Food Preparation Class in May 2011

Hi everyone, I have just created a new facebook account for my TSL Kitchen. With all the events created, people will know what I am doing and what dishes I am sharing. If you are interested in only one dishes for each session, you don't have to come for everyone of them. Just PM me and I can customise the lesson for you so you learn what you like at one go. I hope to show people that vegan food can be very interesting and tasty too, best of all much more nutritious. Not forgetting to share on what I learn from Our Place International on self healing, for more details, please check it out at : www.ourplaceinternational.com

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100002288671062

Talking about Facebook, it is a very powerful tool in communication, I can reconnect people whom I have lost touch for years. My secondary school friends, oversea ex colleagues and even all my relatives whom we see once in a year. I feel closer to them now then before and truly appreciate their support and presence. Go Go the Chan Family! To all my Cousin! Although I am a housewife but I don't cut myself away from the outside world like what my mum used to sacrifice for us. I still can talk to my friends through Facebook, know what is happen with all the newsfeed. It is so active that my messages from Facebook are more than from my handphone!!! So unbelievable!!! I learn new recipes from my friends and also learning new things from each other. My dear Dharma friends are uploading Dharma messages frequently to Newsfeed and I enjoy reading them.

Now I truly understand now how our mothers sacrificed for us now been a mum at home and how my dad work day and night struggling for daily expenses. Because I am in this situation now in a single income family. Although life is hard but it is a very good learning curve for me to learn and move to another level. We will learn and grow only when when we faces difficulties, this will test our cultivation and this is the time where we can put our Dharma knowledge into good use. I am thankful for my friend, Linda who listening to my problem and enlighten me always and direct me to the right path. Grateful! She is always so positive towards all situation, no wonder she is so cheerful whenever I see her.

Oh, coming back to my food preparation class. I met this friend whom I know her through a mum from playgroup. She happen to see my events in my TSL Kitchen and request for a few dishes to her interest. So I planned it out for her and VOILA! It is as shown in attached. Anyone interested can email ya, will open this class in MAY.

Chia Chia!

I have been hearing people promoting Chia Seed lately, in

Vegetarian Society and in Facebook...The introduction of this seed tells people that it has multiple of certain elements that will benefits the body and this seed is labelled as SUPER Food. Only EPG is selling this and they look so precious for people especially vegetarian because we worried we will missed out certain nutrition when we omitted meat from our diet. For mothers, we will worried that our children will not be nutrition enough as a vegetarian or vegan.

While we are in the progress of improving our diet, these worries are understandable and we would want to know more information before we do the transit. Reading up books and proper website is essential initially, this will built up your confident with examples from others.

Reference : www.ourplaceinternational.com

Herbert Shelton

Harvey Diamond

As our body gets cleaner, our instinct will be better and we will listen to our stomach instead, without using our intellect. When we reached that stage, we don't have to worry about the Nutrition Factor in the food, we just go according to our instinct. This is what I understand from Siok Khoon from our place international. They have been doing self healing and cleansing their body as and when necessary according to body's needs with Fasting. Their instinct revealed slowly and understand the truth better. For me, I am still in progress and will believe that I will experience their freedom if I continue to cleanse my body but not now... ke ke :)

In Buddhism, it is similar, we clear our mind from dust everyday with practise and meditation. So our wisdom will slowly revealed as times goes by. If we stopped one day, the dust will accumulate and we have to start all over again. I am so blessed to know the Dharma and the way in healing our body. For those who read this Blog, hope that you can too, seriously look into these two areas.

Coming back to Chia, me too, bought a bottle of Chia Seed for fun because I have not tried it before. It is quite impressive that this seed can expand 10 times of its size after soaking it in the water for 2 hours, some used them after soaking for 30 mins. It is gel like and is good as a pudding. I tried drinking with beverage like bubble tea with the pearl. But I realised that I will just swallow the seed without chewing them and I don't feel comfortable after that, difficult to digest if not properly chewed. I got this Chia Pudding recipe from everyday raw desserts by Kenney. He has impressive pictures in his books and they all looks like commercial desserts selling in Hotels. I got the Chia Pudding recipe from it and add my own created cream sauce on top. Have fun with the gel like food but don't to be too obsessed with the nutritions in it and force it on your child.

