Welcome to my blog about my LOVE for God's Raw Living food. Please join me on my journey towards health and wellness. I truly believe that pure natural raw living food is the doorway to a healthy body, mind, and spirit.
You are currently browsing the archives for August, 2009.
I was excited to make this. I saw this recipe the other day and have been living to make it. This brownie looks so scrumptious and gooey and yummy in the book. I decided to put the cashews in the food processor like I have been doing for all of the recipes. I just stated last night that I feel like the food processor is the best for the grinding of the flour. Well, apparantly I was wrong. This recipe turned out to be a complete disaster. I know your probably wondering how could the words disaster and dessert go in the same sentence but, yes they can. The cashews looked like they were ground up enough for the flour. I ground them up a cup at a time then put them in the bowl to be mixed with all the other ingredients. When I put the cacao powder in I could tell there was going to be a problem. The cashew flour was not as fine as the cacao powder. I went ahead and completed the recipe according to the directions. It came out too watery. The directions say to press the batter into a plastic lined 9 x 13 pan, there was no way I would have to press it in the pan. It was too runny. I could’ve just poured it in. I’m sure it would take days for that consistency to dry. I’m assuming that it is because the cashew flour was not fine enough for the batter. I decided to grind some more cashew flour. I put another cup of cashews into the vitamix this time. The flour came out finer than in the food processor. After I added the extra cup of cashew flour, the cacao flavor didn’t taste as strong.
We wanted the kids to try the batter, but Sebastian refused and put up a huge fight about it. Jason ended up sending him to bed. I didn’t need for him to try it that bad. UUhhhhggg. I’m ready for bed. I thought Sabby would like them most of all because he loves chocolate. Maybe when the brownies are done, he will try them. Hopefully the terrible energy from all of us is not still in the brownies:( Well this recipe making experience turned out to be something I didn’t expect. I know that a good book and some Lavender tea will help me:) I am reading The Space of Love by Vladimir Megre’. It is one of the books from the Ringing Cedars Series. I love these books.
The brownies should be done by tomorrow night according to the directions but I am guessing they won’t be done until Friday. I am almost out of room in the dehydrator. My tartlets are still drying and my vanilla-almond macaroons are still dehydrating too. They are good though. We have been eating those. They are so yummy right out of the dehydrator.
Recipe
4 1/2 cups fine cashew flour
3 cups cocoa powder
1 1/2 t sea salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup agave
1 1/2 cups water
3/4 t vanilla extract
Dehydrate in a 9 x 13 inch plastic lined pan. Press into pan in an even layer. Dehydrate in bottom of dehydrator overnight. Flip onto cutting board and trim edges. Place on screens; dehydrate 4-6 hours. Serve with your fave raw ice cream.
Wrapped individually or in an airtight container in a cool place this recipe should last for about 3 weeks.
*This recipe is for the ones who are daring enough to try to make it. If you do please let me know about your success. I wish you the best of it. I hope your experience is more enjoyable. I hope that some ice cream will make this the best dessert I have ever made.
Posted 16 years, 3 months ago at 10:17 pm. Add a comment
I had a short day today at work and went shopping at thrift stores. I found some great stuff for my kitchen. I found a really cute spice holder. I am anxious to put it on my counter with my spices. It was only $2. Most of the stuff I bought today ended up being $2. I love thrift store shopping. My boys were with me. They were so excited. I think they were happier than if they were at Disney World.
I was ready to prep food tonight. Jason came home and decided he wanted me to make this wonderful meal. He will eat it tomorrow. I made the tart shells first. The recipe calls for pine nuts, almond flour, salt, nutritional yeast, olive oil, and a bit of water. I had left over almond flour from last night’s macaroons, so I threw those into the bowl, with the pine nut crumbs. I made the crumbs in the food processor. I am finding that the food processor is better to use than the vitamix for the cookies and crusts I have been making. The vitamix is great but I find it difficult to get every last crumb out of it. The tartlet ingredients were combined in a bowl. This was so simple to make. Jason lined the tartlet pans with plastic (eek) I am going to try it. I am really hoping to figure out a way to make these beautiful recipes without using plastic. I’ll pray on it:) After they were lined with plastic, I split the recipe into 4 small tartlets. They are now in the dehydrator. They will be ready to be removed from the plastic tomorrow.
Next, I made the creme fraiche. It is cashews, water, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, and fresh basil. I am really using up my basil. It makes me so happy. I love using food I grow. I was going to wait to make this when the tartlets were ready but according to the recipe, you make it before so it can become firm. I know Jason will love these. He loves italian flavors. Cheese and tomatoes. I think I will like them too. M.K. explains that the flavor is “clean and vivid” Those words make me want to try it now. But I have to wait. According to M.K. he says the possibilities for this meal are endless. He suggests using a different herb, or use different veggies, ranging from summer squash, fava beans, sweet marinated peas, or radishes. I have to admit, I wouldn’t have thought of those veggies. I would think of everyday veggies like broccoli, mushrooms, red onions and red peppers. I love M.K.’s wide array of ingredients. I can’t wait to use more of these. It really encourages me to look into other websites of exotic foods. I enjoyed reading about edible flowers.
