In My Belly

I cooked with jackfruit for the first time this week! Oh boy! It makes for some great meat substitutes like pulled pork and tuna salad. Have you tried it? I got mine from Vegan Essentials. It's so fun trying new foods. I'd had jackfruit as a tuna melt sandwich when I was in Sacramento a few months ago and kept hearing about it as a meat alternative so I was happy to finally try it! I already went through my two cans!

Summer weather is definitely here. It hasn't been crazy hot lately, only around 80f but humid! Humid for us anyway. At dinner I don't mind having a hot meal but the rest of the time I've definitely been leaning towards cooling foods. Most of the pics below are dinner or breakfast haha Lunch is often a smoothie and later I'll have leftovers, a salad or a snack like veggies and hummus.

Jackfruit tuna sandwich. Similar to this recipe.

Have you tried these? Husband and I tried these ones as well as the sweet potato ones and really enjoyed both. You can find them at Target!

Husband and I got together with some family for a BBQ. I brought watermelon and veggie burgers. His aunt made the salad and put the cheese on the side for us. I so appreciate when people make that effort!

Pulled "pork" jackfruit! I totally cheated and bought a pulled pork sauce from Target haha I cooked up some onions and garlic then added the jackfruit and sauce. I baked it all to get it a little crispier.

So, the other day we were low on groceries and I was feeling pretty uninspired by my breakfast options so I decided to pull out a very old box of Cream of Wheat haha It's not a particularly healthy dish but it sure brought me back to my childhood.

Homemade granola. A really simple way to make it is just to combine dates, banana and spices in your blender or food mixer. Then add that to your oats and other dry ingredients. It sweetens it and helps it stick together! It helps to cook the dates in a bit of water first. You can add the date water to the mix as well.

Bowls like these are a common ocurrance in this house hold. They're just so easy and you can add a lot of nutrients. I do a grain, protein, seaweed, sauerkraut, veggies and sauce.

CSA delivery! I added on the oranges.

TVP chili. Recipe here. Next time I'll do less TVP and more meat. It was good though! I topped it with unsweetened plain coconut yogurt which is a great replacement for sour cream. I know there are vegan sour creams but this is just healthier. I grew up using yogurt instead of sour cream so it feels normal to me :P

Tofu scramble (the only way I really cook tofu these days, I've noticed), toast with hummus and homemade hashbrowns.

I'm still  loving smoothie bowls for breakfast. I think this was frozen banana and pineapple, maca powder and matcha green tea powder.

Another bowl! This one has some seitan in it. I'm loving seitan and tempeh lately.

A very green smoothie bowl! I probably added spinach to it.

CSA last week. I added on the blueberries. I should have gotten more!