Day 84!

Hello all!

I have been so swarmed with work lately, its now bridal shower and baby shower season, and with Easter coming around the corner it has been absolutely insane!  I have been hording recipes like there is no tomorrow, I have a ton of soup recipes going on. Its funny, I have little scraps of paper all inside my wallet and purse with recipes and ideas I have jotted down everywhere...to bad I don't label them to find one recipe is like finding a needle in haystack!

Also, 84 days of being a vegan, this honestly has been one of the best choices I have ever made in my entire life.  I have been slowly losing weight little by little, I mean I also go the gym now, but just from taking cheeses, milk, etc.  from my diet it has made me healthy.


Today I am going to share with you two recipes.  First one is a vegan mushroom rosemary soup and than a peanut dressing.

Vegan Mushroom Rosemary Soup:
1 Cup Shitaki mushrooms-Sliced
1 Cup Crimini Mushrooms-Sliced
1 Cup Portobello Mushrooms-Sliced
1 Idaho Potato- Peeled and Diced
3 Sprigs of Rosemary
1 Can of good quality coconut milk
Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Get a pot of water boiling on the stove for the potatoes, salt the water.  Cook potatoes until 3/4 way done, drain, set aside.

In a separate pot on the stove, put on medium high.  Coat the bottom of the pan with oil, add the mushrooms and cook down for 15 minutes or so until tender.  Once the mushrooms are cooked,  add the coconut milk and the rosemary.  Let cook down for another 5 minutes, turning down to low and stirring so it does not burn.  Add the potatoes and cook 3 more minutes.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Wicked easy to do.

Its so creamy and hearty.

This peanut dressing I made is a variation of a African peanut dressing, which is eaten on mainly cucumber and tomatoes, when I made a salad for it... I did use the cucumbers and tomatoes  but I added kale, bok choy and spinach to it.  You honestly can do whatever you want with it.  Also this recipe calls for peanut butter, you can use either home made or store bought,  I made homemade because mainly I had a useless amount of peanuts around.  I will also share with you how to make peanut butter after the recipe.  It is actually extremely easy, it does come out a bit thinner than a jar of peanut butter, but since you are making it for a dressing, it is actually a good thing.  So onto the recipe.

Vegan Peanut Dressing:

2 Tablespoons Corn Starch

1/2 Cup Cold water

1/4 Cup Soy Sauce - Less Sodium Preferably

1/2 Cup Peanut Butter - Homemade or Store Bought (If Store bought use the smooth kind)

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoon White Vinegar

1 Tablespoon Fresh Chopped Cilantro

2 Tablespoon Peanut Oil

1 Cup Warm Water

Dissolve corn starch in the cold water, set aside.

Whisk together soy sauce, peanut butter, brown sugar, white vinegar, peanut oil and the warm water in a pot over medium heat.  Simmer and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Stir in corn starch into the mixture.  Simmer until the sauce thickens about 1 to 2 minutes.  Pull of heat, stir in the cilantro.  Let cool before use.

Beyond easy!  Okay so here's how to make home made peanut butter.

Peanut Dressing!

Homemade Vegan Peanut Butter:

1 Cup of raw uncooked peanuts (I actually shucked all my own peanuts, just because I had so many, but you can just buy some uncooked ones at the super market)

2 Tablespoons Peanut Oil

Put the peanuts on a baking pan and put in the oven at 350 for about 5-10 minutes, do keep an eye on these, they will burn pretty easy and every oven is different.  

Once they are roasted, you have to let them cool.  Once cooled down place into a food processor and turn on.  Slowly stream the peanut oil in, it will still be a bit chunky, do not fret!  At this point you are going to leave the food processor running for about 5 minutes.  You can not over process this, so if you walk away for a few minutes that is fine.  you want it to be wicked smooth, and if its a bit runny, that's perfectly fine!  

Let cool before you use to make dressing!

I wanted to take a moment to talk about this video that I was shown by my cousin who is a personal trainer/vegan.  This video was found from www.whitneysickler.com  she is a mostly raw vegan and has beautiful insights on veganism.  She is a nutritional coach. 

Here is the video:

http://youtu.be/es6U00LMmC4  

This video honestly, makes so unbelievably proud of being a vegan.

Super easy everything is to make!  Enjoy!  I will hopefully be sharing some more recipes with you all either tonight or tomorrow morning!

Namaste,

V