Raw Zucchini Lasagne. Green and yellow zucchini slices layered with tomato slices, Spicy Banana Marinara, Mango-Avocado Cream and Not-really Pesto, topped with pine nuts, and cauliflower & purple cabbage sprinkles.

 

This was inspired by The Living Cafe's Raw Zucchini Lasagne and FullyRawKristina's Raw Deep-Dish Lasagne! ☺ This was super filling and so yummy!

 

It was quite a chore to make because I dont have a mandolin, so I had to carefully cut each slice. o_o I 'weaved' two slices of green zucchini and two of the yellow zucchini for each layer, in a square shape, and cut off the excess every few layers.

 

It's the second last day of my Raw Vegan 801010 Week! I've been having a salad almost every day for dinner and only now do I realise how important a dressing is!! Especially if all ingredients are raw! I've been using the Spicy Banana Marinara for most of them and I can't get enough of it! ♡_♡ The Mango-Avocado Cream is so simple but so good. It's light and not too heavy, and mango seems to go so well with zucchini! The Not-really Pesto was kinda weird, I must admit. But the texture was not bad. I froze the leftover juice and maybe I'll use it in a smoothie next time.

 

I tried to keep this as low fat as possible so it still fits into 801010. The only overt fats come from the avocado and pine nuts ☺

 

There isn't any specific way to make this, so just get creative and layer it any way you want! Actually I'll just throw all the yummy ingredients into a bowl next time :x Until I get a mandolin.

 

 

Raw Zucchini Lasagne

 

Main layers: 2 large zucchinis, sliced lengthwise thinly. 2 medium tomatoes.

 

Spicy Banana Marinara: Blend 1 small banana, 1 medium chili, 1 large medjool date, 1/2 medium tomato.

 

Mango-Avocado Cream: Blend 1/2 medium-sized mango, 1/4 avocado, 2 tsp lemon juice. Add a tsp of psyllium husk if you're piping this.

 

Not-really Pesto: Blend 1 cup mixed raw greens (I used romaine & coral), 1/4 cup zucchini, 1 medjool date, 2 tsp lime juice and enough water to blend. Leave to strain and use the pulp. Drink the juice!

 

 

Ginger Molasses Cookies! I used to hate ginger but I've now come to love it's warm spiciness. ♡ It's also great for when I get motion sickness! :x

I recently bought molasses and it's my first time using it in baking. I wanted to try it because it's rich in iron, calcium and magnesium - it's a sweetener that's actually good for you! if you don't know what molasses are, it's a thick, black liquid (looks somewhat like Pi Pa Gao, though more viscous), and it has a distinct, bittersweet taste. Much less sweet than what I imagined it to be!

 

This recipe is adapted from Lunchboxbunch, and I changed it by replacing refined sugar with medjool dates. I've also halved the recipe and made smaller cookies. And left out the baking soda - I ran out! Perhaps that's why mine didn't rise and crack as beautifully as Kathy's! These were of a just-right sweetness for me, though that's not a good standard to go by, so I would suggest that you add more dates! ^^

Warm, freshly baked cookies. And a never-before-seen glimpse of my couch.

I made them in 3 ways: hearts (of course!), pressed down with a fork, and topped with crystallised ginger.

These are two-bite cookies.

They turned out soft & chewy, though for crunchier cookies you could flatten them out more.

The crystallised ginger add more sweetness, spiciness and bite to the cookie!

 

So good with a cold glass of soymilk.

 

 

 

 

Ginger Molasses Cookies

Makes about 28 two-bite cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup wholewheat flour (130g), or other flour
• 3/4 tbsp ginger powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1/3 tsp cinnamon
• 3-5 large medjool dates (depending on level of sweetness desired)
• 2-3 tbsp water
• 2-3 tbsp molasses syrup
• 1/2 tbsp fresh grated ginger
• 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• Optional: crystallised ginger, cut into tiny bits

Method

1. Mix the dry ingredients (first 5) in a large bowl.
2. In a food processor, blend together medjool dates and 2 tbsp water (this doesn't seem really good for food processors though, mine was having a hard time!)
3. In a separate bowl, mix the date paste with the grated ginger, coconut oil and molasses syrup.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Stir the mixture, then use your hands to mix it into a moist ball of dough. It should have a Playdough consistency. If needed, add water bit-by-bit. I added 1 tbsp.
5. For 'free-form' cookies, you can use the dough immediately, but for cookie-cutter cookies it's best to freeze for about 30 mins before rolling out and cutting into shapes.
6. Bake at 180 deg C for about 6-8 mins (depending on size of cookies) in a preheated oven.
7. Allow cookies to cool for 15 minutes before eating. They will harden as they cool.

