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Simplest baked granola 🥄

What are your staples for breakfast? Often the milk tetra pak or plastic (dairy or non) plus the cereal or granola plastic packaging makes up a good part of the waste a family produces. If you eat fruit alongside, there might be some plastic involved if bought at the supermarket. If cutting down in your waste and going for more plant foods is part of your New Year’s Resolutions list, there are some simple steps that don’t take a lot of time.

Aside from making your own plant mylks, and buying local and seasonal from the farmers market, a biggie for health and waste reasons is makig your own brakfast cereals and staples. Buying raw oats in bulk or the biggest package you can find is super useful: they are pretty versatile and can be found in gluten free form as well. You can use them for the simplest baked granola and prep a bunch of it, make cookies or soak them in mylk for overnight oats; in winter my kids also always love a good bowl of warm oatmeal. As is well documented, conventional granola brands are full of sugar, unwanted additives (palm oil!!), and often show more than just traces of glyphosate. And of course, it means packaging galore.

So the simplest granola “recipe” (I wing it with the quantities), I make it simple and minimal, so it can be dressed up or down according to mood and taste buds. I use almond butter, maple syrup, some cinnamon and a sprinkle of salt to balance out the sweetness. As for the quantities, it’s up to you how sweet you want it, so use more almond butter if less sweet, more maple syrup if you want it sweeter. Altogether I use about 150ml of syrup-almond butter mix to about 360g of oats. Make sure they are well coated, then place on a lined baking sheet, pressed down and bake for about 12 min on 180 degrees celcius. Don’t mix if you like it chunky! When it’s slightly golden, take out and let it cool down completely before you break up the pieces and put them in jars for storage.

Wishing you all a gentle start to the year, may it be a good one for us and our planet 🌍.

December is the month of dinner parties. However I struggle when it comes to allocating some extra time in the day to day to bring something special along. Good thing I made vegan no-tella last week and had it in the fridge. I rolled it in some pistachio, coconut and cocoa powder, and voilà, a lovely and tasty detail to bring along. Most ingredients can be found package free (except the chocolate) 💃🏼.
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For the no-tella, toast hazelnuts (about 200g) for 10-15min at 180 degrees celcius, then cover with a clean kitchen cloth and rub the skins off. Wait until they cools completely. In the meantime melt about 70g of dark chocolate and a tsp of coconut oil (optional, but it does help the texture). I also add some nut milk to make it less firm, but it’s up to you. Add 3-4 pitted medjool dates. Blend in high-speed blender moving it around with the tamper.

Black bean stew with a quinoa-chard-red pepper-tomato carrot salad.
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I never really managed to make the black beans as saucyy and stewy as those I’d have as a kid growing up in Venezuela, until now. Basically there is not much of a formula, it’s more about patience than anything else. I soak the beans overnight, bring them to a boil, then stick in my offgrid slow cooker, (not sponsored) and in the evening siphon off most of the water (beans need to be covered), add some spices (crushed ginger and garlic, salt, paprika...), then simmer until soft and stewy, stirring every once in a while. This can take another 30-45 minutes.
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The quinoa salad is great because you can make a large amount and it keeps well in the fridge for a few days - except for the chard or other greens. Those you want to chop up and add last minute. If you want to amp up nutrition and colour, add some mandarin or orange pieces as well. Will def do that next time (was a bit rushed when putting this together). Super delicious and nutritious. 😋

I’ve been making baked almond “cheese” from almond pulp for a while now, and while I enjoyed the taste, I always thought they came out too moist for when baked in a silicone mold. So today I experimented with making little almond “cheese” bites with the 1tbsp measuring spoon. I’m sold! These are amazing as little hors d’euvres, maybe alongside veggies and some other fingerfood. I think these might make a presence on the table during the festive season.
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If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know that I wing it, and use recipes mostly only for inspiration. So I can’t help with exact measurements. But the good thing is that you can taste the raw almond mix and see if you like where it’s going, or want to add something. Remember, the quantities are approximative:
- 1 1/2 cups of almond pulp
- juice of half a lemon
- 1/2 tsp or a bit more of salt
- 2-3 smashed garlic cloves
- 1 pan seared leek, chopped
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- some olive oil
- water to taste - make it moist enough that you can form little shapes from it

Mix, taste, and if happy with the taste, scoop out with a tightly packed 1tbsp measuring spoon and ‘whack it’ 💪 on a baking sheet lined with baking paper (I use reusable ones).
Bake for about 20-30 min on 200c; I personally like them browned and crispy.
Enjoy!

