Waffle Breakfast

We are not morning people in my house. Even my daughter struggles to get out of bed at the lovely hour of 7am. We need a quick and easy breakfast for the mornings, and most mornings we choose waffles. Most stores carry the brand Van's if you're like me and can't cook too early in the morning unless it is a weekend. Van's makes delicious, moist  waffles that come in a few flavors (we prefer apple cinnamon). Just toast or heat in the microwave. They are so good you don't even need syrup or a butter substitute!

Cupcakes and Cookies

One big fear that I notice among people who are trying to go vegan is that they don't want to give up cakes, cookies, and cupcakes. Luckily for them, there are plenty of ways to make delicious treats while still maintaining a vegan diet! These are very basic and easy to do recipes here that don't require you to be a super baker (trust me - I'm not). I managed to do these with the help of my daughter, which means you should be able to do them too! :)

We'll start with the cupcakes. I normally use Duncan Hines but the store we were at didn't carry it! So we went with our next vegan option - Pillsbury Strawberry cake mix. Please remember to read the ingredients before buying! Not all of them are vegan. This was the only vegan option available to us so we went with it. 

You will need

One box of cake mix

Applesauce

Earth Balance Butter

Vegetable oil

Cake Beaters

Icing and Sprinkles 

How to make

You'll notice I included applesauce in the list of ingredients. Applesauce is one of those magic foods that can be used to replace egg in a recipe. You can also substitute banana if you are making something that already has a banana taste. Applesauce leaves no taste so you can use it for anything. Substitute one tablespoon for every egg. Another good hint - You can use vegetable oil to replace the butter in a recipe. I like using Earth Balance butter instead of substituting straight vegetable oil, but it works if you run out of butter substitute. 

Follow the direction on the box. Mix the cake mix with applesauce, butter, and vegetable oil (or whatever your box calls for). Use cake beaters to ensure that it comes out smooth. The Pillsbury kind really fluffed up a lot and made it difficult to work with, but it still came out delicious.

Fill up the cupcake papers half of the way to about 2/3 of the way full. This kind was very hard to judge so I just plopped it in. If you use Duncan Hines, you'll be able to smoothly put it into the cupcake papers.

Let it cook for about 20 minutes. Keep checking and use a tooth pick to ensure they are done.

If you fill the cup properly, which I admit is pretty difficult to get right, you'll have a nice cupcake height. This took me a few batches in the beginning when I was learning, but if you mess a few up, don't worry! 

After they are cooled, feel free to decorate however you'd like!

In between making those, I also made some cookies. I used Pillsbury Funfetti Halloween Cookie mix. You can use the regular funfetti mix as well. This brand makes delicious cookies! 

You will need

Cookie mix
Applesauce

Vegetable oil

Earth's Balance Butter

Icing and sprinkles

How to make

Follow the directions on the box! Mix everything together, again substituting 1 table spoon of applesauce for 1 egg.  This is the easiest cookie recipe in the world. All you are doing is substituting non-vegan for vegan. 

We had a separate pan filled with a little bit of flour to cut our cookie shapes out. You can skip this step by rolling them into balls and cooking them. This is a fun, simple project that kids can even help with! I let my 1 year old cut a few cookies with no worries if she ate the dough since it didn't contain egg in it!

When finished, place them on a tray to cook. They will take about 8-10 minutes. When they are done, they will look beautiful and fluffy like this

When they cool down, feel free to decorate however you'd like and enjoy! 

Vegan Mac and Cheese

When I became a vegan, the only real meal I missed was macaroni and cheese. I had tried in the past to make a few recipes and they just tasted awful. I managed to not give up and found a recipe that tastes pretty close to macaroni and cheese. It is one of my least favorite to make but my favorite to eat. I'll warn you - it is a mess to clean up, but it is worth it! You can cook a single serving but this recipe is for a bigger serving. This will last about a week in our house with 2 people eating it. The first time my daughter had this, she could not get enough of it! We had it every night for a week!

What you'll need

Pasta noodles

'Follow your Heart' Vegan Cheddar Cheese

Earth Balance butter

Daiya Cheddar or Mozzarella cheese

Tumeric

Onion powder

Garlic powder

Nu-Salt (or regular salt)

Pepper

Soy or Coconut milk

How to make

Start boiling your water. You want to immediately start making your sauce so it will be finished at the same time.

I love using Follow Your Heart cheddar cheese, mostly because it tastes pretty good and it is a good filler cheese. I wouldn't make this recipe with only this cheese, but you definitely can! I ran out of Daiya cheese, but I really suggest using that as well. Daiya cheese melts better and becomes sort of 'sticky' so it holds everything together. Follow Your Heart melts nicely but doesn't stick unless it isn't as hot.

  
You'll want to cut about half of the block of cheese and a little bit of the butter. You don't want to put all of the cheese in at once. It melts better if you cut it into squares and put it in piece by piece.

These are all of the spices you'll need. You don't have to use them, but I find it gives it more of a flavor.

 I really want to talk about Nu-Salt for a minute. It is a salt substitute that is absolutely wonderful. The bottle will last you a few months and it isn't all that expensive unlike other salt substitutes. You can find this just about anywhere and it goes great on so many foods. You don't get that 'salt bloat' the next morning after eating a really salty meal.

