Zizi's Adventures - Real Food, Real Stories

Superfood Breakfast: Oatmeal With Rice Milk And Roasted Almonds

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After 25 days our sugar-free and vegan diet challenge ended. Making a sugar-free diet can be a tough job and you would find that it is not as easy as you had expected. Over time, we are so used to having sugars as a part of our daily nutrition that it is almost impossible to remove the sugars instantly and get on a sugar-free diet.Thanks to the challenge I decided to have one or two sugar-free days a week in my life. This is just a small step to change one of my habits.

Do you want to see what was the first sweet thing we drank and ate?

This…

and this…

We enjoyed every little crumb of this croissant. It was so good. We had this yum breakfast at Bagatellini Café (MOM Park shopping center, Budapest) after visiting the organic farmers market.

Bagatellini Café, developed by the Villa Bagatelle team with the help of star chef Viktor Segal. They have created a café and bakery where everything is of the finest quality and prepared with natural or organic ingredients. The quality of their coffee is guaranteed by Viennese café master Daniel Moser. The Bagatellini food selection ranges from mouth-watering sandwiches and hand-made baked goods to gourmet salads, soups and fresh, organic French fries. They have even installed a small bakery to allow them to make the finest hand-made, natural and fresh baked goods right there on the premises, seven days a week and throughout the day.

Are you still here? If yes, a few words about the breakfast. It’s sugar-free, vegan, nutritious and easy to make. You can even make it during the week.

The natural rice milk tastes a bit sweet but if you want to make it a bit sweeter you can add one or two teaspoons of honey.

Roasted almonds are my favorite new snack. I love it. They make a great snack or appetizer. You also get the benefit of them curbing your hunger and containing plenty of nutrients. Roasted almonds are best enjoyed right after they are cooled.

Oatmeal with Rice Milk and Roasted Almonds

Ingredients (serves 2)

– 10 tablespoons oatmeal
– 400 ml unsweetened rice milk
– 1 small handful almond
– cinnamon
– clementine

Method

Roast the almonds in a dry non-stick pan for 6-8 minutes. Set aside to cool, then chop them roughly. In a pan heat the rice milk for 3-4 minutes (just to get a little bit warm). Divide the oatmeal in small bowls, pour over the warm rice milk, sprinkle with cinnamon and the toasted almonds. Serve with clementine.

Superfood Breakfast: Sugar-Free Cinnamon Granola

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Here is another superfood, sugar-free breakfast. I learnt the recipe from Maria. During this sugar-free (no fruits, no desserts, no chocolates, no honey, no agave/maple/rice syrup, etc.), vegan  challenge I got so much inspiration from her recipes. I can be a very sweet-tooth person so to be honest… sometimes I feel I’m craving just a piece of chocolate.

This granola is a new favourite of mine. I’ve never made it before – I always bought at the stores – but I realized it’s easy and quick to make and you can choose all the ingredients you want to mix.

Sugar-free Cinnamon Granola

Ingredients (serves 2)

– 70 g walnut
– 30 g cashew
– 30 g almond
– 70 g coconut flakes
– 20 g chia seeds (you can substitute it with flax seeds or sesame seeds)
– 20 g coconut oil
– 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method

Preheat the oven to 120C (248F) and line a baking tray with parchment paper.

In a bowl mix together all the ingredients and spread the mixture evenly on to the baking tray. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown (half time turn everything around with a wooden spoon). Let it cool before serve it with almond/oat/rice milk or yoghurt. If you want to make it a bit sweeter add 1-2 teaspoon honey to it.

Vegetarian Christmas – Cranberry and Pistachio Nut Roast

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A nut roast is a rich and savoury vegetarian dish consisting of nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, pecans, cashew nuts, pistachio, chestnuts, peanuts), grains, vegetables, vegetable oils, broth or butter, and seasonings formed into a firm loaf shape or long casserole dish before roasting and often eaten as an alternative to a traditional British style roast dinner. It is popular with vegetarians/vegans at Christmas, as well as part of a traditional Sunday roast. 
I made a similar nut roast (Mrs. Myrtleberry’s roast) nearly a year ago. It was love at first sight or love at first taste! 🙂 The main adjustment is to toast the nuts, which brings out a wonderful flavour. This is rich, satisfying and chockfull of protein. 
Even if you are a meat eater you need to try one of them. It is definitely a festive meal with mashed potato and salad.

Cranberry and Pistachio Nut Roast (Jamie Oliver recipe)

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

– 50 g pistachio, toasted
– 50 g almond, toasted
– 20 g dried porcini
– 100 g button mushroom, sliced
– 100 g cheddar cheese, grated (omit to make vegan nut roast)
– 100 g pearl barley
– 1 red onion, finely chopped
– 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
– 2 small celery root, peeled and finely chopped
– 300-400 ml vegetarble stock
– 1 organic/free range egg, beaten (omit to make vegan nut roast)
– 1-1 teaspoon of sage, rosemary and thyme, leaves picked and chopped
– small handful of whole wheat breadcrumbs
– 1 teaspoon chili flake
– grated zest of 1 lemon
– 4 tablespoons olive oil
– sea salt
– pepper
– 150 g frozen cranberries
– 1 tablespoon brown cane sugar

