Food Reward Friday

This week's lucky winner... Cheesecake Factory carrot cake!!

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Chocolate & Orange Popsicles

Okay, so I know putting 'popsicles' and 'hot' in the same sentence is kind of creating an oxymoron but these are in fact hot chocolate popsicles. Because you see I used this dangerously delicious vegan hot chocolate powder from Esamée Store that they were so kind to send me a while back. The only ingredients in this mix are organic coconut sugar, vegan coconut milk powder, organic raw cacao, organic cinnamon and maltodextrin. All you have to do is mix a couple of teaspoons with a cup of boiling hot water and voilà, there's a steaming cup of vegan hot chocolate for you. Yes, I am sold.

Also, chocolate and orange is a match made in heaven and I'm all about those divine flavour combinations. And there are only 5 ingredients so NO EXCUSES. You could even enjoy it in it's semi-liquid state as a beautiful chocolate milkshake!

Hot Chocolate & Orange Popsicles

Ingredients:

150 ml or 2/3 cup full fat coconut milk

150 g frozen bananas (about 1 1/2 medium sized)

1 tbsp Honest Hot Chocolate Powder from Esamée or 1 tbsp coconut sugar

1 tbsp cocoa or cacao powder

Zest from 1 organic orange

How to:

1. Slice the bananas and put them in an airtight plastic container in the freezer and leave it there for at least 8 hours to freeze.

2. Place the frozen bananas, hot chocolate powder/coconut sugar, cocoa powder and orange zest in a food processor and blend for about one minute.

3. Pour in the coconut milk through the hole on top of the food processor, little by little. Stop to scrape down the sides if necessary.

4. Divide the 'ice cream' in six popsicle moulds and freeze overnight.

5. Enjoy!

Vegan Macaroni and Cheese

Behold my attempt to veganize this good old classic loved and cherished by people all over the world. Here in Sweden it goes by 'Makaronipudding', which literally means 'Macaroni Pudding'.  I know for you English people that's something else but this is the kind of mac 'n' cheese that most people are familiar with; the savoury one. 

But how does one make macaroni and cheese without the cheese? Well, there's this wonderful little thing called nutritional yeast that can replace the cheese. I know, cheese addicts out there, this may seem hard to grasp. Because yeast? Doesn't sound so appealing. But it is! Since going vegan, I don't think a single day has gone by without me using it in at least something. It adds a cheesy, savoury flavour that is just too good for words. Another of the reasons why I love it so much is because one single tablespoon provides you with almost all of the B-vitamins that you need. One tablespoon!

So I hope I've convinced you to start incorporating this miracle ingredient into more of your meals. And vegans, this is especially directed at you. Buy it. Just do it.

Vegan Macaroni and Cheese

Serves: 1

3 oz./80 g uncooked brown rice pasta, preferably macaroni or fusilli (or pasta of your choice)

4 oz./110g silken tofu, firm

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 1/2 - 2 tbsp vegan cream substitute (such as Oatly iMat 15%)

1 tsp lemon juice

1 pinch nutmeg

Cherry tomatoes (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

How to:

1. Boil pasta according to instructions on package.

2. Pre-heat oven to 200C

3. Put the remaining ingredients in a small bowl and blend with a hand blender until smooth. Season as you go, don't skimp on the salt but don't use too little either!

4. When the pasta is done, drain and pour it into the bowl with the 'cheese' sauce. Stir well and make sure that all the pasta is covered with sauce.

5. Pour the 'macaroni and cheese' into 1-2 ramekins or a small casserole like the one on the picture. Halve cherry tomatoes and put a few on top. 

6. Sprinkle with some additional nutritional yeast and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Check it now and then to make sure it doesn't burn on top!

7. Serve immediately.

5 Month Post Bikini Contest Check-In

It's been a little more than five months since I competed in my first NPC bikini competition and I wanted to share what life's been like since then and where I am now with my (lifelong) fitness journey.  I say lifelong journey because as long as I'm alive, I want to take care of myself and never take my health for granted.  With my Dad's illness, I've painfully watched his physical ability diminish to the point where he cannot walk, so I'm always mindful of how grateful I am to be able to move and exercise.  

the beginning

Almost one year ago, I had gotten out of shape and was ready for a big change.  I couldn't fit comfortably into my clothes, felt sluggish and missed feeling good about myself.  I started working out and eating better in February 2014 on my own, and began working with my trainer (3-4 days a week) at the end of March 2014.  We trained together for 15 weeks and I competed in the bikini contest on July 4, 2014.  I went from 112 pounds and 25% body fat (Feb 2014) to 100 pounds (July 2014).  We didn't test my contest body fat because I was supposed to go the BodPod for a very accurate reading, but the facility cancelled my appointment because they machine wasn't working.  My trainer guesstimated I competed at about 15% body fat.  

