PA PA PUMKIN!

There's something so homely about pumpkin.  Maybe it's the shape, so curvy and hungable, or it's beautiful aroma when it's baking.  Whatever it is, I just love it so, so, much.  

I love it's versatility to be used in both sweet and savoury and I love all the different textures that you can get from it too.  Whilst I've been on this I Quit Sugar Program, I have had to give up my beloved fruit smoothies and other delicious fruity concoctions (temporarily only) so I decided to make some pumpkin butter.  This pumpkin butter is so creamy and thick and naturally sweet, so no added sweetener is required.  I must say, my tastebuds have changed since doing the I Quit Sugar Program so if you find that you need some added sweetness, please feel free to add your fave, just stay away from nasty refined sugar and opt for some natural sugar instead.

Pumpkin Butter

Makes 500 Mls

Ingredients

2 cups of baked pumpkin*

1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1 tsp of ground cinnamon

1 tsp of xantham gum (optional but will make it THICK)

2 TBS homemade almond butter 

Method

Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender until smooth and creamy.

Adjust sweetness if you need to.

Store in a glas container with a tight fitting lid.

Enjoy on top of pancakes, folded through banana ice cream, or on top of your oats for breakfast. Or, you can eat it just as it is, like I do.  YUM!

*I just stuffed the baked pumpkin pieces in the cup, because it's so soft, you can pack it in.  I also dry bake them, which means I don't use any oil. 

Coconut Cheesecake with Chai Poached Figs

There's something about figs and cinnamon that just go so well together.  When I lived in Peru, my aunts would often whip up a massive big jar of poached figs, and they would flavour it with cinnamon sticks and cloves.  I remember we would sit in my grandmother's open kitchen, drinking tea and having the deliciously sweet poached figs on pieces of crusty bread.  It's such a wonderful memory and I wanted to recreate that feeling with this dish.
Whilst I no longer consume refined sugar, I did still manage to get the flavours right in this decadent dessert.  Now all I need is to be back in that little open kitchen, listening to my grandmother tell stories of my dad as a kid growing up.  Sigh.


Coconut Chessecake with Chai Poached Figs
Serves 2 (Makes 1x 12 cm tart)

Ingredients

Base
1/2 cup of raw macadamia nuts
1/4 cup of raw pistachio kernels
2 dates
pinch of sea salt

Filling
1 cup of raw cashews, soaked overnight and rinsed
1/2 cup of coconut yoghurt
1 TBS coconut oil
2 TBS rice bran syrup
1 sachet of stevia (1g)

Poached Figs

3 plump sun dried figs
1 tea bag of Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice tea
1 cup of boiling water

Topping
1 tsp shredded coconut

Method


Poached Figs

In a small bowl, add the figs, 1 cup of boiling water and the tea bag, leave to soak in that until you are ready to decorate the cheesecake.  The longer you leave it to soak the better.  Because the tea and the figs are naturally sweet, you won't need to add any sugar or other sweetener.  If you don't have access to Celestial Seasonings tea where you live, just use your favourite chai tea and add a stick of cinnamon and some whole cloves.  You can also make double the amount and just leave what you don't use in your fridge.  It will keep for ages and you can add it to your oats or on top of your favourite ice cream (raw vegan of course).  You could also use them on a fruit and vegan cheese plate.  Oh, the possibilities!

Base

Place some baking paper on the bottom of your mini tart pan.  I used the one with a removable bottom.  Set aside.
Place ingredients in the food processor and blend until it binds together when pressed.  Pour into your prepared tart case and press down with the back of a spoon or your fingers until even.
Place it in the freezer whilst you prepare the filling.

Filling

Place all the ingredients into a powerful blender and process until super smooth.  Scrape the sides down as you go so you don't miss any of the ingredients.
Take base out of freezer, pour in filling and return to freezer to set.
When firm, take out and decorate with quartered figs and some of the shredded coconut.
Drizzle over some of the tea.

This dessert can be stored in the freezer, without the topping.  Good to make ahead and keep there until you are ready to serve.  Take it out 30 minutes before you are ready to eat to allow for it to soften.

