A Vegan Essential: The Bowl

Sorry this is so late! I had a very busy day full of unpacking and cleaning after getting back from my family vacation and I ended up making dinner much later than I had planned! Without further ado, enjoy!

Today I wanted to talk about a staple in my diet, "the bowl." Simply put this is an entree where a bunch of ingredients, normally a mixture of vegetables, grains, and legumes, are thrown into a bowl. There are lots of ways to make bowls and I have enjoyed many different types!

For example, on my recent road trip I enjoyed a delicious bowl at Savory Cafe and Pizzeria in Newport, OR.

This bowl was called the "Savory Bowl" with brown rice, black beans, steamed veggies, cilantro, and a tofu kelp sauce. Yummy!

Last night in Portland I enjoyed another bowl at the restaurant Prasad in the Pearl District. I had the "Urban Bowl" made with steamed kale, cabbage, sea vegetables, avocado, carrots, scallions, sesame and hemp seeds. I added some quinoa and had it with their peanut sauce. My Dad also enjoyed a bowl for dinner, the "Chili Bowl." Unfortunately I was distracted by the delicious food in front of me and so I didn't get to snap a photo, it was amazing though!

One of my most favorite bowls, at Chaco Canyon here in the University District of Seattle, is the hippie bowl, which is one of my staple orders when I visit this cafe, which is often. This bowl is made of quinoa, baked tofu, carrots, sprouts, sesame seeds and a garlic tahini dressing.

These bowls and other bowls I've had in the past have inspired me to make my own bowls at home! Here's the one I made today!

Quinoa Veggie Bowl with Tangy Peanut Dressing

This bowl is just what it sounds like and is pretty tasty!

Makes 3-4 servings

Ingredients:

• 4 cups veggie quinoa (recipe below)
• Tangy peanut dressing (recipe below)
• 1 cup sliced pepper
• 1 cup cucumber, sliced into half moons
• 1 1/2 cup zucchini, sliced
• 1 cup shredded veggies (I used Trader Joe's broccoli slaw)
• 4 handfuls spinach

All the veggie toppings

Directions:

1. Prepare veggie quinoa. While it is cooking, wash and prepare veggies. 

2. Prepare dressing. 

3. Line plate or bowl with a handful of spinach, top with veggie quinoa, veggies and tangy peanut dressing. Mix and enjoy!

Yummy!!

Note: This recipe is easily customizable. Use whatever veggies you like and have on hand. I love making this bowl with green onions and avocado as well, which I did not happen to have on hand this time around. 

Veggie Quinoa

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, diced
• 8 oz. mushrooms, diced
• 1 cup carrot, diced
• 2 cups dry quinoa
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 4 cups water

Directions: 

1. Wash and dice veggies. 

2. Place veggies, quinoa, rosemary, and water into a large pot and prepare as you would normal quinoa.

Pre-cooking

All done and delicious! 

Tangy Peanut Dressing: 

Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/3 cup vinegar of choice (I used raw apple cider vinegar and white balsamic vinegar)
• 1 tbsp tamari
• 2 tbsp non-dairy milk
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Maple syrup or other liquid sweeter, to taste (I used about 1/4 tsp)

Directions: 

1. Mix all ingredients except maple syrup together until they form a smooth sauce. 

2.  Add maple syrup as desired to reach desired taste.

Note: This sauce is definitely tangy, if you are looking for a more mild sauce replace all or some of the vinegar with water or more non-dairy milk to achieve your desired taste. 

All mixed up! Delicious! 

My Favorite Snack: Peanut Butter Cup Apple Slices

It is a rainy Friday here in Seattle which, for the second day in a row, ruined my plans to spend my free time getting some natural vitamin D. Luckily, I have been finding myself surprisingly productive on this rainy day and as such, I thought it would be a great time to share my favorite snack!

