Light Summertime Pasta Salad

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So we've had an insanely busy past couple of weeks. I was meaning to write a longer post about what we've been up to, and the many delicious foods that we've had the opportunity to explore, and enjoy. But I honestly just haven't had the time.

Between taking care of my daughter, and taking family trips to various vegan events, I've also had a couple of job interviews. Yes, I am finally going back to work after having been a stay at home mother for nearly four and a half years! My daughter is also starting pre-k in just a week, so we were busy touring different schools. So there's certainly been a lot going on in a very short amount of time.

Please wish me luck, as I've applied for a job that I would absolutely love! Being a wellness specialist at an organic market, and having the oppourtunity to work with people, discussing various supplements, herbs, essential oils, and all things holistic, and wellness related. Right now it really is a dream job for me, and it's for a company that I'm extremely passionate about, as they're highly committed to sustainability, and supporting small, local businesses, and organic farms.

So I'm definitely hoping that this is the job that I get.

I will absolutely be posting about some of the fun things we've been doing, and vegan events that we went to over the past two or so weeks, but I wanted to post something fun, and short first.

As part of our very busy couple of weeks, yesterday was our annual block party. It's an extremely fun event, as most of our neighbors are all very close with one another. So it's just one big party. And of course there's always tons of fun kids activities. We had this really amazing bouncy house this year with a giant slide, that I'm not going to lie, I totally wanted to hop on in, and jump, and play right along with the kids.

So it's basically like a giant potluck. Every house contributes a dish or two to the main center table setup. And I'm very honored, and proud to say that my pasta salad was one of the first dishes to go; it was gobbled up so quickly by everyone. No one likely even realized that it was a completely vegan dish, and pretty healthy to boot.

For the pasta, I used a spelt penne. If you're not familiar with spelt, its a European strain of wheat that's been cultivated for thousands of years. It's an heirloom variety, that many consider an "ancient grain." Though it is still widely used, and is the primary strain of wheat eaten in many parts of Europe, including Italy. If you travel to Italy you'll likely be eating quite a bit of spelt, and you wouldn't even know it.

There are many benefits to eating spelt over other types of wheat, even typical whole wheat that's normally found in grocery stores.

Spelt is a whole grain, and it differs from other types of wheat in that it's naturally much higher in both protein, and fiber content. Fiber is incredibly important for overall health. It helps lower LDL, which is bad cholesterol, and raises HDL, your good cholesterol. It also helps you lose, and maintain a healthy weight, and aids in digestion.

And of course, as vegans often get the age old question, "but how do you get protein?" Right here in plants! Yes, even wheat contains protein, and spelt has an especially high protein content.

Aside from that, spelt contains all essential amino acids, and tons of vitamins, and minerals.

People with sensitivities to wheat, or gluten often report being able to eat spelt without any issues. This is because of the way that spelt is grown, and cultivated. Essentially all spelt sold in stores is organic, and always non-GMO. It's also very minimally processed, making it much easier for people to digest.

Though, of course, if you have diagnosed celiac then you won't be able to consume spelt, as it does contain gluten.

Honestly, I went into the day having completely no idea what I was going to be making for the block party. I had been so busy leading up to it, that I just hadn't given it any thought. It was an extraordinarily hot, sticky, humid day, so I definitely didn't want to make anything that would be too heavy. I quickly thought about what I had on hand, and threw this little number together, and it ended up being a fantastic hit.

It tastes so light, and perfect for a hot summer day.

Bear with me, because I really didn't measure anything out for this dish. Like I said, I really just threw some things that I had on hand together, so as I was making it, it was all just based on taste, and not measurements. The benefit of that is that you can be really flexible with this recipe. You can add more, or less of whatever you like to create the perfect flavor profile for you. And honestly, it's so simple, it would be next to impossible to screw up.

Fresh Basil from our backyard garden.

Pasta Salad Recipe:

- 1lb Spelt Penne pasta, or pasta of choice

- Basil, cut in to a chiffonade (about 1 Cup after chopping)

- 1.5 cups Grape Tomatoes

- about 1/5 to 3/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

- Lemon Juice from 1/2 to 1 full Lemon

- Salt & Pepper to taste

Method:

- Cook the pasta according to the directions on the package.

