Tofu Steaks in a Holiday Marinade

Yesterday I shared a bright and seasonal kale pomegranate salad with a creamy sunflower seed, mustard, and avocado dressing. Here is another beautiful vegan dish featuring fresh satsuma oranges and rosemary, from the same Whole Foods pamphlet. The two recipes together cost me just over $20, though I had several of the ingredients already. The flavors in this one taste very appropriate for a holiday meal! Here is a printable version:

from Whole Foods, love that it's vegan!

Prepping the marinade, trying not to drink up the fresh satsuma juice.

The dates, cinnamon, and cayenne really gave this a unique sweet and spiciness. The marinade gave me an excuse to use a sprig of fresh rosemary from our garden!

Tofu steaks marinating, and smelling delicious already!

I only had time to marinate for 1/2 an hour, and that seemed to work fine, but they can be done overnight too for more flavor.

Warming the oranges in the steak pan after turning the heat off

The satsumas really brighten the plate, in taste and in looks!

See more recipes and photos on my Instagram! @veganlifeisgood

As of today I have a short holiday off work, which means more kitchen time. Lots more holiday recipes coming right up!

Simple Juices: Part 2

Awhile back I posted some easy 2 ingredient juices (click here to see that post) that pack a punch against cancer and are soooo good in so many other ways. Here, as promised, are some more of my favorite supersimple concoctions I put through my juicer:

Watermelon Lemonade

• 1/2 watermelon
• 1/2 lemon, peeled

In my original Instagram post, I added lots of fresh water and some agave to this recipe. plus another half lemon with the peel on through the juicer. Not only is this new recipe easier, I think it is actually quite tastier. Why water this down and add sweetener if it isn't necessary? Only add the extras (and plenty of ice!) if you want a pitcher-full for a party.

Orange & Ginger

• As many oranges as you can drink (I average 5-6!)
• 1/2" to 1" peeled fresh ginger

When I juice ginger, I cut into whatever else I'm using, in this case an orange, and wedge the ginger inside to easily juice them together.
This is such a good juice for immunity or fighting an existing sickness. I was experiencing a lot of detox symptoms from eating raw and kicking caffeine, so the orange nourished me while the ginger blasted my tummy troubles and migraines. I felt so much better if I could get a big, simple juice into me before a raw meal!

Watermelon + Mint

• Tons of fresh watermelon
• Handful of mint, plus more for soaking/garnish

If you read this post you already know of my serious affection for the combination of watermelon and mint. Life really does not get much tastier than these two together. Enjoy the last of summer watermelon while you can, the weather here in Santa Cruz has been alternating between getting a bit crisp then heating back up again.




Stay tuned for many more juices. Or you can follow my instagram account @veganlifeisgood, which shows tons of creations that I can't keep up with on the blog! Here's a little taste of what I've been up to:

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Easy Spicy Mango Salsa

One of the joys of moving to a bigger house has been entertaining more company. I love having people over and practicing my vegan recipes on them! This one is great for summer BBQs or as an appetizer for game night:

My Instagram: @veganlifeisgood

Spicy Mango Salsa

• 1-2 ripe mangos, peeled then cubed
• 1 tsp minced jalapeno
• 1/4 red onion, sliced in long, thin strips then minced
• chopped fresh cilantro to taste (I use about 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 red bell pepper, minced

Although this can be thrown together quickly, I like to make it a few hours ahead of serving if I can and let the flavors marinate in the fridge. The last time I made this it tasted a million times better the next day than when I'd served it the night before!

Juice: Apple Mint Watermelon

This was a quickie to make!

My instagram: @veganlifeisgood

I recently wrote a post about how important it is to hydrate in the morning (here) and another about why watermelon makes a perfect breakfast (& not lunch or dessert) here. Well, here are those two ideas combined into one delicious meal!

Apple Mint Watermelon Hydrator:

• Half a watermelon
• 1-2 apples
• Fresh mint (the bigger leaves the better not to get stuck in your straw!)

When I took the picture above I had blended the first two ingredients together like a smoothie. After this picture I started drinking it and decided I didn't like the pulpy texture. An option would be just to juice them (with the mint), but I just poured what I had blended through a large strainer and suddenly had a beautiful pulp-free juice! I stuck a bunch of mint in the glass, shook it up, and sipped it through a straw to avoid getting mint leaves in my mouth.

Mmmm. Absolutely delicious. And sooooooooo healthy!

