Food & a couple cleaning recipes

Green breakfast smoothie containing organic purple kale, organic blueberries, mango, organic banana, organic spirulina, RAW protein powder & chia seeds.

Organic kiwi snack

My first attempt at seitan! I really liked it! My brother and mom both ate some and liked it too! Here is the recipe I used from VegWeb:

Basic Seitan

1 cup vital wheat gluten
    3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
    1 teaspoon thyme
    1/4 cup soy sauce
    1 tablespoon olive oil
    1/2 cup homemade vegetable stock

Preheat oven to 375. Mix together all ingredients. Form into a "sausage like" shape and then cut into strips. Oil a cookie sheet or lay down parchment paper on one. Bake for 10 min then flip and bake for 3-5 more min. 

These would be great with some type of gravy! I had them with cranberry sauce because they reminded me of turkey because of the thyme smell :)

This was dinner two nights ago: String bean tempura sushi. I also had some avocado sushi.

This was from my husband :) He had dinner at his parents house and knew I didn't have anything so he made these for me. All it is, is carrot and string bean in a won ton. Cute that he thought of me :)

I wanted to show was was inside here, but of course Rahjah had to be in the picture trying to eat my food. 

I also made this last night for dinner since the won tons didn't have much nutrition. This was around 5 organic carrots, 2 leaves of organic collards and 1 organic apple juiced. 

I wanted to share this because it is the best recipe I have come up with so far for bathtub cleaner. Sorry the picture isn't great. All it is is 1 cup of baking soda (aluminum free), 1/2 cup Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap (I used lavender because that is what we have on hand) and a few drops of tea tree oil. Just shake it all up and use! So simple, yet so effective!

Cloth Dryer Sheets

*Not the best picture above either sorry.*

All you need to make your own dryer sheets is some natural fabric softener. Now, you can use a store bought one or make one like I always do. 

Natural Fabric Softener

1/2 cup baking soda (no aluminum) 

3 cups white vinegar 

4 cups water

Essential oils (I used 10 drops lavender oil & 10 drops grapefruit oil, but you can use whatever smell you like)

Mix together water, vinegar and oils. SLOWLY add the baking soda. If you add all at once, it will overflow all over everything! *Great science experiment idea for the kids* Pour ingredients into large glass container if you have. I use this old plastic jar that someone gave us cookies in once. Next, simply add pieces of cloth the size of wash clothes. Flannel cloth works well, but anything really is fine. Ring out your cloth before adding it to the dryer. Throw a sheet in dryer with your wet clothes and dry away!

New kombucha my husband bought us to try on our way home from the beach. It's organic like Synergy. I actually really liked it! I haven't found anything that could compare to Synergy but this one is pretty close!

A little over 16 weeks at the beach. I didn't want to take pictures, but my husband insisted we needed more pregnancy photos so here you go!

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! 

A typical day of food during a vegan pregnancy

This weekend my husband and I spent the night in a hotel in Waikiki. He had some conferences for work, so his work paid for two nights in a hotel. SCORE! Although, it's always hard for me being away from my animals overnight. I went to go check on them during the day though just to make sure they still had food and water. They were mad at me. Go figure. The picture above is some fruit my husband brought me while I was still in bed and he was already in the middle of a conference. I've also been trying to read a LOT about vegan babies and children. I am trying to make sure I know everything there is to know. Any good book suggestions? 

Once I got back home I could get back to normal eating without eating out. This is what I had for breakfast. Green juice containing 1 organic green apple, 4 organic carrots, 2 leaves of organic collard greens.

I also had a smoothie for breakfast. This one had 1 cup organic frozen blueberries, 1 cup organic spinach, half an organic avocado, 2 dates, chia seeds & organic spirulina. I change it up and add other things too like Raw protein powder, hemp seeds, maca powder, cacao nibs, etc.

Snack was one organic orange.

Lunch was massaged kale salad with a Bubbies pickle and nutritional yeast. I am not a huge fan of kale in salads but I am getting used to it. It helps if you make massaged kale salad. You just chop up organic kale and massage it with half of the juice of an organic lemon, sea salt and a little olive oil. Once it starts to wilt, you can add a dressing like olive oil, pepper, agave & the juice from the other half of the lemon. Then chop up a Bubbies pickle and sprinkle with nutritional yeast! Enjoy.

