Weight Loss Transformations

The Best Vegan Spanikopita

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Vegan Spanikopita I made for a morning staff meeting… big hit!

It’s 2022 so I felt it was time to update my Spanikopita recipe. I decided to give the fancy shapes a rest and just go back to basics… the results were incredibly tasty! There is no exact science to this. Feel free to modify quantities.

You will need:

500g of fresh spinach

150g Violife feta, crumbled

170g Follow Your Heart feta crumbles

(Your choice on type of Vegan feta cheese; I personally love the taste and texture of combining two particular kinds)

2 vegan eggs (I used Follow Your Heart)

115g vegan butter, melted

1 box frozen phyllo dough, thawed at room temperature

21g fresh chives, chopped

21g fresh dill, chopped

Optional: 1/2 lemon, squeezed

I used the largest tub of spinach they sell at Whole Foods and the full packets of fresh chives and dill. I provided ingredient measurements for guidance but truly I just eye balled everything. Don’t be afraid to just get in there!

The process:

I cooked down chopped fresh chives and dill with spinach in skillet.

Let the greens cool for a few minutes. Mix in your feta and vegan egg. Optional step: squeeze half a lemon over mixture.

Brush your melted butter on the pan.

Lay a Phyllo sheet along the bottom. Brush butter. Add another layer. Repeat layer, butter, layer for about 4 or 5 layers.

Add your filling mixture spreading evenly among dough.

Then top with a few more layers of dough and butter. I let these lay messily over the sides and tuck them under all of the layers when I’m done, giving it a nice crust.

Score all the way through, cutting pieces prior to cooking. Cutting after the dough is crusty can be difficult.

I was able to premake this the night before, covering tightly in my fridge overnight.

I popped it in oven this morning for 75 minutes at 375 degrees. 💚

Apparently I am to make this for every morning meeting henceforth. 😂 I hope you and your family enjoy it as much as we do!

Full-Flavor Vegan French Onion Soup

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french onion

Creamy, rich vegan french onion soup.

Compassion begins on your plate! French Onion soup was a childhood favorite of mine that I didn’t think I could ever master from scratch. This rich, decadent soup supposedly came from onions, and I didn’t know what other witchcraft lead to it’s tastiness. It wasn’t until I was quarantined at home staring at a sprouted onion and some stale bread to even think to look into how people have made it traditionally. While many people take short cuts to rich flavor like adding wine and beef stock, I found myself with limited ingredients, a vegan heart, and plenty of time to start browning some onions and adding some decadent flavor to this dish. A big plus: I made this in one glass dish with things I had on hand! This was the best French Onion soup I ever had and I wanted to share it with you as you find you may also have day-old bread and onions on hand. French Onion Soup is like food for the soul.

 

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 2 hrs 45 minutes | Total Time: 3 hrs

Ingredients

6 Yellow Onions, sliced
1/2 cup Vegan Butter (or 1 stick)
1/3 cup Veggie Bouillon Stock
1/3 cup Flour
4 1/2 cups Water
Salt and Pepper to taste

Optional:
Day old bread of your choosing (sourdough used here)
Your choice of vegan cheese
Garlic

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place sliced onions in glass pan. Separate butter into globs on every corner of onions in the pan. Cover with foil, and put in the oven. Let cook for 1 hr and 30 minutes. This is where the magic begins. Your entire home will smell like you are the best cook in the entire world. Chef Ramsey, who?

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Onions after being cooked for 1 hr 30 mins.

Uncover the onions. You should see the onions sitting in their own water once cooked and that the tops are starting to brown. Put veggie stock, and flour on top of the onions, and mix.goodstuff

Place back into the oven, uncovered for 45 more minutes or until the pan looks completely browned. This is the key to your flavor. The more browning you see around the onions, the more flavor will be in your soup.

Once you see a good accumulation of browning (see photo), now it is time to add water. Yes, you read that right. You seriously just add water.

Cook uncovered for 30 more minutes.

In the meantime (in about 15 minutes), get your bread ready. Put slices with a little olive oil on a cookie sheet. I topped mine with a little garlic and Violife Mozzarella. Put the bread in the oven until it is toasted and the cheese is melted.

