I was honored to be chosen recently as one of 30 bloggers in Lucky Foods recipe challenge. I wanted to make something still light enough for summer, but with depth of flavor and a little spice to match the heat of the outside temps. 

I feel like we had been in a food rut when it came to lunches at home recently and I was so ecstatic to receive the box of goodies from Lucky Foods, including this spicy spin on mayo, ,The Seoul Kimchi Mayo is creamy, spicy and goes so well on bowls, salads and sandwiches. It was exactly what we needed to bring life back to lunch time! 

I decided on a deconstructed vegan sushi bowl because I am a bowl lover and, as I said, I wanted to keep it light, cool, crunchy and fresh for summertime. 

Lucky Foods is a family-owned and woman-owned company. Their vegan and gluten free spring rolls have been a staple in our home and I was so excited when they expanded to sauces to spruce up our homemade dishes as well. 

What You'll Need
1 C. Jasmine or Brown Rice 
1/2 Cucumber, chopped
1/4 C. shredded carrot
1/2 of an avocado
1/4 C. chopped mango
1/4 C. shelled edamame
1-2 sheets seaweed, cut into strips 
Sprinkle of toasted or black sesame seeds
Drizzle on Lucky Food's Kimchi Mayo to taste 

Add in a bowl and enjoy! 

To get social with Lucky Foods, visit them at http://www.instagram.com/eatluckyfoods
or
​ http://www.facebook.com/luckyfoods 

Happy New Year ladies + gents! Woof - 2020 was a doozy for so many reasons, but it was also one of our most blessed years because we welcomed our sweet Lexi to complete our sweet little family of four. The Lord knew we needed her because for a time, our family felt complete with Grey. SO happy that God knew better. Now almost three months old (that went craaaaazy fast BTW), she is a dream and we are so smitten by her.

I've been on a new recipe kick lately as I test run recipes for season 2 of The Clean Plate with Mandi as well as feeding my face all the things because hello #postpartum and #breastfeeding.

Mama is hungry and this Vegan Instant Pot LoMein is FAST, EASY, HEALTHY and SUPER DELICIOUS. 

Which equates to this becoming a weekly or bi-monthly staple on our meal plan.

We got an InstantPot shortly before moving into our ranch house renovation and I've yet to really get into the groove of using it regularly, so I thought I'd start with some noodles. Whenever the fam grabs asian food I can never get the noodle dishes because #gluten, boo. So this allows me to satisfy that craving in a way that won't cause me pain. 

​Kids ALSO love it because long noodles are fun to slurp and twirl on forks and its a great recipe to get veggies into those little bellies. 

Ingredients

• 1 TBSP sesame oil 
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• ½ C diced white onion
• 1 C julienned carrots
• 1 C organic snow peas
• 2 TBSP rice wine vinegar
• 1 ½ cup vegetable broth (you may use bone broth if not vegan)
• The juice from 1 Lemon
• 3 TBSP gluten-free soy sauce
• ⅓ C brown sugar or coconut sugar
• 8 oz. rice lo mein noodles
• Sea salt
• Pepper to taste

​

Directions

• Set your InstantPot to saute and with the lid open, saute sesame oil, garlic, and onion until translucent. 
• Add rice wine vinegar, vegetable or bone broth, lemon juice, soy sauce and brown sugar or coconut suagr  and mix well.
• Add uncooked noodles.
• Add carrots and snow peas. (you can also add mushrooms or baby corn as well if you wish)
• Lock lid and set vent to sealing
• Press manual button and set to high for 5 minutes
• Quick pressure release carefully once done.
• Serve and Enjoy!

We also made teriyaki chicken and homemade fried rice with this for a family dinner and it fed us for THREE whole days. Such a great meal for families with new babies, who like to batch cook or who are under the weather. 

What are YOUR favorite InstantPot recipes? Leave me inspiration below! 

How is everyone out there doing?

Like, really doing? Not passing small talk, but really doing a big heart check and reaching out if you need to. We've had our ups and downs with so many thoughts, theories, big feelings, grief over "normalcy", being pregnant during a pandemic, raising a toddler who is sad his world has changed. It's a lot to process. 

So very much. 

I have faith in a big, big God that will get us all through this. Praise, because I don't know how any of us could get through times like this without his provision, strength and promises. 

But until we can resume normalcy, if ever, we can stay fervent in prayer, draw close to those we love (even if from a distance) and make lots of delicious food. 

This Roasted Red Pepper Sauce is so delicious and amazing that it would be great on vegetables or meat as well if you're watching grains. Or you may swap out the pasta for a grain-free variety such as almond flour pasta, garbanzo bean or edamame. 

I poured it over piping hot rice pasta and topped with chopped basil for a comfort meal I was craving. 

