Well, I haven’t been very good at keeping y’all updated on what I’ve been eating this January, and I haven’t even been very good at making sure to take pictures of everything. I’ve had a lot of projects lately keeping me busy and in less then a month my husband and I will be in Europe so blogging hasn’t exactly been my top priority of late.
I have however eaten some really awesome stuff lately, and I’ve even taken pictures of some of it to share with you. So I’ll keep the words to a minimum and let the pictures do the talking!
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| Onion and Herb Socca |
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| Roasted Sweet Potato Salsa |
A couple of times for lunch I made this delicious Onion and Herb Socca from Tess Masters book “The Blender Girl” I haven’t made much out of this book so far, but what I have has been delicious and this socca is no exception. I love Socca, and it paired absolutely beautifully with the Roasted Sweet Potato Salsa from Martha Stewart’s book “Meatless” this is really delicious, and hearty yet light salsa made with roasted sweet potatoes, avocado, tomato, lime, onion, olive oil, cilantro and salt. So good!
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| Salsa and Socca |
Other delicious lunches have included the Maple Dijon Brussels Sprouts from Judith Wignall’s book “Raw and Simple” this is a really simple dish of shredded sprouts, cranberries, pecans and a tasty maple Dijon dressing. My husband and I also really enjoyed Judith’s Cauliflower Couscous also from “Raw and Simple” This is Cauliflower diced up to look like grains of couscous, then chopped tomatoes, olives, parsley, mint, olive oil, red onion, lemon juice, garlic, salt, cumin and paprika are folded into it. This tasted amazingly like a cooked tabbouleh. So fantastic!
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| Maple Dijon Brussels Sprouts |
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| Cauliflower Couscous |
A few nights for dinner we had the delicious Creole White Beans from Kathy Hester’s book “The Great Vegan Bean Book” This is really simple dish of white beans, simmered with onion, bell pepper and creole spices. This dish was so creamy, and so flavorful despite the short ingredient list. I just loved it served over a bed of brown rice. Yum!
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| Creole White Beans |
Other dinners have included the Dinosaur Kale and White Bean Caesar Salad from Gena Hamshaw’s book “Going Raw” though I neglected to take a picture of this fantastic, flavorful salad. We also really enjoyed her Raw Carrot Falafel which was mind-blowingly awesome! Seriously! I had my eye on this recipe for a while but always felt intimidated by it. I thought it was going to be complicated, but really it’s not, it just takes a bit of advanced planning. You have to be take the dehydration time into consideration and you need carrot pulp left over from juicing. So the day before I made this I made carrot juice and saved the pulp and then this came together super easy in the early afternoon and was ready in time for dinner. There’s a Tangy Tahini sauce that goes with it and Gena suggests serving it on a salad though we decided to roll the falafel’s into lettuce leaves and eat them burrito style. I can not stress enough just how incredible this dish was! If you own “Going Raw” you need to make it!
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| Raw Carrot Falafel |
Also to accompany the falafel I made Gena’s Curried Sweet Potato Hummus which was just as mind-blowing! Such a great subtle curry flavor, and a smooth creamy finish from the blended sweet potato.
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| Curried Sweet Potato Hummus |
We also had Gena’s Raw Pad Thai which was also amazing. I’m a big fan of Pad Thai and I was really craving noodles. However since I was doing mostly raw during January I didn’t want to cave and eat wheat noodles - kelp noodles to the rescue! This recipe is really simple and comes together quick, it’s just kelp noodles, carrot, red cabbage, zucchini, cilantro and I added some green onion. The sauce is almond butter, tamarind, sesame oil, tamari, maple syrup, ginger, and water. So easy, and you feel so clean afterwards!
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| Raw Pad Thai |
Lastly from Gena’s book we had the Heat-Free Lentil Walnut tacos. This was another really easy dish. I cooked the lentils a day ahead of time and then it came together so fast. All you do is throw lentils, walnuts, salt, sun-dried tomatoes, and spices into your food processor and make a ‘meat’ then you fill up some lettuce leaves and serve with corn, avocado, and your favorite salsa. Now, I’ll be honest, these are not my favorite raw ‘nut-meat’ taco, but they were damn good and they seriously won over my husband who I’m sure you know by now is an avid nut hater. So that’s saying something.
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| Heat-Free Lentil Walnut Tacos |
Now, breakfast. I didn’t take too many breakfast pictures for one simple reason. I’ve mostly been eating the same kind of raw cereal I mentioned last time. Or smoothies. Sometimes I make that avocado scramble I talked about last time, or I just eat an avocado on it’s own, or with some fruit.
But I did try a few new things, such as this Strawberry Mylkshake from Emily Von Euw’s book “100 Best Juices, Smoothies, and Healthy Snacks.” this was really creamy and flavorful and the perfect sweet, decadent but healthy wake-up.
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| Strawberry Mylkshake |
My favorite breakfast smoothie though is the flavor-packed Happy Monkey smoothie from “Raw and Simple” it’s got Cacao powder, Cacao Nibs, Coconut, Coconut Milk, Banana and Almond Butter. OMG heaven in a glass!
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| Happy Monkey |
One morning I was especially famished and so I decided to try something really ‘out-there.’ I made the Buckwheat Oat Biscuits from Amber Shea Crawley’s book “Practically Raw” unfortunately I forgot to plan this ahead of time and so I didn’t have the time to make it in the dehydrator. Instead I used the bake option in the directions and baked these little biscuits in the oven. I did however top them with the mind-blowing delicious Maple Miso Butter that she suggests. Man, that maple miso butter is worth the price of the book alone, trust me! I also served these with a bit of Tarragon Plum Jam and an extra drizzle of maple syrup.
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| Buckwheat Oat Biscuits & Maple Miso Butter |
Oh, and I nearly forgot, we also had some tasty desserts, mostly from “Going Raw” the only one I had the foresight to photograph though was this tasty Raw Blueberry Ginger Ice Cream. I served it up with an extra drizzle of maple syrup and a few cacao nips and sesame seeds. Damn, raw ice cream I so good!
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| Raw Blueberry Ginger Ice Cream |
So that’s about it. Now that we’re in February I’m still going with the whole foods thing. Limiting - but not completely excluding gluten and sugar - I’ve added a bit of coffee back in, maybe a couple of cups per week, but I’ve been using coconut milk and coconut sugar to sweeten it, and when I have coffee out I try to take it as plain as possible. I feel pretty good, and I’ve really been enjoying trying all these new dishes. It’s a lot of fun to utilize cook books I don’t always get around to!
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