It was the end of September when I first tasted a passion fruit (and made this smoothie I meant to post much earlier, back when passion fruits were still in season). The taste of passion fruit was something completely unexpected for me- it was this super strange mix of squishy-jelly-feeling blast of citrus and sour in this bright, exotic fruit. The taste was just too much for me but I had to eat it somehow, so my solution was a smoothie.

A passion fruit smoothie which would be great with a screening of Passion Play, a mixed-genre film that is also an unexpectedly and unconventionally nice mixture of strange and beautiful.

Took this photo with phone, looks soo much better than photos with Flip camera

Ingredients

• Passion Fruit
• Banana
• Strawberry
• Water

I do not remember the exact amounts for each ingredient, but it's a smoothie so fruits/water can be altered anyway you want.

Crumb-cake, Fruit-filled Fluffy Vegan Muffins 




This post was made prior to when I began high carbohydrate, low fat, raw-till four vegan diet--- I actually haven't really made these in a while since summertime. I've been wanting to find a good gluten-free flour and 'no-sodium' baking powder to make them again and see how it turns out. But these muffins are still vegan, a lot healthier than the regular non-vegan muffins, and delicious!

Muffin-palooza, not a real word but a compilation of various vegan muffin-related recipes I have tried since the amazing crumb cake muffins. From blueberry, raspberry, and peach filled muffins, along with carrot cake, which all taste great, during this past summer [2013], I tried making them all.

Some of these were made with coconut sugar, which has an interesting taste of its own. Coconut sugar is another refined-sugar alternative that has really spiked in popularity since it is believed to have nutrient properties that aren't present in other refined sugars, therefore making it a better alternative to over-processed sugars.





Ingredients

Muffin:

• 11/2 cups - flour
• 1/2 cup - raw turbinado/organic sugar/evaporated cane/coconut sugar*
• 1-2 teas - baking powder*
• 1/8 teas. - sea salt or just a pinch, 1/8 teas.
• 1 cup - nondairy milk (I like coconut-almond milk)
• 1/4 cup - banana (instead of oil)*
• Fill ins:
• Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries peaches, other berries/fruits that go well with/in muffins

*I used half coconut sugar and half evaporated cane juice
*I might have lowered the overall amount of baking powder due to sodium levels


Topping:

• 1/4 cup - Coconut Sugar or Brown Sugar
• 1/8 cup (2TBS) Flour
• 1 TBS Melted Earth Balance*
• 3/4 teas - Cinnamon**

 *I tried to use almond-coconut milk or banana instead of oil
*I would think that a small amount of flaxseed or Ener-G egg-replacer would work as well.


The only difference between all the other recipes and this one is the fact that I don't fold in the blueberries to make a usual blueberry muffin recipe. Instead, I put a small layer of batter on the bottom of the muffin pan and add in any fruits to fill it with and then add some more batter to the top.








Also, I started a new side-blog. I call it Ambrosia.

Carrot Cake Muffins or
Carrot Muffin-Cakes
Before I started doing raw till 4 and incorporating aspects from the 80/10/10 philosophy into my own diet, I had made a lot of vegan muffins during the past summer, which was when I meant to post this.
At the time, I had been snacking on bunches and bunches of organic carrots so I figured to make a healthier vegan carrot cake or carrot cupcake dessert and I did. I always get organic carrots, they're sweeter, better for environment, and aren't excessively expensive.



Ingredients

• 3/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cups raw/turbinado/coconut sugar
• 1/2 tsp   baking powder
• 1/2 tsp   baking soda
• 1/2 and 1/8 teas - cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp sea salt (I did 1/16 tsp.)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup banana
• 1/2-1 carrots or more

This makes 6 muffin-cakes since I halved the almost fat-free recipe from Happy Herbivore.
These muffin-cakes can also be topped with a coconut whipped cream.



I tried to put coconut cream on the muffins, but I was impatient it melted.. and then turned into a glaze.


 

This makes for a great seasonal raw vegan ice cream that tastes like a candy I might have had prior to becoming vegan. I don't remember what candy exactly that I am reminded of, but this recipe is made from fruit: persimmons and bananas. Since bananas and persimmons are both sweet fruits, they fit well together in terms of proper food combining. Therefore, these two fruits are not only good on the taste buds and your health, but also digestion.



Ingredients

• 2-5
• Frozen Bananas
• 1-4
• Persimmons
• 2 Tbs. (for ice cream consistency) add more for smoothie
• Water

It is important for both of the fruits to be super ripe!
I can only fit a maximum of 3-6 medium-sized bananas in my blender so you can use more bananas/persimmons.


























