Super Healthy Dinner: Vegan Tempeh Marinara Pasta

This dish is the perfect combination of healthy and tasty. Which is great because I so rarely think of pasta as being “good for you”. But this dish is full of nutritious goodies. And I finally feel like I understand why Italians love making their own marinara sauce. The taste is so much better! I followed a recipe I found on Healthy Happy Life with a few minor adjustments:

• I used sliced portobello and button mushrooms instead of of shitake.
• I doubled the amount of kale (for some extra green goodness)
• I used about half the amount of olive oil recommended just because 1/4 cup seemed like a little two much
• I realized at the last minute I didn’t have any onion which was too bad, but I’ll make sure to have some on hand for next time!
• For the sauce I did a small ziploc bag of plain tomato sauce that I happened to have in the fridge and then cut up one roma tomato and one normal tomato. I also chopped up a red pepper and added it along with the garlic and spices.
• I ground raw cashews into a powder as topping instead of getting a Parmesan cheese substitute.

Next time around I think I’d like to use whole wheat pasta or maybe soba noodles. This was my first time using tempeh which was cool. It was very interesting. I’m excited to try grilling it to see how that works. Definitely a day of firsts!

Day 7 vegan discovery: Delicious wraps

I am pleased to say I have finally solved a mystery. In the past when I have made a wrap for myself it typically just involved me throwing some cheese and maybe a little ham in a whole wheat wrap, warming it up and calling it a day. So it’s no wonder I didn’t find it as exciting as when I got a wrap at a sandwich shop or restaurant. But when you have the right ingredients — a wrap made at home can be even better than one you buy.

Seeing as I’m not spending money on meat, cheese, or dairy products anymore, I have some extra funds to buy ridiculously awesome produce that I would otherwise have talked myself out of. And that lead to creating the best wrap of my existence. I filled a whole wheat pita with tomatoes, red pepper, lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, avocado, shredded carrots and the “piece de resistence”: lentil hummus.

I found the recipe on Oh She Glows and it was unbelievably easy. I’ll be making it a lot more when I want a change from chick pea hummus. So simple and so good!

Mushroom and Kale Gravy over Millet

Oh She Glows is overflowing with healthy and delicious recipes such as this scrumptious Mushroom and Kale Gravy over Millet. The gravy is creamy and delicious while the kale adds a nice chewy texture and the millet adds the perfect tender crunch. I followed the recipe quite closely except that I used red onion instead of white because it was all I had and I substituted 2/3 button mushrooms and 1/3 portobello mushrooms because I didn’t have cremini. I also doubled the kale quantity for some added fibre and leafy greens. And because I didn’t have nutritional yeast I ground cashews into a powder instead. It was so good I literally closed my eyes to savor it. Enjoy!!