Lemon Roasted Potatoes

Coming out of a 3 day water fast, I am seriously more appreciative of food. I did it for several reasons, I have some health issues that are being stubborn and need to be addressed but no way of getting any tests at the moment without a massive bill at the end of it all. It is not something I would generally recommend anyone to do without having actual health issues. It's no juice fast.

The intensity was manageable until the last day, where the watermelon waiting for me was just looking far too good to resist. My goal was to do three days, so I am prettyyyyy happy about it. I'm now in the "re-feeding" process and taking a few days to a few weeks to keep my diet uber simple and very high raw if not 100%.

Good thing I plan ahead and makes recipes ahead of time. These lemon roasted potatoes are amazing and reminiscent of the greek potatoes you can get at fast food places (without all the fat and sodium).

I have a salt addiction and I always find that adding lemon or lime to my dishes instead of copious amounts of salt usually satisfies me. Or at least has me adding only a smidgen or it instead. Also, my partner isn;t a big fan of added salt and prefers to have none, so I compromise and often only add some to my portion.

Enough of my babbling: presenting Lemon roasted Potatoes for your viewing and munching pleasure!

Lemon Roasted Potatoes

- 2lbs potatoes

- 1/3 cup lemon juice

- 1 tbsp lemon rind, grated

- 1 tsp dried oregano

- S/P to taste

Pre-heat oven to 375F

Combine all the marinade ingredients in a bowl and then toss in the taters and coat. Leave them to soak up all the goodness for at least 20 mins, up to 1 and a half hours. Make sure to toss it all now and again to coat. If you are going to marinate for a longer time period, put it covered in the fridge.

Spread out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, liquids and all. 

Bake for 45 mins to an hour.

Enjoy!

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Meatless Monday's: Lentil Sloppy Joe's

Lately I've been spending far too much time looking at party foods. Appetizers and mains of this kind were definitely my kryptonite, until I found sneaky ways to make them healthy. Not just kinda healthy, but follow all my guidelines healthy. Yes, you can have your cake and eat it too.

I mean, yeah, there is a place for a little indulgence of a different kind now and again, but if you can make it just as tasty (or better) without the oils, salt and questionable ingredients, then why not?

And thinking of all this awesome food without being able to make any of it really sucks.

We've been having issues with keeping food stocks up. The place we're renting at the moment is literally at the top of a mountain, and we use our bike to get around. Since the road up here is getting more and more dangerous, bringing up 30-50lbs of fruit and veggies for dinner is not exactly easy. Thankfully, we are moving at the end of the month!

Although, we haven't decided where yet... Seems to be a theme with us. We're off to town today to get it all sorted.

Okay, back to food. I whipped this up a few months ago when I was still in Ottawa, working away at finishing school and in need of an awesome meal to keep me going. 

This is definitely one of those super healthy meals that doesn't look like one, heck I even put kale in these bad boys!

Lentil Sloppy Joe's

Ingredients:

- 1.5 cups dry brown lentils

- 1/2 cup finely chopped kale

- 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes

- 1/3 cup finely diced peppers

- 1/3 cup chopped carrots

- 1 medium onion, minced.

-  2 tbsp tomato paste

- 1/2 cup organic ketchup

- 1/2 tsp chili powder

- 1/2 tsp cumin

- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika

- Sriracha, to taste

- S/P to taste

- 1/4 head chopped cabbage or coleslaw

- Pickles of choice

- 4 ezekiel or GF buns (or cabbage cups)

Cook the lentils according to the instructions on the packaging.

In a large pan, water sauté the onions until translucent, add the carrots and cook about 5-7 mins. Add the peppers, tomatoes and kale.

Add in the spices and hot sauce and let cook for just about a minute, then add in the lentils, tomato paste and ketchup. Let it all cook until thick and saucy.

Assembly time! Bun, sloppy mixture of goodness, coleslaw or cabbage and pickles. I also prefer my bun a little toasted, gives the whole dish that perfect touch.

On nom nom....

Enjoy!


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Comfort Food: Very Veggie Shepherds Pie

I've recently discovered the amazing world of reddit. There is such a massive array of topics on there, but as can be expected I went straight for the food. I found a great subreddit called veganrecipes where I occasionally share recipes and find amazing ones as well. I definitely recommend checking it out!

Through that group I found out about a subreddit called 52 weeks of vegan food. Of course I was curious and just had to check it out. Basically there will be a theme for every week for the next 52 weeks and people post recipes. Simple, awesome. Bonus is that I can post about my recipe adventures here and then it gives me less brain work for at least a post a week. Which means more posts! But unlike Vegan MoFo, which is intense, the demand isn't everyday and much much more manageable.

So this week's theme is comfort foods. When I think of comfort foods, two things come to mind: my favorite foods now and my favorite childhood foods. They are quite different from one another.

If this question were asked specifically for now, I would say sushi and a creamy dressing salad, well really mostly any ethnic rice dish tickles my comfort food fancy.

As for childhood foods, shepherd's pie is at the top of the list. Not the prettiest dish, it has many good memories attached of both my mom and grand-mother making them for me and my brothers.

Fortunately veganizing this dish is a cup of tea, although I do love a challenge. Simply replace the bottom layer with lentils and other veggies, a few spices and such. The rest stays the same. I also made this low fat by not using margarine or mylk in the potatoes. Just a little cooking water and god quality potatoes and they are just as creamy.

Very Veggie Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients:

- 5-6 large potatoes, boiled and mashed with 1/2-1 cup cooking water.

- 2-3 cups corn kernels (I used organic frozen corn)

- 1 medium sweet potato, diced.

