What even is “tempeh”??? It is made by cooking and fermenting soybeans and forming them into a condensed patty type thing. I prefer its texture to its similar tofu brother, however, this is my first time actually experimenting with a soy product, so we’ll see! I love how it has a meaty texture and picks of flavors really well. It has a slight bite of chewiness and is full of protein, calcium, and iron. I used the WESTSOY Five Grain tempeh (which has gluten), but I’m sure any kind would be superb. Just be sure the version you get is GF if you have a sensitivity.
Serves one. About 230 calories and 14g protein per serving.
Ingredients:
1/3 block of organic “west soy” tempeh
1 tablespoon maple syrup
juice of 1 key lime or about 1/2 regular lime
1/2 – 1 tablespoon grated ginger
juice of 1 orange or about 1/3 cup orange juice
Steps:
Using a knife and a cutting board, cut off 1/3 of the block of tempeh. Turn this on its side and slice it in half so that you have 2 skinnier third pieces. Cut these two third pieces into triangles.
Heat a skillet over medium heat and add the orange juice, lime juice, maple syrup, and ginger, and mix with a spatula to combine
Put the tempeh triangles in the pan and allow them to sizzle on one side, moving around while sizzling.
Flip the tempeh when ready, and allow it to sizzle on the other side. Be sure to keep it moving so it doesn’t burn and add a little more oj (or whatever you’d like to add to make it even better!) if needed.
When the tempeh has soaked it up, time to eat! I had a little orange glaze left over in the pan so I stir fried some rice in there, delish! Serve with kale, rice, scallion, avocado, sunflower seeds – whatever you got! 🙂 xx
As the sun comes, up he rises. He carefully places a tender kiss on her cheek, and makes his way to the kitchen. While the pan is sizzling, the sweet smell of fresh pancakes tickle her nose. She tip-toes to the kitchen and slowly hugs him from behind. He laughs and squeezes her hand. They take their plates to the back porch, watching the wind over the water while her legs lay over his.
Give love this national pancake weekend ❤ That is just one of my zillions of fantasies / ideas for a recipe video series one day. I hope you try these. I have honestly never been so pleasantly surprised with a finished product. Eggless and flour-less, I was expecting something dense. These are light, and cakey, like all famous pancakes should be.
Makes about 6 pancakes, serves 2-3. One serving (2 pancakes) has about 345 calories and 10 grams of protein.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons chia seeds, soaked in 6 tablespoons water, (or try soaking in plant milk)
2 perfectly ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup cooked white quinoa
1 – 1 1/4 cup rolled oats, ground into flour
4-5 dashes of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup blueberries (I used dried) and 1/2 banana for topping
Steps
Stir the chia seeds into water and allow it to sit until it forms a gel
Grind oats into a flour
Mash bananas in a large bowl
Add quinoa, chia gel, oat flour, cinnamon, vanilla, and baking soda to the bowl. Mix until well combined
Spread coconut oil over skillet on medium heat
Form pancakes with 1/3 cup, place blueberries and sliced bananas on top of pancakes, and flip when ready to flip. It is ok to spread them so they are round but try not to squish / flatten them.
Serve with maple syrup and hugs ❤
Nutrient Breakdown: Based on 1 dried blueberry and banana pancake without syrup
Need a pick-me-up? These are the perfect little ball of energy. And, honestly, something about unsalted dry roasted peanuts and raisins makes my heart sing. If I had cocoa powder or maybe vegan chocolate chips, those would throw these balls out of this world! So, take what I made, and make it even better! xx
Makes 8 balls, about 90 calories each
Ingredients:
1/2 cup dry rolled oats
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup dry roasted unsalted peanuts
2 tablespoons ground flax
1 tablespoon maple syrup
Optional additions to try:
1/2 teaspoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 cup vegan chocolate chips
1/4 cup toasted coconut
Steps:
Blend ingredients in a high speed blender or food processor S blade until well combined
Using 1 Tablespoon to measure, roll into balls, and store in the fridge. Or, freeze for later!
Happy Sunday! This scramble is savory, satisfying, easy, and CHEAP! Use produce from your farmers market ❤ Inspired by Minimalist Baker’s tofu scramble… I invite you to take this as inspiration and run with it using whatever vegan goodies are in your kitchen to create something that makes you love yourself from the inside out feeling relaxed, cozy, and grateful :-*
Chickpea Scramble
Serves 1
Ingredients:
1 cup chickpeas (cooked from dry, no salt or fat added)
1 cup red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium-small sized potato, cubed
1 leaf lacinato kale, rolled up and sliced thin
1-2 tablespoons fresh dill
1-2 tablespoons fresh green onion
Extra love ❤
Steps:
Dry chick peas triple in size when you soak them so make sure they have plenty of water and plenty of room to grow when you saturate them and soak them for about 6 hours or over night. Drain chick peas, rinse, and boil them for about 30 minutes or until desired softness
Frying pan on medium to high heat, have water handy. Add a little water (enough so the potatoes don’t stick) and the cubed potatoes and mix to prevent sticking. Add water as needed
After the potatoes have gotten a little soft, add red bell peppers. Continue mixing and adding water if needed
Add kale, scallion, and dill and mix.
