Quinoa Breakfast Style, 7 Ways

I used to love cereal. Like full on obsession. You know how I posted that I loved October? Well cereal was right underneath there. I lived on this stuff when I was going to university and living on campus. We had the typical horrible cafeteria food, that always looked questionable and inedible. But luckily there was a wall of cereal to choose from, it was like a mecca of choices. If I can recall, there was Golden Grahams, Corn Pops, Rice Crispies, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Frosted Flakes, Lucky Charms, Mini Wheats, Honey Combs, and probably 12 others that I cannot think of. I was always thankful for this 'wall of awesomeness' because without it I would have starved!! If you were to ask anyone of my friends from Rez, I am sure they would say that the cereal wall was one of the best things (next to cross track fries) about eating there. Most of the time you would see me carrying out 2-3 bowls of cereal for each meal, plus sneaking ziplock bags full of Golden Grahams for study snacks.

Quinoa with Apples and Cinnamon

Lately, I have been doing a lot of thinking about the food that I eat and what is in it. Right now there are tons of commercials trying to tell you that their products are low fat, no fat, high fiber, high protein, no sugar, no additives, no preservatives ect,  like McDonalds, Activa, and Cheerios. They can all be quite confusing because what do you focus on? For me, I am starting to really focus on simplicity! Simplicity is your best friend when trying to make healthy, wise choices. How could you go wrong with a fresh fruit salad for breakfast, or a lettuce wrap full of fresh veggies for lunch? When you really think about it, the less ingredients, the better. 

I really like the saying, if you can't pronounce the ingredients, its not good for you. I have posted a picture of the ingredients in Cheerios, one of the most popular cereals out there. And two of the ingredients listed are trisodium phosphate and tocopherols .... I have no idea what these are. I know, I could probably Google it, but WHY am I Googling ingredients in my food! That is ridiculous and a bit disturbing. Think of the some of the food that you eat on a regular basis and the possible mystery ingredients that you are possibly consuming.

So with this thought of eating Simply, I came up with a great breakfast dish that I know you will love. It's gluten free, vegan and can be catered to anyone’s taste. It's Quinoa for Breakfast! Yes, quinoa for breakfast, you heard me correctly. I love quinoa, for any meal and for breakfast I think it's a great substitute for oatmeal. It is high in fiber and protein, contains calcium, and it's a seed (not a grain like oatmeal), which makes is easier for your body to digest. It is also very easy to prepare, its a 2 cups of water to 1 cup of quinoa and it only takes about 15 mins to cook. I find that one cup of uncooked quinoa makes about 3.5 cups of cooked quinoa, so that around 3 serving sizes (well that depends on how hungry you are, I can eat the whole fricken pot sometimes!)

Yummy quinoa breakfast!

Basically you treat Quinoa like oatmeal, you can put any type of toppings on in that you like. My absolute favourite is the blended quinoa with coconut milk and bananas. After you blend it, it has the exact texture of oatmeal and if you are a cream of wheat fan, add a little more liquid and blend it longer until you get a silky smooth texture. Also, if coconut milk isn't your thing you could use almond milk, or rice milk!

I have listed 7 of my favourites that I really enjoy and I hope you do too!

Blended quinoa with coconut milk and bananas.

Blended Quinoa with Coconut Milk and Bananas

1 cup of hot, cooked quinoa

1/4 cup of coconut milk (or any milk of choice)

1 medium banana

Put quinoa, milk and half of the banana in the blender, and blend until desired consistency. Cut up the rest of the banana and serve on top!

Dessert Breakfast - Chocolately Quinoa with Bananas

1 cup of hot, cooked quinoa

1/4 cup of chocolate almond milk

1 medium banana

Put quinoa, milk and half of the banana in the blender, and blend until desired consistency. Cut up the rest of the banana and serve on top!

Other ideas

Quinoa with diced apples and cinnamon

Quinoa with frozen blueberries and almonds - I like to leave the berries frozen!!

