Chilled Papaya Bisque

I'm baaaack! :)

Finally, after days of cloudy, windy, rainy weather, we have some sun! WOO! So, I decided to grill for dinner. We had a giant papaya and pineapple laying in the fruit bowl, so I threw together this wonderful chilled fruit soup to go with the grilled entree. And, since we ended up with a ton of alcohol after the wedding, I thought I'd add some rum into the mix to give it a little kick. Cuz I'm like that. ;) By substituting cashew cream for dairy, this soup gives you all the creamy goodness while avoiding the unhealthy fats.

This recipe was so fun to throw together. I had friends over for dinner and they were amazed at how quickly it turned into yummy goodness! I love entertaining. :D

Chilled Papaya Bisque

4 cups papaya, blended
1/4 cup papaya, diced small
2 Tbsp. papaya seeds
4 cups pineapple, blended
1/2 cup cashew cream (see recipe below)
1/2 cup Orange-Mango juice
2 shots dark rum (optional)

Stir all ingredients together in a large bowl and serve garnished with a swirl of cashew cream.

How to make cashew cream:
1 cup raw cashews
3/4 cup water
Blend until smooth!

Key Lime Pie - Sugar-Free, Raw!

Do you ever look at key lime pie and think "Oh, if only it didn't have gluten/dairy/eggs/sugar/etc., I would totally eat this?" Yeah, I know how you feel. I think I'd had key lime pie maybe twice in my life, and loved its tangy goodness, but I honestly can't remember the last time I ate it. It was always this mysterious green (or yellow) temptation that I avoided because I just couldn't be sure of what the ingredients were.

Well, no more!

I am SO proud of this pie. I took it to Thanksgiving at a omnivorous friend's house, and everyone gobbled it up!

I think of that all the raw "baking" I've done, this takes the cake. Or rather, pie! It was rich, thick, and delicate all at the same time. Once it was chilled, it stood up to being cut just like a traditional pie! I'm super pleased with the crust, too, because the coconut flour mimics crushed graham crackers so well in terms of texture and consistency. I could seriously eat this whole pie in a sitting - with a tall glass of hemp or almond milk, of course! ;) All in all, I'd say my best raw vegan recipe yet!

Raw Key Lime Pie

Filling:
5 small avocadoes
7 Tbsp. coconut oil, room temperature (scant 1/2 cup)
Two limes, juice and zest
1/3 cup xylitol
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract (I used alcohol-free)
Pinch of Himalayan salt

Crust:
1 1/2 cups coconut flour
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
5 Tbsp. coconut oil
1 Tbsp. almond butter
2 Tbsp. xylitol
1/4 tsp. Himalayan salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

In your food processor, add all crust ingredients and pulse until it's of uniform consistency. It should be crumbly. Transfer your crust to a pie pan, and press it firmly and evenly to line the pan. Set aside.

Wipe out the food processor. Next, add and blend all filling ingredients until smooth, making sure to scrape down the sides if there are lumps. Then, with a spatula, pour the filling mixture onto the crust and spread it evenly throughout the pan.

Garnish with about 1/4 tsp. of lime zest, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Cut, and serve! :)

Ketchup in the RAW!

Tomatoes really are my favorite of all fruits and vegetables. They're so incredibly versatile; they're used in most culinary styles around the world, and are delicious no matter how they're preserved! When I was a child, we had a small garden and my dad and I would go out to the back yard with salt shakers and graze in the tomatoes and cucumbers. My mom even bought me a tiny salt shaker, to fit my tiny hand. In retrospect, I think she may have also bought this for me so she could monitor my salt intake more closely - I was a salt fanatic as a kid! ;)

This ketchup is totally awesome. I made it for the first time (off the top of my head) a couple weeks ago to go with some baked veggie burgers, and it was an amazing addition! It's a tangy but sweet, smooth mouthfeel. It's wonderfully versatile as well - burgers, raw pizza sauce, garnish for raw soup, sandwiches, a rich dip, pasta sauce, layers in a lasagna, etc.

