Falafels & Hummus

My dinner last night was falafels with naan, spinach, falafel sauce, avocados, and hummus. I make falafels, not from scratch, probably once a week. It's so easy to make that's why. I either make them into little balls like you are suppose to or I make it into a falafel burger. My favorite part about the falafels is the sauce I make with them.

Falafel Sauce

1/2 cup veganese

2 garlic cloves, chopped fine

1/4 cucumber, chopped in cubes

1 Tbsp dill (I always puts lots of dill though)

pinch of pepper

Hummus

1 can organic garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

3 garlic cloves

3 Tbsp tahini

1/2 of one lemons juice

2 Tbsp olive oil (I used an italian olive oil with garlic and such added)

sea salt

1 tsp cumin

water, enough to incorporate

Two different smoothie combos I have had in the last two days are

Green Smoothie #1

Small handful organic spinach

1/4 an avocado

1 cup organic blueberries

2 Tbsp chia seeds

Apple juice, enough to blend

1/2 scoop RAW protein powder

Green Smoothie #2

1/2 an avocado

1 cup organic blueberries

1 cup coconut kefir

1 tsp maca powder

2 Tbsp chia seeds

Do you guys like my new bumper sticker? My friend and I just started exchanging "hippy packs" as we are calling them. We send each other random "tree hugger" things that we think the other would like in the mail. It's so fun! You should try it!

More pregnancy eats & midwife visit

Breakfast one day of tofu scramble mixed with mushrooms, salsa, nutritional yeast & turmeric, some seaweed and a green smoothie that contained bananas, dates, spinach, chia seeds and I can't remember what all else. 

Breakfast of Hawaiian Pancakes revised to add ground flax with some maple syrup and another green smoothie. This one had bananas, dates, spirulina, mango, chia seeds & almond milk blueberry yogurt. I was out of veggies this day. 

An acai bowl from Beet Box Cafe with acai, banana, strawberry, blueberry, apple juice, banana, papaya, hempseed granola, agave & spinach.  

Chocolate peanut butter smoothie from Robeks

Homemade hummus with garbanzo beans, lemon, tahini, olive oil, garlic & salt, then topped with paprika and more olive oil. I just got some organic olive oil and I love it!

This is my midwife, Dr Lori's, office. This is a small house that is on her 2 acre land on the North Shore. It's so peaceful down here :)

And here is the risky photo...I am just about 6 months pregnant here. This was on our way home from the beach. I am just so excited about being pregnant that I don't even care about how bad I look in this picture. I'M PREGNANT!!!! 

Zucchini spring rolls

Hello all! This morning for breakfast I made a smoothie. Surprised? Today's smoothie included the following ingredients:

1 cup organic blueberries

1 cup organic spinach

1 organic banana

1/2 an avocado (the last of my avocado..sniff, sniff )

Chia

Maca powder

Organic hemp protein

Coconut milk, enough to blend

So I looked in my fridge this morning to see what I had to work with. As far as veggies go, I had half an avocado, frozen organic spinach, half a zucchini, and a lot of organic baby carrots. Seeing as I already used the avocado in my smoothie this morning, that was one less ingredient. Hm...what can I make. I dug in my freezer and found some old rice paper. SPRING ROLLS! I took out my Spiralo and made the rest of my zucchini into raw noodles. Then, I cut up some carrots. I grabbed a few mint leaves from my garden too. I wrapped all that up into zucchini, carrot and mint spring rolls! I had some leftover peanut sauce that I had made a couple days ago to go with my black bean burgers. I put that in my lunch tupperware too. Oh! I almost forgot to say what I did to make peanut dipping sauce! It was just plain crunchy peanut butter, organic soy sauce (or braggs would work), tiny bit of lime juice, a tiny bit of agave, and garlic cloves.

So I made a successful lunch of spring rolls with peanut sauce, two of my last chai cookies, and an Assam tea. Did I mention I LOVE Assam tea!? My husband could not stop laughing at how ugly my spring rolls looked. I didn't think they were THAT bad. I have an excuse though! I woke up at 8:10 and I start work at 9:00 so I didn't have a whole lot of time to assemble.

