It seems that when it comes to mushrooms you either love ‘em or hate ‘em. I definitely love them, but I feel like portobello mushrooms are in a completely different league. Can even a mushroom hater like them? I feel like these easy portobello burgers could make a few converts. These are ideal for a summer BBQ or even a quick weeknight dinner. I have made these several times in recent months, changing up the toppings each time. Please head over to One Green Planet for the recipe, and enjoy!

I love a good latte or tea latte, but it can be hard to find a place that makes them with alternatives to milk. And I am really not a fan of soy-milk….health-wise, I just think it’s….not a good idea. My regular milk alternative is almond milk, and I love it with everything! It’s so easy to make at home, and this recipe can be made with either homemade or storebought almond milk. If you aren’t a fan of almond milk, give it a try with your favourite nut milk or coconut milk and let me know how it goes!

I’ve sweetened this latte with raw unpasteurized honey that I bought locally. I strongly encourage everyone to check out local farms for purchasing honey. You will find soo many different kinds and flavours that are usually unpasteurized and raw- YES!! For this particular latte, I used a local pumpkin honey. That just means that the bees were getting their nectar from pumpkin blossoms. It has such a nice flavour to it, perfect for this latte. I also have a fabulous dandelion honey, melon honey (it tastes just like melon!), and a beautiful creamed honey.

If you’re vegan, try replacing the honey with coconut syrup or coconut sugar.

I made my latte foamy by using a frother from smartcafe. No need for a fancy shmancy machine. If you don’t have a frother just whisk the milk as you heat it.

Now relax and enjoy your Almond Milk Chai Latte! If lattes aren’t for you….try these chai tea cupcakes! 

Oh, um….if your bowl mug isn’t as big as mine…this could serve two people.

I was inspired to make these vegan corn fritters with vegan sweet chili sauce after trying corn fritters for the first time at my boyfriend’s house. His family is from New Zealand, and I think corn fritters might be a bit popular there. After some research googling, there seems to be quite a few recipes for them! His mom made super delicious sweet corn fritters and served them with sweet chili sauce- they were so good!! I decided to make a veganized version so that my readers at One Green Planet could enjoy corn fritters, too! These are a little crisper and a bit different to the ones I first tried, but delicious nonetheless. And if you’re wondering why I bothered to homemake sweet chili sauce, it’s because most bottled versions contain fish sauce, which isn’t vegan. I have to say that I loved the homemade sweet chili- you can adjust the spice to suit your palette and there are no icky ingredients that you can’t pronounce!

*There seems to be some confusion as to what peaches & cream corn is. It’s simply a type of corn- the kernels are two different colours, resembling peaches & cream. Use any kind of frozen corn you want, just let it thaw and drain it.

Head over to One Green Planet to check out the recipe!

I have been loving raw food desserts lately from coconut cream pie to coconut chocolate pudding and  pineapple dips. I decided it was time to make some raw food brownies. After a bit of searching, I realized that it seemed the most popular raw brownie on the web was from My New Roots. I couldn’t miss out on this one but wanted to add a little something else….When my granny made brownies she always iced them and topped them with chopped walnuts, so I knew I wanted to put a little icing on these bad boys. How convenient that they happen to be made mostly from walnuts, too! I wonder if my granny would enjoy this healthy version of a frosted brownie.

In other news, I just completed the Vancouver Sun Run this weekend! I’m feeling so proud of myself, as I had never run 10km before and this really pushed me to pretty much double the length of my regular runs. If you don’t know what the Sun Run is, it’s basically a 10km run that takes place each year in Vancouver. It’s the largest 10k in Canada and this year had about 48,000 people run it! It started to get tough for me around 8k, but my boyfriend stuck with me and I only ended up walking for less than a minute! Here’s a picture of us at the start line with our friends:

It seems that the most popular raw brownie recipe ever is from Sarah over at My New Roots. I used her raw brownie recipe and combined it with Lucuma Icing from Meghan Telpner. The combination was great. The icing has a sort of caramel-like flavour, which is amazing because all of the ingredients are so good for the body!

My last post was about a great restaurant I went to called Nuba. You can read about that here. I mentioned the delicious cauliflower called “Najib’s Special” that was served with “La Feast” that I ordered. I knew once I tried it that I had to recreate it at home, and I must say that my version is tasty and much healthier, as it is roasted in just a bit of oil, instead of deep-fried. The lemon flavour is strong, but that’s exactly how it was at Nuba- yum!

Once again, go to Nuba and try Najib’s Special out for yourself- this is just my take on it!

Also…if you are wondering why my cauliflower looks green it’s because I used a “broccoflower”, a green cauliflower!

This time, we got there and the wait was an hour and a half…..oh my. We asked for a seat at the bar and the wait was 25 minutes- not so bad! We put our names down and after 45 minutes with no call we headed back to see what was up. Finally, after about an hour total, we had two seats at the bar. PHEW! Needless to say, I will not be going back without a reservation! Thank God the food was worth it! Our rumbling stomachs would not have been too happy otherwise!!

