I haven’t updated in a while. To be honest, physically I have been *exhausted* and my meals have been super simple. I’ve been eating tons of watermelon ( I really do mean it. I ate a 6 kilo watermelon in 2 days recently!), gluten-free pizzas, homegrown sunflower sprouts, tahini+stevia+carob on rice cakes, raw fruit sorbets, etc. Things that are quick, easy and tasty are what I am about now. There are so many recipes that I want to try out and I would love to spend hours in the kitchen doing it but my body is rebelling against that. I suppose that with less than two weeks until the baby comes, I need to rest when I need to rest and that is that!
I did, however, whip up these super easy, super delicious and (in my book) super healthy cookies from Sketch Free Eating. These cookies are the bomb! They are filled with high quality ingredients like buckwheat flour, chickpea flour, honey tahini and flax. And the recipe is so versatile! For example, the recipe calls for honey but I wanted my husband to be able to enjoy them as well, so I substituted the same amount of xylitol and added some quinoa milk I had on hand to thin out the batter a bit. I also love the fact that with the chickpea flour, they are quite high in protein.
Find the recipe at the website: Fudgy Socca Carob Cookies.
Last weekend, we went out to the river again and had a lovely day. We went to a more remote part, which meant that we had the entire place to ourselves! The pools weren’t quite as deep as the more popular (i.e. filled to the brim) spots, but they were more than sufficient to totally immerse yourself in the cold, clear water!
I basically spent the whole day laying in this! I only got out to have a beautiful lunch of some tortilla de patata, gazpacho and pimientos de padrón. All made by a friend who must love me very much 🙂
me getting my Vitamin D!
I hope your week has been great so far! I am looking forward to a lazy afternoon and a ginormous salad!
My weekend was great. We had a super-relaxing weekend, and also spent a lot of time organizing and cleaning our space. Yesterday afternoon, we finally made it out to swim in the river again! It was so refreshing and relaxing to do on a lazy Sunday. It also made me realize that I need to have more faith that things will always work out as they should. No matter how many times the universe tries to teach me this lesson, I still haven’t learned (yet!)
I think maybe it was having such intimate contact with the Earth yesterday, but I woke up this morning feeling super groggy. I didn’t really want to have coffee, so I made this drink that I also had on Saturday afternoon when I felt my energy flagging a bit. I don’t want to call it a coffee substitute, as it is what it is in its own right, but it does share a similar flavor profile. Whatever you want to think of it as, give it a try when you need a pick-me-up!
Energizing Superfood Elixir
Ingredients
- 2 cups nut milk (I used a combination of pumpkin seed, cashew and sesame- amazing!)
- 1 tbsp. coconut oil
- 1 tsp. he shou wou extract powder
- 1 tbsp. chaga powder
- 1 tbsp. lucuma powder
- 2 tbsp. carob powder
- 2 tsp. maca powder
- 1 dropperful English Toffee stevia (raw honey would also be incredible in this- I would use 1-2 tbsp.)
Blend it up and enjoy! Serves 2.
Elixir Energetico con Superalimentos
Ingredientes
- 2 tazas leche de frutos secos (Yo usé una combinación de sesamo, anacardo y semillas de calabaza- salió rico rico!)
- 1 cucharada aceite de coco
- 1 cucharadita extracto en polvo de he shou wou
- 1 cucharada chaga
- 1 cucharada lucuma
- 2 cucharaditas maca
- 2 cucharadas algarroba
- 20 gotas estevia líquido English Toffee (o bien miel cruda- 1 a 2 cucharadas al gusto)
Batir y disfrutar! Sirve 2
Here we are again, at the start of another week! My weekend was tiring but nice. On Saturday, we decided to venture into the city and have lunch. It ended up taking much longer to get in than planned, but we made it and decided to go to one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants in Madrid, Yerbabuena. If you are ever here, I recommend it as they have much more imaginative cuisine than most other veggie places here.
To start, I had corn tortillas stuffed with veggies, guacamole, pico de gallo and nut cheese. Then, I had an enormous salad with endive, lettuce, seaweed, sprouts, avocado and more! For dessert, I had a delicious mint sorbet. The hubby had a salad to start, with black rice, tofu, avocado, sprouts, and so much more, and a creamy pea risotto for his main. I don’t have any pictures because we were sooo hungry and way too excited to tuck in!!
Anyway, today so far I have had:
a breakfast parfait of vanilla-cashew chia pudding + apricots, peaches and nectarines mixed with a bit of lucuma, hemp protein powder and cinnamon.
