Lettuce wraps

I'm blessed with a child who looooooves tofu and what better and more nutritional food can you feed your child. It has complete protein and good amount of calcium. I didn't write down the exact measurements for the marinate but it's very simple to make it just taste it and add ingredients until desired flavor. I love tofu because it really soak up any spices or marinate and and makes it taste wonderful.

Lettuce wrap for 4

1 package extra firm tofu, drained and cubed

1 Yellow pepper, cut into smaller pieces

1/2 zucchini, sliced  into smaller pieces

1 head of lettuce, rinsed and cut into sheets

Israeli couscous for 4 people, cooked according to package

Marinate:

Mexican hot sauce

ketchup

olive oil

Apple cider vinegar

salt & pepper to taste

Mix marinate in bowl and add tofu and vegetables and marinate for at least 4 hours. Place everything in a frying pan on high heat and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often. 

To assemble wraps, let each person make their own as the go. Place tofu mix on one lettuce sheet, add some couscous and fold and enjoy!!!

Banana ice cream for kids-big or small

I didn't think there could be an healthier way to make ice cream than the chocolate cashew ice cream I made a while ago but now I found an even better and easier ice cream. This ice cream is perfect for kids because it contains one ingredient.....banana! Yes it's true and the consistency is like soft serve ice cream. The secret is frozen banana and a good food processor. You will have to eat the ice cream immediately since it melts fast. 

Soft serve banana ice cream for one

1 large banana frozen in small pieces

Place the banana in a food processor and process until it's cream and soft, about 1 minute. Hold on to the food processor since it can jump around a lot in the beginning. We ate it a chocolate syrup made from 2 tbs light agave nectar and I tbs cocoa powder and blend them together. 

Ayurvedic breakfast

As I said in a earlier post, I love reading cookbooks to get inspiration but you might not know is that I don't just read regular cookbooks but also try alternative  lifestyles cookbooks. When I did my yoga training I also got a training in Ayurveda.  It's a ancient traditional  system of Indian medicine. To prevent illness, ayurvedic medicine emphasizes on hygiene, exercise, herbal preparations, and yoga. To cure ailments, it relies on herbal medicines, physiotherapy, and diet. Ayurvedic medicine is still a popular form of health care in India, where it is taught in roughly 100 colleges, and it has gained currency in the West as a form of alternative medicine. Actually my endocrinologist is also an ayurvedic doctor as well as a doctor of  traditional western medicine. Because of my thyroid problem I have some digestive problem and he is trying to get me to eat according to ayurveda which means more warming food and more spices. So this morning I made a apple stew for breakfast. I thought it would be hard eating warm food when it's so hot hear even early in the morning but that was not the case. 

warming apple stew Breakfast, serving one

1 apples,peeled and cut into small pieces

1/2 cup water

1 tbs agave nectar or raw honey

1 pinch cinnamon

1 pinch nutmeg

1 pinch ginger powder

1 tbs dried coconut or granola

Place apple, spices and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 2 minutes on low heat. Remove form stove and add agave and stir. Place in a bowl and sprinkle coconut or/and granola on top. Enjoy!

Gazpacho--Liquid salad

My tomatoes are growing like crazy so I usually have a bowl filled with tomatoes just sitting in my kitchen and waiting for some fun. I been in a Spanish mood ever since James took me to a Spanish restaurant on my birthday and therefore decided that the fun the tomatoes would see what in the form of nice cold Gazpacho. This chilled vegetable soup is usually served as an appetizer in Spain. I ate mine as a lunch and it worked as well. 

GAZPACHO SOUP SERVING 4

2 cups tomatoes, red ripe and diced
2 cups red bell pepper, diced
1/4 cup celery, diced 
1 cups cucumber, diced medium
1 teaspoon garlic, minced
1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar

1 tbs agave nectar

1 cup water
pinch cayenne
1 teaspoon cumin

salt to taste

Place everything except the spices in a food processor and process until like soup, about 1 minutes or so. There should be some pieces. Add spices to taste and server immediately.

Chilled creamy zucchini soup

One way for me to beat the heat is by eating cooler foods, I love eating raw foods and cold foods such as fruits and salads. I have so many zucchinis in my garden and got a lot of avocados from a friends so I made up a chilled soup which I enjoyed so much. I was not completely cold since I used hot water as a base but it was perfectly chilled. If you are not a big fan of raw garlic feel free to omit it from the soup.

