Twin Peaks and Raw Pizza...2 great tastes that, well, you know.

This entry is a little late being posted, thanks to the holidays...


I'm blessed. Yes, let's start with that. I'm truly blessed to have found a community of really cool people here in Raleigh. People that are into raw, but not obsessed with it. People that will willingly come over on a Friday night for Twin Peaks viewing and Raw Pizza tasting.

As my first experiment with raw pizza began on a Thursday night, I was uncertain as to what the results would be. And on the following Friday afternoon, when I came home on my lunch break to assemble the pies and put them in the D for the next 5 hours, I only knew that they looked great, but wasn't certain about the taste.

Ladies and gentlemen, I say with almost no humility at all...I rule. This is my favorite meal I've made thus far, and it came out far better than my expectations. I had three different crusts, three different cheeses, and a variety of toppings. The pizzas were scarfed down by my appreciative friends so quickly, I barely had time to remember to snap pics. So let's get your appetite whetted with a snapshot of love:


Now, for the recipes. I really did just take some basic raw crust recipes and alter them according to my available ingredients and personal taste. But I'll post the original ones and let you know what I changed up. If I can remember that far back. ;)

Let's start with the base.

Gourmet Crust from Alissa Cohen's Living on Live Food book

• 1/2 cup sprouted barley
• 1/2 cup sprouted wild rice (I used sprouted kamut berries.)
• 2 dates, pitted and soaked
• 1/8 cup sundried tomatoes, soaked
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup basil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• dash sea salt

Toss all the ingredients in a food processor. Blend. It gets all doughy.
Then plop some dough in a ball onto a Teflex sheet on a dehydrator tray. I use an offset spatula, and then spread it around in a circle, leaving a thicker area around the edge for the crust. (How thick you want your crust is a personal preference. The one you see pictured in front was the gourmet. The one in the back is the "Easy Crust," recipe below, and I did it a big more thin.)

I threw it in the D at 125 for about an hour, then turned it down to 110. After about an hour, check it. If it's dry enough to peel off the Teflex, do so and put on the screen. I ended up bumping the D down to 105 and letting it go for the night, and the crust was perfect. Again, it's all personal preference. This crust, since I used kamut, was in need of a longer time in the D.


Easy Crust from Alissa Cohen's Living on Live Food book
(I doubled this to make two)

• 2 cups sprouted buckwheat

(I added 4 cups of barley, too, when I doubled this, so it was 4 cups buckwheat, 4 cups barley)

• 1 cup soaked flax seeds
• 1 cup red bell pepper (I skipped the pepper and added 1/2 cup of soaked sundried tomatoes)
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery stalk (I skipped this)
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt

(I also added fresh rosemary)

Follow the same instructions as the crust above.


Sundried Tomato Marinara from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen

• 2 cups tomatoes, chopped (I used Roma)
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, loosely packed
• 1/4 olive oil
• Juice of 1 lemon, about 1 TBSP
• 1 teaspoon pitted and soaked dates
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon rosemary
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 3 tablespoons sundried tomatoes, soaked

Blend tomatoes, garlic, basil, olive oil, lemon juice, dates, herbs, and salt until smooth. Add the sundried tomatoes and blend until mixed well.


Ricotta Basil Cheese (Italian Pizza Cheese from Ani's Raw Kitchen)

• 2 cups macadamia nuts, soaked
• Juice of 1-2 lemons, to taste
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup basil leaves
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2/3 cups water, as needed.

Put everything in the food processor (or blender), adding water as needed to make cheese creamy and fluffy. And YUMMY


Brazil Nut Parmesan Cheese from I am Grateful, Recipes & Lifestyle of Café Gratitude

• 1 cup Brazil nuts, dry
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Put in the food processor. Process. You won't believe how freakin' GOOD this is.


Vee's Pizza Alfredo Sauce
2 cups pine nuts
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup almond milk or water
Nutritional yeast to taste
Sea salt to taste

Blend in food processor, tasting. Not just for the seasoning, but because it tastes groovy.


