¡Viva La Verde! Green Blog

Playing Catch-Up

2010-11-15T16:43:00.000-08:00

I am so proud of Roger's newly developed farming skills. He comes from a long line of city folks, so it is a major accomplishment that he can grow anything in my opinion. This spring mix he harvested Saturday morning for us to take to the market was the most beautiful I had ever seen, and delicious to boot. Am I blessed, or what?

I never got a blog out last week, and now I'm very disoriented! I also have two week's worth of beast reviews, so I think I'll get those on here first so that I don't have to worry about them anymore.

2 weeks ago box (delivered 10/30/10)

tomatillo salsa 5.56
almond butter cacao cups 5.50
Tamales 5.06
almond butter smoothie base 5.00
Hoisin sauce 4.86
caramel bars 4.63
soul dates 4.63
ensalada 4.57
chili lime corny chips 4.29
onion flat bread 4.20
Mu Shu Filling 4.00
Taco soup 3.93
Thai salad 3.92
chili mac topping w/ cheese sauce 3.86
cottage cheese 3.58

Some people may be wondering why some of the scores are higher than 5.0 when 5's are the highest score. There are 2 reasons for this: one is that some people like these items so much they give them higher scores than 5 to indicate this. When I average them, they raise the overall score, sometimes higher than 5 (especially when most of the other scores were high). Generally when someone likes something well enough to give it a higher than 5 score, everyone else liked it too.

The second reason there are scores higher than 5 is how much it bugs Darius. hehehe. You'd have to know how OCD he is to understand why... I know, he doesn't seem like the type, does he? Well, he's an engineer by trade, and they tend to be a little neurotic about their numbers. All of the numbers are legit, but I do enjoy averaging in those higher than 5 scores!

We're pretty happy about everything being above a 3.5. Of course, we'd love to have everything above a 4, but we see a three as average, as in "I like it all right, but I like this other thing better."

now for last week: 11/06/10

crunchmeister 5.83
Waldorf salad topping 5.75
raspberry granola 5.42
Asian salad 5.33
key lime pie 5.30
creamy broccoli soup 4.88
date bars 4.75
sushi & dipping sauce 4.42
stir fry 4.42
parsnip rice 4.33
enchiladas w/ sauces, cheese 4.25
lasagna layered veggies 4.10
everyday bread 3.70

So there it is. Some surprises. I always think it is funny when the stuff we just think is okay scores high, and the stuff we love doesn't do as well as other things.

We're pretty stoked about our menu for Thanksgiving. We've actually been working on it for several weeks (the menu, not the food). We finally decided on having a regular beast box that week that would be delivered 2 days early on Wednesday. Since some won't be having Thanksgiving vegan style, we decided to make an add-on with the holiday foods (stuffing, sweet potato souffle, and cranberry relish). Included in the weekly beast box will be some marinated portabello "steaks", braised greens, and mashed no-taters that can be used for any meal if one didn't want to eat it on Thanksgiving. Then we're going to load the rest of the box with LIGHT food so we can come down off the feasting!

The management of the Beaver Street Market has come to us twice in the last few weeks to ask us to extend the number of days we are there. They had asked us before, but they are really pushing for it now. Since we physically could not do it and keep up everything we normally do, we have not known what to do. There is a critical factor in that the market does not generate enough revenue to seriously consider it as a viable business decision, but we are wondering how many more people we could reach if we were able to be there most of the week. We'll have to wait and see if things fall into place.

I also owe the blog readers a couple of recipes. One of our customers really doesn't like any of the soups in the beast box. I think this might be 1) people like their soup hot, and 2) soups are best made fresh. We'd like a little more feed-back on this from our readers who have also eaten our soups so we know whether to keep working on this. Here's a nice soup to help lighten the load of the heavier foods everyone is eating this time of year:

Cucumber Soup

4 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded, and shredded

broth:

2 bunches celery juiced with leaves for 2 cups juice
⅔ cup tahini
6 T lemon juice
2 cloves garlic
1 t sea salt
½ t white pepper

Blend the broth well and stir in your shredded cucumber.

This is good topped with chopped scallions, diced avocado, and/or diced tomato. If you decide to heat this soup, please do so gently so as to preserve as many enzymes as possible.

Another recipe we are asked for a lot is our kale salad. This is another recipe that we think tastes better made fresh, so you won't see it in our beast boxes very often.

Savory Kale Salad

1 head kale, shredded
1 c tomato, diced
1 c avocado, chopped
2 ½ T olive oil
1 ½ T lemon juice
1 t sea salt
½ t cayenne

Mix all ingredients together, squeezing as you mix to wilt the kale and creaming the avocado. Serve immediately. We also like it with a little chopped sweet and/or green onion (but we like onions in everything).

We had a group over for a church activity this week, and we were excited to see how they'd like our vegan menu since they were meat eaters. We served tamales made with no-bean and marinated mushrooms, tomatillo salsa, crema, cotija (sesame parm), ensalada, creamy cabbage, veggie crisps, rooibos tea, and caramel bars. Either it went over pretty well, or they were very polite. I think the men wondered what they were eating, but they didn't say anything. The women all knew our lifestyle and had been pretty curious about it, so they asked a lot of questions. I think the main message we would like to get across is that raw vegan food can be good. At the market, we have learned that a lot of the vegan food that people have tried has not been very appetizing, so they are leary about trying it again. They are usually pleasantly surprised when they try some of our dishes.

I often wonder what it will take for people to eat more plant foods. As one of our customers put it last week, "God created them for us to eat not just look at and think 'Boy, they sure are pretty.'" In fact, they are as beautiful as they are so that we would be enticed into eating them. Imagine the garden of Eden where Adam and Eve were salivating over a pomegranate just coming into season or the first tangerine of the year the way we did last month. (I wonder if they even had seasons...Did everything just spring forth spontaneously regardless of the time of the year?)

Rough Times Ahead!

2010-11-02T05:47:00.000-07:00

Rough times ahead for everyone. I don't believe there is any way around it. I don't know anyone that is not struggling in at least one area of their lives, and many feel their lives are in complete chaos. How do we find a safe harbor?

It seems we have an inability to cope with our difficult circumstances. More and more people are using prescription medications to help them deal with the stress of everyday life. The non-legal coping mechanisms continue to thrive as well and are out of control. Is that what our Creator had in mind when He sent us to earth? Was life here on earth so difficult that the only way through it was to be numbed?

I personally spent a lot of years numbing myself with food. When I hurt, I ate. When I didn't want to think about something, I ate. When I didn't want to think about coping in a different way, I ate so I wouldn't have to think about it. (I can still remember having panic attacks everytime I watched The Biggest Loser. I would literally eat myself into an oblivion while watching the show. I guess I was worrying about what my life would be like without the foods they taught needed to be eliminated.)

I have known I was a compulsive overeater for many years. In fact, I attended a 12 step program in the early 80's and was successful in overcoming some of my problems. After moving back here however, I let my program slip. (I have lots of good excuses for why, but I digress...) It wasn't long before I was using the food again to help me forget my "pain". (I say it that way because I, unlike many others, have not had a horrible life that has given me difficult things to bear. In fact, I have had a wonderful life with a wonderful family. I suppose I am just a wimp in that I cannot cope with the stress of day-to-day life without using my drug of choice.)

When we discovered the lifesyle of eating mostly living foods could help us maintain a level of health previously unknown, we were unprepared for the emotional impact this would have on each of us. No longer would we have our crutches that had served us so willingly for so many years. We were forced to actually deal with the pain of everyday living. We found we did not know how to do this. All of my life, I had "used" so that I didn't have to do this. I didn't even know what really feeling my emotions would be like.

Actually where we see this the most is with our grandchildren. Because they live with us, they adopted our lifestyle choices along with us. I can see in them how difficult this change is. As little people who do not have a strong emotional base anyway, they are totally unable to deal with their feelings in constructive ways. Because they have had difficult things happen in their lives, they have a lot to deal with, a lot more than I have ever had. I really don't know how they do it without a crutch especially since they don't have the tools to which adults have access.

While thinking of this, I found myself asking this question: If we were not supposed to have to be numbed while living here, what tools do we have exactly that can help us climb that mountain? Being a religious person, I found comfort in several examples in the scriptures of people who moved ahead and even endured to the end. I also found comfort in knowing that the Savior had endured all pains and had taken all my burdens upon Him. Why then did I have to hurt?

I remember something my youngest son told me when I was struggling. How could we hope to have anything great in this life or the next if we did not have to pay any kind of price for it? Personal growth does not come in being perfect - it comes in the effort to be perfect. Once perfect we would stop growing. How grateful we should be for the challenge then!

I had to find the exact quote from my son(it's from Neal A. Maxwell):

“How can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art! Then let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy joy!” (Ensign, May 1991, 88).

Time to find out what kind of cloth I really am cut from. I am always telling others, "It is never as bad as we think it is going to be." You'd think I'd believe it as many times as I've said it. We just build it up so much in our mind that it seems insurmountable. Well, it's not. There's nothing we can't handle one step at a time. It's when we quit moving ahead that we falter.

Here's our beast box scores for last week (not too many items make it to the top that are not desserts!):

tomato chewies 5.50
marshmallow cream cheese (fruit dip) 5.14
Caesar salad 5.00
honey almond butter 5.00
All Am Veggie Burger 4.71
rawky road 4.64
creamy spinach soup 4.57
zucchini nests (for pizza) 4.43
veggie crisps 4.43
macadamia ricotta 4.33
Alfredo sauce 4.14
tangy coleslaw 4.14
sweet potato chips 3.86
living taco fixins 3.57

We were pleased with these scores (none lower than a 3.5). Once again, it is a lot of fun experimenting with recipes we have been collecting and thinking about but have not had much time or room in the fridge for.

Recipe this week - the smoothie base from last week was a big hit, and here's the recipe:

4 tablespoons coconut oil
2 teaspoon lecithin
2 teaspoon vanilla
2 pinches sea salt
2 cups cacao nibs
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ cups agave nectar
1 almond mylk recipe

Mix well. Blend 1 cup of this base with 2 frozen bananas.

Almond Mylk

2 cups almonds, soaked 4 - 6 hours
8 cups water

Blend well and strain.

The Compost's the Thing

2010-10-26T18:13:00.001-07:00

Well, I have to be honest. I am having a hard time getting everything done, and I'm not sure why. Maybe my age is slowing me down or something. I really can't figure it out, but it sure is frustrating. There are so many things rattling around in my head these days, it is hard to center on a topic. Let's see...

I've been thinking about the upcoming gardening season. I've always felt like this is the optimal season to get crops in the ground, plus I love greens and lettuces, which do much better over the winter. Roger has been doing such a great job with composting our crops and keeping the weeds down. I marvel at this because that was my job for many years, and it is very difficult to stay on top of it.

Last year one of our customers told us how she mulches with cardboard boxes, so we have been excited to be able to use up all the cardboard that seems to find its way to our house. It really is a great way to mulch the crops and helps keep the weeds down, plus it gives us some great pathways through the rows.

Roger is much better at keeping up with the composting than I was for a number of reasons. First of all, we eat a lot more vegetation than we did back when it was my job, so we fill up our bins much faster. Because we have so much, he is motivated to clear out the first bin in the cycle so he can have another one when he fills up the last one. We've got it timed out so that the first one is usually ready when the last one gets filled up.

Another reason he's better at it than me is because he's just so darn much taller and stronger than me. It used to give me fits trying to use the pitch fork and move it around and so forth. It really is a job better suited to someone his size. (Of course, there aren't too many jobs well suited to my height, now that I think about it!)

I really believe compost is the most important thing we can do for our crops. If tasks have to be prioritized, which of course they do, I would have to say work on the compost and let other things like weeding and even irrigation go. Good compost rotation will go a long way in helping to solve other woes.

Besides just adding organic matter to the soil which is very important in Florida due to the high percentage of sand, I think compost is important because it is a living soil. We talk alot about eating living foods and preserving the enzymes in our food, but how our food is grown is an important part of how it will turn out when mature and ready for the table.

I'm convinced that a lot of people think they don't like their fruits and veggies because they have never eaten any that have grown in soils teeming with life. They really do taste differently.

For example, last year, Roger grew the most tender and tastiest collards imaginable. I couldn't believe it. I know his excellent management of the compost is what contributed to this. I use this as an example as many don't think of collards as a raw food nor a particularly tasty one. These were definitely the exception to that rule. We can't wait to start cutting them later this week and making some veggie wraps with them.

What else has he got out there? The pepper plants are producing bumper crops this fall, and that is a blessing as we use them in many of our recipes. Hopefully we'll be able to make some rellenos next week. He's also got some nice looking lettuce and the broccoli should be up in a couple of weeks. The cherry tomatoes he picked this week were out of this world as well. We've ordered more seed of our favorite kind to see if we can protect them over the winter and keep them going. They make other tomatoes seem like ugly stepchildren...

Well, I've rambled on about that long enough. We're having so much fun with our beast boxes and our beasties (the name we lovingly give our customers who purchase them), that we can hardly think about anything else. We're finding a box that will suit it better and will be looking for artwork with which to decorate it, etc. Who would have thought this would be this much fun.

My oldest son and his girlfriend finally tried some of the foods from it last week and had mixed reviews. I think they understand why the beasties all enjoy them so much anyway. He's been going with me to deliver them, and he's seeing how neat everyone is too, so he can see why I enjoy doing it as much as I do (I think).

Here's the results from the survey for the box from the week before last week. Highest ranking items are on top. (Some have asked why there are scores over 5 when 5 is the highest score, but some people assign higher numbers indicating 5 is not good enough. That's ok by me!)

5.40 Chocolate brownie mousse trifle
5.18 sushi rolls w/ dipping sauce
5.00 smoothie
5.00 fruit add-on
4.50 veggie add-on
4.70 spinach salad w/ sliced pear, candied pecans, & raspberry vinaigrette
4.67 cheesy crackers
4.45 Mexi-cali wraps
4.39 mushroom, pepper, onion fajita filling
4.31 peanut sauce
4.30 Hawaiian granola
4.20 sweet bell pepper soup
4.14 carrot patch dessert
4.05 Mexican rice
4.00 pickled beets
3.21 cashew flower cinnamon yogurt

This was a good week; nothing scored less than a 3! We appreciate everyone's kindness and effort they took to respond.

Last week's survey just went out, so we'll see how everything fares this week. We work in so many weeks at the same time, it is hard to keep it all straight.

This week we are making something that is new to me, mu shu with hoisin sauce. Apparently this is a popular food at Asian restaurants and though I've never tried it, it sounded delicious, so we are excited about it. We've made the tamales several times before and love them, so we are anticipating good reviews on them. Desserts are always popular, and we are trying two new ones this week: almond butter cacao chunks and caramel bars. Well, I'm not going to say anymore; I'll send out the e-mail on that shortly.

For our recipe this week, I'm posting a sauce to copycat fish sauce for Brian, one of our customers. He was excited to see we had bok choy as they have a great recipe they love, but it calls for fish sauce, and they didn't know what to substitute for it so the dish could be healthier.

Here's info I found about it on the internet -

Fish sauce is a thin, salty liquid that is used in place of salt as a seasoning in many Asian recipes, and also serves as a dipping sauce. Made from salted fish, it is rich in Vitamin B and protein.

Although associated primarily with Vietnamese and Thai cuisine, fish sauce is also found in southern Chinese dishes. Depending on where it was made, you'll find it sold under a number of names. Chinese brands are often labeled "fish gravy" or "fish sauce," while it is called "nuoc mam" in Vietnam and "nam pla" in Thailand. However, they are all basically the same product, although the Thai and Vietnamese brands are considered superior.

Fish sauce can be stored indefinitely without refrigeration in a dry place.

Written by Rhonda Parkinson
Also Known As: Nuoc Mam, Nam Pla, fish gravy
Recipes Using Fish Sauce: Tom Yum Gung - Thai Hot and Sour Soup

Instead of fish, this recipe uses sea vegetables. This ones for you, Brian:

Better-Than-Fish Sauce

yields 3/4 cup

3 tablespoons hiziki seaweek, soaked in 1/3 cup water (reserve water)
1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons dulse flakes
1/2 large date
1/4 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons nama shoyu

Blend all the ingredients including the soak water together until smooth.

Let me know how it turns out!

Better Late Than Never, Right?

2010-10-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

Better late than never, right? I've been behind for about a week and a half now and wondering when I can play catch-up.

Since I didn't blog last week, these survey results are for the beast box the week before last...

3 + pumpkin seed cheese (dip for crudites)
4 Olive, tomato, & basil cheese spread (for open-face sandwiches)
5 cilantro pesto (sauce for veggie or other kind of pasta)
5 + guacamole (dip for corn chips)
4 + chili con crema
5 House salad; lettuce, celery, carrots, onion, topped with sunnies, raisins, dulse, and Ranch dressing
3 + creamy coleslaw
4 + vinaigrette for a side salad
4 + everyday bread (open face sandwiches)
4 + chili lime corny chips (dippers for the guac)
4 + buckwheaties (dip for bananas)
4.5 soul dates
4.5 chocolate macaroons
5 + pumpkin pie

The scale is 1 for "hated it" (Yay, we didn't get any of those!) and 5 for "can't wait to eat it again".

Last week's box had some neat stuff in it, but I'll post survey results of them later since all of that is gone now. This week we're having some fun with party foods since Gayle is having a yoga retreat in Florahome and is wanting hors d'euves. If anyone is interested in going to her shindig, let me know, and I'll pass on the details to you.

The beast box this week will have the following items:

All American veggie patty with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, tomato, mustard, and mayo
Alfredo pasta sauce
living taco fixings: unfried no-bean, salsa fresca, crema
macadamia ricotta
tangy coleslaw
sweet potato chips
Caesar salad: Romaine lettuce with croutons, sesame parmesan, dulse, and Caesar dressing
creamy spinach soup
zuccini nests (on which to nestle your pizza toppings)
veggie crisps
honey almond butter
tomato chewies
marshmallow cream cheese (for dipping fruit)
rawky road

Our recipe this week is for "Everybody's Favorite Salad" (according to the Top Raw Men - get it? They made a joke!) You can make everything ahead and just pour it over cleaned and trimmed Romaine. Easy peasy.

Everybody's Favorite Salad

2 large heads of Romaine lettuce, washed and torn into small pieces
2 avocados, pitted and spooned into salad bowl
2 tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons raw apple cider vinegar (i.e. Braggs)
3 tablespoons extra virgin cold pressed olive oil
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 teaspoons sea salt or to taste
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup raisins

Mix ingredients together. Let is sit for 10 minutes before serving.

The dressing ingredients will keep for a couple of days in the fridge. When you're ready to eat, just pour them over the fresh salad greens.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

2010-10-03T04:54:00.000-07:00

Breaking up with old patterns for living that aren't working for us can be one of the most difficult things we ever do in our lives. Even when we realize it isn't working, many of us stick with it long after we should have made a change. Why? Comfort zones? Maybe. I'm wondering how much of it is because the behavior is somehow addicting to us. (The definition of addiction is "psychological and/or physical dependency; ... often cause guilt, shame, fear, hopelessness, failure, rejection, anxiety, or humiliation symptoms associated with, among other medical conditions, depression and epilepsy" (Wikipedia, "addiction").

To me, one of the most profound acts done by any human being has been the creation of 12 step programs for the recovery of addiction. When I think about the first men and women who began these programs and how incredible it was that they had the courage and inspiration to do so, it baffles my mind.

What has this to do with a living foods lifestyle? First, I believe most of the food issues in the media nowadays stem back to the highly addictive lifestyle most of America eats. The word addiction is rarely used to describe it; however, how else can one explain the harmful continuation of a practice that ultimately leads to destruction? The raw vegan lifestyle, to me, not only eliminates addictive and destructive foods, it is the only one that does so in my opinion.

As I came to understand the raw vegan lifestyle which is viewed as extreme by even those who have embraced vegetarian or veganism, I found a way of eating that provided the perfect food plan for me, a compulsive overeater. While there are recipes I have tried and/or developed that are delicious and enjoyable, none could be defined as addictive (despite comments to that effect by those that try them).

To quote a pamphlet from Overeaters Anonymous, a 12 step program for people who cannot stop eating foods that are harmful for them, "Using a plan of eating is the beginning of freedom from compulsive overeating. Instead of depending on resolutions and willpower to help make good decisions in front of the refrigerator or in the restaurant, we develop a sensible plan of eating in advance" (A Plan of Eating, OA pamphlet, p. 2).

While it is important to accept a food plan for abstinence from harmful foods in order to "cure" an addiction to unhealthy foods, I have found I also have to work the 12 steps to be able to accomplish this. I don't know if this is true for everyone, but I am hoping it will be helpful to at least one other person. If I can help anyone recognize this and overcome their personal addiction to unhealthy foods, that would be a great thing. We come into contact weekly with folks that can't break the cycle of destructive substances; rarely do they even recognize it as addiction. That would be the first step: recognizing we are powerless over food (especially those foods that destroy health) and that our lives have become unmanageable.

This week I have found a vendor for kelp noodles that carries a larger size for a better price than we were able to get the smaller 12 oz size usually found in markets. This is exciting, because it brings it into a price range where we can use it in our beast boxes and give everyone a chance to try these. We like them in Asian cuisine where they are most suited as a substitute for glass noodles, but they are great to use in any recipe where you want a real noodle instead of (or with) a vegetable style noodle.

I hope by now everyone has at least tried substituting veggie noodles for white flour pasta noodles. I was surprised at how good this was and wondered why we hadn't always chosen to shred up vegetables as a base for yummy sauces. The kelp noodles add another dimension to it.

We have found that many people have an aversion to sea vegetables maybe because they are not so lovingly nicknamed sea weeds. According to dictionary.com, a weed is "an undesirable plant growing in cultivated ground", hence wild plants growing in the ocean would hardly fit the definition. (Of course, I take issue with most plants that are normally called weeds being considered "undesirable" since they can all be used in some way. Just because we are unfamiliar with their use does not justify the name calling...) Anyway, I digress.

My personal aversion to sea vegetables was because of their appearance I think. It all seemed so foreign and un-foodlike. I was in a living foods restaurant the first time I had the courage to try some, and I've loved them ever since. If we could get enough of them in the house, I'd eat some every day, but my granddaughter eats them by the pound, so it is hard to keep a supply on hand. I believe we will find out some day that there are nutrients in the sea vegetables that her little body needs for healing purposes. Our family favorites are dulse, arame, nori, kelp granules, and kelp noodles. I expect our repetoire will increase over time. We had some great sea vegetables in Miami the last time we were there, but I haven't located a source for them yet. Maybe my readers will have additional suggestions too. I'll try anything now. It hasn't always been like that.

My favorite way to use nori is as a wrap for salad. We all like to grab a few sheets, lay a few forkfuls of salad on one end, and roll. I like to do mine all at once, and by the time I've finished the fourth one, the first one has softened up a little bit due to the moisture in the salad. Then I have a handy dandy sea burrito! Delicious.

My favorite way to use kelp noodles is to mix them with shredded zucchini and us the mock peanut sauce to dress them. Some shredded bell pepper and onion is good too. We'll have some as one of our entrees next week, I promise.

According to The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw, sea vegetables "are a source of important minerals and nutrients such as calcium, zinc, protein, and trace elements like iodine." Here's a recipe from their book using arame, one of the mildest flavored sea veggies:

Rainbow Salad

1 cup arame, soaked 30 minutes and drained
1/4 cup carrot, peeled and grated
1/4 cup red cabbage, sliced thin
1/4 cup green onion, diced small
1/2 teaspoon ginger or garlic, peeled and minced
4 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon raw apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons agave nectar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 teaspoons nama shoyu or to taste

Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl mixing well. Serve immediately. Garnish with sesame seeds if desired. This would also be a great filling for Nori rolls.

Our beast box menu this week has some interesting surprises. We love cilantro so much, we decided to try a cilantro pesto. We'll mix it into shredded zucchini and yellow squash noodles. We might chop a few tomatoes into it. The cilantro gives it a beautiful green color. We'll also have a side salad with it. (The pesto and vinaigrette for the side salad will be included with the beast box; the salad and veggie noodles can be purchased as part of the veggie add-on.)

Our main dish salad this week will be our classic ¡ Viva La Verde ! House salad which includes lots of yummy toppings: ball park sunnies, raisins, and dulse along with our delicious Ranch salad dressing.

The big dipper this week is a pumpkin seed cheese for use with crudites of your choice. (The veggie box has baby cucumber spears, parsnip sticks, baby carrots, celery sticks.)

We are also having a chip n dip: guacamole and chili lime corny chips. (Corny because no corn!) You might also enjoy this with some veggies.

As an aside, I have always been troubled by guacamole since it turns dark and ugly so fast. For that reason I took it out of the catalog because I just couldn't figure out how to keep it nice for the market. I asked Laurie, who orders it several times a month even though it isn't in the catalog anymore, how she dealt with that problem, and she told me that she freezes it until she's ready to eat it. I knew it froze well, but for some reason, I had never thought of doing that even though a few of our desserts (including a couple made with avocado) are sold frozen. So, it's back in the catalog. Just keep it frozen until you're ready to eat it, and let it thaw for a few minutes. This week it is available with or without tomato. I can't tell the difference in the taste, but Laurie claims there is.

Also featured this week is one of our favorite meals, the open-faced sandwich. For the base, we've made some of our everyday bread, a sprouted buck wheat cracker with carrot and honey to help flavor it. The spread is a delicious sun-dried tomato, olive, & basil cream cheese spread. We're going to top it with sliced tomatoes and some sprouts (veggie toppers are in the add-on).

The soup and salad this week is chili con crema & creamy coleslaw. Prior to this recipe for chili, we had varying degrees of success. One day while I was at the Beaver Street Market, this recipe came into my head, and I called home and asked Alicia to put it together, so we could see what it tasted like. It was really good, so we make it regularly now (at least in the colder part of the year). It's a simple recipe made with lots of good veggies and a delicious tomato base. We top it off with some of our hemp cashew cheese sour cream. The cole slaw is a creamy one made with a cashew sour cream base sweetened with agave nectar. (I can't stand cole slaw that is not sweet. It's just wrong. Sorry to those who aren't as sweet challenged as I am.)

Our snacks this week are some buckwheaties and soul dates. Buckwheaties are a dehydrated sprouted buckwheat. I think it tastes a little like grapenuts. We use them most often to dip bananas into, and Darius likes to use them to fill the little cavities in raspberries. So we've put both bananas and raspberries in the fruit add-on this week.

Soul dates are a little snack that goes a long way to satisfy your hunger in between meals. Roger used to buy these at health markets where they are outrageously priced. I told him he would have to figure out a way to make them as he was breaking the bank with buying 5 or 6 boxes a week. Surprisingly, he did! (By way of history, he can barely cook, let alone figure out a new recipe. That goes to show you how much he loves these things.) We named them soul dates as they are the heart and soul of Roger's success as a raw vegan. He goes NOWHERE without a box of them or a jar of dates in his backpack. They are good and very satisfying. You don't need much and can pinch off a piece of one to stave off hunger.

These also make a good pie crust. Smash one into one of the little cups we put all your food in, slice some banana on there, and top with any other fruit you have on hand (or something in the fruit add-on box), and you have a nifty fruit pie. You can even make a glaze by blending some of your raspberries in the fruit add-on with some agave nectar and spooning it on top, though the pie is good as is.

The desserts included this week is our “pumpkin” tart, a spicy little number in our regular line-up that we enjoy every week. No pumpkin though; we use carrots instead, but it tastes like the filling we enjoy by that name; the name "carrot tarts" just wouldn't do it!

We're also putting some chocolate macaroons in our box this week. This is a neat little cookie to help satisfy the chocolate monster that attacks every so often. We mix carob and raw cacao as we found cacao alone to be too stimulating. For some reason, the carob helps dissipate that.

Our survey results from last week were pretty good with the lowest score only a 3.25 on the kale chips, 3.75 on pita chips, and nearly a 4 on the lasagna. Our highest rating went to the BBQ veggie patty (a 6!), the Greek salad was a 5, veggie crisps a 4.75. Everything else fell between these: onion dip (4.25), sweet n sour sauce (4.7), butternut squash soup (4.0), carrot raisin salad (4.7), tomato chewies (4.0), and both desserts, apples layered with baklava filling and coconut cream banana dessert got 4+. Of course, not everyone votes, so we don't know if some of those would be lower (or higher) votes. It you'd like your opinion to count, please let us know what you like and don't like. High scores will be repeated; low scoring items won't.

