chaco canyon cafe raw dinner "berry bliss"

amazing and worth every penny, if you can afford it...
I took pictures of everything I ate except for forgetting to capture my "blueberry infused with black pepper" sorbet before I downed it. It ALL tasted as good as it looked. Here is some eye candy!

my adaptation of the raw chef nut free bread

new Nut-free bread (aka. tastes like multi grain bread)
Makes 18 ’slices’
1/4c olive oil
1 c sun dried tomatoes
2 c sprouted buckwheat*
1 c flax seed (grind until fine)
2 1/4 c peeled zucchini, roughly chopped
1.5 c apple, cored and roughly chopped
2T lemon juice
1 large avocado (or 2 small, or somewhere in between)
1 medium onion
1/4 c minced parsley
2 Dates, soaked or fresh and soft
1/2 t salt or soy sauce product

* for heidi!!! to sprout buckwheat take a large mason jar and put 1.5 cups of buckwheat in it. I use mesh sprouting caps for my jars that you can buy at any health food store but you could use pretty much any breathable matterial that is a fine enough mesh that the buckwheat won't fall through.
Rinse and drain the buckwheat... fill jar full with filtered water and set on the counter for 8 hours to soak. At 8 hours drain the buckwheat and rinse it VERY WELL it WILL be SLIMEY!!! At this point it is ok to use. To make it even more healthy and full of life set the jar at an angle upside down on the counter and cover it with a cloth. Leaving the opening free to breathe. Rinse seeds a couple times a day to keep them fresh, rinse away all the slime. I would only sprout one day with buckwheat as I tend to notice they get bad fairly quick if its hot out.

- Process the olive oil, sun dried toms, sprouted buckwheat, zucchini, apple, lemon juice, avocados, onion, dates and herbs/salt until thoroughly mixed.

- Transfer to a large bowl and mix with the flax meal by hand. The reason you do this separately (not in the processor) is that you are likely to have too much mixture for the size if the processor at this point, and when you add the flax meal it will become quite heavy and sticky and overwork your machine.

- When mixed, process the whole batter in the machine again, but in small batches to achieve a light fluffy texture.

- Divide the mixture in half and place on Paraflexx sheets on dehydrator trays.

- Use a spatula to spread the mixture evenly to all 4 sides and corners of the Paraflexx sheet. If mixture is too sticky you can wet the spatula to make things easier. With a knife score the whole thing into 9 squares.

- Dehydrate for 2 hours and then remove the Paraflexx sheets by placing another dehydrator tray and mesh on top and invert so that your original sheet of bread is upside down. That will allow you to peel the Paralexx sheet off and continue to dehydrate the underside of the bread.

- Dehydrate for approx 12 hours more (do this overnight so you’re not tempted to eat it before it’s ready) or until bread feels light in your hand. If the pieces don’t fully come apart where you scored, use a knife to cut them.

the bread, I kinda take it back...

I think I was a little overly harsh about the medi bread. I was mad at it for taking so long to dehydrate. I had a piece today with some maccadamia mayo and it was good, it really tasted like real multi grain bread... For that reason alone I hope everyone doesn't swear it off. It was just kinda a pain. I may rewrite the recipe to make it easier, then I will try it again.
Tomorrow I am going to the raw "Berry Bliss" dinner at chaco canyon cafe. I am really looking forward to a fancy raw meal I don't have to make for myself!

quick, make a post!

Our internet has been being so funky lately. We just use an open wireless network, which has always been pretty fast and available. This last week it just started not working in the evening until like 8am.. today it started working around 9am and then 5 minutes later it stopped again until just now. So now I am going quick to make my post in case it stops again.
Well the nf medi bread FINALLY finished dehydrating, and really there are still a few pieces that could use a little more time and I am keeping them in the fridge so they wont get bad.
Mind you, this is after over 30 hours of dehydration.
So far these are my thoughts..
I had a piece still warm, straight out of the dehydrator, and I put cashew mayo on it, and it was really good. The flavor was reminiscant of multi grain bread and the texture was smooth and bread like. I had another piece with nothing on it and I wasn't too impressed. The recipe called for it to be spread on two paraflexx sheets. I really think it could have been three. It would have taken less time to dehydrate and not have been as expensive per piece. The other thing is for all the ingredients in it you would expect it to be very flavorful, and its actually a bit bland.
It isn't a BAD bread, and the taste and texture being kinda multi grain bread like is cool. If I WERE to make this expensive, pain in the ass bread, again I would add 2 dates and some salt. That might pump it up a bit and enhance the bread like flavor it already kinda has.

We got our SPUD order yesterday and I wanted to show how I usually prepare my greens. I prep them the the night we get them as long as I am not too tired, and store them in a bin the width of my fridge so I can easily grab them out for my (2) daily salad (s) ;)

I just lay some paper towel on the bottom to absorb any moisture and make it easy to clean out the bin.

you know... lot's of stuff...

The Taquitos turned out pretty good... I used THE jalapeno corn chip recipe and just made up my own filling using a variation on my taco meat mish mash. I have just been dipping in salsa and guac... but rosie, that cheeze sounded tasty.

Here they are before I ate them ;) I did figure out why I felt so off yesterday... ladies you should have know. The CRIMSON TIDE... duh sara, obviously. Hmmm I feel crappy and bloated, I don't even want to eat... HELLO? It has only happened about 210 times in my life so far. Am I out of eggs yet? Seriously!

