Summer Cookin’ | Cookin' Greens

Bryn’s Cookin’ Greens Summer Blog:

With Cookin’ Greens & Instagrammer Bryn Ferguson

Forward by Cookin’ Greens

Summer 2015 is here! This summer we are so excited to have student, vegan blogger, Bryn Ferguson join us for some cooking inspiration with Cookin’ Greens. Frozen vegetables in the summer? You bet and we can’t wait to show you how!

We hope you read along as she shares her foodie experiences, tips & tricks, recipes and photos across her 8 featured blog posts.

Warning: Blog posts may inspire creativity and new confidence in the kitchen. Friends and family may invite themselves over for dinner and start calling you chef.

Check out her first blog post below:

Hi Cookin’ Greens Fans!

My name is Bryn Ferguson and I’m a 19-year old vegan from Toronto, Canada. I’m also a food Instagrammer (@veganfoodadventure), business school student, and huge lover of vegetables.

This summer, I have teamed up with Cookin’ Greens to share my experiences with their amazing products. For the next eight weeks, I am going to be using Cookin’ Greens to create easy vegan recipes that everyone — vegan or non-vegan, vegetable-lover or doubter — will love.

First, let me tell you a bit more about myself, why I became vegan, and why I love Cookin’ Greens. When I was 15-years old, I decided that I no longer wanted to eat animals, for health, ethical and environmental reasons. As a vegetarian, my mom was still willing to cook for me, since her recipes required little modification (she’s not one to make elaborate recipes anyway). But four months later, I decided to take my commitment to my health to the next level. I did not just become 100% vegan, cutting out dairy and eggs, but I also made a broader commitment to my health by increasing my daily intake of vegetables and legumes, and decreasing my intake of refined grains and sugars.

The condition on my veganism was that I would have to cook all of my own meals. This proved to be quite time-consuming. The biggest pain was the hours I would spend chopping vegetables. Balancing my cooking with schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and daily exercise was hard, but my commitment to health kept me going.

But what now makes my life much, much easier are the Cookin’ Greens products. I no longer have to spend hours rinsing, chopping, and steaming kale — I can open up a bag of Cookin’ Greens kale from the freezer and after a quick microwave, it’s ready to toss into any recipe. Or I can take out a bag of the Athlete’s Mix after a long run, add some protein, toss it over rice, and I have a nutritious meal.

In all of my blog posts, I will show that healthy doesn’t have to be hard, inconvenient or time-consuming. It can even be fun!

By way of introduction, I am sharing one of my favourite recipes that I have created using Cookin’ Greens so far: a simple kale pesto.

Most people opt to buy pesto from a store. But in fact, it’s something that you can make much more cheaply at home and you can add kale or spinach for an extra kick of nutrition, and picky eaters will never know!

Another reason why I love pesto is that it’s so versatile. In the photo, I’ve tossed the pesto with some pasta, but it’s great in tofu scrambles, lasagna, bruschetta, and more!

Cookin’ Greens Chopped Kale Pesto:

Pesto Pasta Ingredients

¾ cup Olive Oil
1 ½ cups of Cookin’ Greens Chopped Kale (or Cookin’ Greens Chopped Spinach or ¾ cup of each), cooked according to package
½ cup of vegan parmesan (see recipe below) – regular parmesan works as well
¼ cup of pine nuts
2 medium sized garlic cloves
½ cup of pesto basil

Method

Place all items in a food processer and blend until well combined
Store in the fridge

Vegan Parmesan Ingredients

1 cup cashews, unsalted
4 tsp nutritional yeast
1/3 tsp garlic salt

Method

Put ingredients in food processor and blend until fine
Store in fridge

Enjoy!