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Is Meat Unhealthy? Part V

In this post, I'll examine the possible relationship between meat intake and type 2 diabetes.  Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes, and it is strongly linked to lifestyle factors.

Non-industrial cultures

Non-industrial cultures have an extremely low prevalence of diabetes, whether they are near-vegan or near-carnivorous.  This is supported by blood glucose measurements in a variety of cultures, from the sweet potato farmers of the New Guinea highlands to the arctic Inuit hunters.  Here is what Otto Schaefer, director of the Northern Medical Research Unit at Charles Camsell hospital in Edmonton, Canada, had to say about the Inuit in the excellent book Western Diseases (Trowell and Burkitt, 1981):
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You can eat a lot during the Holiday Season and gain no body fat, as long as you also eat little

The evolutionary pressures placed by periods of famine shaped the physiology of most animals, including humans, toward a design that favors asymmetric food consumption. That is, most animals are “designed” to alternate between eating little and then a lot.

Often when people hear this argument they point out the obvious. There is no evidence that our ancestors were constantly starving. This is correct, but what these folks seem to forget is that evolution responds to events that alter reproductive success rates (), even if those events are rare.

If an event causes a significant amount of death but occurs only once every year, a population will still evolve traits in response to the event. Food scarcity is one such event.

Since evolution is blind to complexity, adaptations to food scarcity can take all shapes and forms, including counterintuitive ones. Complicating this picture is the fact that food does not only provide us with fuel, but also with the sources of important structural components, signaling elements (e.g., hormones), and process catalysts (e.g., enzymes).

In other words, we may have traits that are health-promoting under conditions of food scarcity, but those traits are only likely to benefit our health as long as food scarcity is relatively short-term. Not eating anything for 40 days would be lethal for most people.

By "eating little" I don’t mean necessarily fasting. Given the amounts of mucus and dead cells (from normal cell turnover) passing through the digestive tract, it is very likely that we’ll be always digesting something. So eating very little within a period of 10 hours sends the body a message that is similar to the message sent by eating nothing within the same period of 10 hours.

Most of the empirical research that I've reviewed suggests that eating very little within a period of, say, 10-20 hours and then eating to satisfaction in one single meal will elicit the following responses. Protein phosphorylation underlies many of them.

- Your body will hold on to its most important nutrient reserves when you eat little, using selective autophagy to generate energy (, ). This may have powerful health-promoting properties, including the effect of triggering anti-cancer mechanisms.

- Food will taste fantastic when you feast, to such an extent that this effect will be much stronger than that associated with any spice ().

- Nutrients will be allocated more effectively when you feast, leading to a lower net gain of body fat ().

- The caloric value of food will be decreased, with a 14 percent decrease being commonly found in the literature ().

- The feast will prevent your body from down-regulating your metabolism via subclinical hypothyroidism (), which often happens when the period in which one eats little extends beyond a certain threshold (e.g., more than one week).

- Your mood will be very cheerful when you feast, potentially improving social relationships. That is, if you don’t become too grouchy during the period in which you eat little.

Recently I was participating in a meeting that went from early morning to late afternoon. We had the option of taking a lunch break, or working through lunch and ending the meeting earlier. Not only was I the only person to even consider the second option, some people thought that the idea of skipping lunch was outrageous, with a few implying that they would have headaches and other problems.

When I said that I had had nothing for breakfast, a few thought that I was pushing my luck. One of my colleagues warned me that I might be damaging my health irreparably by doing those things. Well, maybe they were right on both grounds, who knows?

It is my belief that the vast majority of humans will do quite fine if they eat little or nothing for a period of 20 hours. The problem is that they need to be convinced first that they have nothing to worry about. Otherwise they may end up with a headache or worse, entirely due to psychological mechanisms ().

There is no need to eat beyond satiety when you feast. I’d recommend that you just eat to satiety, and don’t force yourself to eat more than that. If you avoid industrialized foods when you feast, that will be even better, because satiety will be achieved faster. One of the main characteristics of industrialized foods is that they promote unnatural overeating; congrats food engineers on a job well done!

If you are relatively lean, satiety will normally be achieved with less food than if you are not. Hunger intensity and duration tends to be generally associated with body weight. Except for dedicated bodybuilders and a few other athletes, body weight gain is much more strongly influenced by body fat gain than by muscle gain.

