Good morning and happy Friday to you. This has been a busy week. My spring semester is drawing to a close, although it doesn’t feel very significant to me because I’m starting my summer session on Monday.

Healthy Vegan Fridays:

As you probably know already, each Friday I co-host a recipe exchange called Healthy Vegan Fridays, where bloggers can submit their healthy, plant-based recipe. You can see the guidelines here, but the “winners” each week are based on the number of clicks for each recipe.

Here are the top picks for this round:

1. My Top 10 Tips for Eating Healthy from Chastity @ My Healthy Chef:

2. Superfood Cups from Heather @ Sweetly Raw:

3. Enlightened Carrot Cake from Amber @ Chef Amber Shea:

The top 3 you picked are fabulous, and here are some of my personal favorites (note: to be included as one of my picks, the recipes must be made using using little to no oil, salt, or added sugars and primarily with whole food ingredients):

1. Most Inspiring Healthy Salad - Kale Waldorf Salad from Purely Nourished:

2. Easiest Healthy Soup Using Basic Ingredients - Sweetcorn, Pea & Tofu Soup from Almost Skinny Vegan Food:

3. Easiest Healthy Dessert & Beautiful Presentation - Easy Banana Nut Ice Cream from The Jensen Journal:

Honorable Mention for Nutritarian-Friendly Comfort Food – Kale, Mac N Sweet Potato Cheese from Amy’s Nutritarian Kitchen:

Honorable Mention for a Beautiful & Easy Salad: Asparagus, Strawberry and Basil Salad with Mosto Cotto from The Taste Space:

I LOVE getting inspiration each week from the amazing recipes that are submitted to Healthy Vegan Fridays. If you want to puruse the entire list of entries, just go to the thumbnails featured below this post on my website. To see a list of all the Healthy Vegan Friday posts featuring recipes, click here.

Healthy Taste of Los Angeles:

Calendar alert! If you are anywhere around the Los Angeles area, I wanted to let you know about a great event happening on June 23rd. It’s called The Healthy Taste of Los Angeles and it’s a 100% plant-based all-day event (see the website here) with amazing speakers and food. Chef AJ is the organizer and I was lucky enough to attend similar events in March and April to hear Drs. Michael Greger and Matt Lederman speak about the benefits of healthy, vegan living (you can read about my experiences at the previous events here and here). I hope you can join me at this fabulous event in June!

Conclusion:

I’ve been playing around a lot more on Pinterest lately. Are you a fan? See all my boards here, including the ones I’ve created for Healthy Vegan Food, Fruits and Veggies are Beautiful!, and Dr. Fuhrman’s Eat to Live Food. I even have one for Vegan Delish, my app for healthy recipes that is available for download here.

With that, have a happy, healthy weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday.

Hi there and how are you? I’m doing great and have so much to share.

Photo Food Journal:

Last week for “What I Ate Wednesday“, I attempted a minimalist approach to my daily photo journal (see all my previous photo entries here). I agree with your feedback that it was perhaps too sparse. So, here we go again with a little more detail.

Yesterday’s breakfast was a green smoothie made using fresh baby spinach, hemp milk (made by blending 1/4 cup of hemp seeds with 3 cups of water), fresh mango, frozen strawberries, frozen pineapple, cinnamon, amla powder, flax meal, ground chia seeds, carob powder, fresh mint, sesame seeds (for a calcium boost), carob powder (for a pseudo chocolate flavor), frozen wild blueberries, and some frozen pomegranate arils. Putting the smoothie together is always kind of a messy, multi-stepped process:

Here was the result, with some dehydrated buckwheat groats on top for crunch:

You can see my recipe here. I should note that when I make a green smoothie, I make three large servings, one for me, one for Alan, and one for the following morning.

Lunchtime was Chef AJ’s pressure-cooker Split Pea Soup (seriously, you have got to check out her recipe):

I couldn’t help myself, I stirred in a bunch of fresh, chopped kale at the end:

I also used my hand-immersion blender to get a really blended texture. As much as I love kale, I’m not a huge fan of chomping on the big leaves, that is, unless it’s a kale chip, of course (see my recipe for Apple Pie Kale Chips here).

