week 8

Week 8 is nearing it's end and I've got some lovely recipes for you.  Not all of them are mine, in fact, the majority are from my lovely non-vegan friends.
We had a long overdue get-together over the weekend and being the amazing girls that they are, they all made vegan meals so that we could all eat to our bellies content.
All of them cooked vegan recipes that they had never cooked before, and it all turned out amazingly yum.  This just goes to show, that there's nothing to be scared about when it comes to vegan food.  In fact, it's probably easier and less time consuming than waiting for a roast to cook, or making sure you don't overcook the scallops, e.t.c.
I must admit though, vegan food can take some preparation, specially when making raw meals.  Otherwise, I think it's pretty simple.  But don't let me tell you that.  Give it a go and see for yourself.

I'll start with my dish because I've been flogging it since it was made for me.  This recipe was inspired by my neighbour, she is a self-described non-cook, but she made me the loveliest, most moorish salad I've had in a long time.  I've used the base of her recipe and added some plump juicy figs that I thought really worked well with the flavours.  Thanks Leanne for the idea, I think you're a great cook :)

I made the grains and legumes the night before and stored them in air-tight containers.  This meant that I could assemble it quickly the next day and not worry about being stuck in the kitchen the whole time.  In fact, you can prepare all the ingredients ahead of time and just assemble when you are ready to eat.  Perfect!


Protein Power Salad
serves 8 as a side

Ingredients

1 cup brown rice
1 cup quinoa 
1 cup french lentils
1/2 Tbs coconut oil
1 1/2 cup fennel diced
1/3 cup raw almonds
1/3 cup sunflower seed and pepita mix
1 cup fresh mint chopped
6 figs quartered
1/2 lemon juiced
evoo
sea salt and cracked pepper to taste

Method

Cook brown rice, quinoa, and lentils separately and to packet instructions.  Remember to always rinse your grains and legumes, especially quinoa, as the rinsing removes the bitter taste you can get otherwise.
Heat up your coconut oil in a frying pan and add your fennel, heat gently until fennel is soft.  Put aside to cool.
Heat the frying pan again, this time no oil is needed, and roast your almonds until golden.
When they are cool enough to handle, chop them into slivers.
Rinse your grains and lentils once they are cooked.  About 20 minutes for quinoa, 30-40 for brown rice, and 30 for the lentils.
To make the salad, you just toss all the ingredients together in a bowl, adding the figs last so that they don't break apart when you are mixing it.
Check your seasoning and adjust as required, same for the lemon juice.  I like mine zingy but everyone is different.

The following recipe is by the lovely Natalie, and it's one she got from here.  It was really delicious, and so colourful and the dressing is THE bomb.  I have made the dressing since then and have added it to other salads and also the rice salad and i'm happy to say that it goes really well with just about anything.  You could even use it as a dip, it's that good.

The next dish was made by the sweet Angelica.  She's little, she's Italian, and she makes the best pasta this side of Sicily.  And would you believe it, she made egg-free pasta for us! There was no left-overs of that one, otherwise, we would've all been fighting for the last perfect little ravioli.

I'm still to get the recipe for this, but patience is a virtue and I will practice it.
The ravioli was filled with a mixture of baked pumpkin, garlic and spinach and it was divine! I could have eaten the whole platter.
Ange tells me that it was really simple to make, just flour, water and some olive oil for the pasta.  But I have never made vegan pasta before and I'd rather have the right amounts before I go covering myself in flour and oil.
The sauce itself was outstanding too, so I will post up this little gem as soon as I get it.

As you can see, there was no real theme for our lunch, just that it had to be vegan.  This next recipe was so yummy and for some reason, silky comes to mind when I'm remembering the textures.
This dish was cooked by a crazy Indonesian girl called Dea, and it was just delish.
It was a delicious blend of enoki mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, tofu, and chinese greens with a vegetarian oyster sauce.  A side of soba noodles, the perfect accompaniment.  You can get the recipe here.

Of course, every good kitchen needs a good prep chef, and we had that in the lovely Briana aka Jazzy. Thanks lady for the cheese (yes, the non-vegan kind for the non-vegans) and for your assistance in making the dishes happen.

And last but not least is the dessert I made.  
I must admit, this was a first for me.  Not the dessert making, but this recipe. I was initially going to make a salted caramel and chocolate tart and I still did make that but it just turned out different to what I initially had in my head.  I was aiming for a dulce de leche type tart that I was going to cover in melted dark chocolate so that I would have a hard chocolate top with a soft caramel centre and a crumbly base.  However, the dulce de leche was an experience in itself and I thought that it would be too rich to have the caramel and the hard chocolate on top, so instead, I made a more creamy chocolate topping to go with the salted caramel.  Enjoy.

