Zucchini Pasta w/ Spinach Cheese Sauce (Vegan)

As you may have read in our last post, Jenn and I have totally revamped our diet. After figuring out we don't do so well on sugar, we've been making a conscious effort to cut way back on it as well as reintroducing some animal products. So far so good! And we just wanted to honestly thank all of our readers, um you guys are seriously awesome and so supportive. We so appreciated all of your warm and fuzzy comments on our last post, gee whiz...thanks. ;)

Even though we're including animal products now in our diet. We still love our vegan meals and enjoy them on a frequent basis.

Amongst my favourite vegan meals are vegetable pastas. Pasta is the one thing that I am always in the mood for. It's always the perfect blank canvas for whatever creative, crazy concoctive sauce thing you can think up. And it's just so darn fun to eat.

This pasta dish I made is literally all vegetables, using thin spaghetti type noodles made with a julienne peeler out of zucchini. The peeler was only 7$ at a kitchenware store by the way, compared to 30$ for a spiralizer, ka-ching! And it's super quick to use and clean up too.

I was being a perfectionist like I tend to be and and peeled the zucchini first with a regular vegetable peeler before julienning so the noodles would be like white pasta noodles. Feel free to leave the skin on though because it's super healthy and stuff. :)

Noodles made from yellow and green zucchini

Why hello julienno

Save the middle parts to dip in hummus!

I've made this spinach cheese sauce numerous times in the past, it came from trying to make pesto in a magic bullet while accidentally using the cross blade; so it pureed it into a creamy sauce instead of a pesto. Don't let the green deceive you, it's all cheese. ;)

creepin' out in the sun

Spinach "Cheese" Pasta Sauce:

3 tbsp olive oil
Juice from half a lemon
1/2 cup spinach leaves, packed
3 tbsp chopped almonds
2 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1 clove garlic
2 tsp italian herb blend
Salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in magic bullet, using a cross blade, or food processor (you may get a regular pesto consistency if you use a food processor). Blend until smooth and creamy.

"the rest" of the Pasta dish:

3 zucchinis peeled and "julienned"
Broccoli florets, handful
1/2 red pepper, sliced
1/4 red onion, sliced
Coconut oil, to cook with

Sautee the onions, red peppers and broccoli until tender. Add zucchini noodles. Cook until noodles have shrunken down in size slightly (make sure pan isn't too wet form cooking vegetables, wait until all water has evaporated, and add more oil if necessary). Add in sauce and cook for 1 minute or until cooked through. Top with nutritional yeast flakes and sesame seeds.

Makes 2 servings

A sprinkling of sesames and nutritionals for good measure ;)

We're changing our blog! + New Sweetener on the Block + Chocolate Cake Muffins

Hi everyone! You may have noticed that we haven't been posting as often, part of that is because our camera literally broke (but we have a back up cammy! Not as good quality, but good for now.)

So we have been putting this off for a while, but thought we just need to come out and say it.

We are no longer vegan. This is a choice we have made for ourselves. We find that we feel the best on a high(er) protein, low sugar/carb diet and even though it IS possible to get enough protein on a vegan diet. Most of that protein is also coming from high carb sources such as beans and legumes.

Too much carbs!

But this doesn't mean that all of our recipes are going to have animal products in them. We will still be posting vegan recipes because we love creating with boundaries...weird I know. But you can expect to see some eggs, yogurt, and other animal products in our recipes too. We also plan on labelling all of the vegan recipes so that it makes it easier to navigate.

We aren't saying this is the "right" diet. It's just the one that works for us. It's totally possible to thrive on a vegan diet, it depends on many factors such as your cultural background, activity level and the quality of food you are consuming.


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So now that that's out of the way. Phew! We made the most AMAZING chocolate cake muffins. You will seriously die. They are so good.

There's a new sweetener on the block, you may have heard of xylitol, a 0 glycemic sugar alcohol that causes absolutely no sugar highs, and you may have also heard of erythritol, another sugar alcohol found naturally in certain fruits and vegetables. But have you heard of Lakanto? It's erythritol combined with Lo Han Guo extract that can be used to make amazingly golden brown and delicious bakes! Saraya sent us some of their product to experiment with, Saraya is the only distributor so far in Canada that sells Lakanto online. Check out their website here.

Saraya Lakanto

I googled "baking with erythritol" and found that most people ended up with grittiness in their baked goods. So, we decided to grind it up in a spice grinder to make a fine powder and use it that way.

Lakanto on top of being zero glycemic is supposed to digest easier than xylitol, and it tastes so good, like a golden brown sugar caramel taste. Although there IS a cooling after taste that is trademark with all sugar alcohols, although you don't notice it as much in this recipe.

