Dinner in less than 20 minutes

Boca Vegan Veggie Burger, Diced Potatoes, And French Cut Green Beans

Tonights dinner was another success thanks to the Boca vegan veggie burgers even the kids loved tonights meal. This was such an easy meal full of flavor that I think anyone would love, vegan or not.

The veggie burger consisted of whole wheat bread, of course Boca vegan veggie burger, tomato, spinach artichoke hummus, and baby spring mix. The diced potatoes were fried in a tablespoon or two of extra virgin olive oil (evoo) with diced bell pepper and onion seasoned with salt and pepper. The green beans were easily put together with earth balance buttery spread. Now for DESSERT 

Homemade Strawberry and Banana Ice Cream 

Yum Yum Yum said enough. This simple recipe consists of frozen bananas, frozen strawberries, and vanilla non sweeten soy milk. It's that simple, but the taste is definitely not that simple. Make this delightful treat yourself and enjoy. 

Please feel free to leave any comments below with helpful suggestions, questions, or advice in general thanks.

Must take the bad with the good

Strawberry Oatmeal Breakfast Smoothie 

This recipe was definitely a success very delicious. I got the recipe off of  allrecipes.com  and made a few adjustments. I must admit I was nervous about the oats in this smoothie, but I had puree them into an almost powder before adding the other ingredients.  You can have it alone in the morning for breakfast or even as a brunch, very fulfilling. I had used chocolate soy milk instead of regular soy, 8 large frozen strawberries, and raw cane sugar instead of white. 

Original recipe makes 2 servings

• 1 cup soy milk
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 banana, broken into chunks

• 14 frozen strawberries
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar

Vegan Taco With Tofu

Another success story, you wouldn't believe how good this dish is, If you ask me its just as good or better than a meat taco. I will admit that I was nervous about this dish as well. I had never had tofu and have heard some bad things about it, well, I heard wrong, it all depends on how you season it and if you drain the excess water out of the tofu which I did. I found this recipe on realsimple.com but it is called vegetarian tacos with goat cheese. I didn't add the goat cheese witch makes this dish vegan. 

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 14-ounce package extra-firm tofu, drained, patted dry, and crumbled
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 10-ounce package frozen corn (2 cups), thawed
• 1 5-ounce package baby spinach (about 6 loosely packed cups)
• 8 small flour tortillas, warmed
• 3/4 cup store-bought refrigerated salsa

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add the tofu, chili powder, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Cook, tossing occasionally, until golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes.
3. Add the corn. Cook, tossing, until heated through, about 2 minutes.

1. Add the spinach and ¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Toss until wilted.
2. Fill the tortillas with the tofu mixture, and salsa.

Okay, so I gave you the GOOD. Like the title says you must take the bad with the good and here it is. The other morning, yesterday morning to be exact I was hungry and getting discouraged because I didn't know what to make. I knew becoming a vegan wasn't going to be easy when I had made the initial decision. The not eating meat was no big deal for me and still isn't, but the figuring out a whole new menu I knew would be an issue and yesterday morning was definitely an issue. This is what I started out with

Fresh strawberries, a whole banana, and a blueberry bagel. I figured I could blend the banana and strawberries for a topping on the Bagle  and this is what I came up with

Definitely was not what I had pictured and the taste was no better. So now I know that next time I need some other ingredient to blend with this like a cream of some sort and since I am so new at being vegan I don't know what that is yet or where to get it. So for now I will not be making this mistake again. 

Becoming vegan and why?

I would start out by saying hello to everyone, but since this blog is so new like today new I am almost sure I am writing to thin air right now, But just in case someone is reading this then I say hello to you and hope you don't find this post too boring.

 My name is Yvonne, I am a mother of four wonderful children and a stay at home wife.

 A few days ago precisely on Saturday, August 30, 2014, I had decided to make a life change, a dramatic one at that. I decided to go vegan, I had been thinking about it for a few months or so but couldn't bring myself to it. I wasn't sure if this change was something I really wanted or something I could follow through with. Meat is our main dish almost every night and God knows I love a mean hamburger, But I started thinking about my health and thought I would benefit from this change in so many ways. Saturday morning I figured I would search the internet on how to be a vegetarian and how hard it is to make this change. I came across this video about animals that are raised to be slaughtered or reproduce being tortured almost their entire life and most of these poor animals never get to see the sunlight until the day they are to be transported for slaughtering. I won't go into full details on this matter right now, but watching that video was enough to make my mind up and I don't think I will be looking back.

My second oldest son (10 years of age) has decided to take on this change with me since he has never really cared for eating meat, this was an easy decision for him. For the rest of our family, they will still be eating meat. Who knows, maybe one day they may change their minds as well.

I have decided to make this blog about our new journey as vegans and share it with the world. We are still so new to this and are open to advice, suggestions, recipes or whatever. I am so excited about our new life as vegans and will keep posting on a regular basis about our progress.