moving house

hey blogspot people. ive been lured to the other side... i mean site. im going to stop posting on here, but ill keep things up at thislastwholeearth.tumblr.com. keep in touch! go look at my tumblr!

winter sunday

today was a very snowy quiet dim day in berlin. after yoga and before a neighborhood walk i made a quick breakfast of toast with mild miso paste and tahini. i know it sounds odd but my best friend in london swears by it and passed the tradition on to me. its a great salty taste combo and both ingredients are good for you, a nice bonus. paired with a small glass of fresh pomegranite juice from the market it was the perfect 5 minute breakfast

while on our neighborhood walk hendrik and i spotted some newly bloomed pussy willows, a sign of early spring and a chinese symbol for prosperity. we spotted a branch that has been broken already and took the chance to remove it and bring it home to hang out with us.

black beans two ways

black beans in a can arent so available in germany so when i go through the effort of soaking and then boiling the dry ones for like 2 hours i make a whole bag and try to use them in a variety of ways. Yesterday i made a simple black bean spread by sauteeing some garlic and onions in olive oil then throwing them in the food processor with some salt, more oil, water and a tablespoon of tahini.

tonight i used the rest of the beans for dinner. The beans were sauteed with onions, garlic, pine nuts, walnuts and some mole sauce and then jammed into and poured over oven roasted teeny tiny acorn squash. Although this pic is pretty whack due to my awful kitchen lighting it was a delicious meal, my favorite part being the oven roasted thyme onion bits. mmm.

chili + choco chip cookies

last night i had some pals over to watch the season finale of real housewives of beverly hills (no shame) and for it i made a big pot of vegan chili and some “healthy” chocolate chip cookies.

the chili wasnt from a recipe and its pretty traditional but the one twist i was excited about was the addition of whole wheat berries. I had a bunch in my pantry from the rejuvelac process and i thought they would add a chewy nutty carb to the chili which it totally did, i highly recommend giving it a try.

the cookies are “healthy” because they contained rice flour instead of wheat flour, agave nectar instead of sugar and rapeseed oil instead of butter. theres also puffed amarinth, some oats, and sunflower seeds thrown in.

the original recipe can be found here.

Popcorn snackage

Things may be getting a little plainer in my house due to the cleanse but that doesnt mean were starving or going without or not enjoying food. The new snack du jour since were avoiding all pre packaged or produced foods is fresh popped popcorn. sprinkle a little salt, pepper, nutritional yeast, or a dash of your favourite seasoning blend (old bay popcorn is my fave!) to spice things up or just go all model diet on the snack and eat it plain.

fermented cashew cheese

I make cashew ricotta all the time (which is only really soaking cashews, grinding them up in a food processor with some flavored oils, salt, pepper, herbs, etc. and eating) so i finally decided to try my hand at a harder fermented cheese. An easy way to do this is to add the contents of a probiotic pill to your cashew-ricotta-like blend and let it sit, but i decided to try my luck using rejuvelac as my fermentation starter.

Rejuvelac is a fermented liquid made by sprouting a whole grain (i used wheat berries) for a few days, then soaking that sprouted berry in water for like 2 days. the water you're soaking in is Rejuvelac once its all finished. theres how-to guides all over the internet for the process and they're all varied in quantities and time but the main idea is to sprout, then soak. then drink the soaking liquid.

Rejuvelac is great for the digestive tract and is a super cheap easy vegan probiotic formula. Ive yet to take enthusiastic gulps of chilled rejulevac as a beverage (its in a jar in my fridge and i will get around to drinking it…) but im excited about its health benefits nonetheless.

the cheese recipe is also dead easy

here it is:

3 cups soaked cashews (soaked for approx 12 hours)

1/4 cup rejuvelac

salt and pepper to taste

blend your soaked cashews in a food processor until as smooth as possible. add salt and pepper and anything else you're flavoring with. Mix with rejuvelac in bowl. if its super liquidy you can put it through a cheesecloth but i didn't need to.

let sit in room temp area, covered, for 12 hours. it will firm up during this time.

shape your cheese round however you'd like, and stick it in the fridge!

i added cracked black peppercorns to the top of one of my rounds and left the others plain. this recipe made me 3 good sized rounds, so much cashew cheese that i had to give some away.

Staples monday

old bay oat crackers

almond milk

plain old seitan

after the cinnamon buns were all gone hendrik and i officially started a month long cleansing diet. the basic principles follow very closely the standard ones for macrobiotic eating, with a focus on healing japanese ingredients that used to be a bigger part of my diet like a variety of seaweeds, umiboshi plums, green tea, etc.

Im avoiding all sugars including those in fruits and starchy veggies, coffee, alcohol, non fermented soy products, wheat flour (so with no soy butter, soy milk and no wheat my baking is going to have to get very creative). im also making about 50% of my diet brown rice, which i was inspired to do by reading my new genmai book.

so yesterday as a good start to the diet i prepared some basics for the rest of the week.

also not pictured is this bomb ass tahini caramelized onion sauce from hell yea its vegan that i highly recommend. its only got 4 ingredients so its super easy to make plus its creamy but healthy and sooo good.