Multicooker Oatmeal

Greetings Awesome Ones,

Here I present to you another one of my favorite breakfasts, namely oat meal.

Oats are an outstanding source of fiber and slow-burning carbs and therefore, keep you full for a long time, give you loads of energy and contribute to weight loss. Apart from that, they're full of nutrients you'd want to take in for breakfast - the list of vitamins and minerals and amino acids in them is so fucking long, I'm too lazy to type it in. Seriously, google that shit.



I usually eat oats uncooked, just soaked in almond or rice milk or yogurt but since it's winter and since I bought a Multicooker, I decided to cook an oat meal and see what that's like.

Since I've never cooked oat meal on the stove before, I will give you only the Multicooker recipe for which I followed the basic instructions in the Multicooker's recipe booklet with some of my own tweaks.

So here goes :)

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups of Oats
1 tb spoon Sesame seeds
1 tb spoon Flax seeds
2 large Apples, diced
1 handful of Dried fruit of your choice. Make sure they have no added sugar! I personally don't like raisins so I used dried cherries.
1 handful of Raw nuts of your choice
2 tb spoons Honey or maple syrup
1 tea spoon Cinnamon

4 cups of Water
1/2-1 cup Plant milk. I used rice milk with coconut and it really enhanced the flavor pretty well.

Put everything except the plant milk in the Multicooker and set the program to STEAM, cooking time 20 mins.

Since the flax seed absorb A LOT of water and have that gooey coating when soaked, like the chia seeds, you may want to check if the oat meal needs more water every now and again. I used a little less water and my oat meal's texture was somewhat like a pudding :)

5 minutes before the cooking time is over, add the milk and stir a bit.

When it's done, serve with banana slices on top and enjoy :) The leftovers can stay in the fridge for 3-4 days.

My pudding-like oatmeal

With Love,

Your Tomato Monster

Guacamolish Avocado Paste

Hey Lovelies!

In this post I want to share with you one of my favorite foods of all time - avocado paste! I'm not calling it guacamole, cause it's not exactly guacamole, but it's kinda guacamol-ish :)

I absolutely love avocado because it's by definition a super food, packed with nutrients and munchy goodness. It doesn't have a strong taste or aroma, which means it can be added to pretty much everything - from soups and salads, to desserts. It's a great source of non-saturated fatty acids, vitamins E, C, B6, K, potassium, copper, pantothenic acid, and fiber. It also has a very low glycemic index, which means it contributes to metabolism and weight loss.

Coming soon - super easy raw vegan chocolate pudding with avocado

It's very important to be able to pick out the avocados in the store, especially if you live in a country far, far away from where they are grown (like me). Below is a simple guide how to distinguish one avocado from the other:

So, without further ado, here is the recipe for the guacamolish avocado paste :)

INGREDIENTS:

2 ripe Avocados
1 tb spoon Sesame tahini
1 tb spoon Olive oil
1 small Onion bulb, chopped
2 Limes or 1, 1 1/2 Lemons

Salt and dill to taste






PREPARATION:

If the avocados are ripe enough, you can simply mash them with a fork along with the sesame tahini, olive oil, lemon or lime juice and salt. If they're not soft enough, you can use a hand blender to puree them.







After you have a nice smooth paste, add the onion and dill and mix it up. NOTE: Don't forget to put the avocado seed on top of the paste - this way it won't turn brown and will last longer.

And that's it! You can use it as a spread, dip or topping - it's always delicious :)

My paste, just made :)

With Love,

Your Tomato Monster

Lentil Stew with an Oriental Twist

Hey Awesome Ones!

I really love all types of legumes, especially beans and lentils, and I eat a lot of them because they can be prepared in thousands of ways and are just so tasty and give your body so much nutrients.

They're especially important in a vegan or vegetarian diet because of all the protein, fiber, zinc, magnesium, potassium... They're also rich in "slow-burning" carbs, which means they give you plenty of energy, keep you full for a long time and don't make you fat.

