to get a bit warm I switch to iced teas in the day. Teavana is a bit pricey but to me it is quite  a treat and worth it. I love all the delicious smelling loose leaf teas and if their bar is open they will make you something!

       Another food that I crave constantly that brings me comfort is vegan grilled cheese. Daiya cheese slices make the best grilled cheese ever! So creamy and delicious and the slices melt really well. I put some on whole grain and try not to over cook. The other item that brings me comfort is vegan nachos and a good salsa. During the summer I make salsa not too spicy and add fresh cucumber to make it taste a bit "cooler" and more refreshing. My favorite thing to dip is no salt chips or blue corn chips. I ate an entire bag of organic blue corn chips the other day. It was pretty awesome.

My vegan salsa recipe: 

* 2 Persian cucumbers chopped small

*Half sweet onion

*Hot pepper (only use part if you want it less spicy)

*vine tomatoes (they are super sweet but you can also use roma)

* can of black beans (for extra protein/optional) 

*1 lime

*cilantro (handful) minced

*Blue corn chips to dip

Happy Thanksgiving

I enjoy spending time with family and promoting veggie eating. I took my dog for  a long stroll in the park with my husband and spent time with family. We had stuffing and veggies, made two pies and when we got home we made an amazing vegan casserole we saw in Vegetarian Times. We forgot the chickpeas (whoops) but it was delicious anyways.

Beautiful fall leaves. 

My tall and handsome husband and pup.

Not the most amazing photo but you get the picture :> it was delicious!! 

My week thus far

There is my adorable pup. I love her. 

I was craving the apple pie pancakes from Vegan a Go Go book so I made them. They are very simple to make but taste delicious!! I paired it with maple syrup, some maple toasted pecans I made and some vegan cookie butter. My sister in law first introduced it to me. 

Delicious raw food!! Yum!! :D 

A lovely oatmeal I made with mashed bananas, toasted coconut flakes, earth balance and raisins. This is super delicious if you top it with some almond or hemp milk as well. It has a nutty flavor. 

My breakfasts and late night snacks

I find that fruit or veggies are great snacks late at night. Some people don't eat past a certain time but I think that it is fine to eat late as long as it is a few hours before your bed time. 

I love hummus on corn crisps for breakfast. Protein :> 

I regularly have oats topped with flax seeds or a nut butter and all sorts of other goodies. This day I had some peaches inside oats with almond milk poured over and pluots on side. 

This is for you junk food vegans. Sometimes I splurge in the evening after a good meal and have some yummy organic vegan ice cream. Yumm yummm 

I have avocado for late night snacks sometimes if I need extra fat and also I eat them for breakfasts stuffed with fresh yummy goodies from my garden.