Vegan – Page 2 – Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic

Food March 12, 2015

6 Helpful Resources for Healthy Eating

healthy I’ve been a vegetarian since 6th grade, and I’ve been cooking my own meals for many of the last 16 years. I would have to use the word ‘cook’ very loosely, as I started off my veggie years by microwaving a couple of black bean burgers for dinner. Over time, I started to look for more exciting recipes to ‘change it up,’ as there are so many meals you can eat, you just need a little inspiration from time to time. I have a number of amazing recipe and cookbooks (some shared below), and have used the internet to find a number of recipes that we use regularly, including The Forest Feast and Oh She Glows.

Not only do I peruse food blogs for main courses, but I also use a number of sites to find healthy vegan desserts. As I’ve mentioned before, my friend Mara of Hook, Thread and Tinker bought me Rawsome Vegan Baking for Christmas, and I’ve tried almost 70% of the recipes so far. It is amazing. McKenzie recently bought me Deliciously Ella‘s new cookbook, which I’m so excited to dig into. Her website is amazing, and I’ve already tried and fallen in love with her Banana, Pumpkin Seed and Almond Granola Bars.

Today I’m sharing my favorite 6 websites for healthy recipes: The Forest Feast, Naturally Ella, Minimal Baker, Oh She Glows, Deliciously Ella and This Rawsome Vegan Life. Do you have other sites that you reference for recipes? Please share!

forestfeast2

1 The Forest Feast: My good friend, Brittany, recently bought me The Forest Feast cookbook for my birthday, and after oogling over it for ages, I’m so excited to own a copy. I love Erin’s website, filled with delicious recipes with categories like food, drinks, entertaining and traveling. Check out the website and buy a copy of the book!

Favorite recipe: Stuffed Sweet Peppers

Events February 12, 2015

Galentine’s Day

Last year, I participated in my very first ‘Galentine’s Day’ celebration. The hostess with the mostess, Christie of KiKiMac, had my friend, Danielle, and I over for a ‘crafternoon’ (see her post here and mine here). Last night, three other ladies and I went over to our sweet friend’s house for a night of ‘baking for our boys.’ It was seriously so much fun. I think all Valentine’s celebrations should happen with other females, as we get way more excited about the holiday than men do! But a romantic night with your man obviously cannot be replaced!

I brought over raw veggies and hummus, Chocolove bars, and some La Marca prosecco (our favorite), and the other ladies brought/made fruit, baked brie, red velvet cookies, vegan beet brownies, and sugar cookies which we spent the night decorating (this is not my calling in life, but it was a good laugh).

After cookie decorating, we moved to the craft table and made cards for our boys using all of the adorable supplies that Christina (of Christina Leigh Events) brought. I am seriously in love with her pink paper cutter! Mine is a terrible orange color, and I think I need an upgrade!

We had such a good night, and I am already looking forward to next year’s Galentine’s Day celebration. I’m convinced that all you need is delicious food, wine, baking and crafts… and of course, awesome friends.

Have you ever celebrated Valentine’s Day with your girl friends? If so, what did y’all do? Any recommendations for next year?

Events November 27, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all. It is one of my favorite days of the year. Sasha and I have done a ‘Tofurky Trot’ on Thanksgiving morning for the past two years (in lieu of the more popular and very busy Turkey Trot). We go to Memorial Park and run the trails there with Belle, and this year, Isla. We’re excited to spread this tradition to our newest family member who will one day run with us! We will head to my parents house around 11am, where we’ll eat with my family, plus Sasha’s sister and her boyfriend. There will be lots of food and tons of games.

Food November 18, 2014

Healthy Raw Vegan Mini-Cheesecakes

I’ve been searching for healthy vegan cheesecake recipes on Google for ages, and I kept finding ‘healthy’ recipes that include tons and tons of maple syrup or sugar, which, in my books, isn’t healthy. I also found a number of recipes that involve freezing the cheesecakes (which qualifies them as being raw), but I think frozen desserts to have less taste than that of warm or room-temperature ones.

Given that I could not find my perfect healthy vegan recipe online, I decided to do some experimenting and oh-my-goodness, y’all… I love these cheesecakes so much. They may not be low fat (think quite a bit of nuts), but they are low-carb!

Sasha and I demolished these over the weekend – our favorite toppings were raspberry jam (we love Bonne Maman Raspberry Preserves) and just plain raspberries. As explained below, I mistakenly tried adding the toppings after they had already set, which should be avoided (although they still tasted amazing).

Food November 4, 2014

Vegan Everything Bar

If you live in Houston and haven’t tried Sinfull Bakery, you are truly missing out. I first tried their delicious treats at Catalina Coffee, when I grabbed a vegan Everything Bar while checking out. i intended to eat only half at first, but on that specific day, I learned a very important lesson: It is impossible to only eat half of an Everything Bar.

Last weekend, Isla and I ran into Catalina while Sasha was at Martin’s Tailors (best in Houston!) getting new pants hemmed. Recognizing the fact that I could not get a coffee without reaching for the Sinfull treat, I grabbed a bar and decided that I would share it with Sasha (ha, well he ended up getting 1/6th). I looked at the ingredients on the back – all healthy, but some ingredients that I avoid from day-to-day, like flour and brown sugar. After church on Sunday, I thought to myself, ‘Why don’t I make an everything bar?’ After all, these desserts are supposed to be just a gathering of lots of healthy ingredients from one’s pantry.

Alas, my everything bar recipe. This first attempt included a lot of: ‘Oh, that needs some salt…’ and ‘Yikes, too dry… needs coconut oil.’ Once they came out the oven, Sasha and I couldn’t keep our hands off them. I’m pretty darn proud of this Ailee-invented-Everything-Bar (as always, vegan and gluten and refined-sugar free). Please try it at home and let me know how it goes!