ACT Inspiration Days 5 - 8

Our ACT Inspiration cleanse is still going strong and we are loving it! I don't know if it is the extra excercise, the raw food, or the lack of sugar/gluten, or (more likely) a happy combination of all of the above - but I feel great! It has been such a small change but it has made a world of difference already.

It is hard to explain, but I feel calmer and more energized at the same time. I usually have a mind that is going a mile a minute, it never stops, no matter what. I'm always running through my hypothetical grocery list, rewriting the conclusion to my latest article, planning my next meal, figuring out my schedule, blah, blah blah! It doesn't stop. But now.....it has. When I'm driving to the stables I'm not trying to write an entire book review in my head....I'm just driving to the stables. When I'm walking the dogs I'm not scheduling my next 5 interviews....I'm just walking the dogs. I know, it sounds like such a small thing, and it is, but it is a great thing. It is breathing space in my brain and I love it.

The energy is more straightforward - I just have more! And it doesn't come and go, it is steady and deep. When I start working out I can feel it there, like a huge well of power that I can call on if I need to. I really thought that I would probably feel weak and shaky and have to cut back my excercise during this cleanse, but the opposite is true. Yesterday is the first time I sailed through our Vinyasa yoga class feeling powerful and capable, instead of wilted and weak. Yay!

Here are some of the culinary highlights of the past few days:





We start everyday with a delicious and refreshing green juice. This one was definitely the best so far. It had all the usuals, like carrots, chard, apples, cucumbers, mint, lemon juice and celery, but the addition of the seedy center of some zucchini and the brightness of leftover cilantro really made this juice special.



A few days ago we finally bought a blender to replace our old one that went to kitchen appliance heaven and we have been putting it to good use whipping up scrumptious berry smoothies. This one was particularly tasty (and pretty!) with blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, banana, rice milk, and a scoop of organic peanut butter. Wow!



I have been very surprised that I haven't had any cravings at all in the past week. The thought of potato chips, greasy samosa, or a plate a cheezy curly fries, my usual loves, doesn't even phase me. Even more surprising - I have been craving fruits and veggies - A LOT! I used to hate mango and now I can't get enough, it has become one of my favorite snacks. It has a bright citrus tang that really cools me off on these sweltering summer days.



Something that has not changed is my eternal love of hummus, it is just the best thing, especially filled with tons of garlic, lemon juice and tahini. Only now we dip with veggies instead of bread!



What a great dinner, don't all those bright colors make your heart skip a beat? The soup was part cooked, part raw. It was a sweet potato base with black eyed peas which was cooked, but when it was done, I removed it from the heat and threw in a ton of very finely chopped raw veggies like broccoli, bell peppers, zucchini, and red onion. The salad in the back was entirely raw except for the cooked chickpeas. It had lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, carrots, broccoli, and bean sprouts.



Not raw but very delicious. Quinoa and black beans, purple cabbage, and kale. It was very simple but tasty, and a great use up of leftovers.









Say hello to the star of the show ladies and gentlemen! WOW! Now, I have made some tasty meals in my day, but this is one of the top 5 ever! Not just top 5 while trying to eat more raw foods, just top 5 out of everything ever! Please go make this, you will be licking the bowl clean, I promise! It is a raw pasta made from zucchini strips drenched in a thick, delicious pesto made from bright cilantro and spinach, but with a deep garlic 'cheeziness' from the nutritional yeast. The marinated bell peppers and onion add a warmth and a tang that compliments the heavy pesto sauce perfectly. The zucchini strips are so mild you really do feel like you are eating a big bowl of pasta. It is STELLAR!

