My purple salad

Hallo my dear friends and happy new year! Yes, I know, I am quite late.... but it's fine as well, come on!
So, have you already written down your new year's resolutions? Not yet?
Well, I have started this amazing new year with a huge energy injection: a backpack trip!
I love travelling and I love to do it with my best friend/companion/soul mate...
So, I had time to write down my new resolutions:

1. I would like to be, stay and live more surrounded by nature
2. I would like to worry less and trust more
3. I would like to train my self (body, mind and soul) more and in a better way
4. I would like to be busy and extremely happy to be tired

That's all!

So, let me know about YOUR new year's resolutions!

I would also start this 2016 with a recipe, healthy and full of vibrant colour: my purple salad.

Purple is the result of red and blue together (opposite colors...), is the color of transformation, of transition, represents the 7th Chakra... It's actually one of my favourite colors ever.

Using these ingredients, full of life and energy, you will love this fantastic salad.

Ingredients for two:

1/2 red cabbage

a little bunch of grapes

a handful of dried red berries

a handful of walnuts

the juice of one tangerine

the juice of half lemon

some drops of apple vinegar

salt

extravergin olive oil.

Preparation:

How easy it is!

Just cut very finely the red cabbage and, in two, the grapes. Mix them with the dried red berries and the walnuts. The dressig has to be the simpliest but the tastier ever: lemon and tangerine juice, salt and extravergin olive oil. What else do you need?

Setting the table:

All purple? Mmmm, no, it's too predictable! Why don't you create something like these candles?

I saw this table in a restaurant in Havana and I took this picture immediately! I love the combination of these three colors!

The music:
In this 2016 I also decided to take more care of my body, nourishing it with some... dance. Yes, dance! I don't care if I am not a good dancer, if I am quite a "piece of wood"! Dance can mean something very deep for our entire being. I said "nourishment" not by chance.
Which music could be purple? Maybe this...

Don't worry, I haven't gone bananas.
On the contrary.
Finally.

The movie:
Purple, as I said before, means transformation.
I think that on this mood, the right movie could be this:

"Look fear in the face and it will cease 

to trouble you"

Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri

Autumn leaves

I used to go to this place when I was 16, with my little boy friend, sitting on the crossbar of his bike.
I came back few days ago, many many years later, and it's still a magical place...

Super healthy cookies

Hi everybody! I am back ;-)
I was thinking about how is simply amazing to have the possibility to share "the kitchen" with our own mother.
My mom is a gift.
We can have long discussions about everything, even with a quite "hot" voice tone... we can be absolutely in contrast regarding a lot of things, but it doesn't matter. We can also be very intense together; we know each other so well.
We learned to say "I am sorry" together, after having stumbled together...
And we will be there for one each other always, no matter what.
She is an example, in her fragility and in her strenght.

Rita, beautiful blue eyes, huge heart, thank you for your Love.
I love you too.

So, these super healthy tender cookies are a "family joint-venture". We made them together, for you!

Ingredients:
7 dates
1 handfull of raisins
100 ml of rice milk
1 t.s of baking powder
1 pinch of salt
6 T.S. of buckwheat flour
5 T.S of almond flour
1 t.s of grated ginger
1 egg
1 handfull of nuts
1 T.S of peanut butter
1 T.S of sunflower oil

Preparation:
If you can, call your mom to be with you during the "making of" to enjoy cooking together!
If you can't, just think about her with all you heart, all your LOVE. Visualize her in the point between your eyebrows, the center of concentration, and send her thoughts of deep love and gratitude...
This is the secret ingredient of this recipe.

Now, mix in a blender the dates, the raisins and the rice milk. Put this sweet cream in a bowl and then add all other ingredients. Mix them always with deep kindness and love. Preheat the oven at 180° and then bake the cookies for 12 minutes. Please, check them from time to time. Do not burn them! (as I do sometimes...)

You can decorate the cookies, just before baking them, with some raisins and nuts.
As probably you noticed, they are very healthy bacause I didn't use any sugar, animal fats or dairy products.

Setting the table:
I really love lights and candles... in this case, I used some "little Angles" lights. I think that they are adorable in every moment of the year, not only during Christmas time. You can put them on the table, in the middle, or hanged somewhere in the kitchen. Just look Nigella Lawson's kitchen...

The music:
My father conquered my mom's heart, during the 70's, with this song. How cool!
He couldn't forget her blue eyes... eh eh eh....

The movie:
I know that this is one of my mother's favourite movie... Mamma MIA!!! I like this soundtrack too!

Mamma, ti adoro!

Coming soon...

I am working on my super healthy cookies!
Soon on That's Vegetarian Amore, 100% made with Love.

"Personal trainer proof" spaghetti

Probably for rawfoodists this discovery will mean nothing, but for me it's a real epiphany.
I bought in a wonderful shop called Sur la Table (by the way, why you are not in Italy too?!) a fantastic tool. Yep, it's that one I published in my last post. It's this guy:

This is a peeler able to make vegetable spaghetti. Zucchini spaghetti, to be clear.
I have to be honest, I've always been quite skeptical about this kind of "pasta". You know, I am italian... spaghetti are spaghetti!
But, I think that I just entered in a new world... a world where you can have the satisfaction of a wonderful plate of spaghetti for dinner, without quarrelling with your diet or your personal trainer!
The sauce that I've chosen for this recipe is also full of iron and proteins...perfect for your gym training.

