Whole Wheat Cherry Almond Scones

This month’s Recipe Redux theme was a fun one!

“Cook from a favorite cookbook and revamp a recipe to be your own healthy version. Pick from a page with any combination of the following numbers: 2-0-1-8. Then bid farewell to 2018!”

One of my favorite things to do is browse through cookbooks. I have way too big of a cookbook collection and every time I vow I’m not buying anymore, one of my favorite bloggers comes out with a new cookbook, or I am on a trip and just have to get the cookbook that has one really good recipe in it. Some people look for fulfillment in things like clothes or jewelry, I look for it in cookbooks and kitchen gadgets. To each their own!

For this month’s Recipe Redux, I combined two recipes from two cookbooks that I was browsing through for this and then added my own twist (#overachiever). The first recipe was for Dried Cherry Scones which was on page 20 of Chocolate Snowball. This cookbook was one of those vacation purchases (it was actually a gift) from Deer Valley Ski Resort in Utah. They have the MOST amazing chocolate chip cookies. Ever. Period. No Questions Asked. Having this cookbook makes me feel like all can be right in the world because I now have access to their chocolate chip cookie recipe.

The second recipe was for Currant Scones from Vegan for Everybody by America’s Test Kitchen. Every time they come out with a new cookbook, I somehow convince myself that my life will no longer be satisfying or worth living if I don’t immediately go out and buy it. They are geniuses when it comes to anything food related. So much so that I hate that I even modified one of their recipes. It feels like I broke one of the Ten Commandments.

To come up with my recipe, I swapped the fruit in the two recipes and added almonds for some crunch and added nutrition. I swapped out half of the all purpose flour for whole wheat flour for more fiber and vitamins/minerals, and used unsweetened almond milk instead of soy creamer to make the recipe more user friendly. I will say, the version with soy creamer does have a slightly better texture, but most people don’t have soy creamer in their refrigerator so I found that using almond milk was an acceptable substitute. If you do have unsweetened soy creamer or want scones with a slightly better texture, feel free to use an equal amount in place of the almond milk.

Be sure to click the link below to check out all the amazing recipes from other Reduxers!

Whole Wheat Cherry Almond Scones

Adapted from Vegan for Everybody and Chocolate Snowball

Makes 8 scones

*The original recipe calls for unsweetened soy creamer which does result in a scone with slightly better texture but I found the unsweetened almond milk to be an acceptable substitute and an ingredient that is more common in people’s kitchens. Please feel free to use unsweetened soy creamer in this recipe in place of the almond milk.

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons coconut oil, room temperature

1/2 cup dried cherries

1/2 cup slivered almonds

3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk*

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silpat mat or parchment paper.

2. Pulse together flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt in food processor until combined, about 3 pulses. Add coconut oil in small pieces (about 1/4 inch). Pulse until a sandy mixture forms, about 10 pulses. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and mix in dried cherries and sliced almonds. Stir in almond milk and mix until a cohesive ball forms.

3. Dust a small amount of flour on top of dough and on your hands and knead mixture in bowl a few times until a ball forms. Alternatively, turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead until a ball forms (I like to reduce the amount of dirty dishes I have to do after so I knead it in the bowl).

4. Turn dough onto the lined baking sheet and form into an 8 inch disc (this can also be done on a floured work surface if you don’t mind extra dirty dishes). Cut dough into 8 wedges. Arrange on baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown, rotating pan half way through baking time.

Christmas Morning Traditions

This time of year stirs up all the cozy feels for me. In fact, as I’m sitting here writing this while the baby naps, I have a warm cup of coffee in my favorite Christmas mug and I’m wearing my uniform for this time of year: a big cozy sweater, leggings, and fuzzy socks.

