Vegan Chocolate Cake
Hi everyone,
Love chocolate cake, but hate eating animal products? Try this delicious recipe for vegan chocolate cake.
Yummy treats like this can be part of a healthy diet – just have it once in awhile 
To your health,
Kimberly
Vegan Chocolate Cake
From: http://www.selfsufficientish.com/vegancake.htm
Ingredients
300g self raising flour
3 level tsp baking powder
50g cocoa powder
250g caster sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
9 tbsp sunflower oil
250 ml orange juice
100ml water
1 orange zested
8” loose bottomed tin (greased)
ICING
250g icing sugar
1tbsp Cocoa
50g sunflower marg
3tbsp boiling water
Method/Procedure
preheat oven to 190°C
Sift the flour with the cocoa powder, baking powder and the sugar.
Mix with the rest of the ingredients
Whisk to a batter like consistency
Pour in tin, cook for 40 mins, until knife comes out of centre clean
icing: whizz altogether, spread over top and chill
Dad’s awesome (and easy) Vegetarian Chili
Ingredients:
2 cans kidney beans
2 cans chopped tomatoes (or do fresh tomatoes)
1/2 can tomato paste
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic
chopped jalapenos (to taste, optional)
1 sachet chili seasoning (reduced sodium if available, there are also mild or hot varieties depending on how much spice you like)
1 tsp cumin
1tbsp olive oil
What to do:
1. Saute onions, garlic, and red bell peppers in the olive oil until soft
2. Add all other ingredients and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes.
3. Check consistency of chili. You can add a little bit of water or a little bit of tomato paste to either thin or thicken the consistency of the chili.
4. Cook for a further 10 minutes over a lower heat.
5. Serve with brown rice, quinoa, or toasted whole grain bread.
Variations:
Add different kinds of beans to change the flavor. Or just add more beans to increase the fiber and protein content of the meal.
Increase or decrease the seasoning to change the “hot” factor.
Top with a little bit of shredded cheese or a dollop of sour cream.
Use leftovers to make yummy vegetarian tacos the next day. Just heat some corn tortillas, reheat the chili, and you’ve got another meal.
To your health,
Kimberly
Fantastic Vegetarian Quesadilla Recipe
Here is a recipe by Jill Dupliex. I got it from Love Food Hate Waste. If you haven’t heard of it, Love Food Hate Waste is a campaign to help all of us reduce our waste. I absolutely love it! They have got a fantastic website with tons more recipes, tips, and ideas to help you reduce your waste, which in turn helps the environment.
This recipe aims to use up “leftover cheeses.” Quick point: If you are on a weight loss plan, just increase the vegetable portion and reduce the amount of cheese you use.
Anything-goes Quesadilla
Ingredients:
8 wheat flour tortillas
500g cooked sweet potato or butternut squash, lightly crushed
100g leftover cheeses, grated
200g fresh mozzarella
Sea salt, pepper, and basil leaves to season
Preparation:
1. Place a flour tortilla in a dry, non-stick frying pan and lavishly spread with the crushed vegetables, right to the edges.
2. Season with salt and pepper and scatter the cheese and basil over the top of the vegetables. Place another tortilla on top and cook over a medium heath until lightly browned, about 3 minutes.
3. Turn once, and cook the other side until lightly browned and the cheese has melted.
4. Transfer to a board, and keep warm, while you make the others. Cut into halves or quarters to serve.
This is so simple! A slight variation on this might be using 100% corn tortillas, which is great for those who have gluten/wheat allergies. And you can use different vegetables if you’ve got things you need to use up. Spinach is delicious in quesadillas.
For this and other recipes, visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com. It is a great site with a great purpose.
To your health,
Kimberly
Recipe using Macadamia Nuts
I was recently at the Vitality Show in London, which was a really exciting show! It represented all things health, beauty, and wellness related.
