Vegan MoFo Day 2 - Wild Rice and Spinach Salad

 

 Happy Vegan MoFo day 2! I'm having fun checking out what everybody is doing for Vegan MoFo. In a few days I will share some of my favorite posts from other blogs. It's amazing how creative people are! It's getting me excited to get in my own kitchen!

 Today's recipe uses the leftover wild rice I had from yesterdays soup. It's a very quick and easy Wild Rice and Spinach Salad. My favorite thing about this salad is the the sweet crunch the bell peppers give it.

Like most of my cooking there isn't really a recipe for it. I kinda just look in my fridge and throw things together.

For this salad I started with a generous helping of fresh spinach, tossed in my left over wild rice and then chopped up 1 red and 1 orange bell pepper and a few scallions I also had leftover from the soup. Next I took a can of corn and a can of white beans, rinsed and drained them, and threw them in with everything else.

For the dressing I made a simple vinegrette. Take the juice from 1 lemon add a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 1 garlic clove, salt, and pepper. Drizzle it over the salad and toss. Or if your lazy like me, I put the lid on the bowl and shake it :)

 

Happy Eating!


"Rice is great if you're really hungry and want to eat 2,000 of something." - Mitch Hedberg

Vegan MoFo 2014!

I have been very lazy this year.

 After the new year I had all these grand plans for everything I was going to accomplish including spending lots of time in the kitchen making yummy food. All the while taking photos and sharing them on this blog. Then, of course, things got busy. I did make plenty of food but I just never took the time to photograph my meals.

For the past couple of weeks I've been thinking about getting back into the groove of keeping up with my blog. I've missed blogging and I have found it's a great way to keep myself accountable, especially since I'm still working on losing weight. As I was thinking about all of this I was looking through some of my favorite blogs. I saw that Vegan MoFo was starting again, I always thought it looked like something fun to do, so I signed up. It will give me a great reason to really dive in and make some great food....and actually photograph it!

 
So for my first day of Vegan MoFo I made a Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup.

Ingredients

1/4 cup vegan butter
1 onion (diced)
4 cloves of garlic (minced)
1/2 cup flour
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
1 vegetable bullion cube
1 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk (I used almond)
3 cups cooked wild rice
1 1/2 cups brown rice (left over from last nights dinner)
2 celery stalks (diced)
1 package of button mushrooms (I quartered mine)
1 tsp garlic powder 
1-2 TBSP dried parsley
3-4 scallions (diced)
salt and pepper to taste


Directions
(Remember to cook the wild rice ahead of time according to package directions)

In a stock pot melt the vegan butter, add onion and saute until they are translucent.
Add garlic, cook for another min.
Add flour to make a rue, cook for about 2 min.
Whisk in vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Once it starts to boil turn heat to low. Whisk often.
When the broth has thickened add water, vegetable bullion and non-dairy milk. Bring the soup back up to a boil then turn heat down to medium.
Add both rices, celery, mushrooms and scallions. Cook 15 min.
Last add garlic powder, dried parsley and salt and pepper. 

Enjoy!    

Print Recipe





I slip from workaholic to bum real easy.  ~Matthew Broderick


 

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday Season! I did! James and I had a house full of guests for almost 2 weeks. There were lots of laughs, games, presents and of course food.

With all the fun these are the only two photos I remembered to take. My tree and my homemade cupcakes (from scratch *patting myself on the back*).

I'm still working on the recipe for the cupcakes. Everyone loved them but I know they can be better.

I got the sprinkles at Bed, Bath and Beyond. They were too cute to pass up!


2013 was a good year. James and I bought our first home, we celebrated 5 years of marriage, I traveled quite a bit, and we had a lot of fun moments.

I have a feeling that 2014 is going to be even better!!


“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it.” - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

A little Honesty

I have to be honest with you. I have gained weight again. I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. I have been on this roller coaster for a long time now and I want off! It seems I do really well for a period of time, I start feeling great physically and mentally, then I let something get to me and I get totally off track. I gain all the weight back. Weight that I worked really hard to get off. And what really gets me upset is that I gain back in weeks what took months for me to get off. But I guess there is a silver lining, I don't gain back more weight than I've lost.
 

So I'm back at the starting line.

 This is an up hill battle but it's one I'm determined conquer.  My sweet husband reminded me the other night that it's never too late to start again. Armed with his belief in me I will start again and maybe when I do succeed, these trials will make the final victory even sweeter. 



 “Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.” - Helen Keller

     

Roasted Veggies and Bean Bake

Lately I've been trying to balance my plate at meals by selecting a grain, a vegetable, and a bean dish.

While this plate isn't much to look at, it turned out to be very satisfying and tasty. 

For the grain dish I made brown rice and quinoa. 

The bean dish was an onion and white bean bake.

And for the roasted veggies I did asparagus, onion, zuchinni, green bell pepper, and fennel. In the past I have shied away from fennel. I'm not a fan of licorice flavor and I was afraid that it would ruin whatever dish I threw it in. But, because I've been making it a habit to try news foods when I saw it at the grocery store I thought "Hey, why not." 

I grabbed the smallest bulb and headed home. 

My idea was to add it to roasted veggies and if I ended up not liking it I could just eat around it. 

While the veggies were in the oven I started to get nervous....the house was starting to smell like licorice!

The timer went off and I pulled the pan out of the oven and glanced at the fennel dubiously.

I let the veggies cool a bit and I snuck a taste of the fennel. To my surprise I really liked it! There wasn't the overpowering flavor of licorice, like I had expected. It had just the slightest hint of it and, it was closer to an onion than I had expected. Now I'm excited to cook with it again and I'm already thinking of dishes I want to try with it!!!


"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney

Happy Meatless Monday!

While I was in Seattle my friends took me to a vegan restaurant that I've been drooling over for quite a while.

The Veggie Grill !!! As we walked in we were pleasantly greeted by the employee behind the counter. He asked if this was our first time dinning with them. It was, of course, so he stepped around the counter and showed us the menu as he explained many of the items there.

I decided to go with their most popular dish the Santa Fe Crispy Chickin' Sandwich and for my side I chose mac-n-cheese.

Both were beyond delicious and I've been dreaming about the mac-n-cheese ever since. I would be in heaven if they decided to open up a location here in Vegas. I guess in the mean time I'll just have to beg my husband to take me on a mini road trip to LA so I can get a fix. ;)

As I leave you today here is another look at the mac-n-cheese. Yes, yes I do love it that much. :)

 Happy Eating!!


"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well,if one has not dined well." - Virginia Woolf

Travels

It feels like I've been on vacation for over a month! It stared with a trip to see my in laws with my husband. Then 2 days after we returned home I got on a plane to the Seattle area of WA. for a 2 week visit. I then came home with just enough time to recover (I packed a lot into 2 weeks) and get the house cleaned for my mom to join us for her birthday and a week of running around Las Vegas gambling, eating, shopping, and having more fun than I think is legal. :)

So now that things have slowed down I'm getting back into my regular routine. Which I'm sure won't last for very long with the holiday season right around the corner. Although, I am happy to say that I've already started my Christmas shopping. I'm making it my goal to not be running around finishing my shopping last minute and to actually get my Christmas cards in the mail this year. Wish me luck! :)

While in Utah with my in laws my mother in law, niece, and I drove up the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. We missed the tours so we didn't get to see the animals but here are some of the photos I took.

 


"An animal's eyes have the power to speak a great language." - Martin Buber