For dinner, I had leftover kale salad, baked maple yams & basil quinoa. I also had a small glass of juiced organic carrots, organic collard greens, organic celery & organic apple. I shared some of my juice with my husband, that's why I didn't have much :) To make the maple yams, you just have to chop up an organic washed yam and add pure grade B maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg & coconut oil. Cover and bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes until soft. For the quinoa, I just add quinoa, water, olive oil, salt and basil to a rice cooker and cook like normal rice!

So there it is! A typical pregnant day of eating for a pregnant vegan. I also had some vegan chocolate chips & chips and salsa for dessert that night. That's normal right? 

Sonic relaxing next to me on the couch. Good night all! 

(It's morning time, but I need a nap:)

Quick pregnancy post

I am 14 weeks and 3 days today (excuse the mess).

 I had my second midwife appointment yesterday and everything is going good. She said that my baby's heart sounds good, my blood pressure is good (although low but that is normal for me) and my body and weight are right on track as well. She told me that I am not eating enough though, so I am trying to be better about that. She said I need to add a little more protein and iron to my diet. She told me to buy blackstrap molasses and mix it with water and yellow dock root (which I just so happen to have.) The molasses has a good amount of iron and the yellow dock helps to absorb the iron right into my body instead of peeing most of it out. I am also putting in an order for some organic beet root powder (for protein and iron), organic red raspberry leaf and organic nettle. I am in my second trimester so I feel it now safe to take the red raspberry leaf. My midwife said that it was a great idea and it is so good for pregnant woman. I told her that I was getting a lot of controversy online with different herbs that I thought were ok and actually really good for pregnancy. What she told me is that, with herbs there is always going to be controversy. Since she has been a midwife and naturopathic doctor for 29 years, I trust that she knows what she is talking about :)

I am sharing with you my first video ever. This was me listening to my babies heart beat for the first time. I cried of course afterward. Best sound on earth. You might have to listen and put your ear really close to the screen to hear the heartbeat. It took her a really long time to find the heartbeat because I guess my baby was hanging out really low in my uterus, so this is the edited shorter version of the video :)

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!

Recent Eats

 This was my most recent trip to China town. I was really craving rambutans, but I guess they are not in season because I could not find them anywhere! I LOVE rambutans. China town in great because it has lots of fresh produce for sale and usually if you go to the right vender, it's cheeper than the grocery stores. 

Watermelon slush- fresh watermelon chunks, fresh papaya chunks & a tiny bit of liquid sugar. If I would have known beforehand I would have just told him not to add the sugar because it is plenty sweet without it. This was so nice and refreshing though. 

This was what I came away with from China town. I got one dragon fruit, two papaya and some on choi.

This was my yummy veggie burger from The Counter next to Wholefoods. I love their veggie burgers because they are fresh made patties. Mine had pickles, mixed organic greens and grilled onions on it. 

My ingredients to make some fresh pesto. My sister in law was doing pizza night at her house, so I got together what I wanted for my vegan pizza. I settled on tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms, spinach and pesto. It was so good!

Vegan Pesto

A huge bunch of fresh basil (this was from my communal herb garden)

Two cloves garlic

1/4-1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup cashews (soaked in water for an hour)

Salt

Blend or food process together and then eat!

*I also love adding things like avocado or spinach. Gives it extra smoothness and flavor.

*You can also use really any nut you like. I have used cashews, macadamia nuts and walnuts as well. 

This was the pizza crust I used. This is definitely my favorite frozen crust! I mistakenly thought it was gluten-free and told my sis in law to buy them (as she and my mom in law are gluten free) and it turned out this does contain whole wheat flour. Oops! 

My newest thing I am interested in: Coconut Nectar. Has anyone else tried this yet? I'm not sure what all to do with it, but I am definitely excited about it. Coconut nectar is harvested from the sap of the coconut tree. It doesn't taste like coconut at all though. The closest thing I can kind of compare the flavor to is maple syrup but not as sweet. This is low in sugar so great for diabetics (like my husband and dad). It's great to use as a sweetener in place of sugar. All natural and raw are always the way to go in my book. By the way, those little orange looking things next to it are calamansi. They are very sour like lemons but more sour. I grew up eating them, so I really like them. I used them here with the coconut nectar to make some fresh lemonade, nice and high in vitamin C!

I finally got to stop at my favorite juice spot after being gone for a year. I missed you Robeks! Since I don't have my blender or juicer I have been missing fresh juice a lot. I stopped at Robeks on my way to quarentine and got the ABC, which is Apple, Beet & Carrot.