Quinoa with walnuts and cinnamon

Quinoa with peaches and maple syrup

Quinoa with almonds and dates

****You could also blend any of the other 5 with milk before adding the toppings****

Thanks for reading!!!
xoxo - N

Vegan Lasagna with Cashew Cheese

I honestly was never a huge fan of pasta… or bread… or pastries… basically any grains for that matter. I would only buy donuts to lick the icing off, or I would only eat a bagel so I could have a one inch layer of cream cheese on it. If it didn’t look weird I would have probably ordered just the icing or just the cream cheese from Tim Horton’s. So ya, breads in general are not my thing, and I do count myself as lucky because according to some women they can be quite addicting.

However, vegan lasagna is something I have wanted to do for a long time. I have always liked lasagna, not loved, but liked. It was never a meal we ate as kids, seeing as my dad had celiac and my sister and I were not that adventurous when we were making meals. They usually consisted of meat and potatoes, rice and stir fry or hot dogs and fries, not a lot of imagination for a couple of teens. But my parents were thankful that they didn’t have to cook meals when they got home from work.

I think the appeal of making vegan lasagna is the fact that it's so not vegan. You have anywhere from 3 to 10 types of cheese and then hamburger or pork as the key ingredients, which of course are everyone’s favourites. So this was kind of a test for me, to make lasagna that super ooey gooey, cheesey, deliciousness that everyone would love. Naturally my inner self yelled, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED and I set out on the net to check out some recipes. Unfortunately, none really caught my attention, so I just took all of my favourite aspects and blended them into one amazing lasagna recipe.
This is probably one of the best things I have EVER made, vegan or non-vegan. My husband even agrees that this is the best vegan thing I have ever made... even better than my chili, SHOCKER I KNOW! Because my chili is fricken fantastic. So I hope some of you are adventurous and try out my recipe, it’s totally worth it and you don’t even have to tell anyone its vegan, just let them decide if they like it or not!

Cashew Cheeze

1 cup of cashews, soaked overnight

1/2 cup of fresh basil

¼ cup of fresh lemon juice

2 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp of nutritional yeast

¼ cup of water or vegan broth

Place all of the ingredients into a blender or a food processor and blend until smooth.

Lasagna - 8 x 8 pan

½ pkg of vegan, ready to cook, lasagna noodles, gluten free or not!

1 jar of vegan tomato sauce

1 medium zucchini, sliced thinly lengthwise
1 tbsp of coconut oil

½ of medium onion, diced

1 pkg of mushrooms, diced

2 red bell pepper, diced

8 cups of fresh spinach

2 cups of Daiya Cheese, mozzarella flavour.   

1) Make a base layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan, followed by a layer of noodles.

2) Spread half of the cashew cheeze across the noodles.

3) Layer of zucchini slices.

4) Layer of sauted vegetables
5) Layer of tomato Sauce, which I had forgot to do, oops!

6) Another layer of noodles

7) The rest of the cashew cheeze!

8) Layer of zucchini slices.

9) Layer of tomato sauce
10) Place the last of the vegetables on top of the sauce.

11) Final layer of Daiya cheese!!

Bake Lasagna at 400 degrees F. for an hour.

For 40 minutes, covered in tin foil, the last 20 minutes to be uncovered. 

Thanks for reading!!
xoxo -N

Vegan, Gluten Free Poutine :)

I have always been a HUGE fan of poutine. It was one of my staples when I was going to the UofS, and Exeter had the best poutine! I would frequently get it for lunch, so naturally Freshmen Fifteen caught up to me. It wasn't all poutines fault of course, there might have been some drinking involved along with trips to Wing Nuts, Verns Pizza and DQ. Poutine just happened to be my favourite. 

With the cold weather settling in I am constantly wanting hot, comfort food and on Saturday at work I had the biggest urge to make poutine. I was so excited. I had never made my own vegan gravy from scratch but I thought it shouldn't be that hard. So after work I went out to get some groceries for the amazing concoction, along with some other things we needed at home. 

I told my husband what I was planning on making and he was all in. We also decided on making our own fries, we have our mandolin that makes them so why not. They taste so much better when you do, and if I am going to eat poutine I might as well go all out. 
Devon sliced up the potatoes while I started making my gravy. It was super simple and didn't take that long, unlike the fries. We decided to coat them in vegetable oil (which I never use unless we are doing fries) and threw them in the oven for 40 mins turning them every 15 mins or so.

