Broccoli and Cheese

This recipe is part of an ongoing series documenting my experiences as I try the recipes from the book Living on Live Food by Alissa Cohen.

Broccoli and Cheese
pg.290


I did not take a picture of this because I couldn't look at it again! I got so sick. In all fairness, it was not the recipe but when I get sick the last thing I eat tends to linger in my memory as the culprit. It tasted great though. It might be a while before I attempt it again

Pulp Cookies

I can't believe we made cookies out of left over juice pulp. We  made them out of peanut butter, honey, eggs, a little flour, cinnamon, vanilla, salt, and LOTS of left over vegetable pulp(spinach, parsley, carrots, and apples.) I basically just eyeballed it until I thought it might work. The kids loved it. Now I don't feel so bad juicing. This also makes a great snack for the kids. I have been looking for something new because of Kaitlyn's braces. Yay!

Homemade Raw Butter!

We did it, yay! This is so neat. Here are some pics we took during the process. First you take the cream off of the raw milk. Blend it in your food processor for 10-15 min. Separate the solids from the liquid(buttermilk) and rinse thoroughly. You could add salt but we are just going to add it as we use it. I don't suppose it will last very long in the frig but I don't see it lasting longer than 2 days here anyway.lol

Ani Phyo's "Love-The-Chicks Pate"

This recipe was ok. I think one of the problems that many people might have with this recipe is that it misguides you into thinking that this will taste like scrambled eggs. Not even close. So, if you don't go into it thinking that's what your going to get, you'll be fine. I made the base pate and added tomato, onion, and yellow pepper all wrapped in a romaine lettuce wrap. I also tried it on my buckwheat crackers. It is very filling. It really needed something though so I tried to put a little nama shoyu on it and that worked. It was awesome then. We have alot left over in the fridge so I guess I will be experimenting with it. I thought about trying to put it in nori sheets.  If you're looking for a pate that's hearty and NOT humus like, this is it. Otherwise, stick to the humus.

New Meal Planner

I am so excited about a new meal planner Jason is creating.

• It will give me the ability to schedule meals on certain days
• Because many raw food meals take several days to prepare, this planner will create an event for the number of days needed, which will allow me to get reminders, etc...
• I get to customize it the way I want! yay
• It will be web based which means I can access it anywhere
• I *think* I will be able to drag and drop recipes on the day that I want. 
• It's free
• Eventually, I believe we will be able to have a community that can access each other's public recipes.

I love my husband! 

Thanksgiving

Well, happy thanksgiving!! We are going to be heading out to visit family this morning and I am looking forward to spending happy time with everyone :) This will be the first thanksgiving where I have fixed so many raw recipes. I am excited! Here's what I made to last me over this long weekend:
Buckwheat crackers
Blackberry jam
Almond Butter
Sweet potato chips(spicy and not so spicy ones)
2 Strawberry pies
1 Blueberry pie
Turkeyless Turkey
Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry Salad
Butternut Squash Salad
Mash Potatoes
Marinated Portebella mushrooms to go on "potatoes"
We mad several pies this week to try including carrot cake, black forest(using strawberries), and apple. Strawberry was my favorite. The best pie I have ever tasted! The Potatoes do not contain nuts but taste awesome(too me). I just pray everything holds up until this evening.lol

Wasabi!

I am so excited about finding a wasabi powder without yucky dyes in it! We went to Earth Fare and there it was. I made the paste yesterday at lunch to try it out and it was so good. I decided to water it down a little and pour it over my salad(I used Nutritional Yeast for the "dressing"). It was so yummy. My new fave addition.

Dehydrated Broccoli and Cauliflower

Broccoli
Cauliflower
Nama Shoyu
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Put a bunch of broccoli or cauliflower on a teflex sheet, sprinkle Nama Shoyu on it. Dust it with onion and garlic powder. Dehydrate for as long as it takes to get it like you want it. If you want it with a meal as a side, I suggest start it early in the day and watch it. It should be wilted and warm by dinner. The longer you leave it in there, the crunchier it gets. You can then eat it as a snack, which I love!

