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? ^^

You know those days when you just don't feel like doing anything? Yup, it's one of those days. The nice cooling weather from the whole morning of rain totally isn't helping either! So I was planning to make a crepe or a single serve cake slice for breakfast but I ended up just having oatmeal and fruits, while looking at the blogs of fellow VeganMofo-ers through the wonderful blog generator, randomofo.com! And then I also intended to make a lovely shepard's pie, as seen on One Ingredient Chef, but I wasn't feeling it either (though I have cooked lentils in the freezer!). And then I could also have written a review of Onaka, a restaurant at ARC (Alexandra Retail Centre), which I've been putting of since Saturday when my family ate there. Well, it's clearly a lazy day, and it's the school holidays, so why fight it? ^^ Haha.

 

So for lunch, I used 1/2 cup of frozen coconut curry sauce, left over from Sunday dinner that Dad cooked, some cherry tomatoes that were going to spoil (they were slightly mouldy at the stalk end, which I chopped off), already-skinned jicama, mini portobellos (that have been in the fridge for a week), pea sprouts and alfalfa (both of which can't keep long). I topped it with black sesame seeds. I would've added some nutritional yeast but I was too lazy to open the new tub and find somewhere in my overcrowded cupboards to store it.

 

Lols this doesn't sound very appetising. But actually it was not bad. :x After melting the curry, I added the tomatoes first (I don't usually cook my tomatoes but I did so as a safety precaution. Hehe), then the pea sprouts and mushrooms and stirred it around for a couple of minutes before turning off the heat. Then I added the cubed jicama. I love that it gives such a juicy and refreshing crunch! After that, I poured it into an alfalfa nest in this bowl! ☺

I shall call this Leftovers Curry Stew.

Actually most of my lunches/dinners at home (that I don't Instagram) are somewhat like this, though without the curry, and with more ingredients!

 

Usually it goes like this, with one from each of the first 3 categories, and a few from the last 2.

Leaves: 1/2 cabbage, one pack of leafy greens

Starch: 1 medium Japanese sweet potato (my fave!) or other sweet potatoes, about 3/4 cup pumpkin, a few tbsp rolled oats

Protein-y stuff: 1 block firm tofu (150g), 1 tube silken tofu (250g), 1 pack tempeh (the 50 cent kind from Sheng Siong)

Others: 1 medium carrot, 8 cherry tomatoes, a couple of mushrooms

Spices & such: curry powder, turmeric, cracked black pepper, salt-free seasoning, nutritional yeast, parsley, lemon juice

Then I'll cook it with a bit of water in a non-stick pan at low heat! ☺

 

Now I'm off to go grocery shopping for the Nom Yourself Birthday Contest! I'd love love love to win a Vitamix. And the Nom Yourself Cookbook! Ahh so exciting!

First time making raw almond milk, or any kind of milk actually! It was really simple! I saw a post from Choosing Raw, which recommended 1 part nuts to 4 parts water. But I found that 1 part almonds to about 3.5 parts water is just the right consistency for me! ☺ I've not tried store bought almond milk yet though, so I don't know how it compares. I was actually expecting more of a similar taste to that of almond powder (used in almond jelly and such) but it was a really mild aroma that I have no idea how to describe. And I was hoping to like it more but... I still prefer soymilk and oatmilk! But this was an interesting experience. And I put the leftover almond pulp to good use by making Raw Cookies!

For this, I used 130g almonds, roughly 3 cups water and 1 medjool date to sweeten.

Step 1: Soak the almonds for at least 8 hours/overnight. This removes enzyme inhibitors (phytic acid) and makes it easier to digest. Also, it'll be easier on your blender! ☺

Step 2: Drain and rinse almonds, then add water and blend!

Blended it for a bit before adding a date. It became milky really quickly, even in my cheap blender!

Step 3: Remove the pulp! I didn't have a nut milk bag or a cheese cloth. So I used a used a powder sieve, bought from Daiso.

Poured it in and the sieve worked quite well for this at first!

But as you can see this didn't work very well; the pulp was still very moist even when I pressed it with my spatula.

I ended up using a really thin cloth to squeeze the pulp. It came up to about 100ml more! (this photo was taken before using the cloth) Total was about 800ml.

Drier almond pulp! \o/

This was put to good use in my 3-ingredient Raw Cookies.

Step 4: Enjoy the fruits (or milk) of your labour!

So this method was quite effective! If I make any other nut milk or this again, I'll probably use the sieve and the cloth until I find a cheap cheese cloth or nut milk bag! ☺

  Bibimbap is a Korean dish, and it literally means 'mixed rice'. This is my (very un-authentic)  take on bibimbap, and I've made it into a refreshing, somewhat cold meal! Perhaps I should call it a bibimbap-inspired salad.

