Living Rawesome

Day #64 Curried Cashews pg. 39 everyday raw

September 27, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON!! And it’s been 2 months (and 1 day) on this project.

Jason and I had the best birthday party yesterday. I love celebrating my birthday with him. We had a wonderful potluck dinner with friends and family. I will write about it and post photos on MY RAW LIFE. I worked tonight at Rutabagas. I took the boys with me. I am so fortunate to have my boys able to go with me. They did their homework and practiced their instruments. Christian read his new book The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. Sebastian played on the computer for a little while. I made a few things for the deli, but honestly I am exhausted from a long weekend, so I didn’t make as much as I planned. I studied Anatomy and Physiology all day with Jason for my test on Wednesday. I really just wanted to come home and relax in my favorite chair and write on here.
One of my email addresses is not working so I haven’t received any emails all day. We have been trying to figure out what it is wrong with it. I feel so lost without checking email. My father sent numerous pictures from yesterday’s party, so I don’t know if that has something to do with it. I’m sure it will be fixed soon.
I decided that I would make thai salad this week. I am starting with the curried cashews tonight.
Curried Cashews Ingredients
6 1/2 cups cashews, soaked 1-2 hours, drained and dehydrated for 48 hours
2 1/2 T agave
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 t curry powder
1/2 t cayenne powder
1 3/4 t sea salt

After draining cashews, add spices then spread on dehydrator teflex sheet or unbleached parchment paper, and dehydrate for 48 hours.

These are a topping for the thai salad. Looking forward to the thai salad. I was looking forward to getting into my kitchen and making these tonight. I love doing all these recipes. Some do taste better than others but they are all easy and quick to make. As long as you do it in steps. Most of these recipes are done in steps. It has been easy for me to plan the week of recipes and go from there.

I got a beautiful necklace from my grandparents that has a charm on it for my birthday. Each side of the charm says “Live the life you love” and the other says “Love the life you live” I think this describes my feelings on life. I will wear this from now on to remind me of how life should be lived!

Good night!

Day #63 Cashew Cream for Oreo Cookie pg. 104 entertaining in the raw

September 26, 2009

Today was Jason and my birthday party/potluck. We had such a fun time. This morning I iced the birthday cake and then I made the icing from Matthew Kenney’s book for the oreos. I didn’t actually make oreos cookie patties, but I think I made something more fun.

When I made the cookies I only made a 1/4 of the recipe. I was going to make more but when I went to purchase oat groats, we didn’t have any at Rutabagas. So I only had 8 cookies. I think they turned out delicious. I didn’t try them with icing on them but everyone that ate them at the potluck said they were good. They were fun to make. I really enjoy being creative when I feel like it.
I have to make up my list for this week. I will be ready tomorrow to start a fresh menu for this week.
My mom really enjoyed the tomatoes from taco recipe. I love it when she enjoys the food!

Day #62 Citrus Cream pg. 190 entertaining in the raw

September 25, 2009

Today has been a fun day. We bought Rock Band Beatles Edition. I procrastinated tonight, I waited until 11:45 pm to make my daily recipe. But I did make a cake for tomorrow’s potluck. Oh my goodness, I have never made such an expensive cake. I bet the cake literally cost me at least 50 dollars. I bought Sweet Gratitude’s book a few months ago. The cakes look so amazing. I decided that I would make the cake for Jason and my birthday. It is very delicious (yes I ate agave and dates), I feel it in my belly, but the flavors are divine. I worked on the cake for at least 2 hours. This project was not as easy as the preparation for Matthew Kenney’s recipes. I really doubt that I will ever make a cake like this again, unless it was for a wedding for a dear friend (hint, hint to Destiny).
The Citrus Cream ingredients:
cashews, soaked
coconut meat
water
lemon juice
lemon zest

I am bringing this meal to the potluck tomorrow also. The cream was easy to make. I will make a platter out of the shells and the tomatoes and cream.
I also cut the oreo cookies today into circles. Sebastian is going to love them. I still have to make the cashew cream for the filling.
I am going to play rock band. I am ADDICTED!
It’s great to play with the kids. Oh my gosh, it is so awesome, they were singing all the Beatles songs. I could hear them while I made Jason and my birthday cake. We are bringing it tomorrow so everyone can try it.

