Ⓥ Blueberry Cheesecake Smoothie -- Loaded with Greens! Ⓥ

What's better than vegan cheesecake? Cheesecake in smoothie form loaded with so much healthy goodness that you'll want seconds! Yup, that's exactly what this smoothie is! Blueberry and cheesecake coming together with the added benefit of a ton of healthy greens--and, what do you know? You'd never even know there was this much greenery in this lovely dessert/breakfast/snack! ;)

vegan / gluten free/ sugar-free/ 

Blueberry Cheesecake Smoothie

1/4 cup Frozen Blueberries

1/4 an Avocado

4 large leaves of Swiss Chard or Collards (or any combination of your favourite greens)

1 scoop Vanilla Vega One Protein

2 Tbsp Daiya Cream Cheese

2 Tbsp Hemp Seeds 

1 Tbsp Flax Seeds

1 1/2 Tbsp Lemon Juice

¼ cup water (or for added flavour, chilled chai tea^)

Hazelnut Stevia to sweeten (or other sweetener of your choice)

Add all the ingredients together in a blender and blend until smooth. Add less or more liquid to get your desired consistency, and less or more sweetener to your desired sweetness. 

I like making this smoothie as a thicker "nogurt" snack, but feel free to add more liquid to make it a full smoothie. 

Makes 1 serving. Enjoy! 

^I often brew chai tea overnight so that I can add it to smoothies! Always nice to have some handy and you can make large batches at a time.

*I make my smoothies in either a Blendtec Blender or my Nutribullet -- both are amazing blenders that make smoothies super smooth and creamy!* 

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Ⓥ Vegan Kitchen: Peanut Curry Creamy Pasta Ⓥ

This sauce is so rich, and creamy its heavenly! It's also super easy and quick to make, so double yay! This recipe is not too spicy but with a lovely little kick to it, while the flavour of the dish is subtle yet rich and delightful. 

This recipe came from a spontaneous whim of adding a little this and that while I wanted to make something I hadn't made before. I am super happy with the results and I think this will be another new favourite to my repertoire. 

As always: vegan, gluten-free, free of refined sugars and crap your body doesn't need. ;) 

Peanut Curry Creamy Pasta

1 cup tofu, crumbled

2 tbsp tamari

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 Zucchini, chopped

Kale, Swiss Chard (or other greens of your choice)

1 can coconut milk (I use full fat by thai kitchen)

2 tbsp rice flour (or other flour)

1/4 cup pb

1 tsp red curry paste

1/4 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

Water 

2 cups gluten-free pasta (or whatever pasta you'd prefer)

In a large saucepan, crumble your tofu, add the tamari, vinegar, lemon juice and curry paste and sauté for a few minutes so the tofu soaks up the flavour. 

While the tofu is sautéing, chop up your vegetables. Add the vegetables to the pot and sauté another couple minutes, stirring occasionally and adding a little water so nothing sticks to the pot. 

Add your coconut milk and simmer on medium heat for a few minutes. 

Add the spices, salt, and flour, and stir occasionally. 

Your sauce will start to thicken so add a little more water as needed to get your desired consistency of the sauce. 

Add the peanut butter, stirring, and once again adding more water if necessary. Simmer on low-medium heat until cooked. 

Boil your pasta at whichever point depending on how long it takes to boil (this will depend on what kind of pasta you use). Entire cooking and prep time for this recipe takes approx. 30 minutes. 

Add your cooked pasta into the sauce or serve as is so people can choose how much pasta and sauce they'd like. ;) 

Enjoy!! Makes approx. 4 large servings.    

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Ⓥ Vegan Kitchen: Sautéed Mustard Greens! Ⓥ

Mustard greens can be intensely spicy, especially when you're growing them fresh from your own garden. This year we have a healthy happy supply of mustard greens and were trying to figure out how to eat them since they are entirely too zingy for my taste in a salad. That's when this recipe came along. This is super easy to make and super delicious and healthy!  

Sautéed Mustard Greens

2-3 large bunches Mustard Greens, chopped  

1/4 cup Walnuts (or almonds or other nuts) 

1 Garlic Clove, minced

1 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

1 Tbsp (just under) Tamari or Soy Sauce

dash of Black Pepper

a little water for consistency

In a large frying pan or pot, toss all your ingredients together and sauté on medium heat until lightly cooked. The greens will shrink a lot. 

I like to add chickpeas sometimes as well, really you can add whatever you feel like. :) This recipe is so simple and easy and delicious! Great way to get more greens into your day. 

Makes a wonderful side dish or snack. 

Makes 2-3 servings. 

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Ⓥ Vegan Kitchen: Green Almond Smoothie! Ⓥ

This smoothie is heaven in a cup! A great way to load up on some greens for the day and tastes absolutely delicious, sweet, and creamy. Pure goodness! Since you can't taste the greens I imagine it would be a great way to get little ones to eat their greens as well--but having no little ones to personally try this on, you'll have to be the judge. ;)  

Green Almond Smoothie

1 frozen Banana

1 heaped Tbsp Almond Butter (or peanut butter)

1 cup Spinach or Kale (or combination of both)

1 cup Almond Milk

1/2 serving of protein powder (optional)

Add all your ingredients together in a high-speed blender or food processor and blend until smooth and creamy! Add less or more almond milk to get your desired consistency. 

Makes 1 smoothie. Enjoy! 