WARNING: This dessert requires you to have a lot of time, and is best to make ahead of time as you will need to soak, freeze and stand in one spot for at least two hours!  But well worth it.

Salted Caramel and Chocolate Tart
Makes 20 cm tart 

Ingredients

Crust

3/4 cup desiccated coconut
3/4 cup walnut and pecans
6 pitted medjool dates
1 Tbsp coconut oil
pinch of sea salt

Method

Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until crumbly but able to hold together when pressed.
Press the mixture into a lined springform tin, using some to come up the sides.  Bake in a moderate oven for 10 minutes or until lightly golden.  This last step is optional, but I like it because it gives it a toasted coconut taste.  Alternatively, you can toast the coconut before you process your ingredients. I just didn't think of that at the time.

 Dulce de Leche
Yields about 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients

2 cans of coconut milk full fat
3/4 cup brown sugar
pinch of sea salt

Method

Place coconut milk and sugar into a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat stirring occasionally.  When it begins to boil, turn heat down to low and cook for about 2 hours.
Yes, that's not a misprint, 2 HOURS!!
Add the salt at the end and stir to dissolve.
Make sure you keep stirring every few minutes to stop the mixture from burning or sticking to the bottom.
Now this is what happened to mine, I left the stove because I could no longer wait to go to the toilet and when I came back, the mixture had curdled.  ARGH!  You can imagine my annoyance, having stood in front of it patiently, crossing and uncrossing my legs, for the past two hours!  Now what was I to do? My dream of making vegan dulce de leche had gone, just because I had to wee.  
But not all was lost my friends.  In my desperation to make this work, to not let the past two hours be a waste of time, I did what any self-respecting girl would do.  I drained off the liquid that was floating on top, which was just oil after all, and after a little bit more stirring, about 5 minutes, I was left with the most delicious dulce de leche.  YEEEAAAHHHH!!
This taught me a very important lesson.  Always trust your gut, it'll let you know what to do :)
Pour dulce de leche in a jar or glass container and let it cool in the fridge.

Liquid Gold!

Chocolate Filling

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup raw cashews soaked overnight or for at least 4 hours
1/3 cup coconut oil liquid
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup almond milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup raw cacao powder (or cocoa powder)

Method

To liquify your coconut oil, stand the container in boiling water.
Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until creamy and smooth.  
You will need to scrape down the sides a couple of times.

Assembly

Pour your cool dulce de leche into prepared tart base.  It will be considerably more thick than when you first poured it into the container.
Smooth it out to cover the bottom.
Pour your chocolate mixture on top of the dulce de leche and smooth the top.
Cover and place in freezer.  Take out of freezer a couple of hours before you are going to serve it.  Store left overs, if any, in the freezer and just cut off a slice whenever you fancy.

Ta-Dahhh!

So that was our vegan cook-off, not bad if I do say so myself.  We all had happy bellies and I was floating on my happy cloud for days afterwards, it's amazing what good company and good food can do :)

With the end of the challenge nearing, and feeling pretty confident about eating a plant based diet, I've decided to add a little more challenges to my challenge.
So for the month of October, I will be doing Gluten Free and for November, I will be bidding farewell to my friend Sugar.
I anticipate that both will be, to say the least, um, challenging.  But, I'm always up for a hard slog so there you are.
I anticipate that No-sugar-vember will be a tough battle.  No sugar means no fruit, which means no green monster smoothies, no berry-chia jam, no chocolate tarts, no vegan dulce de leche, no dried fruit, no stewed apples in my porridge, no banana peanut butter gelato, no raw vegan chocolate......oh dear, the list is endless!!
I have done a no sugar challenge before so I know what lies ahead. The nausea, the headaches, the lethargy, the irritability.  Yes, I will be a sugar junkie seriously crashing from a sugar high.  I plead with you to keep your treats to yourself and away from my face, or I might eat your face!
But seriously, the bad part only lasts a few days and then it's all good.  I'll be on top of the world, feeling smug and silently snickering behind your back when I see you eating a chocolate, feeling rather holy at the fact that I can kick sugar, even for just one month.  Maybe I'll have a cat, maybe the cat and I will sit by the window sill and drink liquorice tea and read books and stuff.  But hold on, I'm not sugarless yet, why am I delirious?  Oh yes, it was just the idea of having no sugar that's sent me loopy.  Oh dear.
But then I will become normal again and celebrate, and we can hold hands while we slurp a delicious green monster smoothie, filled with sweet bananas, yay!

