Must have

Thinking about changing your diet to vegan and not sure what to buy? Take a look at my grocery hall.

Organic seasonings and spices. I find that they enhance the flavor of my recipes

Fresh Vegetables & Fruits

Try freezing bananas with the skin on. When you are ready to make a frozen smoothie, take one out of the freezer and peel them with a knife.

Nuts and dried fruits for quick snack. They are great for baking granola bars!

Whole grains = Protein

Betcha can't eat just one...

Once a month treat :)

I purchased these delicious Coconut Date Granola from a vegan bakery. (Wildflour Vegan Bakery, located in Providence, R.I)

 frozen Jackfruit, a good substitute for mocked meat

Condiments

                       Drink lots of water!

Jackfruit / Veggie Submarine

Ingredients

1 - 14 oz frozen Daily Delight Tender Jackfruit

1 sweet onion

1 green pepper

1 cup mushrooms

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp steak/burger seasoning

1/2 tsp garlic powder

shredded lettuce 

chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp olive oil for frying

vegan sub roll

1 tbsp veganaise 

Let jackfruit thaw. Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Using your cleaned hands, breakup jackfruit into smaller pieces and bake in a oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until the jackfruit is brownish in color. Once warm to touch use your hands to season baked jackfruit with steak/burger seasoning, garlic powder, salt and pepper and olive oil. Bake for 15 minutes more.

While jackfruit is baking, slice onions, peppers and mushrooms and fry in 1 tbsp of olive oil. Dice tomatoes and slice lettuce. Slice sub-roll, add veganaise, jackfruit, onions, peppers and slice tomatoes

Dairy Free Fudgsicle Pops

2 1/2 cups full fat coconut milk
5 oz dark chocolate or 2 tbsp carob
1/4 to 1/2 cup cane sugar
1 tbsp arrowroot
1/2 tsp vanilla

Add coconut milk in a pot over low heat, add chocolate. After chocolate has melted whisk in arrowroot , 1/2 tsp vanilla.Mixture should be smooth and somewhat thick but pour-able. Let cool slightly then pour into pop molds and freeze for 24 hrs.

I couldn't resist sprinkling coconut flakes on the fudgesicle

Savory Spicy Pancakes, YUM!

Ingredients

1 Cup chickpea flour
1 1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 ground carom
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 jalapeno pepper
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tsp safflower oil
2 tbsp safflower oil for frying


In a bowl, mix the chickpea flour, and all the spices with a fork. Add cilantro and onion and mix with a fork. Add 3/4 cups of water and mix with a whisk until combined. Heat a non stick skillet on medium heat or if it's an electric skillet heat to 250 - 300 degrees. I like to cook my pancakes well done, therefore I cooked them for about 4 minutes or until brown on both sides. Serve these savory pancakes with your favorite salsa sauce.

Women Who Love To Travel Solo Vegan

Traveling Solo Vegan

I'm a trailblazer. Exploring new landscapes and terrain is my perfect escape starting in March 2018! This is my year to unplug in the wilderness and clear my mind. It is my chance to see more of the natural beauty this planet has to offer. But 1st I'm going to explore some big cities.

Traveling Solo To Toronto Canada In March 2018

This will be my 3rd time traveling solo and my 1st time traveling solo to another country. I love to travel with my family but sometimes it's difficult to plan our vacations all at the same time. I've worked up the courage to fly and take long road trips alone which to my surprise was enjoyable! I am more cautious of my whereabouts while traveling solo. If I'm traveling on a road trip for instance, I try to refuel where there's a well lite gas station that offers food service and restrooms and plenty of customers. I always have my phone in hand! I'm a member of an auto club that offers road service and a lot of extras, like nearby hotel stay, emergency funds, car rental and cash for food in case of a car accident while I'm away from home. I also use a road trip plan app so I know where to stay and how many fuel stops I need to  make along the way.

 The same goes if I'm planning to fly to another country. I like to plan well in advance (2 Months) I found  that airfare, hotel, hostel or airbnb are much lower in price. There's also a site called couchsurfing but I don't recommend solo travelers to stay  at one of these places alone unless you know a family member or friend who is a member and is offering their place for you to stay.

I've been using expedia for price checking and planning my trips since I took my very first solo trip to Los Angeles, CA in 1985. I like Expedia's user friendly itinerary and if I need a car rental or hotel, hostel, airbnb, they will compare price check with different companies. Expedia will automatically add your itinerary to your google calendar and sync  all your devices with photo's.  You no longer need paper tickets. to check in at the airport, just present your irtenery information from your mobile device.

What am I packing for this 2 day trip?

I've had the same carrying on suitcase I used  on my trip to Dominican Republic in 2002. I want to travel light as possible so with a little research I found a backpack carryon that will fits everything I need to I carry on my person.

Clothes packing cubes

3 personal bags including

I'm going to need to travel with my passport this trip but I was worry about losing it so I searched for something that will hold my passport and protect it. (RFID) protection and it's pretty stylish with a strap to go around my neck

Something to listen to my music while I'm on the plane

                                                                                                                         
















  


I called my mobile provider to make sure that I can receive phone service while visiting Canada, unfortunately they don't provide service towers in order for my phone to work in Canada.. Thank goodness I called my phone service way in advance so that I could do some research.   I did a lot of research on personal mobile hotspot device about the size of a mobile smartphone called Glocalme. It's a mobile wireless hotspot. This device is able to give you wifi service in 100+ countries. You can also use it to charge your phone. I don't believe you can make calls like using your data. I have skype and viber which is an app I can use to make calls using wifi which will allowed me to navigator etc.
I was about to buy a battery pack until I read on the glocalme website that this little device can charge one device at a time.

