Veggies and Beanz: The Last Sweet Potato Fry

Some men show their love by slaying dragons, buying diamonds, or as the popular 80's song goes "walking 500 miles... just to walk 500 more." Those men however, have nothing on my husband, who today looked down at his near empty plate, then held up his last sweet potato fry and said just as sweetly as the potato itself... "you want it?"

That my friends, is true love : )

So what else did I eat today besides sweet potatoes? Here it goes...

I woke up this morning around 9 again. I know, tough life huh? I'm in denial about the fact that pretty soon school starts for me again and wake up time is 5am. But for now, life is good. Anyway, a long sleep had left me starving so a big breakfast was in order.

Mini-tropical smoothie:

3 frozen strawberries
1/4 cup frozen mango
1/4 cup frozen pineapple
1/2 cup coconut kefir
1/2 cup Trader Joe's Green Juice
+ a sprinkling of unsweetened toasted coconut

The smoothie was accompanied by two TJ's mini cinnamon raisin bagels with Tofutti cream cheese. I know what you're thinking. You non-vegans are skeptical of my tofu cream cheese. But believe me, this stuff is sooo good, not even Patrick notices the difference. Like the ad says, it really is "better than cream cheese."

When it came time for a workout, I just could not stand the idea of 30 minutes on the elliptical. I also could not stand the thought of running outside again in the 95 degree beating sun. Genius that I am, I decided to "take the stairs." 67 flights to be exact. That's right, I ran up and down the stairs of my apartment building... twice. And hey, why not throw in a few sets of lunges at the end. My legs were screaming for the elliptical by the end of the workout. Needless to say, I worked up a pizza-worthy hunger!

Vegan Sausage Pizza on Whole Wheat Pita:

1 whole wheat pizza
1/4 cup organic marinara
1/4 cup cooked, chopped spinach
1/2 Field Roast Vegan Sausage (see below)
4-5 chopped fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup Daiya mozzarella
1/4 cup Rice mozzarella

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees.

2. Top pita with sauce, veggies, basil and sausage.

3. Finish off with a mix of vegan cheeses (the daiya is stretchy but a little slimy so I like to mix it with the rice cheese for a perfect pizza).

I enjoyed my pizza with a side of leftover string beans. Aren't the colors pretty? They taste exactly the same to me but who doesn't love a colorful lunch? Yumminess. I'm already dreaming of leftover cold pizza for breakfast...

After lunch, I had a very exciting surprise. The photographer from our wedding emailed me to let me know our pictures were ready! Needless to say the rest of my afternoon was consumed with browsing through these online. It was so good to see all of the little details I missed on the big day... it flew by! Somehow, amid all the pictue viewing, I found some time to cook up a southern-vegan feast!

Slow-cooked barbeque tofu courtesy of Mama Pea.

Unfortunately I didn't have any Amy's Barbeque Sauce so I had to improvise. The result was pretty good!

Vegan BBQ Sauce:

1 cup organic ketchup
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (I used A1 cause that was all I had. Fingers-crossed this is vegan?)

2 tablespoons dijon mustard
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon olive oil

I cooked some cajun collard greens to accompany the BBQ deliciousness.

Cajun Collards:

1/2 diced onion
1/2 diced red pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons cajun seasoning
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 bunch of collard greens (-the stems)

1. Saute onions and peppers with oil and seasoning until onions are translucent.

2. Add collards and vegetable stock. Cook on medium heat for a few minutes until collards are wilted.

3. Remove from heat to avoid over-cooking collards (they get bitter and icky if you do that).

Pat ate his BBQ tofu sloppy-joe-style. He gave it two thumbs up. Well, technically only one thumb up but his other one was just busy holding his sandwich.