VEGAN BANANA BREAD

The ultimate comfort food

I don't know about you, but cooking and baking really comforts me. My kitchen is my getaway.

Lately I've been overstressing and I just didn't know what to do with myself. Last week, my mother was cleaning the pantry and got tired of looking at chia seeds so she tried mixing them with water because she wanted to make pudding. I really didn't want chia to go to waste, because it's really expensive. So, last night I thought of something. Chia is often used as a substitute for eggs, and I had a ton of bananas laying around. Plus, I've been thinking about baking banana bread for months. And that's what I came up with. Vegan banana bread. (I recommend looking at the notes at the end for additional information.)

Ne vem kako nate vpliva na tebe, vendar mene peka in kuhanje zelo pomirjata. Moja kuhinja je kraj, kamor se skrijem pred problemi.
Zadnje čase sem pod stresom in sploh ne vem, kaj bi sama s seboj. Prejšnji teden je mati čistila shrambo in našla chia semena, katera je nato hotela porabiti in naredila puding. Na žalost je chia semena zmešala z vodo namesto z riževim mlekom, skratka, ni bilo za nikamor. Čeprav ni bilo užitno, sem iskala način, kako naj to porabim, ker enostavno nisem dopustila, da bi se chia semena vrgla stran. Chia semena le niso poceni.
Včeraj ponoči mi je pa nekaj padlo na pamet. Chia semena so pogosto uporabljena kot nadomestek za jajce v peki. Spomnila sem se tudi, da imam ogromno zrelih banan. Poleg vsega tega pa sem že nekaj časa hotela speči bananin kruh. (Priporočam da pogledaš v dodatne informacije)

You will need:
Potrebovala boš:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour/2 šalici polnozrnate moke
• 0.5 cup brown sugar/0.5 šalice rjavega sladkorja
• 2 cups oats/2 šalici ovsenih semen
• 1 cup sunflower (or mixed) seeds/1 šalica semen
• 3 tsp baking powder/3 žličke pecilnega praška 
• 1 tsp sea salt/1 žlička soli
• 1 tbsp cinnamon/1 žlica cimeta
• 6 ripe bananas/6 zrelih banan
• 0.5 cup oil/0.5 šalice olja (najboljše kokosovega)
• 1 cup of chia soaked in water/1 šalica chie v vodi
• 1 tbsp agave syrup/1 žlica agavinega sirupa
• 1 tbsp almond milk/1 žlica mandljevega mleka

Put the dry ingredients in a big bowl and mix them up.

Then take the wet ingredients and put them in a blender until you get a creamy consistency. I however do not recommend blending the chia seeds. 

Then just mix the dry and wet ingredients. If you feel the need, you can add a little more oats and flour.

Put the oven to 350°/175°C and bake for an hour. V veliki posodi zmešaj suhe sestavine. Mehke sestavine daj v mešalnik in jih mešaj, dokler ni vse kremasto. Ne priporočam blendanja chia semen. 
Nato vse skupaj zmešaj. Če se ti zdi vse skupaj preredko, lahko dodaš malce več ovsenih kosmičev.
Pečico pogrej na 175°C in peci eno uro.

Notes :
Dodatne informacije

• Make sure your bananas are overly ripe.
  Banane naj bodo res zrele. Že malce prezrele.
• This banana bread is really moist (yeah, we all hate that word, but it's the best way to describe it)
  Tale bananin kruh je zelo vlažen.
  
• If you have some spare dark chocolate, stick little pieces of it on random places of the bread.
  Če imaš kaj temne čokolade na strani, zatakni delce le-te v mešanico, preden daš v pečico.

• I know mine isn't the usual looking banana bread, but I didn't really have the proper baking tray.
  Vem, da moj bananin kruh ne izgleda kot normalni veganski bananini kruhi na internetu, vendar nimam normalnega pekača.
  
• If you have the proper tray, you might have to split the ingredients or just make two of them.
  Če imaš pekač za bananin kruh, ti bo recept služil za dva. 

Hope you enjoy! 

VEGAN MAC AND CHEESE

Your favourite junk food lunch turned healthy 

I love eating simple things or just monomeals, but some times I just want something that will keep me full for hours and is creamy and warm and satiating. 

I've heard of vegan mac and cheese but they all required nutritional yeast and I could never find it in stores here. 

So one day I was looking through my pantry and noticed I had tapioca starch and I thought I'd give it a try and it actually worked. So I decided to share the recipe.