Measure 1 cup of chick peas and add those to the pan.
Serve with 2 cups mixed greens, 1/4 avocado and plenty of lemon or lime (the vitamin C in the citrus and the red bell pepper helps absorb all the non-heme iron!! 😀 )
Thank you Alena for this fabulous recipe. Can’t wait to try. Visit http://nutriciously.com for more info and recipes ❤
Drinking fresh, hydrating smoothies during spring or summer time is no big deal and very easy to sustain – but once the days get darker and colder, our bodies naturally crave foods which are dense and grounding. So what is a raw foodie to do once the seasons change?
The answer lies in shifting your diet away from water-rich fruits in exchange of dense foods and adding in a little more fat too. This will allow you to feel more grounded, satisfied, and full over a longer period of time, since these foods take longer to get absorbed and digested.
One of my favorite fruits that are in season during the last summer months and early fall, are figs. Though they can be bought dried and packaged all throughout the year, I love this little time gap when I can get them fresh and juicy. They look and taste very exotic – but even better are all their great benefits they add into my diet.
Figs tend to have a natural laxative effect, which helps with indigestion, constipation, and preventing colon cancer. They also support weight loss and lower cholesterol, due to their soluble fiber. Another area for which figs provide aid is the strengthening of bones, soothing sore throats, and even treat respiratory conditions, such as bronchitis or asthma. All of this is possible because they contain many beneficial nutrients, such as vitamin A and B, calcium, manganese, potassium, and iron.
The second special ingredient to make this smoothie extra creamy is cashews. Their copper is an essential component of many enzymes, whose job it is to eliminate free radicals, develop connective tissue and bones, as well as building the hair and skin pigment melanin. The heart-healthy unsaturated fatty acids found in cashews have zero cholesterol and their huge amount of magnesium regulates nerve and muscle tone. But my favorite benefit is that they can actually lift up your mood and ward off anxiety as well as depression – this is a nice side effect of their tryptophan.
Are you ready for this wonderful smoothie? Let’s get started!
Ingredients:
4 fresh figs
2 bananas
2 dates
¼ cup cashews (soaked)
1 cup almond milk
Pinch of vanilla
Instructions:
Put the cashews into some filtered water a few hours before making the smoothie. Then peel the bananas, remove the date pits, take the cashews out of the water, rinse and put all the ingredients into your blender. Blend on high until smooth, pour into a glass and enjoy!
About the Author:
Alena is a food lover and health enthusiast from Germany who spends most of her time studying, writing, playing and meditating. Having read every book imaginable on healthy living, she is excited about spreading this powerful message and reaching out. When she’s not in the kitchen creating awesome meals, she likes to travel, make music or enjoy the world outside. Together with her partner, she created Raw Food Mastery where she loves to help other people to thrive on a healthy plant-based, whole food diet full of raw foods and constantly puts out new content. You can check out their free course on transitioning to a raw food diet, grab a copy of their free recipe ebook and follow them on social media via Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter.
Saving money on a vegan diet is simple, as long as you’re willing to eat simply, haha. Every day is different and variety and adequate hydration are important. It doesn’t matter what I eat, what matters is what you eat and what makes you feel good. Just because I eat this way doesn’t mean you have to to be healthy. (I happened to get 3 boxes of bananas for free and feel great eating them!) The nutrient breakdown of this day will be on my blog to see what vitamins and minerals are lacking. I recommend that you log your food every so often to see what vitamins and minerals you might be low in so that you can research what foods contain those nutrients and begin incorporating more of those foods in your balanced vegan diet.
Today, I am definitely vegan for the animals after seeing a cute kitty smeared on the side of the road. Hope he didn’t know what hit him, unlike all the mass produced animals for food these days. I hate to be a vegan pusher, but I really can’t stand to see people supporting that business, it breaks my heart.
According to supertracker.com. I color coded green = good, yellow=warning to look out for, and red = do something about this! warning: these recommended values are based on a 2200 calorie diet and I wasn’t that hungry today so I only ate 2045 calories. I am sure I would have met pretty much everything based on a 2000 calorie recommendation. Had I eaten more calories – I would have had higher numbers. Kapeesh!?
Vegans should consider B12 supplementation or be sure to eat fortified products like plant milks, nutritional yeast, or cereals. Also, spending 10-15 minutes in the sun for fair-skinned individuals provides plenty of vitamin D.
Reds:
Vitamin B12: I take a supplement and normally like to drink fortified hemp milk that has B12 in it (I ran out).
