Super Chick Brownies

Happy Snow (Fri)day! What a treat to have the day off of teaching, and be able to catch up on some me-time.

New Roommate and I started off the day by shovelling a huge chunk of the parking lot for our apartment, as she unfortunately did not get the day off of work. Then we had to shovel some of the road... and then had to push the car... 'twas an adventure! A muscle-building one! And it was my first snow-shovelling experience, to boot!

After that chilly exerting start to the day, what else was there to do but take a hot shower, catch up on some work, watch a documentary on Netflix (Vegucated - pretty good! www.getvegucated.com) and plan some delicious baking project.

Today, coming off of PMS days and craving comforting snow-day food, brownies were on the menu. I didn't have sweet potatoes or black beans on hand, but I did have some leftover chickpeas. Hmm... chickpeas in brownies... a quick 'google' showed that this had been done, and quite scrumptiously, before!

This led to the creation of my first from-scratch vegan brownie recipe, as none of the complete recipes I found really attracted me. They pack a power punch of protein and fibre with the chickpeas (and don't worry, you can't even taste the chickpeas!!). The fresh berries add the juiciness and antioxidants that no healthy person should be without in every meal... or dessert ;)



Mia (cat) is ready to get her paws on these! ;)

SUPER CHICK BROWNIES

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chick peas
• 1/4-1/2 cup water
• 4 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• Many blueberries (1/2 cup? 1 cup? go nuts!) *
• 7-10 large strawberries, finely diced
• 1/4 cup honey (preferably raw)
• 1/2 cup oat flour
• 3/4 cup sugar or sucanat
• At least 2 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup cacao powder (raw)
• 1/4 cup almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground coffee (optional)

* I left the blueberries whole, as I love the sensation of the blueberries bursting as you bite into the chocolate, but you could blend the berries in with the chickpeas if you prefer to keep the texture smooth!

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
• Lightly oil (coconut) and flour a baking pan, to prevent sticking
• Place chick peas in food processor with 1/4-1/2 cup of water and blend until smooth (I mashed mine, as I have an irrational fear of food processors)
• Melt unsweetened chocolate with coconut oil
• Combine chocolate/oil with diced strawberries, blueberries and honey, until mixture is evenly coated
• Add flour, sugar, cinnamon, cacao powder, almond milk, vanilla extract and baking powder (and optional coffee), and mix until blended (if mixture becomes too dry, add a touch more almond milk)
• Pour into baking pan and spread out evenly
• Bake for 35-45 minutes, until firmer, and an inserted toothpick or fork comes out clean
• Remove from oven and cool in pan, then cut into desired size of squares

Enjoy, and stay warm and well!

N.



The Berry Crisple

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I was so excited to make vegan burgers tonight, but then decided to channel that energy into making a crumble... crisp?... crisple!..., instead, because well... I'm not sure. But after all, with the minus-gabillion temperatures of these past few days, who doesn't need a belly full of warm-berry-cinnamony-nutmegy-oatmeal-goodness :)


The nutritional impact of this recipe is fantastic - a whole ton of antioxidants, vitamin C and fibre from the fruit, and the oats and flax, should you want to add it in (why not, I say!) gets even more fibre going, plus B-vitamins, magnesium, and more. Be careful with your sweeteners... try to stick with low glycemic index sweeteners and minimise the use of white or even brown sugar. The lemon juice is a great alkaliser for all that acidic fruit and sugar.

So many delicious berries!

And therefore, with a wee bit of chopping, tossing and Downton-Abbey-watching... behold, the Berry Crisple! I am sorry to say that I do not have specific measurements for most of this one. If I ever do decide to come out with a recipe book, I'm in trouble, because I definitely subscribe to the keep-tasting/smelling-while-cooking-and-just-add-more-xyz-'til-it-hits-the-spot methodology.


