Vegan Pizza Pops and Vegan Pesto Pizza

I wonder if you are getting tired of my pizza posts? I am certainly not tired of making the pizza and eating it, hence all of the recipes I have posted!

This time I made a homemade pizza pocket, or a calzone, depending on how you want to see it. AND I made a mini pesto pizza. Two for one today folks!

When you really think about it, you can do a lot with pizza dough, and by simply changing up the toppings, shape or size of what you are making, it changes the whole meal. Especially when it come to kids. What kid wouldn’t love decorating his own pizza with the toppings they love, maybe even making it have a face. Its simple changes to the meals you and your family love that make the difference between the same old, same old into something new and delicious.

For those of you who read my Homemade Pizza post, this is the same dough recipe.

Pizza Dough – 2 Pizza Pockets and 2 mini Pizzas
1 ½ cup whole wheat flour
2 tbsp ground flax
2 ¼ tsp quick-rising yeast
½ tsp salt
2/3 cup very warm water
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp. date honey *recipe below

In a medium bowl, combine flour, flax, yeast and salt. Mix well.
Measure warm water in measuring cup, then stir in olive oil and honey. 
Pour mix over dry ingredients and mix using wooden spoon to form a ball. 
Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 2 mins. 
Grease inside of another bowl with olive oil and place dough inside. 
Cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in warm place until double in size (about 20mins).
Divide the dough between the number of pizza pockets or mini pizzas you would like (max 4)
Roll out dough over lightly floured surface into a circle. 
Put on toppings and bake at 425 for 15-20 mins.
**While the dough is rising I cut up the vegetables to have ready.

For the toppings I used:
1/3 sm can tomato sauce
½ red pepper, diced
3 mushrooms, sliced
½  zucchini, sliced
½ cup shredded Daiya mozzarella 

Date Honey - makes ½ cup
5 dates
¼ cup water
Blend in high speed blender until smooth, store the rest in the fridge.

 

Mini Pesto Pizza

Pesto Sauce

½ cup of cashews or sunflower seeds, soaked for at least 4 hours

1 lemon, juiced

1 clove garlic

1 large handful of spinach

5 sprigs of basil, de stemmed

Lightly chop up the spinach and basil, and throw all of the ingredients into a high speed blender. Set on medium high and blend until smooth.

Toppings

3 mushrooms, sliced

½ zucchini, sliced

Top with fresh spinach

Thanks for reading,
Xoxo -N

Thai Cabbage Summer Salad

A couple weekends ago I had the great pleasure of going over to a friend’s house for a ‘smoke’ night, and by smoke I mean smoked meat. Yumm…. Not so much. Haha, not really my thing, but exciting for everyone else there. Our friend just bought a new smoker and he was really anxious to try it out and Devon loves any excuse to eat something smoked.

So what was I going to make, seeing as I was not going to eat what they were having? A wonderful salad! Yup I was going to bring salad to a meat party. Don’t think I cant hear you guys out there quoting the Simpsons “you don’t make friends with salad”. Well I was and I did! Everyone who tried it said it tasted great and some (like myself) even went back for seconds!

I was really excited to make this one too, the ingredients are so colorful, and the Thai peanut sauce was making my mouth water. For me anything with a Thai peanut sauce is golden.
This is a perfect salad to make when you have left over quinoa in your fridge, a) because its one less step in making this salad b) the quinoa is already cold! c) who doesn’t love using leftover food, instead of throwing it out later on that week.  
It is such a fresh, crisp and tasty salad it is now in my repertoire of meals that I can either make at home or bring to family suppers.

If you or someone you know have nut allergies, just sub out the cashews and peanut butter for almonds and sunflower seed butter!

Ingredients  4 - 8 people

½ head purple cabbage

2 cups of cooked quinoa
2 carrots, grated

1 red pepper, diced

1 zucchini, diced

¼ red onion, diced
½ cup cilantro, chopped

½ cup cashews

Thai Peanut Salad Dressing

¼ cup organic peanut butter

1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 dates

1 lime, juiced
Combine all of the dressing ingredients together in a high speed blender and puree until smooth. Pour dressing over salad right before serving and fold in until completely combined. 

