Veggie Wraps with Dill Tofu-Cashew “Cream Cheese”
I hope everyone is having a good week! The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous so my baby girl and I have been spending TONS of time outside. I love it! Today I bring you another sandwich. Apparently, I have been in a sandwich mood lately (remember my peanut butter and sprout sandwich?). I like sandwiches because they are quick to make and easily portable. I can easily make my sandwich and bring it out to the backyard to enjoy while I watch my daughter run around! Salads are easily portable to and are my favorite go-to lunch but nothing beats some homemade vegan “cheese” on a sandwich full of veggies!
For this sandwich I used lavash bread and made it a wrap. I like wraps so much better than traditional sandwiches made with sliced bread because you can stuff so many more veggies in a wrap! And the veggies are the best part!
What makes this wrap so tasty (and trust me it is TASTY!) is the homemade dill “cream cheese” made from tofu and cashews. It is creamy and flavorful. It has the flavor from the cashews but has a very light, airy creaminess from the tofu. The best of both worlds if you ask me.
The recipe for the “cream cheese” is adapted from a recipe in the book Veganomicon.
Enjoy!
Veggie Wraps with Dill Cashew-Tofu “Cream Cheese”
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: none
Keywords: bread entree lunch sandwich sugar-free vegan vegetarian cream cheese tofu cashew
Ingredients (1 wrap plus lots of extra &quo)
For the cream cheese
- 1/2 cup cashews (soaked for at least 4 hours)
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- 8 ounces silken tofu
- 2 teaspoons dried dill
- 1 teaspoon salt
To assemble the wrap
- 1 whole wheat lavash wrap
- Dill tofu-cashew “cream cheese”
- handful of arugula
- handful of sprouts
- 1 tomato, sliced
Instructions
for the cream cheese
Add all ingredients except the dill to a high speed blender and blend until creamy
Add the dill and blend for a few seconds until mixed
store in an air tight container in the fridge
To assemble the wrap
Place the lavash wrap flat and spread the cream cheese in the middle of the wrap
Layer the arugula, sprouts, and tomato on top of the cream cheese
Wrap up the lavash and devour!
Whole Wheat Meyer Lemon Cake
Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mother’s out there! I hope your day was special! Mine sure was! The hubs took the baby in the morning so I could sleep in, which was marvelous! Then he made me this for breakfast. YUM! Sooo good! After breakfast we took Harper to the pool and she had so much fun! Finally, we ended the day with a lovely dinner that Eddie and I cooked for his mom! For dessert, we made this whole wheat meyer lemon cake.
I. Love. This. Cake.
Whenever we make this cake I eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sometimes all in the same day. And it just gets better as it ages.
I wish I could take credit for this cake, but I cannot. Eddie made this for me for my birthday, and I have been hooked ever since.
This recipe is adapted from the recipe over at the Always With Butter blog. Enjoy!
Whole Wheat Meyer Lemon Cake
by
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 35-45 minutes
Keywords: bake dessert vegan vegetarian meyer lemon cake
Ingredients (8-16 servings)
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/3 cup almond flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 cup coconut oil
- 1 cup organic unbleached cane sugar
- 2 tablespoons ground flax seed
- Juice from 1 meyer lemon
- Zest from 2 meyer lemons
- 1 teaspoon vanilla powder (or vanilla extract)
- 2/3 cup tofu
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and oil and flour a cake pan
Place the tofu in a blender and blend until creamy. Add water until the consistency of the tofu is that of sour cream. Set aside.
Combine all dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside
In a large bowl, cream the coconut oil and sugar
Add the ground flax seeds, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla and mix
Gradually mix in dry ingredients
Fold in creamed tofu and pour batter into pan.
Bake 35-45 minutes or until knife comes out clean.
Cool 5 minutes then remove cake from pan by flipping upside down onto a rack and cool completely.
Serve with fresh blackberries.
peanut butter and… Sprouts???
I know! Sounds weird doesn’t it? Trust me, it is GOOD! This has been my lunch almost every single day for at least the past month. I cannot get enough of it!
So here is what I do:
1. I toast a sprouted grain bagel (I get mine from Trader Joe’s).
2. Then I slather peanut butter on both sides (I like my sandwiches open faced because then I can really load on the veggies!)
3. I top each side with sliced tomatoes and a heaping mound of sprouts.
4. Lastly, I season my open faced bagel sandwiches with sea salt and Cholula hot sauce.
Yum, I think this is my favorite meal of the day right now.
Some notes about this sandwich:
1. I have made this sandwich using almond butter or tahini instead of peanut butter, all are very delicious.
2. If you do not like things spicy you can omit the hot sauce or replace it with some balsamic vinegar.
3. Cucumber would also be very good on this sandwich.
4. Instead of bagels, you can always use just regular bread or English muffins.
And that my friends is all for today.
