Foodie Friday | 3 Easy Dinner Recipes

Happy Friday friends!

Before we get into today's 'Foodie Friday' post, I wanted to thank everyone for their kind words, congratulations, and encouragement in this post where I talked about opening my own Etsy shop! It means the world to me, and another huge thank you to everyone who made purchases! If you haven't already, you can check out my shop HERE.

Now for today's post! I haven't done a Foodie post in a while, and today I'm sharing 3 Easy Dinner Recipes that I've been loving and that are a staple on my house! Also, I eat very plant based, but just remember that if you choose to eat meat, then any of these recipes are super easy to add your favorite meat into!

Street Corn Tostadas with Cilantro Lime Rice

I have Carah Amelie on YouTube to thank for this recipe! It is ridiculously amazing and it's my absolute favorite recipe right now!

What you'll need

-1 can of corn (you can use frozen or Fresh if you like)
- 1 can of refried beans
-Chopped Onion
-Chopped Cilantro
-Chopped Avocado (1 whole)
-Mayo (vegan or non vegan)
-Salt
-Pepper
-Chili Powder
-Tortillas or Tostada shells
-Rice
-Lime juice
-Taco seasoning

Directions
-Cook your corn, and chop veggies while it cooks
-Put cooked corn, onion, cilantro, avocado, and spices into a bowl. Add in some lime juice and mayo to taste and mix it all up.
-If you need to fry your tortilla, add some oil into a pan and do so. This is what I did, my grocery store didn't have any Tostada shells, but they were super yummy fried up!
-Spread some beans onto the Toastada and top with corn mixture.
*Also in Carahs video, she added Queso Fresca cheese and sour cream into the mixture. Do so if you like, although the recipe was very yummy without it!*

The rice is super simple! Cook up some white rice, once its finish add in cilantro, lime juice, and taco seasoning.
I also didn't have an exact measurement for the onions, cilantro, or mayo. I just added in how much I thought it needed. You could also add things like black beans, chopped peppers, lettuce etc. to this, or leave out any of the ingredients that I listed if you don't like them!


Loaded Veggie Pasta
This recipe I have Liv's Healthy Life  on Youtube to thank for, and it is also so freaking good as well!

What you'll need
-Pasta of your choice (I use speghetti noodles, but this is super good with tortellini too!)
-One 14 oz can of tomato sauce
-One tablespoon of Tahini (this seriously makes the pasta dish!)
-Parmasen Cheese or Nutritional Yeast
-1 tsp of Cane or Coconut Sugar
-Spinach and other veggies of your choice (I used carrots, zucchini, and bell peppers)
-1 cup milk of your choice (I used rice milk)

Directions
-Boil pasta
-Stir fry your veggies (all but spinach) and add salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning to taste
-Once veggies are cooked, add in the cane of tomato sauce, tablespoon of tahini, tsp of sugar, tablespoon of parmasen cheese, and milk of your choice
-Once the sauce cooks for a few minutes with the veggies, add in spinach. Cook for a few more minutes until it wilts. Add in pasta.

This is super easy to make, and the sauce is amazing. The Tahini and sugar sound like a weird thing to add to tomato sauce, but trust me, those added with the milk make the sauce so creamy and rich!

Stir Fry with Spicy Honey Tofu and Homemade Spring Rolls 

What you'll need
-Rice
-A block of extra firm tofu
-Veggies
-Soy sauce
-Rice wine vinegar
-Teriyaki sauce
-Honey
-Red Pepper Flakes
-salt and pepper

Directions
-First cut tofu into cubes, add into a bowl with 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tbsp teriyaki sauce, 1 tbsp honey, 1 tsp red pepper flakes, 1 tsp rice wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Marinate for at least 15 minutes. Bake in oven at 375 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, take out and flip, cook for another 20 minutes.
-Cook rice while tofu is cooking, and stir fry veggies. I like to cook my veggies in teriyaki sauce.
-After tofu is done, I like to take the rest of the marinade and put it in a fying pan, fry the tofu for a few more minutes.
-I also added in peanuts to my veggies mixture. Once everything is done, plate it up!

We also made homemade spring rolls, by adding broccoli slaw and bean sprouts to an egg roll wrap, and frying them in a pan with oil.  If you don't like tofu and choose a meat option for your stir fry, I recommend using the marinade I used anyways! It's delicious!

