I love bars. Every time Brehane and I head out to Target one of the first things we do when we get there is head for the health bars. Still you have to be careful when you grab a health bar because they are not all created vegan. Following a vegan diet we have to be careful not to pick up bars that have eggs or milk in them. And as a mom who cares about what my child eats, I look out for artificial items and refined sugars along with other toxic ingredients.

As a vegan who loves the taste of cheese, I have yet to find a vegan cheese that I am just crazy over. The taste has just not been there but I have learned how to adjust and make my own versions of cheese out of various ingredients like nutritional yeast, tofu, nut, and a few others.

One of the first steps in learning to handle your time is learning to organize your kitchen for effective meal planning and meal preparation. Once you get your kitchen is in order, you will notice that the time it takes for you to cook is more manageable and you spend less time in the kitchen.

Creating and maintaining time-saving strategies can help you and your family create a healthier environment. If you fail to plan then you do plan to fail. So instead of making food preparation a difficult task, try these time-saving strategic tips.

Focus your preparation efforts on one portion of the meal. You don’t have to make every meal component intricate. If the main dish requires a great deal of attention fix a simple vegetable or salad to go along with it. If the main dish is something like Boca chicken patties, dress up the vegetables or add an interesting side dish.

This is a very simple recipe that can be ready in under 30 minutes. The nutritional yeast gives the potatoes a cheesy flavor.

photo credit: foodistablog

Ingredients

6 to 8 potatoes, sliced with skin on
3 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp granulated garlic
1 cup soy or almond milk
1 tbsp basil
2 tbsp vegan friendly butter/margerine
sea salt to taste

Directions

Boil potatoes until they are soft enough to eat ( not too soft or else you will have mashed potatoes). Drain. In pot add potatoes and all ingredients.  Mix well and serve. You may find that it has a smashed potato look, but that is all the more fun depending on what you cooking them with.