Around this time of year, 3-4pm becomes the new “evening”. Once night time hits around 5pm, it is hard to feel inspired to go out and do things. Somehow, the earlier darkness and chilly weather encourages me to stay in. I love utilizing this sort of ambiance to make flavorful one-pot meals like hearty soups or pasta dishes. You already saw my five favorite soups in last week’s Friday Five. Therefore, today, I bring you five of my favorite pasta dishes.
Pasta is the ultimate comfort food. Vegetarians and meat-eaters alike can find something to enjoy in the carbalicious entrée. Even if you’re gluten-free (like I’ve recently become), there are pasta options for you! My thing is to always include vegetables in a meal so it isn’t just a purely starchy meal. The following pasta dishes are vegetable-filled and sure to be satisfying!
I can’t be the only one who still has cobs of corn and baskets of tomatoes to use up, right? I love cooking with fresh herbs and this pasta is an excellent way to utilize them. Pesto, corn, and tomatoes are a trifecta of deliciousness you must try! I don’t consume dairy so I omit the cheese in the recipe but otherwise, I love everything about it! The basil vinaigrette is dreamy makes this pasta ideal for a simple lunch or even a side dish!
I’m sure anyone who dabbles in plant-based cooking has heard of Minimalist Baker. This pasta dish with roasted cauliflower is seemingly simple but incredibly flavorful! Take my word for it and just roast double the amount of cauliflower. Trust me, you’re going to want more of that tender and crispy veggie to pile onto your spaghetti.
I’ve got to throw a mention to my good ol’ pumpkin pasta that I created last year. I created the recipe last year for a competition with Banza pasta company but, of course, use whatever pasta brand you like. The recipe is a perfect single serving but multiply as needed to feed more people! I love enjoying pumpkin pasta with warmed spinach, oven-crisped kale, or even some sautéed yellow squash.
Jeanine from Love and Lemons is a queen at building pasta dishes around vegetables. Her one-pot vegetable penne pasta is one of my most favorites because it includes leeks. Yes, leeks! If you haven’t cooked with these babies, they’re similar to onions—which I’m also wildly obsessed with adding to everything I cook. Jeanine only uses the white part of a leek in this pasta but I often double the recipe and use the entire white and green parts of the leek!
Butternut squash might be a little more accessible all-year round nowadays but it is fall produce. I stockpile my butternut squashes until the following year: I’ll chop it into cubes and store it in freezer bags to use in the spring or summer if I so desire! If you haven’t tried turning butternut squash into pasta sauce, you haven’t lived! Okay, exaggeration aside, you’ll want to keep butternut squash on hand in your freezer like me just to make this pasta!
Now go enjoy yourselves some pasta dishes of your choosing!
Pasta is a creative base that can do no wrong in my book. I’m always looking for new ideas to experiment with. Feel free to tell me what your favorite pasta dishes are!
I can speak from experience when I say: food is more than just food. To me, food is a reminder that we are delicate ecosystems reliant on nourishment from the earth we were born out of. It serves as fuel, medicine, and strength all-in-one. Aside from the physical aspects, some people may find when life gets wild and unpredictable, food takes on an emotional form. (aka food anxieties develop)
In a recent post, I described some things no one tells you about going vegan. (It’s a pretty interesting article if I do say so myself—so go check it out!) One of the items I mentioned in the post was how a limited set of options can lead to restricted or disordered eating patterns. While food anxieties can affect anyone, my personality type can be a bit extreme and overly controlling. I have found, from my own experience, that my vegan preferences increase my desire to restrict food in other ways.
Why would someone want to control their food?
Simply put: food can be a clutch when other situations in life are not within your control. In this case, food may be the only thing you really feel you can control. When you’re sad, frustrated, bored, or experiencing any feeling, and you reach for food, you’re filling a void.
Many times, emotional eating patterns can be accompanied by food phobias. These are maybe things that you try to avoid (“off-limit” foods) but end up binging on. The off-limit foods may be ones you choose to avoid because some magazine article or fitness influencer told you they were bad. If we hold preconceived notions of “healthiness” and desire to only eat “healthy food”, there we are experiencing orthorexia at its finest.
Let it be known that it is possible to have a healthy relationship with food and omit foods. If you’re able to completely stay away from a certain food or consume it as an occasional treat, without any guilt, you’re probably not dealing with disordered eating patterns!
Tell-tale signs of disordered eating can come when food anxieties are stirred up needlessly! A Huffington Post article describes some behaviors below:
When food is the enemy, you’re going to continuously have to face it. This personal villain, if you will, is going to be on your mind a lot. The average person engages in eating three to five times in a day but thinks about eating nearly every hour (or every 38 minutes for men). That is multiple times a day you’re stressing about what to eat, what not to eat, how much to eat, and more!
