Peach Melba Smoothie

I should probably warn you that I have never, in my life, had peach melba before. I haven't the slightest idea if this even remotely tastes like it. Let's just say I was inspired by the peach, raspberry and vanilla combo. I initially made this over the weekend and decided to make myself one today. I love it. And it's raw so that's pretty awesome.

Peach Melba Inspired Smoothie
1 cup cold water
1/4 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup medjool dates
2 tsp alcohol-free vanilla extract
1 cup frozen peaches
1/4 cup frozen raspberries (You may want to thaw them and push them through a strainer if you don't like seeds. However, I suggest you just woman up and eat the seeds.)

I don't have a Vitamix (not bitter or anything) so I added the water, dates and cashews first. I blend until smooth, which is about 2 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until you have a thick, delicious, peachyraspberryvanilla-ey smoothie. Don't share with anybody.

In other news, I am obsessed with starting a vegetable garden before the summer. I don't know whether to do a raised, potted, or regular garden. I really suck at gardening. I've killed fake plants before. True story. Things I am fiending for: basil, lemon thyme, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, jalapenos, and maybe corn. Corn seems like it may be waaaaay out of my league. I'll post any gardening results here.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to rawify (new word...spread it around) Vcon's pasta della California. I'm crossing my fingers...and toes!

Simple Kinda Life

I really love being raw, but I don't love having to prep a bunch of things. I'm in no way a lazy person, but I definitely don't like to do more work than I have to. Lately, I've been craving a simplistic raw existence. I've been eating a lot of salads and downing smoothies. My favorite salad combo is tomato, avocado, a little bit of onion, nooch, salt and pepper. It sounds kinda gross but my body has been craving some nutritional yeast lately. Weird.

It's also really convenient to make a few nut cheeses and stash them away. I enjoy them with fruit for breakfast, on raw crackers, or just straight up. I cannot stress enough how much I love the Raw Freedom Community cheeses. That herb one and the peppercorn crusted one are AMAZING!

The other day I was craving sweets (as per usual) and I needed to use some bananas so I made some raw banana splits. The splits included: raw brownie bites, strawberry sauce (dehydrated strawberries blended in water), pineapple sauce (dehydrated pineapple blended in water), pecans, and vanilla ice cream adapted from this recipe.

Raw Brownie Bites
1 cup walnuts
1 cup dates
1/3 cup cocoa powder (cacao and carob would also work)

Place walnuts in food processor and pulverize until you've got crumbs. Add dates and cocoa powder. Process until smooth. Mold into brownie bites (I used an 1/8 cup) and place in fridge to set.

Also, did I mention that it was a mini banana split? That just makes it so much better! I put the split in one of those sushi soy sauce dishes.

My Adaptation of Andy's Vanilla Ice Cream Base
1 cup cashews
1 1/2 cups + 2 Tbsp almond milk*
1/3 cup medjool dates
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup golden raisins
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 Tbsp coconut oil

Blend all ingredients until smooth. You can then strain through a nut milk bag, but I didn't and it turned out fine. Process based on your ice cream maker's instructions.

*To make raw almond milk, soak 1 cup of almonds overnight. Drain and rinse. Blend with 3 cups water. Strain and save the pulp for future raw creations. Or dehydrate and throw in the food processor for almond flour.

Well, I'm off to try my hand at some more zucchini pasta, yo. I tried to tell my friend that raw life > thug life, but she didn't believe me. Crazy...I know.

Second Time Around

I am loving raw much mo betta this time around. It's easier, and I can legitimately see myself making a lifestyle change. Like I said yesterday, it's been super hot over here. Thus, I've been craving light foods. Today I ate watermelon, a cabbage wrap filled with vegetables, caprese and strawberry melonade. That's right: strawberry melonade. It's strawberry-watermelon lemonade. It was highly refreshing, but something is missing. Off the top of my head, I think it would taste better with lime. I'll post the recipe once I tweak it.

I'm currently making enchiladas for the husband and trying this thing where I use soaked oat groats in place of brown rice for me. I saw the idea on livejournal the other day and quite like it. I've tried squash rice and I do not care for it at all. I also don't really like raw cauliflower so I have no desire to try that either. I'll post the results.

Until then, I'll leave you with a most delicious pic of the caprese I made. It's alternating roma tomato slices and the Raw Freedom Community's herb cheeze on a bed of basil chiffonade. I added a bit of minced onion, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and salt 'n' pepper to taste. It was so good that I may have done a happy dance!

Bargain Shopping

Growing up, my family was never one to skimp on the groceries. It is not an understatement to say that my parents were/are known for overdoing it. All the kids loved coming over for our snack cabinet alone. I realized how crazy my parents were once I moved out on my own. There was no way in hell that I could afford having a snack cabinet. In fact, there were definitely times in my marriage that we had to go 2 weeks or more on only $20 for food. We ate a whole bunch of fideo.

So I became pretty good at making my dollar stretch. I'd call myself cheap, but I totally don't mind splurging on stuff either. However, I refuse to pay $1 for one frickin cucumber.