Chia Pudding (simplified from everyday raw desserts by Kenney)

1 cup cashew

2 cups water

1/2 cup agave nectar

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp liquid amino

1/2 cup chia seeds

Blend all ingredients except for chia seeds.

Pour mixture into chia seed and mix thoroughly.

Let it sit for 2 hours.

Cream (by TSL Kitchen)

Cashew

rice milk

agave nectar

vanilla extract

blend them all up and drizzle on top of chia pudding

Cute Mini Processor can do WONDERS

I had been skipping recipes that requires processor because I don't have one. I am reluctant to buy one because it is huge and bulky. With my small kitchen, there is no space for any more equipments or my husband will shake his head.... My intention of buying the Philip hand blender was to make smooth porridge for my son. We went to a Philip Sales with my sister, Kate and brother in law, Trevor. With their generosity, they gave it to me as a Christmas Gift. So Grateful!!! I was hard on cash during that period, hee...

This hand blender comes with a mini S-blade Processor and cake batter, so neat! I started to dig out the processor when I am tempted to try to make raw cake. It works GREAT!!! I love it from the 1st day I used it. I had make so many recipes with it and it is easy to clean too. Raw cakes, pizza, sushi, bread and thick sauces..... Thanks to Kat and Trevor again for making my dishes works!

My friends has been asking me about the recipes for the Foccacia Bread, here it is, enjoy!

1 cup flax seeds, grounded

1 cup sunflower seed, grounded

2 cups onion, quartered

1 1/2 cup tomato, chopped

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbsp liquid amino

1 tbsp rosemary

1 tbsp thyme

Process everything in S-blade processor into batter form

Spread on the tray and sprinkle some sesame seed and dehydrate them

For vegetarian, use the below recipes for non onion version

2 cups of sprouted wheat berries

1/2 cup olives, pitted, diced

1 tbsp rosemary

liquid amino to taste

water

blend everything except olive (if you have masticating juicer, use it!!! for smoother texture)

mix the olive in the batter

dehydrate

No more abuse please!

This is a HUGE one!!! The earth had been giving signal that he cannot take the abuse any more, but we still continue to add toxin to the earth. Now the disaster are bigger than before. The earth is just like our body, if we give him loving kindness and give him proper food. It will flourish and grow and give you more. But if you abuse it with all the pollutions, all the symptom and dieaster will follow. Cause and Effects.... What can we do? If we reduce meat in take, we can actually helps to reduce the pollutions from the animal farm and suffering of the animals. Everyday, there are millions and millions of animal been slaughter for our craving. If we stay near the animal farm, you will actually hear the cry and feel the fear from the animals.

We can actually have all the nutrients we need from the plant kingdom. We have our calcium and proteins from seeds, nuts and beans. Once they are sprouted, more nutrients are available and they are cheap too. With a little handful of seeds, you can sprout a whole bunch. Sunflower greens and sprouts are high in protein, vitamin A, D, E and B complex and they are good source of minerals, including calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, potassium, phosphorus and zinc. We also don't need cow's milk for calcium. We can have them from raw sesame seeds, raw nuts, green leafy vegetables, kelp, dulse. Raw Sesame seed contains more calcium than any other food on earth.

Food For Playgroup ---- Part 2/2

Giving the DULL looking Fruit Roll a New image

In my very early blog, I had introduced fruit roll as one of the healthy snack with the link:

http://rawhealthyfood.blogspot.com/2010/05/dehydrator.html

But it looks dull, I realised lately that appearance is important. The dish needs to be appealing to your eyes before anyone would pick them up to eat. So I revamp this dish into Fruit Stick....

This was not one of my bring along dishes for the playgroup, I had my Mush Nugget as mentioned in my earlier blog. But some how I don't know how, this idea popped up in my mind. It was like a picture painted in my mind and I just have to do it. I could not find any good sulphur free dried apricot in my nearby supermarket so I replaced it with strawberry and dates. It still taste Good!!!

You can do your own combination of fruits. Let your favourite smoothies turn into rolls which you can bring out without worrying that you need a cooler bag for your smoothies. But I still emphasis that we should eat more high content food. Smoothies is still better than dehydrated fruit roll but in term of outdoor snacks, fruit roll is a better choice. There should be a balance to everything and eat with moderation.

