Tag: healthy

Vegetable pie with creamy cashew sauce

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Ingredients – Makes 2 pies.

1 1/2 cup of peas

1 cup chopped mushrooms

1 chopped pepper, any colour!

1 cup of spinach

1 stem of chopped spring onions

1 cup of hot water with half a vegetable stock cube

1 cup of cashew nuts (soaked for at least 2 hours with water)

1 roll of puff pastry

1 tbsp coconut sugar

1 tsp melted butter

Directions

  1. Throw all the vegetables into a frying pan and cook until they begin to go a little soft or a light brown colour. If you find that your vegetables are sticking to the bottom of the pan, add some warm water to it.
  2. While that is cooking, prepare your cashew sauce by draining them first. Add it to the blender with your coconut sugar and the cup of vegetable stock water. Blend it until creamy 🙂
  3. Take the vegetables off the heat and add the cashew sauce into it, stirring until fully covered. Set aside.
  4. Roll out the puff pastry, cut it half way so that you have two squares.
  5. Gently place each square pastry into your cooking pots or a non-stick baking tray. Pressing down on the sides so that the pastry takes form of the pot.6. Pour the vegetable mixture evenly into both pots.
  6. Fold over the remaining pastry to cover the filling. It should close perfectly, without leaving any gaps for your filling to over spill.

8. Glaze it with some melted butter and coconut sugar for that extra taste.

9. Place into the oven for 20 minutes, until the pastry hardens, rises and becomes golden.

First smoothie in ages!

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I forced myself to go to my Pilates class the other day after not getting much sleep. Seriously, it was a battle. But, guys, I did it! I promised myself that, afterwards, I’d go home and make a nice smoothie. Because all this cake baking is making me feel extra unhealthy, plus I miss making them. So here it is…

Oh, and I also used prickly pear cactus water instead of plant-based milk, and OMG, it’s the best thing ever! If you haven’t already, you gotta get yourself some and try it ASAP! Click here to buy.

Ingredients

4 tsp crushed almonds

4 mint leaves

1 parsley stem

1 tbsp pumpkin seeds

1 tbsp Hemp seeds

1 1/2 cups cactus water

1 tsp agave syrup

1/4 cup of blueberries

2 pears

1/4 cup of chopped celery

 

…yes, it’s very random but it’s yummy, I promise! Just chuck it all into a blender.

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It taste better cold so add a few ice cubes into the blender 😊 x

x

Turmeric Latte

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BENEFITS OF TURMERIC

I bet you never thought of Turmeric in a latte before? Scroll down if you want to jump straight to the ingredients. But, you should really read this…

Turmeric is part of the ginger family therefore has anti-inflammatory properties that help to heal wounds and irritation, so it’s often used for skin care. The herbs antiseptic properties help to reduce acne scars, spots and pigmentation when consumed consistently. It has loads more benefits including helping with digestive issues, building your immune system and managing depression! Whenever I’ve taken it, I’ve noticed that it puts me in a really calm and relaxed state, all I want to do is just cuddle up and sleep. That means something right?

Turmeric produces a chemical called Curcumin, which gives it that beautiful golden colour. Curcumin is proven to help with joint pain, stiffness and the functioning of the kidneys and brain, keeping them all very healthy. You should actually take black pepper with turmeric as it will absorb it a lot more! When you read on, you will find a link to the turmeric paste that I used to make my latte, this already has black pepper inside, so you don’t have to worry about that.

You coffee & black tea lovers should definitely start replacing your daily drinks with this! If you didn’t know, caffeine actually soaks up all of the iron packed meals that you might be consuming with your tea’s and coffee’s, making you even more tired. Therefore triggers migraines and headaches and possibly leading to iron deficiency. I know this because I went through a stage where I was constantly researching how to boost my iron levels once I became vegan, and stumbled across this fact. Also, GREEN TEA, I didn’t know this before, but most green tea’s contain caffeine. So watch out for that! Drinking it with a meal can decrease iron absorption by 50% or more.

I stopped having normal tea for about 6 months when I first became vegan and let me tell you now, I noticed a MASSIVE DIFFERENCE! I replaced my tea’s with herbal’s and I felt a lot better for it. Now I’m trying out Turmeric Latte’s and Matcha tea’s.

Try this out…

INGREDIENTS

1 cup of Almond milk 

1 tsp of ginger Turmeric paste (see the link on the image below to check out the paste that I used)

5 dates

Boil the almond milk with the dates in a saucepan. Once it’s heated, pour it into a blender and blend 😊 The blender will naturally give you that thick latte texture and will be really fluffy. The longer you leave it blending, the better.

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Sonnentor’s Ginger Turmeric Latte, Golden Milk, Click here to view.

