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Our 4th of July Menu

July 4, 2016 by Holly Yzquierdo Leave a Comment

It’s the 4th of July and in the US, we are celebrating Independence Day. I’m enjoying a nice long weekend with family and friends and I’ve neglected to plan for the holiday.

Today, I’ve got a great 4th of July menu planned even if you don’t have time. I’m using items from my basic pantry and fridge staples list.

Plant-Based Burger

This Veggie Burger uses beans and rice and they are easy to make without a lot of prior planning.

Plant-Based Side Dish

Pasta Salad is an easy side dish, it uses basic ingredients and is a crowd-pleaser.

Plant-Based Dips

I love dips! If you’ve been here a while you know that already. Holidays call for Hummus and salsa with a side of raw veggies and tortilla chips.

We can’t forget the fruit! This easy dairy-free fruit dip is easy so easy to make even the kids can help.

Plant-Based Dessert

I can’t think of a better dessert for the 4th of July than frozen fruit treats! No need to turn on the oven with these delicious treats. Choose from Triple Berry Yogurt Pops or Mango Lime Ice Pops.

How are you celebrating the holiday? Will there be delicious plant-based food there? If so, take pictures and tag me on Instagram so I can see.

Don’t forget to sign up for plant-based tips delivered straight to your inbox!

Weekly Plant-Based Meal Plan

June 27, 2016 by Holly Yzquierdo Leave a Comment

Our weekly plant-based meal plan looks a little different lately. I have more free time in the morning than in the evening and I’ve compensated by cooking a little more in the morning and a little less at night. Our dinners are either quick and easy or made in the Crock Pot or Instant Pot.

My kids aren’t complaining, I’m “the best mom in the whole wide world” anytime I make pancakes. This week we will rely on leftovers a little more in our meal plan.

I also think that simple meals taste just as good, and sometimes better, than more complicated meals. For the rest of the summer I’m hoping to try to simplify my meals even more. That will mean more leftovers, less cooking, and still eating well.

Some things I could eat every day, like baked potatoes, beans and rice, pasta with marinara. I’ve been enjoying more smoothies lately because it’s so hot and I love using frozen strawberries in my smoothie. It seems like I’m eating sorbet for breakfast.

Every summer I avoid using the oven (really it’s from May through September) except in the early morning so it doesn’t heat up the house. I haven’t perfected my granola bar recipe yet because it requires baking. I may have to attempt a no-cook version for summer.

Weekly Plant-Based Meal Plan

Monday

Smoothie Bowl

SoyNut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, pretzels and fruit

Veggie Fried Rice (I’m craving this a ton lately!)

Tuesday

Strawberry Banana Muffins and fruit

Bean and Grain Bowl

Quinoa Lentil Salad

Wednesday

Overnight Oats

Veggie Wrap

Mexican Casserole in the Instant Pot or Crock Pot

Thursday

Blueberry Pancakes

Baked Potatoes with various toppings like beans, tomatoes, onions, salsa, etc.

Leftover Mexican Casserole

Friday

Smoothie

Leftovers

Fiesta Pasta

Last Saturday I sent out some plant-based tips to everyone on my email list! Right now this is every other week but soon we are transitioning to Weekly Tips! You can sign up here. You’ll also get the Free Summer Meal Plan with a shopping list when you sign up!

Feel free to let me know if there are topics you want to know more about! I may answer them in my (soon to be) weekly emails!

What are you eating this week? Do you eat summer salads, or grilled veggies?

Triple Berry Frozen Yogurt Pops

June 22, 2016 by Holly Yzquierdo 1 Comment

When I mentioned my obsession with making dairy-free frozen treats last week I wasn’t exaggerating. Remember the Mango Lime Ice Pops! I’ve been making every flavor of ice pop and frozen treat I can imagine. I’m only limited by my selection of fresh fruit but I’ve also tried a few other options like these Frozen Yogurt Pops.

I love making frozen treats with just fruit but I decided I wanted something a little creamier! I bought Silk dairy-free yogurt alternative and fresh berries to make these treats come to life.

I wanted to buy vanilla yogurt but my store was out so I went with plain. If you use vanilla yogurt it is already sweetened and you can skip the sweetener. If you use the plain flavor you’ll probably want to add a sweetener like maple syrup or stevia. I recommend you blend everything up first to make sure. If you find sweet berries you may not need much, but sometimes berries are a little sour.

I really wanted to take advantage of the beautiful berry colors (although my white tile floor wasn’t as excited). It’s really hard to measure berries for a recipe so I just estimated amounts and used my Blendtec to blend it all together. You’ll get a vibrant blend of fruity yogurt that is hard to resist. I do recommend a taste test at this point to see if you need to add sweetener. If so start with 1 tablespoon of maple syrup or a packet of stevia and move up from there.