Coming back to dried apricot, you can get them from Cold Storage. They carry organic sulphur free dried apricot which is brown in colour. The bright yellow one that you see in supermarkets, usually contain sulphur which is not good for your health. Read the ingredients and labels!!! Make sure we know what food we are buying and consuming. We are paying for the food and we don't want to pay for anything that will damage our health ya.

Food For Playgroup ---- Part 1/2

I happened to saw this recipe from Evie's Kitchen from Shazzie. Mush Nuggets!!! It looks good on the pic with crispy coating similar to the bread crumbs coated on fish nugget and the ingredients are simple. To my surprise, it taste good, soft on the inside and crispy from the outside. I don't have to watch my husband eating his chicken nuggets again, I can still have mine too.

For this Mush Nugget, the recipes asked for...

4 large flat mushroom --- slice into 3~4mm wide of strips

100g golden flax seeds --- blend into powder

20ml olive oil --- organic, cold pressed

20ml water

pinch of Himalayan pink salt --- replaced with Liquid Amino

Mix water, oil, liquid amino into a bowl.

Coat the mushroom slices in the liquid mixtures on all sides.

Coat the mushroom slices again with Flaxseed powder on all sides

Dehydrate for 2 hours and serve or place in an oven in lowest temperature for 1 hour or until the flaxseed powder is crispy. Flaxseed itself contains high content of plant-derived OMEGA 3 fatty acid, similar to those found in fish. It can be hard to digest for children but once in a while I would add some in the smoothies for my son. It has to be soaked for at least 20 mins before using.

Of course, with nuggets, we also cannot miss TOMATO Sauce. I have prepare my dehydrated tomato in advance, prepared for this recipe a long time ago. Now it is time to use it!

60g dried tomato

3 red pepper bell

4 dates

1/4 onion

1 tbsp lemon juice

Blend everything together in the blender. It should have the same consistency as ketchup - dollopy.

Accident Recipe --- Goreng Pisang

It was by chance that I did this with the left over flaxseed powder from the Mush Nugget. It would be wasteful to throw away the remaining so I searched through my kitchen to see what else can I use it with. My husband said that it looked like Fish Fillet when I MMS the pic to him. And he asked me for this dish when he reached home. I cutted the banana into half and coated it with flaxseed and dehydrate for 2 hour. To get the flaxseed stick to the banana, I poked holes on the uncutted area to wet the surface. It is warm and nice when you eat it immediately from the dehydrator. It is good!!! But one thing to take note is not to dehydrate the banana above 46 degree so as to have the fruits remain raw. Fruits should be eaten RAW and with empty stomach!

Should get THIS earlier!

I should have got this EARLIER!!! It saves me so much effort, time and most important my vegetables strips are not watery. My husband loves my salad today, he says it feels likes eating noodles. He is very good in eating salad, he adds in NO CONDIMENTS, NO SEASONING, PLAIN! I have to KOWTOW to him because I still can't. I have lots of herbs lah, sweeten lah, lime lah and Braggs loh.... See mine below, I stood in front of my kitchen cabinet adding all my condiments for 5 mins..... All the condiments are a transition for me, hopefully one day I can do without them. But for now I like it and enjoy it, I don't know about you, why not you try it.

Oh yah, I forget to introduce you my super helper for this

dish. The Orange Shredder, humpp... I don't know the real name for this. Siok Khoon had introduced us this equipment 3 years ago when I attended her class. I was thinking I had a small conventional one and did not want to add anymore equipment in my kitchen; and and and I was soooo lazy to go to CK Tang Orchard to get it. I hate the crowd unless it is a weekday, it was so energy draining after walking through it. Headache and drowsiness will come and find me after that. I used to enjoy taking leave

during WEEKDAY to shop at Orchard Road, it feels goood to have the whole place yours.

I happen to saw it again in OG at New Bridge Road, it cost $19. This time, I found it too expensive for me to buy. My friend, Yvonne, strongly encourage me to get it but I did not take her words seriously. So during Chinese New Year, I used the conventional one, spending effort/strength holding the root vegetable, spending time peeling the roots vegetable and kept the remaining for juicing.... I would not want to do this so often, so tiring....

