Herb Mushroom Pasta by Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures.

I couldn't wait any longer to share this recipe with you. I have made this recipe at least 5 times at this point, and it's so delicious that I have never been able to get a photo of it. It's like searching for a yeti in a snowstorm. It disappears far too quickly to ever get the coveted photo. So I have, instead posted a photo of myself writing back when I had hair and stuff. :)

So, I want all of you to try this recipe. Granted, in order for you to try it, you have to like mushrooms as that is the basis for this recipe and let me tell you, it is one of the most delicious things I have EVER tasted. And, it is whole food, plant-based, sugar free, gluten free, and completely vegan. I guarantee you will love it. 

First of all, we must give all the credit to the creators of this amazing recipe. Let's bow down to Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures for their amazing recipes. They have never let me down, and I highly recommend them if you are interested in cooking deliciously healthy, filling, and flavorful recipes. 

The recipe itself is called Creamy Herb Mushroom Pasta. Think of it as very similar to a mushroom stroganoff, but a bit creamier. I have played around with different types of mushrooms in this recipe, and personally, I think it's good with any types of mushrooms, but they do make note in the recipe the types of the mushrooms they use. They use a variety. They also recommend a certain kind of pasta, but due to price and availability, I buy the organic GF penne pasta from Trader Joes. It's only $1.99/bag and has a great texture unlike some GF pastas. 

Ugh, I really wish I had a photo for you guys, but if you click on the link above, the creators of the recipe have some amazing photos of the dish. They are very good at plating and taking beautiful photos of their dishes, so theirs is for sure better than anything I would have taken anyways. This recipe is relatively easy and worth every second. Try it, you'll love it! 

Experimenting with Overnight Oats

Hello Everyone! 

Even though I have given up refined sugar for the most part. I still occasionally have the craving for something sweet. When I was out of town recently, I thought I would treat myself to what looked like a healthy treat. It had nuts and seeds and just a small dollop of chocolate on top. It was completely vegan and organic, so I figured, it can't be so bad right? Well, I took a bite and it was so so sweet. Like sickeningly sweet. I know my taste buds have changed, but I am pretty sure I'm not the only person would would have thought this particular thing was just way too sugary, plus it was really oily as well, so I basically threw it away. It wasn't worth it. 

Upon returning from my trip, I decided to start playing around with Overnight oats recipes. Mainly, because they are so easy. You prep them the night before, and then in the morning you have your breakfast all ready to go. If you've never heard of "Overnight Oats", it's basically just oats with some sort of non-dairy milk sitting overnight in the fridge. The oats get soft and I've heard that many people just eat them cold. I personally like to heat mine up, but that's a personal preference. 

I found two recipes that I recently tried. The one pictured above was to curb my sweet tooth, but I did not use any refined sugars. I used coconut nectar, and vegan chocolate chips sweetened with monkfruit. The recipe I used was this one. I used organic unsweetened soy milk for the milk, and I used organic cacao powder instead of cocoa powder as it is more nutrient dense. It turned out delicious. I did heat it up in the morning, and that made the chocolate chips nice and melty. I might add a sliced banana next time. It was a perfect morning treat. 

The next recipe I tried was a blueberry muffin overnight oats recipe. It was good, but nothing spectacular, I had actually created something similar on my own without a recipe, so I wasn't too thrilled, but it still tasted good. I did sweeten it with coconut nectar again. I think I'd add a banana next time. This time I stuck to just blueberries, because I wanted to see if it tasted like a blueberry muffin. It did not, lol. I'm not sure what to add to make it taste that way. Maybe lemon zest? Anyways, I did not add the yogurt, since I am vegan and dairy free, however, there are unsweetened dairy free yogurts you can find at your local health food store if you want to add that. For all I know, that's what would have made it taste like a muffin. 

When I threw together my own version of Overnight oats, I put 1/2 cup of oats, 1 cup soy milk, unsweetened, 1 tsp ground chia seeds, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, and a pinch of ground ginger. In the morning when I was heating it up, I added a tiny bit of maple syrup to sweeten it and added a banana and some chopped pecans to top it off with. It was delicious! 

I won't share my last recipe, because it really wasn't great, lol! I had one failed attempt. I had some apples I had to use up, so I baked them all day in my mini crockpot with lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg. I think my downfall was that I used too much lemon juice. I made two jars of what I was hoping would be like apple pie overnight oats, but it was super bitter. I forced myself to eat the first jar because I didn't want to waste it, but couldn't get through the second jar and ended up throwing it away. Here's a recipe I probably should have tried in case you are interested in the idea of Apple Pie Overnight Oats. 

