High Carb Vegan Staple Meals For Success

High Carb Vegan meals are not only easy to make and healthy, but also super delicious! Having a 'go to' list of meals helps you stay on track and find success! Everyone has their favorite staple meals, these are mine:

 Potato Bowls 

These are the best, really, the BEST!! Easy to make, full of flavor, and super filling. You can use your favorite potatoes, sweet, white, yellow, red, even purple. There is no wrong potato!! Here's my go to recipe:
White potatoes, boiled, skin removed, cut into chunks
Top with spicy mustard
Load up with veggies:
Corn, peas, chopped pickles, shredded lettuce, chopped cucumbers, chopped tomatoes, red onion! Season with black pepper, and garlic powder! Stir lightly and enjoy!

Vegan Pizza
 There are millions of ways to make a vegan pizza, and everyone has their go to recipe. All you need to start is a basic vegan dough (premade, store bought, or homemade), simple vegan pizza sauce, and all the veggie toppings you desire! Bake at 450 until crust is golden. Here is my favorite combo:
Artichoke hearts quartered/chopped
Chopped or sliced yellow peppers
Sliced mushrooms
Chopped fresh tomatoes
Fresh parsley
Italian seasoning, black pepper, garlic powder

Rice Bowls
Imagine a rice and bean burrito, just in a bowl out of the shell!! So good!! Same idea as the potato bowl, except with a Mexican twist!
Rice, brown or white, cooked without oil, seasoned with fresh cilantro, black pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, and onion powder.
Top with:
Black beans, chopped tomatoes, red onions, jalapeno peppers, corn, shredded lettuce, fresh cilantro, 1/4 avocado, fresh salsa, and squeeze of lime! Let it all sit for a few minutes at room temperature for all the flavors to blend! Enjoy!

Overnight Oats with Fruit
Make overnight oats your favorite vegan milk. Once oats are ready, top with maple syrup, fresh sliced strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. Enjoy!

Open Face Veggies Sandwiches
 Who doesn't love a sandwich, right?? And veggie sandwiches are so darn good! You need a good wholesome vegan bread, Dave's Killer Bread is a great option, but there are plenty of awesome healthy vegan breads on the market. You can simply ask your local bakery what they offer if you want something fresh!
Top your bread with hummus, pickles, sliced avocado, sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, and top with your favorite sprouts! Season with black pepper! Enjoy as many of these as you want!

Veggie Pasta
 Pasta doesn't always need to be eaten with tomato sauce. Switch it up with this great veggie dish! You will need your favorite pasta cooked (whole wheat, quinoa, rice, veggie, etc), low fat/fat free veggie broth, one red pepper sliced, frozen spinach, sweet onion sliced, sliced mushrooms, frozen peas, two sliced carrots, and fresh parsley.
In a large nonstick pan, pour about 2 cups of veggie broth, add frozen spinach, peas, carrots and onions. Cook on med/low until for about 5 mins, then add in mushrooms and red peppers. Cook for another 5 mins then add cooked pasta. Stir well, add fresh parsley, season with dried oregano and basil, black pepper. Cover and let pasta sit for another 5 mins, turn off the heat. Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Tacos
You can use regular or sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes taste really fantastic in a taco so give it a try! You will need one large or two small sweet potatoes, boiled and cubed into small pieces, taco shells, fat free vegan refried beans, cilantro, tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, salsa, chopped greens, and mashed avocado. Warm up your taco shell, place a thin layer of refried beans inside, add sweet potatoes, salsa, veggies, then top with a spoonful of mashed avocado! Season with red pepper flakes and cilantro! These are so delicious! 

Vegan Oil Free Blueberry Pancakes
This is the easiest recipe ever!! Here's what you need:
2 cups of flour

2 cups of water

2 tablespoons of baking powder

1table spoon sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

1 pint fresh blueberries

Cook on med/high heat on a nonstick pan
Top with sliced strawberries and maple syrup

Health NOT Weight Loss

Want to lose weight? Want to have a fit and lean body? If you do, and are focused on weight loss,  you will never be successful! I know, it sounds awful, but it is the truth! The focus HAS to be health. Health is the key to not only a fantastic body, but also a happy life!

Weight loss focuses on a very negative process. The word LOSS in itself is negative. When your goal is to lose weight, your energy is placed only on a number or specific size, not what you gain! Changing your focus on your overall health, you create a loving and positive state of mind! Your entire life will change!  

Diet and weight loss is usually temporary, results come and go. It creates an emotional roller coaster, poor self esteem, and ends in a massive lack of motivation. The average person who begins a 'diet' fails within 30 days! The average person who loses 20lbs on a diet, gains it back shortly after, in addition to an another 10lbs! I worked at a gym for years, and those who's goal was to only lose weight, were never successful long term. 

