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Tag Archives: vegan recipes
Amazing Red Quinoa Lacinato Kale Salad
I know, I know, I’ve been M.I.A. Did you miss me? I spent the last two months making a movie and I am tired and in need of a serious detox to say the least. The past week has been dedicated to getting my body back to one. I am also getting ready to do a gangsta beginning of the year parasite cleanse, which I am developing to share with all of you who need a concrete plan that works. So stay tuned. Yesterday’s lunch following a very awesome Yoga Sculpt class (which combines vinyasa flow, weight training, and cardio), was my favorite complete protein, quinoa. Photo and ingredients of the delicious salad below. For those who have kept reading in my absence…just in time for Valentine’s Day I would like to say, I heart you very much. -XoXo Raw Girl
Ingredients
Red Quinoa (sauteed w/ mushrooms)
1 bunch Lacinato Kale
1 bunch Green Kale
Dried cranberries
Raw almonds
1 ripe Avocado
Wedge of lemon, extra virgina olive oil, sea salt, Braggs Liquid Aminos
Tahini dressing (optional)
Cook red quinoa. I seasoned with onions, sauteed mushrooms & Braggs Liquid Aminos. Chop up Kale and wash thoroughly put in big salad bowl. Add in around four capfuls of olive oil, squeeze two wedges of lemon and add Braggs and/or a pinch or two of sea salt to taste. Massage kale with hands until seasoning is worked in. Toss in almonds and cranberries. You can serve quinoa on side or in the salad. Cut avocado and top salad with avocado slices. Serve and enjoy!
Recipe: The Most Bangin’ Vegan Spinach Quiche EVER
Okay so the title for this post may seem a little too boastful, but seriously this quiche tasted like a slice of HEAVEN. Made it for Christmas, for my mother who wanted to have some sort of spinach pie. I looked up a few different recipes and improvised the one below, and I must say, when I finished I was pretty darn pleased with my Vegan Rachel Ray skills. The best part about this vegan quiche is that it actually tastes “cheesy” !
If you are vegan or raw, you know that strange longing sometimes to have something that really gives the same euphoric feeling that cheese used to give, sans the chemicals, hormones, and damaging preservatives. Well, the secret ingredient to this quiche is actually tofu. I’m not a regular tofu eater, but I can handle it in small amounts occasionally. For this quiche, the tofu is not only worth it but absolutely necessary. Important thing to note is that the tofu you must buy to make this recipe work is the packaged tofu that is NOT refrigerated. Firm works best, but even if you accidentally get extra firm it’ll still work. I also added king mushrooms which was a great choice and made it more “meaty”, and used a spelt crust rather than whole wheat. Spelt seems to have a bit less gluten and therefore does not bother me as much. It also pairs well with the spinach. We really enjoyed our Christmas dinner, and I was proud of myself for giving my mother more evidence that she can still make the things she loves to eat sans meat and dairy. Try it for yourself and let me know what you think! Best part about it, took very little time to prepare. -XoXo Raw Girl
2 16 oz Bags of frozen Organic Spinach
1 package King Mushrooms (as much as you prefer)
Red Onion
Spices: 1 teaspoon Curry, 1 teaspoon Sea Salt, Dash of Red Pepper or Cayenne, Braggs Liquid Aminos to taste
1 Package of Firm Tofu (packaged but not refridgerated)
2 Spelt Crusts
Place crusts in oven and set somewhere around 375 – 425 degrees. While crusts are thawing in oven, sautee spinach with onions, and mushrooms. At some point remember to check on your crusts and poke holes in them with a fork. Add Braggs Liquid Aminos for flavor, and Cayenne or Red Pepper. I used my mother’s special red pepper from Nigeria that is ridiculously awesome but sorry, you can’t find it in the grocery store. In the blender put in your package of tofu, add 1 heaping teaspoon curry (gives it the yellow color like eggs) and 1 teaspoon sea salt. Blend tofu untilsmooth. Don’t add any liquid just work it with a spoon or blender accessory that allows you to work it all in until creamy. In a large bowl mix the spinach and tofu together. The filling is done! Take your crusts out of the oven. Fill one crust with the spinach mixture. Now, what I did next is take the remaining crust carefully trying NOT to break it (it will still be somewhat soft and place it on top of the quiche. Then stick in the oven and back until crusts are cooked and brown. Let it cool for fifteen to twenty minutes at least. Serve & enjoy the BEST VEGAN QUICHE EVER!
