Recipe: Vegan bolognese sauce

Today I'll show you how to do bolognese sauce the vegan way :). I found this recipe when I was searching for more exciting ways to use tofu and it was love at frirst try. So, here it is ...

Ingredients:
- 1 leek, chopped
- 2 medium sized carrots, peeled, chopped
- 150 g of tofu
- 1 table spoon of tomato paste
- 3-4 dl of tomato sauce (I used pureed tomatoes that we keep in our freezer)
- salt to taste
- 1/2 tea spoon of curry powder
- pinch of red chili powder
- 2 table spoons of olive oil

Instructions:

1. Pour olive oil into preheated pan. Transfer chopped leek and carrots in it as well. Lower the heat and cook for about 2 minutes, so both vegetables become softer.

2. Place tofu in a food processor and process until minced (it should look like minced meet). Transfer it into a pan with vegetables. Stir.

3. Now add tomato paste and seasoning. Stir again. Add tomato sauce and place pan cover on top. Let it cook for at least 45 minutes (to 1 hour) on low-medium heat. Make sure you stir it occasionally while cooking. If tomato sauce evaporates, add some water. Serve with gluten-free pasta.

I served it with corn pasta, because that's what I had and wanted to eat, but it would be delicious combined with quinoa, amaranth, brown riceor even on its own.

Instead of leek use onion, instead of carrots use portobello mushroom, or use any kind of vegetables you prefer.

More recipes will be available in my cook book (it's in its last finishing touches :)).

Bon appetite :)

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Recipe: Stuffed apples + exciting announcement :)

Made this recipe few days ago and I loved it so much, I decided to share it with you. 

Ingredients:
- 2 apples
- handful of walnuts (or any kind of nuts)
- handful of raisins
- lemon (zest & juice)
- cinnamon
- coconut sugar (you can substitute it with honey or maple syrup or stevia)
- coconut butter

 
1. Scoop out both apples, so they get in a bowl like shape :). Set aside.
2. Put walnuts in a plastic bag and beat them with hard object until they form into smaller pieces. Chopping or grinding them in a food processor will do too, but I prefer beating them ;). Transfer them into a bowl.
3. Add raisins, dash of cinnamon, little bit of lemon zest, 2 tea spoons of coconut sugar and 1 tea spoon of lemon juice. Mix all ingredients together until well combined.

4. Fill the apples with the mixture you just did. Put 1/2 tea spoon of coconut butter on both filled apples. This will spread over them and add creaminess.
5. Transfer the apples on cookie sheet and put it in a preheated oven for 10 minutes on 175˙C. Serve and eat them while still warm :)

I love surprises, but I'm bad at keeping them secret for too long! And today's announcement is that I'm writing a cook book! Yes, my very own cook book. All recipes are healthy, vegan and gluten-free, but I also give you options how to make them vegetarian. And it will be an e-book, so it'll be easily accessible.
I have told that I'm writing a book to some people, but never really announce it out loud, so here it is :).

Tell me if you tried out the recipe and how you liked it :)

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Saturday Fitness Tip: Excuses #2

And here we are again. Making excuses and I argument them and I give you a "solution".  :)) Let's just start.

Make sure you read first part of excuses HERE.



Once again - everything starts and ends with you. It's time to shut your Ego up ;)

Source: Pinterest.

 
4. The saddest thing to me is that people are selfish. For example, they get sick eventually (from bad food) and family has to take care for him/her. I've watched a show (I don't remember how it was called) where extremely obese people were losing weight and one contestant said: "I don't want to die from food. I don't want to be remembered as the one who has died from food." People live to eat and don't see any other (much more) meaningful purpose in life. Which leads me to excuse ... If I live healthy, I have no reason to live. All I have to say is, that how ungrateful that person is. Do you have family, friends, supportive followers (if you're a blogger/youtuber etc.), people who love you? Do you have bed to sleep in? Do you have home? Do you have a phone, computer, TV ...? Are you loved? I see soooo many things to be grateful for, many things you have to live for. People forget to enjoy in little things and are searching for body pleasures (food is one of them, because it's tasty). Maybe it's nice to eat chocolate cake, but to me going out in to the nature is much more enjoyable and relaxing. To me living just for food is an empty life. Yes, food is tasty and I love eating, but I feel so much better if I nourish my body just when I am hungry. I know I don't need any more than that. I am more productive, because I don't feel full and tired after a meal, I am more happy and my life is more fulfilled, because I know how to make every moment precious.