Pineapple Fried Black Rice
I had a version of this dish at a Thai restaurant a few months back. They had “forbidden” rice (or black rice) on their menu and I was intrigued! I had to try it and decided to try the pineapple fried rice made forbidden rice. After the first bite I was hooked! It is very chewy and has a nice nutty flavor but what I really LOVE about black rice is how nutritious it is. Black rice is full of anti-oxidants (which give this rice its black color).
Black rice can be used instead of brown (or white) rice almost any dish but my favorite way to use it is in Asian dishes, specifically fried rice. This is my version of pineapple fried rice without the meat, eggs and very light on the oil! You can find black rice online or at your local health foods store (Whole Foods has it in the bulk section). I am not going to lie, this is pricey stuff, but it is a lot of fun to cook with and eat!
This recipe is really quick to make. Just make sure you cook the rice ahead of time and you will have dinner on the table in ten minutes or less!
Pineapple Fried Black Rice
Makes 2 Servings
Vegan, Gluten Free, Sugar Free, Egg Free, Dairy Free, Low Fat
Ingredients
1 cup black rice
1/4 cup cashews
1/2 cup frozen or fresh diced pineapple
1/2 cup frozen or fresh peas
1/2 package baked tofu (I use the Trader Joe’s Brand)
3 green onions, diced
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons tamari (or soy sauce)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Directions:
1. Cook the black rice by placing it in two cups of water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until all the water has been absorbed.
2. After the rice is cooked, set it aside to cool a bit and heat a large non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Add the cashews and cook until toasted.
3. Add the pineapple and peas and cook until heated through, a minute or so.
4. Add the rice and rest of the ingredients and cooked for a few minutes more.
5. Serve immediately!
Ahhhhhh-mazing enchiladas!
I hope everyone had a great Cinco de Mayo Weekend! We had a friend come into town and spent a lovely sunny Saturday at the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market and then went to the beach. The weather was just perfect.
All I can say about the above enchiladas is…Oh wow! These are so good! I know this post is a little late for Cinco de Mayo but better late than never right? We had these enchiladas for dinner the other day and I was blown away by how good they were! Moist and filling. The perfect amount of spicy that was pleasantly offset by the creaminess and coolness of the guacamole. Yum…I cannot wait to make these again.
For the tortillas, I used sprouted grain tortillas and was pleasantly surprised by the results. Normally I think sprouted grain tortillas taste like cardboard but when smothered in enchilada sauce they become surprisingly soft and tasty!
Don not be intimidated by the super long recipe, these enchiladas come together surprisingly fast and effortlessly and they can be assembled ahead of time! I would suggest doubling the recipe because these make killer leftovers!
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Enchiladas
Makes 3-6 servings (depending on how hungry you are and what else you serve with it)
Vegan, Low Fat, Sugar Free, Can be made gluten free, dairy free, egg free
Guacamole
Ingredients:
4 ripe avocados
Juice from 1-2 limes
Green part from 3 green onions, diced
1 tomato, diced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Directions:
1. Mash everything together in a bowl. Taste, add more salt, garlic powder, or lime juice as needed.
2. Store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to eat.
Enchilada Sauce (Adapted from Veganomicon):
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small red onion, diced
3 large green chiles (I used jalapeno), deseeded and diced
2 teaspoons chile powder
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1 28-oz can diced tomatoes in juice
1 teaspoon agave
2 teaspoons salt
Directions:
1. In a large saucepan, over medium heat, saute the garlic, onions and chile peppers in coconut oil until soft (about 4-7 minutes).
2. Add the remaining sauce ingredients, bring to a simmer and remove from heat.
3. When the sauce mixture has cooled, taste and adjust salt if necessary.
4. Puree in blender until mixture is smooth.
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Filling
Ingredients:
2 large sweet potatoes
1 can black beans
2 cloves garlic, minced
Vegetable Broth
2 tablespoons Taco seasoning (I used the one from Trader Joes)
Juice from one lemon or lime
1 teaspoon salt
Directions:
1. Peel and cube the sweet potatoes. Bring a pot of water to a boil and boil sweet potatoes until tender, about 20 minutes.
2. Drain sweet potatoes and place back in pot.
3. Over medium heat, add the black beans and garlic and about 1/4 cup of veggie broth. Cook until veggie broth is absorbed, mashing the sweet potatoes and black beans.