Gingerbread pancakes with a Vegan Frosting

We're continuing with the Christmas theme here on the blog and next up is this basic recipe for gingerbread pancakes with a vegan lucuma-vanilla frosting... yum! I usually make my pancakes with a mix of coconut flour and buckwheat flour but I've been suspecting for a while now that it's the coconut flour that make the pancakes go all soft and gooey inside, big no-no if you're not into eating raw batter! So I completely omitted it and these turned out perfectly moist and fluffy, just like they're supposed to be. A perfect start to any winter day.

Gingerbread pancakes with a Vegan Frosting

Pancakes:

1/2 cup (70g) buckwheat flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp gingerbread spice mix (cinnamon, ginger, cloves)

1 chia egg (1 tbsp ground chia seeds mixed with 3 tbsp water)

1 small banana, mashed (approximately 80 g)

3-4 tbsp almond milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice

How to:
1. First, prepare your vegan 'buttermilk' by mixing the almond milk with the apple cider vinegar. Set aside to curdle.
2. Now prepare your chia egg: Grind one tbsp of whole chia seeds either by hand or in a coffee grinder, then mix the ground seeds with 3 tbsp of water. Stir well and let sit on the side for a few minutes to swell.
3. In a small bowl, mix the buckwheat flour, baking powder and baking soda well until they're evenly divided. 
4. Mash the banana with a fork or blitz it a couple of times with a hand blender if you don't want any clumps whatsoever left.
3. Pour in the chia egg, mashed banana and 'buttermilk' and stir until the batter is completely smooth. Let sit on the countertop for a few minutes (the batter should be THICK)
4. Fry in a spoonful of coconut oil (unless you have a non-stick frying pan) on medium heat for a couple of minutes on each side.

Vanilla-Lucuma Frosting

4 oz/108 g silken tofu

1 tbsp lucuma powder

1 pinch vanilla powder

2 dates, pitted and (if you want) peeled

1 tsp melted coconut oil (optional)

How to:
1. Blend all ingredients with a hand blender until smooth. Place a spoonful of frosting between each pancake, save a dollop for the top and serve with fresh fruit!

Lemon-Lime Snowball Truffles

Christmas recipe alert! It's been a while since the last time, as per usual. But hey, no sad faces. Christmas is just around the corner and if you haven't made my Rocky Road Fudge yet then it's definitely time to warm up (chill down?) with these über cute snowballs. Aww. I was actually tempted to build a tiny little truffle snowman out of these but we had a plumber working in the kitchen so... Yeah. One has to know when such weirdness needs to be constrained. But once you've had your first taste I promise you'll be just as obsessed as I am!

The citrus notes in these marry perfectly with the mellow coconutty taste and make one hell of a flavour combination if I may say so myself. It's just one of those meant-to-be combos, like banana and peanut butter, strawberries and cream, chocolate and anything...

Lemon-Lime Snowball Truffles

Yields: 12 bite-sized truffles

Filling:

3/4 cup oats/oat flour (75g)

6 pitted dates (85g)

2 tbsp desiccated coconut (15g)

1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil (21g)

2 tbsp plant based yoghurt (40g)

Zest of 1/2 lemon

White Chocolate Shell:

2 tbsp cacao butter (could sub for coconut oil but not recommended)

2 tbsp coconut cream (the thick layer on top of a can of coconut milk that has been chilled overnight in the fridge)

1 tbsp lucuma powder (Or coconut sugar if you want it sweeter)

Desiccated coconut (as much as you like) and the zest of one lime

How to:

1. Put oats, lemon zest and desiccated coconut in a food processor and blend until a fine flour forms.
2. Place the remaining ingredients for the filling into the food processor and blend again until smooth. (Skip the first step if you already have your oat flour ready)
3. Roll the dough into approximately 12 small balls and place in an airtight container in the freezer for a least an hour to firm up.
4. When the truffles are (freezing) cold, prepare the 'white chocolate' by melting the cacao butter over a hot-water bath and stirring in the lucuma powder and coconut cream. You could adjust the ratios to your own preferences here, feel free to play around!
6. In another bowl, mix the desiccated coconut with the lime zest. This will go onto the truffles once they have been coated with chocolate.
7. Keep the white chocolate in a warm bowl to stop it from setting, then take one truffle and pierce it halfway through with a wooden skewer. Dip the truffle into the chocolate and make sure it gets an even layer all the way around.
8. Sprinkle with as much of the desiccated coconut-lime zest topping as you want.
9. Secure the skewer in an upright position. This can be a bit tricky but a styrofoam board will work amazingly! I usually balance mine in the toaster (truffle-side up!) but be creative... Repeat this process with all the balls.
10. Once the coating has set enough to allow for the truffles to be removed from the skewers, place them in an airtight container and store in the freezer.

