Meatless Monday: Fried Avocado Tacos

It's Monday, which means it's time for another Meatless Monday recipe! (: 

Today's recipe is a little unconventional, but it's delicious none the less. 

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Fried Avocado Tacos.

You will need: 

A frying pan 

A spatula 

A knife

A cutting board

3 small bowls

Ingredients: 

Small flour tortillas

Black Beans

Onions

Avocados

Flour

Water

Shredded Lettuce 

Salsa 

Directions: 

**Before you start prepping your avocado, I recommend that you begin heating a frying pan with about 1/4 inch of olive oil, so that your oil will be hot when you are ready to start cooking**

1. Using the knife, slice open the avocado and slice it length wise into long slices. 

2. Dip your avocado into water, then roll it in your bowl of flour, and once it is thoroughly covered it is read to fry. 

3. Place these slices into your pan, flipping them over after about 5 minutes.

You want the outside to be crispy, but for the best taste you want to keep the inside soft and creamy. 

4. When they are ready, pull them out of the frying pan (I recommend using tongs) and place your avocado slices on some paper towels to help absorb any extra oil. 

**Since I had the pan and the oil already heated up, I chose to go ahead and sauté my onions as well. This is a completely optional step, depending on how you like your onions. 

Now it's time to build you tacos!

I built this scrumptious taco, by layering black beans and onions on the bottom of my soft taco shell. Then I placed several slices of avocado into my taco and covered that with lettuce, salsa, a little salt, and some pepper. 

I served my tacos with margaritas, and they were a big hit! The avocado slices were the perfect touch to my tacos, they had that extra little crunch on the outside but maintained there smooth creamy rich texture on the inside. They complemented the salsa and other vegetables quite nicely. 

If you give this recipe a try, I would love to know what you think!

Enjoy!

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Vegan Mac & Cheese.

Tonight I’m going to share with you one of my favorite quick and vegan meal options. This one comes straight from the freezer isle, to the tune of macaroni and cheese.

This Amy's Mac & Cheese is Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Soy Free, Cholesterol Free, Lactose Free, and Tree Nut Free. The noodles are made from rice flour and the cheese is Daiya. 

With just over 500 calories, 190 of which are from fat, and 8 grams of protein, this is truly a great meal starter. 

I love to pair this with some vegan chicken strips and a green vegetable, like steamed broccoli. 

I mean look how creamy & delicious that looks! How could any one not want to give this a try!?!

If you do try it out, leave a comment and let me know what you think!

As always, join the conversation on facebook.

Veggie Sandwich!

Today’s fast food option is another hit from Wendy’s. This vegetable sandwich isn’t actually on the menu, but rather something that is a special order.

What I Order: A premium toasted bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle. No cheese. No mayonnaise.

This literally means you are getting a hamburger bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle.

Sometimes, I eat it just like that. Sometimes I bring my own vegan chicken patty or vegan hamburger with me and just grab the bun when I’m feeling lazy.  I’ve also added my own sauce to this sandwich as well.

Keep in mind that the new pretzel bun does contain milk, so if you are still transitioning, are a vegetarian, or for any other reason don’t mind milk as an ingredient; then you can certainly ask for a pretzel bun in lieu of the premium toasted bun.

If you are looking to make this a meal, checkout my post on Wendy's Hit The Spot Fries!

If you give this sandwich a try, let me know what you think!

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Enjoy!

Meatless Monday: Sautéed Veggie Platter

Today’s Meatless Monday recipe is unique, in that I didn’t actually make it; but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

It’s not just a flash back to this 2007 commercial. 

I went away this weekend for a little R&R and quality time with my Mom. 

This morning, I was trying to pack up my stuff and check out and get back home in time for work SO I got food from the hotel restaurant, where they whipped up this delicious meal. 

As you can probably see, it's sautéed vegetables. This particular plate has tomatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, and potatoes; with a side of toast. 

This is something that you could easily recreate with whatever vegetables that you like. 

A great traveling tip, is to take some food essentials with you so that if somehow you can't find something to eat, you can have something with you. 

I packed a half a stick of Blue Bonnet Light and kept in our fridge, so I was able to butter my toast. :) 

If you try recreating this, let me know how it turns out! 

Ooey-Gooey Halloween Cookie.

Ingredients:

2 tsp of Blue Bonnet Light

¼ cup flour

¼ tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp of baking powder

6 packs (or 2 tbs) of raw sugar

Chocolate Chips

Brachs Candy Corn

Directions:

1. Melt the butter in you measuring cup.

2. Mix the flour, baking powder, vanilla, and sugar into the measuring cup and stir.

3. Chop the candy corn up until it’s in medium sized pieces.

4. Add the desired amount of chocolate chips and you chopped candy corn and stir.

5. Press dough evenly in your bowl and bake in the microwave for 1 minute or until done.

Enjoy!

 

Meatless Monday: 4 Bean Soup

It’s Monday, which means it’s time for another meatless recipe. Now that fall is here and the whether is starting to get cold, it’s the perfect time of year for sweaters, hot beverages, and of course soup. This 4 Bean Soup is the perfect fall recipe and its super easy. You can make it in the morning and leave it in the crock-pot all day, while you go to work, run errands, or do what ever else.