Veggies
I basically took mushrooms, orange and red peppers, and tossed them in olive oil, garlic and a bit of lemon and sea salt. You can add whatever veggies float yor boat. Let them marinate and soften.

Assembly
At this point, you may be thinking, "Hey, Vee, I don't have two weeks to make this stuff." But I promise you, once you have the ingredients all out, you can turn this all out in very little time. With the sauces and veggies prepped as the crusts dehydrate, it's just a matter of assembling them once the crusts are done. I spooned sauce on, then put cheeses on in varying degrees and combinations. Then put whatever veggies you like on, or sundrieds. I threw them in the D for 6 hours at 105 degrees and they were to LIVE for.

Have fun. Abondunzza and all that stuff.

xoxo

Holler! The Eyes Have It!

So, you may have read that a lot of raw vegans notice changes in their eyes as they delve into their new eating habits. Some see whiter whites and brighter brights...wait, am I thinking about laundry or eyes?

Anyway, after a month or so of eating raw, I noticed yesterday that my eyes are becoming more clear, with a lot more green, and a totally different color of green. This could also be due to the copious amounts of cocaine that I've been ingesting every day, but I think it's the raw. Any of you noticing changes in the eyes?

Today's Lunch

Simple kale salad with pine nuts.

YUM.

Rawkin Out in Austin (or Rawstin)

Hey, peeps! I hope everyone had a safe and fantastic holiday. I'm back from visiting a good friend in Austin, and I thought I'd check in since I've been woefully behind on blog posts.

The past few weeks have been a blur of activity, many of them centered around raw food, or at least including it. I've been spending tons of time in the kitchen, and am continuing to love creating new dishes.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I got to Texas. Sure, Austin is known for its weird factor, and it's a funky, awesome town. But smack dab in the middle of meat country, I didn't have a lot of high hopes for finding raw vegan food, or even vegan, at that. Boy, was I rawng. Get it? Wrong? I'm squeezing too much mileage out of word puns with raw, aren't I?

Suffice to say, my friend Chris must receive huge props. He checked out some possibilities for me and gamely went along with my strange food preferences.

I started out the journey less than prepared. Brought some flax seed crackers on the plane with me. Then proceeded to have 3 or 4 glasses of wine with Chris, and no food save an apple. Yeah, I can hear the Greek chorus of "duh" from here. The next day, Thanksgiving, I ate some fruit for breakfast and then we went to the home of a really nice couple that's friends with Chris. They had a full Turkey Day meal, and we were all sitting down to it. So I luckily had some food choices, and made some that weren't so great, like mashed potatoes. Not one to kick myself after being 100% for weeks, I instead relished the fact that I wasn't off the wagon. In fact, cooked food really didn't do anything for me except give me that full, logey feeling I hadn't been missing while eating raw.

Friday morning, we went to Austin's new (and only) raw restaurant--The Daily Juice Café. That link, by the way, only mentions their three juice locations, not their new restaurant.

The Daily Juice Café Meditation/Chill Room

I got a fantastic smoothie with strawberry, peach, grapefruit, ginger and fresh maca root. Whooot! I spoke with the owner and walked around checking out their well-stocked cases of live foods. I like that they make their food based on the principles of less ingredients, lots of taste. They don't use a ton of nuts or massive ingredient lists.





The lovely interior...mmmmmm, young coconuts.




The newest location of Daily Juice is a repurposed gas station.


Next stop was the Whole Foods Mothership. It's the first WF in the country, if I'm not mistaken, and the largest. Walking into this bohemoth was overstimulation at its finest. In a way, I walked out feeling as though I had been brainwashed with weeks of food porn. However, the saving grace of the day was when Chris grinned and pointed to one of the mini island restaurants...Live Foods. A whole case of prepared live foods, and behind it, a wall of raw products.



You can live it up at the Whole Foods Raw Bar.

Yummy raw goodness. Holiday style.



The wall of raw.