Food is my life. Life is my food:)
Posted 16 years, 3 months ago at 9:27 pm. Add a comment
Today was a day for sweets. I decided tonight that I would make the vanilla-almond macaroons. I had everything I needed for the recipe. The recipe calls for dried coconut, ground almonds, ground cashews, maple syrup (I used agave), coconut oil, vanilla extract, almond extract and sea salt. I didn’t try the batter, I am exceptionally tired tonight and not very hungry:) I know it’s surprising. I am always hungry, but not tonight. These little cookies remind me of the haystack cookies I make at Rutabaga’s. They don’t seem like they would be as sweet as haystacks. The haystacks have dates ,walnuts and honey. I don’t care very much for the taste of honey, I prefer agave’s lighter flavor.
I mixed the dry ingredients first then added the wet. This recipe was so simple I made the cashew and almond flour in the food processor. It comes out pretty fine. I’m happy with the texture. After combining the dry ingredients I added the wet and mixed them in. I thought I would need an ice cream scooper to form the cookies, but I had an oversized tablespoon measuring spoon and that worked just fine. They slipped right out onto the sheet. This recipe was so quick and easy. Only 2 days until the finished project. They have to be dehydrated for 24 hours on teflex sheets then they are to be removed and placed on the dehydrator tray for another 24 hours. I will bring some to work for samples to my friends:)
Well, I’m off to bed now. It’s going to be an early night. Hopefully my dishwasher will join me;) I love that he cleans up after me. I wonder who does Matthew Kenney’s dishes. I bet he doesn’t do any of them. OH, WHAT A DREAM THAT WOULD BE FOR ME. To never wash dishes again. AAAAHHH the life!
Posted 16 years, 3 months ago at 9:43 pm. Add a comment
Today was a busy day. I went to church and I was supposed to stop at work and strain the lentils and mung beans for sprouting and I forgot my keys!! I was not pleased. I had so much I wanted to get done today that it made me in a bad mood. I let it ruin about 20 minutes of my day:( I wanted to do laundry, go to the gym, pay bills, make my recipes, and I wanted to go to the drum circle tonight. So when I realized I forgot my keys and I would have to go back and strain them later, I of course didn’t feel happy. I always fill my day up all the time. I really leave no room for error. Forgetting my keys to open the store was not on my agenda. I often fill up my day with so many things that I don’t always get things done. But I did. Jason helped me with the laundry (he loves me), and then I got to workout. I also got to go to Crystal River to the drum circle.
I made Jason the quinoa tabbouleh. I sprouted it for 24 hours and then made this simple salad. It is made with extra virgin olive oil, fresh squeezed lemon juice, onion, cucumber(I used zucchini), parsley, tomatoes, and sea salt. I hope he likes it. He is working but I told him that when he gets home he has several meals waiting for him. This project has been great for us, I never used to make so many meals for him. I bet he feels like a king. Maybe he will love me more because I am making him yummy raw meals. That was a joke. I used zucchini in this salad because Jason doesn’t like cucumber so I decided that I would use zucchini because it is very similar looking.
I finished the picadillo meal. It turned out beautiful. I used bananas instead of plantains. I couldn’t find any ripe plantains. I made the macademia sour cream to go on top. It is easy to make too. You soak the mac nuts for several hours then they go into the blender with lemon juice, olive oil, salt. It is very easy to make and it’s so creamy and good. I hope Jason likes it when he gets home. Here are some photos below.
It’s funny how after you are introduced to things for the first time they often keep showing up. Well, on my way to the drum circle I passed a cuban restaurant and on their sign it said picadillo-chicken. I never would’ve noticed it before but now that I know what Picadillo is I bet I will see it again sometime soon. Things happen like that for me.
I had a nice day today. I learned that life is a dance. And it is my choice to move to the beautiful rhythm, even though I can’t follow the beat sometimes. I still remain determined that I will find it again and dance and jump and shout to it as best I can. Thank you God for my day today. Goodnight:)
Posted 16 years, 3 months ago at 11:04 pm. Add a comment
Boy, I was in the mood to prepare food today!! Probably because it was my day off. I am so used to preparing food everyday at work, I guess I was missing it today, more than usual. I decided to make some recipes for tomorrow night. I didn’t know what picadillo was until I read the recipe. The picture is stunning, as all the photos are:) Picadillo is a stew-like dish served in Latin America, traditionally made from beef. The cuban version has olives. M.K. explains that the stew can be eaten with rice or taco shells. In this recipe, he uses jicama for the rice. At first I wanted to make the yellow “rice” alone but I figured I would make the picadillo too. I had the itch to prep food today. So, I decided to make the red pepper soup recipe but it has several steps involving dehydration so I made the dehydrated recipes today then I will do the soup tomorrow. I have been wanting to make the basil wrappers with the meat inside. This meal looks extremely delicious and fun to make.
