Vegan Veggie Sprouted Wild Rice Sushi with Chili-lime-peanut dressing

One of the things I thought I wouldn't be able to give up when I initially went vegan was fish. Red meat and white meat were easy but fish was definitely a challenge at first. I had grown up eating fish and ate it 3 or more times a week. If you knew me, I loved shellfish and creatures from the ocean and one of my favorite dishes to eat was authentic sushi. When I initially decided to become a vegan, that was perplexing to me! How could I not eat sushi? Well, after a few weeks into being strictly vegan, I realized that while simplifying my diet, my taste simplified as well. I didn't crave any type of meat, fatty foods, sweets, or salts. It was an interesting realization as my palette simplified while I was eating nutrient dense foods! I also loved the fact that I wasn't consuming the detrimental traces of mercury in the raw fish now on the market.

I still love tastes that are associated with the types of food I used to eat. Not eating meat is not limiting at all and there are so many flavors created through curiosity and adventure. This recipe is a reflection of my curiosity to discover what more I could do with raw foods. It's quite exciting for me because this recipe is high in nutrients and has a very light taste. It's not overpowering and when I was done eating, my body felt nice and replenished.

To make this recipe, you will need to sprout wild rice. It's very easy because all you need is water and the rice. The rice "blooms" and it becomes chewy without having to cook it! 

In this awesome sushi roll, I used a variety of veggies and avocado to hold everything together. The refreshing crunch of carrots and cucumber is contrasted by the creamy and dense avocado, while the sesame sprouted wild rice has a touch of savoriness. It's also very easy to make if you set up your ingredients efficiently. I think this is a great recipe for lunch or dinner and it definitely looks like I will be eating a lot of these rolls throughout the summer. What I love besides the flavor is the nutritional benefits from this sushi roll. The seaweed is very high in essential minerals that are otherwise not usually found in other foods. In addition, the sprouted grains provide a good amount of protein and fiber. Avocado provides essential fatty acids for brain function.  Finally, and how can I forget, the veggies provide luscious vitamins and minerals that aid in the functioning of our bodies.

This recipe is also EASY to do... All you need are a few simple ingredients and something to roll the sushi with. You don't necessarily need a sushi roller because you may not have that in your house but, here are some solutions from Minimalist Baker!

Vegan Veggie Sprouted Wild Rice Sushi with Chili-Lime-Peanut dressing ~About 3 rolls
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cup Wild Rice
- 1 teaspoon Sesame Oil
-Chili pepper 
- 3-4 Leaves of Dino Kale- De-stemmed
- Half of a Japanese cucumber - Cut in quarters length wise, then sliced
- Half of a whole carrot- Cut in quarters length wise, then sliced
- Half an avocado- Pitted and sliced
-3-4 Nori Sheets 

Instructions For Sprouting the Rice:
1. Place all of the Wild Rice into a container and cover with water.
2. Leave over night and once the rice has bloomed, strain it and fill again.
3. Wait a couple more hours until fully bloomed and chewy.
4. When the Rice is fully bloomed, season with Chili Pepper, sesame oil,  and Himalayan or Sea Salt.

Instructions for assembling the sushi:
1. Place a nori sheet down on a sushi roller.
2. Place about 1 cup of the sprouted wild rice onto the nori sheet. (The rice will expand so you will have much more than 1.5 cups that you initially started with).
3. Place leaves of kale on top of the rice until fully covered.
4. Add cucumber and carrot slices in the center of the nori sheet.
5. Lastly, add avocado slices in the center as well.
6. Roll!!!! Roll tightly until the sushi is held together well.
7. Slice with a sharp knife and plate.

Instructions for the Chili-Lime-Peanut Dressing:
Ingredients:
Juice from 1/2 lime
1/2 teaspoon of Chili Powder
1 tablespoon of Organic peanut butter
2 teaspoons of water
1/8 teaspoon of Raw Manuka Honey

Instructions:
1. Combine everything and stir vigorously until combined!

Morning After soaking the Wild rice

Assembling the Sushi on the mat!

DATE PASTE!!! A DIY Natural Sweetner that doesn't come in a package

Date paste... It may sound very weird but it is an amazing thing to add to deserts for anything. It's great because it's an unrefined sugar so there's more fiber, meaning it will break down slower than something like white granulated sugar. This is better for our bodies and there will be no 'sugar rush' after eating this. It's so simple because all you need are dates and water. There are also many different variations that you can implement yourself. I made cinnamon date paste which tasted just like cinnamon sugar! I ate these with some apples and it had the vestige of apple pie filling or an apple turnover. I've never actually had an apple turnover but I know it does encompass the flavorings of apple and cinnamon.

