Warm Cherry Tomato and Corn Salad

From Raw Food Real World.
Holy Goodness...this is darn fantastic food. Two thumbs WAY up!

Warm Cherry Tomato and Corn Salad

    3 ears fresh corn, husked
    3 pints small cherry, teardrop, or grape tomatoes, sliced in half
    4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
    1 tablespoon lemon juice
    2 small or 1 large head butter lettuce, or other soft greens
    3 tablespoons chopped fresh marjoram
    1 cup crumbled Fluffy Macadamia Feta (page 288)
    Coarse sea salt
    Freshly ground black pepper

1. Cut the kernels from the corn cobs and place in a medium bowl with the tomatoes. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil and toss to coat. Spread the corn and tomatoes on a Teflex-lined dehydrator tray and dehydrate at 115 degrees for 1 hour.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the lettuce leaves and toss to coat. Add the corn, tomatoes, marjoram, feta, and salt and pepper.

Fluffy Macadamia Feta

    4 cups raw macadamia nuts, soaked 1 hour or more
    1/4 cup lemon juice
    2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
    1 green onion, white and 1 inch green, minced
    2 teaspoons sea salt

  In a food processor, thoroughly grind all the ingredients, but leave it a bit
  chunky. Drop heaping teaspoonfuls onto Teflex-lined dehydrator trays and
  dehydrate at 115°F for 4 to 6 hours, or until dry on the outside and still
  tender on the inside.

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Warm Cherry Tomato and Corn Salad

Easy Coconut Milk

I'm not a coconut fan, usually. But I gave this Coconut Milk from Living Raw Food a try. I want to broaden my food horizons and try the easiest recipes I can find.

This surprised me. I made the Vanilla, Chocolate, and Lime versions. I didn't love the chocolate or lime. The chocolate was too bitter, but that was my fault. The lime version was too tart for me.

But the vanilla one sneaked up on me. I sat in my office chair, and kicked back for an all-too-brief moment. I sipped the coconut milk from the class you see in the photo. The more I drank, the more I thought, "I never thought I'd like you, Mr. Coconut Milk. But I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." :-)

Silky, rich, just the right amount of sweetness. I'd put it up against any non-dairy milk you buy at the store.

It's a bit more work than 30-Second Nut Milk because there are two extra steps of straining the shredded coconut and 'seasoning' it.

Easy Coconut Milk

Plain:
2 cups shredded dried coconut
4 1/2 cups water (I added WAY more)
pinch of salt

Soak the coconut in the water, covered for 30 minutes. Blend. Strain through a chinois or strainer lined with cheesecloth.

NOTE: I don't have a high-speed blender. I have a Hamilton Beach from Target. I blended for a few minutes. Then strained the mixture with a nut milk bag. Then I put the milk back in the blender. I had about 4 cups of milk to work with.

Vanilla

2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons agave

After you put the strained milk back in the blender, add vanilla extract and agave, and blend.

NOTE: I used honey because that was all I had at the time. And I added back 1 cup of milk into the blender, with 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 teaspoon honey.

Chocolate

To the vanilla variety, add 2 tablespoons raw cocoa powder or carob powder.

NOTE: I made this the next day. Apparently, there was no vanilla in my refrigerated leftovers. BITTER! I added vanilla and honey but it didn't work. I should have let the milk come down to room temperature. The chocolate clumped in the milk. Epic fail.

Lime

To the vanilla variety, add 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice.

NOTE: Not my favorite. But coconut milk is a tropical drink. As Sarma says, feel free to add tropical fruit juices to your milk: mango, pineapple, papaya. Even berries and bananas go well with it. So let me know what you think!

Love,
Althea

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Easy Coconut Milk

30-Second Nut Milk

 

More like 20 seconds. This could not be simpler.

From Raw Food, Real World 

• 2 heaping tablespoons of any raw nut butter
• 2 cups water
• pinch of sea salt
• 2 tablespoons agave nectar, or 1 packet stevia
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon coconut butter (optional)

Blend.

I made this twice, so far. Once with stevia, and the other time with agave. The agave tasted MUCH better. Stevia has a licorice-like taste and can be bitter. I didn't care for it. But the agave worked like a charm.

Enjoy!

Love,
Althea

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30-Second Nut Milk

Chia Seed Pudding

Chia Seed Pudding

It doesn't look like much does it? This lump of grayish pudding..kind of looks like lumpy gray-black jello.
But I LOVED it.
I bought a bag of chia seeds because I read Raw and Beyond: How Omega-3 Nutrition is Changing The Raw Food Paradigm by Victoria Boutenko, Elaina Love, and Chad Sarno. When I read that chia seeds were extraordinarily high in Omega-3s, I bought a bag. But what to do with it?