These muffins are super high in protein, low fat and taste like chocolate cake, I mean really, I'll take chocolate cake for breakfast any day.

cakey cross section

2 small bananas, mashed
1/2 cup applesauce
4 small scoops protein powder
4 tbsp coconut flour
4 eggs
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup lakanto, ground into a fine powder
4 tbsp carob powder
4 tbsp cocoa
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp coconut oil

Combine mashed bananas, applesauce, and eggs together. In a separate bowl combine lakanto, carob, cocoa, coconut flour, protein powder and salt. Mix dry into wet and stir until well combined. Then add in coconut oil and last but not least the baking soda and baking powder (we find by adding these two last it gives the muffins less time to deflate while mixing, you wanna keep em fluffy!)  Bake for 30 minutes at 350F. Makes 12 muffins.

Enjoy for breakfast, dessert or snack.

Japanese Inspired Broccoli Slaw

Hello peeps!

The other day I spotted some broccoli at the grocer's for only 2$, I was like: yes I would love some affordable and nutritious green vegetation, thank you!

We love reading Ashley's blog Edible Perspective, she is so innovative with her recipes and offers up some delectable looking photography. She posted a list of frugal kitchen tips, and seeing as frugal is pretty much our middle names, we read the list with the utmost enthusiasm.

One tip stood out for me and that was making use of broccoli stalks to make coleslaw, duh! That's such a useful idea! I usually steam the stalk ends and they're pretty blah cooked. But when used raw in a coleslaw they're nice and crunchy and actually taste really good.

I didn't have a food processor to shred the broccoli stalks but I did have a box grater, worked like a charm!

grated to a tee

good enough to eat!

"Japanese Inspired" Dressing:

2 tbsp sunflower seed butter
1 tbsp + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (I like mine rather tangy so I put even more in)
1 tbsp tamari
1 tbsp water (to make dressing consistency, may not need)
Pinch of salt, to taste
Pepper, ground to taste

Broccoli stalks, grated from a large crown of broccoli (or two small)
1 medium zuchini, grated
1 tbsp black sesame seeds

Grate vegetables, set on a paper towel, and put another paper towel over top, press down and get any excess liquid off of the veg (this will help the dressing to stick better). Mix all ingredients for dressing in a medium to large bowl. Then add in grated vegetables and sesame seeds to bowl, toss to combine. Makes enough for four small servings (side dish) or two large servings. Store in fridge it's even better the next day!

*you could add any other vegetables such as grated carrot, red pepper, even jicama*

We love Japanese Inspired meals, here are some of our favourite recipes we've made in the past:

Japanese Salad with Miso Dressing

Green Tea Soba Noodles with Quinoa Crunchies

Avocado and Cucumber Maki + Sweet Potato Nigiri

Banana Spice Post-Workout Smoothie + Our Fave Protein!

This smoothie has been a frequenter for me after workouts. Mostly because it A. tastes like a delectable cinnamony-spice-vanilla banana cream pie in liquid form and B. it involves one of the cheapest fruits around: bananas!

Ugh I just love bananas in smoothies, is there anything better that makes a smooth, creamy and frosty consistency. And it's a fruit hello!

I'm always so excited to end my workouts so I can make this, which may not necessarily be a good thing...oh well, as always, blame it on the bananas. :)

I usually stretch for 10 minutes or so to cool down, shower, then get right to blending up this nutritious and protein packed smoothie. Which, is perfect for muscle recovery and getting in a good dose of energy for the rest of the day.

smoothie up!

1 frozen banana (organic preferably)
1 scoop vanilla vegan protein powder
1 tbsp chia seeds
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Water, to blend (1 cup or so)
Ice

Blend all ingredients until smooth and creamy. Makes one serving.

We used to make our own pumpkin pie spice from mixing up cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. But recently found it premixed at a bulk food store, it's much cheaper this way as well as lessens the amount of powders flying around in the kitchen. Oh the powders! They never end do they :).

Progressive Harmonized Vegan Protein is our favourite brand of vegan protein. We buy it for the nutritional profile (it has all of the amino acids that you need) and it also is the best tasting in our opinion. Vega is a close second though! This formula also has almost everything Vega has except for the Chlor-Essence blend, maca, and the various berry blends also, there aren't as many greens.

Progressive Harmonized Vegan Protein does however have kelp, dulse and spirulina (electrolytes!), flax seed oil powder, dandelion root, cranberry seed protein and lots of other unique ingredients, see a list here. It is also a fraction of the price of Vega.

We've always used sprouted brown rice protein powder in the past, but recently have made the switch to Progressive because of their higher amino acid profile.



We're curious, what protein powder do you guys use? And what do you usually put into your post workout smoothie to make it an extra special treat!?