You will be needing :

• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 onion
• 1 full tbsp tapioca starch
• 2-3 handfuls of nuts (cashews preferably)
• water/mylk(I use oat milk)

Najrajši jem preproste stvari ali pa dobesedno samo eno stvar (na primer pečen krompir) za kosilo. Včasih pa se mi pojavi tista želja, katere ne morem preslišati. Želja po nečem toplem, ''nezdravem'', kremastem in preveč nasitnem.
Slišala sem že za veganske makarone s sirom, vendar so vsi recepti imeli suhi neaktivni kvas, katerega pa pri nas komaj najdeš. En dan sem opazila da imam tapiokin škrob in sem se odločila, da probam z njim in ugotovila, da le ni tako slabo. Pa sem se odločila da recept delim z vami!

Potrebuješ : 

• 2 stroka česna
• 1 čebulo
• 1 polno žlico tapiokinega škroba
• 2-3 polne pesti oreščkov (najbolje, da indijskih)
• začimbe po želji (priporočam kaj malce pekočega, da ubije tisti okus škroba)
• voda/rastlinsko mleko (jaz sem uporabila ovseno)

First you will need to mince the garlic and onion, they put them in a pan on low to medium heat.

While your onion and garlic are in the pan, get a little bowl and put the starch, the cashews and the spices inside. I recommend something spicy (if you like spicy food) and garlic powder, curry, salt, pepper.

Najprej narežeš česen in čebulo, jih daš v ponev in jih pražiš na šibkem ognju.
Medtem ko se to dogaja, lahko vzameš posodico in v njej pripraviš ostale sestavine - oreščke, škrob in začimbe (kot sem rekla, priporočam nekaj pekočega in morda kaj česna v prahu, sol, poper).

What I learned is that when you do not have nutritional yeast, you will get that creamy texture but not that cheesy flavour and you will need a bit more spices than usual to get rid of the starchy flavour. 

Opazila sem, da če nimaš neaktivnega kvasa, bo omaka sicer kremasta, vendar ne bo imelo tistega sirastega okusa, kot bi ga imelo s tem kvasom. Zato potrebuješ malce več začimb.

Once the onion and garlic are transparent/caramelized put them in a blender with the other ingredients. You should add your oat milk/water little by little, until the blended texture is your preffered. Do keep in mind that once you heat the sauce up, it will become creamier, so more is better than less in this case.  You should blend until a milky texture.

 Ko je čebula prozorna ali pa zlata, lahko odmakneš z ognja in vse skupaj z vsebino tiste posodice daš v mešalec. Vodo/mleko dodajaj sproti, da lahko reguliraš vse skupaj. Imej v mislih, da bo omaka postala bolj kremasta, ko jo bomo ponovno pogreli, tako da jo malce bolj razredči, kot bi jo normalno.

Once everything's blended, your sauce is ready. Just put your pasta and the sauce in a pan on low heat and keep stirring until it's creamy. While stirring, try the sauce and add some more seasoning if you'd like. 

Ko je vse zmešano, daj vse skupaj z makaroni v ponev in malce pogrej na šibkem ognju. Mešaj, dokler ni kremasto. Sproti probavaj in dodajaj začimbe po želji. 

There you have it, vegan mac and cheese!

Kick it up a notch:

I recommend chopping up some veggies and mixing them in. Really makes a difference!

Še en nasvet :

Priporočam, da narežeš kakšno zelenjavo in vmešaš zraven, ko je vse že skuhano. Da daš jedi malce življenja.

Hope you enjoy your lunch with a healthy twist ! For more recipes keep tuning in and follow my social media for random pictures. If you do try the recipe out, be sure to send me pictures, I would love to see them!

Upam, da ti bo všeč malce bolj zdravo kosilo. Za več receptov priporočam obisk mojega bloga in sledenje na socialnih omrežjih, kjer objavljam slike hrane. Če recept preizkusiš, me pa označi v sliki! Zelo rada bi jih videla :) 

CARROT PASTA - easy vegan lunch

Who said vegans don't have anything to eat? 

So, I believe you have all heard at least someone ask you, at least once, ''So you just eat salads then?''

And the common misconception is that you have to be rich in order to be a vegan. Trust me, if that was the case, I wouldn't be posting this right now. All the money you save up when you don't buy meat, you can spend on the essentials.

I am here to prove people that being vegan can be really easy and destressing!

Upam si dati roko v ogenj, da si zagotovo že slišala ''O, a potem ješ samo solate, ko si vegan?''
Še ena butasta zmota je, da moraš biti bogat, da lahko ješ vegansko. Verjemi mi, če bi bila to resnica, ta blog ne bi obstajal in jaz bi jedla umor.
Ves denar, ki ga prihraniš s tem, ko ne kupuješ mesa in sira, lahko zapraviš na OGROMNO stvareh, ki jih kot vegan ješ vsak dan.

And, who said leftovers can't be fun? Today's lunch came to be just because I had leftovers from previous days and the thought of them laying in my fridge was haunting me.

Plus, I was really lazy, so this is a super quick easy recipe but is really really delicious. 

