Comfort Breakfast Sandwich

Finally I have all the ingredients for this amazing LunchBox Bunch recipe. This has got to be one of my favorite blogs out there, all the recipes have intense flavors and the combinations are always unexpected. Imagine pepper jack cheese and pumpkin? Sounds strange but you will be pleasantly surprised after trying author Kathy Patalsky's Jack-O-Pumpkin breakfast sandwich.

Even though I've rounded up all the basics for the recipe but was still missing a few things so I made a few changes.

• I used whole wheat mini bagels instead of English muffins. Though I think this would be even more spectacular with the muffins. 

• Pumpkin butter: for the optional pumpkin spice, I used a dash each of cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and ground cloves (I always do this when a recipe calls for pumpkin spice). Also I used coconut sugar instead of maple syrup, I think it wasn't sweet enough though.
• No mushroom, not a fan.
•  Champs Elysees salad instead of arugula
• Vegan pepper jack cheese instead of vegan Monterrey jack.  

The sandwich was delish. It was like healthy comfort food. I love tailoring recipes, it's difficult to cook if you don't use you imagination!  I enjoyed it with some kiddie blended fruit, I really love kid size snacks, they are healthy and always the right size.

Washed it all down with some very chilled coconut water. Refreshing!

I'm going to use the leftovers to make the Purely Twins' pumpkin pie fudge, my fave raw dessert of the past fall season. 
 

Whenever I make anything with pumpkin I end up singing Kate Nash's Pumpkin Soup, love that song.

Hello Sugar, Goodbye Regret

I want a vita-mix. So I can make this!

 

It’s vegan ricotta cheese from YumUniverse, such an amazing website. It sounds like the perfect addition to veggie lasagna or a sweet treat with some fresh berries. It doesn’t actually need a vita-mix to make it but I think my life would be infinitely better with a blender of that caliber and quality.

In other news, giving up sugar was a great experiment but I’m glad I came to my senses and ended that journey before the 30 day goal. I already eliminated so many unhealthy things by going vegan. I live by the motto “just because it is vegan does not mean it is healthy…specifically if it is dessert” but I eat mainly healthy, unprocessed, often organic food and work out almost daily. So I will have my cake and eat it too because I’m staying active and a small treat occasionally will not negate all my hard work. Also I was a little frustrated that I could not have my beloved ketchup and that something with very few grams of sugar but with the sweet stuff still listed in the ingredients was off limits (especially when it’s Trader Joe’s Latin Style Black Bean Soup…that’s never OK).

I did gain something from the mini-resolution. My tea, oatmeal, and peanut butter are all things that I can enjoy sans sweetener. I add peanut butter to that list because I was shocked it was sweetened and after switching to an unsweetened variety, the brand I used to covet tastes awful with the extra ingredient. 

30 Days without Sugar: Day 2

So I am changing the theme of this blog so that it is a little more personal and not just about food and products I like. I am giving up added sugar (this includes evaporated cane juice, agave, syrups, and strictly limiting 100% fruit juices and stevia) for 30 days because I have some vices that I need to get rid of for now and curtail in the future.

One of them is bars. I love bars! They make a fantastic snack, but seriously, just because they are vegan does not mean you can have 3 of them all at once. That is just a waste of calories and money. The next is hot drinks and smoothies. I took a great raw kale smoothie recipe and over time added a lot more of the sweet ingredients than it originally called for. I also love to make hot green tea with fresh crushed ginger and steaming almond milk or boil a pot of homemade spicy hot chocolate… and add sugar to it all! I try to add only one or two teaspoons of sugar or agave then supplement that with stevia or use stevia alone but that just means i still need everything to be totally sweet. 

I’m really excited for the next 28 days left because so far everything is going well. I feel like I am getting very enlightened because I’m already scanning every product critically and seeing how sugar is everywhere. There is evaporated cane juice in my peanut butter and sugar in my mixed seasoning, ketchup, and pre-seasoned quinoa/rice blend. So basically it is every! Honestly the fact that it is everywhere just creates a wonderful challenge for me to get creative. Tomorrow morning I am making my own jam with strawberries and chia seeds and I found a great smoothie recipe that is packed with protein and fiber. 

I hope this will get me past the weightloss plateau after losing 46 pounds and help clear my skin. Regardless of the actual results, I am just happy to try out this little experiment!