One thing I will say about overnight oats is that it's the first time in a long time that I've actually enjoyed eating oatmeal. There's something about the texture, it doesn't get overly cooked, and I've always hated overcooked oatmeal. It's just way better this way, and if you are also not a huge fan of oatmeal, I recommend trying overnight oats. It's a whole new experience! 

Is Coffee Healthy? Should I drink it?

Coffee is a frustrating and sensitive topic for a lot of people. I want to start by saying that I am NOT going to tell you to give up your coffee habit. Heck, I worked at Starbucks for 5 years and drank several cups of coffee a day that entire time. I've been there. I know many of you love that hot drink every morning and it's one of the most difficult habits to give up. I also know that most of you understand that coffee is an addiction. Not just an addiction to the hot beverage itself, but to the caffeine and depending on what kind of coffee you drink it can also be a sugar addiction. When I gave up coffee, I felt extremely hungover for 3 days. Terrible headaches and even a bit of nausea. Granted, when I officially gave up coffee forever, I was also receiving cancer treatments so that could have been part of it. 

My initial reason for giving up coffee was because I didn't want to need to have coffee while I was in the hospital. I didn't want to have to wake up every morning and order a crappy hospital coffee with my breakfast. Nor did I want to have to beg my family and husband to run to the nearest Starbucks to get me better tasting coffee. So, I gave it up and never went back. I'm happier with my decision now. The more I learn about coffee and how it's processed,  I'm happy that I not longer need it or have that addiction. 

First of all, you could find many articles and "proof" telling you that coffee is good for you. That it fights cancer, and is an antioxidant. What I have learned is that because the demand for coffee is so great, most coffee that is NOT organically grown, is full of tons of chemicals and pesticides. So, even if coffee is high in antioxidants, it doesn't really matter because you are putting so many chemicals and pesticides in your body that make it more toxic than helpful. So, do you remember how I said, I wasn't going to tell you to give up your coffee habit? Well, I'm not, but what I will say is if you are going to drink coffee, at least make it organic. That way, the antioxidants in the coffee can do something for you instead of harm you. I would stay away from places like Caribou and Starbucks because they do not brew organic coffee and they also use tons of sugar in all of their specialty drinks. I know this makes them delicious, but a small amount of processed sugar takes down your immune system for several hours after consuming it. 

Most coffee drinkers not only don't drink organic blends, but they also add sweeteners and dairy to their beverage which have both been known to cause problems. Dairy has been linked to causing breast cancer and as mentioned above, sugars and sweeteners take down the immune system. If you want to learn more about the dangers of dairy, I recommend reading The China Study. 

Most importantly and above all else, if you decide to continue drinking coffee, please buy organic, and either drink it black, or us non-dairy alternatives instead of dairy. Also, if you can, stay away from using refined sugars to sweeten your coffee. You could use something like maple syrup as an alternative. It may take some getting used to, but in general you will be healthier over all by making this change. 

For those of you that are willing to consider giving up coffee. I have two hot beverages that have replaced coffee for me. Both of these beverages have also given me something sweet that I can make myself when those sugar cravings hit, and it doesn't effect my immune system. 

The first drink that I absolutely love is referred to as a "Golden Milk" or is sometimes also referred to as a "Turmeric Latte". This is my favorite recipe. It's sweetened with dates and every time I have made it, it has been delicious. However, I do recommend a few tricks.  First of all, if you soak the dates they blend much better and you won't have any chunks. If you use fresh ginger, use a strainer to get any pieces out, other wise just use ground ginger. Using organic ingredients is always best if you can. This recipe is also good if you like vanilla. 

The other option I have found as a great substitute for that hot beverage in the morning, is a rich cup of healthy hot chocolate. My favorite recipe is called a Raw Hot Chocolate, but there are many others. I recommend soaking the dates and cashews for a bit before blending. The recipe makes kind of a chocolate paste, so you have to use a spatula to scrape it into the cup and then cover with hot water. I add a mushroom blend to mine to make it even healthier. I use Terrasoul Organic Cacao and sometimes I buy the fermented cacao nibs and grind them myself. It adds an interesting flavor. 

These are my go to drinks, but there are many options, like organic herbal teas, steamed non dairy milks with your choice of spices, Mexican Hot Chocolate, you name it. So, although I'm not here to tell you to give up coffee, I hope you at least take into consideration the effects of chemicals, pesticides, sugar, and caffeine on your body and take precautions to limit the amount of these things that you take in. 