The first recipe I did was the picadillo. I started with the mushrooms and yellow peppers. M.K.’s (Matthew Kenney’s) recipe calls for green peppers but I don’t like green peppers at all:( I added olive oil to them and put them in the dehydrator for 45 minutes. Then I added black olives, sun-dried tomatoes, raisins (I used Himalayan golden raisins), sea salt and put them in dehydrator for 30 minutes. I made the jicama rice and the yellow sauce while they were dehydrating. The yellow “rice” sauce recipe calls for coconut meat so I had Jason open the coconuts, I had four, but only three turned out to be good. I still have the thai coconut water, I love when Jason makes me a lemon slushy with it. Maybe he’ll make me one tomorrow:) The sauce also called for carrot juice, agave, turmeric, salt, cayenne and lime juice. I tried the yellow “rice” and I am sorry to say I didn’t like it:( I am hoping tomorrow when all the ingredients are together it will taste better to me. When I took the “stew” ingredients out of the dehydrator they still looked very light colored. They looked nothing like the photo in his book, so I pulsed the ingredients in the food processor. As you can see in the photo it has a darker appearance after pulsing it. I will get the plantains tonight, so they will be somewhat crisp tomorrow night. Tomorrow I will make the macadamia nut “sour cream”.
The filling was really easy to make. I marinated portabello mushrooms and onions for 30 minutes then pulsed it in the food processor with cashews and dried thyme. It tastes very good. I can’t wait to try the basil wraps with the “meat” The basil wraps were easy to make after Jason opened the coconuts for me. At first the vitamix wouldn’t mix it up. You have to have enough ingredients in the vitamix so it will make the contents liquid. I had to add a little more water than the recipes calls for and then it mixed. I tried the mix and it is going to be soooo good after dehydrating. I can’t wait! They are dehydrating right now. I am worried they may not come out as good as they should because I don’t have teflex sheets. I usually use parchment paper but it doesn’t lay as flat as the sheets do. I am concerned that the wraps will have creases in them. But it is my first time and I will get better. I can’t wait to make these little dumplings. The basil wrappers hold the “meat”. Then they rest on the red pepper soup.
After cleaning up I still had soaked cashews to use. Christian decided to make the truffles on page 168 with me. My kids fell in love with them. They wanted to eat all of the mix. As you can see in the photos. The recipe calls for raw cacao (I use Divine Organics, we sell it at Rutabaga’s), soaked cashews, coconut oil (I love Nutiva), vanilla extract, sea salt, raw agave, and mesquite powder. I left the mesquite powder out. I figured my kids loved it so much I didn’t want to mess up the recipe for them. These truffles are part of a several recipe dish. M.K. usually has several steps in his meals. It’s so much fun for me, they are challenging but it feels so when they are complete. And most of all they are absolutely delicious:p
Christian made the truffles into balls. I am so proud of my little raw chef!
Posted 16 years, 3 months ago at 9:11 pm. 2 comments
Today is my 10th Anniversary. I have been married to my best friend and the most amazing man I know. I knew only after a month of dating him that we would be married. He is loyal, faithful, loving, kind, and he is always there for me and always encouraging me. Thank you Jason my favorite man on this entire planet:)
I was going to make a beautiful dessert for our anniversary but next weekend we will be celebrating our anniversary so I will make something for next weekend. Tonight Jason picked Sweet Miso Dressing. It reminds me of a peanut sauce. It would be so fantastic with collard wraps, I might make some tomorrow with yellow peppers and tomatoes. I think this has a sweet peanut flavor. I used the vitamix but the recipe says that you can make it in a bowl. I would like it more if it had chipotle pepper in it, or cayenne. Something to give it a kick. I like spicy. It would then have all the flavors I like sweet, spicy, salty and SATISFYING. Tomorrow we are celebrating Sebastian’s 8th Birthday. He turned 8 today. Yes he shares our Anniversary. He was a special gift to both of us. I will make up a veggie tray tomorrow and use this as a dip. I think everyone will like it. I’m sure people will be dipping more than just veggies in it. I’m sure pretzels will probably make their way to the bowl, too. I will make sure to keep some on the side for me and my collards:)
Recipe has tahini, agave, lemon juice, water and white miso.