I’m also dreaming about all the food traditions that go along with Christmas. One of the first things that comes to mind when I think about Christmas is Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. I’m sure a bunch of you have fancy pastries you make for the big morning, but in my family, Christmas morning wasn’t complete without a pan of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls coming out of the oven. As we got older, these cinnamon rolls were complemented with a hot cup of coffee in a Santa mug. And we eventually started adding some fresh fruit and baked oatmeal to go along with it. But one thing always stayed the same, Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. If you read my post a couple weeks ago about my approach to eating, you will see that while I feature mostly healthy, plant-based recipes on my blog and that is what I eat the majority of the time, nothing will be stopping me from enjoying a Pillsbury cinnamon roll, packaged icing and all, this year!

Now, if I were to gorge myself full of cinnamon rolls, I’d likely crash within a couple hours (not particularly helpful when I have a SUPER busy 10 month old crawling all around). We will be at my parents for Christmas morning this year and our cinnamon rolls will be served along with some scrambled eggs (protein to help slow the spike in blood sugar), Cranberry Apple Baked Oatmeal (satisfying fiber to fill us up and slow the spike in blood sugar), and some fresh fruit (fiber and vitamins/minerals to round everything out).

If you are finding yourself at a loss for what to make this year on Christmas morning, check out these recipes from some fellow healthy recipe bloggers. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed!

This Pomegranate Chocolate Chip and Pepita Baked Oatmeal from A Dash of Cinnamon looks PERFECT for the holidays. Pomegranate seeds give it such a festive feel!

Cranberry Pomegranate Baked Oatmeal from Bucket List Tummy is another one that shows off festive pomegranate seeds

This Easy Vegetarian Breakfast Casserole from Cozy Peach Kitchen and this Brunch Egg and Veggie Casserole from Your Choice Nutrition look like the perfect make-ahead dish to pop in the oven before gift giving begins!

Tofu Scramble Tater Tot Casserole from The Urben Life gives me all the cozy comfort food feels!

Spice things up this year by serving this Vegan Huevos Rancheros Casserole from Plant Based Cooking.

This Vegan Tofu Scramble from Unconventional Cooks would be the perfect base for a build your own taco bar on Christmas morning.

Whatever you decide to eat or serve on Christmas morning, I hope you enjoy the day making memories around the table with your loved ones.

Superfood “Cold Weather” Smoothie

Am I the only one who still enjoy a good smoothie even on the coldest of winter mornings?

For almost as long as I’ve had my Vitamix, I’ve enjoyed a daily smoothie regardless of the weather. I go in waves of what type of smoothie I have. Sometimes it’s packed full of more refreshing flavors or fruit while other times it’s jammed with “heartier” ingredients like nut butters and seeds.

I have different “categories” for the ingredients I put in my smoothies. There’s no rhyme or reason to my categories and they probably don’t make much sense to anyone else. One of the ways I categorize my smoothie ingredients is by “cold weather” and “warm weather” ingredients. Now I know this already doesn’t make sense since all of my smoothies are cold, but here is the list:

Warm Weather Ingredients:

• mango

• ginger

• cucumber

Cold Weather Ingredients:

• nut butter

• cacao nibs

• dates

• hemp hearts

As I’m writing this out, I realize it makes even less sense because those aren’t even all of the ingredients I have in my smoothie repertoire. And, sometimes there is overlap when it makes sense to swap weather (i.e. using ginger in the winter when I’m getting a cold or when I’ve overindulged and need something refreshing). So, all that to say, my logic for when I have certain types of smoothies will probably never make sense to anyone but me. Luckily my husband just goes along with it and drinks whatever I leave in the fridge for him in the morning!

This became my go-to smoothie when I was pregnant last winter and trying to pack in all the nutrition (and dates…one small study shows that eating 6 dates a day at the end of pregnancy can help you go into labor and may make your labor shorter…definitely worth a shot!). I was also getting full really quickly and this smoothie packed in lots of lots of nutrients in a small volume.

