A Week of Vegan Meals

As you can guess from the title, I am going to tell you about some of the meals I had this week. I am an advocate for simple eating and am always excited to show others how easy making vegan food can be. The meals I eat aren’t very fancy, but I can assure you they are delicious.

Monday

I hadn’t made a smoothie bowl in awhile so I thought I would give it a try. The base includes:

• Almond milk
• Frozen blueberries
• Strawberry (vegan) protein powder
• A spoonful of cocoa powder
• A dollop of almond butter
• A giant handful of fresh spinach

I didn’t have the ingredients to make the granola I usually make so I improvised. I mixed some dried oats with cinnamon and a little agave in a bowl before laying the mixture out on a cookie sheet. I toasted the oats for about 15-20, or until they were filling my apartment with the delicious sweetness of cinnamon. After they cooled, I added them to the food processor with some Medjool dates. After blended, simply add to the smoothie bowl with some almond butter.

Tuesday

Who doesn’t love a sandwich? If you are new to veganism, you might think that sandwiches are pointless if they are void of meat, cheese, and mayo, all the things that you use to make sandwiches delicious.

BUT! I will prove you wrong. Here is what you will need to make a BOMB VEGAN SANDWICH:

Ingredients:

• Bread (duh)
• vegan mayo
• sweet, sliced pickles
• spinach or lettuce
• marinated artichoke hearts
• tomatoes
• hummus (flavor of your choice)

Now, simply build your sandwich. For me, the combo of the sweet pickles, the mayo (vegan mayo is delicious by the way) and the artichokes are enough to keep me happy. Also, remember that avocado is your sandwich friend. Don’t forget about that.

Wednesday

Time for some beans. I am lazy af sometimes and beans are my go-to meal.  All you need to do it pour the can into a pan and warm them up.

I topped these black beans with some slices tomato, avocado, vegan mayo and siracha!

Thursday

My boyfriend made this meal, so I can’t take the credit for it. But it was amazing, let me tell you.

After making some white rice, he added teriyaki sauce to the pan. We had fresh, ripe mango on hand so he sauteed some slices with a mixture of vegetables. (Sometimes we buy a bag of a frozen organic medley). This salty and sweet meal was delicious and probably took about 20 mins.

Friday

Who says you can’t have pasta and meatballs?!

 

These wheat-based meatless meatballs are the best I have ever had in terms of meat substitutes. The texture is that similar to the real thing. I sauteed some spinach and grape tomatoes so I felt like I was eating actual vegetables. (Meatball brand: 365 Organic)

I hope you enjoyed all these EASY and fun meal ideas. Let me know which one you are excited to try in the comments 🙂

 

Vegan Halloween Treats!

I am so excited to post this today. Not only because Halloween is right around the corner, but also because all of these Halloween treats are recipes brought to you by my very first guest blogger!

Nyri Yaghoobian has been vegan for 8 years, and vegetarian for a year prior to that. Her decision to change her diet came about as she became more aware of what she was eating and how the end product got on her plate.

I think the most important thing that people should know is that they have the control to make this world a better place. All the factors of peace, health, and love… they start on your plate. It’s up to them to decide if they want to help and be apart of it.

As a lover of animals, the planet and her body, she decided to treat all these things with respect by going vegan. As for her advice for future vegans…

 I  want people to know that we don’t judge, and if they ever need help or want to make a transition, we can help. And we are not a cult.

So without further ado, here are a few of Nyri’s delicious creations for this spooky time of year! (All photos were taken by Nyri as well!)

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I love Halloween and the whole month of October, I usually spend the  month binge watching as many Halloween themed movies and shows while decorating the house with blood and guts, carving pumpkins, and talking to dead people with the Ouija board in cemeteries. All jokes aside, I am obsessed with this spooky holiday and I wish I lived in a Halloween town. It makes sense that my obsession would also leak into the types of foods I make. The following three recipes are rich and full of pumpkin spice flavors, they are also healthy alternatives to some of the other options that we may be used to for this month. One thing I should mention, if you do decide to make these recipes, be ready for monsters, ghosts, and ghouls coming to your door for a treat!

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Golden Pumpkin Spice Mylk

Ingredients:

2 cups of soaked almonds

5 cups of water

1/2 cup of pitted dates

1 tablespoon of pumpkin spice mix

1/2 teaspoon of tumeric powder

a pinch of salt

Soak the almonds, add them into a blender with the water, dates, and spices. Make sure to pit the dates (If you are a werewolf you can obviously skip this step) and blend! Use a nut milk bag to separate the pulp from the milk and Voila!

An extra recipe that you can do is make mini almond pumpkin spice cookies! I added dates to the pulp to sweeten them a bit more and you can use a dehydrator or an oven to dehydrate the cookies!

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Ooey Gooey Pumpkin Spice Balls 

Oh my, these pumpkin spice caramel date balls coated in chocolate chips are literally the best date balls I have ever made.

Ingredients:

2 cups pitted dates

1 tablespoon of almond butter

1/2 teaspoon of maca powder

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 tablespoon Pumpkin Spice Mix

 pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips

In  a food processor, add the pitted dates and almond butter in and pulse until you get a caramel consistency. Then add in the maca powder, pumpkin spice mix,turmeric, and salt. Pulse it again until well combined. The final product will be a bit sticky, but we need that so the chocolate chips stick. Last step is to roll them into small bite sized balls and roll them in the chocolate chips until evenly coated.

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Pumpkin Spice Skull Muffins 

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour

1/2 cup of coconut sugar

1/2 cane sugar

1 tbspn baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar

1.5 tbspn pumpkin spice mix

1 cup of pureed pumpkin

pinch of salt

1/4 cup of coconut or olive oil

1/2 cup of Mylk (Almond, Cashew, Soy, Coconut)

1/2 cup of Walnuts (Pecans also work)

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Preheat oven to 375. Sift your dry ingredients (Flour, sugar,salt, baking powder, and pumpkin spice mix) into a large bowl. In another bowl add the pumpkin puree with the mylk and oil. Add the wet and dry in a bowl together, then before mixing, add the baking soda with the ACV and mix all until you get a beautiful pumpkin batter. Avoid trying to eat it raw even though its very tempting. I have a skull mold which I used to make the muffins in this recipe, however if you don’t, you can use whatever works for you. Add the batter into a muffin pan and then add the walnuts on top of the batter. Bake for 30 mins (keep an eye on it) they usually start to make the house smell like pumpkin spice bliss when they are done.

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Last step is to eat the muffins while doing a horror movie marathon!

Hope you enjoy!