My New Favorite Cookbook!

My new favorite cookbook!

Ok, so I couldn't think of a more creative title for my best vegan dish to date. Seriously. I get a little sad when my bowl is empty on this one and I will certainly being seeing repeats of this dish in the near future.

The inspiration for this Thai Vegan recipe is from Appetite for Reduction by Chandra Moskowitz. I made lots of substitutions, but the end result was still amazing:

THAI ROASTED ROOT VEGETABLE CURRY

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pound turnips, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks


• 1 pound parsnip, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks


• 1 pound Brussels sprouts, cut in half lengthwise


• Cooking spray 1 teaspoon each (curry, dried cilantro, ginger)


• 1 cup baby carrots, sliced in half diagonally


• 1 cup sweet potato, peeled and chopped into chunks


• 1 tablespoon ginger, minced


• 2 cloves garlic, minced


• 3 cups water


• 2 tablespoons soy sauce


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 3/4 cup light coconut milk


• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice


• 1 tablespoon light agave nectar


• 1 cup cilantro for garnish

PREPARATION:

1. First, let's roast the veggies. Preheat oven to 425º. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Put turnip, parsnip and Brussels sprouts in a single layer on the baking sheets and spray lightly with cooking spray. Roast for about 30 minutes, tossing once and spraying with a little more cooking spray. Turnip should be easily pierced with a fork. Remove from oven and set aside until ready to use.

2. Preheat a 4-quart pot over medium-high heat. Add 1 teaspoon each (curry, dried cilantro, ginger). Sauté for about 2 minutes. Use a splash of water if it seems to be sticking excessively. Add the garlic and ginger; sauté for another 2 minutes. Add the carrots, sweet potato, water, soy sauce and salt; cover and bring to a slow rolling boil. Cook until sweet potato is not just tender, but mushy, about 20 minutes. It should be mushy enough to thicken up the stew when mashed with a fork. Go ahead and lightly mash it.

3. Add coconut milk, lime juice and agave to the curry and mix. Taste for salt and spice. Add the roasted veggies and serve with chopped cilantro as garnish.

Note: This recipe is gluten free (if using gluten free curry paste and soy sauce)

Best I've Felt in a Long Time

Beyond a shadow of a doubt I am a different person than I was last year on 2/17/10. I exercise consistently 2x/week at the very minimum, eat "thoughtfully" (very limited dairy and animal products), and alcohol only for special occasions. I feel alive and very present instead of just coasting through the days of the week. I've been cooking vegan meals on a regular basis for the last 12 weeks and as a result developed a passion for cooking. I've been slowly getting my house and personal schedule organized and feel relaxed and at ease most times. The next areas of my life to focus on is my family. I've already stepped out of my comfort zone and added "Tee Ball Coach" to my many titles in life. So far with one game under our belt I feel such pride and accomplishment. Another area to focus on is my finances. They are somewhat "in control", but that's not really ideal. I need to start planning for the future and saving money instead of just scraping by. This is my moment to step back and take a look at the big picture that I call "my life". I'm getting there... slowly but surely!

How has life been treating you lately?

"The difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is the difference between living fully and just existing." -Michael Gerber

Happy New Year!

Hi Blog! Long time no see. The holidays came and went and here we are with a bright new shiny new year! I rang in the new year home with my kid's playing games and eating snacks. It was really nice! A big change from how I normally ring in the new year and I really enjoyed how I spent this one.

I don't have much time to dedicate to blogging, but I'm updating the blog anyway with a NEW challenge! I last wrote about my 5K and veganism challenge and I'm happy to report that I love what each challenge brought into my life. I still have an occasional animal product here or there, but they are far and few between. The taste of meat no longer appeals to me and I crave veggies, tofu, hummus, beans, fruit... you name it! I still long for a good piece of cheese, but I've found that Daiya cheese is a good substitute and I also love adding cheese flavor with Nutritional Yeast. Wow... who is that girl typing those words?? This is coming from someone who sat down nightly with a plate of nachos and a few glasses of wine. I've definitely come along way in terms of listening to my body and giving it just want it wants/needs/craves!

Back to my new challenge! I've been tempted to buy new cookbooks to add to my collection, but I never seem to find myself actually using my cookbooks! I use them from time to time for a specific recipe or for inspiration, but I always find myself short on ingredients and making up my own recipes. With this challenge I'll be able to: a)give the authors credit for their awesome recipes, b) discover new types of recipes I'd probably never try, and c)get my money's worth out of the cookbooks too!

My first cookbook challenge is Dreena Burton's: Eat, Drink and be Vegan.

I've chosen 5 recipes to start with this week and purchased all the ingredients I'll need! I'm ready to give this cookbook some love that it deserves!

See ya' all soon, with reviews on the recipes!

XXOO

Bonnie

All Smiles!

I'm still not getting on here to update my blog as much as I'd like, but I just wanted to pop in and say how thrilled I am with my Veganism attempt! I feel great, have lots of energy and have even lost a few pounds. My 5K training is going great too! I ran my furthest yesterday without stopping. 17 days to go till race day!!

