A Very Vegan Thanksgiving: As seen on Global TV Regina

I am super excited to announce that Ashley Clark from Naturally Ashley featured my Quinoa Stuffing recipe on Global Regina News this morning . Ashley was brought on to the show to talk about how to veganize your Thanksgiving meal this holiday season. Her recipes included my Qunioa Stuffing and her raw vegan pumpkin pie.

With the holidays are upon us you start to get excited about spending time with your family and eating a ton of amazing food. However, some of us get stressed out in the kitchen trying to get the food all done on time, while others are relaxed because they know they just have to bring buns to moms house and everything else will be made for them. Well, this year my sisters and I plan on helping out my mom in the preparations of this huge meal and the stress that can come with it. So we divided up the dishes and took some of the responsibilities off my momma (aren’t we great kids!) Plus it doesn’t help that all three of us are vegans, with Ashley being gluten free/raw vegan and Chelsea being gluten free/vegan, it can make for a lot of bowls on the table.


So what were we going to bring?
Ashley – salad, raw vegan pumpkin pie
Nikki – vegan/gluten free stuffing, vegan gravy, S’more Pie
Chelsea – mashed potatoes, cranberries 

I am most excited for my stuffing, cranberries and my sisters raw vegan pumpkin pie. Those are definitely the three top things I crave when Thanksgiving comes around. Before we discovered quinoa my mom would always make a rice stuffing for my gluten free family members, it was good and everyone like it, but I thought it was missing something. So last year when quinoa came to my attention I just knew that it would take gluten free stuffing to the next level. 
Then there is my sisters raw vegan pumpkin pie. Something that may not sound as good to you,  but trust me when you try it you will fall in love with it! It is rich, creamy and perfectly spiced just like a cooked pie is, the only major difference is the fact that it has to be served cold. To find the recipe for this awesome pie go to Naturally Ashley's blog found here. As for my stuffing I have re posted it along with some helpful tips to make your Thanksgiving vegan friendly this year!


Tips and Tricks to Make your Thanksgiving Vegan
- Mashed Potatoes: instead of using milk or butter, use almond milk and Earth Balance
- Make a mushroom gravy instead of a poultry based one *see recipe below
- Buy a mock meat substitute if you want to keep up the turkey tradition 
- For appetizers go with hummus or salsa with chips and veggies for a dairy free snack option 
-Salads are usually vegan, all you have to do is choose a dressing that is vegan and voila you got yourself a vegan side dish!
- Try to keep the meat/dairy/egg dishes away from the veggie ones, you could even prepare some of the veggie ones the night before to elevate stress 




Gluten free Vegan Stuffing
·         1 cup of quinoa
·         2 cup s of water
·         1 cup of wild rice
·         4 cups of water
·         1 white onion, diced
·         2 medium carrots, diced
·         5 stalks of celery, diced
·         1 small pkg mushrooms, diced
·         2 tbsp of coconut oil
·         1 clove of garlic, minced
·         1 cup vegetable broth
·         3 tsp of sage
·         2 tsp of cumin
·         Salt and pepper
.
First you will need to clean your wild rice and quinoa. A simple way to do that is to put it in a strainer and run cold water over it.

To make the wild rice: combine rice, the 4 cups of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, cover and simmer over low heat for approximately 45 minutes, until the rice has opened and fluffed out. Strain out any excess water. Or if you have a rice cooker use that instead, it’s a lot easier!

To make the quinoa combine quinoa and the 2 cups of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, cover and simmer over low heat for approximately 20 minutes, until the water has all evaporated.

Next dice up the mushrooms, carrots, onion, and celery into bite size pieces, and place the mushrooms aside for later. Heat up a medium/large sized frying pan on Medium/High heat, add your oil and sauté the onions, garlic, carrots, and celery for about 15 minutes, or until they are soft. Add the mushrooms and broth, spices and quinoa/rice mixture to the pan,  and continue cooking for another 10 minutes.
Serving bowl and enjoy!  

Gluten Free Vegan 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.

Fresh Spring Rolls with Raw Vegan Coconut Mango Sauce

Ever since the first day of making homemade fresh spring rolls, I have been hooked! I could probably eat them every single day (I actually had them for lunch 2 weeks in a row) but I try to limit them because of the high fat peanut dip. Peanuts also don’t really agree with my stomach so I have been on the look out for a substitute that holds up to my original dipping sauce.

I have tried numerous different dips such as, sweet chili, hoisen, sweet potato, but none can compare to my peanut sauce, it is just that good.

Well on the way home from lunch one day I literally had a light bulb go off in my head! Cashews and mango! Why not pair them together in a dipping sauce for my spring rolls? The cashews will give them that nutty, salty flavor and the mangos will give it that sweet, fresh taste. My mind was set on making this when I got home for lunch, I just had to try it out and see how it held up to what I had imagined. 