Here's what I did, and what I learned:

I made the 'Chia Seed Pudding' in Living Raw Food by Sarma Melngailis. I added raisins and chopped apples, and more almond milk after I prepared it. It took a while to get used to the gel-like seeds. But the TASTE.....now that was amazing.

The recipe:

1 cup chia seeds
3 cups nut milk, coconut milk, or hemp milk
3-5 tablespoons agave nectar (I used 4 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional, but use it anyway)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional, but use it for sure)
Pinch of sea salt

Place the chia seeds, milk, agave, vanilla and cinnamon in a bowl. Stir well, so there are no clumps, and all the chia seeds are covered in milk. Let it sit at room temperature for 20-30 minutes, or cover and refrigerate. (Basically, stir and walk away. This is truly 'fast food.')

Come back.

Put some of it in a bowl, add fruit, nuts, and more milk to make it like cereal. This makes a lot of pudding.

Eat. Savor the taste.

I liked it so much I wrote Sarma on Facebook to tell her. And Raymond loved it too.

But here's the deal: Chia seeds are very high in fiber. You'll be pooping forever. And because it's so high in fiber, it's an appetite suppressant. I didn't know all of this before hand.

I suggest eating less pudding than you think, at first. It won't look like a lot, but you'll be full quickly. Add a tablespoon to your breakfast smoothies (let seeds sit in water or milk first) so you won't be so hungry by lunchtime.

And as far as Victoria, Elaina, and Chad's book goes: Part of me was disappointed. Between the three of them, there's only 33 pages of their story of why they now include cooked food in their diets.

I know they have other books. I have all of Victoria's books as well as her children Sergei & Valya's book Fresh. But Victoria is Miss "Cooked Food is an Addiction." (from 12 Steps to Raw Food) My girl was hardcore. For her to make a change is a complete paradigm shift. And there is no judgement in what I am writing. I say "to each his own." I just wanted to hear more from her, because I know there is more to her story.

It's just the whole volume felt slim. Like they were holding back. I couldn't figure out what bothered me about the book. I think that it hadn't decided what it would be: personal stories of three respected raw food pioneers or a recipe book? I think it would have been better if it were one or the other.

The best part of the book is the chart which include the ratio of omega-3s to 6s in oils, seeds, and greens. That's good information to have. I'll use Raw and Beyond as a reference tool. But that's about it.

Love,
Althea

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Chia Seed Pudding

Honeymoon Healer Juice

Transforming my kitchen into a healing space! This is what you'd see as you enter my kitchen. :-)

Yesterday I made a lot of green juices. But since I happened to have oranges and cranberries, I made a juice from Raw Food Real World by Sarma Melngailis and Matthew Kenney. (one of my favorite books, btw. I still owe this book a review.)

The finished product!

It couldn't be easier:

Honeymoon Healer
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 peeled lime
2 cups of orange juice
Juice cranberries, lime, and oranges.
Add 1-2 heaping tablespoons of raw honey.
You can add another lime for garnish.

It's called Honeymoon Healer because of the amount of cranberries, which are good for urinary tract infections. I just made it because I had the ingredients on hand! It's very tart, so if you like that type of drink, for it!

Love,
Althea

Mocha Angel message: 12/8/10: You are loved, truly, today, tomorrow, and forever more. ◦

Honeymoon Healer Juice

Chocolate Cake and Citrus Dressing

Ganache Fudge Cake

I'm keeping it simple these days. I had a revelation last night. I want to be a gourmet raw food chef + inspirational speaker + author. There is nothing wrong with that ambition. Currently, I am a wife, mom to two sons, a caretaker, a yoga teacher, professional intuitive, blogger, author, cook/cleaner/laundrywoman/ chauffeur/teacher/grocery shopper, etc., etc.

See where I'm going with this?

I am busier than I ever thought I would be. And my Candida is kicking my tail up and down the eastern seaboard. Anytime I even bite into cooked food, I feel my energy decrease and my mood shifts.

I have not given up on blogging through Everyday Raw and Light Eating for Survival. But my shift has got to be on simple raw food that heals me. I can make super impressive gourmet food later. Right now, I'm making simple, tasty raw food which holds my interest.

Recently, I adapted a recipe from Ani's Raw Food Desserts. Ani's Raspberry Ganache Fudge Cake has, well, raspberries :-). I don't care for raspberries with chocolate. I left them out.

The "cake" is walnuts, carob powder, sea salt, and Medjool dates mixed together in a food processor.

Ganache Fudge Cake

The frosting was wicked good. It's Medjool dates, agave, avocado, cocoa powder, and sea salt. That could be a pudding. Jona would only eat the frosting. The rest of us ate the cake. The carob gave it a malty feel. I would absolutely make it again.

