Quinoa and Veggies with a ‘Cheesy’ Sauce

January 25, 2012

Fuel-Me-Up!

I was inspired to make this yummy mix of veggies, sauce and high-powered quinoa as I was surfing the ‘net’ for no-oil salad dressings; one thing led to another and on this website I found a delicious no dairy, no tofu, no nuts recipe for a sauce that claimed to be cheesy; yum. The sauce was added to mix of quinoa and one or two veggies and baked in the oven, I tried it, and didn’t love the baking part, it kind of dried the sauce and quinoa out. So….

Here is my rendition of the one that inspired me- top individual servings with the sauce, change the sauce up a bit, add more veggies and don’t bake. While the quinoa is cooking you can chop, steam and make the sauce, dinner is ready in 30 minutes or less. This is perfect powered comfort food and great to refuel after a hard run or Elation Yoga class!

Quinoa and Veggies with a Cheesy Sauce

Ingredients

2 cups vegetable broth
1 cup quinoa
2 cups sweet potato, butternut squash, or small delicata squash, cut into small pieces (take seeds out of squash, peel the butternut squash but you don’t have to peel the delicate squash)
2 big handfuls baby spinach, torn into smaller pieces
½ cup sun dried tomatoes, cut into strips. Add more if you love sun-dried tomatoes
½ cup or more black olives, sliced (omit if you don’t like olives)
1 cup parsley, finely chopped
1 red pepper, seeded and diced
1 medium carrot, shredded

Sauce:

1 orange pepper, cut into pieces
1/3 cup tahini
1/3 cup nutritional yeast
juice of 1 big lemon
1 tsp garlic salt or 1 clove garlic
1 tbsp apple cidre vinegar
¼ cup water
½ tsp turmeric
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Bring 2 cups vegetable stock or water to a boil and add the quinoa, reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 18 minutes. Remove from heat
Meanwhile steam the squash or sweet potato until just tender, remove from heat and let cool slightly
Make sauce by blending all ingredients in a blender until smooth, depending on the strength of your blender you may have to add a bit of water
In a large bowl combine quinoa, steamed squash, and remaining ingredients, stir to combine. Taste and add salt and pepper to your liking
Serve the quinoa and top with sauce
Makes about 4 serving, depends how hungry you are.

Posted by Donna | Filed Under Recipes, Sports Nutrition | Leave a Comment

What an amazing weekend

January 17, 2012

Friday night we aired the movie Forks Over Knives, and 25 people attended, all interested in education and transformation, and the movie delivered. The information in the movie is science-based and the story-line details the transformation of lives as they follow a whole foods plant-based diet; pounds are lost, medications are not needed, diseases are reversed, and people begin to live their lives.

On Saturday afternoon we had our first Nutrition 101 workshop of the year (yes there will be more), and again the studio was filled with people looking for motivation and for information on how a plant-based diet can increase energy, prevent disease, assist in recovering faster from workouts, and how to add super foods to their meals. I love the fact that no one was currently eating a strictly vegan diet but everyone was looking to move in that direction and reap the benefits; and of course I am so happy to help out.

I’ve put together what I think are 5 important take-aways from the weekend

Eating a whole food diet based on plant creates an alkaline pH in the body = less disease, more energy and quicker recovery time between workouts
You will have no problem meeting your protein, calcium and iron requirements on a whole foods plant-based diet
Eat leafy green veggies – kale is your friend! Check out our favorite kale salad here
Reduce refined oil intake and focus on the whole plant sources like avocados and raw nuts. Here is a our favorite no-oil salad dressing, click here
Eat a minimum of 2 tbsp per day of either ground flax, hemp seed or chia seed. Yummy flax muffin recipe, with no refined sugar!
Decide on your big ‘Why’ to change your diet, get prepared, and commit! – ok that’s more than 5, I couldn’t resist!

What’s Next?

So you are keen now to eat less animal products, less processed foods and edge a little closer to a plant based diet, wonderful; and you feel you need a bit of guidance and maybe a ‘kick in the pants’ as my dad would day.

OK up next is the Elation 12-day Power Foods Cleanse; which actually becomes more like 3+ weeks as you need to prepare and you need to take a few days to add foods in to your diet after the cleanse. This is just enough time to start to fully integrate some wonderful diet and nutritional changes and feel the glowing health benefits.

On the ‘Cleanse’ you follow a plant based diet and a diet that is also free of many common inflammatory foods (besides animal products). We add in loads of fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, and whole grains and for 12-days eliminate coffee, sugar, gluten and anything processed, for example instead of pasta you would eat the whole grain like brown rice or quinoa.

You receive a manual with cleanse details and loads of yummy recipes, 2 meetings, daily emails with tips and support and details on what foods to eat each day, and you can email any questions you have, we are here to make your experience a success.

Virtual Cleanse: We’ve added something new this time around – you can participate virtually! If you can’t make the meetings, live in different city, want to follow with a group of friends all in different locations – this is the perfect option. Click here for more details

Here’s to a healthy and happy 2012 – and here’s to your vibrant health!

Posted by Donna | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Guest Post by Caroline: New Year

January 16, 2012

This blog post was written by Caroline Elson, who teaches yoga, yoga teacher training, and meditation at Elation Centre. Caroline taught our annual New Year’s Day Yoga Class, in which $216 and two heaping baskets of food were raised for the Ottawa Food Bank.

I’m pleased to tell you that we had 19 people attending our first class of 2012. What a blessing! As an instructor, it is with gratitude and humility that I teach and it was a gift to start the year off with such great energy in the room.

The dedication of our practise was from the heart with the words of the Bhagavad Gita 4:22- Content with what is chance- obtained, transcending the opposites, without envy, the same in success and failure, through performing actions- he is not bound.

When we allow everything to just be , we are in a state of love. May we stay in our heart space and let things flow into the new year. May everyone’s year unfold with creativity, love, and peace.

Posted by Kerry | Filed Under Events, Yoga | Leave a Comment

Fastest Soup Ever

January 13, 2012

Tonight, as the snow and wind are swirling outside, I’m craving something warm and nourishing, trouble is I’m tired and don’t feel much like cooking, and the fridge is looking a little bare! Luckily I live around the corner from Natural Food Pantry in Westboro, a fully stocked whole foods paradise, and in no time I was home with a few key ingredients for a simple soup.

This is my quickest soup yet – 10 minutes start to finish; it’s tasty, and of course full of nutrients, you guessed it, one of them is kale.

The kale is included in a product from Cookin Greens called Athlete’s Mix (a frozen mix of kale, spinach, chard, red pepper and white beans), and the ravioli is from Rising Moon Organics, I used the Spinach Florentine filled with a soy ricotta. Both products are frozen so are great staples to have on hand. The broth of the soup is both vegetable soup stock and miso paste, together the add a depth of flavour and loads of extra nutrients. I used Cold Mountain brand Mellow White Miso.

Kale and Ravioli Soup with Sweet Potato and Miso

In a large soup pot bring 3 cups of organic vegetable soup broth to a boil, (Pacific Naturals is a great brand, I didn’t have any homemade)
Add 1 package frozen Rising Moon Spinach Florentine Ravioli
1/2 package Cookin’ Greens Athletes Mix
1 small organic sweet potato, peeled and diced small
1/2 onion diced small – a leftover lingering in the fridge
1 jalapeno pepper diced small (no seeds) – another lingering leftover
Reduce heat and simmer for 8 minutes, remove from heat
Stir in 1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, and 4 tbsp light colour miso paste. The miso gives the soup some depth of flavour so don’t leave it out
Serve topped with whole grain organic croutons