Chocolate Mousse-y Pudding

Right now, we are at the height of avocado season in California....and that means I need creative ways to use these guys up!!! Fortunately, avocados during this time of year come out of the peel like butter and dissolve on my tongue like butter. I eat them raw, put them sliced on salads, cube them for soup topping and tacos, and sometimes, I just have avocados with a little sea salt on toast or rye crackers for breakfast - really, I love them. And, in moderation (lol!), they are sooo good for you - filled with good-for-you fats and lots of compounds that, when eaten on a regular basis, give your skin a great glow!! Another plus, is that they are very filling and you can flavor them!!! This recipe is a great example. This pudding comes out with a mousse-like airy-ness while still being rich and delicious.

Chocolate Mousse-y Pudding

• 1 avocado, pitted and cut into large cubes, with skin removed
• 8 mejdool dates, pitted (be sure to remove "stem" part too)
• 2 Tbs agave nectar
• 4 Tbs cocoa powder
• 3/4 - 1 cup water

Put all ingredients (except water) into a high powered blender and begin blender on low speed. Add water through pour spout, as needed (you should need at least 3/4 cup). Continue blending (you will have to push ingredients back down towards blades - after pausing the blender - two or three times during the blending process). Taste to make sure sweetness is as desired. If you need the pudding to be sweeter, add more dates (2 - 3) or more agave nectar (1/2 Tbs at a time) until it gets to where you need it to be.

This comes out so creamy and delicious - Mr. No-No couldn't believe I hadn't added milk or tofu to it - I really didn't!
You won't believe that this can be: 1. healthy, 2. good for you, 3. filling, and 4. vegan and raw!
If you end up not wanting to share this, I can TOTALLY understand! ;)

What's YOUR favorite dessert?

You know I love to share this kind of stuff at these kinds of parties!!

More later!! :)

Zucchini Noodles

We have been on vacation for the last week and a half!! We went to visit my in-laws in Western NY. Thankfully, we made it out of there and back to the west coast before Irene came barreling through and made it hard for us to leave the NY airport. Whew!

My little brother lives in NYC with his family, though, and they are all alright. Double whew! Hope you and yours are safe and sound, too!

Here are some pictures from our trip - Miss No-No had a lot of fun!!

In my never-ending (it seems) quest to find something to do with all of my zucchini (zukes), I made zucchini "noodles"!!!

They are so easy and so good and crunchy, I just couldn't believe that they came out so well!

Zucchini Noodles

Noodles:
2 medium sized zukes, spiralized or cut into noodle-like strips using a vegetable peeler

Sauce:
1-1/2 T olive oil
1 T Braggs Aminos (or 1/2 T soy sauce)
1-1/2 T agave
1/2 T apple cider vinegar
1/2 T fresh ginger (or 1/2 t. dried ground ginger)
1 - 2 cloves garlic, minced

Toppings:
1 - 2 T of sesame seeds (white or black)
1/2 T minced basil, mint, and/or cilantro

Pre-heat oven at lowest setting (my oven is 170F).

Spread "noodles" out on a cookie sheet spread with parchment paper (you want to spread the noodles out as much as possible). Put in oven for approximately 1-1/2 to 2 hours, until "noodles" start to dry out around the edges of the cookie sheet. Move "noodles" from the oven and lay out on paper towels for approximately 15 - 30 minutes (to remove any residual liquid).

Make the sauce by mixing all ingredients.

To serve later, leave the sauce and noodles in separate containers and refrigerate.

When ready to serve, pour sauce on noodles and incorporate so that the noodles are covered with sauce. Sprinkle sesame seeds and other toppings over the top and serve!

This recipe was slightly adapted from Ani Phyo's Raw Foods Cookbook.
I will be linking up at some of these cool parties!!

More later! :)


Tweet

Basil Pesto

I made a trip this weekend to the Vietnamese grocery store by my house.

This place is soooo different than walking into some place like Vons or Ralphs - - first of all, the store is HUGE - - I mean, unbelievably huge!! The fresh produce section is about twice the size of what you would find in a normal grocery store and there is just so much cool and unique stuff!! The freezer section is the same way, they have a WHOLE aisle that is just soy sauce - - all different kinds - - and they have a seafood section in the back that is all live crabs, lobster, and different kinds of fish.

There is also a jewelry store, a shoe store, an appliances store, a sushi ordering bar, a boba tea bar, a sandwich shop, a post office, an electronics store, a gift shop - - it's unreal. These little stores are more like huge booths on the periphery of the store, but they are permanent.

