Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Fun New Vegan Challenge

Joy of Cooking Vegan Style Challenge



If you would like to continue to follow my work......
My recipes and I can now be found @

I hope to see you there!    
 
I have had this desire to purchase a good old fashioned cookbook and cook through the entire book 'healthifying' {Is that even a word?} and veganizing the recipes as I went.  I chose the book "Joy of Cooking."   This particular book was published in 1964, absolutely perfect for recreating all those recipes from the Good Ole Days....just making them healthy and cruelty free :-)

I am really excited to embark on this adventure but I want to let you know there will be a few recipes that I will not even attempt to recreate and those will include:

Coffees - I have never tasted coffee and never intend to do so, if you like coffee I'm sure you can find plenty of resources for making coffee.

Alcoholic Drinks - Never drank and don't intend to start so again I will not be making the cocktails although I might make a few "Mocktails"  :-D

Animal organs or Body Parts- Recipes that include liver, pancreas {sweet breads}, Ox tails, or any other animal organ or body part.  I have absolutely NO interest in recreating any of this.  If a recipe is a soup and includes Ox tail I will likely add some beans and call the soup something else but I will not try to replicate any animal organ or body part in this case.

I am really excited to do this and as I go through the book I will also share the lessons about cooking that she teaches throughout the book.  I think it will be really fun and I hope you will enjoy this journey.

**Please Understand: As I go through this book I will be changing, substituting and adding vegetables and other ingredients to increase nutritional value, I will also be omitting ingredients I personally believe to be unhealthy such as olive oil etc.... 

I am excited to take you on this amazing journey of learning and discovery of new recipes!

On to the next order of business.....

Book Review:  Discovering The Word of Wisdom

I know my readers come from all walks of life and a wide variety of religious backgrounds but I would like to introduce those who may be interested to a book recently published on the LDS Word of Wisdom.  It is an excellent compilation of information, insights, success stories and a background on religious ideas about Dietary habits and their relation to spiritual as well as physical health.  If you feel this may interest you, you can click the link below to purchase your own copy.


Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough Dip Recipe & Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip



Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough Dip

If you would like to continue to follow my work......
My recipes and I can now be found @

I hope to see you there!   
Delicious cookie dough dip that tastes like a yummy Snickerdoodle cookie!  My mom was making my favorite snickerdoodle cookies for the Superbowl party and since I am sugar free I decided to make something yummy I could have for dessert.  

This Snickerdoodle cookie dough dip is sugar free & gluten free for those who have an intolerance or Celiac.  This was a HIT at the party, everyone enjoyed it.  

I have been sugar free for 9 days now, I am surprised I made it this far.  I must admit last night I did make a little indulgent treat out of maltitol sweetened chocolate, almond butter, vegetable glycerin and oats that was delicious but I only had a couple spoonfuls and it was sugar free :-)


Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip


I am a HUGE fan of chocolate....so I decided to make a chocolate chip cookie dough dip as well to get in that chocolate fix at the Superbowl party too.  This was yummy too!  However,  I have decided to save the recipe for this one for an upcoming ebook instead of putting it on the blog :-)  You can just look at the deliciousness and drool until the ebook comes out :-P

I honestly thought I would lose a lot more weight than I have in the last 9 days.  I have been eating oatmeal in the mornings, TONS of veggies and beans for lunches and dinners and snacking on green apples and berries.  I must say I have only lost a measly 1 pound in the last 9 days :-(  

I cannot tell you how demotivating that is!  I have also been working out 6 days a week for 45 minutes a day.  Today I did 100 Burpees as only PART of a workout!!
Yeah, I have been working my butt off trying to lose weight...I haven't been sitting on my can at all.....but the weight still isn't coming off!  I am hopeful that it will soon......I hope!

Unfortunately with my metabolic issues losing weight is nearly impossible!  I know people don't believe me but it is SO true!

Here is the must awaited Snickerdoodle dip recipe:


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Monday, February 3, 2014

Vegan SuperBowl.....Vegan Mozzarella Sticks and more!!!


7 Days Sugar Free and Counting......


If you would like to continue to follow my work......
My recipes and I can now be found @

I hope to see you there!    
 
A week and a half ago if you had told me that I would go a full week with absolutely NO sugar.....I would never have believed you!  I declared a week ago that I was going sugar free and amazingly it hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be....don't get me wrong I've had cravings for chocolate bread, cookies and other desserts but I have not caved in!

Yesterday was the real test....Superbowl Sunday at my parents house and there were some delicious snickerdoodle cookies sitting there calling to me.  I haven't had snickerdoodles in ages....not because I had some super human amount of will power against unhealthy food but because my hubby does NOT think it is dessert unless chocolate is involved and so snickerdoodles just never made the cut :-(  I used to love them as a kid, my mom made them all the time.  I am happy to report that no snickerdoodles were eaten yesterday, but that doesn't mean I didn't get a little snickerdoodle fix sugar free style!

Benefits of 1 week sugar free


  1. 1.2 pounds lost since Monday of last week.
I wish I could report more but I still have cravings, I still have a tendency to want to overeat but for now I'll take the weight loss :-)

Now on to the Superbowl Recipes...................

Vegan Buffalo Wings

My family loved these little gems, they are DELICIOUS!!  My kiddos were fighting over who got to have the leftovers for lunch today.  I won't lie, they are labor intensive to make...not hard they just take a lot of time but wow were they worth it.

I must admit....my family HATES, hates, hates anything spicy!!!!  Seriously my daughter will throw a full on fit if I put garlic powder in something because she says it is TOO SPICY!  I have a family of baby mouths....so, I cannot use the traditional buffalo wing sauce or my family would literally die from the spice.  So I use a really yummy smoky BBQ sauce instead.  I'm not posting the recipe for these today...I won't be posting recipes for everything just a few things here and there that seem to be quite popular on my facebook page.

Mozzarella Cheese Sticks

Sorry about the phone picture but you can still see how YUMMY these were!!




Final Note about Kappa Carrageenan:

I know there has been a slew of information coming out about Carrageenan and it cause intestinal inflammation etc.... and people are now terrified of anything with the word carraggenan!!

I don't have time in this post to explain it all but kappa carrageenan is NOT what was used in this research...not only that, in these studies rats were fed TONS of carrageenan, in order for you to consume the equivalent of what caused intestinal inflammation in rats you'd have to eat 5 lbs. a day!!!!!

The carrageenan used in the studies is also not structurally the same as what is used in common food products...these studies have caused mass hysteria over pretty much nothing.  If you want more evidence and information please comment below and I will do a special post on Carrageenan complete with the studies but for now all I am going to say is it's fine.

Kappa Carrageenan can be purchased Here:  
Willpowder Kappa Carrageenan, 1-Pound

Please be aware that this will last you a LONG, LONG time as you only use about 1 Tb. at a time and this is a full pound!!!