chacamole pie!

I made a pie for dinner... I am feeling hormonal ;)

Chacamole Pie
Crust:
2 c cashews (dry) ground to powder
1/2 c raisins
3 T coconut butter
1/2 t salt
1 T vanilla
Filling:
2 large AVOS
3 T coconut butter
1/2 c cacao powder
3/4 c agave
1/4 t balsamic vinegar (optional)

optional: 1/2 cup coconut shavings

Get a spring form pan and grease the sides with coconut oil... I used a 9 inch
To make crust combine all ingredients in a processor until it balls up. I probably would have used dates over raisins but the store was out. Press dough into the bottom of a spring form pan.
Dump coconut shavings on top of the crust and spread evenly over the crust.
Put in freezer for a bit while making filling so the coconut oil coating becomes solid.
Process all filling ingredients until smooth. Pour into spring form pan on top of crust sticking to the center of the pan. Once all the filling is in the pan rotate the pan while gently smoothing the filling towards the sides. This will evenly distribute the filling without mixing in the coconut shavings. Once complete refrigerate for at least an hour. To remove from sides run hot water carefully over the outside of the pan rotating as you go. Careful not to get water INSIDE the pan (like I did as you can see by the light colored streaks on the top of my pie!!!). This is a very brief process, the coconut oil will melt quickly. Release the clip on the pan and it should come off perfectly. Refridgerate again for 10 more minutes to resolidify your pie. EAT!

raw fu friends!

I have been fighting with the internet for two days now... hopefully today it will work and post my blog!
(this was last night)
Got together with some lovelye Raw FU'ers and partners last night and it was awesome. I was very happy to meet people who I had gotten to know so well in digital, and find that I liked them even more in REAL LIFE. We had a great meal at chaco and talked for hours afterwards. Half the time there were up to three conversations happening simultaneously across the table.
It was also really nice to talk to other raw foodies and not feel like the odd one out because all I want to talk about is raw cacao!
Here's all my happy, beautiful, new raw friends... You can find all of their blogs listed to the right of this post. Yardsnacker, HiHoRosie's Place, Bitt's Blog, and Lola Bloom! "This is WAY more fun than the internet!" -Yardy
I am capping off my evening with some chococado pudding. I tried to convince myself it was ice cream by putting toppings on it... some of you may remember I am out of ice cream because I ATE IT ALL the other morning.
ChacoCado Puddin:
1 Avocado
Cacao powder and agave to taste (approximately 1/8c each, but more depending on the size of the avo!)... mix it all up=yum
It is best when you blend it because it will be smoooth and more chocolate puddingy. I just mashed it with a fork cause I was feeling lazy!
I also added a spoonful of coconut butter... you know me.

Yesterday I also got to meet my moms new puppy, shelby. She is an adorable 4 month old Bouvier.

Very sweet and fuzzy!

prepare for battle

so, the reason work has been a bit stressful lately is that my co-manager, or evening counterpart, is going out of the country for 6 weeks starting today. Today, and the next few days, are going to be espescially busy and hectic. I at least have two awesome highlights tomorrow which will get me through today.
1. my mom is going to be in town for a few hours and she is bringing her ADORABLE NEW PUPPY to come see me at work. Oh, you better believe I will take pictures.
2. I get to finally meet some of my local raw internet friends! yay!
So in preparation for today mostly, but the next couple of days as well I made myself food to last awhile. I made raw thai salad from Aimee's post here. I made it almost exactly the same but I didn't have all the ingredients so my slaw was cabbage, cucumber, mushroom, and carrot. I used braggs like aimee did instead of nama shoyu but I also added the juice of an orange. It is SUPER good! Good call on the mint and basil too... Just like eating the inside of a fresh roll. Next time I may sprout some mung beans to throw in too! I have been eating it just as a salad or wrapped in a cabbage leaf like a taco.
I also made the DELICIOUS chili I love so much but this time added a lot more veggies like corn and carrots. I think it is getting perilously close to tasting like a spicy veggie soup instead of chili now, but it is still good. Today I work at 1030 and I start the night bake. We have a HUGE order today, like the biggest ever and we are starting the bake 1.5 hours early. It will most likely be a long day. I will for sure be bringing a BIG dragon egg nog smoothie along as well.
3 bananas
2 cups of spinach
1-2 T tahini butter
.5t cinnamon
.25 t nutmeg
yummm
Although today it will probably have vitamineral green and spirulina instead of spinach cause I am out!

hot dawg! (blanche!)