Anyone ever hear of Mu Shu? I'm not a Chinese officiando, but the recipe for this sounds great. When the napa cabbage comes in, we'll have to get that on the menu. I'm not sure of everything on the menu next week, but I'm excited to find out. Hope you are too!

God is Great, God is Good

2010-09-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

I can't even begin to imagine where this is going to go this week as my brain is a blank canvas right now trying to get myself organized and done with everything I have to do.

Here's the results for our survey last week. Our personal overall favorite was the fajita mixture we placed on corn tostados with some cashew sour cream. Man, that was good. Our survey results gave it a 4.25 out of 5 as a couple of recipients weren't as crazy about it as we were. The highest scoring last week was the corn chips, the cumin flat bread, and the skinny mints with an average 4.5 rating. Greek dates were also up there with a 4.3; mac n cheese and corn tortillas both got 4's. Taboulleh, queso dulce, Caesar salad, salsa fresca, were in the high 3's, almost 4's while my beloved apple crisp only got a 3.25. Not unexpectedly, the miso soup and the down home greens only got 3's, which was the lowest score, thankfully.

We really are trying to give people lots of different choices to let them know how much is possible. People who try the beast box will definitely know that being a vegan or even a raw vegan is not about just eating salads and apples, oranges, and bananas. We are even trying to put more non-traditional fruits and veggies in the add-on boxes to give people what they might not buy themselves.

We've also reformatted our catalog; we're going to have a few staple things each week, and then items from the beast box can be ordered ala carte during the week they are available. We couldn't keep making all the things in our repetoire every week, and it was limiting how much we could experiment. Now, the sky is the limit!

I have "resigned" as head chef and turned the wheel over to Alicia. She is certainly capable of doing this, but that doesn't mean I like giving over the control. So far she hasn't worked me too hard...

We've got some new and different things in our beast box this week. Because some of the items were more expensive, and we wanted to keep the price the same, some of the veggies for the meals are included in the veggie box.

First off, there's some onion dip. One of our friends introduced this to us a few months ago, and we really like it. We are putting broccoli and cucumber in the veggie box to cut up to have with it. There's also some pita chips and or veggie crisps in the breads if people want to spread it on them.

We are also making a lasagna. This is zucchini noodles layered with marinated broccoli, marinated mushrooms, shredded carrot, baby spinach leaves, marinara sauce, macadamia ricotta cheese, and sesame parmesan sprinkled on top.

We are spiralizing some zucchini for the veggie box and preparing a sweet and sour sauce to pour over it. I love this with chopped pineapple, so we're putting a little bowl of that in the veggie box along with some slivered red pepper.

Something we don't have very often, but we wanted to include in our beasts every 6 weeks or so is a raw vegan veggie patty. Generally these are a combination of a few kinds of nuts; we are using walnuts, sprouted sunflower seeds, and almonds. These are combined with tons of veggies and some seasonings to make things interesting. We are also doing a great barbeque sauce to put on top. We have some carmelized onion to put on top too. I can't wait to see how people like it. I love them on top of a side salad so that I get a bite of salad with each bite of burger. Hence we are including the makings for a side salad in the veggie box. The vinaigrette included in the beast is for the side salad. No french fries though...

On a side note, I've seen where some raw fooders cut up jicama or a similar vegetable into french fry cuts and call them french fries. Wait a minute, my fake food blog was last week...

Our soup and salad this week is carrot raisin salad with a yummy mayonnaise made from cashews along with a squash soup. We'll be getting our vitamin A this week! I really love squash soup and look forward to it every fall when the winter squashes make their debut. We're not sure how it will hold over in the beast box as we always eat it when it is first made.

Greek salad is a delicious way to end the day. We're providing lettuce in the beast box, and in the veggie box are some extra veggies if people want them. We've got some delicious kalamata olives to sprinkle on there along with scoops of feta cheese. This is not the little cubes of feta like they have at the store. I make a cheese from cashews, sunflower seeds, and pine nuts, and mix it with onion, garlic, cilantro, oregano, and marjoram to give it some classic Greek flavor. It can then be scooped onto the salad and mixed in as it being eaten. (I had some last night with the leftovers, and it was delicious!) We've got a nice lemon herb vinaigrette to pour over the top.

Our snacks this week are two veggie ones: kale chips and tomato chewies. Both are marinated first and then dehydrated; we find them both irresistible. Our first dessert is a banana coconut cream pie with a nice chocolate crust. Our next dessert was pure inspiration. We made up a baklava filling for dates a few months ago, and we were thinking, "How would this taste layered with apples?" You can taste the result this week. In my humble opinion, it is sublime...

For my recipe this week, I'm going to post a paté. I really didn't know what these were when I first read about them. This one is called "Sunny Paté" and is from Nomi Shannon who wrote Raw Gourmet. These are an easy way to add variety to your salad meals.

Sunny Paté

3 cups sunflower seeds soaked 8 to 12 hours and sprouted 2 to 4 hours
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup roughly chopped scallions
1/2 cup raw tahini
2 tablespoons nama shoyu or 1 teaspoon celtic sea salt
2 to 4 slices sweet onion, cut in chunks
4 to 6 tablespoons coarsely chopped parsley
2 to 3 medium cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or more to taste (optional)

In a food processor, process the sunflower seeds, lemon juice, scallions, tahini, nama shoyu, onion, parsley, garlic, and cayenne to a smooth paste. Adjust the seasonings to taste. The paté will develop a stronger garlic flavor after a few hours, so don't overdo it at the beginning. This recipe tastes better if allowed to sit in the fridge for a few hours.

I'm not feeling too philosophical this week, so I guess I'll call it a day. I've got some apples I need to go layer. I think one of the reasons I love raw food cookery so much is there is plenty of time for peeling off my own layers while I peel, slice, and chop. Nearly all of our menus involves handling living food the earth has offered up for our enjoyment. Gabriel Cousins calls it "Conscious Eating" - thinking about what we eat and what a miracle of creation each substance is. What a loving Father to give us so much variety and deliciousness. How could anyone not see Him as generous?

Fake Foods

2010-09-24T05:03:00.001-07:00

A lot of things have been running around in my mind this week, so it has been hard to narrow it down to something that was intelligible. We were asked an interesting question at the market last week. A woman asked, "Is everything here in your section organic?" When I answered that it was, she asked, "How do you know that?" At first I didn't understand her question, but then I understood that she was asking how does anyone know that what they are getting and paying a higher dollar for is of any different quality than the lower priced product.

This is an interesting question. When we first brought Darius home from the hospital after his 30 day stay there, he was in a very weakened state. I prayed to know what to do to help him, and I was inspired to feed him "mild" foods. Not knowing what that meant, I had to think about it and pray a little more. I did some research and found the following scripture: "And whosoever among you are sick, and have not faith to be healed, but believe, shall be nourished with all tenderness, with herbs and mild food, and that not by the hand of an enemy" (Doctrine and Covenants 42:43). My mind conceived this to be foods that could digest easily so that his body could use its vital energies to help him heal.

I remembered a book I had read many years before, Fit for Life, where the authors explain this concept. I was grateful I had learned this though I had not implemented it to any great degree at that time. Foods that are easy to digest are fruits and vegetables primarily, especially juices of them. Darius' wife and I were now on a mission to get as many "mild" foods into him as we could. We purchased 25 pound bags of carrots, pounds and pounds of spinach and celery, and trays and trays of wheat grass. As we poured these elixirs in him, we were relieved to see his strength returning. It was truly a miracle!

We decided that as we purchased these "mild" foods as well as the other foods he would be eating, we should buy the ones as chemical free as possible so as not to tax his digestive system even more. This meant buying organic. So how would we know what was organic?

We had long grown our own vegetables and fruits in a chemical free manner using compost and mulch to build up the soil. We had hand-picked off the insects that occasionally came around for their daily munchies. To produce the quantity Darius needed though, vegetables would need to be purchased, so we had to rely on the vendors at the health food stores in the area.

We have learned that organically grown food is different than certified organic. Which one is better? There is a trust factor, certainly. For me, I visit the farms of those who claim to be growing organic but do not as yet have certification. Because I have grown food this way for many years, I know what I am looking for. It is not just the absence of poisons that makes it organic; it is the soil that makes it organic as far as I am concerned (assuming the farmer has the aversion to poisons that I have).

What I have come to learn is that organically grown food really does taste better. I think one of the reasons that so many people don't think they like a plant based diet is because the thought of eating all those gross tasting (i.e. chemical tasting) things is pretty disgusting. Even before this happened to Darius, I had started buying only organically grown lettuce as I found the chemical taste of conventional lettuce to be very off-putting. Now that I only eat plant foods, I am very sensitive to that chemical taste. I feel that fruits and vegetables that are grown properly (i.e. with soil that is highly developed with organic matter) have a sweet well-rounded rich flavor with no chemical aftertaste at all.

2 examples: one of our customers got a spinach salad from us last week where we provided a pear to slice over it to go with the candied pecans and raspberry vinaigrette. She e-mailed to say it was the best pear she had ever had, and could she please have some more. I don't think we have the best pears available; I think she had just never had an organic pear.

On the reverse side, another customer told me that she has a friend dying from cancer. When our customer suggested she change her diet to a plant-based diet to relieve some the stress a conventional diet was putting on her, the other lady said she would rather die than eat only that "stuff" -- and she will! That lady has never sat down to a whole day of plant-based goodies, now has she? We often remark at our house how blessed we are to have all these wonderful things to eat.

So this brings us full circle back to our beast boxes. You knew I would get around to them, didn't you? As we strive to come up with menus and foods that inspire our customers to eat a more plant-based diet, we want folks to know that these foods really are good. There really is not a sacrifice involved in eating this way. We may have to develop our palettes to appreciate some things we aren't used to, but time will give us that. If God intended us to eat a plant based diet (you know Adam and Eve were raw vegans, right?), He would not have wanted it to be a negative experience. Of course, our addictions to our former way of eating color our appreciation of the foods that we were really intended to eat.

Reminding me of something another customer said in her response to our beast box survey: "We have really enjoyed trying new food. It has opened up a new world of fun possibilities. I guess the biggest thing is to realize that while the raw versions are very good they are not going to really have the taste or texture of the real thing."

Ha! the "real thing" is really only our perception of what it should taste like. For example, we have a red pepper, onion, and mushroom fajita as one of our foods this week. Who is to say what a fajita is supposed to be? If all you knew is the one you get in the beast box this week, you would be content. If you, however, expect it to taste and feel like the one at the cocina, you will probably be disappointed. It's not that you won't like this one; it is just that your brain is expecting it to be something else.

Perhaps we should not call the foods by names by which other foods are called. Perhaps we should think of all new names for them so there are no pre-conceived notions. We'll work on that. Using familiar names helps us know what we are getting into.

My biggest problem with this is the raw vegan breads. To call them breads at all is an atrocity. I baked yeast breads for 30 years before entering this lifestyle, and I cannot wrap my brain around this cracker thing being called a bread. Nor can I accept that this cracker thing is anything like the little orange crackers I ate a box of every week of my life before adapting healthier habits. My solution? I don't eat raw vegan bread very often. I don't need it or want it. I don't dislike them, I just can't get my brain to accept them as bread. When I need a vehicle to hold my avocado mayo and tomato slices, I can eat them and enjoy them immensely. Just don't call them bread... they are tomato holders!

Well, I didn't think all the things running around in my head were in any way related to one another, but I got every one of them into the same discussion. Well, kind of. The reader is probably totally lost and gave up paragraphs ago. On to a more sensible subject: this week's menu.

As mentioned previously, we are making a mushroom / red pepper / onion "fajita". The "tortilla" is an actual corn chip in a circular shape dehydrated until it is hard. We have to dry them to that extent so that they do not degrade. Because there are absolutely no preservatives in them, molds will find them if there is any moisture there to help them survive. If you'd like a more pliable fajita wrapper, you will find the filling itself will soften it up a little bit so that it can be folded around it. We are also including a cup of cashew sour cream to add to your little sandwiches. Can anyone think of a better name for this than "fajita"?

Next, we have a cup of what we call queso dulce. I don't remember how we came upon this, but we loved it from the first day we invented it. We love it as a dip for celery, apples, and mixed into fruit salads. Are you noting a pattern here? Celery is not a food we would eat a lot except that we come up with all these delicious ways to eat it. Now we eat it by the bunch. Often for dinner we'll clean up 2 bunches for the 6 of us and devour it with our dip of choice. It is extremely satisfying and easy on the digestive system. So nearly every week, you'll find some kind of celery dip in the beast itself, and a bunch of celery in the veggie add-on.

Also, every week, there's usually a "pasta" type dish. Here again, squash might make a poor substitute for an actual pasta dish, but I think of it as a wonderful vegetable dish especially considering all the many toppings we've come up with to put on it. One of our favorites is this one: mac n cheese. The cheese is in a separate cup to add to your "noodles" when you are ready to eat. Both products hold up better that way. The "cheddar" is a cashew based cheese sauce with red pepper and cilantro. We think it is delicious. We've included some of Lil's down home greens to have along side or mix right into the squash noodles. Lillian Butler is a woman we met in New York. She runs a restaurant in Harlem called Raw Soul. She has done a wonderful work helping the poor black community there overcome some of the cultural choices that were ruining their health. These greens reflect her southern roots.

Our soup and salad choice this week is not entirely congruent: Asian soup and Italian salad, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. Miso soup is very satisfying. I am not a big fan of raw mushrooms, but I like how they taste in miso. Miso is not actually a raw food since it is made from cooked beans, but because it is cultured, it is considered live. Isn't that interesting?

The Caesar salad is also one of my favorites. It took us awhile to come up with satisfactory substitutes for the SAD diet counterparts, but we love this dressing which uses miso for both flavoring and saltiness. I'm anxious to see how you like the crouton we've provided, and don't forget to sprinkle on the dulse. Dulse is another sea vegetable. Some people really had an aversion to the surf n turf last week because it had seaweed in it, but we are hoping we can convert you over to the raw side where these foods are an important part of a nourshing diet.

Our "chip and dip" feature this week is more familiar: vegan corn chips (made from corn and flax and seasonings) and salsa fresca. We think this tastes great with a sliced avocado and maybe some olives if you are so inclined.

You have probably noticed we don't eat a lot of grains even if they are sprouted. One exception to this is tabbouleh. It is made from quinoa which is an ancient grain; the indigenous people of Bolivia have been cultivating "the rice if the Incas" for over 5000 years. Quinoa is superior to other grains because it is a complete protein, containing 8 essential amino acids. It is actually a seed, not a grain, and is gluten free. When cooked, the grain itself is soft and delicate, but the germ is crunchy, creating a delicious combination of flavour and texture.

What we've prepared for you this week is a mixture of sprouted quinoa, cucumber, tomato, and onion in a lime vinaigrette. We would suggest you use it as a salad topping over some sliced lettuce. We are also including some cumin flatbread (which again, is not really very bready) to have with it.

Since we have 3 breads this week, we only have one snack, so we made it a rich one: something we call Greek dates. These are dates stuffed with a baklava type filling of almonds, walnuts, and honey. They are very tasty, but don't try to eat them all in one sitting. A half one a day will probably be very satisfying. One of our customers slices them into her salads, but we haven't tried that yet. Sounds intriguing.

We're having my favorite dessert this week: apple crisp. I've always been a fan, but I like this raw vegan version far better than the SAD version. We make a base from raisins, dates, pecans, coconut, and spices. Then we spicily sauce up some apples with more raisins and dates. It is topped by more of the crunchy topping and some maple cream made from cashews and maple syrup.

The development of this recipe took many months as I experimented with different combinations until I got it where I wanted it. I could eat it every day if it weren't such an involved recipe. You can count on it being in the beast box on a monthly basis.

(Which reminds me, Darius wanted a survey question wondering how often you would like certain items in the beast. Are there some things you'd like every week or every other week? Or would you prefer lots of different things? We are changing our catalog to only list about 15 items that will be available weekly. Hopefully they are items you like! We will also have extra of items being offered in each beast box for people to purchase ala carte if they don't want the whole beast. We are hoping this model will work for everyone.)

Our other dessert is the skinny mint (pictured above) so called because it won't make you fat like its SAD counterpart! The downfall of these is that they must be kept frozen or they disintegrate. We are working on that aspect of it and will hopefully come up with a different recipe, but it is so tasty, that we can't wait for the final draft before enjoying them. They are made from almond flour, raw cacao, maple syrup and sugar and coconut oil along with vanilla and peppermint extracts.

Our recipe this week is for a soup we love love love, but it is seasonal and difficult to hold so we can't put it in the beast. We thought about giving you the ingredients and letting you blend it up when you are ready to eat it. One time we put it in thermoses when we were going on a trip, and it exploded all over the van when we opened it to eat it. It was still good, but we were eating it and smelling it in our van for a long time!

Cauliflower Soup

2 cups cauliflower
2 - 3 cups water
1/2 cup cashews or pine nuts
2 T lemon juice
sea salt to taste

Put everything in high speed blender and blend til thick and smooth. Serve at room temp.

I almost forgot to post survey results (5 means really, really good, and 1 is stinky):

4.0 sprouted garbanzo bean hummus
3.8 olive cheese spread
5.0 pad Thai
3.7 surf n turf
3.2 raita
3.3 savory kale salad
3.1 spicy broccoli cheese soup
4.4 spinach salad
4.7 pita chips
3.8 Alicia crackers
3.3 zucchini chips
5.1 crunch meister
4.6 chocolate cheesecake
3.8 panna cotta

Everyone seems to like menu suggestions. Since our goal is for everything to be a 5 (or better), obviously some of these choices were not up there on everyone's list although none of them "failed" miserably. Rating them for us helps us to know which things you will like more than others. So thanks to those who took the time to let us know what they liked. We like it all!

Social Expectations

2010-09-16T13:59:00.001-07:00

This week one of my son's who has no interest in our dietary changes was telling me that it was a selfish thing we are doing since it benefits no one but ourselves. He pointed out that we have paid a dear price for our newfound health and have sacrificed our relationship with our family to do this. I can certainly understand where he is coming from, and I have had to deal with some of these feelings myself.

It is true that many of our social conventions revolve around food and drink. There is hardly an activity you can think of that doesn't. Believe me, we've tried. The closest we have come is having a birthday party at the baseball field during one of the games (since I have a summer birthday). Not only was there the game for those who liked baseball, but there were alternative snacks for those who didn't care for our healthier fare. We played some family games as well, and it was a lot of fun. At least I thought so. But, as my son notes, it just isn't the same...

Could it be that a lot of what we are missing is the knock-out effect these foods have on us? We're all aware of the drug induced reaction we get after Thanksgiving dinner. Scientists have discovered that roast turkey induces a drug-like state after consumption. Maybe we're looking more for anesthesia than companionship...

Beast box results are in with some surprising results. Some of our family favorites have lower scores than items we personally don't like as much, so that goes to prove our palettes are different than most others. Here's the results (scale is 1 bad, 5 great):

4.9 unfried no bean
3.8 elotes con crema
5.3 macadamia ricotta
4.7 Waldorf salad dressing
5.5 marinara sauce for pizza
5.3 cucumber salad
3.7 Mexican rice
4.4 Asian salad
4.0 everyday bread
4.2 Mexi-cali wrappers
5.3 honey almond butter
4.5 ballpark sunnies
5.3 chocolate trifle
5.5 pumpkin pie

Anyone with better analyzing skills than I have want to figure this out?

This week's menus have a Mediterranean angle with sprouted garbanza bean hummus, pita chips, and raita. Dessert is a nice coconut frozen custard called Panna Cotta. We're also making a delicious spinach salad with a raspberry vinaigrette, crunchy candied pecans, and a sliced pear. Fantastic!

Our olive cheese spread is very popular. Each of us in our family likes this a different way; I love it as a dipper for celery, and Roger likes to smear it on veggie crisps. Darius likes it on cucumber slices and tomatoes. It is also good as a salad topper. It isn't as olive-y as it sounds, but since I am a big olive fan, maybe I wouldn't know if it is.

Pad Thai is an Asian addition to our menus this week. We shred zucchini, sliver up some red peppers and onions and toss with a delicious mock peanut sauce (almond butter substitutes nicely for the peanuts in the traditional sauce).

Our version of surf n turf is some nice arame sea vegetables mixed with sweet pepper, onion, and carrots (for the turf part). These are tossed in a nice ginger marinade. My favorite way to eat this is on top of shredded romaine.

Our soup this week is a spicy broccoli cheese soup. There are people who would literally walk (drive) miles to have some of this soup while others don't see what all the fuss is about. I am anxious to see how this one does in the survey. In our family, we like this with Alicia crackers which have a cheesy flavor all their own. The salad part of the soup / salad combo is a savory kale salad. Julienned kale, chopped onion and tomato are dressed with avocado and a nice vinaigrette. Very tasty... Who would have thought kale could be tasty not cooked?

We're also including zucchini chips and crunch meister in our box this week, both of which should be very popular. There's also a chocolate topped cheesecake. My brother who is a professional chef says this is the best cheesecake he's ever eaten, baked or unbaked. Ours is made with cashew cheese and the chocolate topping is made out of the best raw cacao I've ever tasted. Nothing else to say about that...

We've had requests for a few other items, including my favorite dessert: apple crisp. We also have pumpkin pie, chocolate mousse trifle, and key lime tarts. Hard to decide... We're also making Waldorf salad, veggie crisps, Mexi-cali wrappers, guacamole, sweet kale salad, more of that delicious spicy almond dressing, unfried no-bean, veggie soup. Wow, I'd better get to work! Enjoy and have a delicious week...

I almost forgot the recipe!

I'm going to share the recipe for our spicy almond dressing. This has been hugely popular. You will never see it available again as my family will probably kill me for sharing this with you...

Spicy Almond Dressing

2 cups almond butter
4 Roma tomatoes
½ cup braggs liquid aminos (or Nama Shoyu if no gluten intolerances)
¼ cup sesame oil
2 T lemon juice
2 T maple syrup
1 t miso
3 inch piece of ginger
1 jalapeno pepper
cayenne pepper to taste
1 scant t sea salt

Blend in a blender until completely smooth. Thin with water as needed. Yield: 1 quart.

The Beast Box Saga

2010-09-09T17:45:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to think of something new and profound to say, but our lives are consumed with beast boxes. We call them beast boxes because we call the vehicle in which we drive to the farmers' market "The Beast", so the boxes delivered in "The Beast" would naturally be called "Beast Boxes".

I e-mailed out a survey to the recipients of last week's box to see where we were at with everyone. The ones returned were very interesting to say the least. Rochelle said that she was very surprised that each time she opened a new container, she was happier than the last one. She even added that it was helping her give up fast food restaurants! Now that's a nice compliment. Michele said that the granola was better than any granola she'd ever had before. Wow, that's incredible.

The funniest one was Laurie who said, "The pickled beets were MUCH better than when Grandma served them...however" [I'm translating here], "they still sucked." Thankfully, others gave them a higher rating.

Of course, everyone didn't like everything. Keith said the kale salad surprised them by being sweet which they did not enjoy. Everyone else gave it a high rating. The beets got mixed reviews from Laurie's suck vote to Rochelle's 5. (The rating scale was 1 to 5 with 1 being "stinky, never want to see it again, what were you thinking giving me this stuff..." to 5 being "I loved it and want to order some with my next beast box."

Almost every thing got mixed reviews: half the people gave it 5's, and the others gave it a 3. Exceptions to that was the cashew cream cheese which got a 5 from everyone except for 1 person who gave it a 3. The marinara got 4's and 5's from everyone. The desserts got 5's across the board except Rochelle gave the key lime pie a 10! There really wasn't any item offered that got poor reviews across the board.

Some folks didn't vote, so I don't know if they didn't like the food or just hate surveys (like me). Most people that try the food say that they like it. We get lots of interesting comments at the market when people try our samples. We kinda don't like to give samples to people drinking soda pop as we're pretty sure their palette is going to be unreceptive. Sometimes that is the case, but surprisingly, sometimes they do like it.

This week we are trying a a couple of foods new to us: macadamia ricotta, and Spicy Almond Dressing. That is one thing about doing the boxes we really like: we can try something we don't have in our catalog just to see what kind of reception it gets. If is wildly popular, it will probably make its way into the catalog. Likewise, if people really don't like something we have in the catalog, we'll pull it. A lot of times, people won't order something in the catalog because it sounds weird, or they are afraid they won't like it. The boxes serve as a sampler of a large number of products they otherwise might not get to taste.

Another suggestion that was made was to let people know expiration dates. I'm not scientific enough to know exactly what date a food will go bad, but we do know which ones have to be eaten within a couple of days. We try to include some foods in each one that will last until the end of the week, but if the one getting the box doesn't know which foods that is, it won't do them any good. Anyway, we're going to mark the menu sheet with an asterick for those foods which need to be eaten at the beginning of the week. We always make these on Friday so they will be the freshest possible.

We also decided to make add-on boxes for vegetables and/or fruit that would compliment the items offered in the box. For example, on weeks when a pasta sauce is part of the menu, we will have zucchini in the vegetable add-on box. The fruit add-on isn't so much because it's part of the menu (although it will be in some cases), but it provides some of the fruit one might need for snacks, breakfast, and/or smoothies.

We are having a lot of fun with this, and I found my mind wandering earlier this week as I started planning the box for the week of Thanksgiving. We prepared several dishes last year for Thanksgiving, and many of our customers loved them, so it will be fun to put them in the box this year.

One issue we are having that we aren't sure how to resolve is the quantity of food. In coming up with the price, we simply added up the cost of the items. We played with the serving sizes to try to keep the price affordable since that is such an issue in these tough economic times. Some said that while the price was fair, it wasn't as much food as they wanted for some of the meals and that they wanted larger servings even if it meant paying more.

I think the way we will resolve that is we'll offer an upsize version for those who want the larger portion sizes. It will require more organization on our parts to keep the various sizes straight, but we'll figure it out.

Blogging this now strikes me as a rather boring medium right now, but I guess I felt I wanted to document our early efforts in this. We feel like this is a good way to reach a lot of people and help them incorporate more plant foods in their diet. Most people have two obstacles: money and time. We are trying to help in both those areas by keeping prices as low as we possibly can and saving people prep time.

I'll close with a recipe to satisfy some sweet teeth out there. We have the most incredible raw cacao that anything made with it turns out like a dream, and these truffles are no exception.

Chocolate-Coconut Truffles (40 of them)

In a high speed blender, combine until well blended:

1/2 cup coconut oil, warmed to soften
3/4 cup raw agave nectar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon unrefined sea salt

While continuing to blend, add 1/2 cup of coconut blending until smooth; repeat with a second 1/2 cup of coconut.

Transfer to a bowl, and stir in 2 cups raw cacao powder until thoroughly combined. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes so that it can set up a little.

Place another 1/4 cup cacao powder onto a small plate. Forming balls from the chocolate mixture with a tablespoon, roll them in the cacao powder on the plate. Store in the refrigerator (assuming you don't eat them all in one sitting!).

In Over My Head!

2010-09-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

I've only got about an hour left in me, but I didn't want to let a week go by without making a couple of notes. Last week I mentioned my idea about a weekly box which would have a few meals in it for the week, and I sent out an e-mail to our living foods list on Monday. We have gotten a good response, and it is pretty exciting to think that a few more people will be trying our cheeses, salads, sauces, and desserts for the first time. I hope they like them and that they help them incorporate more plant based foods into their daily lives.

I didn't think this through as well as I should have, so we are flying by the seat of our pants getting it organized. I'm glad most of our customers are patient people!

The box will have 4 mains/cheeses, 4 sides/soups/sauces, 2 breads, 2 snacks, and 2 desserts. All servings are single size servings. The cost of the box is $30, we think. Right now we are delivering it on Saturday, but I'm wondering if folks would like having it on Monday or Tuesday better. People like to do their partying and eating out on the weekends which means they wouldn't get to their box food until Monday. Because everything is freshly made with no preservatives, shelf life is limited on some things. Just something to think about and tweek...

This week's box contains the following:

no net tuna
queso verde
marinated mushrooms
cashew creme cheese
marinara
pickled beets
kale salad
veggie soup
veggie crisps
chili lime corny chips
banana bark
Hawaiian granola
rawky road
key lime pie

We also need to work out the details on refrigeration, labeling, sorting; I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now. Tomorrow is a new day, and things will look better, I'm sure. Maybe I'll write more when I get through some of the rough spots.

