Friday, July 25, 2014

A Plant-Based Baby Shower

This past weekend, I had the honor of co-hosting one of my closest friends' baby shower. She enjoys eating a plant-based diet as well and so it was perfectly natural that I volunteered to prepare all of the food for the shower, while my lovely co-host took care of the decorations (which turned out WAY better than my non-crafty self could do!)

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The shower took place in the afternoon, so light snacks were the way to go. I prepared quinoa salad, baked potato bites (stuffed with red onions, carrots, avocado, and salsa), a veggie tray with oil-free roasted red pepper hummus, a fruit tray, and fudgy beet cupcakes with chocolate mousse as the frosting (and we set the extra mousse out as a dipping sauce).

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I loved the look on people's faces when they heard me say that the cupcakes had beets in them. Several jaws dropped. And most of the people did not know until well into the shower that all of the food was vegan, oil-free, and gluten-free. I was so glad that people enjoyed the food because it's important to me to show people that plant-based foods are delicious in their own right, and that we do not eat raw broccoli and tofu all day. :)

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I also made peach punch that turned out pretty tasty.

It was so fun celebrating our friends' little blessing from heaven!

Friday, July 11, 2014

Plants Equal Variety

When we first switched to a plant-based diet, we feared missing out on all the varieties of dishes we were used to eating. But to our great surprise, we discovered that with plants, there is even MORE variety! We've been on a fig kick lately. Well did you know that there are hundreds of fig varieties? Oh the joys of eating plants! Here are more photos of all the wonderful plant-based foods we have the pleasure of eating.

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Black bean burgers on GF whole grain bread with sweet potato "fries"

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Banana pancakes shown topped with fruit preserves or banana butter

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Homemade Rolls (gluten-, oil-, dairy-, and egg-free)

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Our homemade version of Jason's Deli's Zucchini Grillini

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Homemade Bread (gluten-, oil-, dairy-, and egg-free)...so handy to make:

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French toast

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Eggless salad sandwiches

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Chocolate pudding over homemade Nilla cookies and topped with bananas...OMG! :)

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Spinach and sweet potato lasagna

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For Michael's birthday, I made him a cookie cake...and then...

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Served with vanilla Nada Moo ice cream, homemade fudge sauce and chopped peanuts

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Mashed potatoes and a rich brown gravy

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Whole grain cereal with banana milk (blend 1 banana to 1.5 to 2 cups ice cold water)

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Ate at Vegeria in San Antonio for our wedding anniversary.

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Food was delicious, but definitely not oil-free. Rare splurge for us.

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Ate lunch at Whole Foods and got this yummy quinoa salad.

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Mango sorbet topped with dewberry preserves

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Potato "fries" and creamy dipping sauce

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We usually try to limit how many high-fat plant foods we eat (nuts, avocados, and nut butters), but we do occasionally like to just eat some spoonfuls of peanut butter. :)

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Our garden yielded a ton of patty pan squash, so we stuffed them with basmati rice, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms and seasonings

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While in D/FW, we enjoyed a meal at the Spiral Diner. Again, all vegan restaurant, but not oil-free, so it's a rare treat.

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We shared two kinds of burritos that were delicious!

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For dessert, we ordered the Chocolate Mudslide (brownie, chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, and nuts -- all vegan of course)

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Peach oatmeal cereal

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Chocolate chip cookies topped with chocolate Nada Moo, fudge sauce, and chopped pecans

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We have been loving some fresh figs lately! Plan to make some preserves soon.