So simple meal idea

I am always telling folks that preparing a vegan meal is not, I repeat NOT, rocket science. It can be as simple as playing a game of swap, if there is such a game that is. 😕😕😕

A super simple example is this meal which includes ingredients easily accessible at any supermarket and market. 

It has brown rice cooked with dried rosemary, stir fried veggies, along with zucchini and beets. And I will admit that some of these foods may not be a stable in most person's diet but as I mentioned, easily accessible. All of the veggies were sourced from the local market. Sometimes it pays to first of all, actually visit the market and once there, to take a stroll and stop at the stall with the weird looking food item. Ask the vendor what it is and how to prepare it, buy some and take it home and give it a try. You may hate it or you may find yourself a new food obsession.

If you never try, you will never know....

Yay for Beans!!!

One of the reasons (excuses) I sometimes hear from people for not going vegan is that it is expensive. I have never quite understood this because as far as I know, meat ain't cheap. I think this skewed belief comes from the misconception that vegans only eat fruits and vegetables, and these can admittedly be expensive. But this is an easily rectifiable challenge. 

Firstly, vegans eat way more than fruits and vegetables. Bear in mind that vegan food is any food that does not contain animal products. And while this can be tricky in this day and age when animal products are weirdly included in all sorts of processed food, 😕, sticking to mostly whole foods can help with that.

In addition to fruits and vegetables,which we should all me getting more of, vegan also eat beans, grains, nuts and seeds. 

One of my go-to recipes involves beans, relatively cheap and easy to find. Some examples of beans are black beans, kidney beans, soy beans, lentils, split peas, chick peas, pigeon peas, butter beans, black eyed peas, and the list goes on.

Whew, that was a lot. Now when most of my friends think of beans, they either think of them as part of a rice dish, i.e. rice and peas, which is a fixture of Jamaican cuisine and very, very good. This dish is made with red kidney beans especially for Sunday dinner or with gungo peas at Christmas. Beans also conjure up images of soups (good ole red peas soup), and stews (dangerous? stew peas).

Now while these are all perfectly lovely uses for beans and the dishes can be veganized, let's not sell the beans short. They are capable of so much more.

For this dish, the bean in question was the black bean. 

First of all, black beans rank low on the glycemic index (GI), a measure of the ability a food has to raise blood glucose levels. Food high on the GI release glucose into the system quickly followed by a rapid drop in glucose levels. This is generally considered not good for our bodies and can have adverse effects such as increasing the risk of adult onset diabetes, causing sugar cravings as well as mood swings. In contrast, foods low on the GI release glucose at a more tempered rate and keep blood glucose levels nice and stable. Yay for stability! 😃. This is great for overall health, and even more so for persons with diabetes and those at risk of developing cardio vascular disease.

Secondly, black beans are antioxidant rich. Antioxidants are substances which protect cells from free radicals which cause cellular damage. This in turn can cause chronic and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, heart disease and several types of cancers. And black beans are filled with the antioxidants we need to keep these diseases at bay. 

In addition, black beans also contain lots of fibre (yay for regularity! 😃) as well as a very important trace element, molybdenum, and yes, it does contain protein.

So basically black beans are awesome and we should all try to incorporate more into our diets.

There are many ways to prepare these beans, in stews, curries and soup. 

I usually buy the dried beans, soak them in water overnight and then cook them slowly for a few hours, similar to how some Jamaicans boil red kidney beans. 

For this dish, I boiled the beans with dried cilantro, and some cinnamon leaves (don't ask me how, but I honestly thought they were bay leaves when I used them).

After the beans were nice and soft, I drained the water and allowed them to cool. I then crushed the beans and added lots of herbage, dried parsley, basil, more cilantro, some granulated garlic and onion as well as some cayenne pepper and some salt. I also added some whole wheat flour to help it all come together. I then formed the mixture into balls and placed them in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, I took them out, fried them up and voila, some super tasty, good for you and totally vegan "meat" balls,

For this dish, I added some cooked veggies, slices of cucumber and some bread that my sister had made. 

These can be used as a meat substitute, not only is it much cheaper but you can flavour it how you want and know that you are giving your body good food.

Go bananas!