- 2-3 medium carrots, diced. 

- 1 medium onion, diced.

- 1 bell pepper, diced.

- 2 can brown lentils, or equivalent cooked.

- 1 tbsp tomato paste

- 1 tsp pepper

- 1 tsp paprika

- 1tsp coriander powder

- 1/4 tsp white pepper

- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Cook all veggies in this order: onions (2-3 mins) add carrots and sweet potato (4-5 mins), add pepper and lentils along with all the spices. Add water as needed to keep the veggies from sticking. 

When all the veggies are done, put them into a large oven safe glass deep dish. Add the corn on top followed by smoothing out the potatoes. Place into the oven on broil just to heat throughout and brown the top slightly.

Serve as is or with organic ketchup! 

Enjoy! 

Vegan MoFo 2013: TV Tueday's: Dexter's Kill Room Lettuce Wraps

Although TV and I have a on again, off again relationship (Let's just say I prefer the version without all the commercials), Dexter is definitely one of those shows that caught my eye. It's soon over though! Which is probably a good thing for me, since I have no clue and have no desire to know what's new out there, it means less time spent in front of a screen!

One of the most iconic foods, after doughnuts and breakfast, on the show is Cuban food. The culture is clearly present and they are often seen munching on sandwiches from the food truck. I decided to put a whole food raw twist on those and came up with a pretty darn good lettuce wrap (which totally appeals to my geek side and ties into the whole plastic wrap kill room deal)

Now that I think of it, a drizzle of hot sauce would have brought these to the next level visually...

There are also a few things I would do differently, like adding avocado slices and more mushroom, perhaps some cilantro if that floats your boat.

I actually never enjoyed raw mushrooms until I learned how to marinate them properly. With this technique, they transform and have a cooked texture and tons of flavor.

Somebody just couldn't wait until I was done taking pictures. 

Dexter's Kill Room Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients:

Mushrooms:

- 3-4 portobella mushroom caps, sliced thickly.

- 1/3 cup orange juice

- 1 lime, juiced

- 1/4 cup tamari

- Cumin, oregano, cayenne, pepper.

Marinate mushrooms for at least 1 hour, preferably 4-6 hours or overnight.

Wraps:

- Romaine lettuce leaves

- Shredded carrot

- Thinly sliced celery

- Diced tomatoes

- Chopped cilantro

- Sliced avocado

- Mushroom slices

Assemble lettuce wraps and devour!

Vegan MoFo 2013: Thirsty Thursdays: Melon Citrus Slushies

This is definitely becoming my new drink of the summer. Although summer is over and I have to come to terms with it already being september, I hope that there will be at least a few more days that this drink can be enjoyed on the balcony.

It's also proof that making delicious awesome drinks need nothing more than fruit. All those additives, colors, artificial flavors and corn syrup just cannot beat this. And it has three uber easy to find ingredients.

So make this and dream of year round summers, capeesh?

Watermelon Citrus Slushie

Ingredients:

- 2 tangelos, or oranges/clementines will work too

- 2-3 cups watermelon, in chunks.

- 1 lime, juiced.

Put the watermelon pieces in the freezer for 1-3 hours, until completely frozen.

Once the watermelon is frozen, put all the ingredients into the blender and blend until smooth!

Pour into awesome glasses and enjoy! 

Banana Ice Cream.

I had this for breakfast at least 5 times in the past week and a half. Yes, that's right, breakfast.

I laugh so much when people have those bewildered looks on their face when they find out I'm not only vegan, I stick to a whole food, high raw diet. I know they have images of endless salads popping up in their heads and while I love me a good salad, it's definitely not the bulk of my diet.

In my book, healthy still means delicious. Actually, when I started being more conscious of my food choices, the variety and quality of my food went way up. When you start exploring real food, there is no comparison to the richness and the amazing taste of what nature gives us.

Back to ice cream.

I discovered this amazingly simple and oh-so-decadent treat a few years ago when I started looking into raw foods. Having always been an ice cream lover, and it really not loving me back, eating a version that I could feel amazing about in so many ways made me jump for joy (literally. I even have a happy dance just for this).

On top f all the healthy benefits and amazing taste, this stuff won't actually spike blood sugar for those who are concerned about it. Coconut sugar (the topping) has a very low glycemic index. Tastes like caramel molasses with a hint of maple and has an abundance of nutrients. If you are looking for an alternative sweetener, this really is the beat available. It's actually all-natural and not full of chemicals, which beats the competition with ease.

It tastes like the "real deal", actually no, it's better! More like soft serve or frozen yogurt, it's melty, rich, healthy and well ,just make it. When you read the recipe, you won't believe me until you make it and eat it... Then make more so make sure to prepare extra ingredients from the start. I'm putting in enough ingredients for a batch that usually feeds 2 of us with hearty appetites, so feel free to adjust it to your needs.

Banana Ice Cream

- 12-14 ripe bananas.

(make sure they are spotty-ripe so that they are very sweet)

Toppings:

Choose as many as you like! These are my faves.

- Coconut sugar

- Strawberries

- Date sauce/bits

- Carob/Cacao

- Jam

- Maple Syrup

- Anything your heart desires. 

Peel and cut the bananas into fours and put into a freezer bag or glass tupperware container. Freeze it overnight or for at least 6 hours. 

Put the bananas in either a high powered blender, food processor or juicer with a blank insert and process with little to no added liquid. I prefer the food processor as my blender does sometimes overheat while making this. If all you have is a regular blender, defrost the bananas slightly to soften them. You might have to add liquid as well. 

Once it's all smooth, add toppings and enjoy!