easy vegan recipe

On August 1, 2018 By VictoriaIn Creamy, cheesy, pasta recipes, Recipes1 Comment

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This is a super easy recipe that I made this afternoon to try and clean out the fridge and freezer and use up some canned food we’ve had lying around for awhile.

For the sauce:

half a bag of frozen cauliflower (about 8 oz)
a can of diced tomatoes
lots of spices:
- garlic powder
- minced onions
- nutritional yeast
- black pepper
- paprika
- ground cayenne pepper
- thyme
- crushed red pepper
- lemon juice
about a cup of almond milk.

Defrost and steam the cauliflower with some minced onion and garlic powder until it is soft. Add the soft cauliflower into a blender with a bit of almond milk (I probably used around 3/4 cup), a tbsp lemon juice, and about 2 tbsp nutritional yeast and combine until it is creamy.

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Add that back into the pan and mix it with the can of diced tomatoes and all of the spices. Once thats combined add in:

as much boca veggie ground crumbles as you want
chickpeas (I used about 3/4 of a can)
a few handfuls of spinach

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Mix all that together and let it simmer. I added some more milk to thin it out while the veggie crumbles cooked.

Finally I boiled the pasta (we had angel hair pasta) and combined it with the sauce and that’s it! It was super easy and turned out really tasty.

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top 7 meals for bad days // vegan

On May 21, 2018May 31, 2019 By VictoriaIn Low Spoon Recipes, Recipes, rheumatoid arthritis4 Comments

Most times when I have bad rheumatoid arthritis flareups I don’t want to cook. I’d much rather not eat at all or have takeout food, but that obviously makes my body feel much worse. Here are some examples of lazy meals I make when I don’t want to cook but need to eat something relatively healthy.

Tortilla pizza

This one is super easy to make. I took a tortilla (this one’s a spinach wrap) and topped it with with leftover marinara sauce, Daiya mozzarella style shreds, and Yves veggie pepperoni. I popped it in the oven and baked it at around 300° until the tortilla was crispy and the cheese was melted. Some additional topping ideas: leftover veggies, spinach, basil, nutritional yeast, and tofu scramble.

Creamy hummus pasta

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I’ve been making this a lot for dinner since it is so quick, easy, and delicious. First, I boil some pasta and microwave some leftover veggies. (I also like having just noodles and spinach). While the pasta is boiling I scoop out 2-3 tbsp of hummus into a cup (we usually have red pepper or garlic hummus at the house), add a splash of water, and mix it together to make a simple sauce. It’s tasty like this but sometimes I’ll add some black pepper, nutritional yeast, or paprika to spice it up.

White rice, avocado, spinach, and nori with hummus (sushi bowl)

This one is especially easy if you have cooked white rice leftover. I’ll put some white rice in a bowl, microwave or sauté some spinach, cut up half of an avocado, and place some nori sheets on the side. I also top the bowl with hummus and sesame seeds. When I eat this I’ll take a spoonful of a little bit of everything and lazily roll it into a nori sheet like a little sushi burrito. Optional: Gardein chik’n, leftover tofu, or any other veggies you want to add.

Avocado toast

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Avocado + toast. I usually like to have it on mini bagels or Dave’s Killer Bread and topped with any combination of lots of nutritional yeast, paprika, black pepper, cayenne pepper, or garlic powder. Pairing it with a chickpea salad and tomatoes is really good too.

Peanut butter on toast with bananas and cinnamon

Peanut butter + toast + bananas + cinnamon.

Sandwiches and wraps

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Whenever I make a sandwich I’ll throw whatever we have in the fridge together and hope for the best.

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One of my new favorite combinations that resulted from random ingredients is a spinach wrap, purple hull peas, spinach, pumpkin seeds, almond slices, and sriracha.

Stuffed sweet potato

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I had this for breakfast one morning with a smoothie and I felt energized and full for most of the day. I baked a sweet potato and put some peanut butter and dried cranberries in it.

Those are some of my go-to meal ideas when I’m having a bad day or having a bad flareup. I hope this helps and inspires, and if you want more easy meal ideas check out my Instagram.

homemade stuffed-crust pizza // vegan

On April 5, 2018April 5, 2018 By VictoriaIn Vegan pizza, What I Ate Today1 Comment

My mom made us some pizza dough to take home a few weeks ago. Since I had today off from work we decided to defrost it and make an insane vegan pizza, and I wanted to document the process.

Every Saturday while I was growing up my mom would make a homemade pizza, and when I would come home for a few days at a time from college we almost always had pizza. It was a tradition in our household, but one I gave up for a few months once I moved out and went vegan. Luckily there was an easy way to veganize her dough recipe, which brings us to today. This is how we made a vegan stuffed-crust pizza.

