Are you ready?

Okay.

Where do you get your protein? *cringe*

Painful and pretty bleedin’ annoying to hear, I know. In my Contemporary Asian Society class a few weeks ago when we were doing *annoying* group work in class, this muscle-head in my group must have noticed: A) My shirt with some sort of vegan saying on it or B) my vegan tattoo. Either way, he asked the proverbial question of where I get my protein. So I gave him the shpeal.

But yesterday I got to thinking…how much protein do I get in a day? How much do I even need? I know it’s not that much.

And it isn’t. Here’s a calculation I found on About.com:

Exhibit A: It’s Thursday. That means tomorrow is Friday. I get to go home for the weekend after Contemporary Asian Societies!

Exhibit B: I had soup for lunch (recipe coming soon. Once I have a better picture of it…). Soup for lunch always makes me happy.

Exhibit C: Not much homework! I just have a 4 page essay for Islamic Cultural History due in a week. I think I’m going to write about women’s rights in Islam.

Exhibit D: Fiddler On The Roof is on right now. I love that movie/musical.

Exhibit E: My heat is fixed in my apartment. I can finally be warm again!

And most importantly…I made hummus today! I had a major hankering for hummus all day today. Don’t ask me why, considering the mass amount of it I ate yesterday. I came to realize this morning, to my horror, that I only had about a tablespoon of my last batch left! So after I returned from campus today, whilst making some yummy falafel for supper, I whipped together some hummus. In doing so…I improved upon my original recipe! Don’t you love when that happens?

Creamy Low Fat, Low Calorie Hummus: Perfected

Yields 2 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups cauliflower, boiled until very very tender
• 1 14oz can chickpeas (about 1 3/4 cups cooked), drained and rinsed
• 1 tbs tahini
• 1 tbs plain non-dairy yoghurt
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• 1 tbs Braggs Liquid Aminos
• 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 1/2 tsp onion powder
• (optional) 1/4 tsp sriracha hot sauce or a pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions:

Simple puree everything together in a blender until smooth and creamy. Scrape the sides with a silicon spatula as necessary to ensure there are no lumps.

Serve with pita bread, or in a sandwich, or with crudité, on a mezze platter, on a salad, in your breakfast cereal…

I have been so busy with homework lately, I’ve had very little time to do much else. Days come and go where my daily activities consist of going to campus, making my typical meals, going to the gym, homework, and bed. For 5.5 hours. About. That’s not good, I know. More sleep is something I really have to work on. I’m basically exhausted. But the thing is…I’m doing homework until around 10:00 pm (tonight being an exception…I had a fairly light load today. Only two hours worth of Hindi instead of 3 or 4, plus I read ahead in Degrees Without Freedom…). Then I finally get a chance to talk with me Mummy for about an hour, then I eat a snack and go to bed (after watching the first 45 minutes of Leno).

Enough of that part of my day. It’s Wednesday, so that means it’s time for me to talk about stuff that I ate! With emphasis on veggies, since over at WIAW-land, it’s veggie love month! I tried to spice up (both literally and figuratively) the veggies that I ate today. I think I did pretty well in terms of diversifying my noshes. Let’s take a look, shall we? (And thanks as always @ Jenn from Peas and Crayons for putting on this faboo blog party. Yes. I just said faboo. Have a problem with that? No. Carry on)

Break-the-fast

A Grande Starbucks Bold Pick of the Day (I think it was Verona today...) and my usual breakfast of cooked veg: squash, cauliflower, spinach and spilt moong, spiced with garlic, onions, ginger, coriander, turmeric (the smallest squirt of ketchup and sriracha for good measure) topped with soy yoghurt and a small spoonful of hummus.

Not the prettiest thing to look at, but it sure tasted good.

Lunch:

Comes HOURS later. It’s kind of like a sweet-spiced cauliflower-squash “daal.” It was okay, but it needs improving. I almost think it would be better with rice or something…I dunno. It tasted okay, but it didn’t have the most pleasing texture, and it didn’t keep me full for long.

Small Meal 1:

MUCH more pleasing. Falafel makes everything better. I had my yummy falafel with some curried squash, broccoli, and spinach topped with yoghurt, hummus, and some dhania chutney. YUM.

Snack:

1/2 cup cultured coconut milk, 1/4 cup mango puree, 2.5 oz cooked squash, 1/2 cup puffed kamut cereal, sweetened with jaggery and spiced with ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom. Weird? Perhaps. Delicious, soothing, and fillings? Yeppers.

