Monday, July 18, 2011

zucchini pasta with creamy something sauce!

if i didn't know what was in this, i'd have NO idea. everything blended together so nicely!

i found this recipe for "raw zucchini pasta with carrot-cashew creme sauce". i used only 3 zucchini so i had sauce left over, i didn't use peas or onions or basil, i used chickpea miso, probably 2 tablespoons of sun-dried tomatoes and i used the optional roma. and my juicer is still dead and un-replaced, so i vitamixed a few short carrots with a bit of water and it was great!

 and for dessert... frozen banana blended with a little water and strawberries with cacao nibs on top! YES! could've put in the freezer a bit to firm up but we couldn't wait!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

raw banana pancakes!

the other night, i made some brazil nut-banana pancake batter to dehydrate to be ready for morning breakfast. (p73 ani's raw food essentials). i put them in around 12:30am and had got up at 6:30 and flipped them and removed the teflex and we probably sat down to have them around 11?
blended blueberries and raspberries with a date and some filtered water to make a syrup and served up with coconut oil, nectarines and plums!

verdict? maple syrup would be fun for next time. i was stubborn because i made the fruit syrup. and 7 hours dehydrating would probably be enough. after what, 10 hours, they were kind of leathery. it'd be fun to have a softer, more doughy pancake. 

next time!

still fun to do a brunch-type thing.

p.s. organic lives added a ravioli to their menu today and i can't wait to try it! (i was debating bringing it home today but i think i want to wait for a time i can sit in there for dinner or something)

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

kindergarten lessons in raw food!

oops, so it's already july but i'm a bit behind in posting. a few weeks back, i had the pleasure of being in a kindergarten class for a morning and they usually bake bread and i didn't want to deprive them of their friday cooking lesson so i thought i'd try an 'un-cooking' lesson!

first we combined ingredients for the marinara. this is my go-to sauce that i got from you guessed it, ani phyo. i'll have to look up what book. whenever i'm at a loss for what to bring to a potluck or to quickly whip up for dinner guests or to add to something else (like back in february's lasagne), i love blending this up! i'm grateful i used a recipe i was really familiar with as trying to coordinate jobs to involve 15 active young ones is a challenge! in hindsight, i should've tested the recipe out using the hand blender in advance. and i maybe should've measured out everything first as that took awhile and we almost had a REALLY oregano-inspired marinara. but it's funny, no matter how non-exact the ingredient combinations were, it turned out well! the kids loved smelling the spices (basil was a favourite) and were curious of what this would turn into.
 the sauce took so long though that i had to send them for their recess play time while i took 20 minutes frantically trying to hand-blend the sauce into something without the big sun-dried tomato chunks! or, my worst fear, garlic chunks!
 here is the part i knew would be a hit... the spirooli! before recess, i was so scared about the results as the kids were eagerly telling me how much they didn't like vegetables (ack, the whole recipe!), especially tomatoes (gah! fresh and sun-dried in this dish!) but telling them i worked in a restaurant seemed to help. since i 'must know what i'm doing', they seemed to trust the vegetable preparations!
each of them had a few turns of the spirooli to turn zucchini into noodles. the best was when one exclaimed, "so that's how you make noodles!" i excitedly showed them the inner of the zucchini that reminds me of corkscrew pasta when the rest has been spiroolied away and they all wanted to try it! even the top part (just raw zucchini!) that i cut up into wedges when one said it tasted like pizza. must have been the smell of the sauce nearby.
 after finishing the noodles, they took turns shaking nutritional yeast and hemp seeds for a "veggie parmesan" and then sat at places at their tables with real plates and forks (none of that plastic business!).
one student went around spooning the 'rawmesan' onto plates of people who wanted it and many did! and many liked it! some were calling it sugar but whatever! many asked for seconds or thirds of the pasta. so it must have been a success!

hurrah!

getting rid of your cold...

morning vitamin C smoothie: parsley (couldn't resist as its iron should be more easily absorbed with all of this vitamin C!) and filtered water, camu camu, freshly squeezed orange juice (eek! so amazing! from the juiciest sweetest oranges ever!), mango, papaya...
 and then frozen bananas and some frozen raspberries...
 and later we did several shots of what organic lives puts in their cold/flu shot: e3 live, celery, ginger and camu camu!
coughing and sneezing = gone!

if i could eat this in a restaurant, i'd be most pleased!

so this was lunch yesterday! another ani phyo delight, from p145 of ani's raw food essentials: tomato chili with taco nut meat (bean-free). i only had 1 tomato so i don't imagine i had quite the 3 cups asked for and i didn't use corn but... success! i used less chili powder than asked for since i had stuff from organic lives and wow, i still felt a punch in the head from the chili! it's powerful!
for the taco nut meat (p146), i used brazil nuts instead of walnuts and it was DELICIOUS.
i served the chili on top of some romaine and put half an avocado on each of our plates to calm the chili a bit.
 and yah, this couldn't be better if someone else made it! the PERFECT meal!!!
 and well, a couple hours later, i couldn't resist trying to make a cashew cream with lemon and vanilla to spoon over strawberries with cacao nibs!

lunch outside!

why people hide from the sun and soak chemicals into their body to 'protect' themselves from the sun and then have to take vitamin D supplements is beyond me!

is it not that more refreshing if you step outside your place of work for your break? i LOVE taking my lunch outside when i can! fresh air and vitamin D!!!

today, i tried ani phyo's carrot angel hair with sun-dried tomatoes in cheddar cheeze sauce (p233 of ani's raw food essentials). i got tired of spiralizing carrots after 3 so i did one zucchini which quickly topped up my need for noodles. for the topping, i processed some cashews and pumpkin seeds with garlic and salt. i added nutritional yeast and some red pepper to ani's recipe for the cheddar cheeze sauce on p105. and then served the noodles with the topping (including chopped sun-dried toms) atop arugula. YES!!!

and add this to eating outside? best lunch.
though wait until you see what i made yesterday!