Can Good Habits Be Habit Forming?

2010-08-26T07:08:00.000-07:00

What a crazy week this has been with school starting back up. Our grandchildren talked us into taking the summer off from their studies (against our better judgement), and let's just say we won't be doing that again. Which speaks to habits and how they are formed and how hard they are to break.

It's interesting how good habits seem harder to form than bad habits. I'm sure that's not true. It's just that we prefer the bad habits over the good ones. It might be a lazier way to do something in some cases. I am trying to teach my grandson to make his bed every day. He was having such a time of it that I just let him throw the sheet over the top and then the bedspread on top of that the first time. Now he thinks that is the definition of a made bed, and there doesn't appear to be anything I can do to convince him otherwise. Lesson learned: do it right the first time no matter how hard it is because they'll never let you back up and do it the right way. There are no do-overs in their world! Of course, I could decide I well-made bed is not that important and not worry about it. The lesson there is to pick my battles...

I'm convinced that many of the problems we face in our daily eating choices are the results of bad habits formed. I met a young lady once who was reared as a vegan. She had never eaten at a fast food restaurant, had never had white flour or sugar, and she was a most beautiful creature, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. I marveled at that and wondered how many others there were in the world like that. Then I started thinking about the rest of us. All of us come from varying levels on the healthful eating scale. To me, this young lady was a 9 1/2 (with 10 being a perfect diet), while many of us have had some pretty gross stuff in our bodies. Like the un-made bed, what difference does it make? How do we decide if this battle is worth fighting?

For me, the way I feel makes the battle worth fighting. When I don't eat the food upon which my body was created to thrive, I don't feel well, and I don't think as clearly. That is the bottom line. As an overweight person, I tried every diet out there I think, but there was never a diet that I couldn't wait to get back to because of how it made me feel until I went raw vegan. I did not start eating like that for weight loss or to feel better; I did it because we were hoping it would help Darius fight cancer. Feeling terrific, having more energy than I knew what to do with, and weight loss were just fantastic side benefits.

When I have slips, I suffer physically and mentally. I do not enjoy feeling badly anymore especially when I know I don't have to. When I know there is a way to feel great, why would I purposely endure suffering? If all I have to do is wash in the river to rid myself of leprosy, why wouldn't I do it? (See 2 Kings 5: 1 - 14 in the Old Testament of the Bible for the whole story.)

The fact is, most of us want a fancy solution. I saw advertisements on the TV yesterday for some kind of probiotic pill people can take to restore their intestinal balance of good bacteria and yeast. Why do we need a pill for that when there are wonderful probiotic foods we should be eating every day? We seem more comfortable when there is an 800 number attached to what's good for us, or if a doctor will write us a prescription for it. We think, "How in the world can the food I eat make a difference in how I feel?" Really, are you kidding me? How can it not?

At least once a week, someone calls us who has heard Darius' cancer story telling us someone in their family is dying from cancer, and can we help them? This week it was a little 8 year old girl in Texas. I do not know why people get cancer or if eating only the foods upon which we were intended to thrive can heal us. I am not a doctor or medical professional. I do know our bodies are created as perfect "machines" with self-healing mechanisms. If we overload them in anyway (food and otherwise), they must divert their energy to waste removal instead of other functions. Eventually the body will fail when the other functions are ignored long enough.

Those bad habits are killing all of us at an alarming rate. We must face the addictions to which the habits have led us to fall victim and overcome them if we are to have a decent quality of life. Like Kris Carr said when asked by Dr. Oz how she would feel if she ended up dying anyway, she answered that her quality of life was so much better since having cancer and making changes in her lifestyle that she would not regret making the changes. There's something wrong when our bad habits blind us to reality! We've got to get honest with ourselves. For me, it takes doing the AA 12 steps to do this, but it doesn't matter HOW we do it, just that we do do it!

I've been thinking about putting a box together each week for those who would like to try to add more plant-based foods into their lives. I think a lot of people are over-whelmed when they try to do this, and maybe this would help them. There's a restaurant in Los Angeles called Rawvolution that has been doing this for quite a while, so it is helping people in these highly populated areas.

We have no idea how much to charge for this and are not inclined to sit down to do the math with everything else that's going on. We are not so much interested in doing it for profit as we are trying to get people to get turned on to how good some of these foods can be. If we can come up with a price that can cover our expenses and be affordable, than that would be a win-win. We're going to start with $40 which will include the following (each week will be different) (each is a single serving size) (menu suggestions will be included):

4 main dish starters (pasta, main dish salads, terrines, pizza, burritos, sandwiches, etc.)

1 sauce
1 pate or dip
1 cheese
1 salad topper

4 soups/sides

1 fermented or marinated vegetable
1 shredded salad
1 soup
1 VV salad

2 breads
2 snacks
2 desserts

We could also offer a discount on any produce ordered to round it out like lettuce, zucchini for pasta, veggies for dip platter, tomatoes, fruit for breakfast or smoothies, etc.

What goes into the box each week would depend on what our regular customers order for the week. This week's box includes the following:

1 peanut sauce
1 no bean pate
1 cheddar cheese
1 sweet potato souffle

1 cucumber salad
1 Mexican rice
1 broccoli soup
1 ¡ Viva La Verde ! Salad

1 each: everyday bread, mexi-cali wraps
1 each: honey almond butter, crunch meister
1 each: skinny mints, pumpkin pie

Well, that's our menu for the week as well. Good stuff.

How about a nice tahini dressing this week? This one's from the Raw Food Bible. Good as a dip too.

Tahini Dressing

Yields one pint
½ cup raw sesame tahini
½ cup cold-pressed, extra-virgin olive oil
freshly-squeezed juice of 4 limes or 3 lemons
1 tsp mustard powder
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp Celtic Sea salt
3/4 cup water

To make:

In a blender, process until desired consistency is reached. Add more water if necessary and always add more garlic and salt till you love it and want to eat it on everything. Sesame seeds are a great source of Calcium.

Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?

2010-08-19T17:37:00.001-07:00

I know every week that I will need to think of something to write at the end of the week. Things float through my mind constantly, and sometimes they actually seem as though they might be interesting for those who read this blog or for posterity who may read it later. At the market we are constantly asked questions for which the answer is, "You know, we did a blogpost on that a while back. Here's our blog address." I don't know if they ever read it; I guess it depends on how interested they are in an answer. Hopefully there will be a few tidbits here and there which are helpful to someone.

I suppose it helps me more than anyone as it helps me clarify a lot of things in my mind when I put them into words. I have always loved writing, and it comes easily to me as a means of sorting out mixed up thoughts. For that reason I've never cared if anyone reads what I write, so I suppose I will never be a successful author. I would think they have to care if someone reads what they right, and in turn, they would write to the reader instead of for themselves.

Of course I have enough of an ego to be glad when someone does read it and especially if they are benefitted by what they read. Do I have illusions that I am saving the world? Not hardly. I rarely talk about the lifestyle changes we have made, but sometimes people ask me about them when something comes up. The biggest thing is when I see people I haven't seen for a few years. They're pretty shocked by the weight loss Roger and I have had. (We've each lost over 100 pounds. Darius and Alicia have too. As a family we have lost 450 pounds. That's a whole other family!) Our driver's licenses still have our old pictures. One time a lady at the store refused my check because she thought I was using someone else's license to cash it.

There are a lot of people doing the stomach stapling thing and the rubber band thing, so big weight losses aren't all that surprising until someone asks how you accomplished it. One lady actually argued with Alicia and I about it when we said we just changed our diet when she asked us. She assumed we were lying and didn't want to tell her we had had stomach stapling. She even asked if we got a group rate since all four of us evidently had the surgery.

Being overweight most of my life, I feel so much empathy for those who suffer from this. Those who have never been overweight can't imagine how difficult it is to struggle with everything obese people do. I couldn't even put on a pair of shoes with laces! I think the worst part was knowing that if I could just control what went into my mouth, I wouldn't have to go through this. I had so much pain in my joints that when I got out of the car I would have to stand there a few minutes for the pain to subside so that I could walk to my destination a few feet away. I had acid reflux nearly every night to the point that I'm sure I burned my esophagus. I went through a roll of antacid tablets almost every day.

(Note about this picture: I am on the right, and Roger is on the left. I can't believe I am posting this. I can't believe this is even us. It seems so long ago, and yet it is a very vivid memory - a horrible one. I hope that before I die I can help at least one person not have to continue their suffering as I did.)

I have always had an aversion to medical doctors. I'm sure they would have prescribed various medicines for the ailments from which I was suffering. That is their job: to relieve suffering. It is assumed if the patient could handle this themselves, they wouldn't be seeking professional help, so therefore their approach is warranted. We get what we deserve when we suffer the side effects of the drugs they prescribe.

Rather than seek professional help, I always knew there must be something I could do about my "disease". I wasn't sure what it was as I had tried everything, but I continued to pray for inspiration. Isn't it odd that it came to me through my son and his brain tumor diagnosis? We have all said more than once how grateful we are for that ugly old tumor even though it had so much power to devastate us at the time. I will be forever grateful for the inspiration we received to change our life and the way we were eating.

I was talking to my older son the other day who has no interest in our lifestyle changes. I was mentioning that a mutual acquaintance has a lot of curiosity about our lifestyle but not enough to make the changes himself. My son said that he thinks most people fall in that category. I remembered once when I read about a man who only ate raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. This was back in 1985 or so. It was in an Organic Gardening magazine. I remember thinking at the time, "Man, that would be so cool, but I could never do that." I had in fact tried to do it and had failed. So what makes the difference?

I don't think anyone is ever perfect in the way they eat any more than they are perfect in the way they dress or talk or think. It is all a process. If we have a problem with bad language, every day we will try to not use bad words (once we become convinced they are inappropriate). So it is with diet. Once it rings true to us (which may not happen initially), we will struggle with it, and just try a little harder each day. The important thing is to find out if it is a correct principle: Is a diet of raw fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds the ideal diet for humans? If it is, we have to make efforts to incorporate them into our lives. We can expect it to be difficult as all changes are. We can expect to struggle and evolve.

I am thoroughly convinced that this diet is the ideal diet for humans. I do not expect anyone to believe me when I say this. They will have to come into it as I have. They will have to experience the miracles I have experienced. They will need to gain their own confirmation. Without a belief that something is true, we will never have the ability to incorporate it into our lives. So that is the first step...

Is bad language something I should abstain from? How about alcohol? Tobacco? Pornography? Caffeine? Meat? Dairy? Sugar and refined foods? Cooked and unsprouted grains and legumes? Cooked veggies and fruits? All of these things are related in that they all induce an addictive response. If I am to be totally free, I have to back away from them - one shaky step at a time.

It is a journey, and a very fulfilling one. I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for giving me the opportunity to learn these truths and benefit from them.

This week: fresh everyday bread, pumpkin pie, sweet potato souffle, waldorf salad, marinated broccoli, olive cheese spread, queso verde, cuke salad, and no net tuna.

Plus lots of glorious glorious fruit. I can't get enough of it this time of year.

This recipe is from Pansy, someone in an e-mail group I ran across. She says, "This recipe is from www.sadtoraw.com and we have it a couple times a week."

Mexican Vanilla Frozen Shake

1 1/2 cups water
handful of almonds
maple syrup (add as much as you like for sweetness. Can also use honey or agave.)
1 baby young thai coconut (all the meat and water)
2 tsp. vanilla extract or 1" piece of vanilla bean
Cinnamon (sprinkle in as much as you like)
8 ice cubes

*I also add hemp seed*

Blend till creamy!

This make two huge glasses!

Enjoy! There's a few more months when we'll enjoy having cold, frosty drinks like this. Then we'll be scrambling for something to help us warm up!

Another Time Around the Moon for Me...

2010-08-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

Wow! 57 times around the sun doesn't seem possible, does it? Doing something 57 times doesn't seem so difficult, but when one considers it takes 365 24-hour days to do one of them, it takes on a little more significance. Now that I think about it, from an eternal perspective, 57 times around the sun seems kind of puny! I'd better get busy so that I can turn this into something grand... What would be significant? 157? 257? How about 1,057? Heaven help me. I'd be bored to death if I had to stick around that long. I've got quite a few years before I will be able to clear my desk, so I hope I can be around a little longer.

Longevity is a big issue in the health industry right now. It is interesting the things they are finding out about how we shorten our lives, but how to extend it is still a mystery to a certain extent. No one has lived long enough yet to prove the theories. I just keep looking at that stack on my desk. I have to live long enough to clear it off as I'm sure my kids will just throw it all in the trash. That would be a disaster on many different levels!

Which brings me to the next step in my thought process: what is really important? Why do we waste time doing and worrying about things that really don't matter? Are we just trying to keep busy like a little child playing with his blocks? Does our need to feel important and to feel our work is important drive our actions? Does what we do really matter to anyone else?

Like the toddler, we don't really care as long as we feel like we and our work is useful. Like the toddler, we occasionally become bored and wander over to the toybox to see what else there is to do.

As you can see, birthdays don't treat me kindly, and yet this year, I felt full of gratitude for all the blessings that I have in my life. I couldn't think of a single person with whom I'd switch places. Regardless of how many years I'll be given, I've had a wonderful life, and I'm looking forward to whatever is ahead, no matter what. How can it be anything but exciting? What does it matter whether others find what I do worthwhile? I am amused and fulfilled and every once in a while I actually think what I do does some good. (Whether that is an accurate observation is not relevant... It is only relevant that I think it is doing good which motivates me to keep doing it which in turn, keeps me busy and amused... you know, like how we try to keep the toddler from getting bored.)

I haven't actually thought all of this through, mainly because there is a shiny red toy over there in the toy box that keeps distracting me. I must go check it out...

If you've read this far, you deserve a reward. Here's a reasonable sounding recipe for a smoothie that can easily be turned into a green smoothie by adding a kale leaf.

Vanilla Bliss
This is something a bit heavier to keep from being hungry for several hours. Blend in some kale to increase consumption of greens and also to lighten the sweetness.

3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons raw tahini or other nut butter
1-2 frozen bananas.
Dash of vanilla
sweetener if desired: maple syrup or a date or two

Blend until thick and smooth. Serve immediately. Serves 1.

Lots of breads this week due to customer requests. I think we ended up making everyone of them, so let's talk about bread...

On a raw vegan regime, yeast breads are not in the picture which makes a few of our favorite foods a little bit of a challenge. So what's wrong with bread anyway? That's a whole post in itself; maybe next time...

But I digress. If we don't eat yeast breads or quick breads or wheat based crackers, or anything baked, what do we eat? Buckwheat is the basis of several of our breads and is a very interesting food. Despite its name, it is not a cereal or a grain. The seed of the buckwheat plant is an achene , a fruit containing the seed, like the "fruit" from the sunflower plant. So even though it is botanically a fruit, it is a little different in that is high a higher starch content than most fruits. It contains no gluten but is used in bread and cereal applications because of its starch content.

Anyway, when one starts to use buckwheat to substitute for common bread products, one needs to do some powerful paradigm shifting. Buckwheat breads and cereals will not taste like their high gluten alternatives, nor will they "act" like them in their production. We must forget everything we thought we knew about bread and bread baking. It is interesting to think how what we consider normal becomes that way. At one time in the United States (18th and 19th century), buckwheat was a very common crop and buckwheat use was prevalent. It was not until the introduction of chemical nitrogen fertilizers (to which wheat and corn responded well) that the use of buckwheat declined. Isn't it interesting that a crop that does well on low-fertility soils was pushed aside for ones that required fertilization and therefore fattened the pocketbooks for those providing the fertilizer? Talk about a profit-driven crop!

Anyway, we use this ancient starcy fruit as the basis for most of our breads combined with a little flax for stick-togetherness. (Now there's another ancient crop - flax.) Lots of veggies get mixed in there. In fact, you can experiment with just about any veggies sitting around to come up with a million different combinations. Seasonings help make it a little more interesting as buckwheat is VERY bland tasting (in my opinion anyway). Here are some of the buckwheat breads we make (all have sprouted buckwheat as their base, some flax to hold them together, a little honey or sweetener of your choice, unrefined salt, and maybe some extra-virgin olive oil plus the ingredients in parenthesis):

everyday bread (carrot)

chili lime corny chips (zucchini, tomato, sprouted sunflower seeds, chili powder, cumin, cayenne, garlic, lime, whole pumpkin seeds, sprouted)

veggie crisps (cabbage, carrots, onions, tomatoes, garlic, jalopeno, cilantro, sprouted sunflower seeds, cumin, chili powder, oregano)

We also have an onion bread that has lots of onions, flax, and sprouted sunflower seeds - amazingly good for something so simple. Coconut, zucchini, and flax is the basis of our new pita chip, and Mexi-cali wrappers have no flax or buckwheat in them, just lots of veggies, avocado, and a little psyllium to hold them together.

Having that much variety really does help us not miss our traditional breads especially when we remember why the breads we grew up with really aren't the best food for our bodies no matter how much we might think we want them.

Besides all of the above-mentioned breads, this week we also have the following:

cheddar kale chips (By the way, our kale experiment from last week was a great success. This week we are experimenting with cheddar chips and they smell fantastic!)

Olive Sandwich Spread is still a family favorite. I like it with celery, but Roger and Alicia like it on the veggie crisps with a slice of tomato.

We're making some raita (cucumber in a vegan cashew sour cream base) this week which will be another nice sandwich addition.

Our beloved queso verde is back after a little hiatus. That again will make a nice addition to our sandwich menu this week. It also makes a great "sliced" cheese when we dehydrate it in thin circles.

We're making unfried no beans this week to use in our weekly taco fest. We're going to enjoy them with our Mexi-cali wrappers. The moisture of the "beans" helps to soften up the wrappers so that they bend better and do their job of holding in the beans and other fixins'. Hopefully we can get Alicia to make some Mexican rice (cabbage, tomatoes, and lots of spices) to go with that.

Of course, we must have our elotes con crema too and some nice avocados to stuff it into. We usually have that with ensalada (cabbage, cilantro, lemon juice, and salt).

We have a couple of regular salads during the week: lettuce (looking forward to the red butter lettuce that came in this week), celery, carrots, onion, raisins, dulse, and Ranch dressing. Kale salad again this week too; it is sooooo good (kale, tomato, avocado, olive oil, lemon, and salt). Can't forget some cucumber salad too. I had some on my regular salad today, and it was delicious. I think it was the sweetness of the cucumber salad mixed with the saltiness of the dulse that made it so good.

Sweet potatoes from North Carolina have been fantastic, so we're glad someone wanted some sweet potato souffle. Very nice. Always makes me think about Thanksgiving...

We made some mock peanut sauce which we love on shredded zucchini. We also like to slice a little red pepper into it and a little onion. By the way, we got a great buy on "choice" red peppers this week. When we get them, they are a great buy. We don't have to feel guilty using them! Choice in the produce world means not as good as premium or prime, but we feel like they are just fine for our uses.

Customers requested pizza roll-ups, so we'll be making marinara for one of our meals. Maybe we'll do a "leaning tower": sliced zucchini and tomatoes layered with queso verde or crema and sauced with a little marinara. Marinated mushrooms are a good addition too. We can't make the roll-ups til we get all the bread out of the dehydrators, so we'll probably have that ready Monday.

Alicia has been wanting another dressing, so we're going to have some raspberry vinaigrette made with some of the beautiful raspberries we've been getting this summer (olive oil, apple cider vinegar, lime, raspberries, agave nectar to sweeten, and a little salt). I love this dressing over greens with a few candied pecans and some sliced apples. You gotta love that the new crops of apples are finally in too right alongside all the summer fruits still in season. We do love them with our honey almond butter, too. It's official - everyone in the family has their own cups of it now except me.

Desserts: vanilla panna cotta (An experiment from a few months ago that resulted in a delicate vanilla flavored custard (no eggs or milk though - vegan, remember?). The base is coconut milk, and it's topped with a mango coolis.

We're also making marshmallow topping which is delicious on top of our almond coconut ice cream, but we also use it in our coconut cream pies: chocolate date crust, bananas, and a marshmallow layer. (The marshmallow is coconut based. I don't remember why we started calling it marshmallow except that it is like that stuff you make out of marshmallows when you're doing rice krispie treats.) Roger better get busy busting up some coconuts!

Since Roger and I are celebrating our birthdays together this weekend (mine's the 10th and his is the 25th), we'll be making some ice cream to enjoy under that marshmallow! I think I'll have my ice cream with some apple crisp...

We also have rocky road, pumpkin pie, and key lime pie. Nobody's suffering in this family for something sweet to finish off their dinner.

Having Choices Is a Wonderful Thing

2010-08-05T18:10:00.000-07:00

I just finished a strawberry mango mylkshake for dinner, and I'm feeling rather fat and sassy and not too much like working. I probably should have thought that one through a little better, but it sure was good. I had made a nice kale salad for dinner, and then Darius came up with the brilliant idea of a mylkshake, and all my good green intentions went out the window. Well, the kale salad will make a good lunch tomorrow, right?

I'm actually pretty amazed that we still have kale as it (and most greens) do better in cooler weather. I suppose it is cold enough somewhere, right? I was thinking today how blessed we are that California got into this organic thing so many years ago (back in the 70's I'd guess) so that we can have these foods available today. So many growers are "going organic", and they are finding it is not as easy as our California neighbors have made it look. I suppose it will all work out as more and more people want organic foods, but demand definitely surpasses supply.

There's a lot of people who feel that organically grown food costs too much. I have learned that eating junk food all my life cost me a lot more than organic groceries would have cost. I also believe people would be a lot happier about having a more plant-based diet if they had delicious organic fruits and vegetables to choose from instead of badly grown conventional produce. Too many people don't know what a good apple or peach or piece of celery tastes like. (I couldn't believe how many people told me they don't like celery when we offer it with our honey almond butter samples.) And don't get me started at the awful taste of conventional lettuce that comes precut in those bags at the grocery store. They must literally bathe the lettuce in chemicals to get it to hold up longer.

Many of the varieties available aren't chosen for their flavor; they're chosen for how well they'll hold up after they're picked so that they can be shipped all over the country. As we get more and more farmers close to home to grow our food, we're going to discover how delicious other varieties are that wouldn't be options for food that has to be trucked somewhere.

Times are changing, and people are discovering plant-based diets are good on many different levels besides just health. Doctors practicing preventive medicine are even beginning to encourage their patients in that direction. As people begin living this life-style, they are wanting food that satisfies their palette as well as their health needs. Tasty varieties of fruits and vegetables are a key component. And I plan on living long enough to taste every one of them!!!

We have 2 kale salads in our repetoire now, a sweet kale salad including raisins and curried cashews, as well as our old favorite savory kale salad with onion, tomato, and avocado in a lime vinaigrette. We've really been enjoying the olive cheese spread (one of our customers loves it on everyday bread). I like it with celery, and it's also good with tomatoes and/or cucumber/zucchini slices. I also mixed it into shredded zucchini for a mac and cheese variation. Tasty with some marinated mushrooms.

We're also having some Waldorf salad this week since we got in a new variety of apple, Pink Cripps, a cross between an Australian apple, Lady Williams, and the common golden delicious apple. Waldorf salad is a delightful salad of apples, celery, walnuts, and raisins. We dress it with avo mayo instead of the traditional mayonnaise, and I like it better.

We finally made more of our Mexi-Cali wrappers this week. These make such great taco shells, so of course we'll have some elotes con crema this week (corn mixed with picante mayo). Mexican Rice (minced cabbage to replicate rice mixed with tomatoes and spices) will do nicely on the side.

We're still enjoying vanilla yogurt sylk (cashew cheese with honey and lime) to sauce our berries and peach parfaits. I also made some queso dulce (cashew cream cheese with raisins) to go with another all celery dinner. We have been loving fruit for dinner many nights, both solo or with the sylk or sweet cheese. It is my favorite thing about summer. There's plenty of time for heavier foods when it gets colder.

We made some Hawaiian granola this week too from some of the delicious pineapples that have been coming. I love that with some chopped apples and vanilla yogurt sylk too.

Of course we'll have a few regular salads too. I've been on quite an olive kick lately using a mixture of every kind of olive we have to top my salads. The kids love mushrooms on theirs, and Ranch dressing of course. We just made some kale chips by dipping some kale leaves in ranch dressing. We'll have to see how they turn out. Sounds good though.

Desserts this week: Rawky Road, pumpkin pie, key lime pies, skinny mints

Multi-taskers

2010-07-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

I love making foods that can be more than one meal. I don't mean like leftovers. I mean foods that actually do more than one thing. There's a guy on TV who refuses to have any tools or appliances in his kitchen that only have one purpose, and I feel that way about food. Example number one, pineapple. We love it cut up in chunks, especially in a fruit salad. It's a great snack dried also when we have more than we can use fresh. We also use two of them when we make Hawaiian granola, so it definately qualifies as a multi-tasker.

The picture at the top of the article demonstrates another one: no-net tuna. We've seen this on every menu at every raw vegan restaurant we've been to, but I don't see people trying to do a lot of other things with this sunflower seed pate. Because it makes a large quantity, and we get tired of eating it every day, we were anxious to use it in some other ways besides just on top of a salad (though it is good that way!).

One of our favorite variations is the sushi roll. Yesterday Alicia lined a nori sheet with a leaf of lettuce and spread some no-net tuna on it. Then she added a couple of slices of pickle from some leftover cucumber salad and some cabbage from leftover ensalada. We shredded up some carrots and slivered up some red pepper to make a perfect little sushi roll. Easy peasy lunch, wouldn't you say?

We also like to sandwich a layer of no-net between 2 nori sheets to make a tasty little snack. These can be eaten fresh, but we like to dehydrate them a little while to make a little sandwich cracker. We get a lot of mileage out of our no-net!

The other day my meat and potatoes son was visiting while we were making some. He wouldn't even try it (he's been burned before, he says!), but his friend who came with him did. She said, "That doesn't taste like tuna salad. Why do you call it that?" I guess it sounds better to say it is no-net tuna (since it does look like it) than to ask the kids if they want sunflower seed pate on their salad tonight. There are so many variations of sunflower seed pate that each would have to have their own name anyway. Can you think of something better to call it? It does have kelp in it (to make it from the sea) and all the other stuff that goes into tuna salad, so that seems as good a name as any.

Besides, when you haven't had any "real" tuna in a couple year, who can remember what it's supposed to taste like. All we know is that we like it, and our 12 year old grandson could eat it everyday if we weren't trying to find so many other things to do with it.

Another great multi-tasker is the honey almond butter. We love to eat it as a dip for apple slices and/or celery sticks, but it is also good as a base for a peanut sauce we make to go over shredded zucchini (pasta). We mix a cup of it with some water to thin it down, grate some ginger in there and grind up a couple of cloves of garlic as well. We also add some raw soy sauce, Nama Shoyu, and some lime or lemon juice. It really is tasty over the vegetable noodles.

We like to make "peanut butter and jelly" with the honey almond butter spread on some apple slices. Then we stick a little sliver of a date on top and sprinkle with a tiny bit of salt. It is a really tasty snack or meal. We also make banana mambo by slicing up 3 bananas. We top this with some honey almond butter and add raisins and some sunnies. Very filling and delicious! Now that I think of it, the sunnies are pretty versatile as well. We love them as a snack or on top of salads. They can even be ground up to make some mock taco meat. They can also be ground up with some almond flour and walnuts and veggies to make a veggie burger.

Do you have any good multi-taskers in your kitchen? How about sharing them? I think we use almost everything in at least 2 ways, but I don't want to beat this to death if no one is interested in it.

On the menu this week:

Elotes con crema (of course). This one actually doesn't multi-task too much, but we do eat it in several different ways. Love it on a bed of lettuce or ensalada. These are just corn mixed with a picante mayonnaise (cashew cheese, lime juice, agave nectar, salt, and chili powder) topped with some of our crema (raw vegan sour cream made from cashew cheese, lime juice, hemp seed, salt, and olive oil).

Unfried no-bean (to be used in some lettuce burritos with tomato salsa and guacamole. Ingredients: sprouted sunflower seeds, sun-dried tomatoes, cumin, chili powder, coriander, lemon juice, olive oil, agave nectar, sea salt, jalopeno peppers, sweet onion, and some cilantro. This is great with some Mexican rice as a side dish: cabbage, fresh and dehydrated tomatoes, onion, olive oil, salt, chili powder, cumin, onion powder, garlic, and green peas.