On Sunday we went grocery shopping because I was changing my diet to primarily raw. One thing I wholeheartedly believe in is shopping for the best deals. Sometimes that means going to three different stores. I'm still trying to find my rotation here. Coachella is a small, small town and I live in a neighborhood that caters to Mexican cuisine (just like back home in Texas). There are limited vegan options unless I take a 15-30 minute drive.

This is how I discovered Clark's Nutrition. This will definitely be my new vegan mecca. It's about 20 minutes away and has everything I could ever want. And they don't charge 5 flippin dollars for a dollop of Vegenaise! I'm calling out Ralph's and Henry's for their overpriced stuff. I hate getting financially bitch slapped every time I walk in those stores...and, now, I'll never have to do it again! I was seriously excited. The store is extremely, EXTREMELY vegan friendly. They also have specially marked shelves for raw foodists and gluten free peeps. But the best part was that they have just about everything I've wanted to purchase online. Plus they have an all vegan cafe and sell prepackaged raw vegan food and cheesecake! I'm from the land of corn cups and barbacoa...so please excuse the previous foodgasm.

I stocked up on some stuff for the raw journey. And they had these really inexpensive raw snacks. A box of cacao beans for $2.19 and a nori snack (tastes like Japanese flavored jerky) for $1.99. Note to all: it is never a good idea to take a giant bite of a cacao bean if you've never had one before. You might just gag...and spit the chocolate flavored dirt in the sink. Blech!

My Top Five Rules for Thrifty Shopping

1.Always write a list and stick to it. It's really hard to spiral out of control when you have everything written down.

2. Eat before you shop. Don't shop to feed your hunger. I've walked out of the store with ridiculous impulse buys because I was starving and just needed some rice cakes...?

3. Buy in bulk. It really does add up. Sometimes I'll even check the prices of prepackaged stuff and compare it to the bulk bins. It's always cheaper. We spend a majority of our shopping time scooping stuff into bags.

4. Stick to produce. Most vegans know how much cheaper fresh fruits and vegetables are. Stuff like greens are always cheap. It's also better to buy seasonally and locally. It tastes so much better.

5. Don't be afraid to shop at more than one place. It is a rarity for one store to provide the best deals down the line. Generally, we shop at 3 places. Winco has the best bulk section and a reasonably priced high variety of produce. Fresh N Easy is right across the street from them and has KILLER sales. We go for their half off refrigerated section and their clearance rack. The other week they had all sorts of spaghetti at 15 cents for a pound. Finally, there's Food 4 Less which is good for stuff used in Mexican cuisine.

Overall, this new transition to raw has been great and fun. I've been doing a lot of freezing and dehydrating. Made some okra chips, which were just about the best thing ever! It's starting to get into the 100s over here so I will definitely be eating a lot of cucumber and watermelon. More to come soon...

Convenience Eating and Changing Times

A couple of weeks ago my husband and I spent close to 30 bucks in Soup Plantation. We had never ever been before, but we thought that it seemed like a good idea. I mean, how unfriendly could it be? It's a soup and salad bar.

Let me tell you something. There is absolutely nothing satisfying about the lack of vegan options in this place. The salad bar was fine...maybe a bit too much meat. The dressings were kinda craptacular. If they didn't have dairy in them, they most certainly had honey. So I settled for low fat Italian and French...which were the only clean ones.

Out of the 6 soups that were being served, I could only eat two. The hot bar had not one single bread option that didn't include dairy or eggs. And at the end of this disappointing ride, the entire dessert bar was dairy and gelatin. Oh, except for the shriveled up grapes and pineapple. Yum!

It was then that I decided I could make this at home for much less money with better quality ingredients. So I went home and chopped a bunch of veggies. I packed them in tupperware and spent the next couple of days eating salad. How simple this made my life! Now, I'm the first to admit that I don't like salad all the time, but I do love how easy it is. Plus, throwing some beans in there or tofu maybe...makes it feel super substantial. So no more salad bars for me. I already despise buffets, but to know that I can't even get a good deal at a salad bar is disturbing to me.

In other news, I'm trying to figure out where to take this here blog. I keep coming back to the fact that I want to live more of a raw foods lifestyle, but it is going to be super expensive and/or time consuming for me to get essential things. I was thinking about starting small and accumulating more over time. A bag of cacao powder here, a Vitamix there....you get the picture. I may be able to con my husband into getting me an Excalibur for my birthday. I currently have a dehydrator without temperature control and it's circular. It's definitely a bit frustrating.

Right now this blog has little direction. However, I do find myself most inspired by the raw community lately and maybe that will be my muse. I do promise more blogging and more reading of the blogs. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some dishes to do.

Nut Cheeze

Is this thing on? I've been avoiding this blog out of sheer laziness for two months. It is such a pain to get photos off my camera because of this archaic laptop. Anyway. Since last I wrote, I have become mildly obsessed with nut cheezes. I'm trying to vary my diet because of a former soy dependence. Plus, making my own cheeze is so much cheaper it's pretty disturbing.

So I decided to make a raw muenster cheeze out of cashews. I consider it my own recipe, but it was adapted when I thought about combining the recipe for basic cashew cheeze from The Raw Freedom Community and the muenster recipe from The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. I tweaked a lot of things for what I consider a better flavor. The end result was a huge 3 cup block of cheezy greatness! Just a warning: this recipe is incredibly time consuming. It could take up to three or four days if you make your own rejuvelac.