Cherry Chocolate Energy Balls

Mmm I love cherries! They are for sure my favourite fruit and if I could, I woud eat them every single day! Well I guess I almost do, because I found frozen cherries at Super Store and now I have cherries in a lot of my morning smoothies!

I got the idea to make these from Alternate Roots Organic, they make about 5 different energy balls and their chocolate cherry ones are by far my favourite, and in close second is the mint chocolate chip. After buying them from the store a couple times I thought “I could probably make these!” So I got looking on the internet and came across a link to “Make your own Lara Bars”, that got my attention because the energy balls were basically just that – round Lara Bars. So I clicked on the link and wow, they were super simple to make too! Just almonds, dates and raisins, really basic ingredients that I already had in my cupboard.

I of course made some changes to the recipe wanting it to be a chocolate cherry flavour, but that was easy enough! I decided to add some cashews in there along with the almonds to make it a little more nutty flavored. For me I think just almonds would have been too bitter tasting. Also I added some cocoa powder for the chocolatiness and I substituted the raisins for cherries! Presto chango! Yummy cherry chocolate balls!

I would highly recommend using a food processor for this recipe and not using a standard blender or magic bullet. The mixture becomes very thick and could burn out your motor, even in my Vita Mix it stalled out and I had to give her time to cool off.

Ingredients - 12 balls 

½  cup almonds

½ cup cashews

¼ cup cocoa powder

½ tsp vanilla powder

10 dates, de pitted

¼ cup dried cherries

In a high speed blender or food processor, pulse almonds, cashews, cocoa powder and vanilla into a flour. Add the dates and pulse until well blended. Stir in dried cherries and form into balls. Refrigerate for 20 mins. Enjoy!

A Stell-Raw Banana Caramel Pie

Have you ever eaten a whole pie all to yourself? I have! And now you are wondering what kind of pie, aren’t you? It was a lemon meringue, homemade by my grandma at Christmas a couple years ago. It all started off with one bite, then another, then holy crap it’s all gone. I went from having a bite of dessert to having THE dessert.  

So this Easter I wanted to make a dessert that not only I could eat but both of my sisters could eat too. Almost all desserts that get brought to big family suppers contain either eggs, dairy or gluten, all of the things my sisters and I don’t eat. So what could I make? I had a ton of bananas in my house, so something banana. That’s when I thought of a banana caramel pie, and I was going out on a limb and make it raw too!

What I love about this pie recipe is that it doesn’t take long to prepare and it only contains four ingredients! It is gluten free, dairy free, egg free and can be any type of nut or seed crust you want. So if somebody in your family has a peanut allergy, then you can use almonds, or vise versa. But the big kicker about this pie is that it is delicious! I had my family try it and everybody raved about how good it tasted. Even grandma, who has never tried anything like this before, gave me rave reviews. To see her reaction my sister Naturally Ashley video tapped her reaction, click here to see it!

I came up with the name Stell-Raw Banana Caramel Pie because this Easter we lost our Rottweiler Stella to gastric dilatation. Needless to say, this Easter has not been that joyous and writing this post is really hard. She passed away so suddenly that it will be truly hard to get over her loss, she was such a huge part of my life and I miss her so much.  So I thought that I would name this pie after her, mainly because one of her favourite foods was bananas. I would be in the kitchen peeling a banana and she would be able to hear it from anywhere in the house. I am not surprised though because I would always give her my last piece, when it came to her I was always such a push over. So in memory of my little, I dedicate this post to you Stella, I miss you girl! 

Ingredients

Crust

1.5 cups of cashews, or your favourite nut

10 majool dates, pited and soaked in water at room temp for 1 hour

Carmel Sauce

2 bananas

8 dates

¼ tsp vanilla, powder or extract

Filling

7 bananas

This is quite a simple pie to make. In a food processor or high speed blender, blend the cashews and dates together. Pour into a pie pan and using parchment paper flatten evenly all the way around. Put in freezer for 15 mins.