Decorate just before eating.

I made this dessert for the lovely people at the new 'cook' app for iOS 7.
It's a great app, so check it out, it's also free which is a bonus.
This dessert does have fructose in it so just beware, though I did try to make it as low fructose as possible with not as many dates or figs.

Hope you like it!

Peas, love and mungbeans

xxb

week 2 - I Quit Sugar 8 Week Program

2 weeks down, 6 to go.  One common question I keep getting asked by those who know that I'm doing the program is 'does it get easier?'.  The simple answer is yes.  
Don't get me wrong,I think about fruit daily, maybe even hourly, and how can I not, every where I turn, it seems to be looking at me.  Their skin looks shinier, the little lumps of goodness plumper, as if trying to seduce me with their fructose filled deliciousness!
But I'm proud to say I have been exercising my little will power muscle and it's getting bigger by the day.
One thing I have changed this week is my breakfast. I have been eating a raw breakfast, which for me, just seems to work better.
I've been alternating between having raw buckwheat pudding and vegetable juice in the morning, I'm really enjoying that so will keep it up for the remainder of the challenge.  At the end of the day, it's a no brainer and sometimes, you really need that!

Coconut & Lime Buckwheat Pudding
Serves 1

Ingredients

1/4 cup raw buckwheat, soaked overnight and rinsed well
1/4 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight and rinsed well
2 TBS chia seeds
1/4 cup young coconut meat
1/2 cup of coconut water
1 tsp each of lime, lemon and orange zest

Toppings of choice: lemon, lime and orange zest
                    coconut flakes
                    raw pistachio kernels

Method

After rinsing both buckwheat and cashews, place in a high speed blender with the rest of the ingredients and process until all ingredients have mixed through and the mixture is really smooth. Pour it in to a serving glass or bowl, and leave it for a few minutes, say, whilst you wash the blender and clean your prep area.  This will give it a chance to thicken a bit and turn like mousse.  Add your toppings and there you have it!
If you are wanting to sweeten it, you could add some stevia or a drizzle of coconut nectar or rice malt syrup.
If you are eating fruit, blend a banana with it and that should be enough.

This recipe is also really easy to adapt to suit your taste or whatever you are craving on the day.  Just make it as is, without the zest and add other ingredients instead.
Here are a few suggestions:

• raw cacao powder and top with raw cacao nibs and crushed hazelnuts
• rose water and cardamon and top with some rose petals and pistachio
• cardamon and ginger and top with some slivered almonds

Vegetable Juice

Makes 500ml

Ingredients

2 large cucumbers

1 carrot

1 knob of fresh ginger

3 stalks of celery

1 small head of cos lettuce (romaine)

1 bunch of fresh mint

1/2 lemon

Method

Juice and enjoy straight away or if you are making it for the next day, keep it refrigerated until you are ready to drink it.

I know I have a lot of zucchini pasta recipes, and I don't want to bore you with more of them but they are just SO good!  Eating a massive bowl of it is so satisfying, minus the bloat of regular pasta.  If you haven't yet tried it, you really should.  It's deadset the easiest thing on the planet to do aside from kissing, that's easy and fun too, but really, zucchini pasta, give it a whirl.

Zucchini Spaghetti with Olive and Tomato

Serves 1

Ingredients

2 large zucchini, spiralized using the spaghetti setting*

5 cherry tomatoes, halved

8 kalamata olives 

2 handfuls of baby spinach

1 handful of rocket

1 handful of chopped cos lettuce

1/3 cup capsicum, diced

1 cup of fresh basil leaves, torn roughly

2 TBS of hemp seeds

1 tsp of chia seeds

small drizzle of avocado oil (optional)

Himalayan pink salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Method

Mix the greens together and place them in the bottom of the bowl.  Mix all other ingredients together except seeds and oil and place on top of leaves, sprinkle the seeds on top and drizzle on the oil if using.  Done.

Alternatively, you can just mix the whole thing together and go for gold.

*you can peel your zucchini so it actually looks more like pasta or leave it as is.

