Fabulous Vegan Recipes

My apartment smells like chocolate. It's Halloween as I write this and I just pulled these brownies out of the oven. As you can see, I'm really diggin fall. I'm absolutely loving how these brownies turned out (the second time) and I'm loving the fact that I'm writing this blog post about one of my favorite plant-based companies. This post is sponsored by Go Veggie but all opinions and run-on sentences are mine, all mine.

I am 20 days away from completing my first marathon and my plan for the next few weeks is to eat clean and try to stay within a moderate calorie range. I probably won't lose weight but I want to at least try. I downloaded My Fitness Pal and I have tracked my food for 13 days straight now. It's going well and I made a ton of food yesterday. Whenever I'm good though, as in, sticking to healthy meals and portion control, I always want a raw dessert. Last week I was obsessed with these and now I just made these bites. These are GOOOOOOD!

I'm not one for buying protein powder; I've tried a few over the years but I didn't buy them on the regular. They are expensive and usually very highly processed. I also have a huge sweet tooth so I tend to overdo foods like protein powder because it's sweet. I do think they are a pretty good addition to one's diet as long as you get a good brand that is made with whole foods and organic, fair-trade ingredients. That's where Livwell comes in. The above photo was taken from their website; I'd like to take credit for that delicious looking smoothie but I cannot!

Five years ago I was diagnosed with skin cancer. It was a tiny, ridiculously minuscule black freckle on my thigh that only my dermatologist could have identified as being abnormal. Before it was discovered I put off going to the dermatologist and sometimes I think about what if I had not made that appointment. It came back from the lab as melanoma and I had to have it removed along with alot of the skin around it and much deeper than the freckle had grown. I had stitches and I couldn't workout or put a huge amount of force on my leg muscles so that the area could heal. It was a stage 0 melanoma meaning it hadn't penetrated deeper than my epidermis but it was still scary. I didn't need any medication or follow up after it removed but it was a wakeup call for me. I wasn't surprised about my diagnosis since I was always a sun worshipper and even frequented the tanning salon in my twenties. Seems like such a huge price to pay just because I wanted to be tan.

One of the best part about being a blogger is receiving awesome samples of products from plant based businesses. I love connecting with different companies that I see on social media and I'm so grateful and excited when I have the opportunity to try their products and post about them. There are some incredibly innovative people out there who believe in plant based nutrition, who make their products with whole, organic ingredients and who care about our planet. I love seeing more plant based restaurants open, more plant based products hit the shelves and more businesses serving vegan options!

I had the pleasure recently of reviewing some amazing products from Organic Gemini, a company that makes delicious food and drinks from Tigernuts, root veggies that are sweet and fibrous. The company sent me different flavors of their horchata drinks, cold pressed drinks that are similar to milk but come in various flavors. I urge you to try all of them but my favorite was the coffee flavored drink! Head over to organicgemini.com to learn more about tigernuts and to hear the story of how Miriam and George founded the company in 2013.

I was contacted by Organic Gemini ,  a company that sells snacks, oil, flour and cold pressed drinks made from tigernuts; they asked me to try their products and review them.  Tigernuts are high fiber root vegetables that are actually nut free, sweet and chewy. I was familiar with Organic Gemini products because I tasted their tigernuts at The Seed Experience event, a free NYC event with local vegan vendors.  Organic Gemini sent me tigernuts, granola, flour and their cold pressed horchata drinks. I made a few recipes with their products and I have a few photos on my Instagram .

Yay it's Friday!  I'm going to spend the weekend savoring Christmas in New York City because it's going fast!  What have you done thus far to savor this holiday season?

My review of COGO coconut milk smoothies and the interview I did with the marketing director, Melissa is on my website under interviews! I'm excited to share this info with you and I hope you run out and buy some COGO! They sent me a sample of each flavor and I got to enjoy some post workout yum as well as some early morning yum and an after dinner treat (try the chocolate!)