My Big Fat Vegan Thanksgiving: Stuffed Bell Peppers
Hope you all had a wonderful holiday. It was an interesting Thanksgiving this year for many reasons, one being there was no turkey on our table!! When you go from eating meat to eating veg it can be a little unsettling and you may feel like you don’t know how to cook anything you used to eat. Good news is, it’s really not that complicated. I got in the kitchen to help my mom and show her that is it possible to make somethings you made before, but with some substitutions in place of the meat products. We ended up working with her idea to make stuffed bell peppers which were incredible, cooked collard greens, raw collard greens with a cilantro avocado dressing (I made mine raw), cranberry sauce, and Haitian sweet potatoes. Let me tell you something, if you have never had a Hawaiian (purple on inside) or Haitian sweet potato you are missing out! If you all are interested and haven’t had enough of my many ways to eat an avocado I can post the avocado cilantro dressing next week.
I went light on my usual industrious dessert making this year because the week prior I made coconut macaroons, and then the avocado key lime pie. So I just made a vegan blueberry pie with a spelt crust. Below is the recipe for the stuffed bell peppers. The recipe is kind of vague because I totally improvised it, but you’ll get the gist. We had leftover black beans in the fridge so I mixed that in with the quinoa and added mushrooms and onions and stuffed it all in the pepper. A-MAZING. They are really festive and add to the holiday spirit if you buy various colors as well. What’s the best part about a big fat Vegan Thanksgiving? Your chances of actually getting fat or gaining those usual holiday pounds are slim to none. We all finished the meal and were full, satisfied, with waistlines still in tact, and had some yummy leftovers for the next day. -XoXo Raw Girl
Bell Peppers Stuffed w/ Quinoa & Black Beans
Ingredients:
Various Colored Bell Peppers (organic preferred)
quinoa
black beans
red onion
mushrooms
tomatoes
garlic
Spices: cumin, sea salt
Soak black beans overnight and cook them in whatever method you prefer. We cooked them using a slow cooker and then sautéed them with mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, garlic, cumin, and sea salt. Also cook quinoa in separate pot. Mix the mushroom black bean mix with the quinoa, and add additional spices as needed. Wash the bell peppers and cut them into little containers by keeping a ‘lid’ with the stem attached.
Remove the white parts from the inside carefully with a knife and then scoop in the quinoa mixture until the pepper is full to the brim. Place the bell pepper lid back on. Wrap each pepper with its lid, in foil, and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes or eat the pepper raw, whichever you prefer. Remove from oven, serve and enjoy!
