KnittingOpera

AKA 5 ways to make the vegan transition easier. So, you have decided to go vegan for New Years and you have no idea what to do? Or you are a little intimidated by thousands of #smoothiebowl pics on Instagram? Here are some ways to make the vegan transition simple and stress free: 1. Eat foods you normally eat, just leave out the animal products. If you eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast every day, a sandwich for lunch, and a microwave dinner every evening, don't try all new recipes every meal every day. That's really exhausting and time consuming. Just switch out dairy milk with soy/ almond/ coconut milk, make a hummus and veggie sandwich instead of ham and cheese, and get an Amy's Kitchen tofu Pad Thai dinner instead of PF Chang's. If you always eat certain things, stick to things you like. If you want to try new recipes, that's great! But only do one or  two new foods per week. Otherwise it can get overwhelming. 2. Don't go crazy with the vegan...

Hello everyone! It's almost Christmas and then comes that time of year again: New Years Resolutions!!! I've decided that this is the year I'm going to simplify and downsize my life. Over the past few years I've lost about 90 lbs (hurrah!) and as a result my clothes no longer fit. I've been slowly going through my closet and giving away the nice clothes and turning the hole-filled ones into rags. But recently I realized I need to go through more than just my clothing. I was going through my food-stash (what I call my vegan section of the family pantry) and I realized that I have a ton of food I really need to eat before it expires and a lot of duplicate items (I guess I went overboard with hurricane preparations this year). So, starting this January, I'm going to try "shopping my pantry" AKA not buying stuff at the store unless I really really really need it. I've given myself a food budget for the month of $60 to cover the cost of fresh f...

Coconut Curry Rice! Hello everyone! Long time no post, I know! It has been a super crazy fall and the year is startlingly almost over. I have a super crazy week coming up, and I'm currently under the weather, so I decided to do some cooking since I didn't want to go out in the rain. I had some coconut milk I needed to use in the fridge, I've been craving curry, and I needed to use up some things in the freezer, so I decided to meal prep for this week since I'm going to be super busy. This is the end result! Ingredients: 1 tbsp olive oil 1/2 large white onion 1 cup frozen peas 1 cup frozen corn 1 can bamboo shoots 1 package of extra firm tofu, diced 3 green onions 1 cup coconut milk 2 @edwardandsons curry cubes 2 cups dry basmati rice Garlic powder to taste Salt to taste Directions: I basically cooked the onions in olive oil, threw everything else into the pot with a bunch of water, brought it to a boil, then simmered for 20 minutes. Really super ea...

As you may know by now, I love singing. After three years, and a whole bunch of planning and rehearsals, I'm finally giving a recital!     Come enjoy and evening of sacred song featuring Marjorie Polchow (Soprano),  George Vladimir Șerban (Violin), Carolyn Elizabeth D. Șerban (Soprano), Max Welch (Alto & Piano), Yana Obolenska Moran (Piano), Carolyn Parmenter (Soprano), and Benjie Branson (Organ). This concert will focus on the story of Jesus and the emotions evoked throughout the history of the church in various musical styles and reaching across centuries and oceans.   Selections included from Handel's Messiah,  "Laudamus Te" from Vivaldi's Gloria, "Pie Jesu" from Fauré's Requiem, "The Crucifixion" from Barber's Hermit Songs, "Deep River", "The Lord's Prayer", and much more!   Saturday November 4th at 4 o'clock at Christ Episcopal Church in Covington, Louisiana   I would love to see...

I was craving hummus today (when am I not?) but we didn't have any in the fridge. We also didn't have any chickpeas. But we had four cans of black beans. This was my first time making black bean hummus and I think it turned out really well. It's just spicy enough to be interesting and has a nice depth to it from the sesame seeds. Ingredients 1 can organic black beans 2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 3/4 tsp cumin 1/4 tsp onion powder 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/4 lime squeezed 1/2 tsp salt Directions 1. Dump sesame seeds into a food processor and pulse. (I just ground the seeds finely, but you could continue until it makes a paste... that could take a while). 2. Add the rest of the ingredients (I used all the liquid from my can of black beans, but if you want thicker hummus, don't use all of it) and pulse until it is smooth. 3. Serve! This makes enough for four decent sized servings, or two large servings. I ate some of mine on rice cakes wit...

