Recipes, Raw Food & Relaxation

Happy Sunday evening! How has your weekend been? Mine has been pretty low-key - Friday night and last night were spent chilling with friends (Friday involved the neighbor coming by for mojitos - the first not raw thing I've had in awhile - and last night was going to Ybor - walking distance bars - to watch the Rowdies, the Tampa soccer team, play on TV)... this morning I had one of these to recover: (sorry for the dark picture)

-glorious blend of strawberries, kiwi, mango, banana, bee pollen, spinach, and spirulina... and my sigg full of ice cold aqua ;)

a few hours later I ate one of these salad monsters:

spring mix, arugula, cilantro, red, yellow & orange bell peppers, grape tomatoes, carrot, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, dulse, avocado, hemp & sunflower seeds.... plus a tasty vinaigrette with a spicy asian twist: fresh tangerine juice, raw coconut vinegar, coconut aminos, garlic, fresh ginger, raw almond butter, fresh cracked black pepper, and red pepper flakes. It was the salad of my dreams! eaten with chopsticks of course, because, well, chopsticks make life more fun :)

I was at Starbucks a few weeks ago getting an iced coffee (black, plain, strong - so delicious!) and I got a few snacks (which were devoured before I could photograph them, oh well):

I'm so impressed! Starbucks is jumping on the raw bandwagon. And I was way excited to find dried cherries without added sugar. Do yall have a hard time finding dried fruit without added sugar? Other than raisins and apples, I find in nearly impossible, except online. I make my own in the dehydrator sometimes, but I get really impatient.

I made this tasty graw-nola recently:

-pumpkin seeds
-sesame seeds
-hemp seeds
-handful goji berries
-handful zante currents
-date paste (soaked dates blended with fresh tangerine juice)
-raw agave nectar
-maple syrup (not raw, but good for you and so rich in flavor)
-sea salt
-1 chopped apple
-1 chopped pear
-1 cup raw almonds, soaked and chopped
Mix all ingredients together, dehydrate at 115* until desired crunchiness. Eat with fresh sesame mylk and strawberries:


I made a mushroom quiche from the fabulous Russell James. The batter:


The mushrooms (1 cup - I used baby bellas) are soaked in lemon juice (about a tablespoon) and sea salt (about 1/2 teaspoon). Blend 1 cup zucchini, 3/4 cup soaked cashews, sea salt to taste (about 1/2-1 teaspoon), 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast, 1-2 cloves garlic, 1/2 medium onion and freshly ground black pepper until smooth in blender. Chop 1 cup packed spinach in food processor with a tablespoon of olive oil, freshly ground black pepper and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt until chopped but not pureed. Chop 1 cup grape tomatoes to fine dice. Combine with drained mushrooms, spinach, and pureed zucchini mixture, and put in small tart pans (you could make a nut crust, but I opted not to). Dehydrate at 115* overnight until done:

Mine took about 12 hours. They were very rich and creamy and "cheezy"... a little heavy though as we've had really hot and humid weather this week. There may have been some of these bad boys in the dehydrator with the quiches:


There definitely aren't any kale chips left :) they were pretty tasty while they lasted! anyone else have trouble letting them make it to crispy crunchy perfection? even if I let them make it to the end, I pretty much demolish them the second they come out (or within 24 hours). I love kale chips! (I usually make mine extra cheezy and spicy!)

I also hopped on the Moonie Pie train and made a batch - I added some coconut and raw almond butter to my batter...



pretty tasty! The middle one I served to my husband - he was a fan :) I could barely take the picture because he was so eager to dive in! He drizzled his with local raw honey.

... and finally, I've finally experimented with chia seeds. I had some leftover cashew chocolate kream in the Vitamix today, so I added some water and about a tablespoon of chia seeds and made this lovely thick chocolatey scrumptious shake:

I love how the straw stands straight up in it! expect some more chia seed experimentation in the future...

it's time for me to get this melty ice pack off my knee (the humidity has been making it more achy for some reason :/) and drink my tea (I made some yerba mate with fresh mint & lemon - my allergies have been crazy lately). The heat makes me tend to want more greens & salads, fresh juice & smoothies, and less nuts and heavy dehydrated goodies - even raw chocolate seems to just give me a headache and seems to be too heavy right now. It's great to be surrounded by so much fresh produce - stay tuned for recipes and have a great week!

xoxo