Recipe: Raw Coconut Vanilla Macaroons
Remember when I told you made two desserts at once the other day when I made the key lime pie? Well here’s the second one. Below is a recipe for coconut vanilla macaroons and a short video. There are many variations of this recipe you can find out there but the ingredients pretty much stay the same. Feel free to adjust the ingredients to suit your taste buds and also add in other ingredients you make like. For instance if you love lemon, squeeze in some lemon juice and grate lemon zest for a lemon-y tasting macaroon. I love chocolate so I’m going to have to try making some chocolate dipped macaroons in the near future. You can also make completely chocolate macaroons by adding cacao powder. If you have a dehydrator, that works best. If you don’t, I have seen recipes that recommend refrigerating the macaroons until they get hard, so you can try that. My goal was to have some great how-to-videos, but ho-hum, my super cool HD Flip camera broke! Not happy about that at all, but perhaps Raw Vegan Santa will bring a better camera my way soon. -XoXo Raw Girl
Coconut Vanilla Macaroons
4 cups shredded coconut
1.5-2 cups almond flour
1 cup agave or grade B maple syrup
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Use small ice cream scoop or your hands to form into small balls. Place on dehydrator trays and dehydrate for around 8-12 hours max at 105. Enjoy!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jp9dvaJfbM&feature=youtu.be]
Raw Recipe: Avocado Lime Pudding
Raw Girl here, and yes it is still avocado week! 🙂 This past weekend I experimented with making a pudding that still had some nutrition in it. It’s almost like a yogurt as well. I enlisted some guinea pigs to taste test it and we all loved it. Can be breakfast or dessert. I like the combination of avocado and lime, so I’m cooking up some additional dessert ideas coming soon. Hope you try it, enjoy! -XoXo Raw Girl
Ingredients:
1/2 FloridaAvocado (the huge ones) or 1.5-2 Haas Avocados
1 1/2 cups diced fresh pineapple
5 frozen strawberries
3 Pitted Dates
1 handful of spinach
1 Teaspoon Spirulina (optional)
1/2 -3/4 of a Lime Squeezed (Squeeze whole lime if you want it really sour)
To prepare put all ingredients in the blender. Add in a very small amount, maybe 1/4 cup of water and blend. If it’s too tough add a little more, but don’t go overboard with water or else it won’t be pudding, it’ll be a smoothie. Once everything is blended together, immediately pour into bowls and serve! Makes enough pudding for two.
Juice! Sandy’s Cilantro Detox and Benefits of Cilantro
Sandy’s Cilantro Detox
1 Bunch Green Kale Leaves (5-7 Leaves)
1 head of Celery
1 or 2 Limes
handful cilantro
handful parsley
1 apple (optional)
Juice, strain, serve. Enjoy! 🙂
To pay homage to the unfortunate Hurricane headed for the East Coast as I wrote and scheduled this post last week, I’ve named today’s juice Sandy’s Cilantro Detox. Cilantro also known as coriander is a lovely addition to a juice or smoothie. Full of antioxidants this herb also has a nice amount of vitamins and minerals including vitamin A, C,E, B6, K, phosphorous, iron, zinc, magnesium, potassium, manganese. The iron and magnesium make cilantro great for fighting anemia. Ladies! Take note, adding cilantro into your diet once a month prior to the onset of PMS may be beneficial because it can relieve menstrual cramps and reduce hormonal mood swings of the condition I like to call Vegan Bi&% Syndrome. In addition to this, along with aged garlic and chlorella, cilantro is great at removing heavy metals from your body like mercury, aluminum, and lead. Incorporating cilantro in your diet will also natural remove accumulated pesticides from your body as well. Other benefits include reducing cholesterol, aiding production of digestive enzymes, promoting liver function, disinfecting and detoxifying the body, relieving arthritis, reducing nausea, lowering blood pressure, reducing cellulite, lowering blood sugar, and being an effective natural fighter of salmonella. Keeping all of these awesome benefits in mind, you may not want to reserve cilantro only for your salsa. Toss it in your juice, smoothie, or salad for a fresh green taste with great nutritional benefits to boot. -XoXo Raw Girl
Juice! Lemon Asparagus Flusher & Benefits of the Aphrodisiac Asparagus
Got a little creative with the juice this morning. Had some asparagus and thought I’d throw it in my juice, and discovered afterwards that asparagus is great for detoxifying the body. Decided to make the juice with no apple, but it still had a refreshing mild taste and the lemon makes it more palatable.
Strangely enough this veggie is a member of the lily family. Due to its suggestive shape, it’s considered an aphrodisiac which can get you, um, a little excited to say the least as it increases libido. For all the grown folks check out my past post on raw aphrodisiacs if your naughty and want to eat something sexy. Besides its potential ability to leave you a little aroused, asparagus contain vitamin C, vitamin A (betacarotene), iron, potassium, manganese, selenium, fiber, protein, antioxidants, and is a particularly potent source of vitamin K which is necessary for the synthesis of a protein that strengthens your bone composition.
