Christina Najjar

Coconut Popsicles (paleo, vegan)

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One of my dear friends recently moved a few hours away. We talk food a lot, and she gives me all kinds of recipe suggestions and requests to post on here. Her list of dietary restrictions is worse than mine, but includes most of my dietary restrictions.  Her latest request was for popsicles. She’s a big fan of coconut, so I went for straight-up coconut popsicles this time. If you’re wondering what I mean by “straight-up coconut”, check out this recipe for raspberry cream popsicles I posted last year. It’s a coconut based recipe, but the popsicles aren’t coconut flavoured.

Homemade coconut popsicles

Last week, I mentioned that it was finally warming up in Canada. I know it’s technically still only Spring, but one never knows how long to expect the nice weather to last. We didn’t really get much of a summer last year, and then Winter was exceptionally long. For this reason, I’m jumping right into Summer-mode, lest Summer be over in the blink of an eye.

So, Nic, this one’s for you. And for anyone who enjoys coconut, summer, popsicles, or any combination of those.

Coconut Popsicles

Ingredients
1 can full fat coconut milk, refrigerated overnight
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp coconut shreds

Directions
Take the can of coconut milk out of the fridge. Slowly turn it upside down and open it. That way, the thicker part of the coconut milk will be at the bottom and the liquid qill be at the top. Drain the liquid, or save it for something else (try adding it to smoothies).

Scoop out the fatty part of the coconut milk into a bowl. Mix all ingredients well and pour into popsicle moulds. Freeze for at least 4-6 hours (depending on your freezer).

Makes about 3 popsicles (depending on the moulds you use) so multiply as needed.

Chocolate Pudding (vegan, paleo, sugar free)

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Well, friends, it is finally starting to look like spring in Canada. It sure took Mother Nature long enough! It’s just about popsicle season! Speaking of popsicles, last year, I was planning to post a chocolate popsicle recipe. There was a little problem with my freezer at the time, though. The popsicles I made kept the consistency of pudding. So, I ate some very cold chocolate pudding. I did end up figuring out how to adjust the settings on my freezer so that it froze properly, and made raspberry cream popsicles a few weeks later.

Homemade chocolate Pudding

Avocado-based chocolate pudding is nothing new in the vegan and food sensitivities world. However, I find that most recipes complicate things by adding ingredients that don’t need to be in the pudding. For example, milk (cow’s or non-dairy) will do nothing but water down the perfect creaminess of the avocado. I also find that adding vanilla extract takes away from the richness of the cocoa, rather than complementing it. So, I like to keep my chocolate pudding recipe nice and simple. Let’s say it becomes a “dark chocolate pudding”.

P.S. If you want to make this into popsicles, all you need to do is place the mixture into popsicle moulds. It works well, provided that your freezer is actually functional.

Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients
1 large ripe avocado
1 tbsp cocoa powder or raw cacao
Maple syrup to taste (a couple tablespoons should do)

Directions
With a large spoon, scoop the avocado out of its skin. Combine all the ingredients in a food processor or blender. Put it into function until you have pudding. Eat the pudding. That was complicated, wasn’t it?

If you want to turn it into chocolate mint pudding, add a splash of peppermint extract.

Makes only 1 serving, so multiply as needed.

Gluten free Cinnamon Raisin Bread (vegan)

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When I was younger, when I went to Calgary with my mom, we would go to the Eau Claire market and get the best cinnamon raisin bread ever. The memory of that bread stayed with me. Since I can no longer buy amazing raisin bread, I took it upon myself to make beauty happen.

Homemade whole grain cinnamon raisin bread

I’ve officially lived in four different apartments in the last year. I moved again last week, hopefully for the last time in a looong while. I decided to downsize because my last place was costing me more than I could afford. I found a nice roomy studio with a great kitchen. This one will save me a few hundred dollars a month. Plus, now I live in my favourite neighbourhood in town.

I finally got settled in yesterday. I spent several hours unpacking box after box. I do still have a few boxes to unpack, but all the important stuff has been taken care of. I’m glad, because I ate pre-made meals for a week straight, while all my pans and utensils were held hostage in cardboard. It was too late yesterday to make bread by the time I was done working on the apartment, but I set to it when I woke up this morning.