Roasted Bell Bepper Hummus and Savoury Chia Crackers! This time I made a tahini-free hummus, recipe loosely adapted from here, and it was still surprisingly yummy!

For the basic hummus, I used 240g cooked chickpeas (or about 1 can drained), a handful of parsley, 2 tbsp nutritional yeast, 1-2 cloves garlic, 1 tbsp lemon juice, a few cracks of black pepper and black sea salt (not pictured) and water.

 

I made only a small batch this time, and divided the basic hummus into 4, so that I'll get some of each green, yellow, red and basic.

I added about 1/4 roasted medium bell pepper (with skin) to each part of the hummus. The basic one turned out a bit green because of the parsley :x

Other ingredients added into each one:

Red - chili flakes, cayenne pepper

Yellow - turmeric, curry powder

Green - salt free seasoning

And I made crackers for the first time! There was a box of Carr's Table Water Crackers at home a while back and it was SO ADDICTIVE. Like it's just made of flour and water?! :O Anyway this didn't turn out exactly the same, but still very satisfying!
Surprized to find that they puff up, even without any rising agent! Probably should have poked holes, but they look so cute and puffy ☺

I used about half the dough for this amount, the rest is in my freezer! Perhaps some sundried tomato crackers next time?

Yum yum. Great as a snack or appetiser! The sesame seeds really add a fragrant, nutty aroma ☺

Oil-Free Roasted Bell-Pepper Hummus

Ingredients

• 240g cooked chickpeas (or about 1 can drained)
• a handful of parsley
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• a few cracks of black pepper and black sea salt
• water (enough to blend until smooth)
• 1 medium red, yellow or green bell pepper, or just 1/4 of each if you're dividing up the hummus like I did
• Suggested additional ingredients:
• Red - chili flakes, cayenne pepper
  Yellow - turmeric, curry powder
  Green - salt free seasoning

Method

1. Roast the bell peppers on a lightly greased baking sheet at 180 deg C for about 20-30 mins, or until slightly charred at the edges.
2. Blend all other ingredients well, adding water when necessary.
3. Blend in the roasted bell peppers (with skin) and any other ingredients. Enjoy with crackers, falafel or raw veggies!

Basic Savoury Chia Crackers

Ingredients

• 150g wholewheat flour + more for dusting
• 100ml water
• 1 level tbsp chia seeds
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• salt to taste (I used 2 cracks black sea salt)
• dried parsley flakes

Method

1. Mix all ingredients together. Knead with hands until a dough is formed.
2. Flour a clean surface (and your hands and the rolling pin; it sticks to everything!) and roll out the dough, until as thin as possible (about 3-4 mm).
3. Use cookie cutters or a knife to cut out shapes. If you don't want the crackers to puff up, poke holes with a fork. To add seeds/dried herbs on top, dab a bit of water on them first so they'll stick.
4. Bake at 180 deg C on a lightly greased baking sheet for about 8 mins.

It's my third time making falafel! And as always, though they're simple they taste so good! Perhaps anything with chickpeas taste good ☺And of course, I made some heart-shaped ones too.

They are so addictive; I just treat them as savoury truffles and eat them out of the fridge cold. Lols ^^

Baked Pumpkin & Beetroot Falafel

Makes about 24 small balls

Ingredients

• 240g (about 1 1/2 cup) cooked dried/ canned chickpeas
• 80g pumpkin puree
• 30g beetroot shreds
• 2 tbsp flour (I used spelt)
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
• 1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
• sea salt to taste (I used black sea salt)

Method

1. Pulse chickpeas in a food processor until you get a powdery mash, though small chunks are fine. If using canned chickpeas (which are softer), just mash with a fork.
2. Stir in all the other ingredients. If using canned chickpeas, less pumpkin may be needed.
3. Using your hands, evenly incorporate all the ingredients. Form small balls/ other shapes and place on a lightly greased baking sheet.
4. Bake at 180 deg C in a preheated oven for 25-30mins, or until golden brown (though it can be hard to tell as they're so orangy-pink in colour!) Flip them over midway if you'd like (I didn't bother doing this and it turned out fine ☺) Cool and enjoy immediately for the best texture!