Zucchini soup for two

1/2 cup hot water

1 cup zucchini, chopped

1/2 cup celery stalk, chopped

1 tbs lemon juice

1 tsp miso

1 garlic clove, pressed

salt and chili pepper to taste

1/2 cup avocado

place everything in a blender or food processor and blend until creamy. Add avocado and blend again for a minute. Enjoy immediately. 

Mustard dip

We had a lot of raw vegetables left over from the party so I tried to come up with something to eat with them and the result is a mustard and sunflower dip. I like using sunflowers because they are good and inexpensive. When you grind them they come out creamy. 

Sunflower mustard dip

1/3 cup raw and plain sunflowers

1/2 cup water

1 tbs Dijon mustard or mustard powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tbs dill, dried or fresh

salt to taste

Place sunflower seeds and water in a blender or food processor and blend until a nice creamy consistency. Add remaining ingredients and process for another minute. 

Chocolate mylk

I collect cook books and I have many many different kinds. I love reading them, trying new recipes and get inspiration for my own. I bought a new cook book called ani's raw food kitchen. Now I know I could never live on a complete raw diet but I do eat a lot of raw food, especially now when it's so hot outside.  However,  I love looking at raw recipes to get inspiration from them as well. Her cook book is great and has a lot of pictures which I love. How can you know what things are suppose to look like if you don't have pictures??? I decided to try to make chocolate mylk and boy was it good. I had it with my cereal and banana this morning. It really filled me up for a long time and also gave me a little caffeine boost. 

Chocolate milk, about 4 servings

1/2 cup almonds, soaked for at least 5 hours

1/2 cup dates, chopped

a pinch of sea salt

2 tbs cocao powder

5 cups water

Place everything in a blender or food processor and blend until completely dissolved. Strain the milk in a strainer. The milk will keep for 4 days in the fridge but you will have to stir it before pouring. 

Chocolate ice cream

I'm in full swing here making cup cakes for our birthday party on Saturday. We decided to instead of making a cake to have cup cakes. While I was standing in my hot hot HOT kitchen baking I had cravings for something cold and sweet. Ice cream. This is probably the easiest and healthiest ice cream I've ever made. The base is cashews and water and sweetener I used agave as always. It came out very well and I wolfed it down while enjoying my garden.

Raw chocolate ice cream

1 cup cashews

1 cup cold water

1/2 cup agave nectar

1 vanilla bean (scrape out the seeds)

2 tbs cocao powder

Place cashews in a food processor and mix until it's a fine meal. Add water and continue processing until smooth. Add vanilla bean seeds, agave and coco. Process for another 3 minutes. Add to ice cream maker and in a just a few short 10 minutes or so you will taste an amazing ice cream.

clench your thirst

We had record high temperatures here in San Diego last weekend. It's hard to keep a toddler hydrated but coconut juice is a great way to cool of and get hydrated, small or big. They sell these at the farmers market and Bella loves them because they have  slight sweet and coco flavor. I love them because coconut juice is  natural electrolytes, helping hydrate a little but very active body. Simply make a hole and stick a straw and let them drink that healing juice.

lasagna

I love lasagna but I haven't master the art of making one until this weekend when I finally made a great vegetable lasagna. I think the problem has been that in trying to make it vegan I used cheese substitutes and it never came out very well. This time I made a "cheese" sauce which actually contain no cheese or substitute at all. The sauce is my new base for many creamy creations and it so simple. I use nutritional yeast for flavor since it kind of taste like cheese. The result like I said was amazing as well as low fat. I have to admit that I did canned tomato sauce because I had no time making it from scratch. 

Vegetable Lasagna for 4 people

Cheese sauce:

3 tbs butter

3 tbs all purpose flour

6 tbs nutritional yeast

2 1/2 cup almond milk (or any other vegan milk)

3 tbs Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp chili pepper

salt & pepper to taste

In a medium pot on medium heat, melt butter. Add flour and lend well with melted butter. Add milk little at the time and whisk smooth. Add mustard and nutritional yeast. Add pepper and salt and taste. If you want more "cheese" flavor just add more yeast. Set a side.

1 12 once jar of Italian tomato sauce

1 large zucchini, sliced thinly

1 cup oyster mushrooms, cut into smaller pieces.

1/2 package lasagna sheets (watch out these can contain animal products)

Preheat oven for F450. Cook sheets according to instructions. Start layering a Pyrex mold with first sheets, tomato sauce zucchini and mushrooms and spread cheese sauce over and repeat . Last layer should be past sheet and cheese sauce. Place lasagna in middle of oven and cook for about 40 minutes. 