Do your best to get it into your freezer pop molds. After I filled them to 3/4 of the way to the top I carefully dropped blueberries, diced strawberries and halved blackberries into the mold and used a wooden ice-pop stick to push them where I wanted them. This wouldn’t have worked in a juice but since the yogurt and fruit blend was thick and creamy the fruit stayed just where I put it. I also inserted the sticks here too.

The serving size will vary based on your freezer mold size. This recipe should make 4-6 frozen treats.

Triple Berry Frozen Yogurt Pops

Save Print

Author: Holly Yzquierdo

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 6

Ingredients

½ cup non-dairy yogurt
1 cup of fresh berries
sweetener (optional)

Instructions

Pour ½ cup of non-dairy yogurt into a blender.
Pour in half of the berries.
Blend in blender until smooth.
Taste and add sweetener if needed. I recommend maple syrup or stevia then blend again.
Once appropriately sweet, spoon into freezer molds until ¾ of the way full.
Carefully drop berries into the molds using whole blueberries, diced strawberries and halved blackberries.
Place sticks into the molds and freeze over night.
To loosen freezer pops, dip the molds into warm water then gently pull out the freezer pops.
Store in the freezer until ready to eat.

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June 20, 2016 Plant-Based Meal Plan

June 20, 2016 by Holly Yzquierdo Leave a Comment

Did you have a chance to create a plant-based meal plan on Father’s Day weekend?

Speaking of Father’s Day, we had a great day. It got up to 119 degrees so we mostly stayed inside. After church and lunch we spent some time in the pool. Swimming is always good to wear kids out (and adults too). I also got to talk on the phone to my dad and step-dad.

Last week I had meetings most evenings after work so I did very little cooking. This week I prepared by doing some batch cooking. So far I’ve cooked brown rice in my Instant Pot that will be used in multiple meals. I’ll rely on canned beans for almost instant meals.

Mango Lime Ice Pops

June 16, 2016 by Holly Yzquierdo 7 Comments

I’m going to fess up, I have a slight addiction to frozen treats. Yes, that Banana Pudding Ice Cream was just the start! Now my kids have caught it too! I’ve been making loads of vegan ice pops that are out of this world. These Mango Lime Ice Pops are a delicious frozen treat!

As soon as the temperatures rose above 100 degrees here in Arizona I started making a bunch of different ice pop recipes. We’ve had two strong favorites and I’m sharing one of them today.

This Mango Lime Ice Pop may be one of the most refreshing frozen treats I’ve ever had. It’s made with 4 simple ingredients, mango, lime, coconut water and stevia. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

I love mango but I prefer it with other flavors like my Black Bean Mango Salad. My husband and youngest son will eat mango by itself. I think lime is the perfect addition to mango and once you try this frozen treat you will too.

I used the yellow mangos but you could use the pretty green/red/yellow ones. You could even use frozen mango but I’d let it thaw a little. After cutting up my mango I had about 1 1/2 cups. If you have a little more or a little less it will still work.

Other than the simple ingredients you’ll also need a mold for making frozen treats, unless you are doing the small cups or ice cube method. I have two different molds for making delicious frozen treats but I used this one from Amazon. Don’t forget to buy the sticks unless you are using molds that come with sticks.

This recipe makes four frozen treats with a little left over that we ate right then without freezing it! I will definitely make these again!

I was a little concerned that my kids would think they tasted too “grown up” but they loved them too.

Mango Lime Ice Pops

Save Print

Author: Holly Yzquierdo

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 4

Ingredients

2 yellow mangos
1 lime (juice and zest)
½ cup coconut water
2 Stevia packets

Instructions

Peel mangos and remove the flesh.
Wash the lime then use a microplane to peel the lime zest.
Squeeze all the juice out of the lime into a measuring cup.
Pour coconut water in the measuring cup (with the lime juice) until it reaches the ½ cup mark. You will use more or less coconut water depending on how much lime juice you have. Pour in Stevia.
Blend in a high powered blender then carefully pour into your treat molds and freeze over night.
To remove the ice pops from the mold, submerge the bottom of the molds in warm water being careful not to get the treats wet.

Summer Meal Plan with Shopping List

June 13, 2016 by Holly Yzquierdo Leave a Comment

Summer…I love summer but it does not put me in a cooking mood. When it’s hot I look for easy, no cook meals whenever possible. I’ve created a summer meal plan with hearty salads, easy pasta and a delicious stir fry.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll cook occasionally but typically it’s in my Instant Pot, Crock Pot or something really quick on the stove.

When possible I’ll do a little batch cooking. If you aren’t familiar with batch cooking it is when you cook a large amount of something and use it multiple times. For example, I could cook a big batch of chickpeas and use them all week long in tacos, stir frys, hummus, etc.

This week I’m going to share a meal plan that uses simple recipes so you won’t have to cook every day. [Read more…] about Summer Meal Plan with Shopping List

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Our 4th of July Menu

Plant-Based Burger

Plant-Based Side Dish

Plant-Based Dips

Plant-Based Dessert

Weekly Plant-Based Meal Plan