I love this dish so much, I also make it to take to work.  I just place all the ingredients in a jar, and pour it into a large bowl when I'm ready to eat it.

Placing it in a jar keeps it fresh because all the ingredients are not sloshing around, rather are tightly packed.  It also looks really pretty, which is always good :)

This one I topped with some nutritional yeast and made the zucchini into fettucine because i was in a massive rush and couldn't be bothered getting the spiralizer out.  I just used my trusty old potato peeler.

Can you ever get tired of salad? HELL NO!  I eat salad all day, every day and never get tired of it.  I love the vibrancy of the colours, knowing that eating those fresh vegetables is injecting my body with a much needed and appreciated dose of vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants.

I just love coming up with new ways of eating them too, that is definitely half the fun.

Here's an example of what I mean:

Looks great right?  So what's in it?

Start with some baby spinach, top with some parsnip and purple cabbage rice (process them together with some nutritional yeast and Himalayan pink salt), then top with your favourite veggies and some seeds.  I used tomatoes, capsicum, avocado and topped it with chia and pepita.  The dressing was just simple lemon juice and some raw coconut vinegar.  BOOM!

The following recipes contain some cooked foods.

Siverbeet and Pumpkin Risotto 

Serves 1

Ingredients

1/3 cup of raw buckwheat (soaked overnight and rinsed)

1/2 cup of baked pumpkin

1 cup of silverbeet, thinly sliced

1 tsp of dried dill

1 TBS of fresh parsley

1/4-1/3 cup of cashew sauce (see recipe below)

Himalayan pink salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Method

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and add well rinsed buckwheat.  Cook until tender (about 15 minutes), take of the heat, drain the water and place in a large bowl.

Add the remainder of the ingredients, and mix well.  Serve immediately while it's still warm.  If you want, you can heat it up on the stove once you add the other ingredients but I kept the sauce and silverbeet raw.

Cashew 'Cheese' Sauce

makes about 1 cup 

Ingredients

1 cup of cashews (soaked and rinsed)

1 tsp of dried dill

1 clove of garlic

1/4 cup red onion, chopped roughly

2 TBS nutritional yeast

Himalayan pink salt to taste

1/2-1 cup of water

Method

Place all ingredients (except water) in a blender and process, adding some water, 1/2 cup at a time until you reach the desired consistency.

You can use this sauce as a dressing for salads too, or to add on top of a vegetable lasagne instead of cheese.  It's delish.

I always like balancing creamy foods with something astringent so i served this with a simple salad of cooked baby beetroots, rocket and some lemon juice.

As you can see, I really got into the buckwheat this week. It's such a cool little ingredient, and is also good for those who are avoiding grains as it's not actually a grain, rather it's related to rhubarb, isn't that weird! Such a deceptive name.  

As such, it's gluten free and recent studies have shown that it is helpful in treating diabetes.  Awesome!

So much awesomeness deserves another recipe!

Buckwheat Tabbouleh with Hummus and Pumpkin

Serves 1

Ingredients

1 cup of cooked buckwheat

1 cup of fresh parsley, chopped

1/2 medium tomato, diced

1/4 cup red onion, diced

1/2 lemon, juiced

Himalayan pink salt and freshly ground black paper to taste

Baked pumpkin, however much you like

1 handful of baby spinach

1/4 cup of Mami's hummus, recipe here

5 raw almonds

Method

To make the tabbouleh, mix the cooked buckwheat, parsley, tomato, onion and juice.  Add seasoning and adjust to taste.

If you are having this on a plate, place the spinach on the bottom, top with tabbouleh and place the pumpkin on the side.  Top the tabbouleh with the hummus and sprinkle on the almonds.

I took mine to work so layered it in a jar.

There we are, hope you have gotten some ideas and as you can see, vegetables rock my socks.  

Week three begins tomorrow and I'm looking forward to coming up with some more dishes to share with you.

In the meantime, be good to yourselves, you're worth it.

Peas, love and mungbeans,

xxb

Sugar Free Challege Week 1 Wrap up

Greetings and salutations from Fructose-Free land! Can you believe this self-confessed fruit junkie has gone without bananas, strawberries, papayas, and, gulp, dates, for all this time?!