What will October bring I wonder?  A month of no bread, no cakes, no pasta.  It really is the only way I can see to ease myself into dreaded No-sugar-vember.  Yes, babysteps indeed.

Til next time lovers, dreamers and cat owners

Peas, love and mung beans

xxb

ps, i don't have anything against cats or people who love them.  I just prefer dogs.

week 7

So i now only have 5 weeks left of the challenge.  I feel like the time has flown.  I am really entrenched in this way of eating now, and I'm wondering how I'm going to give it up, if it is that I decide to do that at the end.

Whatever the case, I feel like eating to nourish your body is not always a 'be all and end all' type of scenario.  It's more about what works for you, your body and your morals/ethics regarding food and food production.

This is not an easy idea to accept, specially for people like me who are stringent followers of the rules.  I've chosen to eat a plant based diet, and I am enjoying the ride, however, I don't want my health to suffer as a result of developing deficiencies, so my hope is that I can work through this and maintain this way of eating.

Now that we've got the serious stuff out of the way, let's look at some delicious summer treats that I've been playing around with.

I can smell summer in the air, it just keeps getting warmer in gorgeous Sydney, and there's nothing I love more on a warm sunny day, than stuffing my face full of ice cream.  

That's right, I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!!

These two recipes are sugar-free but feel free to add a sweetener of choice if you like things a little extra indulgent. Personally I don't think you really need it, so give it a go without it.  I dare you!

Berry-coconut gelato
serves 2

Ingredients

2 bananas frozen
1/4 cup berries of your choice (i used frozen raspberries)
1.5 Tbs coconut cream
1 tsp sweetener of choice (optional)

Method

Place all ingredients in a food processor and whiz until it reaches the desired consistency.

Banana Peanut Butter Gelato
serves 2

Ingredients

2 bananas frozen
1 Tbs natural peanut butter
pinch of sea salt
1 tsp of sweetener of choice (optional)
1 tsp crushed peanuts for topping

Method

Place all ingredients except crushed peanuts into food processor and whizz until you reach ice cream consistency.
Serve with a sprinkle of crushed peanuts on top.
You could add the crushed peanuts and stir it through the gelato, I think that would add a really nice texture.  Crunch Crunch Crunch :)

Do you get the picture now?  

This is the simplest, most easiest way to make delicious, healthy ice cream in minutes, so there's always a new flavour that you can whip up at a whim.

I always have bags and bags full of bananas in my freezer.  It's such a good way to store them if you have them turning brown.  

I use them to make banana bread, cakes, smoothies, and of course, ice cream.
I picked up 2 kilos of bananas the other day for $2.50!!  Just because the skin is spotted and a little brown doesn't mean the insides are dying.  As long as there's no soft bits and black bruises, they're as perfect as unspotted ones.

Now, as you can see, the banana peanut butter gelato is not alone.  Next to it is a delicious serving of vegan chocolate mousse.
This indulgent treat is delicious on it's own, and also makes a great filling for a chocolate tart.

I have tested this out on my non-vegan friends and told them the secret ingredient afterwards and they couldn't believe it.
Give it a go and see for yourself.

Chocolate Mousse
serves 6 on it's own or makes one 8 inch pie tart

Ingredients

2 cups of avocado flesh (about 2 1/2 avos)
2/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup non-dairy milk of choice (i used oat milk for this one)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbs arrowroot powder
1 Tbs almond butter
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup raw cacao powder (you can use cocoa powder if that's what you have)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 block of dark chocolate (i used Lindt 70% as it doesn't contain any dairy)

Method

Place all ingredients in a food processor except for the chocolate.
Blend it until smooth, you will need to scrape the bowl a couple of times to make sure it's all incorporated.
In a double boiler, or in a bowl placed over some simmering water, melt your chocolate until smooth and there's no more lumps.
Add to avocado mixture and blend again until all mixed through.  Mixture will thicken into a delicious smooth blend.  Try not to eat it all!!

The mousse will harden somewhat when refrigerated, and if you are using as a filling for a tart, make sure you place it in the freezer for a couple of hours before you serve it.  It will make it easier to cut.

I have some recipes that work well for tart bases but I will post that up next week as I will be making some salted caramel and chocolate tarts this week.