While crust is freezing blend the bananas until smooth, then add dates and vanilla. Set on high and puree until creamy and smooth.

Take crust out of the freezer and thinly slice 3 of the bananas and place neatly on the crust. Then thinly slice the other 3 bananas and gently fold in with the caramel sauce. Pour on top and then top with one more banana sliced.

Depending on how full you want the pie you can add or subtract the amount of bananas. I used seven!

Place in the freezer for at least 3 hours and serve immediately. Enjoy!

An upclose picture of the curst and the caramel sauce.

Stella and her sister Lucy!

Lemon Dill Tomato Sauce with Zucchini Noodles

After that life changing curry dish (well, for me it was) I was thinking that the curry sauce is something that could be made to taste like anything. You could omit the curry and add something totally different, and BAM you got yourself a whole new sauce. So what did I want? Sweet, savory, spicy? I wasn’t sure. That was until I was walking through Safeway and for some reason the flavor of dill popped into my head. Mmm dill… that sounds delicious, I haven’t had anything with dill for a very long time and it is one of my favourite spices. Now what? Dill and… dill and… dill and…lemon! So simple yet so perfect. Lemon dill tomato sauce, with zucchini noodles sounds like an awesome supper.

When I got home from Safeway (after scoring 5 bunches of bananas for $4.50, woo hoo!) I started on my dish and boy did it smell good. I don’t know what it is about dill that just screams awesomeness but it does. Like the curry sauce it has a rich, creamy flavor that some people might be surprised to learn that there is no milk or cream involved. That is one of the benefits of blending your sauces, they come out smooth and creamy without the added fat! I also decided to serve this with some steamed broccoli to add some color, body and extra nutrients to the dish. I could have totally eaten the sauce by itself, its that good, but its nice to have texture and color in my meals, and what a better steamed veggie than broccoli! I hope you enjoy this meal as much as I did!



This is what the sauce looks like before you blend it!

Ingredients 2-4 Servings

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 large yellow onion, diced

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 large can of whole tomatoes, chopped in half

½ cup cashews, soaked overnight

1 lemon, juiced

5-7 sprigs of dill, de-stemmed and chopped

Pepper to taste

1 head of broccoli, chopped

In a large frying pan on medium/high heat sauté onions in oil for 10 mins until brown. Add the rest of ingredients and simmer for 15-20 mins. Pour into high speed blender and puree until smooth. While this is cooking, steam broccoli until fork tender.

Zucchini Noodles

1 zucchini per person

Using the julienne blade of a mandolin, slice zucchini lengthwise into long, thin strands. Slice the zucchini just until you reach the seeds in the middle and then stop (the seeds will cause the noodles to fall apart).

NOTE: If you don't have a mandolin you can use a vegetable peeler or a knife.  

If you want the noodles to be hot, put the noodles into the frying pan with desired amount of sauce and cook for 5 mins and serve with broccoli! Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N

Vegan Cashew Curry Sitr Fry

You know those days where you eat at like 3:30 in the afternoon and when supper comes along you don’t feel hungry but you still feel like you should eat something? That is what happened the night I made this. It was 8:00 and I was searching the kitchen for something to eat and was coming up with nothing. Not that we didn’t have any food in the house, I just was being indecisive about what I wanted. So I walked back into the living room and started to watch You Gotta Eat Here and what came on has changed my life forever!

It was a recipe for Cashew Curry sauce that was vegan! Holy Moly it looked amazing and really easy to make. I was super intrigued and it even caught the eye of Devon, the curry hater. So now I was torn, because it was 8:20 and kind of late to be making supper but I really, really, really wanted to make this… sooo I did! We decided to serve it over rice, and we were kind of pumped because we found white rice in the cupboard, something we haven’t had in a long time.