Yes my fellow sugar coated humans (or those other crazy kids who are also doing this), I have survived week 1 of the IQS 8 Week Challenge.

Hooray for me!

The hardest thing about this challenge so far is how to get enough colour in to my meals, specially breakfast.

Having preached the laws of food combining and so on, having a cooked breakfast first thing in the morning, totally goes against some of my eating principles.  

Being the creature of habit that I am, this has been a little confronting.  I feel almost, how do you say? Hypocritical, gasp!

But alas, this is an experiment, so I had to leave those feelings by the wayside.  As many a yoga teacher have said 'acknowledge the thought, and then let it go'.

So, I am openly acknowledging that parts of this challenge are making me feel like a liar liar pants on fire, and letting it go.

I must be honest with you, whilst I have felt no difference by eating cooked instead of raw for breakfast, it still makes more sense to me to eat a raw breakfast, i.e., green smoothie, fruit, and other delicious natural candy like berries, apples, grapes.......oops, I lost my train of thought.  

Ok yes, so no changes in my digestion that I have noticed and it hasn't been as hard as I'm making it out.  Whilst I miss fruit muchly, having foods like GF oats, and experimenting with buckwheat porrdige has been a yummy adventure.

I've been trying to keep at least most of my meals raw but I find that by dinner I really want something super duper filling and satisfying, and not been able to add fruit really makes that hard.  For that reason, I have been adding cooked foods like baked vegetables, cooked grains like quinoa and some legumes.

This has really helped and I feel like I have the same energy levels. 

My, ahem, elimination, is also the same so no issues there.  Sorry, had to go there for those who are wondering.

So what does this all mean then?  Are cooked foods better? Is eating raw better? what, what, what?!!

The answer?  It depends totally on the individual.

Personally, I find that I will probably go back to having my raw breakfasts, but then again, it's still early days, and I'm totally getting ahead of myself.  

So what about side effects of fructose withdrawal? I haven't yet experienced any, which I find odd because I eat a lot of fruit normally.  Hmm, the only thing I can think of is that my sugars, although fructose, are natural, thus the sugar withdrawal wasn't as bad for me as for someone say, who ate a lot of refined sugars.

Again, how you experience sugar cessation in your body is totally personal.

Another point I want to make is this, it's not so bad.  Seriously.  It's doable and making meals from veggies is what most of us plant based geeks do anyways.

So, what have I been eating? Here are the recipes :)

Breakfasts

Buckwheat Porridge

Serves 1

Ingredients

1/4 cup buckwheat (soaked in water overnight)

1 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1/4 tsp of cinnamon

Toppings of choice:

raw cacao powder made into a syrup by blending it with some more unsweetened vanilla almond milk

pepitas

shredded coconut

coconut yoghurt

activated buckinis

Method

Rinse* the buckwheat and add to a medium sized pan with the almond milk, cook on low to medium heat until buckwheat is soft and cooked (it will become plump and open up a bit.  It will still have a bit of bite to it).  Approximately 10 minutes.

Place this in a blender with the cinnamon, and blend until super smooth.  It will become thick so here's your chance to add some more almond milk or water if you want and get it to the consistency that you like.

I like mine still a little thick so I only added about 1/4 of a cup more of almond milk.

Serve warm with your toppings.

*rinsing your buckwheat is important because it produces this, as my youngest daughter says "gooey gooey" like substance that does not look appealing to me at all.  And whilst some may blend it with this included, I prefer to rinse mine away, thank you very much.

Pumpkin Pie Oats

Serves 1

Ingredients

1/2 cup gluten free oats

1 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or milk of choice)

1/2 cup of water

1/3 cup of thinly sliced pumpkin

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp maca

Toppings of choice:

shredded coconut

coconut yoghurt

walnuts

pure vanilla extract

Method

Place all ingredients, except for toppings, into a medium saucepan on low-med heat and bring to the boil stirring.  Once it starts to boil, turn heat to low and keep stirring until you get your preferred consistency and pumpkin is soft and can be mashed with a fork.  Add more milk or water if it gets too dry too soon.

