These hacks were featured in my Ultra Lazy Vegan Recipes video! Check it out here (scroll down for the written recipe and hack):

As you know, I’m always looking for ways to make life a little bit easier. Life can be hectic in the 21st century – most of us have jobs that take up the majority of our days, we have social obligations, dates to go on, workout classes to take and some of us even have kids (seriously, parents, how do you do it?!). All of that while trying to maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle… no wonder people have such a hard time following a healthy routine.

On top of that, following a vegan lifestyle in a very non-vegan world can be very daunting and can seem very time consuming. So I sincerely hope my content really helps you lead a much easier vegan life!

I’m learning every day on how to do things easier (as they say, work smarter, not harder!) and I wanted to share two of these little tricks with you guys that hopefully will help you.

Prepping smoothies in advance!

One of the tricks I’ve learnt (part of the reason I learnt this was because of my experience running a vegan cafe!) is to portion and prep smoothies in advance.

Some of you may have heard of making smoothie bags – where you put some greens, frozen banana and other frozen fruit into a zip lock bag and storing it in the freezer. This is a GREAT idea for those of us that want to make a smoothie quickly. BUT let’s add another piece of efficiency to the mix!

Instead of just making smoothie bags for the freezer, why not prep the dry ingredients as well!

I found myself adding lots of things into my smoothies – protein powder, flax seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, spirulina powder, greens powder, goji berries, etc… No, I don’t add all these things in one go but some times if I really want to add in lots of ingredients, I find myself taking out 10 bags/boxes just to make one smoothie. Not only that, but also having to take out measuring spoons just to make a smoothie… ridiculous!

So I got this brilliant idea of prepping some of these ingredients in advance by portioning them out into a little jar or container so that we create the perfect smoothie concoction. We can store this in the fridge and whenever we are ready to make a smoothie, just take one out and throw it in the blender along with the other ingredients such as frozen fruit, spinach, water, etc.

I LOVE this, not just because of the ease of it but because it also makes it easy for us to remember to take some healthy ingredients, such as flax seeds. Flax seeds are an excellent source of omega-3s for vegans and I always try to remember to consume some almost every day. But if i don’t have prepped smoothie ingredients, I often forget to add these into my smoothie. So if I prep, that will increase my chances of remembering to consume flax seeds!

Easy Smoothie Prep and Recipe

Ingredients:

Prepped portion (dry ingredients):

• 1 scoop protein powder 
• 2 tbsp ground flax seeds
• 1 tbsp chia seeds 
• 1 tbsp goji berries

Smoothie ingredients:

• 1 handful baby spinach, fresh or frozen 
• 1 cup frozen fruit of choice
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1.5 cups water or non-dairy milk

Instructions:

1. First we can prep the dry ingredients for the protein smoothie by adding them into a little jar or a container. Add the prepped portion ingredients into each jar and repeat for however many jars you’d like to prep. 
2. Seal each jar and place in the fridge until ready to make a smoothie! 
3. To make the smoothie, add in one portion of the prepped jar into a blender along with other smoothie ingredients.
4. Blend until well-combined. Serve immediately. 

Easy Vegan Pancakes with Pancake Mix!

This might seem self-explanatory for some people but remember that a LOT of people are completely new to veganism and might not know some of the things that might be obvious to some long-term vegans.

One of the things that people might not know is that a lot of pre-made mixes such as cake or pancake mix are actually VEGAN. For instance, the one I use in the video (embedded above). The pancake mix itself is completely vegan, but the ingredients that are recommended to mix in with the mix are usually NOT vegan.

But it is super simple to just substitute with VEGAN ingredients and I really don’t want people to miss out on making pancakes with pancake mix just because they don’t know how to substitute these ingredients properly.

For instance, the pancake mix I used only required ONE ingredient that was non-vegan – an egg. There are multiple ways of substituting an egg in this situation.

The ingredient I used was apple sauce – this makes a GREAT egg substitute in baking. Simply replace one egg with 1/4 cup of apple sauce. Then I simply followed the instructions on the pancake mix!

Another way you could substitute an egg is by using 1 tbsp of ground flax seeds and mixing it with 3 tbsp of water. Mix thoroughly and place in the fridge to sit for about 10 minutes and it will thicken up into an “eggy” consistency.

For other ways of substituting eggs, please Google!

Check out the recipe below!

Easy Vegan Pancakes with Pancake Mix Recipe

Ingredients (4-6 pancakes):

• 1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Paleo Pancake & Waffle Mix (or other vegan-friendly pancake mix – may have to adjust other ingredients) 
• 1/2 cup apple sauce 
• 1/4 cup water 
• 1 tbsp vegan butter or coconut oil, melted

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat a non-stick pan on medium-high heat. 
2. In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients until smooth.
3. Turn the heat on the pan down to a medium to medium-low and add a small amount of oil or vegan butter onto the pan.  
4. Add 1/4 cup batter per pancake onto the pan and cook for about 3-4 minutes until edges begin to set. 
5. Flip and cook until golden brown on each side. 
6. Enjoy with your favourite toppings.