I love how quick and easy it is, too. If you're in a pinch and can't soak the sun-drieds, just toss 'em in a hot pan with a little water until they've soaked up enough to process. Also, I used half of a small onion in this, and I should've used a little less because I didn't realize it was so strong. So, use your discretion on how much you want.

Ketchup in the Raw

1 1/2 cups sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in same amount of water for a couple hours
1 medium tomato, quartered (room temperature)
1 garlic clove
1/4-1/2 small onion
2 Tbsp. coconut oil
2 Tbsp. raw apple cider vinegar
1-2 Tbsp. Bragg's liquid aminos (to taste)
big pinch chili powder
big pinch paprika
black pepper (lots! mmm...) and cayenne to taste
water

In a food processor, add all ingredients except extra water until smooth. Then, add water by the tablespoon to achieve the consistency you want. I used about 1/4 cup extra water.

Does this instruction sound a lot like my pudding recipe? heh. It's such a quick recipe, I think all in all it took me 15 minutes, including washing out the food processor afterward. :)

Carob Halvah Pudding

When I walked into the kitchen to make the raw ketchup today, I realized I was out of fresh tomatoes. CRAP! It would have to wait. I did, however, have three gorgeous green gems sitting in my fruit bowl. Silky, creamy avocados! I haven't had sweets in awhile, so I pawed around in the Candida-friendly cupboard and eyed a few things for a sugar-free pudding.

I'm a huge proponent of making tahini-based sweets. I love halvah especially, so the idea of making halvah pudding sounded awesome! I had some carob, too, so I grabbed that and went to work.

This is an immensely fatty recipe. I don't mean tons of ingredients, I mean WHOA did I put a lot of good fats into this. Avocado, tahini, coconut oil, flax oil. Mmmmm... I can feel my skin, hair and nails getting healthier. :) Oh, and it's mostly raw, too!

I also added in some camu camu for an extra antioxidant and vitamin C punch. Camu Camu is a South American fruit that has the highest vitamin C content known to man. Since it is extremely low in sugar (VERY tart... and regulates blood sugar levels!) I personally deemed it worthy of my candida diet. hehe. It's a little hard to find, but worth it if you want it as a superfood supplement. It's totally okay to omit this from the recipe. You can always use agave instead of xylitol, too, if you're not watching your sugar intake.

Carob Halvah Pudding

3 small avocados (or equivalent)
1/3 cup tahini
3 Tbsp. carob powder
1 tsp. camu camu powder
1 Tbsp. raw coconut oil
2 Tbsp. raw flax oil
1 tsp. alcohol-free vanilla extract (glycerin based)
2 tsp. cinnamon
Xylitol to taste (I probably used a scant 1/4 cup)
pinch salt
water

In a food processor, blend all ingredients except water until smooth and emulsified. Test for consistency. At this stage, it could be used as a frosting! To go for a pudding consistency, turn the food processor back on and add water by the tablespoon until it's how you want it. I used about 12 tablespoons, because it was SOOO thick! Don't be shy with the water, just make sure you test in intervals.:)

Tropicalmond Cheesecake! (Raw)

This fun dessert was made for June's Royal Foodie Joust, which showcases raspberries, almonds, and lime. My room mate Candace and I have been dying to make a raw vegan cheesecake for months, and when this month's Joust ingredients were announced, we knew we had to go up to our elbows in CASHEW CHEESE!

As a vegan, I don't do dairy cheeses, so we decided to experiment with a non-dairy alternative. Cashew cheese is made by fermenting pureed cashews with probiotics and Rejuvelac, a fizzy fermented beverage (typically made from sprouted wheat berries), which helps boost the fermentation process. We use buckwheat to make our rejuvelac because it's not only gluten-free, but has an earthy, nutty flavour. We really wanted the almonds to shine through in this dish, so we only put about a cup of cheese into it. I'm definitely making an all-cheese cake soon, with full instructions and pictures on making your own cashew cheese. How can I resist? ;)

Tropicalmond Cheesecake


Crust:
1 1/2 cup raw almonds
1/4 cup cacao nibs
7 dates, soaked for 5 minutes
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

First, take a small amount of plastic wrap and cover the bottom of a spring form pan.