 

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Once the soup has cooked for 30 minutes with water, and it looks like it has thickened, remove from the oven.

 

Spoon soup into bowls, top with cheesy garlic toast, and serve! Enjoy that rich, natural flavor.

Compassion begins in your bowl! 😉

Eating Compassionately

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Compassion Begins On Your Plate!

➡️What losing over a hundred pounds looks like on Instagram vs. ➡️what losing over a hundred pounds looks like in reality.

This is a major vulnerability post for me, friends. In honor of Earth day, I am posting to remind you that going vegan is not only the best thing you can do to save the planet, but also yourself. I rarely took pictures of me at my heaviest. It was one of the hardest times of my life. The picture of me sitting is when I already started losing a little weight a year into me working at Whole Foods Market when I was on a trip to Chicago opening a store. At my absolute heaviest, I was in an abusive marriage and so lost. It took me going vegan to get my groove back after it all. Seriously. I started feeling happier and more positive. I felt like I wanted to move my body more and my back pain was feeling relief. There were days at my heaviest I didn’t even want to move because my feet killed me and my back made me feel immobile. The lethargy went away going vegan. I started going to the gym, and eating a lot of chia for energy, and never felt better in my life.

After I lost weight, I wanted to show it off and look my best. What I didn’t post was the stretch marks, and the stomach pouch I still had, and the ups and downs along the way. You always see me post myself wearing high waisted leggings or jeans holding in my stomach, or a tank top that is loose in the tummy and flatters me just right. Reality is that I often take a million photos and try multiple poses before I post one. Never get caught up in appearances. The main thing to take away from me going vegan is that it literally improved my quality of life from a drastic standpoint.

My point is, veganism saved my life and my health. It doesn’t matter what you look like. It’s a better quality of life for everyone, from a personal level, to how animals are treated, to how many Earthly resources are saved for everyone by eating plant based. Compassion truly begins on your plate: for the animals, for the planet, and for your health. 💚🌱✨💗

Vegan Breakfast Burrito

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Compassion Begins on Your Plate! 💚🌱

It is no secret that I love Tofu Scramble and enjoy serving it up in a variety of ways. Get ready for some of the most delicious tofu eggs wrapped in burrito perfection that you will ever taste.

You will need: 1 package organic, sprouted extra firm tofu

1 package of your favorite tortillas

1 tbsp garlic granules*

2 tbsp turmeric

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tbsp basil

1 organic avocado

2 organic russet potatoes

1/2 organic white onion

1/4 cup all purpose gluten free flour (I prefer Bob’s Red Mill brand)

1 package of washed organic spinach

1 package Field Roast Breakfast Sausage

Wildbrine Kimchi Probiotic

Sriracha or your favorite Salsa*

Celtic Sea Salt*

Ground black pepper*

*Proportions to taste.



Hash browns: Grate potatoes into hash brown consistency.

Push water out of potatoes in a strainer over your sink. I then usually mix about 1/4 cup of gluten free all purpose flour with the potatoes before frying, but can be skipped.

Fry in pan with a little olive oil until crispy, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Sausage: Fry sausages in pan over medium heat with a little olive oil until preferred browning. I personally prefer a strip of black on mine and cook it a little longer. Slice into small, chewable bites.



Tofu “Eggs”: Slice tofu package.

Pour “tofu guts” into a medium saucepan. Crumble extra firm tofu and place in the pan, turning on medium heat.

Add turmeric, garlic granules, basil, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper to pan.

Stir as needed.

Once “tofu guts” water has started to cook away, add a dollop of salsa to the scramble mix.

Slice onion. Add to separate sauce pan with a little water. Cook over medium heat until onions start to caramelize. Then add to Tofu Eggs pan.

Cut avocado in half. Spoon out green avocado onto a cutting board. Cut into slices.



Putting it all together: Warm Tortilla in pan on low-medium heat so it’s easier to work with.

Lay out warmed Tortilla.

Slather on some salsa or Sriracha (I personally do a light layer with my spicy Sriracha).

Make sure you leave an edge around the following ingredients for the perfect burrito roll: Add fresh spinach.

Add a spoonful of hash browns and Tofu Eggs.

