WIAW #34 OR A Day of Favorites

   Hi Friends!

   Are you ready for another edition of WIAW? Me, too! This is actually Sunday's eats, not Wednesday's AND, they all just happen to be my favorite foods. So, without further ado, let's get on with the eats!

Breakfast...

Tofu Scramble with Avocado Toast

  Lately I've been obsessed with two weekend-type breakfasts: tofu scrambles, like the one above, and my new favorite Chickpea Omelette. I can't get enough of either lately!

Lunch...

Spring salad with lot's of veggies, hemp seeds and a homemade vinaigrette

I love salad! If salad were the only food I could eat for the rest of my life, I would be totally fine (and happy) about that!

Snack...

Organic Gala Apple and Earth Balance Coconut Peanut Butter

I thought about cutting the apple and plating it with a spoonful of the peanut butter, but I knew that if I did that then I would have gobbled it up before I could take the picture. If salad is my weakness then there is no word for what peanut butter is. If I allowed myself, I could finish a jar in less than a week! No joke.

Dinner...

Chili-Lime Lentil Tacos on  sprouted Corn Tortillas with Guacamole

I love tacos! This is another meal that I could eat every single day and not get sick of. And it's so versatile. You could pretty much turn anything into a taco, or taco-like food as I like to call it. I've been known to cook up a veggie burger, chop it up, and add it to a corn tortilla along with some peppers and salsa. I've also done that with a Field Roast sausage. Fast food but healthy and delicious!


In keeping with my Day of Favorites, I thought I would share my favorite songs of the moment. The ones that I hit the repeat button to three times before I let the playlist move on to the next song. Every.Single.Time.

Click to listen....















For some reason I could not find the original to this ^ song on SoundCloud so check it out here on YouTube (warning- explicit lyrics) if you haven't heard it yet... that's only if you've been living under a rock. The remix is only okay. It's missing the drums. Oh, the drums!

And, last but not least, this last song has been on repeat for a LONG time. I had to add it. I love running to this song so I listen to it a lot. It's also my morning alarm... so yes, I do listen to it on a daily basis! Haha! LOVE it.



I hope you enjoyed the little music break! You danced a little, didn't you? Me too!

Happy Hump Day!

Love,
Ves xx

WIAW #33 & Roasted Golden Beet & Citrus Salad

   Hi Friends!

   Welcome to another edition of WIAW. This post was actually all set to go for last Wednesday but because I'm so brilliant I totally forgot to schedule the post Tuesday night. And Wednesday was a bit of a write off because I had a late night at work. So, I didn't even really look at a computer. That being said, the only thing the same about this post is the food pictures. It's funny when I reread some of my past posts that I've started but never finished, I can never manage to put myself back in the same frame of mind or mood that I was in when I started writing it. Does that ever happen to you guys? So, I scrapped the post, kept the photos and added a recipe. Enjoy!

Let's get started with the food...

First things first: Water! Not pictured, but you know the drill... water + lemon = a happy Vesna in the morning; Coffee! You can't see inside the mug but it's always organic and always black... I don't mess around. Breakfast: Another Strawberry Mango Smoothie... I'm obsessed! Snack: 1/2 a Grapefruit... this was quite possibly the size of my head and super juicy! After I was done eating the wedges I totally squeezed all the juices into my mouth. I know, I'm so lady-like... Lunch: Way later I had a simple Open-faced Sandwich on sprouted grain bread with, tomatoes, lettuce, sprouts, dijon mustard and a bit of hummus. Dinner: A Giant Salad with sweet potatoes, lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, sprouts and a citrus vinaigrette. Yum! Snack: I had a gorgeous bowl of organic cherries before heading off to bed. Oh man were these good and the perfect thing for my sweet tooth!

So, I promised you a recipe...

This salad was the bomb-diggity (do people say that anymore?) but it almost didn't happen. Thank goodness I decided to root around in my veggie crisper or I wouldn't have found the golden beets that I had bought the previous week. Hooray for small miracles!

Onto the recipe...

