[Easy, Shmeasy] Vegan Chickpea Couscous Salad

I'm back on the vegan train, and ridin' along with a suuuuuper easy and filling dinner tonight.

I suck at taking pictures during the cooking process. I often get started with my cooking, and forget to stop and take pictures, and tonight was no different. You're only gonna get the finished product folks, sorry!

I used canned veggies, but feel free to use fresh if you're a better cook than I am! ;)

What 'yo need:

• Couscous, plain or tri-color
• A can of chickpeas
• A can of peas & carrots
• A can of succotash
• Chopped red onion
• Vegetable or "no-chicken" broth
• Chopped garlic
• Cumin
• Crushed red pepper
• A jar of your favorite marinara

Start by boiling a 1/2 cup of water with 1/2 cup of veggie broth. While the water is heating up, add the chopped onion, garlic, chickpeas, and all the spices. Add the canned vegetables right before dumping a cup of couscous into the bubbling pot. Stir quickly! Remove the pot from the heat, cover, and let sit for 5 minutes.

Fluff with a fork, and mix-in the marinara! THAT'S IT PEOPLE. Yummy, healthy, and most importantly - vegan! ;)

Look at that goodness!

What do you like in your couscous?? I'd love some more easy recipes like this, so please share!

I Forgot I Was Vegan

No, seriously people. Several times in the past few days, I honestly, actually forgot! This week has been a vegan failure. I know most of you are probably thinking "yeah, yeah, yeah, surrrrrrrrre you just forgot," but believe me or not, it's true!

Let's back up to Wednesday, when the vegan landslide began. Hungry Hubby and I postponed our usual after-work workouts to drive to a nearby town to pick up his new car! YAY! [Backstory: HH had been driving a '97 with 200,000 miles on it!! He BEYOND deserved a nice, new car!] We got the car...

and we were in a state of new car euphoria, as we drove back to our apartment. The plan was to get in a quick workout at our apartment gym before eating dinner. As we pulled up to our place, we realized that everything was pitch black! No street lights, no parking garage lights, no window lights on, and many of our neighbors were parked out on their balconies, iPhones in hand. The electricity was clearly out. Well, what was the point of going inside to sit in the dark? And the workout was not going to happen, either.

So what were we to do? Join my girls who were a few blocks away at Taco Diner, that's what! :)

By this point, I was starving, and so giddy about HH's car, so I immediately began digging in to some chips and delicious green sauce.

While I know there is a such thing as green salsa, this is far too creamy to be that innocent. I'm assuming it's laced with either sour cream or ranch.... so enter Vegan Failure #1.

The girls and I were gabbing away as we perused the menus, and HH was filling them in on the car, and I knew I needed to eat something very low-cal, since the workout was abandoned. Not too easy of a feat at a Mexican joint. I zeroed in on the salad, and ordered the "TD" salad with salsa for dressing. Great, right? Wrong. It came with grilled chicken... that I began devouring, not even realizing my mistake. Halfway through the salad it hit me: "I'M EATING AN ANIMAL! CRAP!"

[No, this wasn't MY salad, but you get the point.]

Vegan Failure #2

I shaped-up on Thursday, but then came Friday. Our good friends from Seattle came into town, and we all met up at our friends' downtown loft for drinks and socializing. We headed over to House of Blues around 8, for the John Butler Trio concert (<--- it was amazing!!!), and then went back to the loft to continue the party. HH and I never ate dinner, not intentionally, we just didn't have time! Translation: I was RAVENOUS by 11pm when we were back at the loft.

Enter Vegan Failure #3 and #4:

Homemade Spinach Dip

A Slice of Veggie Pizza

So there it is people, the honest truth. I sucked at being a vegan the past few days. And I swear I didn't mean to cheat, I really just forgot! :( Wish me luck on getting back on track for the next 10 days of my Vegan Mofo challenge!

A Semi-Homemade Lunch Salad

I love to cook, but I also love not cooking. Ha! Does that make any sense? Reminds me of my thoughts on camping... I'm sure I could have a blast camping with the perfect group of friends, perfect weather, nice set-up, and lots of alcohol food, but without all of those in place, I'd rather be cuddled up in a nice hotel somewhere with a down comforter, room service , and champagne... ya feel me!?

So although I love whipping up delicious meals with whole, natural foods, I want it to be ee-zay and low-fuss. I hate dirtying more than 1 pot or pan at a time! That said, I don't want to resort to using processed, junky convenience foods just to keep it fast and easy. So, I subscribe to the "Semi-Homemade" school of thought... thank you Sandra Lee and Food Network for the nice catchphrase, it has a nice ring to it! ;)

Every trip to Whole Foods arms me with goodies for semi-homemade meals. On my latest trip, I hit up the salad bar for some salad items that I would rather buy than make myself....

