Tag: vegan

Broccoli Cheeze Soup

Broccoli Cheeze Soup

The rainy season is here, that means it’s time for soup! Featuring my favorite veggie of course. 😉

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chickpea Cookies

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chickpea Cookies

Do you love cookie dough too? But maybe you’re trying to be better with what you’re eating? These cookies fall into both categories and are so yummy!

Potato Leek Soup

Potato Leek Soup

Another soup recipe… Yup, I love me some soup! Soon the weather will be warmer and I won’t be so soup obsessed.

Creamy soups are my jam. Before going vegan, broccoli cheese, creamy potato, and clam chowder were my favorite soups. I’ve gotten the vegan creamy potato down, but I’m still working on a broccoli cheese soup recipe. A friend gave me her recipe but I’ve yet to try it out.

I used to be such a picky eater. Don’t get me wrong, there are still a lot of foods I don’t like to eat. My tastebuds have expanded their flavor likes though. Going vegan and trying new recipes has really made me try new things. Leeks for instance, they’re kind of like green onions on steroids with a milder taste. Everything onion used to be my nemesis. They are actually growing on me, I’m giving salsa the credit for that. Learning more about food and the benefits of eating with variety has been important too. My flavor palate has grown a lot for that reason. Some stuff I eat just for that reason, I may not like it, but I eat it. Leeks aren’t in the dislike zone anymore. Leeks are a great source of vitamin A, which is important for vision and immune function. I’m not getting any younger and vision is important to me. There’s way too much of the world left to see. Plus being winter time, avoiding the sick is important, so I’ll be eating my leeks in hopes of helping keep my immune system in tip top shape. The reason I’m telling you this is to give you hope that your picky eaters will one day be less picky. #momlife Keep making them try the yucky stuff.

See what I mean? Roided up green onions. Lol.

My kids don’t love soup, but every time I make recipes like my split pea soup, it seems to grow on them. James likes to tell me when he thinks something is better this time, or the time before. We all have our preferences. Paige has said she likes chunkier soups because she feels full for longer. This recipe I’ve made with a couple preparation options. It can be creamy, or chunky. Whichever way you prefer your soup, I hope you enjoy the recipe!

Print Recipe
Potato Leek Soup
This soup is creamy (or chunky) and delicious without the milk! #vegan
Course Main Dish, Soup
Keyword recipes, soup
Servings
bowls
Ingredients
Course Main Dish, Soup
Keyword recipes, soup
Servings
bowls
Ingredients
Instructions
Creamy Soup Recipe
  1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and leeks. Sauté until the leeks start to soften, approximately four minutes.
  2. Add the potatoes and season with the salt and pepper. Sauté for another two minutes.
  3. Add the broth and bay leaves, stirring to combine. Bring the soup to a boil, then turn down to a simmer until the potatoes are tender. Approximately 15-20 minutes. (Skip down to the Chunky Potato Leek Instructions if you want your soup chunky and stew like.)
  4. Stir in cashews and cook for another minute.
  5. Transfer the contents of the soup into a blender and blend on high until smooth and creamy.
  6. Pour into bowls and garnish with chopped rosemary. 👌
Chunky Recipe
  1. Follow directions thru step 3.
  2. Pull about 1 cup of the broth mixture from the pot and put it with the cashews in the blender. Blend them until smooth.
  3. Return cashew and broth mixture to the pot of potatoes and leeks. And simmer until the broth thickens up to your liking.
  4. Pour into bowls and garnish with chopped rosemary.
Peanut Butter Dip

Peanut Butter Dip

I forget a lot. Let me rephrase that, I get started down the rabbit hole of sweet tooth goodness, and forget there are healthy snacks that suffice my sweet tooth just fine. It’s been a down the rabbit hole kind of six months. Today I 

Vegan Nacho “Cheese”

Vegan Nacho “Cheese”

Wanna know what one of my favorite snacks was growing up? Other than a Snickers bar, the big one??? Nacho Cheese Doritos, dipped in nacho cheese and sour cream. Phew, it feels good to get that off my chest. Lol. I think it’s funny that 

Deodorant…

Deodorant…

Exercise is life up in here. If I miss my workout, I tend to be grumpy, less patient, and if I miss it repetitively I tend to get a little depressed. There’s no secret that I’m a sweaty beast when I work out, my kids avoid post workout hugs like the plague. I had been using traditional deodorant and/or antiperspirant since I can remember, oh the high school days of sweating during gym class, not such a fond memory… I digress, the further I venture into becoming my healthiest self, the more I realize how many toxins are in things we use daily. Have I eliminated everything, no, but I’m trying to avoid the things where I can.