We're loving our berries this time of year for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, especially as a parfait with vanilla yogurt sylk. (Who says you can't eat dessert for dinner?) ingredients: cashew cheese, lemon juice, honey, Irish moss, vanilla bean.

Olive Cheese Spread stuffed in celery (cashew cheese, olives, fresh and dry red peppers, jalopeno peppers, lime juice). This spread is also good spread on everyday bread or with corny chips.

Surf n Turf salad topping: arame seaweed, shredded carrot, sweet onion, sweet pepper, mixed with a nice ginger dressing: nama shoyu, olive oil, sesame oil, sesame seeds, apple cider vinegar, ginger, miso, and some salt.

Lots of snacking type meals this week with yet another spread: Olive tapenade. This is made with 2 different kinds of olives, capers, olive oil, lemon juice, basil, garlic, and some black pepper. Yummy...

We're also going to make some marinara (oooh, another great multi-tasker), cucumber salad, and kale salad. Desserts include pumpkin pies, chocolate mousse cake, skinny mints, crunch meister, candied pecans, soul dates, and chocolate macaroons. Please check the catalog or give me a call if you need ingredients for any of these as I'm out of time...have a great week and know we love you and can't wait to see you again!

Employee Minded Management

2010-07-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

We've been at the Beaver Street Farmer's Market each and every Saturday for 15 months now. This is an interesting experience. I have been to farmers' markets in every town I am able to visit, and this one is different from any other one in some good ways and in some not so good ways.

At most farmers' markets, they have actual farmers. At this one there are more vendors than farmers. They purchase from huge clearing houses and bring the product to the market. I'm talking 50 cases of lettuce, etc. Most of their income is derived from selling to restaurants and other clients who buy several cases of each item.

There is a lot of walk-in traffic from people who know this exists, and that is where we draw most of our customers since we do no retaurant or bulk business like the other vendors do. It is really a challenge to be at this market because the conventional produce is priced so cheaply, it is very difficult to compete. We have an organic sign over our booth so that people can find us, but it also serves to help many of the customers to know where they DON'T want to go!

One of our customers who found us when they were doing their weekly shopping visit to the market were happy to find a vendor who carried organic food. They have been a regular to our stall ever since.

Last Christmas they asked us to make up a gift basket for a benefit auction which we gladly did. Then last month, the guy, who works for a big company in Jacksonville, asked us to participate in a health fair his company was putting on for their employees. We weren't sure what to expect from this as we have never done this before, but we agreed to do it.

Most health fairs are put on for the community. It was interesting to me that this one was for the employees and that they would have enough employees to make it worthwhile. Come to find out, this company does many things to help their employees be healthy. Someone figured out a while back that a healthy employee costs their employers less in terms of health insurance, sick pay, etc. To me, this is a win-win. While they may be doing this to help their own bottom line, it is a wonderful perk for the employee as well.

To encourage their 600 employees to attend the health fair, they were given a sheet with all the booths listed. I guess there were 20 - 25 of us including Duval County Parks and Recreation (what a good idea!), Duval County Health Department (diabetes screening), St. Vincent's Hospital, Weight Watchers, several gyms and personal trainers, yoga instructors, massage therapists, and us. We felt privileged to be allowed to be there as there were no others like us there. We gave out samples of our honey almond butter with celery sticks which was pretty popular, and several people signed up to get our newsletters. They were such a wonderful group of people, and we really enjoyed meeting all of them.

To encourage them to visit all of the booths, they were told they would be entered into a drawing for door prizes if they got little stickers from at least 16 participants. Of course, there were those who only went from booth to booth to pick up the free stuff and get their sticker, but most people genuinely seemed interested in what we had to say. They were either very health conscious or extremely polite!

We particularly enjoyed it from the networking aspect. We met some great people with whom we hope to have a long association. We also got to see our customer, Randy, from a different perspective, and got to see what drives his desire to be healthier. I guess the main thing we came away with was what a great concept it was for a business to do something like this for their employees. I am not a big fan of big business, but I have to admit, I admired their commitment to their employees and their health even when it stands to help their own bottom line. There are other ways to do that, so I see that as a good thing that helps both parties. (I believe the business partnership should benefit both parties - we live in a society where everything is about "What's in it for me?" Our government has trained us well to be very ego-centric, but that's another soapbox!)

I wondered if the employees appreciate what went on that day - the sacrifice the booth participants made to be there (since there were no sales or contracts allowed) as well as all the work management put into the event. I think they probably do. I'll bet this company does not have a high turnover rate...

I was thinking this is why we keep doing the Beaver Street Market in spite of the fact that it is not organic friendly. We have met some remarkable people. I wouldn't give anything for that. When I think of who we wouldn't have met if we had not chosen to be there, it makes me really appreciate the hard times as well as the good...

This week we've got some delicious sprouted garbanzo bean hummus made up to eat with cucumber slices, celery, and corny chips. We feel our hummus is very unique in that we sprout our garbanzo beans (chickpeas) and then mix them with the traditional hummus ingredients: tahini, garlic, sweet pepper, onion, cumin and other spices, lemon, salt, and cilantro or parsley. It really is tasty. Because it is made from a sprouted legume, we were worried that it would be too starchy, but it is very good. We particularly enjoy having a little too much as we love it dehydrated into what we call falafels. These are very tasty additions to our salads or dipped in tahini sauce.

We must be in a dipping mood as we also have our olive cheese spread which is delicious spread on celery or anything else you can think to use it on. yummy. We also have some guacamole this week, no-net tuna, Waldorf salad, and cucumber salad. Of course, our ever present Ranch dressing is available, and we made some sweet and sour sauce to serve over shredded zucchini. We've also got some fresh everyday bread and corny chips along with veggie crisps.

Dessert and snack items include Hawaiian granola, soul dates, candied pecans, crunch meister, apple crisp, key lime pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate cheesecake, curried cashews, and chocolate mousse cake.

As a plug for the produce, the celery is excellent this week, and we are selling it at cost as we like to get it in fresh each week for ourselves, but we can't eat a whole case by ourselves (24 to the case). All items like this (lettuce, cilantro, parsley, celery) we sell at cost, so our customers definately benefit from our personal addictions! Please consider purchasing these items from us so that we can keep getting in a case of them. You won't find a better price anywhere else. I don't know how it compares to conventional produce, but the organic has got such a magnificent flavor, I can't believe anyone would eat these foods conventionally if they could get them at a decent price organically. But maybe that's just me...

Happy Birthday, Angelina

2010-07-15T14:18:00.000-07:00

Not much going on this week as we had a lot of work in our “real” job to do, but we still gotta, eat, right? So here’s our list for the upcoming week:

Desserts first:

key lime pie
rawky road
coconut banana cream pie
chocolate mousse layer cake

entrees (and other stuff):

broccoli cheese soup
no-net tuna
tomato salsa (good on the no-net tuna & nachos)
Ranch dressing
elote con crema (once with avocado “boats” and secondly as a nacho topping)
cheddar cheese (to have with shredded zucchini and marinated mushrooms)
ball park sunnies
everyday bread
corny chips
buckwheaties
honey almond butter

We haven’t made rawky road for a while, but it’s my granddaughter’s birthday this Sunday, and that is her special request. I hear we’re having ice cream too! If there’s any ice cream left over, I think I’ll experiment making some ice cream sandwiches with the cake we use for the chocolate mousse layer cake and/or ice cream sundaes with the skinny mints. Birthdays are a fun excuse for experimenting!

In fact, her request for dinner that day is pb & j:

Core and slice up some apples.

Pit and slice up medjool dates.

Apply a dab of honey almond butter to the apple slice. Top with a date slice.

Arrange on a plate and sprinkle with a tiny bit of salt. Delish and super easy.

We’re working really hard at getting our web page up and running. Really we are, but it is a challenge. Not only is there a lot of time needed for doing it, but my technical abilities aren’t as good as I wish they were. I made up my own web page several years ago for our school, but making one that has shopping cart capabilities is more difficult. But we are determined, and it will happen. Thanks for your patience.

Alicia made her specialty for lunch today, mashed no-taters, hence the marinated mushrooms as we like that as a topping for them. Massaged spinach and/or kale makes a lovely base, and we had grape tomatoes on the side. Here’s our recipe for the taters:

Mashed no-taters

1 head of cauliflower
2 cups macadamia nuts, soaked
Juice of ½ lemon
¼ – ½ cup water
2 cups corn, either fresh or frozen and thawed
Black Pepper (to taste)
2 tablespoons coconut oil
Handful of fresh rosemary or choice of herbs, finely minced
1 scallion, finely minced
½ teaspoon salt or to taste

Break cauliflower into 2 inch chunks and chop in food processor with S blade until grainy.

Put corn in blender and process until smooth. Add water if necessary, but only enough to result in a smooth, creamy blend. It needs to be thick.

Add soaked nuts, coconut oil, and lemon juice to corn in blender and process until smooth. Add water only if necessary. This mixture should be thick and creamy.

Add nut and corn mixture to the cauliflower in the food processor and process until well combined, but not completely smooth. It should have a bit of texture, like mashed potatoes.

Place in serving bowl and serve as is (mixture should be warm from the processing) or put entire mixture into baking dish and place in dehydrator for 2 hours to warm through. Season with salt and pepper and herbs to taste.

Serve right away. It tastes best if served shortly after preparing, and changes after refrigeration. If you do have leftovers, they are good as the base for a cream soup. Just add more water. We like to whirr it up with the leftover greens we used in the base for a green soup.

All Things Mexican ... or how do I live without tortillas, hot sauce, and refried beans?

2010-07-08T05:37:00.000-07:00

We've been getting some good batches of corn lately. I think you learn to appreciate good produce more when you only eat raw produce. Back in my cooking days I'd always add sugar to my cooking water for corn to help sweeten it up. A starchy ear of corn didn't taste quite so starchy that way. When you only eat raw corn, though, you really are grateful for those naturally sweet ears, and we don't enjoy the starchy ones too much.

That being said, my favorite way to eat raw corn is in a recipe we made up to imitate a treat we got when we were sitting in our car waiting to get across the Mexico border into the US. The line was wrapped around the block several times, and apparently this is a common occurrence as there were several industrious vendors lined up right next to the cars offering last minute souvenirs and/or snack and lunch foods. One of the items for sale were elotes which turned out to be sweet corn with a spicy mayonnaise sauce. It was really good, and we wanted to replicate it when we started eating a living foods diet.

Picante mayo was our secret: we just make a cashew based mayonnaise with cashews, lemon juice, some type of sweetener (I usually use agave nectar), salt, and a good dose of chili powder. Once this is made, we just mix the corn into it, and we love it. It is now one of our staples every week. We have found several ways to use it: piled into peeled avocado halves served on a bed of ensaladsa (shredded cabbage, lime juice, cilantro, and salt) or Mexican "rice" (cabbage chopped to look like grains of rice, minced onion, dehydrated and fresh chopped tomatoes, English peas dressed with cold-pressed olive oil, unrefined sea salt, chili powder, cumin, garlic). We also love to make "Super Nachos" with them: corny chips, elotes con crema, tomato salsa, guacamole, unfried no-beans, diced tomatoes, ensalada, on a bed of shredded romaine. Sometimes we mix crema and tomato salsa or harissa sauce for a dressing if we need one. (It's also good with the ranch or avo mayo though.) Do we live good or what?

Many people ask us where we got the name of our business (i Viva La Verde !). This means "Live Green" which is something we hear at every turn nowadays. We didn't mean for it be so cliche when we came up with it, and we apply it more to our plant-based diet than our environmental concerns. We, of course, do care about our earth and the waste of our resources, but our business was designed to help people live a greener life in terms of their eating choices.

We chose a Spanish name because of our love for the Latin people. Darius spent two years in Mexico on a mission for our Church where he fell in love with the culture there. We returned with him twice and were just as enamored as he was. We have tried to learn the language and as much about the cuisine and culture as we could.

Once we started eating a predominantly living foods diet, this presented a little bit of problem. While the Mexicans with which we had eaten used only fresh ingredients, usually they were cooked. (They think Americans eat only canned food and find that very distasteful. It is unimaginable to them that someone would eat a canned salsa or vegetable. Though a staple at every meal, salsa is made fresh (and often differently) each time.) You will notice in our catalog we have several items that help fill the void for us including our beloved elotes con crema.

Crema is another food we love to use inspired by our experiences in Mexico. I'm not sure how it is made there, but it is similar to our sour cream except thinner. We culture it with cashews and hemp seed. (Hemp seed is NOT a source of THC, by the way, in case you were wondering. Here is a well-researched blog post on it if you're interested: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2009/03/hemp-seed-nutritional-value-and-thoughts.html.) We use crema on top of all of our Mexican dishes, but we also use it in our lasagna. We like it any way we would normally use sour cream.

I was just thinking how much we enjoy our non-dairy foods that used to be made from cow's milk. I really wonder how dairy foods became popular. Nut-based mylks and creams and cheeses are so delicious that we really don't miss their dairy equivalents. A lot of it might be the convenience. We used to raise dairy goats and made all of our own cheese from their milk, so making nut-based cheeses is actually a lot easier. I suppose it is a matter of convenience though for those used to the plastic wrapped variety at the store.

Another item we are pleased with that helps us with our little addiction to Mexican food is our new Harissa sauce. Quite accidently we stumbled upon it, and now it helps fill the void for all those little bottles Darius brought home from his mission. (No kidding, he had a whole suitcase full of them because he knew he couldn't get them here. I never knew there were that many varieties of hot sauce...)

Well, I'm in quite the mood for Mexican this week, so we'll get busy on that right away.

Ranch dressing
cucumber salad
Harissa sauce
everyday bread
Hawaiian granola
veggie chips
crunch meister
picante mayo
guacamole
corny chips
tomato salsa
crema
un-fried no beans
elotes con crema (to stuff avocados & for nachos)
queso verde (used this week to stuff peppers)
queso dulce (with celery sticks)

dessert items:

crispy treats
pumpkin pie
chocolate mousse layer cake
skinny mints
vanilla yogurt sylk (on top of those lovely blueberries and strawberries)

Thinking It Through

2010-07-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

Doesn't this poster remind you of the Chick Filet restaurants' ad where the cows are always telling you to eat more chicken? Every time I see one of those ads, I always wonder why they think a cow would think it was alright to eat a chicken but not a cow.

I've been thinking a lot about veganism and why it is as popular as it is and why it isn't more popular. (It's been around since 1944; did you know that?) According to the American Vegan Society (www.americanvegan.org), being a vegan (vegans (pronounced VEE-guns) live on products of the plant kingdom, i.e. no animal products)is more than just eating in a more healthy way. "Veganism is a[n] ... way of living in accordance with Reverence for Life, recognizing the rights of all living creatures, and extending to them the compassion, kindness, and justice exemplified in the Golden Rule... AHIMSA is a Sanskrit word for non-killing and non-harming. It is not mere passiveness, but a positive method of meeting the dilemmas and decisions of daily life. In the western world, we call it Dynamic Harmlessness. The six pillars of this dynamic philosophy for modern life (one for each letter: A-H-I-M-S-A) are:"

ABSTINENCE FROM ANIMAL PRODUCTS
HARMLESSNESS WITH REVERENCE FOR LIFE
INTEGRITY OF THOUGHT, WORD, AND DEED
MASTERY OVER ONESELF
SERVICE TO HUMANITY, NATURE, AND CREATION
ADVANCEMENT OF UNDERSTANDING AND TRUTH

I was reading a review of a book I'm reading (Eating Animals) where the reviewer (Tim Challies) indicated that he was very moved by the facts presented by Mr. Foer in this book but didn't quite know what to do about the information he now had:

And yet I don’t quite know what to do about it. As I read this book I felt guilty when reading about the conditions of the animals on their factory farms. I felt positively sick reading about the conditions in many of those slaughterhouses. And then I ate a ham and egg sandwich. It was delicious.

Are we so addicted to our lifestyle that the facts are meaningless to us? Are we (as a society) determined to lay the realities aside so that our personal "needs" can be met? Are these "facts" just fabrications of lunatic minds? Veganism is obviously more than a decision to live in a more healthy way which explains why we are in what might be considered both the best and the worst of times.

On a friendlier note, our mostly vegan family menus (we use honey sometimes) are based on the requests from our customers, and this week one of our customers asked for some items we haven't made for a while, so that's been kind of fun. We get in a rut like everyone else I suppose.

One thing we've really enjoyed this week on our salads is surf n turf. This is a play on words because the surf is some delightful arame seaweed, and we mix it with shredded carrot, onion, and sweet pepper for the turf part. We mix it with a nice vinaigrette: 1 tablespoon nama shoyu or liquid aminos (the liquid aminos are gluten-free), 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil, ¼ cup white or black sesame seeds, 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon minced ginger, ¼ cup miso, and ½ teaspoon salt. The result is a fantastic salad topping that is power packed with lots of nutrients.

Our big "new" thing this week is Skinny Mints. I made a chocolate cake base similar to what we use in our chocolate mousse cake except it has peppermint extract in it. Then I frosted it with chocolate ganache. Since it is not a baked cookie, I keep it frozen, but it's not lasting too well around my kitchen, if you know what I mean. Darius has already requested it for one of his birthday dinner treats later this month. He thought we might call it "I Can't Believe It's Not Thin Mints..."

I also experimented with a new cheese called Pimento Cheese so named because of the addition of paprika. It also has miso and tahini, so that's a first for us in any of our cheeses. It is very savory. I used it to stuff some nice little banana peppers, and served it with Raita (crema with diced cucumber and cilantro) and Harissa Sauce. This was an interesting pepper sauce I found in one of my books: fennel seeds, caraway seeds, sun-dried tomatoes, red bell pepper, garlic, yellow onion, lemon, coriander, red pepper flakes, curry powder, cayenne powder, sea salt, and a little olive oil. Sounds exotic, huh? It was really nice and not so hot you couldn't enjoy it like so many hot sauces are. We're going to use the Pimento cheese as a dip for one of our meals this week with celery and carrot sticks, and cucumber circles. It will probably be good with cherry tomatoes too.

Our cashew cheese has been amazing lately, and we loved the queso dulce we made from it. Nothing beats this "sweet cheese" as a dip for celery. Celery isn't in season here in Florida anymore, but the ones we've been getting from California are gorgeous, so we're enjoying it as a couple of our meals every week besides everyone of our salads. Honey Almond Butter is good with celery too, so we get to switch it up...

We've got some Hawaiian granola in the dehydrator so that will be ready for the market. I always laugh when people ask for the recipe for this. I formulated the recipe one day, and then when I made it, I wrote down the cost of each of the items I put in it. It makes almost a dehydrator full (which is only enough for a week around here!), so it is a large batch, but it cost about $60 for the ingredients. People think they will save money by making their own, but sometimes it is worth it to let someone else do it for you, especially since we don't add anything in for the labor or even the electicity for the equipment. Gold-plated you say? How can it cost that much? Well, I don't know, but here's the ingredients: sprouted buckwheat, flax seed, almonds, sesame seeds, dates, raisins, pineapple, coconut, and honey. Simple, yet amazingly delicious, and totally alive. This and the crunch meister are our two favorite treats I'd venture to say.

Also on the bread menu this week are the veggie chips formerly called pita chips. We had to change it because we made a new bread this week that smelled just like "real" pita chips baking, and it tasted like them too. We're going to try to make them more flexible next time and do more experimenting with them. We decided they'd be our new pita chip, so we decided to call our old ones Veggie Chips since they are so loaded with veggies: cabbage, carrot, sweet and hot peppers, garlic, parsley, sprouted buckwheat, and sprouted sunflower seeds. The newly named pita chip is surprisingly made from coconut meat, zucchini, onion, and a little salt. It is hard to believe something so simple can be that tasty.

Since the pita chips and veggie chips put us in a Mediterranean mood, we decided to make some Sprouted Garbanzo Bean Hummus, so we'll be having lots of dipping dinners this week. It will taste nice with a swirl of Harissa sauce on it. Considering this is made from a raw sprouted legume, it is surprising that it doesn't taste starchy like you'd expect. We love making our hummus from a sprouted legume (which we consider a vegetable once it's sprouted) so that it can still be a live food. We've also got some East Indian Sprouts (made from sprouted lentils) in the dehydrator that will be out in time for the market.

Since a customer requested No-Net Tuna, we got to make this treat again. It is a great addition to a summer menu as it is such a great topping for our salad. I like it as a stuffing for tomatoes too. It is made from sprouted sunflower seeds with lots of celery, some walnuts, a little onion, dill pickle made into sweet pickle relish, and seasoned with dill weed, kelp, and mustard seed. We dress it with our avo mayo, a very simple dressing made with avocado, honey or agave nectar, lemon juice, and a little salt. Delicious...

And, since we made Avo Mayo, we decided to shred some carrots so that we could have carrot raisin salad we all love. Avo Mayo is a delicious untraditional dressing for this rather traditional salad. It is a nice change of pace from our usual Ranch Dressing (even though we still go through a gallon of that a week!).

While we were in the avo mayo, we also made some waldorf salad topping: diced apples, celery, walnuts, raisins, lime zest and juice. This time of year it's all about lots of different toppings for the salads.

A customer also requested some sweet potato souffle. I don't think we've had this since Thanksgiving, so it was a nice surprise for our family. This is reminiscent of that traditional sweet potato casserole with the marshmallows on it sans the marshmallows of course. (Did you know marshmallows and anything with gelatin is made from horse hooves? GROSS!) I did go to a pot luck once where a lady made vegan marshmallows, but I guess I'm too lazy to do that. We like this one just as well without them: sweet potatoes, some cashews and macadamia nuts to add creaminess, vanilla beans, Medjool dates, cinnamon, and nutmeg. The recipe called for lemon juice, but I forgot that when I made it this week, and it tasted good. I also added some extra honey to make it a little sweeter. Who knew you could eat sweet potatoes raw? We are getting some very nice Covington sweet potatoes out of North Carolina with which we have been very happy. Whenever I think of this dish, I think of little Carl, a son of one of our customers that loves anything we make that's orange it seems since this is one of his favorite dishes along with the pumpkin pie. Besides the pumpkin pie, we also have the yummy key lime pie that is so refreshing on a hot day.

Surprisingly, we're still getting some great cherry tomatoes out of the garden, and I've been wanting some avocado tomato salad. It's like a very chunky guacamole with lots of tomatoes in it, and I love it on top of salads and in sandwiches. I'll close on that note. You know I'm hoping you have a wonderful week enjoying all the fresh, ripe, organic fruits and veggies available this time of year. Don't forget your melons! We have one almost every morning. I keep thinking I'll get sick of them, but every morning I awake yearning for just one more day of it.

Avocado and Tomato Salad
4 ripe avocados (not too soft) peeled, seeded, diced into medium sized pieces
1/2 lb tomatoes diced into same size as avocado
1/2 bunch cilantro chopped
1/2 sweet onion chopped small
1 lemon juiced
sea salt
freshly ground pepper

Place all ingredients into a large bowl and gently fold in all ingredients making sure not to smoosh it up too much.

Life IS a bowl of cherries...

2010-06-24T17:37:00.001-07:00

I'm not feeling particularly philosophical this week. I've had a few moments of brilliance, but nothing that is formulated well enough in my mind for me to put "on paper" yet. So what's my topic today? You'd think I would think about this during the week. It's kind of like fixing dinner. You know you're going to have to do it every day, and yet, every day we seem surprised by the fact that's it's dinner time, and we have to come up with some food on the table. 24 hours is just not long enough in between. If God's time is 1000 years = 1 day, I could use one of those. Maybe I could get that pile cleared off my desk...

We are all loving the fruit this week. Last night we had some cherries left from the week before (I know, unbelievable!), and I begrudgingly got started on them knowing we should clear them out before starting on the ones coming in this week. What a nice treat when I discovered how delicious they were. I thought how stupid I was not to be eating them all week (I'm a watermelon girl most of the time when it's in season). I think we enjoy our summer fruits even more knowing we will only have them for a short while. Well, summer will be over soon enough, that's for sure.

We also made an albondigas spaghetti tonight (that's Mexican meatballs for all of you who missed the dialogos in Spanish 101). It's amazing the mileage we get out of the lowly sunflower seed and nuts in general.

We've also been wanting a new dessert. Last week we made parfaits with some of the lovely blueberries. We layered it with vanilla yogurt sylk and topped them with some crunchy buckwheaties. I went to an all day class in Orlando last Saturday. I knew they were having lunch catered in, but I was not willing to gamble that they'd have a nice salad let alone any vegan food, so I brought a Viva La Verde salad (thanks, Roger) and a blueberry parfait. Not only did they not have anything vegan to eat, but they were 50 meals short, so my food looked really good to at least a few other folks! I had brought watermelon to eat for breakfast on my way down, so I was a happy camper. We had black grapes to nibble on the way home, and I couldn't have been happier. (Of course, the really great class and company on the trip didn't hurt either!)

Found another new dessert to try today: vanilla panna cotta, an Italian custard dessert we are making with coconut milk instead of the traditional dairy. Hopefully those who try it will like it. It is topped with a fruit coolis; I haven't decided which fruit yet. I'll see what we have an abundance of tomorrow when I start packing up for the market. Other desserts this week are the pumpkin pie and chocolate mousse layer cake.

Another new treat I've been wanting to try I've called CRUNCH MEISTER. There is a non-raw version of it and I wanted to make it healthier. It's almonds, pumpkin seeds, and cashews. So far everyone that has tried it has loved it. It's a nice little pick me up. We're still making curried cashews which I love too along with candied pecans. Darius says all of these make great guilt free salad toppings.

I also experimented with some date treats. One is stuffed with a baklava mixture (equal amounts of chopped almond, walnut, and agave nectar), so we'll call it "Greek Dates". The other has some chocolate ganache in its little center, and it's topped off with an almond. Fun, fun, fun.

We've also made some delicious queso dulce (cashew cream cheese mixed with raisins) to celebrate the gorgeous celery we were able to get in this week. Made some crema and picante mayo while we were into the cheese. Gotta have those elotes con crema. I don't think we can go a week without them. It was good with those albondigas tonight too! Loving the queso verde with the bumper cherry tomato crop. It makes a really nice hors d'euves with or without a cucumber slice under it. Cucumber salad is still really appealing to us as well.

We don't seem to be able to give up our salads even though we can't find a local lettuce green within several hundred miles. I confess: we're bringing in our lettuce from California. I know, I'm so ashamed, but I love salads, what can I say? We can stretch it with kitchen grown sprouts, and maybe a few garden weeds, but we still want our Romaine for the base. Well, maybe it will get cool soon, and we can get a new batch of lettuce started. The guilt is killing me! We're going through a gallon of Ranch dressing every 4 to 5 days, so I thinking there are plenty of others to share the guilt. Don't even try to tell me all the ranch is being used to dip carrots; they're coming from California too! We'll be shredding up some locally grown squash/zucchini this week to have with peanut sauce (no peanuts; it's made with almond butter, ginger, honey, and lemon juice). Does that help redeem me in any way?

We've got a fresh batch of everyday bread for some open face sandwiches with all the yummy tomatoes. Also made some corny chips for some monster nachos (corny chips, elotes con crema, guacamole, tomato salsa, crema, olives) this week.

Well, I guess that about covers it for this week. Wishing you and yours a wonderfully "fruit-full" one as well.

Seasonal Availability vs. Appetite

2010-06-17T22:22:00.000-07:00

We were having a discussion about summer time being the time when so many fruits are available, and hopefully we are all taking advantage of this. I was thinking of the biology of that situation. In the winter time, at least in the tropical areas of the world, the greens flourish, root crops are abundant, cruciferous vegetables are available, and we can usually get citrus pretty easily. Apples are produced in the late fall and are usually available until spring when the juicier fruits become available. Then comes the glorious spring when the wonderful berries, melons, and stone fruits descend upon us along with the tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and squashes. What would it take to align this seasonal availability with our appetites?

