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Stop throwing your Salad leaves away| Repurpose your salad ingredients | Asian inspired Sweet Potato Noodle Salad

Last week I wanted salad, which is a rare thing, but I purchased arugula and tomato and such for said salad! Well a week later (not even a week really) and I noticed my salad leaves were started to go bad; you know how they start to get wet and slimy and such (real gross)!

However today, I thought, why not repurpose my salad ingredients so I can stop throwing away my yummy salad leaves.

This meal is vegan-friendly, so no meat involved. So here we go with my tasty warm Asian inspired noodle salad. Everything is leftover and sitting in my fridge, looking sad.

I boiled and drained my sweet potato noodles, cut them into smaller piece and rinsed in cold water to stop the cooking and set to the side.

1 package of baby bella mushrooms quarter and about 7 baby bell peppers sliced.

3 roma tomatoes. I had a half bag of each of the following: spinach, arugula, and broccoli slaw.

In my big wok pan which I love sooooo much is olive oil, heated. Add mushrooms and peppers and garlic and stir-fry for 4 minutes or so. Then add in the broccoli slaw and cook for another 4 minutes.

Add in the salad leaves

Let them cook just until wilted then add in tomatoes and I had some alfalfa sprouts

Mix and cook for 1 minute; I just let my tomatoes get warm.

Now the last steps are adding in the noodles and sauce. The salad dressing I used was an Asian sesame dressing, but you can use what you want, this is what I had

Mix and serve. You can eat hot, cold or room temp. I will never again throw away my salad leaves or other salad ingredients. After heating all the veggies, I could have added them to rice, or other noodles or even potatoes. Better yet, I could eat them without a carb!!! I just wanted to share with you guys. Until next time remember to Cook, Eat and Enjoy!!!

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Vegan/ Vegetarian Experience

It is never easy to change. Sometimes change is forced upon you, while other times you are the one initiating change. Either way, it takes some time to get your feet under you when the winds of change blows.

I have experienced quite a bit of change here in 2018; most I could not control. However, the one I could and can control is my diet. I have taken on a Vegan/Vegetarian diet with the occasional fish.

I wanted to try this eating change because of health issues. I wanted to see how a change in my diet would affect my mental and physical states. I love meat of all kinds; from your everyday beef and pork to the more exotic (to some) deer, rabbit, etc. I also love veggies; growing up, my parents insisted my brother and I ate our beans, peas, green and the likes. No, was not an answer, which has served me well as an adult.

I have never not eaten meat, nor have I ever had the desire to not eat meat. But as I grow older and different health issues have manifested, it has been suggested that I cut meat from my diet and perhaps try a vegan, vegetarian or even pescatarian diet. Of course, when it comes to food, I am game to try new things and if it will assist in decreasing or eliminating me health issues, I am here to give it a try.

So for the next 4 weeks, maybe more, I will be embarking on this Vegan/ Vegetarian diet. Actually I have already begun. I am now ending week 2 and will be posting the week 2 update on my YouTube Channel: Week 1 is here.

So far so good. I am really enjoying eating and especially make vegan/vegetarian meals. It has given me a chance to test my food creativity and try new foods I would not have otherwise tried. For example, I have tried Beyond Meat burgers and they blew my mind!!! The same with Field Roast’s smoke Apple sage sausage.

So here I am on another food Journey, so come and follow along and watch the updates and recipes on my YouTube channel Cook Eat Enjoy.

In the comments, let me know if you have or ever considered going Vegan/Vegetarian and why? Also let me know some of your favorite vegan products that you think I should try.

So I would say wish me luck, but so far, so good. Until next time, Cook, Eat, Enjoy!

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Apple Butter Granola

Happy 2017 Foodies. It has been a while. I hope 2016 ended good and 2017 has been just as good thus far. I have been… living life; still cooking and eating, but just not cooking as much as I use to. However I will do my best this year to get as many new post out as life will possibly allow.
So, been dealing with all sort of health issues which has caused me to start to change my diet. I am trying a more gluten free and vegan approach to life, however, please believe I still eat my meat, just not as often.
Surprisingly, it is not really that difficult to substitute a few meals a day with completely vegan options, especially since I like veggies. The difficult part is that I have to monitor what types of veggies I eat and how much. But life is all about balance and I am constantly trying to find mine. On to this yummy granola.
I did my best to make sure all the ingredients I used were gluten free, and surprisingly, this only took 5 ingredients to make:
1 (2 pound bag) old fashioned rolled oats (gluten free)
2 cups oat bran (gluten free)

16 oz of Apple butter

3 tablespoons Ground Cinnamon

3 tablespoons coconut oil


First heat your oven to about 400 degree Farenhieght. Line a cookie sheet with foil and set aside.

Now in a sauce pan, add the 3 tablespoons of coconut oil and the entire jar of apple butter and let melt together on medium, to medium high heat.


Next, Add oat meal, oat bran and cinnamon to a large mixing bowl, and mix together. I used a wooden spoon, doesn’t stick as bad.


Once the Apple butter and coconut oil has melted together and you have mixed, added to the oats and begin to mix with spoon. It may look like there is not enough apple butter or to much oats, but continue to mix and everything will coat.


After you have coated to your heart’s desire, spread a layer of the mixture onto the cookie sheet. If you have more than one cookie sheet, go ahead and use them. For me, I baked about 3 batches.


Once in the oven, bake for about 10 minutes at a time until it is the desire brown and crunchiness you want, taking a spoon an mixing it around each 10 minutes.

Let each batch cool on counter before storing in an air tight container.

My daughters and I love this as a topping on our yogurt, or as cereal. With the oat bran, it adds extra protein to this granola which helps add energy to any snack.


This is such a quick and easy granola and I absolutely love making it and all version of it. 

Until next time, continue to Cook, Eat and Enjoy!!