Vegan Quinoa Burgers!

Hey! I hope the three readers I have are doing well! Hi Mom, lol.

     I eat a predominantly raw diet, but I know most/all of my friends eat a "standard American diet"(SAD), so I'm going to be posting recipes meat eaters can feel comfortable trying.
Yesterday I made a Quinoa Burger. I used spices I like, and added things that are totally optional, so feel free to omit or substitute spices to make it palatable for you!
Oh! and I don't follow recipes...so this is all a guesstimation.

Here it is:

• 1/2 cup of quinoa (this measurement is uncooked, so I'm not sure what it yield after, around 1 1/2-2 cups)
• Half a medium butternut squash (you could probably use any squash with the same sweetness and texture)

These are all optional

• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
• 1 tbsp. honey(if you don't have local honey, please buy some and support local bee keepers!)
• 1 tbsp. dried basil
• 1 tbsp. ground flax (Adds as a bit of an extra binder)
• 2 tbsp. ground sesame (I added this for calcium, totally optional! just put raw sesame seeds in a coffee grinder or magic bullet)
• 1 tbsp. Nutritional yeast (for B vitamins)

Cut squash in half and de-seed, poke a couple wholes in the skin, and lay flat down in a lightly greased baking sheet with a little water. Cover with tin foil, bake for about 30 minutes or until your squash is tender.

Mix all ingredients except half the quinoa and mix thoroughly. Fold/gently mix in the rest of the quinoa.

 

Press into patties, put on lightly greased sheet again, and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until it has a bit of a crust! no need to flip...

 

I made a few little ones to put on my salad for the next couple days!

 

I scraped the gills and a bit of the flesh out of a portabella mushroom to use as a bun! You could fry those scrap bits up with some onions and that would be good! I sliced up some apples and it was perfect! I recommend that!

 

I also made a garlic basil aioli

1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked for a couple hours  

2?..tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 clove of garlic

blended

and cut up some fresh basil to mix in.

 

Hope everyone likes this! Super easy!

 

Any requests for recipes or posts, just let me know!

 

Peace Love and Be Vegan Ya'll!!

 

Improving Eyesight Naturally

I'm not JUST passionate about being Vegan. I believe there are so many twists in the truth of what's good for our bodies! Healing as naturally as possible and curing our bodies with positive food and positive thoughts is crucial. So expect lots of posts that aren't just food related.

Up until a few days ago, I hadn't heard about this! In fact a month ago, I was talking to a friend about her experience with Lazik Eye Surgery. It was something I've given a bit of thought to because having glasses is such a pain in the ass. I was going to look up statistics on how many people in Canada require corrective eyewear, but I decided it was unnecessary, lol, it's the majority!
Considering I plan on becoming a Holistic Nutritionist, having lasers beamed into my EYE BALLS seemed drastic and far from appealing.
As I'm in the YouTube vortex, I come across this video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itfuva1xgEg


I've watched a few other videos on the subject, and more specifically, "The Bates Method".

The idea of strengthening your eye muscles and learning to relax them seems so obvious. If you want to build strength in your arms, you work them out. But instead of Optometrist teaching us to do so, they prescribe us glasses which only makes things worse. How many people go to the doctors every couple years for their eye exam, to learn their eyesight has worsened, and need to buy new corrective lenses? Lots. Its pretty rare that your eyesight has improved, especially to the point of you not needing glasses anymore.
I've actually heard raw/whole foods can help fix eyesight!

Food for thought. It's definitely something I'm going to research further and begin the exercises!
(Here's some of the exercises! http://www.seeing.org/techniques/ )

Has anyone else heard of this? Thoughts?

Peace, love and BE VEGAN!

Juice Cleanse And Raw Love

I decided to do a 5 day juice cleanse. My highest intentions were to give my digestive system a break, flush out my body, and clear up my skin. I definitely accomplished all of those.

     In March I was a raw vegan for a couple months, and feeling on top of the world! I was losing weight, had enormous amounts of energy, running 5k 6 times a week, and best of all my skin was glowing! Beginning of May I "fell off the train"...I was hanging out with a couple people who had bad habits, and one exception led to another an before I knew it I was just plain old vegan. My skin got really bad, I was tired all the time, wasn't going to the gym, etc etc etc. I knew how great I felt eating raw and decided I deserved to feel that way again. Now I'm conducting the train and I got my seat belt on so I'm not falling of this bitch again.

     Today is the final day of my 5 day Juice Fast (I prefer the word Feast because there's a HUGE amount of produce consumed) and I feel so amazing. I expected the first few days to be horrible. I thought I'd have food cravings, maybe feel lethargic and depressed, but I felt a huge energy rush! I was doing my usual lazy morning workout (20 reps of crunches and squats, etc,) and I felt this huge need to be jumping! lol...so I did.
     My Mom hates this about me, but I'm a huge "Too Much Information" kind of person. Thought I'd preface that before my next statement, BUT it's important and I'm a human being so suck it up. The first night of my juice cleanse, I had an amazing poop. I thought I was done, and I wasn't. and I thought I was done, and I wasn't. It was heavy and sludgy. Now I've heard of people having this kind of bowl movement when they do a cleanse, or when they first go vegetarian, and I'm sorry, but EVERYONE needs to have this kind of poop way more often then...well never.
    At this point I feel so good, I think I'd like to take 3 days out of every month to clean out my body and giv'er a break.

I couple of my Favorite juice recipes are;

Apple, kale, fennel, lemon.
Pineapple, kale, kiwi.
Kale, cucumber, celery, apple, lemon.
Apple, pomegranate.
Watermelon!

DO A JUICE CLEANSE, GO VEGETARIAN, GO VEGAN.

<3 Holly

Here To Help!

I just got off the phone with my mom and she brought up the idea of me having a blog.

Why?

• Because I was pescetarian for 8 years (Meaning I was vegetarian with the exception of fish), and I've had LOTS of bad meat replacements and thinking I couldn't be vegetarian because these "burgers" were so awesome, and soy milk was terrible etc.
• I've asked myself and have been asked a million questions about protein and calcium etc, and I want people to know all of these things I've spent years learning.
• I want to answer questions and help people make better decisions about their diet and lifestyle.
• This year I went Vegan and it was the best thing I've ever done. I'm passionate about animal rights, our bodies, and LIVING FOREVER!

I know some people are aware of the dangers and the cruelty involved in the meat/dairy industry and don't care, BUT I know LOTS of people DONT KNOW....and that's what I'm passionate about!
Helping people who don't know, and want to know, and for people who just don't know where to start!

I'll be posting documentaries I recommend and why.
I'll be posting recipes and pictures of my meals.
Topics people may have questions about, and things I am still learning about day to day.