When I first learned about the living foods approach to diet back in 1983 (at which time I was very unsuccessful at applying it), my mentor told me that vegetables and herbs heal while fruits cleanse. If our bodies could communicate with us, they would tell us what we need at any given point in time. Craving salads? Perhaps our bodies want to do some healing. Can’t wait to bite into those strawberries? Cleansing is the name of the game for us. Of course, our bodies need to do both everyday, so a variety of cleansing and healing foods are good. In fact, my mentor warned, if we eat a lot cleansing foods, our bodies will dump toxins and garbage as fast as it can, welcoming the opportunity to do so. Unfortunately, this can be a little unpleasant sometimes for the body doing the dumping! It’s not a bad thing, just an uncomfortable one. She advised me to eat fruits in the morning and stick with vegetables the rest of the day.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot since I have been eating A LOT of cleansing foods lately, and my body is definitely glad the long winter of discontent is over. I have had several days in the last few weeks that I only ate fruits. Nothing else seemed appealing to me. I’ve had a few moments of discomfort, but all in all I have a tremendous feel of well being.

I was impressed the other day with how low the stress levels can be when we choose a simpler way to eat. Not only is it less stress on the body, but it is less stress in the food prep area. My granddaughter and I had some appointments in town, and we were going to be gone over the lunch time window. Now any of the other family members, including my grandson, would have thought to pack food. They pack food everywhere they go even if they won’t be gone over a meal time. But not Angelina or I. We just gather the things we need for our appointments, and out the door we go.

Around noon we were getting a little hungry, and I was frustrated thinking of all that food sitting in our refrigerator at home. Why hadn’t I been more prudent or thoughtful? (Truthfully, I NEVER have to think of this because there are 4 others who ALWAYS do it.) But now I was stuck...

We decided to go the supermarket and rummage around in the produce department. They have a nice little organic section as I remember it. (I haven’t been to the grocery store in over a year.) So we looked around for awhile. I gave her a dollar amount to make it more challenging. (She’s the type that would pick out $50 worth of food and pick through it all day long.) She picked out one of those 2 packs of the giant portobello mushrooms, a pack of alfalfa sprouts, and 2 red Bartlett pears (none of which we had at home by the way...smart girl). I got a bag of baby carrots and a carton of raisins (I like that combination) which also contributed to her meal. I also got a hand of ripe bananas. She stuffed her mushrooms with the sprouts and topped them with raisins (I know, weird), and she was very satisfied as was I. Would it have been better to bring food from home? Sure, but it was kind of an adventure for both of us, and we got to have a nice lunch of fresh (I hope), organic, raw fruits and vegetables, and we were none the worse for wear. How easy is that? And we only went 50¢ over our budget! We even had food left over for another meal since she only finished off the mushrooms and the pears. Everything else has been re-purposed. So I guess the supermarket is our new fast food joint! I would have preferred going to the farmer’s market (we don’t have one in our area) or even an independent produce vendor, but none in our area carry organic produce (except us, of course!). So there we are at the mercy of corporate America in spite of ourselves.

We could, of course, have waited until we got home around 3:30. That would not have been a big deal for me, but I’m afraid I would have had a rather cranky little girl on my hands. I’m just not good about remembering that we have to eat. A simple diet suits me better than most for that reason, I suppose. A lot of that has to do with eating addicting type foods. If all of our foods are there to meet the needs of our bodies and not to satisfy addictions, it doesn’t really matter what we eat, and when becomes a lot less important too. It probably should have more to do with our caloric needs than anything else. If I were more active, hunting and gathering would probably be more important to me.

All of that being said, my menus these days are very simple. We did get in some lovely Romaine lettuce from California, so I know we’ll enjoy a couple of salads. Our cherry tomatoes from the garden are fantastic, and I enjoy them as a meal in themselves, but they are great in the salad too especially with some olives. Everyone likes them on top of a cucumber slice with a little queso verde to glue it on.

Speaking of queso verde, the cilantro has all but dried up since it is a cold weather herb, so I am thinking of trying basil in it. Actually, I have been thinking of trying some of my weeds in there. I don’t know why domestic herbs have such a tough time in the summer, but we’ve got weeds like crazy. Some plants obviously love the hot weather. Last year I experimented with quite a few of them in my smoothies, and they were surprisingly not yucky. Maybe I’ll see how they work in the cheese as well.

Smoothies, by the way, are an excellent dinner. They are filling, cool, and very nutritious, especially if you throw some greens in there. My favorite way to make them is with 1 quart jar of frozen banana (we buy a lot of extra bananas on purpose so that we’ll have some to put in the freezer for smoothies), 2 cups rejuvelac, 1 lime zested and juiced, and agave nectar to sweeten if you want it. We also use other frozen fruits if we have and/or want them including strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, or mango. I like mild greens in my smoothies, like spinach or kale, and I use a large handful. Not as much as some folks, I guess. You can play with the numbers.

Another good dinner drink is a strawberry mylk shake. I use almond mylk as a base for this, about 2 cups, a couple of frozen bananas, and I load up the blender with strawberries. You might need to add some agave nectar as well if you like it as sweet as I do. Of course, chocolate mylk shakes are great too, but I figure they’re not as nutritious as the fruit ones.

Mango lassi is one of my favorites. It is also made with an almond mylk base, and then I load up the blender with frozen mango, one zested and juiced lime, and some agave nectar to sweeten. The recipe calls with cardamon. I like it with or without it. It adds another level of flavor, I suppose.

Another meal we’re enjoying is our cucumber salad. Another great simple easy meal. We slice cucumbers and onions as thinly as possible and mix them with agave nectar, apple cider vinegar, and some pink salt. I don’t know amounts, I just do it to taste, and it probably comes out differently each time. We do love it though, and it is a meal in itself (if you have enough of it).

We’ll probably also have our chili rellenos this week as well: split any kind of sweet (or hot if you’re into that) pepper in half and clean it well of any seeds and membranes. Then smear in some cashew cheese, queso verde is my favorite, and top with anything that suits you. I like them with just the cheese and the pepper, but you might like them fancier. Salsa on top would be nice too.

While I’m in the Mexican mood, I think I’ll make some elotes con crema. These are so delicious in the avocados which are perfect right now. Some of that shredded romaine would make a nice base for that.

I’m not sure what else we’re going to come up with for the week. Maybe some of our customers’ requests will spark something. I know we’ll be making key lime tarts for dessert. I love lime and lemon this time of year.

If you’re still reading, bless you. Thanks for sticking with me. Hoping you have a delicious, light, and cooling week.

Core Values

2010-06-10T12:55:00.000-07:00

We've been asked to do a program for a group tonight, and when we asked them what they were most interested in hearing about, they said they wanted us to explain why anyone would ever spend money buying organic when there is plenty of cheap conventional produce out there.

My first thought was that we were walking into a lynch mob situation. It seems that people who eat organic food do so because it makes sense to them to do it. Likewise, those who don't, do so because it doesn't make sense to them. It seems like we are all basing our decision to eat organic on what appears to be the more logical to us.

There is a magazine I get every month that has a controversial question in it, and they have an expert from both the pro and con side give their opinion. Then they ask random people what their opinion is, and they publish the opinions of 3 pro and 3 con. Every month when I read these, I always wonder if it ever changes anyone's mind. Maybe it is helpful to fence sitters. It gives them the ammunition they need to make a decision one way or the other.

I'm not much for trying to convince anyone of anything. I don't think that's really apathy on my part; I'm just not a very persuasive person. Decisions come very easily to me. Things are never as black and white as they seem, and there's probably some good in both sides. I think we ultimately side with the one that appeals to our core values. So there it is...

According to Wikipedia.com, core values are "those [values] which prescribe the attitude and character of [a person]." Our attitude and character are determined by our core values.

What core values would we be employing when deciding that we will spend the extra buck buying something grown organically? There is an article I read recently that may shed some light on this ("10 Reasons to Eat Organic").

1. Organic farms have a better balance of wildlife. (Core value: Make sure wildlife isn't deprived of their homes because of my eating choices.) (This picture from our sweet potato patch was a precious catch. I like it because you can look close and see little holes in the leaves eaten by the catepillar that preceded this beauty. Our sweet potatoes are none the worse for it...)

2. Soil is not depleted on an organic farm. In fact, this valuable natural resource is actually enriched. (Core value: Belief that as a human living on this planet, I don't have the right to rape it of its resources.)

3. Animals fed organic food fare better than those fed "conventially" grown food. (Core value: I and my family deserve to thrive; my food choices should not diminish my health but enhance it.)

4. Organic produce has more salicylic acid which helps fight hardening of the arteries and bowel cancer. It is produced in plants naturally as a defense against stress. "If plants don’t have to resist bugs because of pesticide use, they generate less salicylic acid, and pass less on to us." (Core value: God created plants as the main food for humans and intended for us to eat them without manual manipulation.)

5. Organic foods have higher nutrient values. (Core value: see number 4.)

6. Organic food tastes better and has a better texture. (Core value: I want to feed my body and my family's bodies the best quality food I can.)

7. Organic farming can feed the world. While many think it is not feasible to organically grow all of the food needed by humans and animals, studies have been done to prove similar yields are often possible. Even when yields are lower, "The organic plots required 34% to 53% less fertilizer and energy and 97% less pesticide, however, and produced more food per unit of energy and fertilizer." The ecological impact was also less. (Core value: I do not believe I am entitled to anything not available to everyone.)

8. Organic farming protects the climate by storing more carbon in the soil which helps to stop global climate changes. (Core value: My actions should not negatively impact the planet.)

9. Organic methods are more effective in drought conditions. (Good to know; can't think of a core value I have that would apply to this.)

10. This is often used as the ONLY reason to eat organically: Organic food is safer. Farmers and farm workers who farm conventionally are 6x more likely to contract cancer from pesticide exposure. We all know it doesn't make sense to eat food which has been sprayed with poison, yet what we don't, won't hurt us, right? (Core value: I should make decisions based on intelligent logic.)

This article from which these 10 reaons are taken is written by Guy Dauncey and originally appeared in Common Ground Magazine, August 2002. I'll be glad to e-mail it to you.

I've had a really hard time thinking what core values are in play when making the decision to buy conventionally grown food. I'm sure there are some, but I can't think of them.

That being said, I have to say that I love being able to support farmers who are swimming upstream in a difficult current to do something they believe is the right thing to do. None of the organic farmers I know are getting rich. They are not in this business because it is a lucrative employment. I love voting for them instead of the corporate thieves robbing us of our health.

My sister asked me what I do with the wheat after we make our rejuvelac. We use it to make some gently dehydrated crackers we call Alicia crackers. The wheat is saved after the rejuvelac is strained off, and then we mix it with some tomato, a slice of lemon or lime, some garlic, and whatever herbs you have that you like along with some salt. We just mix this up in the blender. They taste kind of like cheezits as the wheat has a cheesy flavor. We pour the mixture onto our dehydrator sheets and dry them until they lift off the sheet indicating they're dry all the way through.

These are nice with soups, and we also like them with a little avo mayo, a slice of tomato, and a few sprouts as an open face sandwich.

Seasonal eating dictates lemonade is more of a winter drink, but it does taste good on a hot day. Rejuvelac, with its lemony flavor, is an adequate summer substitute. Your body will love you for it.

We're really enjoying the melons this year. They are delicious and amazingly hydrating. The berries have also been delicious. Last Sunday, we layered some blueberries and raspberries in our dessert dishes. We put on a dollop or two of vanilla yogurt silk (non-dairy cashew cheese cheese mixed with honey, lemon, and vanilla bean), and then sprinkled on some Hawaiian Granola (gently dehydrated buckwheat sprouts (no gluten!), pineapple, raisins, honey, dates, coconut, almonds). It was a wonderful dessert/dinner. Angelina and I are also pigging out on the mangoes. The tomatoes are delicious this year, and I'm enjoying whole meals of them by themselves (or breakfast as the case may be). I hope everyone is basking in the deliciousness of the season as I am!

It has taken a bit of a paradigm shift to realize my beloved lettuces really aren't in season right now. In thinking of what this meant to me, I realized it wasn't so bad. I'm loving the cucumber salad (thinly sliced cucumber and onion mixed with apple cider vinegar, agave nectar, and a little salt) as a meal in itself. I'm loving the tomatoes as I already mentioned. I'm thinking it's not so bad to dispense with the salad and instead have a bed of shredded zucchini at each meal with one of the many sauces available (all non-dairy, non-flesh, non-gluten): cheddar cheesy sauce, sweet n sour, marinara, "peanut", and alfredo. We also like mixing the shredded zucchini with queso verde for a green spaghetti. I'm trying to understand the benefits to my body of eating what nature is providing in each given season.

Desserts this week: pumpkin pie, key lime tarts, chocolate mousse layer cake. We are also enjoying the chocolate mousse layered with berries. We also have some chocolate macaroons made fresh.

To Be or Not To Be Organic?

2010-06-03T15:09:00.000-07:00

There's a lot of controversy about whether or not we should "waste" our money buying organic produce. There will always be controversy when one group of people are losing money while another group is thriving. It seems like we are all so lost in our little world that there is no room for anyone else to be successful especially if it is at our expense.

Well, sure, survival of the fittest, and all that, right? We are all born with the instinct to survive no matter the cost to others, right? My personal belief is that we are put on earth not so much to live on our instincts but to actually see if we will live a higher law that prepares us for the life we live after this one.

Example: when we are growing up, our sibling slugs us. Instinct dictates that we slug back. Yet, we have a higher law that says we are to turn the other cheek and walk away. If someone needs our coat, survival mode tells us, "No, I need it for myself so that I don't freeze." A higher law says to not only give him the coat but offer other articles of clothing that he might need as well to help him be more comfortable in the coming freeze. So, where does that leave us? Coatless and with a few bruises where we have let people smack us around, yes? We are told that if we do these things (turn the other cheek and look out for the welfare of others over our own needs) things will go better for us in the life to come than if we simply choose to follow our survival instincts. Certainly an amazing amount of faith in the hereafter is required for us to live the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Whether a person believes that eternal rewards are dependent upon the choices made here in mortality or not, one cannot live a life of service without learning that realizing that we are happier when we try to reach outside ourselves. Those who are most miserable are those who so self-absorbed as to think the world revolves around them. In fact, it has been suggested that when we feel most put-upon, we should find someone we can help.

So, lest the reader think I am again rambling, what does all this have to do with whether or not we should be buying organic fruits and vegetables?

Once upon a time in a land not so very far away, humans ate what they could find growing on trees and in the ground. All of their effort every day of their lives was spent searching for the calories needed to sustain their lives. No thought went into the nutritional value of the foods they were eating, and I'm sure they found that a mango satisfied them more than a handful of dandelion greens. Yet, hopefully he knew instintively that he needed a few of the green (not calorically dense) foods to sustain his life as well.

Of course all food was "organic" in the sense that it had not been chemically treated in any way. Once man started domesticating his food (i.e. growing it himself instead of depending upon what could be found in the forest and field), he soon learned he had to move frequently as the soil would not continue to produce food in the same place over and over again. At some point, he learned that he could enrich the soil in a variety of ways and moving to another piece of property every couple of seasons would not be necessary. He learned to emulate nature as she prepares her seed beds for their constant replanting: mulch them well, allow spent crops to go back into the soil, and plant cover crops so the soil does not lie fallow in its "off season".

Still there was no chemical manipulation of the crops. While there was work required to accomplish the enrichment methods, healthy strong crops resulted with no need for supplementation. What about insect and fungus control? The farmer knew a certain percentage of his crop would be lost to the natural elements of nature and planted accordingly.

Later, (when chemical warfare was being discovered during the World War I and II period and there was an excess of chemicals when the wars were over) men determined that plants would grow if fed man-made nutrients. In fact, they would grow faster and give greater yields. ("Yields" refers to the amount of a crop that is produced on a given amount of land - usually an acre.) While they were at it, they determined that pests could be killed and further increase the yields. The motivation for these "improvements" was profit margins, not nutrition.

Prior to the beginning of the industrial revolution (around the turn of the 20th century), most people grew their own food. Those who did not, like a fur trader or a lumberjack, used their skills to barter for food. Once men started to leave their farms to work in the "city" where factories were being built, providing food for people became its own industry. Talk about the ideal "get rich quick scheme"! Everybody's got to eat!

The name of the game became "cheap" "fast" food. No longer were nutrients important. We had reverted back to our original "hunter/gatherer" instinctive survival mode. We lost sight of what the land had given us maybe because we had never appreciated how much it had contributed to our well-being. Lately we are beginning to realize that we gave up a lot more than just hard work when we gave up the family farm.

While we concede that chemicals grow more vegetables faster, can we not also admit that something has been lost in this process? I have grown fruits and vegetables organically for over 30 years. It is not easy. It is not a job for someone looking for a fast buck. Why do we bother?

There are a lot of people a lot smarter than I am finding out there are a lot of scientific reasons why organically grown food is better for us. I am sure there will be many more discoveries about this in the years to come.

I recently heard a discussion on a popular talk show where the host said we all need to buy more organic food so that the cost can come down and make it more affordable for everyone. I think the thing most people don't understand about this is that organic food doesn't necessarily have an inflated price tag on it. (I know there are inscrupulous marketeers out there who will disprove that statement, but I am referring to the true farmers who are growing food organically because they believe that they are doing the right thing.) The problem is that we have been paying so little of what food should cost that in contrast organic food seems to be overpriced.

An example is a double cheeseburger at McDonalds. How in the world can you tell me that 1/5 of a pound of cow musculature PLUS her milk needed to make 2 slices of cheese PLUS a few incidental condiments can cost $1? They are still paying butchers and cheesemakers, and there's the crewmen necessary to actually grill the meat and the cashier required to take your order and package it up for you. It is intentionally "deflated" for reasons not entirely aparent at first sight. (Please watch Food, Inc. for a great explanation for how this works.)

So, why does a box of organically grown strawberries cost $4.50? Anyone who has ever tried to grow their own food has a better appreciation for why it costs as much as it does. My best advice to everyone is to grow organically what food you can, and buy what you cannot grow from those who do it organically.

So what happens everytime we buy a fruit or vegetable grown by conventional methods? We'll take the "better for your body" argument out of it. We all have the "Walmart" mentality that cheaper is better; when will we learn that this is not necessarily true?

What it boils down to is conscious eating. Do we think about what went into the food we are putting into our mouths? One of the reasons so many people are becoming vegans is because they ARE thinking about it in terms of the flesh products they previously enjoyed.

Let's think about it in terms of the produce we consume as well. Do we want man-made chemicals and pesticides in our bodies, or do we want nutrients provided by nature in perfect harmony with our needs? Every dollar we spend sends a message. Do we want 10 peppers for $1 that are grown on lifeless soil that are sprayed with poison to increase the yield on a subsidized farm with unfair wages? Are we willing to pay more for a pepper grown on a healthy soil by a farmer that is not government subsidized that is paying a fair wage to his workers because it is the right thing to do? Are we willing to get out there in the yard and put in the hours necessary to produce a few of the things we eat every week? It is a tough question that goes far beyond how much something costs.

This week: things with zucchini! Our crop has finally come into its own and we will be enjoying lots of zucchini goodies this week. I think I'll try a zucchini hummus: 2 cups zucchini, peeled and sliced, 1 clove garlic, 4 tablespoons tahini, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon paprika, for garnish, 2 tablespoons parsley, for garnish. In a food processor with the s blade, process the zucchini, garlic, tahini, lemon juice, and olive oil until smooth. Place in a serving bowl and garnish with the paprika and parsley. Serves 4.

We've enjoyed our green spaghetti this week: shredded zucchini mixed with queso verde and marinated broccoli. Marinated mushrooms are good with this, and we had cherry tomatoes with it too. Very delicious.

I made some buckwheat pizza crusts this week you might like: 3 cups buckwheat groats, sprouted, 2 avocados, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup fresh basil, 3 tablespoons Italian seasoning, 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, 3 tablespoons lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 3 medium tomatoes. Grind all in a food processor until it is a paste consistency. Spread it on dehydrator sheets to dry.

We also had some caramelized onions to have on our pizzas with the queso verde and marinara sauce:

Mix 5 large onions, sliced thinly, with the following blended sauce: 1 cup pitted dates, 3 tablespoons Nama Shoyu, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1/4 cup water. Spread on dehydrator trays. This can be eaten "wet" if you want it to be like sauteed onions, or you can dry it more to make it crunchier.

Desserts this week are apple crisp, pumpkin pie, chocolate mousse layered trifle, key lime pie, and chocolate macaroons.

Ugly Fruit

2010-05-26T15:37:00.000-07:00

This week when I was cutting up some ugly fruit, I was thinking of how often we judge (or should I say "misjudge") something by how it looks on the outside. There are some terrific grapefruit we buy whenever they are available; the industry labels them "choice" which doesn't mean choice by the dictionary definition. It actually means "You'd never buy these if you purchased them based on what they look like." We've bought a few products for ourselves that were labeled "choice", and we never know what we're going to get. They are definately outside the standards produce vendors use to decide what is acceptable to market and what is not. Basically it means "ugly fruits" versus the beautiful ones we all want to buy when we pick through the produce bins.

Anyway, we often buy "choice" for ourselves as it is about half the price of the regular produce. If we list it in the price list, we always tell folks it's "choice" although I'm sure that's misunderstood to mean it is a good thing. Buying "choice" is a good way to save money on organic produce, but it's not regularly available. Probably the growers sell it or give it to their workers, so it rarely hits the marketplace.

We've been buying these "choice" grapefruit all season. Everytime we order them, the vendor asks us if we know they are ugly. We answer that we do, but we go for the flavor which is superb. They agree, but they want us to know because they say, it is very hard to sell this ugly fruit when it is sitting in bins.

So, I was thinking as I was eating some of my ugly grapefruit the other day, why are some fruits on the tree perfectly beautiful and others ugly? I was wondering if perhaps the ugly ones sacrifice working on their outsides instead concentrating all their energy on the inside production of sweet, juicy fruit. (Some of these are sweeter than oranges, I'm not kidding you.) Then I thought how like people this is. So many times, the workers in our culture are those who devote all their energy to making things nicer for the others around them (like my little grapefruit did for me). They don't always have time for the gym and the spa and expensive makeup and hair styles. They operate on very little maintenance and expend the majority of their energy and resources on others. Often they are looked down upon because of their appearance.

In the Old Testament of the Bible there is story of how David was chosen by the Lord to be king. There were many others who appeared more appropriate for the job, but the Lord told Samuel (who was doing the choosing): "Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; ... for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). I guess I'm just thinking there's more to life than what we look like. Why is our self-esteem so tied up in that? Where do we come up with the standards by which we judge, and what have they got to do with what a person is really like?

Like the produce industry, standards are determined by what the product looks like. We all know the disappointment of seeing a beautiful piece of fruit and biting into it to find it is not at all juicy or delicious. Likewise, have we met a human being that had all the beautiful features we sought only to find out they were shallow and selfish? Of course, this is not to say that all beautiful people are this way just as all beautiful produce does not taste yucky.

The other day at the market I had some collards that had a few circles on them where bugs had eaten a few holes. A customer said, "Oh, dear. You left them in the garden too long. You let the bugs get them." I was a little shocked and surprised. I have been growing vegetables and herbs organically for many years, and I have come to expect a little insect damage. I am, in fact, a little skeptical when there's NOT any. I figure if a bug doesn't want to eat it, it can't taste too good. (Are the people who spray pesticides really arrogant enough to think that they are killing all the insects?) This is not to say I eat insect-ridden food, but I am not opposed to sharing a little bit of the earth's bounty with our fellow creatures. Yes, they do create a more ugly product I suppose if one is looking for perfection.

There are a lot of factors that go into this which is more appropriate to a gardening discussion, such as the opinion that a healthy plant does not attract insects. In my experience, it is true that a healthy plant will not fall prey to fungus and disease as easily as a malnourished plant, but I'm pretty sure insects like to eat the good stuff as much as we do.

I suppose it all has to be put in perspective. When we can see things through the eyes of others, and especially through the eyes of the Savior, there might be a different slant on it than we are used to it. I recently saw a movie with my family where Hiccup tells us, "Everything we think we know is wrong!" Maybe there's some things we don't know that will come to us if we do some pondering and searching. Just as an "ugly" fruit might be sweeter than its more attractive fellows, so might a less attractive person have more to offer.

Well, I think I'm starting to ramble (don't I always?), so I need to move on to the task at hand. What to eat? What to eat? It is no easy task to figure out what the crew here wants to eat day after day, and I'm sure every family struggles with that. I think it might be harder for singles as they have to eat the same thing for 3 or 4 days in a row so that it doesn't go to waste. We don't have too many leftovers, that's for sure.

A lot of our meals are consisting of watermelon and cantaloupe. They are less expensive right now, and we can easily make a meal of them. Contrast that with peaches: my granddaughter eats about 10 of them at a time, but she can only eat about a fourth of a watermelon or half a cantaloupe. So, consequently, I love when the melons are in season. We're still enjoying the berries, and are glad the grapes have finally come in (even though the green ones were still a little tart). We eat about 3 pounds of grapes for a meal, so that can get a little pricy too. Bananas go a long way at our house for stretching the budget. We go through at least a half case (20 lbs) a week not counting those we freeze for smoothies or dehydrate for roll-ups and banana bark. (Boy, I am really in a rambling mood today. Sorry.)

Besides the fruits, we're enjoying lots of smoothies which are nice and cool if anyone has spent lots of time outside. I like to make a milkshake with strawberries I've frozen blended with almond mylk. I think that is my favorite. Whenever I make chocolate recipes, I always clean the chocolate out of the blender by mixing it with almond mylk and some frozen banana for a chocolate shake, but the strawberry is my favorite. I also like mango lassis. Here's a recipe I found in a recipe book that I adapted to the number I like to make: 2 cups almond milk, 1/2 cup agave, 2 cups frozen mango, and 8 teaspoons lemon juice.

I've got a fresh batch of Hawaiian granola coming out of the dehydrator, so we'll enjoy that for a few snacks and meals with almond mylk this week. We also made ball park sunnies (sprouted sunflower seeds dehydrated with garlic, chili powder, and unrefined sea salt) this week which we all enjoy topping our salads. We also made some curried cashews, candied almonds, and candied pecans that will grace our salads this week along with some goji berries and/or raisins. Of course, there's the ever present Ranch dressing we can't live without.

We have tons of good, organic zucchini in the garden right now (we can give you a great deal if you'd like some), so we're going to be having lots of "noodle" meals this week where we shred up the squash and use it as a base for different sauces: marinara, peanut sauce, cheddar cheese, and queso verde. My favorite right now is the queso verde; we make a "green spaghetti" by mixing it into the zucchini and marinated broccoli. We like it with a little marinated mushroom and sliced tomato on the side.

While we've got the marinated broccoli and the cheddar, we'd better make some broccoli cheese soup - Alicia's favorite. Very good with some Alicia crackers. These crackers will also taste good with a little avo mayo (blend together ½ cups water, 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 2 tablespoons raw agave or honey, 2 teaspoons sea salt, and 1 ripe Haas avocado) spread on them and topped with sliced tomato and some sprouts. We've also got some fresh pita chips that are good this way (also crumbled up on top of a salad like croutons).

We also love the zucchini chips with Ranch dressing with some carrot sticks. This makes a nice light dinner. Along the same line is celery sticks with honey almond butter. Surprisingly satisfying.

I think that about covers the meals for the week. Desserts will include our new chocolate mousse trifle which is too good for any description I could write, apple crisp, key lime pies, coco bites. We also have some soul dates that helps to satisfy the sweet tooth.

I suppose that's it for now, and I suppose I'll have to go somewhere else to do my rambling. Hoping it's a good week for everyone.

Carbs! We Need Carbs!

2010-05-19T17:20:00.000-07:00

This week we are experimenting with another chocolate dessert. It seems like desserts is the thing people miss the most when they change to a healthy diet. Dr. Doug Graham would say this is because we aren't getting enough fruit in our diets. I think it is because we aren't used to the volume of fruit needed to provide our full load of carbs; desserts provide a more concentrated form. As long as we know this, perhaps we can concentrate on eating more fruit until we get more accustomed to what our particular bodies need. Healthy desserts certainly help bridge the gap.

That being said, this is a great time of year to eat more fruit. We try to eat only fruit in the morning and into the afternoon. When we feel like we need something more substantial, we'll go for the salad or main dish entrees. Even having fruit that large part of the day, we still find we need more many days. The human body is designed to be fueled by the simple sugars in fruits. Please read Dr. Graham's work for a better explanation of this.

