4 Ingredient Vegan Peanut Butter Bars (DOPE)

So little so delish

Ola Kangaroos!

Today we have a quickie. I have realized that making vegan treats are not only easy but they really do bring out the whole 'less is more' theory. When you scrap butter, milk, honey, and yogurt  you start to understand that there are plenty of other wholesome creamy things to work with.

So Peanut butter lovers, this one is for you.


What do you need?

8 -10 pitted dates
1/4th cup crushed nuts (I used almonds and walnuts)
1 cup peanut butter
1 3/4th cup plain oats


What do you do

In  your blender blend you dates with a tablespoon of water. You'll get a nice thick paste. Don't be a doofus and forget to pit them. You can also use the blender to crush your nuts.

In a pan melt your peanut butter and dates paste (you can also use a few drop of vanilla if that sets a groovy train in your mouth) and a little bit of water to make it all sticky-gooey-mushy. Don't let it burn, do this on a very low flame.

Not so Pretty in the Pan

It's time to add your oats and mix it up. Turn off the heat and spread evenly on a pan.

Now all you gots to do is pop that pan in the freezer for 20 minute, pop it out and cut into bars. Enjoy with a glass of almond milk, or as a mid-afternoon snack.

Protein, healthy fats, and um, yeah sugar. Oh well.

Tah-Dah

Oh and how is my vegan journey going you ask? Mighty fine. More energy and some hot ethical flashes ;)

Keep it real.

Two Ingredient Vegan Ice Cream

So yeah, I used to love fruit ice cream. If you are in India you'll know all about Naturals and just how super their ice cream is.  Their flavors include tender coconut, roasted almond, coffee walnut, mango, strawberry & Guava and musk melon. but of course dairy is the soul of their products. Jesus, that is one thing I am going to miss. I am craving ice-cream today, so what's a Vegan Newb to do?

Well the vegan world already knows the secret. Frozen Bananas. No really. When you freeze a banana and blend it, the texture turns our just like ice cream, I kid you not. But wouldn't it be lame if I offered you a one ingredient recipe? Yeah, so I went all out and made it a to a two ingredient recipe. You can thank me later.

Let's go Bananas 

So what do you need for this frosty-fruity treat?

• 2 frozen bananas (overnight is best, pop them before you go to sleep and they will be ready anytime the next day)

• 1/2 cup of frozen berries ( I used frozen blackberries, bought at Natures's Basket) you can also use frozen strawberries or blueberries 

Then What?

Well now,  pop out your frozen puppies. Add the two bananas and berries in the blender and blend that thing! You might have to stop in between to give it a stir and help your blender out. If you must, put a couple tablespoons of almond milk/soy milk/coconut milk to help it blend but no more or you'll risk loosing the consistency.

Smooth Operator 

Scoop into a bowl and enjoy! That's it. Most epic recipe ever because it's that easy.

Oh and it's the healthiest frozen treat you can make- no added sugar, just literally frozen fruit.

Vegan Cashew Cream Pasta (It's BOMB)

Some of that vegan stuff

Howdy Piglets! We're about a week old in this new vegan life transition, and let me tell you, if you can prepare your meals and take the time to nurture your kitchen, being vegan isn't the hardest thing in the world. I'd like to honestly share how my body has reacted to eating clean (no processed food, no meat, no junk) and eating clean  Vegan  for the past 18 days. In 18 days I have:

(1) Not had a migraine except one alcohol induced one at a party- which proves my trigger has always been booze and possibly cheese.

(2) Crap tons of energy. I used to be lethargic, but now I have energy for the day, all the time.

(3) Sleeping like a baby who sucked a thumb soaked in whisky. I am no longer sleeping at 2 am and waking up at 10 am. I am naturally following off to sleep at 12:00-12:30 and getting up at 8:30 am  (lolling in bed for 30 min counts as being awake) 

(4) I have lost 1.5 kg  (3 pounds) 

So anyway, today I wanted pasta and I wanted creamy pasta, and I am like well that's kind of hard without dairy. But duh, that's the point of this post, it's not! And let me tell you it's delicious. Like amaze balls.

So let's get to this, shall we?

What do I need?

2 cups of farfalle pasta (or penne)

4-5 pods of garlic

sea salt (per taste)

1 table spoon generic Italian seasoning or oregano

1 1/2 teaspoons of re chili flakes

1 cup of cashew nuts

1 cup of almond milk ( I used store bought Silk almond milk, you can also use soya milk)

5 whole pepper

1 green chili (more if you like it spicy, I put 2)

1 capsicum cut  skinny- long

1 tomato diced

1 small onion diced

3-4 tablespoons olive oil 

What do I do?

Get a pot and get your water boiling. Dump your 2 cups of pasta in it and cook for 11 min on the dot.

