Vegan Chocolate/PB/Banana Oatmeal

I've been seeing lots of yummy oatmeal lately and decided to add it into my breakfast schedule. Clean Eating Chelsey has a lot of tasty, healthy looking recipes. I've adapted this one from her blog and it's pretty yummy. I always add flax oil into my oatmeal! You can't even taste it! This is the easiest oatmeal to make.

Vegan Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Banana Oatmeal
1/3 Cup Bob's Red Mill rolled Oats
2/3 Cup Almond Milk
1 Tblsp Cocoa Powder
1 Tblsp Peanut Butter
1 Banana mashed
1 Tblsp Flax Oil

 Heat up all ingredients in pot over stove, except flax oil and peanut butter until hot and thickened. After heated through, add peanut butter and flax oil. You can add agave nectar or syrup to sweeten it up a bit, but I don't think it even needs it! Sometimes I add blueberries into mine as well. Enjoy!

Basil, Kale, and Walnut Pesto Pasta

This has been on the menu plan for a couple weeks now and for some reason I just wasn't wanting to make it. I've realized since I've tried going vegan my menu planning has become more difficult for whatever reason. I just never know what I want, or maybe I'm not as excited? Such a bummer! Take this week for example..I spent a ton of cash at Whole Foods and I feel like I'm left with nothing. I was just asking my husband, what did we buy?! This is where it gets hard and frustrating...this is when I wish I could have the delicious pizza on the cover of bon appetit magazine. Um, it looks amazing and I want it! Do I just give in? It's hard going to the gym 5 days a week and getting home late. Good thing hubby mostly cooks for me these busy, frantic days. I have to plan better..it's just extremely expensive eating organic and fresh, and now hubby and I are making two different meals. Not my idea of fun. Most of the time what I make is amazing, however last night I made some vegan mac n cheese and it was horrible. I was so bummed out. It was so discouraging. On to the next one I guess! I hope that one's better! Well, that dinner was gone and by then it was late..I sure wasn't making another one hour meal! I had popcorn..for dinner, yeah that's real healthy. Now that I've gotten that out, let's move on to my amazing lunch. This was going to be a dinner meal, but yet again I planned poorly and had no lunches planned. I was craving so many things but just didn't have the ingredients. So I decided let's just give this pasta a go! Let me tell you it was scrumptious! :) Why did it take me so long to master up the courage and just make it? Ya got me there! It didn't take too long either. I found this recipe on Pinterest via Clean Green Simple. I'm adapting this for one person and to my likings, but you can check out her website for the real thing.

Basil, Kale, and Walnut Pesto
4-6oz gluten free pasta
4 cloves of garlic, or more! Garlic is always good
1 c fresh basil
1 c fresh kale
1/2 c raw, unsalted walnuts
1/4 onion, minced, or more..I'm not a huge fan of them so I used as little as possible
2 tblsp olive oil
2/3 c salted pasta water reserved
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tblsp nutritional yeast
4 stalks asparagus, or more..I'm easing into asparagus right now :)
2 roma tomatoes chopped


Boil pasta according to package directions in a heavily salted pot of water. Before draining noodles reserve about 2/3 cups of pasta water and set aside.
Saute kale, onion, walnuts, basil and 2/3 of your chopped garlic, until your greens are just wilted. Once the greens are ready remove them from the pan and transfer to a blender or food processor and process a few minutes. Add in some of the reserved pasta water, and nutritional yeast. Process until mixture is smooth and at the consistency you'd like. Return the pan to the heat and saute the rest of the garlic and your asparagus. Saute until asparagus is softened, but still crisp, about 5 minutes. Once asparagus and pasta noodles are ready add the noodles to the saute pan with the desired amount of pesto sauce. (I had some left over) Top with tomatoes and enjoy! 

 Yummy Kale!!!!

 Isn't it gorgeous? So yummy!

Linking up to: The Gunny Sack
Chef in Training
Twigg Studios
The Garden Grazer 

Tofu Nuggets, Waffle fries and a fire!