Posted 16 years, 3 months ago at 7:33 pm. Add a comment
This cheesecake is absolutely the best I have tried to date:) I make pies and cakes all the time at the store. This by far is the best! It really reminds me of my mom’s cheesecakes that she would make when I was young. This Lemon Cheesecake is supposed to resemble lemon meringue pie. Matthew Kenney says in his book that his grandfather’s favorite pie was lemon meringue. I agree with Mr. Kenney, the flavors “are all here.” The pie filling ingredients are: cashews, lemon juice, agave, coconut oil, water, vanilla extract, nutritional yeast, sea salt, vanilla bean, and lemon zest. The filling only took about 5 minutes to make. I had to soak the cashews for at least an hour. The texture is creamy and light. I couldn’t wait for the freezing of the cake, so I had some. The dehydrated crust was chewy and the coconut flavor in the crust mixed perfectly with the filling. I will have some tomorrow, for my mid afternoon sweet fix;) I hope you all will try to make this tartlet if you have his book, it is well worth the time (which is not many minutes minus the dehydration). I believe, if you took this to a party nobody would suspect this is healthy, or vegan. It is DIVINE!
Posted 16 years, 3 months ago at 7:30 pm. Add a comment
How exciting. The Today show interviewed David Wolfe on Raw Cacao.
Posted 16 years, 3 months ago at 7:09 pm. Add a comment
Day #11. I was very tired tonight. I have been studying all day after I got out of work. Jason was hungry after he got home from work, so it was motivation for me to complete the potato salad. This potato salad is made with jicama as a replacement for the potatoes. Many recipes for raw potato salads have jicama as the replacement for potatoes. Before I discovered raw food, I never had jicama, I just knew what they looked like. I think the flavor is bland and the inside texture is very similar to an apple. The outer peel was difficult to peel, but once the jicama was peeled it was easy to cut into it. When I first decided to “go raw” I made another potato salad recipe. Unfortunately it was not so good:( I actually ended up throwing it out. I was hesitant to make this one because of the last episode. This was actually Jason’s choice. I am glad he wanted it because it actually is good. It reminds me of a mexican dish, similar to guacamole but with crunchy jicama. The ingredients are jicama, yellow pepper, celery, rosemary, green olives (I omitted these), avocado, and red onion with the potato salad dressing that I made yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised by the flavors. They taste lovely together. I stuffed celery with the potato salad. It was so delicious, I will make it for my lunch tomorrow. THIS RECIPE WILL NOT GET THROWN OUT, I AM POSITIVE!
Posted 16 years, 3 months ago at 7:01 pm. Add a comment
Today has been a very long day. I started my day at 5am. I had to turn in my homework for Economics. Only one week left:) Woo Hoo. I am almost done, then I start Anatomy and Chemistry. The fun classes:) I worked for 6 hours at Rutabaga’s. I made 6 raw vegan yummy pies (2 white chocolate, 2 chocolate, and 2 strawberry cheesecakes). I love my job. Then I went to a friends house to learn to make a new bracelet. She was so sweet to invite me over and teach me a flat peyote “hump” bracelet. I will post pictures when I make one myself. She spent several hours with me. I told her we will barter. I will make her a raw keylime pie. She always buys them at the store when I make them. We haven’t had any ripe avocados so I haven’t made any. Jason bought avocados tonight for the potato salad, so I will use one for her pie.
Unfortunately, the avos are not ripe anywhere. I wanted to make the potato salad tonight, but had to settle for just the dressing. I need to find ripe avocados, so I will make the salad tomorrow. The dressing is very good. I think it will taste great with carrot sticks. Yummy!! It is a tahini base. Unfortunately, the tahini is not raw. We haven’t been able to order any raw for a long time. Maranatha and Arrowhead Mills discontinued it. Possibly from salmonella poisoning. That may be rumor, I really want to email the company. In order for me to have truly raw tahini I will have to make it or order it online.
The ingredients include: tahini, lemon juice, cumin, water, fresh parsley, nama shoyu (I replaced with braggs liquid aminos), agave, salt and of course chili powder. I am beginning to think that Matthew Kenney should have his face on all chili powder bottles. He uses chili powder in almost all the recipes I have made so far. He is really making me appreciate chili powder. I really never used it that much, but I have a feeling that I will be using it alot more for the next year. I was thinking today…”Does he use chili powder in his desserts?” I bet there are a few of them. He is a genius, I am no way putting his recipes down, like I said, I really appreciate chili powder now. I am going away next weekend to St. Augustine, so I will be going downtown to the Old Florida Spice Trader to buy chili powder:) I hope there are different varieties available. This was a very simple recipe. Only took 5 minutes.
Posted 16 years, 3 months ago at 6:45 pm. Add a comment
Living Rawesome 
