Looks like a greasy plate of fried food (..at least it does to me) but of course it's not! ☺ Crispy Oil-Free Oven-Baked Fries with a huge dollop of freshly made Orange-Ginger Guacamole. 

 

This was dinner a week ago and I'd love to have it now! Great as a snack too ;)

The fries are made of a small block tofu, a small carrot, a small Japanese sweet potato and a small orange sweet potato.

 

Tofu fries! I froze a small block of firm tofu overnight, then left it in the chiller for a day. This makes it easy to press the liquid out and it becomes chewier and spongy! ☺

Carrot fries. They didn't turn out as crispy, but still so good!

Super crispy orange sweet potato chips! These were so good. Usually I don't like orange sweet potato as much as Jap sweet potato because it isn't as sweet, but it tasted super yummy as chips!

Jap sweet potato fries! I made something similar earlier and I think this has a crispier coating, but it's not as savoury - I skimped on the nutritional yeast here; I'm nearly out! :X Hehe. Feel free to add more nutritional yeast if you'd like.

 

Fries with Guac is such a great combination!

The Orange-Ginger Guacamole I made here was actually just a bunch of things I threw together, but it tasted good! It was light and tangy.

Crispy, oil-free, oven-baked tofu goodness ♡‿♡ 

 I'll try this with zucchini and tempeh next time!
 

 

Crispy Oil-Free Oven-Baked Fries

For the crispy coating, mix together:

• 3 tbsp oat flour (rolled oats pulsed in food processor)
• 2 heaped tbsp flaxseed meal
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (or more if you'd like)
• 1/2 tsp salt free seasoning (or a mix of dried herbs)
• 1/2 tsp curry powder
• dash of cayenne & cracked black pepper
• salt to taste (optional)
• [this is enough for about 3/2 of the amount of chips/fries shown here]

Method:

1. Cut up desired veggies or tofu into fries or chips.
2. Toss well in the coating. Press some of the coating on to ensure that it sticks, and lightly shake excess off.
3. Lay out on a well oiled baking sheet and bake at 180 deg C in a preheated oven. The sweet potato chips take about 25 mins, the tofu & sweet potato fries about 30 mins and the carrots about 35-40 mins.
4. You can flip the chips/fries over midway through baking, but I found that it's not necessary.
5. When done, leave to cool slightly and consume immediately.

Orange-Ginger Guacamole
Serves 1 as shown here, double/triple/quadruple this to your liking! ☺

Blend the following together:

• 1/4 avocado
• 1/4 cup cooked edamame (green peas will work too!)
• 1 tsp PB
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp orange zest (omit of you don't want that slight bitterness)
• Juice & pulp of 1/2 a sweet, medium orange
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• chili flakes

Enjoy!



By the way, did you know that tofu is an animal? XD

A photo from June I forgot to post - The Flower Dome at Gardens of the Bay

This is so overdue. Haven't been posting much (on here and on Instagram too!) :X As expected, July was busy. But it was also such a horrible, tiring month. Okay, so there were some good parts. But mostly it was like... bad. :( The saddest I've felt in a long long time. Sometimes I'd ask myself (in my head lols), "Is life good?" and usually my answer is Yes. Because no matter what there'll always be something to look forward to, I guess. But no. For most of last month my answer was No. Sigh. And occasionally I'd be in cry-on-demand state. I think it's the (school) stress, but perhaps something(s) else too. Hormones? Nutritional deficencies? Oh well. And I don't usually share these kinda stuff with my friends. But they have helped :) ♡♡♡

Okay something more positive now! Or not. Monkeys came into my house one day while my family was out and stole my bananas (and some bread) -_- And they didn't even finish eating it. And so I was banana-less for a day. Lols. And it's not the first & last time that monkeys have come. A couple of Wednesdays ago, I was in the kitchen when I heard doors and windows slamming shut and the shouts of my neighbour ("Get out!") Haha. Then I saw the monkey on my balcony (It landed with a loud thump! It jumped over from my neighbour's balcony.) And so I ran to the balcony door and closed it. Afterwards I heard from my dad that a monkey went up to another neighbour's house upstairs, into the bedroom (directly above mine) and scratched his daughter. :O How scary. Now we keep the kitchen windows closed. o_o

See. Eww. And the rest of the bananas were out the window. Such a wasteful monkey :x

Also, I made chocolate for the first time! It was amazing. ♡♡♡

Oh yes, and remember how in my The Month of June post I said that in July I'd not eat after 8? Well, I failed =_= The first week went well.. then I went back to my old habits of just eating the whole night. Though I don't really get hungry after dinner. Actually it was mostly because of stress, I've realised. Like the second week of June was super stressful and so I fell off the wagon. (And didn't get back up again) Though sometimes I find it hard to finish eating at 8pm because sometimes by the time I reach home from school, it's nearly 7. (Afterwhich I'll eat some fruits, cook, bathe, then have dinner!) So on a few occasions I rush to finish my dinner by 8, which totally defeats the purpose. I tried to stop eating at 8 after the first week, but I only lasted until 9. Oh well.
At least I've learnt that: 1. I don't really listen to my body's fullness signal, I just finish everything that I start eating. 2. I often eat because of stress, boredom, to procrastinate, and not because of real hunger. 3. I should have better self-control!