Put all ingredients except oil into a food processor until it's a medium-fine crumb. Add coconut oil and process until just incorporated. Press into the bottom of the spring form pan, and put into the fridge.

Filling:
2 cups soaked almonds
2 cups water
5 Tbsp. agave (or other liquid sweetener)
4 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted
1 cup cashew cheese*
2 cups frozen raspberries, 1/4 cup reserved
1/2 tsp. vanilla
juice of one lime
2 sliced bananas
6-8 sliced kiwis (no need to skin them)

In a blender, liquefy your almonds and water. Toss in everything else except the bananas, kiwis and reserved raspberries. Blend until very smooth, then gently fold in the reserved raspberries. Take out your spring form pan, and pour half of the filling in. Then, gently add a thick layer of bananas, and pour the rest of your filling over the top. Garnish the top with sliced kiwis, and chill in the freezer until the center has set, about 3 hours.

Enjoy!

Ruby Apple Juice

Up until Wednesday of this week I was doing a cleanse.

It was a simple, non-invasive herbal formula you're supposed to drink three times a day with apple juice. Your diet can be the same as before, but my room mate and I decided to take it a step up and go mostly raw. This was great for us, since the days are getting warmer, because we could eat raw food without needing to keep warm during the day. Our meals consisted mostly of juices, salads with fresh, local greens and sprouted beans (chickpeas mostly, mmm,) and seed pate, usually with steamed or roasted veggies for dinner. I've got some fun recipes from that that I'll be posting soon, but for now, I'd like to start with talking about juice!

Fruit and Vegetable juices for breakfast is something I'm definitely adopting long-term. It gets assimilated quickly (which is needed for morning exercise and garden play), and it's quick, fun to make, and very easily transportable. It makes me feel great! :) I'm not a fan of huge breakfasts anyway, because I'm always left feeling weighed down all day as a result.

If you don't have a juicer but would love to make some fresh juice, you can probably throw it all in the food processor and squeeze the juice out through cheesecloth. I'd recommend investing in a juicer, however, which comes in a wide range of prices. I'm currently saving up for a Champion Juicer*, which not only juices, but makes nut butters, fruit sorbets, etc. and is the only juicer of its kind that's still made in the United States.

This is a simple, flavourful juice that's made with things that most of us have on hand to begin with. The hint of ginger gives it a nice little kick. I could totally drink this every day. :)

Ruby Apple Juice

4 medium apples (I used two galas and two pink ladies)
2 large carrots
1 small beet
1 inch fresh ginger root

Run all ingredients into the juicer, and serve! Makes about 2 cups.

*Want to help me get a Champion Juicer sooner? Donate to the cause! :)

Spicy Mango-Cucumber Salad - Raw

Being in Los Angeles has really made me realize that I'm truly and utterly in love with tropical fruit. Not just coconut, but mangoes, avocados, bananas, and pineapple, among others. That's something I really miss about L.A. - the convenience and availability of tropical fruits. Here, it's all in season essentially year-round, and is easily accessible at a low price. That's one food group that I don't think I could ever give up for the 100 Mile Diet.

So, in the spirit of warmer climates and taking advantage of convenience, I've made this spicy mango and cucumber salad. This salad has two kinds of heat - ginger and cayenne - but the ice cold mango with the crunchy cucumber balances it all out well. Then, topped with the silken cashew cream, this was hot weather heaven in a martini glass.