Types of lentils

I cooked this one in the Multicooker, so I'll also give you the variation for cooking in on the stove.

The Oriental hint comes from the cumin, so if you like the aroma (like I do), you can be generous with it :) It becomes even more exotic if you use red lentils, but I used green lentils, as these are the most common variety here in Bulgaria and I can get cheap, quality, locally grown produce.

So, hear, hear, tasty lentil stew with an Oriental twist :)


INGREDIENTS:

300 g (ca. 3 cups) Lentils 
1/2 cup Rice
2 Carrots, diced
1 medium to large Onion bulb, chopped
2 cloves of Garlic, cut in larger pieces
1/2 (or more omnomnom!) can of Tomatoes
1 tb.spoon Olive oil
3-4 cups Water


Savory, salt, cumin and fresh parsley to taste 


No matter if you're using the Multicooker and the stove, you need to rinse both the lentils and the rice. The latter you need to keep rinsing until all the white stuff (which is starch) stops coming out and the water becomes clear. If you're cooking on the stove, you may want to soak the rice in cold water for about 20 min before cooking it. With the Multicooker this is not necessary.

PREPARATION:

Multicooker

It's so simple, that it's almost unfair.

Just put everything except the parsley in the Multicooker, set the program to STEW and cook for 2 hours. Check it at some point to see if it needs extra water - the texture should be stew-like (duh) - don't let it roast!

After the stew is ready, top it off with some fresh parsley :)

Stove

Put the olive oil, onions and carrots in a cooking pot and saute until the veggies are softer but not cooked yet.

At this point, it would be good if you had warmed the water, but if you haven't, you can just add it to the pot.

Add the lentils, rice and tomatoes and cook for 15-20 min after the water has started boiling. Good thing is that lentils and rice have approximately the same cooking time.

While the water is boiling, add the spices except the parsley.

Check the texture while cooking, you may need to add or remove water.

Remove from the stove when ready and top with fresh parsley.

My lentil stew :)

Enjoy! :)

With love,

Your Tomato Monster

Breakfast for Champions!

Hey Lovelies!

So, I recently started drinking raw vegan protein shakes with Sun Warrior raw vegan protein (chocolate flavor) (https://www.sunwarrior.com/) and totally fell in love with them!

This protein is perfect as a pre-workout, as well as a post-workout drink, so you can reap the benefits no matter what time of day your workout is. For example, during the working days, I drink it as post-workout because I workout too early and don't have the time to drink it and wait for some time before my workout. When I'm not working, I drink it as pre-workout and here's what happens:

The coolest thing is that you don't crash when it "wears off" because the ingredients are all natural and it doesn't really wear off; this is obviously a huge benefit compared to supplements with mainly lab-derived nutrients.

Anyways, after trying it a couple of times as kind of a hot chocolate, blended with almond milk, I decided it was time for spicing it up a bit. Thus the protein breakfast smoothie was born! And nooow... *drumroll*

THE RECIPE

BASE:

2 cups of water and 2 table spoons of yoghurt

OR

2 cups of your favorite plant/nut milk (I personally like almond milk and rice with coconut)

FRUIT:

1 ripe banana

1 handful of fresh or frozen strawberries, whichever is available (NOTE: If you use frozen strawberries, make sure your blender can crush ice, otherwise the blades might be damaged)

SEEDS:

Flax seed and sesame seed - 1 tb. spoon of each

2 tb. spoons chia seed

1 handful of raw cacao beans

1 SCOOP of your favorite protein powder.

Put it all in the blender and voila! You have a super tasty, healthy breakfast, packed with nutrients which will give you a nitro-boost for the day! 

This smoothie also has few calories and will satisfy your hunger for hours, so it is perfect for weight loss.

Let me know what you think in the comment section!

Enjoy your day and stay strong :)

With Love,

Your Tomato Monster