Delectable You

"WHOOPS! HOW TO ACCIDENTALLY GO PLANT-BASED PALEO (ON PURPOSE).WITH LAUREN LOBLEY"

Do I have your attention now? Well that headline, sure stole my attention. As an avid paleo-eater gone plant based, I HAD to hear what Lauren Lobley had to say. When I tuned into my weekly @partyinmyplants podcast, and found this episode with Lauren Lobley, I dove in with both feet. 

Lobley is a rockstar and inspiration to me, not just for her cooking innovations, but for her courageousness to break the mold of being labeled as "Vegan" or "Paleo". She says, I am who I am, I care about my health and the health of others, call me what you will. So she leaned into it and calls herself a Plant-Based-Paleo. This may seem simple, but if you are paleo, you can't really imagine sticking to it and not eating meat. In fact, there is a 21-Day Sugar Detox program, that is mostly paleo, which I did as a jump-start to my year, months before going plant-based. When the year was coming to an end, I emailed the Sugar Detox team and said, I am now plant based, would I still be able to follow the program and/or does the creater give meat alternatives? Their answer, "no". No? really? I couldn't really accept that. Plants are generally sugar free, beans and nuts are allowed on the program, yet the program doesn't even give a plant based option? When I found Accidental Paleo, I immediately thought, this is how you'd stay plant based and sugar free. #GetOnMyLevel

Lobley's cookbook is called the Accidental Paleo, some recipes are also found on her website. What I found and LOVE about Lobley's recipes are that they are 100% plant based. She uses ALL plants and when she uses eggs, she gives you vegan alternatives. 

She does not take the easy way out by using soy products like tempeh or tofu. She even has dairy replacements, she doesn't use vegan cheese, which can often be highly processed with fillers, she gives you No-Cheese recipes. The recipes come out tasting so FRESH.

Here's my faves so far:

Vegan Mushroom Walnut Bolognese

Sweet Potato Chickpea Burgers

Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Avocado Pudding

Hope This Helps!

Turnip the Beet and Jam!

Cafe Diem

Café Diem

This post is short and sweet, just like Kristen Bell. (Don't hate on my KBell love.)

I found Café Diem by my Maps app on my iPhone. I did a search for café’s in the area, and found Café Diem. Café Diem started as a food truck in the summers, and has now acquired store front space as well in a local market, Wallach Farms. They literally have a little deli-counter type section of Wallach Farms.

For food options, they have smoothies, smoothie bowls, salads, wraps, and sweets. If I was headed to work and had to buy lunch, this would be a great option to stop and pick up a pre-made Salad or wrap (especially since they open nice and early, 7am), but while their menu choices sound alluring, I find that I can recreate them in my own home for less cost. What I do find worth it is the vegan sweet treats! Blondie's and magic bars and muffins, oh my!

Hope this helps!

Turnip the Beet and Jam!!

Field Burger

"Hol, Have you had a Field Burger? Oh my God, I've been vegetarian for 21 years and I thought I was eating ground beef. Its seriously the first time in 21 years that I felt like I was actually eating a hambuger."

This is an actual conversation I had with my best gal pal and 21 year vegetarian.

 I stumbled upon the Field Burger at my local health food store, Natures Nutrition. I believe they are also sold at Whole Foods. A little on the pricier side, but as a non-meat, non-soy, non-frozen burger alternative, I found them 100% worth the cost. 

It was so good, my girl is totally right, it felt like a real hamburger. Pictured below, I had the burger on Ezekiel bread with arugula, avocado, a red pepper, and Franks hot sauce. Delicious.

Hope this helps!

Turnip the Beet and Jam!

Herbivore

Fast Breaking at its Best!

Vegan Breakfast... that can really be a struggle if you are carb/grain conscious as well as vegan. 

What are the most common breakfast food readily available? 

Eggs and bacon, omelets, pancakes, waffles, bagels, muffins, must I go on? Meat, bread, and sugar. Who wants to start their day like that? You will be fatigued and ready to crawl back in bed before you even get to work. 

Sure you can find vegan recipes for protein pancakes, but the two gem's I'm about to share with you will have you consuming plants, feeling light and energetic, and ready to face your day!

Chia Seed Pudding and Apple Lemon Compote

This simple Party In My Plants: Chia Seed Pudding recipe takes just a few minutes in the evening and few minutes in the morning and you are good to go and hit the road.

My 2 favorite Chia Seed Pudding combos are Chocolate, PB, Banana or Berry Granola. Both modifications of the PIMP Recipe linked above. 

Chocolate, PB, Banana (pictured left) is chocolate chia seed pudding made over night, then in the am topped with nut butter, and sliced bananas. I have turned many a coworker to this breakfast option with the allure of PB and Chocolate 😉

Berry and Granola, is just that. Chia Seed Pudding set over night, topped with mixed berries and granola in the am. Can it get any easier!?!



My other fav go to, the Apple-Lemon Breakfast Bowl by Forks Over Knives. This recipe is really so easy. You literally combine all ingredients in a blender, blend, and enjoy. I like to blend my apple and lemon until its an apple sauce constancy. Then I like to leave my dates, cashews, and cinnamon a little chunky so the bowl is more of a chunky, chewy bowl rather than an saucy, liquidy consistency. That's just me though. And regardless of the consistency, its delicious either way.

Again, if you're like me, and you struggle with a healthy start to your day, try these two bad boys on for size.

Hope this helps,
Turnip the Beet and Jam!

Seed to sprout.

Seed to sprout is the anatomy of what all vegan/vegetarian's are looking for in a restaurant. lots of variety, all fresh ingredients which means there are always new menu items based on the season and availability of produce. Everything I've ever had is delicious, light, and satisfying. The best thing about a place like this, is that no matter what you are ordering on the menu, you know its not only plant based, but also, clean ingredients.