Keep mashing until you are satisfied with the way the pumpkin has incorporated into the oats.

Serve in a bowl with your toppings.

Chocolate Cinnamon Quinoa Porridge

Serves 1

Ingredients

1/2 cup of quinoa flakes

1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk 

1/3 cup water

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbs raw cacao powder

Toppings of choice:

coconut cream

raw cacao nibs

shredded coconut

pepitas

flaked almonds

Method

Place all ingredients, except toppings and cacao powder, in a mediums saucepan on low-medium heat and cook until it thickens and it reaches your desired consistency.  Stir in the cacao powder and stir until it incorporates.  Add more liquid if it has become too dry.

Serve warm and add toppings.

Lunches and Dinners

The following meals can be either or but I've been mainly keeping lunch raw, trying to keep dinner raw but adding some cooked foods in there as well.  Point being, you have options so enjoy them!

Three Kale Salad with Avocado Dressing

Serves 1

Ingredients

Salad

3 stalks each of curly, tuscan and purple kale (or whatever other greens you have available, chopped semi-fine

1/2 cup sprouted legumes (you can buy these or sprout your own)

1 tomato, chopped

1/4 cup capsicum, chopped

2 TBS red onion, diced

Dressing

1/3 cup diced avocado

1 TBS nutritional yeast

1/2 lemon, juiced

Himalayan pink salt and pepper to taste

Optional sides

1/4 cup raw sauerkraut

sweet potato slices

Method

Place chopped kale into a big bowl.  Add the dressing ingredients and mix it through with your hands, massaging the kale as you go.  This will achieve three things: 

1. It will soften the kale.

2. It will make sure each strand is coated in deliciousness.

3. It will mix the dressing ingredients together.

Once that is done, add all your other ingredients and mix through again with a spoon, or your hands, just don't squash the tomato. No one likes squishy tomato!

Serve and top with sauerkraut and sweet potato if using.

For the following recipe, I made roast veggies for the whole family, so the ingredient amounts are just a guesstimate of how much it would take to make one serving so feel free to modify.  

I always bake heaps of veggies at the one time, you can always use them to add to sandwiches or salads the next day and they are just as nice cold as they are hot.  You also save on your energy bill and minimise, however small, your impact on the environment.

I am also always asked for a good hummus recipe, one that is smooth and creamy and delicious.  My answer to this is: any one can make hummus, it's the easiest thing in the world to make.  Seriously, you can't eff it up, the trick is in your blender.  My vitamix blends like a boss that's why I love her, she's the best, I call her Bey the minxy vitamix after everyone's favourite, y'all know who she is!
But, here's my recipe to a fail proof hummus all the same.
This recipe makes about 500mls and keeps well in the fridge for I'm guessing up to 5 days, I wouldn't know, it never lasts that long in mine.  Keep it in glass, keep the lid tight, do it!

Kale Wraps with Roasted Root Veggies and Mami's Hummus

Serves 1

Ingredients

Veggies

1 large carrot (I used 1 purple, 1 orange)

1 medium parsnip

2 small beets ( I used 1 golden, 1 purple)

1/2 sweet potato 

1 tomato, sliced into half moons

fresh parsley

4 large kale leaves (the ones I used look like collard greens, you could also use cos lettuce, iceberg or silver beet if you can't get your hands on these)

Mami's Hummus

1 1/2 cups of cooked/sprouted chickpeas*

1/2 lemon juiced (or more to taste)

1/4 tsp cumin

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup water

Himalayan pink salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Method

Veggies

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius.  Line a baking tray with baking paper and place all your chopped vegetables.  Cook in the oven until ready and soft.

Mami's Hummus

Place all ingredients except water into the blender.  Process until smooth and add water as needed to get the right consistency.  You may need to scrape the side of the blender from time to time.  Feel free to adjust lemon juice/seasoning.

Assemble

Place hummus on kale leaves, add roast veggies, tomato and parsley, wrap and eat!

