After that horrible sugar crash from the mango situation I decided to start adding some sweet alternatives to the site. It was a windy and cold day outside, and I was feeling a little comfort food. In my family, that means it's crumble time! My old crumble recipe would not do, as that is primarily butter and brown sugar with a lil' oats and some sugary fruit. Gross. Tasty, but gross. Ergo... Dates! They really are a girls best friend. And no, I don't mean the kind you go out to dinner with. Here's how you make this lovely dish! For the filling: 1 large or 2 small baking apples peeled and sliced. 1 cup rhubarb (fresh or frozen) 2 Tbsp real maple syrup Put in saucepan and cook until flesh of the fruit is falling apart. Add a little water if sticking to pan. For the topping: 6-7 dates 1/3 cup of walnuts 1/4 cup of flax crackers 1/3 cup of oats 1 Tbsp coconut oil Throw it all in a food processor and blend until crumbly. Then just put in a dish and eat it up!
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I was tricked! It now feels like such a novice sugar free rookie mistake, but damn... I felt so good about buying that dried mango, what could be wrong with dried fruit? Right? Everything apparently. They coat the darn stuff in sugar. At first I thought this seems strangely too sweet.. but I only had a couple of slices and went to bed. The next morning I had a raging headache and my stomach felt like someone had drop-kicked me. So I hit Google to find out the disturbing truth. Don't buy dried mango, EVER again! Or, at least, I won't be. Actual ingredients include: Mango (well I'm glad that is included first!) sugar citric acid, sulphur dioxide artificial colour including tartrazine. Unpackaged isn't always better ladies and gents!I can't help myself, okay? I work at a lovely little restaurant along the South Shore of N.S. called The Trellis Cafe. I have been returning to work there nearly every summer since 2006. The restaurant is known for it's pan-fried Haddock and it's salt cod fishcakes. More recently their most famous dish is their Lobster ravioli created by their fantastic chef Emily Dunsworth. They won Taste of Nova Scotia's award for "Essence of Nova Scotia" this year. I love working my two shifts a week there, but since taking on this new vegan lifestyle and diet, I have found it increasingly difficult to cook meat all day long. So I make vegan specials, okay?! What is a little surprising and super satisfying is that they not only sell out, but the customers LOVE them! The special I made this week was... Sweet Potato, Sundried Tomato and Mushroom Melts! First thing I did was sautee some mushies in olive oil, add some oregano, parsley, S+P and a pinch of nutmeg. Then I chopped up some sundried tomatoes and mixed them all together. Then I discovered something wonderful! If you put a couple cooked sweet potatoes, some roasted garlic cloves and a handful of cashews in a food processor, you end up with fantastic and tasty results!!!!! I had to restrain myself from consuming the whole lot of it before it became a melt! What? Chef's are supposed to taste test okay? I then assembled the ingredients on homemade buns from the restaurant and toasted them to order. I served them with a small orange almond salad (The Trellis signature salad, V, GF and sugar free!) If I were making these at home I wouldn't use the bun, but perhaps an oven roasted portabella mushroom? Oh, man, I might need to do that! Or, in a cabbage wrap? Damn, the possibilities are endless! P.S. I love vegetables.
It's that time of year again! Spaghetti squash is in season and it's time to throw that baby in my oven and create something tasty! In the past roasting spaghetti squash has been a hit or miss for me. Sometimes it came out perfectly and others it would be clumpy. So I turned to the always handy Google search engine to find some tested instructions. I followed them and it turned out stringy and perfect! Okay, take that baby and cut her in half, length-wise. Careful, they are some of the toughest to cut. Then scrape out the gutsy centers and place them on a cookie sheet open side up. I put some coconut oil and some sea salt in the middles and put them in a pre-heated oven at 375 degrees F. Let roast for about 20 minutes then take a pastry brush and coat the inside with that melted coco oil. Return to oven for another 20-25 minutes. If a fork goes in smoothly, the beast is ready. I let them cool a bit before handling, but then took a fork to them and fluffed the insides into little noodles and moved the flesh to a bowl. Tossed some more sea salt and some parsley in there and let sit while I made the rest of the fixins' Next up was the tasty sauce!I made a raw tomato sauce for this dish with some beautiful little cherry tomatoes I found at a little market on my way home from work. 2 cups ripe cherry tomatoes 2 Tbsp onion 2 cloves garlic 1 inch fresh ginger 1/2 small avocado 1 tsp red palm oil Put all into a food processor and blend! I lightly scraped out my sauce and left some remains to help flavour the "meat" balls. Bring on the protein!Okay, so I couldn't decide between and mock ground meat or a meat ball... So logically I made both! If you're making this in a rush, skip the meatballs. Start by frying up the following in some coconut oil. 1 cup finely diced cremini mushrooms 2 cloves of garlic minced 1/2 tsp sea salt 1tsp savory 1 pinch of cinnamon add 3/4 cup of chopped walnuts after mushrooms are browned. This is your "meat" To turn that into "meat-balls" simply put mixture in food processor and blend, then form into balls. Because I left some of my sauce for flavour, the consistency was a little too moist. Simply put into oven at a low heat to create a crust. Now assemble and Chow down! I sprinkled some nutritional yeast on top of mine as my parma! Delish.
I work 7 days a week now, and although it is sometimes hard to find the time to pack a lunch, I get up super early and make the time. To remain faithful to my diet and well nourished it's imperative I pack a lunch. My main job is in Sackville, Nova Scotia, and anyone unfamiliar with the local community there knows there is little in the way of healthy options. It's either McDonald's or Tim Hortons. So I've begun making Epic Monster vitamin rich salads. My co-worker pokes fun at me and says I should go hang out with her rabbit. It doesn't work cause I just say "Sure! We'd get along great!" This monster salad is: Purple Kale Pickled Cabbage Roasted Butter cup Squash Dates Hemp hearts Avocado Flax crackers Topped with hummus! 1 can chick peas 2 Tbsp tahini juice of 1/2 a lemon 1 Tbsp red palm oil 1 Tbsp water pinch sea salt This delicious creation is: Broccoli Roasted buttercup squash ( I had a lot of leftover squash. Also I friggin' LOVE the stuff!) Quinoa Hemp hearts Sauce: 2 Tbsp Tahini 1Tbsp Sriracha 2 Tbsp Nutritional yeast 2 Tbsp almond milk Oh yeah.. I also threw some dates in there. |
By Nomes
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