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Ⓥ Vegan Kitchen: Perfect Kale Chips! Ⓥ

These are by far the most amazing things ever created! Not to mention they're healthy! But, seriously, my husband and I cannot get enough of them! We've made made several batches in the past couple weeks--and they never last long because we gobble them up in no time. ;) 

Anyway, these kale chips are perfect and crispy, packed with tantalizing flavour, and… did I mention they're healthy?!! ;) 

We make these in our dehydrator, but I've included general baking instructions to bake these in the oven as well--I just haven't personally made them in the oven, so keep an eye on them and let me know how they turn out. ;)  

Perfect Kale Chips

*2 bunches of Kale, chopped up (larger stems removed)

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

3 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Garlic Powder

*we don't really measure the kale, we generally buy one or two bunches from the farmer's market or co-op grocery store and chop it up so that it fills a large bowl as pictured. ;) 

Chop up your kale into larger "chip"-sized pieces--don't go too small as they will shrink up a lot--and remove the larger stems. 

Toss your kale into a large mixing bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix well so that all the kale is coated. 

In the dehydrator:

Line up your kale in your dehydrator trays and dehydrate for approximately 3-4 hours, until the chips are nice and crispy. 

Why I love the dehydrator method? Because you're keeping them (mostly) raw (depending on your ingredients) and therefor packed full of all their beneficial nutrients. :)

In the Oven:

Spread the kale evenly on a large cooking sheet. Now, there are two ways of doing them in the oven…

One, is the attempt to keep more of the nutrients by cooking at a lower temperature: Preheat oven to 200 and bake for 2-3 hours. 

Two, is if you're impatient but you'll kill a large portion of the nutrient value: Preheat oven to 350 and bake for approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

Either way, cook until the kale chips are crispy and the edges are lightly browned--not burnt! 

Enjoy! ;) 

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Ⓥ Vegan Kitchen: Blissful Cocoa Smoothie Ⓥ

This is probably my favourite smoothie/nogurt recipe I've ever made. The texture is amazing, it's super smooth and creamy, the chia adds a lovely crunch, and the flavour is divine! Pure heaven! Not to mention this smoothie is packed full of super foods and healthy goodness. Who knew being healthy was this much fun? ;) 

Blissful Cocoa Smoothie

1 Banana, ripe

4-5 pitted Dates (soaked)

1 Tbsp Chia Seeds

1/2 cup of water (for the Chia and dates)

1/2 cup of Almond Milk 

2 tsp Raw Coconut Oil

1 tsp Maca Powder

1 heaped tsp Cocoa Powder

1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Hemp or other Protein Powder

I sometimes add a heaped teaspoon of peanut or almond butter. And I also like to add 1-2 cups of greens (like kale or spinach) for an extra healthy treat--and you can't even taste the greens in there!

Soak the Chia and Dates in the 1/2 cup of water overnight in your fridge, or for at least 10-15 minutes before making the smoothie--this helps to soften up the dates, so the longer the better. 

Toss all the ingredients together in a Food Processor and blend until smooth. Super easy, super healthy, super duper delicious! 

Makes 1-2 smoothie servings, or 2-3 nogurt servings. 

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Ⓥ Vegan Kitchen: Vegan Cashew Alfredo Sauce! Ⓥ

I am absolutely falling in love with the versatility of cashews! They are truly amazing and you can do so much with them, particularly in vegan recipes calling for a cheesy substitute. They work perfectly, especially if you have the right recipe. You've already seen the "Mac n Shews" recipe, so here is another one! :)

Cashew Alfredo Sauce:

1 cup Cashews (soaked for 10 minutes or longer)

2 cups Vegetable Broth

2 Tbsp Olive Oil (or other oil)

1/2 tsp Salt

dash of Black Pepper

Place ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Takes approx. 5 minutes. 

Heat and Voila!

If you want to thin it out more you can add a little water, add it slowly so you don't add too much. This makes the recipe go a little further as well. 

My favourite recipe to do is to make this with chopped up Broccoli, Kale, and Zucchini. Heat up the veggies in the sauce for about ten minutes until the veggies are lightly cooked. Top over pasta or eat by itself. Amazing! :)

Makes approx. 2-4 servings depending on what you're making it with. 

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Ⓥ Vegan Kitchen: Berry Green Smoothie Ⓥ

Another lovely smoothie I just made this morning and felt was worth sharing. ;) Gotta love how easy and delicious and packed-full of nutrition smoothies can be. This one has a healthy serving of protein to get you going in the morning too.  

Berry Green Smoothie

1 cup frozen Blueberries

1/4 cup frozen Strawberries

1/4 cup frozen Mangos

1/2 cup Spinach

5 pitted Dates

1 Tbsp Peanut Butter (or other nut butter)

2 Tbsp Hemp Protein Powder

1/3 cup Water

1/2-3/4 cup Almond Milk (or other non-dairy milk)

Soak the Dates if you have the time for at least 10 minutes or longer. And defrost the frozen fruit a bit too. It's just a little easier to blend and get super creamy and smoothie.  

Throw all the ingredients together in a food processor or high-speed blender and blend until well blended and creamy. 

Add less or more almond milk to get your desired consistency. 

This smoothie won't be completely smooth, it's got a wonderful texture with the nuts and dates and the taste is simply sublime! And no, you won't notice the taste of spinach in there and it's a great way to add some greens to your day!

Makes 1 large serving. 

Enjoy! :) 

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