Lettuce Fish Tacos. Sounds delicious.... NOT!!!! I just think of the ONLY knock knock joke I have for some reason managed to remember all these years. 

Knock Knock 
Who's there?
Lettuce
Lettuce who?
Lettuce In.

Ha.... 

Ha..... Ha..?

Aehemmm........Yes, that's the only Knock Knock joke I remember from when I was a kid. Anyways!
Fish tacos, sure, many people love em, but you gotta try the lettuce version, and a GOOD version before attempting to make something like this at home. I was convinced about fish tacos after having delicious ones at Chantecler in downtown T.O- YUM! and even more delicious ones at a small pizzeria in West downtown of all places. The restaurant ones are infinitely better than mine I won't lie, but I want to encourage you to experiment at home like I am doing at the moment to try and come up with a recipe for these that YOU love. I like them super tangy thus the inclusion of lots of lemon plus I cooked my fish but some recipes (the really yummy ones of course) use ceviche. I am not there yet- I leave the raw fish prep to the experts..............For now that is! Enjoy and lemme know what kind of variations you came up with. 

Remember- this is SUPER healthy! 

Wajida.

Sounds fancy huh? Nope, this is the tawdry, “makes you gasp” version of a gorgeous salad I once had at a restaurant where I was served Arugula with delicious aged cheddar, sliced strawberries, a little blue cheese, almonds, and some other lovely ingredients. But, let’s be honest, no one is fancy on a daily basis. We eat a lot of salad and though we like our classics, we experiment with some very simple ideas all the time. This was one such time. This was ridiculously delicious, so stop freaking out at the “faux” vinaigrette. Lazy Wednesdays call for experimentation and easy alternatives. No measurements given as it all depends on your taste. 

W.P

What you Need:
Serves
2

For the chia pudding:
2 cups coconut milk (buy a carton or make your own; see recipe below)
⅓ cup chia seeds
1.5 TBSP sweetener of choice (raw honey/maple syrup/stevia)
⅓ tsp ground cinnamon

Toppings:
1 ripe mango, peeled and cubed/sliced
handful of fresh mint (Moroccan mint goes really well)
pinch of chia seeds
pinch sesame seeds
1 TBSP coconut yogurt per serving (you can omit this if you don’t have any available, but it’s gorgeous with)
A bit of freshly squeezed lime juice (don’t worry if you have none, it’s awesome without as well)
optional: bee pollen

To make coconut milk:
2 cups water
½ cup coconut (dry, shredded, dessicated – whatever you have, just not flour)
pinch sea salt flakes
pinch vanilla seeds

How to Prepare: If you’re making coconut milk only for this recipe, the easiest way is to add everything to the blender, both the ingredients for the coconut milk and for the pudding, except the chia seeds. 

1) Add: water, coconut (dry, shredded or dessicated), pinch sea salt, vanilla seeds, cinnamon and sweetener. Blitz until you get frothy milk.

For the purpose of this recipe, there is no need to strain the milk as the pulp will give the pudding more creaminess.

2) Pour the spiced coconut milk to a bowl or mason jar, add the chia seeds and give it a good stir or shake. Cover it and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour (until the chia fully expands and absorbs all the milk) or overnight.

3) Add the toppings and be prepared to be dazzled.

Serve chilled.

Hat Tip: raw guru

Nida Kazmi
Twitter: @nida84

One of my absolute favorite desserts to have is a good moist cake. Especially silk cakes, because they're mostly... well, chocolate and sugar! But man is it ever bad for your health. We have far too much sugar in our foods and the over consumption is taxing on our organs. Most of the raw desserts rely on nuts and dates, which although are high in good fats and low glycemic sugars, you're still not supposed to have it very often. And not to mention they take a long prep time and have an extensive ingredient list sometimes. Then, I found THIS. Cue my hercules clap + ghetto booty dance (all in the privacy of my home I assure you).

This silk cake recipe is packed with plant based protein from hemp, contains the antioxidants and nutrients from cacao, utilizes hardly any sugar (you can substitute agave here too) and brings in the silky smooth texture of coconut.

And the bonus? It takes 5 minutes to prepare, and only 1 hour in the fridge to set. Or... you can be like me and blend this in a chilled bowl so you can have it like pudding right afterwards... HA!

Makes one 4 inch Cake

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons coconut oil
3 tablespoons cacao powder
1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
 ¼ cup hemp seeds

How to Prepare: Blend all your ingredients together in a food processor until the texture is pudding like. Place your batter into your mini cake pan and garnish with more hemp seed pressed with a fork. Let your cake set in your refrigerator for 1 hour. So simple! So delicious! Enjoy!

H/T: Young and Raw

Nida Kazmi
Twitter: @Nida84

I love squash.  A lot of people underestimate it but it is versatile and soaks in flavours really well. I use Spaghetti Squash quite a bit, but I have not tried "pasta" with summer squash and looking at this, I will definitely have to. This is a wonderfully easy recipe Nida brings to us today that we can adapt to suit our taste buds. W.P 

Oh my gosh Summer is fully in season - even though we're getting all sorts of rain (??) lol but I'm seeing lots of my friends talk about their farmers market finds and goodies. One of my favorite parts of summer is the squash and zucchini and i absolutely adore squash and zucchini noodles! The marinara is something i've been wanting to try for a while because there is nothing like fresh basil and tomatoes.  If you can manage to get high quality olive oil, its well worth it in every scenario. The buttery, nutty taste of a pure olive oil really lends itself well to the sensational basil and tender tomatoes.

What you need:

2 yellow squash
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan/sea salt

Sauce
6 Roma tomatoes
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes in olive oil & Italian herbs
2 tablespoons crushed walnuts
1 tablespoon garlic flavoured extra virgin olive oil (regular is fine too)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder (or 1 clove garlic)
1 teaspoon onion powder (or 1 tablespoon chopped red onion)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
10-15 fresh basil leaves
1 pitted date
A few sprinkles ground pepper
A few sprinkles Himalayan/sea salt

How to prepare:

1. To make the Pasta: Wash the yellow squash, then use a vegetable peeler to peel layers of the squash off. You may want to experiment peeling from different angles so the “pasta strips” come out smaller sized. Otherwise, you can simply peel it, then use a knife to slice down the centre so the pasta noodles are not too wide.
   
2. Let the squash sit in a large bowl and add 1/4 teaspoon salt, covering all parts of the noodle. This way, it will drain out the water. Let it sit for about 30 minutes or longer while you prepare the other ingredients.
   
3. To make the Marinara Sauce: Chop the Roma tomatoes in four or five pieces, and put them in a food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients. Don’t forget to crush the walnuts with your hands if they’re in big chunks, and wash the basil.
   
4. Once everything is in the blender, give it a few pulses until everything is very well chopped. Do not put this on a high powered blender like Vitamix, because you will end up with orange sauce.
   
5. Remove all the water released from the yellow squash pasta.

At this point, you can either eat it as it is, or do what I really love:

1. Put the pasta sauce and squash separately in a dehydrator or oven (with the lowest setting) for a few hours. This way, you get the cooked flavour. Once you can smell a really fragrant aroma, it’s ready to be eaten.
   
2. Once it’s ready for you, spoon the pasta onto a plate and top it with the sauce and garnish with basil.
   

H/T: Divine Healthy Food

Nida Kazmi
Twitter: @nida84