5 Ingredient Recipe: Kale and Carrot Stir-Fry

Wow, April already! Time sure flies by when you've got exams to study for, a school club to run and an apartment to pack up. Here's another 5 Ingredient Recipe.

This was one of those leftover madness dishes that happen to turn out really, really good. After making this batch of fabulous carrot and cucumber sushi rolls, I had lots of shredded carrots and rice leftover.

I'm always trying to fit more greens into my diet. Kale is my go-to green because not only does it taste fabulous, but it's also a nutrient superstar. There is a great business in Sudbury, ON called Adoro that sells this amazing selection of infused and flavoured olive oils and balsamic vinegars. I had purchased a great sampler pack from them at a women's show a few months ago, and I've been incredibly impressed with the quality of their products. Today, I'm using the Wild Mushroom & Sage flavoured olive oil because I think the flavours work really well with the other ingredients.

5 Ingredient Recipe: Grilled Apples with Hazelnut-Maple Caramel

There I go again, another 5 Ingredient Recipe for my lovely readers, and it's a sugar-free desert this time! This one was a very spur-of-the-moment post, here's why:
If you have ever had supper with me, you would know that when I finish supper, I usually want to have a little something sweet to finish it off. It turns out, I'm the queen of throwing random ingredients together after dinner and making up a desert as I go. While I'm still working on emptying pantry items, I had a huge bag of apples that were starting to go bad. So I cut them up and grilled them, of course! I already had our George Foreman Grill (our awesome yard sale find!) set up from supper, so I used it again for desert. Why not! I wanted some sort of dip for them, and to the pantry I went. Maple syrup, hazelnut butter and cinnamon answered my call. This sweet yummy dish turned out to be extremely easy and sugar-free too!
I have to warn you, it doesn't photograph very well, and neither do I. It would seem that I need to do more collaborations with Myriam from Beauteoptic. And by collaborations, I mean using her photography skills for my blog. So, I'm sorry about the awful photo, but here is the turn out:

5 Ingredient Recipe: Spicy Artichoke Quesedillas

I have news: I will be moving to Ottawa in the spring! In preperation, we are trying to empty out our pantry as much as we can before the move. I'll be posting many recipes using ingredients from cans, jars, boxes and the freezer. Lately, I've also been attempting to make dishes with the least amount of ingredients possible.
This is the first post in an all-new series of recipes with 5 or less ingredients! (5 Ingredient Recipes) Easy peasy and super delicious are my goals for this new series. Being in a time-crunch or just plain lazy, these are fantastic!

I apologize for my awful photography skills, but here they are:

Campus News: Vegetarian Club

I have great news! I have officially started a vegetarian club at my school, with the help of a few others who wanted to get involved. Just wanted to share this with you because I'm SO very excited!

I'm a fourth year student at +Laurentian University - Université Laurentienne and I was always somewhat dissapointed in my campus experience since I lived off campus the whole time. The clubs aren't very active either, so I haven't participated to much as far as our campus community. There is more of a focus on sports I find, and that's not really for me.

Being vegetarian for most of my schooling and now fully vegan, my food options on campus aren't even close to being accomodating. +Tim Hortons has a few vegan bagels that I can get without butter, and the cafeteria has a fruit and vegetable bar that is usually quite unapealing, but it does have some tasty homefries and hummus snacks. So those are about all my options as far as food, and the prices are outrageous. Not really worth it.

I have started going to the Northern Vegetarian Society's monthly potlucks on a regular basis now, which have been fantastic! It got me thinking about wanting to be more involved, going to more events like these. In this town, that's about all we got. So I somehow got the idea to start a vegetarian club on campus. How have I never thought of this before?!?!? Now I'm graduating in 2 months and that's all I have left to be involved on campus! Better late than never I guess.

Beauty Haul: Lush Cosmetics

On my recent trip to Toronto (see my restaurant post) I did a bit of shopping on Queen street. I spotted on a Lush store on my way to the Loving Hut restaurant, and prepared myself for some massive splurging. I'm a huge fan of Lush for many reasons, one of them being the labelling of vegan products. The majority of their products are vegan and have this little V symbol to identify them. What a great way to kickstart my vegan beauty regime! Here are the all-vegan products I purchased:

Vegan Restaurant: Loving Hut Toronto

When in Rome! (or Toronto!)

I spent the long weekend (family day in Ontario) in Toronto and I knew right away I wanted to hunt down some amazing vegan restaurants. After a search on Happy Cow, I had a looooong list of places to visit. Ok, I went a little bit overboard. I know I can't even get to a dozen places in one day, let alone eat a dozen meals. My trip was then planned around the area I wanted to visit most (shopping!). Unfortunately, I only had time for one outing so the Loving Hut in Toronto was my restaurant of choice. Now, I'm not a restaurant critic by any means, so I'm just sharing my experience and my opinions with you. Enjoy!

