soup and sandwiches and... pad thai

so the other day, i tried to make soup again.. this time it was too salty. 

 but then i made ice cream out of frozen bananas (with cacao macaroons on the side) to make it all better!

 but really the best lunch is a sandwich using whatever veggies on hand, brazil nut and nacho "cheeses" on the juice pulp/flax dehydrator bread!

 i have to start using the recipe books i have! i've started looking through ani phyo's raw food essentials and did kelp noodles with pistachio avocado pesto. so creamy and great!!!

 had cashew creamery's cacao chip mint ice cream spread into a cacao coconut frozen crust for dessert.

 i put too much coconut oil in the crust but it was super fun to eat! like dq ice cream cake. sort of.

 ok and then i tried soup AGAIN. this one wasn't a total bust! and paul actually ate it all... with lots of nutritional yeast of course. this one was inspired by ani's kream of broccoli (page 138) but i didn't add the red pepper kream on top and i used brazil nuts instead of cashews. simple, green and good!

 ooh but the real hit... the pad thai with kelp noodles! (page 227) wish i added crushed nuts of some sort on top or cauliflower or something to look more pad thai-ish. but the cilantro and lime and bit of jalapeno glow... yum!!!

organic connections cafe

last sunday, i was super excited and lucky to get to white rock to check out organic connections cafe.

they are a mostly raw, all vegan cafe overlooking the water and eek, it was great!

here is the menu:

i had the banana ice cream sundae first!

then all 3 of us ordered the burger! i had it with the side salad with dijon dressing (DELICIOUS) and my favourite boys had soups. 

 had to have dessert again after lunch... the blueberry cheesecake! and check out the "just eat an apple" magazines from 2002/3... wish it was still around now!

can't wait to go back! though it'd take almost 2 hours to get there on transit if i were to try! but it'd be worth it!

easy bread!

i've been juicing a bit more than usual lately and i've started using the leftover pulp! hurrah! i save the carrot, parsley, beet, whatever scraps and then mix with soaked ground flax and some whole flax and add some sprouted chickpea miso or spices or something (though i'm not convinced it needs anything) and then spread it onto some teflex sheets for 1/2 a day then flip it onto the mesh and finish it off in 1/2 a day or less! it's been the best! especially with some brazil nut cheese or nut butter or mashed up avocado. and whatever veggies. YES!

bananas and chocolate!

i don't know what i would do without bananas. frozen for smoothies, smushed up with cacao bits and coconut for a snack, fruit on the run... they are just the best!

tonight paul was saying he wished he could dip his banana in chocolate, so, grateful for the inspiration, i started throwing things into the vitamix.

i put about 4 spoons of cacao powder, a heaping spoon of coconut oil, a heaping spoon of almond butter, a few hunza dates, a number of splashes of almond milk (had to keep adding because there wasn't really enough in the blender to mix things around - as it were, there are still some chunks of dates).... anyways... it was so good and i'm convinced this is my raw chocolate pudding recipe. and i'm definitely going to start making it on the regular!

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???