Raw banana split!

Okay, I finally made the yummiest raw banana split!

Step 1: Make your raw ice cream. Blend (in a blender preferably, or a food processor if you're lazy like me): 1/3 c soaked raw cashews, 1/3 c raw sugar/maple syrup/agave, 1+ t vanilla.

Pour your raw ice cream mixture into ice cube trays. Freeze.



Step 2: When you're ready to make your banana split, get your toppings ready first.

Chop your fruits, add agave nectar and let sit.



Mix your chocolate syrup: oil + agave + cacao powder. (See earlier posts.)

Gather your toppings: buck wheaties, goji berries, raw cacao nibs (or chocolate chips, if you're like my husband and you're a choc-a-holic.)



Step 3: Put your raw ice cream cubes into the food processor. Add a spoon of water or two. Blend under smooth.



Step 4: Put your banana splits together! Just something we found out: using all the raw ice cream cubes between two people make HUGE banana splits. So, I hope you're hungry!

Layer your bananas, ice cream and toppings:









This really takes less time than you think it does. If you keep some frozen ice cream around all the time, it's easy to put together.

YUM!

Italian Sun Dressing / Dip

INGREDIENTS
1 c sunflower seeds, soaked
1/4 c olive oil
up to 1/4 c lemon juice
1/2 t salt
1/2 - 1 t dried basil, thyme, oregano
nama shoyu and water, to taste
handful of parsley
1-2 t apple cider vinegar (to taste)
1-2 t agave (to taste)

The original dressing recipe didn't have vinegar or agave in it.. but the dressing was boring and had that typical raw-foods-lemony flavor. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE lemons. I use them all the time. But so many raw foods recipes that I've found use lemon as the souring agent - but then everything ends up with just a basic lemon flavor. Boring, right?

So, once you've added all the ingredients (except the last two), blend. Then, begin by adding the vinegar and agave, then taste it. Add a little more of the vinegar if it's not sour enough.. add a little agave if the vinegar smell is too overpowering. Just add a little at a time until you find the right balance.

Use more water for a thinner dressing. Use less water for a thicker dip.

YUM!

Raw meat balls

These measurements are approximate. I saw this on a youtube video.. I can't remember.. something like Renegade Health? or something?

Anyway.. they're pretty good! I'm going to fiddle with the spices next time. I think mine are missing something. But still pretty yummy.

INGREDIENTS
1 c soaked almonds
1 c portobello mushroom, marinated with oil, garlic, nama shoyu
herbs until it smells right: parsley, thyme, oregano, garlic
up to 1/2 c olive oil
to taste: salt and pepper

Form into 1" balls.

Dehydrate at 110 degrees for 4-6 hours.

Serve in yummy lettuce wraps! Avocado and balsamic vinegar work great. I used an Italian Sun Dressing recipe that I modified. (See the next post.)

Best... ice... cream... ever

You won't believe how awesome this is! Even I didn't believe it.

This time we made strawberry ice cream. More flavors to come!

*This recipe will make 4 big bowls of ice cream. So, serve 4 people or, like us, you'll get dessert twice! I used less sugar than called for in Juliano's book and tweaked the recipe a bit. But the principle is the same.

You will LOVE this recipe!

INGREDIENTS
2/3 c soaked cashews
10 strawberries
1/4 c maple syrup
1/4 c raw agave nectar
1/2-1 t vanilla
1 c water

TOPPINGS
goji berries
dried fruit: cherries, cranberries, raisins, strawberries, whatever!
buckwheat crunchies (see in earlier post. It's just sprouted and dried buck wheat groats.)
liquid chocolate (see in earlier post)

DIRECTIONS
Soak your cashews for a few hours. Drain.

In a blender, mix all of your ingredients together until they're as smooth as you can get them.

Pour into ice trays and freeze.

When you're ready for ice cream, simply put your frozen ice cube trays in some hot water to melt it a bit. Then, the cubes will fall easily into your food processor.



Blend. Add a teaspoon or two of water if you need it.



Now, layer in a bowl with your favorite toppings! I prefer goji berries. My husband wanted cherries - but he mentioned that they get hard when you add them to the frozen ice cream.



Add lots of crunchy buckwheaties! And I used two spoons of chocolate - one in the middle layer and one on top.



OH MY WOW. This is AMAZING!

Raw cheese burger #1

RAW the UNcook book has more than one cheeseburger recipe.. but I don't have a juicer (yet).. so I'm making the first burger recipe this morning. I've got flax crackers that I can use for the buns or even cabbage - which I love using as bread. It's beautiful AND yummy.

Cheese Burger #1
INGREDIENTS
1 c raw cashews, soaked
1 c raw almonds, soaked
1 c portobello mushrooms, chopped
1/2 c grated carrot
1 T white miso
1/4 c minced onion
2 T Nama Shoyu or 2 t Celtic sea salt
1 t coriander, ground
2/3 c seaweed water or vegetable juice
dash: curry, paprika, ginger

Directions:

in a food processor, puree nuts, mushrooms and carrots. Then, add remaining ingredients and puree. The recipe says to form into 2 4-inch patties on mesh dehydrator sheet. Dehydrate 8 hours at 90'F. Now, top with cheese slices (see previous post for 'yummy raw sandwiches') if you want and dehydrate another 2 hours.