Raw Pasta with Spinach/Cilantro Pesto

Ingredients

2 LARGE zucchini (I really mean LARGE, like the size of your lower arm.) peeled into thin strips with a potato/vegetable peeler (once you peel down to the seedy center, just set the centers aside for use in a green juice later, don't peel them)

1 large red onion, sliced into paper thin strips
2 bell peppers, sliced into paper thin strips
drizzle of olive oil
juice of one lemon

2/3 cup ground raw pine nuts
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 small bunch of cilantro, chopped very small
1 bag of baby spinach leaves, chopped very small
3 cloves garlic, diced very small
juice of 2 small lemons
pinch of salt and pepper
olive oil

- Set the zucchini strips aside

-Combine the red onion strips and bell pepper strips in a bowl and toss them with the juice of one lemon and a small drizzle of olive oil and allow to marinate for 1 hour

- Combine the pine nuts, nutritional yeast, spinach, cilantro, garlic, juice of 2 lemons, salt and pepper (I don't have a food processor so just chop everything very well!)

- Into the pine nut mixture drizzle in olive oil slowly while stirring until everything is combined and to the consistency that you like. I prefer mine fairly thick, but loose enough to cover my veggies.

- Combine the marinated onions and bell peppers with the zucchini slices and top with the pesto sauce. Enjoy!

ACT Inspiration Days 1 - 4

I have an exciting announcement! Cody and I have been so inspired by the amazing Crazy, Sexy Life website (sorry, I can’t link to it but I’m sure you can find it easily if you look it up!) as well as Happy Vegan Face's awesome blog that we have decided to do a month long cleanse. The Crazy Sexy Life blog had an Adventure Cleanse Tune-up which Happy Vegan Face absolutely rocked out with some stellar results and awesome, detailed coverage. It was her delicious looking meals and delightful blog that gave me and Cody the final push to go ahead with these 30 days of cleansing.

Now, Cody and I eat fairly healthy most of the time; lots of whole grains and beans, tons of veggies and lots of fruit. But we also love to indulge in sugary sweets, deep fried goodness and oh my gosh you wouldn’t even believe the amount of potato chips I can put away. Cody also loves to drink his coffee and I basically inhale mountains of chocolate without a second thought.

But we always thought this wasn’t too much of a problem since our diet mainly consists of such healthy fare. Plus, we both exercise daily and have always been fit and trim, with a decent amount of energy. In fact, we have been called health nuts on more than one occasion.

But, over the past year and a half of living in Bahrain and not having access to the outdoorsy kind of fitness activities we love, like hiking and biking, we have kind of lost our healthy zest for life sparkle. We realized we were allowing sedentary sambusa swilling to take up far more of our time than we should and that our consumption of not so great food was getting to be a bit too much. I want to reenergize the health loving fitness freak that I know I am and take my vitality and love of life to all new levels!

So, we decided to give the Adventure Cleanse Tune-Up a go! The ACT from the website Crazy, Sexy, Life focuses on differing ratios of raw to cooked food (depending on your comfort level), vegan, of course, with no gluten, no refined sugar, no alcohol, and no caffeine.

Well, I have never had a problem that I know of with gluten. I can eat bread and pasta and chips and all that yumminess without a second thought. But Cody notices an almost immediate nose-dive in feeling good after one pb&j too many and my seitan makes his taste buds super happy but his tummy super sad, so I think gluten free will be great for him.

My biggest gripe is sugar. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, I prefer the fatty greasy things in life, but when I do have sugar if I have even a pinch too much I crash and I crash hard. I feel miserable for the rest of the day. And if I have too much sugar at night I have a ‘sugar hangover’ the next morning where my feet are leaden and my head is too! So, I am looking forward to being sugar free.

I have ‘gone raw’ several times in the past and never really had a good experience with it because I simply cannot seem to consume enough food in its raw state as I can cooked food. (After all, raw broccoli takes up a lot more space in your stomach than cooked broccoli!) I am very in tune with what my body needs and I am really aware of what food does to me so I know that I am the kind of person that needs a lot of food to fuel my body, and if I don’t eat every 2 or 3 hours I end up feeling woozy, anxious and just plain sick. So, whenever I would ‘go raw’ it was nearly impossible for me to get enough food into my body to make me feel healthy and energized and I would end up feeling miserable. All those bulky vegetables, totally not broken down by cooking, were just too much and whereas I can usually eat an entire bag of spinach (when it is cooked) by myself….when raw, I just can’t cope. Plus, I would always jump in head first and not give myself any transition time which made me always give up completely in the end.

