Raw Vegan 'Pasta' Salad

I had the awesome pleasure of going to the lake last weekend for my husbands family reunion. The weather couldn’t have been better and it was really great to see everyone again, seeing as these only happen every 5 years.

All of the food was included with the registration fee but because it was mostly meat I brought all of my own food which mainly consisted of fresh fruit and veggies. I found that because I only brought out fruit and veggies that’s all I ate, well I wont lie, I did have some chips and alcoholic beverages! But definitely ate a lot healthier by bringing my own food.

Some of the things I brought out were ingredients for a mango date salad, some bananas, and this awesome raw ‘pasta’ salad. I originally was going to bring an actual pasta salad but I didn’t want to feel all bloated, plus I didn’t want to boil water in the 30 degree heat! So why not have a raw one and use zucchini noodles instead! They are fresh, easy to make and a lot healthier for you than the grain version.

I used my mandolin to make my zucchini noodles, but you can use a sprilralizer, a vegetable peeler or a knife!

Raw ‘Pasta’ Salad

1 medium zucchini, noodled

2 tomatoes, chopped
5-8 majool dates, chopped

½ yellow pepper, chopped

½ orange pepper, chopped
½ cucumber, chopped
1 lemon, juiced
*optional kalamata olives

Then I got home and thought about making one with a creamy sauce, still have it vegan but I kind of wanted to experiment with flavors. So on Wednesday I broke out the avocados and my Vitamix and came up with this amazing creamy raw vegan dressing!


Raw Vegan Pasta Dressing
1 avocado 
½ cucumber
2 cloves garlic
5 leafs basil
1 lemon, juiced

*optional 1 tbsp nutritional yeast

Put all sauce ingredients into a blender or a food processor and puree until smooth.Toss with the chopped veggies and 'noodles' and serve!


Thanks for reading!!
xoxo -N

Portobello Mushroom Burger

Have you ever tried to make vegan/vegetarian burgers? There are so many recipes out there that call for different ingredients, everything from quinoa, sweet potato, black beans ect. If you are adventurous you will try some of these recipes out and pray to the vegan gods that they turn out. If not then you will have a stir fry with the mixture instead. I have made a couple and they haven’t been that bad, nothing life changing but not a waste of ingredients. I know I haven’t tried all of the recipes out there, so there is still hope for finding that perfect vegan burger. But what happens when you are craving a BBQ burger but you don’t feel like making something up. Well Portobello Mushrooms to the rescue!

I have only ever cooked these in the oven like a pizza, but I know other people have tried this method before and it was successful for them, so why not me! I had two in my fridge and they were getting old so I wanted to use them up quick before they got moldy. I didn’t have any pizza sauce so I couldn’t make pizzas, so why not try something new like BBQing them like burgers. Devon was feeling a little adventurous and said he would give them a shot, seeing as I had two to eat up.

Result? Super delicious and very satisfactory. I had been craving something BBQ’d for a while because the weather had got so nice and I could smell other people BBQing in our neighborhood, thankfully this totally hit the spot. They only took 15 mins on the grill to prepare, so while those are cooking I cut up all of the veggies I wanted on the burger and BAM supper was ready with not a lot of mess or prep work to clean up.

 

Scrape out the insides of the mushroom and lightly coat with coconut oil. Season with salt, pepper, and Montreal Steak Spice. Cook hollow side down for 5 minutes, then 10 minutes on the other side. For the last 10 minutes, fill with Daiya cheese and let it melt! I put down tin foil on the BBQ to avoid cross contamination and the mushroom cooked just fine.

Top with your favorite toppings like tomato, lettuce, avocado, mustard, ketchup on a bun or in a lettuce wrap! Eat while hot and enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N

Rawkin Homemade Sushi with Wasabi

I crave sushi about 5 times a month, unfortunately we only go out for sushi about once every 2 months. So you can see my dilemma, my cravings are not being satisfied! Oh the horror! But seriously I love sushi, it is one of my favourite meals and when I eat it, I eat a lot. That’s why I love going out for sushi at DK Sushi House here in Moose Jaw, because they have 'all you can eat' for $24.00 per person. We usually get a group of 8 people together to share the endless rolls, which leads to us complaining of how full we are when we leave. My brother in law Sean usually brings up that One time we made him eat the last piece, 9 months ago, that sent him over the edge of fullness. Something that we thought he would have gotten over, but apparently not!

So one night I stopped by Ashley’s house after work and after talking for an hour, I got the craving for some sushi. I mentioned it to Ashley and her eyes lit up with excitement, she wanted to go to! But she wondered if they would make her rolls without rice in them, she just wanted the nori and the vegetables. We figured we would call and ask before going down to make sure they would and success, they said they would! We didn’t get ‘all you can eat’ because it was just the two of us, but we definitely left full!

Me eating my seaweed salad, and Ashley's no rice sushi rolls!

While there we got to talking about making our own homemade sushi, raw and cooked. I had tried making traditional sushi before with Devon, but it was really soggy and I ended up just scraping off the rice and veggies and eating it like a stir fry. So naturally I was a little apprehensive about making it again. Ashley suggested that we try making raw sushi with cauliflower rice instead, she had noticed someone else had made it and was interested in making it herself.