Anywho, I served my soup with some scallions, my homemade vegan soy yogurt (see how I make it here), and a side salad of arugula with almond butter dressing (recipe here), and fresh strawberries:

Dessert was the pièce de résistance, as they say:

You see, since I’ve been on a vegan ice cream making kick (see here) combined with a vegan pie-making kick (see here), I decided, what the hey, why not combine the two?!

This is the child I created:

It’s not yet the season for these berries, so I used frozen marionberries that I defrosted overnight in the refrigerator before using:

Here is the recipe:

I have also made this recipe available on Vegan Delish. It is much easier to see my recipes in this digital format, plus you get all kinds of cool features like a shopping list, not to mention nearly 100 of my other favorite vegan recipes (all gluten-free and made little to no oil, salt, or added sugars). You can get Vegan Delish for your iPad, iTouch, or iPhone here! It is only $1.99 for now so I hope you will consider downloading it.

BTW, I also have a Facebook page for Vegan Delish where I make announcements for giveaways and new recipes added. You can see the page here.

This is a screenshot of the pie recipe on the iPad version of the app:

Intermittent Fasting:

Okay, so let’s stop talking about food for a minute. You’ll noticed that I didn’t post any dinner pictures. That’s because I’m experimenting with something called intermittent fasting. If this is something you have no interest in, then I suggest you stop reading here. But, I’ve been fascinated with the idea of fasting for awhile now, although I haven’t really done it all. The closest I came was probably when I was so stressed after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer last year that I completely lost my appetite (you can see all the posts related to that ordeal here), but that wasn’t really fasting, I mainly just ate smaller meals and only when I got hungry.

I’ve done my research on the topic, although I’m still learning. I highly recommend Dr. Fuhrman’s book called Fasting and Eating for Health. Also, if you’re a member of his website, you can listen to a teleconference he did in early 2012 on the topic.

I can list more of my resources on the topic in the future, but what really called to me was a program called Fast-5 that a friend introduced me to (you can see the website and get the free e-book here). The idea is that you set a five-hour eating “window” each day and then fast the remaining 19 hours of the day. It’s appealing to me because there aren’t any full days that are true fasting, yet it allows for that long catabolic stretch of time each day for the body to do its repair work, not to mention other metabolic benefits.

Today is day three of me starting with this program and I have to say that it’s pretty amazing so far. I feel great, I am getting in touch with my true hunger, and, ironically, I’m thinking less about food and what I should eat, how much I should eat, etc. than I used to. I’m starting to think this combination of vegan, nutritarian, Fast:5 is my sweet spot for health.

The creator of the program, Dr. Bert Herring, has his window of eating set much differently from mine, though. He eats between 5 p.m. – 10 p.m. which does not work for me. For now, I’m eating between 8 a.m.ish and 1 p.m.ish and exercising in between. I’ve heard on other fasting resources that exercising in a fasted state can actually burn more fat, but, so far, I don’t want to do it that way.

I should note here that I’m certainly not advising you to fast. I’m just continuing my approach of being totally honest with what’s going on in my life and the adjustments I’m making on this journey. I would strongly advise you to consult your health professional before making any changes to your diet or lifestyle.

Conclusion:

Thanks for reading, I would love to hear what you have to say on fasting or anything else, just leave me a comment below. See you back here on Friday.

Okay, so it’s Monday again. Did you have a nice weekend? I loved participating in the Virtual Vegan Potluck this year (click here to see what I brought). I hope you got some inspiration for recipes; there will be another one in November!

Healthy Vegan Challenge:

Today marks week two of our six-week Healthy Vegan Challenge. You can still join the Facebook group here if you want more support. My Challenge is going a lot differently (and a lot better, I think) than the one from earlier this spring (you can see all the related posts here). I’m doing a little experimenting with intermittent fasting which is a huge change for me. I’ll write more about it on Wednesday.

