Updates

Figuring out that being an adult and living the “adult life” isn’t easy. Or rather, when we reach a certain age, we tend to begin complicating things. Life is simple. Why do I allow myself to become so attached to society’s expectations of me? In the short space of a little over a month that I’ve returned, I’ve tried to do everything including: returning/creating a normal/non-traveller lifestyle, finding my dream job and planning for my future. Okay, so our visitors and our planned family-holiday in the mix were out of my say but everything else, I have personally cultivated. Don’t get me wrong, productivity is great but in the thick Persian accent of my mother, “mo-de-ration iz im-portant.” Life is percious and life is fleeting but like my brother-in-law once said, life is actually really long, too (if we’re lucky). Which means, I don’t have to find my dream job before a certain age. I don’t have to justify my life decisions. And making memories with my family and friends, looking after my well-being  and enjoying the day to day is what comes first. Currently trying to calm the frick down and do what makes my heart sing. Some of which include, baking delicious muffins, writing for Savvy Tokyo (new article HERE), and pursuing my “book a week” challenge.

2 free range eggs
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp runny honey
1 tbsp sugar-free Barker’s apricot jam
1 cup almond flour
1 cup self rising flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup unsweetened yoghurt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
Handful of raw walnuts, chopped small
Some dark chocolate, chopped small
4-5 small apricots, chopped small
Mix everything together, pour slightly thick mixture into a greased muffin tray and bake at 160 degrees until fork comes out clean (about 25 min)
Book two, week two!

A Healthier Potato Salad and Cheesecake

Both recipes inspired by Petite Kitchen 

Potato Salad:
3 large potatoes of choice
1 small-medium cucumber
2-3 medium gherkins/pickles (chopped small)
A handful of dried blackcurrants
1/2 cup of raw pistachios (chopped small)
A large handful of fresh mint (roughly chopped)
Juice of one lemon
4 tbsp natural yoghurt
a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Pepper

Scrub potatoes well then cut in to small cubes. Place in a large saucepan, cover with salted water and bring to the boil. Then simmer, uncovered until just cooked. Be careful not to overcook!

When ready, strain potatoes and set aside to cool.

Once cooled, combine and toss all ingredients in a large bowl.

Cheesecake: 
6 free-range eggs
1 cup natural yoghurt
1 cup of mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup of honey or maple syrup
1/4 cup of almond meal/almond powder
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp vanilla essence

Topping:
Note: alternatively, you can use 100% store-bought fruit jam. 
1 cup of fresh or frozen strawberries
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup of water

Decoration:
Silvered almonds and flowers

Preheat oven to 180C

Grease a round cake tin then line with baking paper -grease that a little bit too.

Combine all cake ingredients in a food processor and blitz until combined. Since my blender couldn’t fit/handle all the ingredients at once, I managed this part by blending in batches at a time.

Pour batter into a cake tin and bake for about 45-50 min or until set. Note: batter will be very runny, this is normal.

Keep a good eye on the prize, if the top starts prematurely browning because your oven is shit like mine, use a sheet of tin foil to cover the top.

As your cake bakes, add all topping ingredients to a saucepan, bring to the boil then simmer until juicy and thick- set aside to cool.

Once both topping and cake have cooled, bring the two together in the most perfect union using the back of a tablespoon..

Decorate with silvered almonds and small flowers. Last but definitely not least, Instagram it.

A big shout out to Daniel and Mariko for having me over, listening to all my Japan problems and giving me kind brotherly and sisterly advice and my tummy, vegetarian gyoza and perfectly cooked brown rice!

Fancy Bananas

Today is White Day, a Japanese FEMALE exclusive Valentine’s Day, if you will. So to celebrate myself, I took the time to assemble these fancy bananas for my breakfast. Self love 101!

All natural nut butter, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, slivered almonds, raisins and unsweetened dedicated coconut! Surprisingly filling ^.^

5 Minute 5 Ingredient Vegan Mushroom Soba Pasta

If you, like me, like pasta, you should be eating soba! What is soba? Soba are Japanese noodles made of buckwheat flour. What’s the big deal about them? They’re low cal! Basically, half the calories of white pasta. A cup of cooked soba contains 113 calories whereas white spaghetti contains 220 per cup and wholewheat spaghetti 174.

113 < 220
113 < 174

You get it right?

For all you non-Japan dwellers, you should be able to find soba in the health or Asian section of your local supermarket. For Cantabrians, Piko, Liberty Market and New World.

Tonight I made this and WOW it was good. If I can say so myself.. which I can because this is my blog mwahaha. Anyways… I know a lot of people don’t like shiitake mushrooms so if you’re one of them you can use regular mushrooms or another vegetable all together (corn, broccoli or chickpeas are my recommendations).

1/2 packet of soba (or more or less whatever)
1/2 onion, diced small
1 punnet of shiitake mushrooms, chopped medium
1/2 can of whole peeled Italian tomatoes
spices (I’m cheating, I combined all the spices to make the recipe “5 ingredients” hehe but in my defense, it’s just a pinch of salt, red chilli and black pepper.)

