For the last few weeks I have been trying out the Vanilla Almondilla Vega Shake & Go Smoothie and I have come to the conclusion that I like it sometimes. I know you’re going how can you like some just sometimes? Well in the case of this Vega Shake & Go Smoothie I really didn’t like it as a shake & go smoothie. I appreciated the simplicity of adding 2 tablespoons to one cup of water and shake to create a smoothie filled with
Two servings of veggies
2500 mg Omega-3-6-9
11 g complete protein
Only 100 calories
1 billion probiotics cultures
However the flavor was just off for me. I felt that the smoothie was just too sweet and it over powered the drink. I alternatively used the smoothie powder in my one hour oats and I thought it was great because the bland oats helped to balance the sweetness. I also found the smoothie powder great when added to a blender with water, spinach, banana and flax meal. Overall I did like the Vega Shake & Go Smoothie however the forms in which I enjoyed it was not in the intended “shake & go” style.
Disclaimer: Vega provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.
This morning I met my good friend Denise for breakfast at Magnolia Bistro in Burlington. This is my favorite breakfast spot in Burlington because not only do they have tons of vegan options but they are a certified green restaurant that sources their goods from local resources. Although I was eyeing the potato pancakes I decided to go with my favorite tofu scramble, the sesame tofu scram.
I also enjoyed a fresh squeezed organic orange juice because it’s delicious and I’ve been trying to crowd out coffee.
Breakfast was delicious and I had a wonderful time chatting with my dear friend who is on her way back to Denver tonight boooooo. Now I’m off to work! Blog you later!
This morning the Hubz and I got up and I decided to make “overnight” oats that Angela over at OSG has popularized with her easy recipe. I obviously didn’t do mine overnight but you can easily make these in an hour or probably even less.
For the 1 hour oats:
1/3 cup regular oats
3/4 cup unsweetened hemp milk
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon Vega Vanilla Shake and Go
1 tablespoon vanilla hemp protein
pinch of salt
Directions: Mix together the above ingredients in a bowl and place in fridge overnight.
To make this wonderful parfait I whipped up some banana soft serve (banana and hemp milk blended until smooth) and some almond drizzle (almond butter with warm water to thin out). I layered the oats, banana soft serve and almond drizzle and topped with cacaco nibs. DELICIOUS!
After our morning of oats, farmers market, post office and the selling of our portable washing machine we headed up to my little cousins graduation party. We enjoyed some Tofurky sandwiches, veggies, strawberries, pita chips and hummus and BBQ Pop chips. After we socialized, ate and played a few “games” of ping pong we headed home to finally relax. However before we are able to sit in relax I made soup and salad for dinner with yummy Sweet Potato Beer Bread and of course write this blog post.
Ingredients:
2 carrots, diced
1/2 sweet onion, diced
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 vegan chicken bouillon
4 cups of water
4 cups of kale, bite sized pieces
2/3 cup of Westbrae NaturalsSoup Beans, or use the beans of your liking
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
salt and pepper
Directions: In a pot heat the oil and add the carrots and onion until soft. Add in the water and vegan chicken bouillon bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in the soup beans and the kale and cook until the kale is wilted, then stir in the nutritional yeast. Taste for salt and pepper and add as needed.
Toss the seitan with the cornstarch, fry until crispy.
Mix the sauce together and set aside.
In a wok or large sautee pan add 2 tablespoons of water and cook up the green beans until tender. Make a hole in the middle and stir in the sauce and beet greens. Stir in the seitan to coat.
Hey Bloggies! This week has been pretty crazy the moving is coming along pretty well but there is still so much to do! We are lucky that a good friend of ours is letting us store as much stuff as we can in her basement which will be great and we are hopping that means we don’t have to get a storage unit. Oh moving how ready I am for it to be over and it’s only just begun.
One of the benefits of moving has been the pantry challenge and it has been going great for us. We have been cleaning out the refrigerator, freezer and cupboards and I’m proud to say our fridge and freezer are almost empty.
Yesterday we picked up our first CSA and I am excited to see what dishes I can come up with using all these yummy ingredients.
This Week’s Vegetable Share Contains:
2 lbs Nicola Potatoes; 1 Bunch Baby Beets w/Greens; 1 Bunch Bright Lights Chard; 1 Bunch Green Kale; 1 Bunch Curly Parsley; 1 head of Romaine Lettuce; 1 tomato; 1 bunch of sweet basil; 1 bag of string beans; 1 bag squash puree (frozen)
Here are some yummy meals we’ve eaten this week:
Creamy Garlic Scape Pesto Pasta
Seitan Sandwich, Roasted Potatoes and Steamed Kale w/nooch
Bio JL began her vegetarian-to-vegan journey in 2002. Four years ago she made a conscious decision to change careers and find balance in her life, which meant she could finally explore interests outside of work. Those include volunteering for nonprofit organizations, enjoying all kinds of red wine, taking up knitting and running a few half-marathons and triathlons each year. Then she began eating vegan; she became obsessed with cooking.When she’s not making grocery lists, training for a half-marathon or trying just one more recipe she found on a vegan blog, she goes to work as an administrator at a community college and teaches a course on nonprofit management at a local university. JL lives in metro NYC with her husband and two cats. You can find her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/JLgoesVegan or in the blogosphere http://jerrilynn.tumblr.com/ where she’s taking baby steps to find her blog voice.
