Vegan a Week #4

Geez, this week has been kinda busy with work and extracurriculars! I had hoped to post sooner. Anyway, it's hump day and also my vegan day of the week! For breakfast I had a quick cup of coffee and an almond poppy seed muffin from a mix I had that happened to contained no dairy - yay!

For lunch I had my typical salad with my typical dressing, which may sound boring, but I love salads! I had some pretzels and fruit on the side.

For dinner I made another Plated dish. I broke down and ordered a second box because I had a $10 off code for the polar vortex induced late delivery of my first box. This was Andrew's and my least favorite dish so far, even though we both liked it and felt like it was healthy. I made Israeli couscous and kale with za'atar seasoned tempeh and tahini dressing. If it weren't for the freshly squeezed lemon juice on top, I really wouldn't have been able to enjoy this, but that made all the difference. We both felt like there just wasn't a lot of flavor, and I'm not one to add salt so I just dealt with it. But it was still good and actually this was the easiest dish to make so far, which counts for something a lot!!

Doesn't it look fancy?

I've had so much fun making vegan dishes so far this year, but this week I'm really feeling strapped for time which makes it difficult. When I have a little extra time I still need to look into make ahead things like soup and snacks. Keep those recipe suggestions coming!

Easy Vegan Frito Casserole

This one is a throwback (and how can it not be, with a name like Frito casserole). My mom used to make this for us when we were little, only with ground beef. I tweaked the recipe just a bit to make it vegan. I know this sounds silly, but seriously, it's so good!

Ingredients
1 can chili beans
1 can black beans (rinsed & drained)
1 can tomato sauce
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 chopped pepper (red, yellow, or orange)
1/3 cup almond milk
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp chili powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cilantro (optional)
Fritos (lightly salted, if you can find them!)

Optional toppings
avocado
jalapenos
cheese
sour cream

Now all you need to do is combine all the ingredients in a big bowl until mixed...

And then transfer to your 1.5 quart round casserole dish...

Top with however many Fritos you feel like topping with, and cook for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

After patiently waiting half an hour, add a few toppings and enjoy!

Note: The dish on the left does have dairy cheese on it - but mine on the right is sans dairy! One thing I want to try making this year is vegan cheese...intimidating!

What are some of your so-easy-you-can't-believe-it's-vegan favorites?

Plated Review

I'm not a Birchbox gal because I know I would never use random beauty samples up, but I'm definitely intrigued by these custom curated subscription boxes that seem to popping up everywhere. I'll tell you my reviews of Graze and Conscious Box soon, but today I'm kicking it off with Plated!

Plated delivers to you the ingredients to make (at a minimum) two servings of two meals that you choose from the weekly menu. Their chefs create the dishes, and then put together the exact ingredients you need to prepare them - in 30 minutes or less (their words). Through facebook, I signed up with a free first box (just pay the shipping) deal. Since I'm a pescetarian but truly not interested in preparing my own fish, I looked at the vegetarian options. There seem to be three each week, and one was already sold out. I selected the two remaining veggie options and waited for my box to arrive. It's supposed to arrive on Tuesdays, but due to the awful weather, I got an email saying it would instead arrive Wednesday - but that my ingredients would no doubt be as fresh as ever.

Wednesday came and went and I ended up receiving my box late Thursday (like 7pm). Everything seemed to be fresh, although the Swiss chard was a little questionable. It was my first time ever using chard, but I think it was slightly past its peak. No matter, I was still really excited to try out my recipes!

After work on Friday, I started to make the goat cheese and quinoa stuffed Swiss chard, covered in marinara. The instructions were straightforward, with six steps in the process. On the recipe sheet, it said it would take between 30 and 40 minutes.

I first cooked the quinoa, and as that was cooking, chopped up my various veggies and spices to saute. The quinoa, veggies, and goat cheese was mixed together to be stuffed. I blanched (a new term for me) the Swiss chard and then all was ready to roll, literally. I felt like I didn't have a perfect Swiss chard to stuffing ratio, but the stuffing was delicious on its own, so we had the remainder on the side. While stuffing, I did feel like maybe I could have had a better bunch of Swiss chard, as many of the pieces I ended up with had holes (not ideal for holding stuffing) or were small. That is my biggest complaint with this meal.

After I made as many rolls as I could with what I was given, I placed them in a cooking dish and poured the marinara over. According to the recipe, I put them in 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Andrew and I loved the result, though (a couple more complaints) - it took me a little over an hour (not 30-40 minutes), and the rolls weren't very hot, so I would have cooked longer than 15 minutes had I known. I am making my other meal - tofu, cashew, and snow pea stir fry for dinner tonight, so I imagine that will be a bit simpler.

Overall, it was fun to make a new meal without having to go to the store and buy all the ingredients individually. I think the price is probably great if you live in a bigger city, but honestly, if I had paid full price for this shipment, Andrew and I could have gone out to eat somewhere in Grand Rapids and had a pretty nice meal. I was going to order another box for next week, but all three vegetarian options were sold out! I will probably only order from Plated again if there is some sort of discount. EDIT: I ordered another box for next week because I had a $10 off code. I'm a little bit addicted, I guess! Anyway, if you want to try Plated, please use my referral code - we both get two plates if you do!

Have any of you used Plated? What was your experience?

Happy Thanksgiving!

 I went out last night and had one beer, saw the most important person necessary, and took an adorable picture! Andrew and Laura (Colleen's other best friend and one of the sweetest people I have ever met) were there as well, just no pictures of them!