I’m also making a concerted effort to make a meal plan each week to help me not over-purchase food. I finally made the connection that when I have too much food in the house, I feel compelled to eat it, whether I’m really hungry or not.

Here’s what my first attempt at a meal plan looked like. Golly, my handwriting is bad:

Side note: you know how all the kids people under 30 keep all their information on their phones now? I am old-school; I only write notes on scraps of paper and post-its.

Macadamia Nut Milk:

So I was debating which recipe to share today, either my homemade macadamia nut milk or the Marionberry Ice Cream Pie I made yesterday. (How many of you are screaming at me, “Pie, Pie!!!” right now?)

I feel guilty for sharing so many desserts lately, like I am tempting you with too many treats, so I’m going to share my recipe for the nut milk:

Since it’s so easy to make, I’m going to consider this as part of my Homemade Vegan Series (see all of the posts so far here).

Macadamia nut milk doesn’t require straining which means it can be made in about 30 seconds in a high-speed blender like a Vitamix. The ingredients are simply mac nuts, water, vanilla extract, and dates.

Here’s the recipe:

This is a winner:

It will separate upon standing, though, so you just need to give it a little stir before serving. It will keep up to 3 days in the fridge.

I’ve been using this on everything, including a simple breakfast of fresh mango and dehydrated buckwheat groats:

I also made Alan a dessert smoothie with it using frozen peaches and it works wonderfully in hot beverages, too.

This recipe is also available on my recipe app, Vegan Delish (get it here). Here is a screenshot of the iPad version:

BlogHer Relationship:

I’m not sure if you’re noticed or not, but I recently became a publisher with the company, BlogHer. That means that I am now featuring ads in the sidebar of my blog (see it here). As my blog continues to grow (thank you!), it has gotten to the point where it would be nice to at least cover the costs of running it.

I did a lot of research before deciding to work with BlogHer. Turns out one of the co-founders is vegan and the company is very sensitive to having opt-outs for non-vegan friendly ads, so it seemed like the perfect fit for what I am doing here.

That being said, if you ever see anything that is offensive, do let me know (you can e-mail me at carrie on vegan @ gmail. com…no spaces).

Conclusion:

Again, thank you so much for reading, I can’t tell you how much it means to me to interact with you and get to know so many of you in this virtual community. I’ll be back here on Wednesday. Until then, please do keep in touch with me on my Facebook page, Twitter, or on Instagram! Here’s a little collage from my Instagram pics from this past weekend:

Hi there and welcome to the Virtual Vegan Potluck! Is it time for dessert yet? I hope so because I brought this Strawberry & Vanilla Bean “Nice” Cream and it’s starting to melt already!

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog update seen here, I’m doing this special post today as part of the Virtual Vegan Potluck. This is my first time participating and I’m super excited!

Okay, so I suppose you want to know how I made my vegan ice cream, right? You do need an ice cream maker, I use the Cuisinart version that I got at my bridal shower nearly ten years ago <—-(wow, am I really that old?).

There are many ways to make a vegan ice cream base, but my favorite is using a can of coconut milk blended with with whatever sweetener and flavor you want. I also use unsweetened soy milk for the creaminess. Also, do you like that I call it “nice” cream? I think that is appropriate for a compassionate, dairy-free treat such as this one. I highly recommend serving it for Mother’s Day.

Here’s the recipe for this incredible Strawberry & Vanilla Bean version, I hope you enjoy it!

Ideally, you would freeze this an additional 1-2 hours after it’s done in the ice cream maker so it gets really firm. Then, about 30 minutes before serving, take it out of the freezer so it is then scoopable.

Enough talking, let’s eat!!!

To visit the blog that precedes mine in the Potluck, click here!
To visit the blog that follows mine in the Potluck, click here!
To start at the beginning of the Potluck, click here!

Happy (virtual) eating and I’ll see ‘ya back here on Monday.

Yay, it’s Friday! That means another round of Healthy Vegan Fridays.