Small Meal 2:

I didn’t want to bore y’all with my usual roasted squash and kale, so I opted out of that for the night and decided to go with this. It is cooked greens, but rather than topping them with my usual roastie, I cooked up some scrambled tofu “eggs” (thank you kala namak!), oyster mushrooms, and a big ol’ scoop of (you guessed it) HUMMUS. I love that stuff. Topped it all off with a classy drizzle of ketchup (plus a little sriracha and coriander chutney).

Snack 2.5:

Back to the usual – pumpkin mousse and an oat bran mess. Yes, same as always, but I like to treat myself with this at night.

So…veggies: squash, kale, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, pumpkin, mushrooms

Fruit: banana, mango

Protein: lentils, hummus, tofu (silken, firm)

Grains: kamut puffs, oat bran

Non-dairy: soyghurt, coconut milk yoghurt, kiefer

Not bad, eh? I’ve done worse. It was hard for me to get all of my calories in (only 1100…with 1 hr. cardio, 3o minutes of yoga, and a ton of walking with a heavy backpack all across campus).

So…

What’s your favourite way of incorporating veggies into your day?

Do you like savoury breakfasts?

What’s your favourite way to eat hummus?

Do you want to share your favourite hummus recipe with me?

And now for the other reason I haven’t been posting…I have been (as I have mentioned) stuck in an awful rut. I haven’t really came up with anything “new.” I am trying, presently, and will post new recipes as I see fit. But more than that…I haven’t felt comfortable at all with eating lately. Okay, so it’s been a downright awful feat, eating has been, for me lately. Even worse than usual. I am consuming from 1100-1200 calories a day with exercise, but it just feels…bad. My mind is telling me “Stop! No! Don’t eat! You’ll only want to eat more later! That’ll make you fat!” And so on. It’s awful. I know in my rational mind that this is not true, and I force the same foods down my throat each day (some thing I enjoy, others are just eating because I know I need more calories). I just don’t get hungry. When it gets to a mealtime, I get a terrible aching, heaving feeling in my gut that just ruins any appetite that I may have had. I’m not sure if it’s stress or what…but it has certainly made eating hard.

But enough of that depressing talk now. When I took one or two (well deserved) breaks from homework over the weekend, I decided to do a little bit of baking, as I never have time to during the week (and why would I bake for just myself? That’s silly. I’d have no one to share my baked goods with…). So I whipped up two things. One’s healthy. The other ehhh…should be enjoyed occasionally. Let’s start with the healthy ‘dessert…’ or perhaps breakfast? Or snack?

Chocolate Chip Banana Baby Bundts 

Yields: 12 mini bundt cakes/muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 very ripe small/medium sized banana
• 1/4 cup non-dairy yoghurt (soy, almond, coconut…)
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/2 cup stevia extract in the raw
• 1 tbs vanilla extract
• (optional) 1/2 tsp chocolate extract
• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 2 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tbs baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400F and spray your baby bundt cake pan (or muffin tins) with nonstick cooking spray.

In a mixing bowl, mash your banana until there are few/no lumps remaining.

Mix in the remaining “wet” ingredients (the yoghurt through the extracts).

Sift in the dry ingredients and mix to form a batter.

Finally, stir in the chips.

Divide the batter evenly into 12 cake moulds of choice.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Allow the cakes/muffins to cool for 5-10 minutes before removing from the pan.

No added sugar or fat? Heck. Yeah.

But let’s say that you want sugar in your dessert for say…a Valentine’s Day treat? Yes. I of all people threw together some V-Day cookies. Even though it’s one of my least favourite holidays.

“Stand-Out-From-The-Crowds”

A “Tag-A-Long” Girl Scout Cookie Copy-Cat

Yields: Around 22-24 cookies

Ingredients:

Cookie:

• 1 stick vegan margarine (1/2 cup), room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbs vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp ener-g egg replacer mixed with 2 tbs warm water
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Filling:

• 1/2 cup peanut butter (creamy is preferable – the cheaper the better)
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 2 tbs vanilla extract

Coating:

• 1 cup vegan chocolate chips
• 1 tsp oil

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar.

Mix in the vanilla and egg replacer.

Sift in the dry ingredients and beat together to form a stiff dough.