What makes asparagus great for detox is the fact that it is a natural diuretic, which means it promotes the formation of urine in the kidneys and helps to flush the body out. I combined this juice with cucumber and celery and lemon, which are all great additions that make this juice a great addition to a detox plan, or just on a regular day when your feeling up to it. Asparagus also has a high amount of folate which is essential for pre-conception and early stages of pregnancy and can help to prevent birth defects, and contains inulin a compound that aids digestion and provides food for good bacteria in the body. Below is a nice summary of some additional benefits and the recipe for the juice. If you’re detoxing, need a boost to dull or acne prone skin, or juice want to try something new, I recommend juicing some asparagus. You can also of course eat asparagus steamed or raw. Whatever way you choose, I’m sure you’ll bring your sexy back, the veg way. -XoXo Raw Girl
Additional Benefits of Asparagus:
- Improves mood, fights depression
- Lowers cholesterol
- Stimulates milk production in nursing mothers
- Cleanses the body & aids in detoxification
- Prevents kidney stones
- Lowers blood pressure
- Stimulates hair growth (good superfood for hair loss)
- Prevents osteoporosis
- Reduces risk of heart disease
- Energizes and helps with chronic fatigue
Lemon Asparagus Flusher
1 Lemon
7-9 stalks of Asparagus
1 whole head of celery
1 Long English Cucumber or 1 Regular Cucumbers
Juice all ingredients, strain, serve, enjoy! 🙂
Vegan Dish: Stuffed Zucchini w/ Brown Rice & Veggies
So, I decided to make a vegan dish tonight while eating with the fam. Haven’t had brown rice in a few months, but I’ll live. Too much of it, makes me feel not so great, but little amounts I can handle. I tend to fluctuate between periods of all raw, and then I have cooked things like brown rice, quinoa, and steamed plantains that I love to incorporate every once in a while. I also really wanted to make something yummy to possibly encourage my father to get back on the veg bandwagon. My mothers stayed on as far as I know, but I hear he’s fallen way off since their 40 Day vegan fast. Anyhow, I was toying with doing stuffed bell peppers or zucchini, and stuck with the latter because I have so much from the garden right now. Below is the recipe. Remember that you can modify this any way you like to suit your taste buds. You can make a veggie version w/ no brown rice, or a version with quinoa, which is probably equally as delicious. You can even make a vegan version that includes daiya cheese (vegan cheese) as a topping. When I cook food, I choose to not cook things very long, because I don’t believe in zapping every last ounce of life force from my food, but you can modify the cooking times to suit your preference.
Ingredients:
Cooked brown rice
1-2 Zuchinni
red or green bell pepper
red onion
tomatoes
garlic (diced)
broccoli
Seasonings: Braggs, black pepper, curry powder, pinch of sea salt
Heat oven at 350 degrees. Cut your zucchini in half and scoop/cut out insides without breaking the skin. You can use a spoon and/or knife. Place on a baking pan or foil that has been drizzled with olive oil. Dice up veggies: broccoli, garlic, bell pepper, red onion, and insides of zucchini. Rinse thoroughly, and add all veggies to a wok or frying pan. Add pinch of sea salt, two dashes of yellow curry, black pepper to taste, and generous amount of Braggs. Cover and let veggies cook/steam for a few minutes then add in brown rice. Heat until rice mixture is warm. Use a spoon to scoop rice mixture into zucchini halves. Place zucchini in oven and let back for 15-25 minutes, depending on your preference. Serve & enjoy!!! 🙂
Benefits of Romaine & Juice! Romaine Cucumber Mint Lime Twist
Lately I’ve had a lot of romaine lettuce stocked up that I have been putting to use in creative ways. I love to juice it, toss it with other greens in a salad, use it for lettuce wraps, or blend it in a green smoothie. When you think of romaine you may automatically assume it doesn’t have much nutrition to offer because it doesn’t have the deep green coloring of other super greens like kale. Do not be deceived, romaine lettuce actually does have some great nutritional benefits! Not only does romaine consist of 17% protein, it is a complete protein and contains all 8 essential amino acids! It also has 21% of your recommended daily allowance of calcium. Add it to a green smoothie with papaya, another calcium rich fruit and you’ll have a smoothie with way more calcium than in a glass of milk. Romaine also has 167% the daily recommended value of vitamin C. My favorite nutritional benefit of romaine that I never knew until now is that it has around 44% the daily allowance of omega-3 fatty acids which are crucial to our balancing our diets that tend to be high in omega-6’s, minimizing stress, and preventing inflammation related diseases. In addition to all this, throw in super servings of vitamin A & K, and minerals like magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, potassium, selenium, and zinc. Every veggie has its place, and romaine is definitely not a green vegetable to discard as useless. If you’ve relegated your romaine to wimpy salads or ignored it all together, I challenge you to give it another chance. It’s high water content also makes it a nice hydrating addition to juices and smoothies as a base. Below is a recipe for the juice I had this morning, you’ll find a few more juices I’ve put together in the past with romaine as a main ingredient in the blog archives. Happy Juicing!
