Asparagus with Strawberry Dressing (cooked)

From Professional Vegetarian Cooking

Asparagus with mango, black sesame seeds, and a strawberry-basil dressing.

Orange Barbeque Tofu (cooked)

From Passionate Vegetarian

I hate to give this recipe, or any recipe, a bad review, but in my opinion, this is one of the worst sauce recipes I have ever made.  The recipe is called, “Terrible Delicious, Talk-of-the-Town Tofu.”  Sounds great to serve to a bunch of people; right?  Well, the orange rind and juice were overpowering and the sauce too thick.  I think the only thing that’s making this recipe serveable is what I added to it, how I chopped it, and how I’m serving it.  Oh, well.

I’m enjoying fresh orange juice and papaya before heading over to a celebration of The Vegan Twins’ birthday. 

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.

Green & Red Cabbage with Kale Slaw

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

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.

Raw Tofu

Entertaining in the Raw

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).

Strawberry Brilliance Pie

Sweet Gratitude

(Edited later to add this photo and comment:  You ever notice how the first piece of pie is usually the messiest?  Well, I knew I was going to cut this pie further down into 16 pieces, so I figured I might as well get a picture tonight.  It looks great!  I hope it travels well.)

Without topping.

and with:

You can’t really tell its goodness yet; I’ll try to get an inside shot!

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.