Healthy Vegan Friday Recipe Round-Up:

Here were the most popular submissions from last week:

1. What Not to Put in Your Smoothie from My Healthy Chef.

2. Almost Raw Chocolate Hazelnut Cheesecake from The Taste Space:

3. Endless Flavors of Raw Vegan Ice Cream from Happy Healthy 365:

My favorite submissions (I select ones using little to no oil, salt, or added sugars):

1. Most Creative Use of Vegetables - Cucumber and Nori Cups from Made of Stars:

2. Easiest Energy Bar – Almond Apricot Bars from The Healthy Maven:

3. Most Inspiring Salad - Lentil Salad with Avocado and Broccolini from The Apple Diaries:

Honorable Mention: Frozen Greens Cubes for Smoothies from One Small Vegan:

Thank you to everyone who entered or who checked out the recipe submissions. You can add your link or see this week’s recipes at the end of this post (just look for the thumbnails).

Conclusion:

As we move along in spring here in the United States and get closer to summer, ice creams and smoothies just sound so appealing. Did you know that there is a way to make vegan ice cream that, I dare say, tastes better than its dairy alternative? I’m doing a special post tomorrow with a recipe that will be perfect for Mother’s Day or any day, for that matter. Here’s a teaser:

Or, if you have my app, Vegan Delish (get it here!), you can find the recipe available right now under the “Desserts” or “New Recipes” categories. Here’s a screenshot of the iPad version:

See you tomorrow!

Good morning! I hope your week is going well so far.

What I Ate Wednesday & Day in the Life:

Today I’m going to experiment with something different, a minimalist “What I Ate Wednesday” combined with a Day in the Life-feel. Note: the photo captions contain more information.

Here goes:

5:30 a.m. Wake-up. Feed kitties, clean litter box, meditate, and work:

7 a.m. Breakfast:

9 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Hike:

12 p.m. Lunch:

+ apple (unpictured) and tea:

1 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Conference call and work.

4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Errands, feed kitties, shower.

5:30 – 6:30 Dinner:

7 p.m. – 8 p.m. Read:

8 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Watch an episode of Wallander (the Swedish version) on Netflix.

9:30 p.m. Lights out.

Conclusion:

Do you like the format of this post? Let me know in the comments.

E.L. Konigsburg, the author of “From the Mixed-Up Files” passed away recently (you can read about it here). My childhood best friend, Megan, alerted me to this fact which prompted me to re-discover the book.

I think most of what we need to know in life can be found in classics like this one.

I’d love to hear your what your favorite books from your childhood were.

Have a wonderful rest of your week and I’ll see you back here on Friday.

Hi there, happy Monday! I hope you had a nice weekend.

Homemade Vegan Series: How to Make Vanilla Powder:

I’m getting this post started off straightaway with a new edition to my Homemade Vegan Series (you can see a list of previous posts here). This time, I’m showing you how to make vanilla powder which is a nice alternative to traditional vanilla extract that is made using alcohol. I first heard about vanilla powder from the raw food world and saw it on the shelves at the health food store. It was really expensive, though, almost $20 for a small jar. Ha…yeah…as if!

I searched the internet for how to make vanilla powder. I kind of assumed you could just dehydrate the heck out of a vanilla bean and then grind it up. This might still be an option, but the best technique I could find is to grind vanilla pods with a small amount of buckwheat groats to make the powder.

I bought a package of whole, organic, fair-trade pods from Vitacost (use this link if you’re a new customer and we’ll both get $10 off):

Okay, so whole vanilla beans are not cheap, but I guarantee you it’s cheaper to make your own vanilla powder at home than buying it already made.

I then took some buckwheat groats that I had previously soaked, rinsed, and dehydrated (you can read more about buckwheat groats here and here). The stuff I read said to use about 1/4 cup of buckwheat groats per vanilla pod you want to grind. I added the groats to my Vitamix container:

Because the high-speed blender needs enough material to “grab” onto, you need to use at least a cup of the groats to get a good blend. I decided to use six whole vanilla pods per one cup of groats.