Creamy Citrus Dressing

This is from Raw Food Real World. It's a blend of avocado, orange juice, lime juice, cilantro, green onion, shallot, sea salt, olive oil, and black pepper. The recipe calls for jalapeno pepper, but I left it out. This dressing lasted me a week, and it was very simple to prepare.

Coming up, I made an easy carrot cake that took less than a half-hour to make :-).

love,
Althea

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Chocolate Cake and Citrus Dressing

Step Four and Four and a half on The Raw Vegan Hero's Journey

4. I study to become a fantastic raw food chef
4 1/2. I learn where my food comes from
Inspired by the mythical Hero’s Journey first compiled in The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell (photos are of famous, recognizable characters on their own journeys)

Prior Steps:

1. I Manifest the Life That I Want by Proclaiming it in the NOW

2. I Align Myself with My Core Values

3. I Am Open and Willing to Change

Julia in Julie and Julia

I know I was on hiatus from blogging for a month, but something hit me today. An important step in the journey is studying how to make delicious raw food. It sounds obvious, but it's not.

The Raw Vegan Hero's Journey is a work in progress. It's alive and flexible while I get the steps in order. I realized today that becoming a seasoned raw food "chef" is important. I put "chef" in quotes because not everyone is going to culinary school; but "cook" is weird because we're not cooking. We're creators, preppers...something. So for lack of a better word, I'm going with "chef."

I love food. I am a true foodie. I dream about food. I dreamed about eggs last night (go ahead and laugh...I did too. :-) I ran downstairs to make scrambled eggs from Mark Bittman's book How to Cook Everything (which I do not own, but he wrote an article that I'd saved from a magazine). I tasted them, then gave them to my husband. I said, "Oh my goodness, these are fantastic." Rom said, "They're okay. They taste like regular scrambled eggs to me."

I said, "I'm the Remy to your Emilie! You can't taste how awesome these eggs are? And I don't even eat eggs!" If anyone has seen the Disney/Pixar movie Ratatouille, then you know what I mean. If you haven't seen it, it's another Oscar-winning movie from the geniuses at Pixar.

And I'll admit here that I am a Pixar Uber-fan. Total Pixar geek. I watch the credits looking for the people who work in the story department. If you've seen the Intel commercial where geeks go nuts over the guy who created the USB port, and at the end it reads: "Our rock stars are not like your rock stars," then you understand how I view the Pixar people. The only thing I appreciate more than good food is good storytelling. I'd work there for free just to learn how to write a great story.

But I digress.

Remy in Ratatouille

Frustration can build when you transition to raw because the food may not taste great, depending on where you learn. But with raw, you are preparing the freshest ingredients possible. You only have to learn how to put the ingredients together.

You must possess an unrelenting desire to learn how to make great food that is tasty and doesn't cost a fortune. Raw food books are everywhere. And like anything else, you'll find a couple of stinkers amidst the winners. But that's okay. Don't give up.

Check out books from the library first. That is what I do. I won't pay for a book unless I feel it's worth it. And if your local libraries don't carry raw food books, request them. Three years ago, my local library had zero raw food books in circulation. A librarian told me to write down what I wanted. That way, the library would know my interests and may possibly buy those types of books. Today, there's six raw books in circulation, with many more in libraries across Maryland.

Classes abound. DVD's are everywhere. Get serious. Start investing your money in these things so that the food you make keeps your interest. That was my revelation. My food should be awesome to me. Until I get back to

Chef Carolyn, or trek to Oklahoma to study at 105 Degrees Academy, then I've got to keep learning the basics of raw food preparation.I'm still working my way through Light Eating for Survival. I have added:
Everyday Raw by Matthew Kenney
Incredibly Delicious (the Rawsome Recipes section) by Gentle World Publications
Have Your Cake and Eat it Too! by Monique Bastien

I don't own, yet:
Raw Food Real World by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis
Living Raw Food by Sarma Melngailis

Sweet Gratitude by Matthew Rogers and Tiziana Alipo Tamborra

But I'm working on that. (If anyone would like to gift me early birthday presents, feel free! My birthday is March 7!!!). I see these books as textbooks. I am in training to learn how to make awesome raw food. Anyone serious about their raw journey will do the same thing.

I consider this Step Four and a Half: I learn where my food comes from.

Rom and I watched the DVD Food Inc. today. If you have kids, they need to see this too. I don't buy DVDs much. I'll rent them or get them from the library. This one I will purchase because I want my kids to watch it again as they grow up. Go get this movie TODAY!

From the official website: http://www.foodincmovie.com/
In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment.

We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield's Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

Go get this movie!
Love,
Althea

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Step Four and Four and a half on The Raw Vegan Hero's Journey