New Camera and Kitchen

kale salad

It’s massaged dino kale, red leaf lettuce, spinach, cilantro, cherry tomatoes, lemon juice, and a few sundried olives I still have from a long time ago.  Delicious.  :)

The new camera works great.  I just haven’t had many noteworthy meals as of late.  And the lighting in my kitchen in the new place is awesome for photos (except with white bowls, note to self).  Thanks again for the early birthday gift, Tracy!

 

I groan when I see some of my older photos, or photos I chose to put up, but I’m not a professional here.  The point of my search being  Urban Vegan’s cookbook is out in case you missed it. 

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Urban-Vegan-Sumptuous-Recipes-Favorites/dp/0762752815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255544906&sr=8-1

And pics of some of the recipes I tested (although other people tested FAR, far more):  http://utopiankitchen.wordpress.com/?s=urban%2Bvegan

Papaya, Banana, Strawberies, Blueberries

fruit

This is a great way to start your day!  Some people have been told or taught that whole grains are needed to make a complete, balanced, or filling meal.  As someone who is mostly grain-free, I feel incredible without whole (or refined) grains and on a raw, fresh/unprocessed diet.  I have said it before, but I’ll say it again – my skin has never looked better.  I have 10-year-old scars that are disappearing, previously keloid, red, raised, that on a healthy, mostly green vegan cooked diet did not disappear.     :)

Becoming a raw foodist isn’t a new fad; all other animals except humans (and the companions they feed with their processed foods) eat raw, and humans originally ate all raw as well.

Chopped Salad

Well, just as I got out the camera and turned it on to take a pic of my salad, I realized the camera’s done.  The screen doesn’t function anymore, and while I can take photos, I can’t SEE what I’m taking a photo of.  I don’t know if I dropped it or someone stepped on it.  Doesn’t matter.  It’s good to know before something important came up, like a trip to see family!

My post was simply going to be a recommendation on a way to prepare a salad differently, to chop it up finely.  I use plum tomatoes, jalapeno, minced by hand, add some garlic and lemon juice; then I let the food processor do some magic!  I throw in spinach, basil, cilantro, parsley, collards, red leaf lettuce, chives.  Put in a little at a time and pulse it until it’s finely chopped.  VERY easy and fast!  I believe the flavors can incorporate well this way, too, after you mix everything together.  Your salad will look like tabouli, and you may “trick” (oh, what a negative connotation for giving a person some amino acids!) someone you love into eating collard greens raw.

This, of course, is ONLY if I’m taking a break from my Champagne mango feast.

Strawberry & Mango Banana Ice Cream

strawberry-mango-ice-cream-parfait

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.

Green & Red Cabbage with Kale Slaw

green-purple-slaw-w-kale

Kale, red & green cabbage, and carrots in a creamy nut-based dressing and topped with basil.

Raw Tofu

Entertaining in the Raw

raw-tofu

I know it’s not the best presentation, but everything is going to be eaten tomorrow after traveling, so I’m not sure how many pictures I’m going to be able to get.  I wanted to show this, though; it’s so cool!  Just five ingredients.

I’m serving it with a cherry/grape tomato salad with basil oil and parmesan cheese (yes, all raw).

Eat to your heart’s content

tomato-zucchini-red-bell-salad

Zucchini, tomato, red bell pepper, and basil salad.  This is a great food-combined salad of non-sweet fruit.

Don’t limit yourself; eat as many fruits and vegetables as you want!  I wouldn’t consider the way I eat (raw food, I mean; not veganism, since that’s a lifestyle) as a “diet” in the sense that most people would.  I just have standards when it comes to food.

You eat three or more times a day.  Can you think of a better category to have standards for than food?

Raw Soup & Wraps – Fun no-recipe preparations

To make things easier, when I feel like throwing something together without a recipe, I first wash all of the vegetables, fruit – good combos below of non-sweet fruit – and sprouts (I even rinse items such as avocado because you cut into the skin, thus taking anything on the skin into the flesh of the fruit).

raw-veggies-soup

For the soup, I juiced 3 carrots, 3 celery, 1/2 of a large cucumber, and half of a lemon.  I added this juice to my Vita-Mix along with my three-seaweed garnish blend, 1 cup of spinach, 1 whole avocado, 2 T. red bell pepper, 2 T. grape tomatoes, 1 c. parsley, and 2 T. basil.  After blending, I poured this into the bowl and then rinsed the Vita-Mix with a tad of water and a few more cherry tomatoes to get more of that good green stuff out, then poured this orange mixture in a pattern around the soup.  The soup is garnished with more grape tomatoes, cucumber & zucchini sticks, chopped red bell pepper, celery, frisee, and mixed sprouts.  I tasted for salt and added a tad of Himalayan pink salt.  

Do check on the nutritional info of parsley if you get a chance; it’s a great source of many vitamins and minerals, including iron.

raw-chard-wraps-2

The wraps have chard as the wrapper.  I washed the chard, then dipped and rubbed it in a fresh lemon juice and flax oil mixture to soften the leaves a bit.  The avocado paste inside is so flavorful, with one avocado, chard stem juice, lemon juice, garlic juice (normally, I don’t eat garlic but the juice was fine for tonight only), 3 T. basil leaves, 1 c. parsley leaves, and a tad of pink salt.  Then the wrap also has grape tomatoes, zucchini, red bell pepper, frisee, and sprouts.  They are so delicious, and I love eating with my hands!

raw-chard-wraps

Dr. Cow Cheese Wraps

Many people seem to not like soy-based vegan cheeses as much as they had liked cow-milk or goat-milk dairy products, but Dr. Cow Cheese is really getting some attention.  Some of the greatest things about it is it’s raw, has a short list of identifiable ingredients, the fat comes from whole nuts and seeds, and it’s not too salty/dehydrating.  Besides that, there’s the taste – incredible!  I have been fond of my own cooked vegan cheeses in the past, and still continue to make a cashew-red pepper one for my boyfriend.  While I rarely eat raw vegan cheese, I think this one is the best choice for store-bought.  www.dr-cow.com  You can get Dr. Cow online or in some places in New York City and New Jersey; see their Website for more information.  No dirty sock smell here!  :)

Wraps with Dr. Cow hempseed cheese, kale, red bell pepper, tomato, basil (I love the smell of fresh basil), and spinach:

raw-wraps-with-dr-cow-cheese

I haven’t been posting a lot lately, but I do plan on making a raw lemon meringue pie later this week from Sweet Gratitude.

Electrolyte Superfood Smoothie

smoothie-w-straws

Some people refer to certain supplements and powders as superfoods.  I prefer to get my super-charged nutrition from fresh fruits and vegetables, mostly.  Tonight I had a smoothie with the following:

water from 1 young coconut (fresh)

2 kiwi

1 banana

1 c. strawberries

1/2 c. raspberries

1 pomegranated, seeded

ice as desired

 

I liked it but there was still some coconut water flavor remaining.  For whatever reason, I don’t like the taste.  :)   Either way, what a nutrition boost!