Springtime Salsa

Hey Spicy Friends,

I came home and found a bag of Beanitos chips, but I had nothing to dip them in! So I whipped up this quick salsa with what I found in my fridge and it really hit the spot. I ate it while it was still warm which was just lovely- it is just as good cooled though!

Springtime Salsa

Ingredients:

1/4c water

1 vine tomato, cubed

1/4 spanish onion

1/2 bunch green onion

1/2 bunch fresh cilantro

1/4 tsp cayenne

1 1/2 tsp pink himalayan rock salt

Some fresh cracked pepper

Directions:

1. In a sauce-pot over medium heat, combine the onions, tomato and water and let simmer. Once the mixture has simmer for 2 minutes add the cayenne, salt and pepper. Stir and mash until satisfied with the consistency. (I personally prefer a runnier salsa)

2. Pour salsa into a bowl and stir in the fresh cilantro.

3. Eat while warm, or let cool and enjoy that way! It's so delicious, easy and clean! Winds up being much cheaper than store bought. 

Stay sunny, loves.

Quinoa Sweet Potato Stew

I threw this stew together the other day and it wound up being a lovely dish! Great for a rainy day when all you want is a warm, hearty meal. This makes two servings, I will admit however I ate the whole thing in one sitting. Note! For a more filling meal, serve on a bed of brown rice!

Ingredients:

3c vegetable broth

1 medium sweet potato

1/3c red quinoa

1/4 spanish onion

1 tsp turmeric

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp cayenne

6 leaves of collard green

Directions:

1. Boil the vegetable broth together with the turmeric, garlic powder, cayenne and bay leaves.

2. Add the quinoa in to cook for about 5 minutes.

3. Toss in the cubed sweet potatoes and onion.

3. Let the stew cook for about 12 or so minutes, then mix in the collard green.

4. Turn off the heat, and let the stew sit for about 5 minutes the serve!

Cinnabanana Smoothie Bowl

I think cinnamon is one of the most underrated spices around. It's benefits are abundant and it's just so tasty. Here is a simple little smoothie bowl featuring bananas and cinnamon and our sweet friend, the date. 

Cinnabanana Soothie Bowl topped with a date

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas (the riper, the sweeter)

1 1/2 c plain, unsweetened almond milk

1 scoop vanilla raw vegan warrior blend protein (any other protein works fine too!)

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (plus a little more to sprinkle on top)

1 tsp maca root powder

1 date, chopped

Directions:

1. In some form of blender, pulse the bananas, milk, protein powder, cinnamon and maca powder until smooth.

2. Pour into bowl, sprinkle with cinnamon and some chopped date and you're good to go.

*Note: If you're in a hurry or just don't like eating smoothies from a bowl, just drink up.

Stay kickin', cinnamon lovers

Zucchini Noodle Soup

Soup, soup, soup! I love soup. It's always such a comfort food and really easy to make. This is a bit of a combination between chicken noodle soup (sans the chicken of course) and a vegetable soup. This is the recipe I like using, but feel free to add as make veggies as you'd like!

Zucchini Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

3 c vegetable broth
3 stalks of celery
1/4 spanish onion
1/2 yellow pepper
1 small zucchini
1/2 bunch green onion
Hot sauce for some extra kick (I like Cholula brand - great spice and full flavours!)


Directions:

1. Bring the vegetable broth to a boil whilst chopping up all the veggies.
2. Once the broth is boiling, toss in the celery, onion and pepper and let boil for about 12 minutes.
3. While the vegetables and broth are boiling, make some zucchini noodles (with a spiralizer or julienne peeler, or a regular peeler for that matter! Depending on the shape of noodle you'd like.
4. Once the vegetables in the broth have softened, turn the heat off and add the zucchini noodles and leave sit for 3-5 minutes. I like mine to have a little crunch to the, but if you'd prefer them softer just leave them for a little longer!
5. Pour the soup into a bowl and top off with some green onion and hot sauce and let the comfort eating begin!

*Note: This recipe makes 2 servings worth.

Keep it spicy loves!

Kale Avocado Pear Salad

Hello! So I've recently subscribed to Organics Live - this is a service that delivers a box of organic fruits and vegetables to your door each week! I got my first box this week and it was SO exciting. This salad was inspired by the box and the ingredients used all came from the box (aside from the ingredients for the dressing). This salad is really filling and just oh-so scrumptious. Sweet and savoury ingredients are brought out by the dressing - one of my favourite go-to dressings: Lemon Tahini! It sounds and tastes very fancy but can be whipped up in a snap.

Kale Avocado Pear Salad w/ Lemon Tahini Dressing

Ingredients:

For the salad:

1/2 bunch red kale (green kale works too!)
1 green pear
1/2 avocado (or a full one if you're feeling wild)
2 tbsp cranberries
1 tbsp pumpkin seeds

For the dressing: (This makes enough for a single serving)

1 tbsp tahini
2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice (fresh is always better!)
1/2 tbsp olive oil
A dash of salt and a pinch of pepper

Directions:

1. Start by de-stemming your kale and tossing it into a large bowl.
2. Chop your pear and avocado and toss in the bowl.
3. The cranberries and pumpkin seeds : toss 'em in too.
4. In a smaller bowl, combine the tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, salt & pepper and whisk them together until smooth and creamy.
5. Mix the dressing in with the fruits and veggies then presto! A nice winter to spring transition salad.

