YogaVive Apple Chips: Giveaway

Those of you who know me in real life or from Twitter know how much I love YogaVive Apple Chips (commonly referred to as YogaChips in my household!). I tell everyone I know about them. They are a guilt-free snack for kids and adults alike. I carry a few packs with me everywhere I go. After all, you never know when hunger will strike!!

Now you have a chance to try YogaVive Apple Chips for yourself. Just read my review of YogaVive Apple Chips at Examiner.com. Leave a comment on this blog post telling me 2 places where my family has enjoyed YogaVive Apple Chips and you will be entered to win. Two lucky winners will be chosen at random, by my two teeny vegan yogini's, and will be awarded with a free month's supply of YogaVive Apple Chips. Winners to be announced next Friday, October 2nd.

Guac-adilla

This idea comes from one of my favorite restaurants, The Grape Leaf. I love, love, love their avocado wrap. It's basically guacamole wrapped into a flour tortilla and grilled. I get it without the cheese and it's delicious. Today being National Guacamole Day I thought I'd do a version of the avocado wrap. Unfortunately all I had was small 10 inch tortillas, so I decided to take the idea and turn it into a guac-adilla.

Use this simple recipe for guacamole. Just spread it onto a whole wheat tortilla, top with another and either press in a panini press or toast in a dry skillet. I had mine served with a dollop of Tofutti Better than Sour Cream, and drizzled with some mild salsa. A delicious, filling lunch, or cut smaller as an appetizer for a Mexican fiesta.

Raw Tomato Basil Soup

For most of the summer I've eaten a High Raw diet, meaning that I've included a high percentage of raw foods each day. Typically I've done raw until dinner. On the high raw diet I've never felt better. It really is incredible what eating whole, living foods can do for you.

Over the past week or so I've really gotten away from this style of eating and have been eating more cooked foods, more left overs, and a lot more carbs. I woke up this morning knowing that something needed to change. While I always include a variety of vegetables, and eat mostly healthy foods, nothing nourishes my body like raw foods do. So today I am back on the high raw diet, and in just this one day can already feel a difference in my energy levels, in my mental clarity, and in the waistline of my pants!!

This delicious raw soup is a fantastic way to savor the last of summer's tomatoes, yet hearty enough to enjoy on a cool day as well. An added bonus is that raw foods are often quick and easy to prepare and require very little clean up.

Raw Tomato Basil Soup
enough for 1 bowl

3 medium tomatoes, peeled and cored

6 or 7 basil leaves

1/8 tsp sea salt

1 tsp Raw Blue agave

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Put all ingredients in to a blender and puree until desired consistency. You can leave some of the tomatoes slightly chunky if you prefer.

VeganXpress Winner

Using the Random number generator at Random.org............our winner is, lucky number 5. Congratulations Lynne, you'll never be stuck at a chain restaurant wondering what to eat again!!

You will be able to download the VeganXpress app using a coupon code that I will supply to you. E-mail me at veganyogini01 (at) gmail (dot) com with your e-mail address and I'll send you the coupon code!!


True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 5 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Cuban Black Bean Pizza

This delicious pizza is a veganized throwback to my college days. Avers's Pizza in Bloomington serves up an array of gourmet pizzas, and Cuban Black Bean happens to be one of those. This pizza uses cilantro pesto to replace the tomato sauce, then black beans spiced with cumin are layered on the pesto. From here the topping choices are endless, but we pretty consistently use, sliced roma tomatoes, sliced red onion, pepperoncini, and Follow Your Heart Mozzarella.

For this pizza you'll need one pizza shell. Store bought is fine, but I prefer to make my own, and make it whole wheat. I use my bread machine and it makes it very quick and easy. You'll also need one can or 2 cups of cooked black beans, seasoned with about 1/2 Tbs. ground cumin.

Cilantro Pesto

1 bunch organic cilantro, washed and well dried
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
olive oil

In a food processor combine first 3 ingredients, pulsing to chop and combine well. Then, with machine running drizzle in olive oil until pesto is at your desired consistency. I probably use about 1/8 cup.

Assembling Pizza:

Preheat oven and pizza stone to 450 degrees. If using home made crust, roll or toss into a circle measuring about 12 inches. Poke with a fork, and place on heated pizza stone. Bake for about 3-4 minutes. Remove crust from oven (or if using store bought crust begin here). Spread pesto to within 1-2 inches of edge of crust. Spread beans on top of pest. Layer on chosen ingredients and sprinkle with FYH. Bake in preheated oven on pizza stone for 7-10 minutes, or until edges of crust are golden brown and FYH is beginning to melt.

