Despite being graced with some delicious calamari, this is a pretty plant powerful meal. I have a handful of veggies that I just love to eat with seafood: peppery rocket, red chilli, clean and crunchy green veggies like beans, snow peas and asparagus, and of course, my latest favourite thing, juicy, crunchy raw fennel. There's nothing quite like the licorish taste of fresh fennel and I think it works a treat in juices, smoothies, salads and with seafood!  So, I threw them all into this dish with a bunch of lime juice and a homemade vegan tatare sauce and whammo, dinner is served!

There's no rule book when it comes to Rice Paper Rolls. Most fresh salad veggies will taste delicious wrapped up in rice paper and dipped in satay sauce! You could sub out the rice paper for large iceberg lettuce leaves, or add seafood or vermicelli noodles to the mix, although I got myself completely full just by eating these delicious 100% veggie rolls.

It's Mediterranean month on the blog this December, inspired by the Comvita Antioxidant Challenge. Which is just as well because it's sweltering hot down here in Auckland, Southern Hemisphere, AND I'm moving house to the sea side this weekend! Not to mention, Christmas means copious amounts of festive family gatherings are in the pipeline, so it's the perfect timing for delicious, seasonal, coastal food.

In celebration of creating my inner city Blue Zone (check out that post here!) as we wind down one heck of a busy 2013, I am embracing the Mediterranean lifestyle in all it's sunny, olivey, red winey deliciousness. Perhaps moving to the beach was taking the Blue Zone Challenge too far? All or nothing I say! Blue Zone to me means family, friends, sunshine and vitamin D, surfing, coastal air, olive oil, antioxidants, veggies, fruits, fresh caught fish, getting outside, bare feet, a generous helping of oxytocin (generated by hugs!) and a spot of red wine! The Med lifestyle is all these things and more, and judging by how long they live and how vital people around the Med are in their old age, I'm taking an olive leaf out of their book!

This meal celebrates one of my favourite veggies of all time: eggplant, or "Melanzane" as the Italians call it.  Its gorgeous deep purple skin adds colour and depth to any dish, its texture is hearty and silky, soaking up flavours like nothing else can.

Breakfast isn't the only thing you can make in your blender!

Raw soup has got to be the worlds quickest and healthiest fast food. It works perfectly as an appetizer or a light meal, and I love it because it just feels like pure goodness. If I'm recovering from something, or don't feel like a big dinner, or simply had a long day and don't feel like preparing food, making a green veggie soup is about a zillion times better than succumbing to takeaways! It's also the perfect thing to follow a juice cleanse.

Any blender will work, but a high speed blender is awesome because it will gently heat your soup to about 50 degrees C as it blends. This means you don't need to heat it on the stove, saving time, dishes and protecting the precious heat sensitive vitamins and enzymes that make this soup so full of goodness. If you don't have a high speed blender (like a Vitamix or an Optimum), you can blend and place it in a sauce pan over low heat for a few minutes until it reaches a temp just warm enough to enjoy.