Pa kdo je rekel, da so ostanki bedni? Moje kosilo je nastalo iz ostankov prejšnjega dne, in ker sovražim, da mi neka hrana leži v hladilniku, sem se odločila, da to porabim. Pa čisto po pravici, bila sem zelo lena, haha.

I shall stop boring you and just tell you about the recipe!
Nehala te bom dolgočasiti in ti dala recept!

You will need :
Potrebovala boš:

• Coconut butter (kokosovo maslo)
• 1 serving of Spaghetti (špageti za tebe)
• 1/2 small onion (polovica male čebule)
• 1 carrot (grated) (nariban korenček)
• 1 tbsp mixed seeds (žlica semen)
• 1 tbsp unsweetened almond milk (žlica mandljevega mleka)
• 1 tsp curry (žlička curryja)
• 1 tsp garlic powder (žlička česna v prahu)
• 1 tsp salt (žlička soli)
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper (žlička kajenskega popra)
• 1 tsp soy sauce (žlička sojine omake)

Keep in mind, the ingredients were my leftovers, so the pasta was already cooked.
Imej v mislih, da sem imela špagete že skuhane.

I just took a pan and put coconut butter, and when it melted, I just put the onion beforehand and had it on high heat until it turned golden. After that, I put it on medium heat and just added the spaghetti, the carrot and the seeds and I just seasoned it with spices of my choice. After a few minutes, I just took a little bit of unsweetened almond milk because I think it gave it an almost kind of creamy texture + I added soy sauce, just because I love how the food tastes and looks after you've added soy sauce. 

Vzela sem ponev in stopila kokosovo maslo, nato sem dodala čebulo in jo pražila na močnem ognju, dokler se ni obarvala zlato. Nato sem zmanjšala ogenj in dodala špagete, korenje, semena ter začimbe. Po nekaj minutah sem dodala žlico mandljevega mleka, ker je jed naredilo kremasto. Na koncu sem dodala še sojino omako, in to je to.

To be honest with you, I was actually really surprised how filling the meal was! I highly suggest trying it.

Če sem čisto iskrena, sem bila presenečena nad tem, kako nasitno je bilo vse skupaj. 

BON APPETIT

DETOX DRINK

YOUR MORNING DETOX

If you still haven't tried it, go for it!

It's an awesome immune boosting drink which helps your body get rid of all the toxins.

The drink is energizing and it is a great way for the non coffee/tea drinkers to wake up in the morning. The non coffee drinkers actually have it better, because coffee is a diuretic and does not really help with rehydration that the body needs after 5-8 hours of sleep.

Če še nisi poskusila te pijače, jo daj!
Pospeši in okrepi tvoj imunski sistem, kar pomaga pri razstrupitvi telesa. Ta pijača ti pomaga pridobiti energijo in je popolen napitek za tiste, ki ne pijejo kave in čaja, da se prebudijo zjutraj. Tisti, ki pijejo to namesto kave, so v bistvu na boljšem, saj je kava diuretik in ne pomaga pri rehidraciji telesa, ki jo telo potrebuje po 5-8 urah spanja.

I feel so much better now that I've tried drinking it on a regular basis, I am not exhausted and I no longer have problems with digestion.

Lemons are an excellent source of vitamin C and they are also a source of antioxidants and all sorts of good stuff for your body. 

And my favourite of all time : Cayenne pepper. The holy grail in long-term weight loss. It helps you with digestion and regulates blood sugar. 

To sedaj pijem že kar nekaj časa in se počutim veliko boljše kot prej, ko sem pila kavo. Pomaga tudi pri težavah s prebavo, katerih nimam več.
Limone so zelo dober vir vitamina C, kar vsi že vemo, morda pa ne veš, da so vir antioksidantov in vseh oh in sploh dobrih stvari za naša telesa. 
In seveda moja najljubša sestavina, kajenski poper. To je super za dolgoročno izgubo teže. Pomaga pri prebavi in uravnava krvni sladkor. Naredite kdaj ta napitek kakšnim starim staršem s problemi s krvnim sladkorjem.

Those two mixed up together help your body reach it's perfect PH level, which means higher metabolism, a boost in your body's immune system and for my ladies out there, no UTI-s!

Limona in kajenski poper zmešana našim telesom pomagata vzpostaviti pravi PH v telesu, kar pomeni, bolj zdrav metabolizem in okrepljen imunski sistem. In za vse moje punce, ki berete, nobenih vnetih mehurjev!

So it's pretty much just a cup/bottle of warm water, a squeezed lemon (you can add as many as you want), and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. I put slices of lemon in the bottle to make it look somewhat prettier.

Naredi se s toplo vodo, limono in žlico kajenskega popra. Jaz dodam še malo limoninih koškov, da lepše izgleda in da lahko čez dan dodajam vodo.