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[thehealingdance]

when there are no words without forcing them

when there is nothing solid, shaped, definite to cling to

when there is only being, floating

a going-through-the-motions

as that is the only thing that is still formed

that is still Something

.

when there is Nothing

.

there is this

[thehealingdance]

Welcome to another week's explorations and unexpected developments in the tiny ascension kitchen.

It's been a slow weekend, because that's what was needed. So, very little in terms of adventures, and more feeling inside as to what I felt to eat.

This is an unsual exploration for me. Usually, the inquiry is: What wants to create?

This time, I listened internally and ask: But what do I actually want to eat?

... and of course then Universe threw a curveball, the whole thing went a liiiittle off the rails, and now I have, once again, more prepared food than I can eat and that my fridge can barely fit, but still, it might enterntain you.

So here's to another Kitchen Adventues with Joy.

A bright salad (for grey days)

Combining:

1 small cucumber

1 small carrot

22 green olives

1 nice big tomato

leaves from celery stalks

beluga lentils

sesame oil + apple vinegar + ginger juice

salt, pepper, salat seasoning

and a splash of the brine the olives were swimming in

Left over night in the fridge, it is a little odd to eat a summery salad when it's freezing outside - literally, there's been frost all day, even with the sun shining - but it's also good.

Especially because it sneaks a lot of fluids past your notice, and I haven't been drinking enough. So that is double good. :-)

Up next my maybe-new-favourite, the oven baked curry. BUT! This time actually according to the recipe. Well, more or less ... as usual ... though this time more (aka I used coconut milk, and OMG the difference is makes ...)

Oven-baked curry with not just pumpkin

Combinging:

1 tiny Hkkaido pumpkin, chopped into small pieces

1/2 of a giant beetroot, chopped into extra small pieces

1 carrot, diced

2 small red potatoes, diced

130g green pea pasta

200ml passata

1 can coconut milk

juice of 1 lemon

salt, pepper

1 teaspoon each of "umami veggie seasoning", paprika, curry

All mixed together, with a drizzle of coco amimos on top, and into the oven. Started at 200°C, upped to 220°C - but my oven is a little weak, so 200°C with a stronger one is sufficient. 20 - 30 minutes, though I left it in for something like 40 minutes, and yes, the bloody beetroot is still not fully done.

But I was, and also the pasta was, so I called it.

And this may be amazingly obvious to everyone, but I've just had a revelation: I've made this dish a number of times before, and this is the first time I've used the coconut milk the recipe demands. And it makes such a difference! Incredible.

Folks! Don't make this without the coconut milk, you'll miss out on the full amazingness otherwise.

I don't want to eat anything else this week

... of course there is more.

Because while contemplating the oven-baked, my eyes fell on the bag with quinoa. And the idea landed of adding quinoa to the bake.

No, I ended up not using the quinoa in the bake, because suddenly I caught myself chopping a carrot and parsnip and cooking mung beans, without really fully understanding why.

But, well.

This is why. The Unexpected. The dish I had not planned to make, that I had not meant to make, that made itself by using me, and I am a little bewildered. How did that happen? O.O

Unexpectedly:

1 carrot, diced

1 small parsnip, diced

1/2 of a big zucchini, diced

75g quino (50g is probaby enough)

the above all cooked together for approx. 15 minutes

approx. 200g cooked mung beans (could be less, I didn't weigh what was left over in the pot)

salt, lots of pepper, 1 teaspoon "umami veggie seasoning"

oh, yes, and a splash of tamari to the beans in their pot and left to marinate a bit, before all combined

Probably needs a bit of a sauce on top, but inspiration buggered off once the above was done, so appearantly that's completed? Or maybe not?

I don't know. Do you? Any inspirations: please let me know!

Because, you see, what I had meant to make is this:

Simple and Sweet (potato)

With chickpeas and spinach, 3 small onions and 1 clove of garlic, some salt, lots and lots of pepper.

And that's it. Yup, nothing else. Just sautéd onion, added garlic, added sweet potato, cooked with a bit of water and the (frozen,thawing) chickpeas, for I don't know how long, until the sweet potatoe was almost done. Then added fresh spinach, letting it wilt.

And done.

No other spices, herbs, seasonings.

I mean, I might add some, at one point. But it actually tastes asbsolutely yummy, just as is. So, maybe, this time ~ keep it simple. And sweet.

and I feel that this is a perfect closing word for this week's write-up. Simple. And sweet.

Much love,

Joy

[thehealingdance]

As the season changes, so do I

Something is changing internally.

I have been observing the shift for a few weeks now, and it is growing stronger. Something is changing, something ... no, it is not something new arising.

It is something long buried coming to the fore.

I am not entirely sure what it is, though writing that feels incorrect. I do know, though not with enough certainty to speak it, yet. Itfeels very soft and sweet and encompassing.

Never, ever believe soft and sweet to not be immensely powerful.

So far, it is ... building, growing stronger. Just as I do not feel to name it yet, out loud in words, so is not the time yet for its expression. Yes, the mind frantically tries to squeeze this into an existing expression, and I am pulling it back, over and over again.