Day #61 Oreo Cookie with Cream filling (Cookie) pg. 104 entertaining in the raw

September 24, 2009

Cookie ingredients
cocoa powder, raw
oat groat, flour
Himalayan salt
maple syrup
agave
coconut oil
vanilla

I made oreo cookie ice cream sandwiches a few months ago, for a potluck. Sebastian requested that I make them again. I decided to use Matthew Kenney’s recipe to see if he likes this one just as much. I think it’s great that it doesn’t have nuts in it. Most recipes that are desserts have nuts in them. I made the oat groats into flour and added the cocoa powder. After mixing the dry ingredients, I added the wet ingredients and mixed it up. I put the batter on parchment paper in a 9 x 13 pan and spread it out and I am dehydrating it now. It is to be dehydrated overnight, then the directions say to put them on a cutting board then cut the cookies into circles and dehydrate another 24 hours.
These cookies will be a huge hit with the children on Saturday at the Birthday/Potluck. I still have to figure out which cake I will make for Saturday.

Day #60 Taco Shells pg. 190 entertaining in the raw

September 23, 2009 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Today was such a wonderful blessed and exhilarating day. I was so appreciative all day. I thought about all the blessing in my life. I am taken care of at all times. I have people in my life that love me and it shows. I had phone calls, visits, emails and comments about my birthday. I reflected on this last year and all the wonderful things that have happened. I thought the most about the people in my life that keep me soaring to new heights. I am grateful I have the people that I do in my life. They are all so unique and I love all of them for that. I am looking forward to this year and will love to see what unfolds!

Today I decided to make the Taco Shells. These were easy to make. I halved the recipe because some of the corn that I bought went bad. But it worked out as always, because I only had enough red pepper for half the batch. The funny thing is, the corn that I had left came out to be exactly 1 1/2 cups. I cut the corn off of the cob inside of a bowl. I like to do this to refrain from the mess of corn getting all over the counter. After I put the corn in the bowl I measured it and then put it into the Vitamix with the onion and pepper and water.

Then I added spices and lime juice. This is the lime I used, it is almost ripe. Limes are actually supposed to be yellow when they are ripe. They look very similar to a lemon. I have read many places that they sell limes green so they will not be confused with lemons. I love to use the limes when they are ripe. Jason make the best lemon-lime slushy with Stevia. It is so refreshing on a hot summer day.

After all ingredients were in the blender I blended it. The only ingredient that wasn’t added was the flax meal. I placed the flax meal in a bowl then added the blended ingredients. It had such a strange color. It was pink. It definitely looks different than the book’s photo.


When the ingredients were mixed well, I measured a 1/4 cup of the batter for each tortilla. I placed 4 to a sheet, then spread the taco shells out with a spoon. The taco shells are approximately 6 inches round. Half the recipe made 8 tortillas.

I put them in the dehydrator for 4 hours. I went to school and came back and checked on them. After 4 to 5 hours the recipe says to fold the taco shells in half to form them like taco shells. Some of them were not dry enough to fold. I folded 4 of them. I guess the rest of them will be tostada shells.

The tortillas darkened in color. They look more attractive now. I will have another great dinner tomorrow, or Jason and I will.

Taco Shells Ingredients:
3/4 cup flax meal
3 cups corn
1 1/2 cups red bell pepper
1 cup water
1/2 small onion
3/4 clove garlic
1 T fresh lime juice
1 1/2 t sea salt
2 t cumin
pinch cayenne

This quote is perfect for the way I feel about everyone in my life!

“The best part of life is when your family becomes your friends, and your friends become your family.” —Danica Whitfield

Day #59 Jicama Broth pg. 164 entertaining in the raw

September 22, 2009

Today is the mark of Fall and Tomorrow is my 33rd Birthday. What an amazing year I had. So many blessings to be counted. I am more alive and grateful than ever before. Each day I count as a blessing and I am looking forward to this new year.

My original plan for tonight’s dinner didn’t work out as a I planned last night, but I must admit it turned out so much better. I went to Papa John’s after Sabby’s first guitar lesson. He LOVED it. He learned chords, and some part of a Green Day song. Awesome that my son likes Green Day, I remember listening to it when I was 17. They really are a great band. Despite how they went mainstream with their CD Dookie. I think they deserve their fame. I don’t mind when bands become popular I think if they are good then the world deserves to hear them. Anyway, I worked on Chemistry homework and then came home to make the Jicama Broth.
Ingredients:
cashews
jicama
olive oil
sea salt
black pepper (I omitted)
nutritional yeast
garlic
shallot

Soups always amaze me. They are similar to my green smoothies, because they are made in the Vitamix, but yet I don’t think of them as a smoothie, I actually think of them as a soup. Even though all ingredients are thrown into the blender at once.

I soaked cashews for hour, this allows them to be creamier in the soup. Jason stopped at the store to buy me jicama. Jicama is a pain to peel. I have been cutting the skin off much like I do with pineapple. It was so much easier tonight. I sliced the bottom and the top off, then I cut the sides off pretty deep into the jicama. I was peeling it before with a pairing knife, but I got smart tonight, actually pressed for time. I wanted to surprise Jason with dinner when he got home. After cutting the jicama, I threw it into the blender with olive oil and water, then added shallots, sea salt, nutritional yeast and I didn’t have garlic. So I blended it up.