One of the booths I visited was interesting – it was all about macadamia nuts! From all the time I’ve spent in Hawaii, I love macadamia nuts, but they don’t seem to be all that popular here in the UK. And I think they get a bad reputation sometimes because they are pretty fatty…but, it is unsaturated fat that it is high in.
Besides offering healthy fats, they have fibre, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. So, they are great to use in a natural weight loss plan! Or in any plan for healthy eating!
I picked up this recipe which is absolutely delicious.
Macadamia Nut Roast
Ingredients:
800g mixed root vegetables (potatoes, parsnips, swede, sweet potato) peeled and roughly chopped
1 large onion, peeled and diced
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1 tbsp macadamia oil (or olive oil if more readily available)
200g carrots, peeled and grated
300g macadamia nuts, chopped
3 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
2 tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper, to taste
Bread crumbs or oats (optional)
Preparation:
Cook all the root veg in boiling water until they are tender. While the veg are cooking, fry the onion, celery, and garlic in the oil until soft.
Preheat the oven to 200C. Drain the veg and then mash them roughly. Mix the grated carrots, most of the nuts, parsley, lemon juice and seasoning into the mashed vegetables. You should be able to form a moist ball in your hand with the mixture. If it is too wet, mix in some bread crumbs or oats.
Spoon the mixture into a lightly-oiled ovenproof dish. Sprinkle the remaining nuts over the top.
Cover with oiled foil and cook for 30 minutes. Take off the foil and cook for another 15-20 minutes until the top is browned and the vegetables are cooked thoroughly.
Let the roast sit for 10 minutes before cutting it. Serve with salad garnish.
You can find this and other macadamia nut recipes at www.macadamias.org.uk.
To your health,
Kimberly
Lentil and Rice Casserole Recipe
My husband treated me to a surprise home cooked dinner over the weekend for Valentine’s Day. It was a recipe we had not tried before, but it was delicious! We found it in the Cookshelf Vegetarian book by Jenny Stacey, but changed it a little bit.
Lentil & Rice Casserole
225g red split lentils
50g brown rice
1 liter vegetable stock
100ml dry white wine
1 leek, cut into chunks
250g sweetcorn
100g green beans
50g broccoli florets
1 can chopped tomatoes
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp each of ground cumin, chili powder, garam masala
salt and pepper
Instructions
1. Put the lentils, rice, stock, and white wine in a casserole dish and cook over a gentle heat for 20 minutes, stirring once in awhile.
2. Add all other ingredients, other than salt and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Vegetables should be tender, but not limp.
3. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately and enjoy!
Protein
If you read my recent post about vegetarian/vegan sources of protein, you’ll notice that this recipe has lentils and brown rice in it. These are both good non-animal sources of protein. And the vegetables have some protein too. You could add peas or spinach to increase it even more.
To your health,
Kimberly
Recipe for a vegetarian burger
Even for non-vegetarians, vegetarian burgers can be a delicious choice for a meal. I will almost always choose a veggie burger over a real one. Depending on what you put in your veggie burger, they can be a great thing to add to your diet if you’re trying to lose weight, consume more vegetables, or just be a healthier person.
I found a recipe for a vegan burger on http://www.simpleveganrecipes.co.uk, which I thought was worth sharing. The great thing about this recipe is that it uses no animal products and has beans in it for that extra protein and fibre content. And you can change up the spices a little bit to suit your preferences.
For you vegetarians out there who feel like you miss out on barbeque season, I would imagine you can take this same recipe and grill the burgers rather than frying them. I’m certainly going to try it…once some barbeque weather is here.
Butter Bean Burgers
1 onion, chopped finely
1 red or green pepper, chopped finely
1 carrot, grated
4 oz. (100g) breadcrumbs
1 tin butter beans
Ground cumin
Ground coriander
Chili powder
Soya flour
What to do
Fry onion, carrot and pepper for 5 minutes.
Place them in a bowl and add the breadcrumbs, 1 tsp. each of cumin, coriander and chilli. Add a little salt and pepper, 1 tbsp. soya flour. Mash the butter beans and add them. Mix well.
