Fabulous Vegan Recipes

I'm so sorry for the delay in posts! I sure have missed blogging but this past week and a half was super busy. I went home over this past holiday weekend to see my family for my birthday. I haven't seen my almost 2 year old niece since Christmas and I miss her. It was such a great weekend , I had vegan cupcakes on my birthday and spent alot of quality time with my family. I didn't really have a chance to make new recipes or to really take good photos but now I'm back. Can't wait to share this recipe with you.

So, when I got back to New York City after a visit home, I felt so full and bloated. I can't say I was eating a ton while visiting my family but we had alot of potatoes and I had some mock meat and I just needed to detox. My friend was talking all about how she was going raw and I got super inspired! Oh and see what my friend is up to doing THIS ! She is amazing! Anyway, she inspired me and so I have been raw for the past four and a half days. Today I am making food for my Munch and Meditate event and I did have a few tastes of fudge. Anyway, that's it for today, I'm going to be raw until I go home again this week and then I will probably switch to two raw meals and a cooked dinner. I can't say I've lost weight or feel insanely happy but my mood is content and I did run 15 miles on Saturday. So, that theory that plants make you weak is not holding up :)

How do you eat tacos without eating a ton of bread? Lettuce! Leaves of fresh, organic romaine lettuce. So yum, so delish and zero calories, zero gluten, etc. My mom visited over the last few days and brought me groceries from Trader Joe's and a new cast iron pot. She also bought me a Cuisinart food processor which I'm obsessed with. We made tacos on Tuesday night with corn tacos and meatless beef and they were just insanely yum. So since I splurged the last two days, I decided to make tacos with a raw shell. For the filling, I steamed collard greens and mixed them with brown rice and tons of lovely spices.

MMM tacos!  I don't usually post faux meats because I cook from scratch and I try to limit my processed food consumption but this meal was so tasty.  Vegan isn't always convenient and to get the most out of this lifestyle, in my opinion, you need to learn how to cook. Faux meats are a great transition ingredient because they are pre-packaged, already seasoned and ready for you to make a meal out of them.  Is it processed? Yes.  It is as unhealthy as meat? No.  Do you want to limit your consumption of faux meats and cheeses? Probably.  Treat them as a cheat meal or have them no more than twice a week. You will still reap the benefits of the vegan diet if you eat the faux foods but, as with anything processed, you want to limit consumption.  With that being said, I urge you to try different faux meats and cheese because they are fun and delicious.  Vegan cheese on a pizza can satisfy your cheese craving. I will list some brands of cheese and meat at the end of this post so y

I haven't been following rawtill4 pretty much all weekend but I'm still consuming a ton of fruits and veggies and avoiding salt and oil.  I bought butternut squash at Trader Joe's the other day and I was super excited to use it in a recipe.  Truth be told though tonight, I wanted to order a pizza but I have a ton of veggies and I couldn't justify spending money on a pizza.  I'm happy I chose to eat clean tonight!

To say I'm loving this rawtill4 eating plan would be an understatement.  I lost another 3 pounds and I feel full at the end of the day.  I'm also keeping up with the yoga, running and weight lifting.  This weekend I'll be changing things up a bit because I'll be on a mini vacation in the Poconos but I plan to be as raw before 4PM as I can; I just need to stock up on lots of fruit before I go.  I won't have my blender though with me so I may take a break from the smoothies and nana ice cream, which is hard!