But I have heard such amazing things about raw foods and the rave reviews I have been seeing about this ACT were enough to seal the deal: I have to give it another shot!

So. We are not going to say we are doing the ACT, we are just going to say it is ACT inspired! We are going to eliminate processed foods, refined sugar, caffeine and (nearly all) gluten and focus on eating healthy, whole foods. (Neither of us drinks alcohol so that isn’t an issue.) As for our raw to cooked ratio we are going to start slowly and listen to our bodies, but we will do the best we can and that might mean at the very best 50/50. We will try our hardest and definitely enjoy this with an open mind but ultimately it comes down to the fact that if I have to sauté my veggies to get enough in my belly I will! We will see how it goes and I will be blogging regularly to show you our meals and our feelings about this experience.

Our recent move to Saudi Arabia has made this whole process even more amazing because we finally have the ability to do all the things we love so much!

Like walking the dogs! On actual grass! Something we haven't been able to do in the 1.5 years since we left the States and moved back to the Middle East. They are so happy which makes me so happy! We haven't even explored a tenth of the extensive hiking trails on this compound, so much left to do!





BIKING! One of our all time favorite things to do, and something else we couldn't do at all in Bahrain. So happy!





Riding and walking with Ender, so much to explore.





And fetch! Hours and hours of fetch with my fetch crazy dingo Polly. Uh-oh...I think she heard me typing the word 'fetch', she just dropped a tennis ball in my lap....



And Vinyasa yoga 3 times a week! We are definitely hooked. Ohhhmmmm.....

And now for some of the yummy meals we have enjoyed over the past few days:





We usually start the day with vibrant green juices which are so refreshing and energizing, a really great way to wake up. I usually make the green juices with chard, carrots, celery, cucumber, apple and a bit of mint. The red juice had all of that plus a red bell pepper thrown in. Super yum! I like to make a huge batch of the juice so I can sip and sip all day long.



Pancakes! A decadent breakfast made from 1 cup of ground flaxseed and 2 small bananas, all mashed together with a Tbsp of molasses and a pinch of cinnamon and ginger. I don't have a dehydrator so I put them in the oven on warm for a few minutes just to gently heat them through. Then I topped them with berries and they were devoured instantly! We were both surprised at how good this was.





Midmorning snacks! Now, we are all feeling the summer heat but man oh man, the Saudi Summer sun can be a real scorcher. It is 120 F with nearly 99% humidity...and we won't get a break till October. Ughghg. In order to cool off we have taken to munching on frozen berries (slightly thawed, of course) and lots of watermelon. You also see some spicy cashews and pistachios in the background.



The perfect pre-yoga snack. Buttery, rich avocado slices topped with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast and plenty of hot sauce. Fills you right up and keeps you going through hours of sun salutations and frog poses!



Such a great soup. Corn and Lemongrass (cooked) but once I pulled it from the heat I tossed in a ton of raw veggies like broccoli, squash, bell peppers and garlic. It was so good topped with spicy hot sauce.



What a spread! A salad filled with tons of cabbage, bell peppers, zucchini and eggplant plus a bowl of quinoa and black beans. Not raw but healthy and delicious!



Best meal ever! The salad was almost totally raw except for some cooked chickpeas, with lettuce, bell peppers, radishes, cucumbers, carrots, and bean sprouts. But the real star of the show was the Summer Stuffed Mushrooms. I call them 'summer stuffed' because the filling is bright and cheerful, like they are stuffed with summer itself! These were a real winner and I bet if you made them for your next party or barbecue you would be shocked at how quickly the plate was emptied! The buttery, meaty taste of the mushrooms are perfectly balanced by the bright tang of the lemony, cilantro filling creating a real treat!