I went in to get some things to make Thai food at home (because I have been ordering it a lot the last couple of weeks and I figure that I could try to learn how to make it, mess it up a couple of times, buy everything again and still be spending about what I would pay to order it from a restaurant!!).

However, before I get started on trying to make that, there were a couple of other things, I couldn't help but pick up:

 
Basil - Can you believe all this basil was less than $1.50!!!!


















Garlic - All of this was less than $2 and came pre-peeled for me!!!








In light of these great finds, I decided that it was high time I make some pesto (since it freezes easy, I can keep the taste of summer in my freezer for months when I wish the clouds or rain would go away!)

Quick Pesto Recipe

1 large bunch of basil, cleaned, removed from stems, and rough chopped
2 - 3 basil cloves, crushed
3/4 - 1 cup of walnuts or pine nuts (a couple of big handfuls), rough chop
1 Tbs nutritional yeast, optional
3 Tbs. cashews, optional
olive oil

Put basil, garlic, and walnuts (and nutritional yeast and cashews, if using) in a food processor. Start mixing and slowly add in olive oil in a thin stream until desired consistency is reached. Add salt and pepper if desired.

Notes:

• The cashews and nutritional yeast (not baking yeast, nutritional yeast can be found in health food stores, Henrys, Whole Foods, or Sprouts) will give this sauce an added creaminess and means that you won't miss the cheese. You could use just cashews or just the yeast, if that's what you have on hand. Or omit both, and it's still great.
• This sauce is great - I use it on sandwiches and tofu or thinned out (with water and a little more olive oil) on salads and cooked, grilled, or raw veggies or thinned out (with pasta water) to use on regular pasta or in pasta salads.
• And because this recipe is made without cheese, it freezes great! So make a big batch, pour it into ice cube trays, let freeze, and then pop in a freezer bag to save for days when you want to taste the goodness of summer!!
• Another reason that I LOVE this recipe is that it is FORGIVING!! If you don't have basil, sub in parsley (italian or curly) or even arugula or anything dark green and thin; if you don't have pine nuts, use walnuts or cashews, or even pecans or brazil nuts. It will change the flavor a little bit, but it will still taste good (as long as you like those things; ie - if you hate parsley, don't use that, but otherwise, you are good to go!).

More later! :)

Tweet

Averie's No Bake Cookie Balls

I just discovered this wonderful website called Love Veggies & Yoga. The girl who runs it, Averie, makes all kinds of delicious things. While looking for a little sweat treat on the web, I checked into her site and found these amazing No Bake Oatmeal and Carrot Cake Bites. They are made with carrots and oats and are quick, easy, and (best of all!) delicious.

I wasn't sure if I could copy the recipe directly to my own blog page, so I just had to give you guys the link and the picture of my finished product!

Miss No-No helped me make these so you could easily make it a "family" project and revel in the fact that from start to finish the whole thing has seriously minimal clean up time!

What do you make that is quick and easy like this - - but tastes DELICIOUS?

Thanks for all the comments to my Roasted Mushroom Tacos recipe. It really is fast and easy and you should check it out if you need inspiration for what to make for dinner (and you have mushrooms in the fridge!).

Also - - Sarah from Shaklee and I are co-hosting a wonderful giveaway for natural home and beauty projects. Please stop by and enter - our entries are low, but the gift of a clean environmentally-(and family) friendly home or clean natural makeup is priceless.

More later! :)

Tweet

"Cooking" through RAWvolution

I was planning last week to make those granola / breakfast bars from RAWvolution by Matt Amsden, but I never got around to it. I did, however, make the Avacado Tortillas from another book that I got from the library. They came out really good - - but, I can't remember which book that was from. I am pretty sure that since that book is not standing out in my mind, that must be the only thing that I made from it!! I have been using the tortillas as "roll ups" for a salad/snack in the afternoons. It's nice, but did make me realize that I don't really like using the dehydrator all that much (maybe a different model would change my mind???). Seemed like it was a lot of work for what I got out of it...

