Tag Archives: Oh She Glows

Vegan Attempt/Fail

Sometimes, you just to have a meat-free, dairy-free, good ole fashioned vegan breakfast.
Modified from my Peach Pie Pancakes – subbed in dairy-free chocolate chips for peaches. Chocolate matches PERFECTLY with the cinnamon on a chilly, marine-layered morning! And then I also subbed in sour cream for some of the almond milk. Oops.

After such a wonderfully vegan attempt start to the day, you may want to keep up with that attempted vegan streak. I, however, went out for a big pulled pork sammich.
Oh, yes! The stuff of my dreams!

After YOUR vegan lunch (obviously you didn’t cave to the call of the pig as I did), you may decide that a day full of only vegan food is indeed possible. If you happen to be looking for a simple, delicious vegan tortilla soup recipe, Angela created one the other day that is to die for!
The most difficult part of the process is the chopping, and even that only takes a few minutes!
Add some chopped avocado and vegan sour cream and you’re good to go! Unless you’re like me… Then you may decide that this tortilla soup needs a little protein boost…
You can try as I did and roast your own chicken. I’d never roasted one before, so I winged it. I washed it, dried it, sprinkled lemon pepper and salt all over and stuffed with with onions, carrots, celery and two lemon halves. Then I stuck it in the oven and went to Twitter to find out how long I should bake it for in order to not die of salmonella or E. coli. The answer is two hours at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Just in case you also wanted to not die.
This time, I added regular sour cream to pair well with my chicken tortilla soup. It was awesome.
If you want to expound upon your newfound veganism, you could get a gluten-free, vegan amber ale. This was… interesting. I can’t really compare it to other gluten-free beers since I haven’t tried any, but it wasn’t too bad… I ended up opening a Sierra Nevada Tumbler right after. Whoops. I’ll definitely need to find some others to try out so I can give Amanda some recommendations. Trying beer for a friend – the ultimate sacrifice.

Hopefully your attempt at a vegan day is more successful than mine… For now, it’s 10:20am and I’m already cracking open a bottle of beer so I can make my cheat version of Oatmeal Stout Brownies with Caramelized Bacon for today’s brew day at Enegren Brewing Company.
My day = Massive vegan fail.

1 Comment

Filed under recipe

The Meal of my Dreams!

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day! It started out with a hike the national park, in 68 degree weather.
Followed the hike with half of an icy cold Green Monsta and a half serving of Kitchen Sink Salad. Half-back to the classics!
I’m practicing this newfangled concept of eating smaller portions and stopping when I’m satisfied. No idea how my roommate convinced me to go on this crazy journey, but I’m in for a ride!

Dinner was a beautiful mish-mash of different eating concepts. I made Angela’s Cranberry, Apple and Almond Quinoa, but added in a stalk of chopped celery to the onion and carrot saute, cut the salt in half, and used raisins instead of cranberries. I tried this recipe a few weeks ago, force-fed it to my roommates (who first tried my terrible, mushy Lemony Quinoa and swore to never consume quinoa again) and created quinoa-lovers! They actually requested it to be on tonight’s menu!

I also made Chicken with Pineapple Salsa from the Sonoma Diet Cookbook one of my favorite cookbooks ever! The combination of the acidic, tart fresh pineapple with the smoky spice of chipotle peppers will knock your socks off!
Roasted broccoli rounded out the meal, which we ate slowly, taking our time to chat and actually taste and enjoy the food! This concept is just so INNOVATIVE! Who woulda thunk? We even went so far as to use pretty placemats and tapered candles to make it feel like an event. Try this! It makes the meal so much more enjoyable!
This may, in fact, be the best healthy meal I’ve had all year. Hooray for leftovers!!!

1 Comment

Filed under Dinner, Sonoma Diet, Uncategorized