The falafel was so crispy on the outside, yet soft and moist on the inside! I had it with shirataki noodles (which were about to expire, oops). Shirataki is a low calorie (~4 kcal/serve), low carbohydrate, low fat, gluten free and high fibre food. They're made from konjac, which is the root of a plant. It comes in other shapes too - like rice, which reminds me, I bought a pack of 'Miracle Rice' over half a year ago and haven't tried it! -_- I'm not really for anything low-carb but they're so convenient; they don't even have to be cooked! I just rinse and drain them. A drawback though, is that it's expensive. One pack (one serving) costs a little over SGD$2 (I got mine from the Japanese supermarket at Star Vista). I mixed two packs here to get both black and white noodles!

Shirataki noodles with a beetroot tomato sauce, falafel balls, white button mushroom, falafel and yellow bell pepper. And not to forget - nutritional yeast! No pasta will be complete without it ☺

First time actually using english parsley! It looks so pretty. And it lasts way longer than the chinese parsley that I usually use. Though the taste isn't the same, nor as nice! 

For the sauce, I blended 1/2 medium tomato, 1/4 medium red bell pepper, 5 dried cherry tomatoes, 3 tbsp beetroot shreds, a crack of black sea salt and a dash of cayenne pepper. It was so yummy!

Lols I tried to plate the noodles in a high-class-restaurant kinda way. I failed hahaha. Shirataki noodles are very hard to twirl! And I guess high class restaurants don't serve so much food on one plate :x

I love having fruit platters! They're so simple to prepare and yet they naturally taste great and look so pretty! ☺ I usually have them for breakfast, as a snack or as a part of lunch.

 

This one here is my favourite so far - because of how colourful it is! Though I did break many fruit combining rules lols :x

Strawberries, orange, watermelon, plum and frozen banana slices and grapes, with hemp hearts and cacao nibs. If you've not tried freezing your fruit before, do try them! They take on a completely different texture - ice-cream-y for bananas, sorbet-y for grapes etc.

 

See the creepy smiley face? ^^ Green kiwi, golden kiwi, orange, apple, frozen blueberries and grapes. The green mush is just 1/4 avocado.

This is my most recent one! Black figs, pomegranate arils, blueberries, black grapes, strawberries, frozen bananas and mint! The brown squggle is raw chocolate, made of raw cacao and coconut oil. It hardened into a 'hard-shell'! Bananas + Chocolate = ♥♥♥

This was my first time having figs at home! I thought I missed the fig season and I was so happy to find it in the supermarket over the weekend ☺

Starfruit, strawberry, lime, persimmon, orange, banana, blueberries, black grapes, coconut flakes and hemp hearts. I thought this looked ugly so I didn't post it on Instagram..

My very first fruit platter! Banana, kiwi, orange, frozen raspberries, white dragonfruit and a tangy dressing made of 2 parts banana, 1 part raw tahini and 1 part lemon juice.

 

Have fun creating and enjoying your own fruit platter! ☺

Pan-fried Cinnamon Steel Cut Oatmeal. Topped & Layered with warm Strawberries & Blueberries, and Vanilla Coconut Molasses creme sauce, plated with Spicy Chocolate Ganache. Garnished with Mint Leaves, a Chocolate Heart (that melted too fast) and a crack of Black Sea Salt.

This is another entry for the Nom Yourself Birthday Challenge, together with my Vanilla Rainbow Pancakes! ☺

This was kinda tedious too, with 4 different things to prepare:

1. Pan-fried Oatmeal

2. Spicy Chocolate Ganache

3. Vanilla Coconut Molasses creme sauce

4. Warmed Strawberries & Blueberries

It was my first time pan frying an oatmeal cake! It crackled a lot and occasionally there were bits of oatmeal popping and flying out! :O Also my first try at drawing with chocolate. It was tough because my hand is so unstable! Hence the wobbly lines and hearts. 

A lovely mix of different tastes - sweet (oatmeal), sour (strawberries), salty (black sea salt), bitter (chocolate) and spicy (chocolate). The outer parts of the oatmeal cakes were crispy and the insides were soft and chewy! ☺

Pan-fried Cinnamon Steel Cut Oatmeal
Serves 1

Ingredients

• 75g steel cut oats
• water
• 1 cinnamon stick and/or ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp maple syrup or other sweetener if desired
• coconut oil

Method

1. Soak steel cut oats in water overnight.
2. Cook oats with cinnamon and stir in maple syrup.
3. Cut out a piece of baking paper and place into a large glass or a muffin pan.
4. Pour oats into the glass and leave to cool. It will thicken. Leave in refrigerator if you'd like it to cool faster!
5. Once oats thicken, turn it out onto a flat surface and remove the baking paper. Cut in half if the oatmeal is too 'tall'.
6. Oil a non-stick pan with coconut oil. Fry the oat cakes. Enjoy!

