Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Raw Wednesday


 
I realized recently that, even though I've been eating vegan and lots of veggies and good stuffs, I've also been consuming a lot of fat, Mostly the good kind, but still a high percentage of it. Since going vegan was mostly an effort to eat healthier, I may have been negating some of my hard work.

So, I decided to try eating low-fat raw. Just for a week, see how it goes.

I like it.

It's not hard, it's pretty tasty, but it's a hell-of-a-lot of lugging, like carrying a ton of fruit to work. So, mostly eating raw is high on physical labor. I have 4 fruit meals a day, at least 3 of which are mono (just one type of fruit). And for dinner I usually have a vegetable meal. Those are delicious!!

I have a few pictures, some recipes, a recommendation here and there, so without further ado...





I started with something easy and sweet -- key lime pie! Oh so delicious, creamy and full of fat! But in small doses...





It was runny, and it somewhat resembled baby vomit, but if you can get past that, you'll enjoy it.

Here's the recipe:

-2 1/2 cups almond flour
-5 dates (I used medjool)
-2 Tbsp coconut oil

Mix in food processor then press into a 9" pie pan. Then:

-2 avocados
-1 banana
-1/2 cup mango (I used frozen)
-1/3 cup raw agave syrup
-1/3 cup coconut butter
-1 cup key lime juice
-2 tsp vanilla 

Whirl all in a food processor till smooth, then pour into the crust and refrigerate overnight. Enjoy!

Aside from A GAZILLION different fruits I've had throughout the day, these were some of the dinners:

Zucchini fettucini with cucumbers, tomatoes, carrot strips and tahini sauce, all covered in spinach-avocado-red pepper dressing




Pretty good. Next, I also feasted upon this green concoction that had zucchini noodles, pesto and celery bits on top.







Nothing short of yummy! Here's the pesto recipe:

-2 bunches spinach
-2 Tbsp sun-dried tomatoes (mine were packed in oil)
-3 green olives
-1/4 cup walnuts (soaked in water for a couple of hours)
-2 tsp lime juice
-pinch savory
-pinch basil
-pinch black pepper
-pinch hot sauce

Blend, pour, enjoy!

This was a quick dinner assembly -- zucchini noodles (I recently bought a spiralizer, you can tell I'm getting my money's worth), spinach, cauliflower, carrots, red peppers and some more tahini sauce.



 

'Twas good. And this beauty --saved the best for last -- was devoured today:
yellow squash (gotta change it up a bit) noodles, marinara sauce and corn.



 


DEVOURED!! DEE-VOURED!

Marinara recipe:

-1 tomatoe
-2 Tbsp sun-dried tomatoes (mine were, again, packed in oil)
-1/2 cup mushrooms (soaked in warm water)
-6 large, pitted, red olives (or any other color)
-1/2 red pepper
-1 Tbsp hot sauce
-juice of 1 lime
-any seasonings you like (I put savory, rosemary, parsley, black pepper, basil, oregano and a minimal amount of celery salt)

Mix all in a processor then top with warm water-soaked corn and some raw Parma vegan parmesan.



There you go. Raw stuff. And yummy. But, heavy. To carry, that is... Really mostly the fruit.

So try it out, see how you like it and then let me know what you think.

Toodles (or roodles = raw noodles. That's right, I'm punny!  =] )


ps  Tomorrow -- RAW SUSHI!!!  Oooooooh!   =P

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Ooh -- spikey!



Ever since Katie of the Chocolate-Covered Katie blog had a "try new foods" month-long event a while back, I've been trying to do just that. And the latest food I tried was durian.

 

In case you know nothing of durian I'll tell you right away that every article I read on the internet about it, from how to open it to where it grows, ALSO mentioned the smell associated with it. Most people hate the smell and have a hard time getting past it. Some, however, don't seem to mind it. So, firm in my belief that the vanilla-custardy richness the taste has been described as is enough of a motavator to ignore the smell, I decided to buy one. It didn't much smell while still in the shell, it didn't take too long to open it, and the first few bites were truly delicious. As I suspected, the smell wasn't overwellming, so I ate a whole...um, kidney-like unit.




That's what it looks like open. The taste is very rich and filling, so I decided to put the rest into a container and refrigerate it. And when next I opened it to show my husband, several dormant hours later, IT REEKED!! I mean, pungently, horribly, awfully, unbearably so! I nearly fainted. Ok, the last is an exaggeration, but still... I put it under the stove fan for an hour or so, hoping to dispell enough smell to make it edible again, but no such luck. Any time it was repacked agian, it needed but a mere several minutes to accumulate enough of the odor to render pepper spray in the face a "pleasureable experience."

I tried mixing it in with some coconut milk and cacao, working as fast as I could, believe me, then froze whatever I could fit into a chosen container whose tragic destiny awaits (it will be destroyed!) and threw out the rest. I tried, I really did. This is the picture I managed to take of the durian in the tupperware. If the picture looks skewed it's cause I was holding my nostrils with one hand.




Pity. It was so rich and creamy...

Oh well. Can't win 'em all!



p.s. If you ever happen to try durian in the future after this glowing review, I'd like to know what you think.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Raw Foods




I've been reading a lot of raw food blogs lately, and some of the food loks delicious. So, I've decided to try them out.

Here's THE BEST thing I've eaten in a while -- banana soft serve! Amazing!! And with a little bluberry-mango topping it was finger-licking good. Try this, you might never need regular ice cream again.




As you can see, I couldn't even wait to take a quick picture before I dug into it. It will become a staple in my diet from now on.

