EASY JUICE-BASED MEALS

  This week I took lunch with me to work instead of eating out (in which cases I mostly eat plain salad with soy sauce and bread). I came up with a simple plan how to fix both breakfast and lunch simultaneously in two steps.

Cucumber-avocado soup with wholemeal spelt flatbread.

Step 1: The previous evening make two juices. One is fruit-based for breakfast the next morning, and the other veggie-based for lunch the next day. Store in air-tight glass jars in the fridge.

Step 2: In the morning Vitamix your fruit juice with a big bunch of green leaves until creamy and smooth. Voilá, your breakfast is ready!
            Now Vitamix your veggie juice with one ripe avocado until creamy and smooth. Voilá, your lunch is ready! Pour back in the glass jar and take to work.

The beauty in juicing is that you can combine nearly anything together, and still come up with a nice taste. Natural tastes of fruits and veggies are so subtle that they mix well. I usually buy whatever is in season in the grocery store, and either make single juices or combinations according to my imagination. It´s all good for me!

  Now that I´ve been juicing mostly every day for a month, I can honestly say I´m feeling the difference. It is simple to put it in a nutshell: I feel satisfied. Never did think a thin cup of liquid could fill me up, but it does! It is a different, new kind of fullness I can feel in my throat rather than stomach. When I´ve had enough, the thought of more food & juice starts to feel repulsive. And it takes a lot longer to feel hungry again than before. I´d like to think it is because of the abundant amount of nutrients I´m getting now. No matter what the reason, I feel better and stronger now.
  I´d had a juicer for  years and years, but never did I drink juices this much and regularly. The biggest reason for that was that my old juicer didn´t extract as much juice from the same amount of produce as my new one, making more go to waste.

This is apple juice blended with two leaves of kale. Kale makes a nice, thick froth.

3/4 cucumber juice, 1/4 apple juice blended with 1 small avocado. Needs no salt.

  I´m impressed by the power of juice!

SAUTÉED WEEDS

  I´m all nuts for wild edible greens now! It´s been a rainy spring, which apparently has made the "weeds" grow luscious and generous. I´ve been collecting them almost daily with my three-year-old daughter, trying to pass down the knowledge. =)

  Today I boiled the first new potatoes of the season and served them with sautéed wild greens and tofu for the whole family.

A pan full of the most nutritious and natural greens ever, straight off our yard (we never fertilize).

This time there´s goutweed and fireweed, seasoned with fresh chives and lovage from the garden.

The recipe (serves 2-4):

4 cups (1 liter) freshly picked mild-tasting wild edible greens
a bunch of chives
a few leaves & stems of lovage
2 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
soy sauce

+ Chop the greens and lightly sauté in a skillet in little olive oil with the garlic.
  Serve over potatoes (or rice or pasta) and drizzle soy sauce over it.

  Super healthy, nutritious and free of charge! Can it get any better?

TEATOX

  I don´t ever recall doing a detox in my life... (if a poor try on Master Cleanse twenty years ago does not count as a detox, it´s more like a fast). My outlook is merely a continuous overall healthy eating, not a diet or detox.

  BUT now I ran into this "teatox", which sounded so subtle and easy that I decided to give it a go. You know, just for fun and to see if it makes me feel any different. For a tea lover like me, a teatox sounds just perfect. =)

The duration is four weeks, during which you drink a refreshing cup of herbal tea right in the morning to kickstart your day, and another the last thing in the evening, every other night, to ease you into a good sleep.

The teabag fills up as it soaks in hot water, and there´s enough flavor to make two cups of tasty brew.

  If there´s any internal clarification or soothing effect on the way from this teatox, I welcome it with open arms. If not, at least I´ve been able to enjoy numerous cups of delicious tea!

THURSDAY TORTILLAS

  Thursday and tortillas rhyme and swing, making my Thursdays as healthy as these vegan and low-fat tortillas are delicious. It is still a weekday, not yet time to indulge in unhealthy and hard-to-digest party foods of weekend. Especially this weekend when it´s Easter!

A complete meal. Marinated veggies and tofu as the filling.

