Asian Style Noodle Salad

Since the weather has warmed up tremendously, I'm more eager for cold, fresh salads to be on the table. I also have a crazy huge weakness for all things pasta, so although I would love chomping on tomatoes and cucumbers all summer (oh my. I'm hungry now!), once in a while, I crave some starch!

Pasta, however, does not provide the crunch I crave come summertime. My mom always makes this delicious Asian salad with ramen and a delicious ginger dressing, so I decided to do a take on it and see what I could come up with. 

It has been a crazy summer, and since this can be whipped up quickly in a pinch, this is perfect. The dressing can be made ahead for even faster assembly.

Simple Asain-Style Noodle Salad

What You Need:

• 4 ounces chopped or grated carrots

• 12 ounces (or more!) chopped red cabbage

• 12 ounces chopped broccoli

• About 8 ounces whole wheat pasta (I used soba noodles)

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• 1/4 cup rice vinegar (or lemon juice)

• 3 TBSP agave nectar

• 3 TBSP natural creamy peanut butter

• 3 TBSP low-sodium soy sauce

• 2 tsp minced garlic

• 1 TBSP minced fresh ginger

• 1/2 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped

• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped

What to Do:

1. Cook the noodles until al dente (follow package directions).

2. Drain and rinse with cool water and transfer to a large serving bowl.

3. Add the red cabbage, broccoli and carrots.

4. Whisk together the olive oil, rice vinegar, peanut butter, agave, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic.

5. Pour over the noodle mixture and toss to combine.

6. Add the peanuts and cilantro.

7. Serve chilled.

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What's your favourite summertime salad? 

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The Most Delicious Cashew Cream Sauce

I cannot tell you half of the raving I hear about this sauce. I made it for a vegan lasagna a couple of weeks ago, and let’s just say, I made sure that the spatula got every last drop of it out of the blender. The spatula didn’t have any left on it by the end either if you catch my drift.

We discovered that this sauce is good on everything. We put it in our fajitas, added some to our enchiladas before (and after!) baking them (goodbye vegan cheese!), and my husband even likes spreading it on his bread in the mornings! My guess would be that it would make a fantastic vegan queso...just putting that out there. Must experiment more to find out.

The stuff is gold - and not just because raw cashews are expensive.

I think I have officially found my cheese alternative, and I am crazy excited to share it with you!

Cashew Cream Sauce
Makes about 2 cups

what you need:

• 1 ¼ c raw cashews (soaked overnight or for an hour in hot water if you don’t have a high speed blender)

• 1 cup almond milk, unsweetened

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• 1 tsp onion powder

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp lemon juice

• ¼ c nutritional yeast flakes

what to do:

Add all ingredients to blender and blend until very smooth

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Have you tried a cashew cream sauce before? Tell me about it below!

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Family Movie Night & The Best Topping for Popcorn

With summer upon us and school out, I feel I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. But not really. It's only about to get busier as the next couple of months are some of our most full ones!

A few days ago, my husband and I were reminiscing about childhood family-fun traditions we had growing up.  For me, it was getting take out some Saturday nights and getting to choose DVDs from Blockbuster (they still had those then!). It was always so fun and we looked forward to those nights as a family. Game night wasn’t as fun to everyone since there would usually be the more competitive of us left up at 2 am still trying to win Monopoly. Those games could last days, I tell you!

As we move on from participating in family fun nights to having to be intentional about planning our own, these fond memories still play in our minds. Even when life gets hectic, we know how important it is to set aside time to bond and relax. For us, a family fun night isn’t complete without some kind of fun food and an activity we can do together - whether it be a rad board game or a great movie.

When it comes to a fun movie night, we like to get creative to switch things up. Once we find the perfect movie (that usually takes a while), we start getting cozy. Sometimes we set up a blanket fort, and sometimes we use a projector to get a theatre-type feel. Blankets and snacks are a must, whatever we do.

We are pretty picky about the movies we decide to watch and always go for true stories that are inspirational. If you like a good family-friendly movie too, be sure to check out Pure Flix for some wholesome, Christian and educational movies. You can try Pure Flix free for a month, which is a good thing since it might take you longer to decide on a movie than to watch one!  You can pair your subscription with Plugged In Movie Reviews from Focus on the Family to get some in-depth and free reviews.

And then, of course, we need snacks. We take snacks very seriously.

We LOOOOOOOVE popcorn. We recently got a new stovetop popcorn popper and it has been put to good use! I personally like sprinkling (okay, dumping!) nutritional yeast flakes on mine. If we have time, we even cut up some potatoes and throw them in the oven for homemade "fries!" Depending on the night, we might even whip up a homemade pizza or pop some frozen stuff in the oven. It’s a seriously good time. Here's what we do with our popcorn:

Easy Popcorn Topping

what you need:

• 1/2 cup popcorn kernels

• up to 1/2 TBSP olive oil (or vegan butter)

• a bit of salt to taste

• nutritional yeast flakes (in my opinion, you can never have to much, so it's up to how much you want!)

what to do:

1) Pop your popcorn by whatever means you do so (we have a stovetop popper right now, but I do love air poppers!)