Roasted Golden Beet & Citrus Salad
Serves 1 as a meal
OR
Serves 2 as a side salad

Ingredients:

Salad:
2 medium golden beets, tops and bottoms trimmed
1/2 grapefruit, sectioned, juices reserved
1/2 - 1 small head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
1/4 small red onion, chopped
handful parsley, finely chopped
small handful alfalfa sprouts

Vinaigrette:
(feel free to double, triple, or even quadruple 
this recipe. I only made enough for the salad)
1 tbsp grapefruit juice
1-2 tsp white balsamic vinegar
1-2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1-2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp agave nectar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 415F. Wash the beets and trim the tops and bottoms but don't peel. Wrap them together in foil and place them directly in the center oven rack or on a shallow baking pan. Bake for about an hour or until fork tender. When the beets are ready, remove them from the oven and allow to cool before handling them. Once cooled, carefully peel the skin and slice them into wedges. Layer the romaine, beets, grapefruit, onion, sprouts and parsley on a plate. In a small bowl whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients and drizzle on top of the salad. Serve with a fork and a smile.

Happy Middle-of-the-Week Day!
Love,
Ves xx

And of course, I can't forget a photo of this little trouble maker!

WIAW #31 and An Obsessed Cat

   Hi Friends!

   I'm so excited to be linking up with Jenn over at Peas and Crayons for another WIAW post. I'd say, "it's been a long time" but you can just scroll down through past posts and see that for yourselves. Ha! Anyway, funny story: as I was uploading the pictures for this post I couldn't help but chuckle- my meals never seem to change! I'm a creature of habit and if you follow me on Instagram you'll see that there is a certain theme to all of my food. What can I say? I know what I like.

**Warning: awful cell phone pics below.**

Breakfast...

Green Smoothie!

   Like I said, some things never change, and my smoothie-for-breakfast habit is one of them. If it's not a smoothie, it's a juice, but either way I seem to love to drink my breakfast. That bad boy up there has coconut water, spinach, mango, frozen banana, lemon, spirulina, and a sprinkling of cinnamon. After I took that photo, and tried to take a sip, I scooped it into a bowl and ate it with a spoon. I may have made it a tad too thick! That's okay, I like eating my smoothies with a spoon.

Lunch...

Salad!

   What else? Salad! I love my salads and sometimes I like them to be uncomplicated. Especially when we have days where it feels like it's 100 degrees outside and I have zero appetite. This salad was exactly what I was craving: crisp, fresh and light! I mixed together some spinach and arugula, added chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions and 1/2 an avocado, and dressed it with some fresh squeezed lemon juice and nutritional yeast. Simple and delicious.

Dinner...

Tacos!

   Mmm... Tacos! I.Love.Tacos. I can throw just about anything into a corn tortilla and call it a taco. I'm obsessed. These particular corn tortillas are layered with greens, salsa, tomatoes, avocado slices, sriracha, and for the "meat" I used TVP. I'm sure you've heard of TVP before and may have even tried it, but if you haven't, I'll tell you a little bit about it. TVP (textured vegetable protein OR textured soy protein) is made from soy flour after the soy bean oil has been extracted. It's dry and flavorless in the package but once it's been reconstituted and spices have been added it's super yummy and has the same texture as other soy crumbles. That being said, it's still a highly processed food so I would definitely not eat it all the time. For this meal, I mixed cumin, chili powder, spanish paprika, and garlic powder in a bowl with the dried TVP and then added some boiling water to it. After stirring, I let it sit for about 5 minutes or so. Once all of the liquid was absorbed, the crumbles were ready to party with the rest of the taco toppings. Yum!

I didn't remember to take pictures of my beverages or snacks... oops. I'll do better next time, I promise! Instead, I leave you with this (slightly blurry) photo:

Give me paw...

   What's Patchie doing, you ask? Well, she's begging me for some coconut oil, of course. She is absolutely obsessed with it and knows exactly when I'm about to use it. She follows me into the bathroom first thing in the morning and again at night and demands that I give her some after I've used it. Who am I to say no? After all, it's good for her for the same reasons it's good for me. I don't mind sharing! Side note: I have no idea why Patchie always looks so angry in photos? I swear, she's actually a very sweet cat!