4. Keep adding veggie broth 2 tablespoons at a time and mashing the sweet potato and black bean mixture until you have a fairly smooth mixture. It does not have to be pureed but there should be no more large chunks of sweet potato left. Once the mixture is at the desired consistency and all the veggie broth has been absorbed, turn off the heat and add the rest of the ingredients. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
To Assemble the Enchiladas:
Ingredients:
6 medium sized tortillas (I used these sprouted grain ones)
Sweet potato and black bean filling
Enchilada Sauce
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375degF. And get out a large rectangular baking pan.
2. Take each tortilla, spread with sweet potato and black bean filling and roll up. Place in baking pan.
3. Once you are done filling the tortillas, Spread the enchilada sauce over the top. Use all of it!
4. Cover and bake for 25 minutes. Then uncover and bake for another 20 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and allow the enchiladas to cool for about 10 minutes.
6. Serve topped with a gracious dollop of guacamole. YUM!
Banana-Cinnamon-Spinach Smoothie
How can something so simple be so tasty? This is currently one of my all-time favorite breakfasts! Only 3 ingredients and it keeps me full for hours! I absolutely love love love bananas! Anytime I am clamoring for some ice cream or a milk shake, I just whip up one of these babies (sometimes without the spinach) and it always satisfies my sweet tooth, but in a guilt-free super healthy sorta way!
Make sure to use ripe bananas for this smoothie to get the most flavor and sweetness. You want your bananas to have lots of brown spots on them!
Enjoy!
Banana-Cinnamon-Spinach Smoothie
Makes 1 serving
Vegan, Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Sugar Free, Raw, Fat Free
Ingredients:
3-5 bananas (depending on how hungry you are)
1-2 big handfuls of baby spinach
1-2 dashes of cinnamon
2-4 dates (optional but adds a nice sweetness!)
Ice
Directions:
1. Add the bananas, cinnamon, spinach, and dates (if using) to the blender and blend until smooth.
2. Add desired amount of ice (the more ice you use the thicker and colder the smoothie will be but remember ice also waters down the smoothie a bit so you will lose some flavor).
3. blend until smooth and enjoy!
Cherry Chocolate Teff Muffins
Ahhhhhh….it is amazing how life happens and before you know it four months have just flown by! Well I am back and with a really yummy recipe. I got the idea for these muffins from this recipe here on the Wholefoods website. However, I wanted to make mine vegan (of course) and sugar free. To do this I replaced the eggs with flax seed and the sugar with date paste and Vanilla Sunwarrior protein powder. I was a little skeptical of how it would turn out but was surprisingly pleased! You can of course, substitute the protein powder for stevia, which I think would work well also.
These muffins are earthy, surprisingly moist, with just the perfect amount of sweetness from the chocolate chips and tartness from the dried cherries. The combination of the date paste with the protein powder makes these muffins decadent enough to be eaten as dessert but healthy enough to be enjoyed guilt free as a breakfast on the go. I am really happy with how they turned out and this is definitely a recipe I will make again!
One note on this recipe, it does call for a little bit of whole wheat flour but if you are gluten free you can probably easily substitute a gluten free flour blend and add 1 tsp of xanthan gum!
Chocolate Cherry Teff Muffins
Makes 12 Muffins
(Vegan, Sugar Free, Egg Free, Dairy Free)
Ingredients:
1 cup teff flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or a gluten free flour blend)
1/2 cup almond flour
1 scoop Vanilla Sunwarrior Protein Powder (optional, you can replace this with stevia or just omit)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup dates, soaked in boiling water for about 15 minutes
2 tablespoons ground flax seed mixed with 6 tablespoons of water
1/2-3/4 cup water
1/4 cup coconut oil
8oz dried cherries
1 cup mini chocolate chips (I used the Enjoy Life brand)
Directions:
1 Preheat oven to 350degF and grease your muffin pan.
2. Soak your dates and mix your flax seeds with water.
3. In a medium bowl combine the teff flour, whole wheat flour, almond flour, protein powder (or stevia), baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt and mix to combine.
4. To make the date paste, place the soaked dates in a blender and add just enough of the soaking water to cover the dates. Blend until smooth. Add the date paste to a separate large bowl.
5. To the date paste, add the ground flax seed mixture, 1/2 cup water, and coconut oil, and mix to combine.
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold with a spatula until just combined. If the batter seems too dry add the extra 1/4 cup of water.
7. Gently fold in the dried cherries and chocolate chips.
8. Spoon mixture into muffin cups and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick or knife comes out clean.
9. Remove from oven and let the muffins sit for 5 minutes, then take them out of the muffin pan and cool to room temperature.
This is a Brand New Moment…
Daily Smoothie Habit: 1/2 banana, 3 oranges, 1 cucumber, 4 carrots, 1” knob of ginger, all blended up without water- YUM this was GOOOOOOOD!