Turn your doughball out onto a lightly floured surface, and roll out (gently!) until about 1/8″ thick. Cut out into your desired shapes (the smaller the better).

Bake for 10 minutes.

Cool completely before decorating, if you choose to do so.

In a smallish mixing bowl, mix together all of your filling ingredients together to form sort of a fudge-y dough. Divide the dough into 24 even sized pieces. As best your can, press each dough piece onto a cookie, spreading and working it evenly across the cookie to cover it evenly. Repeat with the remaining pieces.

Melt your chocolate with the oil via your preferred method (I microwave in 30 second increments, stirring as I go to melt the chocolate). Dip each cookie peanut butter-filling side down into the chocolate to coat the cookie. Now just let the chocolate cool and set, and your ready to eat!

Yeah. That’s shows them girl scouts who’s boss.

I used to be a girl scout. I hated it. My troop was lame. We didn’t do “campy” things or anything like that. And my scout leader was a drunk.

Yeah.

Until text time…

What is your favourite girl scout cookie?

Are you doing anything for Valentines day? I am. I have a date…with homework. Yup. I went there.

In case you were interested. I know, since it is Wednesday after all, you also are very much interested in seeing what food I consumed today. Well, instead of today’s energy sources, I will display what I ate yesterday. Just for a change of pace. It was getting to feel like I was getting too monotonous with my Wednesday posts. So here’s a typical Tuesday for me…

*FYI – food = basicially the same as a Wednesday. I’ve been too busy with homework to recipe-create. Maybe later this week I’ll come up with something new.*

Tuesdays are a little more chill for me than Wednesdays. Classes don’t start for me until 12:30, so I have a long while to do whatever I want to back at my apartment. I ended up having breakfast around 8:30-8:45-ish, after doing yoga and chatting with mum on the phone.

The usual as of lately. Garlicky cooked greens (spinach and kale) with some simmered acorn squash, and a tablespoon of yoghurt. My favourite new veggie condiment. With a few cups of coffee, of course. Okay. Maybe just one cup of coffee.

Then it was off to the gym at 10:00 after prepping lunch for later. I biked for a half an hour. Then went to campus. Signed some papers so I can get paid at the end of the semester (I have a job as a note-taker! I get paid $75 just for taking notes! Yea!). Got a grande coffee from Starbucks. And at 12:30 went to Buddhism class, followed by my note-taker orientation.

After orientation I was rather starved (we can’t eat during Buddhism, even though it’s during the typical lunch hour…). So I ate lunch at 3:00 in Islamic Cultural History.

Kaddu “falafels” were the lunch of the day. On a bed of greens and squash. With yoghurt, of course.

This was for lunch today as well, btw. With the addition of a dollop of hummus. Yummmmm.

Class ended right on time at 4:20 when I shuttled back to the apartment, where I did some reading until I was ready for dinner.

Which was the usual. I wasn’t feeling like thinking of making anything new. Too invested in reading at the time. I know. I’m such a nerd so dedicated.

And honestly, I wasn’t up to going to the gym for another round of biking (hey – who the heck wants to venture outdoors when it’s below 20 degrees out, and windy? Not me!). So instead I did 30 minutes of “power yoga” which consisted of a whole bunch of continuous sun salutations and warrior sequences. And followed that up with 30 minutes worth of strength training, which consisted of everything from bicep and tri-sep curls, to lat-rows, some shoulder exercises, some lunges (holding weights for resistance), squats with my medicine ball, sit ups with my medicine ball (done in various fashions targeting different muscles) and stuff like that. I feel as though that made up for not doing another gym session. Anyways…after this I was a tad peckish, so I decided to have a little snack while I roasted some squash in the oven.

I had half a cup of soy yoghurt with a tablespoon of peanut butter powder mixed up at the bottom. Yum. I love yoghurt and peanut butter.

This, of course, was supplemented with some squash, kale, and a mocha almond milk “shake. And Hindi studying. Delicious.

Eventually, my brain reached its capacity for homework, I chatted with mum on my cellular device, had a snack, and went to bed. My snack was…

Pumpkin mousse and…

A “pumpkin cream pie” oat bran mess.

So there is Tuesday for ya! Not all that different from Wednesday.

So thanks to Jenn from P&C for hosting this weekly blog party! BTW, this month for WIAW, its a month devoted to veggie love! Thankfully, I love veggies so this is a cakewalk for me! But perhaps I should try to incorporate new veggies into my diet…

Veggies for *Tuesday*:

• squash
• pumpkin
• broccoli
• spinach
• kale
• mushrooms

I could really work on my diversity!