Teriyaki tofu and shelled edamame.... YUMMMMMM! The tofu is SO freakin' delicious! I wish I had bought more. I will definitely be stocking up on this from now on when I make it to WF. Before going vegan, I would have opted to get some chicken for salad protein, but this is BETTER. Seriously.

I also picked up some super sprouts from the produce section:

Add them all to chopped romaine and baby spinach, throw in chopped roma tomato, and voila! An incredibly speedy and tasty vegan salad!

Please excuse my fine china, I take my lunch to work everyday. ;)

This tofu has definitely inspired me to try and start cooking with it more often! I will keep taking advantage of Whole Foods' chefs by buying their tofu off the salad bar, but I also want to try pressing and flavoring some on my own. Averie over at Love Veggies and Yoga has some awesome-looking tofu recipes that I will start trying as soon as I get my hands on a tofu press.... Christmas present, maybe!?

Do you love tofu as much as I do!? What are your tips for semi-homemade salads?

A Vegan Feast: Roasted Veggies

I luuuuuuuuv roasted vegetables. They are incredibly easy to make, can be used as a side dish, the main event, or in salads, and I enjoy eating them both cold and hot.

Today I hit up Whole Foods, and then got to work on a HUGE batch of roasties. I like making lots all at once, so I can eat off them all week.

In the oven today:

• Red potato
• Sweet potato
• Carrots
• Acorn squash
• Brussel sprouts
• Broccoli

I chopped organic baby carrots in half, and put them on a foil-lined pan with the chopped red potato. I added Pam Olive Oil spray and salt pepper to both, plus rosemary to the potato.

I chopped the sweet potato and acorn squash, and added those to another pan, with the Pam and spices.

'

I put these 2 pans into the oven at 400 degrees on the top rack. These cooked for a little over an hour. Halfway through their cooking time, I did the sprouts and broc.

I chopped the ends off the sprouts and cut an X shape in the bottom of each. I sprayed the sprouts with the Pam, added salt & pepper, and then drizzled balsamic vinegar over them. After rolling them around a bit, I popped them into the oven along with the broccoli, which I prepared per the usual: oil spray, salt & pep.

The sprouts and broccoli roasted for about 30 minutes.

Here were the finished veggies:

Dinner was served! I added Chipotle Tomato Chicken (from Whole Foods' hot bar) to Hungry Hubby's plate, and a small little romaine salad to mine. It was delicious!

Hungry Hubby's plate:

Healthy Honey's (Vegan) plate:

Do you love roasted vegetables as much as I do? I think they are the perfect Vegan side-dish or meal! What do you love to roast? Any good seasoning ideas!?

Vegan Grocery Haul & Spicy Crockpot Soup!

My friend Robin made sure to point out to me today that I promised this post on Tuesday... and it's now Friday. I spent 2 nights cleaning for HOURS since my parents came into town yesterday afternoon. So unfortunately, bloggin went to the back burner. So here ya go, Robin! ;)

Grocery Haul

Here are the vegan-approved foods I picked up on my latest grocery store adventure:

Delicious produce...

• Anjou pears
• Honeycrisp apples
• Vine-ripened tomatoes
• Avocados
• Acorn squash
• Sweet potato
• Red onion

Pre-cut and pre-washed produce... it's more expensive, but SO worth it sometimes!

• Broccoli florets
• Stew mix of veggies... red potatoes, celery, & onion (I used this in my soup!)

• Black beans
• Garbanzo beans
• Pinto beans
• HUGE tub of salsa
• Unsweetened almond milk

The replacement for my beloved, non-vegan vanilla creamer. I got the unsweetened kind, because I wanted to keep the calories low. Since I add Sweet-n-Low to my coffee anyways, this works great. It is NOT a good substitute for the oatmeal. Still working on tweaking that recipe to be vegan and delicious....

And of course, I had to get some non-vegan goods for hungry hubby

• 2 Deli Roasted Chickens... Rosemary Garlic & BBQ
• Shredded cheese
• Spicy ranch (<--- completely necessary if I except HH to eat any type of salad!)

It was fairly easy to pick up vegan groceries at a mainstream grocery store. As much as I ADORE Whole Foods, it is just so expensive! Many bloggers refer to it as Whole Paycheck. Ha! I still need to make it there next week to pick up some Veganaise and other goodies, but it's nice to know I can eat vegan when I want to hit-up the "normal" store.

