Drottningholm Palace

Drottningholm Palace

Raw Brownies

Raw Brownies

Ever since the famous juice fast, I have been dabbling in more raw foods.  This is my new go-to recipe when I need something sweet, yet healthy.  It's incredibly easy and very, very tasty.  Trust me.  I even got the children to eat it!


               1 cup ground pecans
               1 cup dates (not soaked)
               1/4 cup cocoa powder 
               1 tbs agave nectar (more or less to taste)




Process the ingredients and press into a pan or bowl.

I recommend refrigerating the pressed brownies for at least 15 minutes, if you can wait that long. 

This recipe should make 4 servings.  Enjoy!

Sunday Seitan

Seitan Cutlets

It's Sunday, so it must be seitan!  Actually, this versatile little item is good any day of the week.  We like to pronounce it "satan" because we think we're very funny, but it's actually "say-tahn."  We like to make sandwiches with the cutlets, but you can add it to anything from salads to spaghetti sauce.  This recipe was adapted from one on the very awesome vegweb.com:


1 cup vital wheat gluten
3 tbs nutritional yeast
1 tsp thyme
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tbs oil
1/2 cup water or vegetable stock


Mix gluten, nutritional yeast & thyme together in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix water or vegetable stock, soy sauce, and oil.  Note: The veg stock can make the seitan too salty for some.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir together making the ball of gluten. Knead for a few minutes. Dab any excess moisture from the gluten with a paper towel.

Form the gluten into a cylindrical shape. Press down and with a sharp knife, cut the gluten into thin strips. Oil a cookie sheet, and place the strips on the cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, then flip them over and bake for an additional 3-5 minutes.

Heroes' Square, Budapest

Brad in Heroes' Square in front of the Millennial Column.

Budapest Parliament Building on the Danube

Vegan Cuts

Jenni signed us up to get alerts from Vegan Cuts. They have some awesome deals on vegan  products and are a great resource if you live in an area where where vegan products are hard to come by. We've ordered Nacheez (Gluten Free and Soy-Free) Nacho Sauce, MuLondon Moisturizer, and Brownie Bites from Twin Cakes Bakery through them. Great brownies. 

Vegan Cuts is looking to partner with companies with Vegan products to sell. So, give them a shout if you have a product to sell. Shop Vegan!

Pasta salad

You can’t go wrong with pasta salad. I’ve been making this for the kids to take in their lunches, with varying degrees of success. But I like it. It’s an easy thing to knock together on a Sunday afternoon and tasty to eat cold. I don’t have any hard and fast rules for putting it together. But don’t forget to salt the water when you’re boiling your pasta.

Salad

1 lb Tri-Color Farfalle Pasta (or as much as you want to eat)

8 – 10 grape tomatoes quartered

½ cup chopped cucumber

½ cup kalamata olives chopped

1 cup handful of pine nuts toasted

¼ cup of parsley

2 tbs of fresh basil

¼ cup of feta cheese (optional)

Dressing

4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

7 tablespoons olive oil

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente. Combine the tomatoes, olives and cucumber in a bowl. When the pasta is cooked add it to the bowl, mix. Then add the dressing and sprinkle with pine nuts, parsley, basil and feta.

Mariefred - Sweden

Hummus

Whether you're looking to create an eye catching dip for entertaining, or you just need a quick easy snack; hummus is easy to make and good for you too. These days you can buy pre-packaged hummus from most supermarkets or get it fresh from your local deli. I think it’s worth the 10 minutes it takes to whip it up on your own. You can’t really make it incorrectly. I make ours with tahini, but you could use the reserved water from your chickpeas if you aren't a fan.

1 can of chick peas (garbanzo beans) drained

2 cloves of garlic

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup tahini

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

Combine the above ingredients in a food processor and blend until creamy. Sprinkle with paprika, parsley or basil, drizzle with olive oil and serve.

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

We recently watched the movie/documentary, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead in which Aussie filmmaker, Joe Cross documents his journey across the United States while performing a 60 day juice fast. The film was an inspiring demonstration of how you can heal the human body with fruits and vegetables, a seriously powerful juicer, and a healthy amount of resolve. Whether you want to reboot your body or rededicate yourself to eating healthy, it's worth watching. The movie resonated more with Jenni than with me, inspiring her to try a juice fast of her own. But you can't argue with Joe's results nor with the number of people he's inspired.

We picked up a Breville juicer like the one in the film, and Jenni used it to perform a three day 'Long Weekend Reboot.' She found it challenging and exhausting what with the kids running around and me doing my usual amount of weekend cooking. But she felt great after the third day and is going to try another one. 

The film is available on Netflix and Hulu.