The whole meal only took around 35 minutes to make and it was well worth it. My thoughts of eating so late were silenced by the amazing flavours this supper had. I think I said “I love this” about 8 times while eating it, and now as I type this I am thinking about making it again for supper tonight. The sauce is creamy, thick, FULL of rich flavor and its not that high in fat which is a HUGE bonus. Aside from the oil there is only the cashews in the sauce which add fat, there is no milk or cream, the usual culprits in fatty sauces.

The only changes I made to the sauce from the show was that I reduced the cashews from one cup to ½, I didn’t put in cinnamon and nutmeg, and she used 2 large onions and no spinach. As I was making it I thought that 2 onions was a bit much, so what would be a good substitute for it? I didn’t want to add more cashews and I didn’t want to add something that would drastically change the flavor of the dish. That’s why spinach works so well, it adds great color, nutrients and body to the sauce without having to sacrifice any flavour or add any extra fat. It’s really a win, win here!

If you are a curry fan or are someone who is interested in trying it, I would say you NEED to try this! It wont disappoint you or your family and friends. Enjoy!  

Ingredients: 2 - 4 people

Cashew Curry Sauce

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 large yellow onion

½ cup of cashews, soaked overnight or for at least 4 hours

1 sm can of tomato paste

1 ½ cups of water

2 cups fresh spinach

2 tbsp curry powder

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp coriander

Red pepper flakes to taste

Heat up large frying pan, add oil. Sauté onions until they are golden brown, about 15 minutes on med heat. In a bowl whisk together the tomato paste and water until well blended, add to frying pan and stir in. Add in all spices, spinach and cashews cook for 10 minutes. Pour into a high speed blender and blend until smooth.

Stir Fry Vegetables and Rice

1 cup of rice

2 cups of water

2 tsp of oil

1 head broccoli

½ head cauliflower

4 stalks celery

½ sm. container white mushrooms

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup water

While the onions are cooking, I chopped up all of my vegetable and cooked my rice. Sauté the vegetables and garlic until fork tender, about 10 minutes. You could have these cooking in a separate frying pan while the cashew sauce is cooking, to save on time.

Add sauce to the vegetables in the frying pan, and stir in. I try not to waste anything, so after I am done pouring the sauce out, I take ½ cup of water and add it back into the blender, turn it on high to get all the sauce off the sides and pour it back into the pan. Just to make sure its all in!

Serve over rice, quinoa or noodles! Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!
xoxo -N

Pineapple Cashew Ginger Stir Fry

While walking through the grocery store yesterday, I was completely lost on what to make for supper. Isn't that always the way? You are faced with literally every possibility, and yet I was coming up blank.
That's until I saw the pineapple. They looked really delicious and I even found one that was really ripe. Now what to do with it?... stir fry!? Why not? I am a huge fan of stir fries but unfortunately my husband isn't. If it was just me I was cooking for I would eat one every other day, they are that good.
So my mind got to work on what I was going to mix this with... I had broccoli, cauliflower, celery and mushrooms at home so I didn't need any more veggies from the store but I wanted more flavor. What goes with sweet pineapple? Ginger?!... Perfect! So I picked up a piece the size of my thumb, grabbed the can of baby corn and I was done with supper ingredients!
This was really simple supper to throw together and it didn't take long to prepare or cook. I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome of my latest creation. It was both sweet and savory and I know it's good when both Devon and I go back for seconds! I hope you enjoy it!
 
Ingredients
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 head of broccoli, chopped
1/4 head of cauliflower, chopped
5 stalks of celery, chopped
5-7 mushrooms, chopped
1/2 fresh pineapple, chopped
1 small can of baby corn (optional)
Ginger thumb sized, grated
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp Better Than Bouillon broth, vegetable flavor
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup of cashews, soaked
Salt and pepper to taste

First get your rice (or whatever you choose) cooking, I use a rice cooker for my brown and wild rice and it takes an hour to cook. Then chop up all vegetables and fruit. Put aside a large handful of pineapple. Heat up a large frying pan on medium/high, add oil. Once melted add garlic and onions, sauté for 5 mins until browned. Add broccoli, cauliflower, celery, and sauté for 10 mins. Dissolve broth in water and add to pan with the soya sauce. Add mushrooms, pineapple, corn, and ginger. Continue cooking until vegetables are fork tender. Stir in cashews. With your hands squeeze the juice out of the pineapple and top your dish with it. Serve over rice, quinoa, or rice noodles! Enjoy!!

