Raw-Luck

I've been pretty busy again. Every time I post I think I will again shortly after but it isn't easy to find the time when I am in the middle of graduating and moving and my senior show! I may have been busy, but there is always time for beautiful and healthful food. 

This week I made a delicious soup without a recipe. I knew I was going to have dinner with my parents so I brought a quarter of an avocado, a tomato, some spinach, lime, ginger, onion, garlic, a date and perhaps more I cannot remember. I put it all in the food processor with fresh carrot juice and sage. It was so good! I added some cut up chunks of avo, onion, some baby lettuces and mushrooms as well.

 

Next I had a huge craving for carrot cake especially since someone brought carrot cake to birthday sunday at church. My chocolate spell is over and replaced with a carrot cake obsession! It was also amazing. The frosting was a bit too much on top so I ended up cutting a lot of it off. This recipe came from Freshtopia.net. I didn't watch the video on how to make the cake so I ended up making it without dehydrating it. It was extra super moist and really really good. It didn't matter. I tried out the dessert on my family. My brother who was in the food business in Chicago for years even loved it. He said that this raw thing is finally getting some validity. Ha! He said it was the best dessert he has had in a really long time. 

He also really liked the cheese I made. I made three types of fermented cheese from the recipe on The Sunny Raw Kitchen website. I agree that these two things are quite remarkable. Since I and most of my family are intolerant to gluten, dairy, and eggs these dishes are great. It's fun for me to see them get so happy about being able to eat something that tastes exactly like what they cannot have. I forgot to take a picture of the cute cheese-balls I made but I will soon. I have plenty left for my family members who are coming in town for my graduation and senior exhibition.

I went to my first raw food potluck in Memphis! A bit of a drive for me but it was worth it. I can't wait to go again. I haven't been around so many raw foodists at one time before. Tonya Zavasta led the group and discussed issues for raw foodist. It was great to hear her unique perspective. Definitely a lot to think about.  

Well, I need some sleep. The house must be completely clean tomorrow for a party after my Art opening. 

Ciao! xo,

Elizabeth

 

I'm Back!

I've been getting ready for my senior art exhibition and haven't been able to post! I am finally almost done with the preparations. So this is what I have been up to...

I made pizza crusts from a recipe in Juliano's Raw cookbook. I made it from Sprouted buckwheat.

They were so good that I had a variation of pizza every day for lunch! The first time I made a big batch of sauce from tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, salt, oil, and herbs. I used it all week too. The first pizza was in a normal style. Sauce, veggies, marinated mushrooms, olives and drippy cheese. I tried to go simple with the cheese so I made it from nutritional yeast with salt, olive oil and water. It was good!

 

The next day I shredded some zucchini and carrot and I think some beet and made a sort of spaghetti with the sauce and veggies and just put it on the crusts. This time I did not make drippy cheese but just sprinkled the nutritional yeast on top. I loved it! 

Some other things I got into were kitchen sink cookies from the We Like it Raw. So so good! 

And ice-cream. I made my ice-cream from blended bananas, vanilla, coconut water, salt and carob. 

 

After all this goodness, I decided to give my body a rest from all the heavy digesting. I've been doing a few days of juice feasting. It feels really good. It was hard the first day or two but now it seems easier than ever, especially since I know I am not doing it for three months! I'll be done in a few days. I feel like it helps me rest after all that running around getting my art ready to show. It is also so much nicer when the weather is warming up. 

I started growing more wheatgrass. And an update on my worms...failed or sort of failed experiment. I finally took the worm bin outside because it was starting to smell. When it went out the smell really came up! Nasty! It was the water that collected at the bottom. There was a lot of it. I had no idea. I was supposed to be collecting that and feeding it to my house plants. It smelled so putrid but it must have been very nutritious because mushrooms were growing out of it when I finally dumped it. Then I left the worm bin outside. I went out of town and heavy rains came. My roommate checked on the worms but the bin was full of water. She dumped the water out. When I came home it just looked sad. Then it rained again! I dumped the water out and started dumping out what was inside. It smelled so awful! I had to do it a little at a time. Finally I borrowed a shovel and dug a hole and buried the stinking compost. When I dug there were many worms so I had a glimmer of hope that some of my worms survived. Poor wormies!

Next time I will not make such a large worm bin. Also, I will do the stacking method. It is much easier because the worms climb up into the next small bin once they have finished making compost of the first. the bins are small enough to lift easily and shift around. I've learned my lesson!

Okay, that is all for now.

Ciao a tutti!

Elizabeth

 

More Chocolate

I'm not sure if buying chocolate molds and cups was the best or the worst thing that happened to me. I love chocolate. Here are some more beautiful and delicious things that I have made. 

I made more chocolate cherries with maca paste. I will buy some rum or amaretto for my next try! I also made a chocolate covered almond butter stuffed fig. I got the idea from Empowered foods. I ordered these lovely choco-almo-nut-but-figs from them before and thought I'd give 'er a go. Yum. I still prefer the chocolate cherries though. The hard chocolate shell with the smoosh and goo inside is a food texture fantasy. It's like being a kid again when I used to eat cherry cordials and cadbury cream eggs. 

I also made Rawviolis today with pistachio pesto and jicama. I finally got the jicama sliced thin enough so that it would really look like a ravioli. I took the picture under a pretty yellow light so they don't look white like they should. They were superb. 

Another recent item that I have added to my menu is spaghetti squash. My friend introduced it to me as a great raw spaghetti. I hadn't tried it since I have been so content with my zucchini noodles. So good. I don't have any pictures though. I ate it too quickly! : ) I just cut it in half long ways and then used a fork to scrape out the noodley innards. I made a quick tomato sauce and that was it. The second time around I used my left over pesto as the sauce, possible even better.

Xo,

Elizabeth

Mmmmmm Raw Chocolates!

As promised, here are the pictures of my raw chocolate making freak-out! My mouth is watering. They were incredible. I want to do it again now. In fact, I want to start a raw chocolate business so I can make raw chocolates all the time and eat them as I please! 

I made these puppies using raw chocolate powder, raw cacao butter, raw coconut oil, sea salt, organic vanilla, raw agave and goji berries, dried mulberries, raw macadamias, raw almonds, maca, lucuma, mesquite, raw almond butter and raw cherries as fillings. I just mixed it all up until it tasted good. The best way to make something! 

The chocolate cherries were the best. I filled the chocolates with half a cherry and a paste that I made from maca, mesquite, lucuma, agave and salt. I didn't think I would have chocolate covered cherries again. Next time I will add a little amaretto for a true cherry cordial! 

Cheers!

Elizabeth

Raw Lasagna

Yesterday, I saw a recipe for raw lasagna while poking around on the internet with a friend. I thought, hmm...I could make that so easy right now without the recipe. So I did. I made my simple spaghetti sauce by blending my organic dehydrator dried tomatoes with fresh tomatoes, garlic, oregano, salt, olive oil and dates. Then I made a cheese by blending cashews, garlic, salt, oil, and nutritional yeast. I sliced up some zucchini on the mandolin then slices mushrooms, and shredded carrots. I layered zucchini, sauce, mushrooms, cheese, onion, spinach, sauce, carrots, zucchini, cheese, mushrooms, sauce and then what was left of the cheese with some parsley on top. I think that was it. I let is sit in some warmth through the afternoon and it was great for dinner. I had it again for dinner tonight as pictured here with some salad and olives! Buonissimo!

I also made raw chocolates today but haven't taken any pictures. I will try to take some tomorrow and write about them then. So good! 

xo,

Elizabeth