Salad "Rub"

I just love nutritional yeast! I mix it with salt, pepper and sometimes dried basil. Delicious on my salads. I am a hard core creamy dressing kind of person so it's gotta be good if I am choosing this over it. I am addicted to it. Good thing it's so good for you, lots of protein too. You can buy it at your local health food store in the bulk section. It's NOT the same thing as active yeast!

My Favorite Breakfast

I have been enjoying this breakfast now for quite some time but I haven't posted it on here yet.
1/2 cup rolled oats(I flake them myself to save money)
1 TBL Coconut oil(Garden of Life brand is my FAVORITE)
1 Banana
Almond Milk

Place the oats and coconut together first and stir around. Cut up the banana and mix it in. Poor over your almond milk. The coldness of the milk hardens the coconut oil and you get a crunchier cereal. So yummy!

Children's taste

It always amazes me what children will eat. Jason and I used to be surprised when the kids wouldn't eat a yummy quiche but would turn around and eat boxed macaroni and cheese. Well, we don't eat like that anymore(for the most part) and they continue to shock me. Yesteday I baked some sweet potatoes. I know they love sweet potatoes mushed with honey, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg but I decided not to add anything. I just cut the potato(I didn't smush it) and put it on their plates. They loved it. I can't believe it's that easy. And then to top it all off, I made some raw sprouted buckwheat bread/crackers and dehydrated it. It wasn't done by dinner but I let them taste it. I did't like it as much because when it's not dehydrated it has more of a buckwheat flavor. The kids loved it! They almost devoured a whole sheet. I am guessing their taste buds have changed since we starting eating more real foods but they are still amazing me. Needless to say, don't be afraid to go simple and try out new things with your children! They may surprise you. Charlotte puts red pepper, salt, garlic powder, and onion powder on everything she can(I give her freedom in this area). Here is an easy way to get your kids to eat zucchini:
~Boil enough zucchini(sliced) for your family in a large pan. I peeled mine as well but you don't have to
~Let most of the water evaporate
~Either buy or make some spaghetti sauce and poor over zucchini. Let it get hot but don't worry about boiling it. You can even turn the stove off. Serve. My kids were begging for more.

You can also use this same recipe if you spiralize the zucchini into noodles. I wouldn't boil the noodles though. It's better to either not cook them at all or just add them to the sauce and let it get warm/hot.

Dandelions

I bought some dandelions at Earth Fare the other day and I have really been enjoying them! For those of you who drink green smoothies, try a handful of these. I have been adding them in with my collards(collards are my favorite). One day I will get a juicer and try juicing them. Here are some nutritional benefits of dandelions(as if I need convincing):
The leaves are richer in vitamin A than are carrots.
One cup of dandelion greens:
-25 calories
-1.5 g protein
-5 g carbohydrate
-19 mg Vitamin C
-7,700 IU of vitamin A
-103 mg calcium.
They also stimulate the liver and kidneys. I have don't enough research on them but I wonder if these would help people with gallbladder disease. I had my gall bladder out about 6 years ago. I wish I had known about natural ways to deal with that. We have a ton of dandelions in our back yard but there are so many stray cats around here that I am fearful of getting worms or something if I ate these.LOL

Yummy Raw Sub Sandwich

This is so good and it really hits the spot when I am craving a sub.
- 1 Romaine Lettuce HEAD
-Various veggies to put on it
- Some type of sauce/spread.
Take the head of romaine and cut the bottom piece of and then stand it up on its bottom. Slice it from top to bottom. Take the 2 pieces and take out the very middle small leaves. This is where you will stuff you veggies. I like to put a sauce on first. You could use salad dressing, homemade mayo., mustard, anything. Stack your veggies on. I usually slice my veggies pretty thin so I can put more on. Some suggestions are:
-avocado
-cucumber
-tomato
-onion
-pickles
-red/green peppers
-salt, pepper, red pepper flakes

You could also "toast" your sub by warming it or grilling the lettuce head before you put the veggies on. This might seem crazy to eat a whole head of lettuce but if you just eat a couple of leaves it doesn't give it that nice hearty feel that you look for in a sub.