NOTE:  Some individuals get terrible gas from eating raw kale, if that is you, don't fret, or fart, just blanch your kale leaves and see how you go.  Alternatively, use silverbeet or lettuce leaves.

Here is a recipe for cashew mayonnaise that is yum and super adaptable to suit your taste.  

Basic Cashew Mayonnaise

Makes 1 cup

Ingredients

1 cup of cashews (soaked overnight)

2 TBS nutritional yeast

1 lemon juiced

1 clove of garlic

1 cup of water

Himalayan pink salt

Method

Drain and rinse the cashews well and place in a blender with all other ingredients except the water.  Process and once it's thick, start adding the water 1/4 cup at a time until you get the desired consistency.

Keeps well in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Variations
Herb mayo: add herbs of choice
garlic mayo: add more garlic
chilli mayo: add chilli/chilli flakes
and so on, and so on, and so on.........

The following dish is a great one if you are the only vegan/vegetarian in your household but don't feel like making two dinners.

It's tasty and the main ingredient, the lentils, is made up like a stew that can be served on top of rice, and with your family's favourite animal protein if they choose to do so.

It also stores well, so you can make a batch, use what you need and freeze the rest in single portions, ready to go when you have no time to cook.

Instead of rolls, you could also make it like a lasagne, as the rolls can be tricky for some.  Just use the eggplant as you would lasagne sheets.

Eggplant Rolls

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 medium brown onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 cup carrot, diced

1/4 cup zucchini, diced

1/4 cup broccoli, diced

5 very ripe tomatoes*, diced

1/2 cup of water

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp cumin

1 tsp dried oregano

Himalayan pink salt and pepper to taste

1 1/2 cup cooked lentils*

1 medium eggplant, thinly sliced (use a mandolin if you have one)

Baby spinach leaves (optional)

1/2 cup parsley mayonaise

Method

Heat a large frying pan on medium heat and add onion, garlic, spices, and all vegetables, except eggplant, lentils and baby spinach if you are using.

Cover the pan, turn heat to low, and cook until vegetables are soft.  You may need to add more water to keep it from drying out.

Once veggies are soft, adjust seasoning, and add lentils. Stir and cook for another 5 minutes, with lid on.  Remove lid if there is too much liquid.

Once ready, pour into a bowl and set aside.

Heat a large non-stick frying pan and place thin slices of eggplant and cook until each side is golden.  Turning over a couple of times.  I used 4 slices per person.

Once ready, assemble your baby spinach on a plate, place one slice of eggplant on the bottom, scoop 1 TBS of the lentil mixture in the middle, add more if needed, and fold sides of eggplants towards each other.  See illustration.

Once you have them all rolled up, pour over some more lentil mixture, top with parsley mayo, some fresh parsley, and serve.

For mayonaise, use the basic mayo recipe and add a handful of parsley to it.  

*feel free to use canned lentils if it saves time but cooking dry lentils is really easy.  You can pre soak them but it doesn't take that long even if you don't.  It's also cheaper and less processed.

This goes for tomatoes, organic canned tomatos are an option too.

The following two recipes are raw vegan and really easy to make, best of all, they are tasty!

Raw Burritos with Spicy Guacamole
Serves 1

Ingredients

4 radicchio leaves

Rice
1 large parsnip chopped roughly
1 cup of broccoli florets
1 TBS nutritional yeast
1/2 clove of garlic
1/2 tsp Himalayan pink salt or to taste

Guacamole
1 medium avocado
1/2 lemon/lime juiced
1/2 tsp Himalayan pink salt
1 tsp of jalapeńo chilli, diced

Salsa
1/2 cup kale, chopped finely
1 tomato chopped
1/4 cup red capsicum chopped
1 TBS lemon juice

Method

Rice
Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until resembles fine rice grains.  

Guacamole
Mash all ingredients together except jalapeńos, once you get the right consistency (i prefer mine smooth, some like it chunky), place in serving plate and top with jalapeńos.

Salsa
Mix all ingredients together.

Assemble
Raddichio, rice, salsa, guacamole respectively.  Now go and stuff your face, andale, andale!