Gluten Free Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Ingredients
2 cups water (room temperature for bread machine, slightly warm for oven)
3 tbsp flax meal or chia meal – this will be part of the wet ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp maple syrup (or try honey)
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup teff flour
1/2 cup starch (tapioca, potato, arrowroot, or a combination)
2 tbsp sweet rice flour
2 tbsp sorghum flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp xanthan gum
2 tsp cinnamon
1 package regular yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1 cup sultana raisins

Directions
In the bread machine:
Add all the ingredients in the order listed, except for raisins. If your bread machine has a gluten free function, use that one. Otherwise, a regular function will do. This recipe will make a 2 lb loaf.

When the first mix cycle is finished, check on the dough to make sure there are no lumps left.

Remove the loaf from the bread machine immediately when it is done. Otherwise, it will become soggy. Wait at least ten minutes before cutting it.

In the oven:
In a small bowl, combine water, maple syrup, and yeast. It should take about ten minutes to proof the yeast (foam will form at the top). If the yeast doesn’t proof, it’s no longer good. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. When the yeast has proofed, add in the rest of the wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ones and mix well.

Transfer the dough to a greased loaf pan. Cover with a towel and let the yeast rise for an hour in a warm place (try over the fridge).

Heat the oven to 350F degrees. Once it reaches that temperature, put the loaf in the oven and bake for one hour. Let the loaf cool down before cutting.

Mushroom and Fennel Seed Pasta Salad (vegan)

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I know it’s so cliché, but pasta salad is honestly the easiest thing to bring to a potluck. When I worked in an office, half the potluck dishes were pasta salads. With my food sensitivities, I usually only get to feast on these dishes with my eyes.

Roasted mushroom and fennel pasta salad

In theory, going vegan sounds really great to me. I don’t like the thought of eating all sorts of antibiotics and hormones. I can’t afford organic meat. Also, it helps to take into consideration the ethical and environmental aspects of going vegan. However, every time I go vegan, I find myself losing too much weight. Because my metabolism works extra hard, I need to eat a lot of protein to keep weight on.

…Oh, the joys of my belly monsters. I would love to eat tons of legumes. However, those little buggers seem to run my life, and I find myself having to avoid lots of decent sources of protein. I manage to sneak all kinds of inoffensive protein into my morning smoothies, but what about the other meals? That’s something for me to ponder for a while.

While brainstorming for weight-gaining ideas with friends and family, the idea of pasta salad came up. I know it’s not as high protein as some other items, but it’s a start. I find that most vegan pasta salad recipes online are rather disappointing. They mostly just use pasta as a replacement for lettuce. I decided to give my pasta salad a different burst of flavour. The fennel seed really complements the mushroom flavour.

Mushroom and Fennel Seed Pasta Salad

Ingredients
150g/5oz pasta of your choice (I used brown rice fusilli)
1/2 bell pepper, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 tsp fennel seed
Olive oil to coat pasta (the amount will depend on the type of pasta you use)
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Directions
Cook pasta according to package directions. When finished, drain and rinse in cold water. Drain well and add just enough olive oil to coat completely without having it swimming in oil. Set aside to cool.

In the meantime, heat a bit of oil in a frying pan over medium-low heat. Add the mushrooms and the fennel seed and keep tossing them around. The idea is not the make the mushroom toasty. You just want to cook it a bit and have it pick up the fennel seed’s flavour.

When everything has cooled down, combine all the ingredients in a large bowl.

Makes 2 servings, so multiply as needed.

Comfort Food Chicken and Veggies (paleo)

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This comfort food chicken meal is the kind of dish I make when I don’t feel like making anything fancy. Those who have tried it rave about how good it is, though.  What’s great about it is that it’s a one pot meal. You can leave it on the stove and come back and check on it every 10-15 minutes to make sure it hasn’t caught fire.

Comfort food chicken and veggies

In other news, I finished my exams for the semester today. This means that I have two consecutive compressed courses left, and then I will have completed my undergrad. It’s taken me extra long to complete this degree, so it definitely feels like a relief to be getting to the end of it, finally.

Comfort Food Chicken and Veggies (paleo)

Ingredients
4-6 bone-in, skin on chicken legs/backs/thighs/breasts (choose your favourite)
2 large carrots, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 cups butternut squash cubes
1/2-1 cup green beans
1 cup button mushrooms
1 small or medium onion, cut in half and sliced
1/4-1/3 cups chicken broth
2-3 tsp rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp oil

Directions
In a large “cooker” (like a deeper frying pan with a lid), heat the oil over medium high heat. Salt and pepper the chicken. Place skin down into the cooker and brown for about 5 minutes, then flip it over and brown for another few minutes. Add in the butternut squash, carrots, broth and about half of the rosemary. Salt and pepper some more. Lower heat to medium high and cover for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, add the rest of the ingredients. You can add a bit more salt and pepper. Make sure that there is still a bit of broth in the cooker. If not, add just a bit more. It will make the chicken nice and tender, and will give you a nice gravy-like sauce at the end. Cover and cook for another 15-20 minutes.