Your health is your LIFE! Good health IS happiness, it involves doing work on your mind and your body, not your weight. So, get the weight off your mind, and refocus your energy on creating a healthy happy SELF. It will be a transformation, with life long results! Here is my path for great health:

*Sleep! Get 8 hours of sleep nightly whenever possible. Our lives can be hectic and some days 8 full hours are not possible, but do your best to get some rest! The body responds best to a 10pm-6am sleep time. Start a relaxing routine at 8pm. Read a book, listen to quiet music, watch a light and fun movie. Don't discuss bills, money, work, or stressful life issues.  

*Eat whole plant foods. Eating to nourish the body is extremely important. The human body requires  constant fuel. We are herbivores, and if you ever see herbivores in nature, they graze all day long. This keeps them fueled and able to keep moving! Plant foods provide us with the most nutrient dense calories. Plants are the perfect food. They contain fiber, water, and carbohydrates, all things we need to survive. Do not cut or decrease your food source. Calories from healthy plant foods can be eaten in abundance, and should be. If you want to be a vibrant human, do not deny yourself fuel! 

*Exercise. Do it daily if you can. We already know that 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise is recommended by all health professionals, but changing two or three of those days to an intense workout will provide you with even better results. Intense workouts push your body and help develop stronger muscles, including your heart and lungs! Exercise is an incredible stress relief and an antidepressant, doing it daily will transform your body and create a healthy clear mind. Again, look at herbivores in nature, they are in constant motion. Roaming the earth, ready to sprint at a moments notice. We are designed to do the same!

*Focus on the happiness within. We are surrounded by so much stress and pressure in our daily lives. The desire to buy more, work more, be better, look better, and be sucessfull, has become such a burden on our lives. It has become almost impossible to keep up with society's standards, and those standards are all superficial. Happiness comes from within. Being content, relaxed, compassionate, and loving is the recipe for pure joy. Let stress go, move past the anger, accept what is, and move on! Do not compare your life to anyone else's, comparison is the thief of JOY!

*Spend time outdoors. There is nothing you can buy or do that is better than nature! Take off your shoes and feel the earth beneath your feet, take deep long breaths of fresh air, and soak up the sunshine. Modern life has created such an unhealthy and sterile environment for us. We have been conditioned to work indoors for long hours, sitting in temperature controlled rooms, sitting in chairs or standing on hard surfaces, and exercising inside. We've completely separated ourselves from nature. The human body requires time spent in nature. It is truly a 'vitamin' we cannot live without.
Nature helps with depression, anxiety, and stress, all you have to do is open your front door and its there for you to enjoy! Next time you want to exercise, skip the gym and go for a hike or a run! 

*Stay away from drugs and alcohol.. If your life requires mind altering drugs/drinks to happy, relaxed, or confident....then you are doing it wrong. 

Following a path towards great health will result in a the body you desire! Stop focusing on the loss of weight, and focus on a healthy LIFE. 

Superfood or super scam?

Acai berries, goji berries, macca, spirulina, hemp seeds, chia seeds, the list of 'super foods' grows longer and longer each year. Everything from kale to walnuts, has at some point, been promoted as a super food. Companies have made millions, if not billions, selling the idea that one of these particular foods is going to fix all your problems, or one shake containing a mile long list of 'super foods' will create a slim healthy body. Yet, here we are, a society battling obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and cancer, with a kitchen cabinet full of super foods!

So what is the deal? There is no super food. There I said it! No one food is going to heal all your ailments, no shake is going to reduce your cellulite. Not going to happen! Period. You are falling for marketing. You are being deceived. You are basically being taken for a sucker.

But, I am not writing all these foods off. They are, for the most part, healthy and delicious. You can add these to your diet, enjoy them if you please, but you MUST understand that they are not SUPER. They will not do anything magical, not in a pill form, their natural state, or in a shake. They are healthy, just like lettuce is, or potatoes, or oranges, or oats are! They can add lots of flavor to your diet. They also make eating healthfully more exciting and less bland. Do you need to spend your hard earned money on them to get healthy? Absolutely not!

Just like any other food, these 'super foods' contain valuable nutrients. They definitely serve a purpose. Spirulina and chlorella are great additions to your diet. You can add them to your shakes or juices for an added nutrient boost, but they will not transform your body, lol! This is the problem I have with companies selling these foods. They are always marketed as some sort of magical healer or weight loss potion, and that is false! Companies sell the idea that taking these 'super foods' will help all your weight loss needs without making major dietary changes, and at this point we should all know that is garbage!