I wanted to share a recipe I tried from Eating Bird Food blog for Sweet Potato & Black Bean Burgers. I actually had some regular potatoes to use up so I used those in place of the sweet potatoes. Really good! Go give it a try!

TTYL guys!

Vegan Lovin'

Elllloooo! Happy Friday!! Fall weather is gracing itself in areas across the country. How "fall" like are things by you? It's a nice crisp 50 to 60 degrees around these parts of NJ in the morning and tops out at almost 80 degrees by mid afternoon. I'm lovin' it! My pool, however, is not! Its temperature reads about 75 degrees and that's too willy for me!

I started off this week with my challenge to become Vegan. So far so good! I loaded up on goodies from Whole Foods on Monday and have been doing great so far! I found Diaya cheese and it has revolutionalized the way I feel about giving up cheese to become vegan. It is so tasty and yet unique. I love how it melts and its flavor is spot on. I've only tried the cheddar style so far, but I must make a trip to WF's for some more...stat!

I have been keeping up with my 2 workouts a week over the summer and keeping active with the kids, but that is not nearly enough. Therefore, I'm adding the Couch 2 5K training plus evening Yoga at home. I'm proud to say that yesterday, not only did I do my Interval Training class at work, but I also did my first C25K training! It was fun and I felt so accomplished afterwards! Basically the first week (3 training sessions) are as follows: Walk for 5 minute warm up, then run for 60 seconds, then walk for 90 seconds, run for 60, walk for 90 for a full 20 minutes.

This post is lacking photos, but I was pumped to report my vegan success so far and my C25K training!! I'll be back later with some photos of a Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Quinoa Salad that I made last night.

What are your weekend plans? I've got Fall Ball (my daughter's first practice!!) and some Fall clothes shopping for her as well. Otherwise, it's pretty wide open! I will have to see if any farms are open yet for apple picking!

Kitchen Makeover & More!

Well hidey-ho out there in blogland. It's me... your long lost Salad Girl! Things are changing around here and in more ways than one! Beginning Sept 7th, I'm going vegan! It will be a challenge I'm sure, but I will see where it takes me. I also begin my Couch to 5K program that same day! Look out world, here I come. I'm also signing up for a 5K run on Oct 16th at my alma mater, Trenton State College (currently known as The College of NJ).


Lots has been going on in my home. We put up a new vinyl fence, refinished our hardwood floors and revamped my kitchen!


Here we have the "hired" help, aka family, helping us put up the fence. We chose the hottest days of the year to do this project! Needless to say it took about 2 weeks to complete. It's so nice and offers so much privacy from our "junk yard" neighbors!




Here is a before picture of our hardwood floors. These were actually down by real hired help that also happened to be family! I do owe you an after picture of these floors. They did a great job and I love them!





Here is my country kitchen complete with country blue counter tops and roosters! I still love roosters, but I was in desperate need of a change.

We painted the counters with a color named "Melted Chocolate".... mmmmm! Then I used a flecking brush to fleck various shades of black, charcoal, white and cream colors on to it. Then my mom applied about 5 coats of poly over top of it to seal it.

My mom is the best! She is so crafty and creative and she takes such pride in her work. I'm proud to show it off here on the blog.





And last but not least, is the completed look! We were hunting around Home Depot for some back splash ideas when I stumbled upon the ones we used in the below photo. They only had 6 packages left and were marked down from $12 each to $3 each!! It ended up being the perfect amount and really tied it all together! Let me know what you think!

So there you have it. I've been busy this summer and owe you some updates on trips and eats. I feel like I've been bitten by the blogging bug again with all the goals I mentioned earlier in the post (veganism, 5K, etc!!)

What have you been up to all summer long?

Evolving?

Oooo, I've been a bad blogger. I've been thoroughly enjoying reading lots of Healthy Living/Food Blogs, but I've lost my motivation for my own. Well, not totally. I think I will dive back in soon. In the meantime, I've been contemplating my journey to Veganism/Vegetarianism. I think I'm in "transition mode" right now. It's not written anywhere that it has to be cold turkey, right?! Each week I seem to find more and more alternatives and eat less and less dairy, eggs, and meat. My one food group that may hold me back is actually fish. I don't have it that often, but I do love me some sushi on occasion and my dad catches weekly fresh flounder that is too tough to pass up! Well, I will probably never label myself anyhow, so I'm ok with my choices for now.

What I do now is make conscience decisions to eat locally and organically. I've substituted most of my beloved dairy products with things like Almond Breeze, tofutti cream cheese and sour cream. I can't seem to make the switch to dairy free cheese until I find a brand I like. As far as meat, I simply substitute more veggies, beans and faux meat products (on occasion).

I'm excited where the journey is taking me! Is anyone else in that "in between spot" with carnivore vs veggie head??!

Here are some links to past posts for vegetarian/vegan salads:

Quinoa and Black Bean Salad

Candied Cashew, Pear and Grape Salad (sub Agave nectar and omit blue cheese crumbles for vegan)

Avocado and Sunflower Seed Salad

Grilled Asparagus and Tomato Salad (omit feta for vegan)

Enjoy!