In a blender put your cashews, some salt, your green chili(S), garlic, and the whole peppers in with 1/4 cup water. Blend until it's a smooth paste. 

In a pot heat up some olive oil (low flame). Add onions, Italian seasoning and chili flakes and let it fry for a couple minutes. Add your cashew cream mix and stir til you have a thick-ish sauce. Then  go ahead and your capsicum and tomatoes . Pour your almond milk in and let it start to simmer, it will be slightly thick but you should have enough sauce and veggies to coat your pasta. Now go ahead and stir in your pasta, let it simmer for a few minutes in the sauce. You can chop some fresh basil if you have it and  SERVE HOT. 

Don't look non-dairy

How are them vegan apples? It's bliss, that's right!

See you puppies soon. Keep it real. 

Crouching Vegan, Hidden Temptations

Spinach, almonds, banana, fresh coconut, pineapple, ice and BLEND!

Ola puppies!

It's time for me to talk about my slow dance towards  a decade long dream. And that's becoming a full-time vegan. So it's not going to be overnight. There are only so many Freelee Banana girl videos and instagram #raw and #vegan inspirations to follow. But let's just say, it's a priority this 2016. I'll slip and slide, let it take a year, but I'll get there.

The point of this is not evangelism. I don't think I'll ever be one of those friendly vegans who start with the innocuous at first ' Hey there friend" and then progress to  "do you have 5 min to talk about how you can save the planet by being a vegan?"
Nope, that won't be me. Unless you specifically ask me or try to argue it with me, that is.  Understanding your own value system in context to the world is your own personal journey. The thing is, we have no idea how exactly the universe adds up. But since this is my blog, and you have taken the time to read this far, I will say this much : Haven't we normalized utter cruelty? Normalized shoving pigs, cattle, chickens, and goats into horrific conditions just so we can stuff our faces and wear a leather jacket? And even if you don't eat meat, we are complacent in promoting unnatural ways of animals living and eating so we can have milk and associated products. Isn't it funny how when we justify something, ( and let me me tell you capitalism with it's dairy and meat industry has just fed us with some big lies- you don't have to have meat and dairy to be healthy, in fact quite the contrary) - then it's totally OK to promote and support a systematic cruelty?

That's the thought behind it. And I promise that's all the moral stuff I will be dishing out on this blog. What I will be doing is talking nutrition and how you can do with vegan recipes. Our bodies are NOT meant to eat unprocessed food, and you can have sugar- but from fruit- and you can have it unlimited, as long as you don't touch the processed kind.

Here are some semi-pretty pictures with tidbits to inspire. Even if you are not interested in dirty crummy looking vegans, I ask you to try some of these tips/thoughts  just for nourishment. Until then, be nourished, happy, and peaceful. And try not be a douche ;)

Remember my nut bars? Nuts are your protein powerhouse with a super dose of healthy fats. Next time you need to munch, eat nuts. Use jaggery instead of sugar and sesame seeds for extra nom-nom pleasure. Also them sesame seeds have calcium. See? It doesn't even MOO! 

This was lunch today. Carrots, peri- peri hummus, whole wheat lavaash and the best thing:  salted caramel cashew butter -made by my friend, Shilpa, and it's to DIE for. She also does vegan cheese, hit me up if you want to score some.


Half a Watermelon can replace your Chips Addiction. And boy did I have a Chip addiction.

Pro Tip: Blend a bunch of dates with a little bit of water. You have got the best sugar replacement money can buy. Add it to cakes, on bread,  and even curries for some added sweet smacking. 

So many ways to snack. Mixed nuts tossed with rock salt and a dash of honey and chia seeds. Peanut butter and pista. Mango , coconut cream, and banana.


Always Share frozen fruit with your Dogs. Don't have a dog? Find one. 

And that's me saying : Ta-ta! Happy eating. Happy baking. And happy everything. 

Vegan Semolina Cake (Clean Eating Series)

Well, hello there baking pups!  So, I've been off the blog for a few weeks now. Things were getting real bad health wise. Food and I were in a super messy relationship. I was mindlessly eating: we're talking 4-5 orange popsicles a day at one go (because, you know it's mostly ice, it can't be that bad right?) and skipping breakfast. At night, after work, I would sit down with Netflix and binge eat a lot of shit: popcorn, chips, candy and chocolate. I was drinking a lot of rum and beer twice a week too. What did these 6 months teach me? Well for starters I have gained no less than 10kgs, been lethargic as f*&^ and my migraine frequency shot up. Of course skipping yoga classes became the norm.
Then something switched in my head. I was done with this crap, if I went on with this I was going to get obese and have all sorts of health issues because of it. I was addicted to sugar. Invincible me  thought I never could get addicted to that shit. In the before time, I didn't have a single sweet tooth in my mouth. In fact I rarely ate sweet things in my twenties. Then small things changed, eating crap makes you crave crap, and before I knew it I was eating dessert every chance I got, including thrice weekly visits to Naturals ice cream and a crazy ice candy and popcorn habit.