As much as I like to eat home-made foods, tortilla bread is one thing I cannot do. It always ends up either too thick or too thin, and it always tears apart (I use wholemeal spelt flour for the dough). So this is one place where I take a shortcut, buying them ready from the store. I figure that filling them with fresh, fibrous vegetables adds up to a lunch on the healthy side overall. It´s okay to aim for perfection, but it´s also okay to understand it is impossible (and inhuman  =).

  The recipe (yields two big fajitas):



1/2 small zucchini, thinly sliced
1/2 orange bell pepper, thinly sliced
1-2 tomatoes, halved and then thinly sliced
5 mushrooms, thinly sliced
3-4 kale leaves, finely chopped
6 oz. (200g) firm tofu, cubed

Mix all with this marinade:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp soy sauce
black pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1 small clove garlic, minced
cayenne pepper, to taste
a squirt of raw honey

+ Let sit in room temperature for 15-30 min, mixing occasionally.
  Ladle on tortillas, roll up and enjoy.

  If you like yours more creamy, some plain (soy) yogurt or avocado do the trick well!

  This is my version of the always gorgeous Mimi Kirk´s fajita recipe from her book Live Raw. She is such an inspiration!

NORI POPCORN

  The first full week of work is behind now. It´s mostly been about learning new routines and timing them correctly. No biggie.
  I´ve also come up with a new recipe for quick fix munchies, when coming home after work with a growling stomach; nori popcorn.

Home popped corn with sea salt and dried nori sprinkle! A surprising combination I craved one evening, and found addictive. This stuff is actually healthy too!

The recipe (yields approx. 3/4 gallons/3liters):

a snug cup (2dl) dried corn kernels
4 Tbsp cold pressed sunflower oil (nice and mild tasting)
1 tsp sea salt
1 Tbsp green nori flakes

+ Pour the oil in a big kettle/pot with a lid. Heat up on the stove until it steams lightly, then add the corn and immediately close the lid! Once the corn begins to pop, lower the temperature slightly and keep popping until there´s a couple of seconds silence between the pops in the end. (It will only take a few minutes altogether.) Remove from the stove and let sit with the lid on for a few minutes. Remove the lid and sprinkle in the salt and nori. Toss and serve!

  The popcorn stays well in room temperature for days, but naturally it is at it´s best freshly eaten.

EASY COCONUT COOKIE BALLS

  I love baked flour foods, but am not a miraculous baker. Probably so because I don´t have the patience to knead and wait for the dough to rise many times over, and I like mine healthy, not loaded with white flour and extracted added gluten.

  These coconut cookies were a big hit at my daughter´s birthday party recently. Since I made them for others, and to be served in a party, I made them with regular white wheat flour. But when I make them just for myself and my daughter (the rest of my family can´t/won´t eat them), I use freshly home ground whole spelt flour.

The cookies are formed into balls, so there is no need to roll the dough even once!

The dough itself is not super sweet, but the cookies are dipped in powdered sugar once baked. It adds both, appeal and apparel. I personally found it hard to stop eating them... luckily the recipe makes about seventy cookies. =)

 The recipe (makes approx. 70 pieces):

250g room temperature vegan margarine
1,5 dl + 2 dl powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar
5 dl wheat flour
1/4 tsp sea salt
5 dl dried shredded coconut
(small splash of soymilk if needed)

+ Preheat oven to 175 C. Whip up margarine and 1,5 dl powdered sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla sugar, flour and salt. Stir carefully. Add in the coconut and stir once more, adding a bit of soymilk if the dough is too dry.
  Roll out little balls, about 2 cm by diameter, and place onto a baking sheet layered oven tray. Leave some room for the cookies to spread in the oven. Bake until the balls have become only slightly tanned, about 10 min. Be careful not to burn them.
  Dip the cookies in powdered sugar once cooled down. Serve cold and store air-tight.

 (Original recipe called "Snowballs" from the awesome Raisa Kettunen´s party food book "Puputyton Juhlakirja".)