After the fries were done, I piled the ingredients together making sure I put the Daiya cheese in the middle of the hot fries and the hot gravy. But I then thought I would just throw my bowl in the oven for 5 mins to get the cheese to fully melt. 
This was heaven, I haven't had poutine in over a year! However, I am a little scared because now I can eat it when ever I want! 

This is the W-Sauce I used.
You can find it at Nutters!

Gravy
1 medium Onion, diced
1 cup of Mushrooms, diced
1 tsp of Coconut Oil
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1/4 cup of gluten free Flour, I used Quinoa Flour
1 cup of Vegan Broth
2 tsp of Soy Sauce, Vegan Gluten Free 
1 tsp of Worcheshire Sauce, Vegan Gluten Free

In a small sauce pan saute the onions, garlic and mushrooms in oil until soft. Gradually alternate adding flour and broth to the onions and mushrooms until there are no clumps. Add the soy sauce and the worcheshire and continue to cook for another 5 mins. If the gravy is too thick then add more broth/water until you get your desired consistency. I like my gravy to have a smooth texture so I blended mine in my Magic Bullet until smooth. However, if you like the chunky texture then exnay the blender.

! 

Butternut Squash Soup with Curry and Roasted Banana

This soup all started at Thanksgiving hosted by our Aunty Michelle and Uncle Shannon. Michelle was talking about the wine night she had just gone to and that she really enjoyed the food. Especially this soup, it was some sort of butternut squash, coconut curry and roasted banana thing. If I could have a picture of my face when she described that soup it would have been priceless. That sounded SO GOOD!! I grabbed my phone and wrote down the key ingredients she just mentioned and could NOT wait to go home and try this. 



My first attempt at this soup was pretty good, , and by good I mean my husband ate it all. I had one bowl of this soup and he had the rest of the pot. I couldn't believe it! I come home from work the next day after making it and was so excited to have a bowl. I go to the fridge and the bowl is gone. GONE?! "Devon where is the soup I made?" ....silence... "Ummm I ate it..." Instead of being angry, which he thought I might be, I was quite proud. I honestly didn't think he was going to like this soup (he isn't a fan of curry) so I was all prepared to bite the bullet and eat most of it. But I guess I was proved wrong, and happily so. 



Another reason why I posted this today is because I had a negative comment thrown my way. I know that these are a daily occurrence in everyday life and they are unavoidable. But I just wanted to put a positive spin on a woman's negative comment, because thats all we can really do when someone puts us down for our life choices. So I really hope you enjoy my soup, its gluten free and vegan so there is a huge group of people that can eat this, so please share this with your friends and family. 

Butternut Squash Soup with Curry and Roasted Banana

1 large Butternut Squash
1 ripe Banana
1 large onion, diced
3 stalks of Celery, diced
4 large carrots, diced
1 tbsp of Coconut Oil
1 clove of Garlic, minced
1 cup of Vegan Broth
6 cups of Water
1/4 cup of Coconut Milk
1 tbsp of Cumin
1 tbsp of Corriander
1 tbsp of Curry
Cilantro, garnish

Cut your squash in half and remove the seeds, place face down on a cooking sheet, along with the banana (still in the peel) and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. While this is baking, chop up all of your veggies and put them in a pre heated pot and saute with the coconut oil and garlic. Once the veggies are almost fully cooked, add in your vegetable broth and the water. Bring to a boil and then add the coconut milk and spices, stir in. Continue to simmer until the squash is done. Once fork tender, remove the squash from the oven and let it cool down so you can handle it. Chop the squash into bite size cubes and add to your soup, let cook for 10 mins. In a blender, add half of the contents of the pot and the roasted banana, blend until smooth. Pour back into the pot and simmer for 15 minutes. Garnish this with cilantro and serve! 

Thanks for reading!

xoxo - Nikki


**I have posted at the bottom of the page my Facebook post I made this morning in regards to the negative comment, just in case you were more curious about it. 