Do not rush this. This is not to be rushed. Act too soon, it will diminish, it will wither and break and be gone.

Hold it, gently, nurture it. Give it attention. Give it love. Just be with it, in it, and feel it.

And expression will arise by itself.

... and in the meantime, do that which you love, which gives you pleasure, which nurtures and nourishes you.

And in my case, that is found in the kitchen. In more sense than one. ;-)

So, welcome to another week of kitchen adventures with Joy!

... I genuinely enjoy making these "covers". And since this is all about doing what I enjoy, what gives me pleasure, well. Cover!

And also, food. Here is the first one:

Oven-baked cheezy broccoli.

Because the broccoli was starting to look very unhappy, so. I'd contemplated doing something else with it, maybe even integrate it in the stiry fry, but no, something inside insisted on cheezy broccoli.

So I cooked potatoes for the cheeze sauce, and meanwhile chopped the broccoli into small flowers.

By the way, in case you weren't aware, yes, you can eat the stem of the broccoli as well. Simply cut off the hard, woody outer layers, and the inner is white and soft and perfectly edible. Make the most of your broccoli!

When the sauce was finished, the broccoli went into a small, oven-proof dish, with a little bit of water. Then as much sauce as I felt like on top, and into the oven for a good deal longer than I thought it would take, but apparently broccoli doesn't cook fast. Who knew.

(Not me.)

So, um, 200°C and about 35 minutes, I believe?

The broccoli was still a bit crunchy, but I was done with waiting for it to become un-crunchy, so whatever.

And since I was already chopping things into small pieces - still one of the most therapeutic, also grounding, things in my life right now - I went on to chop more veggies: beetroot, carrot, sweet potato, some red potatoes. Onions. Garlic. Then combined into this:

Stir-fry with tempeh for protein. Seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, and a dash of agava sirup because I felt like it.

The sauce is passata, plus some tomato puree for more tomato flavour - because more water was needed to cook the bloody beedroot, ugh - and then fresh parsley. I've never had fresh herbs in my rescue box before, and also, I'm not a great fan of parsley. But I thought I'd give this a try?

Oh, yes: juice of half a lemon also went into the sauce, because when Life and your veggie box gives you lemon, you put lemon juice in everything.

Cooked for 45 minutes, and the bloody beetroot is still crunchy. I have given up.

(If you want beetroot uncrunchy, cook separately in water for 15+ minutes first.)

And last but not least - actually first - beetroot brownie. Cake style. With a twist.

Because there were two beetroot in my box this week, both about the size of a bowling ball, and the recipe for the beetroot brownie only asked for 150g. I had, like, 346g. So I doubled the ingredients and made a cake:

The twist here being mandarine jam: Half of the brownie dough went into the baking tin. Then the jar of mandarine jam spread. And the other half of dough on top.

Jam squished through here and there, making the whole thing a bit sticky. But also very nice.

... in hindsight? I should have maybe added pumkin spice or something. make it Christmassy!

Note to self: next beetroot brownies will be Christmassy.

There is one more dish to make on my meal plan for this week, an oven-baked curry, but I haven't made it yet, because I still have so much cooked food from last week oh my god when am I supposed to eat all of that who wants to come for dinner???

...

See you next week.

:-)

[thehealingdance]

Self-Care in Cooking

Well, gentle reader. What can I say. The last week has been a lot. Like so many weeks are now being a lot.

Not so much in the external, either, though that is taking its toll, too. But no, mostly it is the internal.

There are many shifts happening, as is to be expected, when on explodes an identity. Or at least, realises that is actually is an identity, and what is more: an identity based on someone else's interpretation of you.

It may not sound like much, but just imagine: You realise that, years ago, a trusted person told you something about yourself, and because they were trusted, you never questioned it. You took it on board. Because it gave you direction, purpose, meaning.

And fifteen years later you are wondering how much of that which you are being right now is actually true. Is actually you.

And how much is you shaping yourself to another's understanding.

Welcome to my reality.

And because of that happening internally at the moment, this week, there weren't really Adventures in the kitchen. It was all expressions of self care. Of grounding. Of doing something that I love doing - and I know this is me, because this is a fairly recent development. One which has nothing to do with trusted person.

(Mind you, I don't blame them. At all. This is all me, taking the bit between the teeth and running with it. And now realising it.)

So, this is three days of hitting a point of internal rock bottom, I almost want to say, though experience tells me it's not. It is, however, confusing and leaves you floundering around internally, looking for something solid, something fixed, to hold onto, to reorient yourself.

Only there is nothing. Nothing at all ...

And so: the gentlest, most loving and caring thing I could do for myself at that point was - go into the kitchen, get out some veggies, start chopping.

Welcome to this week's Kitchen Self-Care

In that vein, the first thing I made is very much a comfort food. Root vegetables, coconut milk - it's sweet and rich and dense.