EATING PLAN FOR OSTARA

  This plan leans on whole grains, veggies and legumes. The baseline drawn from macrobiotics, but including less salty foods, as they tend to make me retain water. Also noticeable is that I´m returning back to work (tomorrow!), so speed is another important factor here.

8am Breakfast: 
2 cups (1/2 liter) kukicha tea with soymilk
3 big rice cakes with coconut butter and honey

Pasta and bolognese cooking up for on Monday. Two kettles, one for whole wheat pasta and the other for gluten-free kind for my son.

12pm Lunch:
2 cups (1/2 liter) bancha tea plain
Mon: pasta bolognese (with tvp=textured vegetable protein crumble, not meat)
Tue: vegetable-flat breads
Wed: tofu stir-fry & brown rice
Thu: tortillas with beans
Fri: pizza (vegan & low fat without cheese)
Sat: pancakes (including finely grated veggie like carrots)
Sun: miso soup with tofu

Creamy oat porridge with raisins and mulberries.

4pm Dinner:
2 cups (1/2 liter) kukicha tea with soymilk
oat porridge with raisins/honey/jam

7pm Supper:
apples

  The times given are merely approximate, and need to be adjusted to each day´s needs. This eating plan acts as a strong stem when planning my grocery shopping list. If I want to improvise, so be it, but with this in mind I won´t have to do the daily pondering of "what shall we eat today".

DIY NATURAL HOME CLEANSING SPRAY

  In the past I´ve tried several green/ecological store-bought brands of various cleansing potions for the home. I hate so say it, but none of them came to stay. They just aren´t as efficient as the toxic regular commercial brands.

  But now I tried something even more environmental-friendly: a diy cleansing spray for bathrooms made of all natural and common ingredients!

All it takes is white vinegar, water and essential oil.

I used it on the bathroom sink...

...the shower...

...and even on the toilet bowl, and it cleaned all of them with no trouble. This spray is merely for more frequent maintaining, rather than heavy scrubbing, but every step counts in making our homes less toxic!

  The recipe (for one spray bottle, about 2 cups):

1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
10-15 drops of essential tea tree oil (or any oil you like the scent of)

+ Put all in a spray bottle, shake, and spray! Let sit for a couple of minutes and brush with your usual tool, then rinse. Voilá!

  The vinegar does not smell that bad at all, essential oil does a great job!

GLUTEN-FREE FLATBREAD

  This is my absolute favorite baking recipe! I use it for everything, from pizza crust to cinnamon rolls, just varying ingredients accordingly.
  This time I made a gluten-free carrot bread for my son. Many eat gluten-free "for fun" nowadays,  but my son is lethally allergic to gliadin, a protein in wheat, rye and barley. So we´re talking about life-saving food here.

My ten-year-old son still doesn´t like his veggies, so I "hid" a pound of carrots in the breads. When grated finely, they seem to disappear, only improving moisture and adding a bit of sweetness.

I used millet, buckwheat, brown rice and corn flour to make the bread. I always buy whole groats and grind them in my own stone mill right before baking  minimize oxidation and maximize nutritional value.

   The recipe (makes 4 flatbreads):

1 3/4 cups (4 dl) gluten-free flour (no thickeners like psyllium included)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb. carrots, grated finely (or any other veggie/combo and as much as you dare...)
about 1 cup (2,5 dl) water

+ Combine and mix the dry ingredients. Add the wet ones and mix. Stir in the veggies. Add water until you reach an easily spreadable  dough. Make four flat breads on a baking sheet layered oven tray, and bake at 440 F (225 C) for about 15-20 min.
  Best eaten straight away, but thanks to the carrots, preserves well and moist for a few days wrapped in the parchment paper in the fridge.

  These breads make an awesome takeaway food to work or trips, as they are a whole balanced meal, especially if you add cooked beans or lentils in the dough. A nice lunch with a cup of tea!

