Raw Brownie

I found this like I always do, when I am looking for a new dish to teach at my raw food class where I work. I have had this saved for quite a while, but never got around to using it, but I finally got my butt moving and made it. So glad I did.

Do not think all warm and fuzzy with this, for you will not get it. what you will get is something so close you will be able to fool others.

1 cup ground pecans
1 cup chopped dates (not soaked)
1/4-1/3 cup raw cacao powder
1 t agave nectar or honey if you prefer
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Process the pecans and cacao powder together in a food processor. In a separate bowl add chopped dates and agave/honey. I prefer to chop my dates by hand. As messy and time consuming as this is, it is my preference. Most everything else is fine in the processor, but I like to chop dates by hand. Just my thing.

Add your pecans to the bowl with your dates and agave/honey. This is your your bicep workout comes into play. You are going to have to work this allot. Did I mention allot? Once you get all thee ingredients worked together really well, then mash them into your glass baking pan. I pressed it down with my knuckles when I balled up my fist. But if you have anything with a flat bottom, then use it to smooth out the top of the brownies. It gives it a nice look and a bit more presentable, other than seeing knuckle imprints on the top of your brownie mold.

I suggest putting it in the fridge for about an hour. Just so it sets up. These are joyful and cut quite nicely. I may be having to add these to my holiday table. Yay to raw food.

Raw Cranberry Salad

Well, it is getting to be that time of year again...the dreaded holidays. I have to admit, that I still enter them with a bit of trepidation, but only because we have been so ingrained to believe that any meal, and especially Thanksgiving cannot continue without a slab of dead flesh. I am here to prove those folks wrong.

I recently volunteered at a local high school and talked to them about vegetarianism and told them some startling numbers about meat-eaters and cancer. I also told them their parents would say that I was a whack job. But that they did not have to believe me, do the research. And that is my new motto now. If you don't believe me, go see for yourself. For most of these numbers are form our own AMA or ACA, so I don't need to make this stuff up.

So as I was talking to these kids, the one big question was,'What 'DO' you eat?', and my tried and true answer was,'Everything you don't.', which always gets them thinking. For like many people out there, most folks do not have a varied diet, and if they would make a food diary, they would see that. So, I used Thanksgiving as an example. I asked them to think about the Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving portrait, but they all looked at me like I was Medusa, meaning that not one student knew who Normal Rockwell was...Google him.

With that said, I told them to envision a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but, we were going to take away the turkey. Now, tell me what is left on the table. Well these little dynamos were able to rattle off names of food in a matter of seconds a minimum of a half a dozen dishes that were meat free and that all of those dishes could not possibly fit on my plate all at once, so, 'I' was going to have to go back for seconds, possibly thirds, and that was only because I stopped them from naming 'side dishes'. I showed them that their side dishes became my main dishes. And then it hit them that anyone, not just me, could easily survive at Thanksgiving and never eat a dead animal. Eureka!!

Now, on to this brilliant dish that one of my bosses gave me. We will be using this at my job for our upcoming Customer Appreciation Day where we will be serving organic turkeys and a plethora of side dishes that yours truly will be making. So any and all side dishes will be vegetarian if nothing else. And this little gem is for the raw foodists out there. This is to die for and it will most definitely be on my Thanksgiving table for sure.

1 container of cranberries (8-16 ounces)(frozen is all right if fresh is not available)
2 navel oranges, peeled and roughly chopped
1-2 red delicious apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
Raw honey or agave to taste (start with 1 tablespoon and work your way up)
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Make sure you have washed all fruits and dump them into your food processor. If your honey is hardened, then you can easily melt it in a double broiler type set up as not to bring above 118 degrees. Once your sweetener is ready, add to processor and hit your pulse button...if you have one. If you do not, then do not turn on your processor and walk away, you want this salad to have some consistency, but small enough that is not quite minced, but pretty darned close.

Play with the size of chunks you are willing to eat and let it be done. This is better if done the day before, for the sugar will draw out some of the water and make it a bit soupier. I may never cook a cranberry ever again.

Raw Taco

I recently had the pleasure of attending a vegetarian festival in Orlando Florida. The Orlando Veg-Fest is a mecca of vegetarians who are there to have a good time and of course eat til your hearts content. I also was able to ride over there with some really good friends and meet another friend there. with that said, me and Hank went about trying to eat every food available. We nearly succeeded. We decided to split all the dishes. So one of us would purchase the first dish and the other one would purchase the second dish until we were full.

However, we ran out of time before we ran out of money or empty stomachs. Hank had a bicycle race to get to, so he had to cut out a bit earlier than he truly wanted. Bummer, for I had more food to taste.

The first dish that graced our palettes was a raw taco. Now I am extremely open to new foods and new ways of preparing them. But I am also a bit skeptical when something claims to be so close to its traditional dish. But I was up for it. The taco was purchased, split with Hank and instantly regretted that action. Oh, not the eating of the taco, the sharing of it with Hank. Next year he is own his own, i ma in never sharing a raw taco with anyone, ever again.