Summer Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients
12 white mushrooms, stems removed
2/3 cup ground raw cashews
2/3 cup ground raw pinenuts
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
juice of 2 small lemons
3 Tbsp chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp olive oil
pinch of salt

Combine all of the ingredients (except the mushrooms, obviously) and mix completely. Spoon little bits of the mixture into the hollowed out cavity of the mushrooms were the stem used to be. Once they are all filled up lightly drizzle all of them with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt, then bake in the oven at 350F for about 15 minutes, then broil them until the tops are all golden. Enjoy!

The past four days have been great for us, we are enjoying the cleanse and I definitely like thinking outside of the box. I didn't realize how much I relied on package, processed foods like tofu or pasta, and it has been interesting to think of alternatives. I only wish we could get organic fruits and veggies here, that would be great, but we work with what we have. We are edging slowly slowly towards eating more raw foods, but we are listening to our bodies and going at our own pace to make sure we make a change that we can live with, instead of one that eventually sends us scurrying back to our old fried and fatty habits. We both feel light and refreshed and are enjoying the process. More updates coming soon!

Home Sweet Home!

We moved to Saudi Arabia! YAY! We are living in Dhahran and I am overjoyed to be back in Aramco, one of the nicest places to live, in my opinion. (I talked more about it in this post here.) I was born here, and Cody grew up here too, so this is definitely home for us. In fact, both of my parents grew up here as well, my family on both sides has been in the Kingdom for 60 years or so. I'm not an American as much as I'm an Aramcon!

We LOVE it here and our dogs are seriously beside themselves with joy and happiness! In Bahrain we couldn't hike or bike or even really walk our dogs, but here, oh...it is amazing. The Dhahran compound is HUGE and totally private and is just made for hiking and biking and riding and dingo romping! (More on the awesomeness of this in my next post.)

So, the move was very stressful. We had to pack all our dogs up in the Suburban and trudge across the causeway, with our fingers crossed that all would go smoothly.



Suburban all loaded up!



We just barely fit in all 4 dogs and one kitty!



Heading across the causeway.



This is me after 3 hours of waiting on the causeway...



...and this is me after 6 hours of waiting on the causeway.



But we finally made it, safe and sound, to Saudi Arabia! Home Sweet Home!







All the dogs (and kitty!) settled in just fine. And the dogs are SO happy with their daily 2 hour walks on the miles and miles of hiking trails Dhahran has to offer, through grassy fields surrounded by trees and flowers. There isn't anything like it in Bahrain which is one of the many, many reasons we were happy to move over to Saudi.







Ender is doing really well too! Just like the dogs, he is thrilled with all the space and the amazing facilities. We have acres and acres of pristine desert and hacking trails to adventure through, it is so much fun!

So, as you can see the move went well and life is very good! There will be another post soon with more updates and pictures. But now onto the food....

When we first moved to Saudi two weeks ago it was just after Father's Day. So I asked my dad to give me his request for a Father's Day dinner. He said enchiladas and I said okay!





I sauted a ton of zucchini, black beans, pinto beans, bell peppers, onions, and garlic and wrapped the yummy, spicy mixture in tortillas and drenched them with spicy enchilada sauce. After they baked in the oven for a bit I topped them with tofutti sliced cheese for the last few minutes. I served them topped with green onions.



My dad was very happy with his Father's Day dinner!

Well, as you can imagine Cody and I have been thrilled to be getting back to our outdoorsy, fitness loving lifestyle that we enjoyed so much when we were living in the states, but which we couldn't have at all in Bahrain. We have been doing Vinyasa yoga 3 times a week, hiking with the dogs every day, and biking, and riding too. We have also been focusing on eating tons of healthy food, like these scrumptious salads:



This salad was mostly raw and filled with carrots, cucumbers, radishes, bean sprouts, lightly wilted chard, chickpeas (and other stuff I can't remember!) and topped with avocado slices.