I was looking and feeling like an ugly rock, (no offense rocks, rocks are pretty too), something had to change. *insert coldplay motivational music here*


I studied food again : I wanted to have a healthy relationship with food again and reset my body.I got Hillary Clinton Serious about it this time. I just completed a week of clean eating and I already feel a lot better. I have more energy, I am excited to workout (ok not that excited) I feel my body getting ready to drop the excess weight. I have made a lifestyle choice, this is not a diet, this is work in progress, a commitment to understanding what food really is to me and how what I eat effects the environment, animals, and economics. So what do I mean by clean eating?

For starters it's getting rid of the processed crap which has a million preservatives and processed sugar in it. This means no ice cream, cakes, chips, popcorn, candy, and processed carbs. This means adopting a semi-vegan lifestyle. I have barely had milk and cheese this week and my digestive system is doing so much better because of it. It means understanding how everything you put in your mouth has the potential to nourish your body mind and soul.

Nature has given us SO much abundance, but we rarely utilize it. Coconut milk, flax seeds, nut milk, fruits, vegetables, whole grains and like a way lot more- and what you can do with these things are limitless. But because of the market and advertising and yada, yada, yada, it's just way easier to eat crap. But that's not a real relationship with something so critical to our wellbeing.

Vegan Ingredients= the best for your bangin body

I have been off sweets, but this week I wanted to bake something dessert-like  that had no dairy, no eggs, no processed sugar and no flour. And you are like WTF, I thought this was a baking blog, and it is, puppies! You can bake things that taste wholesome, yummy, and indulgent.

Today, I made a vegan semolina (rava) cake using dates, honey, coconut milk, olive oil, coconut oil Semolina, flax seeds and walnuts. Did you know that giving up processed sugar can still let you eat a lot of sweet things? You can eat crazy calories worth of plain fruit, dates, coconut sugar, honey, sugarcane,  and other unprocessed sugars because these digest very differently from the way processed crap gets absorbed in your body. This means you can eat a LOT more while still losing weight and getting super healthier. The trick lies in how your body absorbs nutrients. Think about it- having a nice glass of unrefined sugarcane juice is very different from the pure refined sugar you get in fizzy drinks or added sugar juices. That's because it takes like 20 stalks of sugarcane to process like a cup of sugar. Unprocessed sugarcane or fruit actually levels out your glucose in your body without crashing. And you NEED glucose to burn fat. If you want to know more about this look up Banana Girl on Youtube, she is kind of awesome. Processed is SHIT and the faster you can get yourself off it, the faster you'll see results, so I am going to actually eat my words and prove it to you. I will be documenting my health journey (and weight loss) by eating abundantly- eating a LOT. But by eating clean.

OK enough of my therapeutic writing. Here's how you make this cake.

What Do I Need?

2 Cups Rava
1/2 cup mix of olive oil and coconut oil
1 cup coconut milk +1/4 cup water mixed into the coconut milk
1/2 cup ground fresh coconut
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup walnuts
14 dates (de-seeded)
 1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)

How Do I Do It?

Prep time first!
Take the seeds out of your dates and pop them in a blender with 1/4th cup water and your flax seeds.
You'll get a gooey paste. Set aside.

YUCKY (but yummy) date-flax
 seed paste

Get your fresh coconut cut (I cheated and bought pre-cut coconut from big basket) and pop it in a blender until coarsely ground.

Now in a bowl add you date-flax seed goo, honey, fresh coconut,  (coconut and olive) oil, and coconut milk and mix till blended. Add you walnuts to this and then the baking powder/soda and vanilla. Now add your 2 cups of rava slowly to this. The mixture should be wet/sticky but not pourable. If it's too liquidy add rava, if it's to dry add a 1:1 ration of coconut milk and water till you get the right consistency.

The right consistency baby!

Preheat your oven to 180c. Grease a baking pan and scoop you batter in it. Bake for 20-25 min or until our knife comes out clean if you poke it in the middle.

This is a dense food, and even though it has no dairy, eggs, or processed sugar it's still a high calorie food- but it will digest very differently in your body than normal cake. This is best eaten for a power breakfast- eat a good  thick slice in the morning and you will be full of energy until lunch. The healthy fats and omega 3 will keep you full and you get a stellar does of protein from the nuts.

Stay tuned for updates on the non-crap eating version of myself, I will post about my weight loss and healthy journey here with kick ass recipes you can try. Happy clean eating!