So, get online or in a shop this little new friend and start your journey to a perfect, balanced, no carbs, harmonious, funny and tasty dish: the personal trainer proof spaghetti!

Ingredients for two:
6 zucchini
and whatever you like on your usual pasta: pesto, tomato sauce, chili, garlic, cheese....

For this recipe I will use:
an handfull of dried shiitake mushrooms
10 pecan nuts.
2 leeks
1 garlic wedge
4 TS of extravergin olive oil
salt & pepper

Preparation:
First thing: put the shiitake mushrooms in a bowl full of lukewarm water and wait half an hour. After 30 minutes, filter the water (do not throw it away!) and let the shiitakes have fun and relax a little bit.

Second thing: use the peeler. Peel the zucchini and create amazing spaghetti. Please, sing something nice during this operation. Singing will bring you joy!

Third thing, the condiment: in a large pan, heat up 2 TS of extravergin olive oil with the leeks cutted in little slices. Sautè them and then add the shitake mushroom and the pecan nuts (irregularly chopped). If necessary, add some filtered mushroom water to moisturize the sauce. Add salt and pepper as you like.

Here we are with our zucchini spaghetti: take a big nonstick pan, put 2 TS of extravergin olive oil and 1 garlic wedge. Staaaaaaaart the fire! It has to be very high! Stir-fry zucchini noodles for 3/4 minutes but add salt only at the end.
Now, it's time: season your spaghetti with this delicious mushroom and nuts sauce and enjoy the surprising texture and taste of this recipe!

NB: Why don't we talk, just for a moment, about shiitake mushrooms?... Have you ever tried them? No?...
Ohhhh, you don't know what you're missing! They are little but with a big personality indeed! They are firm and aromatic, very very healthy, full of iron and they are considered a symbol of longevity in Asia. I just love them.

Setting the table:
Autumn is here,  all the leaves are getting orange, yellow and brown. So, fill the table with this colors. Don't be afraid to use also brown:it's a very elegant and relaxing color. You could also create a table centerpiece with some little orange pumpkins, some cestnuts and leaves. Use your creativity...

The Song:
They are just incredible (since the 80's) and this song, sung in this way, it's so authentic and beautiful. It's perfect for a cooking-with-love session!

The Movie:
I've chosen for you this movie not because it has any link with zucchini... but because it has enchanted me with its "ode to emotions" and with its hilarious scenes. This is one of the best!

It's just...

... a little tool.
Actually it's my new inspiration.
Soon a new recipe for you ;-)

Veggie Mayo forever

My dear friends, it's time to talk about something that, when I discovered it, opened an entire world in front of me.
A delicious mayo, much better than that the traditional one, so light and easy to prepare!
Ok, this is a fantastic base for many dressing, sauces and recipes. With it you can prepare jummy potato salads, "insalata russa" (Russian salad), mock "vitello tonnato" (veal with tuna sauce), delicious sandwiches and much more... And don't forget all its variations: with ketchup, with garlic and parsley, with onion and basil, with capers and olives, with saffron, curry, cumin seeds, etc...
Use your fantasy!


Ingredients:
120 ml of unsweetened, plane soy milk
80 ml of 1/2 sunflower seeds oil and 1/2 extravergin olive oil
Some drops of squeezed lemon
Salt
A pinch of turmeric powder
1/2 ts of mustrad

Preparation:

With your loyal and irreplaceable blender (Minipimer....) put in a high plastic glass the soy milk. Than add, little by little, the oil. Move the blender up and down to incorporate as much air as possible.
Then, it will happen a magic when you'll put also the lemon juice... (in scientific terms, it will coagulate!). And the mayo will become firm and super creamy.
This is the moment to give color to your mayo: add some turmeric powder, yes!
Then add salt and a little quantity of mustard.
It's done ;-) now it's your turn: use it on the bread, in a salad, with some crunchy, fresh vegetable and also (believe it or not) also as a moisturizing face and hair mask!!! Wherever you like!


Setting the table:
Oh, I love those old, stylish, very 800's gravy boats! Now they are actually disappearing from our homes but... I'd like to use one of them for my veggie mayo. Just to combine new and old together, I love it!

The music:
Well, do you have any suggestion about how to combine mayonnaise with a song? Mmmmm... This is quite tricky! Let's think about something "old" but always modern. Maybe I found it...I am thinking about something light, smooth and tender. Something that you can enjoy with no worries or hurries. Why not this enchanting voice?
Amelita Galli Curci  is such an incredible talent and her story is so beautiful and inspiring that I really suggest you to go on the web and looking for her. Thanks Amelita for your divine voice!

The movie:
Another extraordinary woman: Julia Child. I really like the scene in the movie Julie&Julia where Julia explains the true secret for a perfect mayonnaise, she is so passionate! Unfortunately, I couldn't find that particular scene, but I really did loved also this one: