Ingredients:
2 Tbs oil (coconut/almond/grapeseed/wtvr you have)
1 lb dates, remove the skin and pit using a sharp knife
½ lbs pecans or walnuts
½ cup cacao or hot chocolate cacao (dairy and sugar free)

Directions:
Chop up the pecans or walnuts; remove the skin from dates and remove the pit. In the food processor dump the dates, and a little bit of good oil (I used almond oil) to achieve smoothness and blend well.

Mix dates and walnuts, it’s going to be a sticky mixture so be sure to wash your hands often. In a flat dish put the cacao. Roll small balls with the date mixture between your two palms and dump into the cacao, move around until the little date balls are completely covered with cacao.

Store in covered a glass dish with parchment paper, keep refrigerated.

I assure you, this is the best vegan homemade candy you’ll ever eat.

Enjoy!

One fine evening a few summers ago my husband and I decided to take a road trip to Atlantic City, aside from being the biggest mistake of my life, I had a tummy ache that lasted 3 whole days. I never had Mac and Cheese before and always wanted to know how it tasted, so In AC I decided to try it at 2 o’clock in the morning, so sad…
That was the first and last time I ever had anything with so much dairy. Yesterday, on the other hand, I made my own dairy free Mac and Cheese just because I didn’t want to throw out my leftover pasta. The most expensive ingredient is the ingredient you throw out, so re-use your left over foods like pasta and rice by making something else out of it. Ingredients:
1 bag of cooked pasta (can use whole wheat if you want)
1 bag of vegetable stir-fry or fresh steamed vegs (I used broccoli stir fry)
1 bag of edamame pre-boiled with pasta (can skip if u really don’t have it)
1 cup of soy milk
2 ½ cups of any vegan cheese you want or have, I used Vegan mozzarella and Vegan cheddar (remember: Vegan = dairy, casein and whey free)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees; add all the ingredients into a mixing bowl, mix well and transfer into a glass, baking dish, bake with foil cover for 25 min, then uncover and bake for another 25 min.
Take little steps toward a healthier you, eliminate the enemy from your fridge, dairy is not necessary for survival.

Enjoy!

I love Italian food as much as the next person, but stopped eating pizza after one unfortunate event, but if I tell you what happened, then you’ll never eat pizza ever again…unless you make my vegan pizza

You need flour tortillas, tomato sauce (3 Tbs per tortilla) vegan cheese (¼ cup per tortilla) and dried parsley. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees, spread your tortillas on a baking sheet, spread tomato sauce and dried parsley on tortillas and add the cheese on top, bake for 3-5min or until cheese is nicely melted. Total calorie count 170 per serving which is one tortilla!!!

Erase evil from your body (evil=dairy)

Amazing!

I love my skin and do anything to keep it glowing and smooth. When my skin gets oily I feel as if I’m going to faint or fall asleep. I like when my face feels fresh, breathing yumminess into my clean pores. My obsession with LaPrairie is obvious at my house. There are LaPrairie products and samplers all over my bathroom and make up case (although I rarely touch my makeup). When I recently went to shop for my early birthday gift I obviously stopped by the LaPrairie counter to say hello to the girl who always helps me and see what’s new. She wasn’t there, but this didn’t keep me from buying some new products. One amazing exfoliating facial soap I found (can also be used for body) is Essential Exfoliator. I have been using it for the last week and I have to say, I love it! It’s totally a unisex product and works wonders on your skin. You should use it every other day, apply to skin and massage with your index and middle fingers for a minute or two or until the product is all spread over your face and possibly neck, then using silk cloth (you can use a silk scarf that you don’t wear anymore if you don’t have pure silk cloth) wash it off with warm water.

Another product we purchased is the Advanced Marine Biology Tonic, which you can apply after washing your face and your other half can apply to his face after shaving (and if you’re a guy reading this, well, good for you! You should take care of your skin!). It feels smooth and silky as if you don’t have anything on your face. It is especially a nice product if you’re like me and don’t like heavy creams on your skin. Check it out here Advanced Marine Biology Tonic . For other LaPrairie products I use check out my entry The-secret-is-out-la-prairie.

Ingredients:
 1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper 
1 orange bell pepper 
2 small carrots
¾ of small cabbage
salt, pepper, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbs apple cider vinegar
½ cup dried raisins and/or cranberries 
(red pepper flakes if you want to make it spicy)
Directions:
Cut all the ingredients in very thinly; add salt, pepper, oil, lemon juice and vinegar. Mix well, put in a dish, cover and refrigerate 1-2 hours before eating. Stays in the fridge for up to 5 days. You can cook this and serve with meat, fish, chicken and pasta! Be innovative, Enjoy!