Spicy Mango-Cucumber Salad

1 mango, chunked
1/2 seedless cucumber, chunked
1/2 inch of ginger, minced, skin on
2 squeezes of lime
1 1/2 Tb. agave (less if the mango is really sweet)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (to taste)

1/2 cup cashew cream, no vanilla

Toss all ingredients together except cashew cream, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. Serve in fun glasses with a drizzle of cashew cream and a slice of ginger.

Spicy Butternut Threads (Raw) - Butternut Showcase #3

My third and final recipe is very simple - I was so inspired by the butternut squash topping from the last post, I just had to make these. I had about two loose cups of julienned squash left. It was begging for a ginger soy marinade.

They're such a versatile garnish: They can be used for soups, salads, sandwiches, main courses, etc. They're especially great on miso ramen with Japanese yam noodles! Chewy at first - but once they melt in, it's a delicate, tender addition to the soup.

Spicy Butternut Threads


2 cups raw butternut squash, julienned
3 Tb. Tamari, Bragg's, or Nama Shoyu
2 tsp. fresh ground ginger
1/2 tsp. aji panca hot sauce (or favorite hot sauce)
small squeeze of lemon juice

Whisk wet ingredients together. Toss squash in marinade, and let sit for about 30 minutes.

Squeeze out excess liquid, and arrange on dehydrator trays. Dry at 110 degrees for about 4 hours, or until completely dry. They'll be a little flexible. (I just put mine in overnight)

Use as a garnish for any food you like! :)

Paté Stuffed Mushrooms with Butternut "Cheese" (Raw) - Butternut Showcase #2

My second butternut showcase is a bit less in-your-face.

I wanted to make raw stuffed mushrooms, inspired by Leslie Bega's recipe at GLiving. By raw, I don't mean completely unprocessed, as I used my dehydrator to soften the mushrooms, and make them juicier. The result is warm and soft in the mouth, with flavor bursting in every bite. The paté is creamy, tangy, and spicy. I'm hooked!

I'd made a big bowl of julienned squash with my mandolin for a salad earlier that day, so I decided to marinate some extras to put over the mushrooms. They end up being tender and chewy. Mmmm...

Paté Stuffed Mushrooms with Butternut "Cheese"

4 Tb. Braggs or Nama Shoyu
2 tsp. lemon
1/4 tsp. aji panca hot sauce
12 cremini mushrooms, stems reserved
1/2 cup loosely packed butternut squash, julienned

In a large bowl, whisk liquid ingredients together. Wet the mushrooms one by one, making sure to thoroughly coat the insides. Then toss them around in the bowl, and let them sit while you make the paté.

1 cup walnuts
Stems from the mushrooms
1 inch fresh ginger, sliced
1/4 cup bell pepper (I used orange)
2 small green onions, chopped
small handful parsley
2 Tb. marinade
1 small garlic clove
cracked pepper to taste (about 1/4 tsp.)
enough water to paste

In the food processor, pulverize the walnuts and mushrooms until you get a coarse meal. Add the rest of the ingredients (except water) and grind down until you have a thick paste. It may ball up on you. Splash the water in small amounts until you get a nice, smooth paté.

Take the mushrooms out of the marinade, shaking off the excess as you go. Add your julienned butternut squash to the marinade, and toss. Carefully press the stuffing into the mushrooms, making good-sized mounds. Then, take the squash and squeeze the liquid out, and lay the bits across the tops of the mushrooms.

Dehydrate at 110 degrees for about 2 hours, or until the mushrooms have softened a bit, and the paté has got a nice crust on the outside. Enjoy!

Raw Mango and Butternut Squash Jerky - Butternut Showcase #1

So, I've decided to give myself random food challenges.

This will not only be to expand my views of certain foods, but my culinary repertoire. I have to admit that I generally think of certain foods to be good for few purposes. Those tried and true recipes that we all know, and don't really diverge from. No more, I say!