First off I have to begin by apologizing for lack of bloggy commitment. I have been super busy lately focusing on my diet and training. As you may have read earlier I am training for a half marathon, and weight training. I've been lifting weights for a year now, but not really satisfied with how far I've come, so I decided to find a great weight training program and stick with it...between all this I'm at the gym more and getting home later. Good thing hubby has been making me dinner while I'm training, otherwise I get home late and don't feel like cooking much. So thanks hub! :) I wasn't sure what I wanted for dinner tonight. Zac was making fried chicken and waffle fries, mmm waffle fries. I knew I had to have some of those! I know, not really part of my new diet but I felt it was okay to splurge! I decided I'd have some tofu nuggets and waffle fries. This was a good, quick and easy meal. It was really good too! I was a little worried I wouldn't like my tofu nuggets, but surprisingly they tasted just like chicken nuggets! They were so good! Our waffle fries were more like waffle chips, but they too were very tasty. Meanwhile hubby is frying up a storm in the kitchen and I'm on Etsy searching for cute sprinkles. All of a sudden hubby screams, "we have a fire!" At first I thought it was a joke..then I get up and into the kitchen and sure enough said stove is on fire!!! Ahh, what do we do?! I try helping out, panic and google how to put out a fire..yeah I did that! Haha, I guess at that point I really didn't know what to do. No worries, we're all fine! Whew, good thing that was resolved quickly with out the fire department over. It was pretty crazy! I wasn't going to share my dinner tonight but I decided I'd give it a go! Hope you enjoy!

Tofu Nuggets
1/2 block firm tofu cut into squares
1tsp cayenne pepper
1tsp paprika
1tsp garlic powder
sprinkle of salt and pepper
1/2c gluten free bread crumbs (or regular bread crumbs)
vegetable or peanut oil

Rinse tofu, pat dry. Add seasonings to a bowl and throw in tofu, mix until combined. Then in another bowl add breadcrumbs and throw in tofu and toss until well coated. I had to dab the tofu a bit to get it to stick. Feel free to make any substitutions here, I just made this up! It's such a cinch. Fry in vegetable oil for about 5 minutes or until golden. Some of my breadcrumbs fell off during frying, don't worry they're still tasty! While eating these I thought to myself, these would be great cut into animal shapes for kids!

Waffle Fries
2-3 russet potatoes washed (we left skin on)
seasoned salt
cajun spices
vegetable or peanut oil

Wash potatoes well and cut into thin strips, or if you have an amazing mandolin with a waffle cutter setting feel free to use that! Heat oil to 350-375 degrees and drop in fries one batch at a time. Fry until crispy and transfer to paper towels to let excess oil drain. Transfer fries to a bowl and add seasonings, toss to coat. Our waffle setting on our mandolin cut the potatoes pretty thin, they were more like waffle chips then fries, but were still pretty addicting. Feel free to sub seasonings here too. Check this out for the perfect french fries..Pioneer Woman probably explains the perfect fries better than I would!

I'll admit these pictures aren't great, but I can guarantee the taste made up for it!

 I know you're probably looking at this thinking Ewe, that doesn't look very tasty..the only way you can prove it to yourself is to go make some now!

Linking up to: 33 Shades of Green
Funky Junk Interiors
Twigg Studios
That Skinny Chick Can Bake 

Tofu Pad Thai w Veggies and my new Workout Plan!

The other night I went out to dinner for my birthday with my hubby and his Mom. She was going to take us to Outback Steakhouse, I must admit I was not enthused. I suggested going to Mongolian Barbeque. It's not actual barbeque..it's like a stir fry place. You pick your meats, seafood, noodles and veggies. Then you have your sauce and spice station. I chose tofu, rice noodles, sugar snap peas, green peppers, jalapenos, and potatoes. My sauce was pad thai, then I threw in some garlic, peanuts, and some seasonings. It was soooo good! So good, in fact I recreated it for dinner tonight. Minus the potatoes, snap peas, and jalapenos. It wasn't the same but it was still really good.

Tofu Pad Thai w Veggies
2 tsp tamarind paste (seedless) mixed with a little hot water
1 tsp sirracha
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
sprinkle of crushed chili peppers
seasoned salt to taste
4oz thai rice noodles (I just used as much as I thought would serve one person)
1/2 package firm tofu cut into cubes
1/4 green pepper chopped
1 tomato chopped
5 broccoli florets chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
cilantro minced
peanuts minced
juice of 1/2 a lime
peanut or sesame oil

You may use any vegetables you want, this is a simple vegan pad thai recipe that I have added a few additions to. Place rice noodles in a bowl with warm water for about 30 minutes, or until soft. Mix tamarind paste with water in a bowl, and whisk until dissolved. Add sirracha, soy sauce, vinegar, and crushed chili peppers. Heat oil in a wok if you have one, if not heat oil over saucepan. Hubby was using the wok for the night so I just used a saucepan. Once oil is heated, add in peanuts, cilantro, broccoli, tomato, green pepper and tofu. Saute with seasonings. Throw in drained rice noodles and saute for a few more minutes. At the end throw in your sauce and saute until combined. This dish is open to any changes, you can add egg and meat if you don't want it vegan, whatever you like! Enjoy!

 Hubby made sweet chili chicken for dinner. Smelled and looked so good. I then thought to myself, duh! I'll make Sweet Chili Fried Tofu sometime..ooh I can't wait!!

