Everyday Raw...

So someone on goneraw was talking up this cookbook and I thought, hey that sounds great. The title really did it for me, since I know I can make fancy raw food, but what does one eat day to day??? I ordered it on amazon, it came the next day, I didn't even order 1 day, all good omens so far. So happily I read the book. All you other food nerds who get a cookbook and proceed to read it cover to cover the first day, you are in good company. This is what I thought:

• Pretty pictures (sounds funny but it helps)
• A few recipes that could be staples
• Many recipes that call for young Thai coconut
• Many nut heavy recipes
• Many recipes I will never make

Buuuut... let's be honest, most of the time I don't use recipes anyway. I just learn HOW to make stuff and through it together on my own. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. I think overall $13 whatever that I paid for this book was worth it. If the corn chips rule it will be worth the money just for that. 

Today I made a recipe almost entirely from the book, minus parsley, which I didn't have and I think it's gonna be great. 

Quinoa Tabbouleh

1 C soaked and sprouted Quinoa

1 C Tomato (diced)

1 C Cucumber (diced)

1/4 C minced Red Onion

1/2 C Flat Leaf Parsley

1/4 cup Olive Oil

3 T Lemon Juice

1 t Salt

Drain Quinoa, transfer to a medium bowl and let marinate in olive oil, lemon juice and salt for 30 min- 1 hour. Add remaining ingredients and mix until well incorporated.

I used way less dressing, I don't need that much Oil! I also just mixed it all together and let it marinate as one. It is marinating right now and I can wait to eat it! Oh and I threw some Avo on top. Guess I am getting that oil anyway ;)

So in the picture I think you can see all the cute little sprouts from my quinoa. Some people say they can't eat sprouted (uncooked) quinoa, this will be my first time eating a large quantity, we will see if it hurts my tummy.

If you cheat to win, you still won...

So over the past few days I have had some successes and failures in raw food land. I made a DELICIOUS Kale Avocado salad, courtesy of Nicole, my once and future boss. And I made DISGUSTING cauliflower mashed potatoes and mushroom almond gravy (no thanks to you GONERAW!!!). Well I still love gone raw but this should really teach me to make SMALL batches of new recipes instead of just diving in and wasting a WHOLE head of cauliflower and bag of scrumptious little mushrooms. I got a new raw food cookbook called Everyday Raw... I will write a review of it under a whole separate blog. Anyway, I have had a few lightly cooked dinners (come on guys, 4 in 20 days isn't so bad) but today I kinda blew it. I am not mad at myself I am just going to keep going which is great. I ate an ENTIRE BLUEBERRY DONUT at work today (don't worry! vegan of course). I was just going to have a little taste, since today was the first day of the seasonal donut, and it IS my favorite donut, well I started "tasting" and what do you know? I was half way through the donut. At that point I was like "fuck it" and finished it. It is funny because after I ate it I started having coffee cravings and I have not craved coffee once this whole time. I know it has to be because I used to always have coffee and a donut for breakfast in the mornings on the first break, and I am sure my body was saying, "hey a donut! better get ready for that coffee" and stared producing whatever it produces to break down coffee. Which made me crave it. It was my first wheat product and processed sugar in 20 days and I am a little bummed I did that to my body, but it's ok, part of my little raw food experiment is learning about my food addictions and bad little eating patterns and I feel like I can let this mistake go and not falter, which is kinda big for me. I think I may have followed the donut with another and a cup of coffee with soymilk in the past. So good for me.

A little nervous about california eating, but I think it will be alright. If I eat a little crappy food I will just recover and keep on going.

Kale Avocado Salad

1 Bunch of Kale (washed and torn)

1 Avocado (diced)

1 Lg Tomato (chopped)

2 T Olive oil

1 T Lemon Juice

1/2-1 t Sea Salt (depending on taste)

Put it all in a bowl together and smush it all up in your fingers, massage the salt, oil, and lemon juice into the kale. Eat right away or let it marinate a while. Such a good way to eat your kale!

food of valhalla

Seriously. Blanche thinks so too... She's been trying to lick the jar the entire time I was trying to take this picture so I let her have a staring role.

I just made a new pudding for desert, and while it is setting I just wanted to share how glorious this product Artisana "raw coconut butter" is. Go get some.

So the new pudding recipe, which I think would make a good "whip cream" as well is:

2 Dates

1/2 Banana

2 T Coconut Butter

1 T Raw Cashew Butter

1 t Vanilla 

And about 1/4 cup water to smooth it out.

I blended it all up and let it go awhile gradually increasing the speed and I watched it GROW, which guess what? means it was WHIPPING... you know what that means? WHIP FUCKING CREAM. I am going to save a Tablespoon or two to have on my raw oatmeal breakfast tomorrow morning. More on that tomorrow.

