words and images by Becca Allen

I have been totally getting into my breakfasts, smoothies, salads and food in general lately. I can’t step away from my blender for a day at the moment. This week I made the nicest and healthiest banana, chocolate breakfast smoothie and for lunch today cracked the ultimate mushroom burger. I only feel it’s fair to share these with you 😉

I have also been making my own nut milk 3 times a week, it’s just so easy and I use it in my breakfast smoothie. It’s just nuts, water, agave nectar and some vanilla essence. There are so many youtube videos to show you how.

(I use a quarter of the amount of nuts most tell you to use as I am not fussed how creamy it is.)

How to make a “Banana – Chocolate Breakfast Smoothie… This so happens to be raw vegan.

– 1 cup of nut milk
– 1 table spoon of carob powder
– 1 chopped banana (I freeze mine so the smoothy is nice and cold and the bananas keep longer)
– 1 hand full of frozen berries
– 1 table spoon of chia seeds (optional, but gives energy to start the morning)
– 1/2 cup of sprouted buck wheat (optional, this is one of the best sources of protein, containing all eight essential amino acids. Great way to start the day!)

Chuck all the above in the blender and blend! Once you’re happy with the consistency, pour into a glass and enjoy.

I am not a vegan or a raw vegan but I do enjoy trying different recipes. I actually prefer the taste of carob powder to coco powder. But you can swap for coco if you prefer.

Mushroom Burger Madness!
For the past two weekends I have been trying to perfect the mushroom burger. Not being able to eat pulses or wheat was making my favourite meal, the veggie burger, difficult to achieve. I tried so many online recipes from vegan to veggie and most of them contained chickpeas, lentils, flour or a pulse of some sort.

So with a little experimenting of my own and a few trial burgers I just made the best mushroom burger I have ever had. It just so happens to be vegan again and 100% organic produce. It doesn’t contain many ingredients and I just made it in 15 minutes from start to finish!

I do not tend to do measurements unless following a recipe. I can usually work it out by texture which is what I did today.

For 2 burgers you need –
Roughly –
8 mushrooms chopped up into little pieces
1/2 a red onion sliced
1 garlic clove
1/2 tsp cumin
a few chopped up coriander leaves
salt & pepper
Buckwheat flour – keep adding until you have a solid consistency
(I used about half a cup.)
A table spoon of raw coconut oil (or whatever oil you have to hand will suffice)

Fry the onions and garlic for 5 mins and then add the chopped mushroom.
Stir until all moisture has evaporated and all is golden, then transferred to a bowl.

Mix in cumin, chopped coriander, salt, pepper and some coconut oil.
Gradually start adding in the buckwheat flour until you have a nice thick burger consistency. Then make little patties with your hand and place them back into the frying pan and cook off on both sides until nice and golden, serve with a salad to finish.

I am now off to ikea to buy a baking tray so I can make wheat free lemon and almond polenta cake. 😉

I will finally have my long awaited new SLR camera next week so will be able to take pictures on an actual camera rather than my iPhone! Sorry about the turds focus on the food shots! x