2) Add (sparingly) your olive oil or vegan butter and sprinkle a bit of salt

3) Go to town with adding your nutritional yeast flakes :) 

Now that it’s summer, we hope to spend more time outside on the porch or around the fire pit making s’mores and roasting hot dogs. It's so much fun just hanging out outside and enjoying the heat of the fire.

Hope you've been inspired to set some time aside to enjoy an evening with your loved ones. I’ve decided to share some favourites with you so you can get started right away with your family-fun movie night - and don’t forget the popcorn! I'd love to hear about your family fun nights too!

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What do you do for family fun? I'd love to hear about it!

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Easy Enchilada Sauce

I've been conjuring up all sorts of sauces lately. I've always been a gravy-type food fan, so it's only natural that I love all sorts of sauces. 

The other day, I was cooking up some dinners I had frozen and came across some enchiladas. They were so sad there in the bottom of the freezer, so of course, I had to whip up some sauce to bake them in.

I have a sauce that I usually make, but I was feeling a little adventurous, so I changed it up a bit. This one is a little thicker and a little spicier. Yes, it's very similar with one added ingredient, and I like it a little more!

Best part? Freezer friendly!

Related: Spinach & Black Bean Enchiladas

Enchilada Sauce
Makes about 2 cups

what you need:

• 3 TBSP olive oil

• 1 1/2 TBSP white whole wheat flour

• 2 TBSP chili powder

• 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth (Try this homemade version!)

• 6 Ounces tomato paste

• 1 tsp ground cumin

• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

• 1/2 tsp onion powder

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp organic cane sugar

• 1 tsp nutritional yeast flakes

what to do:

1. Heat oil in a saucepan. Sprinkle flour over oil and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

2. Stir in chili powder and tomato paste and continue to cook for another 30 seconds.

3. Whisk in stock,  cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, cane sugar and nutritional yeast flakes.

4. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings and use.

Honey Oat Chia Bread

There are plenty of opinions on using honey as plant-based eaters. We are rebels, though. Bees are crazy amazing and honey is called a superfood - full of nutrients and thought to be immunity-boosting and antibacterial. I love that it can be produced locally as opposed to some of the other natural sweeteners that are imported. On that note, we love local maple syrup as well! 

Someone recently gave us a bottle of honey from their own beehive. How can you say no to a gift like that? Well, you can't. And before you get on me for using [local, gifted] honey and how horrid and unethical it is, just know that you can use agave or maple syrup instead :)  

Since we like to eat our own homemade bread, I decided to try honey oat chia bread, and I love what came out! Here is the recipe for our honey oat chia bread!

I had not had much luck with baking bread in a loaf pan, so that is why I stuck with the super easy artisan bread that I made in my dutch oven, but last week I was inspired to try something new. I hadn't made bread for a bit and my husband really wanted some. The only problem with the bread I usually make was that I prep them the night before to be ready to bake the next day. Of course, I kept forgetting to do that, and when we finally ran out of bread, I knew I needed one to be done that day. So I tried and after a few tries, I finally got it just how I liked it, and am pleased to say that we have a new favourite quick-loaf. 

I also have a loaf pan with 4 cavities, so I am going to try to make mini loaves for neighbours!

It's a perfectly sweet-ish bread that is great for sandwiches and your morning toast fix. 

Related: Tomato Roasted Almond Spread

Honey Oat Chia Loaf

What You Need:

• 2 cups warm water

• 2 teaspoons yeast

• 1/4 cup honey (or agave or maple syrup)

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1 cup old fashioned oats

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 TBSP ground flax

• 1 TBSP chia seeds

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

What to Do:

1. In a large bowl, mix water, yeast and honey. Let stand for 5 minutes until bubbly.

2. Mix in olive oil, oats, ground flax and salt

3. Mix in all-purpose flour.

4. Mix in whole wheat flour 1/2 cup at a time. You might not need all the flour.

5. Knead dough for 5 minutes. Dough should be tacky, but too sticky.

6. Put dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let sit for at least one hour, until doubled.

7. After it has doubled, gently deflate the dough by pressing your fist into the center of it.

8. Divide the dough into two and shape into two loaves. Place loaves into greased bread pans. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

9. Preheat oven to 375 degrees about 20 minutes in.

10. Optional: Just before baking brush loaves with water, and sprinkle with oats and chia seeds.

11. Place in oven and bake for 40 minutes.

12. Once baked, allow the bread to rest and cool for about 5 minutes before removing it from the pan and cooling on wire rack.

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Do you make your own bread? What's your favourite kind?
Let me know below - I always want to try something new!

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