Here is my Nano rubbing his face against mine from the other side of the cage. I was just about to leave here, but he was begging me to stay so I stayed a little longer. 

Sonic boy just chillin with his favorite big toy. It's funny because pretty much every time I come I bring either a new toy or a treat so he always goes straight for my purse to sniff it out. I feel so bad for the other dogs here in quarentine. A lot of them have absolutely nothing in their kennels. No toys, blankets or anything. I also almost never see any of the other dog owners visiting their dogs. I am there every day of the week!

Have a blessed day everyone and eat your veggies ;)

I'm back where I belong

Hello friends! I am finally back in Hawaii! So happy to be back too. I have a bunch of pictures to share!

This is my development so far. I am around 3 months pregnant or 12 weeks. I am not positive because I have yet to see a doctor. I have an appointment this weekend though and I am super excited about it. It is with Sacred Arts Healing. Both of their doctors are naturopathic as well as midwives. I have lots of questions, especially about my choice to have an at home water birth. I just want to make sure that they can accommodate. I hope so, because they are the only two midwives really left in Hawaii. I guess not a lot of people are doing natural home births here, who knows? 

I am still having morning sickness, mostly in the morning and night. It helps that it's not all day anymore. I will continue to update you on my beautiful pregnancy experience. 

Question: Have any of you pregnant or already moms drank nettle herb during pregnancy?

Papaya has been a daily thing for me. I love it and missed it in Omaha. Plus, it's suppose to help with morning sickness. Don't know if it works, but I keep eating it anyway. It is so good for you!

I have been eating a lot of organic soy yogurt lately too. The movers have not brought our things yet so I DEARLY miss my BlendTec. I used it every day for many of the things I eat on a normal basis. I miss my smoothies, juices and hummus especially. This picture has organic soy yogurt, organic blueberry granola and kiwi.

Organic soy yogurt, apple bananas, strawberries, blueberries and organic blueberry granola

This is a view from up a mountain hike called Makapu'u Trail.

I went hiking with my husbands family. It was lots of fun! It was very hot though and my back was killing me, but I made it! (My back has been sore because I've been sleeping on a couch until our bed gets here.)

Here I was having lunch in one of my favorite parks with my brother.

Down to Earth avocado sandwich with no sprouts. Let me know if this is wrong moms, but I've read not to eat sprouts while pregnant?

One of the beautiful trees in the park. So tall and magnificent with lots of shade. For those of you familiar with Lord of the Rings, my brother and I were arguing if these trees could possibly be Ents. I think they are at least a hundred years old, but he says that they have to be much older to be Ents. I guess we will never know unless one decides to reveal itself to us.

My favorite flower- Hibiscus

Taro growing in one side of the gardens. Taro is a root vegetable, very prominent in a Hawaiian diet. Taro is kind of hard to grow because it needs a swampy area with constant flowing water.

Lastly, here is Koko. All four of my cats and my dog Sonic are still in the animal quarentine station for 3 more weeks. Two of my cats, Nano and Panther, were not doing well here AT ALL. They wouldn't eat for 10 days! I finally got quarentine to admit them to my vet. Panther had a fever but later that night it went away and he started eating again. Thank God! 

My cat Nano, on the other hand, had to stay at the vet for six days. He would not eat and had a low grade fever. They found that he had a pretty bad hair impaction, which I guess is basically a hair ball that is too big to come out so it tries to come out the other way. So it was stuck and they had to do an enama. I won't go into detail, but it was gross and almost more that my pregnant stomach could take. They thought that might be all he needed to start eating again, but he still wouldn't eat. I had them do blood work and he ended up testing positive for FIV (Feline Aids). Now, it is possible that he does not have FIV and that he was just exposed to the virus. The vet advised I have them send in a second sample to the pros that can tell if its an exposure or if he actually has the virus. I'm still waiting on those results. Just so you know, because my mom was super worried about this too, FIV cannot infect humans only other cats. So my baby is safe. I really hope Nano doesn't have this, but if he does I will cross that bridge when I come to it. Cats with FIV can still live full lives, they just can get really sick towards the end of their lives. 

Well any way, the good news is that he finally ate and was released from the vet back to quarentine. Please pray for my Nano that he will continue to eat and not be so depressed. I know I shouldn't have a favorite, but he is my favorite cat and he's been through so much and deserves to be happy and healthy.

Thanks for reading...I'll be back soon!