My first challenge is Raw Butternut Squash. I haven't worked much with winter squashes in my life, and I tend to only make creamy soups from them. About a week ago, I did a couple days of just raw food. I had this lovely butternut squash sitting there, crying at me to be used for something... But squash, how could I use you in my raw food adventures? What wonderful flavours could you possibly bring to my raw table? It just screamed CAROB! I don't know why - it just did.

The outcome was amazing! It was spicy, tangy, sweet, and slightly creamy. I ate almost all of it when I found those tasty strips in my dehydrator in the morning.

Mango and Butternut Squash Jerky


1 cup butternut squash, sliced into long, thin strips
1 mango, sliced into long, thin strips
2 Tb. agave
2 Tb. lemon juice
2 Tb. orange juice
1 tsp. cumin
1 Tb. carob
pinch nutmeg
1/4 tsp. aji panca hot sauce*

Mix everything together in a glass bowl, and let sit (I set it in the sun) for about 4 hours. Add the mixture to the dehydrator, on about 100 degrees for about 6 hours or so. (Pretty much as long as it takes to get to a fully dried, malleable state. I put it in overnight with no problem.) If you don't have a dehydrator, use the lowest setting on the oven. If it only goes to 175 degrees, leave the oven door open.

*We used to get this from BeOnLiving.com, but they don't seem to carry it anymore, which is a shame. It's a lovely raw paste made from Peruvian Chiles. Yum!

Puddin' Pie! - Raw

If you remember one of my ealier posts, you'll know that I love raw banana pudding. Since discovering the technique, I've made countless avocado-banana puddings. It's such a silky, nutritious way to feel sinful. :)

This one is more of a vanilla-lemon pudding, but no less delicious. I really enjoy the texture that the flax imparts to this. And, to be a little more fun (and needing the protein) I made a walnut-date crust! I could eat that pie crust alone as a dessert. Oooh... Ideas of date balls are flying through my mind.. like a golden snitch. ;)

The green of the pudding is a little off in the picture, but that's because of the flax and cinnamon. Also, the pie would have been more full if there hadn't been so much tasting... in the name of science.

Puddin' Pie!

For the crust:
1 cup walnuts, soaked and dried
1 cup dates, soaked for 5 minutes
1 Tb. water

Grind in a food processor until almost smooth, or desired coarseness.

For the Puddin':
3 bananas
1 avocado
1 1/2 Tb. agave
sprinkle cinnamon
4 Tb. ground flax
1 tsp. vanilla extract, or vanilla bean pulp
2 Tb. lemon juice

Blend all in the food processor until velvety smooth.

Grease a smallish pan with a chunk of coconut oil. (I just took out a chunk and rubbed it around, no need to melt.) Press the pie crust into the pan, making sure to keep it even. Then, pour the pudding into the crust, and chill in the fridge for about an hour.

This makes a very soft pudding, so it's not going to firm up much. It might even be fun to press the pie into a cupcake pan for individual servings! Less mess that way. We just both ate it out of the pan, so there was no slicing and serving.

Red Delicious Apple Butter - Raw!

Until this point, Red Delicious apples have been the bane of my existence. I like their flavour, but the thick, tough skin wrapped around that all-too-mealy interior was enough for me to pass on a side a fruit with my meals as a child. It was hard to say no to fruit. Gramma's heart was in the right place when she put out bowls of fruit for us, but I just couldn't stomach it. I'll take the oranges, thanks.

Notice how I said "Until this point"? I believe that (almost) everything, if done a certain way, can taste good to someone. Jeremy, in his loving attempt to buy me more apples, accidentally got red delicious. Ouch. (In his defense, those did look strikingly like Galas.)

Seeing this as a culinary challenge (and also being on a raw food binge lately) I decided to make applesauce. Applesauce, ha! I wanted to keep the skins on, but with these apples, any amount of extra processing to pulverize the skins would (and did) make a chunky, chewable sauce into a smooth, almost-whipped kind of cream. I'm not complaining, trust me. ;)


Red Delicious Apple Butter

3 red delicious apples, cored and chopped
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. lemon (to taste, and keep color)
1 Tb. agave nectar (to taste)

Combine ingredients in a food processor, and puree for a good long while, until the skins are minced fine, making sure to scrape down the skins off the sides.

