:: 23rd post ::

"greenleaf lettuce, oakleaf lettuce**, raw red bell pepper**, carrot, tofu (with soy sauce), mung beans*, radishes, sunflower seeds, lentils, millet*, 1000 island dressing*"


THV Salty Roasted Asparagus over Sesame Mung Beans. The asparagus** is roasted with soy sauce and served over mung beans* that have been tossed with sesame oil, red bell pepper** and fresh basil** and garnished with sunflower seeds. Oh hey almost everything in this meal is organic, did you notice? Just the sesame oil and sunflower seeds weren't.


close up

I had some beautiful veggies so I decided to make a stir-fry:



Here are some of the ingredients. Red bell pepper**, yellow bell pepper, tofu, portabella mushrooms, asparagus**, scallions** (in the little bowl), garlic, tangelo zest (I just put the whole tangelo down in the picture).


Here is some broccoli**, kale**, and spinach**. Not pictured was also some gf soy sauce, peas, brown rice and garlic hot sauce.





Miso soup, made of kale, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, chickpeas, carrots, onion, red miso, and sesame seeds. Not very traditional, but very good.


I wanted another little veggie platter. This time we have brown rice tortilla chips, roasted asparagus, and raw red bell pepper, and roasted garlic hummus. I wanted some carrots too but I was out :(


Wild mushroom soup. It's very good, but needs work, it's got enoki*, portabella and oyster mushrooms, oregano, lemon and basil**. I garnished it with extra basil** and enoki mushrooms*



red leaf lettuce, yellow bell peppers, tofu*, chickpeas, radishes, asparagus. I tried to make a different salad dressing by mixing grainy mustard with seasoned rice vinegar, I really liked it at first, but I could only eat half of the dressing because it was way to strong.



Smoothie if purple grapes, blueberries, strawberries**, blackberries, papaya, stevia*, and soymilk*

Fruit salad of green grapes, gala apple, Asian pear, kiwi, and strawberries**. I'd never had an Asian pear before, and they're really good, they taste like (tome at least) like a peach, but have the texture of an apple crossed with a pear.

Salad of lentils, romaine, carrots, red bell pepper, asparagus and 1000 island dressing. With a side of brown rice tortilla chips (love these!), I sprinkled these with dried oregano before I baked them, and then topped them with fresh basil after they were done. Yummy, though I sorta burned them :(



Smoothie of strawberries**, soymilk*, stevia*. I decided to do a little twist and add some Chinese 5 spice powder (which is star anise, cloves, cinnamon, anise, and ginger), it was really good, I only added a little, so it was just like a hint of it, and it smelled awesome.




THV 4 bean chili. Salad of red leaf lettuce, carrots, red bell pepper, lentils, 1000 island dressing. The chili I made a while ago and froze, it's so good, though I did it a little differently than normal, I roasted the garlic, onions and pepper, then blended it with the tomatoes, so it was kinda sweet. Next time I'm gonna try and add more veggies.

Salad Days

I will warn you now, if you do not like salads, close this page! I've gone salad crazy, eating at least 1 a day, sometimes 2, sometimes even having fruit salad for breakfast! Though going salad crazy isn't nessisarly a bad thing, I'm finding that I really like different things in my salads, though I don't like a lot of raw things, like I prefer roasted cauliflower to raw, etc. And to make sure I get enough protein/calories I've started adding beans, grains and tofu, which is really good. Though I am trying to make my salads a little different every time, I always use the same lettuces (red leaf, green leaf and romaine) I always add carrots, and I always use the same dressing HERE

As always:

THV = A recipe for The Healthful Vegan
* = oraganic
** = organic and local, most likely from our farm



"green leaf lettuce, roasted red potatoes, roasted asparagus, roasted red peppers (water packed), grated carrots, tofu* (frozen, thawed, pressed, sauted in soy sauce), ground flax seed*, olives, 1000 island dressing*"


close up


"green leaf lettuce, roasted parsnips, tofu* (sauteed in sesame oil), portabellas, wild rice*, grated carrot, roasted red peppers, 1000 island dressing*"


close up

"romaine, grated carrot, tofu* (THV Sesame Dijon Tofu), roasted cauliflower (tossed with curry powder), roasted red peppers, roasted asparagus, fresh basil**, 1000 island dressing*"