Less than 30 seconds later, look what I got:

Fragrant, sweet, rich vanilla powder!

This is enough powder to last for months. I recommend storing it in the fridge and putting it on everything.

Healthy Vegan Challenge Kick-Off:

Today is the big day for the kick-off of our Summer 2013 Part I Healthy Vegan Challenge.

The Challenge mainly exists on the private Facebook group (click here to join), but feel free to discuss it in the comments of my blog, too. I’d love to hear your goals for the next six weeks.

I wrote my goals on a post-it yesterday to keep on my bulletin board:

Can you read my scribble? I also discussed by goals on Friday’s post here.

How are we going to reach our goals? Well, I went on a hike this weekend and was a bit overwhelmed by the steep journey I had to make up the mountain:

How did I do it? One step at a time, with support, slowly, but surely. And that, my friends, is how I suggest we reach our health goals: together, with support, one day at a time, and one achievement at a time. Will there be failures and hard times? Absolutely. But, the view from the top is worth it:

Until Wednesday, happy, healthy eating.

Hi there! Wow, I have really missed you these passed several weeks when I went from blogging three times a week down to two. I have just looked at my calendar and I think it’s going to be possible to get back to my usual schedule next week (yay). If anything, my posts just might be more concise.

Healthy Vegan Fridays:

I can’t believe it’s Friday already which means it’s time for our weekly healthy vegan recipe link-up party! Here were the most popular recipes:

1. Peanut-Free Do-Si-Dos from Erin @ Sift, Stir, Savour:

2. Lentil Burgers with Simple Vegan Gravy from Joann @ Woman in Real Life:

3. Fantasy Melted Chocolate Ice Cream from Lauren @ Oatmeal with a Fork:

Besides the fact that these recipes look incredible, I’m blown away by the stunning food photography. Gorgeous!

Here were my favorite recipe submissions (see my guidelines here):

1.  Easiest Healthy Dessert – Raw Superfood Cookies from Sweet. Smart. Vegan:

2. Easiest Healthy Dressing - Basil and Sunflower Sauce from Almost Skinny Vegan Food:

3.  Easiest Healthy Soup - Red Lentil, Cauliflower, Kale, and Squash Soup from The Fussiest Eater:

Did you notice that all my favorites were in the category of “easy” this week? That’s just a result of me being busy and needing inspiration for recipes that don’t take too much time. Thank you to everyone who submitted your healthy, vegan recipe!

Shameless plug: speaking of quick and easy, I’ve actually created a category for that in my recipe app, Vegan Delish. There are over 20 recipes in that category alone (and nearly 100 recipes on the app now).  Here’s a screenshot:

Be sure to download it from iTunes here!

But, I digress.

To be included in next week’s Healthy Vegan Friday recipe round-up, be sure to add your whole food recipe using the link at the end of this post, below the thumbnails. Thank you!

Healthy Vegan Challenge:

Monday marks the next edition of our Healthy Vegan Challenge which is a way for us to join together to reach our goals for healthy, plant-based living. If you want to participate, then it is up to you to set some goals for yourself. Take some time to figure out what is achievable for you, write it down, and make a plan to get there. Most importantly, make sure you have the support you need to work on your goals. It turns out that the Healthy Vegan Challenge Facebook group has been the most instrumental in my progress. It’s a closed group so you’ll need to submit a request here to join.

For this round lasting from May 6th – June 16th, I’ve set some goals that are much, much different in tone than my last goals. After a lot of self-reflection, I realized that goals starting with “I will NOT” do not help me and, in fact, do quite the opposite. Here are the goals I’ve set for this upcoming Challenge:

I will:

meditate daily,
eat when hungry,
stop eating when gently full,
enjoy my food without guilt, AND,
choose health-promoting foods that add to the quality of my life.

I LOVE these goals! What are yours?