Happy middle-of-the-work-week day!

Love,
Ves xx

WIAW #30 Round Up

Hi Friends!

It's been so long since I've done a What I Ate Wednesday post. I mean I'm always sharing my yummy eats but I miss joining the party and linking it up over at Peas and Crayons. Time to change that! I've got lot's of yummy photos to show you so let's get started!
I took a week off of work while my mom was in town so that we could spend more time together.  My mom spent the weekdays at my brother and sister-in-law's house watching my niece and nephew.  So, during that time, I would come over every day with some yummy food for us to enjoy over lunch.  Once or twice we would take my niece in the stroller (when my nephew was at school) and walk over to the store to pick up some veggie ingredients. Here's a look at the delicious food we enjoyed over that week (or rather, the food I remembered to take pictures of!):

Lunches...

Salad, salad, salad!  Clockwise from top left: We used yummy greens, made croutons from a baguette, and added a veggie burger to make a fab Salad Plate.  By the way, you can never use to much sriracha!;  Seven grain salad medley on top of arugula, cherry tomatoes, avocado and topped with homemade dressing;  Leftover pakoras and samosos added some yummy texture and flavor to the arugula, cherry tomatoes, sprouts and pepperoncini's;  Dessert from Sweets From the Earth!  Peppermint nanaimo bar and a brownie.  So yummy!;  My mom's famous Bread Salad.  I love it!  Chopped baguette with multicolored tomatoes, parsley, green onions and dressing.  Delish!

Dinner when my mom stayed over at my place...

Clockwise from top left:  Tacos!  Veggie ground round with lot's of spices added,  Daiya shreds, sprouts, avocado, green salsa, sriracha and of course, nutritional yeast; Portobella Burger... read all about it here; Veggie Burger, sweet potato fries and a green salad from a pub we ate at during a visit to Niagara-on-the-Lake; Bruschetta appetizer from the same pub, no cheese; Farmer's Market Dinner!  Kale salad, sweet potato English muffins, mixed greens salad and a sweet potato salad.  All from the farmers market.

Food Truck Food!

We went to Holy Food Truck Tuesday again while my mom was here and brought along my sister, sister-in-law and the little ones.  My mom and I split the meals you see above from the vegan food truck karma chaMEALeon. From the top: Jackfruit Tacos with a mango salsa (I added sriracha after I took the photo); Philly Cheeze Steak with fried onions and a side of coleslaw.  Both were pretty tasty but my mom preferred the Philly Cheeze Steak.


I hope you guys enjoyed the food porn.  I'm drooling over the photos and can hardly wait to publish this so I can go and make dinner!  This will certainly teach me to write a post on an empty stomach. Ha!

Happy WIAW everyone!
Love,
Ves xx

Vegan MoFo #9: Cheezy Kale Salad

   Well my friends, you are super lucky today because I am posting twice!  That's right, two posts in one day and this one is a recipe post.
  I'm really doing this for my mom at her request.  She loves this kale salad that I make, and asks for it anytime that I buy kale.  So, here's the recipe... I hope you guys love it as much as she does.  Oh, and if you've ever read Kim Snyder's Beauty Detox Solution you'll notice that this salad is similar to one that she makes.  It's the bomb.

"Cheezy" Kale Salad
Serves 2-4
Ingredients
1 head kale
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tomato, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 avocado, sliced
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 - 2 tbsp hemp seeds
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions:
Wash the kale thoroughly and tear it away from the stems.  Add it to a salad bowl along with the lemon juice and sea salt.  (You can save the stems and juice them later.) Using your hands, massage the kale while simultaneously tearing it into bite size pieces.  Continue massaging until the kale is soft and slightly wilted (about a minute or two). Add the rest of the ingredients (except for the hemp seeds) and continue to mix until everything is incorporated.  Garnish with the hemp seeds, serve and enjoy!
The best part about this salad?  You can save the leftovers for the next day without worrying about wilted lettuce!

Stay tuned tomorrow for an amazing cheese sauce recipe.  You won't believe how amazing it is until you see it and try it for yourself!