THV, Curried Sweet Potato Soup. I totally rewrote this recipe. It used to be my Curried Wild Rice and Lentil Soup, with sweet potatoes and curry, but now it's Curried Sweet Potato Soup with parsnips and curry. It's so good and really simple, especially with some fresh basil** on top (from the garden!)

"green leaf and red leaf lettuce, petite peas (frozen, thawed), wild rice*, lentils, grated parsnips, grated carrot, roasted red peppers, tofu* (sauteed with soy sauce), mushrooms (sauteed with the tofu), 1000 island dressing. I think there was some sesame seeds in there too. Isn't my new bowl pretty? It's nice and big and perfect for taking pictures."

Fried banana sandwich. Well it's not really fried. I took 2 slices of my Ener-g bread, lightly toasted it, then mashed up a small banana with some cloves and cinnamon, spread it onto the bread, and cooked it in a skillet with non-stick cooking spray until nice and browned. Very good, with a side of grapefruit and papaya.


Another Power Smoothie for Rock Climbing class, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, tofu*, wild rice*, maple extract (this stuff is awesome), stevia*.


"romaine, tofu* (THV orange pom tofu), grated carrot, roasted red peppers, ground flax seed*, sliced radishes, split peas, sesame seeds, roasted asparagus**, walnuts, 1000 island dressing*"



Here's one of my favorite snacks. I love Stonyfield Farms Soy Yogurts*, they're really good, think and flavorful, but I like to jaz mine up. This one here is strawberry, so I added a bunch of fresh sliced strawberries**, and I mean a lot of strawberries, a spoonful of ground flax seed* and sometimes a little bit of walnuts (which I did here), so good! And keeps me nice and full, without being too full for yoga.


Roasted sweet potato fries, sauteed Chinese broccoli and basmati rice with ginger, garlic, scallions and Chile. The sweet potatoes were just sprayed with olive oil cooking spray and roasted until tender, then tossed with a tiny bit of sea salt and stevia*, the Chinese broccoli (found at the Asian supermarket) was just thrown into a pot with a little bit of water, soy sauce and chili powder and cooking until tender. For the rice I found the recipe HERE, I did make a few substitutions though: I didn't use the cilantro, or oil, I added some basil**, and I did mine a little easier by using a rice cooker for the rice (I can't make rice to save my life!) then when the rice was almost done cooking, I added the scallions*, garlic, and ginger, that way the flavors would mellow out a little, and I don't have to dirty another pan, then added everything else. It was really good I loved it, even my mom liked it (and she's "allergic" to healthy food), she even asked for a bowl (though when I first talked her into trying it she looked really scared). Oh and for those of you who know me and are thinking "She ate white rice!!!", yes I did!. I read THIS article here about basmati rice, and I've been trying to feed my dosha correctly, and basmati rice supposedly balances out all 3 doshas, so I don't mind eating white rice (plus I get plenty of fiber)


Smoothie of soy milk*, ground flax seed*, wild blueberries, pineapple, a tiny bit of strawberries** (like 2), and maple extract, yum!


"greenleaf lettuce, carrots, radishes, split peas, small red beans, tofu*, leftover basmati rice (from the recipe above), walnuts, tofu dressing*."


I decided to do a veggie platter, because I was really in the mood for hummus. There's carrots, roasted broccoli, cucumbers and brown rice tortilla chips (I took a Food For Life brown rice tortilla, cut it up and cooked until crunchy). For the hummus I threw some chickpeas (2 1/2 cups), 2 cloves of roasted garlic (I roasted it along side the broccoli), salt, pepper, 1/2 TBS raw tahini*, then turned on the processor and drizzled in about 1 cup soy milk until it came to my desired consistency. This was very good, though I found I don't like cucumber and hummus much, the tortilla "chips" were the best, they have so much flavor on their own, really nutty and just great, BUY THEM! (And no they didn't pay me to advertise them :)


"red leaf lettuce, edamame*, tofu* (cooked in sesame oil), sunflower seeds, carrot, cucumber, radishes, roasted red peppers, lentils, tofu dressing*."