Sprouted Buckwheat Tabbouleh

I'm a minimalist when it comes to tabbouleh. I like fresh, raw ingredients, and no sloppy mess like we've probably all had at cheap falafel stands. Tabbouleh (or tabouli) has bulgur wheat, which I was never quite fond of, so I decided to make it with buckwheat. But cooked buckwheat? Meh. I had a good-sized bag of buckwheat, so I decided to sprout it.

When you soak buckwheat, it gets slimy and gooey like flax, but not quite so much goo. I think I rinsed them like five times each rinse/drain cycle just to relieve them of their goo! After about two days though, the buckwheat had thoroughly sprouted, and (much to my excitement) the goo had gone away! They were dry, poky, and beautiful. :)

I also have to admit that I have dreams of galettes (which is a traditional dish of Brittany: like a savory, gluten-free crepe) with sprouted buckwheat, but I believe that's another post. ;)


Sprouted Buckwheat Tabbouleh

1 (thin skinned) cucumber, quartered lengthwise and sliced
1 large tomato, chopped
2 green onions, sliced
1/2 cup parsley, chopped (about a handful)
1 cup sprouted buckwheat
drizzle Extra Virgin olive oil (maybe about a tablespoon)
1 Tb. lemon
Salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

Toss all ingredients in a large bowl and enjoy!

It's too bad I didn't have mint on-hand. I would've chopped up a couple sprigs - maybe 2 tablespoons in this dish. I love the crisp, green taste of fresh mint. Mmm...

Southwest Walnut "Scramble" (raw)

I love watching people cook. Growing up, I'd spend hours watching my family cook, and whenever there was a cooking show on, I was right there. My eyes were glued to the television. I have since given up watching TV, and only have one for the occasional movie marathon with the housemates.

Luckily, YouTube has all kinds of cooking to watch, from the expert chef cooking shows, to amateur videos of people proudly showing off their newest creations. I hope to, at some point, get some of my own videos on YouTube. In the Meantime, I'm an avid seeker of new food porn to watch. :)

Which brings me to my next thought. I love watching people prepare raw food. It can range anywhere from simple preparation, like this dish, to hours of intense work. I really like the foods that Ani Phyo shows us on YouTube. They're very quick and easy recipes to prepare, and it's very easy to elaborate on them.

My recipe today was manipulated from this recipe, the Spanish Breakfast Scramble. I loved the idea of this recipe, but thought it needed a bit more of a kick. So, I came up with this:

Southwest Walnut Scramble

2 cups walnuts, soaked and dried
1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked
1 large tomato, chopped
1/2 bell pepper (color of your choosing, I chose yellow)
2 small green onions
1 Tb. turmeric
1 tsp. chili powder
1 1/2 tsp. tamari (use nama shoyu for truly raw)
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 small garlic clove, crushed (optional)
splash raw apple cider vinegar (I don't ever use filtered ACV)
squeeze lemon
cracked pepper
1 avocado, chopped

Blend walnuts and sunflower seeds in the food processor until they're nicely minced. Using a spatula, pour contents into a bowl. Add in everything else except the vegetables, and mix well. Finally, fold in the tomato, green onions, and bell pepper. Garnish with avocado and kale.

In the picture, I used a whole kale leaf. Normally, I would chop it fine,
and add a dash of lemon juice, olive oil, and Bragg's Liquid Aminos.

Hummus Sushi! *esplode*

Holy energy-giving vitamins, Batman!!