Again I saw this Orange Shredder while searching for Saladacco for my friend. This weekend, my husband and I were there, in New Bridge Road, stocking our parts and food for our part time HOBBY. I bought it for my HOBBY as I think will be useful. I tried it and to my surprise, I love it! My husband finds my previous noodle salad watery but not this time. I spent the least effort in shredding it and no left over needed to be kept. It is very fast and efficient because it is cutting in 2 way. In no time, it will be done. Going Up, Down, Up, Down, it is FUN!!!

Below are my recipes:

Shredded Carrot (Orange Shredder)

Shredded Cucumber (Orange Shredder)

Shredded Turnip (not in pic)

Shredded Purple Cabbage (by 2 way Peeler)

Shredded Onion (small portion)

Avocado (Cubed)

Whole Wheat Chips

Sesame Seed

Cinnamon Powder

Black Pepper Powder

Agave Nectar

1 Lime, Juiced

A Special Friend returned from Arizona

Hsiao Kee is a special friend and mum just returned from Arizona with her son. They had a good time there with Our Place International and have learnt an important, lifetime and valuable lesson. You can read more from this link : http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150407090745643&set=a.323023685642.331443.149785450642&theater

We got a good catch up from each other yesterday and our sons are having FUN on their own. I have learnt from her good sharing and she is a brave lady I can say, no joke... This is the first time I see my son munching half of a stick of cucumber and half of a prune without spitting out. Having peers together does makes a different. Watching Reyes eating his salad and vege happily, I hope that my son would also enjoy salad as his main meal one day. Thanks to Hsiao Kee for sharing her raw carrot cake and cashew dip with me. They are DELICIOUS!!! With the leftover, it add on flavours to my salad today....

Zucchini Noddle

Zucchini Strips --- make from 2 way peeler, idea from Simple Vegetarian by Wong Kee Yew

Raw Mushroom cubes --- can buy from NTUC, PESTICIDE FREE

Parsley

Cashew Dip --- from Hsiao Kee

Salad

Organic Alafafa Sprout --- from NTUC

Purple Cabbage --- shredded

Jap Cucumber --- cubed

Corn

Red Pepper Bell Dip --- recipes from Our Place International

see link : http://rawhealthyfood.blogspot.com/2010/09/red-pepper-bell-dip.html

Carrot Cake with dip --- from Hsiao Kee

Yummy!

For the book, Simple Vegetarian by Wong Kee Yew, you can buy it from Awareness Place. Thanks to my friend, Linda who gave me a copy, it has quite a number of simple recipes who is suitable for busy friends. My son enjoyed the raw walnut brownie very much.

Follow the Flow --- Raw Strawberry Almond Cake

Life seems easier to go along with the flow than against the flow. You may seems to get what you want in your life after some determination and struggle but if it is not yours, you will suffer along the process.

I wanted very much to become a teacher as a full time job after volunteering as a Dharma teacher for a few years. I quit my smooth sailing engineering job and join MOE in despite of some

objections. I don't want to regret, for it is my dream. But in the end, I suffered from depression and had phobia going into the classroom every morning. I cried when I talked to

my friends about my situation. I am lucky that my previous company took me back after 3 months in MOE. But my luck go down in my career after that.....

For this hobby or raw food preparation, it is just like a flow to me. My son push me to work on his food. My friend, Siok Khoon, kicked my ass to conduct food preparation class at her house. I am reluctant when she suggested this to me. It took me a lot of courage to do it. What if I speak the wrong thing? What if the participant don't like my dishes? blah blah.... But after I started my first lesson, I have the satisfaction and whenever I have new dishes, I a

m eager to share with people.

I came across this book, Living in the Raw Gourmet written by

Rose Lee Calabro by incident. While I am reading another book, it recommend some raw book with easy recipes. Without knowing what is inside, it is risky to buy them. So I intended to borrow from the library. Instead of getting the recommended book, I saw this and find that the cover page is quite old fashioned or unique. So I borrowed it. The recipes inside are very easy and simple, short and sweet. I hate recipes that needs a lot of ingredients especially the uncommon ones. I w

ill not use them after trying out the recipes and will go into the dustbin after it expires or wither.... What a waste!

I leave the book aside after I have it until my friend asked for raw cake for her daughter's birthday. I quickly flip through and go for a simple one. In this situation, if I have negative thoughts, I will be complaining, have fouling mood and rushing to make one out. If I stay positive and do it willingly, I will be a more happy person. Our thinking can change our environment or our world into a hell or heaven.