Conclusion:

As mentioned, I am going to make every effort to start blogging on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays again. I enjoy the consistency and I have a lot I want to share! Plus, the writing process and the feedback I get from you are some of the most enjoyable parts of my life. I did need and appreciate the break, though, while I focused on my final project for my master’s degree in public health these past several weeks. I want to tell you more about what I’m doing with that, but I’ll wait until I actually get closer to finishing.

Have a happy, healthy weekend and see you back here on Monday!

Hi there! Forgive my late posting today, I got a little delayed this morning. But, I’m making it up to you by sharing two fabulous dessert recipes.

Practically Raw Desserts Cookbook Review:

Do you know this lady?

That’s Amber Shea Crawley and she is the uber-talented mastermind behind the blog, Chef Amber Shea. I met Amber a few years ago at the first Vida Vegan Conference, and I luuurve her. Mainly, I just want to move into her house so I can eat her yummy food hang out with her.

Amber and I have similar nutritional philosophies and you can often find her recipe submissions as part of Healthy Vegan Fridays. I bought her first book, Practically Raw, when it came out in 2012. Not only does she create fantastic, easy, and health-promoting recipes, but she has a witty and sassy style that really resonates with me. I can’t say that there are many other cookbooks that make me laugh out loud.

So, imagine my excitement when a few weeks ago I was offered the chance to review Amber’s newest and just-published book, Practically Raw Desserts? Of course, I agreed.

More than just books full of recipes, both of Amber’s creations are valuable resources. For instance, in Practically Raw Desserts, there is a ton of information about sweet ingredients, substitutions, and raw and baked options. Not only that, but the information is well-researched and up-to-date. Granted, it is a dessert book so there is sugar involved, but most of the recipes are sweetened using dates, coconut nectar, or stevia (with options to make your own substitutions).

While I tested one of her pie crust recipes for myself (recipe included below), there was another one that called to me for its gorgeous presentation and use of whole-food ingredients. Check out these Tropical Fruit Tartlets that are also featured on the front cover of the new book:

Amber’s publisher has kindly agreed to let me re-print the recipe for these beauties here just for you:

Note to self: make these Tartlets immediately!

PB Chocolate Pie Recipe Using Amber’s Crust Recipe:

Since I’ve been on a bit of a pie-making spree lately (click here to see my Raw Strawberry Tart), I couldn’t wait to try Amber’s version of a no-bake, raw pie crust to see if hers was better than mine (it was).

Her ingredients include shredded coconut, dry almonds, sea salt, and dates, but I made it even simpler by leaving out the salt:

You just process the ingredients and press n’ go:

Rather than use Amber’s Coco-Nana filling, I was having a choco-craving so this PB Chocolate Pie was born:

I used silken tofu, cacao, peanut butter, vanilla, soy milk, and dates for my filling:

Yeah, so this was awesome:

Amber’s crust recipe is fantastic and it held together really nicely, plus had the perfect amount of sweetness and great texture. And, don’t even get me started on how delicious the chocolate-peanut butter filling of this pie is.

In summary, I just want to say again how much I love Practically Raw Desserts and I really hope you consider getting a copy for yourself. It’s a winner for sure.

No-Bake PB&J Pie:

I wasn’t kidding about the pie-making spree. I then got it into my head on Sunday afternoon to see if I could make a lower-fat version of the pie crust by substituting the coconut with rolled oats. I am happy to report that it worked really well!

The crust made with oats doesn’t hold together as well as Amber’s recipe using coconut, but it’s a nice option.

I filled this lower-fat version with a filling I made from silken tofu, whole-fruit strawberry preserves, dates, and peanut butter that tasted exactly like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Hence, the name No-Bake PB&J Pie:

The recipe for this one is being made exclusively on Vegan Delish, the healthy cooking app for iPhones and iPads available here.

Conclusion:

I hope you enjoyed this round-up of vegan dessert recipes, I certainly enjoyed testing them. I plan to be back here on Friday with more vegan yumminess. Have a great rest of your week.

Hi there and happy Friday to you! I have a lot to cover in this post and want to start with the top picks for healthy, vegan recipes from our weekly link-up party.