What a lovely place! The staff is friendly and the decor is adorable, much like a popular cozy hangout kind of vibe. I was impressed with the large menu, since I'm used to being restricted to 1-2 options. Here's the best part: I ordered 2 meals, equalling 4 plates, to myself! I probably sounded crazy but I asked the waitress to bring me some take out containers so I could take half of each meal home. And extra ketchup, of course!

Chocolate-Glazed Mini Donuts (vegan)

This year, my sister bought me this donut maker from Babycakes for Christmas. I was SO excited to try it! Since we decided to do a cleanse for the month of January, it remained unopened for the month, sadly collecting dust. On the first weekend of Febuary, I took that baby out and got right into it! I tried the donut recipe from Chloe Coscarelli's cookbook, Chloe's Kitchen (my Christmas present to myself) but I replaced the nutmeg with cinnamon. When I was mixing the dry and wet ingredients together, I found the batter to be a little bit thick. After adding about 1/4 cup of extra soymilk, the batter was much better but still quite thick. Even with that, I found the donuts turned out a little dense, so I will try adding 1/2 cup soymilk to the liquids next time. Overall, the donut-making was great; super easy and quick. The donut-iron (is that what I'm supposed to call it?) took about 5 minutes per batch, and using the ziplock-bag method for piping the dough made the whole process so much easier!

January cleanse: extension week recap

The last little stretch is done! WOW! What an accomplishement for me. Feeling incredibly proud, inspired, and happy! Here's how it went:

Monday night I did some awesome yoga at my local Goodlife Fitness. I felt so great afterwards, it was a really good class! My sister had brought along two of her friends, who were very hesitant to trying yoga. Obviously, they came out of the class loving it! It was so nice to see this positive influence and the happy chatting afterwards (insert warm fuzzy feelings here). And then my sister and I went home and munched on guacamole and roasted red pepper hummus with Gluten-Free crackers, yum! It's actually really embarassing how much hummus we go through... Good thing we buy it at Costco!

So apparently I'm a runner now.... WHAT? I've never been a runner, a jogger, or even a big walker. Cardio has never been my thing. During this cleanse, I found that I have SO much more energy, and I need to do something more than bicep curls and squats to get it out. Since getting bad whiplash this summer, my back and shoulder area have been tense so I didn't want to work out too hard. Cardio it is. I've been doing pretty good, slowly working my way up to longer periods (watching longer Ted Talks videos!). My biggest issue before was the sluggishness (probably just unconscious laziness) and my lack of endurance. Now it's not an issue at all!

January cleanse: week 3 recap

Oh my! Week 3 of my Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse is already done! It has officially been 21 days today that I have been following the cleanse. I have to say it went by really fast! Overall, I'm feeling pretty great physically and emotionally, even with some leftover cold symptoms and a bit of emotional drama in my life. This has become my goal, something to be proud of, something to achieve and to explore. I'm so thankful to have found this!

This week was a little different, staying home with a cold for most of it. I watched alot of movies and tv since I had no internet at home. But, that also means I had time to make a few yummy dishes! I made a great mexican-style rice pilaf consisting of; brown rice, diced tomatoes, corn, black beans, assorted beans, onions, mushrooms, chili powder and other spices. I had served this on a plate topped with sautéed collard greens and garlic, yum! Now my weekend consists of catching up on homework and studying because of missing so much class. Horray....

January cleanse: week 2 recap

Hi everyone! Sorry about the delay for my post, I haven't had a WiFi connection at home for a few days. I have also caught a darn cold so I haven't been outside of my place either, since it's probably not a good idea to go outside in -35 degree weather. Yup, I said -35 degrees, Celcius. Anyway, here's a recap of my week 2 on the Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse.

I'm getting into more of a routine by going to the gym on scheduled times every week, and I'm doing great so far! Here's what HAS changed in my routine; music. Before, I would just focus on my workout because there is no background music at the university gym. But now, TedTalks videos have been my go-to gym "music" lately, I can't get enough of them! Pull them They are all about 20 minutes, so that's perfect for timing. I've been really impressed with the speeches of Kathy Freston (Leaning into your life), Jonathan Foley (The other inconvenient truth), Douglas Lisle (The pleasure trap), Brendan Brazier (Find your athletic edge) and Dr. Campbell (Resolving the health care crisis). Check them out! ....After you read the rest of my post! :)

Cleanse Day 7: fasting

Yesterday was day 7 of the Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse, and also my first fasting day. The book suggests that you fast once a week, to give your body a break from digesting solids. Drinking lots of water, tea and green juices are on the menu for the day. In theory, your body absorbs nutrients faster and gives you more energy to do other things instead of digesting food. Yesterday, my food diary consisted of lots of water, 3 teas and 3-4 glasses of green juice. I have to admit I was dreading it, but it was actually not bad. I kept busy and kept sipping, so there was no hunger in sight. It felt good to not have to worry about food, not wondering about ingredients or putting time into making food.

