Gone Vegan

Important announcement.

Last year I was diagnosed with some serious health concerns.I got put on the AIP (auto-immune protocol) diet to really eliminate food allergens and help discover the route of my problems. It was a LOT of meat. Like by a lot, I mean like every meal was meat and you were encouraged to eat organ meats and drink bone broth. I made it about 3 weeks. It was too much to handle. My stomach does not digest meat in that high of quantities and honestly it got me thinking about route causes being food. How is that really possible?? We have been eating food forever, our bodies thrive on food. What could make us need to eliminate everything? It's hard to chew (literally! pun intended)

So long story short, instead of AIP, I flipped it the other way.
I've been really a flex-itatrian since then.
Mostly Vegan 5-6 days a week and maybe a light meat meal on the weekends with the family. But what was holding me back from fully committing? Easy of buying prepared food? Being able to eat out simpler? Making my family commit with me. My husband cooks a lot of the dinners during the week. He gets home earlier than me. By the time I stroll in the door with my son from daycare, it's literally dinner time. It was just easier to have the hubby cook something and his default is pizza to be honest or really easy prepared and just reheat meals.  Not ideal.

I also work with a lot of girls and get to listen to their health issues on a daily basis; stomach issues, diabetes, overweight, underweight. You name the concern, we probably have it at my job. As a leader, I wanted to help them. Leader doesn't just mean in the office, I wanted to help with their personal concerns. Is it my place to do that?? Probably not but that's just who I am.
We started bringing in group lunches and sharing, having meal prep weekends.. In my effort to better their health, I started watching food documentaries to pick up some cool 1 liner quotes to randomly drop.
Flash forward like 6 months, I'm seeing benefits on their side and it's encouraging so I'm taking it to the next level. Vegan but vegan in the right way. Not the prepared, carb loaded, mass produced "food" that is vegan approved. I'm talking about down to the ground, growing your own food, making food type vegan.
I also have another concern... I don't eat gluten. Celiacs. Also I try to avoid soy. It really messes up my hormones and I've already had a lot of thyroid problems I don't want to flare up.
So a Gluten free- soy free vegan it is!!

From now on, you won't see any recipes involving animal products.
Peace to everyone!

Onion Corncakes

1st ingredient is to start with a child who keeps buying huge onions from the farmers market.
Now I don't hate onions, butttttttttt I don't really like them at EVERY meal, which is what we are doing right now.  This is a lesson to me. I gave him an allowance each week to spend on a fresh item at the local farmers market. The onions the size of his head have just been a little too appealing.

For real though.
Just a few ingredients and you get a beautiful green pancake type item.


Start by mixing up all the dry ingredients














Add in the finely chopped onions and peppers and mix up.

 pan fry and cook to a beautiful golden brown. Flip and repeat on the other side.

Little trick, spread the batter out as thin as you can. Helps to cook it evenly and caramelize all the onion up.

That's pretty much it. 

Best when warm. I made a huge batch and frozen them and just take out a couple at a time and toast them up. 

I really enjoy with a dollop of salsa on top :)

***RECIPE***

DRY INGREDIENTS:

3/4 Cup Gluten free flour

1 TBSP Sugar

2 TBSP Cornmeal

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

WET INGREDIENTS:

3/4 Cup Almond Milk

2 cups diced onions (about 2 small or like 1/2 a giant one!)

1/2 cup diced bell pepper (about 1/2 a good sized pepper. I used a green one

DIRECTIONS:

Mix dry ingredients together

fold in the wet ingredients until well blended

Heat a skillet to Medium heat. If you have a ceramic like me that can burn sugar and not have it stick, feel free to not oil the pan. Otherwise, I'd add a light layer to the bottom.

Pan fry until golden brown, flip and fry the other side. 

Enjoy while warm or let cool, freeze and pull out a couple and toast them up when needed. 

Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed Peppers

This recipe could not be easier. And the best thing is, if you want to sub an ingrendient, it's so easy. No cooked rice on hand? Use some orzo pasta. Don't have mixed beans? Use a can of black beans, or add more vegetables. Add an onion, add shredded cheese... the options are so limitless.

Here is my basic recipe for vegetarian stuffed peppers. I like to use lentils alot. I feel like they have a meaty flavor and I can typically pass them off as a meat option to my family when I mix them in recipes.

I typically make mine in a crock pot due to the ease of throwing them in and coming home to something cooked and ready to go. An hour for cooking on a weeknight is too much for my son to wait for, so it's nice if it's ready to go.