Making healthy choices can be difficult especially if you’re working long hours and eating many outside meals. Food is our fuel and bad food choices can slow us down and make us energy ridden. My biggest challenge in life is avoiding sugar, sweets and carbohydrates. Growing up we ate a lot of sweets and bread; it was a part of our culture and eating habits. Now I feel as if my body needs this in order to get through the day, it might not be true, but I don’t know.

It is easy for me to gain weight and so I try to make healthy choices to maintain my current weight. One quick and easy step toward this is making salads with raw vegetables and fruits and eating throughout the day. If you work long hours and only home mainly on the weekends try to make eating fruits and vegetables throughout the weekend. Last year, when I worked, I used to pack fruits and veggies in little bags at night and take them to work, my co-workers made fun of my green pepper slivers and cucumber pieces, but I got my daily necessary fix.

Here’s a salad I love to make at least 5 times a week and each time I add something different to it in order to avoid blandness and repetition—after all who wants to eat the same thing over and over?

It’s a simple veggie salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce (sometimes), and your favorite herbs. I dress up my salad with feta cheese, or olives, or radish…sometimes I even add fruits to it! It’s all abut personalizing your food, and enjoying a healthy lifestyle!

Enjoy!

Day Three of being Vegan is fun, the best part is being aware of everything I eat. This means no sugar (since pastries and chocolate are made with eggs and milk) and no junk, even my junk food is healthy, and it’s all gluten, dairy and egg free. I usually shop for my “healthy” food at Whole Foods because my local supermarket does not have the products I eat. Shopping at Whole Foods means going to Manhattan since Brooklyn is a “special” place and does not deserve a healthy supermarket.

Yesterday, though, I met with my mom and asked her where I could buy Tofu since I have to eat some protein and she said ShopRite. You will not believe, and this might sound silly, that ShopRite has a huge selection of healthy foods, i never knew: gluten free, tofu, wheat free, egg free, dairy free, wide variety of breads, etc. I had no idea of such riches ShopRite has to offer, I always disliked that store since the one in Brooklyn is always over crowded and looks messy.  I found great stuff and spend lots of money, but did not dig deep enough for dairy free chocolate, that’s for next time. 

So, I cooked the Tofu today and truly it was very good.

Here’s my Vegan Recipe of the Day:

Tofu with Vegetables
Ingredients:
Grape-seed oil or olive-oil
1 medium size onion (chopped in cubes)
3 cloves of garlic (chopped in tiny cubes)
6 medium white button mushroom (chopped in cubes)
1 red or orange pepper (chopped in cubes)
1 zucchini (chopped in cubes)
½ carrot (chopped in cubes)
Tofu Organic 14oz package (drained and chopped in cubes)
Juice of ½ lemon, salt, pepper to taste

Directions:
Heat a deep nonstick pan with oil, sauté onions with a little salt, will help melt the onion faster and speed up the coking process, add the garlic and sauté for one min, add all the vegetables, mix well and cover for 5 minutes on medium heat. Add the tofu, salt and pepper, and lemon juice, give another stir, cover and let cook for 15 min or until the moisture is gone, stirring every 5-7 minutes. Serve with white rice.

Why I use lemon: we all know that a lot of salt is not good for us, and recently I realized I use too much of it, so now I use fresh lemon juice and very little salt when cooking vegetables. I like how it tastes and the food does not taste bland which otherwise would without enough salt, also lemon helps the vegetables keep their nice vibrant colors. 

One of my students is a vegetarian and has never eaten any meat products, but enjoys eggs and dairy. Yesterday I decided to be mean to him and told him it wasn’t hard to be a vegetarian since I was one myself for more than three years, plus eating eggs and dairy is cheating. He decided to be mean in return and has challenged me to become a vegan for one week. No dairy, no eggs, no meats and no milk chocolate. The challenge starts today and good luck to me. I’m not a big dairy and eggs person, I dislike chicken and beef and can live without fish, but chocolate I’m not sure about. This should be fun…

Here’s a Vegan recipe I’m enjoying today:

Lentils with Curry (Vegan)
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups dry lentils
2 tomatoes (or tomato paste and hot water)
1 medium onion
4 cloves of garlic
grape seed oil (good for cooking because its high heat resistant)
1 Tbs. curry
salt, pepper, cumin (to taste)

Directions:
Fill up a nonstick pan with cold water, add 1 ½ cups of lentil and boil for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, chop up the onion in small cubes and sauté in grape-seed oil. Mince the garlic and once the onions are ready add garlic in and sauté for 1 minute. Peel the tomatoes (leave in boiled water for 3-4 minutes for easy peel) and grate them very finely in a bowl. Add ¼ hot water, salt, pepper, pinch of cumin, and 1 table-spoon of curry (more or less depends how spicy you like your food) mix well and add into the onion and garlic mix. Drain the lentils (should be nice and soft but not mushy) and add into the tomato mixture. Give and good stir, cover the lid, and simmer on very low heat for 1 hour. Enjoy with buckwheat, rice or any other grain of your choice.