Vitamin D: Sunshine baby! I spend at least 30 minutes in the sun everyday exercising, or just sitting, haha 🙂
Yellows:
% Protein: This is up for debate considering I clearly consumed plenty of protein. I am only 1% low as well, 10% is recommended and I ate 9% of my diet from protein. Should have eaten a few more lentils, huh!
% Carbohydrate and % Total Fat: Clearly I ate a high carb diet today. I feel good and energized eating mostly carbs and have noticed though documenting food in the past that a higher fat percentage for me makes me sleepy. I used to enjoy peanut butter sandwiches and handfuls of nuts but I honestly noticed they slowed me down a lot, both in my digestive tract and just throughout my day. So, this is a personal thing, but just shows it wouldn’t hurt me to consume less calories from carbohydrates and more from fat.
Linoleic Acid: This is a very important essential fatty acid that is necessary for formation of hormones, brain function, and cell membrane stability. It is great for me to see how my high carb diet is effecting my intake of essential fatty acids. Looks like I need my hemp milk!
Calcium: Also a little up for debate, it has been questioned whether clean eating vegans really need that much calcium since fruits and vegetables have been shown to increase the absorption and utilization of calcium. However, this tells me I could stand to of course eat my fortified hemp milk that I love (the chocolate version is SO GOOD!), as well as more okra, figs, broccoli, almonds, collards, and kale in my diet to get some more calcium. Calcium is in lots of plant foods, even oranges!
Iron: I was a little low in iron today, 16/18mg. Lentils and greens and beans are great sources of iron. This worries me a little because plant based iron (non-heme iron) is less readily absorbed than iron from animal products (heme iron). To absorb it better, it is necessary to combine it with a source of vitamin C like red bell peppers, lemon juice, oranges or tomatoes. Last time I got my blood checked I had more iron than my doctor, so I am not too concerned about it.
Selenium: a little low 46/55. I like to eat brown rice which is a decent source for me, (1 cup has 19 micro grams) also brazil nuts are high in selenium and I like to eat a couple of those once in a while when I get a few from the bulk section at Sprouts.
Vitamin E: This should definitely be higher. I usually eat more greens, (5 cups of spinach has 6mg vitamin E) I am running low so I am trying to make my last bunch last me for the next two days. Greens are a great source of the essential cell membrane saving fat soluble vitamin antioxidant vitamin E! I could stand to eat a few more sunflower seeds and almonds too. Even fruit has vitamin E, 1 ripe mango has 2mg.
Choline: Pinto beans (which I have been loving lately) are high in choline, as well as soy products like soy milk and tempeh, also quinoa, broccoli, and green peas, even oranges, bananas and dates have choline. I should try some tempeh next week to get some variety 🙂
There you have it! Hope this helps, and I hope you do the same once in a while to make sure you are on track! Not to get obsessive! I don’t record what I eat everyday! Very rarely do I actually measure out my food unless I am doing something like this. There are lots of sites out there these days, I use http://www.supertracker.com because that is the USDA’s website affiliated with RDs. I like http://www.loseit.com and http://www.cronometer.com and http://www.myfitnesspal.com as well. Let me know if there’s anything I can do for you.
I LOVE fig newtons. Figgy-Mahn Rollz are a much healthier alternative with a new pimped out rasta / reggae swag. They are the perfect sweet-tooth fix, or a great energy bite for a snack or workout. Figs are high in calcium and dates with all that potassium, whole grain oats, fabulous fiber in here, phytochemicals, antioxidants and anti-inflammatory flaxy polyunsaturated essential fatty acids. What more could you ask for? ❤
Figgy-Mahn Rollz
Serves 12
Crust
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup moist pitted dates
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp coconut oil (to grease baking sheet)
If using a food processor S blade:
Blend the oats alone until a rough flour
Add in the dates and the lime and process until it forms a smooth uniform dough
If using a high speed blender like ninja or vitamix:
Blend the oats alone until a rough flour and pour into a separate bowl
Blend the dates and the lime until smooth
Using a fork or mashed potato masher, combine the date paste with the oat flour until smooth and uniform
To assemble:
Spread the coconut oil over the baking sheet to grease it
Spread the dough onto the baking sheet. It doesn’t have to cover the whole sheet. Trim edges so they are straight and try to make it an even thickness
Filling
1 cup moist dried figs, with the hard things on top taken off
1/4 cup ground flax
1 Tbsp maple syrup
Blend until smooth using high speed blender or food processor
I love how it has a meaty texture and picks of flavors really well. It has a slight bite of chewiness and is full of protein, calcium, and iron. I used the WESTSOY Five Grain tempeh (which has gluten), but I’m sure any kind would be superb. Just be sure the version you get is GF if you have a sensitivity.
VITAMIN KATIE 