The way I see it, there are two straightforward routes when dealing with food anxieties on your own. The first option is to abstain from food that you really want. Consequently, that can also kind of makes the food extra-desirable. We want what we cannot have. Therefore the second option is to partake in occasional indulgence. It may be just the ticket to moderate your consumption of a food while keeping you sane.
For myself personally, I still find that to lead to overindulgence. A “treat” can be a slippery slope because one snack or one serving might not seem like enough. Has anyone ever found themselves halfway through a loaf of banana bread only to suddenly feel very uncomfortably sick? Yeah, gluttony is not a cure for the feelings you’re trying to disguise by eating.
The thing is, food is not supposed to be feared or separated into “good” and “bad” categories. There are obviously some foods with greater nutritional profiles but how we feel when we go in for a bite also matters. Heck, it might even matter more!
I can’t tell you the magic trick to getting over food anxieties because there isn’t one. I believe those of us who struggle with this more intensely tend to place more emotional ties on food. It is a pattern we formed and, therefore, we can also break. How can we break it? It is going to sound simple but we simply make the choice. We say: enough is enough!
Food should not be a substitute for dealing with emotions. If you don’t feel emotionally well, try:
Going for a walk
Talking to a friend in-person or on the phone
Playing with your pet
Cleaning (works wonders to get your mind off of most anything!)
Watching a movie or listening to a song/podcast
Creating some art by drawing, writing, painting, etc.
And hey, if you genuinely are hungry, by all means, EAT
At the end of the day (not a literal day—give it some time), if you’ve tried all of the above mentioned techniques to overcome food anxieties, please seek help. I find I go through phases where this is more of a problem for me than other times. It helps me to recognize what my triggers are and then I can talk myself down. I think understanding the why behind the patterns proves useful. Then, I can take steps to combat them. I like to ask myself: is it true hunger that you feel right now or your emotions?
Thanks for reading! This is a subject really close to me. As much as I have the knowledge of how to properly manage my emotions, I don’t utilize my toolbox often enough. Temptations around food are strong; so the battle to overcome emotional eating is one that I have to deal with daily. I am a work in progress but I want to get to the place of freedom from food anxieties.
Have you dealt with food anxieties? What methods do you find to be helpful in dealing with them? Please share.
As a disclaimer: I am not a doctor or therapist. This article is not intended to treat, diagnose, or be a substitute for seeking professional assistance for an eating disorder.
In honor of fall, I’ve assembled a list of my 5 favorite soup recipes! Funny enough, when I was a kid, I used to hate soups. If my mom said soup was for dinner, I’d anticipate something brothy where I’d need to dig around for substance. I’d also expect to eat 2-3 bowls just to feel satisfied. There’s a place for simple broth-based soups (*cough cough* when you’re sick.) but for the rest of the time, I like a hearty bowl of soup!
In essence, I’m pretty much a low-key connoisseur of soups. Therefore, I’m only recommending soup recipes that I’ve tried and enjoyed multiple times! So, you can be rest assured that these are delicious and will keep you satisfied as the weather cools down!
This recipe is a feature from Angela Liddon’s Oh She Glows Everyday Cookbook. I actually own the cookbook but, prior to that, I was frequently referring to the recipe here. Blended soups can seem a bit boring…texturally. So, the tamari almonds included for topping are essential! You’ll be swooning over how sweet, salty, and luxurious this recipe is.
Sometimes you feel like a giant bowl of vegetable soup, right? Though, the standard onion, celery, and carrot triad of vegetables isn’t the most exciting. I love that this soup utilizes some hearty cabbage, kale, and broccoli! The colors and unique combination of ingredients makes this soup taste like it comes from a gourmet restaurant! Oh, and I also like to squeeze extra lemon into my individual soup bowl—it really makes the flavors sing!
In my hometown, there was a restaurant my family and I would always go to called Millie’s. Literally, we would be there once a week, if not more. I could probably recite the menu by memory. One dish that they offered was a chicken tortilla soup. Ohhhh that soup. Due to my previously mentioned ideas about soup, I wouldn’t usually order it myself. Though, my dad would often order it and I’d steal some from him 😉 So, to my delight, this tortilla soup has all of the classic flavors but it’s made vegetarian. And please, do not pass up making your own tortilla strips for the soup. It is simply essential!