Summer Soup: Peach Gazpacho

Move over tomatoes! I found a gazpacho recipe that features a different fruit: the beautiful peach! It's raw, vegan, delicious, and will cool you off on the hottest summer day:

My instagram: @veganlifeisgood

You can click here to visit the original recipe at Martha Stewart's website.
I made a few changes based on taste preference and what I had on hand. You may use any color peach, but the white ones were looking so lovely and large that I had to get some.

Vegan White Peach Gazpacho (serves 2)

• 1/4 cup water
• 3 white peaches, pitted and cut into chunks
• 1/2 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tablespoon champagne vinegar, plus more to taste (I actually used a pomegranate vinegar and think any fruity vinegar will work great if you have it) 
• 1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• coarsely chopped fresh cilantro to taste (2-3 tbsp, but I probably used 4 because I LOVE cilantro!), plus leaves for garnish
• optional: 1/2 finely chopped red bell pepper and Hass avocado, for garnish 

Pulse the water, peaches, cucumber, garlic, vinegar, oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper in a food processor until coarsely pureed. Thin your soup with more water if desired. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours! This should be a beautifully cold summer treat!
Season to your liking with the salt, pepper, vinegar, and herbs, garnish prettily, then serve immediately. Ole!

Fruit Week: Friday "Holy Gr-ale" Juice

I feel like this round of posts could have been called Kale Week as much as Fruit Week. Behold, the Holy Grrrrrale:

My instagram: @veganlifeisgood

It gets its name from the only 2 ingredients: grapes and kale! I can't take credit for coming up with the sweet name, this one is a favorite recipe from Fully Raw Kristina (see her youtube video recipe below). I had doubts initially that one fruit ingredient would be enough to balance that earthy green taste of kale, but I'm serious when I say this is one of my favorite juices ever! It gets bonus points just for being so simple.

Holy Grale Juice:

• 1/2 - 1 bunch grapes (Any kind, but c'mon! The beautiful dark purplish-blue ones are in the markets right now, so get those while you can!)
• 1/2 - 1 bunch of kale
• plus, 5 reserved grapes for the end

Juice the grapes first and just enjoy a little taste of that. You will never want to settle for store-bought grape juice again! No contest! Strip your kale (see my tip on how to do this here) and juice it. I juice the last 5 or so grapes after the kale to help the green juice get out. My juicer is getting a bit worn out, so I'll even run a little filtered water through at the end to get more juice.

Last of all, strain the juice into your cup, because unless you have an awesome juicer there will probably still be a fair amount of grape skins and pulp in there. I like a nice, smooth juice. For all you audiovisual learners, here is the original recipe from Fully Raw Kristina:

Simple "Sick Day" Recipes: Coldbuster Smoothie

It is more important than ever to eat nutritiously when you're sick, but no one feels like spending much time in the kitchen when they are. A nighttime cough got the best of me, so yesterday and today I've been laid up in bed resting and replenishing. Throughout the day I'll be featuring a couple of quick, easy, powerhouse vegan recipes that I've been making to get back to 100%:

Instagram: @veganlifeisgood

Simple Coldbuster Smoothie:
Blend:

• 1/2 container fresh strawberries
•  1 - 1&1/2 cups frozen pinapple
• 1/3 inch slice of fresh ginger

Better than Jamba Juice and straight from your own blender! I know it's supposed to be Fruit Week and I already did strawberries, luckily I keep a variety of frozen fruit on hand, and pineapple is a delicious Vitamin C powerhouse for a sick day. If you have fresh pineapple, try reversing the recipe and using frozen strawberries instead. No need for ice!

Stay tuned later today for my favorite sick day soup and some notes on the many health benefits of ginger.

Fruit Week: Strawberry Juice

The other day the contents of my fridge consisted of odd bits of produce I wanted to finish off and a case of beautiful strawberries. So in a moment of inspiration I decided to juice everything I had and mix the flavors with strawberry juice in a Super Strawberry Taste Challenge:

Instagram: @veganlifeisgood

I was the only competitor, hoping I would come up with something new or inspiring. I am not the sort of person who is intuitive about combining flavors at all, so this was some very cheap excitement for me. Here are the results of my fun:

• Strawberry-Lime: The clear winner! I know the inventors of margaritas beat me to this long ago, but still. Juice these two and put 'em in a glass with some sparkling water and ice and forget that you ever wanted an alcoholic one. If you love blended drinks, try blending frozen strawberries with lime and a little agave. Grade: A+
• Strawberry-Mint: I'm disappointed to say this was not a match made in heaven. My ratio may have been off, but I found it no match for watermelon-mint, a favorite of mine. Grade: D
• Strawberry-Basil-Sweet Potato: Yes, sweet potato is awesome in juices. Very filling and starchy and combines well with both fruits and veggies, I now know. This was a very thanksgiving-y flavor, which kind of jives with my summery strawberry mindset, but still: B
• Strawberry-Cucumber-Spinach: This one was very "green" tasting, which isn't for everyone. But nutritionally this is a fabulous juice. Like a health spa in your mouth. Grade: A for health, C for taste.

