Update

It has been exactly a month since I last blogged here. I haven't forgotten about you all!  Life has gotten in the way unfortunately but I have been taking pictures and saving tons of information, so hopefully we can get this site active again!  I want to thank everyone for so much support in running this blog and getting people excited about vegan lifestyle options. I couldn't have done it without you !

So, here is a picture of what was for lunch! A salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli, and a Boca chickn patty :)  
 

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! 

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!

Rich, Easy Vegan Mac and Cheese

This is the quickest, easiest recipe for vegan macaroni and cheese ever. It isn't as complicated as the last one, and tastes really rich and delicious. I've been sick lately and this has been my comfort food. It might be too rich for some, but I love it. This recipe can be altered for any size serving, but I only made one bowl.

What you'll need

Pasta noodles

Earth Balance butter

Daiya Cheddar cheese

Soy or Coconut milk

How to make

Bring water to a boil and toss in your noodles. While that is cooking, pour about half a cup of soymilk into a pan. Depending on how rich you want it, put between a tablespoon - 2 tablespoons of Earth Balance butter. Once that melts, pour in about a cup of Daiya cheddar cheese. You can put in as much as you want, since some like it cheesier than others.

 

When the noodles are done, strain, put into a bowl, and pour the cheese on! Simple, right? This recipe is very comparable to Amy's Vegan Mac and Cheese, except much cheaper!

Tofu and Broccoli

This is my go-to recipe when we are short on time and hungry! From the sound of this blog, it sounds like we are always starving and rushed for time but I swear we are not. 

This is also my daughter's favorite recipe ever. She never says no to it. This recipe involves two basic, cheap ingredients - tofu and broccoli. This recipe reminds everyone of Chinese food, probably because it uses soy sauce.

You'll need

 Extra firm tofu

Broccoli

Salt/Salt substitute

Pepper

Vegetable oil

Lemon juice

Soy Sauce

Garlic

How to make

Start the broccoli in a little water and oil. While that is cooking, start on your tofu. Cut it into blocks and press out the water. The dryer the tofu, the better. Toss that into a second pan with lemon juice, soy sauce, pepper, salt, and garlic. Put as much as you want of each - There is no wrong way to make this recipe. 


After about 5 minutes of cooking the tofu, add the broccoli in. You can add some more soy sauce so the broccoli tastes of it too. We use low sodium soy sauce. You can also season this with stir fry sauce but we like the taste of the soy sauce.

When everything gets a bit of a golden brown hue to it, you're done. The tofu will firm up a bit and turn a golden brown and the broccoli will turn brownish from the soy sauce.

That's it! You're done. Cut it up into small pieces if you are feeding it to a child.
 

What's for lunch?

Our local grocery store finally started carrying this! Its delicious, although expensive and a pretty small serving. You could easily eat two of these in a sitting, so they are great for lunch when you're not too hungry but still want to eat something. Oddly enough, this is the one food my daughter won't eat.