the most perfect (and most easy) gluten-free pancakes!

after several fails to replicate a nice saturday morning pancake recipe with gluten-free substitutions, i was quite excited to try a mix given to me in amongst a whole basket of vegan, gluten-free treats! (yes, i do feel incredibly blessed and touched to receive such a perfect gift!)
the mix is by a company i hadn't seen before and i wonder if it's available only in the states for now? called the cravings place, i am convinced they make a wonderful product to have on hand for brownie emergencies and the like (yes, i have also tried the brownies and they were also ridiculously easy to make and delicious!). all of their products are made in a dedicated gluten-free, wheat-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and nut-free facility and they package items containing sugars (ie the chocolate chunks in the brownies are not yet completely beet sugar-based, some products still have cane sugar) separately in the case you are avoiding sugar! most impressed.
the pancake/waffle/biscuit mix contains: whole grain brown rice flour, non-aluminum baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, bicarbonate of soda, non-GMO cornstarch, mono calcium phosphate), vanilla bean powder (vanilla beans, corn-based dextrose), sea salt, baking soda, and xanthan gum. it's not organic unfortunately but i appreciate very much that the corn is non-GMO. and i can't say pancakes are something i make more than once a year so i will forgive myself for the "conventional" production.
i was amazed by the simple, no-fail directions. basically: scoop some of the mix in a bowl and stir in cold water until smooth and desired thickness (ie more water for a thinner pancake) and let sit for a few minutes. i love a thick, fluffy pancake and so i kept my dough slightly runnier than a glop. and wow, they cooked up so fast and they were heavenly light, fluffy things! i put some bananas and farmers market maple syrup on top and finally, i have achieved some gf vegan pancake perfection!
 
now, next time i will have to try creating my own recipe!

1 bean salad.

i hated 3 bean salad growing up, but the other day, i had a craving for it. sort of. no kidney bean desires, but white (cannellini) beans and crunchy vegs of some sort were totally on my radar.

i ended up with a  tangy, creamy, crunchy and soft mix of all things wonderful:

salad:
*cannellini beans, 1 can
*chopped carrot, 1
*quartered sliced cucumber, 1/2
*sliced red cabbage, a couple slices off a whole one
*cubed avocado, 1
*sliced fennel stalk, 1
*minced white onion, 1 sliver off a whole one

dressing:
*a spoon of sprouted chickpea miso
*a little squirt of dijon
*a splash of ACV
*a splash of omega 369 oil blend

slaw. fail.

do you ever spend extra time to carefully cut/slice/julienne your veggies to make a beautiful salad and then add one ingredient that spoils the whole thing? i think my confusing addition the other day was, sadly, basil. but i'm now thinking also that there were simply too many radishes!

i spiroolied up some green cabbage, shredded some carrots and kale, thinly sliced some watermelon and easter egg radishes, snipped in strips of several basil leaves and then stirred in my dressing mix of avocado, meyer lemon, a swish of ACV (i added more to my finished salad in the end though), a spoon of sunflower seeds, a splash of water, a small nub of ginger and a small clove of garlic. i had been having strange cravings for corn when i made this and later added a few kernels to top it off. it needed a bit more sweet or something!
paul couldn't eat it.
slaw fail!

(why do i post? i haven't posted so long and i need to remember to do things differently next time!)

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!