Superfood “Cold Weather” Smoothie

Makes 1 (easily doubled)

3/4 unsweetened almond milk (may need to add more if your smoothie is too thick)

1 frozen banana

3 big handfuls greens (I use kale and spinach)

1 tablespoon hemp hearts

1 tablespoon ground flax seed

1 tablespoon cacao nibs

1 tablespoon peanut butter

1 date

Dash of cinnamon

1. Put all ingredients in blender and enjoy while wearing cozy winter pajamas and fuzzy slippers.

My Approach to Eating

I thought the middle of the holiday season would be an appropriate time to hop on here to talk about my approach to eating. I also have been absent from this space for a while and thought it would be good to catch you up on my approach.

My eating journey has been just that, a journey. I find that my beliefs about food are constantly evolving and changing. Somewhere around the time I graduated from college, I found a healthy balance with my food intake and learned how to listen to my body. Even though I was studying nutrition in college, I wouldn’t say I necessarily had a good balance. I got in the trap of calorie counting and didn’t feel confident in my body’s ability to regulate my food intake. I was hooked on My Fitness Pal and thought that I either had to count every calorie, or, if I didn’t have access to my app, it was a free for all. I had an “all or nothing” mentality.

I can’t really articulate the steps I took to finally figure out how to listen to my body but over time I got there. I do know that it started with ditching the calorie counting apps. Don’t get me wrong, I still have days when I miss the cues from my body and eat too much or not enough, but I have come to realize that it is what I do the majority of the time that matters and I am fully confident in my body’s ability to regulate itself.

As I started listening to my body, I started to realize that I feel my best when eating mostly plant foods. At the time, I was working at an outpatient cancer center and was learning about the benefits of a plant-based diet. At one point I went all in on a WFPB (whole food plant based) diet and was pretty strict about what I ate. Luckily, I have a really supportive husband and family who didn’t roll their eyes (at least to my face) about my new found “enlightenment” and accommodated my choices.

While I truly believe in the benefits of a plant-based diet and know without a doubt that I feel my best when fueling my body this way, something never sat right with me about having strict rules about how I eat. However, I thought since I had committed to a plant-based diet, told people about my commitment, and blogged about it that I couldn’t turn back.

Then I got pregnant. Let me tell you, there is something about growing a little tiny human inside of you that makes you really start paying attention to your body. I started craving eggs while I was pregnant. Like, give me all the custardy French toast and veggie scrambled eggs all the time kind of craving. So I started eating eggs. The world didn’t end, I’m still alive, I still felt really good, and delivered a healthy baby to show for it 9 months later.

And then I had my daughter and it got me thinking about how I eat all over again. I desperately don’t want my daughter to have hang ups about food. and I desperately want my daughter to have all the amazing experiences as a child that I had growing up. As I started thinking back on the experiences I had growing up, I realize most of them have an element of food that goes along with them.

Christmas morning wouldn’t have been the same without Pillsbury cinnamon rolls.

Hot chocolate breaks during a long day of skiing wouldn’t be the same if there was no hot chocolate.

Decorating our Christmas tree wouldn’t have been the same without eating Chinese takeout and finishing it off with my mom’s famous chocolate and caramel covered pretzels.

I certainly don’t regret going out for ice cream when visiting my grandparents or enjoying a cheese fondu ski break while celebrity watching at the Stein Erikson.

I can still remember the first time I had crab legs on a family vacation and the time my siblings and I tried all sorts of different foods on a family cruise.

And all of us are alive and well despite the fact that not every eating experience was jam-packed with nutrition. As I was looking back through old pictures, I came to realize that a lot of these experiences wouldn’t have happened if I had been too worried about the nutrient-density of what I was eating. The experience of enjoying food with each other and the memories that are made that really matter.

Here’s where I struggle, I truly believe in the health benefits of a plant-based diet, I know without a doubt that I feel my absolute best when I am eating a predominantly plant-based diet, I genuinely enjoy plant-based foods and really don’t have any desire for most animal foods. But, I also love the memories and feelings that come along with having certain eating experiences and don’t want to skip out on something I want because of a label I give myself. So all that to say, that I no longer am labeling how I eat. An outsider looking in would probably call it “predominantly plant-based” or “plant-focused” since I still eat a plant-based diet the majority of the time but I also give myself freedom to choose what I want in the moment.