What are your favourite vegetables?

Have you tried anything new lately?

Do you tend to eat the same thing on a daily basis?

1) 

So Delicious Coconut Milk Greek Style Yoghurt. Oh my god. I know I’ve already sung the praises of this stuff, but really. It’s beyond words. Just…go and get some.

2) 

Another So Delicious Coconut Milk product: Cultured Coconut Milk. Awesome stuff and super healthy. It’s packed with 10 (yes TEN) prebiotics AND probiotics. It definitely soothes an upset stomach, is great in smoothies, with cereal, or my favourite – mixed with cinnamon, stevia, and pumpkin puree for a killer “pudding!”

3) Yoghurt + Veggies =YUM.

A new favourite combination that I just can’t get enough of lately. Check it:

Malaaidaar Subziya aur Dal  

Serves 1

Ingredients:

• 2 oz chopped winter squash
• 2.5-3 oz chopped broccoli
• 1 tbs braggs liquid aminos
• 1/2 tbs garlic powder
• 1/2 tbs onion powder
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/8 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp ketchup
• 1/4 tsp sriracha
• 2 oz chopped kale
• 2 tbs cooked lentils
• 2 tbs non-dairy plain yoghurt

Directions:

In a small saucepan, simmer your squash and broccoli until tender.

Transfer to a medium-sized cast iron skillet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, set over medium heat, add in the Braggs seasonings, ketchup and sriracha, and mix everything together. Cook over medium heat for a minute or two.

Add in your kale (and perhaps a squirt of braggs) and cook, mixing everything together until your kale leaves are tender and wilted.

Add in the lentils and turn off the heat. Make sure everything is nicely mixed.

Dish up your cooked veg into a serving bowl, dollop on the yogurt, stir, and enjoy! Serve with naan or your favourite flatbread.

4) 

5. 

And in the midst of it all, I’ve become stuck in a major major food rut. It’s hard to think about coming up with new, healthy, innovative dishes when you have hours of reading about (for example) the history of Islam or the state of the democracy in India in the 1990′s. All interesting…but so much reading is not exactly conducive to a good eating environment.

But I’m managing. I’m sticking between 1100-1200 calories a day (I apologize if by mentioning this number I’m triggering anyone – I don’t mean to, I just want to be 100% honest with you all about what I am doing, in hopes of imporving myself and my own situation at hand), doing 60 minutes of cardio week days (more on Fridays and the weekend), strength training 3 times a week, and at least 30 minutes of yoga every morning, every day. The goal for me isn’t quite to gain weight yet, and I’m honestly hoping that I haven’t. Unintentional weight gain is what I fear…I will focus on gaining when the time is right. Just not quite now (not to say never).

Enough of this idle blather…on to the eats! Thanks, as always, to Jenn for hosting this loverly blog party!

I tried my hardest to break my food rut today…that started off with my usual 30 minutes of yoga, getting ready for heading to campus, making breakfast and such.

Breakfast consisted of a variation of some yummy eats from the other day! I was far too lazy to boil up cauliflower, so I made these instead…pumpkin (kaddu) falafel.

Yes. I was busy baking falafel at 6 am.

Kaddu “Falafel”

Yields 4 balls

Ingredients:

• 1/8 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 tbs cooked lentils
• 1/2 tbs besan flour
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• 1/4 tsp coriander powder
• a small squirt of braggs liquid aminos
• an even smaller squirt of sriracha

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400F.

Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper, and spray that with nonstick cooking spray.

In a smallish bowl, mix together your pumpkin, your cooked lentils, besan flour, seasonings, braggs, and the sriracha. Mash everything together, form the mixture into four balls and arrange on the baking sheet. Spray each one with a little bit of non-stick and bake for 20 minutes.

Flip them after 20 minutes, spray again, and bake for another ten.

Serve in a salad, in a wrap, with some pita, with some hummus, with some dhania chutney…however you’d like it.

