31 Days Later...

My first phase of the raw journey is complete. One month at 99% is done! I did my happy dance already. I've lost 11.4 pounds and am completely stoked. I'm going to get in gear with the exercise tomorrow. I'm hoping to get Wii Fit in the next few weeks.

Anyway. I tried a few things the past couple of days. I have experienced sprouting, which used to be a foreign concept. Actually, it still is. But in a few days I shall have delicious raw pumpernickel.

The other day I felt compelled to make oatmeal. I slightly altered Ani Phyo's Banana and Raisin Oatmeal recipe by adding some cardamom and drizzling with agave. So frickin good. The texture is right on. I felt it was even better in the dehydrator. There is no way I can eat oatmeal (raw or not) if it's cold. I can definitely see myself playing around with this recipe and eating raw oatmeal from now on.

Next, I decided to make a soup from The Artful Vegan. I made a raw version of the Chilled Avocado, Tomatillo, and Cucumber Soup with Saffron-Lime Ice. It was tasty. I had to subsitute lemon juice for the lime, so I imagine it would taste even better next time. I didn't seed my jalapeno all the way and it left a nice spice to it. Basically, this soup reminds me of a tomatillo sauce. It would probably make a damn good topping to enchiladas. The saffron-lime ice was especially fancy. It melts into the soup and creates these gorgeous orange swirls. I love when my food has movement and purpose.


Today was my first day eating cooked food in a while. As I said before, I'm dropping down to 75% raw. Surprisingly, I didn't go all crazy on the cooked goods. I had been thinking about KMouse's "tuna" melt for days and decided to make my own. The rice singles I used didn't get all melty though. But it was awesome. Below is the recipe for my own version of Chickpea "Tuna" Salad.


Chickpea “Tuna” Salad
15 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
½ cup raw almonds
¼ cup Vegenaise
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp kelp powder
1 Tbsp dill relish*
Up to ½ cup veggies of your choice, small dice **
Salt and pepper to taste

Process the chickpeas and almonds in a food processor until everything is good and chopped. Add the Vegenaise, lemon juice, dijon mustard and kelp powder. Process until smooth, scraping down the sides of the processor as necessary. Place chickpea mixture in a medium bowl. Stir in dill relish and diced vegetables.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

* For the love of all things holy, put DOWN the sweet relish. It is an abomination to all things good.

** I usually add celery and carrot, as I’m not a fan of onion in my “tuna.” If I’m feeling saucy, I add red bell pepper.

I served the "tuna" melt with Mattye's Mustard "Potato" Salad from Frugal Raw. This was awesome. Kalamata olives, onion, dill relish! Nice. Jicama replaced the potatoes, which worried me at first. But there really is a lovely flavor going on. Plus her raw mayo is super smooth. A little trick saved me a bunch of time. The recipe calls for soaking cashews over night. Instead, I placed them in a coffee grinder and put them in a blender with the liquid ingredients. I let it sit for about ten minutes.

That is all I have for now. One day soon I will make a recipe for that raw miso soup I promised. Until next time...

Miso Hungry

I know I was supposed to post these a few days ago, but life happened. I spent the weekend at my parents because my sister was in town. Raw was so hard over there. My mom made cinnamon raisin biscuits (she makes them vegan). Boo. I ate fruit salad.

Anyhow. I've been craving seaweed a lot lately. I think I saw somebody with sushi and my mind has not let that go ever since.

First, I made a raw miso soup the other day. It was pretty good. I love it for it's simplicity. It only has maybe five ingredients, but each adds a different element. I don't have a recipe yet, because I want to make it one more time. It was a bit salty and I need to tweak that. It really hit the spot though. I'll post the recipe in my next blog.


I've also been delving into raw sushi making. I discovered a whole new world in which nut pates replace the rice. At first, I was highly skeptical. Mostly because I just can't let go of the horribleness that is sunflower seed tuna. So I continue to equate nut pates with what I'm pretty sure death has to taste like. Cake or death? Death, please!

My first go at raw sushi was from Mattye Lee Thompson's Frugal Raw. I cannot do anything but speak positively about this book. The few recipes I have made turned out delicious. What I love most about it, though, is that nothing really calls for ridiculously expensive ingredients. Almost all the nut based dishes call for sunflower seeds or cashews. Color me impressed. Buy this book because Mattye is a wonderful person and the book is "Hot fiyah," as the youth like to say.


So...Mattye's Nori Rolls are delicious. I went with the sunflower seed variation. As I said before, I wasn't expecting much. The garlic and ginger made this so right on that I ate an entire batch in one sitting. Of course, I don't think I added quite enough water because the recipe only yielded enough for three rolls. It is damn good. There is a spiciness and saltiness to it that makes soy sauce and wasabi completely unecessary. I made cucumber & avocado rolls and cucumber, green onion, avocado and red bell pepper rolls.

Finally, I decided to go all fancy schmancy and make some things from The Artful Vegan. My husband bought me this cookbook last Festivus and I have yet to make anything besides the sausages. The recipes seem very inspired but, ultimately, laborious. Plus, there are a gang of ingredients I have never even seen before. I decided to go ahead and make a salad. The recipe I made was the Avocado, Sea Vegetable and Plum [Salad] with Creamy Wasabi Dressing and Spicy Candied Peanuts. Try saying that five times fast. Seriously.

The recipe was pretty good. Although...not feeling the wasabi dressing so much. I feel it is probably just my circumstances, though. Not sure how old my wasabi powder was so it wasn't spicy enough for me. Also the sesame oil overtook the dressing so the wasabi was just in the background. I did think that everything worked together in it's entirety, though. I would like to make this again with new wasabi and roasted peanuts.


Above is a picture of the salad undressed. It was quite the sight! More to come soon...