Over the past week, I noticed that I feel full. Weird... I thought I was just going crazy, but it feels like my stomach has shrinked. I have always been the kind of person who eats just because I feel like eating, whether I'm hungry or not. I eat when I know I'm supposed to have a meal (that's the virgo in me) and that's just how I do it. It seems like this cleanse has helped me become more in tune with my body and now I actually pay attention to what it's trying to tell me. It's not about the cravings or the time of day anymore, it's about how I feel and what my body needs. Loving it!

January cleanse: week 1 recap

Hello again! I'm a few days into my Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse and I'm feeling great! After a few fibs, I'm still quite proud of where I am so far. Now it's day 6 and tomorrow is my first fasting day, so here's a recap of the week:

I have always been a huge breakfast person, so It's actually a bit of a shock (but also a time-saver!) to not be eating solid foods in the morning. Lemon-cayenne water, tea and green juice has become my morning routine and so far I'm loving it. Just a bit of advice: be VERY careful shaking cayenne into your water, mine came out way too fast and it became a glass of spicy with a bit of water... The book suggests to make green juice yourself but I did buy a bottle of Bolthouse green juice for the days I didn't have time to do it. My Ninja blender was all I had to make juice, so I had to strain the pulp out of my "smoothie" with my metal mesh strainer, which is not fun at all. A juicer would come in VERY handy for this kind of lifestyle, but I have a million kitchen gadgets so I will put up with the pulp for now. My spinach-celery-apple-banana juice still turned out great, but I was left over with a big portion of pulp and I didn't want to waste it. Again, +Eco-Vegan Gal came to my rescue with her suggestion to make flax crackers with leftover pulp. I added ground flax seeds and sesame seeds to the pulp until it was firm enough to hold its shape, formed little cracker shapes and baked them! Horray for not wasting!

New year, new resolution!

Hello again! I'm back after a very busy holiday season, and of course after a hangover on January 1st I've made a few resolutions that I'l like to acheive this year. Living with my sister, we influence eachother in ways we don't even notice, including our diets and groceries we buy. She had been telling me about her "detox" plan (from her personal trainer) coming up in the new year, so I thought it would be great to try something like that myself. Since I start classes again on monday, I've decided January 7th would be my start date, as I phase out the forbidden foods out of my fridge (eating them!) and look up recipes until then.

One of my favourite vegan resources is +Eco-Vegan Gal. I love everything she does and I find her channel so inspiring. I had seen Whitney's videos  about her last year's January cleanse using the Crazy Sexy Diet book by Kris Carr and decided to give it a shot. I didn't have the book, so I did some research. After reading this review, I could understand the basic rules and decided to go out and buy the book. The book has a great daily checklist to keep you on track and is also great for documenting your journey during the cleanse. Kris includes some great recipes to get you started, including various green juice recipes to keep it exciting.

Childhood favourite, Nutella!

Nutella. Yummy! What else is there to say, who doesn't love Nutella??? Here's the catch: I love Nutella, but not what it's made of. I figured there has to be a way to quench my craving without actually buying some. I found an old (expired) jar in my pantry and looked at the ingredients:

• Sugar (replace with agave nectar)
• Modified palm oil (destroying rainforest! Skipping the oil to reduce fat content, but feel free to try it because it gives it a smoother texture)
• Hazelnuts (yep)
• Cocoa (yep)
• Skim milk powder (I used almond milk, but I also could have tried soy milk powder)
• Whey powder (dairy by-product)
• Lecithin (What?? After doing a bit of research, I found out that lecithin is a fat that can be derived from many sources to improve texture. Most lecithin is derived from soybeans, but other sources include egg yolks, so no guarantee.)
• Vanillin (Vanilla, for those of us who speak english)

Totally easy to re-create a fixed up version. Here's what I did:

Exams and Snickerdoodles

Hello again, it's exam time for me at the moment. It's stressful and crazy but it goes by very quickly. I am now in my fourth year of university, and I've become quite the expert at procrastination. As I was taking out my books and study notes, I stumbled upon the VegNews Holiday Cookie Contest (don't ask me how these things happen, I have no idea!). Naturally, I got the urge to make cookies... So I did, obviously. I've been meaning to try out a recipe my friend gave to me. She had made me some snickerdoodle cookies for my birthday and they were amazing! I've had the recipe for a while, but I've been in cupcake mode lately. So I figured, perfect! I'll test it out, I need food while I'm studying anyways (doesn't every student use this excuse?). Thank goodness I had JUST enough Earth Balance butter left. Here is the recipe she gave me, complete with notes:

Hello!

Hello everyone! Thanks for visiting my blog. This is my first post, and I'm nervous, anxious, and excited all at once! I can't wait to share my adventures in veganism with you. :)
I'll be posting all sorts of things including my favourite recipes, various meals, thoughts, Q&As, etc. For now, enjoy this food porn:

Vegan Cookies N Cream Cupcakes