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4 Bean Soup

You will need:

A medium or large crock-pot

A can opener

A strainer

A spoon

Measuring spoons

Measuring cup

Ingredients:

1 can of light kidney beans

1 can of dark kidney beans

1 can of black beans

1 can of pinto beans

1 can of tomato soup

1 cup of water
1 tsp of basil

¼ tsp of onion powder
2 tsp of garlic powder  

Salt

Pepper

Directions:

1. Open the can of black beans and strain them thoroughly, using the strainer. Then pour them into the crock-pot. 

2. Repeat step on, using the can of pinto beans.

3. Open the two cans of kidney beans and strain the juice into the measuring cup. Dump the beans into the crock-pot; along with ½ cup of kidney bean juice.

3. Stir in both the tomato soup and the water.

4. Lastly add the basil, onion powder, and the garlic powder as well as salt and pepper to taste.

5. Stir in your spices and let your chili cook on high for 4 hours or on low 8. 

Enjoy! 

Note: If you are in a rush, you can also make this soup by bringing it to boil on the stove for five minutes and then turning down the heat and letting it simmer down for two minutes. 

If you try this recipe out, leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

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Meatless Monday: Grilled Mushroom Sandwich

After a slam packed weekend of work and fun, I woke up exhausted. It certainly didn’t help that today was Monday.

Therefore, tonight’s dinner is going to be super simple.

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Grilled Mushroom Sandwich

You Will Need:

A frying pan

A knife and fork

Paper towels

Toaster

Ingredients:

10-15 medium or large mushroom slices

2 slices of bread

Olive Oil

Sandwich Spread*

Lettuce, onion, tomato, or your other favorite veggies (optional)

Directions:

1. Toast bread.

2. Sauté mushrooms in olive oil, until they become dark brown in color and soft.

3. Smooth sandwich spread across bread.

4. Using your fork pull the sauté mushrooms from the oil, blotting the excess oil off with the paper towels.

5.  Put the mushrooms on your bread and add your other vegetables to you sandwich.

Note: I used Smart Balance Light, but you can also Vegenaise or your favorite dressing. I am using the Cobblestone Mills San Francisco Style Sourdough Bread, but any bread will do. 

If you like mushrooms, you will love this sandwich. I enjoyed mine with some Stacy's Whole Grain Pita Chips. 

As you can see, my sandwich lacks any vegetables. This is because I didn't have any fresh vegetables at my house and going to the store tonight was out of the question. (I told you guess I was exhausted).  Normally I like some fresh lettuce, a nice slice of tomato, and some red  onion. 

If you try this recipe, comment below and let me know what you think. 

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Enjoy!

Justin’s Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups.

If you know me at all, you know I love sweets. I have a huge sweet tooth, and I could never successfully follow any kind of food plan or diet that cut out sugar; I love to bake sweets and I love to eat them! (:

With Halloween right around the corner, I want to share some great Vegan takes on some traditional holiday candies!

This week, I want to talk about Justin’s Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups.

These little slices of heaven are organic, GMO free, and vegan. The sweet dark chocolate outside of these cups complements the creamy rich peanut butter inside so well it's hard to believe that each cup is only 80 calories (which is 30 calories less then the other guy's better known peanut butter cup). 

In fact, when you compare them to the leading competitors peanut butter cups, they look even better!

In addition to having less calories, they also have 7 fewer grams of fat then their competitors and 0 grams of cholesterol (compared to the 5 grams of cholesterol in the other cups).

I got mine at Whole Foods, in a bag of individually wrapped candies, which is perfect and just in time to fill my Halloween candy dishes.

These delectable met in your mouth peanut butter cups are a must try in my book. If you like dark chocolate, you will love these! They may not come in an orange wrapper, but I was very pleased with how these tasted and I will definitely be getting these again. 

Due to the fact that they have fewer calories, fat, and cholesterol they are great to try yourself and great to share with anyone looking to eat healthier. 

I hope you guys give these a try, you won't be sorry!

If you do try them, comment bellow and let me know what you think!

Note: Only the dark chocolate cups are vegan, the milk chocolate cups contain milk. If you look at the wrapper in the secound  picture, you can see that by the bar code these are actually marked vegan to make identifying them that much easier! 

Vegenaise, it's delicious and nutritious!

When I first became a Vegetarian and later when I became a Vegan, I was hesitant to try product substitutions because I was worried they wouldn’t taste exactly like the real things. It took me a while to venture out and be willing to try new things, but when I did I was surprised to find out how much I liked them.

A lot of these mock products taste so similar to the ‘real’ thing that you really can’t tell the difference.

One of my favorite mock products currently on the market it Vegenaise, which is a vegan alternative to mayonnaise that is made by a company called Follow Your Heart and available at most health food stores or grocery stores that carry vegan products.

Vegenaise comes in several different varieties including; original, soy free, grape seed oil, organic, and reduced fat.

This product has numerous health benefits, but I especially love that, because it contains no eggs, it is cholesterol free.

This is such a creamy and delicious dressing, that it is almost impossible to taste the difference. In fact, I’ve been substituting it in the place of mayonnaise in the dishes I take with me to group functions and family gatherings for years now and no one has yet to notice the difference.  

For more information, visit the Follow Your Heart website and make sure to add any of the five flavors of Vegenaise to your grocery-shopping list!