Calmly Kitchen

A little run-down on what will be involved on the farm to table experience.

🗓 Dec 6 12:00-15:00
📍 Viana do Castelo

Tickets available for purchase through link in bio 🔗

See you there!

Through this guided journey, you will:

🌿 Witness regeneration — see how damaged land and depleted soil can return to abundance through mindful, restorative practices.

🌱 Experience permaculture as a living system that nourishes both the land and the body.

🧠 Discover the connection between soil health and gut health, and how biodiversity supports emotional and nervous-system wellbeing.

🥬 Learn why organic, pesticide-free, non-GMO practices matter for ecological balance, cleaner food, and greater health.

🍴 Enjoy a sit down 100% plant-based lunch prepared with ingredients straight from the garden.

✨ Leave inspired to bring regenerative, wellness-focused habits into your garden, kitchen, and daily life.

🗓 When: Sat 6 Dec · 12:00–15:00ish
📍 Where: Viana do Castelo

👋 Meet your hosts:

Casa Kiko — A suburban art + permaculture project in Viana do Castelo.

Calmly Kitchen — Plant-based holistic health coach & wellness cook specializing in digestive + nervous system healing.

Spots limited, with only 8 tickets available.

Purchase through link in bio.

tonight!

Rice paper rolls 💚💚💚

Perfectly fresh and light for this warm weather.
100% Vegan & Gluten Free

See you there!

Some tips for shopping on a wholefood plant-based diet, including a breakdown of what I purchased this week!

1. Produce.

🥗 Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado are salad staples for me.
🥗 Bananas and apples are also handy to have for snacks, smoothies, and juices. It's melon season so I couldn't pass up a cantaloupe for a drink I wan to try.
🥗 Zucchini because they are a versatile favourite of mine.
🥗 And this basil bunch was so beautiful and fragrant. Including fresh herbs really elevates your meals.

2. Proteins:

🫘 Tofu is generally my preferred and will have a pack sitting in the fridge.
🫘 For my legumes choice this week I decided on chickpeas and lentils.

3. Pantry:
🍚 This week I needed to restock on rice, coconut milk, and coffee.
🍚 Saw this gochujang which I decided to try (it is technically not WFPB).
🍚 Trail mix as a snack choice.

Notes:

I make an effort to purchase bio/organic as much as possible and there are certain things I would definitely never not buy organic. These include tofu, coffee/tea, certain fruits, and veggies.

I do not usually shop with recipes in mind unless I have come across something specific that I need to buy. I buy and get creative later and have a repertoire of favourite recipes under my belt. This may be a skill you need to build.

From looking at this haul (and what I have at home) I know can make meals such as:

🍲 gochujang tofu with rice and steamed veggies.
🍲 crispy lentil salad.
🍲 chickpea green curry
🍲 tomato basil chickpea quinoa salad.
🍲 a variety of smoothies/juices.
🍲 cantaloupe horchata

I'm excited to be guest cooking tonight at

Serving one of my favourite signature dishes: Japanese Tofu Katsu Curry with housemade roux 🍲🧡

If you are in Aveiro, come day hi and eat some delicious food!!

🍲MEALS OF THE WEEKS🍲

Camera roll filling with all my meals that I've been neglecting to post.

I've been sticking to familiar ingredients lately, call it comfort or a rutt, they still manage to keep me satisfied. Lots of potatoes, tofu, and beans.. with carbs. Carbs are life! Literally... it's what fuels us as humans.

Some WFPB ideas for you:

1. Thai red curry with tofu, okra, carrots, & mushrooms

2. Loaded salad with lettuce, lentils, potato, cucumber, avocado, sundired tomato, h**p seeds, tahini maple lemon dressing.

3. Roast Potatoes with parsley salad and baba ganoush.

4. Refried Beans quesadilla with homemade queso and tomato salsa.

5. Roast Potatoes, tofu & green bean stirfry, mini roma tomatoes.

6. Sauteed potato and tomato over vegan yoghurt.

7. Rice vermicelli noodles with Tofu, cabbage, and carrot cooked in coconut milk and Curry powder.

8. Steamed broccoli with lemon juice and salt.

9. Smoothie Bowl with Banana, walnuts, and h**p seeds.

10. Spiced Roast Potatoes and Chickpeas served over Hummus.

11. Tom Yum Curry vegetables with rice and cucumber.

12. Lentil & walnut bolognese.

13. Crumbled tofu and green bean stirfry with rice and Cabbage salad.

14. Chickpea Salad with lettuce, carrot, Cucumber, spring onion, red capsicum, and tahini maple lemon dressing.

💛

When you hear the word 'holistic' what do you imagine?