Top with avocado slices and pieces of sausage.

Pinch ends of tortilla, pick up bottom, place over and tuck under ingredients, finishing rolling the burrito with remaining slack of tortilla.

Place in warm pan to seal bottom.

And, voila! You have mastered the Vegan Breakfast Burrito. Roll a few in foil and save in your freezer for a quick breakfast to heat up on the run.

 

Earth Day: Compassion Begins On Your Plate

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Compassion begins on your plate!! 💚🌱✨ I’ve always been a bit of a bleeding heart. I was 14 years old when I decided weight loss wasn’t worth eating animals. My entire family was on the Atkins diet, and saw short term successes (but long term health problems, cancers and death). I was repulsed by seeing family members eat flesh for every meal. I went vegetarian without really knowing how to be a healthy one. As a Midwest girl with limited nutrition knowledge, I just decided to eat anything that didn’t have eyes. This included tons of bread, pasta, and cheese. 18 years old wasn’t even my heaviest. I was heaviest in my mid twenties working in the insurance industry. I finally had a moment where I felt like I woke up. I found myself staring down a road I didn’t want to be on, and drastically changed my life.

Working at Whole Foods and learning about The Whole Foods Diet, and finding veganism was the answer I needed all along. It was not only the most compassionate choice for the animals, and the planet, but it was the most compassionate choice for myself and my health. I finally found the answer to all the questions I had about our nutrition, while still limiting our harm, and impacting the planet positively. The energy this diet gave me impacted my physical activities as well.

We are all so hard on ourselves sometimes, myself included. We are all imperfectly perfect. As I learned more, my mind evolved, my behaviors and diet evolved, and then my body followed. It wasn’t a perfect process. It took time. Transformation doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen. It’s as simple as making a decision on what you are making for dinner tonight, or to take that walk you are thinking about. May your life and actions be a celebration of the Earth, every day.

Anything You Can Eat, I Can Eat Vegan

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Veganism is kind of like the mainstream belief in the normality of the “food chain hierarchy”, but in reverse. How did the animal get this nutrient ? What did the animal eat? If the animal got it from another animal, what did that animal eat? There in lies the answer to any nutrition inquiry.

The design of the Earth and our bodies is so intelligent, our nutrients we need just naturally occur in growing plants, and natural elements. Scarcity during changing seasons and weather conditions is the reason our early ancestors hunted animals. In this day and age, a large variety of plants is at our fingertips within a moment’s notice. Killing is unnecessary. Compassion truly begins on your plate: for the animals, the environment, your health, and the future of the human race.

28 Day Plant Based Challenge

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Compassion begins on your plate!!! Tomorrow starts Day 1 of the 28 day challenge. Tonight, get really clear on your goals for the month of February. With this full moon, it’s the perfect time to manifest some healthy achievements for yourself. Whether you are going vegan for 28 days, or are already vegan and refining your diet more, write down your goals tonight.

Me? I will be going oil free. Now I don’t mean I won’t be eating avocados or nuts with natural oils. The right kind of oil can be great for your brain. What I won’t be doing is frying my food, or ordering tempura veggies (which I love). This also means I’ll be grabbing oil free hummus and avoiding vegan cheeses with added oil. Luckily, brands like Kite Hill and Engine2 don’t use oil!

Also, I have a planned cheat day to help keep me on track. We have two veg festivals in my area per year, and one of them falls during the challenge. To keep me on track, that’ll be my one allotted oil cheat day as I try all the new vegan things in my area.

Be compassionate with yourself through this process and do your best! That’s all we can do, and that’s what helps us avoid feelings of guilt as we work towards transformation. Have a happy healthy day, and don’t forget, write down your goals tonight!! Tomorrow is Day 1. What will you do with it?

Vegan Mexican Drinking Chocolate

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This spicy drinking chocolate is perfect during the holidays. Get all of the amazing benefits of having raw cacao in your diet while sipping on a dessert drink. 🍫 ☕️ Cacao is packed with phytonutrients, protein, calcium, carotene, thiamin, riboflavin, magnesium, sulfur, flavonoids, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids that can support slowing the aging process, reduce your cholesterol, improve heart function and reduce your risk of cancer. Now that’s a hot chocolate with a punch!