Enjoy!

Food Reward Friday

This week's lucky "winner"... Pumpkin pie!!

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Food Reward Friday

This week's lucky "winner"... Pizza Hut Doritos Crunchy Crust Pizza!

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Is Meat Unhealthy? Part IV

In this post, I'll address the question: does eating meat contribute to weight gain?

Non-industrial cultures

I'll get right to the point: humans living in a non-industrialized setting tend to be lean, regardless of how much meat they eat.  This applies equally to hunter-gatherers, herders, and farmers.

One of the leanest populations I've encountered in my reading is the 1960s Papua New Guinea highland farmers of Tukisenta.  They ate a nearly vegan diet composed almost exclusively of sweet potatoes, occasionally punctuated by feasts including large amounts of pork.  On average, they ate very little animal food.  Visiting researchers noted that the residents of Tukisenta were "muscular and mostly very lean", and did not gain fat with age (1, Western Diseases, Trowell and Burkitt, 1981).

!Kung man gathering mongongo fruit/nuts.
From The !Kung San, by Richard B. Lee.

Another remarkably lean hunter-gatherer population is the !Kung San foragers of the Kalahari desert.  The !Kung San are so lean that many of them would be considered underweight on the standard body mass index scale (BMI less than 18.5).  Average BMI doesn't exceed 20 in any age category (The !Kung San, Richard Lee, 1979).  Is this simply because they're starving?  It is true that they don't always get as much food as they'd like, but on most days, they have the ability to gather more food than they need.  The fact that they are able to reproduce normally suggests that they aren't starving.  Richard Lee's detailed work with the !Kung San indicates that approximately 40 percent of their calories came from animal foods during his study period in the 1960s.  This was mostly meat, with occasional eggs when available.

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Recent Interviews

For those who don't follow my Twitter account (@whsource), here are links to my two most recent interviews.

Smash the Fat with Sam Feltham.  We discuss the eternally controversial question, "is a calorie a calorie"?  Like many other advocates of the low-carbohydrate diet, Feltham believes that the metabolic effects of food (particularly on insulin), rather than calorie intake per se, are the primary determinants of body fatness.  I explain the perspective that my field of research has provided on this question.  We also discussed why some lean people become diabetic.  Feltham was a gracious host.

Nourish, Balance, Thrive with Christopher Kelly.  Kelly is also an advocate of the low-carbohydrate diet for fat loss.  This interview covered a lot of ground, including the insulin-obesity hypothesis, regulation of body fatness by the leptin-brain axis, how food reward works to increase calorie intake, and the impact of the food environment on food intake.  I explain why I think proponents of the insulin-obesity hypothesis have mistaken association for causation, and what I believe the true relationship is between insulin biology and obesity.  Kelly was also a gracious host.  He provides a transcript if you'd rather read the interview in text form.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Quesadillas

I have had a hard time coming up with savoury recipes that don't include hummus or chickpeas in some form (some people smoke, others abuse chickpea dips, what can I say) but then these utterly delicious and chickpea-free quesadillas came to me in a flash of inspiration. A Pinterest flash that is- always my runner-up source of vegspiration. (Instagram comes first!) They're filled with sweet, spicy, savoury amazingness and topped with a goddamn gorgeous green guacamole. Add the simplicity and I know that this will nick a place as one of my top ten lunch recipes.

Make these for yourself, double the recipe and share with a friend or multiply the ingredients by ten and serve it on the buffet table! You could even prepare these the day before (without grilling them of course) and have them for lunch the next day at work or school! They're best eaten warm so a microwave oven would be a plus but they could absolutely be served cold as well, no problemo.

Hope you enjoy this recipe just as much as I did!

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Quesadillas

Yields: 1 serving

- 1 gluten free brown rice tortilla (or tortilla of your choice, I use BFree wraps)

- 1 small sweet potato (approx. 100 g when peeled)

- 4 tbsp canned black beans, drained and rinsed

- 2 tbsp tomato salsa/sauce

- 1 tbsp vegan sour cream (optional)

- A handful baby spinach leaves

A pinch each of: 

- dried coriander

- cumin

- paprika powder 

- salt

Guacamole:

- 1/2 avocado

- 1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast

- 1 tsp lemon juice

- Salt and pepper to taste

- Dried chili flakes (optional)

How to:

1. Start by making your guacamole: Place all ingredients into a small bowl and blitz with a hand blender a few times. Intuitively, the longer you blend the smoother your guac will be so stop when you've reached the desired consistency. Set aside while you prepare the quesadillas.