The uses for date paste are endless! You can add it to baked good recipes like banana bread or muffins. It can be used on toast as an added touch of sweetness instead of sugar filled jams. Date paste can be added to puddings ... honestly the combinations are endless. It can also be blended into smoothies, smoothie bowls, or acai bowls to add some sweetness if the fruit you are using doesn't have a concentrated sweet flavor. It's all up to the user and if you like added sweetness, this is much better than adding refined cane sugar or even the high fructose corn syrup in some baked goods. Dates in Hawai'i are usually carried at local health food stores but I purchase mine from Costco where they sell Medjool Dates for around eight dollars a box and deglet noor dates. Medjool Dates are much more expensive but they work so much better because they are chewy and more blendable than the Deglet Noor. I recommend using the Medjool Dates for date paste.

Another note about Date paste is that it must be refrigerated. You do add water to these dates and its is perishable. It usually stays fresh for a week and if you add cinnamon, a few more days. Anyways, here's to the recipe!


Raw Vegan Date Paste
Makes about 2-3 Cups of Date Paste (adjust the recipe to your own liking)
Ingredients:
-About 2 cups of Medjool Dates
-Mason Jar or something big enough to hold the Dates
-Enough Water to soak the dates in the jar, cup, or container you have the dates in.
-Extra Water to blend the dates in. For 2 cups of Dates, use 2 cups of water or coconut water

Instructions:
1. First, put all the dates into the mason jar or container.
2. Pour the amount of water needed to immerse all the dates in the container 
3. Soak the dates for a few hours until soft.
4. Pit all of the dates and throw away the pits
5. Place all of the dates in a blender along with the extra water
6. Blend until very smooth, almost creamy.
7. Place into a sealed container and refrigerate or use!

Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

Yes, you can indulge! I love the food I eat and with every meal, vegan food can taste amazing, you just have to be open to trying new things! Some things do taste bad but there are also non-vegan foods that taste bad as well. Just because it’s deemed healthy doesn’t mean it can’t taste good… so not true. Even when I chose to eat healthy, I would sometimes feel like I was restricting myself because I had this idea drilled into my head by society that healthy meant food automatically didn’t taste good. Now I eat healthier and I have found a full appreciation for the food I eat and each day I find new combinations of food that taste beautiful. An example of vegan food that tastes amazing is this recipe. It was inspired by a good bunch of friends I know from my school. As I got into a conversation about veganism with them, reese’s peanut butter cups came up and I had an aha’ moment. I knew exactly how to make reese’s peanut butter cups raw vegan style and I knew that they tasted amazing. I explained a bit on the difference between healthy peanut butter cups versus the processed ones you get in the package. I wanted to go further into what that meant but, I’ll explain it here.

In packaged or processed foods, shelf life is always on the mind of companies. Packaged foods like candy bars need to be able to last as long as possible on the shelf of a store to essentially save money. Things like chemicals and preservatives are added in to make processed foods last longer. These chemicals and preservatives are not good for our bodies and in fact are not meant to be in our bodies. When chemicals like hydrogenated oils are in our bodies, there is no use so they are stored in fat cells as toxins. These incomplete structured fat molecules are not meant to be in our bodies and probably have links to cancer and health issues. I don’t want to scare anyone but just being more aware of the ingredients in our food can make for better choices and all around health! That’s why making your own un-processed candies can actually be a good thing. In fact, it’s much better than buying it because you know exactly what you are putting inside! The difference between the Reese’s peanut butter cups you buy from the store and the ones you can make at home is that there are not only no preservatives and chemicals but there are no refined sugars and added overt fats. I’ll break it down into three parts here:

SUGARS:

 In these Reese’s peanut butter cups, you won’t be adding refined sugars like white, brown, and powdered sugar. Not every type of sugar is made equal and this is a common misconception. A lot of people think sugar is just sugar but that is very wrong. The reason why refined sugars are worse for our bodies is that there is no nutritional value and the form it is in will spike your blood sugar levels right away. If you get sugar from fruits with dietary fiber, you will be getting nutrients from the fruits and it will break down slower because of the fiber. Therefore a calorie from white sugar has no other nutrients and will raise blood sugar levels where as a fruit will give you nutrients and break down slowly.

