*draata

I will be honest, I have had this recipe in my selfmade cookbook since the first time I tried a vegan diet. It all started more than 5 years ago when I first became vegan as a part of Christian fasting before Easter celebration. 

Long story short, about 6 weeks I tried veganism, after that I realized how good I'm feeling and how satisfying is the idea of eating without harming any living creature so I decided to just keep on going. Lasted for almost one year. At the time there was no non-dairy milk available in the most popular grocery stores, no vegan subproducts or the green vegan V on the packagings.

This is the answer why I dropped veganism in the first place. It was very hard, took all of my time and dining out was impossible because there were no vegan options on the menus. 

Searching for new recipes or making them up became my daily routine. In one of these times I came up with this amazing, moist and tummy friendly vegan chocolate brownie recipe by combining all that I like with all that I can eat :)

Now, check by yourself how fast and simple this recipe is. Take a blender or food processor, check if you have the following ingredients and let's get started!

1 ripe banana

1 teaspoon vinegar

¼ cup neutral oil

1 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla puree

1 cup brown rice flour

⅓ cup cocoa powder

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons cornstarch

½ teaspoon salt

For perfect chocolate frosting mix these two ingredients and if it's too thick for your taste, add water until it's perfect!

⅔ cup agave nectar

⅔ cup cocoa powder

Using these measurements you will have a full regular brownie pan. Sure, you can use a bread pan instead, just in this case you will need to make 2 batches one after other. Don't forget to keep an eye on the baking time too, it may decrease because of the size of the pan.

Here are easy instructions you should follow to get very moist brownies.

Gluten-free and Vegan, chocolate brownies

When I became a vegetarian it was very easy to live without meat dishes. I have never been a big fan of peace of steak, meatballs in sauce or any kind of meat in general. I'm sure it's because my family don't have that strong dinner tradition with meat on the table and potatoes aside, like other families in this region do. 

But what we had was tradition of homemade and delicious pâté made by my mother. And this for me as a vegetarian was a totally different story..

Red kidney bean vegan pâté #recipe

I remember her getting this very unusual recipe from a well known restaurant in Riga. Making off this pâté was a special process, fulfilled with different aromas and tastes. At that stage of my life it was the finest moment of the day- trying out moms freshly made pâté, that was still a little bit warm and was matching perfectly with a soft ciabatta bread. 

By becoming vegetarian I cut pâté out of my diet with no doubt, of course. I made this choice because my treatment of animals is governed by my sense of right and wrong, not my senses of taste and smell. I replaced born proteins with grown proteins by expanding my diet with different dishes. Now, when I'm eating vegan 99% of the time, I'm searching more for dishes that I haven't even heard about before. 

Trying to discover new dishes more and more by myself. Trying to veganise traditional recipes on my own. This is such an exciting process so I decided to share one of my stories, one of my recipes with you guys. I really hope that this will help to explore new horizons for you who are not vegans or even vegetarians! I'm talking about new experiences and new thoughts on how beyond the meat we know about. 

Red kidney bean vegan pâté

So, I decided to finally try veganise my favourite moms pâté. It wasn't very easy, according to recipe where I had to cut the main ingredient which is poultry liver.. But with a little help from my vegan friends, memory of taste and knowledge of different ingredients, I managed to achieve a very nice result. 

Anyway, you will be the judge this time! Let's get started!

If you have a meat mincer at home, you are more than prepared. Blender or food processor - anything will do if there is no mincer in the sight. And don't forget the following ingredients:

460g red kidney beans (cooked)

1 medium carrot

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoon bell pepper powder

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

30g dairy-free butter

1 freshly squeezed orange juice

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 tablespoon whisky or brandy

Hand full of chopped walnuts

1. Put chopped carrot, onion, garlic in the boiler with small amount of water and stew until fully cooked. 

2. Add salt, pepper, butter, orange juice and alcohol when ready.

3. Let it boil until the first bubble, take off the heat and let it cool down.

4. Combine all ingredients into food processor except walnuts.

5. Blend. 

6. Put pâté in a container and store in the fridge.

Red kidney bean vegan pâté

Here are some tips and tricks I use to make this recipe as easy, fast and delicious as possible!

- I am using pre-cooked, ecologically grown, red kidney beans from packaging, I think they work the best in this recipe. Just remember to rinse before using!

- As I'm always saying, trust your taste buds and add extra flavouring if necessary.

- The pâté will get a little firmer after few hours in the fridge because of the butter. 

- I suggest to add a lot of walnuts. They give this mild bitter taste that is perfect for vegan pâté.