Sure, had I bought everything I wanted, I would have to mortgage my house, and I'm a renter. But seeing that many resources available made me realize that Austin has it going ON in the raw department. As well as the artsy, funky, cool department. If someone could just explain why mullets are considered trendy there...

Friday night we went back to Daily Juice for a dinner that was exceptional. The entire staff is so friendly, it was packed, and the food was phenomenal. I had the raw lasagna and a side salad that included little strips of young coconut. Delish. My cohort had the raw tacos and some pumpkin soup, which was insanely good. I got a piece of chocolate banana cream pie to go and it was the bomb diggedy.



Deeelicious side salad.



Rawsagna. Phwargh, it was good.



Raw tacos and pumpkin soup.



Saturday I walked to Daily Juice and grabbed myself another gorgeous smoothie, as well as one for Chris. To live within walking distance of a raw restaurant would be both dangerous and wonderful. We ventured over to the Austin Farmers Market downtown, which was small, awesome, and full of organic choices.


Austin's downtown Farmers Market.

I've heard rumors of an even bigger organic market six miles out of town. Saturday night I chowed down on a raw dinner compliments of Whole Foods. Everything was really amazing, and I packed myself a to go lunch of raw leftovers for the plane ride home on Sunday.

My dish on Austin? Raw Heaven. Lots of organics, very green living, fantastic raw resources, and to top it off, a fun, artsy, funky town. I give it 10 Durians out of 10!

Chocogasm Pie and the Raw Love-in

What's the best way to stay raw?
Surround yourself with inspiration. I've chosen to do that in the form of attending raw potlucks, trying tons of new recipes, and staying prepared by bringing plenty of raw stuff to work with me. If I don't give myself a reason to go off raw, I won't. And some of the things I've been making have made me giddy with food lust.

This past weekend I hosted a raw potluck at my house. If you aren't already on meetup.com, try it out. You could find a raw group in your area that you didn't even know about. Potlucks are great. You can meet new friends, try new dishes, and spend time with some very wonderful people who are all in the same raw boat. The conversations seem a lot more open, deep and lively than any I've had at parties with cooked food and tons of booze.

Beyond the beauty of hanging with raw peeps, I have to do some blog braggin. I created a dessert that is the most amazing one I've made yet. Honestly, I want to marry me. And though I tend to make food in a very Zen way--not measuring, just going by taste, texture and visual--I'm going to attempt to recreate the recipe for you. Just remember to keep tasting what you're making. That's the best way to make good food. And to get chocolate all over your face like a kid.

Victoria's Chocogasm Pie

Crust
I used the same crust from my banana/coconut cream pie. See post. However, you can sub any nuts you prefer. I think hazelnuts and chocolate are an ideal match. I also made the crust have a bit of salty tang to really complement the dark cacao. For this recipe, I put the crust in a large springform pan, just on the bottom, not rising up on the sides.

First Layer That's right. This pie has layers.

• Meat of 3-4 young coconuts. Reserve coconut water
• 2 cups of cashews, soaked overnight and rinsed
• 1 heaping Tbsp of maca
• 3 Tbsp of raw cacao powder-add more to taste
• 1/4 cup agave-again, add more to taste
• 1 tsp lecithin granules
• sea salt to taste
• 2 Tbsp coconut oil
  

Put the coconut in a food processor and blend. Add in the cashews and blend until smooth, adding a bit of the reserved coconut water if necessary. You want to maintain a thick consistency, yet not lumpy.

Add the remaining ingredients. Keep tasting. The pie should have a dark, chocolatey taste that makes you want to stick your head in the bowl and eat it all.

Pour the layer into your springform pan. If you don't have one, you can just use a regular pie pan. Put into the freezer.

Second Layer

• 1/2 or 1 cup raw almond butter, depending on how thick you want this to be
  
• 3 Tbsp coconut oil
• 2 or 3 Tbsp raw cacao powder to taste
• agave to taste
• sea salt to taste

Blend ingredients thoroughly in the food processor, until mix achieves a consistency like dark chocolate icing. This is a ganache kinda deal, but not. It's a Ganot.