Now, I am really not one for favorites. If someone were to ask me what my favorite fruit is, my answer would probably be along the lines of "Mango, NO apple, NO blueberries...WAIT or watermelon." The same goes for essentially anything else. If people ask, I'll tell them my favorite color is purple, but actually? How could I choose among all the wonderful colors out there!

There's no way!

However, I can definitely say that this is my favorite snack, and that's really saying something!

Peanut butter cup apple slices:

Ingredients: 

• 1 apple of choice
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter (other nut butters are also delicious)
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon sweetener (my favorites are agave nectar and maple syrup)

Directions: 

1. Mix everything except apple together until it forms a creamy consistency, much like nutella. 
2. Slice apple, I like to slice it in really thin slices. It's so much fun!
3. Dip apple slices in spread and enjoy!

So much yummy going on!

I love having this snack at any time, it never fails to satisfy. It is also great because as someone with a real weak spot for chocolate, I can enjoy this with much less sugar and without that sick feeling I get when I've had just a little too much of those chocolate chips. 

What about you, do you have any favorite snacks?

 Happy Friday! 

Massaged Kale Salad

Hi all!

I have yet to post any recipes or specifically food posts, so I thought where better to start than with a kale salad!

Kale can be kind of a scary vegetable. I know I didn't know what to do with it when I first encountered it. However, I have learned to love this leafy green for all its glory!

Behold the beauty of kale!

One of the most important things to do when eating kale, especially raw, is to massage it. What? you say, MASSAGE it? Like a day at the spa? Well almost.

Essentially, all you do is add some sort of dressing on your washed and de-stemmed kale and work it around in your hands for a minute or so, making sure to squeeze the kale and really work the dressing in. Here's a longer post about how to do this and why. 

You can do this with any dressing that you are planning on using on your salad or simply oil, vinegar, or lemon juice. I have also made wonderful massaged kale just by using avocado or hummus. By massaging the kale it takes the bitterness away and makes it much less chewy and dense. It also absorbs the dressing or whatever else you use really nicely, adding a burst of flavor. 

Once you've massaged your kale you are ready to go! Add anything you are in the mood for to make a wonderful salad. Not sure what to add? Try my very meticulous and careful method...

...pull everything out of the fridge and work from there! 

For my salad I added cucumber, onion, mushrooms, kalamata olives, arugula, and parsley. For my dressing as well as what I used to massage my kale I used tahini sauce mixed with some vinegar (I used the vinegar from the olives) to make it a bit more liquidy. 

I ended up with this beautiful salad!

Massaged kale is also great as a side to any entree you are having (steamed kale would be tasty too) and I love adding grains like quinoa to it to make a bulkier salad. Eating salads like this during the summer is awesome. They are quick and easy and don't require any cooking. Since you can make them however you want they are also great when you have a bunch of produce you need to use in your fridge.

There are many many kale salad recipes out there as well as lots of different ways to prepare this awesome vegetable, so if you are looking for inspiration check some of them out! 

Do you have any favorite kale recipes?

Monday Love List Number Three!

Happy Monday everyone!

I hope you all had a great past week and have some fun things planned for the upcoming week!

Here are some things I am loving!

1. Mail from roommates

We just got this wonderful postcard from my roommate who it is Africa this summer. How awesome is that?!

2. Birthdays and birthday celebrations

Last week was my 21st birthday and I had a wonderful time, getting to spend time with the people I care most about!

I also received many super thoughtful, useful, and perfect gifts. From my parents I got the Ninja blender which is UH-mazing! I finally have something that can blend the giant smoothies I make on a near daily basis. This thing has a 72oz pitcher which a couple nights ago I filled to the brim with smoothie good-ness! I also got a vast array of tazo teas, something I am extremely grateful for, cause can you really ever have too much tea? I certainly don't think so!

From Morgan I also got some wonderful gifts. I had asked for a new yoga mat and a deck of yoga pose cards both of which are super useful for my yoga practice. I was also pleasantly surprised by some beautiful natural amethyst earrings and this painting!