A yummy cooked salad made up of sauted zucchini, chard, Brussels sprouts, bean sprouts, mushrooms and radishes. Mmmm!

Stay tuned for my next post to see more pictures of us settling in and , of course, lots more food!

Vegan Hot Wings

Have you made an extra huge batch of my super scrumptious Chicken Fried Seitan and now you have a plate of leftovers?

Well, if you want sticky, spicy, hot wings follow this simple recipe and you will be drooling over a plate of lip smacking goodness in no time!

Ingredients
1/3 cup molasses (or maple syrup)
1/3 cup vegan butter
TONS of hot sauce, as much as you can handle!
pinch of salt and pepper
pinch of garlic salt and cumin

- Melt all the ingredients in a pan together

- Take the leftover chicken fried seitan out of the fridge and toss it in the liquid mixture (if you have made seitan patties, you might want to chop them up into chunks)

- Bake the liquid coated seitan in the oven on 300 degrees for 10 minutes (this step not only reheats the cold seitan but also lets the yummy hot sauce mixture soak in!)

- Remove the seitan from the oven and dip it one more time in the liquid mixture and then serve and enjoy!

I serve mine with a side of vegan ranch dressing...or vegan blue cheese dressing...I can't decide which it tastes more like. (Did you know how versatile and super healthy cashews are? I've made so many wonderful things with them over the past week and I am quite impressed.)

Ingredients
1 cup raw cashews
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup lemon juice
3 cloves garlic
several teaspoons of dried dill, to taste
pinch of salt and pepper

- Blend all the ingredients together in a food processor and dip and dunk to your heart's content!

Everyday Nums! #3

What a way to start the day! Much heavier and far richer than my usual breakfast fare, but a necessary occasional indulgence, I do believe. Vegan buttery biscuits and vegan sausages topped with caramelized onion and garlic gravy. So good!



This was such a perfect lunch. A big bowl of savory, spicy black bean stew. (Made from the freshest, most beautiful black beans I have ever had courtesy of our vegan friends from NYC!) I just boiled up a pot of the beans with onions, garlic and a few very simple spices like sage and oregano and lunch is good to go! Served with a side of lightly sauted bell peppers and broccoli. Yummy!





Dinner was my "I can't believe this isn't real fried chicken" Chicken Fried Seitan served with a side of mashed cauliflower and potatoes and roasted asparagus. What a meal!

What delicious things have you all been eating lately?

'Cheezy' Broccoli Soup

This should almost qualify to be part of my simple supper series because it is a quick, no fuss, dinner that is nutritious and delicious! It tastes just like a mound of yummy broccoli with a generous dollop of rich cheese sauce on the top. I use many of the same flavors that go in my basic cheese sauce, but in a soup form! And wow, this is definitely a winner, hope you like it!



Ingredients

1 large yellow onion, chopped small
4 cloves garlic, chopped small
3 small potatoes, chopped into small chunks
1 large head of broccoli, chopped into small chunks
1 large carrot, chopped small
pinch of salt, pepper, cumin, red pepper flakes
2 tsp dried tarragon
5 cups water
1/2 cup plain soymilk
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp spicy mustard

- In a large soup pot, in a drizzle of olive oil, saute the onion and garlic with a pinch of salt, pepper, cumin and red pepper flakes, for about 5 minutes, until a bit soft

- Add the potatoes, broccoli, and carrot and saute for 15 minutes, till they are soft and cooked down slightly

- Add the 5 cups of water, soymilk, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, tarragon and another pinch of all the spices. It is important to flavor every layer!

- Simmer for about 20 minutes and then remove from heat.

- Add the nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and mustard and then blend the entire pot up with your hand mixer or blender until creamy and thick. Enjoy!

Celebration Smorgasbord

When I think of celebrating I think of smörgåsbords! I love nothing more than relaxing with my sweetie and my dear friends over tons and tons of delicious food, spending the entire evening laughing and snacking.



