Flax + Crackers = Flackers

Breakfasts for the past year or so for me have been:

• oatmeal with flax
• rolled barley and rolled rye flakes with flax
• smoothies with fruits and veggies with flax

It's become boring and I need to shake things up. Enter The Thrive Diet by Brendan Brazier, which I purchased in the hopes of learning how to eat better overall. He has a section in the book of recipes for crackers, and I modified one to fit the ingredients I have in my home at the moment. I hope to make this my current breakfast trend, especially since ingredients can be varied to create very different tastes. It is made with of flax, hemp and Salba, providing lots of omegas, plus nuts and seeds, adding a good dose of protein and other nutrients.



Flackers

1 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup ground Salba
1/4 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup raw, unhulled sesame seeds
1/2 cup raw almonds
1 carrot, chopped
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, rehyrated in 1/4 cup boiling water
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoons hemp protein powder
3/4 cup of water
oil (canola, sunflower, coconut or your preference)
salt for topping (optional)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees fahrenheit. Blend first 10 ingredients, including the tomato soaking liquid, in a food processor. Blend at medium speed, drizzling in extra water a little at a time until the mixture is of packing consistency (like packing snow!). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and grease with a small amount of oil. Spread mixture on paper, pressing down to cover entire baking sheet. Score lines into the mixture to desired cracker size and shape (unless you want to get fancier than a square/rectangle, in which case, I can't help you). Sprinkle salt over top and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. When cooled, use scored lines to break into individual crackers.



These came out of the oven a short time ago, and got rave reviews by 3 people. Success!

Homemade Almond Milk

Every so often, I get tired of using water or soymilk in my morning muesli, and get a craving for some fresh almond milk. The flavour is really nice and it's a great substitute for other milks in cereal. I don't drink it straight since I never have been a fan of a glass of milk, dairy or otherwise, but I think I could drink a glass of this - it is very thin and refreshing. It would also be a great liquid to use in a smoothie or shake.

I searched for recipes on the internet, simplified and combined, and settled on this basic method:

1 cup raw almonds*, soaked in water for about 8 hours (or soaked slivered almonds)
3-4 cups of water (additional to the soaking water)
pinch of sea salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
maple syrup to taste (some recipes call for about 3 dates)

After soaking, blend all the ingredients until the nuts are pulpy. At this point, you are supposed to strain the pulp before storing the milk, but I skip this since I use it on lumpy cereal anyway. The pulp is just added fibre and nutrition! If you plan to drink it straight, however, you may want to strain it. Store in glass jars or bottles in the fridge. I use mine up in about a week.


soak the almonds...




blend it up with other ingredients until nice and frothy! The unstrained pulp sinks to the bottom...



* apparently, raw almonds will soon be a thing of the past. Stock up now!

Quick + Lazy Saturday Soup

The boy was out late last night and didn't feel like going out for brunch as planned (ahem) so I threw together a quick soup to feed my hungry and disappointed tummy.

Quick + Lazy Saturday Soup

1/2 cup red lentils
1/2 cup brown lentils
water to fill a medium sized soup pot - about 4 cups
2 vegetable broth cubes
4 sundried tomatoes, snipped into small pieces with scissors
1 large white potato, small cubes
3 cloves of garlic, thickly chopped
1 carrot, cubed
lemon juice - optional

Rinse the lentils and place them in the pot with the water and broth cubes. Bring to boil on high heat while you chop the potatoes. Add potatoes, sundried tomatoes and garlic. Stir to mix in the now-dissolved broth cubes. Cover and reduce to medium heat. Cook for 10 minutes then add carrots. Reduce to a simmer. Soup is done when the potatoes and brown lentils are tender. Serve with a squirt of lemon juice if you like things tangy.

tip: I like to vary the size and shape of my chopped vegetables to create a rustic texture

Now, since I feel like getting out of the apartment and my tummy is full, warm and happy, I am going to venture outside!

Midweek Munchies & Yoga Soup

This week, I decided I'd post my recipe for Yoga Soup - so named because I eat it after yoga class. It's very fast and filling and (I think) healthy. It is also the only recipe I have submitted to VegWeb...


Yoga Soup

• 2 vegan broth cubes (veg, mushroom, fake chicken, etc)
• 4 cups of water
  

• 1/2 cup shelled frozen edamame
• 4-6 vegan frozen Asian dumplings or pot stickers
• equivalent of 1 cup of rice noodles/rice stick
• 1 cup frozen broccoli
• handful of chopped dark greens: spinach, kale, or chard
  
  Optional additions:

• soy sauce or tamari
• hot chili oil, sesame oil
• lime juice
• ginger - pureed, thinly sliced or minced

Boil the water on high in a medium sized pot and dissolve the cubes in the water.

Add the edamame and dumplings. Stir in a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce or tamari and the ginger.

Bring water to boil again. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Add the broccoli. Cook for another minute at medium heat.