Since I am thinking about new recipes, I also made the Marinated Bok Choy Salad from RAWvolution - - and that recipe is definitely a keeper. Miss M didn't like it very much, but SN and I ate up a whole thing of Bok Choy that night - it was delicious. That is the kind of salad that I could make once every week or so and it wouldn't get old - and it is easy and fast to put together. We also enjoyed the Creamy Cabbage Coleslaw from the same book. That was a little more work, but gave me a good reason to use up the radishes that I had sitting in the fridge. SN didn't like that salad quite as much, but it was nice for a weeknight dinner. The very first thing I made out of this book was the Cucumber Dill Salad - Miss M and SN both liked it and it was (again) fast and easy to make for a weeknight side. I am planning on making the Broccolini Salad tomorrow night with our dinner (that was Miss M's choice - she picked out the broccolini on our last shopping trip!).
We were a little bit disappointed in the Sunflower Seed Cheese - - it sounds great, but tasted way toooooo salty. I was trying to convince myself that I could use it for sandwhich spreads or something later in the week, but I realized that was just wishful thinking - I ended up throwing the whole batch away.
I didn't get around to trying the Ranch dressing or the Borscht OR the Chicken-less Noodle Soup or the Vegetable Soup - - which all sound devine!!! So, I can definitely see myself checking this book out from the library again to try a few more recipes.... Oh yeah, the Cream of Celery Soup would be great this weekend - - I have two bunches of celery that I don't have plans for!! So I think that I will just make a quick list of everything else in the book that I wanted to try...when I have time, I will come back to this book and finish cooking from it: Apple Cookies, Apple Tart, Stir Not-Fry, Soft Taco with Fresh Tomato Salsa, Falafel, and Zucchini Pasta Alfredo, Mock Tuna Salad, and the Marinated Greens Salad.
Wow - I have more stuff that I want to try than I actually got around to "cooking", but I will look forward to checking this book out from the library again.
More later!
:)

Tell Me Something About Your Day

Took Miss M to the park today (during a break in the rain) so that she could run around, play, and just GET OUT!!! :) She had a lot of fun, and she had the whole play ground to herself!!
When we got home, SN had dough rising (yes, MY hubby had DOUGH rising!!!!) to make pizza crusts from scratch. So instead of him going to TJs and buying pizza crust, he made his own! And, a fun treat, we each had our own individual pizzas! He roasted up tons of veggies and made a quick sauce. Miss M went first and she only added sauce and cheese (unfortunately, I had put a new Dora movie in before the whole pizza thing got started and THAT was what she was really interested in), I added grilled portabella mushrooms, red peppers, red onions, and red potatoes!!, and, I think, SN had sausage and mushroom. Then each pizza cooked individually on the pizza stone and was pulled out by the (new!) pizza puller outter thing that SN went and got today from Cost Plus <- it's actually very nice and meant that we had no burnt fingers today!!! Hahahahaha!
Afterwards, we had a wonderful time putting Miss M to bed - a long fun bath (which we usually don't have the time to do on the week days) and then a long fun story time with dad - and she was pooped by about 7:30!!! She fell right out. Ahhhhh!
So now, I'm here doing this, I can hear SN in the living room playing Bejeweled and everything else is nice in quiet. And, as usual, since she has gotten to bed early, we will most likely get to bed early, too!!
Tomorrow, I am planning to make granola bars (from the book RAWvolution) in the dehydrator that my dad lent me last weekend - we will see how that works out! I turned it on during the week and it sounds very quiet, but it also smells like something is burning (but, I guess that could be the motor that just hasn't been used in years.....we will see...SN told me that we had to be home when I ran it for the first time, just to make sure it doesn't "burn the whole place down"). This is my initial trial run to see if I would really buy one of my own - or if I think I would really use it enough to actually justify spending the money on it...I guess my raw food journey continues!!
And, before I forget, something Miss M asked me last week -Mommy, tell me how your day was. And I said -My day was good. And she said -No, tell me about your day at work. And after I told her some things, she said -I have something to tell you about my day!!! I LOVE IT.
More later!!!
:)

Beautiful Lunch Time Salad

Alright - I don't generally snap pics of my food here....I think this is the first time ever! But, this salad was sooo beautiful, I just couldn't resist - salad greens and radishes from my CSA basket, persimmons from the farmers market, raw walnuts, and clover sprouts with a mustard seed vinagarette (from the book Ani's Raw Food Kitchen). Wonderful and delicious!!! And at my desk at work!! It was a lunch-time treat!

I just got this book (Ani's) and it is great!! I also made the Pizza Cheeze tonight to put on a pizza for dinner and it was so good! Everything that I have made out of her book has been delicious (which I find to be a rare thing, indeed). She also has tons of info on the raw food life - not something I have completely commited to, but have a recent interest in exploring.... As a side note, this cheeze came out better than the other recipes that I have found to use on pizza - it was creamy, garlicky, and well seasoned without being heavy or salty!! MMMMM.....

I don't know if I am allowed to reprint the recipe here - so, let's just say macadamia nuts (from my CSA), garlic, basil, lemon juice, and...that's the idea....wonderful. I think I could also pass it off in lasagna!!! yum-yum!

More later!

:)