I love to enjoy this pâté with any kind of dark bread or bread toast but you can use it as a rich side pure for dinner dishes. It would be great with mushrooms, potatoes and any other grilled veggies. 

Red kidney bean vegan pâté

The way of making real goose liver pâté is very cruel. There is no such a thing as lucky goose living around the yard and afterwards being killed for their bodies by the people they trusted. It's even more awful.

For fancy pâté farmers are overfeeding goose that much so they can't even walk. And no, overfeeding does not mean giving lil extra portion once in a while. It means putting tube into gooses tummy by force all the way down her throat to belly and putting there a sh*t cocktail. While with the other hand petting her and telling like 'it's gonna be ok' bullsh*t. 

Would you ever trust a human being who can do something like this to other live being? If you ask me, I could never. Period. 

But who I would trust, is this nice and cruelty free recipe above that makes no abuse and suffer to anyone to be as amazing as it is :)

Don't hesitate to make the first step because it's the most important one! 

Let's be kind to all kind!

*draata

Today is my first day of 2020. Accent on 'my' not 2020. It's January 7th already but only now I'm getting this feeling of something new and refreshing knocking on my door. Let me look back on the biggest turn of my life in 2019 and play around with fortune telling for 2020!

Samana, Dominican Republic on January 2019

As they say, travelling feeds the soul. I haven't left Latvia already for 2 months and counting since my last trip to Israel. Feels so much longer! I rechecked the dates of my photos from Tel Aviv and actually couldn't believe the fact myself. Travel bug is biting like MAD! Like the last trip was at least 6+ months ago.
Could it be because of the January? When this beautiful celebration madness has gone away like a crazy party, leaving me with a morning headache and a New Year I know nothing about. Last year we left that all behind and travelled to amazing Dominican Republic. It was so refreshing and truly felt like a new beginning. After all year running the rat race we finally had a chance to say one loud BYE to the city and fly South.
It was a chance to take all the energy needed for one hell of a year waiting for us like 2019 was. Definitely not in a bad way! Soon as we got back from DR, we finally found our one and only.. a new home.

Samana, Dominican Republic on January 2019

One year of renovation from a scratch. Interior design, lighting, furniture, flooring, EVERYTHING was running through my mind as well as my daily schedule like a hamster on a wheel for a whole year. And I'm not even talking about all the work coordination and technical issues that my BF was taking care of. I was doing more of a planning but he had to figure out how in the hell to make it happen! And he did! Thank God I have him on my side!

I'm more than grateful for chances I was given last year. Just no travels for now and no travels any time soon, and I'm totally fine with it. Now we are on the last stage of renovation and furnishing before moving in. It's still very hard to believe. Believe that soon all the renovation will be done, that we won so many battles by figuring out how to connect unconnectable, and found so many answers to questions we knew nothing about. Believe that this is happening at all! Finally!
I promise, very soon you will be noticing new backgrounds of my selfies and recipe photos. But until then we still have lots of work to do. My soul is fed. For now :)

Samana, Dominican Republic on January 2019

And what applies to 2020. I have a feeling this will be a good year. Full of new opportunities, new ideas and loads of hard work. I have set some goals for my personal growth this year. It's not required to achieve, it's required to try achieving.
Finally catch up with some things I have left behind. Read more. Yoga. Speak up more. Yes, even more. Stop excuses. Share what the hell is happening to animals, to world behind closed doors. Help more. Say compliments to known and unknown. Be grateful. Be kind. Keep calm when in need. Create. Meditate. Learn to listen. Zero waste more. Dare! Dare to cross the red lines I have drawn around myself. Show how easy it is to live a better life for the planet. Smile. Forgive. And smile again. Not to take life too seriously. Let out my creative spirit and don't worry about anyone's opinion. Most importantly BE MYSELF.

We are born to explore ourselves. And I truly believe that the best way to do that is through love. So I wish you love. Love to yourself and any other being. To feel love and to spread love. Kindness is gold. Just let it shine.


Have a conscious New Year!
*draata

In my family, we have recycled waste for as long as I remember but we have never before shared an idea of reducing the waste itself. I had never even heard about the zero waste movement before it became popular, although planet friendly solutions is a topic that rises up regularly in my family. How did it happen?

Connection lost.

We started way back by collecting recyclable waste and once a week carried it to recycling containers. As recycling gained more popularity, our city started to provide interested households with recycling containers on their own. We were the first ones on the street who had two of them in our backyard. One for glass and one for paper, plastic and metal/aluminium. For us somehow it didn't seem like something extraordinary or hard to maintain, it came very naturally. This way not only do you do good for the planet but you do good for yourself right away as well. The amount of regular waste decreases and so does the bill to your house maintainer. 