I still think Michael Pollan says it best, “Eat (real) food. Mostly plants. Not too much”.

And of course, Julia Child really gets to the simple heart of the matter and says, “People who love to eat are always the best people”.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Snacking Cookies

These pumpkin chocolate chip snacking cookies are the perfect recipe to have in your back pocket for those days when you need to satisfy the sweet tooth but don’t want something that will leave you with a midday sugar crash. These fit the bill for an everyday dessert or as a satisfying midday snack.

I have a serious sweet tooth. Not necessarily in the fancy cakes, ice cream sundae, sugar cookie sense. More in the wanting something seriously satisfying after most meals sense. Nine times out of 10, I want something that will actually fill me up, leave me satisfied, and not weigh me down. Most times, that looks like some dates with peanut butter, fruit, peanut butter toast, a dark chocolate peanut butter cup, or a bowl of cereal. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely times when nothing but a bowl of ice cream or brownie will do, but, most of the time, I want a healthy-ish sweet tooth satisfier.

I’ve been making these Lunchbox Chocolate Chip Cookies from Forks Over Knives for a while now and they totally fit the bill for my go-to kind of dessert…satisfying, chocolatey, actually fill me up. I need something that won’t kill my energy midday when I go in for my post-lunch fill.

I decided to make my go-to snacking cookie into a more fall-like dessert. Enter these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Snacking Cookies. These cookies are simple to make, require one bowl, and can be thrown together in minutes. They are delicious enough to satisfy the sweet tooth but contain nutrient-dense ingredients that won’t cause a midday sugar crash. I like them best with a cup of coffee during Baby K’s afternoon nap. Give them a try and let me know what you think!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Snacking Cookies

Makes 12-15 cookies

Adapted from Forks Over Knives

1/3 cup canned pumpkin

1/3 cup peanut butter (you can sub another nut butter here if you’d like)

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/3 cup oat flour (I blend 1 1/3 cup oats in my Vitamix until finely ground)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/3 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat mat. In a medium bowl, cream together pumpkin, nut butter, and sugar. Add flaxseed and vanilla and stir to combine.

2. Add oat flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Mix to combine. Stir in chocolate chips.

3. Portion out 1-2 tablespoons dough and place on cookie sheet. Lightly press down on cookies to flatten as they will not spread during baking. Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly browned.

Hello Again…

Hi there friends! To say it’s been a while would be an understatement. It’s been over a year since I’ve logged into this space which seems crazy. Let me give you the cliff notes version of the past 18 months of my life…

In June of 2017 I found out I was pregnant due with our first baby in February 2018. I was working in college athletics and my husband is a college soccer coach so fall of 2017 got really busy and I made the conscious decision to put blogging and social media on hold.

In January of 2018, my husband was unexpectedly job searching. This wasn’t quite how we envisioned the last month of my pregnancy. My husband was interviewing for jobs out of state up until a few days before we had our baby.

In February of 2018, our little girl made her entrance a few days early. The day after she was born, my husband received a great job offer. The job didn’t require a move which was a major bonus.

About half way through my maternity leave, I decided not to return to work. Life with a newborn was way busier than I imagined and I didn’t see how I could handle anything else other than taking care of her and supporting my husband in his new position.

I would look at moms with 6+ month olds who were out and about, running errands, working out, etc. (aka doing things other than nursing and changing diapers all day) and think to myself “I will never ever get to that point where I will have any semblance of freedom ever again”.

Well, here I am with an almost 9 month old, realizing that the newborn phase is FAST and I DO have freedom again and I am ready to take on something more. I’m not entirely sure what that is yet, but I received the renewal notice for my blog a few weeks ago and decided to go ahead and renew it and start entering into this space again.

I’m looking forward to sharing what I’ve learned about meal planning, food prep, and life with a baby! If there is anything specific you want me to share in this space, leave me a message in the comments! I’d love to hear from you!

Slow Cooker Blueberry Peach Crisp

Warm fruit filling, nutty crisp topping, cold vanilla ice cream that starts to melt into it all…

This my friends, is what dessert dreams are made of. I met someone once who told me they didn’t like when their dessert was warm because it caused the ice cream to melt. I immediately wrote that person off as a friend. 

No, not really. But I thought about it. 

This Slow Cooker Blueberry Crisp encompasses all the above components of a dessert dream, plus the additional perk of super sweet local blueberries. I discovered an organic blueberry farm just miles from my house and, naturally, got too excited and bought a 5 lb box without any idea of what I was going to do with them. Luckily, the Recipe Redux challenged us this month to come up with a slow cooker recipe to keep the heat of summer out of the kitchen. 

I thought a warm dessert would be the perfect slow-cooker experiment. I love making warm baked goods with in-season fruit, but summer always leaves me confused. I want the dessert but I don’t want to crank up the oven in order to make it.

That’s where the slow cooker comes in. This dessert cooks up in about 2 1/2 hours without heating up your kitchen. It’s also super easy to make. You can adjust the amount of sugar in your fruit filling to your liking and depending on how sweet your berries are. In fact, you might not even need to add any! The crisp topping comes together in just a couple minutes in a bowl. Pour the berries and frozen peaches in the slow cooker, add the crisp topping, turn on the slow cooker and you’re done! 

Be sure to check out all the other slow cooker recipes by clicking on the link at the end of this post!

Slow Cooker Blueberry Peach Crisp

Makes 6-8 servings

4 cups blueberries

2 cups frozen peaches

2-4 tablespoons sugar, optional (depending on your taste and how sweet your berries are)

1/8 teaspoon salt

For the Crisp Topping:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

5/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

3/4 cup rolled oats

3/4 cups pecans, roughly chopped

1. Combine blueberries, peaches sugar, if using, and salt in slow cooker insert. 

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, sugar, and salt. Add melted coconut oil and mix well until combined. Add rolled oats and pecans and mix well. 

3. Distribute topping over fruit mixture. Put lid on slow cooker and cook on high for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. If you think of it, crack the lid during the last 15 minutes of cooking to let off some of the steam. If you forget, don’t worry about it. Serve with a scoop of your favorite vanilla ice cream and enjoy!

 

 

Chocolate Almond Banana Bites

Has the summer heat gotten to anyone else? 

It has been a toasty start to summer here and it has me craving all the cold, crisp, fresh produce I can get my hands on. I have been living off of bowls of fresh fruit, salads filled with whatever fruit and vegetable I have left in my fridge, and nice cream!

When the Recipe Redux challenged us to come up with a mini dessert for this month’s post, I couldn’t stand the thought of turning on my oven. Since I have been on a huge banana kick lately, I thought I’d play around with a fun mini frozen banana dessert. 

These little Chocolate Almond Banana Bites perfectly satisfy the post-dinner sweet tooth I tend to get. I can pop one or two of these in my mouth and I’m good to go. The good news is, they aren’t loaded with tons of extra sugar so I can feel good about eating them. 

These would be fun to pull out at a summer party but they don’t last long outside of the freezer before they begin to melt. 

Be sure to check out the other amazing mini dessert recipes by clicking on the link at the end of the post! Stay healthy friends!

Chocolate Almond Banana Bites

Makes 8-10 pieces

1 large not overly ripe banana

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

2 tablespoons almond butter

1 teaspoon unsweetened shredded coconut

1. Slice banana into 1/4 inch slices and line up on a work surface that can be transported to the freezer (like a cutting board). 

2. Microwave chocolate chips in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until melted. 

3. Spread a small amount of chocolate on half of the banana slices. Spread a small amount of almond butter on the other half. 

