Another Fabulous Herbal Dressing

Hello, everyone!  Thanks for the comments on last week’s frequent postings. 

I have been making a dressing similar to the mustard-chive-date one that I posted, but I put in about 3/4 c. water, 2-3 dates, optional clove of garlic, pinch of pink salt, 1 T. mustard (dijon or stoneground), 6-7 spinach leaves or collard leaf, 2 T. basil, 1/2 c. cilantro, and 1/2 c. parsley, and just whirl it together in the Vita-Mix.  It turns out a beautiful green color and tastes delicious and rich, even with no added fat.  I commonly have cilantro, parsley, and basil on hand, but if you don’t, it’s fine to use just one or two of those. 

Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Strawberry & Mango Banana Ice Cream

You can imagine that I don’t eat pies every day, or even every week.  A more typical sweet treat for me is simply fruit or a banana whip.  This is a banana whip with more fruit added.  The strawberry portion has 1/2 of a vanilla bean scraped, 2 c. of strawberries, 2/3 of a fresh banana, and 1.5 frozen bananas.  The mango part has 1.5 mangos chopped, 2/3 of a fresh banana, and 1.5 frozen bananas.  You have to freeze it a little bit more; and stir it every 15 min. for about an hour until it’s ready.

Shown here with fresh mango, blueberries, strawberries, and grapes.

(for those that don’t know what a banana whip is, it’s bananas, chopped up, and frozen; then they are placed in a food processor, Vita-Mix, Champion juicer with blank attachment, or even a Magic Bullet, and blended (optional: add water or juice, a tablespoon at a time to facilitate blending or thaw the bananas for 10 min.).  Bananas have a creamy consistency after being frozen.  There’s really no reason for me to ever have even a raw-food ice cream made of nuts and coconut when I can just throw in some bananas and cinnamon or other fruit.

Marinated Tomato Salad

Entertaining in the Raw

I added the raw tofu to the salad.  Shown here with pine-nut based parmesan and basil oil.

Raw Tamales

Entertaining in the Raw

I stopped putting these together for a bit to take a picture with the garnish, sour cream and tomato-chile sauce (thick sauce).  The tamale mixture, like most raw foods I’ve found, is much more delicious than any cooked I’ve ever had.  It has corn, red bell pepper, tomatoes, and lime juice.

Cucumber Noodles

Cucumber, tomatoes, and basil = one of my favorite combos ever!

I know I have a lot of noodly stuff going on here.  Perhaps I noticed how lonely my mandoline was, underneath all of the sugars and baking items I rarely use. 

Cucumbers are another good fruit to spiralize or turn into pasta shapes.  The tomato-based sauce has sun-dried tomatoes (soaked an hour), fresh tomatoes, lemon juice, garlic, basil, pink salt, and a touch of agave. 

I think if a person has a child who is used to cooked food, these would be a great addition…..and you wouldn’t have that rush of energy that you get after eating cooked pasta.  You know….where you find the whole family at naptime? 

Zucchini Noodles w/ Parsley Sauce

So I wanted my zucchini noodles with a basil sauce, but the store nearby didn’t have fresh, so I chose Italian, flat-leaf parsley instead.  I did find local grape tomatoes, which was nice! 

The sauce has parsley, tomato, and a little mango juice; whole parsley; garlic; a date; and pink salt.  Very easy, very spunky!  It’s not rich, as there is no oil.  You can add sun-dried tomatoes, too, if you like.

FYI, zucchini noodles do get watery as they sit, and combined with a sauce even more.  I’ll take that hydration, though. 

You can make the noodles by using a mandoline, spiralizer, peeler, or knife.

Mustard-Chive-Date Dressing

I feel as if I made the best no-fat-added dressing I’ve ever had….so I measured tonight to post the recipe!  This dressing is sweet and tangy, mostly raw except for the prepared mustard (which has negligible calories).  I made a dressing with whole mustard seeds and didn’t like it as much; I don’t find any ill effects on my health from consuming prepared organic mustard.  This keeps well when blended in a Vita-Mix; mine didn’t even separate after 2 days in the refrigerator!

Makes about 1.25 to 1.5 cups.

1.25 c. water

8 pitted dates (I used Medjool)

1 c. fresh chives

3 cloves garlic (or to taste)

1.5 T. mustard (Dijon or regular, whatever you prefer; I used Dijon)

1/2 tsp. Himalayan pink salt, or to taste

(Note:  I’m also not a huge vinegar fan, and it’s actually a skin irritant for me when the vinegar contacts my skin, so ingestion may not be ideal, either…..another reason I probably love this dressing!)

Blend in your blender or Vita-Mix until smooth.  That’s it!

I am LOVING these organic microgreens from Trader Joe’s.

 

A tip I thought I’d post on raw eating:  It’s important to have food available for when hunger strikes, because if you are addicted to the cooked food and have no raw food around, well, you know what will probably happen.   

I almost always have at least these items in my kitchen:  fresh collards, kale, spinach, apples, pears, oranges, sprouts, carrots, celery, cucumber, parsley, cilantro, and romaine; frozen bananas.  I keep the vegetables stored in a way that I can open the fridge and see what I have, grab it quickly, rinse it, and eat or juice/blend it.  I also like to have some type of berry within my reach.  If it helps you to rinse vegetables and fruits prior to storing, do that.  Do whatever it takes to have fresh food around…..and no excuses on going to the grocer!  Find one nearby, on your way to or from work, and visit the produce section only, picking up the above items. Spend 5-10 min.  5-10 min. if you do it fast!    Pretend you’re a vegan ninja.

Kelp Noodles w/ Green Sprouted Almond Sauce

http://www.kelpnoodles.com/

These kelp noodles seemed to be popular among raw-food circles, so I decided to give them a try.  I found it amazing that they only have 6 calories per 4 oz.  It seems other noodles, whether they be wheat-based, rice-based, or even mung-bean-based, have about 200 calories per 4 oz.  And they have the minerals from the seaweed!  Win-win.  :)  

I don’t count calories on a raw-food diet – I eat whatever I want — but it seems that with a noodle, a nut-based sauce would go best, so it’s nice that this is a light meal, not heavy like a cooked pasta dish would be.  Yes, you can leave your buttons fastened after this one.  :D

I made the sauce from sprouted almonds, garlic, pink salt, and a fresh juice (apple, parsley, cilantro, chard, and carrot – sweet and flavorful) blended in the Vita-Mix.  The noodles have cucumbers mixed in and are topped with spinach and more sprouted sliced almonds.  I feel like the raw sauces that I make nowadays are a drastic improvement on the salty, less-fresh ones I used to mix up.  This was fabulous.

Salads

A microgreen salad with Russian kale, collards, red cabbage, purple kohlrabi, purple radish, and beet greens; spinach salad; and also a spring mix.  Topped with cucumber, jalapeno, and a black mustard seed-chive dressing.

Mmm!

Green Papaya Salad w/ White Peaches

This is just something that sounded good to me today.  I was going to do a green papaya salad with fresh cherries, but I couldn’t find any.  So I made a cherry smoothie, got the peaches out, and decided to add them to a green papaya salad.  The salad also has green chilies and cilantro; the green papaya has lime juice, plus the pink dressing on top is a mixture of fresh lime juice and fresh peach juice (one was badly bruised, I figured why not).  I think fresh pomegranate seeds on top would be awesome.

It tastes delicious!  Good combo.    We’ll see about cherries next time!