For anyone wondering, I only got a participant ribbon at my rock climbing competition. There's a gym in Richmond Virginia called Inner Peaks, and the kids there are so good! They climb like everyday for 4-5 hours from what I heard, and it shows, they game and totally beat me so I wasn't too upset (at east my ribbon was purple), if they weren't there, I think I would've have done much better. Oh well, I had fun, and most of the people who belayed me said I had really good form on the walls, so... :) yay me!

A bit of everything #2

As always THV means it's a recipe for The Healthful Vegan. We went shopping Wednesday (14th) so I have a good amount of stuff to work with.



THV More Sunny Tomato Soup, really I just wanted to show off my new mug, isn't it pretty? It's a lot bigger than most, so it's perfect for soup.


Roasted parsnips and asparagus. The asparagus with roasted with a little gf soy sauce and topped with sliced garlic. The parsnips were just roasted plain.



A Breast Of Orange Pom Tofu atop a bed of Tarragon Millet and Sesame Kale and Snow Peas (wow that sounded fancy didn't it?) I've told you about the tofu before, basically it's tofu marinated in orange juice, pomegranate molasses and some other stuff. Normally I cut it into cubes, but I cut the block into filet's this time so it'd look fancier. They finally had millet (only 1 bag left) at the health food store, so I made that. It's so good, kinda like quinoa, but fluffier and without the little tails (which is the one reason why I don't eat it as often as I should). I added some dried tarragon to it and it added a nice licorice-like flavor. Then the bottom layer is my Sesame Kale and Snow Peas, which is steamed snow peas and kale, with sesame seasonings. (the tofu and sesame kale are both THV recipes). You would think that orange pomegranate, tarragon and sesame oil all together in one meal would taste weird, but it actually was very nice.


Toast with 2 jams. The slice on the right has my all-fruit blueberry jam (polaner) and the slice on the left has all-fruit black cherry (also polaner). I think I prefer the blueberry because it has more flavor. On the side is some fresh pineapple (it's been months since I've had any) and I'm not sure if you can tell, but there is a blue cup next to the plate (top right corner), in there is some "Detox Lemonade". I heard of a recipe (can't remember where, I think it was on a raw newsletter), all you do is mix filtered water, fresh lemon juice and maple syrup or honey (or other sweetener) and drink. The lemon is supposed to help your digestive system, and the sweetener makes it less tart. I didn't have any maple syrup, so I used stevia. I don't think it helped because I still got a stomach-ache


Here's a simple sandwich of Ener-g Tapioca Bread, baby spinach*, mustard*, and portabella mushroom. And some asparagus on the side, normally I just roast my asparagus with a little soy sauce, but this time I wanted to try something fancier. So I roasted 3 cloves of garlic until soft, threw it in my mini food processor (my mom bought me an Oster Immersion Blender on sale for $12 last Friday, and it has this awesome little chopper attachment that works perfect for things like this.), along with the garlic I added 1/4 cup soy milk* and 1/2 TBS cornstarch and a pinch of salt and blended it until smooth,. It was pretty good, nice garlic flavor, but also somewhat bland, I added a little mustard* and that perked it right up, then I poured it over the asparagus. I think I may just stick with my soy roasted asparagus because it took a bit of work, though it was a nice change of pace.


THV Morning Millet, I wanted to try and make something different for breakfast, so this is cooked millet, seasoned with cloves and cinnamon (and another secret I can't tell you about :), and some fresh ripe mango.
I definitely need to cut the mango smaller next time, but that's the only complaint. Oh and I added cashews which were like the icing on the cake, made it perfect.


