Last week I attended a seminar lead by Davida from The Healthy Maven about “How to Build an Ebook” with the plan of self-publishing my own in the near future (birthday goal!). At first, I wasn’t 100 percent sure if I could afford to miss a shift at work and I was kind of nervous about putting myself out there since I am a rather shy person around new people. When new people I meet at social events ask me what I do, I coyly respond, “well umm I have a food site, you know for vegans and umm sometimes I bake a cake…” Now this isn’t what I do to pay my bills but my server job pays for my passion so I lead with that. I bucked up and with a moment of bravery registered for the seminar. I got my confirmation email and volia, I was going. It was as simple as that.

I walked into this beautiful, sunny, rustic seminar room and sat with equally nervous bloggers from Toronto around a gorgeous wooden table. Davida introduced herself and welcomed any questions about the seminar, her site and marketing. It was an elating experience. She sold herself and her brand without skipping a beat or a moment of awkwardness. She told us, “the moment you decide that your site is your business, it is your business. Put on your business mask and hustle.” She explained to me later on that if I considered it a little hobby I did on the side then so would other people. I could literally feel the shift in my mentality. This is what I want to do so I am going to give it my all and there cannot be any compromise about it.

I absolutely loved the seminar and I can’t wait for another one hosted by Davida. In those three hours, she became a resource of “how-to’s” and a source of inspiration. She kept telling me “you can do this, you have come this far!!” When I first started, I literally knew nothing about blogging, site maintenance, SEO, plugins etc. but with each post it gets a little bit easier.

Some things that has not been getting easier is selling myself and really believing that I could do this. We are all our worst critics but it is time to put my game face on, even when I think I can’t do it. Negative mentality is no way to immerse yourself in your passion.

A big thanks to Davida with all of her wisdom and advice, which she admits came from her own mistakes. The seminar gave me the kick in the butt I obviously needed.

So what does this all have to do with Bahn Mi? I picked up a sandwich after the seminar. Wish I could tie it in but sometimes these things just happen. 

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Fall is a little early this year. Don’t get me wrong I love Fall but it is still sad to see summer go. There are definitely things to love in Fall: boots, scarfs, not shaving your legs everyday (or until Spring haha!), big cozy sweaters that you would never wear outside of your house, pumpkin spice everything and soups aplenty. Boots on, soup’s on! Thats my rule!

Soup is my most comforting food (besides something smothered in buffalo sauce) but I don’t eat it as much as I would like because Mark insists he needs to be in a soup mood. Who is this guy? Soup mood? The temperature being a single digit at night should get someone into a soup mood in my opinion so sorry Mark the weather has spoken!

Opening a can of soup is easy but canned soup is kind of expensive when you think about it. A few noodles and a couple of cubed veggies in an imbalanced stock is all you are really getting. Homemade soup is so easy and inexpensive per serving. This soup delivers on flavour, nutrients (vitamin B12 from the nutritional yeast) and makes a huge portion, 15 cups so you can freeze some for next week and enjoy some this week. As much as I love being in my kitchen, I also love not being my kitchen but still having a stocked fridge with yummy healthful meals.

I have two topper options with this soup in case you get bored of the same soup for a week. I like to serve this with either Garlicky Croutons and chives or Ultimate Nacho Cheese with an extra sprinkle of ancho powder to kick it up a notch. Hot curry powder would be a good option too!

I portion the soup into 500mL Mason jars so they are ready to go whenever my hunger strikes. Just a quick warm up with some hummus and pita and lunch is served.

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This is my first veganized Caesar salad and it is a lot fresher and less caloric than the original. Let’s break down and compare the typical Caesar dressing to my raw version.

*** I used MyFitnessPal to obtain the nutritional information ***

350 calories for all the dressing! I only used 1/3 of the dressing to coat 4 cups of greens. I looked up a few Caesar dressing calorie counts and they averaged 90 calories with 10 grams of fat per tablespoon! And who uses just 1 tablespoon? Sure nuts are high in fat but it is plant based fat verses dairy and I will choose plants every time.

Garlic Croutons

Makes 4 cups but I only used a few at a time so feel free to halve the recipe.

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, grated through a microplane
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 4 cups cubed crusty bread, crusts removed

 In a small bowl, mix the oil and garlic and let it stand for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, make the dressing. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and strain the garlic out of the oil. Discard the garlic and toss the bread cubes with the garlic-infused oil. Transfer to a parchment paper lined baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until golden brown. Let cool on baking sheet until the croutons are room temperature.

Caesar Dressing

Makes about 1 cup of dressing.

•  ½ cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon each of capers and caper brine
• 1 teaspoon chai seeds (I used black but white is fine too)
• ½ medium clove of fresh garlic
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper
• 1/2 cup water

 Add all the ingredients to a high power blender and process until completely smooth. Transfer to bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

 Salad

•  4 cups purple or green kale, tough stems removed and chopped
• ½ tablespoon nutritional yeast to sprinkle on top
• ½ avocado, diced
• Lemon wedges to serve

Massage the kale with 1/3 cup of dressing and let stand for 15 minutes to soften the kale. Top with some croutons and avocado, sprinkle with nutritional yeast, drizzle 1 tablespoon extra dressing on top and lemon wedges on the side.

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