Spicy Chocolate Ganache
Serves 1-2

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 2 level tbsp raw cacao (or cocoa)
• 1/6 - 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp pure maple syrup

Method

1. While stirring, add in cacao to the coconut oil, 1/2 tsp at a time. Stop when it is thick, yet still flowy.
2. Stir in the cayenne pepper and maple syrup. It will thicken once you add in the maple syrup.
3. If piping, pour into a pastry piping bag or a small plastic sandwich bag and cut off a tiny corner.
4. If not using immediately, chill in the refrigerator and remove from the refrigerator about 10 mins before using.

Vanilla Coconut Molasses creme sauce
Serves 1-2

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp or more molasses (I used only a little because I didn't want the colour too dark!)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method
Mix all ingredients together.

Eat Your Rainbows, literally.

Vanilla Rainbow Pancakes layered with Banana slices, topped with a Coconut Tahini Glaze, Pomegranate and Hemp Hearts. With a strawberry and blueberries at the side. 

This is a recreation of one of Nom Yourself's dishes on Instagram, for the Nom Yourself Birthday Challenge. How exciting!! I would LOVE a Vitamix! And the Nom Yourself Cookbook! What I've seen so far on the #cookyourself hashtag looks amazing; not getting my hopes up but still, crossing all fingers and toes. :x

Even if I don't get shortlisted, I'm glad I've done this! The most tedious pancake-making to date! But I've been wanting to try something like this for quite some time now, so I'm super super duper glad with how the colours turned out! I was expecting more faint colours, as is usually the case with natural colouring, but it turned out wonderful ☺

 

Red: Beetroot Juice - stir in 1 tbsp water to 2 tbsp beetroot shreds and press the juice out

Orange: Carrot Shreds - about 1 tbsp

Yellow: Turmeric Powder - about 1/3 tsp

Green: Matcha Powder - 1 slightly rounded tsp

Blue: Purple (or Red) Cabbage Juice - boil about 1 cup chopped cabbage in about 1/3 cup water, then wait for the water to reduce as much as possible, or about 3 tbsp.

Purple: Purple Cabbage Juice and Beetroot Juice - roughly equal parts for each, though it also depends on how concentrated each juice is.

*Note: Colours turn darker after batter is cooked

 

Yes, I know the blue and purple are at wrong positions, but the blue pancake is my favourite of all of these! Not that it's my favourite colour (which is pink) but I didn't expect the colour to be so intense! ☺

I tried cooking the carrots the same way as the purple cabbage, but it didn't work. The method for the beetroot juice didn't work well for the carrots too, and I don't have a juicer. So I just used the carrot shreds; it turned out a bit lumpy but it's still good!

Didn't expect the turmeric to be so strong (colour-wise) and it turned out kinda orange! :x Surprisingly though, I didn't detect a turmeric taste when I was eating, perhaps because of the wonderful glaze!

The green in the matcha pancake was darker than I wanted it to be... A better alternative would be spinach, which sadly I'm out of.

 

The glaze was amazing. Mopped it all up, drizzled on some more and then mopped it all up again. I'd never have thought of using coconut milk for this! It's made with 2 tbsp coconut milk, 1 tsp raw tahini and 1 tsp maple syrup. Fragrant creaminess with just the right touch of sweetness.

I'm also super happy with how the pancakes turned out! Other than the colourings and some water, I used sifted wholewheat flour, vanilla essence, chia seeds and baking powder (totally forgot to add any sweetener). They were fluffy, thicker than my usual pancakes and not dry at all! Usually I have some sort of puree as a binder in my pancakes - banana puree, mango puree, persimmon puree or applesauce. But I wanted to keep it simple this time.. Actually I'm glad that they even turned out at all!

Maybe it's partially because I used a new pan! I bought a small pink (!) pan from Daiso ($2 shop) just for pancakes and crepes. It's actually non-stick, but the non-stick effect kinda wore out after my third pancake -_- Plus some parts of the base of the pan (originally pink) turned white, and some parts turned black, though I used low heat. And the handle conducts heat so I had to use a kitchen towel to hold it. Oh well, I shouldn't have such high expectations for a $2 product! It served me well for these pancakes anyway. ^^

I layered the pancakes with banana slices, but as you can see here I didn't lay them out quite evenly.. :x

A rainbow in your mouth.

