5 Minute Healthy Comfort Meals: Lentil Soup with Rice

Lentil Soup with Rice is a 5 minute extremely easy yet healthy and delicious Vegan dinner recipe. It is very basic complete meal but you can add more vegetables or toppings like seaweed and chopped nuts. This is definitely my go to meal especially after a long day like these past few days have been...

You see, my goal for Vegan MoFo, like most I suppose, was a lofty one but, at least when I initially signed up, was one I thought I could easily attain with hard work. The goal: I planned on writing a blog post a day despite this being my first blog. Well, by the end of August, many new and very unexpected opportunities came my way including getting a full-time job and starting an educational course of study. I eventually want to start my own wellness business so, when I discovered a local college was offering an entrepreneurial certificate, I dove in head first. So, last week and this week was when all of this started or got into full swing and, naturally, I became a bit overwhelmed with it all. But, please, if you have enjoyed my posts, hang in there with me. I spent a lot of time last weekend to get this week's blog posts ready because I am still planning at least 20 but shooting for 30 posts by the end of September. At this point, I am re-organized and re-energized for the rest of September. 

Lentil Soup with Rice

Ingredients:

1 can Amy's brand Lentil soup

1 pouch or box of family size microwaveable rice

1 tbs coconut oil

Optional

Toppings: seaweed, chopped nuts, etc, 

Vegetables (frozen is the fastest)

Directions: 

1. Make rice according to package directions

2. Combine rice, lentil soup, and coconut oil in pan. If you are using vegetables, also include them in this step but cook frozen vegetables separately before adding them in. 

3. Heat until hot. 

4. Serve with your favorite toppings. Enjoy!  

© 2014 A Helping of Wellness All Rights Reserved 

Avocado Milkshake

One of my favorite naturally Vegan foods that is also one of the most delectable in its simplest forms yet endless in its applications is the avocado. I often times just cut one in half, sprinkle a little Himalayan Sea Salt on it (perhaps a little lemon juice), and enjoy. I could probably eat one every day.

So, my first comfort food is inspired by the avocado: the Avocado Milkshake. I am also a huge fan of recipes that are healthy yet are quick and easy to make. This recipe certainly fits that.

Avocado Milkshake

Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado, chopped
1 can light coconut milk*
1 cup frozen mango/pineapple**

Steps:
1. Put avocado, light coconut milk (or non-dairy milk of choice), and frozen fruit in blender
2. Blend until smooth
3. Enjoy!

* I have enjoyed a similar version with rice milk that was delicious as well. So, you may be able to use any non-dairy milk that you wish or have on hand.
** I wanted to use natural sugar instead of refined so I chose to use fruit. You can substitute any sweetener that you wish to taste. You may also substitute any fruit that you want, fresh or frozen.  However, if you do not use frozen fruit, I would add ice.

© 2014 A Helping of Wellness All Rights Reserved

Vegan Month of Food Introduction

Welcome!!! And, thank you for checking out my blog. I learned about Vegan Month of Food last year shortly after I was transitioning to being a Vegan but was unprepared at the time to start blogging. Though I am still a novice at blogging, I decided instead of being hesitant that I would jump right in this year because I love cooking Vegan! I come from a family of great home cooks and bakers but I never found my passion or innate ability until I went Vegan. There are so many Vegan foods out there that have way too many processed ingredients. I initially started on my Vegan journey in order to improve my health so I certainly did not want to eat fake food. I am also a huge foodie and so I was unwilling to eat anything that tasted like and had the texture of cardboard or plastic. So, I found that I had to start cooking a lot of my old favorites, now Veganized, at home.

This brief version of my Vegan story was my inspiration for my theme this year: 

Comfort and Community through Food.

This month I plan on sharing recipes of my favorite comfort foods in their Vegan version, from breakfast through dessert. I also want to encourage my friends and family to at least eat more Vegan meals by making one of their favorite foods and visiting their homes to share my Vegan creation. I also have friends and family that are not within easy traveling distance. So, I will be sending Vegan care packages to them. Furthermore, I plan to go out into my community and share some of my favorite local Vegan joints in the great San Francisco Bay Area. I may also find inspiration to create my own complements to the dishes I share. Through this month of comfort foods and community togetherness, I hope to inspire Vegans and non-Vegans alike. 

Starting Off

To start off, I will tell you all a little about the purpose of this blog:
It has been my intention for several years now to create a space where I can share my interests in the field of health, fitness, and wellness. So, this blog will serve as a place to share my inspirations: Vegan recipes, self-improvement motivations, and meditations on life. I will be sharing my own thoughts/creations as well as quality information from other sources.
As a way to jump start my dream of blogging, I will be participating in the Vegan Month of Food (VeganMoFo) where I am challenging myself to post something Vegan related every day for the month of September. My theme will be on the comfort of kindness through food and community. I have some really great ideas that I am so excited to share.

A final side note, for now:
My plan was to learn as much as I could before I officially started blogging so that it would look really polished. However, I realized that if I kept up that line of thinking and waiting to have the time to learn before producing, I may never start blogging. So, fair warning, as an absolute beginner who will be learning as I go along, my blog will probably look really rough at first.