The onion bread= simple, low in cost, delicious! Like really delicious... It made 19 (small) hand sized squares. I made it from the recipe in the Sunny Raw Kitchen New Recipe EBOOK, which I recommend buying, but you can find the recipe all over the place. I made it as written except I used 2 onions instead of three, processed 1.5 with half an apple until smooth, and sliced the remainder super thin... I also only used about 2/3 the amount of brags called for. I made two open face sammies with it today and it was the BEST.
This is the view from my apartment, just wanted to show the non pacific northwesters what beautiful weather we have been having... I feel so lucky! If you strain your eyes you might be able to see mt. Rainer out in the distance... well you can see it really well in real life anyway.

So I started the nut free Mediterranean bread today... LET ME TELL YOU... It made 9 cups of batter... that's a lot. If you have a small food processor beware. I have a seven cup and it still wasn't big enough. Plus this is like a $1 per slice stack of bread. It better be good! Oh and the other thing... it seems you are supposed to spread it on just two paraflexx sheets. 4.5 cups of batter per sheet. It was probably a good 1/2 to 3/4 an inch thick. I hope it turns out well! Anyone made this bread before? Is that normal?

my weekend is over :(

My work week starts tomorrow and I am already looking forward to my next days off! I did get a lot accomplished today (and yesterday too!) so at least I feel somewhat prepared. I cleaned a large portion of the house, including a deep clean of the kitchen. I have done about 4 loads of laundry so far... probably an equal amount to go. I made chips/taquitos, onion bread, and I am soaking some buckwheat for a nut free mediteranian bread I want to try.
I had yoga this morning. It was a pretty good class and I felt like my back did some adjusting and settling. It hasn't been giving me as many problems since my last massage and I've been doing yoga twice a week. Hopefully whatever I did to it is repairing itself...
My boyfriend took the computer with him to work today so he could get more ram installed. I am using my phone to post (hopefully it works) so no taquito pictures tonight, but hopefully after work tomorrow.
I didn't eat dinner yet... I have been eating all day, as usual, but I haven't eaten since about 4 and I don't really feel hungry. I am going to see if I can beat my night time snack attack tonight and go to bed without eating. (Well, I kinda lied, I did just have a little taste of the onion bread in the dehydrator, just to make sure it wasn't quite ready... haha) I am feeling kinda bloaty and fullish so I think I am just going to try to drink a few big glasses of water between now and bed and see if I can make it til morning.
Hope you all had a good day...

Ice Cream is my new Calling

Today I had a pretty successful Shopping and Ice Cream day. If successful shopping means I got a bunch of great stuff then yes, I succeeded. If it means I spent WAY too much money, then I also succeeded. Thanks to Heidi at HiHo Rosie's Place I bought two jars of Bubbies pickles today. YES! they are RAW! I got some hummus (livin spoonfuls) and some raw green olives... I got some ingredient type things too, that was just all the premades.
So for my food prep today I made Three Ice Creams and have some Corn Chips in the dehydrator. I plan on making some bread before the weekend is up for me, but I am just trying to decide on a recipe. Anyone have any good sandwich bread recommendations?
The Ice Cream went well and I think I almost have the non-machette method of opening young coconuts down. I made a base of Vanilla Coconut Ice Cream and just added in other ingredients to change the flavors. Here are my results:

RAW Chocolate Crunch: Dark Chocolate Ice Cream with Cacao Nibs and Coconut Chips
The Chips were more like Shards, because I decided to just spread out a layer of coconut butter on my silpat, freeze it, and break it into pieces, instead of trying to make chips... The house was to hot to get chips to happen. This is a tiny bit bitter which I think is a nice juxtaposition with the creaminess and the sweet coconut shards.

Raspberry Lime: A mix between Ice Cream and Sorbet... Bonus Whole Raspberry Bits
This one is very good. A little creamier than a sorbet, but not quite an ice CREAM. Pleasently tart.

Oh! RAWnge Creamcicle: A creamy orange sherbert with ribbons of vanilla ice cream throughout
Next time I would sweeten my orange ice cream a little more and maybe up the amount of Vanilla I mixed in. It has a nice flavor but could be sweeter AND creamier...

I love ice cream...

Ice Cream Mondae's

So monday is my saturday, and it is also the day that I do most of my grocery store shopping... all the stuff I didn't get from SPUD. It has also become my ice cream making day. Tomorrow I am planning on a few possibilities:
oRAWnge creamcicle
Coconut Chocolate Swirll
Raspberry Lime
Dark Chocolate with Coconut Chips

I'm getting a little gourmet this week... I am going to try making coconut chips. My plan is to take melted coconut butter and "drop" it onto a silpat covered pan and stick it in the freezer. It should be amazing!

Any other brilliant ice cream suggestions I should try?

Kale Chips

So I think they were great... only, I ate about half of them before they could even dry! I think this is the closest thing to potato chips I have had since being raw. I used
1 bunch of lattice kale
2-3 T olive oil
some probably not raw spices: a non salt seasoning mix, pepper, a little salt, a little chilli powder, cumin...

De-stem the kale and cut it into chip size pieces, mix up the sauce (oil and spices) in a mixing bowl and throw the kale in and toss it up well. Try to coat every leaf in the sauce. Lay it out on your dehydrator and let it dry at 104 degrees (ish) for 4-5 hours. These chips turned out flakey-crunchy and salty-oil. Good Combos. I think it would be good with nutritional yeast. Be careful though. I ate them all myself in about 10 minutes. An entire head of kale. I did not win the late night battle with the snacks last night :(