4. Sandwich the slices together and place in freezer for at least an hour, preferable overnight, until frozen. 

4. Remelt remaining chocolate chips and drizzle over banana slices. Sprinkle with coconut. Store in freezer. 

Transitioning to a Plant-Based Diet

During the time away from my blog, I have become even more passionate about plant-based eating. The longer I’ve done it, the more comfortable I feel in sharing the benefits (both research based and personal) that following a plant-based diet has. In talking more about the topic with people I encounter, I have found I tend to get one of three different types of responses.   

I respond to a lot of friends individually but I figured it would be worthwhile to do a few blog posts about tips for going plant-based. I’m not exactly sure how many posts will be in this series so hang in there with me 😉 

Let me start with my story. I’ll warn you that it’s not very exciting…

I used to pride myself on being a person who would try anything…I’m talking fish eyes, sweet breads…I even ate termites once (some people get peer-pressured into doing drugs, I get peer-pressured into eating termites). About 5 years ago I started a new job and my co-worker was vegan. At that time, I was in the “there is no way I would ever even think about doing that. Ever.” category. But, being a person who loved to try new food, I started taking notice of the amazing things she was bringing in for lunch. I started getting recipes from her and incorporating meatless Mondays into the dinner rotation using the recipes she shared with me. That lead to me digging into the internet to find more recipes and trying them out on my hubby. I started incorporating more and more plant-based meals into my diet until I found that the only time I was not eating plant-based was when I’d cook chicken or fish for dinner at home assuming that my husband wouldn’t be up for a plant-based dinner every night. When my husband was traveling, I would eat an entirely plant-based diet and loved how I felt. At that time, I knew that eating plant-based was healthy simply based on how it made me feel. Then I started reading more research about it and watched “Forks Over Knives” and my mind was blown. My husband decided to watch the documentary with me and his mind was pretty blown too. From that point on, I started making plant-based meals for dinner every night.  While he hasn’t decided to transition to a completely plant-based diet, he has definitely incorporated a ton more plants into his diet.

My transition was very gradual and even now, it’s not totally perfect. I am not one to forfeit a special dining experience or a social gathering just because there are no plant-based options available. I have done a couple fun tasting menus while on vacation recently that have not had vegan options but have had some pretty darn delicious vegetarian dishes. These are dining experiences I will never forget and I would have hated to miss out on them just because there was a small amount of egg or dairy involved. I also don’t expect people to make special accommodations for me so if the veggie pasta dish I am served at a wedding has some parmesan cheese on it, I simply discreetly brush off as much as I can, enjoy the meal and the people at my table and don’t worry about it. I am a firm believer that what you do 90% of the time matters more than what you do 10% of the time. 

So…back to the original purpose of this post – tips for transitioning to a plant-based diet. Disclaimer: these tips are not based on any form of research. They are simply what I have found works best for me and also what has worked best for patients or friends that I have talked to about making any type of diet change. 

1. Lose the “all or nothing” mentality. When have you ever done something with this mentality and succeeded for the long term? If I were to beat myself up for the 5-10% of the time I have something with dairy or egg in it, I would be pretty miserable. Instead, I get to reap the benefits of how I feel from eating a plant-based diet 90-95% of the time.

2. Start small. I recommend starting with either a couple days per week that you are going to commit to eating plant-based, starting with a specific meal that you want to focus on, or starting with specific animal-based food groups to cut out. Here are some examples of what this might look like:

– You could commit to eating a plant-based breakfast for 2 weeks. Once you have that down, focus on having a plant-based lunch for 2 weeks. Next, focus on dinner and then focus on snacks. You might even distinguish between meals eaten at home and meals eaten out.

– Start cutting out one animal-based food group at a time. These groups include red meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, and dairy. 

Bottom line: Find a realistic transition schedule for yourself. My guess is that you will start feeling so great that, eventually, you won’t even have to think about it. 

