Despite what you may think, living with a food blogger is not always peachy! Aside from the new dishes, plentiful leftovers, and a freezer packed with goodies, there are dishes, messes, computer troubles, steep grocery bills, minor breakdowns, and taste-testings gone wrong.
Despite all of this, Eric’s biggest complaint is that I rarely make the same dish more than once! In the name of new blog content, I try to make new recipes so I have fun things to post for you guys, but in the process I often leave fabulous recipes in the dust.
So last weekend, we came up with a few favourite recipes from our past and I said I would make a couple off this list each week to bring back some classics!
Currently on our favourites list:
- Ultimate Vegan Lentil Walnut Loaf
- 15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta (probably the most popular recipe on the blog!)
- Back on Track Wheatberry and Bean Salad (or other bean salad)
- Easy Creamy Tomato Barley Risotto
- Enchiladas with ‘cheeze’
- Butternut Squash Mac ‘n Cheeze
- Baked vegan doughnuts (Eric’s dessert request!)
The Ultimate Vegan Lentil Walnut Loaf, which I adapted from the Clean Food Cookbook (original cookbook recipe is here), is first on the list. Last night, I set out to make the loaf once again, but I decided to add sweet potato for a fun twist.
How can you go wrong with sweet potato? You just can’t.
Ok, maybe there was that one time.
For brevity’s sake, I won’t type out the entire recipe again, but I will tell you what changes I made for this version:
Modifications to Ultimate Vegan Lentil Walnut Loaf:
- 3/4 cup grated sweet potato
- 1/2 cup raisins (instead of 1/4 cup)
- Increased toasted walnuts to 1 cup (amped up the crunchy texture!)
- Omitted carrot and apple
- Added 1/2 tsp Italian seasonings
- Increased thyme to 1.5 tsp
- Added pinch of garlic powder
First version is here.
We usually have applesauce and sautéed greens on the side, but I was out of both, so I made a salad.
I sprinkled romaine with Energizing Protein Power Salad, added some chopped tomato, and homemade Better than bottled balsamic vinaigrette. It was delish!
So which version did I like better?
The first version because it held together better. Taste wise? They both taste awesome. This version had a more crunchy and chewy texture thanks to the increased raisins and walnuts.
I’m thinking about all kinds of mix-ins you could use for this recipe. I’m sure it would work with many ingredients and it would probably be amazing with fresh herbs too.
For breakfast, I started with a super green juice blend.
Cleansing Green Juice
- 1 apple
- 1 lemon
- 1 cucumber
- 1 cup Dandelion (blended in after)
Instead of juicing the Dandelion, I blended it in my Vita-mix with the juice. My juicer (Breville Fountain Juice Plus) does not juice greens well and I find it to be a waste because not much juice comes out. I prefer to juice ‘worth while’ veggies only and then blend in any greens afterwards. I feel like I get more bang for my buck this way. The clean up for 2 machines is not great though so I don’t do this often!
Not long after, breakfast was calling my name from the fridge! Don’t you love it when the breakfast fairy prepares breakfast for you?
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Strawberry Banana Crunch Vegan Overnight Oats
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup regular oats
- 2 tbsp raw buckwheat groats (the ‘crunch’, optional)
- 1.5-2 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 cup non-dairy milk
- 1 banana, chopped
- Pinch cinnamon
- 2-3 strawberries, chopped
- Maple syrup, to taste
Directions: Mix all ingredients together in a bowl and place in the fridge overnight or for at least 2 hours. Serve cold in the AM without cooking.
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Yum.
Updates:
1) In case you missed it on the weekend, I have a brand new Search bar installed on the right side bar of the blog. If you have tried searching the blog before you probably were frustrated that it didn’t work well. This new one is amazing and I hope that you will be able to find things much quicker! I’m very impressed with it so far. Go check it out and give it a try!
2) My Recipes page is up to date from the past week.
3) Check out this post for a homemade & all-natural drain cleaner (only two ingredients!) that I’m loving lately.
Happy Birthday to my Best Bud Allison! She is a new mommy, a new dentist, and one of the most awesome girls I know. XO
Looks colourful, creative and tasty! :)
I couldn’t agree more! I’m craving dishes from months ago!!
I’m looking for a new dentist. Is Allison in the Halton area?
nope, sorry!
This recipe made me so grateful to have an iPhone! I saw this recipe this morning in my google reader and wanted to make it, but forgot to print it out before going grocery shopping. I pulled it up on my phone and bought all the ingredients to make it! Can’t wait to get cookin’! Thanks for sharing!
I love your recipe for the Lentil Walnut Loaf, I have made it a few times, the second time I made it I used red lentils instead of green and found that it held together perfectly without even processing it! Awesome recipe though :)
That lentil loaf looks incredible. I am the same way. Every time I find a winning recipe…I feast off the leftovers and then I never make it again.
Hey Ange I don’t know if it’s of any ‘concern’ to you so if it’s not, go ahead and forget what I said ;). it is very beneficial to juice greens since the bio availability goes way up by doing so. much more so than with blending (although this also helps of course). I have a centrifugal juicer as well, one thats not really meant for juicing greens, however if you bundle your greens up tightly, put them in with the motor off, and put something heavy on top of it, like an apple, it works really well! you just need to make sure your blades can catch the greens!
x
I didnt think of that, but thanks for the tip…makes sense :)
If you put the pulp through the juicer a second time the greens will juice!
interesting thanks!!
Seeing your Strawberry Banana Crunch Vegan Overnight Oats reminded me of all my frozen berries from last summer. Combined with ripe bananas that I purchased for 50% off at the grocery store earlier this week and I HAD to have your SBCVOO :P DELICIOUS!
I’ve had my eye on your lentil loaf and avocado pasta dishes for a while now. I think this Friday I am finally going to make the lentil loaf. I’m so excited! It looks delicious! :-)
This vegan meatloaf is one of my favorite recipes of yours too! And with sweet potato (one of my favorite foods!) it must be even better! Can’t wait to try this recipe out again!
Great list of ‘favorites’ – I already had four of them on my list of new recipes to try! :-)
Hi Angela
I know you work from home, but I was wondering if you could do an entry about how you maintain a blogging/life balance. I’ve taken a look around, and can’t find a similar entry
Thanks!
I made the original version of your lentil loaf last night (along with the barley risotto) and thought they both turned out REALLY well. My meat-eating boyfriend thought the loaf was really good and said he’d put walnuts in the next time he makes meat loaf. Due to how much he liked the vegan version, that might not be anytime soon. ;)
Hey Angela, I made this two days ago… and it turned out amazing!!! …my husband loved it too… I am a huge sweet potato fan, who isn’t? Love your blog!!!
Made this loaf and loved it. I had made the apple walnut one before and we liked it..but, I loved this one so much more! We omitted Thyme because we’re not huge fans of that spice, otherwise we followed the recipe. I was excited because I had a sweet potato to use and I wanted a meatless recipe. :)
So glad it was a hit Amy!