Form the mixture into 4 thick burgers and coat them with flour.
Fry the burgers for 20 minutes and serve with vegetables.
Serves 2-4
Enjoy – and let me know what you think about it or if you have some good variations.
To your health
Kimberly
Superfood recipe – super easy kale chips!
Believe it or not, I only tried kale for the first time about six months ago. I had heard of it, but I guess I was so stuck in my ways of eating normal salad greens, cabbage, or spinach, that I never even thought about trying it.
However, it came as part of my weekly Abel and Cole organic vegetable box, so I had to figure out what to do with it.
In case you haven’t tried it before, kale is a leafy green (or purple) vegetable. It is in the same family as cabbage, so it is similarly tough in consistency. Due to its high nutrition content, it has been named a “super food” by some nutritionists. It has beta carotene (an antioxidant), vitamin c, vitamin k, calcium, and many other nutrients.
In figuring out what to do with my kale, I came across many interesting recipes, but I thought one was particularly scrummy sounding! It was Kale Chips. Yep, chips. But, healthy chips.
They are super easy to make and satisfy that desire for something crunchy and a bit salty.
All you need is some kale, olive oil, sea salt, and an oven.
Rinse the kale leaves, break off the stems, and tear the leaves into potato chip size pieces. Dry the leaves on a paper towel, or use a salad spinner to dry them. Drizzle some olive oil on the leaves. Sprinkle some sea salt. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350F or so. Then enjoy these crispy delights!
To your health,
Kimberly
How to make a Different Pumpkin Soup
You may or may not have tried pumpkin soup before…probably most Americans have, but maybe not those of you from other countries. Either way, I bet you haven’t tried this recipe before! I came across a pumpkin soup with a twist. It is pumpkin soup with peanut butter! Yikes! I’m not so sure about this, but thought it was worth sharing.
Recipe:-
4 tbsp unsalted butter
4 cups canned pumpkin
2 cups cooked pureed sweet potatoes
1 cup smooth, no sugar added peanut butter
6 cups of vegetable stock (yeast free if you can find it)
Salt and pepper to taste
Sour cream
Pumpkin and sweet potato both have some great nutrients. Beta-carotene and other antioxidants are at the top of the list, along with fibre. If you have trouble finding pumpkin (as I have experienced in the UK), you can substitute more sweet potato for the pumpkin. You’ll just have to change the name of the recipe
To your health,
Kimberly
Can you make a Smoothie with Just Fruit?
My “Just Fruit” Smoothie – I really love smoothies, but have a hard time finding good combinations that are just fruit. No ice cream, yogurt, or anything else. Just fruit.
What to put in it:
a pineapple, chopped into chunks and peeled
a good handful of strawberries
a small package of other berries (blueberries or raspberries are good choices)
How to make it:
Blend the pineapple chunks and strawberries until creamy.
Divide other berries of choice in glasses and pour the smoothie over the top.
Benefits:
Lots of vitamins and antioxidants. (Keep in mind there are quite a few grams of natural sugar, so try to keep any other sugar to a minimum for the day.)
A great pasta veggie stir fry
I always love a good stiry fry. It is so quick and you can be very inventive with your ingredients! Here is a nice vegetable variety. For meat eaters, you can always add some chicken or turkey.
Ingredients:
1 package wheat spaghetti (16oz)
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 red bell pepper, sliced
Ginger seasoning, or a tiny amount of fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1 cup broccoli florets
1 cup mange tout
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 green onion, sliced
Salt, to taste
How to make:
Cook the pasta according to package instruction until al dente (still slightly firm). Use some salt if desired.
In a large skillet, heat the oil over high heat. Once hot, fry the onion and red pepper for about 1 minute. Add garlic, broccoli, mange tout, and soy sauce and cook for a further 2 minutes. Then add the al dente pasta (and the cooked chicken/turkey slices if desired) to the vegetables, toss well and cook for 1 minute.
Top with green onion slices, serve and enjoy.
