Meat Free Mondays: Desserts

Other than the occasional bacon topped something, there are very few desserts that have meat in them. Most, however, do have a multitude of dairy products. These Meat Free Mondays desserts have no meat or animal byproduct and lack artificial sweeteners and preservatives. Both of these recipes were found on Snapguide and have links to the original below.

Vegan Chocolate Banana Ice Cream by Shayne

Servings: 2    Prep Time: 6 hours    Cook Time: 10 minutes

I have been dying to try one of these banana "ice creams" since I heard about it a few months back. This one is so simple and yummy, it seemed like the perfect first try!

Ingredients

3 Bananas

1/3 Cup almond milk

1/2 Teaspoons vanilla extract

2 Tablespoons cocoa powder

Slice bananas and place in freezer for 5 hours or over nite. Add bananas, almond milk, and vanilla extract to food processor. Process until creamy. Add the cocoa powder and blend again until it has the consistency of soft serve ice cream. Serve and enjoy.

Maple Banana Fudge by Shayne

Servings: 4    Prep Time: 15 minutes    Cook Time: 1 hour+   

A great, healthy, alternative to the usual butter filled fudge. Make sure to keep this refrigerated until use so it does not melt. You can also use almond butter as a coconut butter replacement if you do not care for coconut.

Ingredients

1 Large banana

1/2 Cup coconut butter

1/4 Teaspoon cinnamon

A pinch of salt

1/4 Cup maple syrup

Place coconut butter in baking dish and microwave until melted- about 30 seconds. In the mean time, mash your banana with a fork until it has an otmeal-like consistency. Add the coconut butter, cinnamon, and salt in with the banana. Stir, then add the maple syrup. Mix well and freeze for at least 1 hour

Meat Free Mondays: Meat Free Media

Making the initial decision to go meat free (even once a week) was a hard decision for me, but there were a few movies and books that made the transition much easier. Knowing what meat was doing to my body made a big difference in how much I wanted to eat it, and knowing that the research was science based instead of emotional made a big difference to me.

There are a few great books and movies that talk about the importance of a plant based diet for a healthy life; these are a few of my favorites!

Forks Over Knives

This is both a book and a movie. I have heard fantastic things about the book, but have only seen the movie. It is a great look at what meat and dairy are doing to our bodies and how a plant based diet can stop, or sometimes, reverse these effects.

The book was written by two doctors, one at Cornell University and one at the Cleveland Clinic, who research the effects of a meat-based diet on humans. Both these doctors completely their research without knowing what the other was doing and only learned afterwards. What each of them found, through researching cancers and diets of third world countries, is pretty incredible. 

Whether you love meat, hate it, or do not care either way, this movie is a great watch and a must see!

Skinny B----

I have had a pretty great inner debate on whether I should review this book or not. It is quite a bit controversial (the name alone) and controversy is not my middle name. But, just because something is controversial, does not mean it is bad. This book is in my top ten best books ever read list because it changed my outlook on food.

My college room-mate and I read this book together after hearing how fantastic it was. Neither of us were vegetarians, or healthy eater's, really- but both of us thought it was important to understand what we were eating and how it was effecting us long term. Boy was I happy we read it. Be prepared, it is mostly science and research articles explained (science geeks rejoice) and there are a few points that pull on your heart strings worse than the Humane Society commercials. The authors warn you of this first, but my thinking was "if I am going to eat animals, I better know how they got on my plate". If you eat meat, this should be a definite read. If you do not, read it anyway... They go into more than vegan lifestyles and talk a lot about preservatives, engineered foods, and how to live a healthy but well rounded life.

Meat Free Monday: Juicing

As some of you may know, the hubs and I were on a three day juice cleanse last week. We were not able to do the whole cleanse as planned, terrible, I know. But still got some great results and information from it. Since all the ingredients were bought prior to starting, we still have quite a few in the fridge and have been trying every juice since the cleanse ended.

The pic above is not even all the veggies used for two people in three days. In fact, this is about enough for one person! Needless to say, you drink a LOT of veggies. 

The first day of the cleanse was pretty rough for both of us. This is the day we followed the guidelines the closest. I do not think this is why day one was so rough, it is more likely due to the influx of vitamins our bodies were receiving. Bodies handle the cleanse differently depending on diet and health when started. I have not been taking my vitamins as regularly as I should, for shame, so the vitamin change was a bit tasking. Plus, it is a massive amount of food to consume, something my stomach was not ready for. Since the second day we have both been feeling great, lost weight, and have higher energy levels. Yippee!