People sometimes joke about vegans being obsessed with 🍌. Which is perfectly fine with this vegan as I totally am. 🍌 are such a blessing to the vegan lifestyle. Available basically all year, full of important nutrients, tasty and so very, very versatile.

🍌 can be put in smoothies to add creaminess, used as a base for vegan nice cream, used as an egg substitute and eaten as is as a snack.

Now unfortunately, there are some among us who aren't too fond of this fruit and to them I offer my deepest sympathies.

For the rest of you, here's a quick, simple recipe for some tasty, good for you two ingredient, 🍌 based 🍪.

For this you will need some super ripe 🍌. You know, the ones that have started getting speckled and brown, plus some old fashioned oats.

This is one of those recipes where you add as much or as little as you like. 

All you do is peel the 🍌, and crush them then add the oats. 

Mix well until the ingredients are well combined. 

Now here is where you can get fancy, feel free to add any nut or seed or dried fruit that you have handy. 

For this batch I added some chia seeds, raisins and flax seeds.

Mix them all together then shape, using your hands, into 🍪.

Place them on a baking sheet and pop those bad boys into the oven for about 15 mins at about 180 degrees Celsius.

Then take them out, let them cool and now you got some vegan 🍪 that taste good, were easy and quick to make and are good for you.

Vegan snack

We have two star apple trees at my house, a purple skinned and green skinned. They are one of my favourite snacks. Unfortunately in the last few years, we haven't been able to enjoy the fruits because of drought conditions.

This year we had some rain and voila.... It's small compared to previous years but hey, sometimes you gotta start small.

Nourish your skin

I remember going  the dermatologist some years ago for a skin issue I had. After the check up she came to the conclusion that I had eczema, and sent me away with a prescription for some rather nasty smelling ointment and instructions to return in a few weeks for a follow up. I went home, got the meds and suffered, along with my roommate at the time (God bless her soul) with the awful smelling stuff. But it worked, my skin cleared up and at my follow up visit, she gave me instructions to avoid certain skin care products, made a suggestion for an alternative, gave me some life advice (go figure) and then sent me on my way.

Her alternative worked, up to a point. While it was a lot gentler, my skin did eventually rebel and sent me in search of alternatives to her alternative. 😩 This all happened around the time that I was seriously considering locing my hair, so I was already doing a lot of research. In the course of all that research I came upon many references to the benefits of shea butter and coconut oil. Now while, these products were not unfamiliar to me, I had never before intentionally sought to incorporate them into my skin care routine.

When I finally did, I almost kicked myself for not doing so sooner. These products are fairly easy to obtain in on the island with shea butter being sold in "natural" stores or by enterprising individuals who have seen the demand. Coconut oil is even more readily available and for those who are super into DIY projects, you can make your own as coconuts are fairly easy to acquire, either from the market, supermarket or some acquaintance's tree. Or if your granny from "country" is around, she will most likely be happy to whip you up a batch while regaling you with stories from back in the day.

When it comes to skin care, my skin tends not to react well to products with lots of ingredients and so simple is best. What has worked for me so far is a simple mix of shea butter and coconut oil as the main ingredients with vitamin E oil as well as some essential oils. I recently discovered a lovely scent on my last trip to Earth Elements (an all natural, organic skin, hair and body care supplies store), pink grapefruit. 😊

So, using these ingredients, I make my own body butter. That way I know exactly what the ingredients are and can customise them as I see fit.

Once I get all my ingredients together, I just get an electric mixer, a glass bowl and some good music. This time I was listening to Maroon 5. ♩♫♪♬♫♪♩

I used cold pressed virgin coconut oil, African shea butter, Vitamin E oil, jojoba oil and that awesome pink grapefruit essential oil.

As Jamaica is smack in the middle of the tropics, the coconut oil is in liquid form and the shea butter is the only solid ingredient to contend with, so no melting of ingredients is needed.

Combine all the ingredients in the glass bowl, crank up the music and get to mixing. After mixing for about ten minutes, the end result is super light, soft as a cloud, awesome smelling buttery goodness for your skin, and also your hair if you're into that kind of thing.

Avocado makes everything better

For those who don't know, in Jamaica what many of you call avocado, we call pear. 

