Hummus / WIAW

I'm SOO excited right now because I finally made something that I have been dying to make for a very long time... a bowl full of delicious hummus.  I know, it's not really thaaat big of a deal, but every girl has her dreams and goals right?? Mine just happened to be "make some hummus."  

I love to eat Middle Eastern food, I love Arabic (I'm in the process of learning), and I love to cook.... so basically hummus is a necessity in my life. Yes I know, I'm a wanna-be, but at least I'll admitted it :)

Here is the recipe.

Thank you Nada at One Arab Vegan for making this possible, you are my hero :)

I'm linking up to WIAW (What I Ate Wednesday) over at Peas and Crayons. You should join in as well!

Breakfast:

Pan y Palta con Té (Bread and Avocado with Tea). My favorite!

Lunch:

A fruit smoothie for lunch on the go! I threw in some frozen fruit, a handful of almonds and walnuts, some raisins, honey, cinnamon, and soymilk.

Dinner:

Pasta shells stuffed with mushrooms and spinach baked in pasta sauce.
(And just to let you know, I definitely ate way more shells than I photographed here)

And that concludes my What I Ate Wednesday post.
In a few minutes I'm going to make myself some chai tea in order to settle in and finish my homework.

Que te vaya bien!

What I'm Listening to:

Pan y Palta (Bread and Avocado)

Ever since I can remember, I have always loved avocados. So when I went to Chile and found out that avocado (la palta) is a staple in their diet, of course I was overly excited!

In Chile, "once" (pronounced: awhn.sé) is dinner and it typically consists of bread, an avocado spread, and tea. "Once" is a small meal because lunch is usually the largest meal of the day and it is eaten around 3.

Although Pan y Palta is usually eaten at "once," the beauty of it is that it can be eaten at any time of the day! I frequently eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

The ingredients for Pan y Palta is exactly that; bread, avocado, and maybe a little bit of salt. It is best served alongside a cup of hot tea.

Step 1:

Cut open the avocado, take out the seed, dig out the green part using a spoon, and mash it in a little bowl using a fork.

Step 2:

Spread the mashed avocado on the bread. Salt to taste.

Step 3:

Enjoy!

I'm not ashamed of my over-excitement and neither should you!

Listening to:

Que te vaya bien!

Mushroom and Spinach Pasta with a Lovely Salad

Simple, quick, absolutely amazing!

Today I had a serious hankering for some mushrooms. Well, that's nothing new for me, I'm actually always a mushroom fanatic (especially now that I'm vegan, they are the perfect food!).  

So as a ravenously hungry Lydia came home from class today, you know that it was time to break out the heavy machinery.

This included pots, pans, cutting boards, knives, and...

Ta-da! The handy-dandy-brand new-thank you mommy-food processor! WOO! My life is now 10x easier :)

Anyways, I cut up my mushrooms and threw them into the pan with some olive oil, a little bit of onions, a huge handful of spinach, and spices such as salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and chili powder.

NOM.

While that was cooking on medium-low heat, I cut up my carrots, radishes, and tomatoes for the salad. The cilantro looked so lonely in the fridge and it smelled too lovely to leave it out so I threw some into the above mentioned food processor to add to my salad.

After I mixed it all together I squeezed some lemon juice over the yummy masterpiece, sprinkled it with salt and pepper, and drizzled it with Olive Oil Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing.

 

The mushroom-loveliness was done and I set the pasta to a boil on the stove.

Can I say it again? NOM!!

As the pasta cooked, I heated up the pasta sauce and threw the mushrooms and spinach into it. 

As a vegan, I have to be careful about everything that I buy. Some pasta is not vegan and neither is all pasta sauce. I have definitely learned to read the labels!!

Despite the absolute deliciousness of the meal, I could not even finish all of the pasta (probably because I snacked on tortilla chips and fresh salsa while I was cooking...)

I know that this is extremely easy and has been done before, but I just had to post it because it made my day!

Listening to:

De-mythicizing the Egg

Source: [That's all Folks!]

As a recent vegan, I have been experimenting with a lot of new recipes.  I have had a lot of success but honestly, there are so many foods that I miss!! Mainly in the baked goods category... cookies, muffins, banana bread... basic southern love. They were a frequent part of my diet and they remain a constant temptation.

So due to my mom's teasing and my love of baked goods, I went in search of the truth about how to replace eggs in baking. Click the link below to see the results of my search!

Baked Black Bean Taquitos

A friend told me about this recipe a few days ago and I thought it sounded absolutely delicious.  Last night I made it for my friends and it turned out SO good!  So good that I made it again today for lunch... and I have leftovers for tomorrow as well.

If you're like me and only eat plants then this is perfect for you. All you have to do is cut out the cheese and sour cream from the recipe and replace them with a delicious fresh salsa.

What I Ate Wednesday!

      Be prepared to hear your stomach grumble because this is a yummy post! What I Ate Wednesday is something that I came across on Peas & Crayons blog and because I love food, I decided that it is something that I must participate in!

(Warning: This meal was in my Pre-Vegan life)

See the rest of the deliciousness after the jump.