All The Kale Please.. - Quick Eats

All The Kale Please..

I have been really obsessed with Kale lately. I love cabbage, but Kale really is on another level!

This was a really nice snacky meal, as I am often shattered by lunchtime, due to running after 3 year old all morning! She even enjoyed it, which is a double win for mankind!

So all you really need is:

• Kale
• Houmous (Shop bought or home-made - if you have no time like me rolling out of bed and buying houmous is an easy option!!)
• Walnuts - or any kind of nuts!
• Seeds ( I added this afterwards, because I am so tired I cannot think right now XD)
• 1 Onion
• Optional - Nutritional Yeast - I tend to just put this on everything
• Himalayan Salt or Sea Salt - no table salt please!

You can easily adapt this dish to be raw if you prefer. Esme will not eat raw Kale so I boiled it for maybe 10 mins (generally best to do it for not very long, I do it on orders of a 3 year old!). Meanwhile fry up some onions, when ready just throw together really! Add the walnuts/seeds/houmous. Eat, then fall asleep, if you are very very lucky!

Hannah xx

VibrantKate... gets breathalysed for Raw Cacao‏

VibrantKate... gets breathalysed for Raw Cacao‏

OK, so I didn't actually, but I feel so chirpy that it would probably have been worth pulling me over on my journey home from Whole Foods first Vegan Raw Foods Potluck event to see if I could walk in a straight line not some sort of mystical labyrinth! Given that I have had four consecutive nights up every one-to-two hours with the Vibrant Baby's cough (including a bonus ninety minute Quality Time with the elusive 4am and cronies) the fact that I feel alert is impressive! Time to stock up on those chia seeds, industrial quantities of coconut oil and vivid green smoothies, peeps!

Hannah and I had a motivated afternoon blending raw cacao, coconut oil (if in doubt, base your raw vegan eating around this substance), half of Canada's maple syrup output, walnuts and various other niche ingredients into a Vegan Nanaimo Bar thanks to this blog. It was worth foregoing lunch to get it made in time to share with the enthusiastic attendees at the evening's event. Just as I have discovered through increasing education that in fact milk is a vastly arbitrary basis for food and it is outrageously achievable* to substitute, I learnt this evening that raw food is flavoursome, satisfying and energising! I love a good endorphin hit through clean living means!

Time to go and administer some cacao-flavour breastmilk... I hear the roar of my baby (or is it the raw?).

*A-chia-vable = pun of the day. He he!

VibrantKate xx

Gluten Free Vegan Hemp Savoury Pancakes

Gluten Free Vegan Hemp Savoury Pancakes

Spring is almost here ( what do you mean it isn't??), and the snowdrops are starting to pop up! Horay!

Meanwhile in real life.. it's actually half term and raining. So we thought we would have a go at making pancakes again!

I did think about taking photos for this, but taking a photo of a green pancake didn't look quite right!

What you need:

For the batter:

275g Flour ( I used Dove's Gluten Free)

2 tsp Baking Powder (GF)

250 ml Rice Milk (or soy/coconut/almond - just what I had in!)

125 ml Water

Oil for frying

1-2 scoops hemp protein

For the sauce:

1 Onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 tsp Chilli powder (or more if you fancy!)

1 tin Tomatoes

1 tin Chickpeas

1/2 punnet mushrooms

Oil for frying

What you need to do:

• Follow my pancake recipe here, just don't add the sweet stuff!
• Add a scoop or two of hemp protein
• If letting a toddler mix (until smooth) try not to get on walls
• Leave for 10 mina while making the sauce
• Chop onions, garlic, mushrooms and fry (or saute) in an average pan
• Add the chickpeas, a tin of tomatoes, and chilli powder
• Mix!!
• Heat your frying pan, add some oil
• When super hot, pour batter in
• Cook until crispy!
• Flip the pancake over
• When cooked, transfer onto plate
• Add the sauce
• ..and any extras, I found nutritional yeast and seeds to be super delicious!
• Eat all the dinners

NB: You may have noticed a lot of my recipes are hob based, this is because we currently have no oven! XD

Enjoy!

Hannah

Vegan Taco Night!- Vegan Mama Noms

Vegan Taco Night! 

Oh how I love tacos. Or wraps. Or just food in general. For some reason there was a day where I had enough energy to actually put together a whole bunch of food to eat. Some of it was just what had rolled out of my cupboards,  Kate bought over a few bits, and there you have it! You may need pre made taco shells, I bought a box with tacos, salsa and seasoning!

Here is what we did:

• Scrambled tofu with taco seasoning
• Black beans, garlic and seasoning
• Fried broccoli, with nutritional yeast and seeds
• Fried mushrooms and onions
• Baked Tacos!
• Ketchup / Vegan Mayo / Salsa

I was planning to do a salad also, but by this time I was so hungry I almost ate my arm.