2. Peel and slice the sweet potato thinly, then steam or boil the slices until they're soft enough to pierce with a fork. This will take approximately 5-10 minutes.

3. Mash the steamed sweet potato with a fork and spread it out evenly on half of the tortilla.

4. On the layer of sweet potato, divide the black beans evenly and sprinkle with cumin, coriander, salt and paprika powder.

5. Cover the other half of the tortilla with a layer of vegan sour cream mixed with tomato salsa and stick a handful of baby spinach leaves to it. 

6. Fold the tortilla in half and cut in 4 "pizza slices".

7. Grill in a grill pan (or a regular but then it won't be as beautifully charred) for a couple of minutes on each side, top with guacamole and serve!

Is Meat Unhealthy? Part III

When we consider the health impacts of eating meat, cardiovascular disease is the first thing that comes to mind.  Popular diet advocates often hold diametrically opposed views on the role of meat in cardiovascular disease.  Even among researchers and public health officials, opinions vary.  In this post, I'll do my best to sort through the literature and determine what the weight of the evidence suggests.

Ancel Keys and the Seven Countries Study

Ancel Keys was one of the first researchers to contribute substantially to the study of the link between diet and cardiovascular disease.  Sadly, there is a lot of low-quality information circulating about Ancel Keys and his research (1).  The truth is that Keys was a pioneering researcher who conducted some of the most impressive nutritional science of his time.  The military "K ration" was designed by Keys, much of what we know about the physiology of starvation comes from his detailed studies during World War II, and he was the original Mediterranean Diet researcher.  Science marches on, and not all discoveries are buttressed by additional research, but Keys' work was among the best of his day and must be taken seriously.

One of Keys' earliest contributions to the study of diet and cardiovascular disease appeared in an obscure 1953 paper titled "Atherosclerosis: A Problem in Newer Public Health" (2).  This paper is worth reading if you get a chance (freely available online if you poke around a bit).  He presents a number of different arguments and supporting data, most of which are widely accepted today, but one graph in particular has remained controversial.  This graph shows the association between total fat intake and heart disease mortality in six countries.  Keys collected the data from publicly available databases on global health and diet:

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Carob & Zesty Lime Pancakes with a Chocolate Sauce

Carob & Zesty Lime Pancakes

5 tbsp buckwheat flour

2 tbsp coconut flour

1 tsp baking powder

5 tbsp almond milk

2 tbsp plant-based yoghurt (could sub for more almond milk)

1 chia egg (1 tbsp ground chia seeds mixed with 3 tbsp of water, left to swell for a couple of minutes)

For the lime pancakes:

1/2 tsp wheatgrass (could sub for chlorella/spirulina/matcha)

Zest of one lime

1 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice

1/2 tbsp liquid sweetener of your choice (preferably brown rice syrup as it won't spoil the green colour)

For the carob pancakes:

1/2 tbsp liquid sweetener of your choice (preferably date syrup, as it adds a lovely brown colour to the mix)

1-2 tsp carob powder

How to:
1. Place into a bowl the buckwheat flour, coconut flour and baking powder. Stir well to divide the baking powder evenly throughout the mix.
2. Add in the almond milk, chia egg and yoghurt and mix it all together with a fork.
3. Now, divide the batter into two and place half of it into another bowl.
4. To this bowl, add all of the ingredients for the lime pancakes and stir until smooth. You might have to adjust the amount of wheatgrass to get the green colour you want.
5. To the other bowl, add all of the ingredients for the carob pancakes and once again, stir until smooth.
6. Let the batters rest for a few minutes while preheating a non-stick pan or a regular frying pan with a spoonful of coconut oil to medium heat.
7. Fry spoonfuls of the batter for a few minutes on each side, stack and serve!

Chocolate sauce

2 tbsp peanut flour

1 1/2 tbsp almond milk

1/2 tbsp date  syrup

1 tsp cacao or cocoa powder

How to:
1. Stir all ingredients together in a bowl until smooth. Add more almond milk if needed.
2. Pour on top of your pancake stack and devour immediately!