TRUE LOVE FOR VALENTINE´S DAY

  I´m a do-it-yourself gal. I apply the approach to love also. A true, deep love comes from within, but it has to be kept alive, as life keeps changing.
  I´m no romantic, but I´ve been fortunate to experience a genuine love that conquers all for the past 19 1/2 years. And it´s still growing stronger. How the heck is that possible?! I never dreamed of a husband, kids, or family life, let alone everlasting love.
  As we approach our 20th anniversary, I´ve done some summing up on how to keep love flourishing through thick and thin.

Check it out on my column Nelland Living!

  Love is precious, cherish and pamper it for the sake of yourself! Happy and love-filled Valentine´s Day weekend!

MISO SOUP

  It is so much fun trying out new recipes! I´m exploring the macrobiotic way of eating now, and today made miso soup for breakfast. It takes a bit of getting used to, eating soup in the morning, but it tasted good and was warm and comforting, not to mention healthy.

Tofu and zucchini in miso-nori broth. (Seaweed is something I´ve never liked. I´ve tried it several times, and it usually makes me gag. BUT now I found untoasted green nori flakes, which are fine. I sprinkle them on almost anything, and when kept in small amounts, I don´t mind the taste. Cool!)

  The recipe (serves 1):

3 oz. (100g) tofu, cubed
1/2 zucchini (or any veggie you have in the fridge, like cabbage or carrots,) chopped roughly
1/2 clove garlic, grated
1 tsp dried green nori flakes
1 tsp dark brown rice miso
soy sauce, to your liking
water

+ Place zucchini and some water in a pot and bring to a boil. Let simmer for a few minutes, then turn off the heat. Add the rest of the ingredients and let warm for another minute or two.
  Serve with plain green tea and rice cakes.

  I´m used to eating sweet breakfasts rather than savory, so for me this is quite different. Not weird, but different. It feels like in the morning anything goes, as opposed to the evening when I seem to need sweet foods. Savory just does not satisfy in the evening, but for breakfast it´s a great alternative!

EATING PLAN FOR IMBOLC

  Taking a leap towards macrobiotics again. After eating raw foods for months, my body craves cooked grain now. And since I´ve always been a fan of intuitive eating, I trust macrobiotic-like food being good for me now. Variety is always good.

A basic macrobiotic-style breakfast. Oatmeal sprinkled with green nori flakes, small green salad, and kukicha tea.

  Ten years ago I bought my first ever macrobiotic cookbook. It was informative, even too much so, but it left me confused and not knowing how to proceed. The recipes were not mouthwatering either, so I buried the book in the shelf for years.
  The second macrobiotic book I ever bought was "Mayumi´s Kitchen". So much easier to read and follow, but it was not hard core macrobiotic, and after all did not differ that much from ordinary vegan eating. But it was interesting and a good experience.
  Now I´m eagerly waiting for my copy of "Changing Seasons". Until it arrives, I glimpse at the online version of it.

Purple cabbage-celery-apple salad with yogurt-ginger-mint dressing.

  I´m taking a relaxed approach to macrobiotics by focusing on whole grains or whole meal, home made products like porridge and bread. Along with grain I´ll eat both raw and cooked vegetables. Some fruit and vegan sources of protein accompany the previous, but not even every day. What I will add to my daily menu is small portions of seaweed, miso, and fermented cucumbers. White sugar is eliminated, but more natural sweeteners such as dates and honey can be used in moderation. That about wraps it.

Wholemeal pasta with carrot-parsnip-rosemary sauce and fermented pickles.

  Since I´m a girl with a major sweet tooth, this will be an experience to me. On weekends I will indulge in chocolate or candy, but otherwise I try to reduce my sugar intake. How awesome would it be to live sugar-free Mon-Fri?!

Wholemeal spelt bread dough on the way.

The plan: is to eat whatever low-fat grain-vegetable dish I want at any time of day. I will test and learn from the suggested 7-day meal plans of "Changing Seasons" macrobiotic cookbook, but I will also use other sources of vegan recipes, altering them if needed to lower fat content and increase wholeness in grains.

Chocolate-zucchini cake sweetened with dates.

  Meal times follow those of my diabetic ten-year-old son´s healthy ones:
 8-9am breakfast
12pm lunch
4pm dinner
7pm supper

    Yum, healthy Imbolc!