So I got home threw some things in a blender and viola- a beautiful sauce has been born! 
To make it even better, I found this awesome spice at The Bulk Barn here in Moose Jaw called Coconut Thai and added it to the sauce. It complimented the flavors so well by adding a little heat and another element of sweetness. If you dont have that spice I offered some substitutions at the bottom. It might not taste the exact same as the original but it still tastes great! 
For my original post on how I make my spring rolls plus the ingredients for my amazing peanut sauce, check it out here!

Ingredients 

½ cup soaked, raw cashews

1 tbsp coconut Thai spice

1 fresh mango

1 lime, juiced

1 green onion

½ clove garlic

Or

½ cup soaked, raw cashews
1 cup frozen mango

3/4 cup raw coconut water

1 tbsp fresh cilantro 
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 green onion

½ clove garlic

1 lime, juiced
½ lemon rind 

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

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!

Fruity Colada Smoothie

On Wednesday I had a not-so filling breakfast of just 3 bananas and 4 cups of spinach with coconut water, blended into a smoothie. Normally I have about 2 cups of berries in there but I was out of my favorite frozen berry blend from Super Store. I thought it wouldn’t make that much of a difference in my day, but boy was I wrong.

While at work I was helping a member and I started to get really unfocused and I had trouble remembering numbers. So I attacked my 3 oranges that I brought as a snack and felt so much better. Thankfully I had a healthy snack with me, because I don’t know what I would have done. Well, I would have probably snuck downstairs to the staff room and grabbed a bag of chips, which is a horrible idea because that isn’t good for me or my body.

So that night I was determined to have a filling breakfast and went grocery shopping after supper. I picked up lots of fruits and veggies, including some pineapple and mango. I had this idea of a pina colada inspired smoothie that day and was excited to try it. Happily, I wasn’t disappointed! The smoothie turned out divine and it is now one of my favorites, even my husband said that it was the best spinach smoothie he has ever tasted. 

As you can tell by the ingredient list it makes quite a lot, around 6-8 cups, depending on how big your pineapple is and yes you drink it all to yourself for breakfast. I know it seems like a lot but you need it, trust me. It lasted me all the way until 11:30 and I felt great, I was alert, I felt full and satisfied, which didn't happen the previous day. So if you ever are craving something tropical and are wanting a really filling breakfast this is the smoothie for you! 

Thanks for reading!
xoxo -N

Rawkin Cabbage Roll Wraps!

If you are someone who is just transitioning from cooked vegan to raw vegan diet, this is a recipe for you! Cabbage rolls are one of the most popular comfort food dishes out there and when making a lifestyle change like switching to a raw diet its nice to have meals that are a healthy reminder to what you used to eat. So what better meal that raw cabbage rolls? Cabbage rolls are my all time favorite meal, growing up my mom would make them for my birthday supper every year. I had no idea how these raw ones were going to turn out but I was really excited.

I do have to give my sister Ashley credit for this one guys, it was her idea and I am envious that I didn’t think of it first. We were going for supper at my moms house on Family Day and she was making cabbage rolls, vegan and regular for everyone. Ash and I were talking about eating all raw for a couple days we were sad that we couldn’t eat the vegan ones my mom made. That’s when she thought about making raw cabbage rolls. She had just bought her non pasteurized sauerkraut and was wanting to use it, and what better way than on cabbage rolls. She came up with the filling and thought we could roll them in zucchini slices. It was a good idea, but why not wrap them in raw cabbage leafs? They are cabbage rolls! So I guess I can claim 10% of this awesome idea. Yay!

I think this recipe is such a great example of how eating clean and raw can be fun and tasty. I honestly wouldn’t have thought about eating raw cabbage rolls before I turned vegan, and that’s what I love about this lifestyle, it makes you think about food in a whole new light. And even if you aren’t raw, or vegan, try this out, be adventurous in your meals because you never know what flavors you might find and love.

Rawkin Cabbage Roll Wraps! 

1 cabbage head, carefully peel off layers of cabbage so that they are whole and perfect for wrapping. 

3 cups Cauliflower, riced in food processor/Vitamix(Pulsed)- set aside.

Tomato Sauce:
1 red pepper
1 garlic clove
2-5 soaked sun-dried tomatoes
1/4 fresh lemon juice
1/4c raw tahini
a few sprigs of each parsley and oregano

Blend ingredients in blender. Pulse Blend.

Pour onto riced cauliflower and mix well.
Use as filling in your cabbage rolls, I put in two tablespoons of filling, some diced tomatoes and a little bit of unpasteurized sauerkraut. Wrap it like a cabbage roll and eat fresh. They can get a little messy, but they sure taste good!!! 

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