Food, glorious food!

I admit, I never thought I would be one of those people who takes pictures of their food and blog about it, but then I again I never thought in a million years I would be vegan. So, hey!

Just want to make a post to you out there who (like me) was a bit scared of fancy-smancy recipes made by perfect chefs, beautiful people with awesome taste in design and mad skills in the art of blogging. Don't get me wrong; I adore these people, I follow your blogs and get inspired by you. But I am not as fantastic. I guess you can say I am on another level. Lower, but still I think my food is healthy and tastes good. (Or maybe it comes down to me being lazy? But I like fast food! Just need it to be healthy & cruelty-free ;)

So maybe you (the reader) feels scared of trying vegan? Maybe you think that you have to make everything from scratch, (that is fun by the way), but you don't have to! But when you do, it can be both fast and truly YUMMY!


So in an attempt to show how easy, tasty and fast making vegan food can be: Here are some examples of my own meals this week. 

TACO

I promise you, nothing is easier than this. And healthy! For this taco dinner I used max 15 minutes to prepare. I made my own basic salsa from a box of crushed tomatoes + coriander & Basel (spices). As cheese, I just sprinkled on some nutritional yeast. The only thing you need to do is to chop vegetables and open a can, warm the taco shells/fajitas/enchiladas wraps, and fry soy "meat" with some taco spices. It is REALLY simple, tastes great and it's cruelty-free!

(Norwegians: I used soy"kjøttdeig" fra Anamma, and bought it in a Rema 1000. You can also buy "dried" chunks of soy in SunKost. Nutritional yeast I got from iHerb.com )

Salad

Yeah, I used to think this was reeeally boring unless it had some meat in it. But after dropping meat I have also become a bit more adventurous. Love it!

For this easy & quickly made salad I used: Spinach, avocado, cherry tomatoes, thinly cut red onion, dried cranberries, pomegranate and some fine rice noodles. (Takes 1-2 min!) If one want to make it a bit more exciting you can add a little dash of balsamic oil (I didn't use this when I still had noodles left in my bowl). 

Sausages & something weird on the side!

Want "fast food"? You can still have sausages! There are several types of vegan sausages out there, so just find your favorite.

Here I wanted to have some vegetables I usually didn't use with sausages. So I choose to fry a whole plantain and fry (Malabar?) spinach and long beans with some garlic and chili. Just before I ate i drizzled some lime and sea salt on my plantains. 

Tasted great. I added to the strange experience by having some ketchup on my sausages. It was an unusual meal, but I enjoyed it even so!

(Norwegians: I bought the rice noodles in Meny, and the spinach, beans and plantain in a Asian shop on Grønland. REALLY cheap. I should have remembered to buy noodles there as well;)


Breakfast


I have eaten gluten-free bread, alpero yogurth and a wide variety of spreads. (I am testing things, see my other post here). Breakfast is the meal I usually looks forward to the most, I don't know why. Therefor I have been fuzzing about it quite some time. But till now I have mainly eaten bread and fruit for breakfast. I tried a smoothie one day, but that isn't enough for me. (Or I haven't found a good recipe yet). 



Snack

My favorite "snack" for the two last weeks have been "Virgin Pina Colada". That is very easy to make. I just take a bit over 1 cup of fresh cut pineapple, 1 cup of coconut milk, 3-4 icecubes and 1 spoon of agave syrup. Use a blender and have yourself two big glasses of pineapple-coconut-bliss!

When I used to say that vegan food must be really boring, dry and uninteresting. Shame on me, I take it back! 


But I had to try it to know it. 


I am still new and would love to get your best (easy) meals, please contact me with pictures and recipes-for-dummies! :) 

Let's bake something! (Paleo bread)

A week ago I talked with my mum on the phone and she talked about Paleo bread. I had never heard about the "Paleo diet", but I were trying not to eat so much wheat, so I became intrigued. After realizing there were NO flour involved in holding all these seeds together I first laughed and then felt a bit adventurous. OK, let's try that (sceeeptical)... But I was surprised! I got a elemental recipe from my mum, but later I have experienced a bit. This is my best Paleo recipe at the moment!

(Also great for Vegans!)

2 tbsp Psyllium powder 

1 1/2 cup /350 ml water

--

100 g sesame seeds
100 g sunflower seeds
100 g pumpkin seeds
100 g flax seeds
100 g walnuts
100 g (optional, you can add another great ingredient? What about hemp seeds?)
--
1-2 tsp sea salt (I use Maldon)
3 tbsp melted cold pressed coconut oil
(Optional: 1 handful raisins or you can add chocolate)

(If you use cup sizes: 100 g is about 1/2 heaping cup)


1. Preheat your oven to 175°C (or 350 Fahrenheit)

2. Mix the psyllium powder with the water in a bowl, stir and set aside for about 5 minutes. (It will get a thick gel consistency).

3. Measure all the seeds and nuts and put in a food processor and pulse two times. (Do not overdo it).

4. Put the hard coconut oil (it's hard) in a cup in the microwave. 

5. Put the coarsely cut seeds and nut in a bowl. Now add the coconut oil and salt. Stir. 

6. Add the gel looking psyllium to the mix and mix it all together with your hands. Yes, your hands, its fun and weird. Have a go!

7. Put the mix in a loaf pan (can be about 12 x 4,5 inches / 30 x 10 cm). I used a small bread form. I also used baking paper in it so I didn't have to worry about it sticking (or using oils). 

(I have heard you can set it aside for about 1 hour if you want to, but that is optional, and I decided to only let it rest for about 15-20 min. You can drop it all together though if you want! It is said that it tastes even better, but I was in a hurry ;) 

8. Put it in the preheated oven (in the middle) and bake for about 60-70 minutes. (If you want small buns you can divide them into about 11-12 pieces and bake them for about 40-45 minutes). 

9. Remove it from the oven and let it cool down (completely). I tried to remove it too early from the form and it started to widen (loose form), so I put it back and let it cool down in the form. When it was almost cold I took it out. If you cut it before it is cold the bread will fall apart. 

Here is some pictures if you are curious how it looks, consistency and how natural it looks! And the best part, it is YUMMY! 

Freeze: You can freeze the bread for up to 4 months. 

Psyllium mixed with water (it turns even more gel like)

All the ingredients are in the food processor 

Put the Psyllium gel and coconut oil in the bowl 

Work it together with your hands!

Give the loaf pan some baking paper clothes

Place it in the middle

Finished! Now cooling off completely !

Cold and awesome!

Bon apetite! It was great!