Kitchen | Vegan Loaded Baked Potatoes

I did this dish last Saturday and it immediately became one of my favourites!!

Didn't plan to do a post about it, but when I finished it looked so yummy that I decided to take some snaps and after tasting it I knew I had to share it. I absolutely love it!

The recipe was inspired by Ellen Fisher. With a few changes so it could be more me - just as a matter of personal taste - and the ingredients I had available.

Potatoes:

Preheat the oven 

Well rinsed, some stabs with a fork and boiled for about 5 minutes

Baked on the oven for about 45 min (use a fork to see if it's cooked)

- I baked 2 sweet and 3 regular potatoes

- after 220°C my oven just says 'MAX' and was what I used so I don't know the exact temperature

Stew:

Coconut oil

Garlic

Onion

Carrots

Chickpeas

Black beans

Sweet corn

Tomato sauce

Black pepper

Turmeric

Dry parsley

Water

Salt

Cashew cream: 

1/2 cup raw cashews (previously soaked for about 3 hours)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Water (to desired consistency)

Salt

- just blend everything and you'll get an awesome cream

Guacamole:

Avocado

Lemon juice

Black pepper

Onion (finely diced)

Salt

This is seriously amazing!! Please give it a try :)

Lots of hugs, A

Kitchen | Rice & Vegan Stew

Simple as cooking rice and mixing some veggies! That's it and I love it

I always do the stew differently. I add and switch some things up so I can find my favourite version.

In my recent adjustments, I've been adding coconut oil instead of no oil or olive oil, kale (that I found for the first time) and potatoes. And this version has been my favourite for a couple of weeks now

For the Stew:

coconut oil

garlic (finely cut) 

 onion (finely cut)

carrots (sliced) 

kale (sliced) 

potatoes (diced)

black beans (already cooked)

chickpeas (already cooked)

tomato sauce

black pepper

turmeric 

salt

water 

And then basically just throw everything on a pan, let it cook and it's done

- I like to saute the garlic, onion and carrots with the coconut oil

- Then I add a bit of water, the kale and diced potatoes letting for about 5 minutes so they can start to cook

- Add the rest of the ingredients and let the magic happens 

- I keep adding water if need so it doesn't get dry and when the carrots, kale and potatoes are cooked the stew is ready to eat

For the amount of each ingredient, I seriously have no idea because I never measure. I just add more of what I like most and spices to taste

Meanwhile, you should have cooked the rice so you can now enjoy the combination :)
As for the rice, I like it plain. No oil or salt, just water and rice cooked on a pan.

Lots of hugs, A

Kitchen | Banana Nice Cream

I'm sure you already know about banana nice cream because it's all around the internet but if not, this post is for you. 

I only came across nice creams when I was thinking about changing my eating habits. Until then, I had no idea bananas had this power. I wasn't a plant eater when I first tried nice cream, but I loved it and got me like 'Yeah, I can totally live without ice cream'

I don't know about you, but I always loved ice cream, but I also always felt guilty after eating it or restricted the amount I could eat. But not anymore

If you love ice cream I'm sure you'll love nice cream. Why wouldn't you? No bad sugars, no dairy, no fats, no preservatives or anything unhealthy. It's nice, healthy and delicious!! 

This is so simple and easy to do that I don't even know if I can call it a recipe. Simply blend frozen bananas and you get left with a super rich, creamy and yummy frozen treat. Yeah, that simple!

- peel, cut and freeze ripe bananas -

- blend the bananas until cream texture -  

awesomeness!!!

I love plain banana nice cream but you can use it as a base and for extra flavour add more ingredients (blueberries are amazing) and toppings.

Also, if you don't like bananas you can mix instead mangos, papayas, persimmons. There's plenty of recipes out there!!

Check out Steph's instagram for the most good looking nice creams

Spring is coming (yay). The weather is getting warmer and I can't wait to eat banana nice cream for breakfast and lunch without freezing!!

Have you ever tried banana nice cream? If not, please give it a try

Lots of hugs, A 

Kitchen | A Journey

*new category alert*

Life Of Pix

Today I'm going to share a personal journey and I hope you can understand it.

Since the beginning of the year that I wanted to change my eating habits in order to follow a healthy diet, but never decided to make the move until September. 

In May I stumbled upon FullyRawKristina's Youtube channel and WOW. Kristina (vegan and fully raw) amazed me with the whole concept of her lifestyle and I'm glad I've found her channel. I knew about vegetarianism and some of it's variants, but I had never heard about Raw Veganism - vegan diet and no cooked foods - so I was really surprised. 

I was so amazed that I wanted to try her diet and Kristina was about to start a 14 days Fully Raw Challenge on June but at the time I wasn't ready to do something like that so I've decided to take a time to make some research and challenge myself later and I did it indeed in August.

I didn't enjoy being fully raw - during the day was totally fine but at dinner time something was missing - and I was craving cooked foods and things with eggs or milk (regular cookies and cakes) a lot so after the challenge I decided to take the change slowly and allow myself to eat those things if I really wanted to. Also, I was going be away from home during a week without knowing what to expect so I didn't want to commit to be fully plant-based and then feel guilty if I had to eat something with eggs.

The decision of taking the change slowly and allowing myself to eat some animal products wasn't working because I would feel guilty if I ate and I really wanted to totally exclude them. So one day (September 30) I woke up and decided to completely stop eating animal products.

I don't eat any animal products because I've decided to not eat them but apart from that I eat whatever I want and like, without strict rules (it makes sense?). As long it's animal-free, if I want to eat it I'll eat it because my diet consists upon my individual choices and I shape it according to my own personal tastes.

Basically, I'm a vegan, but I really don't like to use that word, 'vegan' because I think it reassembles a whole lifestyle concept that I don't have and I prefer to say I'm a plant-based foods lover.

I don't have any moral support and I'm struggling a bit with being social because of that. The people who know I've changed my diet make fun of me and don't understand my decision (they think it's just a weird phase) but no, this isn't just a phase, I'm fully committed to it.

I didn't started this journey to lose weight, conform to a fad or anything like that, I started it just for my own health but the more I learn the more I understand that this is more than just about my health.

I'm so glad I've found something that I'm passionate about and that I'm educating and creating myself upon facts I didn't know at all. When I first started this journey I only knew a few things and only watched 1 or 2 documentaries, but now I'm learning a lot of things, doing more research and watching more documentaries.

It has been a challenging journey and not an easy one, but I'm loving it because day by day I get the chance to learn. 

Everything started with changing my diet, but I'm gradually changing my lifestyle as I become more aware of certain things. I'm super curious so I'm always looking for information to keep learning.

The amount of personal growth I've experienced has been massive and I just want to share this part of my life with you.

To finally finish this loooong post (cheers to you if you read it all), I just want to let you know that I'm not trying to convert anyone. This is about a personal choice and I'm just sharing my experience, my personal journey.

Let me know if you have any questions

P.s.: check About page to find more about this new category

Lots of hugs, A