Tacos were an excellent success, my (almost) 3 year old had great fun smashing them with her hands, then rolling around on the floor giggling.

*Hannah*

Pumpkin Muffins ! - Vegan Mama Noms

Pumpkin Muffins ! - Vegan Mama Noms

Ermergerd! Purmpkin Murfins!!! Is what I probably said when Kate bought over these muffins.It was a rather exciting day, we had just eaten delicious tacos, so this was a sweet treat! Kate is the queen of baking ( I'm more of a fling everything together and run away sort of woman!), so is excellent at finding these recipes!!

You can find the original recipe here I have attempted the cups to grams conversion!!

What you need: ( Apart from £1000000)

210g Flour

225g Sugar (or other sweetener - depending on your taste)

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

220g Pureed Pumpkin/ fresh

118 ml Soy Milk

118 ml vegetable oil

2 Tbsp Molasses 

What you need to do:    (bring me food)

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees
• Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices
• In a separate bowl, mix together pumpkin, soy milk, oil and molasses.
• Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and MIX!
• Fill the muffin cups 2/3rds full
• Bake for 18-20 mins, to check insert a knife or a toothpick - if comes out clean they are cooked!
• Eat them ALL!

Muffins ala Kate!

Vibrant Kate Goes Vegan! - Vegan Mama Noms

Vibrant Kate Goes Vegan!

Reblogged from August 2014

I have decided to go Vegan, so I thought I would give my reasons here, and anyone who's curious about it can read it. I used to think being Vegan was a bit extreme, but now I feel like it is the right choice because:

• The short answer - I am not a baby calf. That is who cow's milk is intended for.
• The 'moment of realisation' answer : I love breastfeeding my son, it is one of the most special privileges of motherhood. One evening I reflected that if I was a cow, I'd never get to enjoy this because my baby would have been taken away and I'd be strapped to a milking machine instead. That seemed wrong. That was when I made my decision. 
• The 'embedded memory provides context' answer: Back in the summer of 1992,when I was nine, and Linford Christie was charging along at the Barcelona Olympics, we stayed on holiday at a farm. There was a sad baby calf there, who had just been taken away from it's mum, and the sound was terrible.
• The flippant answer 1: I've been vegetarian for nineteen years, and it's just too easy to eat our as a veggie now.
• The flippant answer 2: I find it easier to decline a chocolate bar based on ethical principles rather than willpower
• The well read answer: However lovely and organic and caring the farm, animal and bird farming practices are still pretty grim. I wasn't especially educated about this as a town dweller, but it didn't take much online research to make me feel uncomfortable about colluding with it.

Realism footnote: I am quite spontaneous, I like visiting people and am always delighted to be fed. Until I have worked out what foods to bring with me or what foods in my friend's cupboards might be suitable I am happy to eat veggie out and about

FAQ:

1. Yes, I am ok with you eating meat and dairy in front of me.
2. No, I am not bringing up my son to be vegan, he can make that choice when he's old enough.
3. Yes, I feel sure I will receive all the nutrients I need 

I am so excited about my diet, it feels right! Thank you for all your positivity about it!

*Update* Kate is currently winning with veganism

Vegan Pancake Day!!

Vegan Pancake Day!!

 Oh hai!

Didn't see you there!

I was too busy EATING DELICIOUS PANCAKES!!

I thought I'd make an actual effort this pancake day, so I searched around the internet for pancake recipes. I did notice that a lot of them were American (when it says ''put 1/2 a cup in - I think, now how can I stir in this cup?) but managed to find a recipe with grams in, and tweaked it! (Original link at the bottom!)

So here it is! Vegan, Gluten Free Pancakes!!

What you need is: ( Some Ingredients)

275g Flour ( I used Dove's Gluten Free)

2 tsp Baking Powder (GF)

250 ml Rice Milk (or soy/coconut/almond - just what I had in!)

125 ml Water

Pack of Blueberries

Sweet Freedom or Maple Syrup (sweetener)

Oil for frying

What you need to do is:

* Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the baking powder and stir. Make a well in the middle (or a hole in the flour - hehe!)

* Mix the Milk, Water and a good squirt of the syrup into a jug, mix

* Pour the milk mixture into the bowl with the flour

* Give it a gooood mixing!

* Add about 3/4 of the Blueberries

* Happen to have a frying pan nearby

* Put some oil in the pan and heat!

* When HOT add a dessert spoonful or two into the pan, you can make maybe two or three little pancakes using the space

* Fry until golden, then FLIP

* While flipping you may squish the blueberries, do not worry about this, as they will be in your tummy soonish.

* When golden on the other side, remove from pan, cover in syrup, put a few blueberries on top.

*Repeat until batter is finished

*Scoff them all

Enjoy! 

Original Recipe

*Hannah*