            This recipe will use date paste instead of white sugar that is in many candy bars. Dates are very high in sugar and honestly taste a lot like caramel. They are so sweet that I even have a hard time eating it by itself. When blended with water, it is almost like a syrup and tastes like caramel syrup. Medjool Dates are the best to use because they are very squishy and easy to blend. This date paste will be used to sweeten both the chocolate and peanut butter portions in these peanut butter cups.

The sugar in these will break down slower and won’t spike your energy levels plus, you’ll be getting a lot more nutrients from the dates.

NO ADDED OILS

In candy bars, there are always added oils like hydrogenated palm oils or hydrogenated soybean oil. The problem with these as I stated earlier is that there is nothing the body can do with them. They are fats that are not complete molecules therefore i’s just stored in your body as a toxin and when you keep consuming these toxins, they build up and could be detrimental to your overall health. In this recipe, to create the chocolate part you need an oil. The oil used is coconut oil as it is a saturated fat. This means that at certain temperatures, it can be a solid and at others it is not. 

Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

Ingredients:

Chocolate:

-2 tablespoons unprocessed Coconut Oil 

-3 tablespoons Cacao Powder

-2 1/2 tablespoons date paste (optional, there are alternatives) 

       -You could also use 2-3 Tablespoons of Brown Rice Syrup or Coconut Sugar (based on your preference)

Peanut butter Filling: 

-2 1/2 tablespoons of peanut butter 

-1 1/2 tablespoons date paste or brown rice syrup or coconut sugar 

Instructions:

1. In a small mixing bowl, mix all the chocolate ingredients together until it's the consistency of melted chocolate. 

2. Prepare about 6 cupcake holders and spoon 1-2 tablespoons of the chocolate mixture into each, or until it covers the bottom of the holder.

3. Place all the 6 holders onto a pan and place into the freezer. The coconut oil will harden up! 

4. While the chocolate is in the freezer, it's time to prepare the peanut butter filling. 

For the Peanut butter Filling: 

1. Add the ingredients for the peanut butter filling into a small mixing bowl and mix vigorously until almost 'whipped' up. 

Assembling everything: 

When the chocolate has hardened, add half a tablespoon of the peanut butter mixture to each of the cupcake holders. 

After this is done, pour the remaining chocolate mixture onto the first and second layers of the peanut butter cups. When this is done, place into the freezer again to set. When it has hardened, it's all ready to share and eat! 

Keep in mind that although this is a healthier version from the packaged peanut butter cups, it is still a desert and should be eaten in moderation. Also keep in mind that this is not a low calorie type of food because there are a lot of oils from the peanut butter and coconut oil. :)

 PS: I know these pictures may not look as appetizing as expected but they were rich, decadent, touchingly sweet, and creamy. This was my first time making this and I was just experimenting with ratios. I used date paste in the peanut butter so it is a little discolored but that's nothing to worry about, it still tastes great! I hope you try this recipe out to share with people, it sure is an amazing desert!

Raw Vegan Puttanesca Pasta with Kale salad

If you're feeling savory tonight, I highly recommend making a large portion of this raw vegan zucchini deliciousness and scarf it down. Okay, maybe not scarf it down but... just know that this stuff is good. The misconception of raw vegan or vegan foods is that dishes taste gross. This is totally not true and I challenge people to open their minds and mouths to new types of foods because sometimes, the simplest combination of ingredients can taste beautiful! This dish is apart of my testimony because I randomly thought of the recipe one night and it turned out amazing. I just threw simple ingredients together and it turned out to be pretty tasty!

This is Raw Vegan because nothing is cooked or raised to a temperature above 118 degrees fahrenheit. What this does is it preserves the enzymes in foods which is great for your body! I don't always eat raw but majority of the food I eat are raw and fresh. It's fun to eat raw because everything tastes fresh and it cuts down on the preparation time for cooking. This dish is full of vitamins and minerals from the kale salad as well as from the zucchini and puttanesca sauce. I love making raw vegan sauces because they are typically constructed of vegetables therefore you're getting an added boost of nutrients! It's all about nutrient density when it comes to eating because all calories are not made equal. Zucchini noodles actually have vital nutrients in them compared to wheat pasta plus, zucchini noodles are not calorie dense so you can actually eat more... :D

Besides the fact that this dish is nutrient dense and very simple, it's super delicious! It's a great thing to eat for lunch or dinner, subbing for something high in gluten or animal fats. This dish is also low fat and most fats come from the fresh olives. The great part about using olives instead of olive oil is that you are able to benefit from the vitamins and minerals in the olives instead of just using the oil which has barely any nutrients. The use of olives is very important because it gives the taste of a Puttanesca sauce. Anyways... onto the recipe!