They say it best, “WE STRIVE TO PROVIDE YOU WITH THE MOST NOURISHING AND DELICIOUS FOOD WE POSSIBLY CAN. THAT IS WHY EVERYTHING WE SERVE AT SEED TO SPROUT IS MADE WITH WHOLE FOODS, ORGANIC INGREDIENTS, PURCHASED LOCALLY WHENEVER POSSIBLE. IF WE DO NOT MAKE IT FROM SCRATCH OURSELVES, WE SOURCE THE HIGHEST QUALITY PRODUCT POSSIBLE MADE FROM THE PUREST INGREDIENTS. OUR FOOD IS 100% VEGAN AND PRESERVATIVE FREE SO THAT YOU LEAVE FEELING NOURISHED FROM THE INSIDE OUT"

They are also always looking for fun ways to get interactive. They do cooking classes, Pizza Nights, Bakery items, Cleanses, I mean, what else could we want!?! coffee...i could always go for a coffee. Well, if your there for brunch, they've got that too!! Organic fair trade coffee is always available during brunch.And always yummmmm!

 

For as much as we'd love to come to StS everyday all day, they specialize in brunch/lunch, so they are open at their two locations, Fair Haven and Avon By the Sea, everyday 9am-3pm and 5pm-9pm on Thursday and Friday's for dinner.

Being in Ocean County, I'm not super close to Fair Haven or Avon, and with hours 9-3, its definitely just a weekend spot for me and my veg gal pals, and that's probably good for my wallet :) 


Anywho, if you can't tell, I love this place. Two large thumbs ups!

Hope this helps,
Turnip the Beet and Jam!

Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee

Mushroom coffee. 

As I have mentioned in previous blog posts. I am a BIG coffee fan to say the least. I actually spotted this, Four Sigmatic brand mushroom coffee at Whole Foods, but when they went to ring me up, the cashier literally said to me, "um this is $14 dollars, are you sure you want this?" and as an impulse item, I passed it up. But then I was listening to the Party in My Plants podcast and Four Sigmatic was sponsoring the episode. 

They advertised that the coffee with Lions Mane and Chaga is supposed to support productivity, focus, and creativity. I decided to try it again, it is pretty expensive, its $14 for 8 packets, so just under $2.00 a cup of coffee if you want to think of it that way. but I can absolutely say, I did not feel any more productive, focused, or creative and with the cost, I can't have the "try it for a few weeks" mentality. 1 cup a day for 8 days should give me the benefits advertised.


This doesn't happen much, but I can't say I'm a fan. Sorry Four Sigmatic. Its good old coffee beans for me and my coffee.

Hope this Helps.
Turnip the Beet and Jam!

Falafel Party

So there I was looking in pintrest for fun ways to switch up my staple recipes, as I do, and someone posted about falafel, and I was like, that's a great idea! Falafel is plant based protien source and easy to make at home. So I googled homemade falafel, and found my girl, Minimalist baker.

CLASSIC VEGAN FALAFEL (GF)

These 10-ingredient, classic falafels are vegan and gluten free. They are a quick, easy way to make falafel at home the traditional way! New go to recipe for our kitchen, thats for sure!

Hope this helps!
Turnip the Beet and Jam!

Healthy and Delicious

The review is in the name. This little place is Healthy and Delicious. It’s a small quiet little eat-in restaurant in Toms River NJ. With an open kitchen, you can see them literally make EVERY meal from scratch. The cost is fair with clean ingredients and freshly made. The wait time is a little long, but again, freshly made, it’s a  compromise I’m willing to make. This is a lunch, dinner, and smoothie joint, don’t go looking for breakfast, you wont find it. My one gripe is that they are closed on Sundays (I still don’t understand this one), but they are open until 8pm every other night. Also, don't be turned off by their terrible website, its no indication of the quality.

Hope this helps!
Turnip the Beet and Jam!

Homemade Blueberry Scones

        So this post and recipe is 100% inspired by the Great British Bake Off. Have you watched it yet? Go on to Netflix right now and start bingeing...after you finish reading this blog post of course 😉                                                                                                      But for real, this show is all about quality baking from amateur bakers, and I was inspired to make homemade scones. I, being plant based, went in search of a vegan scone recipe, and found, my favs, Minimalist baker, Blueberry Scones w/ Rosemary (I didn't have rosemary, but the rest of the recipe worked great). These scones were so good and simple, definitely a new staple for my kitchen. You can freeze them to keep them fresher longer or you can eat them all fresh out of the oven, all of them, with wildberry jam, not that I would know...mmmmm...what? huh? sorry, lost in a food dream.

Anyhoo, these are delicious, no soggy bottoms here!!

Hope this helps!

Turnip the Beet and Jam!

Local Urban Kitchen

Dear Local Urban Kitchen,

You hit all my points, clean and plant friendly, coffee options galore, fast and friendly service, and consistency. 

Thank you.

LUK just makes me happy. Especially in the summer, when you pull up and see the happy hipsters enjoying thier coffee and green smoothies in the sun in the outdoor seating area, surrounded by plant gardens which will soon become your next meal. Did I mention fresh ingredients??

LUK sources their food from local farms in Ocean and Monmouth county, hence the “Local”. I have gone to LUK with a wide assortment of friends and family with a variety of food limitations. Some vegan, some vegetarian, some carb free, some grain-free, some any-food-any-time, and LUK never disappoints and has options and or substitutions for all dietary needs. 
With a laidback atmosphere, outdoor seating in the summer, and kind and friendly severs, the staff are always working to ensure a good time is had by all. 

This is one post that I will direct you to their instagram, because it will speak for itself. Here’s just a few posts to give you a sneak peek.

                         

Hope this helps!

Turnip the Beet and Jam!