Fruit Week: The Pawpaw! (Papaya)

Hey, it's Tuesday. I present you with the beautiful and magical papaya! Or pawpaw, papayo, kapayo, or mamoa, depending on where you are in the world...

My Instagram: @veganlifeisgood

I guess it is more science than magic that makes this great fruit what it is: loaded with vitamin C, a good source of vitamin A, B, and G (yes! There is a vitamin G and you need it. You may know it better as riboflavin), with some iron and calcium to boot. It's low-cal yet filling which makes it great for weight loss. The range in color from yellow to reddish-pink = a gorgeous addition to fruit salads or smoothies.
I love:

• simple cubed papaya with a twist of lemon, or 

• juiced papaya and strawberries blended with fresh young coconut water and banana. 

 A popular and crowd-pleasing trick is to cut papaya in half length-wise, scoop out the seeds and top layer of goop and use it as an attractive and delicious serving dish for other fruit or granola.
This guy has an awesome video recipe for a spicy Caribbean papaya salad:

Pawpaw Epilogue- Fun Facts: Papaya does have some mystical properties after all!

• The seeds can be ground into a suitable replacement for black pepper! 
• Raw green papaya is never eaten but papain, an enzyme in the latex of green papaya skin, has a long history of uses, from the topical treatment of cuts, burns, rashes and stings to treating Harrison Ford's ruptured disk on the set of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. 
• However, those with latex allergies may want to tread carefully, as with melons, bananas, and kiwi.
• Green fruit and seeds have been used to induce abortion, but the pregnant ladies out there don't need to be afraid of the ripe stuff!
• And dudes, papaya is very, very good for your -ahem- prostate health. SO BE A MAN, AND GO EAT SOME PAPAYA!

Fruit Week: Icy Blueberry Crush

Good Monday!
All this week I am focusing my recipes and tips on: FRUIT! Beautiful fruit!

My Instagram: @veganlifeisgood

Today's recipe is one to beat the summer heat, and there is a secret to it's icy coolness: don't use ice! That's right! I've only recently acquired a blender and regular ice cubes watered down my first few smoothies (ugh, who on earth likes watery smoothies???) until I figured out how to get my fresh raw fruit AND my icyness too:

• Substitute one of your fresh fruits with frozen ones.

Soooooo simple that I almost didn't post it because I thought, "Surely everyone has figured this out but me!?" But I'm doing it anyway on the off chance that it helps somebody somewhere. Adding frozen blueberries in lieu of regular ones turned my smoothie a much richer and more beautiful color (raw blueberries blend to a dull kind of blueish-purple), and I swear I feel cool from the inside out even hours after I drink this recipe. This is also an awesome way to enjoy an off-season fruit when it's not on the shelves.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more fruit-spiration! Here's today's smoothie recipe for an excellent and filling breakfast or lunch:
Blend:

• 1 - 2 bananas
• 2 dates (soaked for a few hours in water if you can)
• 3/4 - 1 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk

Watermelon Wonderful

Today on Instagram I posted about one of the most delicious and nutritious foods on the planet: WATERMELON!

My Instagram: veganlifeisgood

Did you know?:
-They contain more lycopene than any other food, even tomatoes, which is also the source of their lovely red color. 
-They are more than 90% water, making them an excellent food for hydration. This also means:
-They are the fastest digesting food you can eat and basically make a slip 'n' slide through your digestive tract and will catch up to slower foods. Eating watermelon before anything else will prevent bloating and gas. I made the mistake of having a monomeal of watermelon too soon after breakfast and it was quite a mistake! Avoid embarrassment and keep your tummy flat by eating watermelon first thing in the day and not after!
-Watermelons are also a great source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, beautiful energizing carbs to start your morning with energy, and cartenoids which are believed to be powerful antioxidents. 

How should you eat your watermelon? Well, many vegans and fruitarians eat a half or whole as a monomeal, a meal made up of only one fruit. Like I said, a watermelon is best eaten as breakfast to aid digestion instead of creating problems later in the day. Just get a spoon, or juice or blend a cold one up and add some mint to your glass for a gorgeous combo made in heaven. Not convinced? Watch this video by FullyRawKristina and be converted ;) Have a delicious day!