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lt; span style="line-height: inherit">The flavour is naturally sweet, with a spicy hint that finishes it off. I have a sweet tooth so I usually add some sort of natural sweetener to my hot drinks, but found that with this Turmeric Latte, it wasn't so necessary. The colour, well, it's a refreshing bright yellow as you can see, a colourful drink is always the best! The brand has two mixtures, ginger and vanilla. I haven't tried the vanilla but I'm imagining it’s just as great. I highly recommend buying this amazing product, it’s small but powerful and will last a long time!

OATS breakfast bowl

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Truth is, I haven’t been wanting to make many smoothie breakfast bowls recently because it’s so cold and no one really wants to have freezing cold stuff for breakfast, especially when it’s like 8 in the morning. And you can’t even be lazy because you’ve run out of cereal and milk to fall back on! So grab yourself some fruit and oats for this one.

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This is an oats breakfast bowl, topped with loads of yummy fruit that go really well together, plus some pumpkin seeds (my favourite) and chia seeds. Oh yh, and a little bit of chocolate sauce. To be honest that chocolate sauce absolutely made it!

Just boil together 1 1/2 cups of oats and 2 cups of water in a sauce pan for about 4 minutes (2 minutes on high heat, 2 minutes on simmer) Add a little more water if your oats become quite lumpy and start to stick to the pan. Prepare as many fruits and seeds as you like while it’s cooking and that’s it 😊 so simple and so worth it.

x

6/1/2018

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Tonight, I came home from being out the entire day, went straight to my mum, and asked her, “why is it that I can be so close to doing something, I get so excited that I’m about to do it, but it never ends up happening?” I was so down. So disappointed with so many things at the time. So I went to my room, picked up a book and started reading, in hope that it would make me feel a little better.

10 minutes later, my mum rushed into my room, as if she had just remembered something and HAD to tell me before she forgot it, and said…”maybe it’s not happening just yet, and with the people who you want it to be happening with, because there is better waiting for you.”

We both looked at each other for a few seconds just smiling.

Maybe that’s true?

True or not, I needed that. My mums not one to give all that spiritual, out of the box advice, she’s normally a ‘get on with it and do what you gotta do’ kind of person, so this was quite powerful. Like a slap in the face, wake the flip up moment.

I have been wanting to do certain things for so long now, and have had multiple opportunities to do them, but something always gets in the way. Either my intuition tells me it’s not right, or someone let’s me down. But, like everyone in this world, my life lessons are always learnt through the most uncomfortable moments of my life. The moments when I am the most lost and confused.

The universe is forever teaching me patience and how to trust that when things are right for me, when the timing is also right, those things will become easier to reach. Easier to understand. Easier to accomplish. I lost sight of that. My mum, through those few words, opened my eyes again.

Things happen when they are supposed to happen. It might even take YEARS for what you want, to become available to you. Sometimes things might not happen the way that you thought it would, because you are supposed to be doing something other than what you expected. Sometimes you don’t end up being with the people you imagined, because you deserve better. Sometimes, you don’t get that job you wanted because, again, you deserve better. Whatever it is, what ever the obstacles are that may be blocking you from reaching your dreams and plans, let them be there. They are there for a purpose that you will only understand once they are no longer there.

It’s so important that we stay positive and never doubt ourselves in these moments of confusion. You can listen to all the advice that you are given, but only you, your higher self and your inner wisdom, knows the true answer. Even if the answer is simply, to wait.

Oats and Green smoothie Energy balls

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As usual, I didn’t plan to make these cute little energy balls. I really just wanted to make a nice green smoothie. But here, this is what I came up with…

Just so you know, they taste really nice and are super healthy! (Apart from the maple syrup)

INGREDIENTS

1 cup of oats (blended into flour)

1/4 cup of oats (whole)

2 tablespoons of Maple Syrup

3 tablespoons of Chia seeds

3 tablespoons of melted coconut oil

1 tablespoons of VEGAN dark chocolate sauce – or make your own. But that is kind of long when all you want to do is hurry up so you can eat them.

4 tablespoons of the green smoothie from my previous post (This basically replaces the milk as well as giving the energy balls a greenish colour)

INSTRUCTIONS

Probably the most easiest recipe.

  1. Add and mix all of the above ingredients, including the 4 tablespoons of green smoothie, into a bowl.
  2. Using your hands, combine the ingredients together until it forms into dough. If you find that your dough is quite dry, add a little bit more of the green smoothie into it. Alternatively, just use milk.
  3. Roll into little balls.
  4. Top with the chocolate syrup and then leave in the fridge for a few hours.