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Orlando Florida Road Trip June 2015

Before hitting the road it's a good idea to plan out your itinerary, here's a sample

Get a rental car with unlimited miles

You might have make emergency stops or get a bite to eat a little earlier than planned. We made several stops before arriving at our original 1st stop in Delaware. Although I was the only vegan, I was able to find a vegan takeout restaurant on yelp called Candles 79 about 5 minutes from where my non vegan family members order their food. I ordered the seitan burger, fries, with a side of coleslaw and vegan gingerale. Its was delicious and filling!

Our 1st stop in Maple Shades, NJ for fuel

Fuel in VA

South Carolina, Sunday morning. South Of The Boarder

Breakfast/Brunch at Asian Fusion Red Bowl in Florence, SC. Sorry no pictures of my Curry Vegetable Singapore noodle dish. (no comment)

We stopped at Walmart in Georgia and we got caught in a massive rainstorm! Sorry, no pics, but I did get soaked running in and out of Walmart :(

Our final destination ORLANDO FLORIDA!

Orlando Florida Departure

BBQ Cauliflower

1 Head of cauliflower
1 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
salt to taste
sweet baby ray's hawaiian bbq sauce
1 tbsp vegan mayonnaise
4 chopped green onions

Cut cauliflower with stems attached and place in a large bowl. Add olive oil, salt to taste, and garlic powder, toss until well combine. Bake for 35 or until cauliflower is Al-dente and starts to brown. Take pan out of oven, using a silicone brush, add bbq sauce and bake 15 minutes more.

Optional dip. I use a simple and quick mayo and 1/2 of sriracha with chopped green onions

My Blue Apron

Last week I had an opportunity to try Blue Apron Recipe Meals delivery service. I read reviews about blue apron last year and didn't think this service would work for me because they are not vegan friendly but they do offer vegetarian recipe meals, so I thought I would give it a try.

This is what was delivered to me

They give you everything you need to make the meal (except olive oil) and  8x9" recipe cards with step by step instructions on the back of the cards.


I couldn't wait to get started cooking. My first meal, which was the barley soup in which I took a picture to compare to their photo. lol

The Barley soup was easy to make. My only complaint? They don't tell you to crush the whole spices that they've already included in the bag of Barley soup spice blend mixture. While I eating my soup I crunched on - fennel seeds, aleppo pepper and coriander seeds.  I'm on a vegan diet and couldn't use some of the ingredients they included for this particular recipe, for the instance the parmesan cheese and the cream fraiche. I did how-ever already have a vegan recipe for the cream fraiche and I always have on hand, vegan parmesan cheese.   This soup was plenty and enough to feed at least 5 people.

My next meal was the Stir Fried Rice Noodles, YUM!

I can honestly say that this recipe is vegan friendly! It was so delicious and my friends enjoyed it to! I've never had Gai Lan vegetable before which is included in this recipe. I had to google to find out what it was, only to find out it was just Chinese broccoli. I learn a few things about mixing different ingredients, I would never had thought about using together like, peanut butter with coconut milk which  the recipe called for in order to made a cream base to mix with the noodles. 

The last recipe I made last night was the Ramp & Snap Pea Fregola Sarda

Again there was a couple of food items I couldn't use for this recipe like the butter and parmesan cheese that blue apron included. I substituted some earth balance butter and vegan parmesan. This was an interesting dish, not one of my favorites but it wont go to waste. I found the fregola sarda pasta to be quite chewy.  I didn't care to add the walnuts to this dish that was included. The mint was a good choice for added flavor to this pasta dish, again, I would never thought to add such a combination. I had a lot leftover. This meal was enough to feed at least 4 people.

I wrote to Blue Apron last year, to request if they would create some vegan recipe meals for delivery services and they was kind enough to rely back stating that they will look into it in the near future.

I believe their meal plans are for two people, 3 meals per week $9.99 per person for a total of $59.94 and they have a family plan.

This recipe meal delivery service is good for those who like having their meals to cook delivered and it's good for those who are interested in expanding their cooking techniques in my opinion.

I hope this helps

Yeast Buns

INGREDIENTS

4 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1(2 1/4  tsp) packet active dry yeast
2 t Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 3/4 cups hot water (about 105 degrees)

DIRECTIONS
in a large bowl mix together flour, salt, and yeast, and form a well in the bottom.
pour in water and add the oil.
with a wooden spoon slowly pull the flour into the liquid until it's fully adsorbed.
work it into a ball with your hands and place on a floured work surface.
the dough should be tacky but not hopelessly sticky. sprinkle flour on the work surface and hands if needed; continue to knead the dough for 5-10 minutes or until the dough becomes elastic.
rinse and grease the large bowl, then place the dough back in it. cover lightly with damp cloth or plastic wrap. let rise in warm place (i usually turn on my oven and place the dough on the stove above it) until double in size (about 1 to 1-1/2 hours).
turn dough back out onto floured surface. punch down and kneed slightly to work out air bubbles.
divide the dough in half, form round loaves and place on lightly oiled pans. preheat oven to 375 and let dough rise 20 more minutes.
bake 30-40 minutes

Strawberry Jam

16 oz. Fresh Strawberries
1 Lemon Juice
1 tbsp Chia Seeds
1/2 cup cane sugar


Instructions
In a medium saucepan over low to medium heat, add the quartered strawberries. Cook on a low heat until softened. Use a potato masher to break them up.
Add the lemon juice and sugar. You might need to add more sugar to your sweetness of taste.This will vary depending on the ripeness and sweetness of the strawberries. Add the chia seeds and cook on low heat until thickened. About 5-10 minutes. It should be thick and gelatinous. Allow to cool and transfer to one of your recycled jar. Refrigerate overnight. This will help the seeds to soften even further. Spread on your morning toast or muffin. This recipe makes about 1cup of jam and can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week.