YES. ME.

(btw this and the following photos are not mine!)

A lot of my 'hunger' falls under enotional hunger..

And I also mentioned previously that I'll drink at least a cup a day of soymilk. So on nearly all days last month, I did. But I've decided to stop, partly because I feel no need for milk/mylk and also because I think it gives me gas :X Lols. And there's also the controversy about soy and whether it's good for you. Well, I don't really know if it's true that it's bad, but it's still a gazillion times better than meat! I can't do without tofu, tempeh and edamame! ;)

Of course, with stress, overeating and lack of exercise comes poor body image. Sigh. Well this helps:

And now I'd just like to share some interesting stuff that I've screen-shot-ed last month! :)

♡ I LOVE this quote! ♡

And this too! Yes, it's not as difficult as you'd think. @VeganTweeter has such great tweets. And I also like @healthygirltip! ☺

Yep. Found this a long long time ago.

Also.. I've realised that I don't enjoy learning nutrition for meat-eaters. Because it's really not what I believe in and know to be true. Sigh. There is not such thing as a nutrition school for Vegans right? ☹☹☹

LOL. But still, how sad for the chickens.

☹

Such a cute cow ♡

Long winded but makes lotsa sense!

Going for Bikram yoga tomorrow after not going for 2 Saturdays! Yay!

Hopefully someday I'll be able to do these poses this well! So far only my corpse pose is fine LOL. And sometimes I still fidget or close my eyes :x

So for the next 3 weeks I'll have a presentation, a test and 3 exams >< Can't wait for August to end! Hope you're having a better month than I am; have a great day ahead! ♡ (Lols I typed this out near midnight when I was so tired & now that it's morning I realized that there's so many mistakes!)

A tart that failed.

Or maybe not really.

So I called it a Cake-Tart.

Persimmon Cake-Tart filled with grape pudding and pink beetroot pudding, topped with blueberries, coconut flakes and cacao nibs. ☺

It didn't hold together as I took it out of the pan, so I stuffed it into this dish instead.

I made my first Instavid for this! ^^

The texture is somewhat candy-like, if that makes any sense. Sweet without any added sugar, and the texture is crumbly yet stick-in-your-teeth-y. Really so good. ;)

I tried it again as a cake! I used a slightly larger and riper persimmon for this and didn't have to add any water to the batter.

Pureed persimmon tastes way better than any jam oh gosh. ♡♡♡

Stuffed it with blueberry tofu pudding and topped it with more blueberries, hemp hearts and coconut flakes. The pudding looks so.. bleugh here. :X

'Cleaned up' the pudding. Looks better ☺ I added a natural dried apricot and some cacao nibs to the batter for this.

This didn't turn out as 'candy-like' as the cake-tart, probably because I baked it at a higher temperature!

The last mouthful.

If anyone has noticed, Mondays are usually Baking with Oatmeal or Baked Oatmeal days! ☺

Persimmon Oat Cake

Serves 1

Ingredients

• 1 medium ripe persimmon
• 1/2 cup oat flour (rolled oats pulsed in a food processor)
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• optional: 2 tbsp water if your persimmon doesn't puree well
• spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger

Method

1. Puree the persimmon (with skin) in a food processor until smooth. Add 1-2 tbsp water if needed.
2. Mix in oat flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices.
3. Oil a pie pan. Pour the dough in and smooth it out. Dough will be thick and sticky.
4. Bake at 180 deg C in a preheated oven for 20-25 mins, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool and enjoy! ☺

Tofu Pudding
This is very versatile and works well with nearly any fruit/sweet vegetable! Blueberries, grapes, banana, beetroot etc. Or try adding cocoa/cacao too ☺

Ingredients

• 1/2 tube (125g) silken tofu
• 2 tsp psyllium husk (flaxseed meal works too, but you may need to use more)
• liquid sweetener to taste
• fruit/sweet vegetable (I added a small handful of blueberries for this blueberry tofu mousse)

Method
Blend add ingredients together. Let it sit for at least 15 mins as it thickens. If you find it too thick, add some plant milk/water/more watery fruit. Chill in fridge if desired.

