Cinnaholic!

So Cinnaholic may be one of my new favorite places! It's a nice size store in Berkeley that is 100% vegan. I was so excited to find this. Often tooling through airports, the wafting smell of Cinnabon makes me want one.   Now finding Cinnaholic, this craving is fixed! In addition, this shop will even ship their rolls and frosting. Great to know for Holidays when sometimes finding Vegan baked goods is hard. I highly recommend this if you are in the area. It's definitely becoming my Saturday morning routine to go and get a Cinnamon Roll while walking around downtown Berkeley.

This was today's special in honor of the Star Wars Day! A Wookie Cookie!

Quinoa, Kumquat, and Asparagus Salad

Here's a nice recipe for a cold summer salad.

Ingredients 

• 1 cup Quinoa
• 2 Cups Water
• About 6 to 7 Kumquats seeded and chopped
• About 3 stalks of Asparagus sliced
• 1 Scallion sliced 
• Chia Seeds - about 1 to 2 tbsps
• Lemon Juice about 1 tbsp
• Olive Oil about 1 tbsp
• Spice Mixture (I used a mushroom spice mixture)
• Add salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• Boil 2 cups of water, add quinoa
• Prepare the kumquats, asparagus, and scallions
• Mix kumquats, asparagus, scallions, and chia seeds in bowl 
• Add spice mixture to quinoa - make sure the water has not been absorbed yet
• Once the water has been absorbed remove Quinoa from heat and let cool
• Add quinoa to veggie mixture, add lemon juice, and olive oil
• Stir mixture and chill
• Serve Cold

Tacos!

Don't forget how easy tacos are for a vegan! Grab your meat replacer, taco seasoning and go! I like to use Tempeh.

Ingredients

• Tempeh 
• Tortilla Wrap
• Taco Seasoning
• Black Olives
• Rice
• Tomatoes

Directions

• Chop and crush Tempeh into crumbles. 
• Add water and taco seasoning. Heat on medium for about 10 minutes. 
• Remove and add to your favorite shell or tortilla wrap.
• I like to forgo the lettuce and each my tacos with black olives, tomatoes, and rice! 

Cucumber Salad - Adapted from Pinterest

This looked like a cool easy recipe. It can either be a dip or grab a pita and make a sandwich.

Ingredients

• Cucumber
• Onion
• Tomato
• Vegan Sour Cream
• Lemon Juice
• Garlic
• Lime Juice
• Cilantro
• Cumin 
• Red Pepper Flakes

Directions

• Peel and Seed 1 cucumber
• Seed 1 Tomato
• Finely Chop 1/4 cup of onion
• Mix vegetables together in bowl
• Add 1/4 cup of sour cream
• 1 spoonful of garlic
• Dash of cumin
• Red pepper flakes to taste
• 2 tbsps of lemon and lime juice
• 1/4 cups freshly chopped cilantro
• Mix together in bowl, chill, and enjoy! 

Red Curry Quinoa

Ok. First I want to say it's been 6 months since making the switch to Vegan Eating.  Overall, I feel great! Today's recipe was inspired by my love for curry. But recently I found out that many Thai places use shrimp paste or fish sauce in their curry. With that said, the one thing I realized about vegan eating is that it is a continually learning process, so anyone traveling down this road understand you may make unknown mistakes from time to time but learn from them and move on. So here's my go at Red Curry Quinoa!

Ingredients

• 1 cup Quinoa
• 1 cup water 
• 1 cup almond milk and 2/3 cup almond milk (You can use coconut milk for this - I just didn't have any in my fridge and Almond Milk worked just fine)
• Red Curry Paste Mixture (I got it from Whole Foods)
• Yellow Peppers
• Orange Peppers
• Green Beans

Directions

• Place quinoa, 1 cup of water, and cup of almond milk in sauce pan and cook on medium heat
• Chop peppers and beans (I like big chunks for curry) and place in skillet
• Add 2/3 cup of almond milk to vegetable mixture cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes
• Add desired amount of curry paste (I used about 2 tbsps)
• When Quinoa has almost absored water and milk, add 1 tsp of curry paste
• Remove vegetable mix from heat and add to quinoa
• Stir and Serve! 

Basmati Rice and Sauteed Kale

Ingredients

• 1 cup of rice
• 2 cups of water
• 2 kale leaves deveined and chopped
• Onion Slices
• Olive Oil for pan
• Vegan Butter about 1 tbsp
• Herb de Provance about 1 tbsp
• Veggie Burger of your Choice chopped

Directions

• Mix water and rice together and cook on medium heat to stir frequently
• Coat pan with olive oil, add kale, onion, and veggie burger
• When rice is about done, add Herb de Provance seasoning and butter, Stir
• Remove rice from heat
• When onions are brown, remove from heat
• Add kale mixture over rice and ENJOY!

Kale Pepper Salad

Ok All... I'm finally feeling settled in my new apartment in the East Bay Area. So it's back to the cooking.

Ingredients

• Orange Pepper (quarter of the pepper)
• Yellow Pepper (quarter of the pepper)
• Onion about 1/4 cup
• Kale two leaves deveined
• Chia Seeds about 2 tbsps
• Vegan Mayonnaise about 1/4 cup
• Peanut Sauce about 1/4 cup
• Salt Pepper to Taste

Directions

• Chop peppers, onions, and kale
• Mix all ingredients in a bowl  and Stir (It's as simple as that!)