Original:
What a Whopper!
Chipotle-Lime Sweet Potato Soup and Corn Fritters
It’s time for some sweet southern soul food! Simple, easy, spicy, low-fat, and vegan, this recipe will have all y’all comin’ back for more. It’s the perfect transition to go raw, my family ate it up!
Sweet Potato Chipotle Lime Soup
Ingredients:
- 4-5 baked sweet potatoes
- 1/2 cup coconut milk (or other non-dairy milk, rice milk is an even lower fat option)
- 1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
- 1 tsp chipotle powder
- lime juice (to taste, I used 1 whole lime worth)
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast (nooch)
- Optional: orange zest, salt and pepper
Directions:
- Bake sweet potatoes until soft
- Combine ingredients in blender and blend until desired consistency
- Add into a pot and heat
- Stuff your grateful face
Low-fat Vegan Corn Fritters
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup chives
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 cups frozen organic corn
- 1 shallot
- 1/2 cup brown rice flower
- 1/2 cup corn meal, stone-ground
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- Salt and pepper
Directions:
- Dice chives, shallots, and garlic and let the corn thaw
- Add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl
- Slowly add coconut milk or water until there is a paste like consistency
- Heat a pan coated with an extremely thin layer of oil
- Add your mix, cook and flip
- As always, stuff your grateful face!
Option: make the two recipes together and dip the corn fritters in the soup. You will not regret it!
Banana Mamey Pudding
Mamey (pronounced mah – may) is similar to an avocados texture, but tastes like dates, persimmons, and pumpkins all in one. This is a fantastic recipe for a raw vegan pudding and has only 2 ingredients. All you have to do is take half a large, ripe mamey and blend it on a low setting with 6-7 ripe bananas. If you want to spice it up a bit, you can add in some cinnamon. ENJOY!
Dr. McDougall on Diabetes
28 Documentaries to Change Your Health and Conciousness
1) Forks over Knives
2) Earthings
3) Vegucated
4) Food Inc
5) Food Matters
6) The Ghost in Our Machine
7) Hungry for Change
8) Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death
9) Blackfish
10) Simply Raw Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days
11) The Beautiful Truth
12) A Connected Life
13) Making the Connection
14) The Beautiful Truth
15) The Gerson Miracle
16) The Cove
17) Fat Sick and Nearly Dead
18) Peaceable Kingdom
19) Gary Yourofsky
20) Meet Your Meat
21) Holocaust on a Conveyor Belt
22) Speciesism: The Movie
23) A River of Waste
24) More Than Honey
25) Death on a Factory Farm
26) Behind the Mask
27) Animals Should Be Off The Menu: The St James Ethics & Wheeler Centre
28) Meat the Truth
It’s workout time! Workout Plan week 1 & 2
I recently started a new workout and wanted to share it for any of you looking for a new program. This program is from my fantastic personal trainer who I see twice per month when she gives me my next workout and walks me through the exercises. I keep myself accountable doing the workout three times per week. I also run/cycle three times a week and do yoga twice or more a week. Some weeks I take two days off, but generally only one.
This is the first two weeks’ exercises. All of these exercises can be done at home with minimal equipment. It’s awesome how quickly I started to see improvements. By the end of week two I was finishing the whole loop in 34 minutes (the first time it took me almost an hour).
Tips:
- Do this three times per week
- Walk around when you need a break, don’t bend over or stop
- Try to move quickly between exercises, keeping your heart rate up
- Drink water in between sets and a ton of water after the workout
- Eat lots of bananas, alongside water, this will help soreness be a minimum
Warmup (4-7 minutes)- jog in place, jumping jacks, side to side hops (one foot), high knees (30 seconds each, repeat)
Set 1
- 25 Burpees with jump at top, no pushup
- 25 “x” press with weights in hands (with feet slightly wider than the shoulders, squat, touch the floor with your hands, then extend back up and straighten your arms diagonally upwards to make an “x” with your body)
- 25 plyo jacks with hands to floor (Begin with feet together and jump up, taking feet out to the side, landing in a low squat. Jump up and bring feet back together. Swing your arms overhead to add intensity.)