Cook soba as per packet instructions, usually about a mere TWO minutes in boiling water – another reason why it’s so much better than pasta! It’s fasta! Get it? lol

Fry onion on medium heat with a little oil in a pan (1 minute)

Add mushrooms, stir (another min)

Add everything else, tomatoes, spices and cooked soba, stir.

Serve when all hot and steamy.

Oh mama mia! Oishi desu yo!

Step By Step Vegan Curry Cashew Cabbage

Cabbage is like tahini, once you’ve used it for hummus, it sits in your fridge forever. Seriously though, how many of you have had to let a half, or a quarter head of cabbage rot after you’ve made your coleslaw or whatever? Living in the countryside has been difficult but it’s also had its perks. For one, I am constantly gifted vegetables. And not just any vegetables but ones grown with much love and care. Any-who, what to do with all these cabbage heads? Pinterest! Where I got the idea for this simple curry cashew cabbage thingamajig that I slightly adapted (since that one used butter and much ginger). Enjoy!

STEP ONE: gather your ingredients
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1/2 cup raw unsalted cashews
1/2 smallish cabbage head
1 tsp turmeric
salt and pepper to taste
STEP TWO: melt coconut oil in a pan (med heat), add cashews and cumin and stir until both are fragrant and golden.

STEP THREE: add cabbage, add turmeric, stir. 

STEP FOUR: tis not really a step but just keep stirring for a further 5 or so minutes then nomnomnom away!

 

Step By Step Thai Vegan Curry

Do you remember how a few posts back, I confessed that I wasn’t really a chef? Well, this is a perfect example of that. Tonight I cooked vegan curry with a ready-made paste (gasp) AND it was delicious. Here’s how:

STEP ONE: gather your ingredients
1 preservative-free Thai curry paste
1 small can coconut milk
1 onion
3-4 small potatoes or sunchokes
1 large carrot
1 small broccoli head
some snap peas
1 punnet white mushrooms
(all veggies chopped small-medium)
1/2 cup raw peanuts
small bunch of fresh parsley or coriander

STEP TWO: heat a pan, add paste, 1 cup coconut milk and 1 cup water, bring to a boil. 

STEP THREE: add onion, sunchokes and carrots then cover and cook for 15-25 minutes.

STEP FOUR: add broccoli then cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Step FIVE: add snap peas and mushrooms and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.

TO FINISH: top with peanuts and herbs.

DAS IT, YO!

Healthy wholewheat waffles

Remember the “Sister Visit”? Well, my lovely lovely sister, who always likes and shares my blog-posts, brought over, all the way from NZ, my very abandoned yet dearly missed baby, Mr Waffle. Mr. Waffle Maker. Who this morning kindly provided me with healthy wholewheat waffles.

If you’re reading this Delaram, thank you! They were delicious and I highly recommend you (and everyone else) invest in one too (waffle maker and waffles).

1 free range egg
1 1/2 cups of your favorite milk
1 tbsp pure maple syrup (optional)
2 tbsp melted coconut oil
1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour (or any GF flour of choice)
1/2 cup ground almonds (or other nut or seeds)
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of cinnamon

In a large bowl, whisk the wet ingredients together.

Next, stir in everything else.

Cook waffle according to waffle-maker instructions.

Serve with yogurt, fruit, maple syrup and peanut butter! OR BACON. Oh no I didn’t.

Avocado chocolate mousse

In my previous post we established that to succeed at health-food blogging one must acquire an adorable child. So, here’s Emma, the cutest one of all promoting my healthy chocolate mousse.

Emma says, well if she could speak, she would say, “have you tried the unusual yet delicious combo that is avocado or as we Japanese say, “abocado” and chocolate?! Here, auntie Anisa presents it in the form of a HEALTHY delectable mousse topped with mixed frozen berries and raw macadamias. I sure digs it.”

Recipe here.

Banana berry and coconut okara cake.

Cake:
3 free-range eggs
2 ripe bananas
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup ground almonds
3/4 cup okara (soy pulp or any nut pulp left over from making nut milk will also work)
1 cup wholemeal flour (use GF variety if GF)
1/2 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Topping:
1/4 cup mixed frozen berries

Preheat oven to 160C

Mix all cake ingredients together then pour into a greased cake tin

Top with berries

Bake for 35-40 min or until the fork comes out clean

PS What’s that in Emma’s hand? That’s right, my cake!

Vegan curried couscous salad

My adaptation from The Daring Gourmet food blog.

Told ya I was gonna spice things up this New Year (literally). So, without further adieu I introduce you curried couscous.

2 cups uncooked wholewheat couscous
2-3 small wild carrots, finely shredded (I used one orange, one white and one yellow)
3 spring onions, sliced small
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup raw walnuts

Dressing:
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp black pepper

Cook couscous according to packet instructions then set aside – usually it’s just adding hot water, covering with a plate, waiting then fluffing with a fork.

Prepare dressing by whisking all dressing ingredients together until well combined.

Add carrots, spring onion, parsley, chickpeas, raisins and walnuts to cooked couscous and mix together with a wooden spoon.

To finish, add the  dressing, a little at a time, stirring to combine between additions. For best results, cover and refrigerate overnight so the flavours have time to meld.