When I lived in Mali, I used to looove the traditional peanut stew, Tigategena. I used to crave it, but never made it again after going vegan, as it usually contains meat and dried fish (!!!!) in the sauce. But today I ventured into vegan Tigategena territory as I had made peanut butter and couldn’t scrape all of it out of the blender... hmmmm, what if I used the roasted tomatoes, some water and spices (turmeric, paprika and lemongrass) and blended it with some water to get the rest of the peanut butter? I also chopped and roasted some onions and cabbage and panfried for a bit, then added the liquid from the blender and cubed potatoes. This cooked for about 12 minutes. I used some leftover quinoa, adzuki beans and steamed broccoli on the side. I think the stew could also be really delicious with pumpkin... 😋🥜🍲 It’s super creamy and delicious, will definitely repeat again soon!

A friend of mine once said this thing (something rather controversial - so trigger warning!) that has been with me for years: we were at some conference talking about nitty gritties of research methods, and he said this: “Man, it feels like we are talking about flower decorations, while the Gestapo is knocking on the door”. Mike drop. Boom.
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This is how I feel now. This is how I feel often. When I talk about food prep and recipes, and meanwhile it feels like the proverbial sh*t is starting to truly hit the fan. The sense of urgency is immense, and it feels like a collective paralysis takes hold. And then I remember that aside from visible actions within the community, what is in my power right now is what I do everyday. I feed a family of four, and try to do so in the least impactful - and still nutritious and palatable - way that I know. So there you have it. Here is my food prep of the day...
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Jest aside, though, this is something we all need to think about. What is in our power to do? And it tends to change while it is definitely also not linear, so it’s a topic that needs to be revisited frequently. had a great post lately about how to communicate about climate change in a more effective way, and I urge you to check that out, too. Any musings on how you deal with feeling like this? Please comment below 👇👇

You know it’s the day prior to the farmer’s market when odds and ends make it to the plate to make room for the fresh veggies. I made hummus with homemade tahini, chopped up kale and sautéed it with gf tamari and had some leftover pita bread (not GF) that I roaste as pita chips and added in leftover lentils and bell peppers as well as roasted chickpeas. Some beetroot and carrot sticks as extras 🥕. And there you have it. 🌟
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There is this belief that kids don’t like green food. While L had gone through phases where he doesn’t look favourably on “that green thing”, he also periodically has rejected the purple, red or yellow things. What I’ve tried to do when the colour phobia strikes, is to make a tried and true recipe he loves. So for the green side of the colour palette, he always enjoyed a version of this pureed kale soup - in this iteration with chickpeas, red lentils, romanesco broccoli, potatoes and GF pasta. A bit of cashew cream on top, and this plate gets my little food critics’ approval. 👌✨
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Eggplant, tomato, cashew and herb soup with lentil “meatball” croutons. Simple and soooo tasty.
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I bought four small eggplants today that were already close to being past their prime, so I decided to cook them right away. I sliced them in the middle and baked for about 40 min (or until soft to pierce), pealed and tossed into the blender with about a cup and a half of soaked cashews, some more chopped up and roasted tomatoes, three roasted cloves of garlic, a bunch of mixed fresh herbs, some water and a bit of salt. I blended until warm and in the mean time chopped up some of the “meatballs” I made yesterday with the chickpea flour mix form fatfree vegan (I highly recommend it!), mixing it with a millet, porcini, lentil stew. These chopped lentil/ chickpea balls I toasted in the pan, and tossed on top of the soup.
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The key is to use leftovers creatively and use up what’s about to go bad in the fridge and create something delicious 😋. Not more to it 😜.
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After more than three months of roaming and waiting while we renovated our new home, we’ve finally arrived. Since the week end we’ve been sleeping here, and the boys both started their respective schools. I have to admit, this period was quite challenging. I mostly didn’t cook, esp when at my in-laws. While I found a few good second hand furnishings, got a whole lot from my in-laws and dyi’d a few things, truth be told, a good deal of my good intentions regarding low waste renovating and furnishing went out the window. But now we’re here, and while I haven’t found all items in bulk, I have discovered a stand at my local market that carries all sorts of items that are usually hard to find in bulk around here. Still on my list to find unpackaged are coffee, sugar and oats 😥. There’s a package free shop in Rome, but getting there is a real mission. Any suggestions? Please let me know! 👇👇

Brown rice risotto with asparagus we had frozen when it was in season and almost too abundant. I’ve served it on a bed of grilled red pepper cashew cream cheese 🧡.
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Vegan Kohlrabi bake with homemade cashew-hemp mylk and red onions, beluga lentil salad with heirloom tomatoes and some left over veg from yesterday with a dollop of cashew cream.
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