I then knew that I wanted to make these delicious little roll-ups, so I asked one of the girls behind the food counter if I could have the recipe for I taught raw food classes back in Port Saint Lucie. She gladly gave me her email address and said that I could email her and she would be happy to give it to me. I got home and set the card aside running into a busy week. I kept saying I would email her, but I just kept putting it off.

Then I was looking through one of the little magazines that I get at my place of work, Delicious Living and saw raw food on the front cover. Then it hit me, I had seen a raw taco recipe in there. I could not flip to that page fast enough. I had no idea what was in the taco I had tasted at the festival, but I know that this recipe had to be a variation on a theme. I was willing to give it a go.

This is a dish I have not regretted form the get go. I was in pure heaven as I ate these again. I was transported back to the festival and also elated that I could now make these on my own and still feel confident serving these to guests. Now most folks would have a hard time seeing these as a main entree, but we were very happy eating them as such.

So enough with my babbling, let me post this lovely little recipe and see how simple it is to make and even easier to eat.

Cilantro-Cashew Cheeze(makes 1 cup)
1&1/2 t garlic (about 2 cloves)
1/2 t sea salt
1 cup raw cashews
2&1/2 T fresh lemon juice (1 lemon)
1/4 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 cup filtered water
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Ground Walnut Meat (makes 1 cup)
1 cup raw walnuts
1&1/2 t ground cumin
1&1/2 t ground coriander
1/2 t liquid aminos, tamari or soy sauce
Pinch of salt to taste
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to make cheeze: Place garlic and salt in a food processor; process into small pieces. Add cashews and process into a paste. Add lemon juice, cilantro, and water; process to mix well. Set Aside.

To make walnut meat: Place walnuts, cumin, coriander, liquid aminos, and salt in a food processor. Process into small pieces until the mixture looks like ground meat; be careful not to over process into a butter.

Spread 2 tablespoons cheeze down the inside spine of each romaine leaf. Sprinkle with 2 Tablespoons walnut meat. Add salsa and avocado slices. Wrap and serve.

I could eat this fro breakfast...oh yeah, being a raw foodist means there are no meal boundaries. Eat what you want...when you want and enjoy always!!!

Teff Banana Pancakes

Well here is the second recipe I made at the gluten free event I attended. So many people find pancakes to be a comfort food...and they are. I could eat pancakes every day, that is how much I love them. And there is no one style I like better than others. So when I needed to find one that could satisfy and still be good enough for gluten free folks, I knew I had a challenge in front of me.

Usually I make all my dishes at home before releasing them onto my unsuspecting public, but this was one of those dishes I knew(hopefully) that I would not mess up. It paid off. The recipe was a hit and turned out picture perfect. I think there was one person in the back that cried, for he had not had pancakes in such a long time. So this is for all those folks who have had to give up a very important comfort food.

2T flax seeds, ground
2 bananas, ripe (or ripened, frozen and thawed out)
1&1/2 cups vanilla milk (soy, almond, hemp, rice)
1T vanilla
1T honey
1&1/2 t olive oil
1&1/2 cups teff flour (Teff is a grass grown in Ethiopia)
1T baking powder
1/2 t sea salt
1/2 t cinnamon
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Grind flax seed (or use pre-ground flax seed, more commonly known as flax meal) in a coffee grinder, until powdery. In a medium bowl add banana, vanilla, milk, honey, and 1/2 oil. Blend well.

In a large mixing bowl, combine teff flour, baking powder, sea salt, and cinnamon. Stir in banana-milk mixture.

Heat your skillet or griddle to a medium heat. Using tablespoon measure, scoop up the batter and pour on to hot griddle. Cook pancakes for 3-4 minutes, or until holes appear, or a dry rim forms around thee outer edge of the pancakes. Flip and cook for another minute or two. Serve plain or with syrup or yogurt.

These were fantastic and I would be hard pressed for anyone to tell me these were not traditional pancakes. Make them and see for yourself.

Quinoa Tabouleh with Chickpeas

I suddenly realized how long it has been since I posted any new recipes and it is pitiful. this was a dish I found when I was asked to make a couple of dishes about gluten free. I know a little bit about gluten free issues, but not so much so that I could teach a class about it. However, I can talk about cooking.

The lady who puts together the calender at the health food store
I work in asked me to find a dish or two to make at a special event, and this one struck a cord, only because Tabbouleh is such a traditional dish in the Mediterranean diet but is made with cracked wheat. Not good if you are adhering to a gluten free diet. In comes quinoa (pronounced keen-wah). Other than changing the wheat to quinoa, this dish is pretty much like the traditional tabbouleh, but this was oh-so-good. So now, on to the recipe.