This week I definitely had something to celebrate. Cody and I are moving to Saudi Arabia in hopefully the next month or so to live in Dhahran, the Aramco compound where I was born and where we both grew up. We are SO excited and hope that it happens quickly! Life in Bahrain isn't really designed for the things Cody and I love to do, like hiking, biking, running with our dogs and horse riding. But Dhahran is ALL about that!

We haven't been able to bike or really even hike properly since moving here, you just can't. But Aramco has miles and miles of gorgeous bike paths, is very dog friendly, and has the most amazing stables I have seen anywhere in the world. I can drive on the compound (which houses about 3,000 Aramco employees and their families, has schools for employee's children, shopping market, offices for the employees, and tons of recreation facilities like state of the art gyms, pools, golf courses, tennis courts, etc) and they offer all kinds of fitness classes, they have a wonderful theater group, cooking classes, travel groups and a just an all around amazing community filled with an eclectic mix of people from all over the world.

The stables in Aramco are so amazing, it is where I grew up riding and I miss it so much. About 100 horses (no school horses, all part of individual families), over 75 acres of pristine cross country, fabulous grooms, wonderful BHS instructors and phenomenal facilities. After struggling for the past 6 months to ride here in Bahrain, it will be heaven. The stables here in Bahrain leave a lot to be desired. There is no place to hack (take long rides out in the desert) because there is dangerous construction everywhere, or boys come and throw rocks at you, or young men come and yell at you and spit at you. Not so nice.

But Aramco is only open to Aramco employees, it is very safe, it has extremely rigorous security, it is very luxurious, very family oriented and just perfect. I was born there, Cody grew up there, my dad still works there, and now.....Ender is there!



This is Ender being trailered into the main gate of the Aramco compound.

My first priority in our moving to Saudi process was getting Ender there as soon as possible so he could get adjusted before the evil summer heat really set it. After weeks and weeks of struggle and thinking that everything was going to fall apart (the simplest things in the GCC take a lot of hard work) I finally got Ender's papers all sorted out, and got him moved across the causeway in an air conditioned trailer. (A trip of 20 miles took about 5 hours because the sight of a woman with a horse caused quite a commotion. I became an instant celebrity among the causeway guards who were horrified/thrilled to learn that I rode this horse and even jumped him! So, the paperwork had to be passed through about a dozen sets of hands so everyone would have an excuse to come and meet me.)

He is now happily settled in and doing fine!



He has to stay in this mandatory quarantine pen for 2 weeks, but he only has 1 week left! Then I can start riding him and we can spend hours roaming around the desert and having fun.

Here are some pictures of the stables on the Aramco compound that Ender now calls home:


















So, you can imagine that after all the stress and struggle and the ensuing relief and joy I was definitely ready to celebrate! So, we feasted for hours on roasted red pepper dip, pepper crusted cashew goat cheese (recipe from Vegetarian Times), marinated olives, fresh, chewy bread dipped in balsamic vinegar drizzled in white truffle oil, hummus and lemon roasted pistachios. YUM!







Roasted Red Pepper Dip (also perfect over pasta!)

4 roasted red peppers, cooled, skin peeled off
3/4 cups raw cashews, soaked in water for an hour
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
A big handful of chopped fresh basil leaves
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
salt, pepper, red pepper flake

- Saute the onion and garlic for about 10 minutes, till soft and tender

- Throw everything into your food processor and blend until smooth and creamy!

"Cheezy" Quinoa Un-Casserole

When I started planning this dish I was happy that it was going to be so healthy, and that I would be using up ingredients we already had in our kitchen, but I never imagined I would be blown away by it's absolute delicious taste. I mean, I knew it would be hearty and healthy (it is filled with super foods quinoa, nutritional yeast, and spinach) and be fresh and nutritious, but I didn't expect to be shocked by its sheer cheezy yumminess! In fact, I was going to bake it in the oven, I had been envisioning a casserole, but as I was ladling it into the casserole dish I tasted a bit of it and was so pleased I didn't want to risk changing a thing. So, it is an un-casserole!



