Monday, March 26, 2012

Supplementing Sun

One of the down falls of becoming vegan (ok, so it really doesn't have much to do with being vegan, it has more to do with living where the sun doesn't shine in the winter) is that you are recommended to take supplements for certain vitamins. One is B12, this is a big one. The other is vitamin D. 


I'm not a fan of taking pills - even vitamins. I had to force myself to take my pre-natals when I was pregnant. We have had multi vitamins sit on the shelf until they expired (or the jar melted from the heat of the toaster oven). I was looking to find some food based way to add these two essentials back into our diet. The B12 proves a little tricky, but nutritional yeast works (although we haven't really gotten used to the taste yet). I'm still looking for a better one for that. 


Here is the fun part! When I was puttering around online, I came across and ad on someones blog - an ad for a plant based vitamin D. Guess who makes it: DOLE! It's portobello mushroom powder - and its a food based source of vitamin D. Plus, it's like adding spices to your food - mushrooms taste good and add flavor. So its not like taking/eating a supplement at all! I was so excited. 


I haven't had it yet. Whole foods doesn't carry it, so I'm at the mercy of online shopping. But I can't wait to get it in the mail! I'll keep you posted on how it tastes, but I figure it has to be better than the Nutritional Yeast. If you want your own, click on the picture :) 



Thursday, March 8, 2012

Rosted Red Pepper Hummus

Mike made an amazing dinner tonight! Stuffed portobello mushrooms, stuffed with herbed, spinach quinoa, sprinkled with nutritional yeast and baked, smothered with wild mushroom gravy. Super yummy! (I'll get the recipe for that later. I think Mike will have to try and figure out what he did for some of it.)

Before we dove into this amazing meal, we had a super yummy appetizer of roasted red pepper humus and pita chips!

Hummus (according to Mike)

2 cloves of garlic - roughly chopped
1/4 c lemon juice
1/4 c water
1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup tahini
1 tsp sea salt
1 roasted red pepper

Place all ingredients in a food processor, and blend until smooth, scraping sides periodically.


I'm telling you, this is the most amazing hummus I've had. The flavor is just so perfectly balanced. You need to make some!

(sorry for the strange looking picture. One, we already ate most of it, and two, my house has terrible lighting.)

Monday, March 5, 2012

Yoga = Balance

I went to stretch/yoga this morning. It felt sooooooo good! I'm sorry that I will miss ballet on thursday, but next week I'll be at both! It feels so good to move. The funny thing, is that I feel like my body was more stretchable and movable even though I haven't been to class in about a month. I just feel so much more balanced. I can't wait for class next week!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Dinner!

Today I was sick of doing dishes, and Mike couldn't decide what he wanted to eat, so we decided to have leftovers. So I heated up one of the leftover veggie burgers from last night, but I wanted some veggies to go with it. I wasn't feeling a salad, so I looked in the fridge to see what might be good to sauté up. Here is what I came up with:


It was pretty basic. I chopped up leeks, brussel sprouts, broccoli stalks, scallions, and kale. I threw in a couple garlic cloves, and some balsamic vinegar, topped it at the last minute with some yellow grape tomatoes, and voila! Dinner is served! It was delicious, nutritious, and filling!