And last but not least, I leave you with a video that my brother sent me a few days ago.  It's actually a haunting preview of a game called Chipotle Scarecrow.  I really hope this game (or even just the preview) reaches millions of people.  Check it out:

 
By the way, I may have cried while watching this video... and it may be because I watched it at 6am OR it could be Fiona Apple's rendition of "Pure Imagination" OR it could just be that I am Miss Sensitive... either way... you have been warned.

Love,
Ves xx

Blog Every Day # 3 & WIAW 29

Hi Friends!

Today's post is supposed to be about what I wore, BUT, since it's Wednesday and all I figured I'd share what I ate instead.  I just got back from a new Middle Eastern restaurant called Paramount that just opened up down the street from me.  Tonight they had an opening night of sorts and were offering complimentary meals to all of the diners.  They only asked that we leave a donation for the local children's hospital.  How awesome is that?  I'll be honest, I was looking forward to this dinner so much that I barely ate all day!

Here's a look at some of the dishes we ordered:

I know what you're thinking, "Holy pita's Batman!".  Yup, that's what we said, too.  We munched on these while we waited for our order.

 For starters I ordered the Okra which had garlic, onions, and tomatoes.  It tasted just like this homemade pepper and tomato saute that my mom makes. Mmm...

My salad of choice was the Fatoush salad, which happens to be one of my (many) favorite salads.  However, this particular Fatoush was lacking flavor.  I won't hold it against them as they were super busy.  We dined around 8:30 and there was still a steady stream of people coming in when we left.  So, I think I'll order it again next time before I make a final judgement. 

One of our friends ordered the Tabbouleh (parsley, tomatoes, onions, with a lemony dressing), which I of course sampled and loved.

My main course was the Falafel Plate.  I loved that they served it with an assortment of pickled vegetables.  The tahini sauce was delish!

For dessert they brought us a sampling plate full of assorted treats.  I didn't try any of them because they looked like they were soaked in butter BUT, I didn't ask anyone about the ingredients so who knows... maybe they're vegan?  

 Here's another look at the desserts.  That's my kind of heaven! 

  I will definitely go back to this restaurant again.  There were so many veg/vegan options on the menu and I'm dying to try one of their pizza's. 

Til next time...

Love,
Ves xx

WIAW #28 and BIG News!

Hi Friends!

I know I've been MIA lately but I have good reason.  I have some big news to share with you!  Do you remember how earlier in the year I said that 2013 was going to be my year?  I honestly wasn't sure what direction I was going in but I knew that I would be making some big changes.  However, I couldn't focus my career path and I was getting really depressed that I hadn't pinpointed what I wanted to do with my education from IIN yet.  Now I know why.  You should know that I don't make decisions very easily.  I blame it on being a Libra.  We are very indecisive and all about balance and harmony.  Well, what better way to create harmony then to start a vegan baked goods business and call it Sweet Vegan Thing?

Before I get carried away with business talk, let's have a look at my eats. It's been a while since I've done a WIAW post so I am playing catch-up.  These photos are from Sunday.

On to the food...

Breakfast was at my sister's.  I made us a delicious (if I do say so myself) tofu scramble.  She actually loved it too and she's a carnivore, so that says a lot!

After cleaning my house I had a chocolate-strawberry "shake" and read my VegNews from cover to cover.  I love 'me' time!

I enjoyed lunch on my balcony because it was such a lovely day.  Lunch was a big salad with lots of veggies, homemade dressing and hemp seeds.

I was feeling snacky before dinner so I had some cocktail tomatoes and dijon mustard.  I had about two plates of these with some wine.  So good.  I could eat tomatoes all day!

For dinner I was craving sweet potatoes but I was feeling a bit lazy so I made a simple Sweet Potato salad.  It was so good and really hit the spot.

Dessert was homemade Peanut Butter Chocolate Ice Cream.  So easy, so delicious, and actually good for you! Mostly because it doesn't have any dairy or added sugar.