Spicy Vegetable Bean Soup via CrockPot

I love love love love love the CrockPot! Every time I use it, I think of those old rotiserrie chicken infomercials... SET IT- AND FORGET IT! ;) I can pile everything into the pot, turn it on high, and come back hours later to a delish dinner. I love this soup because I make it vegan in the pot, then add chicken to hungry hubby's bowl so it satisfies us both! Each time I make it, I tweak it a little depending on what veggies and beans I have on hand. Anything will work!

The goods:

• Carrots
• Sweet potato
• Red potato
• Onion
• Celery
• Broccoli
• Pinto beans
• Black beans
• Salsa - I used Pace Medium Picante Sauce
• A couple squirts of ketchup
• Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle seasoning
• H2izzO

Here's the progression:

The taters and carrots have to go in first because they need the most heat!

Next comes the onions, celery, and broc. Just for the record or for your own skeptical Hungry Hubby, the broccoli tastes SO good in this soup. HH always can't believe he enjoys eating broc in this soup!

Next comes the beans! You can use any you have in the pantry.

Add the salsa, ketchup, and seasoning. Yes, I know this looks disgusting, but I promise it tastes so good! After this, add water to the top of the pot and stir 'er up - being careful to leave the potatoes and carrots on the bottom.

Let it cook on high for 5 hours, or on low ALL day. And here's the finished product:

I add shredded chicken to HH's bowl, plus some jalapenos and chopped avocado on top. YUM!

Do you have any good vegan crockpot recipes?!? Please share!

A Weekend of Vegan-Eating and Shopping in the ATX!

Girls' Weekend in Austin, TX was a frickin' BLAST (not that there was ever any doubt that it wouldn't be)! And surprise, suprise... I ate vegan - even during 2:30am snackin'!!! (Hungry Hubby might have been a little skeptical about my willpower in that state, booya, I SHOWED YOU!)

Let's hit the food first. The lovely Lauren had pointed me in the direction of tons of Vegan joints in Austin (thanks girl!) but since I was with a bunch of non-Vegan girls, I decided to "go with the flow" and find Vegan options wherever we went.

We arrived at my girls' apartment around 7:30pm on Friday, had a few glasses of wine while applying za makeup (hey, I said I ATE Vegan, I didn't say I drank that way... ;), and then headed straight to TRUDY'S. YUMMMMMM! This was one of my favorite places to stop on my way downtown when I was an Austinite, so I was thrilled to be back. It was my first time at Trudy's in over 2 years. Here's how my dinner started:

A famously amazing Mexican Martini with some chips and salsa. (By the way, thank goodness tortilla chips are gluten-free! Can I get an amen!?!?)

Dinner was a side salad with cukes, mushrooms, and sprouts. It was DELISH, but I forgot to take a pictoral. I was having too much fun gabbing with my girls!!!

Brunch the next morning was Panera (we wanted something easy to grab and take back home to eat while we watched Sex and the City 2). Sidenote: SATC 2 was so utterly disappointing. It was sofreakingCHEEZY. The corny jokes were outta control.... who approved that script!??! Holla at me if you agree!

I had vegetable soup and a classic salad with basalmic + an apple I never ate.

Early dinner was at Kona Grill in the Domain on the patio, the weather was so gorgeous!

Some edamame followed by a vegetarian roll and some more vino.

Here were some of the late-night snacks I devoured nibbled on both nights:

Lightly-salted organic popcorn and hummus+carrots!

While I'm bummed I missed out on vegan soft-serve and other incredible Austin-only vegan eats, I'm proud of myself for navigating more mainstream menus.

Onto another highlight from the trip, hitting up the Domain! The Domain is an outdoor shopping mecca in North Austin. It has large department stores, lots of smaller stores, plus restaurants, ice cream, etc. It's such a nice area, and it has grown leaps and bounds since I lived in Austin. Now they have a Zara, and more importantly, a Forever 21. I am a loyal F21 shopper, but it is hit-and-miss. I can walk in there sometimes and come out empty-handed. Well Saturday in Austin, F21 was def a hit!! I scored lots of goodies:

Lots of great tunics and tops for work plus the little black corset dress I wore out on Saturday night. I have also been wanting a pair of nude heels forever, and while these aren't the best quality, I love the look and they were a steal at 17 bucks!

Here is a pic of the 4 of us on the town:

And here's a pic to show you what we're really like. ;))) And no, we really have no idea where we got those hats. I do remember swiping those glasses from a dude who thought they looked good on him... he was sadly mistaken.

I hope you all had wonderful weekends! Check back tomorrow for my vegan grocery haul and a recipe for spicy vegetable and bean soup with an easy adaptation for the hungry hubby in your life! ;)

What good vegan foods did you eat this weekend? Any good shopping finds?