- 25 lateral hops landing in curtsy squat
- 25 wide pushups
- 25 side planks (each side)
Set 2
- 20 burpees with pushups
- 20 “x” press with weights
- 20 hands to the floor wide leg squats
- 20 lateral gliding curtsy squat (stand on hand towels on a smooth surface and use them to glide your foot back into your squat)
- 20 wide traveling pushups side to side
- 20 thread the needle side planks
Set 3
- 15 gliding burpees – stand on hand towels on smooth surface and complete the burpees with sliding rather than jumping
- 15 clean and press with weights – feet hip width apart, squat with hand weights to the floor, extend up doing a clean at shoulder height, then pres the weights overhead
- 15 ab getup – laying on your back, hold weight with both hands and extend overhead, above your bellybutton. Then situp, slightly lifting the weight at the top of the situp
- 15 lateral hops
- 15 wide pushup pumps/15 quick tricep pumps
- 8 thread the needle side planks with weight in top hand, each side
Set 4
- 10 gliding burpees
- 10 clean and press with weights
- 10 lunge jumps
- 10 side hops with knees in front
- 10 walking side pushups (5 right/5 left)
- 8 thread the needle side planks, each side
Set 5
- 5 gliding burpees
- 5 clean and press with weights
- 5 lunge jumps
- 5 side hops with knees in front
- 5 wide pushups
- 5 thread the needle side planks, each side
If you have any questions, please leave a comment or send me an email (kelly.ann.caldwell@gmail.com). Thank you for reading. For email notifications of new postings, please click the “follow” button at the bottom right and corner of the page. For exclusive tips and tricks on health and lifestyle, sign up for our email list on the page titled “Free Updates!” in the upper right hand corner.
I will post exercises for the next 2 weeks soon!
Are these shoes vegan?
Saturday, I found myself inside a real crisis of conscience. My brother was getting confirmed the next day, so I had to go to church, and therefore, dress appropriately. The dress I had, but no shoes to match. My mom suggested we go to the mall and offered to buy the shoes for me! Hooray for having an amazingly awesome mom who is also able and willing to buy me a new pair of shoes! While I am moving towards a more minimalistic lifestyle, I realize there are certain standards for specific events in society, and would like to respect that, especially in a place of worship. While I could go mismatched (the eco-friendly way to go), I also don’t want to look like I dressed myself in the dark.
So my mom and aunt came and picked me up at my apartment and promptly went through my closet to pick out a dress. There were three options: the first one, too short; the second, valid; and the third, well played. Once we had an idea of what might work, we headed towards the incandescent lights of migraine, also known as a department store in the mall. I actually let them do the shopping, because I was pretty under-carbed and crabby that day. I was so “in my own head” I started trying shoes on without a second thought. I picked out a couple pairs, and then it dawned on me… “these are leather, these are suede…” DAMNIT!
The footage of leather creation in Earthlings started reeling in my head. The cows are starved, dying and can barely walk into slaughter. They are pushed, punched, stabbed, and yelled at until their gruesome demise. I almost started crying with the shoes still on. First of all, because my heart was breaking again for the animals that gave their lives to become shoes for humans, and second, because those shoes were sexy as hell. I cannot deny that there is still a part of me that enjoys fashion, looking good, and feeling a part of society. Meanwhile, during this cognitive dissonance, I was reminding myself that the clothing industry is one of the most waste producing industries that exists. Which takes me further into the rabbit hole of excuses, thinking, “well I do a good job of giving old clothes away to people in need when I get new clothes…”
My mom bought the suede shoes for me and told me just to think about it and said we could return them the next day. She could tell part of me really wanted them, but I was really struggling to make a decision. When I was sitting at home Saturday night, writing this blog, still halfway stuck societal values, yet I was also beating myself up for thinking this was even a decision for me. I ended up wearing shoes I already had and a different dress to match. I returned the suede to my mom and she took them back to the mall. Crisis averted.
HOT VEGAN HEELS COMING UP!
These are from http://us.asos.com/ and are completely vegan! I will compile a list of the best vegan shoe selection for all you fashion junkie, ethical people out there.
For me, minimalism is not just about having few possessions, but also, when you do buy something, invest in quality. Buy stuff that will last a long time, make sure you LOVE the look, and it will have multiple uses. With clothing, buy things that can interchange and are long lasting materials. That way you can look the part, have a small, but versatile wardrobe, and feel comfortable in the effort you are making to help save the planet and animals, as well as lower your attachment to physical items.
Thank you for reading. For email notifications of new postings, please click the “follow” button at the bottom right and corner of the page. For exclusive tips and tricks on health and lifestyle, sign up for our email list on the page titled “Free Updates!” in the upper right hand corner.
Up next: badvertising strikes again!
Raw 80/10/10 Strawberry Slushy
It’s getting hot outside and this syrupy sweet treat is just the refreshment you need. All you have to do is add sugar, strawberries, ice and water to your blender, pulse until the desired smoothness and stuff your grateful face!