It's also full of parsnips, because I had five in the fridge from last week's box, and I knew when I unpacked them that I wanted to make this dish. The one in the picture above; a variant of a dish a friend made - and that friend never cooks from recipes, she had this dish somewhere and liked it and wanted to recreate it. And now I recreated hers. With some adjustments. And so it evolves ...

Read how to make it here.

It is a great, comforting, nourishing dish, with sweetness from the parsnips and coconut milk, and some gentle heat from the curry powder. The original dish adds chopped chilis, so it can be made really hot.

I added the spinach, to have something green in there, and to make it more nurturing for me.

Also, if you are in a female body, yellow lentils are your particular friend! I forgot the details, as I tend to, I only remember that red and yellow lentils have nutrients that are beneficial for women's health.

While this was cooking, I advanced to the next thing, something that I had been looking forward to making all summer, ever since I came across the marinated/dense bean salad recipes on social media. They always - or quite often - use red cabbage. And so, when there was a red cabbage in my box, I just had to make this:

A dense bean salad, with tahini dressing.

Read all about making it here.

Okay, yes, I am very much using my version of the dressing here. For the record: the original uses soy sauce (which I replace with tamari, because tamari is gluten free, and soy sauce isn't); 2-8 tablespoons chili oil, which I don't have; no lime or ginger juice.

I do like my version. And can confirm what all the recipe videos said: This gets better every day, as the veggies marinate in the dressing. Very much recommended!

These two dishes were the bright spot on Friday. I'd been looking forward to making them all morning, while I was slogging through "work". All self-chosen, sure, yet at the same time - a drag on my energy. Which will require further looking into ... but then, there was curry and salad, and I didn't even need to eat either of these to feel - nourished, nurtured, and satisfied.

And I had half expected not to make anything else, because there were the chestnuts and I wanted them roasted, but not actually wanting to roast them - cutting them for roasting is such a tiring thing to do -, so I managed to block myself for a day.

And then this morning decided, screw this, I am not letting myself and my annoying hang-ups get in the way of something I enjoy doing, something that gives me pleasure and fulfils me, that is creative and altogether fun.

So: the twins.

They may not look all that much alike, no. But think of them as fraternal twins: the same ingredients went into both. They simply got mixed up in different ways ...

Here is how to make them.

And yeah, that's it. My Self-Care in Cooking (Kitchen) Adventures.

I am feeling a lot calmer, more grounded and centred, after the cooking today, and then writing this up.

If you are still here, reading this: Thank you for journeying with me. I wish you all the best in your Kitchen explorations, and may you find what really feeds your Soul.

<3

And if you'd like to journey deeper, unleash your creative spirit and learn about easy meals that will raise your vibration?

[thehealingdance]

Three Ways to Fulfilment

a different kind of Kitchen Adventures

Food is happiness. Isn't it? Comfort food is something just about everyone is familiar with. Few of us eat to survive alone; we also eat to be sociable, to create a sense of togetherness, of community ~ and to find a sense of being fulfilled.

Being happy.

Do you resonate?

I certainly do ~ to a degree. For would it surprise you, that more often than not, the cooking gives me more fulfillment than the eating?

Sure, eating generates a hysical sense of fullness, fulfillment ~ food fills up the hole so many of us carry inside. And not eating makes that feeling worse ~ that sense of hunger that is not at all physical.

So we eat.

So do I eat.

And yet ... if nothing else, this week has shown me, beyond doubt, that the creating is more fulfilling than eating ~ is actually fulfilling, on all levels.

Eating may nourish the body.

Cooking nourishes my soul.

And so here are three ways to fulfilment:

-> read more <-

gentle comfort, nourish the body, ground your energy

the higgledy-piggledy casserole

step into the Unknown stir-fry

[thehealingdance]

Connect into this short meditation of grounding and tuning into energies. What do you experience?

[thehealingdance]

5 Steps to a Full Fridge

Well, hello there. It is Kitchen Adventures time again! And I have returned from the Twilight Zone - aka the Frankfurt Book Fair - with a full week of adventures, explorations, dishes - and a full fridge.

Wanna join me on the journey? We've got cookies banana bread!

So this past week was an unusual, ongoing adventure in the kitchen ~ less concentrated on one or two days than usual. Well, I spent pretty much all my time at the Book Fair, the only time to cook was Sunday evening. Also my only time to relax that week ~ Book Fair is long hours, halls full of people, especially on the weekend aka public days. So there was little time to cook.

Thus, I took it step by step, dish by dish, day by day.

Five steps/dishes/days to a full fridge. (And it is full!)

Let's start!

Step 1 - oven baked curry with pumpkin (and other goodness)(Sunday)

This time it is actually a curry, too! Though I cheated and used pre-made (organic) curry sauce. Still, the recipe is simple:

1/2 pumpkin

2 yellow potatoes

2 sweet potatoes

1 red potato

3 small onions

150g rend lentil pasta

4 generous handfulls of frozen peas

1 jar of curry sauce (350ml + water from rinsing the jar)

juice from one small(ish) lemon

And then, when it turned out that was not enough liquid:

approx. 200ml water

2 teaspoons curry powder

In the oven for about 35 - 40 minutes ~ this depends, obviously, on how big your veggie chunks are, and how much liquid is in your casserole: the smaller the chunks and the more liquid, the shorter the cooking time.

