Food From The Garden

Holidays are often as stressful as they are joyful and food is a significant part of it. With Thanksgiving just over, you probably know what I mean unless you had a plan that worked and keep your stress levels down, like I was lucky enough to. With more holidays on the way, here are my tips to make food the not-so-stressful part of the holiday. 1. Have a go to dish that you bring to potluck events. This dish should be a simple one and it should travel well. I went to a potluck event on Saturday and I brought pasta with an avocado pesto sauce and it was a hit. Even I like it, and I'm not exactly known for liking avocados, and I do intend to make it again, especially for potluck events. It's a good way to get your greens in (which may be difficult at potlucks) and pesto is good hot or cold so if it gets cold on the way (or before it's served), it's fine. Pasta in general travels very well as long as the container it's in is not breakable. I just used a 9x13 aluminum ...

Food is without a doubt the best part of Thanksgiving and it's fun to have leftovers to enjoy the next day. However, after several days of eating these leftovers as they are, it gets boring but you don't want to let them go to waste. In that case, you just need a way to bring new life to your leftovers. Yesterday, I brought some new life to my leftovers in this wonderful casserole recipe I'm about to share with you. It's also perfect because it requires minimal dishes and clean up and the oven does the work for you. So you can do the laundry, shop online, walk the dog, whatever you have to do while this is in the oven. That's how practical it is on a weekday between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This recipe is based both on the leftovers I had in the house as well as other ingredients but I hope it helps you to bring some new life to your leftovers and have some fun with them. Ingredients: 1.5c seasoned rice of choice (I used the Basmati/Wild rice mix from Trader Jo...

Thanksgiving is all about celebrating what we're thankful for and I'm thankful to be vegan. Yes, it means no turkey and I have to adapt almost every recipe but I don't care. In fact, I enjoy it! Here's why: 1. I'm protecting all creation. Animals don't deserve what they go through that allows the food industry to thrive. It's an injustice I don't want to contribute to so I just don't. And don't forget the impacts of the animal agriculture industry that I'm not supporting either! 2. I'm much healthier. I really don't eat junk food at all. Focusing on whole plant foods is just what I've found I need for optimal wellness. I have a lot of energy and I'm just thriving. 3. I've learned how to cook. As I've moved away from processed foods, a lot of that's been replaced by either fully raw or home cooked meals so I've learned how to make food from scratch. Cooking is a basic life skill and everyone should know how t...

Hey guys! With Thanksgiving being just around the corner, I've been getting a lot of questions about what I'm going to be doing for Thanksgiving this year. Because most of my readers are American, I'm sure most of y'all probably already know why I'd be getting questions about that. For those of you who don't know, Thanksgiving is a holiday on which families gather to overdose on turkey and a variety of seasonal side dishes, almost none of which are traditionally vegan. So it makes sense that people would be curious about what I'm doing this year and what I'm going to eat. So I'm here today to address the questions people have been asking me a lot lately. 1. If you were the one left completely in charge of hosting, what would you do? I would serve all vegan food but if one of my guests wanted to bring something that's not vegan to share with the group, they'd be more than welcome to. I would not be offended at all. My family is not vegan so...

Lately I've stopped going grocery shopping on weekends and there's a reason for that. My regular grocery store restocks on Mondays so the sooner (after that) I go, the more likely it is they'll have everything I need so I don't have to make multiple trips. Also, because most people go grocery shopping on weekends, that's when the grocery store is most busy. I really like to feel relaxed and like it's not crowded when I go grocery shopping. I posted on Instagram what I got this week (I'm actually going to post after I finish writing this but according to my stats, most of you guys come from Instagram) but this post is about what I intend to do with it. Here goes: Kale: Kale is an absolute essential because I make plenty of salads and kale is my preferred base. I also enjoy homemade kale chips Spinach: there's so much you can do with spinach and the spinach this week is some of the best I've ever seen. I primarily put it in my green juices but latel...

Hi everyone! Happy Belated Halloween to all! Fall is in full swing and I hope y'all are taking full advantage of it. I know I am! A lot of wonderful things are in season so I am here today to tell you guys about some of the seasonal foods I have been making and eating, as well as other foods I am intent on trying at some point during what's left of fall. It flies! Make use of it! 1. Red pears. Before this year, I always thought pears were pears and pears were light green. When I saw that my grocery store was carrying red ones, I decided to try them and I found I like them even better! They have an apple cinnamon flavor, but the cinnamon part is much stronger. The apple is more in the aftertaste. This makes pears a just-as-practical twist on apples. Granted, apples are also in season in the fall but they're a common thing to snack on year round, so the red pears scream "fall" to me. Even better, if you try to eat plenty of raw food, the pears are an easy way to g...