Not-Your-Traditional Pizza (vegan, tomato free)

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Some people may find vegan alternatives to old favourites quite disappointing. I love melted cheese, but I have yet to find a vegan cheese I enjoy (Daiya is not for me). I do love pizza, though. So how do you stop vegan pizza from being disappointing? Read closely, because I’m about to drop some wisdom… You need to stop making vegan alternatives resemble their conventional counterparts.

New pizza idea

So what does that look like, for pizza? Well, for one, you need to make the crust really tasty. I’ve had a hard time finding a pizza dough recipe that really tickled my tastebuds, so I came up with a recipe on the spot. I’m eating my pizza as I type this out, and I have to say, it’s really hard to concentrate while in pleasure-land. Yes, this crust is orgasmic. I’m more of a sweet girl than a salty girl though, so if you don’t like sweeter dough, I can tell you right now that this recipe isn’t for you.

In the spirit of making vegan pizza a new kind of pizza, I skipped the tomato sauce. Instead, I brushed olive oil with minced garlic allover the crust, and made the pizza all about the toppings. I’m not one to eat until I’m completely stuffed, but I just did. I’m finishing up the last few bites of the pizza as I write this. Yep, I ate the whole thing in one sitting.

Not-Your-Traditional Pizza (vegan, tomato free)

Ingredients
For the crust:
1/3 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup sweet rice flour
1/3 cup sorghum flour (or an extra 1/3 cup brown rice flour if you don’t like the flavour)
1/3 cup tapioca starch
1 tsp xanthan gum
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp organic cane sugar (or whatever you have on hand)
2 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp vinegar
1/2 cup water (or less)

For the sauce:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced

Toppings to your heart’s desires – I used yellow bell pepper, mushrooms, zucchini, green onions, and spinach

Directions

Combine all the dry crust ingredients in a bowl. Add in the oil and the vinegar, and about half of the water. Mix well and keep adding water, bit by bit, until you can form a dough that doesn’t crumble. I found it easier to mix with my hands.

Line a baking sheet or stoneware with parchment paper. Spread out the dough to form a thin crust. Bake for about 7 minutes, then remove from oven.

While the crust bakes, mince the garlic and add the olive oil for the sauce.

When you take the crust out of the oven, pour the sauce on top and spread it out. Let the crust absorb the oil while you chop your toppings.

Now, pile on the toppings. Go on, don’t be shy. Then, bake until the toppings are done to your liking. Makes 2-4 servings.

Apple Crumble (vegan, paleo, white sugar free)

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A while back, I posted this recipe for apple crumble. It was a bit of an experiment that gave me some interesting results. It’s a good breakfast crumble, but it’s not something I would make for dessert on a regular basis.

When I make apple crumble for others, I make a different recipe. After making this recipe for some dinners and being asked for the recipe a few times, I decided to share the recipe here. The crumble portion is a little less crunchy than in most recipes. This one has a blend of different textures.

Apple crumble

As with most things I cook or bake, I have a tendency to simply add ingredients until the mix looks right, rather than measuring them. This time, I made the effort to measure them so that I could share the recipe. I recommend making this for guests when you’re unsure about what to make for dessert. It’s easy and allergy friendly (aside from nuts), and accommodates all kinds of different dietary choices.

Apple Crumble (vegan, paleo, white sugar free)

Ingredients
2 apples, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp almond meal
2 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp coconut palm sugar
1 tsp cinnamon, split into 1/2 teaspoons

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F.

Place the chopped apples in an even layer in a baking pan. Sprinkle half the cinnamon over the apples and toss around until the apples are evenly coated.

Mix the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl. Try to spread the mix evenly over the apples and bake for 20-25 minutes. Makes 2 servings, so multiply as needed.

Your pasta masterpiece – Exercise Your Creativity!

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This post is going to be a little different. Many people have recently asked me to teach them how to cook. I’m of the idea that cooking requires creativity, rather than just following a recipe. I’m a fan of adding ingredients that just feel right to me and that are in line with my cravings at the time. Pasta is an easy meal to train your creativity.

