Feta Cheeze for Amanda Pleeze

Lately, my cheese gone vegan addiction has hit the highest of highs. I know, it's bad, but sauces, soups, and condiments are my favorite things to recreate, because they can make any food taste amazing! I was instantly inspired to create something vegan after going to see "Vegucated" at our student union, the Hub. This one I have been wanting to do for awhile, considering the fact that if I liked any cheese, it was feta. And to top off this little story, feta is one of my closest friends' favorite cheese (she basically studied abroad at Greece for it!). So here ya go Amanda, not only does this taste better than feta, but it's sooooooo much cheesier. #Supersmashclub

Feta Cheeze

1 block x-tra firm tofu

2 T filtered water

1 teaspoon Himalayan Sea Salt

2 Tablespoons White Miso Paste

2 teaspoons Herbes De Provence (My favorite!)

1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar

Juice of 1 Lemon

1 1/2 T Nutritional Yeast

1) Crumble tofu in a mixing bowl

2) Pour in all the other ingredients except your nutritional yeast

3) "Fold" - or mix all your ingredients together until it is coating your tofu crumbles

4) Let it sit for 15 minutes, then sprinkle on nutritional yeast to your desired consistency.

Ed weeks- If you see my blog, please find me and marry me. 

Raw Taco Boats

Happy Friday everybody! I'm going to have to make this short and sweet because this weekend Bill and I have off so we are going to visit his family. And it's also Friday and beautiful out and Nascar weekend so we need to head out asap! 

Bill had a half day of work, and wanted me to make him some grub before we headed out. Usually when he goes out of his way to ask me to make food, it usually means that he doesn't want a fried, fatty, processed food filled with meat and gluten. So I instantly hopped on this opportunity to make us a light little lunch! 

Recently, I've been fascinated with the Raw Food Diet, and I've been testing out a few recipes here and there to see how it is, and it's not bad at all! However, my current arch enemy has to be potato chips, because they are everywhere in my house and I can't get enough of them !

This recipe was inspired by a post in the blog Pickles n Honey - with my little twist to things!

Raw Taco Boats

Serves 2

1 cup chopped walnuts

2 Tablespoons Chili Powder (I use mexican chili powder)

1 Tablespoon Cumin

2 Tablespoons Namashayo Coconut Aminos

6 Vine-Ripe tomatoes, sliced 

White of 1 scallion, sliced

1/4 cup carrots, sliced

2 handfuls bean sprouts

2 romaine heart lettuce leaves

Mix walnuts, Chili Powder, Cumin and Coconut Aminos together and set aside

To set up: place your walnut mixture, scallions, carrots, tomatoes and bean sprouts in your lettuce boat 

Rockstars interpretation of Downward Dog :D

Maple Quinoa Granola Crunch

Early morning, early breakfast! Iggy has a very strict morning schedule (trust me- I didn't make this one up), which includes

9AM- Iggy wakes up and is all sweet and nice, grabs a bite for breakfast, and takes his morning dump

9:30AM- Iggy wants to play, so I have to wake up and play

10 or 10:30AM- Iggy goes back to sleep

Then he sleeps until probably 12ish and is back at the normal ritual of play, sleep, play, sleep. But this morning, Iggy was all about playing by 9AM. He woke up and did his morning rituals in 10 minutes and was ready to play by 9:15! So at 10AM I put on some Will&Grace and was ready to start my day of studying...after my morning rituals of watching Will&Grace, blogging, looking up recipes, and make a mental schedule of what lies ahead for my day (this is while Iggy is taking his nap). I sound like a crazy cat lady mother, but I love my Iggy Smalls!

annywayyyssss, back to being normal: I LOVE granola crunch on my yogurt, but unfortunately my stomach cannot handle oats very well and I've had to cut out yummy, delicious oatmeal and granola :[. But just last Thursday, I was watching Sweet Genius on TV and they had Quinoa as the secret ingredient. Personally, I don't like eating cooked Quinoa. It's taste is too grainy and awkward on the palette. But, on Sweet Genius they baked their Quinoa and sprinkled it on top of their cakes so it gave a crunch and made it look so beautiful! Therefore, I decided to take up the challenge and zazzy it up a bit. So friends, I give you and awesome alternative to Granola that is AWESOMER than the real thang. 

Maple Quinoa Granola Crunch

Yields about 1/2 Jar

1 Cup Quinoa (I used Rainbow Quinoa)

1/2 Cup Walnuts

2 Tablespoons Chia Seeds, or Flax Seeds (I used chia so they go with the Quinoa)

2 Tablespoons of Maple Syrup, Agave Nectar, or Honey (I used Maple!)

1/2 Tablespoon Canola Oil or Coconut Oil

1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F and spray a baking sheet with cooking spray
2. Rinse your Quinoa in a fine mesh strainer several times! (It really makes a difference, it'll taste too grainy if you don't)
3. Drain and pat dry with a paper towel
4. In a medium bowl, mix together all the ingredients
5. Spread your mixture over the baking sheet and make sure it is rather even
6. Bake for 13-15 minutes, shaking the baking sheet every 5 minutes. 
7. Top it on yogurt, or if you have any other ideas post them on here!

Also, if you have any recipes you want to be gluten-free, vegan, or just want a recipe that you havent seen on here, let me know- shoot me an e-mail (aml5503@psu.edu) or just comment on my blog! 

Mini Waffle Sammiches!

The stress of finals is killin me!! I'm done my junior year Thursday, but I have 4 finals that are in my way! ahhh!! So close, yet so far! I'm gonna make this post really short, simple and to the point- to make these get a waffle mix- I love King Arthur's! Follow the directions, substitute eggs and milk as such ( I still love the flax eggs for these!) And make these the mini ones if you could! You'll be saving calories! Trust me! Especially if you load up on your fruits! Happy mornings, now on to studying for finals WAH :[

The Veganish Diet

My favorite?! Yogurt with a plethora of fruits and then drizzled with agave syrup! Topped with toasted walnuts as well! My doctor told me that since my gluten intolerance is very sensitive (I can't eat oats :[) I should try to incorporate some type of non-fat dairy...so I told him the only thing I will probably eat is non-fat greek yogurt and he said this would be enough. My doctor is very worried of my limited diet, and he told me I'm beginning to lose weight again and is concerned. So I told him I'll go on a vegan-ish diet- A vegan diet with occasional cheats- as in yogurt, fish and eggs :P. My iron deficiency anemia is really low (I registered like 2mg when the recommended is 11mg). But yeah, so yogurt, and rearely fish and eggs are probably the only things I'll ever cheat on. Cheese? eww, no. I'm excited about eating yogurt because I miss that so much! Soy yogurt and other non-dairy yogurts tasted kinda gross if they weren't in smoothies, and sometimes eating soy all day can be kind've weird (lawlz). But here are some really awesome combinations to pair with your yogurt!

Yogurt with:

-Strawberries, bananas, blueberries, and pecans

-Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries

-Mangoes, bananas, pineapple and walnuts

-granola mix with yogurt

-Blueberries, blackberries, bananas, mangoes, walnuts and almonds (Picture above :])

-Goji berries, walnuts, bananas, strawberries, and sprinkle so cocoa powder

-SO MANY MORE! But these are my favorite :]

What are your favorite breakfast ideas!