Recipes, projects & products that don’t suck.

Sometimes I get in a rut with salads and then I get sick of them. I need to change up the ingredients more often. Throw in a more fruity version like this one once in a while. Unless you’re like my dad who doesn’t like fruit in his garden salad. Then you’re just missing out, I guess. This post isn’t a recipe for a salad (it’s pretty easy to figure out the ingredients: spring salad mix, sliced strawberries, blueberries, cooked asparagus, pecans). Rather, I’m sharing the recipe for the magic ingredient–the DRESSING! This is a sweet, tangy, creamy dressing that is so easy to make. Just throw the ingredients into the blender and you’re done. Boring salad crisis averted. I found a similar recipe from…

Have you ever roasted a pear? Until now, I had not. I know – so sad, right? Well, I mean, I’ve eaten roasted pears (in salads, desserts, etc at restaurants), but I had never prepared my own. It’s so easy and yet the result is so gourmet, so decadent. I’ve gotta do this more often. It’s a shame that I didn’t have dinner guests the day I made this. All that fanciness for just Hubs and me. I found this recipe on a blog called Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body (I WISH!) authored by a gal named Julia. Her blog isn’t focussed on vegan food, but she does have a number of great-looking vegan recipes. Check out the video on her About page….

In February, I will have been vegan for a year. This is my first time navigating through the holidays with the challenge of eating vegan. I must say, it sure does cure the problem of over-eating when you have very limited dishes to choose from (pretty much the ones you bring yourself) at parties and family gatherings. It really simplifies things and forces me to make good choices. I’m on a bit of a mission to convince my friends and family that vegan does NOT equal yuck. As I was searching for crowd-pleasing vegan side dishes I could bring, I came across a recipe for Cranberry, Apricot and Wild Rice Pilaf. Today, I did a trial run. No surprise here – it turned out great….

I know, I know… ANOTHER recipe with pumpkin. Enough already! I hear ya. BUT, I had to use up my leftover canned pumpkin from the Pumpkin Spice Turnovers (which you must try, btw). So, I made up my own vegan, gluten-free Pumpkin Pie Smoothie recipe and I have to say, it’s blog-worthy. Since yesterday’s post was lengthy with photo overload, I’ll keep it nice and light today ;) YIELDS 2 SERVINGS *** INGREDIENTS: 1 cup coconut milk (in the carton, not the can)* about ¾ cup (give or take) canned or pureed pumpkin* 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1 tsp. cinnamon 1 Tbsp. agave nectar 1 Tbsp. chia seeds ¼ cup unsweetened flaked coconut ¼ cup pecans 2 frozen bananas (peeled and cut into thirds) 1 cup ice…

If I didn’t already convince you to try the Vegan Pancakes I posted last Saturday, maybe this will do the trick. I made them again on Sunday morning and topped them off with fresh raspberries, vegan chocolate chips, sliced almonds and pure maple syrup. These definitely do NOT suck. Get the recipe here.