Set mixture in the fridge for a bit if it's not thick enough, or just add more almond butter.

Pour mixture onto first layer. I waited until the first layer was really set well. Spread evenly, return to freezer.

Third Layer

• Meat of two coconuts; I opened quite a few and used the more pudding-like meat for this.
• Agave to taste
• Vanilla to taste
• 1/2 tsp Arrowroot powder (If you don't have this, don't sweat it. You can add some thickness with coconut oil)

Blend in mini food processor, regular food processor or blender. Pour mixture into plastic bag. Cut off the tip and squeeze mixture onto top of pie.

Top off pie with sprinkle of cacao nibs.

It seems like a lot of work, but in reality, I made this pie in under an hour.

Rawk on!

xo

PS: With all of that leftover coconut water, I strained it, put it in a big pitcher, and put in frozen strawberries as ice cubes. Fantastic drink that everyone was diggin on. :)

Raw Quickie

If you enjoy making flax crackers, then you've probably experienced the mess left after cutting them up. I've found that the "crumbs" from flax crackers, which are really just deliciously flavored and dehydrated flax seeds, are fantastic to throw in a glass jar and use for topping your salads. Or whatever other topless food you want topped.

Tonight, I threw together some local arugula—incredibly peppery—with lemon juice, a splash of olive oil, a cut up avocado, and then threw a handful of flax cracker crumbs on top. Magnificent.

Sunday Sunrise Smoothie

After a weekend of feeling not-so-hot, this was the perfect way to end my Sunday. Amazingly, not 15 minutes after drinking this deliciousness, I felt like I'd had a blood transfusion. Sinus headache gone. Fatigue gone. Brilliant. The color is as gorgeous as the feeling it gives ya.

Sunday Sunrise Smoothie

• 1 beet
• About 6-8 carrots
• 3 apples of your choice (I used 1 Granny Smith and 2 Red Delicious)
• About 5 stalks of celery

Juice it up and do the happy dance.

Stinky Heaven, Thy Name is Durian

Durian. For those who have experienced this notorious fruit, it brings one of two reactions: revulsion or shuddering ecstasy.

Durian gets a bad rap. It has been described as having a smell ranging from stinky feet to rotting garbage. Some say it's redolent of gas leakage. You're prohibited from eating it in public in some areas of the world. And even that bald guy on the Travel Channel, the one who will willingly eat a roasted goat penis, refuses to put Durian past his palate.

So why, you might ask, should you even bother with this olfactory offender? Because it is THE BOMB.

It's not called The King of Fruit for nothin.
The durian is the fruit of a tree family that includes hibiscus and okra. This fruit is not just about stank. It's high in fiber, and it's a good source of Thiamin, Vitamin B6 and Manganese, and Vitamin C. Some people are turned off by the calories (1 cup of durian contains 13 grams of fat and 357 calories), but raw foodists understand that counting calories isn't necessary. You'll find that you fill up on durian pretty quickly, so share the smelly love with some adventurous friends.

How the hell do you open this thing?
Inside each of these spiked footballs lies individual pillows of creamy goodness, surrounding a small seed. To open the fruit beast, you can find a natural seam, and take a chef's knife or serrated bread knive, cutting along, then splitting open.

This is the Barry White of fruits, baby.
Besides being a nutritional champ, durian is known for its, uh, aphrodisiacal effects. I've heard tales of durian parties that turned everyone into a pile of bliss. I witnessed firsthand a guy trying durian for the first time. He started to sweat, and became euphoric, claiming that durian could save the world.


What does it taste like?
Everyone has a different opinion on this. I think it tastes like a flan with onions. But it's really good. How it looks may be a bit off-putting. As you can see, the inside resembles an eviscerated alien. The only way you'll find out is to try it. It took me two tries to get into the durian groove. Now, I can't deny that it definitely makes me buzz with pleasure, and eating it is, in itself, a sensual experience. So I'm down with the durian.


Try it! You may like it. You may also hate it.
If you want to dip your little toe in the stinky pool instead of jumping in, here's an easy and delicious way to try durian:

Durian Shake, Rattle and Roll

• 4 durian pods
• Meat and water of 1 young coconut
• 1 banana (frozen works great)
• 2 tbsp of raw cacao powder
• 1 tspb maca
• 1 tbsp cacao nibs (optional)
• squirt of agave

Blend, drink, and assure your neighbors that there is no gas leak. If neighbors are attractive, invite them over to share.

Coconuts Roasting...on an Open Fire.

I had my first fire tonight. Not in a Drew Barrymore/Stephen King/Firestarter kind of way. The home where I'm now living has a fireplace. And all of my apartments and homes since moving out of my parents' house have been sans fireplace. It got really chilly tonight, so I set up a little fire and hung out in front of it. There's nothing cozier than a wood fire, and the smell is so gorgeous. What's this got to do with raw? Well, I'm gonna tell you.

At my last home, I was fortunate enough to be on a farm, with a landlady who had a huge compost that I could use. We found out quickly that my young coconuts took a bit too long to break down, so I resorted to throwing them out. Not any longer, superfriends! Scrape those coconuts out, let them dry, and they make rawesome fire catchers. Or kindling. Or whatever. Anyway, it burned well and I had a groovy, warm, incredible fire to toast my toes and chilly nose.

If you've got a fireplace and a love of young coconuts, get on the coconut boat and do your part to reduce, reuse, and recycle!

I'm your firestarter,

xo
V

Today's Smoothie: Trippy Tropical

• Meat and water of 1 young coconut
• 1 large, luscious mango
• 2 bananas
• 1 Tbsp maca
• ice (optional)

Blend. Sip. Sigh.

Hot Bread Man, Spinning Greens, and Wholesome Addictions.

Good evening, peeps. Or should I say morning? It's after midnight, and this night owl is still going strong.

I started my day with a trip to the Carrboro Farmers Market. For those of you who live in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area, if you've not gone, I highly recommend it. Most of the vendors were organic, even if not certified yet. Very friendly folks, gorgeous produce and flowers. I had my camera with me, but I didn't snap any pics because the bread man was incredibly sexy and distracting. :)

Two Things You Should Have in Your Raw Kitchen
So I decided to jockey stuff around a bit in my uncooking space today. Went out to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy a few things. I normally don't like supporting huge stores like BBB, but I get those 20% off coupons in the mail every five minutes. They don't expire, and you can use as many as you like at once. So for kitchen stuff, the coin saved is awesome. Here's what I got:

The coolest cutting board ever. I was scanning the boards and saw this genius offering. Lots of space to cut veggies, plus two removable metal tins at the bottom. They both measure 1 cup, which is handy, and also act as a reserve bin for getting scraps out of the way. At only $24.99, plus the 20% discount, this was a steal of a deal, my friends.


A Slammin' Salad Spinner. I can't believe I've not had one of these before now. Woe is the raw foodist who washes their greens and doesn't get them dry enough. Even though I use Evert Fresh bags, I still have the problem of my greens getting all slimy. In steps the Cuisinart salad spinner. It's not the fanciest on the market, but it does the trick and it does it well. I washed all my greens tonight and put them away all dry and perky. $14.99 for the spinner, plus 20% off with my ubiquitous BBB coupon.


My fridge runneth over.
I had to take a picture of my fridge, fully stocked, and my newly cookless stove. For all my carnivorous, flame-loving fans, I'll take you out to eat. I love opening my fridge and seeing a bounty of amazing food.





My name is Victoria, and I'm an addict.
No, I don't indulge in heroin, nor do I smokah the cigarettes. Folks, I love radishes. I like to get a handful and pop them in my mouth like popcorn. Except that I think popcorn tastes like Styrofoam. So today I bought three bunches of organic radishes. I don't know what it is about that root, but I am on a tear lately. And I've picked a healthy one; radishes are a good source of vitamin C and contain lots of healthy minerals like sulphur, iron, and iodine.


Well, that's it for this evening. It's been a rawkin' day, and tomorrow I think I'm going to do some uncookin' in the kitchen. Who knows what'll turn up?

