andijl85-blog

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So I tried vegan omelettes

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I did it!! Vegan artichoke dip! Wow it's actually really good!

[andijl85-blog]

Yesterday I made my own vegan cheese to make some pizza. The recipe for that vegan cheese was

1/2 cup raw cashews

1 cup water

2 Tb sweet rice flower 

1 Tb nutritional yeast

1 tsp apple cider vinegar 

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp garlic powder

boil the cashews in a small pot for about 15 minutes until they're soft. Drain them and add them to a blender with all the ingredients. Blend til smooth and put in a sauce pan over medium heat and stir continuously. It will begin to thicken in 5 minuets. I put it in an airtight glass container and put in the fridge to solidify. It solidified a little bit then I dumped it onto a plate. We used store bought dough and a can of crushed tomatoes. I added salt, pepper, garlic powder, and oregano. I put dollops onto my pizza along with some shredded store bought vegan cheese from “Follow Your Heart.” Everything melted really well and it was fairly good for my first attempt. The cashew cheese was a little too rich for a pizza though, I plan on using the rest of it to make an artichoke dip. Updates to come!! 

[andijl85-blog]

More breakfast oatmeal! And I skipped lunch today but for dinner I made vegan mac and cheese. I made about a quarter pound of pasta Use about 1/2 cup of pasta water 2 Tbs of flour 1/4 cup almond milk Whisk those together until incorporated. Add a few tablespoons (to your liking) of nutritional yeast It makes a slightly thick cream like liquid. Mix it in with your pasta and put in the oven at 375° F for about 10 minutes to crisp up the top layer of pasta a bit. Bon appetite!

[andijl85-blog]

Breakfast and lunch today. They were simple. Breakfast was some microwave oatmeal with berries and coconut. Lunch was leftovers of my quinoa bowl from yesterday! With lettuce this time! Didn't get a picture of dinner but it was more vegan tacos hehe

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i would love a recipe please!!!

Made some buffalo chickpea Mac and (cashew) cheese !

[andijl85-blog]

👣Today was my first day going vegan! These are pictures of my breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a little added gif of my snack 😉

Breakfast:

I started my day with a homemade, high protein smoothie bowl.

I used a handful each of frozen blueberries and strawberries with some agave. I added about an ounce of silken tofu for protein. Then just some ice and almond milk and blended that shit right up. I blended mine a little too much so the toppings started to sink into it but just leave it a little thick (or thicc). I topped it with fresh blueberries, strawberries, white nectarine, coconut, and agave. It was so filling.. it ended up being a 20 oz smoothie....

Lunch:

I used some vegan tofu crumbles (an alternative to ground beef). I just sauted them with taco seasoning, cumin, and chili powder. I added some Nutritional Yeast to give it a little bit of a cheesy flavor. I also made a mixture with brown rice, black rice, corn, olives, and salsa verde that I use a lot for burrito bowls so I added that to my crumbles. I just put that all on a whole wheat tortilla. I would normally add lettuce but we ran out  🙃. 

Dinner: 

For dinner I made a quinoa bowl. This recipe actually ended up being huge and so I made 2 bowls out of it! We usually have quinoa cooked on and already so it makes it much easier that way. The one thing that took a while for this was the tofu. I let it marinate for most of the day. For the tofu I used:

20 oz block of silken tofu

5 Tbs canola oil

1 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp sriracha

2 tsp thyme

3 tsp paprika 

1 tsp salt

I cut the tofu into small (relativity) uniform 1 cm cubes. I put them in a zip bag in the fridge in the marinate for about 4 hours, turning it over every so often. (it doesn’t need to sit that long, I just made it really early) I would say let it marinate at least 1 hour. So then I pan fried the tofu in a little more oil and its own marinate (and the water that it released - be careful, it spits). I let it cook til it was dark brown and crispy. It took about 20-30 minutes and I had to do it in 2 batches because there was so much tofu. Then i put the tofu aside, leaving whats left of the marinate in the pan and I added a can of chickpeas (rinsed) right to the pan. I added a pinch of salt and pepper and let them cook about 10 minutes just until they were a little more tender and fully warmed up. I then heated up a bowl with about a cup and a half of quinoa. I grated  a few baby carrots and some celery on top, but I definitely recommend added whatever veggies you like or have on hand (that’s all I had). Then I added about a third of a cup each of the chickpeas and tofu. Give a quick sprinkle of salt and squeeze a fresh lemon wedge over it and your done! I think it could’ve used a little something more though, you could add salsa or a salad dressing or maybe just a little vinegar. I think that’s the fun part of bowls, is you get to mix and match flavors and textures to YOUR liking!

Snack:

So I think me and ingredients labels will get really close over the next few weeks. I have read almost everyone in my house today alone! 

My first snack was just an apple... safely vegan. buuuut I wanted to dip it in caramel sauce, which, of course, has milk... so I just had a plain apple.

Later I had a banana, no biggie.

But then after dinner, I wanted something else! POPCORN! But the only microwave popcorn we had was butter 😡. So I just had to break out the air popper. A little annoying but worth it,,, cuz I got that cool boomerang shot 😜

Thoughts:

So, I did it. I went vegan for my first day. It really wasn’t as hard as I had imagined. It was actually kind of fun to really get creative with my food and engage in the meal I was making. I hope this journey only continues to be more interactive and exciting. I hope all of you get something out of my journey and perhaps start your own when you’re ready. Today was my day to begin, when’s yours? and remember every journey begins with a single step! 👣