So, I've been sick for the past couple days. Not really sick, but sore throat and vitamin depletion from all the stress of moving up here. Enough to make me sleep until noon and have little energy. Today I got up at 9:30 (Goddess help me) against my better judgment and haven't stopped doing things around the house until about now. I drank some flax* and just finished eating some hummus sushi. And. Holy. Crap. Talk about a vitamin rush! I'm a little light-headed from the wondrous feeling all the raw veggies gave me. I have to admit that this is one of the only times feeling light-headed has felt so good. :)





Hummus Sushi

First, I made up a huge bowl of hummus from a mix. You can do whatever you want to it, but I made it basic so everyone in the house can enjoy it if they wish. To make this completely raw, I'd soak some nuts and seeds and grind them down to make something similar. To the mix, I added:

Hemp and Olive oils
A handful of dried Botija olives, minced
A huge clove of raw garlic, minced
A splash of Bragg's apple cider vinegar
Juice of half a lemon

For the filling:

1 carrot, shredded
1 small beet, shredded
2 purple kale leaves, chopped fine
A nice hunk of purple cabbage, chopped fine
Onion and Daikon sprouts

Layered it all, and rolled it up in nori!

Here's a fun pic of the shredded veggies:


*Drinking a mix of ground flax and water (or apple juice) is a great way to flush out the intestinal tract. I usually do a mix of 2-4 Tb, ground in a coffee grinder, then mixed with enough water to be drinkable. Make sure you drink it before it coagulates! :)


Blessings!

Blueberry Lavender Coconut Creme

Jeremy and I love to eat fresh, young thai coconuts. Ice cold from the fridge, we drink the sweet nectar first, then cleave the seed itself open and wedge the meat out with our fingers. It's like a drug. I mean, aside from the tasty goodness that is coconuts, the fresh ones are packed full of nutrients, and the nectar is very electrolyte rich. You can generally find them at Whole Foods or somewhere similar for a few dollars a piece, but you'll find the exact same thing at most asian markets, for usually a dollar each.

So, we were walking through the Farmer's Market in Santa Monica today (the one on Main St.) and I suddenly get this huge whiff of lavender. You see, at the market, there's a lavender vendor. I usually stop and browse, but today I had an instant surge of ideas running through my mind. Thoughts of work, cooking, and this blog, and just like that, this recipe was born. You can use lavender tea bags if you have them, but how could I turn down freshly dried lavender?


Blueberry Lavender Coconut Creme

1 young thai coconut, meat only (enjoy the water while you're preparing!)
1/2 c. frozen blueberries
2 heaping Tb. raw coconut butter
squeeze of lime, to taste

Lavender infusion:
a nice, packed handful of lavender flowers
1 c. water


First, bring a cup of water to a boil. Remove from the heat, throw the lavender in, get it thoroughly wet, and put the lid on. Let it sit for about 10 minutes. The water should be an intense, dark indigo. Strain, and squeeze as much of the infusion out as possible. (The water should be just warm.) Makes about 3/4 cup.

While the lavender is steeping. Get out your blender. In the blender, add the coconut meat and blueberries, and pulse them until they make a chunky paste. Add the coconut butter, and continue the pulse. It doesn't have to be smooth, just mixed up. Then, when the infusion is ready, add it and the lime juice, and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides with a spatula as you go.

Chill, and serve over fresh, ripe peach slices.


Note: this cream is only very faintly sweet, so feel free to add a touch of sweetener to taste. I would say, about 1 teaspoon agave, or honey if you can have it.

Berry Mango Delight - Raw

I just threw this together one morning.. and I'm so happy that I did. It was so good, and incredibly refreshing for the morning. Just the right amount of fat from the coconut so there wasn't a sugar spike/drop that I usually get from fruit in the morning. Yay!

1 cup soaked goji berries (without soak water)
2 Tb soaked golden berries
1 smallish banana
2 very heap Tb coconut butter

Blend till smooth, pour over 1 fresh chunked mango!

Choco-Banana Pudding! - Raw

2 smallish bananas
1 avocado
raw cacao powder to taste (maybe 4 heap Tb)
about 1 Tb agave nectar
1/2 tsp vanilla (extract or raw powder, to taste)
1/2 c. fresh almond milk (optional)

In a food processor, blend bananas and avocado until smooth, add to a nice sized bowl. Bright green, YUM!

