Fresh Mango Summer Rolls

This recipe came from the "Vegan with a Vengeance" cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I won't post the recipe, but you can find it here.

It was very light and fresh, and it looks pretty too. I love food that makes you fell happy when you eat it, no sick-full feeling here. The peanuts and peanut sauce really compliment the rolls. My 2 year old son actually ate one, but my daughter wouldn't try it. We ate the rolls with coconut rice.

Coconut Rice
1 cup cooked rice
1/2 can unsweetened coconut milk
mango slices

Combine.

I will definitely be making this in the future!

5 ways to reuse plastic containers

We have a lot of yogurt and sour cream containers at our house and I just hate knowing they are perfectly good for something but I'm still throwing them out - even though I'm recycling. So I thought I'd share a few ways that I reuse my plastic containers.

1. seed starters - if you have a garden, or even if you want to keep an herb garden on your kitchen window sill, these are great! I'll be starting my seeds soon!

2. kids stuff - my daughter loves to make little "collections". She has beads, coins, barbie pieces, little paper projects, necklaces. These are perfect for all her little things.

3. Sending meals in them. My mom always saved containers and took meals to people in them, the best are the salad tubs they are wide and clear. It's nice because then you don't have to worry about getting your dish back.

4. In the garage - I think most garages have plenty of uses for these containers, my husband has asked me to save a bunch to put his nails, bolts, and stuff in. You can label the outside so you know exactly what is in each of them.

5. Leftovers - instead of buying plastic containers to put your left overs in, save your money and reuse!

I hope this just starts your thinking of reasons why you can and should reuse, maybe you can find even more ways!

Cleanse: Day 1

Breakfast: Half a grapefruit, vitamins, glass of water

Lunch: Left over corn chowder, peanut butter on celery, water

Snack: Hummus and carrots, 5 almonds, water

Dinner: Mango Spring Rolls with coconut mango rice, water

Dessert: Salted popcorn, water, crystal light lemonade

How I'm feeling today: Surprisingly no cravings! Day one wasn't so bad, but I need to make sure I plan ahead. I talked to a friend of mine about ways to keep up my protein. I shouldn't have had the crystal light, it doesn't have sugar but it is still off limits during the cleanse - woops :)

7 day Cleanse

I have been reading Kathy Freston's book "Quantum Wellness". I remember hearing about this book on Oprah a while back and that Oprah did a 21 day cleanse. She suggests between 7 and 21 days to cleanse the body in order to allow the body to detoxify and give the digestive system a break. It made perfect sense to me so I thought I would try it. Kathy is Vegan and I really admire how consciously she eats and I would love to get to that point, I would also like to look as great as she does! Here is the cleanse:

No sugar - bless my soul, what am I going to do??
No animal or animal byproducts
No alcohol - I don't partake already :)
No caffeine - I don't (usually) partake :)
No gluten

I think gluten will be the hardest thing to stay away from, it seems like it's in everything! Sugar will be hard in the afternoon and after dinner. I'll have to make sure I keep myself busy at those times. So I am starting today and will try to make it to next wednesday. On saturday/sunday I plan on completely fasting since it's fast sunday and I am going to try to go to the temple on saturday. She talks about how we need to detoxify not only for our body's health, but for our spiritual health. I really believe that there is something fundamental about fasting that helps us come closer to Christ and I'm excited to see if I notice any differences, especially during my temple attendance.

Look for daily posts about what I'm eating and how it's going. Wish me luck - I'm going to need it!!

Potty training

Guess who's potty training?? Jacob! I told myself I would start come January when we were bored at home and had nothing to do. I've been dreading it because of how hard Claire was. So last Wednesday we threw away the diapers and said hello to the potty. He caught on so quickly that it has made Chris and I a bit nervous. So we basically didn't go anywhere for 3 days. I hate pull-ups when you are trying to potty train so he was pretty much naked those first three days. I think that really helped him realize that you can't wait when it's time to go. He is staying dry during nap time and last night we forgot to put a pull-up on him and he stayed dry the whole night! I sure hope that keeps up. We are so proud of what a good boy Jake is and we hope this good fortune continues. Good Job Jake!

I had to add these photos. Jake fell asleep leaning over the ottoman, you can see the drool dripping all the way down to the floor. Funny boy.

Corn Chowder

I have touted my love for Tal Ronnen the Vegan chef, but I have fallen even more in love with this recipe I found in his cookbook "The Conscious Cook". It's basically a creamy soup, but get this NO ANIMAL BY PRODUCTS!! The recipe I had always used was my mother's recipe for Cream of California soup it is so good, but has milk, butter, and chicken stock in it. Tal's recipe uses a cashew cream. It is SO yummy! I can't hold back my excitement about this wonderful substitute! There are vegan substitutes out there for just about everything, but this is homemade, a great price, and easy to make. I bought a pound of cashews pieces at Winco's bulk section for $3.34 per pound. I only used 2/3 of a pound for the recipe. The recipe calls for whole raw cashews, but they were a bit more per pound and honestly I can't imagine the soup turning out any better, so I'm fine with the cashew pieces. Throw them in the blender with some water and there you go. What's even better, cashew cream will freeze for up to 6 months! I just had leftovers today for lunch, and it was delish!

Update: Bountiful Basket

We used just about everything up and loved just about all of it. I really think it's something that we will be doing in the future. Maybe once a month? We love love love the bread and will probably be getting that every two weeks. You definitely get more for your money, but you really can't plan a lot of your meals until you know what you've got which is the biggest problem for me, but I think the pros outweigh the cons in this instance!