Sources:

https://maxliving.com/healthy-articles/how-sugar-affects-your-immune-system

http://www.hungryforchange.tv/article/10-reasons-to-quit-coffee-plus-healthy-alternatives

https://www.idausa.org/campaign/farmed-animal/latest-news/weve-just-dropped-60-massive-billboards-across-los-angeles-exposing-the-dairy-industry/?gclid=CjwKCAiAsIDxBRAsEiwAV76N82xlU4RXjAlT3EpVVswSPUV3lDLl4BT-wLVLXUIZpmoxgyURYLhAEhoCpfUQAvD_BwE

https://www.shortform.com/summary/the-china-study-summary-t-colin-campbell?gclid=CjwKCAiAsIDxBRAsEiwAV76N8xUWxpz-cQHlWQ76gskveqqMAbgMQWIaUnzujWNjYTpJ8legoaGynhoCq1YQAvD_BwE

https://www.nestandglow.com/healthy-recipes/raw-dairy-free-hot-chocolate-recipe

https://cleanfooddirtygirl.com/i-have-no-interest-in-cleansing-your-energy-turmeric-vanilla-latte/

https://www.fitmittenkitchen.com/medjool-date-golden-milk-turmeric-latte/

Pesticides and Chemicals in Nuts and Nut Milks

As a cancer and chemo survivor. It has become very important to me to make sure that what I put into my body is of the purest form, with the least amount of chemicals, toxins, pesticides, etc. I learn more about this every day and recently I started to do research on the process of nuts. The reason for this, is that I started to make recipes that require a lot of nuts, not to mention, both my husband and I ingest nut milks every day. The day I started my research was a day that someone on social media had mentioned that my favorite nut milk brand was not organic. Now, at first this didn't seem to bother me and I'm not sure why. 


The brand that I had fallen in love with is a brand called Elmhurst. The reason why I fell in love with the brand is that they have more than just one kind of nut milk. We had been drinking almond milk only for a while and I was excited to try other milks. The other reason I liked this product was that, by using a different method of extracting the milk/nutrients of the nut, they are able to get a creamier consistency with more nutrients than other nut milks. So I guess I kind of figured that the extra nutrients for the nuts made up for the fact that this product is not, in fact, organic. Plus the flavor of these milks is fantastic and they don't use any fillers or thickeners. They use two ingredients, water and nuts. There is a lot of good to say about these milks, but how important is organic vs fillers? (I contacted Elmhurst to ask if they planned on moving to organic any time soon, and they said no.)

If you can find an organic milk, made with organic nuts, would it be healthier because you are subjected to less toxins and chemicals going this route? The other option is buying organic and still having to deal with the fillers and thickeners and watch out for added salts, sugars and oils. So after doing some reading and digging. (I share all my sources at the bottom of the blog.) I realized that the nuts and seeds that are usually used for milks are highly processed with chemical and pesticides, including our precious almonds and many others. So after realizing this, I also looked into common thickeners and fillers found in nut milks, one article points out all of the common ones and what they are and how good/bad they are for us. They specifically mention a

controversial thickener called Carrageenan (comes from a red seaweed plant, pictured to the left) which was linked to cancer. The research isn't extensive on this, so it's hard to say, but at this point, if anything says it's linked to cancer, it's out for me. Lots of companies have been taking this thickener out of things, I've been seeing it less and less often which is good, but you HAVE to pay attention to ingredients labels. 

My conclusion after doing this research is that it is safer to consume a certified organic nut milk rather than drinking a milk that may be more nutrient rich. The antioxidants provided by nuts, isn't enough to veto the amount of pesticides and chemicals you are putting in your body by consuming the milk. However, if you drank it in tiny quantities along with a lot of other healthy antioxidant rich foods, your body might be able to overhaul the chemicals and pesticides you are taking in. Since I drink Golden Milk almost daily. I need a quality nut or seed milk that doesn't add any unneeded or unwanted things to my body that make it harder for it to operate. 

The absolute best option, although, can be time consuming and require certain kitchen gadgets is to make your own organic nut and seed milks at home. I've been doing research on this as well and trying to find the best nut and seed milks that won't break the bank, but are also easy to make. Below you find a link to a site that gives you recipes for 3 seed milks, it does mention needing a high speed blender to break up the seeds though. Otherwise you might need to soak the seeds so they break up easier. 

Making your own seed milks.