NOTE: This recipe made like 8 patties, not two.

Layer your burger with all the yummy extras you enjoy. I only wish I had a ripe avocado right now. Add mustard, ketchup, tomatoes, pickles, cucumbers, lettuce, cabbage or whatever you like.

The only thing that could've made this better was if I had made the raw toast a little differently. It was actually good!.. but crumbly. I'm sure that's just because I used the extra buckwheaties I had on hand, rather than the sprouts that it called for. I'll correct it next time.



But the burger - and the cheese - were both SO YUMMY!

Enjoy!

Raw: veggies, chips and dip

The cheese slices from the previous post are made of mostly corn.. though I think I used so much herbs that I can't really taste the corn anymore! Oh well.. they're still good.

Enjoy your food for what it IS, not what it ISN'T.

So.. just dehydrate one of the trays of your cheese slices for an extra few hours or even a day.. until they're as crispy as you want. Store in an airtight container and use as chips with your veggies.

Yummy!

DIP INGREDIENTS
1 c raw cashews, soaked a few hours, drained
1/2 - 1 c red bell pepper
topped with salt and pepper at the end

Blend dip ingredients in a personal blender. Add a little water as needed - but don't make it runny. Don't forget to top with your HImalayan or Celtic Sea Salt. Both are excellent choices. *I rarely add any salt in my recipes. I use it on the top at the end. You'll use less and taste more!*

SOOOO good!

Yummy raw sandwiches!

I'm going through my RAW, the UNcook book, by Juliano. There are such beautiful photos and great recipes.. I almost forgot! So, while I'm sprouting what I need for the 'real toast' recipe, I wanted to try some of the other recipes that don't require sprouting. Here goes:



I imagine this sandwich looks slightly different than you're used to. Heck, it was different for me, too.. but YUM!

I'm experimenting with raw cheeses and breads (made in the dehydrator) and here are my first two experiments this week:

Flax Crackers
INGREDIENTS
1 c ground flax seeds
1 c flax seeds
1/3 c chopped red bell pepper
1/3 c fresh cilantro, chopped
2/3 c sun-dried tomatoes
1 1/4 c diced tomatoes
1 t minced jalapeno
1 T minced garlic
1 T olive oil
1 t celtic sea salt

Blend everything but your whole flax seeds in a food processor. Transfer to a bowl and mix-in the whole flax seeds. Spread on teflex sheet and dehydrate at 90'F for 4 hours, or until top is dry. Cut them into desired sizes/shapes and transfer to a mesh sheet. Dehydrate until crisp, about 5 hours.




Cheese Slices (or chips)
INGREDIENTS
1/4 c ground flax seeds
3 c frozen corn kernels
1/2 c chopped cilantro
1 t habanero chili, chopped
1 t minced giner
1 t garlic
dash: curry, salt, paprika
1/2 c fresh-squeezed orange juice
1/4 c olive oil

Blend in food processor until mostly-smooth. Spoon onto dehydrator sheet in big square or circles, for sandwiches. Dehydrate at 100'F for 5 hours or until cheese assumes a chewy-crisp texture.

If you want to make some into chips, just dehydrate until crispy! (That's what I did.)

Easy, fast dinner

I wanted dinner in a hurry.. so here's what I did! I made a quick, cheese-y cashew butter and smeared it inside some wonderful red cabbage (my favorite.) Topped it with whatever veggies I could find in the house - and we made some raw taco meat (see earlier post.) It was so easy.

That's it!



INGREDIENTS
2 heaping T raw cashew butter
1-2 T nutritional yeast
dash of: cayenne, salt, pepper, cumin (use your favorite spices)

Blend ingredients in a personal blender and voila! Instant dinner!

*If you want it to have that cheese-y or yogurt-y tartness, you could make it before hand and cover with a cheese cloth until it sours a little. You can even speed-up the process by adding a little bacteria (I've used acidophilus before) and letting it sour.

Tyler liked the cheese at first (with his baked chips) but thought it needed to be more sour so that's what I'll do next time. Great idea!

More donut holes

I love, loves, love Ani Phyo's raw donut holes. I know, I know, they're not donut holes. So what! They're fantastic. I've come to the conclusion that raw foodies have to give their creations names that cooked-food people will recognize so they'll try them.

You'll regret it if you miss these!

I ran out of my dried pineapple (we eat it so quickly) that I had to experiment with my next batch of donut holes. Seriously, we can't get enough. So, here's what we did:

INGREDIENTS
1/2 c freshly dried fruit
1/2 c raw almonds
1/2 c dates (your choice)
Dash of vanilla - either 1/2 bean or 1/4-1/2 t
1-2 t maple syrup
pinch of sea salt

See the previous post for Ani Phyo's original creation using pineapple. YUM!

I measured 1/2 c of the dried fruit I had left - strawberries, papaya and some pineapple. Beautiful, right??