Back to the new dessert. Historically speaking, one of Darius' friends (Thanks, Steven) critiqued us when we first got started by telling us that we needed more desserts, especially chocolate. At the time, we didn't have any chocolate anything, so we got busy. Every couple of months, we've come up with a new one. First was our chocolate cheesecake, and we've been working on that consistently since we started. Then we came up with our rawky road which is a chocolate coconut confection that reminds me of a mounds bar. We worked on perfecting our chocolate pudding and
chocolate pie after that. We decided to add coconut meat to our avocado mousse, and that did the trick. The chocolate pie is a nice chocolate crust (almonds, coconut, dates, & cacao) covered with sliced banana and topped with the chocolate pudding. I love making vegan desserts. It is a great challenge to make these without any dairy, flour, and eggs, not to mention the fact that they're uncooked.

I've been thinking that we needed something more "cakey", so I've been working on this chocolate mousse cake. The cake part is absolutely just like a cake mix before baking (one of my former pre-vegan favorites), so I am hoping it works up nicely in the dehydrator. The mousse is a no-brainer with cashews and coconut meat much like an ice cream custard before it's frozen. I have big hopes for it!

We also have some chocolate snacks we've worked on; Alicia is better at that than I. I do like the chocolate macaroons, but most people like Alicia's coco bites better. We're also working on a nice chocolate truffle and a date candy filled with chocolate ganache. We'll put them out there when we get them right.

I'll try to take step by step pictures of the mousse cake and post them on facebook. No promises though as I have a hard time remembering to stop and photograph everything when I am "creating".

This week we've got elotes con crema and tomato salsa to make some mega nachos with chili lime corny chips. Also making some yummy Mexican Rice. How about some unfried no-beans?. We're going to make more Mexi-Cali wrappers as these are really good wrapped around some elotes for our alternative tacos. We're also going to use the unfried no-beans to make some cabbage wraps. The wrappers would be good wrapped around the no-beans too.

We're also going to make a green lasagna for next week. We sliced some zucchini thinly long-ways. We topped this with marinated broccoli and queso verde. Then we served some marinated mushrooms and chopped tomato on the side topped with a little crema. It was better than yummy.

Since we've got the marinated broccoli, we're going to have some more broccoli cheese soup. I didn't even get any last time! I'm going to take mine out first this go around!

Hoping everyone has a yummy week. Good food makes the hard times easier to deal with, don't you think? Good, healthy food makes hard times not involve health issues, and that's a great thing!

Faith: Pathway to Success

2010-05-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

We had mixed responses from our blog last week about our beloved "juvie". I'm sure some of the readers thought we were out of our mind especially once they smelled the stuff. I don't know how something that stinky makes such a beneficial and (I think) delicious product, but it does.

I've been thinking about how much to read there is out there. I've been wondering how useful it is to write if everyone is too busy or uninterested in reading it. Of course, I find it useful to me as it clarifies my thoughts and mind processes, so if for no other reason, it is a good thing. With that in mind, I write for myself assuming no one is reading. I hope that if someone is reading it, they can realize I am having a rather personal conversation with myself.

This week is graduation at our school, so I am a little insane. It is not that it is so hard; I have been doing this for a lot of years already, and I think I know what I am doing... It is just that I am so concerned that I get everything right; I don't want to mess something up for one of the students on their special day. I want it to be nice for them, and I want them to know how proud I am of their accomplishments. In this day and age, it is so easy for a young person to just hang it up, and many do not have the support of their parents. Anyway, I am a basket case until it is over.

That means this entry will be short and sweet. I am having gratitude for blessings we are receiving when we have a need. We have really needed a cooler of some kind for a while. Presently we use a system of 4 giant coolers (we call them caskets for obvious reasons) for which we must buy a ton of ice every week. It isn't so bad during the winter, but now that the hot weather is upon us, we are really needing to find another solution. Another farmer told us about a restaurant that was being remodeled and maybe selling their cooler, but he could never remember to ask them about it. Then we started looking around at how other people solve this issue. At the Beaver Street Market there was a "Permanent" vendor who had the back of a truck hooked up as a cooler. We thought we might be able to do that if we could find a similar set-up, so we started looking for that. Then we noticed the people with that set-up had moved their location and the cooler was just sitting there. We asked them about it, and they were anxious to sell it, and the market wanted it moved. So we arranged to have it towed down to our property today, and we are hoping it will work for us. It should be adequate in size for a couple of years anyway.

My gratitude comes in how quickly this happened once we put it out there that we needed it. Our prayers were answered so quickly. It made me wonder what I could accomplish if I truly had the faith to ask for more of the things we need. It really is an issue of faith.

There is a history written about a people who were living at the time of the Tower of Babel. They didn't want to have their language confounded, and they wanted to go to a great place when they were scattered, so they prayed that this would happen. Not only did they get what they had prayed for, but they became the greatest civilization on the earth. They were told to build barges to cross the waters to the "promised land". Can you imagine the faith necessary to crawl down into that barge? They were in the water for 344 days! I'm not sure I would have made it 34 days! I'd have been pretty sure I was going to die after a couple hours of being sea sick. I realized why it was said of them that never had a man had the faith that their prophet did. We can truly accomplish great things if we will have faith that our Father in Heaven is listening to us and desires to bless our lives. I'm beginning to realize that any success we hope to have must be preceded by faith. "I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith" (Ether 12:6).

We did get some food prepared this week especially the items we keep in rotation like our breads and cheese. We also have a few desserts:

pumpkin pie (carrot, cashews, maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a date/almond crust)

rawky road (a base of pecans and walnuts, raisins, and coconut mixed with a yummy chocolate sauce, topped with a coconut "icing")

key lime pie (avocado, limes (their juice and zest), and agave nectar in a date/almond crust)

a few coconut cream pies (chocolate almond crust with a layer of banana topped with coconut cream: meat from 2 thai coconuts, agave nectar, and vanilla blended well and mixed with shredded dry coconut)

and a few Chocolate cheesecakes (cashew cheese, agave nectar, cacao butter, coconut oil, and vanilla over a pecan/raisin crust topped with chocolate ganache (raw cacao powder, cacao butter, and agave nectar).

Our meals this week consist of "pad thai" which is peanut sauce (almond butter mixed with ginger, lemon juice, maple syrup, nama shoyu, and garlic) atop shredded zucchini. We've also got elotes con crema (picante mayo mixed with fresh corn) to have in avocados and served with ensalada. We've also got corny chips (sprouted buckwheat, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds, flax, zucchini and tomatoes, lots of nice Mexican seasonings) and tomato salsa so we can have some great nachos. We're having cauliflower soup tonight with what looks like the last of the local cauliflower; Alicia made mashed no-taters served with marinated mushrooms. I didn't get any, but it sounded yummy. We've got everyday bread and pita chips to have with an assortment of toppings (mostly sliced tomatoes) and queso verde. We also have some queso dulce to have with celery sticks and apple slices. Of course we're having lots of fabulous salads with Ranch dressing (cashew cheese, lemon juice, cilantro, dill, basil, yummmm). Life is good...

Put Some Life in Your Drink

2010-05-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

This week I'm writing about something close to my heart although it is an unlikely love affair for most people: fermented foods. Much has been said about this, but it still remains a mystery to most people. Many are even repulsed by the idea, but I rarely see them reject common fermented foods. The food industry has done a good job of making sure the public doesn't think of these foods in that way: beer, wine, vinegar, sauerkraut, dill pickles, sour cream, buttermilk, cottage cheese, cheese, soy sauce, miso, sourdough bread, chocolate, and yogurt. There are, in fact, whole recipe sections dedicated to fermented foods in ethnic cookbooks as this is a common food in many cuisines.

Besides adding a layer of flavor to our diet, fermented foods are very important to our digestion. According to Sandor Katz in his book Wild Fermentation:

Fermentation is everywhere, always. It is an everyday miracle, the path of least resistance. Microscopic bacteria and fungi (encompassing yeasts and molds) are in every breath we take and every bite we eat. Try--as many do--to eradicate them with antibacterial soaps, antifungal creams, and antibiotic drugs, there is no escaping them. They are ubiquitous agents of transformation, feasting upon decaying matter, constantly shifting dynamic life forces from one miraculous and horrible creation to the next.

Microbial cultures are essential to life's processes, such as digestion and immunity. We humans are in symbiotic relationship with these single-cell life-forms. Microflora, as they are often called, digest food into nutrients our bodies can absorb, protect us from potentially dangerous organisms, and teach our immune systems how to function. Not only are we dependent upon microorganisms, we are their descendents: According to the fossil record, all forms of life on Earth spring from bacterial origins. Microorganisms are our ancestors and our allies. They keep the soil fertile and comprise an indispensable part of the cycle of life. Without them, there could be no other life.

(As an aside, an anti-evolutionist might be tempted to ignore the part about being descended from microorganisms until we remember that the Bible clearly states our origin as being from the ground.)

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7)

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return Genesis 3:19)

Anyway...if we accept that fermentation is an important part of life (and death as it were), we have to wonder why it is not a more prevalent part of our western culture (no pun intended). I would like to suggest it is another of the lost arts in our society, and indeed, we are less because of it.

I first became acquainted with fermentation when I learned that bread could be made without purchasing yeast. Grains could be fermented and the living organisms would multiply and cause the bread to rise. When the bread had reached its pinacle, it would be baked to halt the growth. A sour taste would result for which San Francisco bread makers are famous.

I learned that vegetables could be preserved by fermentation, and my first dill pickles and sauerkraut were born. I learned to take this a step farther when I began gardening and learned that soil is formed the same way: microorganisms break down organic matter to make it. I've been saving my vegetable scraps and making "compost" ever since. I even save other people's garbage hating to see that wonderful "black gold" going to waste in the garbage dump instead of being reconstructed in its rightful place in the garden.

Since learning about the living foods diet, fermentation and composting make even more sense and are even a more integral part of my daily diet and life. I do this with fermented vegetables, but mostly with a substance called rejuvelac. We fondly call it "Juvie" because of its renegade nature.

Rejuvelac is made from sprouted grain. Once sprouted, the grain is placed in a glass or ceramic vessel and mixed with water and allowed to ferment for a couple of days. Once fermented sufficiently, it is strained and the berries can be composted. The liquid is refrigerated and will last quite a while in the fridge (but I recommend you use it up!). I start a new batch sprouting when one batch is added to water and keep the cycle going that way. It is easy to remember it if you do something with it every day. I actually always have grain either soaking or sprouting, and sprouted grains fermenting, and a batch of rejuvelac at all times. Those are the three stages.

What to do with it? First of all, it is a nutritious beverage in its own right. It tastes like an unsweetened lemonade. Dr. Ann Wigmore who is said to have invented rejuvelac says this about it:

Rejuvelac is a slightly fermented wheatberry drink that is one of the most important items in the living foods lifestyle....[It] plays a vital role in restoring health....Rejuvelac contains all the nutritional nourishment of wheat and is more easily digested. It contains the friendly bacteria that are necessary for a healthy colon and to remove toxins. It is also filled with B complex vitamins and vitamins C and E.

In her book Hippocrates Live Food Program, Dr. Ann quotes food chemist Harvey Lisle, who did extensive research on Rejuvelac's contents,

Rejuvelac is rich in proteins, carbohydrates, dextrines, phosphates, saccharins, lactobacilli and aspergillis oryzae. Amylases are enzymes derived from aspergillis oryzae which have the faculty of breaking down large molecules of glucose, starch and glycogens.

(Actually Dr. Wigmore didn't invent rejuvelac; it has been around for centuries. She certainly is responsible for rediscovering it and giving it to the living foods movement.)

We also make what we call "hard lemonade" from it. We mix 1/2 cup lemon juice and 1/2 cup of agave nectar (or sweetener of your choice) in a quart jar. Then we add rejuvelac as part or all of the liquid to fill the jar. The amount of rejuvelac you add depends on how "hard" you want your lemonade to be. I enjoy it full strength, but the wimps at my house perfer to cut it some with regular water.

I use rejuvelac mostly as a fermentation for nuts and seeds. Once combined with rejuvelac, the proteins and carbohydrates break down and become much more digestible. They also happen to make a delightful and useful living foods cheese.

Hopefully I've inspired someone to make this wonderful concoction. First you'll need some grain, any grain that is still sproutable will do. I use the same organic hard red wheat used to grow our wheatgrass, but many like rye or soft wheat better. Place one cup of it in a jar large enough to allow expansion and fill it with water. It must soak for 10 - 12 hours (overnight). Drain and rinse well. Grains are known to have molds on their seedcoats, so it would behoove us to rinse them well. Once rinsed and drained, sprout as you would any other sprout. Some use sprout bags, others a mason jar with cheesecloth on the lid to allow for drainage. I have a "sprouting cup" that has holes in the bottom and sits atop its sister cup to allow for drainage.

I really can't keep track of how long it sprouts (maybe 2 days?). I spray it a couple of times a day, and when the tails are about 3/16 of an inch long, I dump it into a gallon jar. This is filled with water, and I stir the sprouts well to distribute them. Each day I shake the jar. When the water becomes slightly cloudy (2 - 4 days), we check it to see if it's "done" meaning it has a nice lemony flavor. It smells stinky, but tastes like unsweetened lemonade. I then pour it into another gallon jar lined with a nut milk bag to catch the finished sprouts. These can then be composted; some say you can use them again, but I don't like to do that. I worry about other unwelcome organisms being introduced. The finished rejuvelac is then refrigerated where it will rest comfortably before being placed in your nice warm belly where it will work its magic.

Once you start keeping rejuvelac on hand, you'll love having it. You won't want to be without it. It is quite the fad nowadays to take enzymes and probiotics in an expensive pill form, but I believe this is a viable alternative that is a useful food to boot. Viva la verde!

Facing Ourselves

2010-04-29T18:30:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure what we ate last week, but it wasn't what was on our list! I know we had some beautiful salads a couple of days, and I think I've eaten a whole case of cantaloupe myself this week. Man, I can't believe how good it is right now. I wouldn't normally think it would be this time of year. I will usually eat melon as a mono-meal (only one food on the plate) anyway, but this week it has been my staple for many of my meals.

My brother asked me to make him some cashew cream cheese, so I did that on Monday. I make it a lot, but I usually mix it with raisins for queso dulce. I made it by itself as per his request, and I thought, hey, this would taste good on cucumber slices, so I've eaten that at least twice this week. (Make that three times; writing about it here made me hungry for a batch. Plus I needed a picture. Yeah, that's the ticket. I needed a picture!) One day Darius joined me, and we sliced up mini-plum tomatoes and olives to go with it. It was extremely satisfying and filling. Now when I think about it, cucumbers are related to melons, so there must be something in the melon family I'm really needing.

I think that is the extent of my meals last week, so it's not all that exciting, but my body is loving the simplicity of it. (Of course, I had my morning juice too as per Roger's tender loving care.) Oh, yeah, one night when I was eating melon, the fam had a green spaghetti with shredded zucchini and collards mixed with queso verde. They sliced some tomatoes into it, and it looked like a real feast. Who says eating veggies can't be satisfying?

I guess that means I'll have to move last week's menu items over to this week! Sorry about that. We'll be enjoying some Mexican meals with Elote con crema (corn in a spicy cashew cheese based mayo) and unfried no beans (sprouted sunflower seeds creamed with tomatoes and seasonings). Of course we'll make up tomato salsa and guacamole and crema to go with them. We like the elote stuffed in avocado atop ensalada. We'll probably roll the no beans up in some Mexi-Cali wrappers and make some arroz Mexicano to go with that.

Marinara is definitely on the menu this week. We never got to the Leaning Towers last week; maybe it's too complicated when we're into the work week. Maybe we'll just go with some shredded zucchini topped with marinara and some marinated mushrooms. Hmm. Those mushrooms are pretty good mixed with the zucchini and just about anything else. Think we'll have it with some cashew cheddar too.

Since we've got the cheddar, and we've got some marinated broccoli, we'd be crazy not to make Alicia's favorite meal: broccoli cheddar soup. If there's any salsa left, we can make some taco soup too. That's Darius' favorite.

That's about the whole week except for the desserts. This week we're gonna make some apple crisp because I've been craving it. That is my favorite dessert of all time even from before we were vegan. We also will have some pumpkin pie, and we ran out of key lime pies last week, so we'll make that again. We've started making them in that nice snack size (thanks again, Elizabeth for suggesting that), and they're just the right touch when we want a treat. Yolanda has already asked for cheesecake for next week, so we'll have that to look forward to.

For snacks we'll have some queso dulce around to dip apples and celery into. There's the ever-present honey almond butter for dipping as well. Queso verde and cashew cream cheese will both be great for cucumber dips. We actually use these dips with veggies and/or fruit for our evening light meal. We've got some great fruit which makes great breakfast fodder, but we love it throughout the day and for our evening mono-meal many days, so we're always glad to see the seasons when more fruits are available. We'll probably be having more smoothies for dinner this week too.

How about you? What's your favorite meal this week? I'd love to know what vegan meals you're eating this week. Many of our customers aren't 100% vegan, but they love the feeling they get from eating a couple of vegetable meals during the week, and that's a great thing. I've thought about this alot since I've been working at the market and exposed to so many different ways of looking at this. I know what works for me, and I love the unprecedented level of health that I enjoy now. While there are times when it is difficult, I cannot deny how much better I feel and how much energy I have.

Having struggled with bad health much of my childhood, it is a real treat NOT to be sick all the time. My health was better after I moved away from home, and we discovered I was sick so much because I was allergic to the cats we always had while living there. While not ill as much once I was an adult, I still suffered from obesity all of my teen years and especially after I started having children. Losing these 100 pounds + since being a raw vegan has been one of the most wonderful things I have ever done for myself - it gave me my life back. Eating the SAD (standard American diet) is NOT an option for me ever again. It destroys me in many different ways (just as all addictions do their victims). While I will always be an addict, I know I need to live my 12 steps and stay out of that pool of disaster.

Some people find it odd to think one can be an addict to food. It was Victoria Boutenko's 12 Steps to Raw Foods that really helped me understand why. I bought it originally because I thought it would be a 12 step program companion, but instead it really helped me understand why I couldn't stop eating foods I knew to be harmful to me. It was very easy to relate to them as having the same effect on me that alcohol would have on an alcoholic and drugs to a user. If there was a chemical effect taking place when these foods were eaten that solicited an emotional response, then of course I'd be hooked. Well, opiates tend to have that effect, so I no longer was surprised that I felt addicted to the foods that contain them. Then the struggle came to "beat" the addiction.

For me, the AA 12 steps help me do that. I have to ask God, my higher power of choice, to help me each day. I have to recognize that this addiction is bigger than me (no small thing when one weighs almost 300 pounds). Well, here's the 12 steps. I hope they can help someone else as they have me. I could write a whole book about each one of these steps and how it changed my life to implement them.

1. I admitted I was powerless over unhealthy foods — that my life had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than myself (God) could restore me to
sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God (as I
understood Him).
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself.
5. Admitted to God, to myself, and to another human being the exact nature
of my wrongs.
6. Was entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove my shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons I had harmed, and became willing to make
amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do
so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when I was wrong promptly
admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with
God, as I understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for me and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, I tried to
carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all my
affairs.

Note the motto: "To thine own self be true." That's really the crux of it for me. I spent so much time lying to myself about what I'm doing that I can't see the truth. That scripture in Jonah really hit me: “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy” (Jonah 2:8). I could not be the recipient of all the wonderful things the Lord had in store for me if I could not fact the truth about what I was doing. It is a very humbling experience...

What's Swallowing You?

2010-04-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

Well, I was thinking I would have a little more time this week, but I think with graduation coming up soon, I'm not going to have much free time until that is done. That is true every year, but it still kicks me in the butt every year.

At the market last week, one of our friends that we haven't seen for a while came by our booth. When I asked her how she was doing, she admitted that her health challenges were getting the best of her. When I asked her how her diet was doing, she said it was not going well, and she was sure that if she could eat better, her health problems would improve. As we talked about why she doesn't eat better, she recognized that addiction to the SAD (standard American diet) was seriously holding her back.

I am constantly amazed at how great a part addiction plays in holding us back from fulfilling our potential here on earth. We see in every area of life. There is more to this than we like to admit.

I had been thinking a lot about addiction as I wrote last week, and Sunday at Church, one of the speakers was talking about people in the Bible who had trials they successfully got through including Abraham with Isaac, Moses in leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, etc. Then he mentioned Jonah, and he asked, "How many of us have whales in our life that are holding onto us until we are ready to fulfill our life's mission?" I had thought about Jonah before and how many corollaries there were to my own life, but that question had me thinking about it again. I cut and pasted the chapters out of the Old Testament, and then I made a chart showing the comparisons. I couldn't believe how much these chapters related to addiction.

I assume everyone has access to an Old Testament, so I won't reprint those scriptures here, but I'll be glad to send them to anyone who does need them if you e-mail me and ask for them. It would definately help you to have them close at hand as you think of these comparisons so that you know where I came up with this.

Here are the points I extracted from Jonah:

1. Jonah was asked to serve a mission.
2. He ignores the request (tries to hide).
3. The Lord allows the tempest to upset his journey.
4. Others suffer also when Jonah is being chastened.
5. The Lord lets others know the source of their problems was Jonah.
6. Jonah offers to be the martyr; it is easier to be a martyr than to do what he’s supposed to do.
7. Jonah helped others turn to the Lord as they recognize the Lord's power through the seriousness of Jonah’s consequence.
8. The Lord prepared a fish to hold Jonah until he repented. Note that time was a factor; if Jonah waited too long, would the fish's digestive juices kick in?
9. He recognizes that he would not be in this situation if he had listened and obeyed in the first place; recognizes that his relationship with the Lord is threatened.
10. He remembered covenants he has made.
11. “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.”
12. He recognized that he had forfeited a portion that he would never get back, but he was willing to turn to God to get what he could.
13. Commits to turn to God no matter how painful the envisioned consequences are.
14. The Lord delivers Jonah from the belly of the fish.
15. The Lord repeats His request to have Jonah serve his mission.
16. His journey to Ninevah was not an easy one even though he was doing what he was supposed to do.
17. Jonah gives the Lord’s message; people listen and are preserved.
18. Jonah is angry because the people received this blessing.
19. The Lord shows Jonah that the people of Ninevah were at least as deserving as the gourd plant.

I know that we each have a great work to do on this earth. There are many others depending on us as well. We can allow our addictions to keep us from being productive, or we can overcome them. I believe that the Lord is an important part in overcoming addiction as He would never leave us without the tools we need to do the things He wants us to do.

One of the reasons the 12 step program (A.A. for example) is successful is because it teaches the addict that he must recognize there is a power greater than himself who will help him if he will be humble enough to ask. Our pride is what keeps us from asking for that help.

I'm praying for that help on my journey, and I pray that we as a human race can recognize these addictions for what they are. Our lives are too short to waste them in this way.

A couple of weeks ago, there was someone on a talk show who said scientists have learned that high fat, high sugar foods are addictive because they elicit a positive emotional response (due to release of dopamine).

Here's the definition according to wikipedia.com: "An addiction is a persistent behavioral pattern marked by physical and/or psychological dependency that causes significant disruption and negatively impacts the quality of life of an organism."

Do foods in the SAD diet fit that criteria? In my opinion, absolutely, at least in my life they have. Unfortunately, just knowing this is not going to change anything. We will take the knowledge unused to our grave if we do not make the changes that must be made. We must have the courage as Jonah did to make the break, and do what we perceive to be incredibly difficult. It may even seem impossible, but of course, intellectually we know it is not.

This week we're excited to have so many wonderful organic fresh fruits and vegetables to eat each day. Spring is such a wonderful time of year!

Breakfast: cucumber juice, green drink (cucumber, celery, apple, lemon, greens), still some grapefruit/orange juice, green smoothies (rejuvelac, frozen bananas, greens).

2nd breakfast: fruit

We try to eat fruit each day until we feel the need for something more substantial. Sometimes we have a whole day of just eating fruit. Other days (and Hippocrates Health Institute recommends this be a once a week habit) we only drink juices and coconut water for the whole day. (Here's a fun thought: for the juice day, they recommend one also abstains from talking. It is amazing how that changes the dynamic in your day.)

Our main meal of the day is around 2:00. This is usually a large salad or some other vegetable based main dish. Here's what I'm thinking for this week:

Chili con crema (We mix marinara with some mushrooms, corn, chopped tomatoes, and sweet pepper along with organic chili powder. Then we top it with cashew cheese sour cream (We call it crema.))

Hopefully there will be some leftovers as we love it tossed with some shredded zucchini for another meal. We call it chili mac.

Save some of the marinara as a base for some Leaning Towers. We put a little marinara on the plate. We have some nice spinach or basil leaves as the base. Then we thinly slice some rounds of zucchini. Put a dab of nut-based cheese on top of the zucchini slices (queso verde, crema, etc.). Then put some nice slices of tomato on top of that. Olives are a nice addition, and then a little more marinara. It is really simple meal, but very satisfying. If you've got some dehydrated alfredo around, it makes a nice parmesan if you'd like to sprinkle that on top. yum yum

While broccoli is still in season, we're going to have a little broccoli cheese soup. We either use marinated broccoli or regular broccoli (depending on how spicy you like it) mixed with cashew cheese cheddar. Nice with some Alicia crackers.

Collard wraps are great as we still have a ton of collards. They are still tender and delicious and easy to roll into wraps or burritos. This week, I think we'll spread some queso dulce on them (this is a cashew cream cheese mixed with raisins). Then we'll top it with shredded carrot. Roll. Couldn't be easier. Some of us like to dip this in mock peanut sauce (honey almond butter diluted with water, mixed with some lemon juice, ginger, nama shoyu, and a dash of cayenne or jalopeno pepper), but some of us like them without any dipping sauce.

With all those collards, maybe some burritos would be nice too. We'll just spread some unfried no beans on the collard leaf and roll it with some avocado, chopped tomato, and some of those wonderful hotshotz sweet onions shreds. We'll probably have some tomato salsa for those who want to dip them in something.

Well, that's 6 meals, and I'm sure we'll want to have a huge i Viva La Verde salad ! at least once this week (greens, shredded carrot, minced celery, cilantro, sunnies, dulse, raisins; ranch dressing).

Desserts this week (all plant based, no dairy or animal protein): rawky road, key lime pies, chocolate macaroons, apple crisp.

Our night meal if we have one is usually something light: apple slices and/or celery sticks with honey almond butter; carrot sticks and/or celery sticks and/or cucumber spears with ranch dressing or hummus; cucumbers with olive tapenade or sprouted garbanzo bean hummus; bowl of Hawaiian granola with almond mylk, a nice mylk shake (non-dairy of course!), or just some nice fruit eaten out of hand.

We had a delicious strawberry mylk shake with the last of the organic Florida strawberries last week: almond mylk and coconut ice cream blended with strawberries and a little rejuvelac to get it moving along with a quart of frozen bananas. Life if good!

Spring is Fast Food Time

2010-04-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

I don't have a lot of time to post today, but I wanted to write about a few things I've been thinking about. Plus I really want to keep in a regular pattern of blogging on a weekly basis. I am a firm believer in consistency even though I'm not particularly good at it. Things go better when I am consistent.

I was going to write about addiction, but I think I need more time to do it justice. I saw the results of a few studies this week separate from each other, and the conclusions are interesting to say the least. Maybe I will have some time to develop that this next week.

It's spring break here in our county, so I've got a whole week starting Sunday of not having to get up at 5:00! Yay! It is will nice to be lazy and sleep in til 7:00! We might even get to the beach one of those days. Wouldn't that be a treat? It's probably still cold though, I'm guessing...

Enjoying a strawberry smoothie Darius made for us this morning. He truly is the smoothie king... They are pretty ugly though, so don't look at them. Just stick a straw in them and drink them while you do something else to divert your eyes! hahaha

He made this one with spinach, but we were surprised last week with one we made with collards. We have a ton of collards still being produced, so decided to stick a few leaves in a recent smoothie not expecting particularly good results. We couldn't believe how mild it was. The fruity taste completely won out over the greens. It really is a painless way to get more greens into us. If you haven't read Victoria Boutenko's writings on the subject, you're missing out. I don't drink them nearly as often as she suggests, nor as large an amount, but I know I would benefit from drinking them more. I think having warmer weather helps. I don't drinking cold drinks during the winter.

Our recipe for green smoothie? Easy and fast!

2 cups rejuvelac
1 quart frozen bananas
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup agave nectar
other fruit as desired
fill up the blender with spinach, kale, etc.

This makes enough for our large family of 6, so be forewarned. Cut it down if you don't want this much.

I've really enjoyed having more summer fruits this week. I always miss the citrus when it starts to wane, but how can we have too many regrets when these wonderful summer fruits make their appearances. This week we had a plum called the Larry Ann plum. I'd never heard of that. It is a nice sweet plum.