Turn off the heat and add the rice noodles, making sure they are completely covered by liquid. Keep the pot on the burner to keep the soup hot, but not at a boil.

Let the pot sit for about 10 minutes on the burner or until the noodles are fully cooked, adding chopped greens to the pot to steam for the last few minutes.

Ladle into bowls, topping with chili oil, sesame oil and a squeeze of lime juice.

other additions: - thinly sliced or shredded carrot - miso (added to the bowl of soup) - sesame seeds sprinkled on top - chopped scallions - green beans instead of, or in addition to, broccoli

Serves: 2, Preparation time: 15 minutes

More Midweek Munchies>here<

Weekend meat and greet

The wedding this weekend was beautiful. It was a 50th anniversary re-wed celebration - the boy's step-mom's parents decided they would renew their vows for their 50th anniversary, and they spared no expense. It was a full-on wedding complete with bridesmaids, ceremony, reception, 5 course Brazilian meal, open bar, etc. It was very touching to watch 2 people who married so young (she was 19) renew those vows after 50 years in the presence of their children, grandchildren, other family and friends.

Oscar did me proud and kept my shoulders warm :)

The ceremony was very beautiful, but I was aghast by all the fur. At least every other woman their had either a full fur coat or something with fur trim. And the family is Brazilian, which means a lot of kissing... I was relieved that I didn't have to kiss anyone's cheeks while they had their fur coat on. Blah.

The meal ended up surprisingly well. I spoke to a server beforehand to tell her I was vegan, and she saw to it that I was taken care of. While others ate their steak, I had a lovely stuffed pepper with steamed vegetables. While everyone else had cheesey cannelloni, I was served a nice plate of penne with a marinara sauce. For dessert, I was given extra fruit while the others had fruit and ice cream. I was very impressed and I'm kicking myself for not approaching the kitchen staff to thank them personally.

The next evening, we went to the boy's sister's house to have a meet and greet with *their* wedding party since the boy is the MC for their October wedding. It was such a different crowd - loud, hockey-watching, burger-eating crowd of straight guys and their wives/girlfriends - from what I am used to. As a person whose group of friends is about 95% queer (gay or bi), I was in total culture shock. Especially when they started talking about one of the guys who, in university, did goldfish shots. Sigh. For snackies, I made guacamole and a bean dip and bought a spicy hummus... partly to help contribute to the food and party to ensure I had enough to snack on.

And a party just isn't a party until you've had your Poäng chair destroyed.

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Curry in a Hurry

Before leaving for the wedding on Friday, I wanted to eat something substantial, just in case vegan food was scarce. So, I threw together a curry:

1/2 an onion
about 3/4 cup of each: red lentils and french lentils
1 can of tomatoes with 1/2 the liquid drained
2 small potatoes, sliced and some diced
squirt of lemon juice
About 1 cup of water
1/2 cup of edamame
1 cup of frozen broccoli
1 teaspoon of jarred garlic, ginger and chili puree
2 teaspoons of ground cumin

I sautéed the onion and lentils together with some oil until the onion was translucent. Added the tomatoes, water, potatoes, lemon juice and spices. Once the lentils were soft, the broccoli and edamame were added and cooked until done. More water could be added if it dries out too much.

Served over brown basmati.

Loved by me and the boy, with enough leftovers for 1 big or 2 small servings.

amo el alimento mexicano

Okay, the Spanish is probably way off. But I loved the Mexican-ish casserole I tried out on Friday:

• Mixed TVP with refried beans, leftover tomato sauce, salsa, spices, garlic and a little nutritional yeast
• Misted oil onto the bottom of a glass baking dish
• cut about 1/2 a package of small corn tortillas into strips and arranged 1/3 of them on the bottom of the dish
• dumped 1/2 the TVP mix onto the tortilla layer
• sprinkled non-dairy cheese over the mixture
• added the second third of tortilla strips
• more “cheese” and the last of the tortilla strips. Lightly sprayed the top with oil and added more “cheese”
• Baked for about 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Very tasty! The boy loved it and it made enough for a light lunch the next day :)

See more progress on: try a new recipe at least once a week

Lazy Lunch

I’m not sure if this qualifies as a recipe. I always think that a recipe should involve a lot of ingredients, steps and procedures. I threw this together very quickly this morning for lunch and it has turned out to be very tasty!

Cabbage Chickpea Salad

1/3 sliced up green cabbage
1 can of chickpeas
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
couple of dashes of cayenne
1/3 cup of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of dijon mustard

1. Sliced up the cabbage into short shreds
2. Put the cabbage in a glass bowl
3. Squirted the lemon juice onto cabbage
4. Threw in the dijon and spices
5. Added chickpeas
6. Mixed up.

This’ll probably last for a couple of days of lunches and the occasional snacking at work. Next time I may try using sprouted chickpeas so the whole thing will be raw!

See more progress on: try a new recipe at least once a week