I have made this as a tart before and it it delicious.  The best thing is that you can freeze the left overs and cut off a piece as you go.

It definitely is a rich chocolate flavour, so a small serving is really enough to satisfy your chocolate craving.

Now that we've had dessert, how about a main?

As I've said before, I HATE waste, so I made the following recipe with the left over risotto I put up in my previous post.  

I made a big batch of the sauce from my spaghetti veganese recipe, and used the left over to make a pasta for the family that included chorizo (they are NOT doing the challenge).

All you have to do is stuff your capsicum with the risotto, spread the pasta sauce on top and a little on the bottom of the baking  pan, and stick it in the oven at 180 degrees celcius and bake for about 30-40 minutes.

Once out of the oven, sprinkle some chopped herbs and some nutritional yeast flakes for some added vitamin B.

Add a side salad and there you have it!  

Now for another savoury dish. 

I was playing around with making some vegan pesto and this is what I came up with.

Tomato Pesto

makes approx. 2 cups

Ingredients

1 cup basil leaves

1 1/2 garlic cloves

1/4 cup semi dried tomatoes

1/4 cup evoo

1/4 cup walnuts

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 Tbsp nutritional yeast flakes

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Method 

Place all ingredients in your food processor and process until nearly smooth.  Now, it will be a little bit thick so I added about 1 Tbsp of water at a time until I got the desired consistency.  I ended up adding 3 Tbsp but it's personal preference.

This is good to have on hand when you are stuck and need to jazz up a meal.  Here's two I used it with.

Quinoa Topped Mushrooms

serves 6 as a light meal

Ingredients

1 cup of quinoa rinsed and drained

1 tsp of vegan stock powder

1 1/4 cup water

1 Tbsp coconut oil

1 garlic clove minced

1/3 cup brown onion diced

1/3 cup squash diced

6 sundried tomatoes cut into strips

1/4 cup fresh parsley

1/4 cup fresh basil

3-4 Tbsp water

6 large field mushrooms

pepper to taste

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.  Line a baking tray with baking paper.  Clean mushrooms by wiping with a paper towel to remove dirt.  Place clean mushrooms, caps down on lined baking tray and place in oven for about 30 - 40 minutes.

Whilst your mushrooms are in the oven, place the rinsed quinoa in a medium saucepan with water and stock powder and bring to the boil over medium heat.  Once boiling, reduce heat to low and simmer, covered for about 15 - 20 minutes, or until all liquid has evaporated and quinoa is translucent and cooked.  Turn heat off.

In a frying pan, add your coconut oil, garlic, onion and squash. Cook until squash is a little soft but still has some crunch in it.  Add to quinoa.

Process your herbs and water with a hand held blender if you have it and add this mixture to you quinoa, along with the sun dried tomato strips.  Stir gently to combine.

Return the quinoa to a low heat and cook uncovered until there's no more liquid, this should only take about 3-5 minutes as there's not really that much water added.

By now, your mushrooms should be ready.

Take them out of the oven and place them on a plate, top with herbed quinoa and your tomato pesto.

Bon appétit!

Mediterranean Pasta

serves 1 

Ingredients

Wholemeal pasta or pasta of choice (enough for one person)

1/2 Tbsp coconut oil

1/3 cup of eggplant strips

1/4 cup brown onion diced

1 garlic clove minced

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried chilli flakes (optional)

4 sundried tomatoes cut into strips

6 kalamata olives chopped

3 Tbsp tomato pesto (or more if you like)

1 Tbsp fresh parsley chopped

2 tsp nutritional yeast 

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Method

Cook pasta to packet instructions

Heat coconut oil in frying pan and add garlic, onion and eggplant, cook on medium heat until eggplant turns golden.

Add oregano, chilli flakes, sundried tomatoes and olives.  Cook for a further 2 minutes.

Remove from heat and add to hot drained pasta.  Stir in pesto and parsley and mix until well incorporated and covering every inch of pasta.  Add your seasoning at this stage if you feel it needs it.

Plate it up and sprinkle with nutritional yeast.

Serve with some crusty bread and a basic salad.

I also use the pesto as a spread on my sandwiches, and stuff them with salad and baked pumpkin. Yummo!

On the body front, I am still losing hair :( but I have started taking the supplements and it's early days so I'm hoping it will stop soon.  I guess I have to give it some time.  I think about 4 weeks should be long enough to start to see some difference.  Fingers crossed!

