Vegan Breakfast Tacos

Friday, January 19, 2018

Vegan Breakfast Tacos with Tofu Scramble and Sweet Potato Hash Living Well And Wild Recipe

The question I get most often, when it comes to vegan food, is "What can you eat for breakfast?" I will sing the praises of oatmeal all day long but sometimes you are just in the mood for something savory and reminiscent of the breakfast food you used to get on Saturday or Sunday mornings.

Enter...the BREAKFAST TACO, because let's be real here- ANY time is a good time for tacos.

Vegan Breakfast Tacos with Tofu Scramble and Sweet Potato Hash Living Well And Wild Recipe

I was SO HUNGRY when these were being prepped and I had to hold myself back from eating all of the individual ingredients. I'm looking at you, tofu scramble.

These burritos are hearty, flavorful, and can be made in batches and eaten during the week if you are short on time. They would also be a great weekend brunch option.

Vegan Breakfast Tacos with Tofu Scramble and Sweet Potato Hash Living Well And Wild Recipe

Ingredients

flour tortillas
baby spinach
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced (should I halve this for smaller portion?)
sweet potato seasonings *(detailed below)
diced tomatoes
sliced avocado
1 block of extra firm tofu, drained and pressed/dried
tofu scramble seasonings**(detailed below)
frozen pepper mix
vegan breakfast sausages (I used the Field Roast Apple Maple Breakfast Sausages)

*Sweet Potato Hash Seasonings
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chili powder
dash of water or vegetable stock

**Tofu Scramble Seasonings
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp kala namak salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
dash of black pepper
dash of water to create liquid

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375° and line large baking pan with parchment paper.
  2. Dice sweet potatoes and place in large bowl.
  3. Pour Sweet Potato Hash Seasonings over diced sweet potatoes and mix until distributed evenly.
  4. Lay diced sweet potatoes on baking sheet in single layer and cook for 15 minutes. Stir/flip and cook for 15 minutes more, or until sweet potatoes are tender all the way through. (Check with toothpick.)
  5. Cook vegan sausages in a skillet with approx. 1/2 tsp of olive oil (or water or vegetable stock if you want to skip the oil and have a nice, non-stick pan)
  6. Saute frozen pepper mix in pan
  7. Slice cooked sausages and mix with cooked peppers in a bowl.
  8.  Mix together Tofu Scramble Seasonings and set aside
  9. Crumble dried/pressed tofu into large pan and cook until mostly dry
  10. Add tofu seasonings to pan and stir to coat evenly.
  11. Heat flour tortillas approx. 10-15 seconds on a plate in the microwave
  12. Lay down a bed of spinach
  13. Add sweet potato hash
  14. Add tofu scramble
  15. Top with diced tomato and avocado slices 
  16. Eat and hope you made enough to have seconds and thirds.
(As a side note, the kala namak really makes a difference in the taste of the scrambled tofu. I had never heard of this type of black salt, until some friend's of ours kindly gave us a container to try.)

If you have any of the scramble or hash left over, they can definitely be eaten separately and/or tossed on top of a big salad for dinner. Proof that you can have a delicious, healthy, filling breakfast without animal products! 

 If you try this recipe, I would love to see it! Leave a comment below or tag me over on Instagram.

Identifying your Character Strengths + Why Strengths Matter

Thursday, January 11, 2018



Normally when I ask people what they're good at I get the same type of responses...

" I'm a good listener."

"I'm organized."
 
"I'm a good mom/dad"

"I'm a good cook."

This is usually after a long pause, a "hmmm," or "I'm not sure," and some encouragement. My experience has been that we are quick to come up with a list of weaknesses and hesitant when asked to share our strengths. 

I'm here to tell you that there is POWER in knowing your strengths. It's a power that takes a little bit of effort to achieve, because it's not something that we usually spend a lot of time thinking about. When I would start down the path towards figuring out what I'm good at, I usually came up with answers that were similar in style to the few I shared above. This was a great way to get started until I realized that beyond behavior based strengths, there was this idea of character strengths, which lie at the intersection of your thoughts, behavior, and feelings. Dr. Chris Peterson and Dr. Martin Seligman identified 24 core strengths that exist in all cultures.

"Strengths are things we do well, often, and with energy." Lea Waters, PhD

The VIA Institute on Character has taken these 24 character strengths and built a survey to help you determine to which degree they show up in your life. 


This survey can be found at the VIA Institute on Character site. Once you take the survey, a report will be generated which you can save and come back to at any point in the future. (I know some individuals who take it once a year to see if there are any changes.)

VIA reported my top five strengths as Gratitude, Kindness, Love, Creativity, and Curiosity. The Love one surprised me a bit (in a good way). Of course I have a lot of love for my family, friends, spouse, animals, fellow earthlings, but I never thought about it in terms of a character strength.

So why is knowing your strengths so important and why does it matter so much that we understand this part of ourselves? I like think of strengths as superpowers. They are the things we can dig deep down and use when a challenge comes up or if we feel like we've strayed from our goals. Strengths matter because we will achieve far greater progress and reward when focusing on improving the areas we are already excelling in, instead of focusing on trying so hard to improve our weaknesses.

Have you taken the VIA survey? What, if anything, surprised you?


goal setting

How to Map Out Your 2018 Goals

Wednesday, January 03, 2018

Happy New Year!


I am so excited for the 365 363 brand new days that lay before us. I have a feeling that 2018 is going to be the start of an amazing journey. This could be due to the fact that this is the first time I have mapped out my goals and created an action plan for success.

In the past I've made a lot of vague goals/resolutions/intentions but never supported them with a specific plan of action. This year, I set aside time and energy to put pen to paper and really get clear on what I wanted to accomplish. My word for 2018 is CREATE and I know it's going to take planning and preparation to execute on all of the fun things I have brewing in my brain.



Here are the steps I took to map out my 2018 goals. It's my hope that this will be helpful if you are still in the planning stages and/or aren't sure where to begin.

Create Your Ultimate Goals List

Before organizing anything, I simply started with a blank notebook page to write down all my goals. The idea is to get everything out of your head and on to a sheet of paper (or a digital document if you aren't a fan of analog). Try to be as specific as possible here. I like to use the S.M.A.R.T acronym- goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and, Timely.

Organize Your List 

Once I had all of my goals written out, I sorted them into categories. I ended up with 4 - personal, professional, physical, and financial. (I really wish this had been 4 P's. Does anyone use the word pecuniary anymore?)

Here are my actual 2018 goals, organized into each category.


Create a Mind Map of Each Category 

In this step you will reverse engineer your goals. The bonus? You get to imagine yourself as already having achieved them! 

First, you'll create a large circle with the category in the middle.

Then you will create branches with each of your main goals. 

For each level after the main goal, ask yourself the question "What will I need to do to be successful with this?" The answers will become the next branches.

Continue creating branches (or action steps) until you feel like you can't go any further.

Here is one of my Physical goals mapped out, as an example-

 

Plan Your Action Steps Into Your Daily Schedule 

One you have a mind map for each category, you should end up with a detailed plan on how to accomplish each of your goals. At this point, it is important to make room for them in your daily routine.


The branches of your goal will become the action steps- in other words, these will be the things you need to do daily/weekly/monthly to be successful. In the Fencing example I gave above, I would need to plan when exactly my lessons will be and choose the open fencing sessions I will attend so that I can build them into my schedule.

This whole process will take some time, so allow yourself a quiet afternoon with a nice cup of coffee or tea to get started.

What are you looking forward to in 2018?

P.S.- Check out last year's blog on Setting Intentions for the New Year