crackers and ice kream!

um, so i haven't been incredibly creative lately. salad lunches (though i am LOVING my lazy dressing of sprouted chickpea miso, dijon, ground flax, apple cider vinegar and olive oil) but yesterday i decided ENOUGH is ENOUGH and played with some things. including the dehydrator which i haven't touched since i dehydrated some persimmon slices the other week (swoon!).

yesterday i wanted to try out the new yacon syrup i bought. i thought SMOOTHIE but had hmm, hemp milk and ice. the iced coffee texture wasn't exactly what i was craving, so i started adding some avocado and lucuma and then i decided to freeze it to be more like an ice cream. it was a subtle sweet and super creamy but it froze a bit more flakey-icey than i hoped. but having avocado in it meant paul was weirded out enough not to want any. which meant more for me but also makes me wonder if i have strange bachelor-style eating habits?

 i had been soaking flax seeds and pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds so i finally made some crackers! the bottom ones are the mix of seeds with 1/2 an orange, some slivers of red onion and 2 medjools. the top crackers are just a mix of the soaked flax seeds (whole and ground) with some braggs - salty crunchiness!

hooray for using the dehydrator again!

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!!!

korean middle school cafeteria winter-styles day 14

getting close to the end of my raw granola stuff. tomorrow is the last day of that! had it with almond milk, but of course, and the obligatory salad with *roasted* seaweed and brought the last of my homemade dehydrator ginger red onion flax crackers. by the time i got to breakfast this morning, one of the chefs was carting the oranges away! boo! they brought out persimmons right after which is great too of course. but it's exciting to switch up the fruit!

 lunch... okay this was the envy of every eye that spied my tray. one of the chefs prepared some of my brown rice and then they had what i think are perilla leaves steamed up and salad that i put apple cider vinegar and hemp seeds on. i rolled up some brown rice with the greens and some salad and dehydrated lemon ginger pumpkin seeds inside raw nori.

 oh yes! not perfect looking but oh so great!!!

 tonight i got another bowl of the brown rice but i was too lazy to make sushi so i just had the nori broken up on top (doesn't mix as easily as the roasted stuff but it was still a welcome taste). the salad was topped with the vinegar and hemp seeds again.

korean middle school cafeteria day 9

breakfast... usual...













lunch... the last of my flax crackers :( sadness!













dinner... in effort to make things more interesting, i finally brought out my raw nori sheets.














it was really hard to make anything resembling sushi with what i had but i did my best. and then it was so glorious, i wanted to make more! but then the cafeteria was out of salad???? so sad! i think i'm going to try some with kelp noodles next!