I’ve finished my first full week of the Challenge! Truth be told it wasn’t too hard, since I started the vegan lifestyle a month prior, but what did prove to be challenging this week was our schedule. We are usually a family that eats dinner together every night, and this last week was crazy, requiring us to eat on the run for dinner quite a bit. Read more…
This naturally sweetened, high-protein, antioxidant-rich granola recipe is super easy to make and can be enjoyed for breakfast or as a snack. It is a nutritious food to take with you when you travel too. It can be prepared 100% gluten-free if you purchase gluten-free oats and make sure that a few other ingredients listed below are gluten-free. Add your own flair with different seasonings, fruit and nuts. Just share what you come up with! Read more…
I’m so excited to get started here on YumUniverse. This challenge is proving to be just what I needed to take my clean eating up a notch. While most people were gaining weight over the holidays, I took on a green smoothie challenge (I modified the challenge a bit because I’m still breastfeeding, read about the mods here), and actually managed to lose weight between Thanksgiving and Christmas…the first time *ever* in my life that I can say that, and it felt awesome. Read more…
This creamy, gluten-free and dairy-free Macaroni & Cheese recipe is first from the YumUniverse video series, YU REMIX—where my favorite, and your favorite, recipes get REMIXed into impossibly delicious plant-based options. Bring on your cheesy lasagnas and egg-dipped french toasts. My goal is to transform the ingredients into the taste that you love with the nutrition that your body craves.
©Melissa Zihlman Photography
I am very excited to introduce to YU, Melissa Zihlman, our recent YU+Me=Clean Challenge contest winner. Melissa won by a landslide, and it is no doubt due to her dedication and enthusiasm for maintaining her new vegan lifestyle. Read more…
Want Santa to stop off at your house first? I have the secret—leave him a plate of these crunchy yet chewy gluten-free, vegan Ginger Molasses Ice Cream Sandwich cookies inspired by this post from Alicia at Bread & Honey. I made a few adjustments to the original recipe like replacing sugar with sucanat and coconut palm sugar, getting some protein in the mix with almond flour and gluten-free flour, and replacing soy milk with coconut milk. All in all, I was very happy with the results. I know I will make Santa proud. Read more…
For a while now I have been fairly disappointed in the quality of raw snacks available in stores. Too often, I find myself getting tricked by cute packaging or enticing flavor combos. Cocoa Mole? BBQ? Thai Curry? Yes, please! I’ll spend the $10 per bag hoping that it is going to be a new trusted travel, office or roadtrip snack for those times when I cannot make it myself. But, I have to side with the skeptics on this one, in that most of this stuff, sadly, does taste like tree bark. Of course, I wish this wasn’t the case, but I have to be honest. There is a lot of room for improvement. Raw snacks should be just as delicious, if not more so, than the non-raw snacks in the grocery aisles. Uncle Joe, who loves him some BBQ ribs, should love raw snacks as much as your hippie cousin. Good snacks are good snacks, period. Read more…
I made up a version of this cereal on a weekend trip with my girlfriends this summer. It was a hit with them, and reminiscing about good times last week, I realized I should share it with YU—just amped up with amaranth, raw pecans and dried organic cherries this time. This cereal tastes a lot like buttery cinnamon toast, which reminds me of my grandmother, which is why I chose her vintage bowl for this shot. Now, if only I could find the fun green cinnamon/sugar shakers that she used to have around for us… Read more…
I was recently visiting family in Maryland and came up with a fun food project to do with the kids. I partnered up with my little sister, Gabriella, and little brother, Lincoln, to make spinach and dairy-free cheese filled ravioli out of wonton wrappers for dinner. Super easy and fun. Read more…