Rocky Road Fudge

It's nearing December and I hope that you are as excited as I am about the upcoming holiday festivities! Sinatra blasting on the radio, the first snow wrapping everything in a soft blanket of white, the comforting crackling from the fireplace and Christmas decorations as far as the eye can see. But no jolly Christmas without something to munch on, right? Be it hot cocoa, mandarins, gingerbread cookies, christmas candy... Tell me if you're drooling yet because I sure am.

If you're one of those people that claim to not like this time of the year (do they even exist?) then I suggest you stop reading right here. Because from now on, my plan is for this blog to be stuffed with all things Christmas, from saffron treats to rice pudding desserts.  This I can assure you, Yuletide addicts- you won't be disappointed.

So first on the list was Rocky Road Fudge. Way out of my comfort zone to be honest, the only rocky road us Swedish people know of, is the one that leads us home after a few too many shots of our favourite holiday liquor: "snaps". Okay so now I'm rambling but what I wanted to say was that I felt this sudden strong urge to make a batch of this Rocky Road deliciousness after seeing it on Pinterest the other day. Only I wanted a vegan and refined sugar-free yet still delicious fudge. This one ticks all the boxes, I have to say. It's wonderfully rich, soft, chewy and 100% cruelty-free!

Rocky Road Fudge

1 cup tightly packed soft dates

1/4 cup melted cacao butter (could sub for coconut oil but cacao will be MUCH better)

2 tbsp cocoa or cacao powder

1 heaped tbsp carob powder

1/2 cup raw almonds (or nuts of your choice)

1/2 cup dried mulberries

How to:

1. Place your dates, cacao butter, carob powder and cacao powder into a food processor and blend on high until smooth. Stop to scrape down the sides a few times to incorporate all the ingredients properly.

2. Take the mulberries and almonds and put them into the food processor with the chocolate paste that has formed and blitz a few times. You want the nuts to be broken up into big, crunchy chunks, not tiny pieces, so make sure not to blend too much. (As you can see, I did a pretty poor job here ;)

3. Press the fudge out into a small, lined, rectangular baking tray. It might not fill the whole tray but it's firm enough to only fill half of it and still get thick pieces of fudge.

4. Put in the fridge or freezer to set, at least for a couple of hours. Remove from the fridge and cut into squares. Store in the freezer if you want the mulberries to be crunchy! (Hint: you do.)

Have a wonderful day!

Tilda

Meditation Challenge Update

It's been about two weeks since I wrote in, declaring my intentions for the 21-day meditation with Oprah and Deepak.  The update is I have failed miserably.  Like bad.  In the past 14 days, I have meditated a total of three times.  Yeah.  The challenge started on a Monday, but I began on Tuesday because that's when I got the email linking to the first meditation.  I also meditated on Wednesday and Thursday.  Friday is where I fell off the wagon.  I totally forgot about meditating on the weekend and then into the next week I never got back on the wagon.  Now, I feel too far gone to continue.  

The meditations are only available for 5 days, so I could start back up (having missed some) but I'm so not into it right now. Admitting this to myself and you feels like a big failure, but I would rather be real about my failures than pretend to be someone I'm not.  I hear the negative voices in my head and have to work to let them go.  

I still crave a quiet, still alone time in the morning and will be making an effort to incorporate that more, but I think pulling out my Bible/praying/journaling would be more natural to me than meditating.  

How are you doing with the challenge if you tried it?  If you've stuck with it, I applaud you.  And I hope you are getting something good out of it.  Are you hating me for not continuing?  I feel like a workout partner who quit, leaving you hanging.  And that feels bad.  When it comes to certain things in life, we absolutely have to keep going, whether we feel like it or not.  You have to wake up to feed the crying baby, you have to go to work, you have to take your parents to the doctor, you have to pay the mortgage, you have to meet that deadline.  But, there are other times when it's really okay to let something go. Only YOU can decide what those situations are.  And you have to face the consequences for your decision.  I completely get it if you're disappointed in me or upset or think I'm not good with my word.  I have to live with the fact that I said I was going to do this and I didn't finish.  And I chose to put it out there on the Internet, so it's a public fail.  

I would appreciate your grace, your kindness, your empathy.  The friends who support us when we've let ourselves down are the kind of people we need in our lives.  It's the kind of person I want to be in return.  

My intention for trying the meditations initially was to try to still myself each day so that I could be more present and more peaceful on the inside.  Admitting that I failed makes me feel human, vulnerable, and a little bit brave.  

My Basic Hummus Recipe + Oven-roasted Squash

Happy birthday to me! Or happy belated to be correct, my 18th was this Monday. Yay! I can now... uh, buy beer, vote and (in the best of worlds) get my driver's license. Fun! But what's got me really excited is my birthday presents. Can you tell from the picture below what I got?