My Facebook Post:
I love the fact that I work everyday with the public. I get to see some of the same people everyday and I get to meet some new ones. Sometimes these people are interested in my new lifestyle and inquire about it. They will ask me what new recipes I have come up with lately and even some tell me how they just made my chili, spring rolls, or my curry soup. That makes me SO HAPPY! For those of you who read my blog and experiment with my recipes, I want to you know that I appreciate the love and support. It means a lot to me that you take interest in what I have to share. Thank you!

Unfortunately, there are some Nay-Sayers out there who just don't understand this way of life. For example the woman who said I lead a boring life because I was vegan, who now today told another woman that she looses her appetite when ever I talk about the food I eat. I didn't comment when I heard her say this, because I didn't feel the need too and I was already talking with a woman who has always been very supportive and interested in the things I am cooking up. 

Now, I fully understand that there are going to be people who don't agree with me and that's totally okay because life would be boring if we all did. I just think its amusing that she probably didn't consider that I loose my appetite over the things she eats too.

So to end on a happy note, I am going to post later today the recipe I was talking about that "made her loose her appetite". Its my Butternut Squash soup with an extra surprise! Keep a look out for it because I think its FANTASTIC!!

One Hot Salad feat. Sauteed Mushrooms, Onion and Corn on Kale and Quinoa

We just had a lot of snow here in Moose Jaw, like A LOT. So naturally, on Friday night I felt like staying in because a) it was too cold outside and b) my car was buried under a huge pile of snow. 

Devon was going to the Alice Cooper concert so I was by myself for supper, which meant I could do some experimenting.  I love mixing textures and temperatures with my food. I can eat almost anything hot or cold. I would say that Chili is my favourite food to mix temperatures with, hot chili with fresh zucchini and tomatoes on top. Or topping it with more cold quinoa is really good, becuase you can never have too much quinoa. I also love doing this with salad, yes Salad. Some people (like my husband) do not like doing so, they find the temperature differences a little weird. 

With him being out, I decided to do a warm salad. When I was at work on Friday I was thinking that I could really go for something comforting for supper that night, yet I was craving a kale salad. So my mind got to work on what would taste good for a warm salad. My first thought was sautéed mushrooms, these are one of my favorite things to eat. Back when I was a meat eater, Devon and I would sauté mushrooms and onions to put on top of our steak. These would most likely be done before the steak, so I would just stand by the stove eating them from the pan. Which meant of course there would be barely any left for supper!

So I had my first ingredient, mushrooms. Then of course I would add onions and garlic to the mix because, because to me the dish would have not been complete. But, I didn't just want those three, it need more color and I wanted to add something sweet to the mix. Corn! Perfect! I had some frozen organic in the freezer that would be a great addition to my salad. 
Next I thought, what about quinoa? It would be another hot element to the salad and would be great texture to add to the mix. Finally, I thought to top it off with zucchini, tomatoes, and sprouts and a garlic lemon dressing to finish it off. 

When I was taking the pictures of this dish I actually hadn't tried it yet and I thought to myself..."you might be taking these pictures for no reason because you don't know if its going to work out..." But let me tell you! It was one of the best salads I had ever eaten. There is the perfect balance of hot and cold in this mix as well as sweet and savory. I really hope you like it as much as I do. I told Devon that the next time I make this, he had to try it even though he was a skeptic. And surprisingly he agreed. Looks like I get to make this again sometime really soon!























One Hot Salad
Ingredients

• Kale
• Quinoa
• 1 tsp of Coconut Oil
• Mushrooms
• Corn
• Tomatoes
• Zucchini
• Sprouts

Dressing

• 1/4 cup Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 clove of Garlic, minced
• 1 Lemon, juiced

Strain and cook your quinoa, then set aside. Saute, mushrooms, onions, corn and garlic just unitl they are browned. Dice up your tomatoes and zucchini. For the dressing I always make more than I need so I can store it in the fridge for later. Just put all of the ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake until well mixed. Then layer your dish like so:

• kale
• sauteed mushrooms, corn, and onions
• quinoa
• tomatoes 
• zucchini 
• sprouts
• top it off with the dressing

There you are done! Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo -N

Confession of a Salad Eater...