LAST MINUTE PRESENTS

  Last winter my son lost all but two pairs of his winter gloves. The same seems to continue this year, and I´m pretty upset about it truth be told. In the fall, when it begun to get cold, I bought him a pair of good quality gloves. He wore them twice, and on the third day he came home without them. He´d lost them already (I do not want to think anyone at school had stolen them...).

  This Christmas I´m happy to give him this gift, self made my mommy:
 

Four pairs of dark blue fleece mittens.

The fleece I use is thick, warm, and keeps the wind and snow out. As opposed to knitted mittens, fleece beats them clearly in wearability. And that´s what counts most in kids´ clothes.

In addition to being extremely great to wear, they´re also ridiculously easy to make. Simply draw the outline of your kid´s hand on paper, add 1/2 inch seam allowance (except to the tip of middle finger), and cut out of fleece. Then sew , right sides together, with a regular straight stitch as close to the edge as you can. Turn right side out and you´re done!

  In the fall and spring, when it´s still muddy and dirty, but chilly already, I like to place these fleece mittens inside the rubbery rain gloves to keep the little hands warm. After coming back inside it is so neat to pull the two gloves apart and they´ll dry easily and won´t stink at all!

BELUGA SPROUTS

  I discovered beluga lentils last year in Yule. What a masterpiece of taste all on it´s own! My daughter loves them even more than me, and we have had them cooked throughout the year.
  But recently my stomach has begun to dislike cooked foods, so I figured I´ll try sprouting the lentils.
  I had to begin by searching the web of whether they could be sprouted or not, and if they could be eaten raw. The answer to both is yes!

Here´s what belugas look like dried, straight out of the bag.

First I soak them 8 hours, or over night, then rinse them a couple of times and place upside down in our dish drying cupboard at an 45 degree angle (these type of cupboards are common in Finland, but I´m not sure if anywhere else... Anyone?). Then I let them sit there for a couple of days, rinsing twice/thrice daily, until they´re ready.

These are two days old sprouts. Ready to be thrown into my mouth. The taste is awesome. At first bite the taste is somewhat sweet, then it turns rather neutral, and in the end their piquant peppery taste can be recognized. I prefer them plain, straight out of the jar.

We share a passion for these sprouts.

  Earlier I have sprouted mung beans, green lentils, and alfalfa. The first two I do not like the taste of, and the third is quite a job to rinse clean of husks in the end. But man, now I´ve found a sprout I really enjoy, both making and eating!

EATING PLAN FOR YULE

  Evolution has brought me to this:

Breakfast:
1 cup green tea w/ soymilk
2 cups freshly squeezed vegetable/fruit juice
1 banana topped with coconut oil and honey

There´s cucumber, celery, and apple in this glass.

Lunch:
1 cup water w/ Echinacea drops
raw food meal of choice

Tzatziki dip with veggie sticks is a great lunch option.

Dinner:
1 cup green tea w/ soymilk
2-3 cups green smoothie/pudding

Cinnamon-flavored green pudding. Made of spinach, banana, avocado, water, honey, cinnamon, and vanilla. I left the banana a bit chunky for something to bite on.

  If/when I get hungry in the evening after eating all three meals of the day, I´ll grab fresh fruits and veggies to fill me up.

  This plan combines raw foodism and principles of Clean eating by dr. Alejandro Junger (where he recommends eating two liquid meals and one solid meal per day)

  All the above examples happen to be green, but that´s not the intention (except for the green pudding of course =). I use mostly seasonal veggies and fruits as the base of all meals, bulking them up with avocado, coconut oil, and occasional cold smoked salmon or goat´s cheese. I´d love to eat an all-raw vegan diet, but at least for now my stomach doesn´t agree with nuts & seeds. A girl´s gotta do what a girl´s gotta do... which is enjoy this nutrient and enzyme rich fresh diet for the next six weeks or so!