No Added Sugar Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins!

This recipe is adapted from V's Kitchen, and I saw Mr & Mrs Vegan make a delicious looking one on Instagram! ☺

The change I made was to omit the 1/2 cup olive oil (I ran out) and replace it with soymilk and peanut butter. It turned out a bit kueh-like (which is always the case when oil is omitted) but I found it really enjoyable!

Bananas + Chocolate + Peanut Butter is always a winning combination ;)

Made mostly with oat flour because I ran out of my usual spelt flour! Surprisingly, it didn't turn out dense and hard-as-a-rock, but its was moist and fluffy! I found it bit too much on the moist side at first, but after cooling properly it firmed up. And this also means that leaving it in the fridge for a couple of days won't make it dry out too much! ☺

I used homemade chocolate for this. I stirred the batter too much after adding in the chocolate, so they kinda melted and disappeared into the batter. :X

These photos were taken a day after baking, by the way.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Makes 10 medium-sized muffins

 

Ingredients

• 4 medium-sized ripe bananas (I used 3 large)
• 1 1/2 cup flour (I used 1/4 cup spelt flour and 1 1/4 cup oat flour)
• 150ml soymilk/other milk of choice*
• 1/4 cup natural peanut butter*
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1/4 cup chopped up chocolate (I used homemade dark chocolate)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• Note: For a less kueh-like (low-fat) texture, use 1/2 cup oil in place of soymilk and PB

Method

 

1. Mash/puree the bananas.
2. Blend soymilk and PB together.
3. Add the PB mixture and vanilla essence to bananas and mix well.
4. Mix in the flour, baking powder and baking soda.
5. Fold in the chia seeds and chocolate.
6. Pour into well-oiled muffin cups (fill almost all the way up) and bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for 35-40 mins, or until toothpick poked in the center comes out clean. Cool and enjoy!

 

Peanut Butter Banana Cups!

My first try at making PB cups and chocolate from scratch! ☺

I've only tried Reese's PB cups once so I don't know how this measures up, but it was GOOD.

Perhaps I shouldn't compare.

A thick dark chocolate shell that cracks to reveal creamy peanut butter and melty, sweet banana.

The top layer looks a lighter shade than the bottom layer because I tried adding some soymilk to make the chocolate less thick - I added too much cocoa/carob powder and the chocolate became a thick, unflowy lump. >< But don't bother with the soymilk, it doesn't help!

Added cacao nibs on top to cover up the uneveness of the chocolate! :X I'm glad I did it though, gives a different texture and crunch!

I used silicon baking cups from Daiso (a $2 store). ☺

I probably have a million food-related items from Daiso in my kitchen now.

I used the remaining chocolate to make chocolate bark! But because I added too much cocoa/carob powder, it became too thick to pour -_-

Topped this with dried cranberries and freeze dried pineapple.

They do melt very quickly though :X

Next time, I'll try this with raw cacao and raw nut butter! ☺ And make sure I don't add too much cacao!!

Homemade Dark Chocolate
Recipe adapted from Veggienook
Can be made raw!
Rich and amazing.
This tastes slightly sweeter than Lindt's 99% chocolate. (Which I LOVED until I bought cacao nibs) So feel free to add more maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener) accordingly!
At first, I added 50g cocoa/carob to 50g coconut oil, but it was too thin. Then I added 15g more cocoa/carob, but it became too thick. So I added 20g coconut oil. It remained thick. -_- So.. just watch the amount of cocoa/carob/cacao you add in!!

Ingredients

• 70g coconut oil, melted
• 50-65g cocoa, carob, or raw cacao powder (or a mix of these)
• 3 tbsp maple syrup, or more to taste

Method

1. Sift cocoa into the melted coconut oil. Start with 50g. Mix well.
2. Add in the maple syrup. Mix well.
3. If chocolate is too thin, add in more cocoa, 5g at a time.
4. Once desired consistency is reached, pour into molds or a tray and freeze for at least 30 mins.

PB Banana Cups

Ingredients

• homemade dark chocolate
• peanut butter (or other nut butter of choice)
• banana, thinly sliced
• cacao nibs (optional)

Method

1. Press/pour chocolate into small silicon molds.
2. If your chocolate is liquidy, freeze for 10 mins before continuing. If your chocolate is thick, skip this step.
3. Place 1 banana slice on the chocolate.
4. Drop about 3/4 tsp of peanut butter onto the banana slice.
5. Place another banana slice on top.
6. Press/pour in more chocolate
7. Add cacao nibs on top if desired.
8. Freeze for at least 30 mins. Enjoy! ☺

Beet Burger & Sweet Potato Fries. Beetroot patty, romaine lettuce, tomato, avocado and a drizzle of black tahini in a multigrain bun (from Swissbake). And crispy baked sweet potato fries.