Thanks for reading!
Xoxo -N

Vegan Chocolate Cherry Raspberry Cream Truffles

I love the way a woman’s mind works. Especially mine.

Like most of my fellow females (I assume), I deal with very conflicting ideas in my head. One minute I think to myself I really should eat more raw fruits and veggies and cut back on my processed foods (chips are the devil) and fats. Ever since I got back from Mexico I have wanted to do a 21 day raw challenge but have been putting it off. I have great intentions but lack the motivation right now. Hopefully one day in the near future I will just get off my ass and do it, until then I get to eat these awesome treats!!

That’s where the conflicting ideas come in, one minute I am thinking about eating fruit and salads the next minute I am thinking about lasagna and pizza bites. And scrolling through Fragrant Vanilla Cake’s blog doesn’t help my situation either. That’s where I went yesterday and unfortunately/fortunately I came across one of her newest posts: Raw Raspberry Rose Cream Truffels. Cue the angels singing, I have found Holy Grail of desserts. They looked amazing and I couldn’t wait to try them for myself. I quickly made a grocery list and thought about what I was going to do differently than what she had laid out (like no rose water). Forget about wanting to cut back on treats, fats and food that isn’t healthy, I had a mission!!

I didn’t stray too far from what Amy did, but I made some slight changes to fit my tastes. Such as I took out the rose water and added cherries. At first I tasted the cream with just the raspberries and it just seemed a little blah, so thankfully I had frozen cherries in my freezer! Because the raspberries are so tart they had trouble over powering the nutty flavour of the cashews, so by adding the cherries added the perfect amount of sweetness that really evened out the flavour. Also I used dates because I didn’t have any of the nectar she was talking about, and I feel better about using dates because its one less processed thing I am putting in my body! Finally the chocolate sauce. I decided to use just chocolate chips and coconut milk because I am lazy. Its only two ingredients and I really love the taste of the vegan chocolate chips!

I couldn’t have been happier with how they turned out! They are the perfect treat, they are light and creamy, not too dense, not too sweet and they taste similar to ice cream. Devon really liked them, as wel as all the ladies I work with. Not that any of them are picky, but its good to know other people love what I make too!

 

To see Amy’s original post click here.



Some chocolate covered ones with some plain. Remember, please no judging my pictures, it's how they taste that matters!!

 Raspberry Cherry Filling:
9 majool dates, diced + 1/4 cup filtered water
1 1/2 cups raw cashew pieces (soaked for 4 hours or overnight)
1/4 cup filtered water
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup coconut oil (warmed to liquid)
1/2 cup organic frozen cherries
1 cup organic raspberries

Chocoalte
1 1/2 vegan chocoalte chips
1/2 cup coconut milk


Combine dates and water into a high power blender and blend on high until smooth. Add cashews, water, sea salt, vanilla and blend until smooth again. With the processor running, add the coconut oil and process another minute until well incorporated. Add the raspberries and process until smooth. 
 Pour into a flat Tupperware container (it cools off more evenly than a bowl), and place in the freezer until firm, but scoopable.  Like scooping out ice cream, dig into the mixture and form tbsp sized balls, this is going to get really messy so be prepaired if you are letting little ones help roll!  Place on parchment paper, and once they are all rolled, place back in the freezer to harden. 

Meanwhile, make the chocolate. Put chocolate chips and coconut milk into a large glass bowl. Place a large glass bowl over a medium pot of boiling water, so that the steam from the water will melt the chocolate. Dip the filling balls into the chocolate and place on the parchment paper.  Once they are all dipped, place them back in the freezer to set completely.  Enjoy! 
You can store extra in the freezer, if there are any left.... 

Thanks for reading!
xoxo-N