Still alive here!

Hello to anyone who still comes by. I haven’t updated in a long time. I got a new job in September and it has almost ran me into the ground with stress and worry. Luckily I found a way out of that role and into another which is a little less stressful and a little less worrisome but always part of the corporate jungle that is insurance and customer service. I’ve had a long time to think about how an office job makes me feel and I keep getting images of me falling sick and having to stay home because of depression or cancer. It scares me because the imagery is of me as a young adult, much like I am now, and I am not ready to battle for my life like that just yet. My income is not worth my life and it made me wonder what exactly would and could fulfill me and allow me to earn a living without faking a living… and I found an educational establishment in my community that offers a 4-year naturopathy program with classes taking place evenings and weekends. This is it. I know this is it. I am meant to teach, to consult, to help, to change… I was put here to make other people’s lives better and brighter. Through my passion for organic and stress-free living and love of healthy food and animals, I will become a naturopath and carry out my purpose on this planet. I will carve out my space.

I’d also like to take the time to show you some vegan food I’ve had recenty:

Zoodles with tomato sauce and Daiya shreds.

Veggie burger with vegan poutine on top (vegan gravy and Daiya shreds)

Homemade lentil meatloaf with mashed potatoes and broccoli rabe.

I have an appointment next week at the institute for a tour and some questions, I look forward to providing an update on it! Peace & love ♡

Celebration!

I’m super swamped with work and other personal duties of mine but I wanted to stop by to announce this wonderful milestone for myself and anybody else who comes across my blog: today, I am celebrating 6 months of a totally meat-free, plant-based lifestyle and I am so proud of myself! If you have just started your journey, keep up the great work! If you are well into your journey, keep paving the way! And if you are simply curious about this lifestyle, you already have the plant-based seedling in your head. Let it blossom and discover what this wonderful veggie-filled world can do for you! Have a great weekend everyone. xo

Ecuador: Veganized

I had the absolute pleasure of attending a lovely vegan dinner at L’Armoire Du Haut, an awesome vegan cooking school founded by talented vegan chef and dietician Dominique Dupuis, who cooked up a storm yesterday!

We were about 20 guests in Dominique’s loft, mingling and sipping on a delicious colada.

Before the first course was served, we were taught a few things about Ecuadorian culture and cuisine by our lovely host Emmeline. She was wearing traditional Ecuadorian garb for the evening, along with 2 Ecuadorian folk dancers who spoke more about Ecuadorian culture. It was so interesting! (Actually, it got me to search up vacation and adventure packages in Ecuador!)

Ecuadorian cuisine is apparently light on the spicyness but heavy on the salt. (Not a problem for me!) They use a lot of corn, and different areas of the country grow different types of corn. We were told that there is a small shift towards plant-based cuisine taking hold down there, which is great news!

The dishes were made to taste as authentic as possible, but entirely vegan. Dominique traveled to Ecuador in January to experience the culture and bring back some of its cusine and according to Ecuadorians who were at the dinner, the flavours were on point! I wouldn’t know, but it really was delicious and everything was well-balanced, fresh and organic!

I will let the pictures speak for themselves, but I can assure you that the meal was excellent from beginning to end. I don’t even know where that dessert found room to sit in my belly because I was so stuffed!

The picture above shows the menu for the evening and the signature drink, made up of naranjillas (little oranges which actually look more like tomatoes) and oatmeal. Our drink was made with whole organic oats but in Ecuador, it’s cheaper to make this drink with Quaker brand oatmeal, so people actually end up calling this colada “Quaker”.

Below was our first course, which reminded me so much of tamales! These are called humitas, which is corn meal and cheese cooked inside a corn husk. It was so delicious. It actually reminded me of the polenta my grandma makes.

The next course was a delicious mushroom ceviche with heart of palm and home-roasted spicy tortilla chips. The whole thing really had the texture of fish but then the taste revealed it’s vegan yumminess. The tortilla complemented the ceviche so well, with it’s subtle salty spicyness.

Our final savoury dish below was a guatita with rice. This is more like a stew, usually made with tripe, but in this case, Dominique use a soy-based protein which could’ve totally fooled a carnivore into thinking it was thin-cut steak. The stew has a very subtle peanut butter taste but it’s barely noticeable, being that “je ne sais quoi” aspect of the dish. I can’t even describe in words how delicious this course was. I actually mixed the greens, rice and guatita together to make one messy dish and the combination was even better. Total success!

Dominique is pregnant at the moment and due in November so there likely won’t be any other themed dinners till next year, but I’m already looking forward to it. If you’re in Montreal, check out the website to see more info on Dominique’s cooking school. You won’t regret it!

An almost-healthy muffin recipe!

So I promised to share a delicious muffin recipe with you guys, and it looks like I really kept you waiting! Well, I don’t like calling baked goods “healthy” because they tend to be very useless, nutritionally speaking. But these muffins are definitely not unhealthy and here’s why: no refined sugars, no milk, no nuts (but you can add them if you like), no oils or butters, no eggs and no guilt! This recipe was given to me by a very talented chef, MariEve Savaria of Brutalimentation (her blog is in French). I had the honour of being in one of her vegan cooking classes a few weeks ago where I was asked to put these muffins together and I’ve made 4 batches ever since! You’re probably wondering, “How in the world do you get muffins if they’re not made with any typical muffin ingredients?” See for yourself:

Dried fruit & coconut Muffins
Makes 10-12 muffins. Recipe can easily be doubled. Use organic if possible.

Dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cup whole grain flour (wheat, spelt, buckwheat, etc.)
1 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tbsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
pinch of salt
1/3 cup of dried fruit or seeds/nuts of choice (apricots, cranberries, sunflower seeds. This is where you can add or omit any nuts.)

Wet ingredients:
1/2 cup of date paste*
1/4 cup of light coconut milk (the canned type; shake well!)
1/4 cup of apple sauce or pureed bananas
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Don’t forget to sift any flours and powders. If you use buckwheat flour, make sure to add a little more coconut milk than if you would use wheat flour, as buckwheat tends to be a little dry.
In a separate bowl, mix all the wet ingredients except for the apple cider vinegar. Once everything is ready, start pouring your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and add the apple cider vinegar.
Pour your mix into your muffin pan and bake for 15-20 minutes or until you notice the tops become a golden colour.
Take them out, let them cool, and enjoy them!

*The date paste can be made ahead of time and any leftovers can be kept in the fridge for later use. Just grab any amount of dates and equal amounts of hot water, let them sit in a heat-resistant bowl for 10-15 minutes and pass it in a food processor. Voila, date paste!

I usually make a batch of these muffins to bring for breakfast when I get fed up of oatmeal or smoothies. It tastes like a treat! I like to add ground flax and ceylon cinnamon to my muffins to up to nutritional content. I really hope you enjoy these muffins as much as I do, they have become a lifesaver! Let me know how yours come out! Happy baking!

(Unfortunately I don’t have the nutritional breakdown of these muffins but I’ll see if I can create one.)