Source: Pinterest.

5. Eating healthy tastes bad.
If we would be taught from an early age to eat healthy, simple, one-ingredient foods, we wouldn't crave junk food at all, because we wouldn't know the taste of it. We are just spoiling our taste buds (and raising our blood sugar few times a day). I think that the best way to fix that problem is to clear out your taste buds. I already covered that in Saturday Fitness Tip post few weeks ago: Beginner? No problem! Check it out HERE. And this also goes for previous excuse as well.
Also, try to find fun and tasty recipes, try to experiment in the kitchen, make cooking and preparing your food fun ... Most people who say that healthy food tastes bad are the ones who haven't even tried to live healthy. Try it out, it won't kill you! You can always ask a friend who eats healthy (hint: me ;)) to give you some recipes or recommendations and to motivate you ...

Source: Pinterest.

6. I'll start tomorrow.
Ah, that never coming "tomorrow". You don't need tomorrow, Monday, new year, three months before summer ... to start changing things, you can start right away, because all you need is you and you only. The sooner you start the closer to your goal. Every day counts and you can choose to give yourself a "gift" today and decide to be healthy. Today. I said TODAY! :)
You start with the next meal and get a workout done ;), I am off to prepare myself an afternoon snack and go out ;).


I think that next time I'll cover last post of excuses, unless I get many more of them or I get über inspired to do more of them :D. So, if you have any, please share them in your comment, also, if you have solutions for all three excuses I covered today, please share your brains with us :).

Happy healthy Saturday!

Recipe: I scream Ice cream!

There's one food I can't say no to: ice cream! But all ice creams that you get in grocery stores are full of nasty ingredients that our body doesn't need. I am also slightly dairy intolerant, makes my stomach hurt, so big company ice creams are a total no no for me. Today I'll show you how to prepare super simple and inexpesive ice cream. Nutritous, delicious and guilt free!

Ingredients:
- frozen strawberries (I think I used 12 of them ;))
- one frozen banana (I suggest you slice it and put in a plastic container before putting it into freezer)
- 1 tsp of peanut butter

Preparation:

I suggest you use strong food processor/blender for this recipe. I put frozen banana in food processor first and processed it. I added strawberries and processed again.

At the end I added one teaspoon of peanut butter and mix one last time, so everything is well combined.

If you are allergic to peanuts, you can add other nut butter, and if you're allergic to nuts, you can use one scoop of protein powder or coconut flour or flakes. I always try to incorporate some sort of protein source when I eat fruits. Fruits are carbohydrates full of natural sugars and protein helps to stabilize your blood sugar. Also, you'll feel fuller for longer time.

Let me know if you tried this recipe out and how you liked it ;)

Recipe: 2 INGREDIENT COOKIES

I love simplicity. I always prepare the simplest recipes, because I don't like the mess that is left after and I don't like it to be time consuming. I have more important stuff to do in that time :)

Anyhow, today I'll show you how to make sugar-free, super fast and simple 2 ingredient cookies. But if you feel "fancier" you could make them in to 4 ingredient cookies ;)

Ingredients:
- oatmeal (I used around 120 g of oatmeal, but 100 g would be enough too)
- 2 bananas
- raisins (optional)
- cinnamon (optional)

Preheat your oven to 175˙C. Mash both bananas. You could use your hands or fork, I prefer using my hands :).

Then you add oatmeal and mix them well together.

If you feel fancy, add raisins to taste and about half of a teaspoon of cinnamon, mix again. You can also use almonds or any other nuts. Be creative ;)

 

I used a teaspoon to form the cookies directly in to a cookie sheet and kinda pressed them down a little as seen in the picture above. Continue until you run out of mixture then place your cookies in the oven.