So those are my three easy and go to dinner recipes! I hope you try them out!

What are your favorite go to dinners?

Friday Favorites | Current Lifestyle Favorites

Happy Friday! Who else is happy that Spring is here?! I definitely am, even though I don't exactly trust that it isn't done snowing yet. We did have a nice day earlier this week where it was in the 50s, but that quickly turned back into the 20s. None the less, I know warmer weather is on its way, and that definitely has me excited.

I thought I would do a Friday Favorites today and share some lifestyle things that I've been enjoying.

First though, I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to all of you who left me such sweet and encouraging comments on post earlier this week on cruelty free makeup. All of the great feedback really meant a lot to me because it was a post that I was honestly nervous out of my mind to post. I love you all for the encouragement you showed me!

Back to my lifestyle favorites. Honestly, not much has been going on in my life lately. I feel rather boring as these might not be the most exciting things that I've posted before, but hopefully some of you will get some enjoyment out of it! Even though nothing too exciting has been going on, I have been working on some projects that I'm crazy excited about. These things have been taking up a lot of my time and thoughts but other than that, here are the things that I've been into!

Favorite Recipe || One of my go to dinners is tacos. I've been making these like crazy. All it has in it is black beans, corn, rice, and salsa. I cook my beans and corn while my rice is in my rice steamer. Once they are all done, I mix everything together with salsa and taco sauce. I add guacamole to a tortilla and add in the mixture. It's so soo good and simple. Also, a lot of you asked in my last 'what I eat in a day post' if my husband eats meat or plant based with me. He does eat meat, but also eats most of the plant based meals that I make. So sometimes when I make this, he adds in taco meat as well. If you want to make this recipe and want meat also, just cook your taco meat and add it on top of the mixture, also add cheese, sour cream, lettuce, etc. as you wish! However, this is amazing as it is, and I hope you all try it out this way too!

Favorite Workout || Hubby and I have been doing P90X. We're trying to change our lifestyle and workout and eat healthy. This workout program is definitely not easy, but I'm excited to have a program to follow! I'm sore as hell as we speak (as I'm typing?) but I'm also excited to get in shape and do good for my body.

Favorite on TV || Is anyone else a Survivor fan?? I've seriously been watching this show since I was like 10 when the first season came out. I got my husband into it as well, and this new season came on tv 3 weeks ago and its sooo good!

Favorite Game || I don't think a lot of you are into games but I'm definitely a nerd at heart. We bought the new Nintendo Switch and I'm completely obsessed with the new Legend of Zelda game. It's so good and we've been anticipating this game for what feels like years! Honestly, this has been taking up a majority of my free time, I'm not going to lie.

Favorite Quote || And lastly, I'm ending this with my favorite quote. I read this the other day and it really hit home. It's something that I needed to read and keep in my mind. I don't think that I've had the best focus lately, and that has been something that has gotten me down mentally reading this quote has definitely help get my mindset right!

I hope you all enjoyed my current lifestyle favorites!

And now I have a question for YOU! For those of my blogger friends who make videos, what video editor do you use? I had some issues with iMovie the last time I tried to use it, and I will try it again, but I'm looking for some other options. I'm seriously the least tech savvy person in the world, and I get super discouraged when I try to figure out things like movie editors and can't figure them out. My husband has a nice one on his computer but it seems really complicated. I would like something easy to use. And I really need to stop using the 'I can't figure out my movie editor' excuse as to why I'm not making videos!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend! Do you have any fun plans? Let's chat in the comments!

Current Reading List | Books I want to read this year

Happy Friday! Do you guys have any fun plans this weekend? The weather here has been crazy warm for February, but it will be back to snow and cold this weekend. I'm so ready for Spring time. 

Before we get to todays post, I wanted to apologize on being behind on reading/commenting on all of your blog posts. I think I got caught up (as of yesterday), and I hope I didn't miss any of your posts. If I did, please let me know! And also, sorry if some of you got a spam of comments from me, from not catching up for multiple days in a row! ;)

Back to today's post- I'm sharing my current reading list! I haven't done a book talk post in a while, so I thought I'd share a bit of what I'm planning to read, and what I'm currently reading. I've done a few posts or videos like this last year, and with no surprise, there will be some repeat books on here from my last reading list because I failed to read them the first time I said I was going to. This is mainly a list of books that I just want to accomplish reading sometime this year. I also have a few books that I've already read that I want to re read. If I truly love a book, sometimes my heart calls for me to re read it again and again.