 Put a little bit of soy or coconut milk into the pan with the cheese and butter. I used a bit more cheese than usual only because I wasn't using the Daiya cheese as well. I usually use coconut milk for this recipe since it is thicker and cooks better.

Within a few minutes it should start melting and looking more like a real cheese sauce. If you have the Daiya cheese, you can add it in now. It will make everything thicker. I usually use the shredded Daiya cheese for this recipe.

 Add your pasta once the water starts boiling. You can use any kind - I used long pasta since it is easier for my daughter to eat.

 Your cheese should be starting to melt. You can put in the spices whenever you want. I just sprinkle a little bit of each on top of the cheese.You can add more cheese blocks as you need, depending on if you like thick or thin sauce.

 Your noodles should be just about done. I take them out first and make sure to drain all of the water completely so the cheese really sticks to them.

 Your cheese sauce should be done as well. Be careful not to burn it while cooking - it doesn't take too much to do!

 Mix it all together in the pot after you drain the water from the noodles. One suggestion I have is to make sure you let the dishes soak while you are eating. This cheese tends to stick very very hard to the sides of the pan. If you don't soak it, you are almost better off just buying new dishes.

 And that's it! You are all done. As I said earlier, I didn't use the Daiya cheese since I was out, but that really makes the recipe pop. It tastes pretty good without it, but it tastes AMAZING with it. Don't skip out on that part if you make it! I can only really find that at Wegmans, but depending on where you live, it might be in your local store.

 

I like adding Boca chicken nuggets. They go GREAT with mac and cheese

 

Enjoy!

Dinner for Two!

Some of my favorite meals are ones where I can add in a lot of vegetables. Around our house, its very easy to fit fruit into our day. Even the non-vegans in our household fit in a healthy amount of fruit, but sometimes vegetables go unnoticed. 

Luckily I have been blessed with a daughter who will eat anything, and I mean ANYTHING. She loves her vegetables so I have no problem fitting them in everywhere.

One of our favorite meals is vegetable pasta with tofu meat sauce. My daughter goes crazy over this! We are on a very tight budget which makes this meal great for us. If you buy frozen vegetables, which will last you longer, you can make this meal for under $10, which will last you at least a week. You probably will have left over supplies to make another batch for a later time. If you have a Costco near you, you can get a huge box of Boca Burgers (16 burgers) for $10 ! They normally go for $5 for 4 in the stores.

This recipe has been baby approved!

What you will need

Any kind of pasta you want

(Use your favorite vegetables - These are just the ones we use)

Broccoli

Peas

Lima Beans

Green Beans

1 Boca Burger

Marinara sauce

Italian Seasoning

Salt

Vegetable broth (optional)

How to make it

Boil however much water you will need for the pasta. While that is boiling, put all of your vegetables into another pot. I like to boil them in vegetable broth to get more of a flavor, but you can use water if you want! While the pasta and vegetables are boiling, start on your sauce.


Cook the Boca burger thoroughly (this can be done on the microwave, in a pan, or on the grill - I use microwave). I prefer Boca Vegan Burgers for their rich taste, but you can substitute with any kind you like. I put a generous amount of sauce into a pan and put it on low. I add a little bit of salt and some italian seasoning. When the Boca burger is done, crumble it with a fork and toss it into the sauce. 


When everything is done, combine the vegetables and the pasta together and serve with your delicious fake meat sauce on top! 

Its not the most appetizing meal to look at, but it sure is delicious!

The Beginning

This blog was created to give insight to the true lifestyle of a vegan family. If you search for vegan blogs, you'll come up with a few results. Most of them consisting of a few recipes, or if you get lucky you'll find a few baking recipes full of ingredients you have never even heard of. Its true that being a vegan is pretty easy once you get used to it. Finding information to start off with is tough for a lot of people. Most get discouraged and don't bother trying because of the lack of vegan support from food stores, family, society, friends, and even the internet.

You CAN become a vegan and stay a vegan very easily, if you desire to.

All of my recipes are easy to create at home. I am a mother to a 13 month old little girl so my meals need to be quick yet nutritious, and definitely delicious. I get criticized a lot for raising a vegan child, although it definitely can be accomplished. Every pediatrician and parent-who-needs-to-share-their-2-cents tells me it can't be done and that kids need milk and eggs to survive. Many try to tell me to turn her into a vegetarian. We have seen a nutritionist already and she is on a great diet for her age so I can't believe all of the criticism from others. We both share the same dairy allergy (not intolerance) which is a pushing force for us to stay vegans, although she is allergic to more than just dairy. My boyfriend is not a vegan or a vegetarian, which is fine by us. We are not pushy. We cook for  him, but never taste. He will eat a vegan meal every now and again, and most of his meals are vegetarian just because we don't often cook with dairy products or eggs.  When my daughter is old enough she can decide for herself what she wants to eat, as long as it is good for her and she knows where it comes from.

This blog will be full of recipes, lifestyle tips, pictures, and general advice for living a fun, healthy, and beautiful vegan life.

I welcome comments, recipes, advice, and anything else you might have for me!