Raw Vegan Puttanesca Pasta with Kale Salad 
Ingredients:
For the pasta base:
-2 zucchinis
-4-5 leaves of kale de-stemmed and chopped
For the Sauce: 
-1 heirloom tomato
- 4 fresh olives 
-a few grape tomatoes for garnish
-1 Basil stalk
-3-4 sun-dried tomatoes soaked in water for 30 minutes
- 3 cloves garlic
-1/4 of a sweet onion chopped
-1/4 cup water
-Dried rosemary
-Salt and pepper to taste

1. To make the zucchinis into noodles, you can use a spiralizer or like me, you can just use a potato peeler. Keep in mind that using a potato peeler will take longer!
2. Set zucchini noodles on the side in a serving bowl.

For the Sauce:
1. Cut the heirloom tomato and place into a blender.
2. Add all other ingredients into the blender and blend until smooth.

Combine:
1. Pour the sauce over the zucchini noodles and leave some to massage into the kale.
2. Massage or toss with a utensil and set aside to marinate.
3. Repeat with the chopped kale.
4. Let it rest for around 10 to 15 minutes for the flavors to blend.
5. Serve and eat!

Acai Adventure #2~Tropical Tribe

If you're looking for real, authentic, and rich Brazilian Acai, I highly recommend stopping by Tropical Tribe, located in the Waikiki Discovery Bay hotel. Waikiki sounds crowded and out of the way but parking is very simple and a validated ticket under 30 minutes is only a dollar. The owner and founder of Tropical Tribe is originally from Brazil and according to their website, was motivated to introduce Hawai'i to real authentic Brazilian Acai. According to him, the Acai in Hawai'i is very different as people add a lot of frozen fruit and fruit juices, taking away the rich taste of the Acai berry. Instead of adding all of the extra fruits and juices, he just uses high quality acai and guarana jucie that he imports himself.

I originally heard about Tropical Tribe while researching about the many Acai venues in Hawai'i. I felt a motivation to find more places that served Acai because I usually went to the ones I was familiar with. I love the rich taste of Acai and I thought it would be amazing to find a place that didn't use so many frozen fruits and fruit juices. When I read on yelp that Tropical Tribe offered just what I was looking for, I couldn't wait to go there and try some Brazilian Acai!

This is the entrance on the first floor of the Waikiki discovery Bay. It's a very tucked away and quiet area with lots of places to sit down. No one was there when I went and the acai was made very fast. they serve their Tropical Tribe Acai Bowl, which is the signature Acai blend made with only acai berries and guarana. They also have the Hawaiian Acai Bowl, which is modeled after the acai other stores sell with various fruits and fruit juice inside. I ordered a large Tropical Tribe Acai Bowl, which was handily made with care and was very beautiful.

This is what the Large Tropical Tribe Acai Bowl looked like. I could already tell that the Acai was very rich as the color was the darkest I've seen from any other acai place. When I first tasted the acai, it was something I had never really experienced before. It had the taste of Sambazon Acai but was much more rich and thick. It was definitely less sweet than other acai bowls but the honey took care of that. This was probably the best Acai Bowl I've actually had because I could taste the quality of the Acai and the blend of flavor was so clean and sharp. If you are looking for a true and authentic acai bowl full of Brazilian essence, I recommend going to Tropical Tribe! These unique acai places open my heart to all forms of Acai!

Acai Adventures- Oahu Post #1 My own Recipe

Hello and welcome to my Acai Adventures! I love acai bowls and throughout Hawai'i, there are many versions and tastes of acai. I've visited many places that serve acai as it seems just as popular as shave ice these days. It's refreshing, sweet, crunchy, and actually pretty healthy at the same time. The base is usually made out of acai and assorted frozen fruit blended with minimal liquid to a thick frozen consistency. Then it is topped with fruit, granola, and honey. They do get quite expensive in certain places and that's why I try to make most of mine at home but, they are around the price of a good lunch and as a high raw vegan, that is lunch :).


So I bet you are asking "what is an acai adventure?" Well, it's my outlook on acai bowls in parts of Hawai'i. These adventures are predominately in Honolulu but, I've been to places on the north shore and maybe there will be some from outer islands if I am able to go there. Usually, cafe's and small food businesses sell acai bowls but there are also big companies like Jamba Juice and Lanikai Juice (franchises) who sell acai as well.

