Category Archives: Food

Salads

  By Crystal Clarke | January 24, 2014 - 9:00 am | , , , ,
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I have a secret to disclose to everyone: I don’t like salad! I’ve been vegan for almost 12 years now and I have kept this secret until recently. There is an assumption that because someone is vegan that means they like salad. It is often used as the go-to food at a restaurant that has nothing else. “There’s nothing you can eat? Well, you can have a salad!” Blah! This week I have tried having a salad for lunch a couple of times. One day I had a salad with quinoa, grape tomatoes, and baby greens with a ginger-sesame dressing. … Keep reading →

A Teenage Success Story!

  By Crystal Clarke | September 23, 2013 - 6:10 pm | , , ,
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All of Us

Last week I had one of my best culinary days! I told the younger teenager that I wanted to make chilli and asked if she was cool with that. The conversation went something like this: Me: “So… I’m going to make chilli tonight for supper. Is that cool?” Teenager thinks: “What’s all in it?” Me: “Usually I put onions, carrots, celery, veggie ground round, diced tomatoes, and beans in it. Plus chilli spices of course.” Teen: “Chilli doesn’t have carrots or celery in it.” Me: “My chilli does.” Teen: “I don’t like celery.” Me: “I can leave the celery out … Keep reading →

Not as Good as my Mom’s Banana Bread

  By Crystal Clarke | September 9, 2013 - 7:58 pm | , , ,
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Banana Bread Collage

For many years, and my siblings and my entire childhood, my grandma and my mom co-existed in the same farm yard. Now that I’m an adult and have experiences with mothers-in-law and family dynamics, I have a serious appreciation and respect for both of these women for making it through those years without killing one another. And more than that, they are still very close! The joke in our house whenever my mom made one of my grandma’s recipes w  was that the secret ingredient is a mother’s love. No matter what my mom made, it was never as good … Keep reading →

Streusel-iscious muffins

  By Crystal Clarke | September 6, 2013 - 9:10 am | , , ,
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This whole Vegan MoFo thing has been a big learning experience for me. Today I learned what streusel is! From dictionary.com, it is: streusel [German stroi-zuhl; English stroo-zuhl noun a topping for coffeecake, consisting of crumbs of blended sugar, cinnamon, flour, butter, and chopped nutmeats. Origin: 1925-30; <German: literally, a sprinkling; I have no idea what a nutmeat is, but maybe I’ll look that up tomorrow! And, obviously, there is no butter in this vegan recipe. Today’s recipe is adapted from The Garden of Vegan (again). I used flax eggs for this one to add some good omega oil and because … Keep reading →

Look at those Steaming Buns

  By Crystal Clarke | September 4, 2013 - 9:26 pm | , ,
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This is what a steamed bun looks like.

My Vegan MoFo plan for today was to make a Shepherd’s Pie with polenta, but that was put on hold when our trip to the city went longer than expected (I should know better by now). By the time we got home, the kids and us were hungry to my honey made a fried rice that was pretty yummy. Today’s vegan culinary adventure consisted of a steamed bun from The Green Spot Cafe in Regina. I would have put up a post while I was sitting there, but there was no wireless internet creating chaos in my mind*. I went … Keep reading →

Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

  By Crystal Clarke | September 3, 2013 - 3:48 pm | , ,
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Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

In an earlier post today I said that I was going to focus on workout food. Today’s food post, however, is all about yummy and healthy! Before last spring I had never cooked for teenagers before. The two teenagers that I live with (my love’s kiddos, a 15-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl) have not eaten a lot of vegan food. That being said, I’ve had very little experience cooking for other people. I mean, it wasn’t uncommon for me to eat rice and lentils with no seasoning at all other than some Braggs. One of the kiddos is super … Keep reading →

Week 14

  By Crystal Clarke | April 8, 2013 - 10:29 am | , , , , , , , , , ,
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14 weeks. 14 weeks until my A-race of 2013. Holy S**t. When I counted the weeks this morning I had a little jump of panic. Why? Well, let me just tell you why. The past few months I have been more active than I have been since the marathons last spring. That really isn’t saying a lot since I did almost zero activity from June to December. The reasons for that were numerous: burn-out (2 years of straight training will do that), a knee injury, a lot of various family issues from my brother being in an accident to my … Keep reading →

Weekend Recipes!

  By Crystal Clarke | January 13, 2013 - 3:03 pm | , , , , ,
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Two pancakes with Becel Vegan margarine and maple syrup. Delicious!

Last week I made a wonderful meal of steamed veggies (peppers, onions, and spinach) on top of quinoa with a simple tahini dressing/sauce (tahini, garlic, Bragg’s). It was delicious when warm and then the next day for lunch when it was cold. Last weekend I made some delicious dahl from my new Forks Over Knives cookbook that I got from my sister for Christmas (Thanks Ash!). I was planning to make home-made naan to go with the dahl, but I got lazy and had a double lentil meal with some lentil rolls a friend randomly gave to me earlier that … Keep reading →

Fast Food Indeed

  By Crystal Clarke | October 11, 2011 - 8:45 pm | , , , , , ,
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Today I got home from work like so many other people in western civilization –  very hungry. My stomach was growling the whole way between work and home. It was at this moment that it made so much sense to me why so many people eat at fast food restaurants. As a vegan, though, I am lucky enough to have very few options in the world of fast food and, therefore, am never tempted to put such gross “food” into my body. So instead of eating at a greasy fast food restaurant, I made my own fast food! It’s quite … Keep reading →

Food Post: Nutloaf Fail!

  By Crystal Clarke | May 30, 2011 - 8:07 pm | , , ,
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Ever since I recently read about a nutloaf, I thought it was brilliant! I could taste the savory flavours that I already was imagining combined with the rich texture of walnuts, cashews, and almonds! Yum. So I began my search for a nutloaf recipe that I thought was manageable. I found one on the good ol’ internet, after my trusty How it All Vegan cookbooks had no such recipe. It was the ABC Nutloaf from The Vegan Chef. So I got all the ingredients and got ready to make it. It wasn’t difficult, but it was a bit time consuming. … Keep reading →