Keep it rawl,

xo
V

Rawsources, or How to Get the Raw Booty.

I'm so happy.
Why, you may ask (all three people who are aware this blog exists)? Because today, I found a source for raw cacao beans.

If you go online to buy whole beans, or even the nibs, you'll pay a decent amount for them. About $12-15 for a pound. So today I went into a little artisanal chocolate shop near my job and asked if they had raw beans. The owner, a very cool guy, sold me 2 pounds for $6. He also cracked them for me. So I have 2 whole pounds of raw cacao nibs, that he actually bought in Costa Rica and brought back. Glorious. I will be making a chocolate/almond butter pie next. Don't be hatin' -- I'll save some for you.

This led me to think about resources. Or rawsources, as I like to call them. Being raw means investing not only in your health, but in your food, too. Organics aren't always the cheapest game in town, and some of the superfoods we like to eat are downright pricey. But there are ways around it, as I found today. So here are a few ideas on how to save some coin.

Farmers Markets. Duh, right? But a lot of people don't take advantage of their farmers market. Don't know where they are? Try http://apps.ams.usda.gov/FarmersMarkets/ and enter your location. FMs are great for fresh, local produce at a low cost. Now, not all of the farmers are organic, but you can talk to them and find out which ones are. Some farms have organic practices but haven't earned their certification yet. Develop relationships with your favorite farm vendors and you'll find they're happy to tell you what's fresh, what's coming up, etc.

CSA. Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, is a great idea. Local farms sell families a season's pass of fresh produce. Each week, a box or bag of veggies, fruits, and other yummy goodness is delivered, usually to a drop-off point. I've been buying arugula from a local farm through a CSA, and it's ruined all other arugula for me.
To find a local CSA, go to: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/.

Ask and You Shall Receive. Next time you go to the Asian market with a jonesing for young coconut, ask for a case. They'll pull it from the back, it will be fresher coconuts, and you'll get a good price for buying the case. Think about other ways to save, too. Like my serendipitous cacao find today, using your imagination can yield some great deals. If you have a big family and need to buy in bulk, talk to your local produce person in a Whole Foods or other grocery store with organic stuff. They may be able to give you a deal on quantity.

Online. Yep, it's not always easy to find raw food products, especially if you live in a more remote area. Going online will allow you to compare prices at different sites. Check out some of my links for various raw stores. I sometimes buy certain things from one place, and others from another, just because of the price difference.

Swap Work for Booty. No, I'm not suggesting you resort to illegal and questionable activities. I mean booty like the pirates. Aaarrrrrr. A lot of small farms need help during the harvesting seasons. Some of them may be willing to trade your labor for some produce. And it may be the very produce you helped to reap that ends up on your plate.

I'm sure you crafty kids have all kinds of ideas for keeping raw resources at a reasonable cost. Let me know your tips and tricks. I'm going to go huff some raw cacao nibs.

xo

Grawnola, the dinner of lazy raw champions.

I've always loved breakfast for dinner. Cereal was a lazy standby when I just didn't feel like making an effort. So tonight I had my raw equivalent. Much healthier, much tastier, and much more satisfying.

I made the grawnola with sprouted buckwheat, soaked sunflower seeds, flax seeds, almonds, goji berries, honey and cinnamon.

The milk is brazil nut/almond.

The strawberries are amazingly sweet.

YUM.

Let me know if you want the full recipe for the grawnola. It's pretty easy to do; sprouting, mixing, dehydrating.

Gonna go make a kale salad. Have a great night.

xo

By popular request, here's the Grawnola recipe. Enjoy!

Grawnola!

A really easy, really customizable granola that packs well for camping, the office, or is a yummy breakfast with almond milk!

Ingredients

• 2 cups buckwheat, sprouted
• 1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked (optional)
• 1 cup dried fruit
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons agave or honey (or both!)
• 2 tablespoons shredded dried coconut
• 1 cup nuts of your choice

Preparation

Grind nuts of your choice (I used walnuts and almonds) in a FP with sunflower seeds. Add in fruit (I used goji berries), pulse the FP. Then add in cinnamon, agave, honey. Mix into bowl with buckwheat and coconut until thoroughly blended.