Ellie is the most photogenic girl. I love getting to see her!

Andrew feels the same way about his dog, Heidi. Aww.

The table spread at Andrew's neighbors' house, where we had our first meal of the day. 

 Andrew's plate, not mine. I didn't eat any turkey, and good thing because it makes you tired and I'm about to go shopping! My crazy mother is at Walmart (and so is my dad, but he works there) trying to get a television. I refused to face that madness, so I am waiting until Macy's opens at midnight, then going to Target at 4am (ugh), and Kohl's tomorrow before the good sales end. Craziness!

What was the best part of your Thanksgiving? The weather here was amazing today, so besides the obvious, that was my favorite part! And are you going Black Friday shopping? It's such a shame so many stores opened on Thanksgiving this year. Hopefully next year they can just open at like 8am and then I won't have to give up sleeping! Have a good night, whatever you're doing!

Giveaway with the Shop at Pooh's Corner!

UPDATE: The winner of the giveaway is Breonna. Thank you to everyone for entering and keep Francesca's shop in mind as your being your Christmas shopping!!

With Halloween behind us, everyone has immediately begun focusing on the holiday season! I love Halloween, don't get me wrong, but I am celebrating a new month and another holiday with a giveaway! Francesca from The Shop at Pooh's Corner is offering up a pack of 8 place cards for your Thanksgiving dinner! So adorable! Especially if you can't contribute to the cooking, you'll be able to supply your family with some table decor. To enter, scroll down and leave a comment telling me what your favorite item in Francesca's shop is and make sure to let me know you've done that in the widget! Good luck!

A little about Francesca:
"I'm a short and spunky, Puerto Rican/Italian, married mom of one with a degree in English language and editing. I love to run, dance, play board games, watch movies, blog, and read. I enjoy word search puzzles and other word games. And I'm a Mormon!

I LOVE shopping at thrift stores. I decided to open a shop selling vintage items after hosting a giveaway on my blog for another children's vintage shop. I thought, "I can do that!" I've always wanted to open an Etsy shop, but I'm not very crafty, so I was excited to find out vintage shops were allowed.

I also wanted to sell some handmade items, since my mother-in-law got me a Cricut and I've always loved working with paper. So I make confetti, gift tags, and other paper goods, which are now taking over my shop.

The name of my shop is a play on the second Winnie-the-Pooh book by A.A. Milne: "The House at Pooh Corner." I chose it because Classic Pooh represents imagination, innocence, childhood, and a past era - all of which I hope you find in my shop."

Thanks, Francesca! Make sure to check out her shop for all your paper party needs and vintage items!

Now onto the giveaway!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

3 Easy Vegetarian Dinners

I think I set a new record, because I have made myself and Andrew dinner THREE nights in a row! I am just now regretting not take photos, because I want to share my simple vegetarian meals with you, but I will do my best to share them anyway. FYI, the average time (besides oven preheating) for these meals is just 15 minutes! Each meal serves two and costs about $5 total.

Night 1

I had a coupon for any frozen item from Alexia, and it happened to be on sale! Woo! Anyway, I sauteed this up and added some red pepper and spinach to bulk it up, since I used this as a main dish and not a side. The oil is included in the package and it only takes about 12 minutes, like the package says. Before I put it in the bowl to serve, I added some goat cheese at the bottom and then stirred that together with my veggies. It was delicious, easy, affordable, and pretty healthy!

Night 2

Andrew and I love these MorningStar Mushroom Lover's Burgers. I had a coupon for these too, huzzah! Anyway, they do not take long to make at all on the stove. Just a few minutes on each side, but do not forget to add some swiss cheese when you have a couple minutes to go. I served it on a bun with spicy mustard, spinach, onion, and tomatoes. I also baked some Ore Ida crinkle fries and cut up a Honeycrisp apple for sides. We had coffee for dessert. Andrew said it was the best meal he'd had in a long time! (The fries took much longer than the veggie burger, so keep that in mind if you make this!)

Night 3

I don't know why I have never bought this pizza crust mix before, because you just have to add water. Thanks, Betty! We have bought the premade crusts before, but this is so much cheaper and tastes way more homemade! All you need to do is combine the mix and water, let it sit for five minutes, and then spread it on your pizza pan and add the toppings. I added tomato sauce (didn't have any pizza sauce but this worked just fine), minced garlic, fresh basil leaves, tomato, Italian shredded cheese, and goat cheese, yum! I thought it turned out really well and Andrew was 3-3, loving this as well.

I feel so accomplished and like we saved so much money! We tend to go out too much because we don't have time or we're too hungry and we'll spend anywhere between $10 and $20 even for takeout! So crazy. What are your favorite quick vegetarian meals? I'd love to know because I need more ideas! 

Belle, It's Me!

these are some photos of one of my favorite meals - falafel and tabbouleh, yum! the tabbouleh and hummus is homemade and the falafel is from a mix. healthy and delicious.

we also made a maybe not as healthy mexican casserole that i might post the recipe for soon. it is SO YUMMY. anyway, tonight i'm thinking of that old english favorite, beans on toast. double yum. if only i had some strongbow to go with it.

i am watching beauty and the beast and i'm at the part where the beast transforms back into the handsome prince. such a great movie. and all in preparation for a day trip to disney in a week and a half. yay!

happy leap day, doing anything special for it?