You guys might not know it but Minestrone Soup is probably one of my favorite soups ever. It can be made so many different ways. There’s team pasta and no pasta. I’ve also seen potato and, other times, no potato. What is consistent is that it is a good way to utilize lots of vegetables! With that being said, I often reminisce on the minestrone soup offered at Olive Garden. Whether the restaurant is true to Italian food or not, their soups are still the bomb. This recipe is the closest thing I’ve tried to OG’s classic minestrone.
Again with my Mexican roots! I take for granted how much I actually enjoyed the Mexican dishes I grew up with. Soups like menudo and posole are staple dishes in Mexican culture. It wouldn’t be a holiday or family get-together without one of these. Kate, the culinary queen, once again proved that a traditional meat-based dish can be made vegetarian. I’m positive you’ll enjoy this pinto bean version of posole even if you don’t follow a meatless diet. Fun fact: the cover photo for this post is actually my recreation of the Pinto Posole! 🙂
Thanks for checking out my favorite soup recipes!
If you make any of them, let me know. Oh, and be sure to let these fantastic bloggers know you found their recipe through me. I hope I’ve provided some fall meal inspiration. Be sure to let me know what you’re cooking up this fall! Also, would you be interested in some other Friday Five recipe round-ups? Perhaps snacks, entrees, breakfasts, and such? Comment below or on Instagram and let me know what you think!
In a society where the average person is still shocked by the idea of vegetarianism, where do vegans fit in? While I don’t completely associate with the term vegan, I have tried to follow the lifestyle for the most part. Also, when I say lifestyle, that involves not just food but any material products I choose to consume, too. Today’s post is a quick list of three things no one tells you about going vegan. I’m not saying going vegan is bad or good but, rather, with any choice, there are obstacles. The following are some of the obstacles I’ve had to deal with but they may not necessarily be the case for everyone.
The world isn’t changed, just you.
You know how it feels when you learn some new information and suddenly feel like you want to make a change in the world? For anyone who has watched a video on cruelty in the meat industry or the environmental issues surrounding a diet loaded with animal products, those things are hard to unseen. Personally, I’ve taken those learnings with me and tried to inform others. People might be moderately interested in hearing about such information once but few times are they ready to change their lives because of a conversation.
Your new enlightened state of what the meat/dairy/egg/or other industries are doing may make you not want to so much as look at the deli counter of the grocery store. Beyond the cruelties of the industries, the benefit of a plant-based diet speaks for itself. Though, I feel like people need to come across that information on their own.
People don’t feel motivated to change by hearing someone else tell them why they need to change but by seeing when someone is doing something right. Right now vegans only comprise a mere 6% of the population in the United States. The plants, animals, and environment still need an advocate but I wouldn’t get so invested in trying to convert your family and friends to be like you. That is a sure-fire way to lose some friends. Rather, if you’re passionate about this or anything, lead by example and the rest will follow.
Food serves as a bonding experience in every culture. To not partake in the mainstream experience can make you feel like an outsider.
No matter what your background, food is one facet that brings people together. It is necessary to stay involved and participate in familial or social gatherings despite personal preferences. Many cultures have their staple dishes that involve meat and/or cheese at center-stage. I definitely don’t have a desire to eat the dishes but I miss the feeling of enjoying what everyone else is enjoying.
As my family oohs and ahs over the barbecue ribs or seafood cocktails, I feel like an awkward wallflower at the table. Sure, there might be dishes like salads or rice that are prepared vegan-friendly and can be taken advantage of. Though, oftentimes, when I know there won’t be something I can eat, I’ll even make my own meal and take it to a gathering. I’ll receive curious looks and maybe even some questions about what I’m eating but that’s as far as it goes.
If you want to be adventurous and make a vegan dish to take to a gathering, be prepared for the worst. I’ve spent days planning delicious wild rice pilafs and three-bean salads only to have to take the entire dish back home. Understand who you’re dining with when deciding whether or not to cook. Hopefully your company is more willing to try something different.
A limited set of options can lead to restricted or disordered eating.
I know this is super controversial to say. It definitely is not the case for everyone. Though, the more I read about nutrition and try to tackle symptoms of intolerance, the more I limit my options for food. When you are a vegan, obviously that involves zero animal products. What if you are also intolerant to gluten or sensitive to caffeine? I’m not saying this to make you question what you can or should eat. Rather, I personally feel that my world gets significantly smaller when I eliminate so much from my diet. Thus, my anxieties about food increase. This can be a whole post on its own so I’ll pick this topic up again later!
The ingredients label is its own unique language.
So, you took Spanish in high school but did anyone teach you that “natural glaze” can be an alternative phrase for “glaze made from insects”? Or that filtration methods for alcoholic beverages might involve fish bladders? There is entirely no way to know this sort of thing from the packaging alone.
Besides being helpful, it is downright necessary to read every ingredient label. Some brands are good about listing allergens like Milk or Egg in big print under the ingredients list. Though, if you’re vegan, you’ve got to look out for more than that. Some seemingly simple crackers might look fine but honey is listed in the ingredients list. An ice cream boasting a “dairy-free” label may still have egg yolks or, less conspicuously, whey powder.
When in doubt about an ingredient, pull out your master sleuth skills and Google it. For alcohol, I’d suggest researching ahead of time and having a few brand names in mind as options. Also, don’t forget that packaging may be deceiving but real, fresh produce doesn’t lie. Fruit and vegetables need no ingredients label. : )
Bonus: for my small town homies, you know what it feels like to scavenge off the side dishes.
Just because trendy restaurants like True Food Kitchen or Chipotle offer vegan menu items, that doesn’t mean your mom-and-pop diners are going to, too. In my hometown, chain-restaurants are my best bet. As much as I’d love to support local businesses, they don’t post allergen menus online. That is basically the cheat sheet to knowing whether a dish contains or may be cross-contaminated with milk, eggs, soy, gluten, or nuts.
Even given that tool, I’m lucky if I can find three items on a menu that I can eat without asking for accommodations. House salads, guacamole, and French fries are usually safe bets. Though, the last one is also dicey if you think about the shared fryer oil. Those pitiful but humble choices make you really appreciate the value of home-cooked food. Plus, if you ever get the chance to eat at a vegan restaurant or vegan-friendly restaurant, it will make you appreciate the meal all the more.
I do not want to deter anyone from adopting a vegan way of eating or living. Given the above mentioned things no one tells you about going vegan, I give myself leniency and offer the same to others. You pick your battles and you do what you can, my friends. While I whole-heartedly advocate for going 100% vegan if you can do it. I also whole-heartedly believe we need to do right by our minds and bodies.
My ethics lie in veganism but dietary preferences sometimes fluctuate between vegetarian and vegan. Lately, I lean more towards the latter but you’ve got to do what is right for you. I believe in moderation. An extreme approach in anything does not allow for you to live your life to the fullest but it is up to you to determine where you draw the line.
Thank you for reading! What do you think? Have you felt any of these situations to be true? Also, stay tuned for an upcoming post elaborating more on the topic of food anxieties!
Recently, I read the acclaimed Eckhart Tolle’s book, The Power of Now. In a previous Friday Five post, I mentioned a possible review of the book; though, I think I’ll do the book more justice by sharing my takeaways. I gravitated towards the title and idea of discovering how to really begin living in the now.
There are little acts of mindfulness that I already try to incorporate on a daily basis, but that was merely a starting place. A state of peace and contentment that comes from truly being present requires a little more effort and practice. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a “five minutes from now” kind of person. I think about what is coming next instead of focusing on what I’m doing right now. Just as much, I look to the past and dwell on times of the past. These are habits I thought anyone can fall into but, I’ve learned, they aren’t necessary.
Bringing Future and Past Thoughts into the Now
Let me explain. Respectfully, a certain degree of planning can be helpful but it needs to have an end point. I frequently have a thought-whirlpool of plans, wants, desires, and memories pop into my head first thing in the morning. Does this sound familiar? The overwhelming nature of the thoughts impedes the calm and restful state I awake from. Other times, events and tasks stack up quickly and unexpectedly. The rush of it all sends my cortisol levels through the roof; I seek to tackle the tasks but almost become crippled by the sheer thought of it all. If I can move, I force myself into a rushed panic to get things done. Keywords: stressful and unhelpful.
The Future Can Wait
What is the alternative to being burdened by all of those thoughts? Well, I’m certainly still working on this but I ask myself if a thought is important right now. Few times are things so imminent as to require our immediate attention. For any thought I might want to remember, I jot it down on a notepad or type it out on my phone and set it aside. The note (mine is usually a list) allows me to relinquish the thought for the moment and come back to it later. This way, I can focus on what I am currently doing.
The Past is in the Past
Earlier I mentioned how memories can also pop into my head and contribute to the thought-whirlpool. In recent time, the thoughts of my past have probably eaten away at me most of all. Our emotions have a way of connecting to thoughts—memories most of all. That is what makes them all the more intense. Memories that we deem “good”, keep us in a state of wishfullness. If we continue to label thoughts of the past as “better times” then we will apply that outlook to the present moment and CERTAINLY be unsatisfied.
On the other hand, we may also ruminate on thoughts of the past tied up in guilt, pain, or sadness. Again, these are all emotional ways of viewing the memories. Admittedly, I always say: feelings are valid. I fully believe in acknowledging them. Though, it needs to be recognized when feelings are not serving any benefit.