Enter…

After learning that antiperspirants block your sweat glands, and hearing that the aluminum used to do so has been linked to women who get breast cancer, getting it 15 years earlier than the women who didn’t use antiperspirants, I went on the hunt for a more natural deodorant. I had a little breast cancer scare a few years back, it ended up being nothing but it still scared me enough to make me want to be proactive instead of reactive with my health. Unfortunately the first glass slipper didn’t fit. So I thought I’d share with you my experience trying to find the best option for me.

Option 1: Nubian Heritage Coconut & Papaya 24 Hour Deodorant

I’ll be honest, I’m cheap, found this deodorant at Walmart. After spending an average of $4 on my old antiperspirant deodorant, paying double that was a bit of a shocker. I took a quick glance over of the ingredients and saw they used vegetable glycerine (be-still my vegan heart, though it doesn’t claim being vegan on the wrapper) but also that the shea butter is a fair trade ingredient. If you’ve never looked up fair trade, I’d encourage you to learn about it, not just for your sake but for your fellow man, woman and child.

I liked this deodorant for the first couple of days, especially the smell. It did the job a deodorant should do BUT my armpits didn’t like it. I started to get rashy and irritated skin. I’m guessing it’s because of the sodium stearate, fancy talk for baking soda. I used coconut oil and baking soda as a face wash for a while and had the same reaction. On to option 2.

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Oh how I miss that long hair!!!!

Option 2: Nourish Organic Stick Deodorant, Almond Vanilla

I made sure to check the ingredients for sodium stearate and was in luck, this deodorant was even a little bit cheaper, about $6 a stick. Which was surprising because it seems like organic means spendy. I loved that they promote being vegan, cruelty free and chemical free. I used this deodorant for a few weeks before realizing the negatives. I worked hard to earn my Insanity shirt and I started seeing what looked to be stains in the armpits. {insert frowny face here} Thankfully I have a handy Fels-Naptha bar that works great for getting out oil stains. Also realized that I wasn’t feeling as fresh and deodorized as I should. Another stick bites the dust, onto option 3…

Option 3: Schmidt’s Rose + Vanilla Deodorant

I’m starting to see a pattern here, each of these deodorants has vanilla in them. Makes me think of the 90’s when Vanilla Fields perfume was popular, remember Sunflowers? That was my favorite. Any who, I was a little nervous trying this deodorant because it also has sodium stearate in it, you’d think I’d learn. I put a post out on FB in the Chicked Nation Group to see if anyone had a recommendation, this brand was the top, top, top choice. On a whim, we were at a natural foods store in Hood River, on our way to camp when I found some. Ten dollars, was a risk I was willing to take since Troy was paying for it, even though we pool our funds. Mind games at their finest. {Yes I’m rolling my eyes at myself.} But guess what…. Winner, winner, vegan dinner! I’m on pit stick number 2 of this same brand and I’m still loving it. Even though it uses coconut oil also, it’s not so much that it slicks on easy. A couple swipes and I’m good for the day and there’s no new pit stains. There must be a small enough amount of baking soda that it doesn’t bother me, I guess I’ll never really know. I’m just happy to have found something that works! Maybe next stick I’ll try a different flavor, who am I kidding, I’m a creature of habit. Although, they do have a holiday line. ♥O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree ♥

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Want to know what’s in your deodorant or other cosmetics???

As I was hunting to learn more about ingredients in deodorant, I found this website called EGW’s Skin Deep Cosmetics Database. It lists all sorts of make-ups, lotions, soaps, etc. and rates them. High risk or low risk. Check it out!

White Bean & Cabbage Soup

White Bean & Cabbage Soup

I don’t think I could ever get too much soup, it’s one of those things I could eat every day during the cold winter months. I’ve learned so much about the different benefits of eating beans and cabbage, garlic and onions, peas and lentils, and 

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

I remember eating the pumpkin seeds after carving pumpkins every year as a kid.  When my kids were little, I had tried making them a few times with no success. I think the problem was that I kept using oil. After hunting through recipes, I