Suggestions:
For more of a "tuna" salad, add seaweed. Dulse flakes are a popular choice to emulate that fish or sea-like flavor. Mashed chickpeas make a good texture. For egg-less salad, add more vegan mayo, use tofu, make it creamy. Add pasta and/or potatoes and your favorite seasonings for more of a classic potato or pasta salad.

Chickpea sandwich with avocado, tomato, vegan cheese, and spike seasoning.

• chickpeas
• celery or bell pepper, if I have it
• vegan mayo and/or mustard
• relish - I like mine sweet with lots of relish
• garlic powder
• onion powder
• nutritional yeast
• paprika or turmeric

It's often different every time I make this because it's based off of what I currently have. So there have been times where I made it without vegan mayo and just used more relish and mustard or used tofu instead of chickpeas. I don't measure, but add ingredients and season to taste.


This recipe, however you make it, is good by itself, as a sandwich, as a dip with chips or crackers, wrapped in a tortilla, in a lettuce wrap. The choices are endless.

Chickpea salad sandwich with avocado, tomato, and sprouts.

This is more of a tofu scramble, but chickpea salad could go in tortilla as well

With chips

This Blood Purple Antioxidant Smoothie makes for a good and healthy Halloween drink!
I meant to post in on Halloween but since that didn't happen --- this makes a great immune-building, healthy smoothie especially for the fall when most people are getting ill. This smoothie is a good way to start the day.

It looks more purple in real life than in the photos

• 1 small beet
• 1 cup spinach
• 1 cup frozen cherries
• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 cup frozen strawberries  
• 1+ frozen bananas (I didn't have ripe bananas when I made this)

If the smoothie tastes too strong with the beet, you can even out the taste by adding bananas.


 



This smoothie is high in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and Vitamin K as well as Manganese, Magnesium, Potassium, Folate and Fiber as you can see below.
Here is the nutrient breakdown, not including bananas.

The deliciousness...




It's summertime which is the perfect time to cool off, stay hydrated, and keep the vitals lifted especially with climate change, heatwaves and trying to keep the electricity bill low. So, here's a smoothie that is perfect for the summer and wellness.



Ingredients used in this smoothie:

• 1/4 - 1/2 cup baby kale
• 1.5 cups frozen mango
• 1/2 cup organic frozen cherries
• 3/4 cup org. frozen berries
• 1-2 frozen bananas

On a television-related talk-show note, my favorite comedian Wanda Skyes was recently on the Ellen Show as she is promoting her stand-up tour, which I hope to see when she comes to Atlanta. Anyway, I came across this video of the two in what I could only wish would become a new show called "White & Black." Basically, if this were an actual show, I would definitely watch it.

• Blend dates with water until you have a creamy liquid consistency, pour in glass.
• Blend frozen bananas with a little bit of water or nut milk until it has a thick, ice cream resemblance
• Scoop the banana ice cream onto date-drink and enjoy!

Black Rice also known as Forbidden Rice is a nutrient-dense rice that has many antioxidant properties and has recently become highly revered in mainstream health-related media, referenced and acknowledged in daytime shows like Dr. Oz and the Doctors. It's an amazing rice with an interesting history.


INGREDIENTS
Forbidden Rice, prepared according to instructions.

SAUCE
1-3 Tbsp turbinado or organic vegan sugar, can use agave or coconut sugar as well
I used starfruit, plum, and apple for my 'sauces'. Use any fresh fruit of choice.

Simmer the fruit in a saucepan with water and turbinado sugar for a few minutes until it becomes syrupy.
Easy. This sauce can be used on the last rice pudding post as well.

Simmering plums- sugar water turns colors

If you like rice pudding, want a slightly healthier and much sweeter alternative, I suggest to try this recipe.

Lately, there have been a lot of raw vegan pies appearing on several of the vegan-raw vegan blogs I follow. So once I had finally obtained some good dates (could only get a few since quality dates are expensive) AND persimmons, I decided to make- something sweet especially since I had a really, really ripe hachiya persimmon that needed to be eaten. This single-serving pie is small, but it is super sweet.

Frozen version

INGREDIENTS

FILLING
1 or 2 Medjool Dates
1/2 Frozen Banana
1 Hachiya Persimmon, if you have the Fuyu persimmon use two

CRUST
3-4 Dates*
1 Slice Apple**
A pinch cinnamon
Coconut sugar, enough to roll the "crust-dough"

*I only had four dates left when I made this recipe, which is why the crust looks so faint. I recommend using anywhere from 3-6 dates and using a food processor or really good blender for the dates.
**I used only a little bit of apple since I was eating apple when I made it and thought it would be a good addition to the crust.  I suppose you could also use pecans, cashews, or some other nuts to make it more of a crust, the pie just won't be fat-free.






CRUST
- Blend or process dates, pieces of apple, and pinch of cinnamon until at crust-like, blended consistency.
- Then roll crust into ball and roll that ball in a bowl of coconut sugar to coat the outside. When coated, flatten the "dough" as shown in the two photos below:


 FREEZER
About 30+ minutes after letting in set in the freezer it should look like this