Summer Salad

A nice, yummy salad you can make when you've got lots of fresh veggies in the fridge.

summer salad; season to your liking

Summer Salad

Tomato

Cucumber (I used Lebanese)

Sunflower sprouts

Carrots - grated

Cilantro

Sesame seeds

Lemon juice

Olive oil

Dijon

Sea salt

Pepper

Date Sweet Potato Muffins (Vegan)

Frances made these muffins for our 9th anniversary party at the studio. They were so good we were all asking her for the recipe. I finally got around to making them yesterday. They are delicious and nutritious! It makes a big batch of 20 muffins... since I only have one muffin tray, I cut the recipe in half.

delicious & nutritious

Date Sweet Potato Muffins

Wet Ingredients:

4 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup sunflower oil

Add to the wet ingredients: 

3/4 cup unbleached cane sugar
1 cup chopped dates

Dry Ingredients: 

3 cups spelt flour (or regular flour)
1 3/4 cups oats
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 cups cooked sweet potatoes, cubed

Directions: 

1 Preheat oven to 375.
2 Combine the wet ingredients (mashed bananas and sunflower oil) in a bowl. Add the cane sugar and chopped dates. Set aside.
3 Combine the dry ingredients.
4 Bake at 375 for about 18 or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5 It's normal for these to appear crispy and golden on top. That does not mean they are overcooked. The crispy top is part of what makes them so delicious!

Recipe from www.food.com

Homemade Végépâté

In one of my past posts I wrote about Fontaine Sante's yummy végépâté. I also mentioned that I hadn't found a good végépâté recipe. A friend of ours sent us this one, so I tested it out. It's quiet different from the store bought one, but still super tasty and extra healthy since it's homemade. There's a lot of grating required; I used an old food processor that my Mom gave me that has a grater option, so it was quick and easy. Best part is it makes a lot! We go through the store bought one in a couple of days, this recipes makes about 4 times as much.

homemade Végépâté - one quarter of the recipe

Végépâté
½ cup raw unsalted sunflower seeds
2/3 cup nutritional yeast
¾ cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sunflower oil (don’t use olive or other, as it will affect the flavour)
1 carrot, grated
1 potato, grated
1 stalk celery, grated
2 onions, grated
2 cloves garlic, grated
4 tblsp tamari
2 tblsp lemon juice
pinch of thyme
pinch of basil
½ cup hot water

Grate all vegetables into a bowl, add other ingredients except the water, and stir well.

When all ingredients are well mixed, gradually add hot water, little by little, stirring well in between each addition.
Bake uncovered in oiled square 8x8” pan @350ºF for 45 minutes.
Allow to cool and refrigerate.

Back to Work

For my last week of maternity leave I decided to cash in a gift certificate I got (from my amazing man) for Mother's Day. So I headed down to the Rain Spa for a deep tissue massage. What a treat! Oddly enough it's sometimes hard to find the time to take extra care of ourselves, yet it is so important. As I move into this next transition in my life, I strive to continue to find balance in work and play. With iPhones, computers, etc. it's so easy to get caught up in work, but now with Levi around I know I can rely on him to literally unplug the computer. What an amazing year it's been.

Starting back with a party: 9th Anniversary Yoga & Live Music Party, Friday, July 13th 

Treat yourself to a Weekend Yoga Retreat at Eastman Spa, July 27-29th, 2012

Mango Pineapple Crumble

This is the last post for my daily recipes for the month of June. Thank you for all your interest and feedback, its been a pleasure sharing our meals with you all. I will continue posting weekly blogs on notes, ideas and thoughts about life as a modern yogini in Montreal, as well as vegan recipes. I think I might need a new title and catch phrase for my blog... let me know if you have any ideas.

We had some mangoes and a pineapple that needed to be used, so I googled it and found this recipe. Half way through mixing, we opened up the pineapple and found out it had gone bad, so I substituted with some frozen fruit (pineapple, strawberry & mango mix), fresh strawberries and an apple. I also substituted the margarine with sunflower oil, and left out the pecans and coconut since I didn't have any. I ended up doubling the topping as I was sending half of it to my brother and sister-in-law who just had twins! I highly recommend this one, it turned out to be a delicious & perfect recipe finale.

I did have some help in the kitchen...

Fruit Crumble from Vegetarian Times

Mango Pineapple Crumble:

             A home-style dessert gets a tropical twist by baking spiced mangoes and pineapple beneath a crunchy crumble topping. Serve with non-dairy, vanilla ice cream.

• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• ¼ cup plus 3 Tbs. packed light brown sugar, divided
• 1 ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon, divided
• ¾ tsp. grated nutmeg, divided
• ¼ tsp. ground allspice, divided
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 5 Tbs. chilled vegan margarine, cut into pieces, divided
• ½ cup raw pecans, coarsely chopped 
• 2 Tbs. unsweetened shredded coconut
• 3 mangoes, peeled, pitted, and cut into 1-inch cubes (2 ½ cups)
• ½ pineapple, peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch cubes (2 ½ cups)

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat 8-inch-square glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Combine flour, oats, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 1/8 tsp. allspice, and salt in medium bowl. Add 4 Tbs. margarine, and rub with fingertips until mixture forms coarse meal. Press together until mixture begins to form moist clumps. Stir in pecans and coconut.
2. Combine remaining 3 Tbs. brown sugar, 3/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, and 1/8 tsp. allspice in large bowl. Add mangoes and pineapple, and toss to coat. Transfer to prepared baking dish; dot top with remaining 1 Tbs. margarine. Sprinkle oat topping over mango mixture.
3. Bake 40 minutes, or until topping is golden brown and juices bubble. Cool 10 to 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Tilghman Island Stew

It was the first time I made this recipe so I cut down on some of the ingredients (in case we didn't like it), but it turned out delicious! I left out the Old Bay Seasoning, kale & okra (since I didn't have any) and replaced the green beans with peas. We served it over couscous, but it would be great on its own too.

Tilghman Island Stew served over couscous

recipe from Moosewood Restaurants New Classics cookbook

Vegan Camper

We spent a lovely weekend at our friends Pat & Marissa's camper. In the evening Pat made us Smores over the fire, and in the morning we all pitched in and put together the Kent Family Brunch for Jason's first Father's Day. 

roast marshmellows, add chocolate, press between graham crackers = heaven

Father's Day Kent Family Brunch at the camper

Here's another version of the Kent Family Brunch:
1 can beans in tomato sauce
Bavarian veggie sausage (from IGA)
potatoes - lightly boiled, then barbecued with onions & garlic
tofu scramble - fry marinated tofu (crumbled tofu marinated in tamari, garlic & fresh ginger) with peppers, sprinkle with nutritional yeast
1 slice of bread - served with peanut butter and/or jam
slices of fruit - pear