Spread onto Teflex sheets, and dehydrate for about 8-10 hours at 110/115.

The great thing about this granola is that you can add more nuts or less, more fruit, and spices of your choice. It’s really easy and makes the whole house smell AMAZING.

What's for Dinner?

Eating raw does funny things to my appetite. One day I'll eat a field's worth of greens. The next I'll pick at stuff. This evening, the only thing I was craving was some raw hummus and flax crackers. The crackers I made last night by mixing gold and brown flax seeds, sea salt, and a pureed mix of orange pepper, scallions and some Nama Shoyu. The no bean/no nut hummus is props to Matt Amsden and his fantastic recipe book "RAWvolution."


Matt Amsden's No-Bean Hummus

• 2 zucchini, peeled
• 3/4 cup raw tahini
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled (I added more, but I'm of the mind that there's no such thing as too much garlic)
• 2.5 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 Tbsp ground cumin

Throw all the ingredients into a food processor or blender, blend at high speed until creamy and smooth. Serve with flax crackers, veggies, as a sandwich spread, salad dressing...the possibilities are endless. I crowned mine with some fresh watercress, a radish and some paprika.

This was a great treat, because sometimes I just need to get away from the heaviness of beans and nuts.

xo

Coconut and Banana Cream Pie (I Would Eat This for Breakfast Pie)

So I've been reading all my raw recipe books, getting ideas, and I decided to make a pie for the potluck I went to this evening.

Taking some cues from different recipes, I did my own thing and was really pleased with the results. The only thing I'd like to work with is getting the pie to set more firmly, but I think Irish Moss will do the trick. So, here's the 411. I tend to measure a lot by eye, but this time I wrote stuff down. Enjoy, and try not to eat all the batter before you pour it into the shell.

Equipment needed

• food processor
• mini prep food processor (if you have one, if not, just use the regular one)
• 9-inch pie pan

For the crust:

• 2 cups of hazelnuts
• 4 Tbsp almond flour (optional--I found that it added a good dry balance)
• 3/4 cups of dates, soaked and pitted
• 2-inch section of vanilla bean, seeds scraped and pod discarded
• sprinkle of sea salt
• 2 tsp of raw cacao powder
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil

Grind up nuts in food processor until fine, put aside in bowl. Then grind up dates, vanilla seeds and coconut oil. Put nuts back into food processor, add almond flour, sea salt and cacao powder. Blend thoroughly. Will have a sticky consistency, but shouldn't ball up.

Press the mix into your pie pan, pressing up the sides and smoothing the bottom. I put my pie shell in the dehydrator at 115 degrees for an hour or so, just to dry it out a bit since I was going to be adding wet ingredients.




Filling

• 1 cup of young coconut meat
• 1 cup of young coconut water (reserve any additional water in case you need more liquid)
• 3/4 cup coconut butter
• 1.5 large bananas (you may want to add more, depending on your preference)
• Couple pinches of sea salt
• 3-inch section of vanilla pod, scraped
• 3 Tbsp of lecithin (this emulsifies the ingredients and helps them to stay blended)
• 3/4 cups to 1 cup of dates, soaked and pitted

Blend all ingredients in food processor until smooth. I actually pre-blended the dates in a mini food processor, just so there wouldn't be big chunks, but that's totally up to your preference.
Put the mixture into a bowl in the fridge while the pie crust is in the dehydrator.

Topping

• Unsulphured dried and shredded coconut (Reserve to the side)
• 3-4 Tbsp Raw cacao powder
• Squirt of Agave nectar
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• About 2 Tbsp Coconut oil
• pinch of sea salt

This is one of the cases where I eyeballed the ingredients. Go by your tastebuds. Warning: this stuff is seriously edible. I put all the ingredients in a mini food processor and whirled it around.

