Save this for next weekend’s indulgent brekki that also happens to be vegan and clean 🌱 🤗
This feast starts Friday night by soaking these ingredients for the Grain pancakes:
1/4 cup brown rice
1/4 cup quinoa (I used red) in
2/3 cup filtered water
If you want to make the cashew cream as well, soak 1 cup of cashews in 2 cups of water (or any 1:2 ratio that works for you) overnight.
Saturday Morning, add grains with their soaking water into a blender together with 1/4 of a 🍐 or 1/2 a 🍌, 2 TBSP shredded 🥥 and a pinch of salt. Blend and start frying them up in your favorite non toxic pan with some coconut oil.
For the cashew cream, you just throw the rinsed cashews in a blender and add water until your desired “cream” thickness.
And now for the easiest apple sauce in the world: cut and core a couple of apples and stew them with a cinnamon stick and some water in a small pot. Leave chunky or blend smooth if you like. Tada! Who’s making this next weekend?🙋🏻♀️🥞
I’ve already made this recipe twice and haven’t shared it with you guys yet so I thought it’s time! No sauce making required, no cheese on top and yet these turn out moist inside and crispy on top. Definitely becoming a staple in this household! You’ll need:
4 medium 🥔or 2 🥔, 1 🍠
2 cups of cabbage (1/4-1/2 head)
1 leek
1 medium apple
spices: 1 tsp Himalayan pink salt, 2 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp paprika, some black pepper to taste
Step 1: grease a large ceramic (or whichever you have) dish (one with a lid, ideally) with olive oil or ghee. Step 2: Slice up those potatoes thinly, toss them with 2 TBSP of olive oil and 1/2 tsp salt. Step 3: Chop the cabbage and leeks, mix in another Bowl with oregano and 1/2 tsp salt. You have to put in the work here – you need to massage the cabbage until it starts having juices come out of it (the salt will help with that). Important step since this will keep everything moist. Step 4: Cut up the apple into thin slices. Step 5: Layer it all up. Start with the potatoes, then a layer of cabbage/leek mixture, a layer of apple slices. Sprinkle with turmeric. Another layer of potatoes & cabbage/leeks and apple, then top it off with the last third of your potato slices (ideally the pretty ones 😊) and sprinkle Paprika on top & black pepper & I also added some rosemary. Bake at 400 covered for 45 mins, then another 15 until top is nicely browned. These times can vary depending on what type of oven you have – the toothpick test always helps you make sure they’re ready 😊 Tag me if you make these – they’re delicious!
This is one of the great recipes we learned throughout our holistic food preparation course at the institute of holistic nutrition. It is raw, vegan, dairy free and gluten-free. This recipe is for a 7’-9’ size pie.
You’ll need:
For the crust:
⁃ 1/2 cup each of coconut shreds, sunflower seeds, almonds
⁃ 1 tsp of vanilla extract
For the filling:
⁃ 4 medium apples, cored and sliced thinly on a mandolin (keep the “odds and ends”
⁃ 1/2 cup dates soaked in water
⁃ 2 tsp cinnamon
⁃ 1 pinch of salt
⁃ Juice of 1 🍋
Start by making your crust – place all ingredients in a high speed blender (add a bit of water if you can’t get it to a consistency where it can be pressed down) and press crust mixture into your pie dish, creating a raised edge.
For the filling, after you’ve sliced your apples on a mandolin, keep the “odds and ends” for blending into the sauce for your pie. Place them in a blender together with the dates, lemon juice, cinnamon and salt. Process until smooth.
Combine the apple slices and the sauce in a bowl, then spread them out on the pie shell in a pretty pattern (or not, like me 😁). You can also decorate with pecan or walnut halves lined around the perimeter if you like.
As part of holistic nutrition school, to be more exact: the herbal medicine course, we did a herb walk in September at Toronto Botanical gardens! 🌿🌾🌲
An amazing experience including much needed tree hugging 🤗😁
I couldn’t believe I’ve never been to Toronto botanical gardens – they’re right off Lawrence avenue east! I’m definitely coming back. Have you guys been?!
This is what witch hazel looks like – amazing for skin clarity since it is astringent and antibacterial.
I have to say after all you guys actually subscribed to my blog after I first launched it, I was a little nervous to write this next blog post!lol But I figured it might be fun to write about my experience, being back in school after a 7 year hiatus since I graduated from my bachelor of business administration in Germany, 2014. That same year I took a leap and moved to Canada, met some amazing people and started getting more and more curious around my health and how nutrition plays a part in it. Fast forward to 2020, pandemic year, where I spent a lot more time at home than ever – so I finally said to myself, hey, why don’t you use all this home time to study something you’re passionate about. So I started researching holistic nutrition programs I could do remotely in Toronto and it soon transpired that the institute of holistic nutrition is the most renowned institution in this field. I knew a few nutritionists I look up to and they all went to this school, so this had to be it! Researching the program, literally every single course sounded so, so interesting to me. And another great perk of this school is that it offers a part time evening program, so I can pursue my passion while still working in my day job, as Channel Marketing Manager. If you’re considering choosing this route as well and you’re not interested in part time, there is also a full time program where you’re able to complete the program in one year instead of 2 like myself.
So when the day finally came last week to participate in my first online school lecture (also not something I had ever done before!lol), I was a little anxious. And also very excited. I had to wave to everyone on zoom because I was the new one – along with one other woman and her name was also Debby!! Ha! Finally it came to the point where most people turn their cameras off and just follow along to the slides being presented- with sweaty armpits, off to the kitchen I went to grab a bag of “smart sweets”. Just to come back to the lecture and hearing our teacher say “when you don’t buy junk, you actually save money” – whoops. That was quite funny. Excellent timing. But I’ve come a long way and work around my sugar addiction with self compassion now. Sugar has been a major soother for me growing up, so I’ll probably always still eat sugar replacement things like smart sweets and probably never fully stop eating sugar – and that’s okay. But one can always hope, I would have never thought I’d ever give up coffee and here I am 6 years later, still only drinking green tea and matcha and feeling so much better for it.
The 3.5 hours of class actually just flew by, I liked our teacher right away, she is super authentic. Shout out to Eva from the institute of holistic nutrition! I did not get bored once, since Ayurveda, the first course I’m partaking in, is actually so super interesting. The “homework” we got was something I was interested in doing anyways after having the intro to Ayurveda – determining our individual constitution according to the three tridoshas which are based on the five elements ether (space), air, water, earth and fire. The Vata Dosha is a combination of air and ether, the Pitta Dosha is comprised of fire and water and the Kapha Dosha is made up from earth and water. After doing all the tests in our workbook, I think I might be mostly Pitta or maybe Pitta-Kapha. I’m not sure yet!lol I looked at the nutrition recommendation for that type and I don’t like what I’m seeing, so I may have to do more tests!lol I’m just kidding. I will keep you guys posted on my Ayurvedic journey.
Oh, and to sum up what I meant to tell you all with this blog post: if you have a passion that you would like to pursue, find a way to make it happen. Just do it!! You will love learning about it and it will come to you easily because you care about the topic. And you can do this at any point in your life, any stage, any age, no matter what you’ve been through. Because you are worthy of change and lifelong learning and there’s 100 billion cells in your brain that you can never possibly use up, so you better get on it! Love you xox Deb
