My first vegan Christmas
In July 2013 I became a vegan. Some of you might have noticed – especially the change on my Facebook Fanpage. The truth is that most of my time I am raw vegan, not just a vegan who eats a lot of cooked yet unhealthy meals.
The change might seem a bit drastic to some, and in the beginning it really was too radical to me too. But over time, every day more and more I see the positive change on my body, mind and spirit which reminds me of why I do it.
After 28 years of exactly the same traditions, this was my first vegan Christmas. For me Christmas is about spending time with family and each year I try to get home no matter where in the world I might be. The good thing is that in my family we celebrate Christmas twice – once on the 24th December and then on the 6th January on Three Kings Day so almost every year I can make it to East Slovakia at least for one of them.
What a lucky girl I am! This year I am spending both Christmases at my grandparents’ house in a small village Stakcin, just 8 km from my home town. This is exactly the place where I am used to spend my Christmas – with my grandparents, cousins and uncles.
I am not the biggest fan of stereotype but Christmas traditions are one of the very few routines I do like to follow every year. I think it’s wonderful that my family thinks you should not eat any meat on the Christmas day but fish does not count in that. I don’t really know where and when this tradition came from as some Slovak families do cook meat for Christmas dinner already but it only made it easier for me to skip just one fish meal.
As usual, on Christmas day I did not eat anything until late afternoon. We do fast – it’s one of the traditions too when only drinks and trying out the meals when cooking is allowed. So did I. With my mum we were helping out my grandma with all the meals. We made also a healthier version of all the meals for me – without oil, normal salt, black pepper or roasted onion, as simple as possible yet still resembling the traditional meals I loved.
I also made 2 raw vegan cakes to make it healthier – a chocolate banana cake and an apple pie.
Raw chocolate banana cake recipe:
Soak 1,5 cup of almonds in water overnight, cleanse them with fresh water in the morning and grind them together with 10 pitted dates. Make a sort of a dough and put it in the form. Then you need to melt half cup of coconut oil. It is solid at the temperature less than 24 Celsius degrees – in that case put a cup with coconut oil into a bowl with boiling hot water and after a minute it will turn fluid. Blend the coconut oil with 4 bananas, 4 tablespoons of raw cacao powder, 2 tablespoons of carob and a bit of cinnamon and pour it on top. After a few hours in the fridge it’s ready.
raw chocolate banana cake
Raw apple pie:
Grind dates with figs to get the sticky dough (you might add soaked nuts too). Blend apples with melted coconut oil, raw cacao powder and cinnamon and put it on top of the dough. Then cover with sliced apples. Melt a bit of coconut oil again and add Kakauko (raw hemp protein with raw cacao and coconut flower sugar), stir it and spill it on top. Put in the fridge for a few hours too.
raw apple pie
To be honest, as I know you should eat fruit before any other meals, I had a piece of both cakes an hour before dinner to make it easier for my stomach. Then I ate according to our family tradition: a piece of black bread with garlic, a few cooked vegan Christmas meals such as sauerkraut soup with mushrooms, pirohy, beans, a potato salad, bobalky with poppy seeds – some traditional Slovak cuisine meals.
raw vegan cakes
Christmas sauerkraut soup
Christmas beans
ready to try my raw vegan cakes
proud of my cakes
wearing an A.B.S. by Allen Schwartz dress
Oh, and the special blue dress I was wearing on the special Christmas day is from A.B.S. Style Fall 2013 collection designed by the fabulous Allen B. Schwartz. The dress I am wearing is super comfy and great for many different occasions and I truly love it! Perfect size and my favorite colour.
Joshua
| #
I just made the banana cake, it’s not finished yet but the topping was yummy. Got the wrong kind of nuts too but hey I improvised ;)
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
| #
So proud of you, Josh :) Next time it will be even better ;)
Charu
| #
That’s pretty awesome! My husband is vegan and I am vegetarian and we had a great Christmas, we made vegan sugar cookies and cupcakes too. Happy New Year!
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
| #
Glad to see more vegan and vegetarian people in the travel blogging world :) Happy New Year to you Charu too ;)
Crazy sexy fun traveler
| #
Comment@ Agness:
Completely understand, Agness. I prefer to be 100% raw vegan 99% of the year and then just have even cooked vegan meals at Xmas to follow the tradition :)
Crazy sexy fun traveler
| #
Comment@ Ivana:
Thanks Ivana. Believe you so much when you say you miss these dishes when abroad as it’s one of the reasons why I always go home for Xmas, no matter what :)
Agness
| #
I love eating healthy and my Christmas did look different this year with plenty of salads and fruits on the table, but going 100% raw would be way too extreme to me. Congratulations! The chocolate cake looks so awesome!!
Ivana
| #
ooh, yummy cakes!! and bobalky, pirohy… I miss a lot these dishes this Christmas. Many happy trips and
Xrystos Razdajetsia!!