Food From The Garden

I will take my last chance to wish all of you a Merry Christmas as the Christmas season wraps up with the Feast of Jesus's Baptism! All throughout this season, we have been celebrating that God sent his Son Jesus Christ down to Earth to lead us all to holiness so that through Him, we may gain eternal life in Heaven! Jesus's baptism is just one of the many ways he taught us through example how to give of yourself to the Lord and allow for His will to be carried out. In Baptism, we profess our faith in the Lord and promise to carry out His will and do what he is calling us to do, and become the children of God. It was the same deal for Jesus. When Jesus approached John the Baptist to be baptized, John was at first hesitant to do so, acknowledging that he was not the Word made flesh and needed to be baptized by the one mightier than him who was the Word made flesh, and therefore felt worthy to baptize Him instead. Jesus told John to "Allow it now", and he complied. It wa...

Merry Christmas. No, not Merry belated Christmas. It's a season, not a day, so it's definitely not over yet. This post is definitely going to be one of my more heartfelt posts because it's not about a recipe or product, but more about the story behind my creation. One way I chose to keep Jesus at the center of the season was to make him a birthday cake after my family got done opening presents. I'd been thinking about my vision for this cake for awhile. Early in Advent, at around the time of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it hit me that I need to develop a recipe for an "Immaculate Heart of Mary" cake to use for feast days concerning Mary. Because each of the three persons of the Holy Trinity were involved in what Mary is known for (It was the will of the Father that his son Jesus would be conceived in her by the Holy Spirit ), I wanted there to be white somewhere in the cake (for purity, the absence of sin) and a colo...

Happy Holidays All Ye Faithful Followers! It has been a hot minute since I posted a recipe! Very busy semester and not much inspiration for new content caused me to really hit a wall with this one, but luckily my prayers have been answered and I have some really good friends at church who, though they may not know and would likely be surprised to read this, have been instrumental in helping me to generate new content and giving me the motivation I need to get going with my social media again. These people are my rock! I went Christmas caroling yesterday as part of a church event and I knew in advance that they would be serving Christmas cookies and hot chocolate afterwards. Not wanting to be left out, I made some Christmas cookies for myself the day before so I could have some, and I made enough to share at Mass before and with fellow carolers afterwards, and they were a huge hit I just had to share them. A couple of my friends specifically asked me to post the recipe I used for the ...

I'm sure most of you are acquainted with the concept of avocado toast but for those who aren't, it's fairly simple: you put avocado on toast. My mom loves avocado no strings attached. She's that person who will willingly eat it straight doing nothing to it. My dad trained himself to like it. And then there are people like me, who do not like it and cannot train themselves to like it (I've tried!). So if I'm going to use avocado, it's purely to provide the structure of the recipe and I will doctor it up a lot so I don't have to taste it. Just ask anyone who's ever tried my avocado pesto sauce. The base is avocado but you can't taste it at all. Despite my disdain for avocado, there are two ways to do avocado toast that I actually like, and that's saying a lot because how can a person who truly despises avocado like anything where it's supposed to be the star? Two ways: 1. Spread my avocado pesto sauce on toast 2. Mix guacamole of c...

Hey all. We all know that it is vitally important to drink water, and that most of us could probably benefit from drinking more water. Especially this time of year. Where I live, there is an excessive heat warning and although temperatures aren't going above 100, the real feel (according to my phone's weather widget) is closer to 110 come the late afternoons. I was at school this afternoon and as I was on my way to go take an exam, I saw that there was a table where health and wellness services was giving out free water bottles. Perfect day to be handing those out! However, the heat was not the reason for the free water bottles. They set up a table showing how much added sugar should be consumed in a day at most (25g for women, 38g for men) and showed how much added sugar is in soda, juices, energy drinks, protein shakes, etc and all of those items come close to if not exceeding those numbers. The idea is that water should be a person's primary beverage of choice, which lea...

Hey guys. I know this is not about food but I just wanted to get on here real quick and explain why I have not been active on here the past few months. I think the time has come to say that I am a full time student. I at this time would prefer not to share where I attend school but basically, the spring semester was crazy and pretty much anything that was not school related had to be put on the back burner. I've had friends and relatives ask me how do I do it all. I'm going to be very transparent with you right now and share some thoughts that I'm sure you all can relate to: I don't! Just like all of you, I'm only human. There's only so much I can do and as much as I strive to be honest and transparent with you guys, the truth is that social media is my highlight reel and you don't see everything or even most of what goes on in my day to day life. I can guarantee that for every person you think has their stuff together and "does it all", there is a...

I am well aware of what you're thinking: what is a keto recipe doing on a vegan food blog? Before I get any hate about going keto or warnings about how impossible vegan and keto will be, I am not going keto. Let me say that again: I am not keto. I have a friend who is keto and for her birthday, I want to put together a cookbook of my vegan recipes for her and because she has transitioned keto, I am trying to figure out ways to maintain the integrity of the original vegan recipes but make them keto so she can enjoy them. For my regular vegan cheese sauce, I make a bechamel base of any oil, gluten free all purpose flour, and incorporate any plant based milk I have on hand, then whisk in nutritional yeast, hot sauce, and other seasonings of choice. Even if you normally don't like spicy foods, add the hot sauce anyway. Even if it might seem like you're adding a lot, the end result is not spicy. It just adds a depth of flavor and this sauce would be very bland without it. It ...

Ask anyone about healthy and plant based grocery shopping and they'll tell you one of two extremes: It's expensive or it's the most budget friendly thing they ever did. The truth is, either can be the case. It all depends on what you buy. I am able to eat vegan and gluten free and still only spend $20 a week on groceries. How on Earth do I do that? That's what I'm here to talk about. Here are my tips for spending less on groceries. 1. Cut down on processed foods. A lot of processed foods tend to be more on the pricey side because you're paying for the ingredients used and labor costs so companies can profit. Instead, buy the ingredients to DIY the processed food of choice and you're not only cutting labor costs, but you will likely have enough ingredients left over that you are able to make another batch afterwards. This is not true 100% of the time but often times it is. For example, I can get a big bag of peanuts at my grocery store for $1.32 or a good s...

I'm not sure any of you will have (or have ever heard) a story such as the one I'm about to share but I feel I should share it because in the world of customer service, many people do a very good job and even go the extra mile for their customers but it's those who don't that get the negative media attention. Those who do good don't get the thanks they deserve. I'm here to change that today. Here's my story: I was at Trader Joe's looking at the cards. I'm not sure about the Trader Joe's locations you guys shop at but at mine, there are two doors you go through. The first gets you indoors and the 2nd gets you into the store. It's at that 2nd door where the cards are located. The device the cards are on is supposed to rotate but this time it wouldn't for some reason (and I wasn't the only one who tried) so what I did was I got between the back of the device and the wall behind it to look at the cards in the back. All of a sudden, the a...

I have a confession to make: I watch Food Network. I know it might seem odd because most of what is shown on Food Network is not vegan and no, this is not how I satisfy cravings for non vegan food. I don't really have cravings because I've been doing this long enough. I do this because of what we have in common. What could I possibly have in common with anybody on Food Network? Quite a bit. We share our love of food and cooking. We enjoy being creative and bouncing ideas off of each other. It's fun for me to see what people on these shows come up with, some on the spot because of a theme assigned to them, a budget they have to stick to, or an ingredient they are required to use. I talk about cooking all the time with people I know who share my passion for simply being in the kitchen, even though most are not vegan and I get a lot of inspiration from the, even though it's very rare that I follow a recipe to a T other than my own. I look at Food Network the same way. Wh...