Vegan Pumpkin Pie / Thanksgiving

This Vegan Pumpkin Pie that we had for Thanksgiving was so delicious. Im going to share the recipe here. As it is not created by me, you can find the source down at the bottom.
The crust is perfect, the filling is moist and delicious. It was my first ever vegan pumpkin pie but also my first pumpkin pie! I definitely want to eat this again and I can highly recommend it to you!

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1 tablespoon vegan granulated sugar
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Fine salt
1/2 cup coconut oil (packed)
4 to 6 tablespoons ice water

Filling:
One 15-ounce can pure pumpkin puree
8 ounces silken tofu
2/3 cup vegan sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Fine salt


Directions
For the crust: 
Put the flour, sugar, vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a food processor, and pulse to combine. Add the coconut oil in small spoonfuls, and pulse until the largest pieces are pea-sized. Add 4 tablespoons ice water, and pulse until evenly combined. Squeeze a handful of the dough together; it should just hold its shape. If the mixture is too powdery, pulse in an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons ice water. Turn the dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap, pat into a 1/2-inch-thick disc and chill for at least 1 hour up to overnight.
To make rolling easier, let the dough soften up a bit-it should be slightly soft when pressed-at room temperature (this may take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes depending on the temperature of your kitchen). Roll the disc into a 12-inch round on a lightly floured surface or between two pieces of floured parchment paper. If the dough gets too warm, refrigerate it to firm it up. Ease the crust into a 9-inch pie plate. Fold the overhanging dough under itself, and crimp the edge as desired. Chill for 30 minutes.
Position an oven rack in the center of the oven, and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line the chilled pie crust with a large coffee filter or foil, and fill with pie weights. Bake until the edges are lightly golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the coffee filter or foil and weights, and continue baking until the crust is lightly golden all over, 15 to 20 minutes more. Transfer to a rack, and let cool completely.
For the filling: Process the pumpkin puree, tofu, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, vanilla and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a food processor until completely smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Pour the filling into the parbaked pie shell, and bake until firm and set, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool completely on a rack. Chill for at least 2 hours up to overnight. Slice and serve.

INSPIRED BY: Foodnetwork.com

Breakfast Idea: Oatmeal

Many foods fall in and out of favor. Health trends come and go. Not oatmeal. This whole-grain powerhouse has been packing serious nutrition and hearty flavor into breakfast for generations. It’s one of the few comfort foods that are as good for you as they are just plain good.

To get the most out of this super food, be a bit particular.

Some packets of instant oatmeal, for example, are loaded with sugar -- as much as 8 teaspoons per serving -- and high in sodium. Always check the label to see what you're getting.

Oatmeal is a classic breakfast, I enjoy it every day. The good thing is, it can be made different every time: Add pineapple and coconut in the summer for a refreshing sweet and sour version. Add cinnamon and dates

Its a quick breakfast, made like this: Boil water and soy milk in a pot, add the oats, toss around until the water is gone. 

Reasons why you should have Oatmeal every day:
1. Oats contain a lot of fiber. Fiber helps to stabilize the digestion, but also lowers cholesterol. It also balances blood glucose levels, so you don't have a sugar drop.
2. Oats provide important minerals (e.g. thiamin, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, manganese, selenium and iron) and vitamins (especially b-vitamins).
3. Oatmeal fits perfectly to fresh or frozen fruit. Fruit is full of antioxidants!
4. Sprinkle some cinnamon on top, that is a secret fat burner!

The Warrior's Heart

The Warrior's got a brave heart. What does that mean? Thinking of all the movies (Game of thrones, braveheart, ..) we watch, that take us back in time and show us these brave warriors, we can see a similarity: A warrior's heart means opening the heart to fully connect body and mind. A warrior is brave, he doesn't fear pain. Opening the heart to others means that they can emotionally touch us. They can connect with us. They can hurt us. A warrior always knows that life can be over at any time. But fear and anxiety is not a solution, because we will die anyways at some time in our life. An open heart allows us to be brave and to have the full experience of every emotion. 
In Yoga, Virabhadrasana II, Warrior II is the position we can open the warrior's heart. It harnesses the archetypal spirit of the warrior. Many martial arts contain some variation of the warrior pose. Remember that the greatest warriors combine power with compassion that flows from the heart. Consciously expanding the chest stimulates the organs of the thorax, including the heart and lungs. This action illuminates the heart chakra—the energetic source of our emotions. In this Scientific Key, we illustrate some simple steps for opening the chest in Virabhadrasana II. Begin by drawing the shoulders back and down. Open the heart, open the ribcage, start to breathe deep. 
We waste our life, breathing in a short and fast frequency, but we can actually heal physical and emotional pain with these deep and long breaths. Breathing deep relaxes and stimulates our mind, it helps us to make decisions with our heart, not just with our mind. Breathing deep detoxes our brain. So many negative thoughts are stuck in our brain because we never really breathe. 

Breathing is the easiest way to connect with each other. We all do it, to survive, every second. 

Breathing is the most important thing we can do, and we barely use it. 

The first two weeks of my yoga journey have been a bliss. I really connected with who I really am, I finally started to breathe, to feel my heart. This is not just another spiritual "blablabla", the heart is a muscle and we often forget that. We can train that muscle the same way we can train our biceps or our legs. A strong heart can make our whole body, mind and soul stronger. Therefore we have to breathe. And nobody can help us with that, no pill, no machine would do that for us. We have to take action. We have to inhale, we have to let go and exhale. Breathing deep in any situation can help us, we see what is going on and we can learn to act, not to react. Emotional stress will fade away, and physical pain often caused by emotional stress will finally be healed. We can release all the negative habits and thoughts. Breathing deep allows us to be present. Being present in life means that there are no emotions like hate, revenge or reward. We don't do, get or deserve things because we did whatever we did in the past. We are here and now.