Simple stir-fry of frozen asparagus mix, some fresh mushrooms, garlic, gf soy sauce and baby spinach*, served with jasmine rice. I was quite disappointed with the rice, because I'd heard that it was much better than most rice, very flavorful and fragrant, but it just tasted like rice. Oh well...

Food Porn

Here we go, I have been saving up my pics all week so here's some food porn for you all (sorta). If it had THV in front of it, than it is a recipe for The Healthful Vegan.

THV Carrot Cardamom Doughnuts They were originally supposed to be cookies, but when I was looking for the sheet pan, I found this old doughnut pan, and turned them into doughnuts. I wanted to make them into muffins yesterday for a more breakfasty thing, but I couldn't find it, so they were just doughnuts again. I added some wild blueberries (frozen) to make them even more healthier. For the original version they're made out of brown rice flour, potato starch, flax seed, bananas, carrot, cinnamon, & cardamom. Very simple, and very good (They taste like cinnamon doughnuts from dun-kin donuts). They're perfect for breakfast with some fruit and a soy yogurt (or nuts).

THV(Tofu only) Stir fry of Napa Cabbage, Chickpeas, Peas, Broccoli, Water Chestnuts, Onions and Soy sauce. Then on the side is the rest of my Orange Pom Tofu from THV. It's probably my favorite tofu recipe. It's really simple, just soy sauce, orange juice, pomegranate molasses and garlic.


THV Chocolate Peppermint French Toast. Needs some more cocoa next time, otherwise very good. perfect with a side of mango.



Beautiful orange tomato, very flavorful. Can you tell which is the orange and which is the tomato?*


The best salad in the world, seriously: my Caveman Salad. It's basically small sups of lettuce filled with peas and dressed with an orange dressing. I'm seriously considering making it a THV recipe, but I'm not sure, it's too easy to be recipe.


THV? Super Yummy Delicious Everything Breakfast Bread. I made it the first time today. It's full of awesome things like brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, cloves, dried unsweetened coconut, cashews, raisins, wild blueberries, flax and some other less awesome things like water, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and stevia. It's so good, lightly sweet, and you get a crunch from the cashews, and chewiness from the raisins. Though I had some problems:

1. It didn't rise. I put a good amount of baking powder in it, but it didn't rise at all. I'm going to buy some yeast and try it again.
2. It fell apart. Normally just by adding flax it keeps everything together, but not with this. Instead it became very crumbly, so I cut it in half lengthwise, then cut into 12 large cubes, that way it's like a thick, short slice of bread :) And because it's so full of good stuff, it doesn't even need any EB or jam or anything.

If the yeast doesn't work out, I think I'm going to try and make them into muffins instead, that way no problems of cutting them :) Though I will have to rename them the Super Yummy Delicious Everything Magnificent Muffins

Another caveman salad. I've eaten one everyday for 4 days lol, so good.


Breakfast of sliced orange, johna gold apple and some of the Super Yummy Delicious Everything Breakfast Bread.


THV Sunny Tomato Soup. I've been working on this one for a while, I wanted it to be creamy and have a lot of flavor, but I couldn't give it a lot of flavor without overpowering. So this last time I made it was some Sunflower seed butter, and omg, the texture is awesome. I've tried making this with coconut milk, soy milk and stock, but I I found that using stock and the sunbutter gave me the texture I wanted (which is weird because the coconut milk couldn't). It still doesn't have a ton of flavor, but I think I like that. I want it to taste like a tomato soup, not make it with lots of herbs and spices. Other things in the soup are quinoa, peppers, onion, red pepper flakes, garlic ginger and coriander.

Garlicky Tomato & Black-Eyed Pea Stew

For lunch I was wanting some soup/stew, so I finally made this stew that I'd been thinking up in my head for a few days.


Basically it has Roasted Garlic crushed tomatoes (so good), more garlic, black-eyed peas, Italian seasoning, peppers, onions, nutritional yeast, spinach and olives. It was very good, but it needs some more work, it didn't have enough flavors.