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.
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!
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.
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
Curl up in front of the fireplace and enjoy.
Happy New Year
January 2, 2012
Welcome to 2012. May your year be filled with gratitude & peace, and may our eyes be open to the wonder around us.
We hope you enjoy this beautiful video, enjoy the time to sit and savour it.
The Great Bell Chant (The End of Suffering) from R Smittenaar on Vimeo.
New Year’s Day Yoga Class
December 15, 2011
Time: 10:00AM – 11:00AM
Teacher: Caroline Elson
Cost: Donation to the Food Bank. Non-perishable food items or minimum $5.00 donation.
Class Limit: 30 people. When we reach our limit the studio door will be closed, so come early to reserve your spot. Doors open at 9:30am
On January 1 we will be holding our annual New Year’s day class raising donations for the Ottawa Food Bank .
This year Caroline will donate her time, to offer an all-levels vinyasa class designed to foster peace of mind and awareness as we enter into the new year, we will close with a short meditation to set your intentions for 2012
You Have Everything You Need
November 12, 2011
This one-minute video from Russell Simmons was posted on MindBodyGreen.com; he really gets it!
Entrepreneur, yogi, meditator, and vegan, Russell Simmons inspires with this one-minute video, where he says:
“The idea that you have everything you need has got to be the most profound and important revelation…. Giving is the basis of getting, and this idea of operating from a place of love, or place of abundance, is a very attractive idea.”
Here’s the one-minute video:
Candlelight Cookies
November 8, 2011
Here are two delicious cookie served up by Robyn during our last Yoga and Fertility class, the recipes are from Finally…Food I Can Eat! by local author Shirley Plant who specializes in recipes to address food sensitivities and allergies. These cookies are loaded with healthy ingredients (flax replaces eggs), are gluten-free, dairy-free and have no added processed sugar. Honey is used as the sweetener to make this recipe 100% vegan (no animal products) you can play around with substituting agave or brown rice syrup for the honey.
These are just the kind of delicious snacks we will be serving up at our Candlelight Yoga and Pampering evening for women on November 18th, from 7pm – 9pm. Our evening will include Restorative Yoga lead by Robyn, this class will relax the nervous system and release stress. Yoga Journal describes restorative yoga poses “as having a particular ability to leave us nourished and well rested. These postures are usually deeply supported by blankets, blocks, or other props and are held for several minutes at a time.”
Along with this nurishing yoga practice we will be educated by Sylvie Lapoine of Facial Angle on facial care and natural products to nourish the skin and we will have goodie bags of products to sample, to top it off we will enjoy tea and snacks to support, nourish and heal the body from the inside out – chocolate will of course be involved.
Hope to see you on November 18th – you can register here
Carrot Haystacks
Ingredients:
- 1 cup carrots, shredded
- 2 ½ cups shredded unsweetened coconut
- 2 tbsp cold water
- 2 tbsp arrowroot powder
- 2 tbsp safflower oil
- 3 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp ground flaxseed and 6 tbsp water (whisked together)
- 2 tbsp brown rice flour
- Pinch of salt
Directions:
- In a bowl, mix shredded carrots, sea salt, safflower oil, flour, coconut, and honey. Mix ground flaxseed in 6 tbsp of water and whisk to make an egg-like consistency; mix in carrot mixture.
- Mix water and arrowroot together and mix with other ingredients.
- Mix all together, mould into small shapes onto baking sheet and bake at 325F for 10-15 minutes or until done.
Yields 16 cookies
Carob Haystacks
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup carob or cacao powder (organic unsweetened)
- 2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
- 2 tbsp cold water
- 2 tbsp arrowroot
- 2 tbsp safflower oil
- 4 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp ground flaxseed and 6 tbsp water (whisked together)
- Pinch of salt
Directions:
- In a bowl or food processor, mix water, arrowroot, and carob/cacao powder. Mix well so ingredients dissolve and mixture is smooth.
- Add in remaining ingredients.
- Mould into round shapes onto cookie sheet and bake at 325F for 10-15 minutes or until done.
Yields 12 cookies
Minimalist Running – is it for you?
October 28, 2011
A reminder about the Natural Running Mechanics seminar on October 29th organized by Solefit Orthotics, all proceedes to impossible2Possible, the gang at Solefit are looking to give i2P as big of a cheque as possible! It’s such a fantastic cause!
Here is some info Ryan from Solefit posted a few days ago “We are offering a great giveaway: if they can get over 150 people signed up between now and Saturday, i2P will donate another pair of Oakley sunglasses to give away (yep, the cool ones that Lance Armstrong wears). That would bring our prize total to nine pairs of shoes, technical clothing and TWO pairs of Oakley sunglasses!
Along with supporting i2P, our goal for the evening is to present some of the current research (pros and cons) around running technique and barefoot running and explain what it means for us (runners). We have Neil Rosenthal and Ryan Grant speaking from SoleFit Orthotics, Ray Zahab (a really fantastic speaker!) from i2P, and Francine Eastwood speaking from PSI Runners Clinic. Should be a fun afternoon!”