A birthday party without any cooking

Well there is some cooking involved but the news is that I'm not cooking. Me and James both turn 40 this year.  Me on Thursday and James in October so we decided to have joint party, a 80 year birthday bash.  We also decided to make it easy on me and have the event catered by one of our favorite restaurants "Naked Cafe". Everything will be vegan AND soy free. I'm not so worried about our friends reaction to this but James work friends might be another story so we'll see. I guess in worst case they will have a drink and have fun before they speed of for some pizza. Or who knows, they might not even notice it's all vegan style!!!

Power smoothie

My husband usually goes to yoga early in the morning which leaves me and Bella all to our self. It's been pretty hot in the mornings here so a simple smoothie is the answer. Cool, smooth and packed with nutrients, what more can you ask of a breakfast. I make then green by adding spinach and spirulina. I know, it does not sound very appetising but the fruit masks the taste as well as color of the greens. I think it's great way t get my toddler to eat more green vegetables and she thinks it's a treat. I also use coconut water and hemp seeds for protein.

1 1/2 glass green power smoothie

1 1/2 cup coconut water (or use water or non-dairy milk of your liking)

1 large banana

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 tbs spirulina

1 tbs hemp seeds

1 cup spinach, chopped

Place everything in a blender and process until smooth and no lumps. Enjoy right away.

Baked tempeh

Tempeh is a whole soybean product which is naturally culturing and controlled fermentation process which binds the soy into a cake form. It's nutritional characteristics and textural qualities are different from tofu. The process to make tempeh makes it more nutritional than tofu as well as give it a different texture and taste. I always boil the tempeh before marinating it

 to remove a bitter after taste. This recipe is a very easy dinner and takes very little time to make. Any leftover can be used the next day on a sandwich.

Baked tempeh, serves 2

I package five grain tempeh

2 cups water

Cut tempeh in half and the into triangles and place in a pot and cover with water. Bring to boil on high heat and reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain and set tempeh aside in a large Pyrex oven mold. Preheat oven for F350.

Marinade:

1/2 bouillon cube

1 cup warm water

2 tbs Dijon mustard

2 tbs chopped parsley

2 tbs mirin (sweet rice vinegar)

1 tbs Bragg's Liquid amino's or soy sauce

1 garlic clove, grated

Dissolve bouillon cube in the warm water, add remaining ingredients and blend well. Pour over tempeh and place middle of oven and cook for 20 minutes. Enjoy with roasted vegetables or mashed potatoes.

Strawberry & basil lemonade

Nothings says summer more than a nice cold glass of lemonade.  Strawberries are in season and lemon are always in season in our garden so it's the perfect time to make some lemonade. I used agave nectar for sweetener. Agave nectar in much better alternative for sugar since it does not mess with your blood sugar, it contains some minerals and vitamins if raw and is a good glycemic index food. Glycemic index or GI describes the difference by ranking carbohydrates according to their effect on our blood glucose levels. I don't even have white sugar at home anymore I just use agave for cooking baking and etc. Agave dissolves very easily so this lemonade does not have to cook and therefore keeping more of of the vitamins and enzymes.

 

Strawberry lemonade, 1 pitcher

4 cups water

1/2  cup agave nectar

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

3 basil leafs, diced

1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced

Basil leaf and sliced strawberries for decoration

Place the water and agave nectar in large pot and let agave completely dissolve. Add lemon juice and basil leafs, blend. Place strawberries in food processor or blender and  blend until pureed. Add to lemonade and  blend well. Decorate with basil and strawberries. Serve cold. 

Vegan donuts

Ok it has been a while since I posted something but we have been out of town, in Seattle actually. I was so amazed how many good vegan restaurants there were in Seattle. We eat like royalties! I have to admit that donuts does nothing for me but perhaps that is because I didn't grow with them. My husband on the other hand LOVES them so when I saw that there is a vegan donut shop called Mighty O's in Seattle I knew we had to try it. I'm sooooooooo happy we did because I LOVE them. They had so many flavors and despite "really" working hard at it, we did not try all flavors. James actually did not believe they were vegan and asked and they gave us a list of ingredients and sure they are vegan and organic. My favorite donut was called "devils play ground" and was a chocolate with frosting and sprinkles. James loved the maple one.

Bella and daddy enjoying a donut breakfast. No this is not a usual breakfast for either of us.

Look at those perfect donuts! I enjoyed also a wonderful cup of red tea.