Berry Crisple:

- Approx. 1 pint chopped strawberries
- Approx. 1 pint blackberries
- Approx. 1 pint blueberries
- Approx. 1/2 pint raspberries
- Fresh juice of 1/2 lemon
- Sucanat, brown sugar, honey or agave nectar to taste (I used mostly sucanat tonight)
- 4 or 5ish cups of large flake oats (not instant!)
- Approx. 1-->1.5 cups melted butter or applesauce (I used vegan Becel)
- Approx. 1--> 1.5 cups flour (I used brown rice flour - can use any kind. I have also seen recipes without flour)
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- optional: ground flax seeds, chopped walnuts or almonds


- Preheat oven to 350 C.
- Toss berries with desired amount of sugar/sucanat/etc and lemon juice in large mixing bowl.

- In a separate bowl, combine oats, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and optional ground flax seeds.
- Stir in melted butter until mixture is fully coated.

- Coat bottom of pan (I used a 9x13 glass baking dish) with approx half of oat mixture. Spread berry mixture over this, and top with remainder of oat mixture. Optional: sprinkle chopped nuts on top.
- Bake for about 40 minutes - fruit should be bubbling, and top turning golden brown.


Enjoy warm and fresh, or cold and leftover, by itself or with icecream, whipped cream (vegan option: whipped coconut-milk based cream!).

... or enjoy it straight from the pan ;)

And the great thing about this recipe is you can use any fruit you want - peach and blackberry, apples, mango in the summer... endless options!


Stay warm and well,


N.

Juice Cleanse: Days 2 & 3

Day 2 and 3 of the great-ish juice cleanse of 2013 went pretty okay. I must confess, I veered from it a little on Saturday night at a post-holiday party (although mainly by eating Mexican caviar, which I made with delicious fresh lime juice and many fresh veggies... recipe here for you vegan party-goers! : http://www.tabasco.com/tabasco-recipes/recipe/4134/mexican-caviar/), and at a wedding-planning breakfast on Sunday morning with the BFF.

I have therefore decided that, with my various eating issues and hectic schedule, I will choose ONE day a week (probably a Wednesday, when I am not teaching) to do either a tea or juice fast, and give my digestive system a break. This will work far better, and not make me feel like eating my own hand to keep up my energy during hour 4 at the dance studio.

Some scrumptious juices were made, including a really great one by the housemate which included a juice sweet potato. Mm mm good... who knew?! The not-so-great juice of the detox was my throw-everything-together Sunday afternoon juice... cabbage, lemon, cranberries, mint, apples, cucumber... it might have been delish but for that cabbage. Interesting taste, not so interesting colour!

Evil brown cabbage juice

Lastly, I realised just how dehydrated I must be on a regular basis. My coworker and I were talking about this on the way home last night - we teach for about 5 hours straight, and mayyyybe go through 0.5 L of water the whole time as we are constantly dancing and moving and yelling and... you know... teaching. Who has time for water? Urgh! This hit home during the detox for sure, as the pee was not happening as frequently as it should have, and when it did... well, let's just say it was the opposite of light and clear and lovely. I figured it out half-way through Day 2 though, and took steps to fix. Housemate had a very different, more positive experience, as she is super-smart and drank all the water. That shall be me from the beginning next time. Lesson learned!

So, my own, individual conclusion: Juice fast is awesome for a once a week thing. It is important to focus on in-season fruits/veggies as much as possible, for bank-account-saving purposes (makes me excited for summer juicing!). Drink a gabillion litres of water... and make this happen on a daily basis, anyway. Juicing makes you feel healthy and great and awesome and clear, and making it a regular habit, along with healthy eating, stops bad cravings. Bonus!

Yours in juiced-up wellness,
N.

Juice Cleanse: Day 1

Happy Friday, everyone! 

Day 1 is underway, and all is well. Went to the supermarket at 8:30am and bought all this:

I didn't have much time today, with teaching in the afternoon/all evening, so was just able to make a big batch of green juice and of red juice.

The green was similar to the one I posted about below, except I replaced one of the green apples with a pear, and also added parsley. Mmm! (Okay, it actually tasted exactly the same as the previous one.)

The red juice was a mish-mosh of beets, carrots, Golden Delicious apples, one big orange, one tomato and ginger. 