Made this for a school project for my Applied Nutrition module! We were supposed to cook a meal for an assigned subject (my group's subject is a lactating woman who doesn't enjoy eating vegetables) plan a One Day Meal plan, present about her energy & nutrient needs, and do a role play. x_x

This was Trial 1 that I did by myself.

With an amazing (storebought, sadly) Wholegrain Rice Black Galangal Dressing (more about this dressing at the end of this post). Everyone who tried it liked it! :O Lols the bottle was supposed to be finished within 2 weeks because there's no preservatives. :X But it still tasted fine today so. ☺

 

This was Trial 2 with my groupmates, Ee Rong and Qian Yun! ☺

 

We added an egg.. because it's a bit too unrealistic for a veggie-hating person to eat vegan food. ... Actually not really, I think. But just in order to not get marked down by people who teach us that meat is good. If you're a vegan/vegetarian studying regular nutrition.. you'd probably know that feeling. Why are we being taught wrong things. I don't get why they teach us meat is good for us when it's not. I don't get why they teach us milk is wonderful for us when it promotes osteoporosis. I don't get why they tell us to limit fruit intake and that coconut fat is bad. I don't get why people don't care about the animals. Whywhywhywhywhy. WHY.

Okay, I guess I used to think that it was impossible for me to go vegan/vegetarian. But once I actually thought about it and read some books the change was quite quick. The key is to just think about it.

 

Negativity over. Back to food! That sauce in the burger is made of natural peanut butter and light soy sauce. We didn't use this in the end though - the meal would've had too many calories!

 

We made this in our school kitchen today! This is the final one. ☺ Came out great! Served with lemon-infused sparkling water. And I used a food processor for the first time today. Wow. All I have at home is a tiny chopper attachment that comes with my blender. Life would be so much easier with a food processor.

The beetroot patty turned out darker than in Trial 1. Taste improved too! Classmates liked it yay ☺

 

These are all of the meals made by my class. They were assigned other subjects such as 1 year old child, overweight boy and pregnant woman. ☺

 

 

 

 

These are probably two of the most tested recipes here. Lols. 3 times for the beetroot patty and 5 times for the sweet potato fries.

 

Vegan Beetroot Patties

Makes 3

 

Ingredients

• 130g uncooked beetroot
• 45g cooked red/brown rice (cooked just until it's chewy; not too much)
• 65g cooked lentils
• 1/2 - 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 heaped tbsp flaxseed meal + more*
• 2 heaped tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp salt free seasoning (I used McCormick Perfect Pinch All Purpose) or a mix of dried spices
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 4 sprays Bragg's liquid aminos/2 tsp light soy sauce (or more to taste)
• 1 tbsp coconut/olive oil
• *Note: Sometimes variation in the moisture of the first 3 ingredients may lead to a more mushier patty. Add more flaxseed meal until patty can hold together well.

Method

1. Pulse beetroot in a food processor until finely chopped.
2. Add in all the other ingredients except olive oil and mix well.
3. Pulse the mix in a food processor until uniform and it holds together. But don't pulse too much, so it'll still have a nice texture.
4. Using your hands, divide into 3 and form into patties.
5. Heat up the oil in a shallow frying pan.
6. Place patties in the pan. Fry for about 3 minutes on each side, or until nicely browned.

 

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Serves 1

 

Crispy outside and soft inside! Sweet and savoury. So very yummy! ☺ The addition of the flour helps to make it crispier. And make sure to spread out the fries and not clutter them together! Also, the sweet potato itself makes a difference in the taste. We only used Japanese sweet potatoes, which are the sweetest, and yet the fries made with different sweet potatoes kinda vary slightly in taste. Depends on your luck, I guess! :X

 

 

Ingredients

• 115g sweet potato
• 1-2 tsp olive oil
• 2 tsp flaxseed meal
• 2 tsp flour (I used wholewheat spelt)
• 2 tsp nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
2. Cut sweet potato into the shape of fries.
3. Coat in oil.
4. Add all the other ingredients and toss well.
5. Spread out on a well-oiled baking sheet.
6. Bake for about 20 minutes, turning once midway.
7. Remove from oven and enjoy immediately ☺
    

Me, Ee Rong and Qian Yun. Last Applied Nutrition Practical! ☺☺☺