When pie crust comes out, allow to sit out for a bit. Pour the filling into it, smoothing it over. Put into the freezer to set the top. After about a 1/2 hour, sprinkle the shredded coconut over the top (how much you use is up to you). Make the chocolate sauce, drizzle on the pie. Put it back in the freezer or fridge to set up a bit.

Eat. And moan with happiness.

xo
V

Blurg. You can feel the cheating.

So I've been doing great on the raw. Last night was exhausted, which I know is just my bod dumping all that toxic junk. And I got 9 hours of sleep--unheard of on a weeknight.

Then, like an idjit, I ate some Cheetos today. And some Oreos. At work. Damn those snacks. And I felt immediately gross. And tired. And got a headache. So I'm going to even it out with a huge superfoods smoothie for dinner, and get over it. I won't beat myself up for it, but I sure will learn.

Cheetos are not raw.

Been uncooking up a storm--made sunburgers from Ani Phyo's book, grawnola, some cashew coconut lemon macaroon cookies, raw fudge, teriyaki kale chips, and a bunch of other stuff. Tonight I'm making a huge kale salad, and icing for the raw fudge. Yum.

Hope everyone is having a great night. Of course, no one reads this except me. :)

xo
V

I'm back, baby!

Well, I decided to go raw again. And not lightly...I went in all the way. After only 2 days of eating 100% raw vegan, I already feel the difference. I had forgotten how profound the effects are, and how well my body takes to this way of eating. I'd really like to stay at 100%, or at least 95% with a very small margin of non-raw. But the vegan part, I need to stick with. And it's really easy to eat this way; dinner tonight is a green smoothie. Delish!

Fall into Raw Smoothie
1 avocado
Big bunch of spinach leaves
Big bunch of chard leaves
1/2 of a juicy fat mango
dash of lemon juice
dash of agave

YUM.

Read This Book

If you haven't already had the pleasure, then check out "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. I'm a huge fan of her writing and have been for years. So when I finally picked this gem up, it's been an eye-opening read. I'm not even finished the book and I'm giving it two big, green thumbs up.

Basically, Kingsolver and her family decided to leave their Arizona life behind, move into their Appalachian farmhouse and live in a purely sustainable and local way for a year. Within the pages of her family's story are woven essays about agricultural woes, environmental impacts, and even the views of her husband and oldest daughter.

Kingsolver writes with an attention to detail that effectively places you at the scene of every description, to the point of being able to smell and hear what she's describing. It's a departure from the fiction of hers that I'm used to reading, but it's a journey that is well worth the time. Read it and enjoy.

xo
V

A fistful of carrots.

I know, I know. Yet another food blog in the already glutted Web world of food blogs. I don't fancy myself a "foodie," nor a gourmet by any means. I just know that I love good food, and I am a vegetarian, and it's here that I intend to explore making vegetarian food that goes beyond a standard restaurant's offering of salad or grilled portabello burgers. Not that there's anything wrong with those. There's just so much more, you see.

I haven't always been a vegetarian. In fact, I only stopped eating seafood a year ago. And before that I had been eating red meat and white meat and seafood, or going veg for a few years and then being seduced by smoked chicken. I even went raw vegan for 30 days to try it.

The thing is, my body and my mind are just happier eating veg. I even love the raw vegan food. And I'm not a soapbox vegetarian--if you want to explore the environmental impact our meat industries have on the planet, go ahead. If you want to investigate the cruelty to animals, you can go to www.meetyourmeat.org and be as horrified as I was.

I love good food. I can thank my brother, an amazing chef, for introducing my palate to new and exciting tastes as a young kid. So I like diversity in my food. And for a vegetarian, especially one living in the South, there aren't often a lot of options when dining out. And since I love cooking, I figured I should stop whining about the lack of options and make my own. When I do find great spots to eat veg, I'll praise them here.

So, welcome. I'm going to assume that the only person reading this is myself. Luckily, blogging is one of the ways you can get away with talking to yourself without risking a dose of Thorazine.

Happy eating,

Victoria