Making your own almond milk.

Making your own nut milk.

I've also heard about this machine called the Almond Cow. Have

you heard of it? It's been all over social media. I heard it can make milks out of any nuts, not just almonds, and without the straining. The problem is, it's a $200.00 investment. So it would just depend how much you want to invest on making your own organic nut milks. I also found similar items on amazon for half the price. So you might be able to try one of those instead, or if you already have a high speed blender, like me, maybe try out the organic seed milks first, especially since some seeds will be cheaper than nuts making them a more financially stable source. 

Sources:

https://www.ehow.com/list_5796861_list-seeds-should-buy-organically.html

https://nutritiouslife.com/drink-up/common-nut-milk-additives/

https://almondcow.co/products/almond-cow-milk-machine?gclid=Cj0KCQiA0ZHwBRCRARIsAK0Tr-qo7hA0sNjqjsyP6RURfertHEbyT334RCMptEaGke8JrrjHjs4-u3IaAvyUEALw_wcB

https://elmhurst1925.com/?cawelaid=120338840000000119&catrk=spfid-1&caagid=44624726075&catci=kwd-330261232039&capcid=203254575748&cadevice=c&gclid=Cj0KCQiA0ZHwBRCRARIsAK0Tr-qaLNfOD1B4NlQEjCQkiGISGvQkYB8L35kA1CDai9lyCEF-2nHFwlAaAsKrEALw_wcB

https://www.worldwellnesseducation.org/nuts-and-seeds/

https://nuts.com/tag/raw?query=hemp&refinementList%5BProduct.facets.value%5D%5B0%5D=raw

What to do About Holiday Cravings

I wanted to start a conversation about Holiday Cravings. Whatever you celebrate, there are always lots of treats available around this time of year. For those of us that try to remain health conscious for whatever reason, whether it be that we are currently fighting disease, or whether we just want to feel good and treat our bodies well, even around the holidays, this can be a really challenging time for a lot of people. 

I don't know about you, but my cravings have been through

the roof lately for sweets and salty treats. When I think about the upcoming family holiday get togethers, I get nervous that I won't be able to resist some of the treats that will very likely be laid out for everyone to enjoy. Now, I have a stronger motivation than some, since I am currently dealing with cancer, but even so, I am still struggling like I am sure everyone is around this time of year. 

So, what can we do to solve this. First of all, let's talk about what we can do at home. Around this time of year, I just want to bake and I want to bake sugary treats to snack on during the day and I want comfort foods as well. I think part of the reason for this is that it's cold outside and my body craves sustenance. But I don't need to fill my body with crap to get sustenance, I just need to fill my house with the right kinds of foods so that I'm not tempted to eat a bunch of junk. 

My Solution: I start every morning with a celery juice. This is part of my plan to heal myself. I don't expect everyone to jump on board with that, but I feel amazing after ingesting this and I let it get through my system before eating anything else, which takes about 30 minutes. 

After that I have a big detox smoothie. You can put whatever

you want in your smoothie, but if you are curious, I put 1 banana, a cup of mixed berries, a cup of wild blueberries, 1 cup of chaga tea (brewed with cinnamon and cloves), chaga extract powder, SuperGreen powder from Superyou.com, chia seeds, flax seeds. I use a nutribullet to blend it all up and drink that. It usually keeps me full and satiated for 1-2 hours. 

So here is my trick for the rest of the day, because I feel like my cravings really start to hit once my smoothie is through my system and I'm ready for more food. It is important to have things in your house that you can snack on. For me what has been really helpful is having home made whole food plant based burgers pre-made and frozen in the fridge. I'm not huge on bread, so what I have been doing is heating a burger in a pan and then eating it with greens and homemade Whole Food Plant Based mayo and mixed greens. Not only is this healthy, but it also is very satiating. it keeps me full until lunchtime easily. The following link is the burger I've been making. it does take some prep time, but makes about 4-5 burger patties which lasts the whole week and it's very flavorful and tasty, however you can use any WFPB recipe that you want.  Whole Food Plant Based Burger Recipe The following is a recipe for some mayo. I enjoy the flavor, but I will admit, it doesn't taste like traditional mayo. It works great for this purpose though. Whole Food Plant Based Mayo Recipe.