I was going to post a recipe for some raw beet burgers tonight but I have been spending quite a lot of time stuck in this vicious cycle of self-hatred. so tonight I thought I would post something that I came up with as a little reminder to myself to stop feeling sorry for myself and start living my life again.
Enjoy!
Happy First Birthday to My Baby Girl and Do-It-Yourself Finger Paint!
Daily Smoothie Habit: 1 grapefruit, 1 lemon, 1 apple, 1 cucumber, handful of spinach, 1” knob of ginger, 1/2 scoop Sunwarrior vanilla protein powder all blended up without water- YUM this is one of my FAVES!!!!!
My baby girl turned one on Sunday! Birthdays for us are not about presents or birthday cake. Instead, we focus on the person celebrating the birthday and spend the day doing fun things that person wants to do. In the future, celebrating Harpers’ birthday will probably entail a party and dessert of some kind. This year, however, she is one and really not interested in that sort of stuff yet so we decided, why bother? Instead we decided to do something that she would think was fun.
The fun thing about having a one year old is that pretty much anything new is fun for her. She also LOVES making a mess. So, we decided this year for her birthday we would introduce her to something new that she could make a huge mess with: FINGER PAINT!
I found this recipe online via several sources and decided to test it out for the following reasons:
1. It was easy and used minimal ingredients
2. It was edible so when Harper tried to eat it (which was inevitable) I did not have to worry too much about it
3. It was easily washable from clothes and surfaces so I could let her make a big mess and not worry about it staining anything.
Harper had a ton of fun making a big mess with these paints but if you plan on letting your little one create a work of art that you can keep as a precious momento do NOT use these paints. The paint looks very faint on paper and is great for little ones who make a big mess and stick some in their mouth every now and again but it is not making any masterpieces!
Anyways,
Here is the recipe I used. Enjoy.
Homemade Non-Toxic Finger Paint
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 cups of water
Food coloring (you can get all natural food coloring from India Tree)
1. Add the cornstarch to a medium saucepan and slowly add water, whisking constantly so that no clumps form.
2. Once the water and the cornstarch have been mixed, heat the pan over medium heat and stir constantly until the cornstarch mixture thickens. It will look something like this:
3. Remove mixture from heat and divide evenly into separate bowls. Add food coloring and mix until desired color is achieved.
4. Store covered until ready to use.
Note: The paint might harden a bit if you let it sit too long. Just add a little water and mix it well until desired consistency has been achieved.
Here are some pictures of Harper having fun with finger paint!
Is Yoga Dangerous?
Daily Smoothie Habit: 2 handfuls of spinach, 2 large celery sticks, 4 carrots, 3 blood oranges, 1 banana, 1 bag fresh cranberries from Trader Joe’s, 2 scoops sunwarrior protein, water (I split this one with my husband)
Note: When Trader Joe’s starts selling bags of fresh cranberries around Thanksgiving I buy a ton of them and keep them in my freezer so I can use raw cranberries in my smoothies all year long!
Have you read the article by the New York Times about How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body? It is a very good article that brings up some very good points. I am a huge advocate of exercise and have been practicing different forms of yoga on and off for at least five years. Until recently, I was only interested in taking a yoga class if I thought it was going to be fast paced and challenging with lots of poses where my body was bent and twisted in all sorts of unnatural ways. Apparently, I was not alone in this thought.
Yoga has become so main stream and it easy to find a class where a teacher will “challenge” you to get into a pose or an inversion that is far too advanced for a beginner by your second class. Pushing yourself too hard too fast and contorting your body and spine in an unnatural way that it is not used to is a dangerous and a sure-fire way to end up with a horrible injury that can leave you debilitated for the rest of your life.
Do I think Yoga can wreck your body? Absolutely! Do I think it is dangerous? It can be but it definitely does not have to be. Yoga can be a very healing and spiritual practice but you have to listen to your body. If you are too busy trying to do inversions or bend your body into a balance pose that your body just does not want to go into and ignoring the pain signals your body is sending you, then you will miss out on all the benefits of yoga.
This article as well as my yoga teacher, Audrey of Camarillo Yoga have made me realize what yoga is really about and how to really get the best out of my yoga practice:
Listen to your body. Yoga is not about ultimate fitness, it is about relaxation, healing, and spirituality. Do not expect to come out of a yoga class with superhuman abilities of strength and flexibility. Only do what feels good and do not try to push yourself further than that. Flexibility and strength take time and patience. And finally, do not forget that yoga is a mind practice too. Relaxing, stretching, and healing your mind through breathing and meditation is just as important to your yoga practice as the body poses are.
What are your thoughts on yoga and the New York Times article?