I always find it odd when people say they can't eat a healthier diet because it takes too much time. Fast food is faster... I'm here to tell you there isn't anything faster than a banana or any fruit for that matter. Pineapple are a little labor intensive (but, boy are they worth it!), but most fruits can be eaten out of hand. All you need is a sink or a water bottle to wash it!

Even salads can be made up in a flash. How blessed we are to have our greens guy who's willing to trim the lettuce and wash it up for us, so all we have to do is clean it up to eat it. Dressing can be made in large batches, or here's a recipe I got from a friend at church. She says all the salads in the Eastern Mediterranean are dressed this way (she's spent many years living abroad and traveling a lot). How delicious, simple, and oh yeah, fast is this?

Simple Salad

In a clean dry salad bowl, mash a clove of garlic with a teaspoon of sea salt to make a smooth paste. (She suggests using the back of a spoon. I've seen Rachel Ray do it with a knife.) Add the juice from half a lemon and stir until the salt is dissolved. Add three tablespoons olive oil and some freshly ground pepper. Mix well. Add your greens to the bowl just before serving and toss well.

This makes about 1/4 cup, so adjust accordingly depending on how much dressing you need.

I've really got to get cooking (or uncooking as the case may be). Here's what's on the docket this week:

Waldorf salad (This is a specialty salad we make with 2 kinds of apples, raisins, celery, soaked and dehydrated walnuts, and some avo mayo. It is only good when it's fresh, so eat it within a couple of days. We like to put it on mixed greens for a delicious salad main course.)

green spaghetti (mix shredded zucchini "noodles" with queso verde)

chili con crema

lasagna (layer thinly sliced zucchini with crema (or other nut-based cheese) and marinated broccoli in a "bed" of marinara. I top the layers with more marinara and sprinkle with "parm" which is just some dehydrated alfredo sauce. Everyone in the family likes this when it's had some time in the dehydrator to blend the flavors, but it tastes good fresh too.)

chili rellenos (some red peppers stuffed with queso verde), ensalada or Mexican rice

i Viva La Verde ! salad x 2 (at least) (mixed greens including a bunch of cilantro, shredded carrot and celery, raisins, sunnies, and dulse, ranch dressing)

desserts this week (You have Elizabeth and her sweet family to thank for these. Sweet Carl (who's a toddler) loves the pumpkin pie, so we get that every week. Anna Grace, 6, loves the rawky road, and Mama Elizabeth loves the cheesecake and fruit pies. Dad, who wouldn't eat an avocado if he were paid to do it, loves the key lime pie whose base is avocado. Of course, we don't mind a bit, as we get to eat the leftovers! Many of these make for a very extravagant brunch!)

Vanilla sylk blueberry and strawberry parfaits

Fruit pies (a delicious almond/date crust topped with banana and mixed berries)

Chocolate cheesecake

Rawky road

Coconut cream pie

pumpkin pie

O-tay, I'll Try It!

2010-04-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

First of all, our heart goes out to some friends who lost their granddaughter in a tragic accident last week. I can't imagine how difficult this must be for their whole family. Hearing of these types of things always brings back the feelings I had when I was told one of my children had a terminal cancer that would end his life within a year and a half. I was blessed to not have to deal with that particular circumstance, and I feel an overwhelming sense of compassion for anyone who does have to go through this.

I wanted to do a little piece on buckwheat. I am constantly amazed by this plant as it is one that I never had any experience with at all before becoming vegan. All I had ever heard of was buckwheat pancakes; I might have tried them at IHOP once but evidently did not find them too appealing as it isn't something for which I have much of a memory. Of course today I would never want to eat a seed or grain that has not been sprouted. (There was also that little fella on Little Rascals...wonder why they called him Buckwheat?)

Anyway, when I read Ann Wigmore's book on sprouting, she mentioned buckwheat lettuce. I already knew about sunflower greens and wheat grass, so I was intrigued by this other addition to the kitchen garden. I found some buckwheat with the hulls still on them and planted them, and the resulting "lettuce" was delicious. They are very easy to grow, as are all of the kitchen garden greens. I'll do more on that another day.

I'm not sure where I heard about hulled buckwheat sprouts, but now they are a staple at our house. We purchase hulled buckwheat in 25 lb increments! Each week, I soak about 3 - 5 pounds of them for a couple of hours. They become waterlogged very easily, so don't oversoak.

Drain these and rinse the heck out of them. They will have a lot of starch that will be washed away as you rinse. I try to rinse them every couple of hours. Drain well each time. You can use them as soon as you see a little tail appearing, or you can let them go a little longer, but don't let the tails get too long. If you can't get to them, refrigerate until you can.

Some people eat these sprouts as a cereal as is. You could probably put them on salads like you do other sprouts. My favorite application is to dehydrate them. We make buckwheaties by just dehydrating the sprouts at about 110 degrees with nothing added. Once dehydrated, they can be a nutty addition to a cashew yogurt sundae or as a cereal with almond mylk and some dried and/or fresh fruit. Roger loves to dip bananas in them. He can often be seen driving down the road with his jar of buckwheaties in tow along with a hand or two of bananas.

Usually we make a couple of breads with the freshly sprouted buckwheat groats. Everyday bread is a combination of buckwheat sprouts, flax seed, and carrot pulp from the juicer. Chili lime corny chips (corny cause there's no corn!) are sprouts mixed with zucchini and tomatoes, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, and chili powder seasonings. We also like pita chips which are made with cabbage. You can basically combine the sprouts with whatever veggies you have sitting around to make a unique and tasty bread. We mix them in the food processor to make a dough and spread them on teflex sheets. They dehydrate about 24 hours at 110 degrees. I try to turn them half way through if I can remember.

We also make crispy treats (reminiscent of that treat made with a crispy rice cereal) by mixing buckwheaties with our "marshmallow" ice cream topping. Yummy.

My personal favorite to make with the buckwheat sprouts is granola. I combine the sprouts with sprouted soaked and dehydrated almonds, dates, raisins, fresh pineapple, honey, sesame seeds, flax seeds, and coconut. The first time I made it, I added up the cost of the ingredients, and it was $60! I about had a heart attack, but it makes a lot (unless you're feeding my crowd!). This might be good without the more expensive pineapple and dates, but we really, really like it this way...

Hopefully this will inspire you to try some buckwheat. It is an inexpensive seed and very low in fat. Once sprouted, its chemical makeup is similar to that of a vegetable! How healthy is that! From a website on buckwheat:

"Sprouted buckwheat is an amazing food because it tastes like a grain but is actually gluten and wheat free and not a grain at all. It is one of the most complete sources of protein on the planet, containing all eight essential amino acids. This makes it perfect for diabetics and those who want to cut down on their sugary carbohydrates and to balance their blood sugar levels. It is also known to lower high blood pressure. Sprouted buckwheat also cleanses the colon and alkalizes the body.

"Buckwheat is a wonderful super food for people who have varicose veins or hardening of the arteries. One of the reasons is that it is full of rutin, which is a compound that is known as a powerful capillary wall strengthener. When veins become weak, blood and fluids accumulate and leak into nearby tissues, which may cause varicose veins or hemorrhoids.

"This healing food is also rich in lecithin, making it a wonderful cholesterol balancer because lecithin soaks up “bad” cholesterol and prevents it from being absorbed. Lecithin neutralizes toxins and purifies the lymphatic system, taking some of the load off of the liver.

"Sprouted buckwheat is also a brain boosting super food. 28% of the brain is actually made up of lecithin. Research suggests that regularly consuming foods rich in lecithin may actually prevent anxiety, depression, brain fog, mental fatigue and generally make the brain sharper and clearer.

"Buckwheat is high in iron so it is a good blood builder. It also prevents osteoporosis because of its high boron and calcium levels.

"Sprouted buckwheat is high in bioflavonoids, flavonols and co-enzyme Q10. It contains all of the B vitamins, magnesium, manganese, and selenium, as well as many other health giving compounds."

Boy, you can't beat that with a stick. How can you go wrong? Please let us know if we can get some for you either in their fresh state or sprouted and dehydrated. Here's to hoping you have a wonderful week full of juicy deliciousness.

This week besides buckwheat, here's some meals we've planned:

mashed no-taters with marinated mushrooms on a bed of "braised" kale

chili rellenos (sweet ripe bell peppers stuffed with queso verde)

cole slaw (yes, this is a main dish for us when served with a big salad)

super nachos (elotes con crema on top of salad greens; crema, salsa, avocado)

green spaghetti (shredded zucchini mixed with queso verde); sliced tomatoes w/ olives

celery sticks and apple wedges dipped in queso dulce

tomato bisque

Make almond mylk from 1 cup almonds that were soaked overnight (4 cups mylk). Using 2cups mylk, mix it with 2 cups corn, 1/2 an avocado, 1/4 of an onion, 1 garlic clove, 1/4 of an jalapeño, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 tablespoon sea salt; blend well.

Combine the other two cups almond mylk with a pint of dehydrated tomatoes and a chopped fresh tomato. Blend well. Combine with the corn/almond mylk mixture. Garnish with dulse, additional chopped tomatoes, etc. Makes about 8 cups. (We always dehydrate our extra tomatoes, so we always have dehydrated tomatoes on hand. If you don't, you could substitute fresh, but your soup will be, well, soupier. Maybe use less water in making your almond mylk?)

For desserts this week, we're having pumpkin pies and apple crisp. I think there's some rawky road in our future as well. We also have some crispy treats.

Greens, Greens, and More Greens - Enjoy Them While They Last

2010-04-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

We've been doing some rethinking about our catalogue and the things we have to offer this week, just kind of working it around in our heads. We're thinking we might want to reduce the number of things we offer so that we're not running around so much like chickens with their heads cut off (not such a great illusion for a vegan to use...). I've been thinking of what our specialties are. Certainly cheese falls into that category. We were in raw restaurant for lunch one day, and I asked the manager if they fermented their own nut-based cheeses. (They had quite an assortment on the menu.) She looked at me like I was crazy. She said that was way too time consuming. (Actually, it is a little labor intensive, but in my opinion, so worth it...) So, I'm thinking that the fact that we make all of our cheese indicates we've got that as one of our specialties.

Another thing we're pretty good at is desserts and ice cream. I don't know if I'd consider it a specialty. Most raw places do a pretty good job with it. I'm not crazy about most of them at the places we've gone to, but I think that's just because I'm really fussy about texture and so forth. I keep working at a recipe until it suits me. Of course, not everyone would like what I like... Still, I think desserts are an area that really helps a new vegan get over the proverbial hump from the SAD (Standard American Diet) to a healthier one minus the animal products. I've been reading Skinny Bitch this week. I had no idea this book was vegan oriented. I don't know what I thought it was, but anyway, I was surprised to find out the authors suggest a vegan lifestyle. Many of the foods they recommend are transitional foods, and dessert falls into that category for me. If we are eating a fruit-based diet, we would have little need for dessert, but most beginning vegans don't eat enough fruit. I think you kind of have to build up gradually.

Alicia suggested we ask our customers what they consider our specialties to be. That's a good idea. Maybe we could come up with a survey or something.

Personally for me, I'd be happy with fruit and juices every morning and the early part of the day. I love a nice big salad for lunch, and then I'm happy with snacking if I get hungry later on. I'm not bored with that kind of regime as long as I have a good salad dressing. I wish I were better about eating greens without dressing, but for now, I've got to have a good one. I usually eat my salads with ranch; we make it by the gallon now, but here's the single-size recipe as requested:

Ranch Dressing; the original recipe as it came from therawbodytwins.com; I've messed with it a lot, but this original one is quite good.

Ranch Dressing/Dip

1-1/2 c nuts (cashew or mac or combo) soak them for a creamier dressing (1-2 hr is fine, then drain)
3/4 - 1 c filtered water for blending
3 T lemon juice (translates into approx 1/2 lemon)
1/3 c cider vinegar
1/3 c evoo
3 T agave (or 3 soaked dates)
2 cloves garlic
1 t garlic powder
3 t onion powder
1 t dill
1 T sea salt
1/2 t basil

And to add after it's done:

1/4 c finely minced parsley
another 1/2 t dill, minced

Makes 3 cups. Serving size 2 T. Vitamix blend all ingredients till creamy and smooth except the last 2, then once blended, stir in the last 2 ingredients. Thickens in fridge. Thin to desired consistency if using as a dressing, or toss into wet lettuce leaves as is. Number of servings: 24

There's still some good cauliflower left until its season dies down, and we haven't eaten nearly as much as we usually do. I'm not sure why, but we did have some cauliflower soup for lunch today. We whirr it in the vitamix until it is nice and warm, and it is truly a comfort food when eaten that way. We don't sell it because cold it is not nearly as good. We have put the ingredients together for our customers that don't do any food prep, but it's an easy recipe:

Cauliflower Soup

2 cups roughly chopped cauliflower
2 - 3 cups water
1/2 cup cashews or pine nuts
2 T lemon juice
sea salt to taste

Put everything in a high speed blender (if you have one) and blend until thick and smooth (and a little warm). We like to put some fresh parsley or cilantro and some chopped green onion in our soup bowls and pour the soup over them. Delicious!

We had to come up with a few main dishes for a customer this week, and decided to make a lasagna. It turned out really good. Because we always have more than enough marinara, we also made a couple of batches of chili and some veggie soup.

Lasagna (this time's - it's different every time)

Pour some marinara in the bottom of a square dish or pan. (I like to use my square springform pan.) Lay in some thinly sliced zucchini. Sprinkle with marinated broccoli. Plop on some cheese. I usually use queso verde, but I was out, so I subbed in crema which was really quite nice. This zucchini/broccoli/cheese layer is repeated 3 or 4 times. More marinara is poured over top, and then I sprinkled on some dehydrated alfredo (we call it parmesan).

I placed this in the dehydrator until time to deliver it to Fred (and our lunch time), and it was a great hit with everyone.

Being out of queso verde created a sense of panic in me, so I made some first chance I got. I just love it with veggies and/or crackers. There is so much cilantro in this batch, it's like eating a green vegetable more so than cheese!

We've started selling our cilantro or parsley for our cost, and we still don't have too many takers, so it is a little discouraging. The parsley left over is not too big a concern as we can dehydrate it, but the cilantro doesn't dry too well in our experience. We love to have it, but we have to purchase 30 bunches. That's a lot of salsa! We thought that by offering it at cost we could get what we want and/or need, plus help our customers reap the benefits at a really good price. Maybe it will work eventually.... Last week we did sell out, but this week, it isn't looking too good. At least the cilantro looks good! It is a nice addition to the salad as well.

This week we also made our delicious olive tapenade to have over some shredded collards. Here's the recipe we used; it actually calls for spinach, but we were out of it, so used some of the still tender collards from the garden.

Spinach with Olive Tapenade

mix together:

9 loose handfuls spinach
2 cubed avocados
handful of soaked and dehydrated walnuts or pecans
generous tablespoon olive tapenade
dice in a few Roma tomatoes
3 tablespoons unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
3 generous tablespoons maple syrup
pinch or 2 sea salt
cracked black pepper to taste
2 generous tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Enjoy those greens! We won't have them too much longer fresh. We'll have to depend on their imported cousins from California!

We also made kale salad which is very similar to the above recipe. The kids love it!

Kale Avocado Salad

1 head kale, shredded
1 c tomato, diced
1 c avocado, chopped
2 ½ T olive oil
1 ½ T lemon juice
1 t sea salt
½ t cayenne

Mix all ingredients together, squeezing as you mix to wilt the kale and creaming the avocado. Serve immediately or let it marinate awhile. Both are good and different enough to seem like different meals. We also like it with a bit of chopped sweet or green onion.

Also made chili this week. This is really good served with crema!

Chili

1 quart marinara
1 cup corn
4 mushrooms
1 sweet pepper
1 lb. tomatoes
½ cup Mexican Fiesta (Frontier brand organic chili powder)

The smaller you chop the vegetables, the more this seems like "real" chili.

I'm sure to incur the wrath of the family for giving away so many house secrets. I figure nobody really reads this anyway, right?

Here's the weekly menu items:

Cauliflower soup atop cilantro and green onions with Alicia crackers

Spinach with olive tapenade

kale salad

chili con crema with Every day bread (good over shredded zucchini too for a chili mac)

i Viva La Verde ! salad with ranch dressing (spring mix, shredded carrot, minced celery, raisins, sunnies, tomatoes, dulse)

sweet potatoe souffle, braised spinach

lasagna

veggie soup

Still Celebrating the Birthdays...

2010-03-25T07:22:00.000-07:00

So far I've had a very juicy day, so it's a little hard to think solid food, but I'll give it a shot. Actually, this task is simplified by looking at the list of our customers' requests. It's kind of nice relying on "fate" to determine our meals - We get some pleasant surprises that way.

For starters in our juice today, Roger (he's our juice man) made all of us a cucumber juice. I like mine with a little sole in it. (This is Himalayan salt hunks in a water solution. It's very strong, so it only takes a tiny bit to flavor the juice making it nice and savory.) It's midday now, so before we think about lunch, he's making the regular green drink we have almost every day: cucumber, celery, apple, lemon, kale or spinach. It is amazing the boost we get from this. It makes my body and my brain very happy.

Our foodsaver died this week. What a bummer! We really depend on it to help us keep our food fresher for ourselves and for our customers. I guess I'll be ordering another one right away.

Speaking of gadgets that make our lives easier, today a pineapple slicer arrived. I have seen these in the marketplace for years, but I assumed they couldn't be any good, or I would have heard of one from somewhere. How wrong I was! This is now one of my favorite gadgets. We eat a lot of pineapple here, and we'll eat a lot more now that we have this. I couldn't believe how easy AND effective it is. Why didn't someone tell me about this before?

We had a fun experience last Sunday. Once a month the youth from our church have a meeting with the president of our church unit to go over the activities they would like to do for the month. Since it is the only time all of the youth are guaranteed to all be together along with their leaders, they designate this time as their monthly birthday party as well celebrating all the birthdays that occur for that given month. Since it was Alicia AND Wyatt's birthday this month in our church unit, Alicia asked if it would be ok for us to prepare the birthday treat for everyone. (Isn't she a sweetheart?) Of course, the leaders were more than happy to let her do that, so when she came home last month, she announced that we'd be preparing ice cream for the whole youth council in March. Okay.

Actually, when I make ice cream, I make a large batch of it, and I was thinking it might be enough. Roger cleaned the coconuts for it on Thursday, and Sunday morning I made the mix and filled the freezer. It was finished by the time I had to leave for church, so I packed it in plenty of ice and rock salt and hauled it to church. While it was freezing, I made some strawberry coolis (strawberries and agave nectar) from some of the yummy berries we got last week. I wish we could have gotten some pictures; it was truly beautiful AND delicious. The freezer came home almost empty, but there was enough for Roger and I to each have a banana split with some hot fudge I had working in the dehydrator just for the occasion. Oh my, oh my. I felt like I had died and gone to heaven.

The ice cream is relatively easy to make; I think it is easier than most dairy ice creams I've made. First I made 6 cups of almond mylk from 2 cups of almonds that have been soaking. Then I mix this with 1 cup of agave nectar and a tablespoon of vanilla extract. It gets blended in thirds with pints of coconut meat, i.e. 6 cups of coconut meat, about 6 coconuts. That's it! I pour it in the ice cream freezer and pack ice and rock salt around it and allow the machine to run about 1/2 hour. It is so good and good for you.

I don't usually flavor the ice cream as I prefer having toppings on hand to add to it later. If we have any to put in the freezer for later, different toppings add a lot of variety. My favorite topping is one we call marshmallow, but that's another blog topic I'm sure you'll hear about later.

Guess I'd better share the meals with you. One of our customers loves soup, so we made quite a few for him this week. That will be reflected in our menus this week. As usual, breakfast is juice and/or fruit and/or green smoothies. The variety is infinite. You'll never be bored!

Our main meal is in the middle of the day around 1 or 2:00 usually, and then for dinner, if anyone is hungry (and the children are ALWAYS hungry), we have more fruit, veggies or fruit with a dip, everyday bread with some veggies on top, Hawaiian granola with or without some almond mylk, a smoothie, a bowl of ice cream, or something leftover from another meal. Here's our main courses for the week:

Mashed no-taters with "roasted" veggies on top

Chili con crema, corny chips

Viva La Verde Salad with pickled beets (these beets are so good mixed with ranch dressing)

Broccoli cheese soup, everyday bread

Veggie soup, Alicia crackers

Veggie Lasagna: zucchini slices layered with spinach dip and marinated broccoli

Elote con crema stuffed inside avocado boats; ensalada

Our desserts this week: coconut cream pie; chocolate puddin'; fruit pie with fresh strawberries, blueberries, banana, pineapple; pumpkin pie; and rawky road

I'm kinda working on a chocolate pie that has the texture of the key lime pie that I love. Also working on a brownie type application. I haven't liked any I've had in any raw restaurants. Of course, I'll post it on here when I get it figured out.

Thanks to all our customers who inspire us to do more and more. You keep us going! We love you all so much.

March Madness 2010

2010-03-18T16:05:00.000-07:00

We've had an interesting week. A few more customers are ordering prepared items, so our personal family menu has been changing a little to accomodate their requests. We've had surf n turf two weeks in a row after going several months without it. We also found a couple of fans of our queso verde which we dearly love. I was thinking about why we don't just make the things we like regardless of whether or not anyone orders it. As I analyzed the situation, I think we only make what is ordered because otherwise we'd have too much food. We wouldn't be able to eat all of that PLUS what is leftover after we fill customer orders. It is rather a nice problem to have: too much food in a world where too many people are wondering where their next meal is coming from. It is kind of like working at a restaurant: most restaurant employees eat what is on the menu where they work.

I've been milling around a recipe for a coconut cream pie, and it came to me a couple of weeks ago. I finally made it today, and it is quite good even if I'm not much of a coconut cream fan myself. Other family members liked it as well, so I'm anxious to see how customers like it.

It has a chocolate crust topped with a layer of banana. Then comes the coconut cream layer: thai coconut AND shredded coconut sweetened with agave nectar. I was kind of surprised about the banana layer as it just gives it a touch of somethin somethin without being all banana about it. I usually only like bananas by themselves.

Tuesday we were invited to give a presentation to a group of ladies who have been doing a 7 week class on the seven pillars of health (www.sevenpillarsofhealth.com) by Dr. Colbert. It is a program some churches use to teach a more God centered approach to health by applying principles taught in the scriptures. Only one pillar is centered around the food, and it stresses that living food should be eaten if one wants to have good health. The other pillars include drinking good water, getting enough rest and sleep, exercise, detoxification, nutritional supplements, and how to better cope with stress. I am always amazed at how many different ways to do things. We all have to find what works for us, and what works for us now may change as we detox, get older, and get more in tune with what our body needs.

Anyway, we were invited to speak to them about how a living foods diet has affected our life. We are so full of gratitude, and we love to share this with others. It was great to talk to the ladies although I'm not sure how willing they were to do things differently than the way they were used to doing them. I like the old adage: if you want things to be different, you can't keep doing things the way you've always done them.

I like how St. Augustine said it better: "If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing."

I hope and pray that at least one of them was inspired by our story and that because of what we shared with them, she will be willing to make some positive changes. Sometimes we may never know whether we have been a positive influence or not. We can only hope...

Contrast this if you will with a call I got from another friend's mother. She has a melanoma which is terminal, and she is trying to come to grips with life's fragility. I felt very inadequate as I talked to her. I wished I knew more of what to suggest that would be just the right thing for her. My only suggestion to her was to apply the correct principles of health as she is coming to understand them and take whatever comes. Putting a date on it is a two-edged sword. I think the reason we are not told too soon when our lives will end is because we do get trunky... (this is a term used by missionaries when their term of service is almost over).

I know that God answers prayers. He has answered mine just as surely as I sit here. When I pled with him to tell me how I could help my son, he gave me the information I needed to do so. Does that mean I always do what he tells me? No, I'm afraid not. I guess that's where that whole "weakness makes us strong" thing comes in. ("...if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them" Ether 12:27.) I'm afraid I'm one of the weakest ones around... so I suppose that means there are great things in my future if I keep at it, right? In the meantime, there are consequences that must be endured until we decide that we're ready to change and do what needs to be done to move to the next level.

One of the fun things in our presentation with the ladies was that we brought samples of a whole days worth of food. Just little ones so that they could try everything. I think they were surprised that healthy food could taste that good.

We started out with a green drink: our usual (cucumber, celery, apple, lemon, greens). Then they had a little fruit salad: pineapple, banana, kiwi, raisins, coconut, vanilla sylk. For lunch was a Viva La Verde salad with a side order of no-net tuna; ranch dressing. One snack was apple slices with honey almond butter; another was some corny chips and salsa. For dinner we gave them some shredded zucchini with queso verde. It was kind of fun to do it that way, and they got to see how great a variety of foods there are even when we only eat raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. I think if we get to do other presentations, we might consider repeating this.

Our program consisted of asking them what their obstacles were to living the principles they had learned in the previous weeks. The only one they expressed was that their husbands didn't want to eat any differently. I'm not sure if that is an excuse or a legitimate obstacle. Certainly the way others in our family live is going to affect us, but we have to learn to do what is best for ourselves in spite of the efforts others make to sabotage us. We have to consider how much the adversary wants us to fail.

C. S. Lewis addresses this in his book Screwtape Letters. The book is sprinkled with advice from Screwtape (a devil) to his nephew, Wormwood (another devil), telling him what he must do to gain the soul of a Christian for the underworld. This mostly involves "muddying the waters". That is: not allowing the "patient" to clearly see the truth. Thus we are shown how evil is overcome by simple, clear actions and thought.

It is evil in our everyday lives that Screwtape addresses, petty evils that add up in the end to the destruction of our morality, the demise of our individuality and the utter destruction of our souls. In the end we find that the battle between good and evil is fought out on the field of our relationships with others and most of all our relationship with God. It is a great read.

Well, I've been philosophical enough. Any March Madness fans out there? We love MM at our house, so we're doing lots of finger foods this week to eat while we watch the nailbiters and hope for the best in our brackets.

Hoping your March madness results in lots of good and crazy things that bring joy and happiness into your life.

Menus for the week of March 20, 2010

breakfast: green drinks and juices, fruit

lunch: our substantial meal of the day. Most people eat their big meal for supper, but we like to eat it earlier in the day. Our night meal consists of simple food, what most people would consider a snack. Sometimes just some fruit, or a smoothie or mylk shake made with rejuvelac or almond mylk. Sometimes veggies and a dip, other times fruit and some nut butter. The main thing is to have those good things on hand so that you're not tempted to eat foods that are not healthy for you.

This week, one of our friends requested olive spread, a cashew cheese mixed with red peppers and olives. It is so good, and we are looking forward to that for some of our dipping meals this week. We all love honey almond butter with celery and/or apples too. Queso dulce (cashew cheese mixed with raisins; pictured at the beginning of the post) was requested this week, so we are so excited to have that with some apples or celery. Darius likes it with strawberries!

Here's our list of main meals this week:

Saturday: tacos (Romaine lettuce leaves stuffed with unfried no-bean (sunflower seed pate seasoned with cumin and coriander) topped with salsa and crema (cashew cheese based sour cream); Mexican rice (minced cabbage mixed with tomatoes, herbs, and spices)

Sunday: Pasta alfredo (shredded zucchini with cashew cheese alfredo); tossed salad

Monday: Avocado boats stuffed with elote con crema (spicy cashew mayo mixed with corn); ensalada (shredded cabbage, cilantro, lemon juice, and salt)

Tuesday: Mac n cheese (shredded zucchini with cashew cheese cheddar); we love this with marinated mushrooms. Cole slaw is good with this.

Wednesday: Spinach soup (cashew based alfredo mixed with shredded spinach). Watered down this is soup; otherwise it is a great dip, and Alicia loves to stuff mushrooms with it. We serve all soup with a sprouted buckwheat cracker, either pita chips, corny chips, or everyday bread, whatever we have the most of.

Thursday: Sweet n Sour noodles (shredded zucchini, slivered red pepper, and pineapple chunks with sweet n sour sauce: fresh squeezed orange juice, dried apricots, pine nuts, honey, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, garlic, yellow mustard seed powder from sprouted mustard seeds, unrefined sea salt, ginger, and some Irish moss for texture). How about a cucumber salad with it?

