To support my smoothie addiction, I finally gave in and bought a Vitamix blender!  I’ve had it for a couple of weeks now and have been enjoying the smoothest smoothies ever.   Real Simple gave a recipe for a carrot-pineapple smoothie [3/4 cup pineapple, ½ cup ice, peeled orange, 2 chopped carrots, 1 banana].   I had tried carrots in my smoothies with a regular blender but was turned off by the chunky texture.   Now I can enjoy perfectly smooth and frothy carrot smoothies whenever I want. 

Today I used my blender to make creamy cashew cheese to fill beet “ravioli” and served it with lightly steamed beet greens.  WOW!

And for dessert?  Chocolate banana ice cream!

I loved this combination so much I decided to make a vegetable wrap with the rest of my Dragon Sauce.  The smell of collard greens cooking turned me off from ever purchasing them, but they have been looking so pretty at the Farmer’s Market this winter that I bought a bunch for my wraps.  I cut each collard leave in half, removing the toughest section of the stem as I cut.   Then I piled cucumbers, red peppers, Mixed Sea Vegetables, and cilantro on the collard.  Top it off with some Dragon Sauce and tightly roll.  Raw collard greens are surprisingly mild and crunchy!

For the Knock-off Dragon Sauce

1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup tamari
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup tahini
1 clove garlic

Blend all ingredients in the blender until smooth.

Working makes me tired and stressed.   When I’m tired and stressed I eat.  And I eat a lot.  I really have an embarrassing lack of self-control especially when it comes to sweets.  However, this past week I got plenty of sleep, relaxed, and just enjoyed being with my husband.  Leaving the house was difficult, so there wasn’t much to do but lounge.  I enjoyed every minute of this extra time home and feel fabulous.

When I feel good, I eat better.  When I eat well, I feel great.  It’s a cycle that I know I should extend to my busy work weeks, but that is easier said than done.

I enjoyed lots of simple raw meals this week: many green smoothies, salads, and fruits with almond butter.

I also tried a few new recipes this week:

Asian Noodles
from http://www.sweetlyraw.com/2009/08/summer-eclectic.html

Noodles:
1 bag kelp noodles
generous splash of tamari or nama shoyu
squeeze of lime juice
drizzle of raw sesame oil
Mix the noodles with tamari or nama shoyu and oil. Marinate for 4-8 hours.

(Marinating your kelp noodles really does make them softer and better.  I had always eaten mine crunchy up until I tried this recipe.)

Veggies (thinly sliced):
bell pepper
cucumber
carrot
sugar snap peas
bok choy

Sauce:
2 T lime juice
2 T tamari or nama shoyu
2 T apple cider vinegar
1-2 T chopped cilantro
1 1/2 T minced ginger
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp agave or honey

Whisk all sauce ingredients together. Pour over the noodles and veggies. Garnish with a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

Spicy Chocolate Oranges

2 oranges, peeled and sectioned
2 T coconut oil, melted
2 T raw cacoa powder
2 T agave
1 t cinnamon
pinch of sea salt
pinch of red pepper flakes

Put the orange slice in the refrigerator to chill.  Stir together coconut oil, cacoa powder, agave, and cinnamon.  Then dip each orange section into the chocolate mixture.  Lay on a plate and sprinkle with sea salt and red pepper flakes.  The chocolate will harden on the chilled orange.  Eat immediately or refrigerate.  Freeze if you want an even colder treat.

Not only was I wrong about the spelling of their name, I also didn’t know how to prepare them.  I have enjoyed Brussels sprouts that others have cooked, namely the Kung Pao dish at Café Sunflower.  Yum!  When I’ve cooked them, they turned out bitter and eating them was almost painful.

When I came across a raw recipe for Brussels sprouts, I was pretty excited to try it.   Joanne makes them look pretty tempting in her Raw Vegan Brussels Sprouts Salad with Orange Chia Vinaigrette recipe at Foods for Long Life.  Just like she promises, the sprouts are tasty and not the least bitter.  I halved the amount of agave that she used just because I don’t like my dressings too sweet.  I think this salad tastes best after sitting for a few hours and the dressing has softened the sprouts just a bit.  Isn’t it pretty?

I like this recipe so much, I took it to share with my family for Christmas.  For some reason, salad isn’t part of my family’s holiday meal traditions, but I think everyone tried some.  For my holiday meal, I also made a salad with clementines, pomegranate seeds, and walnuts with a Balsamic Vinaigrette.  Delish!  I tried to keep my meals mostly raw, however, I set no limits on desserts for the holidays!

Here is my Christmas meal:

However, most plates in my family looked like this:

I have definitely been having a hard time eating right this month!  The December weather has been abnormally cold, and there are treats every where!

What do you do?  Do you make exceptions for the holidays?  Does your family support your eating habits?  How do you stay raw in the winter?