Grab the recipe below, comment your favorite food and reach out if you need! I'm always here to lend an ear. :) 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 box of gluten free or grain free pasta of choice
• 1 jar of roasted red peppers in water 
• 4 oz. vegan cream cheese
• 1/4 c. fresh or dried basil 
• 2 TBSP. vegan butter
• 1 shallot
• 2 tsp. minced garlic 
• 1 C. vegan cream of choice (I used unsweetened coconut cream, almond, cashew or oat work as well) 

DIRECTIONS 

• In a large sautee pan, over medium heat, place in your butter and shallot and warm for 3-4 minutes. Add in garlic and saute for an additional minute.
  
• Boil water for pasta and cook pasta to directions and set aside. 
• Add cream cheese and cream to pan and mix well until creamy.
  
• Drain jar of peppers and add peppers into the pan to warm. 
  
• Carefully transfer all ingredients to a blender or food processor (I use my Ninja and it works amazing!) and blend until creamy and no chunks remain.
  
• Pour over pasta, top with basil and enjoy!

I've always loved weekends. My husband (my favorite human) works a corporate Monday-Friday position so our weekends have always been a blissful time to connect, travel and pursue passions side by side.

Now that we are parents to our little guy, weekends get sweeter the older Grey gets. We play, shop, travel, dress up, read, watch movies and cook together. Simply making sweet memories. Now that it's summer, I have flashbacks of my own childhood summers daily and I just love these little moments with my guys. 

Always one to want to mix it up in the kitchen, making different new dishes EVERY night, EVERY week was wearing on me. It was taking time from my family and made meal planning and grocery shopping stressful each week. So a couple of weeks ago Doug and I made a new plan. We would make a seven day meal plan and stick to it EVERY week until we got bored. We are on week four of one rotation of seven meals and it's the best decision we've made in a while. 

For our Sunday night meal we decided stuffed potatoes are a win because they are quick and we want time to really soak up the end of the weekend before my husband goes back to work. It also allows us to be creative and mix up different flavors. We made these Vegan Chili Cheese Potatoes tonight and they came out SO yummy and so pretty that I had to grab my camera and share them with you guys too! 

Share your favorite potato toppings below to inspire us and keep these babies in our weekly rotation! 

Ingredients:
2 Russet Potatoes
1 Can Annie's Black Bean Chili (its sweet + savory! Not spicy.)
2 Slices Follow Your Heart Vegan Provolone
Sea Salt 
Chives, washed and diced

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. 
Wash potatoes and pierce 3-4 sections with a fork.
Sprinkle sea salt on skins and bake for 45 minutes-1 hour until tender. 
While potatoes are cooking, cook chili over medium on the stove until bubbling. Remove from heat and set aside. 
While still warm, cut open carefully and insert vegan cheese to melt. 
Top with chili and chives. 
​Enjoy! 

Last week we had one of those moments.
​
You know those idyllic parenting moments you dream about and then you become parents and sometimes the moments you pictured in your head don't quite turn out because #reallife. Well this wasn't one of those. It was one of those beautiful, just-as-I-always-pictured-it moments and I am so thankful for God for the memories we got to make when we took our one year old to the pumpkin patch this year. 

Grey adored EVERY part of the day at the "Pum Pum" Patch, that he so affectionately calls it, which in turn made ME enjoy every part of the day and made my mama heart extremely happy. He played in corn (yay sensory activity I didn't have to clean up, haha), fed a goat, rode a massive tire swing, slid down a huge slide with me and Mr. Charming, picked a baby pumpkin and ran until his cheeks turned pink and his legs grew tired. 

Yes, it was a beautiful Fall day indeed. And for those of you in Arizona, we drove up to Dewey (just outside of Prescott) to Mortimer Farms and its by far my new favorite fall spot. 

We've been trying to be more intentional this season. Intentional about our quality time together as a family, intentional about how we care for our marriage, our home, our bodies. 

I've been doing a life changing Proverbs 31 Study this month and it's motivated me to spend more time with God, purge our home of things we don't need and up my game again in the kitchen to get nutritious, home cooked meals in me and the boys. 

Even as a nutritionist, I was falling short (and can totally admit it) when it came to putting the best food on the table when I was in new mama territory. 

This Quinoa bowl was ACTUALLY a total accident, as I had white quinoa in the freezer and my husband was on his way home for lunch and I wanted to give him something healthy as we're trying to keep our immune systems boosted and our calories down and this bowl was born.

And. It. Was. Gosh. Darn. Amazing. 

The flavors came together SO beautifully. I love when you throw together what you have left in the fridge and you make an epic creation. This bowl needs to be made and enjoyed. The hot quinoa and roasted sweet potato with the crunchy cool tomatoes and avocado play with your senses, while the olive oil, sea salt and pepper enhance the natural flavors in the dish. 

A simply and easy meal for any weeknight or lunch hour. Recipe below per usual. 

I love Chinese takeout. OK. Let me rephrase that, I LOVED Chinese takeout. I think it's probably been close to three or four years since I've gotten take-out because of how they prepare the food, so I make it a mission to recreate old loves on a regular basis, in a much healthier, more organic way.

I found a gluten-free, spaghetti squash recipe that I wanted to try, but it used brown sugar and spices that I couldn't have, and some other items that are on my list of can't's so I altered it to make my own version. I make this when Mr. Charming and I need a vegan meal to break up the week, but you can add seafood, chicken or steak if you wish. 

