Category Archives: pasta

Pasta With Cauliflower “Cream” Sauce

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27

Hey everyone! Happy Friday! I hope you all had a great week :) I’m jealous it’s not my weekend yet but it will be soon enough I guess. In the meantime, I have a fun new recipe to share!

Here’s a hint:

Well, I guess you already knew it was vegan ;) I still had some cauliflower mash left and decided to get crazy with it and turn it into a “cream” sauce for pasta! I used to love fettucini alfredo and thought this would be a fun, healthy version of it!

Check out this gorgeous bowl of creamy pasta! I used gluten free angel hair pasta but you can use whatever you like. I’m just an angel hair girl :)

Pasta With Cauliflower “Cream” Sauce

Ingredients:

1 serving pasta of choice (with some cooking water reserved)

1/2 cup cheesy cauliflower mash

1/2 cup steamed spinach (and other veggies of choice)

salt, pepper, garlic to taste

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package. Drain and reserve some of the cooking liquid.

2. Heat cheesy cauliflower mash in a small saucepan. Thin sauce with pasta cooking liquid to desired consistency. I like mine thick and creamy. Add nutritional yeast and mix well.

3. Add veggies to sauce and add pasta last. Season with salt, pepper and garlic to taste.

This pasta is rich and creamy and decadent with absolutely none of the guilt! Definitely give this a try, I think you’ll like it!

I’m also submitting this recipe for Healthy Vegan Friday!

That’s all for tonight my friends! Have a great evening!

Dinner Party for 3!

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19

Hey everyone! I’m happy to say my dinner party was a success! It was so nice to see my friend and her fiance and it was really fun to cook for everyone! I decided to do a decadent yet still a little healthy lasagna for dinner and a light, raw dessert that still tasted sweet and delicious!

I used gluten free brown rice lasagna noodles, tofutti better than ricotta, Daiya mozzarella, some marinara, spinach, broccoli and zucchini.

I actually thought it looked really pretty before I baked it so I took a few photos of it ;) I hate using foil pans but my bro and sister in law don’t have much in terms of cookware and I already had to transport so much so I just grabbed one down the block from the house.

Check out all of the green in there! It always looks more vibrant before it’s cooked, ha!
I served the lasagna with this beautiful salad. It had greens, strawberries, pecans and cucumber. We topped it with some balsamic vinaigrette. Yum!

My plate. The lasagna fell apart in the oven. It was fine though it still tasted good and everyone seemed to like it. I was impressed by the ricotta, it tasted pretty good! The veggies were really good, still a bit crisp which was nice. I’d say it was pretty successful! The salad was nice and fresh and was a good way to balance out the richness of the lasagna :)
For dessert I made a (Mostly) Raw Cherry Berry Crisp! I just took raw cherries and strawberries and topped it with a mostly raw crisp I made. I used oat flour making it mostly raw since I’m sure they steam the oats before grinding them but I wanted to keep the oat flavor you find in most crumbles. Otherwise, it is completely raw! It went over well!
Raw Cherry Berry Crisp

Ingredients:

2 cups pitted sweet cherries
1 cup strawberries, sliced
For Crisp:
1 cup oat flour
3/4 cup raw walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup agave
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp liquid coconut butter
Directions:

1. Combine ingredients for the crisp and mix until it is a crumbly dough. Put dough into dehydrator and dehydrate at 104 degrees until dry, about 20-24 hours.
2. Mix fruit together and evenly distribute between bowls (I had some fruit leftover which I had for breakfast!).
3. Top with dried crisp topping and enjoy!

We had a great time until Tyler, my brother’s dog, has a bit of a meltdown. He’s incredibly skittish and heard a firework and started trembling and panting and wouldn’t stop. I figured out he wanted to go upstairs and lay in the bed snuggled up with me and wouldn’t you know it, as soon as we called it a night and came upstairs he stopped panting and trembling. It makes me feel horrible that he’ll be home all day while I’m at work :(

This was the beginning before the meltdown when he was sitting in his carrier. He does this often when he misses his mommy and daddy. He’s ok now though, it was just sad to watch!
Other than the puppy meltdown, I’d say the night was a success! It was so nice to see my friends and catch up. Now it’s back to reality and I have to work a wedding in the blazing heat today. Hopefully the day goes quick!
Have a great Sunday everyone! Enjoy the rest of your weekend :)

Back with a Vengeance!

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16

Hey everyone! I’m totally committed to using my meals to help me feel better from this yucky illness I’ve been dealing with for over a week now. I woke up early and spent 2 and a half hours in the kitchen prepping and getting meals and snacks ready to bring to work. I’ve been trying to remain high raw and I think that I did a pretty good job. I’m posting my meals for the day that I’ve consumed and that I plan on bringing to work for snack and dinner tonight.

Check it!

I went for the green smoothie again except I was ok with using fruit with a slightly higher glycemic index. Ever since I saw the recipe for the Cherry Vanilla Smoothie by Gena of Choosing Raw I knew I had to try it! You’ll notice mine looked sludgy while hers is a gorgeous purple color, but I added a ton of fresh spinach to mine to up the green factor. I also used a scant cup of frozen cherries. I also decided to make it a cherry chocolate smoothie by using Chocolate Vega Protein Powder and for the record, it is the BEST vegan protein powder I’ve ever tried….and I’ve tried a lot! I’ll definitely make this again! I also feel great now, I have a lot of energy and I love the green power from the spinach and those cherries add an antioxidant punch! 
I wasn’t super hungry by late morning but I could tell by the Lose It! app that I needed more calories for the day so I toasted up a slice of GF Millet toast and added some almond butter and cinnamon to it. So delicious.
Not the prettiest picture but lunch was some brown rice pasta with lots of lightly steamed zucchini and broccoli. I topped it with a little sauce and some nooch. Very delicious!
For an afternoon snack I decided to go for an orange to keep the vitamin C flowing. Ideally this would have been my morning snack and the toast would be my afternoon snack but I’m eating this one at work so the toast wouldn’t be doable then. Small concession but I think the vitamin C kick will help me get some energy to keep me going til dinner.
For dinner I made this gorgeous chopped salad. Half spring mix and half spinach, mung bean sprouts, cucumber, carrot, and sun dried tomato. I added my chopper to the pic because there has been some curiosity about what I use to chop my salads (that’s for you Ingrid!). Very simple but it gets the job done! I’m also going to bring some Mary’s Gone Crackers GF crackers to eat on the side. Another Lose It! inspired addition :) I’m hoping if I can make sure I stop coming in under calories that my energy will come back quicker too.
Hope you all have a great day! I’ll be home after 9 tonight. Working until 9 a few days a week bums me out but I guess you have to do what you have to do.