Vegan Queery STAPLES SERIES: Nina's Energy Slice

Today at Freedom Centre where I work, a visitor at the centre asked me about how to eat vegan coz he'd been trying, but struggling. So I said I'd get him some basic staple vegan recipes for meals and snacks - ones that would ensure you get a balanced nutritional vegan diet. We got talking about what are essential foods to get in your diet to cover key nutrients that you need.

My favourite ingredients to include in my weekly diet to cover my essential nutrients are;

• Spinach, silverbeet, kale
• Chia seeds
• Quinoa
• Chick Peas, hummus, beans
• Walnuts, cashews, almonds
• Soy milk, Almond Milk
• Bananas, Strawberries, kiwi fruit, apples
• Broccoli
• Mushrooms, avocado, tomatoes
• Prunes, Sultanas, Dates

A couple of good websites with vegan nutritional info as well as recipes are www.peta.org.au and www.whyveg.com

So now I'm all motivated me to add more to this blog to share - hence this upcoming series of VEGAN QUEERY STAPLES XD

To Start, SNACKS. This blog already has a large proportion of snack options. Actually, I think all of it so far could classify as snacks. hahaha so here's another one! We made this for our friend Nina when she was a new parent of twins and had no time to eat!

Nina's energy slice

Ingredients
    •    3/4 Cup Sultanas
    •    1/2 Cup Dried apricots
    •    2 Cups Dates
    •    1/2 Cup Sesame seeds
    •    1/4 Cup Coconut oil
    •    1 1/2 Cups raw almonds
    •    1 Cup Raw unsalted cashews
    •    1/2 Cup Walnuts
    •    juice of 1 lemon
    •    1/2 Cup Unsweetened shredded coconut
    •    4 Tbsp Chia seeds


Directions
    1.    Combine nuts and seeds and pulse in food processor.
    2.    Add the rest of the ingredients and process
    3.    Flatten, compacting with your hands into a pan and refrigerate

Delightfully juicey!

We've been loving juice-ing it up to make sure we get lots of good nutrients from veggies and citrus fruits! My fave recipe that makes 2 large serves is;
1 orange, peeled
1 lemon, peeled
3 or 4 sticks of celery
1 beetroot, peeled
3 or 4 carrots
1 cucumber
A thumb of fresh ginger, peeled

Cut off any knobbly ends and the celery leaves and chop into large pieces that will fit in the juicer. Juice the ginger fairly early on and alternate the different veggies. Poor into a large jug and stir before serving!

If you're on a weight loss regime, we've found supplementing this large serve as dinner, or having it with a small protein based snack, like this homemade sundried tomatoe, nut & seed cracker, with homemade hommus and fresh tomatoes!

Raw Lemon & Date Slice

I LOVE lemon slice! It's one of my all time favourites. If I'm ever in a cafe and feeling the need to elevate my coffee experience to amazing (or even mediocre), lemon slice is the first thing I look for.

A couple of months ago, driving back to Perth from Pemberton, we were pretty desperate for a good coffee. Being full time soy drinkers now finding good coffee can be a struggle because there are some hideous soy milks out there. We urbanspooned for the best coffee in the Bridgetown-Donnybrook-Balingup area and set off in the promise of an organic place. This cafe turned out to be closed so we ended up getting coffee from the first place we found in Balingup that was open. It turned out to make a damn good coffee and had excellent soy milk. They also had lemon slice! The biggest lemon slice I'd ever seen, took us about half an hour to eat and it was amazing! It was also my very last non vegan lemon slice.

It's funny how there are just some things that make becoming a full time vegan harder than others. Lemon slice, oddly, is probably the main thing I have craved since making the decision to completely give up animal products six weeks ago. To satisfy my cravings I had to come up with a vegan lemon slice and concocted this raw version as a healthy alternative. I have to say it's pretty damn good too :) Dani says it's the best EVER and that it'll make me world famous, though that may be a biased opinion!

Ingredients 

Base

• 1.5 Cups dates 
• 1 Cup cashews 
• 1 Cup raw almonds 
• 1 Tbsp Coconut butter 
• 0.5 Whole Lemon juice and rind 
• 0.5 Cup dried, unsweetened coconut 
• 1 Tbsp chia seeds (optional)
• 2 Tbsp water 

Topping

• 1 Cup of cashews (soaked in water for an hour and drained) 
• 1 Tbsp raw agave nectar 
• 0.5 Whole Lemon juice1/4 Whole Lemon rind 
• 1 TBS Coconut butter 

Directions 

1. Pre-soak cashews for an hour before starting.
2. Place cashews and almonds in food processor and process until they become small and crumbly (thermomix 8 for 3 secs). 
3. Add dates and process again until the mixture sticks together and the dates are well processed (thermomix 8 for 6 secs). Add the remaining base ingredients and process again until the mixture is well combined (thermomix 8 for 8 secs). Stop processing before it gets too soft and sticky. 
4. Press the base mixture down firmly into a cake or brownie pan. 
5. For the topping put all ingredients in food processor and process until smooth and creamy. You may need to stop frequently and scrap down from the sides.
6. Spread topping over the base and refrigerate until firm (about 1hour).