Healthy Living

Many people have told me that they just don't care about the animals and that is why they will keep eating meat. Well, I don't understand that one bit. If they were living healthy, happy lives I could understand. But when animals are being abused in ways that we would never allow our cats and dogs to be, it is not okay. You can read more about the ways animals suffer for food here.

But, if you really truly don't care. Then how about caring about yourself and your internal organs? Here are 3 links you can read on your own about meat based diets and the health risks.

Strokes

Cancer

Heart Disease

Pizza! Vegan Style!

Yes, you can eat pizza when you are vegan. My 11 year old said, "Mom, this is so good! Did you know, there are kids at school who think that eating healthy doesn't taste good?! But it does taste good! And they will not be healthy when they get older, that sucks".

So we had pizza, smoothies, and steamed veggies for dinner. And we gobbled up every bite. Next time I need to buy 2 pizzas. These boys eat a lot!

The Smoothies came from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch. They were so freaking good. I used organic frozen fruit (berry blend) and organic soy milk. So easy. My 11 year old said it was like eating ice cream and my 2 year old said, "mmmm, mama, that very good!".

Tofu lettuce wraps

I ordered these at PF Changs. These are PHENOMINAL I would never know I wasn’t eating chicken. As a matter of fact, I though I was for a minute until I used my fork to “dissect” a piece and it was indeed tofu.

These were so good that my meat eating friends gobbled them right up!

PF Changs has a very nice vegetarian selection, as well as any dish can be substituted with tofu!!

Brittney

Better Than ‛Beef’ Stroganoff

1-lb. bag egg-free pasta
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1-lb. pkg. Morningstar burger crumbles
1 10 1/4-oz. can Franco-American mushroom gravy
2 4 1/2-oz. cans sliced mushrooms, drained
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 carton Tofutti “Sour Supreme”
3/4 cup white cooking wine (optional)

• Cook the pasta in boiling water until the desired tenderness is reached.
• In a large skillet, brown the onion in the oil. Add the remaining ingredients, stir, and cook over medium heat for 15 minutes.
• Drain the pasta, and serve the sauce over the noodles.

This entire meal took me 30 minutes to cook. We had steamed broccoli on the side. It was delicious, my meat eating sister really enjoyed it. This was the first time I used Morning Star crumbles, and I LOVED them, they were EXACTLY like eating ground beef!!

Brittney

Quick and Easy-sort of

Dinner tonight is from Vegan Lunch Box. The title of this meal is Quick and Easy 6.

Vegan Deli Slice Roll-Ups (SUPER easy). Just take vegan deli meat (I used Italian style) and add some vegan cream cheese. Very tasty.

Corn Tires (you slice corn on the cob, whatever, pain in the ass, I just cooked it normally).

Melon balls (my mom had a melon baller and it was fun for about 30 seconds, I just sliced up a seedless watermelon)

Pumpkin Carob Chip Muffins (she recommends using canned pumpkin, but not the pie filling type, or canned pureed butternut squash. I opted for the squash because I couldn't find the canned pumpkin. I also used vegan chocolate chips because I couldn't find dairy free carob chips. This was a lot of ingredients but very easy. Part of the ingredients are flax seeds too, which makes me smile. Oh, and they were DELICIOUS! There are a lot of ingredients, but simple to make, so if you want the recipe, please let me know.

Melissa

Spinach Salad

Dinner last night came from Saving Dinner the Vegetarian Way.

The salad contains all organic ingredients. Spinach, red onion, black beans, mandarin oranges, & sauteed pecans. The dressing is made with balsamic vinegar, vegan cane sugar, salt and pepper to taste, this was heated till sugar was dissolved.

We had it with Tex-Mex Quesadillas. I used whole wheat tortillas, a combination of Follow Your Heart Vegan Cheddar Cheese and Daiya Italian style cheese. I put a little salsa on the cheese and toasted them on the stove. They were so freaking good. And of course the kids loved them.

Melissa

Carly's Bistro

My mom and I decided to check out Carly's Bistro for lunch this week. She is not a vegetarian or a vegan. But she does like fresh and healthy food.

I was pleased to see that they had a vegan selection. The tomato soup and the hummus wrap were vegan. They make the pasta salad with or with out cheese. My 2 year old ate almost all of the soup.

The food was delicious. The atmosphere and the service was very good too.

Melissa