I love baking my own bread. It is actually very easy. And putting extras inside the bread makes it so much tastier and healthier!

For this recipe, you first need to boil/steam/bake a piece of butternut squash. How big depends on your preferences, but think of about a 4-5 inch slice of a medium-large squash.

Mix the dry ingredients:
1 cup almond meal
2/3 cup ground flaxseed
1/3 cup arrow root flour (easy to find in Asian foodstores)
1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder or 1 tbsp bicarbonate
1 tbsp psyllium husk
1 tbsp potato fiber
Optional: 3 tbsp hemp powder

Once the squash has cooled down, mix it with the moist ingredients.
Approx. 1.5-2 cups boiled butternut squash
4 egg yolks
4 tbsp olive oil
Approx. 1/3 cup coconut milk

Whip the 4 egg whites until hard.
Stir in the liquid mix to the flour blend. Fold in the hard egg whites gently.

Pour in a muffin oven mold, with or without paper forms as you prefer (I used a silicone form and then don’t need aditional paper).
Bake in the center of the oven at 340F approx. 20 min (check with a toothpick – when it comen out clean, the bread is ready, but you can leave it in longer if you want it to get golden).

Once they have cooled, you can freeze them. Thus you always have lovely home-made bread at hand!
Enjoy!

Today I commit to being the best version of myself.

If I try to copy someone else, I cannot be but a bad copy of them. It is my most solemn duty to maximize my skills and polish my sharp edges, and become the best Tisha that can be. Because I am unique. And so are you. I read a nice quote: “The only person you should try to be better than, is the person you were yesterday.”

Sometimes, in order to be my best self, I need to do a lot of work: polish aspects of my inner diamond until they look shiny and beautiful. However, it is equally important to have some time, regularly, spent on being alone with myself, listening to my inner voice, feeling peace and inspiration. I cherish those moments. When are you going to dedicate some time to YOU?

Holistic refers to the whole, rather than a part. Let’s use a health example, to understand it easier.

Conventional medicine looks only at the symptom: a tumor, an infection, an organ causing trouble. In general, they either do not know or do not care going to the origins – or they simply have no time to do so.

The holistic vision looks for the root of a problem and envisions the patient as a whole. Why did this disease start, in the first place? How do you feel, at all levels? What do you think? What do you eat? What level of stress do you have? What exercise do you do? What is your work situation, and that with your friends, your partner? What kind of inner (spiritual) life do you have? Have you been exposed to external factors (chemical products, radiation) that might have caused this situation?

Once this has been evaluated, you can look at which approaches you can use in the healing process. From herbs and essential oils to Reiki, Bach Flower essences, osteopathy/chiropractics or other touch techniques, massage, changes in eating and lifestyle, etc.etc. Sometimes the surgeon’s knife is necessary indeed, or the doctor is welcome to put the broken bone in its place and set a cast around, but this alone will never fix the root issue.

These brownies are likely the most delicious chocolate thing I have eaten. A brownie that leaves you satisfied, with just enough sweetness, topped with a silky and creamy chocolate frosting. They are also packed with healthy fats, protein and fiber. Gluten-free, dairy-free, raw-food. They are sweet, but without refined sugar – not apt for diabetics, but comparatively ok as a healthier form of treat.

When I read the original recipe (which I have varied), I felt a bit suspicious about putting avocado on the icing. But it really has no avocado flavor, which on the other hand grants it a wonderful creamyness. The coconut oil helps the cream harden with the cold. Pure raw cocoa has many therepeutic properties – you will probably find it easiest in a health food store or gourmet supermarket (note: I am not referring to sugary cocoa drink powder!).

Brownies (approx. 18 squares)

1 cup peeled nuts
1 cup pitted fresh dates
1/4 cup raw cocoa powder
1 tbsp peanut or almond butter
1 pinch salt
Approx. 1-2 tbsp water

1. Put the nuts in a food processor and mix a few seconds until it’s finely chopped.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients. Careful about the salt, a tiny pinch is enough. Keep mixing until it’s well blended.
3. The paste should be smooth and somewhat sticky (even if you can see the tiny bits of nuts). Add some water to adjust the consistency, I needed 2 tablespoons.
4. Spread and press out the paste in a mold (I used 2/3 of a bread tin, covered with baking paper). Put it into the freezer while you prepare the frosting.

