Cinco de Mayo brings visions of Mexican food, both traditional and fusion. It's an easy celebration to make plant-strong and healthy too! Here are my choices for the day:
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Monday, 5 May 2014
Cinco de Mayo Menu
To me, the best part about any celebration is the food. It's what brings people together. My family always tends to hang out in the kitchen anyways, so having some great food to celebrate coming together is a must.
Saturday, 7 September 2013
Vegan MoFo 2013: Fruity Friday AND Rawkin Saturday Combo Post: What I eat.
Since my planned recipe for yesterday didn't work out, I figured I'd do a combo post that showcases what it is exactly that I eat, what defines my food philosophy and also defines what this blog is all about.
I became plant based as on January 1st 2010, starting off with a slightly pescatarian diet and quickly progressing to vegetarian to vegan to high raw in a matter of about 7 months. Since then my diet has varied a bit, but has fundamentally followed certain guidelines. I've had a ton of success on it and have regained my health as well as shed 70 pounds (so far). But that's a whole story for another post!
These days, my ideal day starts off with a liter of water, sometimes with lemon. Then I have a breakfast consisting of fruit, sometimes a smoothie, sometimes just a generous quantity of whole ripe fresh awesomeness. When I say generous, I mean 7-10 bananas blended with strawberries, or 2 liters of fresh pressed orange juice. I prefer to stick with what's in season, but bananas are always a staple since they are easy to find, consistent and affordable. For lunch, it's usually also fruit, but sometimes a large salad with tons of greens (my faves being romaine, spinach and baby lettuces). If I feel like a snack it's again fruit, or veggies but sometimes rice crackers, or a bowl of rice. Dinners are by far my most complex meal, which is what most of the recipes here consist of.
I like to keep my cooked meal on the whole food plant based side of things. My meals are generally high carb and low fat, although I do deviate from that. My goal is more to keep an average of 80% carbs, 10% protein and fats. I feel my best when I stick to it and have found so many other that have as well, including people that I've coached. I also love being gluten-free and oil-free, low salt and low processed anything. I do occasionally deviate from this, generally when I go out to restaurants I am a bit more lenient but still keep it vegan and gluten free.
So dinner is often also very simple, like baked potatoes with salsa, or rice with steamed veggies.
Seasonality means that I try to stick to what's in season at all times, preferably local but since the winters here don;t have much to offer, I keep in mind what is in season around the world at that time. I love peaches, berries and melons in the summer; dates, apples and pomegranates in the fall; citrus of all kinds, papayas and persimmons in the winter, as well as mangoes; and last but not least mangos, pineapple and the last of the oranges in the spring. Of course my diet varies much more than that, but since those are the best quality fruits at that time, they usually consist of my main sources of calories at that time along with bananas.
There are days where I will eat completely raw, and others when I might only have one meal of fruit, rarely does it happen that I have a day without raw foods.
My goals for the day food wise also include drinking 3 liters of water and eating over 2500 calories a day. It may seem like a lot to many people who are so used to calorie restricting, which I am far too familiar with, but the reality is that low calorie meals do not work long term. They are unsustainable and honestly who wants to live on will power alone?
I want to live an abundant life, a healthy life and a life filled with adventure and projects. In order to have the energy to do so, you have to eat. Plain and simple. The whole calories in, calories out rubbish has been debunked. I've never felt better or had so little issues losing excess weight than when I chose to eat more of the right foods instead of less of everything.
So rejoice and fill yourself with the delicacies of nature!
I became plant based as on January 1st 2010, starting off with a slightly pescatarian diet and quickly progressing to vegetarian to vegan to high raw in a matter of about 7 months. Since then my diet has varied a bit, but has fundamentally followed certain guidelines. I've had a ton of success on it and have regained my health as well as shed 70 pounds (so far). But that's a whole story for another post!
So dinner is often also very simple, like baked potatoes with salsa, or rice with steamed veggies.
There are days where I will eat completely raw, and others when I might only have one meal of fruit, rarely does it happen that I have a day without raw foods.
My goals for the day food wise also include drinking 3 liters of water and eating over 2500 calories a day. It may seem like a lot to many people who are so used to calorie restricting, which I am far too familiar with, but the reality is that low calorie meals do not work long term. They are unsustainable and honestly who wants to live on will power alone?
I want to live an abundant life, a healthy life and a life filled with adventure and projects. In order to have the energy to do so, you have to eat. Plain and simple. The whole calories in, calories out rubbish has been debunked. I've never felt better or had so little issues losing excess weight than when I chose to eat more of the right foods instead of less of everything.
So rejoice and fill yourself with the delicacies of nature!
Wednesday, 4 September 2013
Vegan MoFo 2013: Web Wednesdays: Asian Green Beans
Sometimes the simplest thing are the best.
Like this recipe, simple, fresh and easy to make.
Web Wednesdays are fun because all I'm doing is googling three ingredients I have in my fridge/pantry and attaching vegan and recipe to them. I look through the results to find something that appeals to me and make it.
