So go make it! Try the original recipe right here or make it with my changes. Either way…. stuff your face!!

I love soup all year ’round so don’t be a hater and tell me it’s not soup season! Spring is just as deserving of this deliciousness as the other seasons This has become my favorite soup too – I keep it stockpiled in the freezer just to make sure I always have some handy! It’s simple, healthy, delicious and beautiful. Can’t complain about any of that, right?

I attempted to cut my carrots into heart shapes. I saw it on Pinterest and thought ‘ohhhh I can do that!’ Buuuuuut I forgot how un-handy I am with a knife. I am very accident prone so after one carrot attempt I said my carrots could be plain and boring as long as I had all my fingers So only a few little heart-like shapes made it through. Heart it up at your own risk folks!

I have made this soup quite a few times now and I will say that red or brown lentils work – brown just take a little longer to soften up. I have used spinach and baby kale, both of which were awesome. The carrot count is a guestimate – I really just used however many I have on hand or feel like at the time! And feel free to change up the seasonings if you want. It really can be modified very easily to fit your taste buds or current mood! Sometimes I spice it up with cayenne or toss in some fresh herbs at the end of cooking. Make it your own!

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Lentil Soup

 

Ingredients

• 2¼ cup dry lentils (brown or red)
• 2 tbs EVOO
• 4+++ carrots, diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cans diced tomatoes NO SALT, don’t drain
• 1½ tsp dried oregano
• 1½ tsp dried thyme
• 1½ tsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 3+ cups veggie broth
• 3+ cups water
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 10 oz bag fresh baby spinach or baby kale, chopped

Instructions

1. In a very large pot, heat EVOO over med-high heat
2. Add onion, carrots and garlic – saute for 7-10 minutes
3. Add seasonings, tomatoes (with their liquid), broth, water and lentils
4. Let this come to a boil, then simmer uncovered for about 25 minutes (longer for brown lentils)
5. Add your spinach/kale and cook for about 5 more minutes
6. Taste test to see if you need to add any extra seasonings

Notes

I have never used less than 4 carrots in this soup – it makes a lot so you can go kinda crazy if you want. I normally use about 8 carrots. I suggest using no salt added diced tomatoes because you will be using the liquid. It’s normally super salty to my tastes and so I prefer to use no salt added cans and add my own salt as needed. I also prefer the petite diced tomatoes. THIS SOUP MAKES A TON – fair warning I freeze leftovers and they are just as good later!

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Yes, it is SUPER amazing! Carrot cake is something I always ate when out and about, but never actually attempted to make myself. Holy crap have I been missing out! I am not a huge fan of carrot cakes that have fruit in them like pineapple or raisins. It’s just not my thing! So making my own meant adding or subtracting whatever my little heart desired! Pretty sweet deal if you ask me So check out the recipe! I have also included the recipe I used for the icing which was pretty killer as well, though it’s a normal recipe and nothing fancy. Enjoy!

Well I am so excited! I went to Bed Bath & Beyond to check out their new Magic Bullets. I tried finding this new version online, but I can’t find it anywhere, not even on Bed Bath & Beyond’s website! But the blade is much better and they come with LIDS and STRAWS! WOOHOO! This is huge for me because I hate not having a lid for my cups when I go to work. So I waited for one of those 20% off coupons and took my happy butt down there.

But when I started looking, I realized my Magic Bullet still works fine and I really didn’t want to just get rid of it. Maybe I just need a new blade or fancy lids?! Then my husband showed me the Ninja Pulse. I was super excited. Why? Well, I didn’t want to get rid of my old Magic Bullet and while this Ninja doesn’t do much different (it DOES come with dough blades and whatnot, but I have a stand mixer so that wasn’t a selling point for me… you can also do some food processing too), wow it is nice! The lids and cups are such high quality. Why not right?! Now I have two ‘pulse’ blender type things and no real blender… I am ok with that

So I made some smoothies and was so stinkin happy with the purchase that I wanted to share! No-one is paying me to say this and I paid for my little Ninja Pulse so this is my REAL opinion with no outside influence. It is GREAT for smoothies, which is what I was looking for. Smoothies are my go-to breakfast now and I needed something that could do green smoothies – my weak Magic Bullet, because the blades are so dull I believe, didn’t really blend the green smoothies well enough. They always had too many green chunks left. So I am super happy with this thing because it took no time at all and it was super smooth. I also love that it has multiple cups with lids so I can make a few at a time and toss em in the fridge for the week. So if you are a smoothie drinker and don’t want to mess with a blender all the time, I’d say try this out!

