Raw Pad Thai Salad from thecolorfulkitchen.com

I am so excited to try this Raw Pad Thai Salad from thecolorfulkitchen.com!

Raw Pad Thai Salad  - Update: We tried it, and it's awesome! Seriously amazing. I might eat it every week in the summer time, but even in the winter, it's great!

Seth got me a veggie spiralizer for Christmas, and this salad is going to bring it out quite often!

Sweet Quinoa and Rice Salad

My parents got me a yummy Quinoa and Brown Rice blend for Christmas, and with it, I created this delicious salad!

Sweet Quinoa and Rice Salad

Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups uncooked quinoa/rice blend (or one of the two) - Cook with water or veggie stock according to directions
- 3 large handfuls of organic spinach, chopped
- 1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes,halved
- 1.5 cups frozen sweet corn, thawed (or canned)
- 1.5 cups (1 can) chickpeas/garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

- Avocado for serving

Sauce:
- juice of 1 lemon
- 3 Tb. Tamari or reduced sodium soy sauce
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 3 Tb. apple cider vinegar
- 3 Tb. agave nectar (or honey)
- 1 Tb. of your favorite dried spices (oregano, basil, parsley, rosemary, etc)
- fresh cracked pepper

Directions:
1. Cook Quinoa and rice according to instructions
2. While it is cooking, combine all Sauce ingredients in a bowl and stir
3. When quinoa and rice are cooked, put in a bowl for about 10 minutes. Add all other ingredients, and then pour sauce over the salad and mixed until combine.
4. Garnish with avocado. Serve warm or cold.

CHALT Sandwich

Cucumber

Hummus

Avocado

Lettuce

Tomato

Put all that on Hearty whole-grain bread

And you can add any of these delicious ingredients that you have on hand.

Pickle

Bellpepper

Olives

Veganaise or light mayonnaise

Mustard

Red onion

Sprouts

Happy Wrap

Tonight for dinner we had what I am going to call happy wraps. Doesn't it look like it's smiling? Delicious and nutritious! And for you meat lovers out there, you can substitute chickpeas with tuna. But I would recommend having both if you're going to have tuna :-)

Ingredients:

Chickpeas drained and rinsed

Romain lettuce leaves

Sliced olives

Sliced tomato

Sliced cucumber

Hummus

Avocado

Sliced or diced red onion

Directions:

Double tube romaine leaves together, and assemble your wrap with all the toppings you like, and enjoy!

PS. John enjoyed eating raw red onion tonight for dinner. Actually he ate all of this except for the lettuce. :) I love it when dinner works out for all of us! (it doesn't always, lately)

Cream of Vegetable Soup

Here is a creation from today that I made up between today's amazing sessions of General Conference with whatever I had available in my fridge. And as we say at our house, "It's blog-worthy!" so I'm sharing it with you. Enjoy!

Cream of Vegetable Soup

Serves 6

Ingredients:
Veggies:
- 1 onion
- 2 Tb. garlic
- 1 stalk celery
- 2 cups cauliflower
- 1 cup broccoli
- 1 lb. asparagus

- 1 large handful (about 1 1/2 cup) spinach
- 5 cups water or veggie stock

Seasonings:
- 1/2 tsp. dry thyme
- 1 tsp. dry oregano
- 1/2 tsp. coriander
- 1/2 tsp. cumin

Finishing Touches:
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast (in the bulk section of your health food store)
- 2/3 cup cashews
- 3 Tb. lemon juice (or to taste)

- 1 tsp. salt (or to taste)
- fresh cracked pepper

Directions:
1. Heat a large pot on medium high heat while you roughly chop your onion (but not so rough as to chop your finger :) I've learned that lesson a time or two...), then start sauteing your onion adding sufficient amounts of water to keep it from sticking or burning.

2. While onion is sauteing, chop all your other vegetables and add (except for spinach) to the pot. Saute for about 5 more minutes, or until onions are translucent.

3. Add water/veggie stock and spinach to the pot and bring to a boil. Turn down heat to a simmer.

4. Add all the seasonings and simmer for about 10 minutes.

5. Remove from heat, add nutritional yeast, cashews (that's where the "creamy" comes in!) and lemon juice. Then puree using an immersion blender (or ladle small amounts carefully into a blender).

6. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Tips:
-You can garnish the soup with anything you like really, cashews, sliced spinach, cilantro, bell peppers, avocado... you name it!
- You can use this as your main dish, as a side, as a salad dressing, as a base for another creamy soup. The sky is the limit!
- And don't be afraid of substituting other veggies. Use what you have.