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Thursday, July 25, 2013

Quick Vegan Chocolate Pancakes with Banana Ice Cream

I came up with this recipe out at my dad's cabin this past weekend. Jen, Sean and the boys were out for the weekend with us and I wanted to make something special for breakfast on Sunday. I was talking to Jen and thought about making chocolate pancakes and wished I could make them for the boys that weekend. So I took a look in the cupboards and came across cocoa powder. It was like the chocolate gods were speaking to me saying PLEASE MAKE CHOCOLATE PANCAKES! I mean come on, why would there be just straight up cocoa powder at the lake? Then I looked in the freezer and saw that there was vanilla ice cream. Not the greatest thing to eat in the morning and its not vegan but why not, the kids were going to live a little. 

"Cue Bolt of Lighting" 
I have bananas.... I have a freezer.... I have my Vitamix.... I CAN MAKE BANANA ICE CREAM!!! Its vegan, healthy and the perfect topping for my chocolate pancakes! Needless to say I was super excited to make these bad boys!

The picture doesn't do them justice, I had like 1 minute before we started eating and Brody came out with me and asked about 50 questions while I was trying to capture a decent photo. But take my word for it, they were delicious, the boys had two each and I had four! Haha ya I really lived it up this weekend. What I loved most is that Brody asked for 4 servings of banana ice cream! Something I didn't have to worry about because its just bananas!

I used the Bisquick pancake mix, but if you make your from scratch that would work too!

Thanks for reading!!
xoxo -N 

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Low Fat Vegan Pad Thai, with Raw Vegan Option

I am a huge fan of Thai food. I love the spices, the creamy sauces, and the heat that comes with most meals. Also I love the fact that they tend to stay away from using meat in most dishes. They love using lentils, beans and vegetables to make up most of their dishes, something that I am very familiar with!

I have wanted to make a Pad Thai for a very long time, but never felt the drive to go for it. Knowing that the Pad Thai I used to eat was amazing, I was a little apprehensive on making a vegan version. But that all changed when I got a major craving for it and just had to make it for supper!

I have seen multiple recipes online for vegan and raw vegan versions and none really stuck with me. They all looked pretty but the ingredients didn’t really entice me to make them. So surprise, surprise I came up with my own! Wanting a challenge I really wanted to make this as low fat as possible. Knowing that anything with coconut milk, peanut butter and noodles tastes great. So I really thought about what was going into this dish and how I could substitute out the high fat things for low fat things!
The first to be subbed out were the noodles. I knew from the beginning that I was going to make mine with zucchini and skip the rice noodles. Not that they are bad for you, just that the zucchini noodles are a healthier choice! Next was the sauce. Traditionally Pad Thai sauce is made from oyster and fish sauce, two things that we vegans cannot eat! So what would give that taste?..... *light bulb* Nori papers! They have that fishy taste because they are made from seaweed and they would blend really nicely into a sauce without changing the texture. Now to give the sauce some substance! I wanted to go for a creamy version of Pad Thai and skip out on the Worcestershire Sauce, Soy Sauce and anything else high in salt and unknown ingredients. Well why not use another zucchini? That would make it creamy without having to add any non-dairy milk.

Results? Fantastic! It had a great nutty flavour, with a hint of spice right at the end from the red pepper flakes. But what is really awesome about this dish is that it can be raw too! So you now have the option of having a raw dish or a cooked one. Two for one here folks!
Low Fat Vegan Pad Thai
-       1 medium zucchini, spagettified with a mandolin or spiralizer
-       2 carrots, shredded
-       2 cups bean sprouts
-       1 cups broccoli, chopped
-       2 green onions, chopped
-       crushed unsalted peanuts
-       lime juice, garnish

Pad Thai Sauce
-       2 limes, juiced
-       1 nori paper
-       1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
-       2 tbsp peanut butter
-       1 clove garlic
-       1 small zucchini
-       2 tsp Red pepper flakes

Place all ingredients into a blender and puree until smooth.

In a large skillet steam the carrots, broccoli and onions with a little water until almost fork tender (about 7-10 mins) toss in the zucchini, sprouts and sauce and cook for another 10 minutes. Add crushed peanuts and lime. Enjoy!

Raw version!
Don’t cook any of it! Use your favourite raw nut butter and raw nori paper in the sauce. Toss all ingredients together and enjoy!!

Thanks for reading!
xoxo -N

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Ultimate Spicy Vegan Mac n' Cheese


Sunday was Devon’s (my hubby) birthday! He was away on a stag so we didn’t get to really celebrate, so we decided to do something on Monday night instead! I asked him what he wanted for supper and he wasn’t really that enthused about deciding, so I just let him mull it over for the morning. On lunch I was talking to him on the phone and saw a recipe for Mac and Cheese... well that’s a great idea!

