catching up...

i've been terrible at updating lately but of course still taking photos of foods i think are fun.
one night in the last few weeks (gah!), i made some sort of ice cream. i'm guessing it was a chocolate mint type thing. but maybe it was just mint leaves on the side of something with cacao nibs. i'm guessing frozen bananas were involved, a splash of almond milk (which i FINALLY started making my own of! hurrah for vitamix!) and who knows. was that it? was there some lucuma maybe? why is it so white? oh man, i'm thinking now that this might just be some of that coconut milk ice cream which is not raw in the least. it might be the chocolate chip mint one and i added nibs to it to make it more legit. ha. the martini glasses help too, right?

ok so ANYWAYS, feb. 13th me and paul hosted some friends for raw dinner. YAY!!! first up (after a veggie juice!) was the caeasar salad i believe i've posted before. i like to practice first so it's not so nervewracking having people over. though i love doing a recipe/idea for the first time for potlucks. maybe it's because there are other dishes/people involved so it's not all relying on me!

then... the raw lasagna! YAH! that day i was like CRAP i don't have anything white or cheese like for a ricotta type layer!!! so i went to gorilla food for some of their alfredo sauce to put as a layer along with marinated mushroom, pine nut pesto, sundried tomato sauce with slices of roma and then ani phyo's marinara sauce for top and bottom layers!

i LOVE all the layers! i felt i put a bit too much thyme (time? ha, not really) into the marinara sauce but at least it wasn't bland?

 for dessert... the brazil nut/almond 'shortbread' from organic lives. these are soooo awesome. i have been begging for them to keep this cookie going. i think hearts are TOTALLY relevant past valentines' day but i don't care the shape of them! if that's why they're done, they should just make 'em in another shape! i just want them again! they are the best! i don't know how you would pick a baked sugar cookie when you could have these!!!

 ooh and then another day recently, i finally made use of the burgers (from nature provides) i bought at karmavore. warmed em up in the dehydrator and packed some romaine leaves (the bun!) with beets and peppers and onions. hurrah! i went to buddha-full the other day and noticed their amazing kale chips are from nature provides. i didn't previously make the connection that the fabulous pizza (i had bought the crust from karmavore also) and raw burger was nature provides also! and so then i'm told that they are building a spot for nature provides in the restaurant to make everything there in house! eek! i love buddha-full. they are going to start having theme nights, i think the last friday of the months so there is a raw meal of a certain style of food like italian or what not. organic lives did an indian one in january which i sadly missed. they debuted a raw samosa which will hopefully be appearing on the menu any day now. i think they are doing a mexican night next! anyways... excited to see what will be served up in buddha-full in the coming months!

 and then there is rooted cafe in eternal abundance on the drive. i was there on friday for dinner and started with the raw chocolate heart! YES! not too sweet... just right!

 and gah, the raw kale caeasar... i could eat a million of these forever. i can't imagine getting sick of this!

 raw tomato red pepper soup with flax cracker. excellent! and inspiring me to get on trying the soups in the vitamix again...

 and well, i had to have a second dessert! after dinner! hehe. the cheesecake! YES!!!

i want to get out to the drive more often. i love what the rooted cafe is doing!!! the food and the people there are so amazing!!!

bread and hummus!

i'm going to a clothing swap tonight and was struggling with thinking of a nice snack to bring... and then i thought of something! i had been fooling around with some bread in the dehydrator last night from the leftover pulp of post-yoga juice :) ground flax and filtered water, some sprouted chickpea miso and the pulp! not bad at all. spread some coconut oil on it first to try it out...

then i made a zucchini hummus to take with these 'breads' tonight. i was inspired by this recipe though i didn't follow it exactly. basically i used 2 zucchini, some chickpea miso, 1/2 an avocado (pretty much all the avos i bought this weekend went bad within a day! SADNESS!!!), the juice of 2 lemons, a splash of paprika and cumin and sea salt and hemp hearts. it is not thick like a hummus but made a nice dressing for today's salad lunch! topped it with some processer-ed sprouted almonds and nut. yeast!

so we'll see how this 'dressing hummus' does as a dip for the breads tonight!

raw caeasar salad!

i love getting the raw caesar salad at sejuiced. and today i was inspired to make one of my own.

i found a dressing recipe from dreena burton but i didn't have a number of the things it called for. so i improvised a bit!

here is what i did:

about 4 oz (maybe less) brazil nuts
about 1/4 cup ground flax seed
the juice of 2 lemons
about 3/4 of an avocado 
1 medium clove garlic, chopped
2 tsp sprouted chickpea miso 
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp dulse flakes
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2–1 tsp maple syrup
1/4 cup filtered water (or more to thin as desired)

i blended it in my mini processor and coated a few leaves shy of a head of cut up romaine with it. i had dressing left over!
i topped this pile of deliciousness with some croutons from organic lives

p.s. i don't know WHY i can't rotate this photo. it's rotated in iphoto???