Cereal #1

1 serving

1/2 Cup flaked oats
1 Tbl. buckwheaties
Almond Milk
Raisins(optional)
Add all ingredients and enjoy. Let oats sit in milk before adding buckwheaties if you want a softer cereal. The buckwheaties give it a nice crunch. You could also add honey to this to sweeten it.

Great Weekend

I know I am weird but I just can't help it. Do you know how neat it would be to have an avocado tree? I know that it will likely not grow here but I can just try it right? This is my latest mini project. I have a couple of seeds sitting on my windowsill with toothpicks stuck in them so that they will suspend over water. Evidently, in a couple of weeks, they will start sprouting. Eventually, they will turn into trees. Maybe next year? LOL I don't know if I get enough sun so we will see. I will post pics later on.

We had an awesome weekend! We went bike riding again with everybody in tow. Jason carries two of the chunky munkies and I carry two. It is getting easier though I wouldn't say it was easy! We stopped to take a break at one point. The kids were running around in the field. Jason and I were laying on our backs looking up at the sky in awe of God's beauty. The contrast between the green trees and the blue sky were breathtaking! All of the sudden we heard thunder. The kids kept telling me that it was the bridge but I knew better. I looked up and sure enough, dard clouds were moving in very fast. We decided to start heading back. As soon as we got on the bikes we felt trickles of rain. We raced back to the car laughing as the rain pounded down on us and gave us relief after a hard ride. Isn't God great! He allowed us to see his beauty and power in so many ways. I cannot fathom what heaven is going to be like. Sunday night we got to have devotional time with our friends again. Man, how greatful I am to God that he saw fit to bring them into our lives. I LOVE spending time with them.

I am going to try to upload some more photos today.

The BEST Asian Sauce/Dressing

1/2 cup peanut or almond butter

1/2 cup water or more depending on how thin you want it

3 Tbl Nama Shoyu(You can find this at your local health food store. You could try soy sauce but Nama Shoyu is awesome!)

3Tbl Agave Nectar(you could try honey as well)

1-2 cloves garlic depending on how strong you want it

2 Tbl sesame oil

ginger(taste to your preference)

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Blend and poor on your favorite noodles or use it as a salad dressing..Yum!

Random tip #2

Almond Breeze almond milk has 25% of your daily vitamin D requirements. Get the unsweetened and pour it over some raw old fashioned oats. Add some raisins-Yum! Calcium is absorbed by the body only when vitamin D is present so it is very important for our bones! Fatty fish have vitamin D as well. But the best way to get vitamin D is to spend some time in the sun. Can't wait till Summer!
***I would like to note that almonds do not naturally contain vitamin D. They do however contain an array of good vitamins. The almond breeze milk adds the Vitamin D. This is also an excellent substitute for milk for those who are vegan.

Vegetable Speghetti

Are you trying to cut back on white pasta? I have been using a wonderful product for a while now. Here it is:Benriner Cook Help Spiral Vegetable Slicer I love this thing! It spiralizes zucchini for pasta and it tastes so much like the real thing! I thought it was cheaper but when I looked it up it runs around $48. It is so worth it though.

Kombucha Colony

Well, from that one little kombucha mushroom, I have produced 12 more! They are taking over my cabinet. I don't want to throw any away but it seems that I will soon have to say goodbye to the elder scobies. I am thinking that I want to at least have 15. That would give Jason and I enough for a glass each everyday. Jason likes to put splenda in his. I like it just the way it is, with a bite to it. Anybody want one???

Pic of Sushi the raw food way

As promised, here is my sushi. I also have pickled ginger and wasabi on the plate. It was scrumptious!