Romaine Cucumber Mint Lime Twist
Ingredients: 1 head of Romaine Lettuce, 1 large cucumber, 2 limes, handful of mint, 1 apple.
Juice all ingredients, strain and pour into blender. Blend juice with mint leaves, and serve. Enjoy! 🙂
Callers & Email Questions Needed for Radio Show ASAP!
Dearest Veggie Lovers, I am back on the air. My radio show Healthy Living in a Toxic World will begin airing all over Northern Virginia in September via WKCW 1420 AM. You can learn more in the new tab on the sidebar of the blog. Right now I am looking for people willing to call in and ask health questions (you will be on-air) or email questions that I can use for the shows. Many of you have emailed me questions, and I may contact you directly to get your permission to feature the questions and answer in the show. If you are interested in being a caller or want to email a question for the radio show please email rawgirltoxicworld@gmail.com by this Friday latest! So appreciate your contribution to the show, can’t wait to share it with you. -XoXo Raw Girl
Quick Meal-on-the-Go: Raw & Vegan Lettuce Wraps!
Last week I had a bunch of romaine lettuce left in my fridge along with tons of zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc from the garden. Rather than juice all of it, I chose to make some yummy lettuce wraps. These are an awesome, quick n’ easy to make meal that can be very satisfying. Below are my versions, one is raw, and the other vegan (has cooked lentils in it). Whatever versions you choose, have fun with it, and get creative with your veggie choices! -XoXo Raw Girl
Ingredients: Romain Lettuce, Zucchini, Avocado, Tomato, Cucumber, Green Pepper, Rosted Nori Krinkles.
Wash all veggies thoroughly. Use a grater and grate zucchini into a bowl. Dice cucumber, green pepper, and tomatoes and add to bowl. Add a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil, dash of Braggs Liquid Aminos, dash of curry, and a pinch of sea salt (optional). Use fork to mix together. Grab one head of romaine lettuce and chop off bottom. Wash leaves and choose some that are the right size to suit your tastes. Tip: If you peel back a couple layers you’ll get smaller leaves that hold your filling better. Place your chosen lettuce leaves on your serving plate and scoop in filling. Chop avocado and add on top, and sprinkle roasted seaweed or nori krinkles as a final touch. Serve & Enjoy!
Ingredients: Romain Lettuce, Lentils, Zucchini, Tomato, Red Pepper, Lime.
Cook regular lentils or red lentils, whichever you prefer. To make 100% raw use sprouted lentils. Add in sea salt to taste. Dice raw zucchini, tomato, red pepper and season with dash of Braggs and a pinch of black pepper. Mix thoroughly, then stir into lentils. Cut a small lime in half and squeeze over blend. Grab one head of romaine lettuce and chop off bottom. Wash leaves and choose some that are the right size to suit your tastes. Tip: If you peel back a couple layers you’ll get smaller leaves that hold your filling better. Place your chosen lettuce leaves on your serving plate and scoop in filling. Serve & Enjoy!