If you are looking for an autumny, healthy, nutritious, and easy to make dish? This is it.

... the most difficult and time-consuming aspect is the veggie chopping. Though I have probably mentioned it before, I enjoy that part. I find it immensely grounding, and centering. It is something that keeps the hands busy, while allowing the mind to slow down and relax, with just enough attention required that I don't accidentally cut myself.

Which I didn't. Even sleep deprived. Just for the record.

Step 2 - all the beans (and comfort food)(Tuesday)

There had been a lot of green beans in my box the previous week. So, on Tuesday afternoon this week, I decided to make the batch the way I had originally planned the previous week (which then turned into something else. as my creative dishes often do. but not this time!)

... Of course, then I had a lot of green beans, even more ideas, and the need for comfort food. So:

Pictured on the left is Beans version 1: as a salad/side to home-made cheesy fries (with mayo and chili-sauce). Pictured on the right is Beans version 2: as veggies in a pasta dish.

Yes, it's totally a pasta dish, the sauce tickened when first prepared (from a bag, yes, I am still cheating this week), then became liquid again when cooling down, and refused to thicken again when re-heated.

Didn't really matter, though. Was still nice.

Pasta, by the way, is gluten-free/rice pasta. The sauce is a vegan "carbonara" sauce, with mushrooms instead of bacon. Check it out here: Biovegan Carbonara sauce.

Step 3 ~ One Pot Deluxe (cooked two pots, because I didn't have one pot big enough, oops) (Friday)

A continuation, if you will of the Hot One Pot I made .... um ... last week? Two weeks ago? Some time ago!

Well, it is basically a one pot: veggies, green lentils, and buckwheat, cooked together. All right, kind of. But mixed together! And it grew out of the Hot One Pot, because I really liked the combination of veggies-greenlentils-buckwheat, and also I had So Many Veggies in my fridge.

(Not time to cook last weekend. So annoying. Also, the vggies pile up.)

This contains: pumpkin, potatoes, sweet potatoe, zucchini, carrot, onion, green lentils, buckwheat, tamari, rice vinegar, ginger juice, salt & pepper, and if you'd like the whole recipe -> go to my blog and read it here

Uh, it's getting full in the fridge, what to do, I cannot squish the Samwise Gamgee Pan in there anyway ...

Step 4 - falafel bake (Friday)

An attempt to prevent myself from drowning in potatoes and zucchini - there was another one in this week's delivery, while I still had the one from last week in the fridge - I experimented. And mixed

3 small, finely grated potatoes

1 small finely grated zucchini

with a chestnut falafel mix (from the German drugstore dm: check it out here.)

Also added: two generous table spoons of protein powder, for extra protein-kick. (I like this protein powder, it's basically finely ground pumpkin and sunflower seeds. Great to add into anything savoury. For extra protein kick.)

Then popped the whole thing in the oven for 30 minutes, and this is the result:

As you can see, I couldn't resist a taste-test before the whole thing had even cooled down.

As you can probably also tell, the first taste test was successfull, and followed by a second. And third. Yes, it's good. 😃

And, finally, last but not least:

Step 5 - banana bread (Sunday again)

With chocy chips. Vegan. Gluten free. Nommy.

... as you can tell by the fact that it smelled so delicious, I had to try it before it had cooled down, despite what the recipe said. 😃 😃

And this brings us to the end of the journey, the last step taken. My fridge is very full.

And not just with all the dishes I made, but also with the many veggies from this week's box I haven't yet been able to use up: a red pepper, a cabbage, loads of small parsnips, carrots, more potatoes ...

But that is something for future-me to contemplate. Present me has come to the end of the journey, and shall now go and tetris her fridge.

See you next week!

[thehealingdance]

Fresh new discoveries ~ it's Unboxing Day!

... slightly less tired than last week, here is another video from me, for you, with another box from etepetete, for me. and you. 

(it's not as if I haven't got stuff from last week still in the fridge, ugh, this no-time-to-cook thing is seriously annoying. also, the veggies pile up)

 Anyway! here's a new unboxing video! enjoy! (and mind the scissors. ow.)

[thehealingdance]

Whether you're new to plant-based and/or gluten-free cooking or an experienced explorer of many years, this workshop is designed to activate your creativity in the kitchen (and elsewhere), while also giving you the knowledge to create your own tasty dishes that will feed the body and elevate your vibration.​

Sounds too good to be true? You're uninspired in the kitchen, find the whole thing boring and plant-based cooking confusing?​

Then you are in the right place to come and join the

🥗 Ascension Kitchen workshop! 🌈

~ click the link to discover more about this adventure ~

(Yes, kitchen adventures can totally be all of that!)

[thehealingdance]

Hello, welcome back to Kitchen Adventures with Joy ~ where recipes are more like guidelines, the Kitchen muse has their own ideas, and then ... things evolve.