VeganXpress Giveaway

Have you ever been invited to dinner with your friends and family, they've decided to go to Outback Steakhouse and you immediately think "Ack, what's a vegan going to eat at a Steakhouse?"? For me, part of my vegan advocacy is to always show people how easy it is to be a vegan, and turning down a dinner invitation sure doesn't send that message, does it. And who among us hasn't been on a roadtrip, it's dinner time, you're in the middle of nowhere, chain restaurants abound and you wonder where you are going to find anything vegan.

Wouldn't it be nice if restaurants were required to label which of their menu items are vegan? Unfortunately they don't, but now they don't need to!! With the VeganXpress app for your iPhone or iTouch you'll never wonder what you can eat at a chain restaurant again. This app has saved me from the tedious task of interrogating the server about ingredients, and has saved me from settling for just salad.

With a listing for over 100 popular chains, the vegan menu is right at your fingertips. VeganXpress also has a complete listing of junk foods that you never knew were vegan and a listing of vegan beer and wine to boot.

If you are an iPhone/iTouch user, or know one that would love this app leave a comment and tell me what your favorite vegan find at a chain restaurant is. Tweet this contest or post on facebook and receive an extra entry, just be sure to leave another comment that you tweeted or facebooked! Winner will be chosen at random and announced on Wednesday September 9.

Whole-wheat Blueberry Flax Muffins

It's only week number 4 of school, and I'm already racking my brain to come up with healthy breakfast options that M will actually eat. She is not a morning person, and in turn is not a breakfast person. She loves tofu scramble for dinner, but surprisingly won't touch it at breakfast and she whines every time I put cereal on the table. Add to that, breakfast need to be quick, and you've got one stressful situation in the morning.

For the past few weeks she's either been eating toasted Sprouted Grain bagels or Whole-wheat Flax pancakes (which I make in big batches and freeze for use through the week). With a little time off from teaching yoga this week I decided to develop a muffin that was both good and mostly guilt free. These muffins are 100% whole wheat, contain very little sugar, and supply you with half of your daily requirement of Omega-3 fatty acid. In addition, unlike most whole wheat and healthy muffins, these are not dense. They are moist and cakey, just like a muffin should be.

Whole-wheat Blueberry Flax Muffins

Makes 24 full size muffins or 48 mini's

1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup turbinado sugar

1 cup flax meal (or ground whole flax seeds)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 cup low fat soy milk

1/4 cup canola oil

1 cup frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line 24 cups muffin tins. Because this recipe is low in fat it's helpful to lightly spray the liners with a small amount of oil to prevent sticking. Combine all dry ingredients. Add milk and oil. Stir just until combined (do not over mix or muffins will be tough). Gently fold in blueberries. Bake 25-30 minutes (15-20 minutes for mini's). Remove to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.

Ratatouille wraps

I picked up some beautiful Japanese eggplant at the Farmer's Market over the weekend. I'm a sucker for eggplant, I think it's beautiful, and I've found several different recipes I like to use it in. My family however DO NOT like eggplant. So, whenever I give in to the urge to buy and eggplant I'm always faced with the difficult challenge of finding some way that my family will eat it. Baba ganoush and simple breaded and baked eggplant are about the only ways I've found to please the crowd. These eggplant however were on the smallish side and didn't seem well suited to either. Since my youngest daughter LOVES zucchini I thought maybe ratatouille would do the trick. Knowing my family like I do, a big pile of soft, mushy veg on their plate just isn't going to get any lips smackin'. Put nearly anything inside a whole wheat tortilla and that's a different story. Enter, ratatouille wraps. These wraps have all of the ingredients of a traditional ratatouille, only they are cooked quickly on the stove top and rolled in a tortilla.

Ratatouille Wraps

3 small Japanese eggplant, sliced

1 large zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced

1 medium onion, sliced

1 large green bell pepper, seeded and sliced

3 cloves garlic, finely minced

4 large tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried basil

2 tsp dried oregano

salt and pepper to taste

2 Tbs pure maple syrup

4 Tbs chopped fresh parsley

4 large whole wheat wrappers

Heat a few Tbs of olive oil in a deep skillet over medium high heat. Add eggplant and zucchini and saute until beginning to soften. Add onions and peppers, saute a few minutes more. Add garlic and saute until garlic is fragrant. Add in diced tomatoes with their juices. Gently stir in herbs, then bring to a slow boil. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes, until all vegetables are soft and tender. Add in maple syrup and stir to combine. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. With a slotted spoon place about 1/2 cup ratatouille in the center of a large warm wrapper, sprinkle with about 1 Tbs chopped parley and roll burrito style.