While driving through North Carolina I was passing roadside stands for fresh produce and kept seeing the signs for strawberries. What fruitarian isn’t going to make at least one pit stop?! I walked up, saw the big gallon buckets, grabbed one and walked to the counter. The sweet, gritty old man in blue jean overalls looks up at me with a grin and tells me to try one. I melt into a sweet, succulent, strawberry, sugar retreat. I promptly turned around and grabbed another bucket! Check out how deliciously red these are:
For a couple meals I had strawberries, sugar, water, and ice. This is such a tasty treat and great for detoxing. Having just one ingredient per meal is known as a monomeal. Monomeals can be extremely helpful in detox and streamlining digestion. If your body is only breaking down one thing, it becomes very efficient. This is why any mono-island (like previously shown, banana island) works so well. Strawberries, in particular, are rich in nutrients, fiber, and antioxidants, but not very high calorically so to get your calories, you have to really pack them in.
Fun tip: Leave the green tops on for extra nutrient boost!
You can also freeze them and make a sorbet, or freeze already blended mixture into a frozen strawberry gelato!
Take your slushy to the pool or park and enjoy in the sunlight!
Thank you for reading. For email notifications of new postings, please click the “follow” button at the bottom right and corner of the page. For exclusive tips and tricks on health and lifestyle, sign up for our email list on the page titled “Free Updates!” in the upper right hand corner or below this post.
Up next: badvertising strikes again!
Raw Till 4 Paella!
Buenos días mi amor! So, you love Spanish Cuisine? Are you absolutely pumped about paella?! I am! And I have made it low-sodium, low-fat, and carbed up for all you crazy high carb cats out there. This dish is sure to make your taste buds scream, ARRIBA!
My dad is famous for his paella and he loves eating it too! He has been moving slowly towards a vegan lifestyle , but he struggles with how to cook without oil. So, I offered to make this tasty treat as a birthday dinner for him with no oil, and very low sodium. Traditional paella is typically done with seafood, lots of olive oil, and chicken stock, but we used none of those things in this dish and it still has a very traditional aroma and taste.
First you will need:
- onion
- garlic
- bell peppers
- saffron
- paella rice (any rice will work if you can’t find the traditional stuff)
- canned crushed tomatoes
- any other veggies you would like to add (we used okra, mushrooms, peas, corn)
- low-sodium veggie stock
Chop up all your veggies to prepare.
Then in a paella pan, iron skillet, or stovetop pan, add in your onions and get them going on medium heat. Add in a little low sodium veggie stock to sauté them in. When cooking with no oil, a good technique is to always cook onions and mushrooms first as they will release their own juices (but you can always add in some low sodium stock or water if it starts to stick). Cook the onions for 2-3 minutes and add in your mushrooms (optional), garlic, crushed tomatoes (with juice), and some low sodium veggie stock. Bring this to a heat where the liquid starts to evaporate off of it.
While it’s cooking down, heat up some veggie stock in a pot and add in some saffron sprigs. Take it off heat after it comes to a boil. Once the tomatoes and broth have cooked down and becomes condensed/translucent, add the saffron infused veggie stock. Then add your rice. Make sure the rice is patted down and surrounded by liquid (you can add water if it needs more liquid). After it has cooked for ten minutes, add your chopped veggies on top. Let it cook for another (approximately) 30 minutes or until the rice is fully cooked. If you are using a paella pan, be very careful when the rice starts to pop and crack. You can get the crispy bottom just as if you used oil, but this is the part that can be easy to burn. Ours turned out perfectly. What we did: as soon as we heard the popping and cracking noises, turned down the heat to low, and took it off about 4 minutes after. You will be left with a beautiful, delicious, and colorful creation!
Thank you for reading. For email notifications of new postings, please click the “follow” button at the bottom right and corner of the page. For exclusive tips and tricks on health and lifestyle, sign up for our email list on the page titled “Free Updates!” in the upper right hand corner.
Up next: my love affair with strawberries and how to make a sweet, succulent, strawberry slushy!
BAdvertising
BAdvertising is a new category I am creating. I got my degree in Advertising, so I have a love/hate relationship with watching ads. With a large majority of ads, I have a problem with what they are selling, not to mention bad creative, so I’m going to talk about it here, and maybe re-write some headlines so that they are more truthful. I also can see why they are using specific word choices to legally fit. For instance, if you use a grandiose, yet illusive term like “Fantastic” or “Delicious” it doesn’t have to be proven, whereas if you say “Best” you must have some kind of testing to prove it really is better than all the other brands. Anyways, calling it like I see it…
24 ways to have a burger, one million reasons not to eat them…
Got milk?
Taco Hell
real talk:
