Easy Vegan Cilantro Lime Rice

So my dear friend Stephanie and I were texting the other day, about nothing in particular, when she told me something absurd! She was grabbing breakfast at a cafe or something, and saw two girls sharing a bowl of granola. ONE bowl of granola. Now, I like granola as much as the next hippy, but this was too much! Surely these girls were sharing their bowl as a post breakfast snack!
Let me back up one sec, Stephanie and I have hearty appetites. We are smaller girls, but one thing she and I share in common is our love of food, she's actually a better cook than I am. We go to breakfast any change we get, and we go all out! Eggs, hashbrowns, toast, coffee mmmmmmm (breakfast is my all time favorite meal of the day). And she correctly pointed out that if we were to ever share one bowl of granola, it would definitely be after we polished off our plate of eggs and hashbrowns.

Now I'm sounding far too judgmental. But don't judge me, granola isn't even as healthy as most people think, it's mostly sugar! 

Now that store was semi pointless, but today's simple recipe had one goal in mind. I'm broke, but I want to feel FULL! Being Veg, the beans and rice offer a complete protein, and I just love cilantro. Now that I'm done rambling, let's get to the food!

So I forgot to take pics of the ingredients but here's the list:
-2 cups brown rice
-1 can black beans
-1 tomato
-Juice of 2 limes
-Handful of cilantro
-1/2 handful of basil (I added this at the last minute. You don't have to, but it was delicious)

So make the rice using your rice cooker or stovetop (I prefer the latter) using a bit of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Also you can use white rice, but I really recommend brown rice. It's much healthier!

In the meantime, chop up the tomatoes, the cilantro, and juice the lemons, open the can of beans, and don't overcook the rice.

Easy peasy! Drain the beans and throw in with the rice, along with the tomatoes and cilantro.

While I was mixing I saw this weird bean. Not gonna lie, I threw it out.

Ok back to the tomatoes

And this is when I added the basil, plus a bit of salt, pepper and some tapatillo. Yum.

Simple. Healthy. HEARTY. Also super versatile. If you're not vegan, add some cheese, put in a burrito, serve with eggs, whatever you want! I know you don't really need a recipe to make a dish like this, I just like to share my simple (not to mention CHEAP) dishes as well as the more intricate ones. :)

Stay safe, everyone!

I'm back! With veggie lettuce wraps :)

Oh no! It's been forever! Things got crazy with school, but a month long absence should not happen again :)

So without further delay, here are some veggie lettuce wraps, quite delish! And shhhh...but the whole recipe cost me about 6$!

I started with some extra firm tofu, sweet corn, lettuce, soy sauce, and just a touch of balsamic. I also added black pepper and ground flax (not pictured here). 

Get some olive oil good and hot and break up the tofu, it will start sizzling so be careful!

Keep breaking up the tofu while it gets good and brown.

Add the sweet, sweet corn..

Here's where I added the pepper/flax mixture, you can use just pepper, or chili powder, or anything you'd like, really. I'd hold off and the salt though, because the soy sauce has more than enough.

Cook it up a bit, but don't overcook, you don't want the corn to turn to mush.

Put on a lettuce leaf and chomp away!Mmmmmmm

And I have enough to feed at least 4 people (with average appetites...so maybe 2 if they eat like me). On 6$! I'm taking it to a vegetarian potluck, hopefully it gets good reviews :)

Some time in the future when I make these again, I may put some avocado slices on it, that would be perfection! But I'm on a budget now, so until next time!

Love,
Sharon
:)