He was down for the idea of an ultimate mac n’ cheese and I was up for the challenge. The challenge of making him something that I am unable to taste and also the challenge of making an ultimate vegan version! I can’t vouch for his version but he said it was awesome (he did go back for seconds!) but I can tell you that mine was the ULTAMITE VEGAN DISH EVER! I am pretty sure I yelled I LOVE THIS about ten times throughout the meal.
What I really love about this dish is that it is half of the calories and fat of what my husband’s was!!  Why yes I did say half! Can you believe that this whole dish is only around 700 calories and 15g of fat? As opposed to 1500 calories and 75g of fat, that Devon’s dish contained. So when you break it down and share this with someone (well, maybe share) your portion is only 450 calories and 7g of fat. I really hope you were sitting down for that one! It was a huge shocker to me too.

What is the secret you ask? Well I guess I can share that timbit of information with you, seeing as I really want you to try this....it’s a sweet potato! Crazy as it sounds it is a really great addition to this tradition dish. It has a creamy texture, rich taste, and a bright orange color that really adds a fun twist. Also substituting out the pasta for zucchini noodles definitely helps in reducing in unnecessary calories plus zucchini is much easier for your body to digest!
The dish really came together, especially with its kick of spice right at the end that literally had me going back for more (I had thirds, I won’t lie).  If you are not a huge fan of spicy food then just cut back on the jalapeno and Franks, or omit the Franks all together. 


Ultimate Spicy Vegan Mac n' Cheese
Severs 2 people (or one person if you are like me and eat the whole thing in one sitting!)

1 large sweet potato
½ cup rice milk
¼ cup nutritional yeast
½ cup Mozzarella Daiya
½ jalapeno, diced
½ tsp garlic salt
1 tbsp Franks Buffalo Sauce
1 medium zucchini

-Bake the sweet potato in the oven at 400 degrees until fork tender (around 45 mins).
-Peel the skin off the potato and dice into chunks (watch out its fricken hot!) and place into a medium bowl, add milk and mash until smooth.
-Stir in nutritional yeast, jalapeno, Franks Buffalo Sauce and Daiya until well combined.
-Using a vegetable mandolin, vegetable peeler or spiralizer make zucchini noodles.
-In a casserole dish combine the cheesy sauce and noodles, top with nutritional yeast and a little more Daiya!
-Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
-Serve and devour! 

Thanks for reading!
xoxo -N

Sunday, July 14, 2013

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

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Family Photo Quilt

It has been way to long since I posted something fabric for my food & fabric blog. I feel like I have been letting you all down! I guess I have been too busy in the kitchen to take time and sit down in my sewing room! Well the wait is over and she is a pretty one!

I was asked by my friend Janelle to make a photo quilt for her mothers birthday and I jumped at the chance to do this for her. I have never made a photo quilt before so I got straight away at figuring out a design I liked. I looked online for inspiration (finding not too many I actually liked) and came up with this simple yet, beautiful design. 

I decided to use 4 Fig Tree Charm Packs for the main fabric in my quilt. Janelles mom loves pastels and I instantly thought that she would love the beautiful colors that Fig Tree has to offer. Luckily they are my favorite fabric designers so I had a couple on hand already to get me started. Also I had another woman in town do the photos for me. I could have done them on my printer but I knew that the quality wouldn't be as good and I didn't have any ink in mine. I had around 25 pictures done for only $52! 


And for those of you who know me, there is no surprise that I left this to the last minute and had to power my way through this to get it done on time. I even had to call my long arm quilter and friend, Wendy to sweet talk her into doing this within two days so I had time to bind it. Luckily she was up for the challenge of custom quilting it and had it done in a day! Props to Wendy on her amazing job!! 

I love quilting, the designing, picking out fabric and seeing the finished product is all such a joy for me. Just as much as finding out the person you made it for, loves it just as much as you do. Janelles's mom loved it, and her dad even suggested that he would like one as well! So maybe this won't be the only photo quilt I make! 


Thanks for reading!
xoxo -N

Friday, July 5, 2013

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

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Easy Vegan Black Bean Dip

Are you looking for a simple appetizer to take to your next party? Try this easy vegan black bean dip!

My sister in law Brittany brought this to a Mexican TGIF party this past week and I was so thankful that she did. I hadn’t eaten much before we went thinking that there was going to be a lot of guacamole and salsa but sadly I was wrong. There was some quac and veggies but that was it (well for food that I could eat) so when Brit showed up with this amazing dish, I almost took it all for myself, hording it in the corner with the blue corn chips. But I thought I would be nice and share with everyone so they could taste how amazing the dip was.

What I really love about it is that it is super simple to make, just toss into a blender and puree! I know the color isn't the greatest but really what can you expect from a bean dip other than the awesomely brown color! 


Quick and easy Vegan Bean Dip
1 can organic black beans
1 jar of organic salsa
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 handful cilantro 
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
1 lemon juiced

Blend in a high speed blender or food processor until smooth. It can be served hot or cold and paired with tortilla chips or fresh veggies! 


This is for sure going to be one of my go-to recipes when I am in a bind and need to bring something to a party. Thanks Brittany!


Side note** Brittany didn't put in the nutritional yeast or the chili powder in to her dip, so if you don't have those things on hand I can guarantee that it still tastes amazing!

Thanks for reading
xoxo -N