1 cup white quinoa, drained and rinsed
1&3/4s water, boiling
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1T lemon juice
1T white wine vinegar
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
4-6 green onions, thinly sliced
1 medium cucumber, seeded and chopped
1 cup canned chick peas (make your own whenever possible)
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped mint (or 1/4 cup if mint is dried)(spearmint is preferable)
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Rinse and drain the quinoa. Bring the water and 1/2 t salt to a boil. Add the quinoa, and reduce the heat to low. Cover pan, and simmer until grains are dry, fluffy and tender and the white germ ring shows, about 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the olive oil (olive oil being added last) lemon juice, vinegar, 1/2 t salt and black pepper to taste. Stir into the hot, cooked quinoa(for better absorption flavor). Transfer to a bowl, and let cool. If refrigerating, bring to room temperature before adding thee other ingredients. Combine the tomatoes, green onions, cucumber, chickpeas, parsley, and mint and let stand for 30 minutes to soften slightly. Add to the quinoa and toss gently.

This was a wonderful alternative to the traditional tabbouleh. And can easily be served and for those with gluten issues they can still enjoy the best of both worlds and us traditionalists miss out on nothing.

Raw Kale Salad

Now I know what you must be thinking, all salad are raw. Not entirely. If you add cheese, eggs, croutons, bottled dressing, roasted peppers, then you have just 'killed' your living salad. With that said, you will need to make your own dressing and for the most part form scratch. Not as difficult as you might think. And I found this lovely gem in Alissa Cohen's book Living on Live Food. Which is a wonderful book. I plan on purchasing this myself on my next paycheck.

The book is broken down into three different sections, so to say. there is the informational section, the in's and out's of raw food. then there is the testimonial section, with before and after photos. then there is the recipe section. My boss let me borrow the book to find some new recipes, and find them I did, and just hours before my shift at work. Nothing like being a last minute Larry. But it worked out wonderfully. And what people kept asking me the most was, 'What is this dressing?' Well low and behold, there was no dressing, it was incorporated into the salad already. What a concept.

So...without further adieu, let's get on to this salad recipe.

1 head kale, shredded (I prefer lacinato)
1 cup tomato diced
1 cup avocado (About 2 Haas)(make sure they are ripe, or this will be a bit difficult)
2&1/2 T olive oil
1&1/2 T lemon juice
1 t Celtic sea salt (I used regular sea salt)
1/2 t cayenne pepper (do not omit, you will regret it)
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Rinse and dry the kale. Remove any woody stems. If need be, slice the kale down the middle so you do not have large pieces of greens going into your salad. Place a few leaves on top of each other and shred as thin as possible. Do this until all your kale is shredded.

In another bowl, chop your tomato and set aside.

In a large bowl add all your other ingredients. Squish together all ingredients until the avocado is thoroughly mixed in with all ingredients. There may still be a few tiny lumps in there, but very few. Now takes a handful of kale and add to the dressing, squeezing the kale until the dressing is coating the kale. Now grab another handful of kale and do the same. Keep doing this until all the kale is mixed with the dressing.

Take the tomatoes and add to the kale salad. You can either toss them into the salad itself or leave them on top. I prefer them to be gently tossed in. That way they will have the dressing on them as well.

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I had so many customers loving this, even if they were not raw foodists. They realized that they were able to, with this recipe not have to worry about bottled dressing. Who knew!!!???

Feta Schmeta

Well, I have struck gold once again. And all thanks to Sarah Kramer and her How it all Vegan book. I tell everyone that I meet, that his is my proverbial cooking bible. I would be lost without this book. It is simple and using ingredients that are found, for the most part, in your everyday grocery store. Do not get me wrong, there may be one or two ingredients that you may have to get at your local health food store, but that is not a bad thing.

I went looking for this because I have made the final leap to letting go of cheese. I know for the most part, cheese is made with rennet, which is the lining of an animals stomach. Mostly a cows stomach, but I have recently found out that it can come from a pigs as well as a sheep's. So, I am choosing to not eat the cheese. Letting go of cheese was my final hurdle to veganism. But I shall prevail. With that said, please enjoy the simplicity of this dish and make it often. I know I will.

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 t salt
1 T dried basil
1/2 t pepper
1/2 t dried oregano
1 pkg firm herb tofu, cubed or crumbled(we used plain tofu)
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In a large bowl, mix together the oil, water, vinegar, salt, basil, pepper and oregano. Marinade the tofu in the mixture for at least one hour or more. Makes aprox. 1/2 cups.

I did mine a wee bit differently. I put all thee ingredients into the food processor and whirled them together. I did not massacre them, I just blended them together long enough to get the ingredients mixed thoroughly. Worked fine for me. This dish was incredible. I took some to work today and one of my co-workers said she had made it and it tasted like butt (she used an entirely different word), and I told her that she had to try mine. She did and was then in love with me, telling me how she could actually bathe in that stuff. Suffice it to say, the dish was a smash hit. This will be made often in my home.