Healthy Vegan Fridays:

As selected by the number of clicks, the most popular recipes from last week are:

1.Vegan Peanut Butter Cups from Sabrina @ Living, Learning, Eating:

2. Mint Chip Protein Shake from Heather @ Sweetly Raw:

3. Sweet Potato Pasta from Raechel @ rebel grrrl kitchen:

Congrats to the bloggers whose recipes were in the top, these recipes look incredible.

My favorites (see my guidelines here):

1. Easiest Nutritarian-Friendly Meal - Chickpea Pie Stew from Vegans Eat Yummy Food Too:

2. Most Creative Raw Food Meal (just try and guess what the tacos are made from) - Raw Cheesy Vegan Tacos from Gluten Free Cat:

3. Most Inspiring Salad - Sundried Tomato Chickpea Salad from Peaches and Greens:

Thank you to everyone who submitted a recipe or checked out the offerings. You can submit your link or see all of the recipes at the end of this post. Yay!

Homemade Vegan Series: How to Make Yogurt

So this section is where I’m trying to show how to make vegan stuff at home. Last week, I discussed how to dry your own herbs. This week, I’m addressing how to make yogurt which has been years in the process for me (not that it’s hard or anything). Many vegans say that dairy cheese was the hardest product to move away from on a plant-based diet; mine was yogurt.

Turns out, non-dairy yogurt is super easy to make and, when you make it at home, you can leave out any nasties that you might find in store-bought versions. Okay, so you do need some supplies.

1. The yogurt machine. I bought my Euro Cuisine yogurt machine off Amazon ( I don’t have any affiliations with the company or Amazon). There are several models you can choose from, I got the most basic model and it works great for me. Note: it is possible to make yogurt in a dehydrator, too. Here is a link for using that technique.

2. The ingredients. The most difficult part of making vegan yogurt was to find a starter that didn’t come from a dairy source. You can use a probiotic supplement, but most of them aren’t certified vegan. I found  a company that does offer one, it is called Cultures for Health (note: I am not affiliated with this company, but they did send me a sample of the vegan yogurt starter to test):

3. The non-dairy milk. Okay, this is where it gets a little tricky. I have tried making yogurt with both soy and almond milks, but the soy milk yogurt turned out a lot better than when using the almond milk (I encourage you to experiment). There is a whole section on the Cultures for Life about how to thicken yogurt here. I don’t like to add anything (out of laziness, primarily), so I just like to use an unsweetened or regular version of soy milk like Eden brand:

 4. The process. So, to get started, you just blend your non-dairy milk with the culture. I use my blender on a very low speed so as not to harm the bacteria. You only need to blend it for 15 seconds or so:

Then, I pour the mixture into the glass jars (aren’t they cute?) and let it cook with the cover for 6-8 hours:

I love the smell of homemade, warm yogurt, it is that comforting sweet and sour odor that defines what yogurt really is. I always have jars of this in my fridge now and use it on my oatmeal or in green smoothies every morning for breakfast:

It’s also great on top of stews or soups. Here, I served it with my some Tempting Tempeh Chili (look for the recipe on Vegan Delish here!):

I loved it on my Slow-Cooker Cauliflower Indian Stew:

I hope this explanation helped describe the process of making homemade vegan yogurt. It’s fun, easy, and delicious!

Vegan Recipe Contest:

Before I go, I was honored to be invited to participate in a vegan recipe contest from Ethical Ocean. I decided to submit one of my favorite, healthy recipes to the contest, my Kale & Spring Pea Mash-Up:

If you made this recipe or think it looks good, would you consider voting for it HERE? If my recipe wins, you’ll be entered to win a $250 gift card on the Ethical Ocean website which is a totally cool company. I am mainly just really humbled to have my recipe featured with 24 other really great vegan bloggers. Thank you in advance for your support!

Conclusion:

I hope you have a fantastic weekend. I’m a busy bee, but will be back here on Tuesday with a brand new post. “See” you soon.