Re-reads 

 

These are my 3 absolute favorite books of all time, and are ones that I definitely plan to re read this year.

I've loved The Outsiders since I was 13 and have read this books so many times. It's been a few years since I've read it, so I definitely want/need to read it again soon. This was the very first book that I ever remember loving (maybe besides Harry Potter), and it holds a special place in my heart.

Looking for Alaska by John Green is my favorite young adult book, and I've mentioned it before a few times. I've read this book 3 times already, and I didn't get around to re reading it last year. 

The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly is a the very top of my favorite book list, but the other two come very close behind it. This is the book that I'm currently reading right now, and it will be my third time reading it.

I know some might think its silly to re read books so many times, but these three books are just amazing and they are ones that I'll truly love forever. 

New Reads

And here lies by precious stack of books that I haven't read yet and I want to read this year sometime.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is one that I've wanted to read for so long. I actually started reading this already a while ago, but it got lost in the shuffle of reading other things. I don't often start reading something and then pick it back up again, but I'm making a serious point to do so with this one.

The Accidental Empress by Allison Pataki has also been one I've wanted to read for a while. I loved her other book called The Traitors Wife, and I've heard this one is just as good. 

Room by Emma Donoghue is another that I've wanted to read for forever, before it was even made into a movie. I haven't seen the movie yet either, but I'm looking forward to getting around to reading this.

Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare has also been at the top of my to-read list since it came out last year. Cassandra Clare is one of my all time favorite young adult fantasy authors, and I loved her Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices series. I expect to love this one too.

Lastly, The Law of Attraction is probably the book that I'm most excited to read this year. I got this for Christmas, and I will probably start reading it as soon as I'm done with the Tea Rose. I've really enjoyed Inspirational books the past few years, and I find myself wanting to read more and more of them.

So these are all the books that I'm hoping to read this year. I've had them all of my shelf since last year, or even longer, but hey I like hoarding collecting books. 

Have you read any of these books that I've mentioned before? What are you currently reading, or plan to read soon?

Fall Night Routine

Happy Friday everyone! What are your plans with weekend? 

For today's lifestyle Friday post, I'm sharing my night time routine. Everything I'm sharing is basically how my night goes almost everynight, and I have to admit that it's also not super exciting. This is everything I do to get ready for bed, etc. 

Snack

I'm usually hungry at night time since I usually don't eat anything until between noon and 2. What I snack on usually varies, but here is some toast with sunbutter and a banana on top and sprinkled with chia seeds. This is also one of my favorite breakfasts, and it's super good with peanut butter too but lately I've been loving sunbutter. 

Relax 

I've become a morning shower person when I want to wash my hair, but I can't go to bed without feeling clean so I like I hop in the bath tub. Twice a week I like to do a face mask. 

Skin care

After my bath, I finish up with my skin care routine. I cleanse with my Cetephil gentle skin cleanser, then tone with my witch hazel, and use my Derma e night cream. I've been trying out the lavender scent of the which hazel I always buy and so far I don't like it as much as the Rose one.

Another relaxing thing for me is to turn on my diffuser and use lavender or peppermint (sometimes I mix them!). I also use these oils everynight on my body too. If I have a headache (most nights), I'll use peppermint to soothe my headache. And I use lavender everynight right before I go to sleep. 

Reading 

I've been making time to read everynight for the past month so or. Usually this happens when I take a bath because I like to sit any relax. I still haven't sat down and invested time to binge on a good book like I want to, but I make sure to at least read a chapter everynight. I'm currently reading Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, which is one of my all time favorite young adult books.

Lastly, after I'm in bed I watch some youtube and Netflix for a while until I fall asleep. Right now I'm re watching 90210 , its my all time favorite show! 

I hope you all enjoyed my less than exciting night routine! I might do an updated morning routine in a few weeks, since my morning routine has definitely changed since my last one that I did a post on last spring! 

Do you have a night routine? Share it with me in the comments!