Raw Muenster Cheeze
3 cups raw cashews, soaked overnight (8-12 hours)
2 tbsp rejuvelac (or water)
Juice of 1 small lemon (about 2 tbsp)
3 acidophilus capsules (just the powder, discard the capsule part)*

¼ cup nutritional yeast
1 tbsp tahini
½ tsp onion powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ tsp dry mustard
¼ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp ground caraway seeds

paprika

Drain and rinse soaked cashews. Blend in a food processor or high powered blender until fairly smooth, scraping down sides along the way. Add rejuvelac, lemon juice and acidophilus. Blend until smooth, then scrape into cheesecloth and place in a strainer positioned inside a bowl. If you do not have cheesecloth, I have used a fine mesh strainer and placed a paper towel over the nut mixture. It works fine. Let this sit overnight.

Add remaining ingredients and nut mixture into a food processor. Blend until everything is incorporated.

Take some plastic wrap and spray/brush with oil. Sprinkle with paprika and place the wrap in whatever mold you want. Carefully spoon the nut mixture into the mold and cover with wrap. Place in the fridge and wait several hours for it to firm up.

This is best if let to sit in the fridge uncovered for a few more hours, in order for the outside layer to harden and the flavors to meld.

Enjoy with raw crackers, tortilla chips, or whatever you like!

*Acidophilus can be found in a health store in the vitamin section. It is often used as a yogurt starter. You could also use a bit of miso instead.

Above is a variation of Ani Phyo's raw Black Pepper Cheeze. I subbed in a cup of sunflower seeds, soaked them and the cashews, and added miso and tahini. I also covered it like her red pepper patty variation. Ultimately, I've decided I hate sunflower seeds in cheeze. Like...alot. But it looks pretty.

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...

I Didn't Even Have to Use My AK

Ice Cube doesn't have anything on me.

About a month ago I decided to change my life. I felt a need to gain control of my eating habits. I'm not trying to go too deep with this, but I've struggled with eating disorders for about 13 years now. Raw seemed like the logical leap to gain a better food perspective. I usually run to fasts to lose weight, detox and regain control. But this time I wanted to stay away from deprivation.

At first, this was definitely hard. I'm from Texas. We likes our food cooked. How I longed for a damn taco. Or good god! CTate's queso. However, something really clicked for me. I started seeing food as less of a thing to be feared and more of a thing to be cherished. I got so many great ideas about how to deal with food. It never dawned on me to use collards in place of tortillas. And raw desserts opened up an even better option. I am definitely a person obsessed with sweets. I feel like I have to have something sweet every single day. Sometimes fruit just doesn't do and raw desserts/smoothies give me a healthier alternative.

I feel different. More energized. Less bloated. I feel almost weightless. And I have done jack in the way of exercise for the past week and a half. I'm eating more fruits, vegetables and nuts. This is fantastic because I was relying far too much on soy and wheat gluten to get me by. I'm also loving the fact that I still feel satisfied eating unprocessed foods.

If you've ever considered a walk on the raw side, challenge yourself to do this. For a week. For a month. Whatever the amount of time, I guarantee you will look at things differently. In less than a month (with very minimum exercise) I'm down 11.4 pounds and up in energy like you wouldn't believe.

Okay. I'm gonna step off of the raw soapbox now.

Last night I did a little Vegan Mofo research. It's only a few days away. I watched Kissing Jessica Stein because it will be my "dinner and a movie" movie. So many great ideas. How stoked am I? I'm a ridiculous amount of stoked. Yay!

In my next blog, I'll upload pictures of the incredibly fancy/easy soup I made from The Artful Vegan yesterday. It involved tomatillos, cucumber, avocado and saffron-lime ice. It was garlicky goodness.

If you'll excuse me, the two Coreys are calling my name. That's right, I'm bout to watch Lost Boys: The Tribe. I wonder if watching it after the original would only make it even worse?

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...

Suavemente!

I've been making a lot of recipes from Ani Phyo's Ani's Raw Food Kitchen lately. However, I'm backing off of nut based dishes and going for stuff centered on fruits and veggies. I just made the Red Pepper Corn Salsa. It is, in a word, refreshing.

I’m pretty much anti salad. I spent a good part of my early vegetarianism eating salads…everyday. Recently, I’ve come to appreciate them again. I often like to make salsas and dips to go atop my greens instead of dressing. Case in point…this salsa. Lots of flavors going on. Sweet from the corn, a little kick from the jalapenos and garlic, green onions add another depth and cilantro packs in the freshness. Seriously love cilantro. Red bell peppers, tomatoes, and salt bring it home.

Simple and fantastic, yet it’s visually and orally stimulating. I did cut down on the salt, as I’ve found that some of her recipes are a tad too salty for me. But I’ve always felt that salt and pepper are very personal things. All in all this salsa is pretty great and versatile.


It would taste great on greens, in a wrap, or on some tortilla chips. And it could very well add a different dimension to nachos. Oh, how I miss nachos. Word.