Otherwise, energy levels are good, my sleep is still great, give or take a few nights when work has been really hectic, or my girls have a bad night.  But these are normal everyday things that would happen regardless of eating habits.

I've started doing some meditating, just small 5 minute intervals at this stage.  Trying to find a regular time to do it is the only problem as you can imagine.  At this stage, I can only do it at night after the family are all tucked in and asleep.

I know it's best to practice first thing in the morning but alas, it's a rare occasion when I wake up before everyone else.  I'm usually woken up by my youngest poppet calling out 'maaamiiiiii!' from her cot!!

But never fear, I will persevere.

Peas, love and mung beans

xxb

end of week one

Week one down, eleven to go.

Ok, so i've learned a few things from week 1.  

First of all, as I've said before, preparation is key.  If you happen to get caught out without any pre-prepared food, know where there are vegan friendly stores.  Luckily, working in the inner city, there's plenty of choice.

Second thing I've found works for me is to have an eating routine.  So the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is to have a litre of water followed by a dandelion root tea.  I figure if I can knock out 1 litre first thing, I can get away with missing a litre throughout  the day if I get busy and forget to drink water.  Which is something I do all the time.

Third is this: VEGAN FOOD IS YUM!

I've been experimenting with different textures and even got to do some baking.  It turned out amazing, and even my chocolate cake loving but vegan disliking partner loved it.  That's pretty strong proof that it's a good cake.

So here is the recipe which I have changed a little bit but you can find the original at http://www.instructables.com/id/The-BEST-chococlate-cake-ever...that-happens-to-be/

Vegan Chocolate Cake

Cake Ingredients

1 1/4 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup warm water

1 1/2 Tbs granulated coffee

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp distilled white or apple cider vinegar

Chocolate Glaze

1/2 cup sugar

4 tbsp margarine (i used nuttelex)

2 tbsp soy milk

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Mix together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt with a fork, making sure it is really blended together. Add the water, vanilla, oil, and vinegar, and again, mix together so that it's really blended together. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides if necessary.

Pour into prepared pan (i used a square one) and bake in oven for approx. 40 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.  Wait for it to cool on rack prior to cutting.

For the glaze: in a small saucepan, bring sugar, margarine, milk, and cocoa to a boil. Stir frequently; then reduce heat to a simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir for another 5 minutes.

Add vanilla, stir, and immediately pour onto cake. Glaze dries really quickly, so spread it immediately and add any sprinkles now. Let this cool for an 1 hour, if you can wait that long!

I dressed it with some fresh strawberries and it was delicious.

This would also be a good cake for people with dairy and egg allergies and perfect for kids parties when you don't want to leave anyone out who has allergies (except gluten).

It was good to know that I can still bake some delicious things without having to worry about compromising taste, so I feel some relief about that.  

However, I think in a few weeks I might start trying to cut back on the sugar and probably wheat but I'm mindful that I've just implemented a big change in my life so I don't want to send my body into shock!!!

But before I do that, here's another recipe for dessert that I developed.  

I don't know about you, but I love love love custard and I love to pair it with stewed fruit mostly.  So here's a recipe for a winter warmer that includes fruit, custard and some granola for added crunch :)

I make the granola bars ahead for me and the kids to have as snacks on the go and keep them in an airtight container in the fridge, it last for ages, but never more than 2 weeks in my house.

I just crushed them up and used it on the dessert. yum!

Baked apples and pear with brown sugar custard and granola crunch

2 apples, peeled, cored and cut into thin wedges

2 pears, peeled, cored and cut into thin wedges

1 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbs water

Place all ingredients in saucepan, cover and put on low heat for 2 minutes. The apples and pears will drop some fluid.  Remove lid and cook until soft or to your liking.  You can remove the fruit and continue to simmer the liquid for a few more minutes or until it thickens slightly.  It will be plenty sweet.

Brown Sugar Custard

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp flour

3 tbsp cornstarch

1/4 cup water

1 1/3 cups soy milk

2 tsp vanilla

1. In a medium bowl, beat together sugar, flour, cornstarch and water quickly for about 2 minutes, or until it’s creamy.

2. Bring the milk to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Pour 1/3 cup of the milk into the sugar mixture and combine. Add the sugar and milk back to the saucepan and heat over medium-low heat, whisking constantly. It starts to thicken right away.