Ingredients:

❄️2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk

❄️1 cup powdered cacao

❄️1 teaspoon vanilla extract

❄️1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

❄️1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper*

❄️2 tablespoons organic raw sugar*

*Can be modified to make spicier or sweeter to taste.

🌱Heat almond milk over medium heat in saucepan.

🌱Once warmed, add sugar.

🌱Add cacao powder to saucepan slowly by whisking into the almond milk.

🌱Add spices and vanilla extract.

Serve warm in mug of choice on a snowy day . 🔥👍🏼❄️

Southwest Tofu Scramble

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Compassion begins on your plate!

I genuinely do not miss eggs as a vegan, and a major reason is that I’ve experimented and perfected my favorite vegan breakfasts. I am often asked how I cook my tofu scramble, and after lots of trial and error, I wanted to share my favorite recipe and cooking process that I’ve developed. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

You will need (serves two):

1 package organic, sprouted extra firm tofu

1 tbsp garlic granules*

2 tbsp turmeric

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

2 chopped basil leaves

1 dollop of your favorite salsa

1 organic avocado

2 organic golden potatoes

1/2 organic white onion

1 package of washed organic spinach

Wildbrine Kimchi Probiotic Sriracha*

Celtic Sea Salt*

Ground black pepper*
*Proportions can be modified to taste.

🌱Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

🌱Slice potatoes into circles. In bowl, evenly toss potatoes in salt and pepper.

🌱Place sliced potatoes on cookie sheet, and cook on top shelf in oven until golden brown. (Cook times may vary per oven.)

🌱Slice tofu package.

🌱Pour “tofu guts” into a medium saucepan. Crumble extra firm tofu and place in the pan, turning on medium heat.

🌱Add turmeric, garlic granules, basil, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper to pan.

🌱Stir as needed.

🌱Once “tofu guts” water has started to cook away, add a dollop of salsa to the scramble mix.

🌱Slice onion. Add to sauce pan with a little water. Cook over medium heat until onions start to caramelize. Add spinach, and top with salt and pepper.

🌱Cut avocado in half. Spoon out green avocado onto a cutting board. Sprinkle pepper. Cut into slices.

🌱Pour finished tofu into two bowls. Add spinach and onion mixture divided evenly to both bowls. Dress with slices of potato, avocado slices, and finish with Kimchi Sriracha.  I love this Sriracha since it tastes amazing, and adds probiotics to any meal to help aid with digestion and support immunity.

🌱💚And, voila! You have mastered the tofu scramble. 🙌🏼💚🌱

Woman’s World Farmstand Diet: Flavorful and Rich Vegan Shepard’s Pie

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Compassion begins on your plate! As mentioned in the cover story in the August 21, 2017 issue of Woman’s World Magazine on shelves now, attached is my recipe for whole plant-based, vegan shepard’s pie. I am so honored to be featured in the current issue of Woman’s World magazine for plant-based nutrition. To have my weight loss transformation be an example of a vegan, Whole Foods diet being the most compassionate and nutritious lifestyle is honestly a dream come true.

Although the article states you can lose 20 lbs in a week, my over-100lbs-lost story was a slow process over a year and a half, making good daily decisions on plant-based food choices. I never intended to drop the weight, just to do better. The weight loss has been a nice bonus. Always love yourself and your body at any weight. Make daily decisions on activities and food choices from love. Do all things from a place of love, not lack.

Also, I could tell you right now I would not have dropped weight if I continued eating cheese, even though the article suggests doing shreds of cheese on your salad. In fact, a huge part of my spike in energy was abstaining from any and all animal products and focusing on whole, real fruits and vegetables. Replace your eggs and cheese with tofu scrambles, like the recipe in the article.  They are seriously delicious and won’t slow you down. 😉 

I encourage you all to read “The Whole Foods Diet” book by Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. He focuses on so many health benefits abstaining from animal products. He is so incredibly passionate about it. Case studies have shown people reversing and preventing diabetes, cardiovascular disease and even cancers. Weight loss is the least important benefit to consider. 

Full Recipe: Flavorful and Rich Vegan Shepard’s Pie