Normally I wake up, straighten the front of my hair only (just so it will not be frizzy and not enough time to do the whole thing), wash my face, put on foundation, powder, and mascara, feed my cats, guinea pigs, and noggin, throw my wet pants in the dryer, wait for them to dry, make my lunch, make my breakfast, let Panther outside for a couple minutes so he stops meowing, water my plants, kiss my husband, and then run out the door and try not to forget anything. It's no wonder I look like a wreck every morning!

I have a question. Why do people, once they find out you are vegan, ask you questions like: So do you eat fish? What about just chicken? What! No dairy or eggs either?! WHAT DO YOU EAT!? Cue freak of nature looks. First of all, why in the WORLD would I be a "vegan" or "vegetarian" and eat chicken? How do you guys normally respond to this? I have only been a vegan for a year now. I was a vegetarian off and on through childhood, but then made the switch to be a full on vegan about a year ago. I know a lot of you have been doing this a lot longer than me. So, how do you answer them?

Sonic wanted to say hi!

Desserts & Kittys

Today is my third "Snow Day" since I've been here. Regular school was canceled but the early childhood center part of school still stays open so that people who work can still drop off their kids there. So I worked a shorter day, which was nice. I just worked 8:30-1:30. I am crossing my fingers for another snow day tomorrow because if there is then I am off! I work every other snow day. The weather man is saying it might be -30 tomorrow with wind chill, so I would think that school would cancel. 

For breakfast I had my regular green smoothie. This one had two leaves of organic kale (save stems for vegetable stock), one organic banana, two menjool dates, two Tbsp chia seeds, ginger and cinnamon with enough water to process. This is enough to make two small smoothies or one large one for yourself. I always make one for my husband as well, because he doesn't eat most of the food I make, but he will drink this :)

My favorite tea cup, well, one of my favorite. It has a strainer that you can take in an out. I try to drink tea daily, but I drink so many smoothies and I also try to drink water so I sometimes forget. Its better that way for me though, because before I would ONLY drink tea and coffee all day. I've been drinking a lot of moroccan mint green tea.

This was dinner last night. I had a spinach tortilla from TJ's with long red peppers, a little Daiya and homemade hummus (garbanzo beans, tahini, coconut oil, garlic & cumin) with a Bubbies pickle. I also made a smoothie for my husband and I which contained the following: organic coconut milk (no sugar), TJ's frozen mango, TJ's frozen pineapple, half an organic banana, frozen blueberries, chia seeds, organic golden flax seeds, dates and half an avocado. This was the sweetest smoothie I've had in a while, but it was so so good!

It is winter, as you all know, and winter is not a season I am accustom to or familiar with. My skin does not like winter, I found out. I've never had a problem with dry skin, but here my skin is super dry. It gets so dry that it hurts. So last night I finally took the time to make an easy bath soak to help with dry skin.

The tied cheese cloth is filled with ground organic oats and turmeric. I used a mortar to grind up my oats, but you can easily use your blender. (I chose not to because I had just washed mine.) Oats help to sooth skin irritation while turmeric softens your skin and leaves it glowing! In India, they apply turmeric to their entire bodies before a wedding to leave their skin glowing. The third thing you need is some type of milk or cream. I ended up using some of my husbands cow milk because I was out of my own milk. You can use any type of creamy milk though like coconut, hemp or hazelnut. Just be sure that you don't have skin allergies to any of the nut milks you use or you or NOT going to be happy with your bath results :) Just pour milk into hot bath along with your cheesecloth. While in the bath try to squeeze out as much juice from the cheesecloth as you can. I did notice my skin had a certain glow afterward.

