raw pesto, minus the pesto.

late this afternoon, after only a smoothie this morning, we had suddenly realized we were hungry. paul thought of using kelp noodles and then i started imagining a raw pesto on top. i looked at food and yoga for life's recipe and realized we only needed to get some fresh basil so i headed to the store.
as soon as i got there, there was no organic basil to be found and the conventional basil, having been kept in the refrigerated produce section for however long, was now all brown and mushy. i figured we could do a pesto minus the basil which would mean something more similar to an alfredo maybe?
so i started making food and yoga's recipe without basil, but using everything else (including the sunflower seeds) but then also added an avocado! yum! then, i checked the cupboards and realized we didn't have any kelp noodles!
isn't it funny how you can start with one idea and change it completely by the end?
so paul went and got zucchini and we ended up with the most fantastic creamy zingy sauced noodles.

this recipe's a keeper! a finger-licking-the-bowl-after-you-used-a-spoon-to-scrape-excess-sauce-to-eat-after-you-ate-all-of-your-noodles recipe!
i added a fair bit of water because with all the nuts and seeds, this sauce was quite thick. (can't assure you that i measured the original recipe's ingredients! sorry!) so i'm imagining making a spreadable cheeze next time using the lemon, garlic, sunflower seeds, walnuts, avocado, nutritional yeast, rock salt and olive oil. YUM!

raw purple corn chips!

i have been vowing to use the purple corn kernels i've had in the fridge for raw chips for YEARS, i'm sure. i'm actually scared to do a search on this blog as i know it's been way too long.
well, finally i tried it! and i'm impressed.
i used this recipe from rawfullytempting.com and it was perfect.

first i needed to blend my flax seed into powder and process all the corn. i try to avoid corn in my usual day, though i am a sucker for anita's white popping corn! gah. anyways! i most definitely used organic (non-GMO!!!) yellow and purple corn for this recipe.


using my vita-mix for processing the corn and such was not ideal, but it just meant i had to take many breaks (as the motor was working overtime) and had to keep spatula-ing the sides to get everything mixing evenly. i really need to get a big food processor one of these days as my mini one is just not cutting it. it is, but not just not enough at once! ha.

the spreading part, as the recipe states, is not the easiest part. i didn't quite take my time and they are uneven. but now i know that i like the thicker parts better than the fragile thin chips!
but all sizes of chips taste awesome in the red pepper chickpea hummus paul made last night! 

raw chocolate class!

last night i had the pleasure of attending the ever-endearing and entertaining emma's raw chocolate class at zimt headquarters.
i knew NOTHING about making raw chocolate as i tend to mash banana with coconut and raw cacao powder or mix coconut oil with maple syrup and raw cacao powder to fix my chocolate cravings. will i get a thermometer and start getting some actual chocolate creations happening? we'll see. i would definitely document it on this ol' thing if i did!

emma showed us the slowly melting cacao butter that she mixed with cacao powder at 40 degrees. then it was cooled to 28 degrees and then brought up to 30 degrees to set.
then we made medallions (french accent please) or hearts and such, hehe. then we sprinkled beautiful things on top like coconut, cinnamon, chia seeds, rock salt, cacao nibs, and rose petals and waited for the chocolates to set! glorious!

please know she has just one more class on thursday, march 28th. so sign up if you wanna take part! i don't know when she will be offering classes again! this is one busy lady!
p.s. i got a sneak sample of a cookie dough she has started and is just waiting packaging for. think cookie dough in a raw chocolate bath? oh goodness! swoon! i haven't yet tried her raw caramel and i can't wait to!!! i'm grateful she keeps the cacao innovations flowing continuously!

hurrah for days off! (a salad.)

ok, i have salads every day. but something about slowly preparing one for lunch today made me want to post. and, well, jodie mentioning my blog last night and i admitted i have kinda abandoned this guy lately because of my annoyances with photo allowances. i'm using photobucket now and going to roll with some posts while i have the inspiration!
so, today's salad!

cut up and thrown in:
-several leaves of romaine
-an avocado
-a yellow carrot
-a small handful of pea shoots
-a stem of fennel
-a couple radishes

blended as dressing:
-splash of hemp seeds
-spoon of tahini
-a bit too much filtered water (1/4 cup? would definitely start slow next time)
-a splash of apple cider vinegar
-juice of one lemon
-half a big clove of garlic
-leaves off one stem of sage
-a few chunks of dulse (shells washed off ^_^)

delicious! 
i'm a garlic and sage fiend lately. (on top of my avocado and radish OCD). loving it!

hurrah for cozy dinners at the dinner table!

when is the last time you ate at a table in your home? for paul and i, it was last night! after what seems like months! and we vow to do it way more often. but a big push to actually sit down for dinner is to make a dinner worth sitting down for (rather than a quick rice and veg that we sit on the couch with), which last night was roasted butternut squash, raw chili, ginger garlic coleslaw, edamame quinoa and kombucha (grapefruit sage is my absolute favourite!) with jodie and janna!

the butternut squash was inspired by a recipe i saw in alive magazine but as usual for me and recipes, i didn't quite follow it. what i did was bake the butternut squash and then blend it with about 2 tablespooons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of earth balance and 2 tablespoons of dijon and a palm-full of fresh sage and a pinch of sea salt and a small nub of ginger. then i baked it at 400 F for about 30 minutes and then i broiled it at a bit higher to brown a bit of the top because i hadn't added anything (like cheese, like the recipe had suggested). it was smooth like baby food and i liked having it mixed with the other dishes, like janna's yummy quinoa, for texture purposes. it was also nice for a "sweet" change from my garlic-heavy chili and slaw.
the chili is my ever-faithful matthew kenney one (his everyday raw book is worth buying just for that recipe, i swear!) and i had made a raw caesar-ish dressing earlier that day that we used like a sour cream on top (delicious! it was a blend of cashews and water and lemon juice and ACV and sage and dulse and tahini and olive oil and braggs) and the slaw was inspired heavily by ani phyo's chinese chickenless salad (page 161 of raw food essentials, another great book to have around). i did a blend of braggs and ACV and garlic and ginger and olive oil and tahini and maple syrup. paul told me today when he pulled out the leftovers that it really needed some nuts on top which i agreed and the original recipe had called for that.
having time off right now affords me the luxury to relax and take time to make food and i hope this experience influences my working days as well so that i get into the habit of coming home from work and sitting down at the table for dinner after making more inspiring meals with paul. ^_^