Two Yummy and Super Healthy Recipes

So the vegan thing has been going reasonably well.  The first couple of days were a big reminder that we are conditioned to using animal fat to taste good.  I kept thinking, "This is good, but what flavor is missing?  Oh yeah, saturated fat."  I admit that I didn't give up baked goods which means I haven't really done this vegan thing right because cookies are full of eggs and butter.  Oh well.  I didn't eat a lot of cookies, just a few ;).  And I thought about baking some stuff, but those vegan bakers are straight up scientists and I didn't have the time to figure that out.

So, enough rambling.  A great thing about this experiment has been relying on vegetables, spices, and dressings for flavor.  Here are two recipes that I tried and ate every single bit of because they were so yummy.  And both are great with tortilla chips.

Mexican Corn Salad
Make this stuff.  Seriously.  It would be a perfect dip for the Super Bowl.  It's similar to LA Caviar or the Black Eyed Pea and Corn dip that was going around a couple of years ago - but this doesn't have any fake stuff.  And the homeade dressing was so good I drank it from the bottom of the bowl - twice.  I did change a few things.  I didn't have a cucumber so I left that out.  Also, I didn't want to fool with chopping a tomato so I used a 10oz can of Rotel with green chilies.  I also included black pepper and added 1/2 can of black beans.  This calls for Rice Vinegar, which you might not regularly have but you can get for less than $2 at the store.  The two vinegars in this dressing make it so, so good.

Carrot and Red Pepper Soup
I have finally used the broiler on my oven!  And roasted my own peppers!  It was super easy, so don't be intimidated.  I used orange and yellow bell peppers instead of red because they were on sale and it worked the same and tasted yummy.  Also, the Winn Dixie was all out of vegetable stock so I used a little tomoato soup and water.  I used almond milk instead of soy milk, but this would be great with cream if you and dairy get along :).  I also added about 1/2 teaspoon of garlic.  I actually ate this whole pot by myself in about 2 days.