It's a fun journey of creativity, discovery, and yummy food.

This week's magic is extra magical, and I am so pleased and excited with what created through me in my kitchen this week.

If you are curious as well, read on!

So, the first dish that created itself this week ~ is actually the last one to finish. I really felt to cook it yesterday, on Saturday evening. Like, it was a strong urge that said, Do This Now.

So I did it. Only then it became obvious that the dish wasn't finished. Yet I couldn't figure out what else was needed. A sauce, maybe?

Okay, yes. But what kind of sauce? Tomato-y? Or puree cooked pumpkin with some of the chestnut-mushroom spread? What??

So I left the pot alone over night, and today started out with this:

Oven roasted veggies. Still steaming, as you can maybe tell by the weird quality of the pic on the left hand side. 😃

Here we see the lazy way of cooking: just chop up everything, add some oil and spices, pop everything in the oven for about 20 - 30 minutes at 180°C / 365°F.

In this case, veggies are cabbage, red potatoes, yellow potatoes, and onions. Plus a jar of chickpeas, for protein.

And yes, two cloves of garlic, they went into the dressing, because I then turned the whole thing into a salad. Go me!

Cheated on the dressing, though, because I used one that came premade, only water and oil to be added.

The result? Is this:

The oven veggie salad.

With pesto. A yellow one. Made with carrots and almonds and turmeric.

Very nice. Also very garlicy. Oops. 😃😃😃

So, while that was in the oven, I chopped the other half of the cabbage, grated more potatoes, also one zucchino, chopped a clove of garlic, and cried over three onions.

And then everything went into a Samwise Gamgee pan - onions first, then the beans I'd pre-cooked last night (though that probably wouldn't have been necessary ... oh, well), then half a cubed block of tempeh, garlic, potatoes, zucchino, cabbage. And stir. And cook. Until potatoes are soft.

Seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, rosemary ~ basically the same things the tempeh was seasoned with, in order to blend it nicely into the dish, and keep the flavour.

Also the remainder of a herb mix from last year's Spices Advent calendar.

Yeah, it's almost December, time to use up those spices! 😃

Anyway, the result looks amazing and tastes great:

I'm calling this the protein burst stir-fry ~ because with all the green beans and the tempeh, that's a lot of protein in there!

I utterly adore sneaing more protein into dishes. In case you weren't able to tell. 😃

Right, and last but not least: Universe gave me sweet potatoes. So I made sweet potato brownies

Naturally.

As you can see, they taste so nice that one piece wasn't enough. 😃

-> You can find the recipe here on my blog <- click and scroll

And! Finally! The first dish I started yesterday came to a conclusion: it's the Hot One Pot:

So called because the sauce ended up being nicely shpishy, I mean, hot.

This is a great, I-don't-have-a-lot-of-time-to-cook, I-want-something-warm-and-filling kind of dish. Also, low on dishes to wash afterwards. Easy to make, too!

First, you chop veggies ~ I still have so many potatoes and onions, guess what I used?

Second, wash green lentils and buckwheat.

Third, gently not-burn your onions in a bit of oil in a pot. Then throw in potatoes, lentisl, and buckwheat. Roast for a bit, add tamari, then 400-500ml of water.

Fourth, bring to a boil, then turn down heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes.

For the sauce, use one can of chopped tomatoes, some chili paste to taste, tomato puree (maybe 3 teaspoons?), 4 tablespoons tamari, some rice vinegar, salt, pepper, and whatever spices/herbs you feel to add. Blend all of that together in a jug, then pour over one pot.

Et voilà, you have made Hot One Pot.

Might not have nice autumn colours, but feels like the kind of food for grey and chilly days. Omnomnom.

Excuse me, I am hungry.

...

Oh, wait, before I dash off: There will probably not be any kitchen adventures write-ups next week. I have an insanely busy week ahead ~ busy to the point that my only hope is that I will at least thave the time to cook.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Thank you for following along, and I hope to see you ~ sometime soon! ❤️

[thehealingdance]

Fresh Starts: A Joyful Unboxing Journey

(this box is AMAZING)

[thehealingdance]

One of the things I love observing inside of myself, is how food preferences change with the season. Totally normal and healthy, sure! Still I am fascinated by how the body responds to its environment, to changes in temperature and light and precipitation.

And so this week is all about autumn comfort foods ~ hearty, dense food in autumn colours, that warm you up inside and at the same time feel like wrapping yourself in a cosy blanket.

A nutritious one. 😃

So here's pasta, pizza, and more, autumn comfort style.

Starting with this oven-baked pumpkin-and-red-lentil curry. Only I changed about everything in the dish, so it's now the not-curry. With pumpkin. And red lentil pasta. And beet. But ovenbaked!

So what doe we call this? Is it a pasta bake? Let's call this an asian-inspired pasta bake. With pumpkin. 😃

Recipe? Well, as I said, I changed pretty much everything about the original recipe that I saw and thought, "Hey, that sounds like a great idea!" But sure, here's what I did: LINK TO BLOG. 😃

While that was in the oven, I washed and grated potatoes and zucchini for these fritter thingies:

As usual, when it comes to making fritters of any kind, I started out with best intentions to stick to the recipes this time, then got impatient and skipped basically the entire "remove water from your veggies" part.