Now, on to more unhealthy things. These are pretty much the easiest, tastiest and most unhealthy dessert ever! All you need is a box of brownies and Oreos. I used Dr Oetkers Organic Brownie mix from Jenny's hippy pack to me. You can use either Oreos or Newman O's. I just so happened to have Oreos, so Oreos it is! All you need to do is mix your brownie mix like normal and then fill up your cupcake cup about half way. Then add the Oreo. Lastly, fill up the rest of the cupcake cup. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Not the best picture because I was so excited to eat it. Mmmmmmmm

My husband got a donut maker for Christmas, so of course I had to try to make some vegan donuts. I used THIS recipe but just changed it a little. For the frosting I just melted down vegan chocolate chips with a little coconut milk. Pretty good for my first shot!

This is pretty much a nightly routine for Nano and Panther. They sleep all day and then are very active at night time. Which just so happens to be the normal time that us humans are trying to sleep. Panther likes to chase and bother Nano. Nano doesn't like exercise or moving of any kind.

Rahjah is laying on my husband's stomach while we watch TV with Sonic. He craves attention so much. He acts like he never gets any. Spoiled animals. 

Tofutti & Smoothie

This morning for breakfast I had a sprouted wheat, onion, & poppyseed bagel with some Tofutti cream cheese. If you buy this brand of imitation cream cheese you should stick to the yellow & white container. This one is the "healthier" non-hydrogenated one. I am also experimenting with spinach in smoothies. This morning's smoothie was a strawberry & spinach smoothie.

Here's the mixture I tried:

1 handfull of fresh spinach

5 frozen strawberries (thawed)

6 oz So Delicious Coconut Milk dairy free yogurt (Strawberry Banana flavor)

1 Tbsp vanilla soy powder

Yum!

Lunch box

Smoothie for breakfast. Today's smoothie included

1 cup organic blueberries

1 cup organic spinach

1 organic banana

1 tsp spirulina

2 Tbsp chia seeds

1 Tbsp organic agave

2 Tbsp shredded coconut

Apple juice, enough to incorporate

My loving note to my husband reminding him to drink his smoothie :)

I am making some organic alfalfa sprouts in my sprouter. Just a couple more days!

Lunch today is half an organic avocado, some fresh hummus, 1/4 an organic grapefruit, organic baby carrots, organic almonds, a Bubbies pickle, & two slices of Ezekiel bread. I brought some nutritional yeast on the side too of course.

Do you guys like my reusable zip lock from WasteNot Saks? Cute huh? They are a little small, I will have to buy the bigger ones next.

Green smoothie

Green Smoothie

2 handfuls spinach

3 kiwi

1/4 cup apple juice

1/2 scoop vanilla soy protein

1-2 Tbsp flax seeds

a tiny bit of agave

I made this with more spinach than usual because I needed the iron :)

Week One: Raw Food

I finally went on my long needed shopping trip yesterday to Wholefoods. In Hawaii, it is a far drive. It is on the other side of the island, so I normally only make it out there once a month. I bought a bunch of nuts, fruits, and vegetables. Let's see what all I got...Two types of organic kale, baby spinach, zucchini, eggplant, onions, basil, green onions, pears, mangos, blood oranges, avocados, chia seeds, hemp seeds, cashews, mushrooms, dried dates, red quinoa, dried coconut and a few other things. I made an awesome raw dessert that I just have to share!

RAW Coconut Dessert

3 cups unsweetened dried coconut flakes
1 cup real maple syrup
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1 TBSP vanilla extract
pinch of sea salt

Combine all the ingredients. Roll into small bowls with hands and then place them in parchment paper. Wrap each individual ball in parchment paper. Freeze. Enjoy!

These are sooooo good! Like coconut ice cream!

I just recently discovered chia seeds and wow! How did I not know about these before?! They are so extremely good for you. Why should you eat chia you say?

Chia seeds are said to contain:

2 times the protein of any other seed or grain
5 times the calcium of milk, plus boron which is a trace mineral that helps transfer calcium into your bones
2 times the amount of potassium as bananas
3 times the reported antioxidant strength of blueberries
3 times more iron than spinach
copious amounts of omega 3 and omega 6, which are essential fatty acids
They are also a complete source of protein, providing all the essential amino acids in an easily digestible form. They are also a fabulous source of soluble fiber.