I’ve come across a few raw Indian dishes online and made a few this week.  I had made Coconut Chik’n Curry with Rice from Sweetly Raw sometime last year and forgot about it.  We enjoyed it for dinner on Monday night, and now Charlie is asking if we can please have it again this week.   Raw samosas were featured on Raw on $10 a day a few weeks ago, and I decided to try them this week to stick to my Indian theme.  I could not figure out how she made hers in the samosa shape!  I made a few in triangles, gave up, and made the rest patties.  I loved the mango sauce on top.  Finally, dessert was banana topped with Carrot Halwa.

Raw Carrot Halwa

1 carrot, grated
handful of raisins
handful of pecans
1 T agave
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp red chili powder
1 banana

Mix all of the ingredients except the banana in a bowl.  Either mash or slice the banana.  Top with mixture and enjoy!



Time to celebrate the Vegan MOFO!  November is the Vegan Month of Food.  Our November has started off with chilly weather.  We’re even expecting freezing temperatures tonight!

Colder weather (plus the stress of school) makes it hard to stick to healthy eating.  But here are two vegan recipes to be sure to keep you warm:

Penni’s Rawkin’ Raw Chili

1 cup almonds, soaked overnight (or walnuts)
1 cup carrots
1 med portabello mushroom
1/2 cup finely minced red bell pepper
1/3 cup finely minced red onion
1 finely minced jalapeno, without the seeds
1 cup sundried tomatoes, soaked (reserve 1 cup soak water)
1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes
1/3 cup soaked golden raisins
1/4 onion
1 T chili powder
2 cloves garlic
1 T olive oil
2 t sea salt
2 t apple cider vinegar
2 t dried oregano
1 t cumin

Optional toppings:
black olives
fresh cilantro
red onion
avocado

Put nuts and carrots into a food processor and run until well blended. This will be your “meat base,” so don’t over process. Once ground, place into a large bowl and set aside.

Either on a cutting board or in your food processor, chop the mushroom, red bell pepper, red onion, and jalapeno. Add this to the bowl.

In a high powered blender, add all of the remaining ingredients and blend until you have everything well combined and liquefied. Stir this mixture into the bowl with the existing ingredients to complete the chili.

I recommend placing this into a dehydrator set at 145 degrees for about one hour. Stirring the chili every 15 minutes will help to warm it evenly. Although your dehydrator will feel hot, the temperature of the food will not exceed 110 degrees in this amount of time.

Serve the chili warm and top with the fresh ingredients of your choice. Enjoy!

To get into the autumn spirit, I wore a plaid shirt today and put a beautiful mum on our front porch.  Yesterday I made Grated Beet Salad packed with fall flavors.  Today we enjoyed fresh lettuce from our garden with pears and goat cheese (not raw but yummy and filled with B12) and raw apple pie.

Grated Beet Salad

2 cups grated jicama
2 cups grated raw beets (3 medium beets)
1 avocado, thinly sliced
1 navel orange, peeled, sectioned, each section cut into thirds (save any juice)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 T lime juice
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1 1/2 T olive oil
pumpkin seeds

1. Place beets in medium bowl along with jicama, avocado, orange, and cilantro.

2. Whisk together any orange juice you save from cutting the oranges, lime juice, cumin, and coriander. Whisk in oil. Pour over beet mixture, and toss to mix. Season with salt and pepper, if desired. Sprinkle each serving with pumpkin seeds.

In addition to vegetable gardens in front yards, there are also several community gardens nearby.  Riding our bikes around town today, we enjoyed passing the DHS Community Garden and the Oakhurst Community Garden.  Both are doing a great job growing veggies and involving many community members.

This weekend, we went to Farmer Ds to buy some seeds and seedlings for our fall garden. We also picked up tiny lettuce seedlings at the Oakhurst garden, which often has extra baby plants for sale.  I think we will install raised beds in our front yard in the spring, but for now we are doing a container garden on the deck!  Spinach, Swiss Chard, various lettuces, dill, and cilantro are the newest additions!

ot raw.   

I’ve attempted crepes before, but Ani Phyo has taught me that adding flax seed meal to any crepe recipe results in a more crepe texture and less fruit leather texture.  I have been dehydrating many different flavors of “crepes.”  I LOVE the chocolate taco using a chocolate crepe filled with chocolate banana ice cream.  I’ve been filling the crepe shells with raw almond butter and fruit and brining them for lunch.  Students ask, “What is that?  Is it a burrito?”  Sure, it is a fruit burrito!  Yum!!

Apple Crepes

1 large apple cored, diced
1/3 cup flax meal
1 T agave syrup
enough water to blend

Blend all ingredients until smooth.  Spread evenly onto a Teflex sheet.  Dehydrate for about 6 hours at 105° or until completely dry.  Makes about 4 crepes.

One of the things we love this most about this house is that the living room, dining room, and kitchen are actually one big open space.  My darling husband loves to talk to me in the kitchen from the couch, and now he can without yelling!  Check out the amazing counter space.

Look at the counter space!

This is where the raw food magic happens.