For Lunch, I always make sure I have my favorite salad stuff around. I like to try to eat raw most of the day and having my favorite salad items along with a yummy homemade dressing makes it easy to eat a healthy lunch. My favorite salad fixings are mixed greens, spinach, cucumber, avocado, beets, carrots, cabbage, and sprouts (whatever I can find at whole foods). For the dressings there are many options. I usually make a Tahini dressing with apple cider vinegar, Tahini, coconut aminos, garlic, turmeric, salt, pepper, and oregano. The following link is for a ranch dressing as well. Whole Food Plant Based Ranch Dressing

Meal planning is really important too! Not only can you pick

meals that you love, or that you've always wanted to try, but this ensures that all of your meals stay within the confines of your healthy diet. For dinner, I like cooked food, especially since it's winter, and my husband and I always enjoy our dinners because I carefully plan yummy meals that are whole food plant based, full of nutrition, but also delicious. I change the menu up every week so we don't get bored. If you are interested in meal planning, I strongly recommend using Pinterest. Just search for Whole Food Plant Based No Oil recipes and tons will come up! 

Okay, so also, at home. It's really important to stock your fridge, fruit bowl, and counter tops with healthy snacks. My husband loves to have things like hummus and veggies prepped in the fridge. We also like to make crackers and chips in our dehydrator to have around to munch on and I like to have my favorite fruits to snack on. Lately it's been honey crisp apples and mandarin oranges. My favorite fruits change by season. I also try to have some sort of baked good on hand. Lately I've been practicing making some healthy muffins that are also gluten free. Here are a couple of the recipes I have tried Lemon Blueberry Muffins and Chunky Monkey Muffins so far. I added more lemon and more applesauce to the blueberry muffins as well as extra blueberries. They have to be eaten rather quickly though, otherwise they get moldy, but they are delicious! Just eat them within 3 days. The Chunky Monkey recipe, I'm still working on. They turned out really dry. I will let you know if I come up with a good way to moisten them up. The point being, that having these treats on board and on your counter makes it so much easier to avoid eating bad foods at home. Especially if you just don't allow them in your house. 

A personal anecdote: The other day, I was waiting for my husband to get home to eat dinner, and normally, I'd start getting crabby because I'd be hungry and he would be late. He always says I can eat without him, but I try to avoid that when I can. So the other night when he was running late, I ended up eating a couple seed crackers and a mandarin orange and this happily satiated me so I could patiently for my husband to get home. It's just simple things like having your favorite fruits, veggies, muffins, cookies or snacks around that are healthy and easily available to you. 

One healthy treat I love to make that is super easy are these Banana Chocolate Chip Oat cookies. The only ingredients are mashed banana, Rolled Oats, Vegan Sugar Free Chocolate chips (I use Lily's Brand) and Cinnamon. Throw all the ingredients together and then bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes. They are great for snacking. I also enjoy a Turmeric Latte as an after dinner snack sometimes. The warm plant milk usually fills my tummy so I don't feel like I need anything else the rest of the night, plus it helps me sleep. 

Okay, So now let's dig into the most difficult part of the

holidays. Going to those family holiday gatherings can be tough, especially when your family does not eat the way you do. So, as frustrating as it might be to do so. You just have to plan on providing your own treats. What I mean by this is anything that you would normally crave or want to eat at a holiday gathering, think ahead and make something similar that still follows your healthy diet. For example, If your family does a breakfast every year that is stuffed with dairy, eggs, or sugar. Think about what you could bring that would satiate you. For example, this year, I plan on bringing a delicious Tofu Scramble for breakfast, some sort of Whole food plant-based cookie, or dessert  and for lunch time I'm planning on bringing a big crockpot of homemade BBQ jackfruit and some buns to make sandwiches. I'm also making a macaroni salad. These things will keep me happy and satiated and I won't want or crave the other items that will be around that are full of bad things for my body like sugars and oils. 

It takes some planning and prepping, but if you choose items that can be made in advance and heated up the day of, it makes things so much easier. Most of the things I have planned this year can be made in advance when I have the energy. The items listed above for Christmas day will all be made the day before, except the tofu scramble which I will make the morning of and heat up at my sister's house. Just plan accordingly and you will be just fine! 

If you have questions or need ideas for recipes, feel free to hit me up in the comments and I'll be happy to respond. Enjoy your holidays and Good luck beating those holiday cravings! 

Plant Based Thanksgiving Successes and Failures!

As you all know! I'm in love with Pinterest for recipes! I had 3 Thanksgivings this year and I utilized Pinterest for my recipes. I have linked all used recipes below if you are interested in trying any of them!