And then it hit me. The most planet friendly way to get rid of waste is just not to create it! 

Connection found.

So here I am, maintaining some of zero waste actions, looking for new waste reducing ideas to implement in my lifestyle and sharing them with you guys. All the mentioned actions below, in my opinion, are very easy to do. Maybe not all at once and not every day in the beginning but the goal is to take the first few steps and, I promise, the next ones will follow. The day will come when you'll start looking differently at the plastic bags in the fruit and veggie isle, plastic straw in your Friday night cocktail and this 'funny' but totally useless plastic shit in the discount store. And it will grow over time and spread to different fields.

Just to be clear, I'm a beginner in the zero waste lifestyle. More appropriate word to describe my currently taken actions would be 'less waste'. Everything that includes consuming less plastic, less fast fashion pieces, less useless things I easily can live without, will do. So I learn, I share and I hope that somewhere out there is a reader who is on the same wavelength and finds at least something of that useful!

Reusable goodies

As you already understood, recycling in my opinion is the top thing. That way you are eliminating the amount of your total waste. Very easy to do, even if you're living in the city and don't have recycling containers downstairs. Containers are placed all over the city, just check which one is closest to you. HERE is a map of recycling containers placed in Latvia.

Next one in my priority list is to reduce use of plastic bags. They are not recyclable at all and are bought and used only because of laziness. There are many other options to choose from. For example, instead of a regular supermarket plastic bag you can use a canvas tote bag. I believe there is at least one in each house, somewhere collecting dust next to other bags on the shelf. So take it out, clean the dust off and put it in your go-to bag. Takes a very small space in the purse, light as a feather and becomes very handy in different situations. Or even better, keep one in your car so you don't forget it when heading for groceries. That way you won't have to pay for the big, plastic bag for products as well. I have a few reusable cotton bags because sometimes one is not enough. Now there are so many designs available in almost every shop, you can still look stylish and don't mess up your outfit.

Reusable product bags

Next up, one of the worst materials ever made. Please, be wise and cut plastic food wrap once and for all. Material used in making this wrap is a mix of different kinds of plastic, so it's not recyclable. That means you will use it only once but the planet will remember it. Forever. Somewhere. Floating in the ocean or buried deep under the ground. Forever.
For food storage I'm using either glass jars or reusable BPA free plastic containers. Extra easy to clean, food stays fresh for long and no more wondering where I have lost my dishes while they are sitting in the fridge with some old sauce or half eaten salads in it.

The next key word is refill. Whatever you can, wherever you can. From water and coffee to shampoo, shower gel and even laundry detergent. There are a lot of shops gaining popularity by buying everything in bulk and selling it without packaging. This is one of my favourite things, counting how much plastic packaging I have saved on and what impact it does to the planet. Most of my laundry and other cleaning agents are refilled. All it takes is to collect necessary packaging from home and bring it to the shop, and if the planet saving cause is not enough, it saves a lot of money over the time too.

My favs - cotton canvas tote bag and hot tea thermos

Do you really need this? Talking about the box full of imitation jewelry made in China and those cheap beauty products never opened. Oh, and the fast fashion pieces in the closet which door has been impossible to close for years. Don't buy what you don't need.
I get you. I love shopping too but there is a difference between unnecessarily spending money from right to left and buying things you really like and need. It's hard to stay focused but I have an answer to your prayers. Online shopping! 
Great way to stay conscious while shopping, at least it works perfectly for me. You have an opportunity to take your time shopping and if you're not 100% sure, you can leave your cart and go back online whenever you are ready. Find out product composition, where it's made and is this really what you are looking for. Make research if necessary! It's only a few clicks away, no running around the city like mad. There's no rush, you can think twice and only then make a purchase.

Miit Coffee shop, Lāčplēša iela 10

These were a few easy tips on how to join zero waste movement and start doing it on a daily basis. As this is not my biggest passion, I still get distracted pretty often. 27 years and counting of living in a material world have left and will definitely leave full pockets of bad habits. I tend to forget my canvas tote bag in the car sometimes and I just don't find time to go shopping to market, where it's much easier to buy fruits and veggies without any packaging. Few months ago I bought wrapping paper to wrap my Christmas presents. In general, simple wrapping paper is recyclable if it's not decorated with glitters or foil, but at the same time I could've used more planet friendly solutions, like furoshiki gift wrapping (totally suggest to check it out if you're still wondering what it is). 