It was overall a wonderful birthday and thank you to everyone who I was able to celebrate with!

3. My first bar experience

The night of my birthday I went out with Morgan and my parents and had my first legal drinks! We first hit up a bar in Ballard called the Copper Gate which is unfortunately closing at the end of the month. This place has quite unique decor with pictures of women in the nude everywhere you look as well as a viking ship. Here, as my first legal drink I had a Cidre Bouche Brut de Normandie which was delicious and tasted like an apple cider made like champagne. Yum yum!

Here are a couple pics I got of the night!

The naked ladies in the bathroom

The ship in the middle of the bar

4. Undiet

I just finished reading this lovely nutrition/cook book last week and it was one I absolutely adored! Normally I just get books from the library, read them, and then move on. However this book is one I want to own, and so my amazon order is on its way!

Some of my favorite parts of this book were the sections on how to prep and store different fruits and veggies, the chapter on beauty products and the different plastics in food storage products, homemade herbal tea blends, tips on limiting or eliminating refined sugars, as well as some delicious recipes.

5. Homemade oat milk

I started making this this past week and I love it! It is super easy, cheap, and fast to make. It even has cinnamon in it, which gives it a really nice taste!!

I found the recipe here, one of my all time favorite blogs.

6. Homemade granola

Another oat centered item! Since I had the week off I did a good amount of recipe experimenting and this was another experiment that turned out really well!

Check it out!

This is part of my second batch of the week,
it was so delicious I couldn't resist the first batch!

7. Bramblewine tea

This tea is so delicious! I first encountered it at the tea bar in the tazo store in University Village and fell in love with it on the spot! This was one of the teas I received as a gift from my parents and have cold brewed it for the past two nights.

Look at how beautiful that is!

A blend of hibiscus, freeze dried strawberry,
raspberry, and blueberry, jasmine green tea,
rooibos, orange peel, rose petals, chamomile,
and blackberry leaves. Yummy!

8. Good tv

I just finished watching the season finale of Mad Men and also started re-watching 30 Rock this past week. I love going back through shows from the beginning, I am always amazed at how some actors will look really different in earlier seasons while others don't age a bit! I also find that going through the years on a tv show is a great way to see how fashion trends and styles have changed over the years!

(Source)

Well that about sums it up! I apparently have a lot that I'm loving this week, I hope you are too!

Also, tune in later this week for some installments of my personal experiences with illness, recovery, and finally health and how this connects so centrally to my diet, who I am today, and who I plan to be!

Happy Monday!

Monday Love List Number Two!

Hey all! A much later posting than I had intended but hey, it's still Monday!

Here's my love list for the week.

1. Being done with Spring quarter

Yayayayay! I'm so glad finals are done with! Along those lines I've had time to reset my sleep schedule, get back into my workout routine, spend a lot of time with family, and read some stuff just to read it. All pretty awesome if you ask me.

2. So many people graduating! 

Congrats to Morgan, and my sister, and everyone else who graduated this week (or earlier in the month/year). Congratulations!

3. Visiting with family 

Along with all the graduating going on I had the pleasure of seeing many family members for my sister's graduation party. Something I enjoy doing and I must say is much less stressful when you are not the center of attention at the party!

4. This BEAUTIFUL summer salad that I have been loving the past couple of weeks! 

Cucumber Salad with Roasted Chickpeas

Check out the recipe here!

5. Delicious chocolate hazelnut butter

YUMMMMM

It's essentially nutella but wonderfully vegan, gluten-free, and corn-free! I picked up a couple of these packets today and had one with an apple as a post-yoga snack!

6. YOGA!!!

I finally had a chance to do some yoga followed by a meditation (and then brief nap) this afternoon. UUUHHHH-mazing!!!

Alright, that's it for now. Anyone have something awesome they are loving right now?

Later this week I should have some time to post some more interesting things, so stay tuned!

Happy Monday!