Feelings so far: Very clean and healthy, but very hungry and craving all things bad for me. All-you-can-eat sushi. Pounds of chocolate cake. Poutine. I think that this juice detox would be great if I had three days of doing nothing, where I could just juice 5 or 6 times per day to keep fuelled. It'll be hard running on just two today, while working...

We will see what tomorrow brings! I am interested in how the cabbage will turn out...

The Creative, and potentially Chaotic, Cleanse begins!

Alright! Juice detox starts tomorrow!!!! Well, today, since it's 12:27a.m.

RAWRGH! It's going to be a hot mess of a juice thing because housemate and I are teaming up, with conflicting schedules, minimal time, and a crazy weekend ahead. But we're doing it anyway, because that's how we roll.

So far, our oh-so-planned-out plan is:

- Buy ALL the fruit, vegetables and ginger from the supermarket.
- Create amazing juice combinations several times a day, in advance where possible so we can take them with us for our work days.
- Absorb fantastic nutrients into body immediately. Bioavailability whaaaat.
- Feel amazing and healthy and glowy and maybe slightly dizzy.
- Repeat for a few days.

Stay tuned... ;)

Get it together

Ugh I desperately need some raw in my life. I have not been impressed with myself lately - managed to get through Christmas, including a NYC trip, with minimal damage to my 96.7% vegan-ness... yet the post-holiday eating has been horrific for the past week-and-a-half. Oh the hypocrisy of my life over the last few days!

After today's pancakes for breakfast and quesadilla with copious (but oh-so-delicious) cheesiness for dinner, this has to end. Pronto.

NB: Huge thanks to housemates for the vegan nutrient-packed lunch, though. You probably negated at least one of my meals of badness.

Current me status:
Body - bloated, heavy, sluggish, achey, dry. Skin is suspect. Eyes not clear and white. Sleep pattern sucks - too much, and not restful
Brain - cloudy, tired and certainly far less intelligent than it should be
Emotions - minefield

To think I used to eat and feel like this all the time.

The housemate and I are planning to do a juice-based detox starting on the weekend, but I am going to pre-empt it with some fantabulous eating habits. I bought red grapes tonight, which I never do, but I feel like this key action of buying something simple, delicious and slightly varying from my regular diet shall kick things off swimmingly.

Plan for tomorrow: I shall eat pre-soaked (uncooked) steel cut oats with my trademark cinnamon-sunflower seed-vanilla stevia-almond milk topping, the grapes, almond-milk-based yoghurt, lentil soup (not raw, but c'mon it's Canadian winter), and avocado. There will also be copious amounts of lemon water and chlorophyll water involved and, because tomorrow is one of my 13-hour days, my treat shall be an uplifting pomegranate-blueberry fresh juice from the mall on the way to teaching. No muffin. No soy-based latte.

Projected me status:
Awesome.

Sundays are for experiments... Avocado "Fries"

Today I attempted Avocado "Fries"! They were pretty easy, rather delicious, and definitely something I'll make again. My pictures don't seem to be uploading properly as of late, so I apologise for the lack of illustration, but google-image 'avocado fries' if you really need that visual inspiration;)

Ze recipe (for two people, or one if you're hungry):

2 medium, just-ripe avocados
2 eggs (vegan: I used almond milk - a little less 'sticky' but fine)
1/4 cup flour
1 cup breadcrumbs/Panko/seasoning (I used a vegan Thai lemon chili crumb seasoning)
Oil (olive oil recommended; I used avocado oil and it worked)

Pre-heat oven to 450C.

- Peel and cut avocados into half-inch slices
- Coat slices well in flour
- Coat slices in egg or almond milk
- Coat slices in desired seasoning/breadcrumb mix
- Place coated slices on a wire 'cooling' rack, on top of a baking sheet
- Spray with oil
- Cook in oven for 20ish minutes, until they are crispy and golden-brown. I turned them over about half-way through.

They were delicious as is, or can be dipped in your favourite dressing or sauce!

I will definitely have to try these with a salt and pepper-based seasoning, or even some kind of crumbled vegan-cheese. Mmmmm.