Keep it zesty, folks.

Soul in my Bowl - Zuchinni Alfredo!

Hello everyone! Today I've got a very special post featuring one of my favourite vegan products - Soul to Bowl Vegan Alfredo sauce! It's so creamy, delectable and clean. It's a great comfort food, without the guilt! It's also really fast, this took me five minutes to make…. and about the same amount of time to eat because it was just so good.

Zuchinni noodles and cherry tomatoes topped with Soul to Bowl Sauce

By the way- The zucchini only cost me 68 cents…. #rawfoodwin

Ingredients:

1 small zucchini

8-10 cherry tomatoes

1/2c Soul to Bowl Vegan Alfredo Sauce

Directions:

1. Heat your Soul to Bowl in a small sauce pot on low-medium heat and stir frequently.

2. While the sauce is heating, use a spiralizer to make some raw zucchini noodles then toss into a bowl

3. Halve the cherry tomatoes, then add to the noodles

4. Pour the creamy vegan alfredo sauce overtop, mix and eat!

*Note: If you don't have a spiralizer, you can make noodles using either a julienne peeler (at most cooking ware stores for about 8-14$0 or a regular peeler and make ribbon like noodles! If you are a raw food junkie however, I would definitely recommend getting a spiralizer!

This sauce is incredible, check it out on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/soultobowlsauces

Chocolate Maca Porridge

This is a lovely little oatmeal dish. Full of great things like cacao, maca powder, chia and flax seeds! It is super easy and fast to make. It tastes sweet enough to be fun, but healthy enough to enjoy for breakfast. Top it off with some bananas and cranberries and you are golden.

Ingredients:

1/4c oatmeal (quick oat is preferable, unless you pre-soak!)
1 tbsp cacao powder (it's different from cocoa powder! Cacao has more benefits)
1/2 tbsp maca powder (can be found at almost any health food store)
1 tbsp chia seeds
2 tbsp flax seeds
1 1/2 tbsp pure maple syrup
2 tbsp almond milk (sweetened, unsweetened, vanilla, plain, anything you want!)
1 banana
Some cranberries to top it off!

Directions:

1. Cook up some oats, however you prefer. I like to do it in a sauce pot with 3/4 of water.
2. While the oatmeal is cooking, combine the cacao, maca, chia and flax in a bowl.
3. Once the oatmeal is done, place it into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix it all up.
4. Add the liquids (maple syrup and almond milk) and stir until you've reached your desired consistency. (I like mine fairly smooth, but thick)
5. Top off with a banana and some cranberries and voila! A breakfast full of goodness.

Oat meal is a good meal.

Coco Cupcakes

These little guys are a treat I made for my beautiful friends for their period study. These are a basic chocolate cupcake with a lovely coconut frosting. This also works well as a loaf- Make it in a cupcake dish or a cake dish, versatility! Whoo!

Chocolate cupcake topped with a coconut frosting

Ingredients:

For the cupcake:

1 1/2 c gluten-free flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 c cocoa
1/3 c sunflower oil
1 1/2 c plain, unsweetened almond milk

For the frosting:

1/2 c coconut milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 c icing sugar
1/4 c earth balance (or other butter substitute)
1 1/3c shredded coconut

Directions:

For the cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Sift together all the dry ingredients in one large bowl.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the large bowl, whilst whisking. (That was a fun alliteration)
4. Once the batter is shell whisked and at a smooth consistency pour it into your containers.
5. Pop these little guys in the oven and leave for 20 minutes. Double check to make sure they are cooked by using the old knife trick. (Stick a metal knife into the centre of one- if wet batter doesn't come out, you're golden.)

For the frosting:

1. Toss all the ingredients in a bowl.
2. Blend it all together (I used my hand blender)
3. After the mixture has come together and become gooey and frosting-like, bring back the whisk and fluff it up! The only thing better than coconut frosting is fluffy coconut frosting.

Decorate them up and make it pretty. Eat the happy food, and be happy.

Garlic Tomato Polenta

Fast, easy and full of garlicky goodness! This is one of my go-to meals. It's really filling and so cheap - A package of polenta lasts quite a few meals and it is really nice to my budget.

Baked Polenta with garlic tomato sauce and nutritional yeast.

Ingredients:

1c Polenta
Nutritional Yeast (to top)

For the Sauce:
1/2 c diced tomatoes
1 tsp turmeric
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Slice polenta into rounds of about 1/2 cm thick and place in a baking pan.
3. In a bowl, combine the spices and dices tomatoes, then pour over top of the polenta.
4. Put the baking pan in the oven and let bake for 18-20 minutes.
5. Once the polenta is done, send it to the plate and top off with some nutritional yeast!

Blue Smoothie Bowl

This smoothie bowl features the antioxidant filled berry - Blueberries! Simple bowl, filled with lots of goodness.

Blue Smoothie Bowl topped with some super foods!

Ingredients:

1 Banana
1 c frozen blueberries
1 c unsweetened, plain almond milk

To top:
Pumpkin seeds, hemp hearts, goji berries

Directions:

1. Blend together the banana blueberries and almond milk until it is all smooth! I use a Kenwood hand mixer, but anything from a vitamin to a magic bullet would work!

2. Pour it into a bowl and top it off with hemp hearts, pumpkin seeds and goji berries.