- Random people in robes living in mountains?
- Out there woo woo concepts?
- A word you hear often in wellness circles but don't truly understand?

Holistic simply means that we are a "whole" person and that all aspects of our being - mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual - are connected to and influence one another. Makes sense right?

This concept has been understood by Eastern cultures for thousands of years. Viewing ourselves as "separate" has come from years of programming from Western medical systems that has, for the majority, treated us in "parts." Great for critical emergency situations, but not so much for overall wellness.

We are now at a time where holistic health is becoming more mainstream, but you personally may be struggling to understand how to apply it to your everyday life.

You may take a week to attend a wellness retreat, which may be an awesome relaxing experience, but then you have to return to your normal life filled with stress, deadlines, problems, and unhealthy coping mechanisms.

How do you bring back that feeling and live like that in the "real" world?

Demystifying the word 'holistic' is important, and a part of that is having grounded, practical tools/knowledge that support you living in alignment with your holistic nature.

Like:

🌿 What can I eat that best supports my health?
🌿 How do I manage my stress and emotions?
🌿 How can I make my environment more peaceful and inspiring?
🌿 Where in my relationships do I need more support?
🌿 Is my work draining me? How do I deal with that?

Less levitating yogi vibe - and more corporate girly feeling peaceful, energised, and living her best life ✨️

There's a flat-out argument that vegan substitutes are highly processed and therefore bad for you. While that may be true, sometimes you just feel like a sausage, especially if you are newly transitioning to a plant-based diet. Knowing how to make the best informed choice for your health is important.

I look for 3 things:

1. Does it contain gluten?

While I am not completely averse to eating gluten here and there, I prefer to avoid it as much as possible due to the inflammation it causes within the body. It is a plus to find products that do not contain gluten as a binding agent. Gluten comes from wheat. Some products opt for pea protein, soy isolate, or potato flour to keep it gluten-free.

2. Check the type of oil it has.

You want to limit the amount of harmful seed oils as much as possible. I look for tropical oils such as coconut or avocado, which is a healthier alternative. Tropical oils are NOT atherogenic ( aka. does not elevate triglycerides levels nor form fatty deposits in the arteries ().

Although palm oil is a tropical oil, there are ethical/sustainablity issues with it, so I avoid where possible.

3. What is the quality of the ingredients?

Is it mainly natural, organic? Non-GMO?
Avoid products with a lengthy ingredients list.
Any preservatives, gums, artificial flavours? Many of these products contain gums such as methylcellulose or carrageenan, which also promote inflammation in the body.

Also, many of these products are fortified with the B12 vitamin. While this may seem like a good thing, it is most likely in the synthetic Cyanocobalamin form, which is actually a liver toxin (because it contains cyanide!!). When taking a B12 supplement, you want to look for the Methylcobalamin, which is the naturally occurring form.

Of course, on a whole foods plant-based diet you wouldn't be eating too much of these products so you might be thinking what's the point...If you are going to be nit picky with reading labels then just eat a potato.

So yes, although beans, tofu, tempeh, etc, should be your first choices of protein, it doesn't mean you can't be curious and try things too (con't in comments)

In continuation of my last post, I have created Free Beginner Raw Eating Guide.

It includes simple recipes you can start adding to your diet today.

Start adding one thing into your life and see how you feel.

My pick - a juice every morning. A juice is arguably the healthiest thing you could consume!

If you would like a link to the PDF so you can print this out, please DM me.

Enjoy 💛

Vegan Plant Based Raw Foods Health Wellness Holistic Wholefoods

I was speaking with a friend recently on how we would like to add more raw foods into our diet.

Eating a high raw, low fat, plant-based diet is the best healing diet for humans, but eating up to 70-80% raw puts us and life into thrive mode ().

Creating full on raw recipes is awesome and definitely a goal, but we can easily incorporate simple shifts and additions to up our daily raw quota so you can hold off on that dehydrator for now.

Many of us are just not used eating raw foods because:
1. We don't like the taste.
2. We are used to heavy, warm, comforting foods.
3. Raw foods don't feel satisfying emotionally and although we may start to feel more "alive" which is great, this may feel overwhelming if we are used to using food as a coping mechanism to dull emotions (see point 2).

Therefore, adding things to your normal everyday diet before you commit to a major diet overhaul is the best way to navigate this and to give your body time to adjust to a new way of eating.

Remember, eating raw foods is not reserved just for niche jungle living instagram influencers...it's simply eating more WHOLE FOODS...so it's important not to feel intimidated.

Would a raw food meal guide be handy for you?