Stats courtesy of: Raw Reform

Chia seeds can be added to anything that you eat on a daily basis. I add them to smoothies or juice. Basically, you let them sit for a few minutes and then they expand and the juice or water becomes slightly gelatinous. I am drinking mine in water today. It is a little weird in just water. It doesn't have much taste to it. Just a weird textured water drink :) I don't mind though!

So Day 1 of my rawness, this was my menu:

Breakfast:
1 blood orange

Lunch:
Kale & spinach salad
Taboula
Hummus

Dinner:
Kale, apple, & pear smoothie
Pesto stuffed mushrooms

Snack:
2 coconut dessert balls
1 cup of herbal tea

Today is a little harder because I work today. I brought some things to hold me over though. I brought a jar of chia seeds & water, a green smoothie, and a sprouted pita bread with avacado, sprouts, spinach, and onions inside. I'll keep you updated :) Also, I tried to add pictures on here but I am having problems. I will add pics later!

Green juice, power balls & walks

I am sure many will agree with me when I say that no day has officially started without green juice or a green smoothie. My husband bought me a cheepy blender to hold me over until all our things are shipped here, so I can have my smoothies again. It's nice because my food aversions haven't been so bad lately so I can stomach a lot more of my normal healthy food that I like. When I first got pregnant, almost everything would gross me out. This smoothie above had organic kale, bananas, chia seeds, chocolate Vega powder & almond milk.

The following are the ingredients I used for my Power Balls below: 

GREENSuperFood chocolate powder (which I LOVE)

Dried coconut (no sugar added)

 Chia seeds

Steel cut oats

Pumpkin seeds

Coconut nectar

Leftover soaked cashews

Hemp seeds

Cacao nibs

Vanilla

 Coconut oil

 I wanted something chocolatey but also super healthy, so I came up with these. Just blend together (or food process)  your pumpkin seeds and cashews, then add the rest of your ingredients. Slowly add coconut oil until everything is bound together. I added a little too much in mine so be careful.

This is the end result. This was actually before I froze them though. You can either freeze or place in refrigerator. These are so great as a quick snack for a little energy and protein on the go! Great for kids too :)

I went walking around my favorite gardens/park again yesterday with my dad. I have been trying to get some type of exercise every day so that my pregnancy and birth will all go smoothly. The picture above is a beautiful huge hitachi tree!

Here is another beautiful tree. My dad kept having to stop walking so I could take pictures with my iPhone. I can't help it! This place is so beautiful! 

It was so nice to be able to make hummus again. I love hummus, but only homemade hummus. I hate store bought ones, unless they are fresh made ones.

Garlic Hummus

1 can organic garbanzo beans (peeled, this makes it so creamy, just peel each garbanzo bean)

2 Tbsp organic raw tahini

1-2 Tbsp organic coconut oil

2 cloves garlic

1/2 an organic lemon (squeeze out juice & add a little lemon zest too)

Cumin

Salt

Water (to incorporate) 

Blend all together until creamy!

Organic apple with almond butter

Panther acting crazy because I was visiting him. Only 9 more days!

Garbanzo Bean Burgers

I set my smoothie down as I was leaving, and Panther showed up at the window. He didn't want me to leave :'( This is a smoothie I made about twice a week, because it's not my favorite. I drink it for the nutrition, not the taste. I mean, it's not horrible, but I don't like raw hemp seeds.

1 cup organic blueberries

1/2 cup almond milk

1 apple banana

1/2 scoop raw protein powder

1 scoop chia

1 Tbsp hemp seeds

2 dates

I try to take both of these everyday, but seem to forget often.

My lunch from Phuket Thai, spring rolls with lettuce, cucumber and mint.

This recipe is good to make when you don't have much else in the cupboard or fridge. Oh, and it is so yummy!