We personally like to top ours with strips of fresh avocado. But what DON'T I like to top with avocado?

Ingredients:
1 Spaghetti Squash
1/2 Onion
3 cloves of minced garlic
1-3 tsp of fresh grated ginger (use 1 and will have a stronger soy sauce/garlic flavor, using 2-3 with make it spicy and gingery, I go back and forth depending on my taste buds.)
1/2 C. gluten-free soy sauce or coconut aminos if you are avoiding soy
2 C. cole slaw lettuce mix
1 stalk of celery
2 TBSP. of olive oil 


Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut spaghetti squash open length wise and scoop out seeds. Place in a cake pan with open sides down and fill shallowly with water so that the cut open portion is submerged. 

Place in oven and cook for 40-50 minutes until soft. While squash is cooking, dice onion and celery and sautee in olive oil over medium-high heat until warm, but not too soft. Toss in cabbage and cook for two to three minutes until fragrant. Set aside. 

In a small bowl mix together soy sauce, minced garlic and grated ginger. Set aside. 

Once squash is done put all ingredients into a wok or large pan over medium-high heat and mix until warm.

Serve immediately with chop sticks and top with any items of your choice. Shredded chicken, steak strips or avocado would be my top suggestions. 

For an added touch: Try pairing the meal with these awesome gluten-free fortune cookies from the Instructables Blog. 

Mandi's Tip: Replace the Cornstarch with Tapioca or Potato Starch. And use organic sugar in place of regular sugar. 

This recipe is not to be confused with my veggie pasta, where I actually incorporate gluten-free noodles.  This pasta is completely grain-free, 100% all veggies and it is amazing.  It's super easy, surprisingly very filling if you have a large bowl, and great hot with dairy-free butter or high quality butter/ghee if you tolerate dairy.  There are two options here in making this dish. The convenient way if you're on the go like I was on Easter, or the more involved option that I like to do when I'm home in my own kitchen.









Ingredients:
For on-the-go:
Pre-packed mix of shredded broccoli, cabbage and carrots

For at home: 
Broccoli Stalks 
Carrots
Red Cabbage
Earth Balance Dairy Free/Soy Free Olive Oil Butter
Sea Salt

Prep:
Wash all vegetables thouroughly.  Slice cabbage leaves into thin strips.  For the carrots and the broccoli stalks, you may use a mandolin or food processor to get uniform strips.  

For fresh, or bagged mix, heat Tbsp. of EB Butter over low-medium heat and place veggie mix in a heated pan.  Add a little more butter to your preference as well as sea salt and any additional spices or herbs of choice.  I'm doing a more gentle body detox right now, so I didn't add anything additional this time and it was still very flavorful.  Cook on medium heat, covered, until "noodles" are soft but still hold a little bit of crunch. 

Serve warm with a protein on the side.  Enjoy! 

The possibilities for this veggie stir-fry are endless, however I kept it to veggies that are safe for Auto-Immune Paleo, as I was using a lot of peppers/tomatoes in my dinners lately and I havn't been feeling as well, so I thought I'd omit them with this tasty dish.    There is also a  meat option, and if you eat tofu you may add that as well.  I do not promote the consumption of soy products due to so much soy being GMO, and the way it messes with my hormones. The beauty of this dish is you can alter it to your specifications anyway you like. 

Ingredients:
Vegetables -
1 Medium Size Organic Onion, diced
2 Cloves Garlic, Minced
Olive Oil
6 Leaves of Organic Kale

Base -
1 C. Brown Rice
or
1 C. Quinoa
or
Zucchini or Sweet Potato Noodles (For Grain Free)

Toppings -
Chicken Breast (optional)
or
Non-GMO Soy Tofu (optional)


Instructions:
Sauté 1 diced onion and 2 cloves of minced garlic in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add 6 leaves of cleaned, diced kale.  Kale cleanse the blood as well as the intestines.  Add additional veggies of choicem,  1 package of cooked tofu for protein or grilled chicken, and serve over 1 cup brown rice, quinoa or vegetable noodles.

Ingredients:
Olive oil cooking spray
2 large sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 lb), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon sea salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon white pepper, divided (if well tolerated) 
1/4 cup fresh lime juice, plus wedges for garnish
1 tablespoon pure balsamic or apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
1 can (15 oz) organic black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup thinly sliced orange or red bell pepper
1/3 cup chopped fresh mint
4 cups baby arugula




Instructions:
Heat oven to 375°. On a baking sheet coated with cooking spray, place potatoes in a layer; sprinkle with 1/2 tsp sea salt and 1/4 tsp white pepper. Bake until tender, about 30 minutes; let cool. In a bowl, whisk juice, vinegar, garlic, remaining 1/2 tsp sea salt and remaining 1/4 tsp white pepper. Add sweet potatoes, beans, tomatoes, bell pepper, and mint; toss; serve over arugula, and garnish with lime wedges.