Food From The Garden

We've all heard it: greens are important! Greens are good for you! There is absolutely no denying the health benefits of our greens and how essential they are in a healthy diet but we all wonder what to do with them besides putting them in a salad. That's what I'm here for today. I'm going to show you ways to use greens so that you can get these miracle foods in on a consistent basis. It's important to first remember that not all greens are leafy. Leafy or not, it's fair game. So in addition to the kale and spinach that you hopefully have stocked in the fridge, here are some examples of other greens to not neglect either: •Cucumbers •Zucchini •Cilantro •Avocado •Kiwi •Cilantro •Spirulina •Wheatgrass •Seaweed 1. Make a green smoothie . I'll admit that my first green smoothies were basically salads in beverage form. Not exactly what I had in mind. There's a trick to them. Green smoothie literally means you want it to be gree...

I had every intention of getting this post out yesterday because it was Tuesday Treat Day (anyone remember Hoops and Yoyo?) but every single time I wrote it and hit the post button, it saved as a draft and everything I typed was deleted. Frustrated, I called it quits and decided to come back later and try this again. If it doesn't work this time, I'll have to figure out what to do from here to get it to work. Anyway, enough ranting and I'm going to get to what you all came here for: vegan French toast! What is French toast doing on a #TuesdayTreatDay post? French toast is not a breakfast food if you ask me. It's a treat. And it was my weakness before I went vegan. So I rejoiced when I learned how to make it vegan. Hardly any restaurant will whip up French toast without egg and you wouldn't find it in the freezer section of the grocery store either so good thing it's easier than it looks. The egg replacement is flaxseeds. You may have heard of chia seed or flax...

This evening for dinner, I made my second quinoa pasta. My grandparents  got me a couple boxes of the Ancient Harvest brand when we got together earlier this week. It's my go to brand for my quinoa and like I said in a recent post, I think it's really cool that it comes in pasta form! The funny part is that after I ate the pasta, I saw in my Instagram feed that Lauren Ginger (@laurenginger) from naturallylauren.com made the same pasta for dinner tonight too. What a small world! Quinoa is a wonderful superfood and I sneak it into a lot of things. It's the meat on my nachos, I like it in salads, and Gardein brand meatballs are actually made using quinoa. The benefits of quinoa are not just from the culinary standpoint that it's easy to use. There are even more health benefits including but not limited to: 1. Quinoa is a complete protein and is high in protein. Proteins are made from what are called amino acids. There are plenty of amino acids that the body can produce ...

No, this post is not about anything political. That would be waaaaaaayyyyyyyy too controversial on this blog. The Federal House is the name of a restaurant on Market Space in downtown Annapolis that has earned my first restaurant review. Your first glance at the menu may tell you that the Federal House is the perfect place for traditional American food but when it comes to vegan options, they are certainly not mediocre. And yes, I did tell our server that the restaurant (and the item I ordered) would be getting a very good review on here. Many restaurants have veggie burgers as a vegan or vegetarian option. You may have heard of brands like Gardein and Beyond Meat that seek to make vegan versions of the meats we grow up loving. The Federal House takes that concept to make what they call their "Impossible Burger", which many restaurants do not do. They describe it as a plant based protein burger that tastes like beef. The only thing that comes with it that's not vegan is ...

I have been trying to do away with refined wheat products in favor of whole wheat and gluten free options. The one thing that makes that difficult is that I come from a family of pasta lovers and growing up, it was (and remains) a staple in our house. We will never be caught without a shelf in the pantry devoted to pasta and various sauces. Knowing that I was not ready to give up my pasta in taking up this mission, I decided to try various whole wheat and gluten free pastas and see which one I like. My first one is quinoa based because I love quinoa in my salads so I thought it would be fun to try it in pasta form. This one is the Organic Brown Rice and Quinoa Penne from LiveGfree, voted best new product by consumers in 2017. My family is very supportive of me in my endeavors to be a successful vegan (my mom actually helped me start this blog!) so I decided to sometimes have some family members try some of the things I've been eating and share their thoughts (and mine) on the blog...

If there's anything most of us don't like doing on a Monday morning, it's having to run errands before they get to work for the day. And gettibg stuck in traffic. I had to run a couple errands this morning and I got stuck in traffic but there are a couple things that make it not so bad. 1. A sunny day. My dog wanted a morning walk she doesn't normally get. She didn't want out. She wanted a walk. There's nothing she loves more than when I walk her on a sunny day. So I decided that treating her to a brief morning walk wouldn't be spoiling her. And it's good for me too. I love bonding with my dog. 2. People's random acts of kindness. When you get stuck in traffic first thing in the morning, instead of focusing on the many rules of the road that people break because you know, road rage, try focusing on when someone does something good. What about that person tailgating you on the entrance ramp and you don't know if they're going to let you merg...