All I'm trying to say is that even the smallest step matters. As you can see, there are so many easy actions to take for a good cause. You will say it is a drop in the ocean. I will say these drops will add up and create ocean. Someday. 

Remember, there is no Planet B.

*draata

I don't have tips for everything (at least not on the blog.. yet), but I do have a fresh list of 15 conscious gift ideas for Christmas or any other celebration. All of them are our mama Earth friendly, some of them more, some of them less, but by choosing any of these gifts you will have a meaning, a story to tell and an answer to the question 'why'. You're welcome!

Dig in and have yourself and your beloved ones a very merry Christmas :)

1. BOSH! Cookbook - PRICE 23 EUR (now on sale for 10 EUR)

Vegan banana loaf cake with chocolate and nuts

Vegan banana loaf cake with chocolate and nuts

1. Put in the blender or food processor bananas, add all the wet ingredients and blend.
2. Chop chocolate and nuts in a size you desire.
3. Put in a big bowl all the dry ingredients, including chopped chocolate and nuts, and mix.
4. Add wet to dry ingredients in a bowl and combine them well!
5. Pour the mixture in a baking pan greased with dairy-free butter or lined with baking paper.
6. Bake it in 180C degrees for 60 - 65 minutes, afterwards let it cool down to a room temperature before cutting it into slices.

Vegan banana loaf cake with chocolate and nuts

• It is totally fine to change ingredients with something alike in a texture and taste. I usually use any dairy-free milk I have in the fridge, I replace light brown sugar with dark brown, that has been flavoured and tinted with molasses and instead of dairy-free butter I almost always use extra virgin olive oil. 
• In some countries it's hard to find an allspice. It is made from the dried berries of a plant Pimenta dioica. The flavor of allspice is similar to mix of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and pepper, so I replace allspice with the three first mentioned.
• Adjust chocolate and nuts to your taste! I personally don't like pecans, instead of them I use hazelnuts and chocolate. They always end up a little bit more in my cake :)
• Keep an eye on the baking time. The mentioned baking time in instruction is suggested, as I wrote before the baking time in the recipe can change because of the pan size or other reasons. For my banana loaf cake it takes about 80 mins to be perfect.

Vegan banana loaf cake with chocolate and nuts

For me, veganism first came into my kitchen, body and only afterwards it took over my wardrobe. Maybe not the most common way but the most ego centered for sure (sounds familiar?). At first thinking about myself and only then about who suffers because of my unreasonable decisions. In any case, thank God I'm here and thanks to the Lord you are still reading.

Please, continue.

I have reached the point where I don't buy any new clothing, shoes, accessories, anything made from animals or made by animal suffering. Although, I'm still wearing off some pieces from my wardrobe that are not vegan. Again, as I already mentioned the same reason in my blogpost 115 million reasons why, I don't believe it would make the world a better place if I threw away my leather boots to buy new ones only this time in vegan leather. I will do it eventually, just at this point I don't see how it goes hand in hand with my less waste lifestyle and how exactly it is helping animals or the one and only planet Earth. The only exception is fur. I got rid of every single piece of fur that I had from a long time ago. It made me feel sick and  full of shit. Just wanted to clear this out.

When I started to accept and buy only vegan friendly fashion pieces, I understood how easy it is! I don't have to limit myself in any way and no one has to sacrifice because of fast fashion trends or me trying to compensate something my mama didn't gave me. Stores are loaded with vegan leather whatever and new generation clothing fabrics and materials. Even faux fur nowadays looks like real fur! It's insane! And I'm not talking about luxurious brands only.

H&M in latest Winter collection had few faux fur coats, looking so alike real fur that I had to check the price tag, is it really faux?! Sorry guys, but one thing Pamela Anderson taught us well by saying fur is worn by beautiful animals and ugly people. I have been one of them for years but now I am ashamed of it. And you should be too, by knowing how much pain and suffering it causes to animals. It has never been a better time to dress vegan, I swear!

All I'm trying to say is.. stay awake and think ahead. I understand that people are thinking only about their own asses but the time has come and we should start to think more about the world itself. It just makes sense, no? At least for me it does. We don't have to choose fashion over nature and animals anymore, we can have it all!

So, I hope you are still reading! Now when I have filtered out all of you who care and who don't, I can finally start my wandering about even more conscious or ethical fashion.

Fashion is one of the most damaging industries on the planet. So, I caught questioning myself what more can I do, if it has been that easy for me so far? What's the next step after taking dead animals off of my shopping list? That's how I got to conscious fashion. Let me explain.
Conscious fashion is one big term that covers different ways of how fashion can be better than ever before. Here are the most commonly used terms and meanings, so you don't get lost in translation while shopping.