- Cut your tomatoes in half lengthwise.

- Cut your basil in a chiffonade style.

- Drain, and rise your pasta with cold water.

- Add Olive Oil, Basil, Tomatoes, Lemon Juice, and salt & pepper to taste.

- Mix, refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, and serve.

5 Ingredient French Toast

French toast has always been my absolute favorite breakfast food, even though I'm actually not a huge breakfast person. Typically I like to stick to really light, very easily digestible foods in the morning, like yummy green smoothies, and I usually wait at least an hour after I wake up to eat anything so that my body has a chance to really get going. But sometimes you crave something a little more dense, a little more sweet, especially since I think that breakfast foods make fantasticly delicious meals for any time of day.

I'll admit that I was pretty disappointed when I realized that I could no longer eat my beloved French toast, and I lamented the fun memories of my daughter and I preparing it together. I'm not sure why I didn't immediately look up vegan recipes, because there's a vegan recipe for essentially everything these days, and most of the time they're really delicious. I think maybe I just assumed that there was no way to replicate a pure egg batter without buying actual vegan eggs, which only recently came out. But I was pleasantly surprised to find a number of recipes that were all a bit different. Some used either flax meal, or even chickpea flour as a thickener, and I found one that looked very promising which used ground chia seeds. Being that I'm a single mother with limited funds, and budgeting meals is essential for us, I don't generally keep these kids of ingredients on hand all of the time. I also didn't want to go out and buy a bag of something like chickpea flour that I was only going to use this one time. I also decided to try my hand at vegan French toast very much on a whim; it was completely spur of the moment, I just happened to have a ton of bananas that I really needed to use up. So I pretty much was just winging it with whatever ingredients I typically always have on hand.

I didn't think this was at all possible, but I genuinely love this recipe even more than traditional non-vegan French toast. This recipe is not nearly as dense as an egg batter, but still cooks really well. The edges have a fantastic crunchy crisp to them, while the center stays light and slightly chewy, without being mushy, or overly gooey. They're filling, but not overly filling, and the batter has a perfectly naturally sweet and creamy flavor. One of the best parts? You can use any leftover batter to drizzle right over top of your cooked French toast!

The trick with these is all in the frying. If your heat is turned up too high your French toast will burn on the outside while staying too mushy on the inside, and falling apart. Keeping your stove on low/medium heat, and allowing the toast to fry slowly, is the key to making perfectly browned French toast that won't stick or fall apart.

Because I threw this together so last minute, I only ended up taking one photo. But I definitely plan on making these again, so I'll update with more photos of the process.

Ingredients:

Makes about 4-5 slices

• 1/2 cup Almond Milk
• 1/3 cup raw Cashews, soaked for a few hours
• 1 small/medium Banana
• 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• Coconut Oil or Vegan Butter (for greasing the pan)
• Your favorite thinly sliced bread (I use Sprouted Flax bread)

(Optional)

• 1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon Allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract

Method:

1. Place all of the ingredients into a blender, and blend on high until everything is smooth and creamy, with a consistency similar to a smoothie.
2. Oil your pan very well with either coconut oil, or vegan butter (I like Earth Balance soy free buttery spread). Allow your pan to heat up for a few minutes so that the heat is evenly distributed, this is very important for the batter not to stick.
3. Pour some of your batter onto a flat dish. It's important to not pour too much batter onto the dish so that you don't overly drench your bread. This batter cooks very differently than an egg batter, so it's easy to overly coat the bread, and come out with a soggy French toast.
4. Dip both sides of your bread lightly into the batter. Don't give the bread time to sit, as it will get too soggy, and fall apart. Place the freshly dipped slices into the pan.
5. Cook on one side for about 2-4 minutes, it will be ready to flip when you see the batter on the uncooked side starting to look more dry, and less liquid-y.
6. Flip and repeat cooking on the other side. Plate your French Toast, and top with some extra cinnamon, and your favorite fruit. Bananas go especially well since they're already in the batter. If you have any extra batter you can drizzle it right on top, and for a little extra sweetness you can take a few pitted dates that have been soaked in hot water, and blend that into the remaining batter. Drizzle with a bit of maple syrup and serve.