For lunch, I had a big plate of sliced cucumbers, rocket and lettuce with a simple pumpkin seed and garlic cream, raw burgers from this recipe at the Sunny Raw Kitchen, my sprouted falafels and a simple zucchini/flax wrap (in recipe index if you are interested!) Those burgers are delicious, and next time I will absolutely use the jalapeño, I just didn’t have any on hand this time 🙁
I worked for a bit on my yoga projects, then decided I needed something sweet. We aren’t fully stocked up on chocolate making supplies at the moment, so I winged it with this coconut oil+carob powder+goji berries+raisins+pumpkin seeds+buckwheaties+xylitol creation. Simply mixed everything together in a bowl, poured into some silicon cupcake cases and put in the freezer to set. Took all of 5 minutes from start to finish. Talk about instant gratification! I may or may not have had more than my fair share 😉
I had these with a green/nettle tea.
Today, the husband came home with some non-GMO corn pasta, so I am going to make that for dinner with a bit of tofu, broccoli greens, carrots, zucchini and garlic in a coconut-curry sauce.
With some watermelon sorbet for afters.
So, that is a day in the kitchen of this high-raw vegan, pregnant lady!
…superfoods, that is!
I wouldn’t say that I am one of those people obsessed with superfoods, making elixirs that end up costing something outrageous like 20 dollars per blenderful. But on the other hand, I do think that they have their place in a conscious diet.
Ideally, it would be amazing to get all of our nutrients and trace minerals from the produce that we eat, but we have to be realistic about the fact that our soil is seriously depleted of these necessary trace elements (yes, even in organic food!)
Another objection that people generally have to superfoods, and one that I understand and struggle with myself is the whole local foods being ideal vs. superfoods being sourced from across the globe. Again, I think it is always best to balance idealism with a balance of pragmatism. Absolutely, each geographic area on this planet has it’s own indigenous superfoods and it is not explicitly necessary to eat suma from Brazil, ashwaganda from India, goji berries from China, mesquite from Arizona and chaga from Russia if a person lives in Western Europe, for example. Living in Spain, there is an ABUNDANCE of wild edibles and herbals, which to me should be considered superfoods. My husband and I routinely collect nettles, purslane, chicory, rosemary, lavender, pine pollen and more, depending on the season of course!
On the flip side of that, we DO live in a global society, however much we may dislike that fact. That does have it’s advantages. I absolutely adore the flavors of Thai food, and some of those ingredients are simply not local to me. Does that mean that I shouldn’t enjoy it? Of course not! I think the same is true for superfoods, when they are sourced as ethically and sustainably as possible. I truly believe that the world IS facing some massive structural changes, and that we will in our lifetimes undergo radical changes to our lifestyle, necessarily resulting in a return to more local economies. But for the moment, I think that we have been given a special gift in that we are able to pick and choose the most nutrient-dense and delicious foods from all over the globe.
Anyway, my point in all of this (after much rambling!) is simply that recently, I have had an intense craving for the very first superfoods that I was introduced to years ago, but which have fallen into disuse in my kitchen- goji berries and maca. Maybe it has something to do with my body craving specific nutrients, or maybe not, but all I know is that I HAD to have them!
So, I whipped a few things up! These are what I am calling
Local vs. Global Superfood Truffle Balls
These balls are not especially sweet, so if you have a massive sweet tooth or are accustomed to sugary foods, then I would suggest adding in 2 tbsp. local honey or agave syrup.
- 1 cup walnuts and 1 c hazelnuts ( or 2 cups whatever nuts are local to you- these are local to me)
- 1 cup dried figs (or another dried fruit that is local to you)
- 1/2 cup goji berries
- 2 tbsp. carob powder (carob happens to be grown in Spain- if mesquite is more local to you, use that!)
- 2 tbsp. cacao powder
- 2 tbsp. maca powder
- 1 tsp. crystal manna powder
- pinch salt
- 1/3 cup cacao butter, melted
- 1/4 cup xylitol, for rolling balls in
Process nuts and dried fruit, then add everything else minus the cacao butter to the food processor and process again until fully incorporated. It will still be quite crumbly. Add cacao butter and process once more. Roll into balls with your hands, and then roll in xylitol to finish.
Ingredients assembled:
Look at those gorgeous figs from the Alpujarran mountains:
Finished product:
Another recipe I made with the maca is my
Super Curry Macamole
- 1 large ripe avocado
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 tbsp. bee pollen
- 1/4 tsp. crystal manna
- 1/2-1 tbsp. maca powder
- 1/2-1 tbsp. curry powder
Mush everything together in a bowl and enjoy!
I loved this on some red pepper flax crackers I made:
That is it for now! I have to go pack for this weekend, as I am going on a retreat for the end of my Kundalini Yoga teacher training. We are going to be learning about Ayurvedic cooking among other things, so hopefully I will be able to come back with some new inspiration on Monday! I made the truffles to take along, so hopefully they will be well received 🙂
Thanks for reading!
xx