In the bowl, with a whisk, add the cacao, agave, and vanilla. Makes a nice, thick pudding. I added the almond milk to thin it out a bit, but you don't really need to. ;)

Avo Gazpacho and Thai Veggies - Raw!

Here's some more recipes that I found on my old journal:
---

Avo Gazpacho
Veggies w/ Thai seed paste


First, what I did was grate some of the carrots(3) and a nice fat cucumber. I squeezed the juice out and put it aside.

Avo Gazpacho
In the food processor, I put together:
A nice huge handful of parsley
An avocado
Roughly a cup of soaked sun-dried tomatoes(with soak water, maybe two cups?)
Five dried, soaked shiitake mushrooms, with soak water(probably altogether about 1 1/2 cup)
3 green onions
Juice of half lemon
Splash of Bragg's apple cider vinegar
Squirt of Bragg's
The strained water from the carrot/cucumber
A nice healthy shake of kelp powder (about 1 heap Tb)

once it's all smooth, I just put it into a bowl and added a bit more water to thin it out, and salt to taste.
--

Thai veggies!

Took out the bowl with the carrots/cucumber..
added:
1 red pepper, diced
1 large beet, shredded (used the mandolin for very fine shred)
THEN!

In the food processor:
1/4 cup soaked"wild jungle peanuts*"
Small handful unsoaked "WJP*"
3/4 cup soaked pumpkin seeds
2 heap Tb (roughly) raw coconut butter
1 VERY heap Tb tahini
1'' of fresh ginger, chopped
Juice of half lemon
Handful of fresh thai basil/cinnamon basil from my plants outside
2 cubes frozen basil (from TJ's, about 2Tb)
splash Bragg's ACV
kelp
little salt

Processed with a bit of water to thin, and poured over the veg, mixed. Yum!


*"Wild Jungle Peanuts" I've found recently. They're the first ancient peanut, grown in Ecuador. All commercial peanuts have some amount of a mold called "aflatoxin", but WJP got tested, and has absolutely NO aflatoxin! Finally, good, organic raw peanuts. Yay!
They're from http://www.elfwholesale.com (currently out of stock, but they'll get 'em in soon, J says. He works there)



Enjoy! :D

Ginger Beet Juice

I love beets.

When I say I love beets, I mean I really love beets. I'm one of those people who loves to take them straight from the garden, rub the dirt off, and bite into 'em. I never understood why people peeled them, either, as I've come to understand that much of the nutrients in vegetables come from the skins. So, why, in our modern age, do we always peel our veggies and then cook the crap out of them? The world may never know. ;)

I, on the other hand, like peels. And raw veggies. This morning, I knew I would be making soup later, but needed a quick something to drink that would give me some energy and fight off the cold that I feel coming on, so I pulled out the ol’ juicer and made some beet juice.

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Ginger Beet Juice

3 large beets, quartered, tops removed (or can be added, but I ate ‘em earlier)

3 decent sized garlic cloves*

2 inch chunk of ginger, with skin

2 good splashes of lemon juice (or juice from 2 lemons)

Juice beets, ginger, and garlic. (I put the ginger and garlic in between the chunks of beets, to avoid clogs) Add lemon juice to juicer, to rinse it out a bit. Optional: grab a hunk of the pulp^ and throw it in, for texture. :)

Enjoy!

Makes about 3 cups, but will vary by the size of the beets.

*Jeremy, my fiance, said it had too much garlic, so feel free to lessen the amount, or leave them out completely. I love garlic, and they’re fantastic raw if you’re not feeling well.

^If you want to use the pulp for something, it can be put straight into soups, salads, or dehydrated for crackers. Ooh! I wonder if it’d make good mashed “potatoes”! I’ll try that tonight.

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Have a wonderful afternoon!

~Lyra