Trying new Recipes

As much as I would like to purchase a ton of raw food books my budget will not allow me to. However, with the abundance of information on the internet I am able to learn a great deal about eating raw. In the past few months I’ve copied many recipes from authors like Alissa Cohen, Sarma Melngailis and James Russell. The last couple of recipes I tried were, Turnip Ravioli (Alissa) with macadamia nut cheese (from James Russell.)


Raw Ravioli
For the ravioli I used my own sundried marinara and added spices to the macadamia nut cheese. I also marinated the turnips in lemon juice and a dash of salt to soften them up quicker. Pictured below was the end result.

Next up, since there are times when I’m not at home for a good part of the day I wanted to make a sandwich that did not need to be assembled. In my previous post I made Ani Phyo’s Black Sesame bread but that did not hold up well when I traveled. So, I made collard wraps making sure all the veggies were as dry as possible.

 First attempt

Caesar Salad Wrap with oatmeal cranberry cookies

Cookies 

After making Carmella's (very easy) Oatmeal Cookies I attempted to make some others. My favorite treats as a child often included something with peanut butter like peanut butter cups, peanut butter cookies,  and (chocolate) peanut butter milkshakes. I will make almond butter cups when I find a simple recipe, until then I decided to try my hand at almond butter cookies. I didn't have any almond butter and I did not want to spend $10 on a half size jar. So.... I made some almond butter with my food processor. It was easier than I expected. All it took was 1 cup of almonds and 10-15 minutes of processing.

 

Oatmeal chocolate pecan, Lemon Coconut, Oatmeal Cranberry,

Almond Butter and Chewy Oatmeal (not pictured)

Lately, I've started my morning with some kind of drink like a green smoothie, fruit smoothie, or green juice. They are so quuick and easy. I've discovered smoothies will last a day in the fridge.

Pure Grapefruit Juice

 

Sour Apple- green apple, lemon, grapes, spinach, ginger, banana and hemp seeds

Sweet Beet Juice- Apple, celery, carrot, and beets

This next drink is one of my absolute favorites. I drink this sometimes twice a day. It's a mixture of carrot, ginger, brazil nut milk, and bananas. The original recipe comes from the book Raw Food Real World.

Today's Meals

Today was a great raw day for me. Here are my meals.
For breakfast I at my remaining buckwheat groat granola with sliced bananas, a few blueberries, cranberries and almond milk. This was sooo yummy and hit the spot since I was craving cereal. I have to try more grawnola recipes. Later on I wanted some spaghetti so, I decided to pull out my new spiralizer thing and make to zucchini noodles.

Ok, this was my second time using this piece of equipment. While I was spiralizing I got a lot of zucchini mush. Is this normal? Since I paid $50 for this machine I expected a bit more that what I'm getting. Side Note- I also saw this machine on Amazon for way cheaper so I might return it and get the cheaper one.
Ok! So on with today's menu. I finished the zukie noodles and searched online for a marinara recipe. Guess who I found! Jennifer Corbleet author of Raw Food Made Easy. She has listed a number of great looking recipes on her website including a marinara recipe. I made a few modifications to her recipe. Since I did not have a  red bell pepper she adds for sweetness I used 1/2 a date; for spices I used lots of basil, oregano, parsley, salt, crushed red pepper and onion powder. Check it out! -->
You know what I love about Jennifer Corbleet is that she has such a calming demeanor on her videos and she makes raw food seem (what her books suggest) easy for the average person who may not have access to a dehydrator or high-powered blender like the Vita-mix (which I love) or Blentec. With most, if not all of her recipes you can you the basic blender, and food processor. Love that! And no, I do not have her book yet but I plan on purchasing them soon.
Here is the end result of the Zuketti (yes I know that is not a real word) Dish! My mom even liked it!

This was my dinner salad.

Sorry for the blurry pics! Oh! And yes I did reuse the same bowl all day long! :o)