Letting Go of What We Know
In The Power of Now, Tolle conveyed the very interesting point that WE are the ones who hold onto our “painful” memories. We create pain for ourselves by circulating the memories over and over again in our head. A certain amount of this may be needed to come to terms with an event but, just as emotions get tied up with memories, we can easily learn to associate with pain. Tolle calls it a “pain-body”, a sort of second skin that we let envelop us.
Personally, the concept of a pain-body really resonated and made me realize I had been using my pain as a clutch. Instead of working on me, I’d let myself sink into the familiar sadness of thoughts, songs, and patterns that perpetuated my pain. You can read more about what this specifically entailed in this post.
The point I’m trying to make here is: the associations we apply to our thoughts encourage us to remain in a state of distress. The thoughts stay at the top of our mind and don’t allow us to successfully engage in any other task or activity with peace. It is up to us to stop the thought-whirlpool and concentrate on living in the now.
Why Is Living in the Now So Important?
The question has certainly crossed my mind. Though, I realize when I am preoccupied with what is coming (or what I think might be coming), I am not only detracting attention from my current task but creating significant emotional distress. I can’t peacefully sit by myself or with company, I can’t enjoy the meal I’m eating or the movie I’m watching, or anything if I keep thinking of nonexistent moments. The reason they are nonexistent is because they are not the now.
A little known fact about living in the now is that there is no stress or unhappiness. The future and past do not exist here so there is no need to carry thoughts of either into the now. The present moment offers peace.
More appropriately, the present moment, when you really tune in, just is.
The perspective I offer in this post has largely come from an immense amount of self-exploration and the influential teachings of Eckhart Tolle. If anything I’ve mentioned piques your interest even a bit, I highly recommend checking out his book, The Power of Now.
You guys are magical! Thank you for being here! I’d love to hear what ways you try to implement mindfulness to better enjoy living in the now.
Would you guys believe that I’ve been saving this French toast recipe for weeks just so that it would be closer to fall? I don’t know if anyone would’ve been on board for warm French toast when its 90-125 degrees outside.
Weirdly enough, this summer I’ve been eating a lot more warm foods for breakfast than ever before. If you’ve been around here for a while, you know I’m a hardcore smoothie enthusiast. Yet, as I’ve dabbled in ways to improve my digestion, I found a new love for warm breakfasts.
This recipe came about one morning when I was low-key craving cinnamon raisin buns—using this recipe from RachLMansfield—but did not have any of those around. Her recipe is super simple but when you want breakfast now, not hours from now, you get creative.
Here was my thought process:
Ooh cinnamon raisin Ezekiel bread in my freezer? This might taste similar to cinnamon buns.
Let’s use some vanilla unsweetened almond milk, too. Oh, maybe French toast?
Hmm but then I need to turn on the stove and that takes too long. GROAAANN.
Wait, how about the ol’ microwave? Yeah, this could work!
Honestly, the microwave is never my first choice for cooking but I knew it would provide the dried-out top the way the oven does for baked goods. I had a very specific texture I desired: crisp top and chewy center. I am happy to say I achieved this!
As a final note: I whipped this all up in the morning but, if you’re a planner, this would probably be excellent made-ahead. You could set it in your fridge overnight and then microwave it in the morning.
Single French Toast Bake in a Microwave
Recipe Type: Breakfast
Author: Melanie
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1 serving
Ingredients
½ cup vanilla unsweetened almond milk
½ tsp cinnamon
½ scoop vanilla protein powder
½ scoop collagen peptides (optional, but adds a “chewy” texture)
A tiny pinch of sea salt
2 slices cinnamon raisin Ezekiel
Instructions
Cut the bread slices into cubes. I did three slices horizontally and vertically for 9 cubes per toast!
In a microwave safe bowl or wide ramekin, mix the milk, cinnamon, protein powder, and collagen until combined.
Then, dredge the bread cubes into the mixture. Lightly press them down while trying to coat all sides of the cubes. After all of the bread cubes have been dredged, press the cubes into a flat, even layer and place in the microwave.
Cook for 3-4 minutes, depending on your microwave. The top should look and feel dry to the touch.
Be careful when removing because the bowl will be HOT! Let cool for a few minutes before adding syrup, yogurt, or additional raisins to your French toast (microwave) bake!
3.5.3251
It makes me excited when I can discover a shortcut to something that usually takes a lot longer to make. I’m planning on just prepping containers of this in my fridge and warming them up for the weekday mornings. 😎
Let me know if you give this recipe a try! Comment below or tag me on Instagram!
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