The next day I was still craving sushi and thought about just making my own. Heck I am not made out of money, so going to Sushi House again was out of the question. Luckily I had cauliflower in the fridge and was curious about how it would turn out. So I got to work on ricing the cauliflower in my Vitamix and thought “how is this going to stick together?”…. Dates, of course! So I threw some chopped up dates in and pulsed until well mixed. I rolled one up, tasted it and thought ‘WOW! Ashley needs to taste this!’ So I immediately texted her to get her butt over to my house for an amazing supper! Little did I know, Ashley was going to SuperStore to get ingredients to make raw sushi too! Great minds think alike!

We were both really satisfied with the result of the sushi, the only thing is you have to eat it immediately or else the nori wrappers get soggy. That could have to do with the quality of the paper or with the water content of the cauliflower, either way, you have to basically roll ‘em and eat ‘em.

 

Ingredients 6-10 rolls

1 pkg raw nori papers

1 head of cauliflower

5 majool dates, pitted and diced

1 red pepper

1 avocado

1 small zucchini

½ cucumber
1 bamboo rolling mat

Thinly slice all of the vegetables, using a mandolin or your knife. Rice cauliflower in high speed blender, only pulsing. Optional step, remove cauliflower from blender and pour into a bowl, take a couple paper towels and try to extract as much water as possible. Throw back into blender and pulse the dates in.

Lay out nori paper on a bamboo rolling mat, the longer side parallel to your body. Spread out a thin layer of cauliflower rice, in the middle of the paper lay equal amounts of vegetables, try not to add too much or it will be difficult to roll up. Using the rolling mat, roll up the paper tightly. Using some water to seal off the edge.

I like to have the seam of the paper on the bottom of the cutting board while cutting. Also it helps to wet your knife before cutting too!

Cut into sections and eat immediately! Serve with soy sauce, wasabi or ginger and enjoy!

After I wrote this post we went out again for sushi a few weeks later and Ashley brought something that I totally fell in love with: homemade wasabi! It tasted just like the typical green stuff you get from the restaurant, only this was all natural. I mean who would think of making their own wasabi and bringing it to a sushi place? My brilliant sister Ashley, thats who. So here is the link to her site to get this super easy recipe so the next time you make your own raw sushi or when go out you can bring your own too!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N

Vegan Eggplant Soft Tacos

Truthfully I am not a big Mexican food fan. I love guacamole and salsa but tacos, burritos, enchiladas don’t really do it for me. I will eat them for sure, don’t get me wrong, but I never really crave them.

Yesterday however I was thinking about what I wanted for supper and a couple things came to mind but I wasn’t too sure. That’s when I came across a recipe for eggplant tacos, and I that piqued my interest. I just happened to have an eggplant in my fridge that was on its last couple days, so I had to use it ASAP. Well why not eggplant tacos. That’s when I realized that I interpreted the recipe wrong. I thought they used the eggplant as the taco shell, but instead they just had a corn tortilla and eggplant inside. I guess that could work too, but my original way sounded like a lot more fun!. I love trying new food and different ways to eat the norm, and this was the perfect example.

When buying your eggplant you are looking for a large, firm and a heavy one. You don't want to be  too hard or too soft because too hard means its not ripe enough and too soft means its too ripe. Also this is when size matters, because the bigger your eggplant is the wider your tacos will be!

So not only are these gluten free, egg free, everything free (except eggplant and oil) they cut down on carbs, fat, and salt and are a fun new way to look at tacos. I will warn you now, they are messy! But that shouldn’t stop you from trying them out, if anything it should entice you! Because who doesn’t love playing with their food.
My recipe is just a jumping off point, if you wanted you could add black beans, zucchini, hot peppers, anything  you think that would make a great taco, go for it. Also, if you have taco seasoning already at home then you could use that instead of the spices I have listed. I didn’t have any in my house so I thought, why not just make it!

Ingredients - 2 servings
1 large eggplant - 8 slices
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 red pepper
1 onion
5-8 mushrooms
1 lime
¼ - ½ cup of walnuts
½ avocado

Taco Seasoning
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin


Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Using a vegetable mandolin or knife slice the eggplant into ¼ inch thickness. Melt 1 tbsp of coconut oil and lightly coat the egg plant on both sides. Salt and pepper to taste. Put into the oven for 10 minutes. While they are in the oven, slice up your red pepper and onion using the mandolin. If you have one this will save you so much time! In a mixing bowl, add all of the spices together, stir until well combined. Chop up the mushrooms and throw all of the vegetables into a hot frying pan with remaining coconut oil, lime and desired amount of taco seasoning. Fry veggies until soft (the vegetables will probably be done at the same time as the eggplant) Garnish with avocado! Serve immediately and be prepared to get a little messy! Enjoy!

** If you don’t have eggplant but have a large zucchini, that would work just as good! 
** If you are looking for a vegetable mandolin I saw one at Super Store for $10.00. I got mine at Costco for $40.00 and it works awesome.

Thanks for reading,
Xoxo -N