Unplanned Meal Plan

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Do you have a meal plan?

I do and I don’t–I have menu ideas but not always a meal plan. A plan seems to rigid for my Zen Mommy flow but I do make sure I have loads of yummy ingredients in the house, then I see how my day is going! Because some days are easier than others and my dinners reflect that. (Not to mention, during Fall and Spring, I often have 3 or 4 soccer practices in one evening so . . . I have snack, 1st dinner and 2nd dinner with a final kitchen clean up at 9pm).chickennuggets

A few nights ago I had a great dinner planned.  Homemade Chicken Nuggets, roasted potatoes and a green salad, sounds great doesn’t it!  Until I realized that I FORGOT to turn on the potatoes.  Cooking Tip #1: Turning the oven on is key to roasting potatoes!

So now I had chicken and green salad.  Now I could have steamed some rice or microwaved the potatoes to cook them faster and finished them off in the oven.  Both options seemed like too much at that moment.  (and to be honest I was on the cranky side that I forgot to turn the oven on.)

The Banana Saves Dinner!

Then I saw it sitting on my counter.  A banana.  Then I remembered that I bought pears and mangos on an impulse at the store.  When I went to get them out of the fridge . . . I saw the pomegranate seeds!  Eureka!  I had a salad.  It just needed a few nuts!

I thought to myself–really?  This is your idea of saving dinner?  But it worked.  The kids LOVED the salad!  The pomegranate seeds were sweet and crunchy, with the salty pistachios, creamy banana, tart mangos and the sweetest pears I have ever eaten.  

But Will a Pineapple Save Dinner?

The banana salad was such a big hit–they asked for it again.  But I used walnuts and pineapple instead of mango and pistachios.  I may add some coconut and macadamia nuts–the possibilities are endless.

Have you ever “saved” dinner at the last minute?  I would love to hear your story in the comments.

Eat with L.O.V.E.

Vegan Mom note:  yes my kids eat chicken nuggets.  I wrote about how I make the best choice for my family in this article.  And this is another great post on how to make YOUR own best choice.

 

 

guacamole

How to Cut an Avocado

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I love guacamole!

Well, I love chips!  If you have followed along on instagram or my face book page you know how much I love chips . . . potato, sweet potato, corn chips. I love crunch, salt and you know what else?  Watch the video below for perfect guacamole.classicguac

I’m a dipper!

I love cookies dipped into my coffee.

Sea Salt and Lime chips with my guacamole.

Buttered toast dipped into perfectly cooked eggs . . . ok, that was my pre-vegan days.

Hard crunchy artisan bread dipped into soup.

You get the idea.  

[Tweet “Are you a dipper or a dunker? “]

How to Cut an Avocado

Since I use avocados in my cooking so often, people will ask me “how do I pick a good one”.  That’s a tough question to answer because you really need to feel the avocado and see it BUT here are some of my best tips:

  • make sure the stem part is still on the avocado.  When the stem comes off it should be green.   
  • I buy Hass avocado because they grow year round–so you won’t need to worry about growing seasons
  • avoid fruit with blemishes
  • hold the avocado in the palm of your hand–if it’s hard=unripe, mushy=mushy and gross, firm with a slight ability to be indented=perfect
  • shake it–yes, shake that avocado!  Look crazy!  But if you hear a rattle, that means the pit inside has pulled away from the flesh and it will be over ripe.
  • I over buy avocados just in case one is bad–it takes a while to get the hang of picking out a perfect avocado.

The Video

How to eat Avocados?

We love guacamole and chips.bestafterschoolsnackever

I use it as a spread instead of vegan mayo.

I put it on my rice and beans with salsa.

I add avocado to my green smoothies.

I love salad with avocado and cucumber–that variation is posted on my instagram page often!

Tell Me

How do you eat avocados?

or are you from the school of thought that they are bad for you?  

Let’s chat about that, shall we?  Comment below or on the FB page!

Sweet Potato Salad (awesome and vegan!)

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Perfect Roasted Sweet Potatoeshow to roast sweet potatoes

Sweet potatoes are somewhat of a superfood.  In my house we eat them several times a month.  They are very versatile–I put them in soups, stir fry and muffins.  I think sweet potatoes are fun and healthy alternative to boring white potatoes.  So simple to make heat oven to 400, cook for 30 minutes or until they are the firmness you desire for your recipe, EAT, feel amazing and healthy!

Roasted Walnuts

For quick reference I made a 15 second instagram video roasting walnuts.  You can watch it here.  (and you can follow me on Instagram for my online healthy food journal).  The trick is to keep the nuts moving in the pan–all nuts have a high fat content and will burn in a heartbeat if you aren’t  watching them.

Wheatberries

Cooking wheat berries can be a little tricky.  Again, I posted on Instagram how I wash the berries before I cooked them.  My first attempt was on the stove . . . where I burnt them!  My squirrels wouldn’t even eat them!  That is when I know my cooking has it an all time low!  Or maybe my squirrels have just become accustomed to finer dining at the Baude fence.  Either way–it was bad.

My second attempt at stove top wheat berries was better but the consistency just wasn’t what I wanted.  Ok, so I’m probably a little picky about the exact texture of my wheat berries but still . . . FAIL.

The final and third attempt worked.  Seriously, if I didn’t get it right this time–I just wasn’t really interested in moving forward with this recipe.  I love wheat berries–so the thought of ditching the project was sad for me.  The thought of paying deli prices for wheat berries was even SADDER.  

You can imagine how excited I was to open my rice cooker and taste perfectly cooked wheat berries.  

It was short lived.  Do you think I actually wrote down how much water I used and how many cups of wheat berries?  Another fail but I do remember thinking, “I’ll use the same ratio as what is on the bag.” and since that was my last thought . . . I’m going with it.  I used a 2:1 ratio of water to wheat berries!  

Again–I posted a quick photo on Instagram.

Chopped Kale sweetpotatoingredientlist

This past weekend I went to a Engine 2 Retreat.  Kale was at every meal!  I must admit that I haven’t mastered the cooking of kale.  I know that I like the Lacinto Kale best but I never really think about how to cook the kale.  It just seems to cook in the rice or cook in the sweet potato . . . I never cooked JUST kale.  The recipe is easy–boil the kale for 5 minutes.  I thought–BOIL?  I can’t possibly boil it.  But tonight I did.  I boiled my kale for 5 minutes and . . . it was perfect.  I cooked up 3 bunches, enough for tomorrows meals.  

In this recipe I just chopped raw kale.  I’m sure the vinaigrette broke down the cellulose in the kale making it simply wonderful.  When I make it in the future I will use the cooked kale–I think it has a nicer bite when it is cooked.

Walnut Fig Vinaigrette 

I love a great vinaigrette!  You can go to this post to find out how I make it!

[Tweet “I just found an awesome Sweet Potato Salad printable recipe at Renee’s Kitchen. “]

[yumprint-recipe id=’14’] 

This recipe was a huge hit at the “End of the Season” soccer pot luck parties.  I love sharing plant based, nutritious, super yummy and filling recipes to the parties.  I will admit I was surprised by how many people willingly tried some without my prompting.  I didn’t say it was vegan, they didn’t ask and I’m not sure they even know that I’m a food writer!  Lynn does but for that party I made cake–not vegan but so yummy.

If you try this recipe please leave a note for me in the comments or send me an email.  I’d love to hear your feedback.

Be Blessed. 

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