Chocolate frosting
1 ripe avocado
Seeds of 1 vanilla pod or 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
3 tbsp liquid honey
1 tbsp coconut oil
3 tbsp raw cocoa powder

1. Put all the ingredients in the blender and mix until smooth. Make sure you cannot see any avocado fragments.

Take out the tin from the freezer and extend the frosting on top. You may have leftovers, depending on the thickness of the layer. Put then the mold back in the freezer (or fridge if you will eat it soon) and let it harden. Later, take out the brownie from the mold, thanks to the paper it will be easy. Put it on a cutting board and cut cubes of the desired size. Keep in the fridge (or freezer) until eating time. If you froze it to eat it days later, keep in mind defrosting it some hours before, in the fridge.

If you’re feeling adventurous you can try variations. I made them with cinnamon and used peanut butter with chili, so they had a sting.

Idea! The frosting can be eaten on its own as chocolate cream/mousse. In that case, put it in small cups and leave in the fridge to harden.

When you change your diet due to dietary restrictions such as a new food intolerance, or simply a change of mind, like becoming vegetarian, a problem that you find is that you are still craving those tasty foods you used to eat before. A very popular dish is Lasagna – a pitfall dripping with lactose, gluten, and meat. So, let us explore some basic alternatives so you can adapt your own favorite recipes.

Lasagna basics. A lasagna is composed of a bottom layer of tomato sauce with meat, made by frying the meat (ground beef or turkey) with onion, garlic and salt, then adding crushed canned tomatoes and herbs (oregano, basil, marjoram – some red wine enriches the sauce and the alcohol boils away long before you eat it) and letting it boil. After spreading a layer of the tomato-meat sauce, comes a layer of pasta, followed by a thick amount of grated mozzarella cheese. Repeat with another layer of sauce, pasta and now a cottage cheese-ricotta-eggs-herbs mixture. Finally another thick layer of mozzarella.

You can find a full recipe of this tasty gluten-free lasagna from the picture above here.

If you have gluten intolerance, you will need to replace the pasta itself. Alternatives are: gluten free pasta (not always tasty or healthy, and always very expensive), pancakes made of gluten-free flours, or why not go completely paleo and use layers of zucchini, or aubergine or leek (cutting open the sheets along the length and giving them a quick boil to soften them before using them).
If you are using béchamel sauce in your recipe, you can make the white sauce with Maizena (corn starch).

If you are lactose intolerant you can try lactose-free cheeses (if available and priceworthy) but in my case I do not tolerate milk protein either, so I substitute dairy products entirely with a mix of coconut milk with whipped egg – this hardens into a white-ish layer that resembles melted cheese.

This is my Paleo Lasagna with zucchini. The white thing you see is coconut milk with egg.

If you are vegan or otherwise avoiding meat, you can replace it with texturized soy very easily. But if you are also avoiding the much gene-modified soy, you can try different creative alternatives: beans in tomato sauce! Tofu in tomato sauce! (well that’s soy too) Use the tomato sauce instructions and replace the meat with your preferred alternative (keeping the flavor of the garlic, onion, herbs and wine). Or ditch the tomato sauce and try fried onion with spinach, pine nut seeds and raisins.

Going “gluten-free” by replacing the same gluten-rich foods with their synthetic and pricey alternatives is by far not the best option. Gluten-free replacement foods (such as bread, cookies, pasta you can find in the supermarkets) often have huge amounts of chemical compounds, sugar, and starches. It is much easier, cheaper and healthier to just switch over to whole foods (for instance, replacing pasta with zucchini).

Note: don’t freak out about following a recipe exactly as it’s written! You can often create even tastier versions by tweaking it your way.

Lasagna takes a fair amount of time to prepare, but a great thing about it is that the recipes make pretty large batches, so you get a lot of extra servings to keep in the freezer for future quick meal solutions. This is another batch of lasagna I made a couple years ago, with the pancake variant. It made 9 servings.

Have fun adapting your favorite recipe according to your own bio-individual needs and enjoy this tasty meal without feeling guilty – or sick. 🙂