A Fantastic Four, Ha!
This is going to be a long post because I have allot to say and wanted to give you a couple of recipes I make over and over that I LOVE!
Day four of our 11 week initiative in the Vault at
Raw Food Rehab:
You can read about it and download the books for this detox at the above site. Raw Food Rehab is an excellent site.
Today I feel pretty well! I think my sinus yuck is better this morning although it got bad again last night.. seems to be the way it presents itself - at night..
Seemed to sleep VERY hard last night.. woke up about an hour later than I usually do… and only because DH’s phone went off.
Had a cup of coffee with almond cream this morning.. honestly I am not truly convinced that good organic wine and organic coffee (without dairy) is really that bad for me OCCASIONALLY. It’s not that I am addicted actually .. It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve had a cup I just wanted it this morning as I was making DH's..
Last night I made my very fav meal so far.. zucchini spiraled into angel hair with my fav. Red sauce (recipe to follow) with pesto pine nut parmesan on top and the last of our corn zuch crackers on the side..
It was a large bowl and I couldn’t finish it all. I had a glass of organic wine with. I have found that when I drink now (maybe 2-3x a month now – red wine only) I can’t even drink an entire glass.. gone are the days I could put away an entire bottle! I think my body is just more clean and booze effects me much more quickly.. another VerY interesting thing is I no longer crave any alcohol at all! ESPECIALLY the hard liquor I used to consume.
I was the martini queen for several years with my girlfriends and always asked to invent a new drink for every party.. whenever we would all go out for cocktails I was always asked to pick the place and choose drinks for everyone to try. I was very much into booze and the social aspects of "the cocktail hour".. not really an alcoholic but only because I think I was lucky. I for sure got my buzz on very often, on a regular basis I guess.
I went for quite a while w/o any alcohol at all when I started working on my health and now a glass of wine a week is wonderful but a totally different scene for me. I think the only reason I want it is because I love it in the sauce and the bottle is already open.
This red sauce to follow is my very fav. I think
I was Italian in another life and Italian food is my very fav. cuisine. I truly rate an Italian restaurant by their red sauce (doesn’t everyone?). My very fav. meal of all time is a simple spicy red sauce with good parm on top (no meat) on a nice pile of angel hair. A glass of red wine and WAY too much bread and an absolutely ridiculous amount of butter.
This sauce IMO is the best Raw tomato sauce ever. I tried 5 different recipes when I first became raw. Here is the recipe:
( I can’t believe I am posting it here, I think I could make a fortune with this recipe but think finding things we love can help us on this path and THATS more important than all the money in the world!)
Raw Spicy Red Sauce:
1 C tomato (good tomato is important I like to use one large beautiful dark burgundy heirloom tomato from WF!)
1/2 dehydrated tomato (I bought a bunch of heirloom tomatoes and dehydrated them just for this sauce)
2 T balsamic vinegar
¼ C Lemon Juice
1/3 C Organic Sulfite Free Red wine (I get mine from WF)
2 T Nama Shoyu
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper – (I love spicy red sauce –I used more)
1- clove garlic (green middle sprout vein removed – makes it less harsh)
1/2 date
Dulse (a large pinch for the mega minerals and a salty flavor)
1/3 C soaked cashews
¼ C pine nuts
A little water to get to a thick pouring consistency – as much as you like.. I like mine thick because it’s always watered down by the zucchini spirals.
I use two zucchini per person and make angel hair with my spiralizer.
Pesto PineNut Parmesan:
Obviously this has to be made 2-3 days in advance.. it takes 2 days to dehydrate in my excalabur.
But it's one of my staples – good on salads, in wraps.. on a spoon! (ha)...
1 C soaked cashews
1 C pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds soaked
1T star nutritional yeast
2 T lemon juice
1 T seasalt
1 T water (may need more)
½ c pine nuts
2 C basil (not smushed, just lightly measured)
¼ C lime juice - I like even more!
Black pepper
To blend:
Basically I put it in the vitamix in this layer:
First the citrus juices and the water then the basil then spices and yeast and then the seeds/nuts.
This makes allot (to me) and I used half of it as a spread in collard/veggie wraps and dehydrated the other half as a topping.
Spread on flex sheets and dehydrate.. I go in and break it up a bit and sort of stir it around every 8 hours or so.. it takes two days to get to where you can crumble it.
AND I had a few people ask about my
Corn Zucchini crackers.. I am so in love with these.. right now they are my very fav. DH loves them too and I make them thick for him and he spreads avo, onion, tomato and capers on it for breakfast sometimes.
Raw Zucchini – Corn – Jalapeno – Sunflower Seed Crackers
1 C ground almonds (soak overnight then rinse well and allow to drain an hour)
1 C flax seeds – ground
1 C sunflower seeds (soak overnight then rinse well and allow to drain an hour)
6 Ears of fresh corn cut off the cob (I’ve also used frozen organic)
3 zucchini
1-2- jalapeno (depending on how hot you like! – I use two and it’s pretty hot!) or cayenne to taste
1/2 C finely chopped yellow onion
Seasalt (1 teaspoon)
3 T Olive Oil
3 T Honey – I’ve found lately this is not needed – corn is pretty sweet or I am losing my taste for sweet!
Shred zucchini in food processor, put in LARGE bowl, grind nuts/seeds in food processor and add to bowl, grind corn and onion and jalapeno in food processor and add to bowl. Add salt, oil and honey (opt) to bowl and stir (will be a little watery) allow to sit about 15 min for flax to make it really thick.
I use a large soup spoon or an offset spatula and spread to thickness I like. Spread to at least about ¼ inch (don’t get too thin) thickness – can make them even thicker for a breakfast type bread.
Dehydrate until they are easy to take off the flex mats (mine takes about 8 hours) and then take them off and put them on the tray just on the screen and dehydrate till crisp. Obviously the thicker the longer it takes.
I plan on adding some nice Japanese Dulse or other flaked seaweed in them next time!.
OH I ALMOST FORGOT:
Food Yesterday:
Banana and water FIRST thing! Very hungry and a little shaky when I got up..
2 black plums (luscious!)
Pumpkin spice tea latte from our Falling Into Raw book!
Banana
cantaloupe pineapple maraschino cherry salad
spiral zucchini with my fav red sauce with wine/sundried tom. Topped with dehydrated basil pesto parm and had corn zuch crackers on the side.
Lara bar dessert
Pix of my lovely Pumpkin Spice Rooibous Latte from Falling Into Raw Recipe Book:
This was EXCELLENT. I doubled up on the rooibous because I like my tea strong and made my own almond milk extra thick. DH really dug this and I was HAPPY! Thanks Penni! (I mentioned the "Falling Into Raw" downloadable books in a recent post. . GREAT for the Holidays!).
I seemed to be very hungry yesterday.. Supposed to start my period today.. will see. I have no PMS or cramping which is the BOMB.. totally do not feel like I am going to start.
Wow my posts are getting Long! If you actually red this entire thing, thank you so much! I hope someone tries the red sauce, seriously it’s amazing.
Future:
I've been playing around myself to build a holiday repertoire of Raw food recipes. I want to make it thru the holidays being true to myself and my path but also have it FEEL like our Holidays of past..
I want to have a sweet potato couscous type of casserole with almonds and currants or raisins.. and a nice salad with citrus and pomegranate seeds..
I think a Raw pecan pie will be in the planning! I am already saving my pulp from my almond milk as a base for some crust experiments. My grandparents had pecan trees and pecan EVERYTHING was always on the holiday menu.
Now if I could just come up with a Hot Buttered Rum idea.. ha!
Have a great Raw day my loves!
Cary~
