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!

hippie greens. not for the win of all green smoothie drinkers.

this morning's smoothie was some lacinato kale, parsley, arugula, a pear, an apple and two frozen bananas with 3 packets of spatone liquid iron and filtered water to get the liquids up to 1 cup in my vitamix.
when i tried it, i could definitely taste the spice of the arugula and was curious about paul's reaction. he was not impressed and said it definitely tasted like "hippie greens", the side salads ("organic spring mix from a bag") that seem to be the usual at some restaurants. he hates hippie greens! he tried using an apple as a chaser and a banana as a chaser.


i ended up with almost 2 glasses of smoothie this morning. oops. i will not use arugula tomorrow!

smoothies of the day.

i started this post almost 2 months ago which is really frightening! i gave up because i have run out of space on this account for photos as i guess i was using photos that were too large and now i don't know how to go back and make 'em smaller. and i can't blog without photos! so now i'm fiddling with hosting photos elsewhere to use for this thing. and i realize the photos i had for this post aren't amazing anyways. but it's all practice and learning, right?

so, first i had a pic from a morning when i was cutting it real close to missing my bus and took my green smoothie to go. and goodness, was it delicious! it was like a green custard. no wonder my day was so wonderful!

it contained about 1/2 cup filtered water, 1 frozen persimmon, 2 bosc pears, a handful of radish greens, a handful of cilantro and about 5 dandelion greens. need-a-spoon-thick with a mild sweet like vanilla taste!  happiness!

and that night, my dessert was a blended avocado with just under a cup of filtered water and a healthy heap of raspberries. subtly sweet and oh-so-thick-and-creamy. anyways... here's my excuse to post again! happy new year! may this year be full of health and happiness and inspiration and incredible food! ^_^

i can vitamix again!!!

i have been watching my fedex tracking and knew that my vitamix arrived in ontario for repair last friday. well, i was so overjoyed to get a canada post parcel notice today after work... and super surprised when it was my vitamix! one week after it arriving for repair, it is back with me!
what service!!! (thank you, vitamix!!!)
and the best part is that IT WORKS!
i can't wait to have daily green smoothies again! forever! i'm going to take such good care of my newly restored vitamix!

this one was parsley, frozen banana, some spatone liquid iron, some camu camu, apple juice and water.

i'm excited to do a 2 day green smoothie challenge i just read about in rawbc's emailout. it is monday and tuesday, july 23 + 24th, and you only drink green smoothies those days. sounds like heaven! if you participate, you are encouraged to let the green smoothie people know at info@rawbc.org with your name and city/town. they suggest 60% (organic, of course) fruit, 40% dark leafy greens and 2 cups of water in your blender. and the challenge is 2 days/month. sounds like a great idea to me!

a sad vitamix story... hopefully soon with a happy ending!

on april 18th, i was so excited as i got my delivery of vitamix replacement parts. i put everything together. my vitamix still did not work.
i finally called them on the 21st to ask and i was told i would be sent the stuff to be able to send my whole vitamix base to them to look at and make sure to fix. i am still waiting!
i hope i can talk to someone about it tomorrow. i hate that my broken vitamix isn't even on its way to being fixed right now! and i'm sure that waiting part is going to take awhile!!!
sigh!
*may 17th update: called and apparently they didn't have my apartment suite number! so i never got the FedEx slip. they emailed me the slip instead so my vitamix is finally on its way for servicing. fingers crossed i get it back in june!*
well, at least we have a magic bullet here. it's a bit more work but i can still get some yummy smoothies happening in it.

this smoothie is DELICIOUS. it's frozen banana, almond milk, some supergreens powder, fresh mint and lucuma powder. it tastes like how ice cream should taste! ^_^

p.s. in the last couple days, i have had 2 friends excitedly tell me they have bought their first vitamix! i hope i can visit them soon to get my extra smooth smoothie fix! ^_^ hehe

good friday good smoothie

today i had the privilege of green smoothie-ing it up with karl and emma! i'm anxiously waiting my vitamix parts and have been DYING to have a green smoothie again... and well, it feels like ages since i have seen emma... AND! karl has just moved here from TAIWAN!!! so there were many a good reason to do this smoothie collaboration.

this smoothie collab happened at karl's new place (with leanne and liam!) since there is a working vitamix there ^_^

today's smoothie is brought to you by:
-a papaya
-2 pears
-a handful of strawberries
-a handful of cilantro
-3 frozen bananas
-a squeeze of lemon? (correct me if i'm wrong, emma!)

no water or sugar added, just super fruit sweetness! yum!
happy good friday! ^_^

p.s. does anyone know where i can buy this amazing tea towel?! i love it!!! (*update* ahh, now that i've done some googling, i have found it! now, i just need to get it!)

eek! thank you vitamix!!!

i am OVER THE MOON. just got off the phone with vitamix (10 minutes or less call) and i am being sent a new blade agitator and blade with wrench so that i can replace mine that is not turning in my wet container. i couldn't believe this was considered covered under my warranty since i was immediately admitting how stupid i was for using my tamper without the lid!
i then asked if i could buy a replacement tamper to hopefully receive at the same time (me and paul are DYING to have green smoothies again!) and my helpful agent said i get one free tamper included in my warranty! so i will receive that for free too!
eek! eek! eek!
it's funny, i was getting so nervous about the cost, i was thinking i should call russell food first because at least they are local and i could bypass shipping costs. i guess i will have to wait until my next stupid accident to use them. but hopefully i am going to be so present and aware from now on, that my vitamix will get to happily blend forever more...
THANK YOU, VITAMIX!!!

i am so sorry, vitamix.

dear vitamix,
i stupidly used the tamper today in my vitamix without the lid! i don't know WHY i thought this was a better idea than taking some lettuce out of the blender.
long story short: i have shattered the end of my tamper and the blades don't want to turn so much anymore. i tried out my dry container and that seemed to work after a little bit of a warm up.
i am worried that i have damaged the motor and wet container!
what can i do?
i realize the warranty (i purchased my machine in january 2011) doesn't cover stupidity, but i am hoping i can repair my machine rather than have to save up for a new one! is there anywhere local i can take my vitamix in for repair? what are my options?
i love my vitamix!
i appreciate any advice you can give me.

sigh. so i am juicing again. for now. not as easy and quick as putting it all in the blender.
the website says i should get a response within 4-5 days. it appears i am not the first person to do this and it sounds like they have excellent customer service and that this broken drive socket repair could be $102. if it's that, i am soooo relieved. we'll see!

p.s. can't help but feel like my blender has cut me off from green smoothies. it was like, 30 days? that is IT!!!

day 8 of 30 green smoothie days in a row

today's is a kale with pear and frozen banana smoothie.

super delicious, as always the way with these green smoothies! nothing much new to report here except paul said my skin looked good today. hurrah!

and just thinking today about one of many things i LOVE about my vitamix blender is that it has this tamper that lets me blend so many chunks of things without having to add much water. i can continue to push things down into the blade and wow, this smooth green drink is so easy! just sayin.

happy friday!

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!

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!!!