Broke Bean Stew and Ambrosia Salad

Today's dinner was fabulous! I tried two new recipes. One I got from PCRM's 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, and the other one came from The Biggest Loser website. Broke Bean Stew is super healthy, super easy, and super tasty! Be forewarned though - if you use the amount red pepper flakes that it calls for, it will be SPICY! I didn't put in what it called for, and it was still spicy. It was perfect for me, and my older two daughters liked it, too. Everyone else thought it was too spicy, so I'll have to tame that down next time. :) I put extra spinach in the bottom of my bowl then ladled on the soup.

The ambrosia salad was simple, but it was really tasty! Everyone loved it. Here is the video about how to make it:


The rest of the day's food looked like this:
Breakfast - a Lara bar and a green smoothie
Lunch - a veggie/tofu stir fry with brown rice and a green salad with peanut dressing (my son and I had a day out today, so we went to Thai Basil for lunch)
Snack - a square of dark chocolate - yum!

Curried Lentil Soup and Buckwheat Blueberry Pancakes

I was going to try and blog for each day of the 21-Day Kickstart, but I keep forgetting! Yesterday's food consisted of:
Breakfast - green smoothie
Lunch - Curried Lentil Soup and leftover Peanut Noodle Salad (pictured above)
Dinner - Curried Lentil Soup, carrots/celery with guacamole

I tried this recipe Curried Lentil Soup yesterday, and I LOVED it! I changed it up a bit to make it gluten free. I added two less cups of broth, cooked some quinoa and added that at the end of the cooking. This recipe is fantastic, and I highly recommend it!

Today, I had a choir retreat, so it was a potluck. I made the Peanut Noodle Salad recipe to take. For breakfast I made Buckwheat Blueberry Pancakes. This is another recipe that is a big WIN! These are gluten free and delicious. They are very Southern, and well, being Southern, I LOVE them!

Lunch was potluck, but I stuck with Peanut Noodle Salad, a dish my friend made with brown rice, black beans and some chopped up veggies with some salsa on top, and a few grapes.

I had a snack of a Lara bar and dinner was a soy yogurt with granola.

Peanut Noodle Salad

Today is Day 4 of PCRM's 21-Day Vegan Kickstart. I forgot to post yesterday. I didn't try any new recipes, but I wanted to post what I ate anyway. So, here's what I had: breakfast - green smoothie and yogurt with granola; lunch - tomato and fresh basil with rice crackers, hummus/salsa with carrots, and oranges wedges; snack - Clif crunch bar; dinner - leftover Southern beans and greens

Today has been: breakfast - green smoothie; lunch - Southern beans and greens, salsa/hummus with rice crackers, and salad; dinner - Peanut Noodle Salad and roasted potatoes.

The Peanut Noodle Salad was the latest recipe that I've tried from Vegan on the Cheap. This one was a big win! Everyone loved it. I got thumbs up all around. It was easy, cheap, and healthy! I did things a little differently. I used wide rice noodles instead of linguine and Bragg Liquid Aminos instead of soy sauce to make it gluten free. I didn't bake the tofu. I put a little oil in a pan and cooked the tofu with some Bragg. I didn't put in red pepper because when I pulled mine out it was going bad. Oops. The recipe was great! I highly recommend it.

Southern Beans and Greens

Today is day 2 of PCRM's 21-Day Vegan Kickstart. Today I made Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal. It was pretty good. I think it would be better with a banana cut up in it and maybe some nuts. I'm going to try it again. I also made a green-ish (ran low on greens!) smoothie. Lunch was a Clif Builder Bar (peanut butter/chocolate - yum!), an orange, and a tofu spring roll with peanut sauce.

For dinner, we had leftover of the Hoppin' John Salad, which after eating twice, I have decided I don't like. We also had hummus/salsa and tortilla chips and Southern Beans and Greens. I put garbanzo beans in the slow cooker today (with kelp). Tonight I made the recipe with those beans with a cup of the cooking water with some veggie broth powder. Oh my goodness! It was fantastic! I did not put in Tabasco sauce because it is gross, but I did put Cholula on it. It was so delicious! I will be making a pot of this to portion out to take to school with me. I had seconds. I highly recommend this recipe. Next time I will also put in more greens than I did tonight. I didn't measure; I just used the bunch of kale that I bought at Whole Foods. I forgot to take a picture of my plate, so here's a picture of leftovers in the pot. :)

Hoppin' John Salad

Today was the first day of PCRM's 21-Day Vegan Kickstart. I did not make the oatmeal that they had on their website, but I do plan on making it tomorrow! I made these: Gluten-free Pancakes with blueberries and a green smoothie. Yum!

For dinner, I made the Hoppin' John Salad on their website. It was okay. It was a little too lemony. If I make it again, next time I will add more tomatoes, less lemon juice, and more salt. I added pepper as well. I served it over spinach. We had salsa/hummus with tortilla chips with it. Decent dinner. Since it was family game night, we had popcorn with Bragg Liquid Aminos and nooch for a snack! Here is the video about the salad.

Jabchai

This is kind of an odd post, but we really like this dish. It just comes off the back of a Korean vermicelli package. We enjoy the vermicelli. It is made from sweet potato starch, and I tease the kids that they're worms! Yep, that's how we roll here at Chateau Chaos!!! :)

I cook the vermicelli according to the directions, then drain it. The directions on the back of the package call for meat, but we use tofu. We fry that up with some Bragg. I also stir fry an onion. When those are done I dump in the sauce which is:
2 tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos
3 1/2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp sesame oil
roasted sesame seeds (I use about 3-4 tbsp)
black pepper (I just dump in whatever I feel like! Helpful, no?)

After the sauce is mixed in, I dump the noodles in, and then put 1/2 pounds of spinach in. Turn off the heat and mix until the spinach is wilted. I also cook up some baby bellas in olive oil, lemon juice, and black pepper to put in mine.

That's it! Pretty simple, vegan, gluten free, and pretty healthy!

Moroccan-Inspired Lentil Soup

Tonight I made Moroccan-Inspired Lentil Soup out of Vegan on the Cheap. I really liked it, and it smelled incredibly fabulous cooking! I cooked some quinoa and put the soup (really more like a stew) over it. I am usually leery of dried fruit or fruit juice in savory dishes, but I was feeling adventurous. :) The dish is super healthy. It's filled with lentils, vegetables, and spices as well as dried fruit (I used raisins), fresh parsley, and a small amount of lemon juice. I, having seven people to feed, made more than what was called for, but I still have lots of leftovers. I know what the kids are having for lunch tomorrow! This dish makes a lot. My husband enjoyed it as well as my oldest daughter. The younger kids ate it, but I don't think they were as crazy about it. They didn't complain about it though, so that's good because they're going to get it again! This recipe is definitely a keeper. So far, I am liking this book.