Almond Butter Love

This morning we woke up to a spectacular pink-glowy mountain sunrise.  As we gazed out the window my eyes jealously darted to TH's coffee, which he doused liberally with Carolan's.  Now, I've been coffee free for eight months, but I wanted my own warm, healthy bevvie.  I found a great idea for hemp milk at The Raw Project.  I skipped the peppermint, let Vivian run an extra long time, and then enjoyed a  frothy, nutty drink that was much easier to make than almond milk and so much better for me than coffee.

I've missed you, Mr. Mug!  

The theme of my day was almond butter.  I adore the raw Maranatha brand- but it's crazy expensive.  Sometimes the Fred Meyer in Wasilla has it on sale for around $6, in which case I buy whatever is left on the shelves.  I'm thinking there must be another raw foodist in Wasilla now because the last time it was on sale there wasn't a jar in sight.  Darn.

I used almond butter in two fantastic Delightfully Raw recipes today, both equally drool worthy.  I'm telling you- you have to buy this book!   

First I made a slightly altered version of Kelp Noodles & Veggies in Peanut Sauce (no peanuts used).  The stars of this dish were these babies (thank you, Full Circle Farm!):  

Crunchy sweet goodness.  

This dish gets a huge thumbs up.  Can we talk about the amazingness of kelp noodles???

My favorite chopsticks, purchased in Japan.  

Chocolate time!   I nibbled so much throughout this next recipe.  Super Caramel Chocolate Tarts.  Mmm.

Layer 1

Layer 2

     

Ganache.   Bowl licked clean.  

Layer 3

Question:  Does anyone have a tasty coffee alternative enjoyed during chilly months?  

One of the many perks of eating mostly raw food is the beauty factor.  TH and I were watching "The Next Iron Chef" the other night and there was a preview for an outrageous meat show.  The food looked so unappetizing!  Pile after giant pile of dull, droopy, listless, messiness.  It's said that you feast with your eyes first, which is why I spend time ogling veggies and fruits.

I love chard's hot pink hue.

Look at that pepper!  I couldn't bear to cut it up.

On a side note, I miss taking pictures in natural light.  We go to work in the dark, and come home in the dark.  The sun is rising around 9:30 a.m. and setting around 4:00 p.m.  We are losing more than five minutes of daylight a day!  

I experimented with zucchini again this evening.  I decided to try and make a raw zucchini/coconut cookie.  Here are the cookies, pre dehydrator, looking like splooges of  day old oatmeal.  (I guess I could have prettied them up a bit.)  The batter was mighty tasty, so we'll see what a night in the D produces.  

Zucchini + Cacao = !!!

Even though we are deep into winter up here in Alaska, my smoothies are still tasting like fall.  I miss the stone fruits and berries of summer, but pears, apples and oranges blended with chard taste pretty good as well.

TH named these little cuties "Hippie Bites".  Sunflower spread nestled between veggies.  I think they would make nice Christmas party appetizers. 

I have bucco zucchini and I've been trying to use it creatively.  Tonight I decided to add it to standard raw avocado chocolate mousse.  The result was delicious!

For the crust, mix the following (until crumbly and sticky) in a food processor:

1 cup pecans 

5 pitted dates

pinch sea salt 

I mixed a little more after snapping this pic. 

For the mousse, blend the following until smooth and creamy:

2 avocados

1 largish zucchini, peeled

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons raw cacao

1/2 cup agave or maple syrup

1/4 cup melted coconut butter

dash vanilla

pinch sea salt

Navitas cacao, my fave.  

Bonus Yumminess!  Put a little water in the blender after scooping out the goods.  Blend the water on high for quite a while.  Your blender will clean itself and make you "hot chocolate"!  

I added a little coconut whipped cream, then TH and I made quick work of a tart a piece.

Sauekraut? Ya, bitte!

Maybe it's the German in me, but I've always loved a good sauerkraut.  I remember going to Costco in college and buying a hot dog (hold the hot dog) and filling the empty bun with kraut and ketchup.  Do you know about the benefits of eating fermented foods?  Fermenting helps break down nutrients in a food so it is more easily digested.  Helpful probiotics are present in fermented foods, and the fermentation process also results in the creation of new nutrients.  I often make my own sauerkraut (for this batch I used a recipe from Raw Food, Fast Food by Phillip McCluskey):

Spicy Sauerkraut

In tonight's salad I used a little Bubbies sauerkraut.

I also made quick and delicious Brussel sprouts.  (Brussels are one of the few veggies I don't eat raw.)  I started with the giant stalk Full Circle Farm sent to us.  I cut off the sprouts, tossed them in EVOO and sea salt and baked them at 400 until the outsides were light brown and crispy.  I know I say this about everything, but these are soooo good.  

healthy popcorn

Dessert tonight is chocolate.  