Here's the 'rice' I used. As the title of this post states, it's a 'bap-less' (rice-less) bibimbap! This looks like rice (actually more like porridge; my food processor thing didn't work very well for this) but actually it's jicama (turnip) rice! I pulsed jicama chunks in my food processor until it looks like rice. I made about 1 cup for this. Jicama has a mild, very slightly sweet taste with a bit of a crunch. Great for making rice-less sushi too! An alternative for real rice or jicama rice would be cauliflower rice, or caulirice. It's made using grated cauliflower florets. I prefer jicama for the raw taste isn't that strong.

For the toppings, I used raw vegetables -japanese cucumber, alfalfa, cherry tomatoes, yellow bell pepper-, blanched soy bean sprouts (I don't like them raw >< ) and coconutty tempeh - simply tempeh slices pan fried in a bit of coconut oil. I used one that has a stronger coconut scent; the brand is Parachute.

This will work with any vegetables you like! ☺

I assembled everything and topped it with some (store-bought) kimchi.

Then I added some bibimbap sauce (added more later) and mixed everything up! Next time though, I'll cut my vegetables thinner! :x

 

For the sauce, I roughly followed a recipe from Crazy Korean Cooking. I stirred together:

1 tbsp gochujang (red chili paste), 1 1/2 tsp maple syrup, 1 tsp sesame oil and a pinch of sesame seeds.

It was really fragrant because of the sesame oil, and it reminded me of a certain Korean restaurant that I used to work at... I used about half of the bibimbap sauce because it's quite salty!

 

Wouldn't mind making this simple dish again! ☺

Happy MoFo-ing everyone!!

 

 

Coconut Toasted Oats layered with vanilla tofu mousse, strawberry slices and banana hearts, topped with a messy, melty scoop of strawberry-banana soft serve and a generous sprinkle of cacao nibs. Garnished with a strawberry top. Because I'm out of fresh mint. Lols.

 

I didn't plan to post this here (as in, just on Instagram) because it's so simple, but it was so amazingly good! The oats, when toasted are more fragrant, have a bit of a crunch and they also have a somewhat... malty (?) taste. I'm not sure how to describe it, just try it for yourself! ☺

 

(Don't you just hate it when you take a photo at the same spot, just 10 minutes later, and the lighting's different?!)

 

Well, what is tofu mousse? It's just pureed silken tofu, with added ingredients such as

vanilla essence (used here),

liquid sweetener (stevia, maple syrup etc.),

fruits (banana, berries, apple, avocado etc.),

vegetables (beetroot, carrot etc.),

powdered stuff (black sesame powder, cacao/cocoa/carob powder).

 

People have asked me what type/brand of silken tofu I use, and it's the one above - Unicurd Silken Tofu, in the tube. It's the same as the Fairprice brand one, by the way. The other brand on the market is Fortune brand, which I don't prefer because it has a few times more saturated fat than this one!

 

For coconut toasted oats, just stir rolled oats and coconut flakes together on a non-stick pan on low heat, for about 5 mins or until the coconut flakes brown. For this parfait, I used 1/2 cup rolled oats and 1 tbsp coconut flakes (torn into smaller pieces).

 

I like Origins Organic Rolled Oats because the oats are thicker than most other brands, which makes it chewier and gives it more bite! ☺

 

For the strawberry-banana soft serve I blended frozen bananas and strawberries together. But it melted way too fast! Also my food processor thing (the extra small chopper that comes with a blender) doesn't make it very well. I'll try blending it before freezing and see how it turns out!

You won't regret trying this out! ☺

 

Melty, caramelised bananas and tart, tangy passionfruit seeds topped with a layer of crunchy and fragrant peanut butter oat crumble. ☺ With a drizzle of black tahini, a dollop of strawberry tofu mousse and a huge frozen strawberry half, garnished with mint leaves.

 

I planned to make a stop-motion-type video to upload onto Instagram but it didn't work out! I had trouble sending it into my phone (it's an iPhone), and then after following some how-to tutorials my video disappeared. And I put in a lot of effort too. -_- Oh well, at least I'm still posting most of the pictures here!

 

So here's a detailed step-by-step guide. It's actually really simple! ☺ This recipe serves one hungry person.

Preheat your oven to 180 deg C. Lightly coat a small baking pan with oil (I used olive oil baking spray). Slice 2 medium bananas and evenly lay them out. I recommend adding 1/2 heaped tbsp flaxseed meal to the base of the pan, and then adding about another 1/2 to 1 tbsp more as you layer the bananas. These pictures were from the first time I made it and it was a bit watery at the bottom. I tried it another time with the flaxseed meal and it turned out much better!