Delicious pasta meal

People often tell me they just don’t know which flavour combinations make sense. A good tip is to think of a meal – any meal – where you’ve had the flavour combination you’re about to attempt. Was it good? If so, it’s probably a safe bet. If you’re unsure about combinations in general, I recommend checking out The Flavour Thesaurus.

Your Pasta Masterpiece

What you need
Veggies – ideas: anything you would stir fry
Pasta (I used brown rice)
Just enough oil to coat – ideas: olive, sesame, truffle, avocado
Flavourful additions – ideas: sesame seeds, parsley, basil

If you have a hard time figuring out how much pasta and veggies you’ll need, try picturing it on a plate. I tend to not overdo it this way.

How to proceed
Start out by boiling the water for the pasta. Salt the water as desired. Add in the pasta when the water reaches a boil.

Heat a bit of oil in a frying pan. Throw in the veggies you want to stir fry. I add them as I chop them, so I start with the veggies that require the most cooking, and work my way to the ones that need the least cooking.

By the time the pasta is done cooking, I find that the veggies are done to my liking. Drain the pasta and coat immediately with the oil of your choice. Toss in the veggies and whatever else you would like to add. And there you go! An easy meal that’s both interesting and filling!

Spinach Dahl (vegan)

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A while back – 34 weeks ago, as pinterest tells me- I pinned The Honour System’s recipe to eventually try out. I had a bit of difficulty finding time, ingredients, and convenience to make the spinach dahl. The recipe was always in the back of my head when I bought spinach, but I always seemed to have other projects for the spinach I was buying. I also never wanted to overbuy in case it all ended up being thrown out.

Spinach dahl (lentils)

I ended up making the spinach dahl differently from the way The Honour System made it. I just went with the flow and it worked out really well for me. That’s not to say that the original recipe is any less tasty. I do encourage you to check it out and make whichever version you prefer. I was planning to add the coconut milk, but I did a taste test and decided that it was perfect as is. I’m sure it would be a great addition though!

Spinach Dahl (vegan)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups split red lentils
4 1/2 cups water (reduce this amount by 1/2-1 cup if you cover the pot during cooking)
1 onion, chopped
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 package spinach (142g/5oz)
Oil for frying

Directions
Heat up the oil over medium heat in a large pot. Add the onion and the spices and toss around for a few minutes, until the onion is translucent. Add in the red lentils and the water. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, cut the spinach into strips (make a nice big pile on your cutting board and go at it with a large knife). It doesn’t need to look perfect.

When the lentils have dissolved enough to make a nice puree 20ish minutes later, turn off the heat and mix in the spinach. Serve over brown rice. Makes 4 servings.

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries With Curry Sauce

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I’ve always disliked anything sweet potato. I felt that they were a cross between carrots and potatoes, and that they couldn’t make up their mind about what they wanted to be. The only sweet potatoes I enjoyed were my stepsister’s husband’s curry mashed sweet potatoes.

Sweet potato fries with dip

Then, recently, I started making my own sweet potato fries. For a few weeks, I was making them almost everyday. They’re a pain in the butt to cut, but hey, they’re tasty. The trick is to make them a bit spicy. Not so much that your mouth burns, but just enough to add a bit of a kick. For that reason, my measurements for the spices for the fries will be vague. Add the seasoning as you like it.

As a side note, this morning, I was having a conversation about remembering things I’m grateful for. I am grateful for many things, though I did want to mention one thing. I am grateful for you folks. Everyone who reads, shares, and/or comments on my posts. You all keep me going!

Sweet potato fries with dip

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries With Curry Dipping Sauce (vegan, paleo)

Ingredients

For the fries:
1 sweet potato
Salt and cayenne pepper to taste
Black pepper to taste – go generous

For the dipping sauce:
2 tbsp full fat coconut milk, refrigerated
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/8 tsp each: cumin, minced fresh ginger, ground cardamom, garlic salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 400F.

Cut the potatoes into fries and season them. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or adjust time if you cut your fries a different size from the picture. Take them out halfway through to flip/toss them.

In the meantime, prepare the curry sauce. Take the can of coconut milk out of the fridge. Slowly turn it over and open it from the bottom. The thick stuff will be sitting right at the top that way. Scoop up the needed amount and mix in the rest of the ingredients.

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Christina Najjar - Natural Nutrition

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2122B Montreal Rd
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