Bake them for about 15 minutes. You can eat them right away, but they are also good the next day or day after ... if there's anything left ;)

Enjoy your cookies and let me know how you like them :)

Bon apetit!

P.S: Enter my giveaway HERE :)

Recipe: QUINOA WITH VEGGIES

I haven't posted a recipe in a while ... and I have a feeling that I say this in every recipe post. Oops :)

Anyways, today we are cooking with quinoa. I love quinoa, because it's so versatile, you can eat it salty (with veg, like I'm showing you today) or sweet (for example: cooked in soy milk with apple and cinnamon).

Last time I showed you how to make quinoa pancakes, if you haven't seen this recipe yet, make sure you check it out here.
Now, let's start with the recipe :)

Ingredients:

- quinoa
- olive oil
- chickpeas (I used already cooked chickpeas in a jar, but you can cook them yourself or you can skip them :))
- salt
- mixed vegetables (I chopped one onion, zucchini, broccoli, two carrots)
- water

Preparation:

Pour some olive oil in a hot pan. Put all the veggies in it and cook them on medium heat. I cooked them until they became slightly soft then I added quinoa. How much quinoa will you use, depends on how much you eat and how many people you're cooking for :). I used slightly less than half of the packaging and it was cooked for 2 + we had leftovers for dinner.

Add water - I usually eyeball it, but all veggies and quinoa should be covered in water, add pinch of salt. Cook on medium heat until all water evaporates (it should take about 20 minutes).

 

Rinse chickpeas with water and add them to quinoa, stir so it's all well mixed. You can add other herbs to taste and serve.

I served it with some iceberg salad with chickpeas and mozzarella cheese.

Bon apetit!

And thank you, dear friend, who took these pictures for me ;)

Recipe: hot cocoa

I've tried this cocoa recipe not so long ago, it's nice comfort healthy food/drink in this cold snowy days. Because it is so delicious, I decided to share recipe with you and hope you'll like it as much as I do :).

Ingredients:

- soy milk
- cocoa (un-sweetened, organic is the best choice)
- maple syrup
- cinnamon (optional)
- virgin coconut oil
- peanut butter

Firstly, I warm up soy milk, little less than 2 dcl, not too hot. 

Then I pour soy milk in to the blender, add little bit of cinnamon, one table spoon of virgin coconut oil, one table spoon of peanut butter, about 3 table spoons of maple syrup (it depends how sweet you like your cocoa) and about 4 table spoons of cocoa.

Then I blend everything together for few seconds (I think 15 seconds is ok). It has to be bubbly (fluffy? :P), you know like a bubbly milk on capuccino? :)

I pour the bevarage into a cup and enjoy it :)

Recipe: apple pie

Today I want to share with you a really yummy apple pie recipe. It's healthy, vegan (if you use chia seeds instead of eggs), it's a little bit time consuming, but I think you'll love it :).

What do you need:

for dough:
100 g whole wheat flour
100 g oat bran
50 g almonds
50 g coconut oil
2 spoons of stevia
2 eggs or 2 spoons oh chia seeds (you just have to soak them in water for 10 minutes before doing anything with them)

for topping: (is this how it's called?)
2 big apples
half tsp cinnamon
juice from one lemon
handful raisins

Firstly, you process almonds and you put all dry ingredients for dough in a bowl. Mix them all together. Melt the coconut oil on heat. Add coconut oil and eggs or chia seeds (make sure you soaked them in water). Mix all together. Dough mixture is not supposed to be well combined, it should be a little bit crumbly.
Coat your smaller baking pan with coconut butter and spread the dough in it. Put it into a preheated oven (175˙C) for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile you prepare your topping. Peel the apples and you can slice them into really tiny pieces or grate them. Add cinnamon, lemon juice and raisins. Mix them all together.

After 25 minutes of dough baking you take out your pan and put the topping on. Spread it evenly and put it back in the oven for another 20 - 25 minutes.

Let it cool down a little and serve.

Tell me what do you think of this recipe if you try it out. Do you have any similar recipes?

I love this apple pie! :)
I send you apple pie love ❤