Continue adding all the bananas.

 

Sprinkle on some ground ginger and cinnamon. As much as you'd like!☺

Bake them in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and add the seeds of a passionfruit.

Add the PB oat crumble (recipe below). Then bake for another 30 mins. Cool and enjoy!

 

Peanut Butter Oat Crumble

Serves 1

This will also work great as a granola or a snack by itself! ☺

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 heaping tbsp unsalted peanut butter
• 1-2 tbsp water or mylk
• 1 tbsp flaxseed meal
• spices of choice: cinnamon, nutmeg etc
• liquid sweetener if desired

Method

1. Pulse 1 tbsp of the rolled oats in a food processor to make oat flour.
2. Add the oat flour to the remaining oats. Add in the spices.
3. Mix the PB and water/mylk as well as you can. Start with 1 tbsp liquid. Also, add in the sweetener of you choose to do so.
4. Rub the PB mixture evenly into the oats. It should be crumbly but not too dry. If too dry, add 1/2 - 1 tbsp more liquid.
5. Mix in the flaxseed meal.
6. Pour over fruits if you're making a crumble, or alternatively just spread out on a well-oiled baking sheet.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for about 10-15 mins. Cool and enjoy! ♡

It's finally the first of September (at least in this part of the world - which means it's time for VeganMoFo! ☺It's my first time participating so I hope all goes well. I've never tried posting ~5 times a week before! o_o Haha. I'm glad I didn't do anything wrong in the sign-up sheet and I'm in the blogroll! Yay. I haven't yet thought of a theme.. So I'll just stick to being themeless then. Though for one week or 10 days this month (perhaps either the 3rd or 4th week) I'll be doing a raw vegan challenge!

I hope you'll enjoy reading my (kinda new) blog! Most recipes are simple and doable without any fancy equipment (dehydrator, spiralizer, Vitamix etc. - all of which I'd love to have T.T ). For more about me, click here, or visit my Instagram! ☺

Sorry that I haven't been posting! Such a busy month this was. It was mostly taken up by exams. Sigh. For some reason my studying isn't that efficient anymore. Home used to be such a good place to study but now I just get so distracted. ☹ It's as if it's worn out. Or I'm worn out. Burnout? And my GPA most likely can't maintain. Not that I have that kinda motivation or such expectations of myself anymore. And I hate presentations. My presentation skills have been worsening, I feel. Oh well. Let this 6 week holiday be enough to refresh and relax! Though there's something I dread coming up soon ._.

 

On a lighter note, VeganMoFo 2013 begins in 2 days! If you don't know what it is, it stands for Vegan Month of Food and it's held once a year, on a different month every year.  Luckily it falls on the holidays! ☺Actually I was quite excited for it but now it kinda feels daunting. It's my first time taking part! Participants are encouraged to post 5 times each week. Which is a lot ._. And I don't even know how it works, exactly. Nor do I know whether I've registered my RSS feed correctly (what is RSS even?).. So hopefully all goes well and I'm in the blog roll.

 

Oh and I didn't choose a theme, because I couldn't think of any. However I plan on doing a 7 or 10 day raw food challenge, where I'll be 100% raw of course! I've been wanting to do this since a year ago.. But I shall do it this month!! My parents will object (..nutritional imbalance?..why are you eating so much?..next time cannot have babies how?..etc etc), but I'll persuade them. Actually, even if they aren't convinced it doesn't matter because I prepare all my food by myself anyway. ☺

 

Also, I've gained more weight, and my percentage body fat has increased. ~.~ What I've just measured (I've got an Omron Karada Scan at home) is 23.7%. Usually its about 21-22%. I should really exercise more. And do some weight bearing exercises for my bones. I also want to strengthen my core, because I get a food baby way too easily. And I can barely do 10 sit-ups. Perhaps I should learn from my dad, who has a six pack. Well. I guess it just takes a lot of determination! Which is hard to get.

 

Some random stuff to share:

 

Isn't this wonderful! Makes me feel that my skin and liver are so clean ☺

Yup. Question (though I don't expect anyone to reply me here): What do you do with leather items that you already have? I've got a leather bag and a pair of leather shoes, bought from before I was even vegetarian. At first I was like, since the animal has died for me I should make the most of it. But now I feel not that comfortable with using something that's the product of pain, torture and death..

This is actually quite true. Though for the purple part, it's more like fish, eggs and dairy.

Yes. This is sad. Sometimes I randomly feel sad for the millions of animals suffering and dying at this moment. :'(

 



Some books I've borrowed from the library! The pretzel one isn't vegan. Currently reading Whole.

 

Okay, off to plan what I'm going to do for VeganMoFo! Have a great September! ☺