Tell your friends, family, coworkers, and running buddies! We hope to see you there! For more information check out the facebook page Click Here , to registrater with Events Online Click Here
To give you a bit more information on Barefoot and Minimalist running (all of which will be covered at the Saturday seminar, here is a guest post by Melinda Neufeld, Elation Centre member who loves her minimalist shoes – even in the winter! She wrote this for us last winter as we trained for the National Capital Race Weekend, I’ve been holding onto the info and now seems a perfect time to post it, thanks Melinda
“Ah, winter. The bittersweet, love-hate relationship that I have with winter precedes my running career and has only intensified over the past blistery months of snowy winter runs. As a relatively new (about a year now) minimalist footwear runner, I have come to embrace the hardship of running nearly barefoot in my Vibram FiveFinger Flows in the snow and cold. In general, running in FiveFingers is great fun. Let’s be honest, I definitely prefer running on clear, dry roads in my favorite FiveFingers model, FiveFinger Sprints. The Sprints bring me as close as I can get to running barefoot with the added benefit of some sole protection. The feeling of the road or path beneath my feet is amazing; I’d even go as far as to say that it feels like I’m running naked—or at least what I imagine that would feel like. But let’s come back to reality and back to winter running in my Flows. This model features less of a barefoot feel than the Sprints because the upper part of the toe shoe is made from Neoprene, a material commonly used to make wetsuits. This material helps keep my feet relatively warm, but it also gives a stiffer feel to the toe shoe. The Flows are not waterproof, and after a run in slush and snow, my feet are definitely wet. You would think that my toes would freeze right off, but as long as I keep moving, my feet stay warm. Usually, it takes the first five minutes of a run for my toes to warm up. After that, I don’t even notice the cold or wetness. According to the official FiveFingers Web site the sole on the Flow model is made with Idrogrip performance rubber for added slip resistance. As of yet, I have managed to remain vertical during all of my winter runs!
Running in FiveFingers throughout the winter might seems a bit crazy, but I didn’t want to counteract all of the progress that I made over the summer learning to run nearly barefoot. Running in minimalist footwear or barefoot requires a change of running form. Typically, runners to tend to forefoot strike as opposed to heel strike. Daniel Lieberman, Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, has conducted research on barefoot running and theorizes that a heel strike may be the cause of various common injuries suffered by runners, and that a forefoot strike naturally strengthens feet and leg muscles. This can prevent common injuries and eliminates the need for a shoe that compensates for weak feet and leg muscles. Personally, as a runner who was used to running with a heel strike, adjusting to a forefoot strike took time and patience. It was a slow, gradual learning process. But I am happy to say that I have avoided all injuries to date. I am an avid runner and a strong believer in the benefits of minimalist footwear.
The minimalist footwear trend continues to grow and many different shoes brands are coming out with their own minimalist shoe line. While not quite as odd-looking as Vibram FiveFingers, other models are appearing in stores (e.g., Merrell Barefoot shoe line), and my goal is to eventually switch all of my footwear to shoes with a “zero drop”, a.k.a. no drop from heel to toe. So, here’s to natural running! “
Chocolate Power Snacks on CTV!
October 19, 2011
Here are two amazing recipes that I will be whipping up on CTV Morning Live, Thursday Oct 20, 9:25AM and 9:30AM. You can check out the video here - fun and easy!
These chocolate power snacks are dairy-free and free of processed fats and sugar making them heart healthy, and to keep muscles strong and your brain focused, I’ve loaded them with protein and good fats from almonds and hemp seeds! They also use raw cacao powder and cacao beans, which contain anti-oxidants to fight off disease and raw cacao is sugar-free natural source of chocolate which will keep your motor running, be careful not to overindulge remember chocolate contains caffeine!
Both the cookies and chocolate shake can be whipped up in under 5 minutes. Enjoy
Shake Tips: using a frozen banana and using almond, rice or soy milk will make the shake nice and creamy. Using water and a fresh banana makes it more like chocolate ‘milk’. Make sure to blend well to get a smooth texture.
This is just a sampling of the yummy food that Deb Gleason of Wellness Warrior Coaching and I will be making at Credible Edibles, Oct 27 at our Eating for Energy cooking class. Hope to see you there!
Chocolate Almond Smoothie
- 1 banana, fresh or frozen
- 1-2 soft dates (soak for a few minutes if they are hard)
- 1 ½ – 2 cups cold water
- 2 tbsp raw almond butter
- 2 tbsp hemp seeds
- 1 tbsp raw cacao powder
Blend and enjoy, makes 1-2 servings
Almond-Cranberry Cacao Chip Cookies
adapted from Annie’s Raw Food Desserts
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 3 tbsp agave syrup
- 2 tbsp vanilla
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- 1 ½ cups almond meal (ground almonds)
- ¼ cup organic dried cranberries, chopped up into small pieces
- ¼ cup cacao nibs
- Stir together all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Roll into small balls and place on a serving tray. Use a fork to press balls into a flattened cookie, so they look like peanut butter cookies. Serve right away or freeze for an hour or so
- Will keep for a few weeks in the fridge or freezer; thaw for 5 minutes before eating