Now that I had a super awesome smoothie maker, I went off a post from All Things G&D and froze my smoothie ingredients. Such a great idea that I for some reason never thought of! I followed her guide and did a few bags with the green apple, kale, parsley and banana. Delicious! I also did a few other random mixes so I had some variety and threw it all in my freezer. Whew, I felt pretty accomplished and will totally save myself time in the morning. Let’s all be smoothie drinking friends

This first picture is a ham, egg and cheddar muffin. Aren’t they cool looking? The second picture is made with chorizo. They turn out so lovely and are great for on the go. Check out the simple recipes and give these little guys a go

So that title is a bit much, I know! But I tried this recipe and really wanted to share it. My picture is not nearly as pretty as the ones over at Cheap and Simple Vegan, but it’ll do! I had been meaning to make this recipe for quite some time, I just kept eating all the kale as chips! HA! I guess that’s a good problem to have? So when I finally stop stuffing my face with super awesome kale chips, I made this awesome dish. I thought it was delicious, but I used a pan that wasn’t friendly and my tofu stuck terribly. I think next time I will pop it in my George Foreman little grill. It still tasted great, I just made a hot mess. I also mixed quinoa and rice (using leftovers yey!) instead of couscous, but I bet it would be yummy with anything you wanted to use. Wanna give this one a go?! Stop by Cheap and Simple Vegan to see her awesome recipe for this dish. Hope you give it a try and enjoy the heck out of it!!

I was looking all over the internets for a great dip to serve for Superbowl Sunday. I finally decided to try this one (along with hummus and guacamole!) and wow, was I impressed! This is probably one of the best things I have made in a while. And really simple too! It was a hit, even with meat eaters, so I am happy to share it! I found it on Pinterest, my addiction, and want to give a huge thanks to The Vegan Version for posting it

I went a little dip crazy, but they were all great! So left to right it’s this buffalo chickpea dip, garlic hummus, roasted red pepper hummus and a crazy looking colored guacamole. They were all great, but this dip got the most love. It’s kinda creamy, a little spicy, a little cheesy and just perfect with chips! I actually prefered to eat it with cauliflower, but I’m a bit weird.

I only changed a few things based on what I had on hand and my personal experience with the taste of dips. I took down the amount of wing/hot sauce because I know my husband isn’t a huge fan of super hot stuff. Worked great! I also baked this in two separate little dishes and kept the same baking time. Easy and delicious dip – give it a go!

I looooooooove these pancakes! They come out so fluffy and soft. They are also a great base – you could add things, tweak things, but it’s a great starting point. Sometimes I add some nuts to the batter or top em with fruit (like some bananas I let slightly caramelize mmmm). You could do whatever you want to these yummy little pancakes or you could just leave the recipe as is and top like normal… you will love em no matter what, I promise! Oh and hey, since Valentine’s Day is soon, maybe you could make these for your sweetie and top em with strawberries! That would be a pretty awesome little treat if you ask me.

Maybe you are like, wow why so much detail on how to cook pancakes crazy lady?! Well, I actually don’t enjoy cooking pancakes. I love eating them of course, but I always seem to mess up when cooking them. I flip them and make a hot mess. I follow these specific instructions so at least I feel better about my messy pancakes

One of my favorite vegan food blogs EVER is My Vegan Cookbook. I have made tons of the recipes there and have loved every single one of them (especially the pecan pie!!!). So when I saw this recipe, even with the long list of ingredients, I knew I had to try it. I made a few slight tweaks, but only a couple big changes – I added a few tablespoons of chive and garlic cream cheese to the potato mix and then spread the potatoes over the entire top, then used my fork to make it look all… forky! Ha! It was soooooooo stinkin good! Just divine.

On a semi-related note… do you ever look at a word so long that it stops making sense? That happened to me when looking at this recipe. I really though it was shepard’s pie, but the word started looking weird after a few minutes. I googled and what, it’s shepherd?! I was even more confused! I just went with it, but this spelling looks even more confusing! Luckily it doesn’t matter how you spell it, it’ll still taste amazing

Cooking things for other people always makes me so happy! It’s super rewarding and when it’s for someone else, I seem to go a little more crazy. I baked a bunch of cookies over the holidays to share with others and these peanut butter cookies were one of the recipes I whipped up. Baking to me is a ton of fun, but I don’t feel like I am the best at it. This recipe was very simple though – I don’t think I could have messed it up if I tried!

I think if there was one thing you could change about this recipe it would be to add more peanut butter. To me, the best part of a peanut butter cookie is taking a bite and being slapped in the face by the awesome flavor of PB! Maybe that’s just me

And don’t ask where I got this recipe, I truely have no clue. I have this weird habit of hand writing recipes on random peices of paper. I find them all over my house so I really have no clue where a lot of my recipes actually came from! But hey, that makes things a little more fun right?!