Category Archives: detox
VeganSistah’s Vegan Meal Plan
There are so many places popping up that offer vegan meal plans. Some of them are reasonable, while others are quite unreasonable. I’ve realized that following a vegan diet can be a real budget buster if you’re not careful. I recently realized that with a little time, creativity & patience I could create my own personal vegan meal plan. The great thing about creating my own dishes is that I can make any combination I choose each day.
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My personal plan doesn’t cover three meals a day, but it’s definitely a sufficient start. I got some unbelievable inspiration & cooking creativity and decided to make a few dishes for the week that I thought I’d share with you guys. It really didn’t take me long at all so I am dedicating Sunday evenings to making a few dishes for the weeks.
Here are the ones I made for last week:
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These were so easy to make and very economical. Some prepared meals are exactly what i need for my busy lifestyle. In fact, this was way too much food for me. It really didn't seem like much food for a week, but i combine it a few other things like green smoothies & salads so i decided to freeze some of it. I think I need to find some special vegan friends to share my creations with….it's time for me to start hosting some vegan dining events or something similar to share all of the food.
Grilled Zucchini Tacos
I have discovered a new entrée that has become one of my favorite vegan dishes – zucchini tacos!A fellow vegan discovered a mexican restaurant in Evanston, Austin Tacos, and we were excited to see VEGAN TACOS on the menu. Now unlike many places that use some type of faux meat product filled with soy or wheat gluten, this play used all veggies. Awesome! They were quite tasty. In fact, I went a few weeks later to taste and see how I can make them my on. My zucchini tacos were quite different from Austin Tacos, but I think they taste even better because I made with just the ingredients I like. Here are a list of ingredients I used:
- zucchini
- onions
- jalapeno
- onions
- red & green peppers
- black beans
- smoked corn salsa (left over from the Baked Mexican Pasta Dish)
- green onions
- corn tortillas
- cabbage slaw
I made the corn tortillas in my new special pan that I bought just for this purpose – I admit that I love tacos!
I like this pan because I do not have to make one tortilla at a time. Oh yeah! I then grilled the zucchini in my cast iron grill skillet by adding a little EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). This is where the goodness really starts.
While the zucchini was grilling. I combined some left over black beans, grilled onions & peppers, corn salsa and brown rice to add as a topping with diced jalapeno.
I like spicy food so I added some fresh diced jalapeno, I tossed in some fresh cilantro, added a little cabbage slaw and guacamole on the side for crunch. I had never tried this before, but I think this is one of the tastiest creations that I have tried thus far while transitioning to a vegan lifestyle.
This was way too much food for me to eat in one sitting!!! I am pleasantly pleased by how I am eating less and less now that I am eating better. It’s amazing how satisfied you feel when you give your body what it needs. If I had participated in the VIRTUAL VEGAN POTLUCK on May 12th, this is the dish that I intended to include. Be creative when you are making vegan dishes…..I’m learning that this is part of the fun (and motivation) for continuing on my journey no matter how many ups and downs I experience.
Think Out the Box When Choosing Your Cereal (Unprocessed Cereal Recipe)
This morning I decided to share a wonderful cereal recipe. I obtained this recipe in the nutrition class for my marathon training session with the Elijah Running Club. This recipe is wonderful, quick to make and you have the liberty of creating it anyway you like it. It takes only a few minutes and its good enough for a breakfast cereal or midday snack. Bonus is that my daughter loves it too!
INGREDIENTS:
Diced honeydew melons
Diced Pineapples
Diced Granny Smith Apples
Sliced Straw berries
Bunch of green grapes
(I’ve also added cantaloupe, blueberries, raspberries, etc in the past)
Lots of Cinnamon
Agave nectar (really just a small amount depending on how much you make)
Walnuts and/or Pecan
Non-Dairy Milk (I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk, but I may try coconut milk this week)
Clean Cereal Ingredients (except Non-Dairy Milk)
INSTRUCTIONS:
1st – Mix all of the fruits and nuts together in a bowl
2nd – Drizzle a small amount of agave nectar on the top and add a liberal amount of cinnamon
Gotta Love Cinnamon!
3rd – Mixed all the ingredients together and eat alone or with non-dairy milk
This recipe is delicious! If you buy the fruit already diced this should take you 2-3 minutes to make. Enjoy!!
22 lbs Lighter & Feeling Great!!!!
I decided to make a lifestyle change when I decided to embrace veganism & hit the gym more consistently. I know that there are many people who embrace veganism because they are animal rights activist. That is fine. However, there are more and more people are embracing this lifestyle because of the health benefits. Many people are virtually forced into this lifestyle due to sickness and disease while others are simply fed up with taking so many meds. Whatever you reason in it doesn’t matter is you follow a vegan diet once a week, 1 meal a day, 2 weeks or month or transition your entire nutrition lifestyle, studies show that many people can benefit from following a plant-based diet to some capacity. I realize that this process is a personal journey. Some people who have been vegan for years some how forget that process of change in the beginning and that irritates me. There are also some people may wake up one they and immediately change their diets, not everyone is like that. We cannot let people put us in a box because we don’t do what they do in the manner that they did it. I know they have good intentions, but one of th best things someone can do is to simply encourage a person to embrace change one day at a time according to their personal life steps. I have not followed this lifestyle perfectly, but honestly January 2011 I wasn’t thinking about being a vegan. However, I am doing it quite well in 2012 and I’ve lost a few pounds to boot 
I Created My First and the BEST Mock Tuna Salad
I have tried mock tuna salad at two or three vegan locations. The last time I tried it was in the cafe at Kramer’s. It was on of the best I had, but it’s only made for sandwiches (and I didn’t want that). I convinced Rachel, the creator of this creation, to make me a small container to purchase. Rachel kindly agreed to my request, but she couldn’t promise me that this dish would be available weekly. She made her mock tuna with chick peas the first time I tried it. I visited the cafe again a week later, but she made the mock tuna this time with tofu. I liked the one made with chickpeas better. The flavor was great (it was the only one I tried that have fresh herbs and finely diced veggies), but the consistency was not as thick as I like it. I knew I this dish would be great for lunch or a light snack with crackers. I decided to search for a mock tuna recipe and I found quite a few. I didn’t find anyone recipe that seemed to describe exactly what my taste buds were yearning for. For this reason, I made a list of basic ingredients that appeared in most recipes: chickpeas, veganease (vegan mayo), dulce flakes (or nori) and scallions. I decided to add: jalapeno, diced red onions, diced celery, cilantro, nutritional yeast, HSS and fresh cracked black pepper. I do not care for finely diced veggies so my mock tuna is full of veggie that you can actually see and taste when you bite it!!!!
The top things, not only did I make my first mock tuna salad, I made my first mock tuna sandwich melt!!! I used low-sodium Ezekiel 4.9 bread and Cheddar Veggie Slices. I am extremely happy with the results. I love tons of veggies on my sandwich, as you will see from the photos below, so it didn’t need a lot of mock tuna salad to make a great sandwich. So, I also added cucumber, lettuce and tomato on my sandwich as well. I definitely plan to share this with one of my vegan friends