vitamix! YAY!!!!

so... i got some money from christmas and my birthday to use towards a vitamix... i didn't want to get one before korea because i was sure i would be thinking about it going unused for a month and it would TORTURE me!!!
so i finally have one and just 2 days ago, i finally used it!!!
first things first... a smoothie!

one of paul's favourites is matcha with frozen banana, almond milk and a bit of maple syrup (which i used) or dates. GLORIOUS. and wow, so quick to make AND ridiculously smooth.

i kept with the green theme... and put carrot, broccoli in with some filtered water and tahini, some garlic, red onion, salad booster, nutritional yeast, a pinch of himalayan salt, some lemon.... blended that for 5 minutes and it was nice and hot. tried it and it had TOO much taste. i added some macadamia nut cheese (which i found quite bland) and maybe it helped, maybe it didn't.
finally, i served it with some pieces of sesame gaufrette from organic lives.... i think that might be the key for me: adding texture to soup. making something so smooth is exciting but i think soup tastes better if it has chunks in it. i tried this soup with the strange carrot pulp stuff i made earlier too. except that got all soggy and i didn't like it so much. next time i think i'll add some finely chopped veggies.

i had some left over still the next day and so i tried it with fresh dill and zucchini and cauliflower on top.

 it was still not good. boo. i have to keep things simple i guess. i will use more veggies and less spices or pungents (ie onions, garlic) next time. i'm going to have to try some of the soup recipes from the sunny raw kitchen. i did manage to finish the strange soup tonight, however, when i added a million slices of carrots!
the real hit of last night was my old faithful marinara sauce ala ani phyo. you can get the recipe most similar to what i did here. i love how quick it is. throw it all in the blender and it's done! usually i use the spirooli to make zucchini noodles but tonight i rinsed and soaked some kelp noodles. and i mixed the sauce in with them and had them sit for awhile in the dehydrator. i don't know if that's the trick to getting the crunchiness out but wow, they were so soft and noodley! so awesome!!! oh yah and the 'parmesan' on top is brazil nuts and nutritional yeast that i crumbled in the food processor.

later that night, paul made rooibos tea and well, i couldn't resist using the blender yet again so i poured it in with a couple dates and some almond milk. YES FOAM!!!! paul said it tasted like perfume. but i liked it. so there.

 and finally... i made some ice cream, inspired by this. frozen banana with frozen blueberries, blended with a pinch of cardamon and a splash of almond milk.

i <3 my vitamix!!!

kale chip excitement!

just over a week ago, i met up with my friend for the first time since coming back from korea and she got back from san francisco. we went to an art show but i couldn't focus on anything except wanting ice cream. we went into the choices market nearby and marvelled that there were now some raw treats to buy like lara-style bars and brownies. but gah, the huge packaging and lack of organic ingredients. why eat raw if it isn't organic? anyways... decided upon some of the vanilla cashew creamery ice cream which we ate in a coffee shop across the street! ha.

this is the first retail-available raw ice cream in canada (we barely just got coconut milk ice cream!) and i'm excited about it and all but it uses the agave and well, it's made of cashews! both of these ingredients are arguably BAD for you plus they are used waaaaaay too much in raw foods and snacks. i don't mind this ice cream as much (especially if i add cacao nibs to it and some cinnamon) but jodie was NOT impressed. i think she had one spoon if that. it's nothing compared to kindkreme in LA where even my non-vegan friends were totally into going again... but i remember they used agave too and cashews! oh and it looks like they use honey too? WHAT?! but anyways... i guess it was fresh there too so that would make a difference.
so yesterday i decided to mix up some things to coat kale with to dehydrate. i used this "vegan cheesy" salad booster i got from jodie and processed it with a couple mushrooms, half a red pepper, a few slices of zucchini, a splash of apple cider vinegar, maybe some olive oil and nutritional yeast.  i ended up slicing up some collard greens to try as well because, well, kale chips are everywhere - why aren't other greens being used as well?
anyways, they have been AWESOME. i love having loads of topping. and it was hard to tell the collards from the kale except for that it's flat and not all crinkly! so i'm going to use it more often!

 last night, paul wanted carrot juice. CARROTS! i LOVE THEM!!! and i decided to use the leftover pulp in a mishmash of zucchini, red onion, garlic, and salad booster in the processor before spreading it out on a teflex sheet. i couldn't tell you what it's supposed to be but it smelled SO GOOD in the dehydrator last night. and it's been great to snack on today. though i need to drink lots of water now i think!!!