My Mom and I hosted a plant-based Thanksgiving the Sunday prior. We did a Veggie Loaf, by Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures. This was probably the biggest success! Great flavor! Re-heated well for leftovers and it was so delicious. We also had a Pumpkin Pasta by Forks over knives. This dish flopped, the reason for the failure was because I tried a new gluten free pasta and it ended up being mush. The flavor profile also wasn't the greatest. The one thing I liked about this dish vs other pumpkin pastas I had tried was that it had carrots and asparagus added for more texture. I'm not sure I would make this specific dish again, but I love the idea of adding the carrots and asparagus for more veggies. We also did a Rice Pilaf dish. It was okay. I don't think I'd make it again, but it was made much better by the Mushroom Gravy that we made by Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures! It was sooo good! My husband is still raving about it! Gravy is so important for Thanksgiving as it just adds to all the foods. We also made this amazing Cranberry Sauce! We used it for all 3 Thanksgivings and everyone loved it! Best thing about it! It's sugar free! Lastly, but not leastly, we made Scalloped Potatoes. I thought these were pretty good. My Mom thinks that we should make them again, but add Rosemary and Thyme and of course they were made even better with the amazing Mushroom Gravy we made. All in all, the food was eaten. The winners were the Veggie Loaf, Cranberry Sauce, and the Mushroom Gravy!

Thanksgiving #2 was hosted by my lovely sister. This was not plant-based, so I brought two lovely dishes so I had some food to eat. They were both absolutely delicious. My Mom was also nice enough to bring some delicious green beans with almonds that I could eat as well. The dishes I brought were a Fall Harvest Salad with a Maple Tahini Dressing. Not only was it just a beautiful salad, but it was absolutely delicious. The dressing is creamy and thick and the roasted brussel sprouts, squash, and beets just made it extra delicious. I also made a Spaghetti Pie by Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures and it was so delicious. By the time it was done though, everyone had already filled up on other foods. My husband and uncle tried it and both liked it and I saved some small servings for my sister so she could try it later. It was better fresh, but to reheat it we added more vegetable broth to it and sort of stewed it for a while until it was hot and it tasted really good! I would definitely make it again!

Thanksgiving #3 was hosted by my mother-in-law Cheryl. It was also not plant-based, so I brought some very simple Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, a very simple Vegan Gravy, Leftover Harvest Salad, and a rainbow salad of my own design along with a Tahini Dressing. The rainbow salad consisted of spinach, cruciferous crunch salad mix, red pepper, carrots, yellow pepper, cucumber, blueberries, and purple cabbage. The garlic mashed potatoes turned out very bland, I was kind of surprised since there were two heads of garlic in there. I don't think I'd use that recipe again, they really needed more flavor. However, as always the gravy saved them. So I'm very glad that I made a good amount of gravy because I covered all my food in it. My Mother-in-law made a rice pilaf dish with carrots, mushrooms and wild rice and it was really delicious. It was made more delicious by my gravy!

All in all it was a great Thanksgiving week with lots of love and family! I'm lucky to have such supportive family that support my dietary choices and don't give me any grief about it.

Leftover Thanksgiving! So I had to share, I made my first plant-based Thanksgiving Leftover Sandwich and I even took a photo. It's not pretty, but was it delicious! YES! So, the ingredients were leftover veggie loaf re-heated in the oven, garlic mashed potatoes, leftover rice pilaf, a bit of gravy, cranberry sauce, and homemade vegan mayo. The bread is an organic and sugar free bread by a company that I support called Happy Campers. They make healthy, organic, and gluten free breads! And it is also delicious. This is their Hemp Hooray bread.

I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings with your families!

Curried Broccoli Chickpea Salad

This salad is delicious, raw and wonderful. It is the perfect salad for

summer parties or BBQs. The recipe doesn't have apples or peppers in it, but I always add peppers and have considered adding apples. 

If you decide to add a bunch of extra veggies or fruits to the salad. I would recommend making more the of the sauce to make sure that everything gets covered in the delicious sauce.

This has become one of my favorite staples and favorite summer dishes. I give it 5 stars for taste, texture, and look. This is a salad that I crave and this summer, I see it joining us for many events and appearing many times on our dinner table. 

If you decide to add peppers or apples, I would suggest making them about the size of the other veggies in the bowl. I made the mistake of cutting the peppers into kind of big pieces which didn't quite go along with the texture of the salad. 

My favorite part of this salad is how colorful it is. It is often said that to be healthy, eat the rainbow. Well this salad has many colors in it. It could almost be called a rainbow salad. :) 

Try this wonderful recipe, by clicking here.