I apologize for the quality of the photos in advance, but part of the Nuba experience is the ambiance. I thoroughly enjoyed the dim lighting and candles, but they are not the best for photography

We each had a glass of fabulous sangria. There is a red sangria and a white sangria listed on the menu but I happen to love pink sangria, so when the bartender suggested a pink sangria, I was more than pleased! It was a delicious combination of grapefruit, orange, and rosé- tasty!

We selected “la feast” for our meal….and man, was it ever a feast! We were stuffed afterwards. It’s basically a vegetarian sampler including hummus, taboulleh, baba ghanooj, homemade pickle, fattoush salad, najib’s special (deep-fried cauliflower), vegan stew, falafel, mjadra, macedonian feta, avocado, and marinated olives.

I highly suggest getting la feast if you go to Nuba. The menu is quite large, and this way you get to try a whole variety of dishes. There is also la grand feast, which includes meat.

We were first served the hummus, taboulleh, baba ghanooj , homemade pickle, and pita bread. The portion was huuuuge, and our pita bread was refilled, too! This was a very filling start to the meal….

After that we received the rest of la feast.

Pictured below is the falafel and Najib’s special- the deep-fried cauliflower. The falafel was fabulous, but I could not get enough of the cauliflower!! It was sooo zesty with lemony flavour and crispy on the outside yet soft on the outside. I made a mental note to recreate a version of this home…stay tuned!

The fattoush salad was very good and the feta was to.die.for. Literally the best feta cheese I have ever tasted in my life. It was so soft and creamy. Amazing.

Below is the vegan eggplant stew which was out of this world, as well as the mjadra with avocado.

The platter came with tzatziki, a tahini sauce, and a jalapeno sauce.

Nuba restaurant is located at 207 West Hastings Street.

*I’ll make the video wide screen next time… #technicaldifficulties

**I’ve also posted step by step directions below

***I need a manicure

1. Get a young coconut. You can find these at health food stores, places like Whole Foods, or at Asian food stores. Also, get a sharp knife.

2. Turn your coconut on it’s side

3. Shave the husk down until you see and feel the brown inner part.

4. It should look like this. Now you are ready to find the 3 lines the coconut has.

5. After you have found the 3 divisions, locate the largest area. Depending on the coconut, this can be very easy…or slightly more difficult- just follow your heart . Luckily I picked an easy one!

6. Whack the heel of your knife into the largest area a few times. You should be cracking the shell.

7. Once you have made a nice little opening on the largest area, use your knife to pry up the ‘lid’ of the coconut.

Coconut water may splash….

Voila! There is your lovely opened coconut! Now pour the water into a glass for drinking, or a container for freezing.

Scoop out the meat with a spoon.

If you don’t want to use it right away, coconut meat freezes wonderfully.

A couple weeks ago, I was super excited when I came home from work to a package on my kitchen counter…I love snail mail! I thought it was two dresses I had ordered online…but even better, it was Let Them Eat Vegan by Dreena Burton!! I own Dreena’s other cookbooks, and I surely would have bought a copy of this one, too.

The long-awaited fourth book did not disappoint! It is literally full of amazing vegan recipes, and the best part is that none of them use icky vegan substitutes like fake meat, or fake cream cheese, etc. The book covers everything from soups, salads, and sauces, to breakfasts, baked goods, ice creams, raw foods, and main meals. How could you not find something you want to try!? Every recipe has brilliant ideas for substitutions that will make the recipe either nut-free, soy-free, gluten-free, and so on. This makes it soo easy to adapt any recipe to suit you or your family’s needs. I tested out several recipes in just a couple of days, and I can’t wait to try out some more.

First up, I tried the Kids’ Cheesy Chickpea + White Bean Soup, and I thought it was great. It was actually one of the first times I’ve used a high amount of nutritional yeast in one dish- usually it’s a dash here, a dash there. The soup was comforting and filling, and best of all, it was a snap to make.

Next, it was time for dessert! The Lemony Luscious Almond Cake with Almond Maple Sauce caught my eye. I had never ever boiled a lemon for thirty minutes and then used the entire thing (peel and all!) in a cake! The outcome? A wonderfully light cake, bursting with citrus flavours. I love the fact that the cake is made with spelt flour! The sauce did not come out as thick as I had hoped it to be, and I even added extra arrowroot powder, but this recipe was still a winner!

For breakfast one day I tried the Hempanana Smoothie which I loooved! I use a ton of hempseeds, so I loved that they were included in this smoothie for a protein punch!

I’m able to share with you this one fantastic recipe for Cocoa Cookie Dough Balls. These make for a perfect bite-sized snack or dessert when you just need a chocolate fix and are super satisfying. They are intensely chocolatey, with just the right amount of sweetness!

Pop over to One Green Planet to view the recipe for this vegan dish!

As Spring and Summer start to roll in, my workouts seem to increase automatically…not to mention that I’m training for the Sun Run (my first 10k!!). I’ve been trying to keep my protein intake up, and so I used this shake as yet another excuse to give the Vita-Mix a workout, too! I’ve been using my new Vita-Mix blender like it’s my job…I can’t get enough of it! Despite the hefty price tag, I think it’s my best purchase ever! This is a great post-exercise drink, and I used my usual protein powder. I loved the light chai taste…doesn’t it almost look like a latte!?