Vegan

Nothing were taken away from animal to produce this product (fur, skin or even wool). Yes, let me shock you, even silk and wool is not vegan because these materials are obtained from the live being.

Organic

The materials used are grown or made without using any harsh chemicals (including color dye). Very important label to look for when buying clothing for baby.

Recycled

Reused materials where crashed into fabrics, threads or other materials and later used to make a new product. Less waste, less problems to the planet Earth. This one gets more popular by industrial development.

Upcycled

Don't get confused. This means, used materials are reused without crashing them. Have seen bikini strings partly made of fishing nets? That's what I'm talking about.

Eco-friendly

Reduced pollution to the minimum by producing fashion products in this manner. Friendly for everyone, specially the planet. 

Fair trade

Fashion piece made by workers with fair living wage and acceptable working conditions. As most of the fast fashion brands produce their products in underdeveloped countries, this one is very important.

Sustainable

In my opinion, definition of sustainability is still somewhere in the middle of all. Mainly, it's a combination of eco-friendly and fair trade. So it has a better ecological impact and it supports social justice no matter where clothing or product is made. Sometimes it is measured in percentage of the product. The bigger percentage, the better.

Biodegradable

After being trashed, the material easily decompose into natural elements. Commonly known as natural materials like cotton, linen, wool and hemp fabrics.

And let's not forget about the well known option to buy already preloved clothing. The second-hand shops are not that scary and smelly anymore, check out some of them! Catch some amazing used, vintage pieces in the most unexpected places. 

Hopefully, now you have a clearer vision of how you can help the planet, animals and yourself (karma really is a bitch only if you are). I have set one rule for myself when I go shopping (very rare) or shopping online (too often). Anything I buy to fulfill my wardrobe, have to match with minimum two of these terms.

Remember, often products are not 100% recycled, upcycled or whatever because of quality it could offer. Only by industrial development we will be able to reach the point where fashion will be 100% conscious. Fast fashion brands are now trying to stand up for ethically made products, so all you have to do is search for the label and see what exactly and how much are they doing for the planet by making this product. 

I really hope you found or will find by the time at least a single thing useful from this blogpost. I know that you care, so let's start this movement together and let's start it now! Again and again.. all it takes is to be conscious. This is our only home.

BTW

HERE you can see the top 15 eco-friendly footwear brands by PETA, some of them are also 100% vegan. In this article you will recognise popular brands like Reebok and discover new and unknown brands that have an amazing footwear. My absolute favourite footwear brand from this list is ROMBAUT. They have been known for innovative use of materials such as stone, tree bark, natural rubber, cotton cellulose, and coconut fiber. God, I can't wait for the day I'll be looking for a brand new sneakers for me AND my boyfriend. Amazing unisex designs- match as you wish! 

You can have it all. Love more. Love Earth.

*draata

Guys! I'm so excited to finally share my first recipe on this blog. Yes, I know. Finally. For my defence, I was spending more time on cooking and mastering some of my favourite recipes than on blogging, but let's put the shaming aside and get back to the business.

Vegan Sour Cream

1. Rinse cashews and then soak them in hot water for some 20 min while you are running to the local market 'cause you definitely forgot to buy something (I usually change hot water after 10 mins to new, just boiled one but it's not necessary).
2. Add all the remaining ingredients in the blender or food processor.
3. Add cashews without water and blend until smooth and creamy!

• Start with the mentioned amount of lemon juice and vinegar, add more if needed in the end. These two ingredients are very strong and if used too much, can easily ruin the plain taste (and rich at the same time) we are looking for.
• Blend well. In this case taste depends on the texture a lot. I don't have fancy blender so I stopped when I thought it's the best it can do, but it can more, trust me.
• Don't worry if the vegan sour cream gets off-white, it basically depends on the yogurt you choose to use and it won't affect the taste.
• Put it in the fridge for a couple hours before using. It does magic! Very similar to dairy sour cream (and revenge), taste better when served cold :)
• Remember, good quality ingredients are important. Poor quality cashews can give a bitter taste.
• Vegan sour cream can stay fresh in the fridge up to 4 days, although in my home it never lasts that long.
• Don't stress about the cup sizes if you don't have a right measurer. Just follow the proportions. That way you can always choose how much of the mixture you want to make.
• If the result is too thick to your taste, add water by a teaspoon to avoid runny consistency.

Vegan Sour Cream

Vegan Sour Cream