 So, back to my business...
As I was saying, before WIAW rudely interrupted us...  I love baking and I love making things look pretty so I think I was pretty much born to do this.  Ha!  Just kidding.  I know there is more to starting a business than that but, at least it's a start.  I am so excited about this new path in my life.  If you had asked me last month if I wanted to have my own baked goods business I would have shouted "no way!" but recently it has started to make more and more sense to me.  This is EXACTLY what I want to be doing.  I have a lot to learn and a lot of work ahead of me but I'm loving every minute of it and it definitely does not feel like "work".  For example, on Friday my sister-in-law and I are heading over to a cafe downtown to sample their vegan offerings.  And then on Saturday my friend and I are heading over to an all vegan bakery to taste some cupcakes and hopefully learn a thing or two as well.  All in the name of research!  We are also heading to Veggie Fest for the day and I'm looking forward to meeting the vendors and possibly getting my name out there.  Wish me luck!  And if you are in the Hamilton area but are living under a rock haven't heard, VeggieFest is on from 11am - 7pm this Saturday at the Ancaster Fairgrounds.  GO!

And here is just a sample of what Sweet Vegan Thing will be offering:

Death by Chocolate

I made these cupcakes for my sisters birthday party and they were a hit!  I named them Death by Chocolate because they are a chocolate lovers dream!  By the way, no one would guess they're vegan which is the best part.

I am in the process of creating a website but, for now, you can head on over to my facebook page: Sweet Vegan Thing and check it out.  I'll let you know as soon as my website is up and running.

Til next time (I'll try not to be a stranger!)...

Love,
Ves xx

WIAW #28 The Weekend Edition

Hi friends,

Welcome to another edition of What I Ate Wednesday!  This week I decided to do things a little differently.  Instead of showing you my Tuesday eats like I normally do, I've decided to show you what I ate on Sunday.  To be honest, my weekly eats are slightly boring (not to me, but you're probably sick of looking at the same ol' food) and not very pretty to look at since I use containers and not dishes to bring my food to work.  Plus, it's always fun to shake things up a bit.  So without further ado, I give you my Sunday eats.

Breakfast:

   I had originally planned on making pancakes for breakfast but I got an enormous craving for something mint chocolatey.  I made this smoothie which turned out to be so thick I poured it in a bowl and ate it with a spoon.  Loved it!  I'll post the recipe tomorrow. 

   To go along with my smoothie I had one of these raw coconut macaroons that I had made the day before.  They were melt-in-your-mouth delicious!  And they only get better with age. ;)

Lunch:

Sunday turned out to be a gorgeous day so I took advantage of it and went out for a super long walk.  I love that the weather is warming up and everyone is out!  When I came back in I made this kale salad with chickpeas, tomatoes, and organic edamame (I love edamame!).  I dressed it with lemon and sprinkled some nutritional yeast on top (after the photo was taken, of course).

Dinner:

I made this Epic Sweet Potato Lasagne that I wrote about in yesterday's post, and invited my sister over for dinner.  We had it with a side salad of swiss chard, peppers, apples and my mustard vinaigrette.  Oh so yummy and second's were definitely had by both of us.  I said it yesterday and I'll say it again: You have to make this Lasagne!  You will not be disappointed, I promise.

Snack:

I ended the day with my fave snack:  Apples with cinnamon and a squirt of lemon.  I'm a little obsessed with this and eat it everyday! 

Throughout the day I also had several glasses of lemon water and a mug or two of tea.  I'm still not drinking coffee (will this cleanse ever end?) but I'm counting down the days until it becomes my daily obsession again.


I absolutely love Sunday food, don't you?  It's so nice to be able to take your time and make every meal with love.  I get that from my mom.  She would spend the entire weekend in the kitchen cooking just because she wanted to and because she loved to feed her family.  We all used to sneak tastes of whatever she was making, not being able to wait for the meal to be ready.  That's one of the things I'm looking forward to when I go and visit my parents this summer... Mom's cooking!  Can't wait.

Love,
Ves xx

WIAW # 27 and Wacky Weather!

Hi Friends!

Can you believe it's already Wednesday?  I feel like I say that almost every time I write a WIAW post, but seriously, after a holiday Monday I really can't believe it's already the middle of the week!  Trust me, I'm not complaining.  I love when my work week goes by quickly.  What I don't love?  This weather!  What is up with it?  It's sunny and mild out one minute, and snowing the next!  I wore a spring coat all weekend and then had to bundle up in my winter coat complete with hat, mitts, and warm boots.  I am so over winter!

  I'm not here to complain, though, I'm here to talk about food.  Tuesday's food to be exact.  Check it out...

My Morning...

As usual, I started my morning off with some room temp. water with lemon and a pinch of cayenne pepper.  My Green Smoothie (spinach, mango, banana, oats, flax seed, almond milk) had to be bottled up and taken to-go because I ran out of time in the morning.  Don't worry, I slurped it up as soon as I got to work.  On my way to work I kept warm with some Chai tea.  I'm a little bit obsessed with this tea at the moment and can't seem to get enough of it.  Not too obsessed, though, that I don't secretly wish it were coffee!  I still have a week or so left of my liver detox, but as soon as I'm done I plan on guzzling a barrel of coffee.  On second thought that might just undo all the good I did with the detox... oh well.

Lunch...

For lunch I had a kale salad with tomatoes and avocado dressed with lemon juice and nutritional yeast.  I added a pinch of cayenne pepper for a bit of a kick.  When I popped home quickly in the middle of the day, I made a Gingerbread tea (another obsession!), and snapped this picture to show just how wacky the weather has been.  Mother nature has a wicked sense of humor.  (I don't find her funny.)

Afternoon snack...

When I have a sweet tooth my favorite thing lately is to cut up apples and sprinkle them with a bit of cinnamon and a touch of lemon juice.  Love it!  And since I eat them so often at work, the children have started asking for cinnamon on their apples.  Too cute.  Whatever makes them eat more fruit is fine by me!  I had the apples around 2:30 and then a green smoothie around 4:30.

Dinner...

I had a meeting after work and didn't get home until 9pm.  The thought of putting any kind of effort into dinner just did not appeal to me.  Instead, I toasted up a couple of slices of Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin Bread, added some nut butter and a side of sliced apples.  I was so exhausted I devoured this while relaxing in bed!  My little Patchie girl came by to inspect the goodies and seemed very interested in the almond milk.  Too bad I didn't share any with her.

So there you have it, my WIAW goodies from Tuesday.  Thanks as always to the lovely Jenn over at Peas and Crayons for hosting this fab link-up party.

Til next time...
Happy Middle of the Week Day!

Love,
Ves xx

WIAW #26: The Dinner Edition

Hi Friends!

I can't believe that we're already 6 days into March and that next week is March Break.  Where does the time go?  I know where my time hasn't been lately... *ahem*... here.  But, I can explain.  I've been working really hard to launch my new website and it's sort of taken top priority.  Don't worry, you'll be the first to know when it's up and running.  On top of that and regular work, I've been having Revenge marathons with my sister (what is it with me and TV show marathons?).  Like I'm not busy enough!  Ha.  But, I'm definitely not too busy too eat.  Check it out...

This weeks WIAW is all about my dinners.  I've divided them into two cattegories and then at the end I show you what my plate actually looks like when the cameras are off.  Don't judge me, I secretly love eating everything in one bowl!

The Quickie Dinners:

These nights I had dinner ready in record time or just heated up some leftovers.  Regardless, they were all really delicious.
Clockwise from the top:  Veggie Burger with homemade hummus on a bed of steamed and fresh greens; leftover lasagna and steamed greens while working; leftover frozen pizza, steamed greens and avocados; veggie platter with dip (not pictured); arugula salad with tomatoes and avocados.

The Dinners that took a little bit more time...

When I have a little bit more time I like to put some effort into what I'm cooking. 
Clockwise from the top:  Black Bean Chili;  Pasta with sauteed greens and tomatoes (my sis actually made that one); homemade pizza with caramelized onions, sun-dried tomatoes, arugula and daiya mozarella; quinoa and vegetable medley with arugula and avocado.

And sometimes when I show you a picutre of this:

I actually ate it like this:

No Joke.

So there you have it: my quick and not so quick dinners.  Hop on over to Peas and Crayons and check out more scrumptious food pics from other bloggers.
Til next time...
Eat your veggies!

Love,
Ves xx