Mix all the above ingredients together in a food processor and chop until chunky. Then, roll yours in your favorite topping: dried coconut, chopped nuts or raw sugar.

Voila!



We usually devour Medjool dates everyday but I wanted to try something different this time. That's why we used Deglet Noor dates. They aren't as sticky or moist as Medjool so we also added a little maple syrup to the mix.



Endless combinations!

I dare you to eat just one. You can't!

First raw candy experiment

To make the chocolate:

INGREDIENTS
3/4 c cold-pressed olive oil
1/4 c sweetener: raw sugar, agave or maple syrup (if you use raw sugar, you may have to add a little more olive oil to your mixture)
up to 1 c raw cacao powder
1 T mesquite powder (optional)

Mix the above ingredients to make the chocolate. You can play with the oil/sugar ratio to make it as sweet or as dark as you like.

Step 1: I sprayed a little OO into each candy mold and froze.
Step 2: After about an hour I filled them each halfway with chocolate:



Step 3: I ended up leaving them in the freezer overnight. But then I put a little sweetened raspberry in each candy mold:



Step 4: Finally, I topped each mold with chocolate:



Step 5: I let them freeze solid before popping each candy out of its mold. This is why you use silicone molds!





This is my first time to make these candies and I learned a few things:

1) This chocolate mixture begins to melt quickly at room temperature, so next time I'll be using raw coconut butter instead of oil. These should remain solid at room temp. Ani Phyo uses coconut oil instead of OO so maybe hers stays solid at room temp?

2) When using OO, it's probably best to mix the fruit with the chocolate before pouring into the mold instead of layering. When I poured too much fruit into the middle of the chocolates, sometimes they didn't stay together and the top piece separated when I took them out of the mold.

3) These are SO good! Either way you'll enjoy them. I'll post my coconut butter experiments next.

Raw pineapple-donut holes (Don't miss this one!)

These are my new favorite dessert!!



I saw this on Ani Phyo's website. I can't believe it took me this long to try it. WOW. These will definitely become a regular dessert in our house.

You can see her video here and I'll post my directions below for you, too.
www.youtube.com/watch?v =LuGjDagUWNg

INGREDIENTS
1/2 c almonds
1/2 c freshly dried, chopped pineapple
1/2 c pitted dates
1/4 t vanilla
pinch sea salt
raw sugar or coconut

I halved Ani Phyo's recipe just to try it. . but honestly, if there are several of you or you're having a party feel free to double or triple this recipe! They are seriously the best dessert I've had in quite a long time. Yummmmmmy

There's something about fresh pineapple that makes the best, sweetest desserts. So, here goes. I dry my own freshly chopped pineapple. It's just better that way!.. and you can find a post about that in my blog somewhere if you want.

These are SO simple! Just put all of your ingredients (except the raw sugar) into the food processor.



Blend until mostly chopped.



Seriously.. isn't this dough beautiful? Your food is alive and healthy - and you will be, too!

Roll your donut mixture into balls. Then, simply roll around in the sugar and serve.



Ani Phyo rolls hers in coconut.. but I hate coconut. So I decided to roll the donut holes in raw sugar instead. I know, I know.. raw coconut is infinitely better for you but I just can't eat it. So, roll yours in your favorite dried topping - whether it's coconut, raw sugar or even crushed raw nut pieces.

These donut holes made one satisfied husband!

Raw raspberry ganache fudge cupcakes

I used Ani Phyo's Raspberry Ganache Fudge Cake recipe - and made personal-sized cupcakes with slightly less icing than she calls for. mmm mmm good

This recipe makes 6 cupcakes.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup (or more) raspberries + agave nectar

cake:
1.5 c raw cashews
1/3 c cocoa powder
1/8 t sea salt
1/2 c pitted dates

icing:
3 dates
1 T cocoa, agave and olive oil
plus 2 T of the juice from the raspberries you soaked earlier

DIRECTIONS

Mix your raspberries and agave. Squish them together a little and let sit.



Make the icing by blending in a personal blender. The more of the raspberry juice that you add, the more berry-flavored it will be. Don't skimp!



Now make the cupcake part. Blend all of the cupcake ingredients together in a food processor. Add a little water, if you need it. But not too much!





Now, I followed her instructions but instead of forming large pieces for the cake I made smaller, cupcake-sized pieces. Using cupcake cups as a guide layer: cake, sweetened raspberries, more cake and top with icing. Voila! (If you made extra icing, you can layer icing in the middle layer as well.. just keep in mind that your cupcakes won't last as long in the fridge because they'll get wetter faster. But if you're serving within a day it'll be fine.)

Plus, if your child likes to lick icing while you're baking this is a healthy way to let them indulge! Only you'll know that you're giving them potassium, calcium and iron without any bleached, unhealthy, diabetes- and obesity- causing white sugars in regular icings. Woohoo!

This recipe will make 6. They're even better the second day! .. and we just finished them, 4 days later. I recommend enjoying them within 4 days.



If you like chocolate.. try this. Serious yum yums.