It never works like they say in the recipes, anyway. So. The end result might not be super-crispy, but then, I am totally fine with that! Slightly crispy on the outside with soft, moist, chewy goodness inside? Sounds good to me!

Recipe? Eh. It goes something like this

look up recipe for fritters online

follow along recipe until you become impatient, then decide to do things your way

bring blood sacrifice along the way, curtesy of the grater

cook fritters in non-stick pan, and try not to eat all of them while still cooking, oops

Goes well with applesauce. I made a video about how to make that!

Also you can read the entire recipe on my blog. If you want to. 😃

Moving onto the next big thing: autumn pizza!

That one jumped me like the plotbunnies used to jump me back in the day: suddenly there, refused to leave, insisted to be made, didn't accept any excuses. So. I made autumn pizza. Like this:

Yep, made entirely from scratch, and the base needs some work, but for a first try at making gluten-free pizza base? Well done, Joy, good job! 😃

So, step one was to make a dough for the base, which I kind of cobbled together from several recipes for bread, pizza, and other oven-baked goodness. So, not a proper pizza dough at all. But it works.

Next, I made my trusty, go-to cheeze sauce. Didn't have any garlic, oops, so I used miso paste instead for the umami kick. Works.

Wrangling the dough onto the tray was an adventure, but I succeded. Added the entire pot of cheeze sauce, because pizza cannot be too cheezey, right?

As toppings I used one massiv onion, some frozen spinach, and two small beetroot, chopped into small cubes and pre-cooked with the pasta-bake for about ten minutes (could have done with a little more, I'd say).

Seasoning, uh, yeah, that happened, only I forgot. Paprika! And I think some mix for raclette? Yeah. Sorry. Not very helpful. But: use whatever you want! Or feel like! Make it spicy, make it hot, make it mild, make it super-italian with oregano (and then hide from the Italian Food Police). You do you!

Goes in the oven for 30 minutes at 180-190°C / 355-375°F.

And while that was baking, I finally got around to making this:

Pea soup! That turned more into pea-and-potato-maybe-stew, but is so, so nice!

Totally unlike the pea soup of my childhood, which this was meant to imitate. Probably nothing can imitate the pea soup of my childhood, which was major comfort food and special, because it came from a can! It was pre-made, just pop it in a pot and heat and done! I loved that, my parents didn't believe in convenience food, so any time I got some? Great!

... yeah, I'd probably not be able to eat it anymore these days without, like, braking into hives from all the additives and flavours and whatnot in there.

So it's probably really good that his one is nothing like that one. 😃😃😃

It's simple to make, though - okay, a bit more effort than opening a can. But still:

soak 150g peas over night, then rinse and cook for about 22 minutes

while they cook, wash and chop 3 medium-sized potatoes. add at the end of the 22 minutes and re-set timer for 15 minutes.

chop up a block of smoked tofu and add into the pot

wrack your head about what to do for seasoning, then add salt, pepper, rosemary, and potentially everything else but the kitchen sink. also, maybe some chili.

I realised after the fact that I forgot to add in some buckwheat, which I'd meant to do, so the dish could tick all boxes in the "a grain, a green and a bean" bingo, but okay. I might still do that, cook the buckwheat spearately, and then simply add to the pot.

And, huh. That's it already? Where did the weekend go ...

I still have one pumpkin left, and was thinking about making filled pumpkin. Filling either millet or quinoa and lentils. OR buckwheat and the sweet chestnut-falafel mix. Haven't decided yet.

Or I might do something else entirely. For now I'm ending this chronicle of this week's Kitchen Adventures, wish you all a pleasant evening and a good start into the next week.

Thanks for reading,

bye! ❤️

[thehealingdance]

Next Level Unlocked: Autumn Box!

Nourish the body and uplift the spirit ~ and join me in unboxing a new type of delivery. It's the autumn box, and they promised pumpkin and mushrooms and sweet potatoes. Will they keep their promise? Will the box contain all of that and more? Let's find out! 😃

[thehealingdance]

Welcome, friends, to this week's autumn edition of Kitchen Adventures with Joy. As you can see, the autumn mists are rolling in, making fall-bright pasta seem mysterious and maybe a little spooky ... 🍃🍂

No, it's not your vision doing weird things or your screen giving up the ghost: the pasta was so hot, the camera lense fogged over! But very thematically fitting, I suppose. 😃

... Not that I deliberately set out to create autumn-coloured dishes this week, but I guess I'm, like, in tune with the season? Or something??

Probably something. It has been a week; not stressfull, I've simply been feeling very strange. Something big is changing, and I do not believe that is simply the change of seasons. It feels too big for that, too profound. I don't fully know what is going on. It is more a feeling-sense of Knowing.