Breakfast, pre-transtit

Just as tasty as the cauliflower ones, with the added kick of pumpkin deliciousness. I had them with some curried squash, broccoli, spinach and lentils, with 1 tbs soy yoghurt and a teeny drizzle of liquified dhania chutney. And coffee (bold pick o’ the day). With a side of Islamic history. Yum. I ate half in the Student Union whilst I was reading my Islamic history book, and the other half in Hindi class. Where this evil bitch girl just had to ask: a. What was that I was eating; b. Do I eat that for breakfast all the time; and c. What spices do I use in it – apparently she always smelled something in the classroom, but never knew what it was. Apparently she assumes that smell is always my breakfast. Well FYI chick, that was the first time I ever ate in that room so shove it! *ahem* Sorry. Perhaps I’m being paranoid and she meant no harm with her comment. I throughly enjoyed my falafels, and that’s all that matters.

Following class, I went to my apartment’s gym and biked for a half an hour (reading everyone’s WIAWs on my ipod!), followed by returning to my apartment, making lunch, and then returning (yet again) to campus for class.

Of course, before class comes coffee. Coffee always goes with class. I really enjoy my Contemporary Asian Societies course…we only briefly discussed some Indian history today. Much of which I already knew. Interesting all the same.

After class came lunch. Which consisted of this beauty of a soup.

Sexy. Sorry for another thermos shot. It’s all I have to tote around my soup in. It’s a Moroccan-inspired Carrot Soup. Mighty tasty.

Moroccan-ish Carrot Soup

Serves 1

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped cauliflower
• 1/2 cup chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped winter squash (or another 1/2 cup chopped carrot)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tbs water
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp ketchup
• 1/2 heaping tsp: ginger powder, garlic powder, onion powder
• 1/4 heaping tsp coriander powder
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbs cooked lentils
• (optional) 1/8 block lite firm pressed cubed tofu

Directions:

In one saucepan, boil together the cauliflower and 1/2 cup of carrots in enough water to cover and not boil dry. Boil until very very tender.

In a separate saucepan, boil the remaining 1/2 cup veg (either squash or more carrots) until tender when pierced with a fork. Drain and set aside.

Now drain your mushy-tender veggies and blend them until very smooth with the 1/2 cup of water, lemon juice, ketchup, and spices. Stir in the cooked veg, the lentils, optional tofu, gently re-heat and enjoy!

It’s a fun monthly event put on by Lindsay from The Lean Green Bean where you’re matched up with a food blogger (whom you contact), send out a package to, and you receive a package from the blogger who contacted you! Its fun!

I sent mine out to Julia from A Girl with a Stethoscope. I sent out some fun stuff like some homemade granola, gingerbread tea, Biscoff cookies, dark chocolate coated espresso beans, Coconut Chocolate LUNA bars…there could have been more, but I can’t remember. No pics of this…sorry.

But I do have pictures of what my foodie penpal sent me! I got my package from Amy of A Healthy Eater. She sent me such amazing goodies!

I got a super delicious blueberry muffin Larabar…which I ate shortly upon opening the package! This flavour is not available in any of my local stores, so I was really excited about getting this. Yum.

A lil’ sachet of Justin’s Almond Butter. Yum!

Some rich and delicious Buckeye candies! I love these. Amy said in the (lovely) little note that came in the package that she’s a Ohio State alum, and of course everyone knows of the Ohio State Buckeyes, right? Right! She said that they receive these at orientation. I thought that was pretty awesome Plus, I love Buckeyes. Aapni parivar used to make something like this at x-mas time, only ours were a little different…they had either crushed graham crackers in them, or else rice krispie cereal. It was cool getting legit ones

Some sundried tomato spread…which is KILLER on cooked broccoli, FYI. And I may or may not have threw some in a curry or two great flavour in this stuff.

Some Tazo Calm herbal tea. Delish. And calmness is something I need much more of in my life…MUCH more.

And last, but certainly not least, is some homemade honey. THIS was the most sentimental gift, by far, and I am honoured to have received it. I know what y’all are thinking…”But honey isn’t vegan!” Well, deal with it folks. I made an exception with this honey! Her grandfather is a bee-keeper, and she helped with this specific batch, which I thought was totally cool. I feel it’s okay if you know you’re getting honey from a groovy bee-keeper Plus, and most importantly, she told me how happy it made her grandfather knowing that I loved and appreciated the honey very much, and he was so excited that his honey was going to be talked raved about on my blog. The fact that I made someone happy by doing such a simple thing as this just made my whole day. I wanted to smile and cry at the same time So thanks to Amy and Amy’s granddad!! <3 I loved everything!

So are you interested in participating? If so…here are the details!

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal! 
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month. 