 

Vanilla Rainbow Pancakes
Serves 1, though I'd suggest you make more to make the most out of your effort!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sifted wholewheat or white flour
• 2 level tsp chia seeds
• 3/4 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp maple syrup (or more), if desired
• Water
• Natural Colourings:
• Red: Beetroot Juice - stir in 1 tbsp water to 2 tbsp beetroot shreds and press the juice out
  Orange: Carrot Shreds - about 1 tbsp
  Yellow: Turmeric Powder - about 1/3 tsp (Alternative: saffron)
  Green: Matcha Powder - 1 slightly rounded tsp (Alternative: spinach)
  Blue: Purple (or Red) Cabbage Juice - boil about 1 cup chopped cabbage in about 1/3 cup water, then wait for the water to reduce as much as possible, or about 3 tbsp.
  Purple: Purple Cabbage Juice and Beetroot Juice - roughly equal parts for each, though the colour also depends on how concentrated each juice is.
  *Note: Colours turn darker after batter is cooked

Method

1. Mix together flour, chia seeds, vanilla essence and baking powder.
2. Divide evenly into 6 bowls.
3. Mix in each of the natural colourings to respective bowls. Add 1/2 tsp maple syrup to each bowl. Stir in water (about 2-3 tbsp) until it reaches pancake batter consistency.
4. Make sure that each bowl of batter is left to sit for about 10 minutes. You may need to add in 1-2 tbsp water as the batter thickens.
5. Cook on a non-stick pan, greased with oil spray. Each colour batter makes one pancake. Flip once bubbles form.

Coconut Tahini Glaze
Serves 1

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp coconut milk
• 1 tsp raw tahini (only ingredient is sesame seeds)
• 1 tsp maple syrup

Method
Mix all ingredients together. Add more sweetener if desired. Drizzle over pancakes and enjoy!
 

 What's best with Raw Almond Milk? Raw 3-ingredient Cookies! ^^ These are super simple to make, and are soft and crumbly at room temperature, and chewy when frozen/refrigerated. The 3 ingredients are: almond pulp (of course), medjool dates and raw tahini!

I dried the almond pulp a little because it was still kinda clumpy. Also, I kept it in the fridge so it'll get more moist at room temperature because of condensation! Since I don't have a dehydrator, I left this in my oven for 1.5h, with the fan on, and the temperature turned to below 50 deg C.

Then, I pulsed 2 dates (edit: use 2-4 dates depending on desired consistency) in a food processor, with 1 tbsp water (would this count as an ingredient? o_o) because it didn't turn very well. It should form a thick paste. Added it to the dried almond pulp. ...Yes I know what it looks like :x Lols
Mix well and add about 4 tbsp raw tahini, or until the dough holds when you press it together! Shape the dough into cookies, or use a cookie cutter to mold it if you'd like (usually I would but I was lazy this time hehe).

This is the tahini I use. It's just made of hulled sesame seeds and it tastes great!

Optional add-ins: black sesame seeds, cacao nibs, hemp hearts.
Other ideas: goji berries, chia seeds, coconut flakes.
I just pressed the cookies into them but you could mix them in too! ☺

They're yummy just as they are, but I really love them frozen! They don't freeze solid but they'll have a lovely chewiness! Though my fingers do freeze a bit when holding them lols. Luckily they're just 2-bite cookies. ☺

Enjoyed with a cold glass of almond milk on a hot day. Bliss.

Of course I didn't eat them all in one sitting, but I did finish them in 24 hours. I want more! ♡‿♡

Raw 3-Ingredient Almond Pulp Cookies

Makes about 16 addictive two-bite cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup almond pulp
• 2 large medjool dates
• about 4 tbsp raw tahini
• 1 tbsp water, if needed
• Optional add-ins: black sesame seeds, cacao nibs, hemp hearts

Method

1. Dry the almond pulp if it is damp or clumpy.
2. In a food processor, blend 2 medjool dates into a thick paste. Add 1 tbsp water if needed.
3. Add date paste and almond pulp together and mix in about 4 tbsp raw tahini, or until the dough holds when you press it together. Shape the dough into cookies, or use a cookie cutter to mold it.
4. Roll in, or roll it in, whatever nuts/seeds you want.
5. Enjoy immediately, or freeze for at least 20 minutes before savouring each bite ♡

Variations
Next time, I'll try it with black tahini, and perhaps other nut butters too!
And maybe add in some superfood powders: cacao, maca, acai etc.

What do you do with your almond pulp? ^^