Ah, well. The unfolding of events will bring clarity, and in the meantime, I will simply hold space for myself, keep tuning into the feeling ~ and have kitchen adventures, too!

On that note, here is what might be the first week of Kitchen Adventures, Autumn Edition:

Starting with this autumn-coloured pasta dish: 3 small carrots, 1 small yellow beet, 4 tiny onions, about 200g of cooked chipeas, stir-fried in my stir-fry pan. Glazed with 300ml of passata, and let simmer for almost 30 mintues, until carrots and beet were softened.

In a seperate pot, I cooked 125g - yes, for once I actually weighed it! - of pasta made from peas. Yes, 100% sweet pea pasta!

Once the veggies were soft and the pasta drained, I mixed everything together. The result - above.

I like how, if you look closely, you can see the pasta still steaming in the pictures.

The taste is ~ strange, to be honest. The pea-flavoured pasta takes some getting used to, for sure! But not bad, and piping hot, this feels like an amazing fall dish all around: colours, textures, flavour.

... uh, yeah, spices? Salt, pepper, and a teaspoon of medium-hot curry powder in the pan while the onions were sautéing. Hope that helps?

But seriously, this is probably a great dish to experiment with spices. Make it hot, make it mild, make it earthy, make it sweet, even. Also maybe some edamame or spinach for extra green?

The possibilities are ... well, maybe not endless, but there sure are many! 😃

Up next, we have another accidentally autumn-coloured dish:

Pancakes! Savoury pancakes! That are gluten-free and proteinrich, because made from red lentils.

Yes, you read that correctly: red lentils!

Now that I finally have a pan that actually fries the stuff you put in there, instead of burn it, I was so happy to get to try out these pancakes. I've been missing pancakes ~ of all kinds ~ and I've seen different recipes for red-lentil-pancakes all over TikTok. So: very happy to make these! Finally!

... though, making the "batter" was a bit on an adventure. I followed instructions: 150g of red lentils, wash, and then let soak for 2 hours. I even used hot water!

Then rinse, mix with 300ml of water, add spices (salt, coriander, baharat), and blend.

Well, this is where I ran into difficulties. Because this does not work with a handheld blender. At least not with mine. And the smoothie maker? Cannot handle 150g of soaked lentils in one go.

It took half a dozen. And a lot bit of patience, some deep breathing and reminding myself that I wasn't getting graded, that making a mess was fine, and that if the "correct" way didn't work, I wouldn't be penalized for finding my own way.

And, in the end, I created a very nice batter. That I then mixed grated carrot and grated zucchini into.

If you give this a try, don't be confused for your batter is super runny. Mine was almost water! But it firms up nicely in the pan. As you can see.

And makes nice, savoury, autumn-coloured pancakes.

... I wonder what red-lentil-pancakes with pumpkin spice taste like ...?

While the pancakes were cooking, one after the other in my Samwise-Gamgee-pan - four in total - I grated three more carrots and chopped two tiny yellow bell peppers into thin slices. Followed by two cloves of garlic and one big(ish) onion.

Pancakes are still going, so onion goes into the stir-fry pan. Then the garlic. Then carrot. Then bell pepper and the other half of the grated zucchini.

And so, bit by bit, while the pancakes were cooking, the final dish came together:

Joyous "golden autumn" vegetable curry!

... though I have realised just now that I forgot the chickpeas.

Oops.

Folks, if you make this? Don't forget your chickpeas! 😃😃😃

... ah, well. I'll simply have to add them in after the fact, stir well, and pretend they have always been there when I re-heat some of it for dinner tomorrow. 😃

So, in conclusion, with hopefully a bit more coherency:

The Golden Autumn curry:

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 of a big zucchini

3 medium carrots

2 tiny yellow bell peppers

200g chickpeas

1 heaped teaspoon curry powder

a splash of ginger juice (bc I didn't have any fresh ginger)

juice of 1 1/2 sad limes

I mean, your limes don't have to be sad. Mine just were, because they'd been lying around for so long, waiting, waiting ... so I put them out of their misery and into this dish.

Here served with quinoa.

(Don't forget the chickpeas, though!!)

Aah, and that's it already for this week! Because I am pretty sure you don't really need to see another picture of yet another cucumber salad!

... do you? 😃

Thanks for reading till the end, and just to remind you all: There is another Kitchen Adventures mini workshop coming up, in case you'd like to explore more!

Yep, and that's it, see you all next week!

Bye!

[thehealingdance]

Back to the Roots ~ Kitchen Adventures almost live episode 4

Or, The One Where I Chop Veggies And Talk About How I Got Into Cooking. 

Featuring: Why Knives Are Dangerous, And Also The One Time I Panicked About 5 Grams of Salt. 

[thehealingdance]

Welcome back to Kitchen Adventures with Joy! I have lost track of how many weeks I've been sharing these now ~ I only know that I missed last week.

Well, last weekend was a lot. Juggling energy work during an online retreat with family that is not spiritual at all and so very mired in the 3d that it's sometimes as if we're living in different worlds.