*Breaking news! This month we’re going to do a trial run for our Canadian friends. I’m still not exactly sure how it will work with shipping costs and stuff for you guys up North, but if you’re willing to give it a try for a month and provide me with some feedback, that would be awesome! Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

If you’re interested in participating for February, please send  an email to Lindsay at theleangreenbean@gmail.com and include the following information:
-Your full name
-Your email address
-Your blog name/address
-Your twitter handle (if applicable)
-WHETHER YOU ARE A US RESIDENT OR CANADIAN RESIDENT. – this is SUPER important so I can get you on the right list!

I will need to hear from you by February 4th as pairings will be emailed on February 5th!

The truth is, my last statement very much reminded me of what we learned in Hindi today – the subjunctive tense (yes, prepare you’re ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ – it’s totally exciting). Just in case you wanted to know.

The truth is, I broke my food rut, at least a little bit. For tonight, anyways.

The truth is, I’m eating some killer eats right now. What to know what?

Falafel.

But not really. Because the truth is, there are no chickpeas in here. But there is chickpea flour. And there’s no fresh parsley. But there is dried. Because that’s all I have…so deal with it dried-herb-haters! It works just as well.

The truth is, these are really low in calories, are really good for you, and really filling. Not to mention delicious.

The truth is, I want some more…

The truth is, I’ll probably make more tomorrow. Because they’re just that good.

Fauxlafel 

Yields 4 balls

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup cauliflower, chopped
• 2 tbs cooked lentils
• 1 tbs besan flour
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp coriander powder
• a small squirt of braggs liquid aminos
• an even smaller squirt of sriracha

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 400F.

Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper, and spray that with nonstick cooking spray.

In a saucepan, boil your cauliflower until its mushy. Drain and return to the skillet.

Add to the cauliflower your cooked lentils, besan flour, seasonings, braggs, and the sriracha. Mash everything together, form the mixture into four balls and arrange on the baking sheet. Spray each one with a little bit of non-stick and bake for 20 minutes.

Flip them after 20 minutes, spray again, and bake for another ten.

Serve in a salad, in a wrap, with some pita, with some hummus, with some dhania chutney…however you’d like it.

I had mine in a salad. It consisted of:

4 falafels (or is the plural of ‘falafel’ just…’falafel?’ hmm…). 2 oz of garlicky cooked kale. 2.5 oz simmered acorn squash cubes. A drizzle of liquified dhania chutney (dhania = Hindi for coriander. Word of the day! Woo!). A small drizzle of soy yoghurt. Les yum.

The truth is, I’ve been on a major ‘yoghurt’ kick. I dig Silk Live! Plain Soy Yoghurt. I dig So Delicious Cultured Coconut Milk Yoghurt in the plain and vanilla flavours. And most of all…I looooooove the So Delicious Greek Style Coconut Milk Yoghurt in the vanilla and plain flavours. Just. Divine.

Hmm…what else can be said now? I’m pretty sure I got most everything covered! But just for the fun of it, I’ll end this post with a survey, because the truth is, I think that they’re really fun. I found this one on the fab blog, The Guiltless Life.

1) What is one of your favorite ways to spend a Saturday?

This is what I have been having  a lot of lately…and not just for breakfast, as the recipe title implies.

Bharati Breakfast Bowl Tutorial

Serves 1

Ingredients:

• 2 cups vegetables of choice (mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, squash, peas, carrots, et cetera…)
• 2 cups leafy greens (spinach/baby spinach, swiss chard, kale, beet greens, et cetera…)
• 1/4 cup “protein” (lentils, cooked beans, crumbled/cubed tofu, crumbled/cubed tempeh
• 2-3 tbs Braggs’ Liquid Aminos
• 1 tbs ketchup
• 1/2 tsp sriracha
• 1 1/2 tbs: garlic powder, onion powder
• 1/2 tbs: ginger powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric

Ingredients:

Cook your vegetables of choice until tender.

Add these to a cast iron skillet, sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, an set the heat to medium.

Add in the Braggs, ketchup, sriracha, and seasonings to the vegetables and cook, stirring for about a minute, making sure there everything all mixed together.

Add in your greens, stirring and wilting them in with the veggie-spice mixture.

Add in your protein, turn off the heat, stir and serve.

So, any suggestions for something for me to eat?

Do you tend to stick to the same foods when you’re crunched for time?

What are your “go to” foods?

How do you break a nasty food rut?