1.  Hand mix a blob of almond butter with a little sea salt, agave, vanilla and dried coconut.  

2.  Make a chocolate coating with equal parts raw cacao, melted coconut butter, and agave or maple syrup.  Add a dash of vanilla and a pinch of sea salt. 

3.  Stick a little of the almond butter mixture into a candy mold and cover with the chocolate.  Or roll the almond butter into a ball and dip into the chocolate. 

4.  Put in the fridge to harden.

5.  Think about how lucky you are to be enjoying chocolate for dessert!  

Question:  Has anyone tried making raw coconut yogurt?  I'm thinking about ordering some probiotics to try it out.  Any suggestions?

Lazy Day

 

  

I just realized I'm in my jammies.  It's 2:00 p.m.  That's okay, 'cause I've been a busy girl.   

I made a salt and vinegar kale chip recipe, suggested to me by my friend Andrea, with the warning not to inhale quickly as kale bits burn the lungs.  I am punished for my inability to heed the warning every time I make these. 

Ingredients:

1.  De-stem the kale and cut into chip sized pieces.

2.  Put kale in a ziploc (I usually save these bags in the fridge     for future use).

3. Dump kale in bag and pour in a healthy dose of Evo and ACV.

4. Spread on dehydrator tray and sprinkle with sea salt.  

6.  Dehydrate at 105 for 6 or 7 hours, or until crunchily inhalable.  

For lunch I whipped up a batch of sunflower spread from Sunny Raw Kitchen's new e-recipe book.  It is so easy to make and delicious.  To resemble tuna salad I added dulse flakes and a bunch of chopped Bubbie's pickles.  

The salad was rolled into romaine leaves with carrots and zucchini.  It was marvelous. 

Next, I had these little gems to play with:  

I searched far and wide for a raw persimmon recipe (having never really experimented with them before) and decided to make Persimmon and Coconut Cream Parfait from Sunny Raw Kitchen.  How could I not?  Finished product:  

This is incredibly good.  I encourage you to buy some of those in season persimmons and try this recipe!  

I have to say, I've purchased all the e-books from Sunny Raw Kitchen and everything I've made has been delish.  I've found that some raw recipe books produce an end result that is consistently too salty, too sweet, too nut heavy, or just too weird.  I think I have the same taste buds as Carmella.  

Question:  Do you ever notice a particular taste theme in different recipe books? 

I'm off to complete P90X stretch- yippee!  Actually, last week I looked forward to all the workouts.  But I don't have to change out of my jammies for stretch. 

Double Danger

Today temps above 32 degrees and freezing rain created a dangerous situation on our roof.

Every time I went outside I was at risk of an avalanche falling on my head.  All day long huge piles of ice/snow slid off the roof and landed with a boom on the porch.  It made me jump every time. 

Then, we had an earthquake!  It felt like a pretty good one- I watched the ceiling fan and the hanging light fixtures shake as the floor rumbled under my feet.  I was just trying to figure out what to do when it stopped.  

Since I started eating a lot of raw food I've made a quickie version of almond milk by blending raw almond butter with water and a little raw honey, sea salt and vanilla.  Today I decided to start my milk with soaked almonds.  Nightmare!  I don't know if it was the fact that I tried to strain the milk after adding the honey, salt and vanilla (probably), but it was messy and time consuming.  It took about four hours just to strain it once- no way I was considering doing it twice like some raw food ninjas do.  

Peekabo, Vivian!  

Lunch:  

Alaska grown carrots and broccoli with spicy tomato dip.

These figs from Full Circle Farm were out of control!

Post P90X Kenpo workout snack:  

Buckwheat crispies (Raw Food Real World) and Drama almond milk

Dinner:

If I am reincarnated as a veggie, I hope it's cabbage!  

As a salad topping I tried out a delectable hemp dressing from Sunny Raw Kitchen's newest recipe book.  Yummm!



Dessert:

These turned out soooooo good.  First I blended equal parts raw cacao, melted coconut butter and agave, with a dash of vanilla. For the filling I mixed a lump of raw almond butter with a little agave and sea salt.  Ecstasy.    

Full Circle Friday

I love Fridays for all of the obvious reasons, but mostly because my Full Circle Farm boxes arrive!  When the snow falls in Alaska it is very hard to eat a local diet high in veggies and fruit.  I supplement with shipments of in-season goodies from the west coast.  It's actually quite a bit cheaper than making the 1 1/2 hour drive to Wasilla for pricy organic produce.

Why, hello there, future kale chips.

We received lots of pears this time- any ideas for raw pear recipes?