It is a blessing to be able to give and in return, you will benefit more. After her party, I have free reviews on my cake, with new recipes to write and share and best of all, I have fulfilment. With all the shitty things in our life, the more we should be positive and happy. Everything shits and obstacles can be treated as a test to us. We get wiser each time we pull through an obstacles. They are there for a reason.... Without any difficulties, how can we help other with the same problem? Without much nagging, below are the RAW cake recipe.

Strawberry Almond Cake

First Layer

2 cups Almonds --- soaked overnight, blanched and remove skin

2 cups Dates --- remove seeds

2 teaspoons vanilla extract --- best if you can find from organic stall

Process almond in food processor with S blade into fine meal

Add in dates and vanilla gradually

Process until mixture is smooth and form a ball

Mould into your favourite shape

Second Layer

2 cups Almonds --- soaked overnight, blanched and remove skin

2 cups raisins

2 teaspoons vanilla extract --- best if you can find from organic stall

Process almond in food processor with S blade into fine meal

Add in raisin and vanilla gradually

Process until mixture is smooth and form a ball

Mould into your favourite shape

Icing

2 cups Cashew --- soaked for 1 hour

1 cup Strawberries

1/4 cup Dates --- remove seeds and soaked for 1 hour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract --- best if you can find from organic stall

Process all ingredient in blender or food processor with S blade until smooth and creamy

Filling

1/2 cup Strawberries --- thinly sliced

Decoration

Blueberries

Strawberries

or any fruits

Assemble

Ice the first layer of cake

Layer the sliced strawberries on top

Place the second layer over the sliced strawberries

Ice the top and sides of the cake with remaining icing

Decorate with fruits

FIRST LAYER with Icing and Strawberries SECOND LAYER placed on top

Add Carob powder to your first and second layer if you want a carob cake as shown below:

Raw Tart

Tarts tarts tarts, we see them everywhere especially during Chinese New Year. People loves them so much that we have Egg Tart in all pastry shops and get to eat them fresh everyday. During CNY, people are busy making, selling and buying Pineapple Tarts. In the high class restaurant, we have bird nest tart or maybe Shark Fin Tarts???? But have you heard or seen any Raw Tart before????

I am so excited over raw pastry and have the urge to make them right away when I saw any recipes. I loves pastry but restraint from eating them from the pastry shop because of the refined sugar, salt, wheat and dairy products(they call them the 4 evil white).... They are highly refined and processed that they can no longer considered as real food. And the pastry may contain Margarine which I would not know... margarine is a No No for me, it is a synthetic, man-made chemical, do you know that it is only one molecule away from being plastic??!!

I am lacking of processor and I am searched through books on recipes that does not need one. So this recipe is a combination from 2 books....

Crust (from Light Eating For Survival, Marcia Madhuri Acciardo)

9 tbsp of Sunflower Seed Flour --- Grind sunflower seed into powder

Coconut Oil --- use cold pressed, I bought mine in Organic Shop, costed about $20 per bottle...

Agave Nectar --- Bought from Organic Shop, a better replacement for sugar

Add Agave Nectar into Sunflower Seed Flour, how much? Depend on your liking on sweetness, remember that the tart will be sweet because of the filling too. Then add coconut oil until it can form a dough and mould it onto your tart cups. If the dough stick on to your hand and difficult to handle, wet your hand with coconut oil. I like the crust thin, so I will not feel too heavy with too much seeds...

Filling (from Raw Living, Kat Wood)

4 Banana

1 large Apple --- Pacific Rose or any Sweet version, peel off skin and chop into small pieces

80g Tahini --- I used Melrose brand

120g Dates --- remove seeds and soak them before hand if possible

1 small Lemon, Juiced

1.5 tbsp Psyllium Husk

2 tsp Vanilla --- optional, unless you can find a good one from Organic shop else omit

Put all the ingredients in the blender except Psyllium Husk and blend them up. After blending, mix in the Psyllium Husk and pour the filling in the crust immediately.

Topping

Pine Nut or Coconut Flakes or Cashew or even cutted fruits for colours --- depend on your tart size

Decorate your tart according to your choice and place in the fridge for a few hours for it to set.

This recipes can make up to 10 to 15 tarts, depending on the size of your tart mould. Reduce the measurements accordingly if you want a smaller serving. Enjoy!