After blending I poured it into a bowl and added the eggplant bacon, and cut a slice of onion bread. It was such a beautiful dinner for the man I love:)

He loves Becks beer so of course I had to get him one. He is such a good sport for eating all of my food. He loves Jazz music so of course I youtubed it and I found an amazing artist named Melody Gardot. We listened to her while he ate, it was very romantic. Words can’t express how the feeling and mood were in the room, one thing I do know is his love is explained in Corinthians. His love IS… I am the luckiest girl alive to be loved by such an extraordinary man!

Tomorrow is coming quick. This is the last day of being 32. It is only going to get better. I am looking forward to my 33rd year. I accept it with open arms. In years past I have not been so easy to accept things. This year has been a year of acceptance, forgiveness, and understanding, also filled with knew challenges and journeys. New adventures are coming this year, I will keep my eyes looking forward and around but not back in regrets. I will MAINTAIN INTERNAL HEIGHTS. Trevor Hall’s music really helped me through many challenging times this year. He is a blessing and a true artist. He will be one to make it big.

“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”-Abraham Lincoln

Day #58 Garlic and Onion Bread pg. 164 entertaining in the raw

September 21, 2009

Yummy garlic and onion bread. I can’t wait for this meal tomorrow night. I am going to eat with Jason. He works in Inverness, so after Sabby takes his guitar lesson I am going to bring dinner to my gorgeous hubby. Yes, Sabby takes his first guitar lesson tomorrow night. He hasn’t stopped asking to take lessons since about 8 months ago, so we are trying it out tomorrow.
Bread ingredients
6 cups sweet vidalia onions
2 T chopped garlic (I minced the bulbs)
1 cup ground sunflower seeds
1 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup olive oil
2 t sea salt
1 T oregano
black pepper ( I omitted)

I make a similar bread to this at work. We got the recipe from Goneraw.com. The bread is so delicious. It’s great for sandwiches and dips. I think this will taste even better, because I crave garlic all the time. Ohhhh the sweetness of the onions and garlic will keep me coming back for more.

I ground up the sunflower seeds in the Vitamix first and put them in a bowl.

Next, I ground up flax seeds in the Vitamix and put them into the bowl. The directions say to pulse onions and garlic and put them into a bowl then add all of the ingredients to the onion and garlic mixture. I figured it would be the same thing if I did it this way.

I chopped the onions and minced the garlic then added the garlic to the onions in the food processor. I pulsed them at least 20 times then added them to the flax and sunflower seed mixture. I added the olive oil, sea salt, I didn’t have oregano, so I used the best spice I had, Spike seasoning. I love this mixture of spices. I use it on just about everything.

The mixture was easy to mix and spread. I was able to make two Excalibur trays out of it. According to the directions it says that it makes one tray. I am still using parchment paper, so less of the tray is used. I still don’t have Teflex sheets so the space on the tray is less than there would be if I did have the Teflex sheets. I spread out the mixture and scored it. According to the directions, it says that I should score the bread after 6 hours, but I did it ahead of time, because I will be sleeping by the time they should be scored.
Dinner will be perfect tomorrow.

I made flax crackers today, but sadly my mom didn’t come over. I still haven’t talked to her, but I made them and they turned out excellent. I may start making them at the store. I need to purchase an icing spatula to make sure the crackers are even. I can’t wait for my mom to try them.

I am going to bed now, I have my official first Chemistry test tomorrow. Yippy, I am going to pass it.

“The onion and its satin wrappings is among the most beautiful of vegetables and is the only one that represents the essence of things. It can be said to have a soul.”
Charles Dudley Warner, My Summer in a Garden (1871)

“Shallots are for babies; Onions are for men; garlic is for heroes.”

Day #57 Eggplant Bacon pg. 164 entertaining in the raw

September 20, 2009

I have made this recipe before, but it was from Everyday Raw. This bacon was so delicious I am excited to make it again. I ate it alone last time, but this time it will be a topping for a soup. Eggplant Bacon is one of my favorite recipes so far. I was a bad shopper today and didn’t get the olive oil I needed. I wanted to make the taco shells for my tomato recipe from last night. I bought the corn, but I still need olive oil. So tomorrow I will buy some at work. I will be eating good meals this week.

Soup with Bacon which is titled caldo verde, jicama broth, eggplant bacon, marinated chard, and garlic and onion bread
Tomato Tacos with Citrus Cream is titled tacos de tomates al sol con crema citric
Saffron avgolemono, portobello “meatballs”, oregano cream and lemon balm

My birthday is Wednesday. I will be 33. So I will have to figure out which cake I will make for Jason and my birthday potluck on Saturday.