You guessed it: CHICKPEAS! My wonderful parents gave me a whole truckload of these gu... Wait a second. I'm just kidding. No offence chickpeas but you don't really make the best birthday presents. Okay so if you still haven't figured it out, I got a camera. A Canon EOS 700D that I know absolutely nothing about and have no idea how to use but still - a camera! C-A-M-E-R-A. Meaning this blog won't be nearly as boring from now on. So onto today's recipe:

There are many things that I've learnt to love since going vegan. Bananas, avocados, bell peppers, tofu bur first and foremost I've come to appreciate the beauty that is a perfectly creamy hummus. Everyone who's been following me on Instagram for a while probably knows that I've got a real sweet tooth and rarely choose savoury food if there is any kind of fruit around. With one exception. Hummus. A thick layer spread on a rice cake and my day is made. Hopefully you all like this recipe as well!

My Basic Hummus Recipe

Yields: 1-2 servings

2/3 cup cooked chickpeas

1 tbsp almond milk (Or olive oil if you want an even creamier texture)

1 tbsp nutritional yeast

1-2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Salt to taste

Optional: 1/2 tsp Paprika powder 

Blend well!

How to:
1. Place chickpeas in a colander in the sink and rinse to get rid of any excess sliminess from the can.
2. Blend all ingredients in a small bowl using a hand blender. Food processors are not recommended for this recipe.
3. Sprinkle with sesame seeds or drizzle with olive oil. Serve as a condiment to falafels, pita bread dishes, salads or maybe the roasted squash below!

Oven-roasted Herb-rubbed Winter Squash

Yields: 2 servings

1/2 small muscat pumpkin or winter squash of your choice

1 zucchini

1 tbsp olive oil

Herbs such as rosemary, thyme and oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

How to:
1. Pre-heat oven to 225C.
2. Cut your squash into halves and scoop out the seeds and the slimy, stringy things surrounding them. Save the other half of your squash in the fridge, unless you want bigger servings, then go ahead and use both halves.
3. Slice the squash about 1/2-inch thick for each slice and put aside.
4. Cut the zucchini lengthwise and slice in 1/2-inch thick slices.
5. Place the vegetables on a lined baking tray and rub with first olive oil then herbs. Spread out evenly on the tray and rosy in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the squash is soft enough to pierce with a fork.

Can salmon be a rich source of calcium?

Removing the bones from cooked fish, before eating the flesh, is not only a waste of mineral nutrients. In some cases it can be difficult, and lead to a lot of waste of meat.

We know that many ancestral cultures employed slow-cooking techniques and tools, such as earth ovens (a.k.a. cooking pits; see ). Slow-cooking fish over a long time tends to soften the bones to the point that they can be eaten with the flesh.

The photo below shows the leftovers of a whole salmon that we cooked recently. We baked it with vegetables on a tray covered with aluminum foil. We set the oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and baked the salmon for about 5 hours.

The end result is that we can eat the salmon, a rich source of omega-3 fat, with the bones. No need to remove anything. Just take a chunk, as you can see in the photo, and eat it whole.

It is a good idea to marinate the salmon for a few hours prior to baking it. This will create enough moisture to ensure that the salmon does not dry up during the baking process.

If you are a carnivore, you can make a significant contribution to sustainability by eating the whole animal, or as much of the animal as possible. This applies to fish, as I discussed here before (, , ).

Add eating less to this habit, and your health will benefit greatly.

Chocolate 'Cheese'cake

Once again, I've neglected this poor little blog in favour of numerous school assignments threatening to squish me under their weight. Teachers don't care about Instagram, recipes or blogs. Teachers care about incomprehensible theorems, calculators and serving horrible non-vegan food. That's what they do. Plus the lighting this time of the year S-U-C-K-S so I obviously don't have a lot to post at the moment. This being said, I did find the time to do a little baking this weekend and I proudly present to you this Vegan Chocolate "Cheesecake"! The ones I made were miniature versions which means you can enjoy a slice whenever you want to. There's always room for a tiny slice of cake. As far as I'm concerned, there's always room for muh-assive wedges of decadent chocolate cakes of any kind, but mind you, I know everyone doesn't agree. So here we have it, small in size but big in flavour!

(Oh and I know I've been inconsistent with the measurements in this recipe, grams here and cups there. If you don't have access to a kitchen scale, just play it by ear, taste as you go, and I'm sure you'll do just fine!)

Chocolate Cheesecake (No-Bake!)