Garbonzo bean burgers:

Olive oil, enough to saute

1/2 cup purple onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon celery seed

1 teaspoon parsely, fresh is best but dried is fine

sea salt, just a little

1/2 cup walnuts, other nuts if you have to substitute

1 can organic garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

3 Tbsp flour

1 Tbsp arrowroot

Saute the onions, garlic, cumin, celery seed, and salt over medium heat until the onions are cooked well. Food process the nuts until they are a coarse meal. Put garbanzo beans in the processor and process the same way as the nuts. Mix together all ingredients in a bowl. Form the mixture into four burgers. Fry them on a frying pan until lightly brown. Then follow my recipe below to make the burger sauce.

Tahini Dill Veganese

3-4 Tbsp Veganese

1 Tbsp tahini

1 Tbsp fresh dill, less if you're not into dill

1 clove garlic, miced

Mix all ingredients together well and serve on your garbanzo burgers.

A few days worth of pregnancy eating

This was my smoothie this morning: frozen mango, frozen organic raspberries, organic banana, organic spinach, coconut water, organic spirulina, chia seeds & RAW protein powder. 

Vegan Blueberry Coffee Cake

3-4 cups of fresh or frozen organic blueberries

4 cups wheat flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 Tablespoon sea salt

1 1/2 cups raw cane sugar

1/2 cup Earth Balance 

2 egg replacers (I use ground chia and water)

1 cup fresh homemade almond milk

Crumb Topping

1/2 cup raw cane sugar

1/3 cup wheat flour

1/4 cup Earth Balance

Preheat oven to 375. 

Mix flour, salt and baking soda. (Sift if you have a sifter but you don't have to.)

Separately mix Earth Balance, sugar, egg replacers and almond milk.

Slowly combine wet ingredients into dry ingredients. 

(If your mixture is still too dry slowly add a little more almond milk just until everything is incorporated and sticking together.)

Fold in blueberries. (Try not to break or mush them)

Pour mixture into a greased pan.

Mix together crumb topping and sprinkle on top of cake.

Bake for 50-60 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

*My husband said, "This is good! You should sell it!"*

*My brother said, "This is good for being a weird vegan thing."*

So, I guess that means success?

My husband bought us a ten pound bag of organic carrots so that means looooooots of carrot juice. This is a great book by the way!

My brother took me to his favorite sushi place. I didn't really like it. I found it funny that the "Vegetarian" part of the menu said, "Vegetarian Keiki Menu." Keiki means kid in Hawaiian. So they were saying that the vegetarian menu was only something that kids would get I guess. Funny. 

I made some kale chips yesterday. These just had a little olive oil and sea salt on them. I still don't have a dehydrator so I baked these at 275 for 20 minutes. They turned out good! My brother said he'd rather have these then spinach anything. By the way, don't get your hopes up, but my brother and husband have been eating vegetarian for the last couple days! I'm trying not to get overly excited. I had them both watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and also Forks Over Knives. I guess it might have had an impact! My husband is going to juice fast for a few weeks soon, so he is preparing by eating vegetarian. Keep your fingers crossed and some how, some way it might stick!

Apples & almond butter

Garbanzo Bean Burgers

Olive oil, enough to saute

1/2 cup sweet onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon celery seed

1 teaspoon parsley

sea salt, just a little

1/2 cup walnuts or almonds

1 can organic garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

3 Tbsp wheat flour

1 Tbsp arrowroot (If you don't have this just add a little more flour)

Saute the onions, garlic, cumin, celery seed, and salt over medium heat until the onions are cooked well. Food process the nuts until they are a coarse meal. Put garbanzo beans in the processor and process the same way as the nuts. Mix together all ingredients in a bowl. Form the mixture into four burgers. Fry them on a frying pan until lightly brown. Then follow my recipe below to make the burger sauce.

Tahini Dill Veganese

3-4 Tbsp Veganese

1 Tbsp tahini

1 Tbsp fresh dill, less if you're not into dill

1 clove garlic, miced

Mix all ingredients together well and serve on your garbanzo burgers.

I had a smoothie for dinner last night with organic blueberries, chocolate acai juice, mango chunks, banana, chia seeds & hemp seeds. 

Meeoooooooow, good morning!