This time around I included green beans, rice and ginger. Asian green beans sounded the best and the simplest to make. 20 minutes later dinner was served!
Like this recipe, simple, fresh and easy to make.
Web Wednesdays are fun because all I'm doing is googling three ingredients I have in my fridge/pantry and attaching vegan and recipe to them. I look through the results to find something that appeals to me and make it.
This time around I included green beans, rice and ginger. Asian green beans sounded the best and the simplest to make. 20 minutes later dinner was served!
Asian Green Beans
Ingredients:
-2-3 large handfuls green beans
- 1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
- 1/4 cup tamari
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1tsp Sriracha hot sauce
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds
In a hot pan, saute the ginger in a bit of water until fragrant.
Add all other ingredients along with 1/2 cup water to the pan ans simmer for 2-3 mintues.
Add in the green beans and cook covered for about 5-7 minutes depending on how you like them, I prefer them on the crunchy side.
Enjoy over rice or soba noodles!
Saturday, 20 July 2013
Yellow Thai Curry
Thai food has always been on my list of favorites, but for a few reasons, it isn't in my habitual repertoire of go-to recipes or restaurants. The primary reason being that plenty of restaurants use fish sauce in, well, everything and some places won't or can't make their dishes without it. So finding a good, authentic and fish-sauce-free restaurant can be tricky. Nevertheless it is no excuse not to enjoy the delicious flavours that Thai food has to offer. Turns out that there is a veg-friendly Thai place right around the corner, and it was so amazing that I just had to recreate it at home.
This is a large recipe, feeding 2 very hungry people with leftovers. I'm sure it feeds a family of five, so half the recipe if you don't have a family or have a very healthy appetite.
I had tried to make Thai food at home years ago, but could never quite get the hang of it. Turns out the recipe I was basing mine on wasn't quite right, although the dish was tasty, it really didn't capture the essence of Thai food. What's a cook without a few failures under her belt?
Is this one authentic? Probably not. I chose to vary the ingredients from the dish I had at the restaurant with what I had on hand. Nonetheless, it was delicious. I could tell by the dead silence that accompanied it's consumption that I wasn't the only one enjoying the contents of my plate. I also tailored it to my dietary guidelines: that being I wanted it to be low-fat, low sodium, oil-free and plant strong. It already being a gluten-free friendly recipe I didn't have to change much.
You might have noticed that I haven't given specific measurements for the spices. This is for two reasons: I rarely measure them myself and I believe that they should be added to taste. They can always be adjusted and so I suggest starting small and gradually increasing them until just right if needed. After a few tries it almost becomes second nature and makes cooking that much more intuitive.
You might have noticed that I haven't given specific measurements for the spices. This is for two reasons: I rarely measure them myself and I believe that they should be added to taste. They can always be adjusted and so I suggest starting small and gradually increasing them until just right if needed. After a few tries it almost becomes second nature and makes cooking that much more intuitive.
Thai Yellow Curry
This is a large recipe, feeding 2 very hungry people with leftovers. I'm sure it feeds a family of five, so half the recipe if you don't have a family or have a very healthy appetite.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 large Sweet Onion.
- 2 large Portabella Mushroom Cap, diced.
- Several large handfulls Baby Spinach.
- 1 large tomato, diced.
- 2 cans low-fat coconut milk.
- Turmeric.
- Cumin.
- Ground Coriander.
- Fresh Ginger, minced.
- Sriracha Hot sauce or Fresh thai chili.
- White Pepper (can substitute Black Pepper).
- Salt.
1. Heat a large deep pan over med-high heat, once the pan is hot, splash with water and add onion. Cook until starting to soften.
2. Add spices with a little more water, let cook for about a minute.
3. Now add the coconut milk, I added the full cans but you can choose to buy the fuller fat versions and use one full can and just the top off the other for a richer dish.
4. Let this cook down for about 5-10 minutes, then add in all the veggies. Let cook until sauce has reached it's desired thickness.
5. Serve over steamed jasmine rice.
- 1/2 large Sweet Onion.
- 2 large Portabella Mushroom Cap, diced.
- Several large handfulls Baby Spinach.
- 1 large tomato, diced.
- 2 cans low-fat coconut milk.
- Turmeric.
- Cumin.
- Ground Coriander.
- Fresh Ginger, minced.
- Sriracha Hot sauce or Fresh thai chili.
- White Pepper (can substitute Black Pepper).
- Salt.
1. Heat a large deep pan over med-high heat, once the pan is hot, splash with water and add onion. Cook until starting to soften.
2. Add spices with a little more water, let cook for about a minute.
3. Now add the coconut milk, I added the full cans but you can choose to buy the fuller fat versions and use one full can and just the top off the other for a richer dish.
4. Let this cook down for about 5-10 minutes, then add in all the veggies. Let cook until sauce has reached it's desired thickness.
5. Serve over steamed jasmine rice.
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