Method

In a dry non-stick pan roast pistachio and almond for 8 minutes, let cool, chop roughly and set aside. Soak the dried porcini in a little boiling water (enough to cover) for 8-10 minutes. Drain the porcini (keep the soaking water!), chop it roughly and set aside. Butter a 20-23 cm loaf tin and line the bottom with greaseproof paper. Cook the sugar and the cranberries in a pan over medium heat for 1–2 minutes, then tip into the tin and spread evenly.
Make the risotto base first. Heat the olive oil in a large pan over low heat. Add the chopped celery root and onion and cook for 10 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two. Turn up the heat and add the pearl barley. Cook for a minute or so until you hear it snap, crackle and pop, then add the porcini soaking water and stir until absorbed.
Add the drained, chopped porcini to the risotto and the hot stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring each one in until it has been completely absorbed, about 20 minutes. Stir as much as you can – this is what will make it creamy. Once the pearl barley is al dente, transfer to a bowl to cool. 
Preheat the oven to 190C (360F). In a pan fry the sliced button mushrooms in a little olive oil over medium heat for 5–8 minutes, until they are just starting to crisp. 
Once the risotto has cooled, add all other ingredients (button mushrooms, pistachio, almond, grated cheese, egg, sage, rosemary, thyme, lemon zest, breadcrumbs and chili flake), season, and mix well. Pile the nut-roast mixture in the tin and pack it down with the back of a spoon. Cover it with foil and bake for 45 minutes, then remove the foil and cook for a further 15 minutes. Once it’s golden brown on top, remove the nut roast from the oven and leave to settle for 10 minutes. 
Use a knife to loosen the tin, then place your serving platter or board on top. Cover your hand with a tea towel and courageously flip the whole lot over, then carefully lift the tin off. 

More vegetarian Christmas recipe:
Pumpkin Pie

Moroccan Quinoa Salad

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I came home from London from Food Blogger Connect and I brought the sunshine with me. The weather actually turned out to be very hot in the last two weeks of August and it is still warm. I hope there will be indian summer in September and October especially because my lovely friends – Krista, Sarka and Giulia – will come and visit me (in different weeks). I’m already planning their foodie and sightseeing programs and I’m so looking forward to welcoming them in my country! 🙂

The recipe I made is vegan and very nutritious. I told you before I love quinoa but did you know that quinoa was of great nutritional importance in pre-Columbian Andean civilizations, secondary only to the potato, and was followed in importance by maize? In contemporary times, this crop has become highly appreciated for its nutritional value, as its protein content is very high (12%–18%). Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), and like oats, quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it a complete protein source, unusual among plant foods. It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest.

At the moment only the white quinoa can be bought in Hungary. I hope one day I can buy the red and black ones too because I really would like to make different kind of  meals from them. The recipe comes from one of my favourite healthy vegetarian blogs, Green Kitchen Stories.

Moroccan Quinoa Salad
Ingredients
– 2 smaller zucchini, cut in 3 mm thick slices
– 1 eggplant, cut in 3 mm thick slices
– 2 cloves garlic, chopped
– 1 cup quinoa
– 1/2 lemon’s freshly squeezed juice
– 2 teaspoon cinnamon
– 1 small (6 pieces) bunch of coriander, leaves chopped
– 1 small (6 pieces) bunch of mint, leaves chopped
– 2 tablepsoon raisins
– 1 cup almond, divided in half (lengthwise)
– 2 avocados, pitted, peeled and cut into 2 cm squares
– 4 pieces of spring onions, chopped
– salt, pepper
– olive oil

Method
Start by roasting the eggplant and zucchini slices. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and roast the slices at 170C (350F) for 3-4 minutes on each side. Put them in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil, add garlic and salt and set aside.
Roast the almonds in a dry pan on medium heat for 8 minutes. Turn off the heat, salt the almonds and set aside.
Cook the 1 cup quinoa in 2 cups salted water. Also add the cinnamon to the water. When it’s done, drain if it’s necessary, and set aside to cool off. Add lemon juice, raisins, chopped coriander, mint and toss it around until everything is mixed. Serve the dish in bowls: quinoa with marinated vegetables, spring onions, avocado and roasted almonds. Drizzle with olive oil and more lemon juice.

Vegan Lemon-Poppy Seed Pancake

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Weekdays I only have time to drink freshly squeezed juices and herbal or yogi tea for breakfast. At work I eat fruits until lunch. I love weekends when we have time to make proper breakfast and we can laze around for a while. Last time I made Alkaline Sisters’ vegan pancake. This is a similar version, I only changed a few ingredients.

Vegan Lemon-Poppy Seed Pancake

Ingredients (makes 8 pancakes)

– 1 and 1/4 cup whole grain spelt flour and white spelt flour mix
– 3 tablespoons ground almond
– 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
– 1 and 1/2 tablespoons aluminium free baking powder
– 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeded
– 1 organic lemon’s zest
– 1 cup oat milk
– 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
– 1 tablespoon agave syrup
– pinch of salt
– coconut oil for the pan

Method

In a bowl mix together the dry ingredients: flours, almond, poppy seeds, baking powder and salt. In another one mix together the wet ingredients: oat milk, oil, agave syrup, vanilla and lemon zest. Give each mixture a stir then add the wet to the dry combining just until mixed. Set aside for 5 minutes to allow batter to rise. Prepare a non-stick pan with 1/4 teaspoon coconut oil on medium heat. Spoon batter into pan, forming 2 small pancakes. Cook until lightly brown on the bottom. Turn and brown the other side. Serve with lemon wedges and agave syrup.