Better Spaghetti Sauce From a Jar
Remember when all you needed for dinner was a jar of sauce, a pound of ground beef and a package of pasta? But now you read all these “fancy” food blogs that have you rolling out your own raviolis, cutting out homemade goldfish crackers and toasting your own cinnamon crunch cereal. Who does that? Seriously, get a life. Or get a jar of sauce, a pound of tempeh and a package of pasta. Plus a few add-ins. And suddenly your spaghetti... Read More
Last-Minute Valentine’s Dinners and Desserts
I’m making a mad dash today to get ready for a last-minute appearance on AM Northwest tomorrow morning to bake up some Valentine’s Day treats. In order to get ready for the show, I’m prepping ingredients, props and the different baked goods in their varying stages of readiness. Talk about a test of willpower. It’s hard explaining to the girls why they can’t eat these. Sometimes I call my stomach and my mouth “the girls.” ... Read More
Turn 5 Vegan Recipes into 25 Dinners
I know I said I wasn’t going to do a best recipes of 2011 post. I lied. This is that post. Kind of. I know a lot of you have “eat healthy” resolutions, “get organized” resolutions and maybe even “go veg” resolutions. I can help. Rather than just list off our five most popular dinner recipes of 2011, I want to show you how to take these five recipes that you may or may not have already made and turn them into twenty-five recipes. ... Read More
Healthy Eating Tactics for the New Year
Happy New Year! I know we’re all done with gifts for the season. But one of the greatest gifts I think you can give for the new year, be it to your kids, your spouse or your significant other, is the empowerment to make healthy food choices for themselves. This is a gift you can even give yourself. Like new jeans. Totally the same thing. I think it was about a midway through Christmas break that I decided we needed a new technique for empowerment... Read More
Make Ahead Veg Meals (for Trains & Freezers)
One of the great things about having a blog is getting the opportunity to share things I’ve stumbled upon that might just make someone’s day. That make my day. I’ll admit, a lot of times it’s things like donut pans and miracle working pushup bras. The importance of both should in no way be diminished by this post. But today, it’s something a little different. Have you heard of Meal Train.com? It is this really brilliant website that... Read More
Big Day
It was a big day. We got to watch my cousin Nick pitch in a minor league baseball game. What a rock star. I remember when Nick was born. I remember his first day of school when my aunt wanted to take a picture of him with his lunchbox and he got mad and refused. So she just took a picture of his lunchbox. And now he’s on the Jumbotron. How do you like me now, Lunchbox?! But that’s not all. Oh no, that is not all. Look at what opens in our... Read More
On the Fly
Things are getting strange around here. I could sit here and rattle off a laundry list of all the things I’ve had to do this weekend, all the things I have going on next week, and everything else I have to do before leaving for my trip to New York in a little over a week, but my gosh, no one wants to hear that. Just ask Pea Daddy. Instead, I’m going to choose to focus on the positive aspects of being so busy that Lulu has walked around with... Read More
Planning a Veggie Easter
I cleaned out my email inbox last night. It was so very refreshing to delete the twenty Groupon deals Pea Daddy is strongly encouraging me to buy and the fifteen Living Social deals he thinks I “must have.” He has a slight problem. I think if Tommy Bahama ever offered a Groupon his head would explode. And then he’d send me a Living Social deal for 50% off head reconstruction surgery. Hidden in the hundreds of money-saving forwards were... Read More
Pealightful Plans: Week Four
This is the sixth and final post in a vegan meal planning series. For breakfast ideas, click here. For snack and treat ideas click here. For background explanations and links to the other posts in the series (including Weeks 1, 2 and 3), you can read here. Here is the Pealightful Meal Plan for Week Four. Phew. So this is the end of a month’s worth of healthy, whole food, plant-based weight management recipes! That wasn’t so hard, was it? As... Read More
Pealightful Plans: Week 3
This is the fifth post in a vegan meal planning series. For breakfast ideas, click here. For snack and treat ideas click here. For background explanations and links to the other posts in the series (including Weeks 1 and 2), you can read here. Here is the Pealightful Meal Plan for Week Three. Pea Pal had a bit of a setback last week, as he caught a nasty bug like I had. He’s still on board, but just a bit behind. He’s eating his way... Read More
Pealightful Plans: Week 2
This is the fourth post in a vegan meal planning series. For Week One’s plan, click here. For breakfast ideas, click here. For snack and treat, ideas click here. For background explanations and links to the other posts in the series, you can read here. Here is the Pealightful Meal Plan for Week Two. Pea Pal reports that he enjoyed everything he ate last week and is ready to keep eating according to plan this week. Just as last week, please... Read More
Pealightful Plans: Week 1
This is the third post in a vegan meal planning series. For breakfast ideas, click here. For snack and treat, ideas click here. For background explanations and links to the other posts in the series, you can read here. Here is the Pealightful Meal Plan for Week 1. Pea Pal’s plan is almost identical, but he has incorporated meat into a few meals. I’m hoping to work on that. Please keep in mind that these are just my meal suggestions... Read More
Pealightful Plans: Snacks and Treats
This is the second post in a vegan meal planning series. You can see the first post about breakfast options here. For background explanations and links to the other posts in the series, you can read here. One of the problems with the popular weight loss method of six small meals a day, is that it can seem like you are constantly eating. Not that that’s a bad thing in my book. But since Pea Pal is trying to lose weight, I’ve suggested... Read More
Pealightful Plans: Breakfasts
This is the first post in the vegan meal planning series. Look for a Snack and Treats post and the Week 1 Pealightful Meal Plan/Shopping Guide later today. When I sat down to talk to our friend Pea Pal, I learned that breakfast wasn’t an issue in his weight and high cholesterol problems. Turns out, for the last twenty years or so, he’s been eating Overnight Oats for breakfast. He “soaks” his oatmeal overnight with some water or milk... Read More