There are so many recipes in this three day cleanse- five per day. It has been hard to narrow down the ones I loved most... Some were easy since I will never drink them again in my life, ever, but some were a bit more difficult. Although the fruit juices are all delicious, I have a very hard time adding them to my top three since I hate drinking that much sugar. The three favorites are comprised of one standard, one spicy, and one fun. They are all listed below along with the recipes. To see the rest of the juice cleanse recipes and juice cleanse options, visit the Reboot site.

Recipes

All recipes are easy and call for combining all fruits and veggies in juicer, juicing, and drinking with ice.

Sunset Blend Juice

Surprisingly sweet with a bit of salt from the bell pepper, beets and potato!

• 1 large sweet potato
• 1 medium carrot
• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 large beets
• 2 golden delicious apples
• 1 orange- optional. We did not add

V28

A bit spicy and a lot yummy. This juice is more like a soup.

• 3 large beets
• 2 medium carrots
• 2 celery stalks
• 4 plum tomatoes
• 4 cups parsley- roughly chopped
• 1 jalapeno- ribs and seeds removed
• 12 red radishes

Mean Green

If you know juicing, chances are you know this juice. It is fresh, citus-y, and delicious.

• 1 cucumber
• 4 stalks celery
• 2 apples
• 8 kale leaves
• 1/2 lemon
• 1" ginger root

Meat Free Monday: Recipes and Resources

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This weekend definitely ran away with us a bit. My well-worked plan was to have a Meat Free Monday post all about our favorite juicing recipes that we found during this three day juice cleanse has been postponed a few days. Life got in the way and this weekend quickly turned into the Murphy's law of events. Everything from ill family who we are taking care of to broken appliances used for juicing, to my mouse suddenly breaking has happened. We are still on the juice cleanse, but have not been able to be as strict as we needed to be. The cleanse will be done on Tuesday evening, so I am looking forward to a (more brief) overview of our likes, dislikes, energy levels, and results.

That said, this week's MFM is something that falls into the same vein of last week's health and fitness resources. I have found that the interest is my biggest resource for so many things in life. Shopping online, for one, has completely changed my world. I cannot even count the number of things I have bought or not bought because of reviews. Searching for the perfect thing has turned into an hour search rather than days. The same can be said for recipes.

There are some wonderful cooking websites and recipes out there in the internet abyss from sites that specialize in food only or a type of cooking, to sites that have a broad variety and cooking is just one of them. Below are three of the sites that I use most for recipe finding. Some are great for party hosting, some are great for using what you already have, and some are hidden treasures you will love!

MeatFreeMondays.com

Of course this would be first on a MFM post, it is a wonderful site for all vegetarian dishes with lots of flavor and variation. One of my favorite parts of this site is the weekly recipe. If you have taken the Meat Free Mondays pledge, this is a wonderful asset. There are tons of recipes and a yummy, weekly options for the easy, cut and paste cooker. This is also a great resource if you have recently become a vegetarian. You will find no braised pork or chicken confit temptations here!

Skinnytaste.com

This site, as the name implies, is wonderful for those watching their weight or wanting to eating healthier. Every recipe shows weight watchers points and has all the nutritional content listed. I love this! It makes my life so much easier to just know what I am cooking rather than figuring all the ingredients separately, then adding it together. SkinnyTaste does have non-vegetarian recipes, but they also have some great vegan and vegetarian options mixed in. There are so many recipes here, I am sure you will find one to love.

MarthaStewart.com

I love this site. It is not something I use as a day-to-day cooking resource, but is wonderful if I want to prepare a special meal or need something for a party. There are so many recipe to choose from here, some have meat but there are a lot that do not. This site is up there as one of my favs because of its searching ability. You can choose if you are cooking for a party and want appetizers, a dinner party with a five course meal, holiday themes, or vegetarian. It is wonderful for pinpointing that perfect meal in very little time! Do not let the "Martha Stewart" name scare you if your are not a big cooker. There are plenty of easy recipes here with great tips and reviews. I have not have one that is too hard to make or turns out terrible!