Oh, I also would like to inform everyone of my new work out plan, maybe it's because I'm so excited for it. For a long time now I have wanted to run a half marathon, it's been a goal for way too long. Well, I received a text from my dear old Mother today over at Town and Country Living, saying if I wanted to run a half marathon she would run it with me. She has run many marathons, and I am so proud of her. I said it's time to do this!! I then found this great work out program...Mom sent me a training program for my half marathon I'll be running in June, which I'll combine with this work out program above. I work out now and lift weights, but I figure it will be better to have a plan. What's even better is they are both 12 weeks. Now I can track my progress, starting tomorrow, I'll be tracking what I eat, and I'll be starting my training for my marathon and my weight training. Woot, woot! I'm hoping between all this I will lose my muffin tops and stomach fat. It goes into more detail than that, but I don't want to bore anyone! I am excited to go buy new running shoes tomorrow. I spent some of my birthday money today on new work out clothes! :) It's my motivation.

Linking up to: Made by You Monday
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday 

New Changes!

As you can see I've made a few changes to my blog! :) FlournFriends just didn't make sense after changing my diet. Mom, over at Town and Country Living came up with the name. She says it comes from a T.V. show..well Mom I've never heard of it and I'm only 26! ;) That seemed to have been the popular vote and sounded nicest in my head. So I have changed my blog name to Mrs. Green Jeans..for me, I liked it because I am going green, not only in my diet, but around my house and anywhere I can. The jeans part is because I always wear jeans. Totally true. I'm not a dress/skirt or any other kind of clothing girl. I like my jeans! I now have to get a new header, and a new button for my blog..coming soon!!! I just wanted to send out a big thanks to all those lovely ladies who are still sticking by my blogs side and supporting me through my change. I will say for my birthday yesterday I totally went off the wagon. It was my birthday so I figured I could..probably not the best excuse. I spent the afternoon at my Mom's eating an amazing brunch. I was going to go to a stir fry place that night but decided I wanted to do something more. So hubby and I headed to Hollywood Blvd..no not the actual Hollywood Blvd, but a movie theatre where you can eat and drink..and I mean alcohol!! It had been awhile since we'd been, and I have great memories of this place. It was somewhere hubby took me on one of our many dates. We ordered Oscar fries to share, waffle fries with cajun seasoning and cheese. Ohhhh, yeah. I ordered a vegetarian pizza that was very yummy. I also ordered a Frozen Melon Ball drink. It was soo good. Then I ordered some peanut m&m's. I totally splurged for my birthday. We saw Safe House. It was really good. I'm not the big chick flick movie go-er, I'm more of a tom-boy when it comes to movies. It was a great way to end my birthday! Even better, I get my stir-fry tonight! Woohoo! I hope you all enjoy my new changes and continue to stick around with me through my new journey!

Cupcake Cookies

Have you ever had iced sugar cookies? There's something about them..besides the fact that they are utterly amazing! My husband, and children I nanny are addicted to them! I think Caleb, the coolest 5 year old I know, and my husband bugged me about them for a good 3 days. Are they done yet? When are you going to decorate them? When can I eat them..boys! Silly boys! They are pretty darn delicious. I'd like to make more thinking of them now. The only downfall is they are very time consuming, dough has to refrigerate, cookies have to cool down, then you flat ice, more rest time..then decorating, it's a few days process. Of course I always have to make them look beautiful and put much effort and time into them. I need to start collecting cookie cutters, so if you'd like to send some my way please do! I won't turn them down! :) I used Annie's sugar cookie dough over at Annies Eats..she has some great stuff over there! They were very good and the dough turned out perfectly.

Perfect Sugar Cookies
2 sticks unsalted butter at room temp
1 cup powdered sugar
1 large egg
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, or vanilla bean, yum!
Lemon zest, I didn't use it because I didn't have it :(
2 1/2 cups AP flour, all purpose
1 tsp salt

Cream butter and sugar, until light and fluffy..this will take a few minutes. Beat in egg, vanilla, zest (if using) and salt. Mix in flour on low speed until incorporated. Form dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap, or place in ziploc bag. Refrigerate one to two hours or up to 24 hours. Once dough is chilled, roll it out onto a well floured work surface. I like to flour the top of the dough a bit too so it doesn't stick to the rolling pin. Roll a 1/4" thick. Cut cookies and place on a wax, or parchment lined pan. Bake 8-10 minutes (cookies will be slightly browned on the edges) in a 375 degree preheated oven. Cool cookies and ice with royal icing.

Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbsp meringue powder, this can be found at JoAnn or Michaels in the cake aisle..maybe at your local grocer?
5tbsp water

Beat powdered sugar and meringue powder with water. You're going to want to beat for about 10 minutes until white and glossy. If you have never iced cookies before you might want to check out a tutorial. Thin icing is great for flooding the cookies as a base. If decorating them you want the icing to be thick. Check out some of these tutorials:  Steps to making the perfect sugar cookie, over at Sweetapolita and Decorating sugar cookies, video from youtube, you can check out many more videos or tutorials. Feel free to ask any questions!

Linking up to: Something Swanky
The Sweet Spot 

Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas

I'd like to start this post off by saying I used to be the pickiest eater ever..I never liked beans, unless they were green beans. I also wasn't really a fan of sweet potatoes. Well, guess what? It's time to suck it up and enjoy them. They are good for you! Also now that I'm not eating meat anymore, beans are essential to my diet. It's time to suck it up and learn to enjoy some of the things I've said I don't like. Guess what, my sweet potato black bean enchiladas were amazing. Silly me, what have I been missing all these years? Will I miss chicken? Probably not that much. I am reading this great book right now, and flying through it. It's called Skinny Bitch, maybe you've heard of it maybe you haven't. One of my friends advised me to read it after expressing concerns of going vegan. It's an awesome book. These ladies don't mess around, they cut to the chase and let's be honest they're a little vile at times, but they are only stating the truth so I enjoy it! It makes me laugh and sometimes reading it, I feel like I could have wrote it! Some of it is also really sad, particularly the animal parts. It's insane what is done to animals and how the farmers treat them. It made me sick. I'd seen the movie Food Inc. before..a few years ago and apparently that wasn't enough for me..sick huh? You should see that movie too. I guess the more I educate myself and surround myself with other people that can give me more info, the more I want to change. After reading most of this book, I've decided okay, it's definitely time to cut out all meat. As far as dairy goes, that will happen slowly. Also I need to totally lower my sugar intake. I know I've been posting a lot about this lately but it's been on my mind just about everyday for a few weeks. I love all my followers I have now, but I'm sorry to say things are a changing around here! My food and recipes will still be amazing, just a whole lot healthier. Ain't nothing wrong with that! I hope some of you can find this information and these books helpful! I will move onto my scrumptious lunch I had today before I get too far off track. I found this recipe over at Gluten Free Goddess. She has some really great looking meals I can't wait to try! I just noticed these enchiladas won the Whole Foods Budget recipe contest..check it out over at Gluten Free Goddess's blog!

Sweet Potato Black Bean Enchiladas

Green Chile Sauce:
1 C Vegetable Broth
1 Tblsp Arrowroot starch dissolved in cold water (I could not find arrowroot starch, I used corn starch instead and it worked fine)
1 generous C chopped green chiles-hot or mild is fine, I chose mild, next time I will choose hot for sure, I love spicy foods!
2-3 Garlic cloves chopped, I used 3 I like a lot of garlic!
1 tsp cumin or chili powder, I used both!

Combine all ingredients and heat in a saucepan over medium heat until thickened.

Filling:
1-15oz can organic black beans, rinsed and drained
3-4 garlic cloves minced
Fresh lime juice from one lime
1 sweet potato, cooked and mashed. I left mine a little chunky with skin on
1/2 c roasted green chiles (I didn't have enough green chiles left, so I used one jalepeno instead)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili
salt and pepper to taste
chopped cilantro, depending on your taste, I love cilantro so I used a lot!

Toss beans, garlic and lime juice, set aside. Cook potatoes and mash, throw together with seasonings, chiles, and cilantro. I added the beans to my potatoes as well and mixed all of it up together. Karina over at Gluten Free Goddess laid the potato layer first, then the beans. Do whatever you'd like.

Assembly: 
Olive Oil
Corn Tortillas
Cheese, or vegan cheese. I used a vegan cheese sauce I'll share at the bottom.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 1/4-1/2 of the green chile sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. Heat corn tortillas in oiled saucepan or microwave. They don't need to heat up too much, just a few seconds on each side. Place potato mixture in the middle of each corn tortilla in a line..I hope that makes sense next time I'll take pics! Roll up your stuffed tortillas and place in a baking dish. Top enchiladas with remaining green chile sauce and top with cheese. I used a vegan cheese sauce which can be found here Whole Foods Vegan Momma. I will say I only used 1 cup of water, and I added about 1 tblsp of hummus to thicken it a little. I baked my enchiladas for 10 minutes, then added the cheese sauce and broiled them for about 5 more minutes. If you don't want to add cheese just cook the enchiladas for about 20 minutes. Enjoy! Don't hesitate to ask any questions! Sorry the pictures aren't that great..I'll try better next time! ;)

 Linking up to: Another Meatless Monday
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
Living Well Wednesdays
This Chick Cooks
Healthy 2day
Lady Behind The Cutain