you can make friends with salad.

 "Ergh? A salad... Really?"  Yep, I heard you.  But this is the best kind of salad.  It's nutrient dense, full of nuts and seeds for that filling protein hit and soggy lettuce free - guaranteed!  It's super easy to prepare and fun to mix up.  Use this recipe as a loose guide, add in your favourite things, and if you don't like cucumber you're crazy - nah,  just leave it out!

You will need:
1 can of chickpeas
1 can of corn
1 small sweet potato
1 lebanese cucumber
A red capsicum
A bunch of mint (don't get picky- coriander is a great fill in guy here too!)
1 carrot
half a red onion (diced)
1 large aussie avocado
2 teaspoons of coconut oil
Juice of a lime
pinch of cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/3 cup pine nuts

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, cube the sweet potato and cover the cubes with a little coconut oil and sprinkle the coriander powder over the top.  pop them on an oven tray and into the oven.  take them out every ten minutes or so and give them a shake whilst you are chopping everything else.

Rinse the chickpeas and corn and pop them into your salad bowl, dice the red onion, cucumber and capsicum and also put them in the bowl.  Next, make thin carrot ribbons using your veggie peeler, and rip up the mint leaves.  Add them to the bowl as well as the nuts.  Check your sweet potato!

in a small bowl, smash up the avocado with the remainder of the coconut oil, the lime juice and the cayenne pepper until it is almost a runny paste.  Check your sweet potato!

All ready to go?  Serve with the veggies on the bottom of the bowl, sweet potato croutons, then with a dollop of the avo on top.  sprinkle a little paprika over the whole thing and you are ready to go!

intolerable intolerances.

It's been a tricky couple of months in our house, with a lot of time in the kitchen experimenting and not a lot of time on the internet.  Lots of different food related intolerances have popped up, and with us both being vegan - it makes things a little tricky.  well, at least I thought it did.

My boyfriend has been battling some nasty fatigue for pretty much all of the year.   It's been pretty horrible.  But after looking at his food diary and seeing some specialists he has cut out soy and increased his protein intake considerably.  Can you do both of these things as a vegan at once?  Yes, and quite successfully, it just takes a bit more work.

I did a five day juice fast in early November and felt amazing as a result of it.  What didn't feel so amazing was when I was re-introducing my foods.  Every time I ate some kind of grain that wasn't an ancient grain, or a pseudo-grain I bloated and felt very unwell. I'd always suspected that gluten and I didn't get along but I couldn't deny it any longer. I am working at being a gluten free, paleo inspired vegan.

The transition period hasn't been easy for either of us.  All of a sudden, pretty much all of our staple meals are useless to us because it will adversely affect one of us.  To me, it feels like  I am learning how to cook, and how to be vegan all over again with the focus on high protein, low intolerance and soy free at every meal. My boyfriend feels like he is thinking "more like a carnivore, because all of our meals are planned around protein."

What has been easy is feeling so much better.   I now know a new kind of day to day wellness. My energy levels are balanced throughout the day.  I'm so much more aware of what I am putting into my body and how it affects me because I am not clouded with the intolerance response fogginess I was getting from my old pal gluten.  Brendan Brazier's Thrive book is getting a workout in the kitchen, as is the food processor and things are pretty good again.

As for this blog?  Well,  things are about to get pretty good here again too.  Expect plenty of recipes in the future that will be intolerance friendly, supermarket friendly, easy to prepare and delicious!