Eggplant Bacon ingredients:
sea salt
dried chipotle chile, soaked
1/2 cup soaking water from chipotle chile
maple syrup ( I used stevia)
olive oil
nama shoyu (I used Braggs Liquid Aminos)
apple cider vinegar
chili powder
paprika
cumin
cayenne

I chopped the eggplant into small pieces. Last time I used the mandolin to form long pieces of bacon. This recipe is supposed to be similar to bacon bits. So I chopped the pieces small, they will become even smaller after dehydration. I blended all sauce ingredients in the vitamix, and poured the sauce over the eggplant in a medium size bowl. It will soak for 2 hours then I will dehydrate overnight. The recipe calls for the bacon to be dehydrated for 2 hours. It is late, so I think I will just let it go all night. If I wake up in the middle of the night I will take them out, if not I will get them at 5 am. Either way they will be great.

My mom is coming over tomorrow and we are going to make flax crackers. She loves these crackers so much. I can’t believe it. I will make our first raw recipe together. Life just keeps getting better and better. I can’t wait. I will take some photos. I am off to bed. I am exhausted, but first I am going to study more anatomy.

The universe will reward you for taking risks on its behalf.
— Shakti Gawain, Bestselling Personal Growth Author and Motivational Speaker

Day #56 Sundried Tomatoes part 1/4 pg. 190 entertaining in the raw

September 19, 2009

I had a great day today with my kids. We went to see the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I just found out today that the book that I loved so much when I was a child was made into a movie. I was so excited. We laughed alot and I felt so blessed to have such an awesome family. Tonight we sat on our bamboo floor with a blanket laid out and ate our dinner. I ate portobello meatballs again with zucchini spaghetti. It was delicious. They ate raw green beans, broccoli and vegan tacos. Then we finished up our “Mom and Sons Day” with a walk with our dogs.

I came across this recipe tonight in the book. It looked so delicious. I love the taste of chipotle peppers and sun-dried tomatoes are excellent. I have never had them together but I am sure it will be perfect. This recipe goes with tacos, citrus cream and spinach, that I will make later this week.
I am sure I will be eating this lovely “sun-dried tomato” recipe before the tacos are ready, but I will save some for the taco meal. I can’t wait to eat it. Maybe Christian and Sebastian will like them too.

Tomatoes Ingredients

2 cups sun-dried tomatoes, soaked 30-45 minutes
4 chipotle chiles, soaked 1 hour (reserve soaking water)
salt to taste

Other things may change us, but we start and end with family. Anthony Brandt

Day #55 Portobello Meatballs pg. 97 entertaining in the raw

September 18, 2009

I made a few delicious recipes today. I have been wanting to make a cheese from carageenan. So I finally made up the recipe. I am quite impressed with this new creation. It’s a red pepper cheese. I used Matthew Kenney’s recipe for the red pepper sauce that I made on Sept. 1st. I changed it a little bit, then I added carageenan. It’s so yummy. I can’t wait until it hardens. I will have a sandwich on some onion bread.

I attempted to make a dessert from carageenan. It turned out to be a disaster. I threw it out. I could not tolerate it. It tasted like seaweed and stevia, but worse. The smell of irish moss/carageenan reminds me of riding on the Pirate’s of the Caribbean at Disney World. I don’t know why, but it always comes to mind every time I smell it. I want to make a delicious dessert that has low sugar. I will make something soon I hope.

My recipe for today is portobello meatballs. They turned out very meaty flavored. The mushrooms and walnuts together make the flavor of meat. I made them this morning before work, I stuck them in the dehydrator so I could eat them when I got home. Oh my they were so good, with zucchini spaghetti, and raw tomato sauce. These portobello meatballs go with another meal that I will make tomorrow.

Portobello Meatball ingredients
portobello mushrooms
walnuts
tahini
olive oil
zucchini
parsley
salt and pepper

I cut up all ingredients and placed them into the food processor.

I pulsed it several times. Until the consistency was pasty.

I used a tea spoon to make the balls. They formed fairly easy. They are not completely round but they look nice.

When they were done they were exceptionally darker than when I made them at first. They actually looked like meat. They were very good, I would make these again. Jason suggested making burgers with this recipe. That would be great with a melted cheese and dehydrated carmalized onion. Oh man, I want to make that now. I think it’s a great idea.
I had a delicious lunch today!

I absolutely love this project. I am having so much fun with it. I am pretty much eating a diet of all living food, some of it is not, but I’m not really concerned too much with a percentage. I know how I feel, and I FEEL INCREDIBLE. i will continue to do what I’m doing:)

“The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”