EVERYBODY HAS A STORY At the age of 36 I quit eating meat. Almost. I was in Kenya for work. We were in a small village in the Rift Valley. There was a celebration held in for an auspicious occasion and my colleagues and I were guests of honor. Early in the day an elder from the community brought a goat to the site of the celebration—a truth demonstration of generosity. The goat was presented and subsequently killed and boiled. That evening, we were offered the goat for dinner. To refuse it would have been an affront (or so I told myself?) Essentially I met a goat, shook his hand then ate him. I became a vegetarian.
Not exactly. I become one of those—I‘m a vegetarian, but I eat fish—people. That went on for nearly four years. Fish was my crutch. I didn’t eat fish at home but had convinced myself that eating out would be too difficult so I should just order fish. I ate out a lot. On a vacation four years ago, after eating fish to the point of ridiculousness, I decided it was time to be a real vegetarian. I gave up fish.
During this span of eight years I had somehow morphed from a 36 year old couch potato who smoked a pack a day and would eat half a bag of fun size Baby Ruth candy bars in one sitting to a non-smoker, 20 pounds lighter, gearing up for her first marathon in 2005 at the age of 40.
Fast forward to January of 2010, age 44. I run. A lot.
May 2010, just after a 5k Race in 26:30; not a bad pace for a couch-potato-to-runner turning 45 in two months
I compete in triathlons. I eat vegetarian and pretty healthily at that. But somehow every November and December I would find myself nursing a post-race season injury. Less exercise and holiday feeding frenzies = chubby JL each January. This year I received an email from my local yoga studio about a cleanse workshop. I had never done a cleanse in my life, but it intrigued me.I met with Jill of Hera Wellness who led an extremely informative workshop explaining a variety of cleansing methods. And I was off, a 14-day cleanse of clean eating (no processed foods), no coffee, no caffeine, no sugar, no dairy, no wheat, no wine (what?! no red wine?! I survived) and, in the middle, three days of Master Cleanse. At the conclusion of the cleanse I felt fantastic and became a cleanse convert. I continued eating the same healthy way (but resumed red wine and a cup of coffee a day) and I continued to eliminate dairy and wheat from my diet.Suddenly I realized that the only animal based foods in my diet were honey and eggs. I realized I was an egg away from being a vegan.
For six months I have been eating vegan. I have never felt better. I had my annual physical with my general practitioner about 5 months into my new vegan diet. I told her to indicate in my file that I was eating vegan. She scrunched up her nose and asked “Why vegan?” I described a typical day of eating and she concluded that I may be one of the healthiest eaters she knows. Four days later she phoned me with my blood work results. She began the conversation by saying “Keep eating the way you’re eating.” My already decent cholesterol from a year ago (174) was down to 128.
How did I go about making the transition? I am a planner. I love a good spreadsheet. I knew I couldn’t go into this without really thinking it through; I consulted with my nutrition counselor and with her guidance, and the vegan blogosphere, I equipped myself to do it right. As a result of reading many, many (many! blogs) I purchased several books
The first vegan blog I stumbled upon was Cook.Vegan.Lover! After reading Lindsay’s blog I kept clicking links and finding more and more great blogs to read.
Where to start with all of this great information on the web? Most mornings, before going out for a training run, I sit down with a cup of warm water, cayenne pepper and lemon or a cup of half-caf/ half– decaf coffee and I read, read, read. Each time I stumble upon a recipe I must try, I cut and paste it into a Google document (I have 192 recipes, but who’s counting?) Then, when out and about I may find one of the new ingredients because it’s on my iPhone. (Medjool dates,Bragg Liquid Aminos, chia seeds, dulse flakes, nutritional yeast)
I used to eek through preparing a meal. Boca cheese burger on a wheat bun, steamed veggie, a salad. Now I’m obsessed with vegan cooking. I plan my meals. Each Saturday my husband and I hit the farmer’s market and my local health food store for most of my organic produce and “hard to find” items, and Trader Joe’s for the rest. On Sundays I move into the kitchen, turn my stereo on full blast and just start cooking. I try out new recipes with tofu, TVP and tempeh. With lentils and beans. Soups, stew. Veggie burgers, collard and kale salads, quinoa a zillion ways, chutneys.I purchased a L’Equip dehydrator and make “raw” kale chips, flax crackers and sunflower seed bread.
I take pictures of my food.
Grilled yams with homemade rhubarb chutney, grilled sesame-miso tofu and grilled asparagus
They say the journey is the destination. I have been on a vegetarian journey and have finally arrived to eating vegan. Note I say eat vegan. I now find myself confronted with what it means to be vegan. The journey continues.
