Vegan Grilled Cheese and Soy Yogurt

What's for lunch ?? Vegan grilled cheese using Daiya mozzarella shreds & Earth balance butter and Silk strawberry soy yogurt!

 It was delicious!

I was a little worried about the Silk soy yogurt, mostly because I'm not a huge fan of yogurt to begin with and all of the flavors were dark colored (except vanilla). It was actually really good! Very full of flavor (almost too much flavor). My daughter either eats it alone or I put it in our morning smoothie! 

Shopping trip

I have totally been slacking in updating ever since I got my tooth pulled! I can finally eat normal foods again so we decided to do some food shopping. We took an hour trip to Wegman's and this is what we came home with...

 A healthy alternative to fruit snacks 

We had never tried this before and its really good! We bought strawberry, blueberry, vanilla, and raspberry! Will definitely be buying again :)

 If buying this mac and cheese, buy the one that says dairy free and soy free on the top! they make 3 different kinds

 Never tried these before but they look good. I was never a big fan of hot dogs but my daughter loves tofu pops

 Of course Daiya :) They only had mozzarella tho!

 Never had these before either. I don't think you can screw up pita chips though!

 These were expensive. Made by Caesar's . I hope they are good!

I'm really excited to try these. I'm a fan of Tofurky's products since they have never let me down.

17 month old eating tofu on video

I thought you guys might enjoy this. I get asked alllll the time how I get my child to eat tofu. She has been eating it for the last 9 months without ever refusing it! It just happens to be one of her favorite foods :) She usually shovels it in and throws the fork to the side, but she was a bit camera shy today.

Dominex - The Eggplant People

Recently our grocery store started carrying a new brand - Dominex. All of their products are made from eggplant. They seem like a relatively new company since all they carry right now are eggplant burgers, eggplant veggie fries, eggplant meatballs, and eggplant cutlets. For the price, you are getting your money's worth. They are about the same price as Amy's except you are getting double the amount of food. Their cutlets also come in a big box for $10, whereas the rest of their products come in a decent sized box for around $5.50. 

I've tried their cutlets and veggie fries. I absolutely love the veggie fries. The cutlets are good too, but the breading seems a little too thin for me. They would go great on a sandwich or with some Daiya cheese on top and dipped in marinara sauce. My daughter and I are addicted to the veggie fries (we are heating some up right now). We dip them in marinara sauce to add a bit of flavor.

Take a look and see if your store carries them! I can't wait to try the eggplant meatballs.

Delicious Liquid Brat Diet

Bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast - Everyone is familiar with this timeless recipe for a feel better solution. Growing up, I hated anything that had to do with the brat diet while being sick. It was full of blah foods that never went well together. Ever since having my daughter, we realized that the traditional brat diet wasn't going to cut it. We came up with a liquid solution that actually tastes really good! 

If you're lucky enough to live near a place that carries this, then you can skip this recipe, although I think ours tastes much better ! 

You'll need

One banana

1/2 cup applesauce

1/2 cup of whole wheat baby cereal

1/2 cup of rice baby cereal

Clear Pedialyte

Strawberry banana juice

Combine everything, using as much liquid as you need to get it to a comfortable consistency. We used equal parts of Pedialyte and juice, which you can also mix these two together and freeze into a delicious ice pop! This brat recipe is great for kids and adults. It tastes like a strawberry banana smoothie! 

Brought to you by our very recent hospital visit....

Snacks Part 2

In addition to the first snack post (which you can view here), I decided to do a part 2/what we are snacking on lately.

Broccoli,  Green beans, Peas, not too much of mushrooms tho

Veggie Straws - Our favorite

Rice Cakes

Bananas - must always have bananas in this house!

This is her new favorite - Peanut butter on toast. I can't complain! 

Original Chex Mix - an occasional snack

Chickpeas - delicious just by themselves!

Cucumbers - she loves them

 Blueberry bagels

 Strawberry Banana Orange Juice Soy Milk Smoothie (sometimes with tofu)

Wheat thins - I prefer the low fat ones! 

Silk Almond Milk

We recently switched over to almond milk due to everyone having a sensitive stomach (okay, just me and the baby). She seems to be tolerating this a little better than the others. We tried everything from soy milk, rice milk, hemp milk, coconut milk - and in the process I found out I was allergic to coconut as well! 

Normally I don't like Silk because their milks are too sweet, but I highly recommend Silk's vanilla almond milk. It tastes sweet, almost like a milkshake. This goes really well with smoothies! Add a banana, strawberries, orange juice, and almond milk for a delicious drink!

Also, if you sign up on Silk's site, they email you a 75c coupon asap and email you even more later on!

Vegan Garlic Roasted Potatoes

This is one of my favorite additions to any dinner, although for health reasons we try not to include it in every meal :) It takes about a half hour to make, which is just enough time to make the rest of the meal! 

 You will need

3-4 potatoes

Earth Balance Vegan Butter

Chopped Garlic

Italian Seasoning

Salt

Vegetable Oil

How to make

Preheat the oven to 400F. Coat the pan with just enough oil to spread an even layer on the bottom. Slice your potatoes about a 1/2 inch thick. I like to keep the skin on them but you can remove it if you want. They tend to fall apart easier if you remove the skin. After you slice them, lay them in the pan on their side. You will be flipping them halfway through so don't worry about them cooking unevenly. 