This next dish is so easy, and is a go to meal for me.  I nearly always have all the ingredients to make this, and if I don't, I just improvise with whatever veggies are in the fridge.

Zucchini Spaghetti with Creamy Tahini Sauce
Serves 1

Ingredients

Pasta
2 zucchini spiralized using spaghetti setting (peeling optional)
handful of baby rocket or whatever greens you have
1/4 cup red capsicum, finely chopped
2 TBS red onion, finely chopped
1/2 medium avocado, cubed

Tahini Sauce
1 TBS unhulled tahini
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 TBS of water
1/2 tsp Himalayan pink salt or to taste

Topping
Hemp seeds

Method

Place all your pasta ingredients in a bowl and mix making sure you don't totally squash the avocado.
Mix all your sauce ingredients together and add more water if you want it to be a runnier consistency.
Pour over your pasta and top with hemp seeds.
E A S Y ! !

Can you see why it's a go-to meal?  You can literally add any veggie that you like to this, which is why I have it a lot.  If I have any veggies sitting in my fridge that may look like they're on their way out, I quickly chop them up and make them into one of these pastas.  The sauce is so tasty, you could also adjust the flavours.  If you had more asian style veggies, you could add some tamari to it instead of lemon juice and add some chopped raw almonds on top instead of the hemp seeds. Winner!

SNACKS

Chips always pop into my mind when people ask me whether I eat junk food.  But not your conventional chips that are fried in oil, I mean vegetable chips, the ones you bake and are just as good, at least I think so!
All you need to do is thinly slice your vegetable of choice, and then bake them in a pre-heated oven until crispy.  A few burnt bits aren't bad either.
You could use carrot, zucchini, beetroot, kale, sweet potato, e.t.c.
Here's some I made with eggplant

NOTE: If making eggplant chips, make sure you sprinkle some Himalayan pink salt onto the slices first and let them sit for a while in a colander.  Rinse well after about 20-30 minutes, and squeeze out the water.  Then place them on a lined oven tray.  The salting process draws out extra moisture as well as making them less bitter.  If your eggplant has no seeds, salting is not necessary. The bitterness is contained in the seeds.

Here are a few more pics of my foods from week 1

Coleslaw with broccoli, olives, tomato steaks anad baby spinach (RV)

Curried cauliflower with marinated eggplant salad & sweet potato

Coconut yogurt with a modified version of the IQS coconutty granola, avocado on GF sprouted bread

My thoughts after the first week are:  I can do this, I miss bananas, I want a green smoothie so bad, can I do this?

Jokes, yes all those things are true but yes, it can and will be done.

I am however, having issues with the amount of nuts I am eating.  Whilst I'm nutty about nuts, I don't like to eat them all the time, but I am finding that I'm eating them quiet a bit, mainly to snack on during the day, they are textural and filling at the same time.  I'm really missing apples, if I could eat fruit, i would be eating apples instead of nuts, gah!

But, I have to suck it up right?

Ok, I have to suck it up.

So yes, the high nut thing is a concern to me, will have to substitute and make more veggie chips instead, or I could try not snacking.  Hmmm, now there's a thought?

Maybe I'll make that my goal for week two, although we're already half way through that!

Having said that, for something as challenging as this, I think it's important to set small goals so that you can feel accomplished thus minimising the risk of failure.

Yep, that's what I'll do, otherwise, I'll probably be the only person known in history to put on weight after quitting sugar!

The other goal I've set for week two is to have raw breakfasts, and I've got some yummy recipes for that at the end of week two so stay tuned.

Would love to hear how everyone else is doing, hope it's been not too painful so far.

Peas, love and mungbeans!

xxb  

p.s, it's not a mistake that there is no oil in my recipes, I don't like to use it.  I used a fraction of coconut oil for the coconutty granola and I still feel it's too much.  That's how much my palate has changed since I stopped adding oil to my food.  Weird ha? Anywho, I won't hold it against you if you use oil, what I'm saying is, you can not use oil and still have tasty meals.  Besides, there's enough natural oils in all the bloody nuts I'm eating to make up for what I don't add.  That is all.