3. Cook until it begins to bubble, whisk super hard for 30 seconds then remove from the heat. Add in vanilla.

4. Transfer to a bowl.

Vegan Granola Bars

wet

2/4 cup brown rice syrup

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 tsp nut butter (i use brazil nut and flaxseed)

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1 tsp of ground cinnamon 

1/2 tsp of ground nutmeg

pinch of ginger

pinch of cloves

dry

1 1/2 cup wholegrain rolled oats

1 cup brown rice puffs

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup flaked almonds

1/2 cup pecans

1/2 cup walnuts

1 cup mixture of shredded coconut, sesame seeds and salted peanuts.

Preheat oven on 180 degrees celcius.

Heat wet ingredients until gently boiling and stir for about 3 minutes or until thickened.

In a large mixing bowl, mix all the dry ingredients and then stir in the warm liquid.  Mix thoroughly and pour into a tray lined with greaseproof paper.  Flatten down (I put more paper on top and flatten it by rolling a glass over it).

Bake, uncovered, in a moderate oven for 10 minutes.  Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares or desired shape and size.

Note: this granola recipe is awesome because it's so adaptable.  I use whatever dried fruit and nuts I have and sometimes, I add macca powder or raw cacao powder if I want it to have a boost of antioxidants with a chocolate hit.

Okay, the finished product is basically just layering the whole thing together, you could do it totally pretty and layer it in a glass where you can see all the layers, or, you can do what i do and just throw it all on the plate and call it rustic :)

But just so you know, I haven't just been living off desserts, as yum as that would be.

I've found that I've been eating mainly the same things at each meal.  So just about always porridge for breakfast, I just change the fruit that I put into it, or add spices.

For lunch I normally have a kale/spinach salad with either lentils, chickpeas, red kidney beans or quinoa.  I always add capsicum as I know that adding vitamin C rich foods increases iron absorption from the legumes, spinach and quinoa.

I normally add avocado also, as I think it's important to eat good fats, specially since my regular fish oil tablets are off limits.  I have also been adding chia seeds to my water for a boost of omega 3's.

Dinner is mainly baked vegetables with a side of kale/spinach, legumes and some type of carb, mainly sweet potato, brown rice or quinoa.  I do love tofu but I haven't yet had any.  I'm going to try some tofu recipes this coming week.  A cauliflower and tofu curry with herbed quinoa is on my mind, specially in this cold weather.

Salads are my favourite though, they're just so quick to make and I love that you don't really have to cook anything!  It's not laziness, well, not entirely anyway :)

Here's one that I had tonight.

Green monster salad with lentils and pomegranate

1 cup kale

1 cup tuscan cabbage

1/4 cup red capsicum

1/4 cup baked pumpkin

1/4 cup avocado cubes

1/4 cup cooked lentils

2 Tbs pepitas

2 Tbs raisins

1/2 small pomegranate, seeds removed

1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbs raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

sea salt

cracked pepper

Mix the dressing ingredients and toss through the salad until all  the greens and vegetables are coated with it.

Enjoy.

Food aside, I have noticed a few things happening with my body.  

The main one that is at the forefront is how regular I've become.  I thought I was always regular but I'm more so now.  In one short week, I feel like my insides have been cleansed and so everything that I eat, soon finds it's way out.  

I don't particularly love talking about my bowel habits but alas, I think it's an important change.  Certainly those with a sluggish system might benefit from eating a plant based diet, even for the short term.

The other thing I've noticed is that I've lost some weight.  Not that it was my intention but I guess it makes sense.  Eliminating animal products also eliminates a lot of hidden fats/sugars that you find in ready made foods.

You are mainly making your meals, so you can control what goes in and how much and also the quality of the ingredients that you use.

I've also noticed that I'm actually full after my meals.  I normally need to snack about an hour after but I'm not doing that so much now.  I can't really explain why this is.

I do however, make sure that I have a good snack with me for the afternoon snack attack and I've also discovered the most amazing tea EVER.  Seriously.  

As you know, I'm a massive sweet tooth and so what I do now is make myself a large mug of Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice Tea with some soy milk.  The cinnamon and liquorice root make it sweet and it has absolutely NO sugar.  

I have a feeling it will become my best friend when I attempt at reducing my sugar intake.

Ok, just before I finish I have to tell you that my one big disappointment was having to give up Lindt dark chocolate, specially the one with a touch of salt which i'd just been getting into.  But, I have found a vegan friendly replacement at half the price.  Yes, it just happened to be at Aldi and it just happens to be dark and it just happens to be organic.  major win.

Til next time lovers.

Peas, love and mung beans

xxb

p.s you can also find me on instagram (brendad)for more food pics :)