For dinner I had a salad with tahini sauce dressing and some spinach pesto with avocado and red peppers. I peeled zucchini to resemble fettucini, added tomatoes and cucumbers, and the results were pretty damn awesome:




I will try and eat raw for the entire week, starting tomorrow, and I've already made a key lime pie that looks delicious but it has a couple of hours in the fridge before I can post the verdict, so look out for that.


Sunday, October 18, 2009



Here's a dish that was such a joy to eat I had it three times in a row!! And it looks pretty:




Roasted veggies (broccoli, carrots, pea pods, cherry tomatoes), tofu burger, and creamy polenta made with Follow Your Heart cream cheese. And I made a sauce to go with the burger with dijon musturd, Spectrum mayo, and hot sauce -- DELICIOUS!!!!!  =P

But, I have realized recently, looking back at my food choices, that I eat a high percentage of fat in my diet. Good, or not, fat is not to be eaten in excess, I believe. So, I've decided to try the 811rv diet for three days hence avoiding a lot of fat foods.

I'll post later about how that went (once it actually has gone). Thus, I leave you (and me!) to enjoy a picture of some gorgeous, incredibly tasty food none of us can eat. But, we can drool and moan (or, you can just go and make it).

Encore:




Toodles!

Friday, October 16, 2009

Brownies for Breakfast!



 Yes, I had brownies for breakfast almost this entire week! And they were pretty good. I made them with carrot puree and soaked walnuts. Add some Trader Joe's mint chocolate caps and -- ya! Good combo.




 The recipe is pretty simple:

-1/3 cup mint chocolates
-1 cup carrot puree
-1/2 cup date sugar
-1/4 cup applesauce (I use unsweetened)
-1/4 cup cocoa powder
-2 tsp vanilla extract
-2 Tbsp canola oil
-3/4 cup oat flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-2/3 cup chopped walnuts (soaked for at least a couple of hours)
-pinch salt

Preheat the oven to 350F. Melt the mint chocolates and in a large bowl combine with carrot puree, sugar, cocoa, oil, vanilla and applesauce. Mix till it looks creamy. Stir in oat flour, baking powder, walnuts and salt. Pour into a greased 8x8 pan and bake for 35-40min. Cool and cut into squares.

Dig in!

Thursday, October 8, 2009


As promised, here's today's lunch -- lentil soup and polenta chips (with some spicy mayo sauce and a teeeny dessert):



The lentil soup is sooo easy to make. Cover lentils with stock or seasoned water, add veggies you like (I added chopped carrots and celery), a Tbsp or so of oil if you want, bring to a boil, cover and cook for 45-50min. And, of course, I added cayenne pepper. ;]

The recipe for polenta chips is here, except I added 2Tbsp of Follow Your Heart cream cheese.

The chips alone:



Oh, and for breakfast, I Hugged-a-carb! =D
Oatmeal with chocolate pudding stirred in -- oh, Heaven!!!!!




My chocolate pudding had:

*1/3 cup silken tofu (1 package of pre-sweetened caramel flavored Pete's tofu 2 go, which they don't seem to make anymore)

*2 Tbsp almond butter
*1 banana
*2 heaping tsp cocoa
*dash of salt
*vanilla extract

All intimately acquainted each other in the food processor.

Monday, October 5, 2009



Ok, so I know I said "lentil soup and polenta chips" next, but I seriously have to give a shout-out to Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese first! I tried it yesterday for the first time, the herbs and chives one, and OH MY GOD!! is it delicious! Seriously a must-try! =D Loving it!!

I had it with cucumber and green pepper slices on Rose's vegan gluten-free bread. Heeeea-van!





What are you waiting for -- go on and try it. =]

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Vegan MoFo is here!!!



It's that time of the year again! And this is my first time being a part of it -- very excited! =D

So I decided to open with an old favorite of mine. My grandma made these all the time when I was young and I loved them. Recently, I asked her how she used to make them, added a few (vegan, gluten-free) modifications, and -- voilĂ !

I took pictures of a few steps to make it easier. Hope it helps.

CHERRY POTATO DUMPLINGS

Amounts of ingredients are a little tricky, my grandma was the "eyeball it" type. So, I'll say 1lb potatoes to 1 - 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 egg (replacer), 10-ish cherries, some oil and some bread crumbs (about 2Tbsp each), and as much sugar as you want.

1) Cut up and cook potatoes as you would when making mashed potatoes, but only add a little salt to the water and no milk.


2)When they were soft enough to pierce with fork, I added a 1/2 Tbsp butter (I used Earth Balance sticks) and went to mashing.

3)Slowly, I added 1/2cup of potato flour, but you can add any flour you want. Next time, I think I'll try oat flour to make the finished product taste less potato-y. Then I added milled flax seed and water (in a 1:3 ration) as an egg substitute, and mixed it all up. Here's the way the dough looks after all that:


4)Start boiling a pot of water.

By the way, these are the ingredients I used:


5)Roll a tablespoon amount of dough into a ball with your hands. Then, take a pitted cherry (I used frozen, unsweetened ones) and stick it in the middle of the ball you just made. Close the hole by adding a bit more dough to cover the cherry and rolling it into a ball again with your hands.

6) Place the ball into a pot of boiling water. Don't crowd the pot with dumplings. Wait a couple minutes more after they've floated to the top and then transfer into a pan with hot olive oil and bread crumbs.

7)Roll the dumplings around the pan so they are covered with the oil/crumb mixture.


8)Place hot dumplings onto a plate and dust with sugar (I used date sugar)


[BEST PART!]9) Eat!


Sorry about the crappy pictures, but the lighting in my kitchen sucks. I'll try to fix that in the future.

Next up: polenta triangles and lentil soup. Oh, joy!