I'm not going to lie to you guys, my confession is I LOVE FOOD. Oh right I already stated that... crap. Well I will say it again. I love food. I love the different combinations, flavours, colors, textures, ect ect ect. It really is something I am constantly thinking about during the day. What can I make for lunch, or supper, or my second supper?? I take a lot of joy in creating great tasting meals for me and Devon, and even greater joy when they turn out.

Some days however my stomach has ADSHD (Attention Defecate Super Hyperactive Disorder). I literally cannot decide what to eat for supper, I want too many things!

Last night was one of those nights...

I started out during the day with cantaloupe for breakfast, a great salad for lunch, a couple apples for a snack at work, then a second snack when I got home of blended apples, grapes, dates and a little bit of spinach, just to tie me over until supper. I guess I should just clarify that my breakfast is at 7am, my ‘lunch’ is at 9:30am my snacks are between noon and 1pm and my second snack is at 3:00pm. It’s a really messed eating schedule, but I have found a way to work around it (‘It’ being my angry, hungry stomach.)

The Raw Vegan Wraps I picked
 up at Alternate Roots

So last night we ended up going to the mall to pick up the new HALO for my husband and we stopped to get some things at Zellers. Unfortunately one of those things was a bag of plain, ripple Ruffles chips. I can see all of your heads shaking, I know I know, chips are bad, but honestly, to me, they taste so good. They are my one craving that will be very hard to crack. I originally thought dairy was going to be the hardest, but sadly no, chips are.  So I sneak them home, from whom, not too sure, but I feel like I should hide them or something. I set them on the table and start to make supper. I have decided I am going to make Raw Vegan Wraps, using these new Coconut Curry wraps I picked up on Tuesday from Alternate Roots. I sliced up tomato, cucumber, zucchini and added some leafy greens, wrapped them up and gave her a try. They were really good!! Unfortunately my ADSHD stomach was like, nope you want something more... so I opened the chips! Yup I did it, eating my super healthy wraps with a side of potato chips. I should have felt the irony, but I just couldn’t muster it up. Maybe it was all the crunching....  After a couple of trips to the bag of chips, I sit down at the computer and get to work on my Harry Potter post. After 20 mins, my stomach literally shouts at me, YOU WANT A GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH!! Damn, I thought she was asleep. I already gave her something healthy and something greasy, What more does she want? Apparently she wants a grilled cheese.

So off to the kitchen I go to make myself a vegan grilled cheese. Basically it’s the same thing as a regular grilled chhese, you just use coconut spread, like Earth Balance in place for your butter, Daiya Cheese in place for the cheese and make sure your bread is Vegan. BAM. Grilled Cheese. Which of course turned out quite yummy.

So now I have given my stomach 1 healthy and 2 unhealthy things tonight. She MUST be done now.... NOPE. Not done just yet. Because of the 2 to 1 ratio, she thought it was time to end on a good note. She wants a salad now (recipe at the bottom of the page). One of the really good ones with tomatoes and dates on it.  Fine! FINE! I will make one last meal but that is it! No more..... Haha who am I kidding.

So that is my confession. Yes, I really do love my healthy food, I think it tastes amazing, its satisfying and is better than most junk food out there. But sometimes your crazy ADSHD stomach just won’t shut up and so you give in. And that’s okay. Now, right now is where I would probably say, “as long as its in moderation its okay!” but I won’t. Why? Because my mother in law brought it to my attention that NO not everything is good in moderation “Heroine isn’t good in moderation, Crack isn’t good in moderation, killing people isn’t good in moderation.”
There is one thing that I do believe. If I can continue on this path of eating more Raw food, I know my cravings for the other junk will subside. It’s just a matter of wanting to get there, because if you don’t truly want to do something you will never fully follow through.  

My Go To Meal #3

"The Salad"

6-8 cups of leafy greens, I used Kale and Romanie

2 medium tomatoes, diced

1/2 of a cucumber, shredded

1 small zucchini, shredded

1 yellow pepper, shredded

5 dates, diced

1 lemon, juiced

If you wanted to put other ingredients in it like mushrooms, carrots, beans or even QUINOA (which I do when ever there is left overs) by all means do that. These are just my staples that I always have on hand. Throw it all together and you got yourself a great meal. Yes this is one meal, not to be shared between four people! Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!
xoxo - N