Hey everyone! I've been working on this post now for several months, so hopefully you will enjoy it. This is going to be more of a rambling post than a well plotted out recipe. I've had many people ask me on my Instagram about my diet and whether I follow a specific program and what works for me. I've tried several different diets over the course of my vegan journey, so I'll tell you a bit about each, the pros and cons, and what I'm doing now. 1. Junk Food Vegan When I first went vegan (for real, not the first attempts that failed), I basically substituted tofu, beans, and mock meats into the meals I was already eating. I was eating tons of pasta, oils, popcorn, ramen, ice cream, cookies, et cetera... Not so many fruits and vegetables. I was eating tons of food because I had seen so many people saying that you had to eat more as a vegan to get all your nutrients. I was eating way too much fat in my diet, and I could tell because my skin was really oily. I was h...

Pumpkin spice peanut oatmeal protein bars Someone asked me to post my recipe. I used pumpkin spice flavored peanut butter, but you could easily add your own pumpkin spice mix to this recipe for easy flavoring. Ingredients 1/2 cup peanut butter 3 cups oats 4 tbsp bee free honey 84 grams soy protein isolate 1/2 cup water Directions Mix everything into a bowl until completely distributed. Pack into a wax paper/parchment paper lined container (I did a larger container to make thinner bars) and cut them into as many bars as you want. I did about 18 thin bars to use as snacks that are about 120 calories each. You could make thicker or larger sized bars as a meal replacement. You can freeze them for 15 minutes before cutting to help them firm up. Wrap in parchment paper and freeze for several months or refrigerate for a few weeks. I love these because of the nice soft chewy texture and the lovely flavor mixtures.

Comfort food is something I tend to make a lot, especially foods that resemble favorites from my childhood. This was a Happy Accident that tasted amazing, so I thought I would share it with you! It is reminiscent of hamburger helper, but obviously vegan and slightly more healthy! *It is important to note that culinary coconut milk is much thicker and higher in fat content than regular coconut milk for drinking. If you try to use the thinner version, it will taste different and be a runny sauce.* Ingredients: 1 box of spinach rotini pasta 3-4 cups of frozen broccoli 2/3-1 cup of So Delicious Dairy Free culinary coconut milk 1 1/2 cups of Gardein Ultimate Beefless Ground 1/4 cup nutritional yeast 2 cubes of Edward and Sons Not-beef broth and seasoning Water Directions: 1. Cook pasta as indicated by packaging directions. 2. In a separate large pan combine broccoli, beefless ground, culinary coconut milk, and water. Stir until un-clumped and defrosted. 3. Add s...

I think I may have perfected my vegan "egg salad" recipe! Ingredients 1 block of firm or extra firm tofu 1/4 cup Just Mayo (or other vegan mayonnaise) 2 tbsp yellow mustard 1/4-1/2 cup diced white onion 1-2 dill pickles diced (or 1-2 tbsp sweet pickle relish if you like sweet pickles) Salt Pepper Mash up the tofu and mix together all the ingredients until they are thoroughly mixed. It tastes best if it is let to sit in the fridge for several hours to give the flavors time to meld. Serve on bread, rice cakes, with pita chips... However you most enjoy your "egg" salad! Makes four servings If you like this recipe, check out my Instagram where you can see my daily food posts! @knittingopera

Hot Pot inspired Vegan Noodle Soup Recently one of my friends has been home visiting from China. One of the foods she now swears by is the Hot Pot. But making a vegan hotpot would be rather difficult (we did it before, but it's apparently not as exciting, lol) so I just made a soup inspired by the flavors we used when we previously made a vegan hot pot. Six cups water 2 seasoning packets/bullion cubes/broth powder/however you make broth 1 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp Bragg's liquid aminos 1 tbsp chili oil 1 tbsp sesame oil 1 tbsp mirin 2 large carrots diced 10 large sauteed Brussels sprouts (these were precooked) 3-4 oz tofu cubed 1/4 cup textured vegetable protein 1/2 package of dry thin spaghetti broken in half I literally just dumped it all in a pot and boiled it until the noodles were soft. I added the oils about 5 minutes before serving. I used about 8 times less oil than my friend did and the taste was about the same. She used Sichuan peppers in hers, but I...