Acai is considered a superfood berry from the Amazon in Brazil. In Brazil, there is a whole culture around acai as it is very nourishing for our bodies. I usually hear that it's great for garnering omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants but there are many more benefits:

According to Mercola.com, the health benefits of  Acai Berry include "high level of antioxidant activity similar to cranberries, but more than what's been found in blueberries and strawberries. Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) values measuring the antioxidant power of acai fruit pulp/skin powder reportedly have the highest ORAC value among fruits and vegetables, or 10 times more antioxidants than red grapes." They are also known to be high in iron, calcium, fiber, and vitamin A. It is also attributed to being a dietary staple for people in the Amazon rainforest regions (Mercola). People have claimed that it does lead to weight loss but don't go eating a huge bag of acai berries just for this reason. It does not cure obesity or what not, and it has not been proven.

Acai isn't just a so called, "superfood" it's delicious as well. When mixed with other things or eaten alone, it has a very rich almost creamy flavor which I think could be a result of the amount of essential fatty-acids in it. All the places in Hawai'i that serve acai do serve it in different ways and we will discover this realm of making acai bowls!!!

1. First, let's start with my recipe of an Acai Bowl.
Ingredients:
2 packets of Sambazon Original Acai packets
1 Banana
1 cup of frozen blueberries
1/4 cup of Zico Coconut water
-Handful of chia/pumpkin seeds
-Assorted fruit toadd on top
1. Throw the acai packets, banana, blueberries, and coconut water in a blender.
2. Blend until a thick frozen concoction is made
3. Throw all your added seeds/fruit on top!
voila !
I actually try to put less frozen fruit in the acai mix because I like the flavor of the acai puree so i try to create a richer acai flavor than some businesses.

My breakfast a few days ago :)

Going BANANAS for BANANA Ice Cream

3rd Quarter is over. That's all that really needs to be said because that wraps up all of my thoughts. I can sleep, take time when eating, savoring every single bite. I can go outside on my porch and lie down in the sun, soaking up every bit of warmth. I can leisurely finish homework and go shopping at my favorite health stores. I can DO ANYTHING basically... Like taking time to make my breakfast, however, today I had banana ice cream which only took 5 minutes. Darn, eating a high raw vegan lifestyle is the least time consuming because it's so simple therefore, taking my time doesn't really take a lot of time. I hope that made sense...

I love certain parts of dairy ice cream. It tasted good, but then again, it makes you feel like crap after, there's added hormones in the milk, there's unneeded hormones in the milk itself, it's not nutrient dense at all, and it's full of fat, cholestrol, and refined sugars. It's all about being as simple as possible, and for me, eating raw vegan foods is simple but abundant in nutrients. For example, if I wanted to increase my intake of Omega-3 fatty acids, I could use the mainstream idea of eating more fish like salmon. When I really look into it, chia seeds are full of Omega-3 fatty acids with less calories and more nutrients like vitamins and minerals. I then analyze the industries they come from. BenVia Gold, a company that sells chia seeds has much better quality control than the fish industry as they make sure the soil the chia is grown in is full of nutrients. The fishing industry is another story, where you may not know where your fish is coming from, what they are being fed, and how high their mercury levels are. Yes, you may be getting Omega 3 fatty acids from a slab of salmon but, what you are not getting is also something to consider too, as well as the unsustainable over-fishing you are contributing to. I think keeping it simple and less difficult is a sustainable diet and eating complicated things like dairy ice cream or meat weren't doing me well in terms of nutrition.

Anyways, back to the present moment of delicious, creamy, amazing, nutritious banana ice cream. This stuff is so good... and so simple. All it is are frozen bananas, a touch of water to get the blender going, and any flavoring you want to add. You can add frozen fruit to make a creamy sorbet or chocolate and peanut butter if you want decadence. It really is your choice and any flavor you want can be made. I think I'm going to try making a chai flavor next time! So here's what I did:

Banana Ice Cream- Blueberry and Mango Flavors 
Serves 1 or 2 people
Ingredients:
-3 frozen bananas
-1 cup frozen mango
-2/3 cup frozen blueberries
-touch of water
1. Half the amount of frozen bananas and throw into a food processor. Add the frozen cubes, a splash of water, and process until smooth.
2. All you have to do is repeat with the blueberries!
3. You can add small things like chia seeds, granola, and fruit in the ice cream for a cool blend of flavors.

This explains the happiness I feel for banana ice cream and spring break :)