The amount of butter you use will depend on how you like your potatoes. I tend to like them with a little bit extra butter flavor. You can use anywhere between 1/2 a cup to 1 cup of melted butter. Remember that the butter will not only give flavoring, but also help your potatoes to not stick to the bottom. I use about 3/4 of a cup of butter in mine, sometimes more if I am making a larger amount. I like to mix my spices into the butter before I pour it over the potatoes to spread it evenly. (You can cheat and use the pre-mixed mashed potato seasoning if you wish!) Feel free to add vegetables into the pan with the potatoes, if you have room, to give them a delicious buttery-garlic flavor.

Set the lid on it and cook for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and flip them. It doesn't matter if you flip them neatly - they all usually cook evenly. If you want 'harder' potatoes, leave the lid off when you insert them back into the oven. I usually put the lid back on to keep the moisture in and so I don't have a mess of oil and butter left in the stove. This would also be the time to add in vegetables, Cook for another 15 minutes or until tender and enjoy!! 

They were finger-lickin-good! 

Tofurky Roast with Stuffing and Vegetables

I'll be the first to admit that I always side-eyed the Tofurky roasts in the store. I tried one years ago and it tasted awful, so I never tried it again....until now. It was absolutely delicious and I would definitely recommend to EVERYONE! Even my meat-eater boyfriend chose to eat this over real turkey. It lasted us a week and still tasted great! 

What you'll need

Tofurkey Roast (please read the ingredients - not all of them are vegan)

Vegetables of your choice

 

(The one I bought didn't have the brownie included)

How to Make

 It looks really weird right out of the box, but trust me, it is worth it. Be careful taking it out of the package.

This was so simple. It takes about an hour or so to cook. Follow the directions on the box carefully! You need to cook the roast for about a half hour first by itself with half of the gravy they gave you, then another half hour with all of the gravy and whatever vegetables you want. The gravy is absolutely delicious and they give you more than enough so you won't need to make your own! 

I would definitely make this again, even when it isn't a holiday. Its so tender and the stuffing is really good! The whole box was around $10.99 and totally worth it!

Pizza Pizza!

One of my favorite foods to make is pizza! This is a very easy, cheap recipe for vegan pizza.

You will need

Daiya cheese (or any vegan cheese)

Pizza or pasta sauce

Crust

Seasonings

How to make

The crust that I use contains honey. This is a personal preference. Some find it vegan while others don't. If you are uncomfortable eating honey, then I recommend looking at the ingredients of different crusts or making your own. This crust contains very very little honey. My daughter is allergic to honey but can still eat this crust without any issues. It comes in three different sizes! This one fits into the toaster oven no problem :)

 

Preheat a toaster oven or regular oven to 300/350F. I like my pizza to be softer, so if you like it crunchy, preheat to 350F. 

Pour sauce onto the crust, add seasonings (I like garlic powder), add cheese, and cook! Let cook for 10-15 minutes and enjoy!

My little helper! She enjoys the pizza more than I do!

Banana Bread

Due to having the flu, I had about 4 bananas that were almost ready to be thrown out (among a ton of other food). So what else can you do with almost rotten bananas? Banana bread!! 

(Yes, that is steam still coming off of the bread...mmmmm)

This has to be the best banana bread I've ever made. This loaf lasted not even 4 days. It was extremely moist when first made and was still fairly moist a few days later. 

You'll need

4 bananas

1/3 cup melted Earth Balance butter

1 heaping tablespoon apple sauce

1 cup sugar or agave nectar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cup flour

1 pinch of salt

1 loaf pan

How to make

Preheat the oven to 350F. Now for this recipe, it works best if you break it down into steps. It mixes up better and seems to cook smoother. Start off with the melted butter and bananas. You can mush the bananas by hand if they are ripe enough. Then add the sugar, apple sauce, and vanilla. When that is all mixed, add the flour and other powdered ingredients. Pour into a buttered loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.

When it cooled, I cut it in half and put it into a sealed container to keep some moisture in it. It will probably last a week as long as you wipe out the excess moisture in the container once every day or two.

Snacks!!

Everyone loves snacks! If you are feeding a child, you need good, nutritious snacks. Here is a short list of our daughter's favorite snacks, the healthy and the unhealthy! 

Ritz Crackers - Most peanut butter crackers tend to be vegan

 Annie's Chocolate and Vanilla cookies - They are pretty good!

 The famous super pretzels, along with any pretzels not made with butter.

Yogi Granola Crisps. They are a nice size for kids to hold and chew on and they taste pretty good!

Fig Newmans - NOT Fig Newtons. They are good, a little dry. We found an off brand at the dollar store that is vegan and much better, but these will do as well.

 Kix - any kind of Kix will work but she loves the berry ones

 Thomas' mini bagels. Cinnamon raisin is her favorite so far

Chocolate Chip Teddy Grahams - Read the label before you buy any of the other flavors. Most are vegan but always double check!

 Pistachios! We eat these together :)

 Oreos - We like to mix these with vanilla vegan ice cream for a delicious treat.

 

Reeces Puffs Cereal! Sooo delicious.

i should add that these snacks are in addition to fruits and veggies as well!