Which, in a way, we are. It's a very different midnset, a different vocabulary at times. And translating can be fun, but also tiring.

And so there were no kitchen adventures last week.

But! I've had this entire weekend for myself! Four days of just me, myself, and I.

... and my weekly delivery of fruit and veggies, a whole lot of ideas, and best of all: the time to actually do something with these ideas!

Yeah, I am so not overbooking myself like that again.

But as I said, this weekend there was the space, and so, the creating happened. And I actually feel refreshed, my head is clearer, I am more present.

... though that might also actually be due to the fact that I caught up on sleep.

Actually, it's probably both. It's always both, isn't it?

So! Let's dive into what amazing things were created in the tiny kitchen this week!

(It's all good stuff!)

Starting with:

Beetroot dahl, extended edition. Like, this is my standard beetroot dahl recipe ~ only, of course, it's not standard at all, because I use Tandoori masala spice, instead of garam masala, and also never leek, because I don't have leek but a surplus of onions.

So, okay. It's MY standard beetroot dahl, in that it's never standard and always changing.

This week's extended edition has carrot, potato, and aubergine on top of the beetroot.

And, like. This just keeps getting better? It's almost, it doesn't matter, WHAT I put in there, it's just ... gloriously nommy and should be part of everyone's week, it's so good.

Yeah. Beetroot dahl, folks. Make it.

This one was then followed by my applesauce almost-live-cooking thing. Here's what the result looks like:

Here we have:

one green apple, chopped up small

three teaspoons coconut joghurt

three teaspoons applecause

and a plum chopped up small on top

Very autumn-y and just, so good. Seriously. Sometimes food can be, like, this asbolutel flavour explosion in your mouth, and you wonder why you're ever doing anything else but eating.

Or maybe that's just me.

Cooked at the same time as the applesauce was this:

I'm calling this Back to the Roots: bunch of root veggies (plus have of a giant aubergine) and white beans. Chopped up small, cooked together for twenty minutes until soft.

Seasoning is a bit all over the place for this one, I couldn't quite figure out what it wanted. So: salt, pepper, some rosemary, and a spice-mix for heat.

Might need some tomato sauce/passata/tinned tomatoes. Haven't decided yet. But it's nice with the rosemary. :-)

Again, very autumn-y. Also: super dense, gets you back down to earth in, like, half a bowl.

So, if you're feeling floaty and ungrounded? Or have energy moving at a speed you can't keep up with? This will get you grounded and centred.

Enjoy. :-)

And because the box had cucumbers:

Mildly viral cucumber salad: One cucumber, sliced, with a dressing made from crunchy cashew butter, tamari, rice vinegar, lemon juice, and a teaspoon of chili paste.

... I'm really getting into putting chili paste into everything, why is the little jar almost empty, oh noes, tragedy...

Oh, and because there was another cucumber, also radish and carrots and I needed a protein dish:

Accidentally creamy lentil salad. Was not intended to be creamy, but then I used up the last of the (vegan) mayonaise I had in the fridge, and now it is. Verrry nice.

Also there is this, which turned out A MILLION TIMES MORE NOMMY THAN EXPECTED

This is, like, Asian-Joyous fusion:

1/2 cabbage, three small carrots, half a giant aubergine sliced thinly and baked in the oven for 20 minutes at about 195°C

stirred together with a package of glassnoodles

with a dressing made of peanut butter, 4 tablespoons tamari, 3 tablespoons rice vinegar, lemon juice, a little bit of chili paste, some ginger juice

Yeah, I know these measurements are super vague and unhelpful, I simply kept adding liquids until the peanut butter dissolved entirely and the whole thing was creamy-but-not-too-thick.

And the poured into the veggies-noodles mix and stirred together using both a fork and a spoon (and then a rag, to clean up the mess I'd made).

This is SO GOOD. Like. I want to eat the whole pot and I don't care I'll have a stomach ache afterwards kind of good.

... I'm also being very good, in that I have only-slightly-bigger-than-usual servings.

... also getting hungry talking about this AAHHHHH ...

But wait! There is more?

Yes, just without picture, because I tried a gluten free bread made from polenta ~ and in the process discovered the food moths haf got into the sunflower seeds AND the sesame seeds, little bastards ~ and the bread is still cooling.

... first nibbles point to this is something yummy to be repeated though ...

Uh, and yeah. That's it for Kitchen Adventures this week!

I still have an unidentifiable veggie ~ might be a melon, might be a yellow zucchini or a type of pumpkin, who knows! I don't! ~ and a couple of carrots, so ...

More to come, maybe?

If not: Hope to see you next week!

Bye!! <3

[thehealingdance]

applesauce & karma ~ Kitchen Adventures almost live episode 3

Hello, welcome to the third kind-of episode of Kitchen Adventures almost live (cooking), where I try to make applesauce from foraged (windfall) apples, occasionally derailed by the doorbell, an unclogged drain, karma activating, and the mind being a bit all over the place, aka ADHD.

It's a journey. :D 

But it leads to applesauce, and a breakthrough, and some creative expression, so ~ all good!