We bought a jar of sauce at our local Kroger and spiced it up with diced tomatoes, a few cloves of garlic, and nutritional yeast. While that was simmering we sautéed a mix of peppers and onions.

After we rolled out the pizza dough we folded some of Field Roast’s chao cheese slices into the crust. We haven’t had a stuffed crust pizza in a long time so we decided to change that.

After we added a tablespoon of olive oil to the base of the pizza and spread it out we added the sauce and all of the veggies. We added spinach under the peppers and nutritional yeast and garlic powder on the crust.

We left it in the oven at 375° for 20 minutes and prepared some of our other movie night snacks while we waited.

When we went to the grocery store for the ingredients we also picked up some popcorn to snack on while we watched a movie. We added a few dark chocolate chips to the popcorn too.

Here’s the finished product. We topped it with avocado slices instead of cheese since there was already a lot of cheese in the crust. We ate this and the popcorn while we watched 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (the one from 1954).

You don’t really have to give up any family traditions or any food you once loved once you go vegan. There is almost always a solution to veganize it. There are so many products and sources online that can lead you to amazing recipes and trying new ways to cook old favorites.

A Week of Vegan Dinners

On April 2, 2018 By VictoriaIn Creamy, cheesy, pasta recipes, Recipes, What I Ate TodayLeave a comment

I wanted to show some examples of simple vegan dinners, so here’s what a week of dinners looks like for us.

Monday:

We were out late and wanted to grab something out to eat, but decided against it to make something healthy at home. We stopped by Kroger and picked up some veggies and bread to make sandwiches. We also finally tried the Tofurky roasted chick’n, which was really good. I put that on a piece of pumpernickel rye bread with red onions, dill pickles, mustard, black pepper, paprika, carrots, and spinach.

Tuesday:

Gluten-free spaghetti with a cauliflower alfredo sauce and Gardein meatless meatballs.

I made the sauce before I went into work and left it in the fridge so I could reheat it with the meatballs and pasta when I got home. Here’s what I used to make it:

4 cups of cauliflower
1/2-3/4 cup cashew milk (depends on how thick or thin you want it to be)
2tbsp garlic hummus (I used the Sabra brand)
1tbsp yellow mustard
1tbsp lemon or lime juice
For the spices:
- Dried basil
- Nutritional yeast
- Black pepper
- Paprika
- A pinch of cayenne pepper
- Garlic powder

I don’t measure the spices, but I put a generous amount of each in. I also don’t add in salt most of the time when I cook, but add it in if you want.

When I got home from work I put the sauce in a saucepan, let it simmer, and then tossed in the Gardein meatless meatballs to let them heat up while the pasta boiled.

I’ve been experimenting with my diet by adding in more gluten-free foods, and it has definitely been helping my digestion. Here’s the finished product with gluten-free pasta:

Wednesday:

Leftover pasta with sautéed spinach and shredded carrots. We didn’t have any fettuccine sauce from yesterday leftover, so I made a hummus sauce with 2 tbsp garlic hummus and a splash or sriracha, and mixed it together with a bit of water.

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Thursday:

Vegan tacos for dinner! We had some friends over for dinner and made some tacos.

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DJ and I made Spanish rice, lentils, and potatoes to fill the tacos with. For toppings, we had quite a few options: spinach, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, carrots, beans, cilantro, pumpkin seeds, and walnuts. We’re hoping to perfect our vegan Spanish rice, so hopefully we will post a recipe for that soon.

I also made some cookies for dessert. You can find the recipe here.

Friday:

We ate junk food all day and I ended up taking a nap before dinner so I wanted something light and nutritious for dinner. I made a salad with spinach, lettuce, carrots, red onions, diced tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, and dried cranberries (pretty much all the leftovers from the night before). I mixed a tablespoon of hummus with a little water to make a quick dressing.

Saturday:

I was craving sushi this night so I made it the lazy way when I got home from work. I had spinach, rice, avocado, sesame seeds, and paprika on one plate, and two sheets of nori on the other. I divided and ripped each sheet of nori into four pieces and made sushi burritos/ tacos while I ate. This is a super yummy and simple meal to make when you don’t want to put in the effort of rolling sushi.

Sunday:

We went to my parent’s house for Easter dinner and they made us grilled veggies, baked sweet potatoes, and Gardein black bean burgers. I had my Gardein burger on a bagel slim with chao cheese, pickles, mushrooms, mustard, and ketchup. We sprinkled smoked paprika, black pepper, and crushed red pepper on the veggies.

That’s what a week of easy vegan dinners looks like for us. Hopefully this gave you some new ideas and inspiration for dinners and lunches that are quick, easy, and delicious.