3. Have a plan: As with any successful lifestyle change, having a plan is key. It’s hard to come up with meal ideas if you start thinking about them an hour before you plan to eat. When I don’t have a plan, I’m usually so hungry that I can’t fathom going to the store, prepping ingredients, and cooking the meal before I get to eat. Have a designated day each week that you go to the grocery store and prep your ingredients. My most successful weeks are when I plan how many meals I need for the week, pick recipes I know work or want to try, shop for the ingredients on Friday and make anything I can ahead of time over the weekend. It seems daunting at first to set aside part of your free time to do this but you will wind up with less stress (and probably more free time!) during the week. 

4. Find recipes that are easily adaptable. Eating a plant-based diet doesn’t have to be overly complicated. Rather than worrying about how to structure your meals without meat around them, pick simple recipes that you can easily leave the meat out of or substitute the meat with beans, lentils, tofu, tempeh, or nuts. Here are some examples:

– Veggie Fajitas: This was one of the first recipes I started making for plant-based dinners and my husband loves them! I usually don’t make the guacamole or pico for the sake of time and less dirty dishes and serve them with avocado instead. I also leave out the cheese.

–  Add cooked lentils to a marinara sauce and serve over whole wheat pasta

– Make stir fry with tofu instead of chicken. 

– Veggie Pizza…hold the cheese: Don’t knock it till you try it!

– Vegetable Soup: Serve it with a slice of avocado toast. 

I hope these tips help you if you’ve been wondering where to begin with transitioning to a plant-based diet. I’d love to hear where you are at with eating a plant-based diet and also what topics you have questions about in the comments section below. 

Stay healthy friends!

What I’ve Been Up To (and why I haven’t been blogging)

Hello! I realize I have written a post like this multiple times in the past year…apologizing for not being present/active on my little space in the internet. Having moved twice in the past year caused me to simplify what I was doing. Our moves not only involved packing, coordinating the movers and unpacking, they have also involved both of us wrapping up jobs we enjoyed and getting started in new jobs that we are really excited about. The mental space that all of this took up made me really simplify what I was spending my time and energy on.

Blogging and posting on social media began to feel like a chore. I started my blog to have a creative outlet for my passion. I used to get really excited about mapping out my blog posts and looking for inspiration for new recipes and then started to dread every Tuesday, which was my unofficial deadline I set for myself. Pair that with the time it takes to promote a blog and connect with other like-minded bloggers, and I just didn’t have the energy for it anymore. You may have noticed that my last few posts were thrown together and not really quality content. Since taking a break from blogging, I’ve realized that while I don’t have a massive following or benefit from my blog financially, there is a small community out there that does read my posts and look forward to my content. Now that we are more settled into our new home, I plan to return to blogging. I am not setting any parameters for myself on frequency or content because I want this to be a place where my passion for food and nutrition shine through quality content.

So, here’s what we’ve been up to in the past year. Almost exactly a year ago, we were moving down to Virginia. I was working at an outpatient cancer center prior to our move. While I enjoyed the work I did and the people I worked with, I had been wanting to get out of the clinical side of nutrition for a while. Our move provided me with the opportunity to do so. While sports nutrition wasn’t on my radar, I ended up taking a job as the director of sports nutrition at the school my husband was coaching at and loving it. I had found the niche of dietetics that I loved. After only 9 months of living in Virginia, my husband got the opportunity to coach a his alma mater. This was hard to pass up so I started packing our home into boxes and we moved back to the Midwest and got settled into our new home in South Bend, IN. We knew this was the right move, especially when I receive an opportunity to work in the sports nutrition department at Norte Dame. As crazy as the last year was, we wouldn’t change any of it. 

As I’ve been getting re-inspired to blog again, I debated changing it to a blog about how to move, but opted to stick with what I know best and keep the plant-based nutrition flowing your way. Maybe after our next move I will consider myself a professional and start a consulting business 😉

Stay healthy friends. I look forward to connecting with you all more!