I HATE KALE- GREEN CHOCOLATE SMOOTHIE

  My ten-year-old son hates vegetables. Cucumber and potatoes are the only things he´ll eat without a suffering face. But behold, Vitamix to the rescue! I have found a sneaky way to incorporate raw leafy greens into his diet, without him refusing one bit. In fact, he now asks for kale almost daily!

Chocolate smoothie, what a perfect way to start the day (and hide greens)!

A high-speed blender makes an unbelievably creamy and smooth texture. This stuff is very different from the produce of an "ordinary" blender, that leaves the smoothie more or less chunky.

The recipe (serves 1):

1-2 handfuls of kale (or other leafy greens)
1 banana
5 medjool dates
1-2 Tbsp cacao nibs
vanilla
3 tsp cacao powder
1/2 avocado
1-2 cups soymilk (for him, for myself I use water)

+ Blend everything until creamy and smooth.

This is satisfying and filling, and keeps us all going until lunch time.

ENJOYING CHOCOLATE - THE HEALTHY WAY

  Hello, I´m Nella, and I´m a chocoholic. For me Yule is all about eating chocolate, no other goodie compares. But instead of gulping down milk and sugar loaded unhealthy pralines day in day out, I try to tame my taste buds with healthier options of the dark brown gold.

One example is this home made chocolate ice cream. Simple and cheap to make, is totally good for you being raw and sugar-free, and is amazingly like the real deal. Check out all three of my favorite pre-Christmas chocolate treats and recipes on my column Nelland Living!

KALE & CRANBERRY SALAD

  This is a super delicious, and healthy, kale salad I had today for lunch:

Cranberries and orange rule the taste, followed by garlic and kale. I never imagined plain kale could be this delicious in a salad!

The recipe (serves 1):

First make the dressing by whisking together:
1/2 orange, juiced
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 small clove garlic, minced
pinch salt
pepper to taste
dash of soy sauce
1 Tbsp olive oil

Then pour half of it over:
100g kale, destemmed and finely chopped. Mix and squeeze the kale with your hands for a while to make it softer. (This is when I started drooling... =)

Finally add and toss in the rest of the ingredients:
1/2 orange, peeled and cubed
a snug 1/2 cup (1dl) dried cranberries
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced finely
1/2 parsnip, grated
1/2 shallot onion, finely sliced
3/4 cup cottage cheese

Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to two days.

This recipe is a slight variation to Mimi Kirk´s "Upscale Kale Salad" from her book. I basically just replaced nuts with cottage cheese and left out additional sweetener (agave or dates). That lady can make some darn tasty raw food dishes, and look fantastic doing so at 75!

PARSNIP COUSCOUS

  This is so good! The taste is mild but so satisfying, and it leaves me full but energetic. One of my favorite lunch finds recently.

Raw couscous made with parsnip and avocado! No nuts or seeds, so my stomach adores it too.

The recipe (serves 1):

1 small parsnip, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 Tbsp olive oil
a drizzle of lemon juice
pinch of salt
1 oz. (35g) rucola
1 pear, peeled and cubed
1 avocado, cubed

+ Run the parsnip in a food processor until the consistency reminds of rice. Pour into a bowl and add the olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Toss. Add the rucola, pear, and avocado, and mix well.

  The original recipe is from Erica Palmcrantz´s book, and it called for 2 Tbsp pumpkin seeds instead of the avocado I used. Good either way, but my stomach does not agree with seeds right now. =)

CRAZY GOOD CARROT SOUP

  Don´t let the rawness of this soup fool you, it is delicious! And suits the Halloween table well.

Dreamy and creamy, absolutely suitable for non-raw-foodists too.

No clumps or bumps, only smooth and fluffy delight. No salt is needed in the making, this is a naturally sweet soup.

  The recipe (for 1):

1 lb (500g) carrots
1 avocado
1/2 inch (1 cm) piece of fresh ginger
fresh basil

+ Juice the carrots (makes about a cup). In a high-speed blender blend the juice, avocado, and ginger until creamy smooth. Sprinkle generously with chopped basil.

  The first time I ever made this soup I was lazy and skipped the juicing part. Well, it was edible but far from the deliciousness of this one. Juicing is definitely worth the extra dishes!