And I must say that it really does make everything better. Food tasting a bit bland, add some pear. Tired of eating the same thing for lunch every day, add some pear. Want to kick your dinner up a notch, add some pear. Feeling peckish in between meals, add some pear. Had a bad day at work, add some pear. Realised that it's only Tuesday, have some pear. Had a fight with your BFF, have some pear. You get the picture.

One of my favourite times of year is pear season. During those times, if you are fortunate enough to have a pear tree or a friend with one, you feel like the luckiest person alive. And if you don't, they are usually readily and cheaply available on the streets especially if you live in an area known for pears. I do. 😄😄😄 

And, boy do I indulge. Pear for breakfast, lunch, dinner and many snacks in between. Pear just because. It is truly a magical time. 

Unfortunately, pear season is now over so while you may find some in the markets, the prices are quite steep and those in the supermarkets are even more expensive and may be imported and so have been exposed to all sorts of chemicals aimed at "preservation". 😒😞

So for now, I shall just reminisce, until next pear season.

Here I'm having some chickpeas, carrots, cucumber and tomatoes topped with a red wine vinaigrette, completed with some good ole pear. 😍😍😍

When it doesn't go as planned, rename it

For many people when they think of bread baking, they conjure up images of master chefs using fancy equipment in state of the art kitchens whipping up delectable treats using magical concoctions. Ok, well maybe that's just me. That is certainly how I envisioned bread making all those years before giving it a try. A big part of what made it seem so scary for me was that many breads are yeast based and yeast has always seemed like an ultra delicate ingredient that requires a surgeon's precision to use it effectively. As precision is not one of my better qualities, I simply stayed away for many years and was content with purchasing the uninspired hard dough bread sold in supermarkets with the occasional burger bun being bought and only enjoying "fancy bread" when I went out to eat.

Then one day this all changed. More accurately knowing me, it probably happened gradually over a period of time. The length of time that transpired between me mentally deciding that I was going to make a yeast based bread to the moment that I measured that first cup of flour may have ranged from a few days to several months. I know, I know. It seems excessive but that is my process.

So once I had firmly decided in my mind to do it, next came actually acquiring the ingredients. Now most bread recipes are pretty basic, some flour, some salt some water and of course, the yeast. Now, none of these ingredients are hard to source in Jamaica, you can pick them up at almost any supermarket so all I had to do was leave the house (oh the dread) and go and get them.

Now as I mentioned earlier, the scariest part of bread making is using the not entirely un-magical yeast. So I did my research (i.e.consulted my mother, very grown up, I know) and learned a few things. Firstly, proper storage required an airtight container that would limit exposure to light, heat and moisture. I got creative (using that word loosely) and found some glass jars and covered them with black plastic and tied it with a ribbon, because why not try to keep it fancy. I also learned with horror that the temperature of the water in which you put the yeast could very literally kill it and so ruin your bread. 😱. Despite finding out all of this potentially discouraging information, I went ahead, bought some yeast and made some bread. 

Best decision ever!!!

Ok, so maybe not the best but it is definitely in the top fifty choices I have made in life.

And now bread making is a common occurrence for me. I will admit that I am a bit lazy and so I have never been a fan of all that kneading (though it does help with building those guns) and so I have tended to stick with no knead breads . My absolute favourite is English Muffin Bread which I can easily whip up when I feel the need for some freshly baked, home made bread.

I also rarely have the patience to wait hours for my bread to rise and the above mentioned muffin bread respects that, needing a little over an hour of prep time.

But there are times when I feel rather ambitious, and think, hey I think I shall try something new, one of those fancy breads that require lots of kneading and punching and waiting. Oh to be young and so very ambitious!

One of these times recently occurred and I thought why not try to make pita bread. They are actually not that time consuming and most of the arm work (rolling and cutting) would be done by a kind volunteer, so why not.

Well, because it did not go as planned. 😲

Instead of lovely pita pockets that could be filled with even lovelier veggies, what I got was flat bread. 😐. Lovely, brown and flat circular shaped bread. So of course I did what any smart person would do in this situation, I renamed them. 😃. I simply cut them up and deemed them to be flatbread. 

And they were absolutely delicious. I just added some home made black bean burger, some home grown spinach, with some tomatoes and purple onions and some Walkerswood One Stop Savoury Sauce on the side. 

Very delicious!!!😋