Filling:

About 15-18 medium sized dates (175g)

1 heaped cup raw cashews, soaked overnight (150 g unsoaked)

1 can full fat coconut milk, chilled overnight in the fridge

1 tbsp coconut oil

3 tbsp cacao or cocoa powder

A pinch of salt (to enhance the chocolate flavour)

Crust:

150 g dried figs

1/4 cup oats

1/4 cup dried mulberries

Chocolate topping:

2 tbsp coconut oil, melted

2 tbsp cacao or cocoa powder

1 tbsp liquid sweetener of your choice

How to:

1. Place the figs and oats in a food processor and blend on high until you have a sticky ball of fig-oat deliciousness.
2. Divide the dough in two parts and press each part out into a non-stick springform pan, about 10 cm/4 inches across. You could also use a bigger cake tin, about 15 cm/6 inches in diameter.
3. Open the can of coconut milk and spoon out the hard, creamy layer that has formed on top, into your food processor/high speed blender along with the rest of the filling ingredients. Save the leftover "water" for smoothies and such, it's packed full of wonderful coconut flavour.
4. Blend on high until silky smooth. Be patient- it takes time. But the more you blend the better your filling will be. Stop now and then to scrape down from the sides if necessary.
5. Once the filling is done, pour it into the springform pan(s) and leave for at least 7 hours to set in the freezer.
6. When the cheesecakes have set, mix the ingredients for the chocolate topping in a small bowl until they're well incorporated. Let the "sauce" cool down a bit before you pour it on top of the cheesecakes, that way you'll prevent a runny, chocolate-y mess from happening.

Let each slice thaw for a few minutes before serving!

Enjoy and have a wonderful day!
Tilda

21-Day Meditation Experience with Oprah & Deepak Chopra

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of going to Oprah's 'The Life You Want Weekend' event courtesy of P&G brands OLAY, Tide, and Orgullosa.  Being a huge Oprah fan since middle school (I would watch everyday after school at 4:00 p.m.) and having subscribed to her magazine since the first issue, this was a big deal.  I'd always wanted to go to a taping of her show, but never got the opportunity, so getting an email offering tickets to the event was definitely a good mail day.  At the event, our seats were close to the stage, so seeing O up close and personal was pretty thrilling, a bucket-list item  happily checked off.  

On day 2, Deepak Chopra was one of the speakers and, during his presentation, he lead us in a group mediation.  I've always been intrigued with the idea of meditating, and my two closest friends are daily meditators, but I have never put it to consistent practice in my life.  In fact, I've only tried it a handful of times and usually end up thinking about random things like dinner or laundry.  But, I'm ready to challenge myself to a consistent practice of mediation now.  

Oprah and Deepak have teamed up to present a free 21-day Energy of Attraction Meditation Experience that starts tomorrow, Monday, November 3.  You sign up creating an account and then will receive a daily email with a link to the meditations.  I'm one of those people who is on the go pretty much non-stop, so training myself to not just slow down, but to be still will be good for me.  Sure, I often relax on the couch or in bed with a magazine or book, but I almost never just sit still and do nothing.  I feel like right now, in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and before the Christmas holiday, is the perfect time to tune in and listen to my Spirit and see what it wants to tell me. 

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Is Meat Unhealthy? Part II

Over time, animals adapt to the foods they regularly consume.  This is how archaeologists can, for example, determine that Triceratops was an herbivore and Tyrannosaurus was a carnivore just by looking at the structure of the skeleton.  Adaptations to diet extend beyond skeletal structure, into digestion, metabolism, the brain, musculature, and other aspects of physical function.  What is our evolutionary history with meat?

Human Evolutionary History with Meat: 200 to 2.6 Million Years Ago

Mammals evolved from ancestral "mammal-like reptiles" (therapsids, then cynodonts) approximately 220 million years ago (Richard Klein. The Human Career. 2009).  Roughly 100 million years ago, placental mammals emerged.  The earliest placental mammals are thought to have been nocturnal shrew-like beasts that subsisted primarily on insects, similar to modern shrews and moles.  Mammalian teeth continued to show features specialized for insect consumption until the rise of the primates.

65 million years ago, coinciding with the evolution of the first fruiting plants, our ancestors took to the trees and became primates.  For most of the time between then and now, our ancestors likely ate the prototypical primate diet of fruit, seeds, leaves/stems, and insects (1).  Some primates also hunt smaller animals and thus eat the flesh of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish in addition to insects.  However, the contribution of non-insect meat to the diet is usually small.

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