A failure?

I've been eating (almost- nutritional yeast, miso, and vinegar being my exceptions) entirely raw for about 2 weeks now and yesterday I decided to have some popcorn. I feel pretty guilty about it. I am trying not to feel like I failed as I haven't commited to anything or made any kind of resolution or anything concerning my rawness. I just said I would do it as long as I felt like it. I have a hard time not making everything so black or white. 

I didn't really WANT to eat it... I just started feeling depressed about all the things I wouldn't be able to eat again if I stayed on raw foods and I decided I didn't want to be 100% and I ate something cooked to finalize it. Then I had acid reflux. And I felt upset that I broke my good streak. I need to just take it day by day and not think about next winter and how I'm going to want hot soup. I got right back on my raw regime after I fucked up... I think I kinda need to do that to remind myself why I am eating this way. Next week when I go on vacation I am not yet sure what I will do. I guess I should plan on not staying raw so that I won't be so disappointed in myself if I end up eating cooked food, and just do my best... I can always go back if I get off track.

Lentil Soup

Uggh, not a success. That's the problem with making your own recipes. It was OK. Not awful, but super starchy. I think if I use lentils in the future it will be a small amount in dehydrated bread or something. Luckily I think I can just cook the remainder of the soup I made and it will be pretty good and alex will eat it. The taste was pretty similar to the cooked lentil soup I used to make, and the texture too... but the starch was too much to handle, and I just don't know if I can hang with cold soup.

Fresh CHEEZY Tahini Dressing

This can be used as a dressing or a veggi dip. I made it yesterday and it ruled.

2 T Raw Tahini Butter

1-2 Cloves Garlic

1 T Balsamic vinegar

1/2 t salt

Black Pepper

1/2 lemon's juice

1/2 cup soaked Sunflower Seeds

2 T olive oil

1/2 t paprika

Hunk of Parsley

Blend and add cold water as needed to reach desired consistency. Keep in mind it will thicken when chilled.

Fancy Dinner/Lunch

I got off work a little early today so I decided to get a little complicated with food.

I made a Raw Lasagna and a Banana Cream Tart. As per usual when I make up my own recipes I tend to have mixed success. With the raw lasagna I made a fresh bruschetta, with tomato, garlic, basil, onion and olive oil. I also made an almond based cheese. I think in the future I will skip almonds as a cheese base since they tend to taste a little sweet, no matter what you do. It turned out alright though. Soaked almonds, soaked sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast, onion, garlic, thyme, and water. I layered nut cheese, bruschetta, basil leaves, and orange bell pepper between thinly sliced pieces of eggplant. My initial idea was to dehydrate the eggplant into "chips" and then spread it with the cheese spread and pile bruschetta on top. Since I do not have a dehydrator I tried to use the oven but it was taking so long I finally gave up. I think I would use zucchini instead of eggplant for "lasagna" next time as the eggplant is SO fiberous it is hard to cut through. Actually next time I think I would prefer more of a savory lasagna to a fresh spicy one. It was pretty good but a sundried tomato sauce and some olives and spinach was really more what I was craving. It was a good fresh lunch though. If I were to use eggplant in this situation again I may try to break it down a little bit first by marinating it in some olive oil or something.  The Banana Cream Tart turned out much better. I used cashews and almonds with a little sea salt and about 6 dates to make the crust

I just processed it until it was a consistant texture and began to ball up. The only thing I would do differently is to make sure the nuts were completely dry from soaking before using them for a crust. I need a dehydrator! The cream filling is 2 Bananas, 1/2 cup cashews, some vanilla, and a tsp. of lemon juice. I processed with some water until it was smooth and creamy. Then I put strawberries and kiwi on top. Mostly I am just reading everything I can about preparing raw foods and am trying to learn how to put together recipes and try to get an idea of how combinations turn out so I am better able to make things up on my own. I have had varying levels of success but nothing has turned out "bad" yet. So that's a good thing. I am soaking some red lentils tonight in hopes of creating a dahl type soup tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Eggplant:
The raw fruit can have a somewhat bitter taste, but becomes tender when cooked and develops a rich, complex flavor. Salting and then rinsing the sliced eggplant (known as "degorging") can soften and remove much of the bitterness. Some modern varieties do not need this treatment, as they are less bitter. The eggplant is capable of absorbing large amounts of cooking fats and sauces, allowing for very rich dishes, but the salting process will reduce the amount of oil absorbed. The fruit flesh is smooth; as in the related tomato, the numerous seeds are soft and edible along with the rest of the fruit. The thin skin is also edible, so that the eggplant need not be peeled.