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GREEN SMOOTHIE

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Definitely one of the best green smoothies I’ve made. But maybe I was just very hungry at the time…No no i’m joking, it was really nice.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup of Spinach

Half and Avocado

Handful of frozen mango

1 Apple, peeled and chopped into small pieces

1 tablespoons of Maple syrup

1 Tablespoon of Pumpkin seeds

1 Tablespoon of Peanut butter

Oh yeah, also, those balls you see in the background are my spontaneously created energy balls, made from the left overs of this smoothie. Literally, I had no idea what I was doing, yet they came out amazing. Always the way.

CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPE

Breakfast bowl

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Had a go at putting together a little video for you guys, I’m more of a visual person so seeing a step by step video on how to make something is so much easier to take in than reading instructions. I will TRY to do this often. It’s not done professionally or anything (probably shouldn’t have used an iPhone when I have a perfectly capable Canon DSLR camera) but hey it’s a start…

​Also, so excited that I am finally using these beautiful bowls that I bought back from Morocco (MISSING IT BTW). I should get more – Definitely an excuse to go back.

SMOOTHIE INGREDIENTS

1 Cup of Blueberries

2 Cups of Frozen Pineapple

1 Cup of kiwi (I would have put more but I am allergic – probably shouldn’t have put any but I love them too much)

1 Tablespoon of Hemp seeds

1 Cup of Almond Milk

 

ingrediants for breakfast bowl
Toppings – 1 tsp of ACAI POWDER and 1 tbsp of PEANUT BUTTER, berry granola, frozen cherries, kiwi, blueberries, banana, raisins and sprinkles.

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Caramel and White Chocolate Oat Squares

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They were originally supposed to be JUST oat bars so that I could call them healthy but as always I took it too far to satisfy my sweet tooth and added that niiiiiceeee caramel layer. I am forever hearing “its nice but why is it so sweet?” when the family try, literally, EVERYTHING I make…sorry.

Any way heres the recipe, they are honestly really nice though…

To make the oat base:

120 grams of coconut oil

1/4 cup of maple syrup

2 cups of oats (blended so that it becomes flour)

50 grams of quinoa flour (optional)

1 tsp of cinnamon

2 handfuls of dried apricots and raisins

Handful of pumpkin seeds

Melt the coconut oil and maple syrup until they have combined. Add the oat flour and quinoa flour and stir together until it becomes kind of a sticky, rough dough. Pour the mixture into a non stick baking tray, flatten using a spoon until it fills the tray evenly, including the edges.

Cook for 15-20 minutes.

While that is cooking, prepare your caramel and white chocolate mixture…

Caramel and white chocolate mixture:

Half a cup of vegan white chocolate

1 tbsp of caramel syrup

1 tsp of salt

Half a cup of dates

Half a cup of hot water

3 tbsp of coconut oil

1 tbsp of vegan butter

Put the dates, salt and caramel syrup into the blender, cover with boiling hot water and blend. Then add the white chocolate and stir until melted. You can either do this OR make the white chocolate separately. If you want to make it separately, just melt the white chocolate with the coconut oil and butter.

Once your oat base has cooked and cooled down, pour the date and white chocolate mixture over the top of it, also making sure to cover the edges.

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Cool in the fridge overnight or until the caramel has hardened.

xxx

 

Berries and Mango frozen smoothie

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I was in such a summery mood this morning, only because the sun was shining in london…it’s not now. It also lasted only a few hours (so typical), but I did get really excited which led to me making these yummy frozen smoothies. Unfortunately it really is COLD so I couldn’t actually finish them. Hot chocolate would have been so perfect. But here…

Berries and Mango frozen smoothie

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1 cup of Frozen mixed berries
2 handfuls of Frozen mango
Handful of blueberries
Handful or Frozen cherries
A few slices of Banana
1 tsp of Acai powder
Half a cup of Coconut water

Avocado and Blueberry frozen smoothie

yummm

1 Frozen avocado
Half a cup of blueberries
Half a banana
1/4 cup of almond milk

Salad bowls

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Salad, ugh salad. So Boring. At least that’s what I ALWAYS thought, even now, I cannot go to a restaurant (even if they specialise in vegan food) to have a salad. Because they literally just chuck the basic veg into it, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, onion…No creativity what so ever. No wonder why a lot of people don’t enjoy salads.

Here are a few eaaaasy salad bowl idea’s if you are struggling with finding a decent lunch that is healthy and not so filling, whilst being completely lazy…

Carrot, beetroot and pineapple salad. Topped with avocado, sunflower seeds and pistachio nuts.

 

Black eyed beans drained and covered in soy sauce, onion, parsley and olives. With some homemade bread – mix water, lemon, a tinyyy bit of maple syrup with gluten-free plain flour until it becomes dough. Flatten it into small pieces and then place onto a frying pan. Easy 😌

 

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Quinoa boiled in turmeric powder, garlic and almonds. Topped with olives, cucumber, spinach and carrot. Such a yummy combination.