So I must say thanks to Bitt's Blog, miss stacey s, and this little climbing monkey for inspiring me to go get some exercise this morning. B. lanche and I went for a 1.5 mile run this morning, which may not seem like much, but for her was a lot. I am only in slightly better shape than she is. When she was a puppy I used to HAVE to walk her 3 miles everyday or she would be UP THE WALL with energy. When she got a little older and stopped needing as many walks, and alex moved in with us and taught her the fine art of napping, I took a much wanted walking vacation. I mean, we still walk, but usually just a mile or two, and long walks like once a week. Well this pup dog is pretty out of shape and not so great with the heat. She isn't fat but she has a lot of muscle mass and I would imagine you have to be in pretty good cardiovascular shape to move that bulk quickly. We are going to be running more often as long as my ouch will let me. Maybe I will get into the injury at some point, but I prefer to ignore it as much as possible.
Alex even said he would run with us. WHAT?!!! Crazy!
Anyway she is crashed on the floor right now but as soon as we both cool down I am going to make a delish green smoothie to share with her, she earned it...

Oh and aimee, I don't know if I ever answered the question about how she does running with me. When she was a pup she wouldn't keep a steady cadence, it was run, sprint, walk, stop, sprint, stop, run... Now she does much better, mostly because she gets tired quick I think! although hopefully she will be so used to it by the time she is in great shape that she won't revert back to sprinting. I make her wear her gentle leader and only a couple times a run does she try to stop or pull me across the street. I think she mostly is just excited to move forward and see where we are going.

Day 5... long time no post

I know it has been a bit since my last post. Work has been a little stressful and has left me feeling drained when I get home, unable to make anything more elaborate than a salad, or eating ice cream from the container. We are now on day 5 of the raw food challenge, I hope everyone is getting into it. I have been away from the rawfu a little bit too. I feel like it has grown so much and I don't have the energy to dig around the entire thing. Today I may be able to invest a little time as I skipped yoga this morning to stay up super late watching season three of Veronica Mars (which seriously leaves you hanging by the way) and eating this Banana Split
It is probably my favorite Ice Cream dish I have ever made. Simple, Rich, a hint of Mischief. (mischief because I stayed up and skipped yoga!) Whole Foods had a poor selection of young coconuts this week, I only found three I liked and one of the STILL turned out to be unusable. I am keeping my receipt this time! So I felt like I had to beef up the base a little to make more volume. I added 1/4 cup of cashew butter. I have done this before as well, it really does add something as far as richness. It isn't cheap, and it isn't necessary, but sometimes it is nice for a touch of something extra. I also invested in some cacao powder in addition to my normal nibs and I must say... BIG DIFFERENCE. There is no way I can grind the nibs so fine in the coffee grinder, although I am going to try harder now for sure, and it assimilates so much better. For the fudge sauce I mixed equal parts agave and coconut butter and whisked in cocoa powder until it tasted the way I wanted. For Carmel Sauce leave the cocoa powder out. YUM
Grocery Shopping "Score of the Week" was 10lbs of heirloom tomatos for 25$. I got them at the closest PCC and told the produce guy I wanted a box (case). He started going through and tossing the ones with the scab on the bottom and I was like "OH!!! I'll take them! Don't throw them out!!! I don't care if they aren't perfect as long as they aren't all bruised and rotting." So he gave me a little discount in addition to their case discount for taking the flawed tomatos. Most of them were perfectly fine, just one or two needed parts cut out. I didn't care, I was just going to dehydrate them anyway!
I left a few for salads but the rest went in the hot box.
I just had some chocolate ice cream for breakfast, I feel a little gluttonous but since I am convinced my period is going to start today I am justifying it.