Persimmons taste like pure sugar. They are pretty much only in season during the winter months and can be difficult to find since they aren't usually sold in grocery stores. Thus, you might have to go to either a farmers market or international food store to find it. I recently found an international farmers market that sells produce and all types of food for unbelievably great prices i.e. a full cart of fruits and vegetables (some exotic) that might last a few weeks for only 25-30 dollars. I don't think I have ever exceeded 35 dollars since I've been there even when I get items for making veggie sushi and super exotic fruits like dragon fruit.

Nearly a pound of miniature eggplants baked in a sauce of tomato paste, two tomatoes, herb seasonings, spinach, and 1.5 pots of basmati rice = a very low fat, low sodium, high nutrient, watery and fibrous cooked dinner for one vegan. And people don't believe me when I say I eat a lot. 




This pasta/rice/eggplant/tomato/spinach dish is one that is very satisfying, healthy, nutrient and water dense, low glycemic, gluten-free, oil-free- just all around a great high carbohydrate meal. This dish is a good source of Iron, Potassium, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Magnesium, Manganses, Selenium, and many B-complex Vitamins! The nutritional information is at the bottom of this post if you're curious to see what I mean.





Ingredients

• 1 can - organic tomato paste*
• 1/3 cup, 1/2 cup, or less - turbinado sugar
• Seasonings**

*tomato as only ingredient
**Used onion powder, some garlic powder, parsley, black pepper, Italian seasonings, crushed rosemary leaves

Eggplant

• I used a pound of miniature eggplant // the second time I used half a large, regular eggplant
• Add spinach and tomatoes, other veggies for toppings if you want

Pasta/Rice

• Basmati rice
• Rice pasta (I really like rice pasta in place of other types of pastas, it tastes great)
• Vegetable noodles- I recommend zucchini squash (I think zucchini makes for the best pasta subsitiute!)
• Rice, quinoa, or corn pasta - low-glycemic, gluten-free, better for digestion just like the basmati, rice pasta, and vegetable-noodle options.

Also- I used a 9x8 or 8x8 inch glass pan to bake/broil/fit everything together




Methods

Sauce
Put a can of the tomato puree/paste into saucepan, add about a 1/3 or 1/2 cup turbinado/organic sugar (because I like things sweet, if you don't like sweet pasta sauce use less turbinado sugar), and dash in the seasonings- **we used (Salt-free) Spike, parsley or basil leaves, black pepper, chopped rosemary leaves, and onion powder. Stir and let this mixture simmer in the pan for a few minutes..

Eggplant
Wash and chop Eggplant, place chopped eggplant into baking pan or any pan that will do well in the oven, and add heated sauce to the pan with the eggplant. Bake in the oven on 350 F for 20-30 minutes.

Spinach
You can add the spinach whatever way/whenever you want- in the sauce, on top of the eggplant and sauce in the pan (this is what I did) and bake or add it when you add in the tomatoes..

Tomatoes
In thick slices, cut the two-to-three tomatoes and place at the top of the half-baked baking pan and broil high for about five or ten minutes.

***The cooking time for baking and broiling all depends on how soft or tough you want the eggplant to be. I like mine soft so broiling everything until the sauce begins to boil will really soften the eggplants. Not to forget the eggplant will absorb a lot of the water and sauce -- which makes it even more delicious!

Rice
I really like Basmati rice, it is my favorite rice that I can, and do, eat plain. I do not add salt or vegan butter or anything like that anymore to my meals.
But to make the Basmati, follow cooking directions (Mahatma brand comes with a few different cooking methods for Basmati).

Instead of using rice... you could do this with rice pasta. Wheat isn't the best for health nor digestion (from what I have personally experienced and the information I have researched) so I'd recommend a nice rice pasta, it's gluten-free and low-glycemic (if you are concerned about those types of things).

After the rice is finished and the eggplant is soft, combine the two on a plate and it will look like this:


Pastas
Rice pasta is my favorite type of non-wheat pasta. I tried corn pasta for this recipe and it tasted similar to wheat. But if you like something that tastes very light and refreshing, raw veggie noodles can be made from squash, carrots, or any other vegetables. To do this, all you need is a potato peeler, grater, or spiralizer.


Corn pasta with sauce


zucchini pasta




Basmati rice with sauce




Chronometer nutritional breakdown for

Description	Amount	Unit	Calories
Eggplant, raw	454	g	113.5
Spinach, raw	1	cup	6.9
Tomatoes, red, ripe, raw, year round average	1.75	medium whole (2-3/5" dia)	38.7
			0.0
Tomato products, canned, paste, without salt added	1	can (6 oz)	139.4
			268.7