The best way to reach your health goals is to eat healthfully, exercise, sleep, and drink water! It is actually easier and cheaper than you think! The healthiest foods on the planet are fruits and veggies! They are ALL equally beneficial and packed with nutrients your body needs. A dinner loaded with green vegetables, sweet potatoes, salad, and a tall glass of lemon water is better than any one super food! Not only is it a third of the cost of these specialty foods, but also easily accessible, which makes staying healthy easier long term! Accessibility and affordability are key here. Spending $40 on a shake you must preorder is not sustainable. Going to your regular grocery store and purchasing foods that are affordable is!

So are super foods a scam? Yes! Well, in the way they have been presented to us, they are! Being promoted as a fix to obesity or cellulite is a scam, being promoted as a great addition to your occasional smoothie is not. Be smart and cautious when you begin spending your money on super foods. Though it is tempting to try them in hopes of getting the dream body you've always wanted, be a realistic and an educated consumer!

Dear Balanced Blonde

I remember the day I discovered your Instagram account. I loved all of your pictures, and of course all the The Blonde Vegan tshirts. As an actual blonde vegan, I got excited and instantly hit follow and checked out your online store. I was really happy to find your account, so cute and trendy,....until I began looking further through your pictures. Cleanses, tiny portions, detoxes, long workouts...no actual information on animal activism or eating large, healthy, filling meals. Your entire account was one long cleanse and weightloss program with trendy products for sale. Sadly I held off from supporting your brand and didn't purchase any items as I had a gut feeling you stood for something very different than veganism. I hoped I was wrong, and continued to follow your accounts.

As a few months passed, I saw something that I was pretty much expecting...your 'coming out' as an EX VEGAN. Your story of how veganism almost killed you, lead you down a path of poor health, and an eating disorder. I clicked on your story, read it, laughed a little, and then felt truly sorry for you. Not because you were sick, but because you attempted to lose weight using cleanses and diets, and blamed it on veganism, something you actually knew nothing about.

Here is the truth though. Veganism is not a diet, and one who does not show any support or activism towards animal rights, is not a vegan. Using cleanses or juicing programs to lose weight is a diet, just that A DIET...and a really unhealthy one.  Not only were you harming yourself, but you were also sending a very dangerous message to your followers. When your dieting took a wrong turn and began to affect your health, you blamed it on veganism, not on the fact that you were juicing, cleansing, and eating 800 calories a day! That is not veganism. Nothing about you was vegan. In less than a year of starving yourself, you managed to publicly bash a peaceful and healthy lifestyle, one you never
followed.

I am vegan, a personal,trainer, and a certified vegan health practitioner, my son is vegan and so is my husband. A vegan 'diet' is a well rounded, healthy, and delicious way of eating, and is acceptable for ALL humans! There are millions of options, and plant foods are loaded with ALL the vitamins and nutrients you need to THRIVE. Doctors like Dr. McDougall, Dr. Garth Davis, Dr. Esselstyn, Dr. Barnard, Dr. Klaper, Dr. Greger, and so many others, all agree that a vegan diet is not only healthy, but is one of the healthiest on the planet!

What you were doing was dangerous and not veganism. Your way of eating was frightening and solely based on weightloss...not helping animals, not helping the environment, and not helping your health. You had an eating disorder and probably had it way before you began your Instagram account.

When you came out with the news you were going public with your story, appearing on one news
channel after another, and then writing your book, you made the conscious decision to trash a
lifestyle you never actually followed or supported one bit. What you did was lead people to believe that going vegan is a path to an eating disorder. That the lifestyle is a strict low calorie cleanse...which is so insane and not true.

So as a healthy BALANCED vegan, I would like to educate you on what veganism is:
It is a fight for the animals! It is a lifestyle free of harm to ALL beings, including oneself! We don't starve ourselves or treat our bodies with such disrespect!

Veganism is a way of living. It is a daily practice of progress not perfection. To help guide our fellow humans towards a cruelty free life by leading as an example. Veganism is a beautiful relationship between humans, animals, and Mother Nature.

It is a way of eating that helps you THRIVE. It gives you an abundance of energy to run, lift, hike, bike, or just play! I should know as I do all of the above!  It is one of the best diets for athletes...if you still aren't convinced, ask Rich Roll, Brendan Brazier, Mac Danzig, Fiona Oaks, or strongman Patrik Baboumian.

Veganism is activism.

So as you continue you journey as a meat eater, remember, you never actually gave veganism a try. Somewhere along the way, you found the word vegan, labeled yourself as one,  never understanding what it means. You destroyed your own health in pursuit of being skinny and not healthy. Adding meat to your diet is not what 'saved' you. It was the addition of the much needed calories you needed,
and the end of the detox and constant cleanses you were on.

Please, next time you discover a new word, please do some much needed research before you actually label yourself. It makes all the difference.

Yours truly,
An actual blonde vegan