Cooking frenzy

I am extremely fortunate to be on holiday (paid!) vacation until Jan. 5, so I am putting my idle time to use by cooking looks of delicious home-cooked food!

Yesterday morning I got to sleep in, then enjoyed one of my favorite breakfasts: coffee with unsweetened chocolate Almond Breeze and some sugar-free hazelnut syrup; a smoothie with mango, pineapple, raspberries, blackberries (all frozen), vanilla rice protein powder, a bit of oj, and some water; tofu scramble!; and a piece of Ezekiel whole wheat toast. This morning is the same thing, and I am psyched about that.


Almond Breeze is pretty much the best thing ever. I really don't like the taste of soymilk, plus I think I'm allergic to it, so I had to find an alternative. Enter almond milk. I also tried hazelnut, which is amazing, but it's just too expensive for every day use. Almond milk tastes great and is alot cheaper. In fact, Almond Breeze is only $1.99 I believe at Trader Joe's. What I really like about it is that you can get the unsweetened variety in original, vanilla, and chocolate. Since it's made from almonds, it's already kind of naturally sweet, and when you avoid added sugar it's only 45 calories for a cup! Yummmmm.... I love it over cereal or with coffee. They need to pay me to advertise.

Sorry, I digress. For lunch I cooked up a big ol' pot of split pea soup, which is crazy easy to make. It wasn't totally perfect, so I don't want to post the recipe quite yet.

We were starving by the time we got home from running errands, so I whipped up some sloppy joes with a side of corn and black beans.

Extremely Easy Sloppy Joes
-1 can tomato paste
-Approx. 1.5 c. water
-2 t. oregano
-1-2 T. chili powder
-1 t. garlic powder
-0.25 c. ketchup
-2-3 T. maple syrup or brown sugar, whatever you've got
-1 T. yellow mustard
-2 bags Boca crumbles (4 servings)

Combine everything but the Boca crumbles in a saucepan over medium heat, and bring to bubbling. Lower heat, and simmer 5-10 minutes to let everything mingle. Taste it and adjust ingredients as necessary. Meanwhile, microwave the frozen crumbles, and once hot dump them in. Add some more water if needed. Let everything heat together for about five minutes, then serve.

If you want to make these but don't have any faux-beef crumbles on hand, I would suggest either cooked lentils or rehydrated TVP.