Ingredients

2 and 1/2 cups of quinoa, rinsed and cooked according to directions on package
1 yellow onion, chopped small
3 bell peppers, chopped small
3 cloves garlic, diced
2 cups chopped fresh baby spinach leaves
salt and pepper
pinch of cumpin, paprika, red pepper flake
1 can corn, drained
1 can pinto beans

-Saute in olive oil the onion, bell peppers, and garlic

-After 10 minutes or so add the spices and continue cooking for another 10 minutes until everything is tender

-Turn off the heat and wilt in the spinach

-Combine with the cooked quinoa and corn and beans

Cheeze Sauce
Ingredients

4 cloves garlic, diced
2 Tbsp vegan butter
3 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp mustard sauce
1 Tbsp soy sauce
3 cups water
pinch salt and pepper, cumin and turmeric
1 cup nutritional yeast
2 Tbsp pickled jalapenos chopped
2 Tbsp sun dried tomatoes chopped
3 Tbsp cilantro

-In a frying pan saute 4 cloves of garlic in a drizzle of olive oil until crispy

-On very low heat add 2 Tbsp vegan butter, stir slowly until completely melted

-Slowly add in the 3 Tbsp flour, stirring constantly until completely combined into a roux

-VERY SLOWLY drizzle in the 3 cups of water, stirring constantly until the mixture is completely combined and there are no clumps of flour (Seriously, go slow and never stop stirring. Your patience is the key to your cheeze sauce having a nice smooth texture, you don't want any clumps do you?)

-Add the balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, mustard, lemon juice, and dried spices

- Add in the nutritional yeast and turn off heat, stir completely

- Add the jalapenos, sun dried tomatoes, and cilantro

Pour the cheeze mixture over the quinoa and veggies, stir it up completely, and enjoy!

Simple Supper Series #3

If you miss eating fried egg sandwiches, then this is the supper for you! Simple, delicious and of course, vegan. What could be better? These yummy baked tofu sandwiches really do remind me of fried egg sandwiches, they have the same delicate texture and rich flavor. The best part of these is how the tofu gets brown and crunchy around the edges, that is my favorite bit.

If you want to make them, take a box of Mori Nu Silken Soft Tofu, freeze it, thaw it, slice it into strips and very lightly press the water out. Just press between two towels with your hands for a few minutes. The strips are very delicate so be gentle!

Lay them into a glass casserole dish and splash them with some soy sauce (and balsamic vinegar if you want a bit of a tang) and bake them for maybe 10-20 minutes, until they look like this:



There will be enough tofu from one small box to make two sandwiches. I like to pile my tofu onto toasted bread with vegan mayo and mustard. Really delicious!

No Chicken 'n' Dumplings

Growing up I used to adore my mom's chicken 'n' dumplings. But I've got to say: 'sorry mom, mine is even better!' It is just as savory, buttery and delicious but without any animal cruelty! Pure vegan deliciousness, enjoy!

Ingredients
2 yellow onions diced
3 cloves garlic diced
15 cups water
5 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 Tbsp dried thyme
1 Tbsp onion salt
1 Tbsp dried sage
1 Tbsp turmeric
1/2 Tbsp paprika
1/2 Tbsp garlic powder
2 and 1/2 cups dried chunks of TVP
1 can of biscuits
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
5 Tbsp vegan butter

- In a large soup pot saute the onions and garlic in a drizzle of olive oil until soft and tender.
- Add the water, spices, nutritional yeast, 3 Tbsps of butter, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce and the TVP
- Simmer for about 20 minutes, until the TVP is tender, and then add the can of biscuits, pinching off bit by bit and dropping each bit into the simmering water
- Cook for another 5 to 10 minutes, until the biscuits are like fluffy buttery clouds (my favorite part!) and then add the final 2 Tbsps of butter and EAT!