Friday: Collard wraps (tender collard leaves spread with queso verde (fermented cashew, macadamia, and parsley cheese) and topped with carrot raisin salad); miso soup (miso mixed with warm water poured over slivered mushrooms and sliced green onion).

A few new desserts this week:

chocolate puddin' (avocado and young Thai coconut mixed with cacao powder and agave nectar)

coconut cream pie (as described previously)

apple crisp (a perennial favorite: apples, raisins, dates, pecans, very simple, yet delicious)

cheesecake (pecan crust topped with cashew cream cheese cake finished off with raw cacao topping)

We Aren't So Different, You and Me

2010-03-11T11:50:00.000-08:00

We still have people ask us all the time what we eat. Someone talking to me this morning (as she sipped her carton of Atkins milkshake and nibbled on some Atkins snack bars) expressed her concerns over how much time it would take to eat a more plant based diet. We have been so conditioned to pick something up effortlessly. If it satisfies our addictions, that is so much the better. I don't mean to get all preachy on anyone, but that's not the way it's supposed to be.

Genesis 3:8 - 19 - And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food... And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die... And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat... And unto Adam [God] said, "Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

My take on this is that we're not supposed to be able to pick up a bag and munch away. We have to work very hard for the money it takes to buy that bag of food even if we are not growing it ourselves. Something is a little disconnected when we have to work that hard for something, and yet we do not try to get the most nourishment possible from the effort.

One of the biggest arguments I hear about a plant-based diet is that it is too expensive. We need to think of our food as nutrient/$ instead of pounds/$ or satisfaction/$.

I think a lot about the garden of Eden. There are Adam and Eve able to eat any delectable piece of fruit imaginable. The fruit sprang forth from the trees with no effort required on their part: no tilling, no hoeing, no back-breaking weeding chores. They didn't even have to water the plants. Then suddenly everything changed as a consequence to their disobedience. Suddenly their dietary needs changed as their body chemistry became what we know it to be instead of immortal. When fruit could be found, they had to be on their guard against the thorns, fungus, and diseases that might infect their food. They had to learn to be hunters and gatherers. Grain had to be consumed to provide quick energy when fruit was not available: more calories were needed in their new occupations, yet these calories were less available. The need and search for calories would have been all-consuming. Talk about expensive! We really have no idea!

Today our quest is NOT for the most high calorie food possible as was theirs. In fact, our shelves are lined with low calorie prospects so that we don't consume too many calories. Yet what is the purpose of food? We forget that the function of food is to provide our bodies with the calories needed to carry out their daily work, internally and externally. We talk alot about nutrients, but aren't they only a side benefit to the calories. If we are eating high quality foods that supplies our caloric needs, won't we be getting the nutrients that we need?

Ah, but therein lies the rub... high quality foods are not so easy to be found. If we think of food in its true light, we find we have quite a bit in common with our ancestral parents. May your search for the foods for which you are the best suited result in a lifetime of joy and happiness instead of one filled with pain and suffering.

This week was a busy work week, but we still played with cheese a little bit. We finally got some of our cashew cheese into the cheese press. It has to be in there for 2 to 3 days, and we screw the follower down each day a little more as the liquid drains out of the cheese. I'll try to remember to chronicle that with more pictures as it goes along.

The other cheese experiment was with our queso verde. We love it, but because it was not a fermented cheese, it tasted good when fresh, but not so great after a couple of days. I have been milling this around in my head for a couple of months, so today I tried it as a fermented cheese. Those of you who try it will have to let me know what you think. Darius and Alicia loved it! It was quite tasty if I do say so myself.

When asked this morning how we make up the menus, I responded that we eat what our customers ask for. Here's theirs and our meals this week:

breakfast every day:

fruit and / or fruit juice

This is eaten throughout the morning until our bodies indicated it is time for something more substantial. Occasionally, we will have buckwheaties to dip our bananas in (Buckwheaties are sprouted buckwheat that has been dehydrated. They taste a little like Post Grapenuts.) or some honey almond butter for dipping some apple slices.

I have really been liking a green drink Roger has been whipping up: 1 apple, 2 stalks of celery (he actually uses 4 of the celery tops we cut off from our snack celery), 1/4 lemon, cucumbers (1 large regular or 2 small pickling or baby cukes), and a large handful of whatever greens are in the fridge, usually spinach or kale. This makes one serving. We run it through our Omega auger type juicer.

Lunch. This is usually our most substantial meal of the day. When we are traveling, Roger fixes us a beautiful salad to pack in our cooler.

As an aside (this is a blog, and asides are what make them what they are!), I must make note of the progress Roger has made in the kitchen. This is a guy who used to have a hard time finding a loaf of bread with which to make a sandwich. He has become quite the wiz in our new lifestyle and is quite (surprisingly) helpful. He makes the best salads in the house, and his juices are great too. He is also our no-net artisan. We all have our specialities, but it has been such a surprise to see him doing his part in the kitchen. He is also the one that keeps the dishes caught up so we (who really don't like doing dishes too much) REALLY appreciate that part of his help. So as a tribute to him, THANKS, ROGE! Oh, and as seen in this photo, he is our fruit pie man. None of the rest of us have the patience for it!

This fruit pie is his gift to Alicia for her birthday. This was her requested birthday dessert, so Happy Birthday, girl. May you have at least a million more.

substantial meals this week:

Saturday, 13 March - Waldorf salad on top of spring mix greens. This salad topping is a mixture of a couple of different kinds of apples, walnuts (soaked and dehydrated of course), raisins, and celery dressed with avo mayo. We do love our spring mix too from our farmer in Gainesville.

Sunday, 14 March - As I've mentioned before, we don't usually eat breakfast on Sunday unless it's a couple of bananas as we run out the door for church. This week we're heading to Jacksonville for church as our little twin granddaughters are being blessed. I guess we'll pack a lunch to have afterwards before we head back. How about sprouted garbanza bean hummus served with baby cuke spears, baby carrots, zucchini chips, and some pita chips?

Monday, 15 March - Green spaghetti (previously one of our favorite meals made with regular pasta - in fact, my youngest requested this as the meal at the rehearsal dinner before his wedding...) Our raw version: queso verde tossed with shredded zucchini. Sliced tomatoes on the side.

Tuesday, 16 March - Carrot raisin salad served atop some shredded Romaine lettuce; broccoli cheese soup; sprouted grain crackers or everyday bread if desired.

Wednesday, 17 March - No Net Tuna serve atop greens. Tomato salsa is nice with this, or just sliced tomatoes. No Net Tuna is made with sprouted sunflower seeds, lots of celery, mustard seed, "pickles", kelp granules, and avo mayo.

Thursday, 18 March - How about a nice hearty fruit salad dressed with vanilla sylk? This week we have kiwi, pineapple, apples, oranges, blueberries, and strawberries to choose from. Vanilla sylk is made from cashew cheese, vanilla bean, lemon juice, Irish moss, and honey. Yummy!

Friday, 19 March - spinach salad with candied pecans and sliced anjou pears, dressed with raspberry vinaigrette. How about a nice miso soup on the side?

When we have another meal, and the children almost always do, it is fruit, or veggies sliced up and dipped in ranch dressing or honey almond butter (depending on the veggie). If we're really hungry, we'll have a salad or a quick soup. Sammies are nice too: just spread some avo mayo or ranch dressing on everyday bread and top with a few lettuce leaves and some sliced tomato. We love an olive up on top too.

Desserts this week? We've got chocolate macaroons, pumpkin pie, key lime pie, some vanilla ice cream, and rawky road. Sometimes a dessert makes for a nice evening meal all by itself. Hoping you have a delicious week too. I'm planning on it!

Btw, our ice cream is the best we have had at any restaurant we've been to. We've tried ice cream at them all, including New York City and Miami. (Well, we haven't been to California yet, but we'll bet our ice cream matches up to theirs as well...) Anyway, we make vanilla almond mylk and mix a whole batch with young thai coconut meat until it is thick and creamy. Then it goes into a real ice cream freezer for a while. It is so smooth and delicious. We like it with various toppings including "marshmallow" or blueberry coolis.

March Birthdays!

2010-03-05T08:43:00.000-08:00

We had a lot of work for our "real" job this week (our private school we operate for home schoolers called Deseret Academy), so we didn't have as much play time as last week, but we still had some fun things going on.

We are working with Thomas to get our website up and going. We are hoping to make that so that you can order right from there instead of having to e-mail or call everything back and forth. Of course, we want it to be whatever is easier for you, but I know I like being able to order online, so I'm assuming there are a few of you out there that feel as I do. www.vivalaverde.net is the address.

Our rawky road was a big hit last week, and we actually made two this week for birthday cakes! The candles didn't do so well in one of them, but we can play around with that for next time. It really is a delicious dessert and full of lots of good stuff.

We always plan our menus around what our customers order, so this week we got to make an old favorite we call surf and turf. We love love love arame; it is actually my favorite sea vegetable. It makes me laugh to think about that now as I was so afraid to try sea vegetables when they were first given to me. That seemed so unnatural, but now I look forward to them. Just goes to show we should not be afraid to try new things. What's the worst thing that could happen? There are worse things than not liking something, and I find that I usually do like new things, so it makes it worth the risk.

We're also going to get to make our cheddar cheese this week as we had requests for broccoli soup and taco soup. This cheddar is so versatile. We have even dehydrated it in circles that make a cheese slice. I love its taste all on its own, but because it is nut-based, I know I need to vege it up as much as possible. Not a problem though as it improves the flavor of just about everything.

We've got some other favorite desserts to make this week too: pecan pie and apple crisp. Yum Yum. Thomas is wanting pictures of everything to put on our web site, so we gotta try to remember that before we eat it all!

Happy Birthday Wyatt (6th) and Alicia (9th). These two are important people in our Viva La Verde family along with our home family. (We have several non-Viva family birthdays this month as well: Happy Birthday Orion, my youngest son, and his wife Jac). We won't say how old Alicia is going to be, but Wyatt is turning 12! He loved the Rawky Road for his birthday dessert too. He had buckwheat treats for his breakfast, an awesome taco lunch with unfried no-bean tacos, avocado boats, and Mexican rice, and he finished off the day with stuffed tomatoes filled with his beloved no-net tuna. He loves that stuff and would eat it all day every day if we let him.

For Alicia's big day, she is requesting apple crisp for her dessert. Her favorite food is broccoli soup, so we'll be sure to save her some. She eats it by the quart! She also loves the hard lemonade we make with rejuvelac and lemon juice and agave nectar.

Isn't it funny how different we all are? Variety is truly the spice of life.

Here's the menus:

Saturday, March 6

dinner: nachos (corny chips, elotes con crema, ensalada, tomato salsa, avocado slices, olives)

Sunday, March 7

brunch: (dinner on the grounds at Church) stuffed tomatoes (tomato halves with a dollop of no-net tuna on them); rawky road

dinner: celery sticks and/or apple slices with almond butter

Monday, March 8

breakfast: grapefruit / orange juice

lunch: taco soup, corny chips

dinner: Viva La Verde salad (greens, shredded carrot, minced celery, raisins, sunnies, ranch dressing; cucumbers and diced tomatoes on the side)

Tuesday, March 9

breakfast: bananas dipped in buckwheaties

lunch: broccoli soup, everyday bread

dinner: surf n turf on bed of greens

Wednesday, March 10

breakfast: Hawaiian granola with almond mylk

lunch: shredded zucchini nests with cheddar cheese; really good with marinated mushrooms too

dinner: corn chowder, Alicia crackers

Thursday, March 11

breakfast: banana mambo (I think Roger has had this for breakfast everyday last week: bananas with honey almond butter, raisins, and sunnies)

lunch: pizza - everyday bread spread with cheese and layered with marinara circles; top with marinated mushrooms and slivered red peppers

dinner: Nori sandwich crackers (nori sheets sandwiched around no-net tuna and dehydrated slightly)

Friday, March 12

breakfast: apple / celery juice (1 head celery juiced with a couple of apples)

lunch: fruit salad (apples, bananas, pineapples, orange wedges, raisins, dried coconut)

dinner: veggie salad with marinated broccoli

desserts for the week:

pecan pie
rawky road
apple crisp
buckwheat treats

Experimental Week

2010-02-25T18:05:00.000-08:00

We've had a couple of fun things happen this week. First there was the olives. We're all quite the fan of the olive, especially since we went raw vegan. So we're always looking for good ones. This week we got in some kalabata olives and some oil cured ones. They're both great, and I like them equally well: the kalabatas for eating out of hand, and the oil-cured ones as an addition to my salads.

Another reason I had been looking for a pitted olive is because I wanted to make an olive tapenade. I wish I could say I had the time to sit around pitting olives all day, but I don't, so I was looking for a source for pitted olives. The tapenade I made using a combination of these 2 olives is FANTASTIC. I really have to use some willpower to not just eat it out of the bowl with a spoon. I know I don't need that much fat, even if it is good fat, in my diet.

I had purchased a tapenade, but it just didn't taste quite right; I was anxious to make my own. There is a spinach recipe I wanted to use it in:

Spinach with Olive Tapenade

mix together:

9 loose handfuls spinach
2 cubed avocados
handful of soaked and dehydrated walnuts or pecans
generous tablespoon olive tapenade
dice in a few Roma tomatoes
3 tablespoons unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
3 generous tablespoons maple syrup
pinch or 2 sea salt
cracked black pepper to taste
2 generous tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Also, tried these new olives in our olive spread. Man, that is some good stuff. Again, have to exercise some control...

The second fun thing was that we decided to experiment with another dessert. Everyone seems to do great with their salads, etc., but having the comfort foods desserts provide is quite another matter. Our friend Elizabeth brought this up to us again this week, so we decided to work on another dessert we could produce in large quantities like our other ones. We need a couple more so that we have a little better rotation. Not having a dessert for a couple of weeks makes it all the more enjoyable when we get it back, right?

Anyway, our search resulted in a great new dessert we are calling Rawky Road. It is a chocolate / raisin / coconut confection topped with a coconut cream. It is not dense at all but surprisingly light and very satisfying. We hope all of you like it. It wouldn't be possible without the wonderful raw cacao we were able to find about a year ago. It is incredible! If you like to make your own chocolate treats, we heartily endorse it. I sometimes "cut" its richness with a nice raw carob (carob found at health food stores is roasted), but for this dessert, I decided to go with the full monty!

The third experiment is a hard cashew cheese I've been working on. The final product is a small experimental batch, but it is quite tangy and delicious. I couldn't find my cheese press from back in our goat milk cheesemaking days, so I ordered another one off e-bay this week. Next week, I'll put up a gallon of cashew cheese in the press so that I can get an official cheese wheel. It is still a little more crumbly than a dairy cheese like cheddar, but I'm thinking if I use an official press, it may be more solid. I am really excited about this and have had it ruminating for a while. (Ha ha, I made a joke - ruminating about plant based cheese... well, if I have to explain it, it probably isn't all that funny.)

I also ordered some wax. I don't know if cashew cheese needs wax like dairy cheeses, so that will be an experiment as well. Fun stuff.

Enough of all our fun discoveries this week and onto the menus:

¡ Viva La Verde ! menu for week of 2/27/10

2/27/10 Saturday

dinner: Spinach and olive tapenade

2/28/10 Sunday

breakfast: bananas or whatever you can pickup before church
lunch: pineapple wedges, sliced bananas, orange wedges, coconut
dinner: Mexicali wrappers with unfried no-beans, shredded lettuce, tomato salsa, crema

3/1/10 Monday (Happy Birthday, Orion!)

breakfast: grapefruit / orange juice
lunch: Waldorf salad on shredded lettuce; additional avo mayo if needed
dinner: hummus, pita chips, baby cukes

3/2/10 Tuesday

breakfast: banana smoothie
lunch: tomatoes stuffed with no-net tuna on lettuce leaves
dinner: cauliflower soup

3/3/10 Wednesday

breakfast: Hawaiian granola with almond mylk
lunch: avocados stuffed with elote con crema; Mexican rice
dinner: collard wraps (good way to use up leftover veggies and / or salad toppings like the no-bean from the weekend) peanut sauce for dipping

3/4/10 Thursday

breakfast: apple / celery juice (1 head celery and a couple of apples run through the juicer)
lunch: shredded zucchini, slivered red pepper, julienned carrots, onion if you want it; sauce with peanut sauce
dinner: corn chowder

3/5/10 Friday

breakfast: bananas dipped in buckwheaties
lunch: pizza (everyday bread with cheese, marinara, veggies, "parm")
dinner: salad - lettuce, celery, carrots, tomatoes, raisins, sunnies, Ranch dressing

Snacks and desserts:

pumpkin pie
key lime pies (these turned out so delicious this time; I think the flavor of the citrus affects it, and maybe the avocados, too...
crispy treats
rawky road

ball park sunnies
soul dates
zucchini chips (good with ranch dip as well)
carrots with ranch dip
celery sticks with honey almond butter
apple wedges with honey almond butter
banana bark
corny chips and salsa
olive spread and / or olive tapenade with crudites and / or pita chips

This week 2/20/10

2010-02-18T20:27:00.000-08:00

While I just may be the worst blogger in the history of blogging, it is a small comfort to think blogging hasn't been around all that long, so to be the worst, well, there's plenty of time for that to be a lot worse than it is now!

To redeem myself, I thought I'd post my family's weekly menu here instead of sending it out in a newsletter format. That way those who might be interested can come here to read it. It also serves as an archive since each edition has recipes. They wouldn't have to be repeated each time they appear that way either. See how methodical I am!

I have my doubts that the e-mails actually get read based on my own expertise at hitting the delete button. I feel seriously guilty each time I do it since I know how much effort goes into my own mailings, but I don't have time to read all the mail that crosses my path, and I seriously doubt anyone else does either. So we selectively choose which things we open and take the time to consider.

Of course the next step in this logical sequence is wondering what criteria the average reader uses to make this determination. It has to be something we are seriously interested in. Hopefully we can fill that criteria for at least some of the people we meet weekly that ask us about the raw vegan lifestyle.

This week's menu (week of 2/20/10) (Please keep in mind that we tend to have our heavier meal in the middle of the day. Many of you will want to switch lunch and dinner if this is not your practice.)

Saturday dinner: "rice" pudding (no rice! Just mix sweet cashew creme with shredded apples and raisins.)

Sunday breakfast: we actually don't eat breakfast on Sunday usually as we head out to church pretty early. We usually grab some bananas as we head out the door if we are hungry. They are good car food.

Sunday lunch: We decided that since we don't have breakfast on Sunday, we'd like a fruit lunch, so we're going to slice up pineapple and serve it with sliced bananas and orange wedges.

Sunday dinner: corny chips, guacamole, and tomato salsa

Monday breakfast: bananas dipped in buckwheaties

Monday lunch: (one of our favorites) avocado boats stuffed with elotes con crema atop ensalada

Monday dinner: collard wraps with sprouted garbanzo bean hummus and cucumber strips

Tuesday breakfast: Hawaiian granola with almond mylk

Tuesday lunch: super nachos - bed of salad greens topped with unfried no-beans, tomato salsa, and crema

Tuesday dinner: broccoli cheese soup, Alicia crackers

Wednesday breakfast: banana mambo - sliced bananas topped with honey almond butter and raisins; smoosh it all together. I also like to sprinkle some sunnies on top.

Wednesday lunch: mashed no-taters, marinated mushrooms, and "braised" spinach (wilt spinach with a little salt, lemon juice, and olive oil)

Wednesday dinner: sweet kale salad - 1 head of kale washed and thinly sliced; 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup honey, 1 clove garlic, minced; 1/2 cup raisins, 2 tablespoons pine nuts

Thursday breakfast: pina colada from Raw Food Real World by Kenney & Melngailis - 1 cup coconut meat, 1 1/2 cup coconut water, 3 cups diced pineapple, 3 tablespoons agave nectar, 1 tablespoon coconut oil, squeeze of lime juice, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, pinch of sea salt; puree all in the blender.

Thursday lunch: Viva la Verde salad (greens, shredded celery, shredded carrots, raisins, ball-park sunnies, dulse, diced tomato and cucumber if desired) ranch dressing

Thursday dinner: cauliflower soup - 2 cups cauliflower florets, 2 - 3 cups water, 1/2 cups nut of choice, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, sea salt to taste; all blended til thick and smooth and a little warm; serve with Alicia crackers

Friday breakfast: banana smoothie - 2 cups rejuvelac, 1/2 cup lemon juice, 1/2 cup agave nectar, 1 quart frozen bananas, handful of whatever greens are leftover for the week; blend well

Friday lunch: chili mac - chili con crema served over shredded zucchini

Friday dinner: sammies - everyday bread spread with avo mayo and topped with sliced avocado, sliced tomato, and a few pea shoots

desserts for the week:

chocolate cheesecake
pumpkin pie
apple crisp

snacks:

ball park sunnies
soul dates
zucchini chips (good with ranch dip too)
carrots with ranch dip
celery sticks with honey almond butter
apple wedges with honey almond butter
banana bark
corny chips with tomato salsa

Well, that's all folks. Until next week!

New Beginnings

2009-12-29T05:26:00.001-08:00

I've read a couple of things recently which have helped me get my head a little straighter, so I thought I'd share them here.

First, I read a post recently about how New Year's is just an arbitrary day set aside to commemorate the fact that the earth has gone around the sun yet another time. It could have been February 15, or July 22. So what's the big deal? It seems we humans need an excuse to analyze our lives and determine what is needed so that we can do some self improvement. We innately know that our human condition requires progress.

Whether we accomplish this needed progress is quite another matter...as we all know! Which brings me to the other thing I read recently that really helped me.

Monkeys are really good at swinging on trees. They do it all day long. They would be quite unhappy if they were in a restrictive environment that kept them from swinging on trees. Every once in a while a monkey slips from the branch he hopes to latch on to. This does not make him any less a monkey. Of course, if he slips often enough, he will not survive his sojourn in the jungle, so he knows the importance of grabbing the branch carefully and securely. He won't slip very often.

We too have words that define us. Some of us are vegetarians. Some are vegans, or raw vegans. Some of us have religious or race affiliations that define us. Few of us are just defined by the term "human". In the event that we are defined by our diet, i.e. a raw vegan, are we any less a raw vegan if we slip and eat some of the holiday offerings? Obviously, if we slip often enough, we, like the monkey, will not survive, and we know the importance of eating the right foods. Our lives are consumed by the need to line our habits up with our belief system. Our skins fit more comfortably (figuratively and literally) when we do.

Of course, this brings us to why we slip. Like the monkey, perhaps we get distracted and miss the next branch. Perhaps the branch is slippery and hard to grab hold of. Perhaps we misjudge how far away the next swing will be. Perhaps we just convince ourselves it isn't that important. My personal guess is that we are addicted to the societal brick walls that keep all of us from reaching our full potential. These deterents are intended to distract and addict us. It takes every effort we can make to overcome them.

I am reminded of the 12 step program taught in AA. Maybe some of you are familiar with it. Here are the first 3 steps. Most of us never get through these...

1. We admit we are powerless over the addictive substance and that our lives have become unmanageable because of it. (We really don't want to admit that we are addicted, do we? Seems too incredible that a food could control our lives... after all, aren't I a higher being and capable of being above that? This step truly is about humility.)

2. We come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity. (Again, the humility principle comes into play.)

3. We make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him. (Not as easy as it sounds...)

You can check this page out if this appeals to you (www.aa.org/en_pdfs/smf-121_en.pdf). I suspect you've probably decided I'm nuts for looking at food this way, but it is what it is for me. Without this belief system I am hopelessly mired in my addictions. For me, being a raw vegan is a very spiritual experience. I am convinced anything that distracts me from eating the foods I know are right for me is an effort on the part of the adversary to pull me away from the spirituality that will ultimately help me to fulfill my potential.

2009 has been an incredible year. We have made so many new friends this year through our work at the Beaver Street Market and at the East Palatka Farmer's Market. We would never have envisioned it having the effect on us that it has had. We are so grateful for each and every one of our contacts even if we have not had an effect in their lives. Each one has taught us something, even the ones that turn up their noses and walk quickly away. Of course, the ones that have actually become our friends have been sources of joy and fulfillment. I especially have to express my gratitude for Elizabeth who we have known for several years. She asked us why our weight had changed so much and as we explained our diet to her, she and her family embraced it. She knew too about Darius' trials and listened to how the raw vegan diet was helping him. What a blessing she is to us as she continues her journey with us!

The list is longer: the Knitschs who express their gratitude each and every week for the lovely produce we bring them (their words); the Mallory family who won a cooking contest by highlighting our organic produce; the Heekins whose children use their change to buy a carrot or tangerine when they come by; Brian who loves our ranch dressing; the sisters as we call them who are struggling to fully embrace the raw vegan lifestyle, Tatayana and Lourdes, our dear friends who struggle as well in other ways; Dee who so enthusiastically inspires us; Ed and Robert and Lisa, our newest friends, who are making remarkable health strides due to their change in habits. There are others: John and Richard and Jeanna and Mary and Rani and Kelley and Roxanne and Tesha and Kim and Gordon who share the message with anyone who will listen. It is so exciting to be in the company of any of these people. Thank you for coming into our lives. Of course, there are some who started out with us and have gone in other directions, and we appreciate them too. All have taught us something. Even the one-hit wonders are coming into my mind now, and I have special feelings of gratitude for them as well.

My biggest debt goes to Darius who lives his life day in and day out with complete faith in the inspiration given to us back in November of 2007. What's interesting about that is my first exposure to raw veganism was when he was a little boy of 18 months when his little brother was born. I was very sick at that time and became acquainted with a raw vegan, Darlene. She introduced me to green drinks and carrot juice which quickly got me on track. While Darius enjoyed his daily "gween dwink" and carrot juice, and a multitude of apples and bananas every day, my family as a whole was not very supportive of the raw vegan lifestyle, and I was sure I could never eat "all raw fruits and vegetables"; still, I knew there was something to it even if I could never do it. Little did I know what a part it would play in my later life (and his!).

May 2010 be a year of progress for all of us is my hope and prayer. It is a fun journey to do together...

ramblings

2009-11-10T05:47:00.000-08:00

Our menus that come out later this week will include some wraps. We have discovered some delicious combinations with the great collards that have been available lately. I can't believe how tender they have been. What a great way to include more plant based foods into our lives!

We have been using the loki like zucchini, and they are delicious. Sometimes they get funky looking on the outside; the skin gets dark and mottled, but the inside is still perfect. Very strange. We like to shred our summer squash and use them as a pasta substitute. We have been bringing some to the market for customers to try with very cheeses and sauces we bring samples of as well. Ask for what you'd like to try, and we'll make every effort to accomodate you. We all need more plant foods in our lives. Is there anyone that doesn't know this yet?

It reminds me of the days when they were trying to do away with television advertising for tobacco products. There was so much opposition! Now we'd be shocked to see it as we have grown so accustomed to NOT seeing it. I believe the day will come with healthy eating as well. I don't know if it will be in my lifetime, but I believe it will come! I love being part of it now, and hope that I can make a difference. If just a few people have a higher standard of living due to better health, I will feel like my efforts are not wasted. How about you? How has your life changed when you have added more plant foods to your diet?

Recipe: Zucchini Chips

2009-09-07T15:11:00.000-07:00

Zucchini Chips

I also love, love, love dehydrated zucchini. It is better than any potato chip from my old days. I don’t even use dip with them although you could if you wanted to. [Editor's Note from Darius: I love them by themselves and also dipped in ranch dressing like a potato chip!]. Simply slice at about 3/16" on your mandolin (or thinly and uniformly with a knife), and place on dehydrator sheets. It takes about 24 hours. I pack them in mason jars and suck the air out to keep them crisp. Of course, if they get a little soggy, you can always re-dehydrate them before serving. I like to serve them with meals like a french fry as well. They add a little crunch to the meal.

[Originally published in the newsletter distributed on or around May 23, 2009]

Recipe for "Mac" n Cheez

2009-09-07T15:05:00.000-07:00

“Mac” n Cheez

Ingredients:
summer squash of your choice cut into match stick pieces or spiralized
nut based “cheddar cheez”

Just toss your cheez with your “noodles” and enjoy! Other vegetables can be added: broccoli, shredded
carrot, mushrooms, etc. to make it more primavera-like.

“Cheddar” Cheez
I make a fermented cheez, but if you want a simpler, less time-consuming one, here’s one adapted from Ani Phyo:

Raw, Dairy-Free Nacho Cheese Recipe - Makes 4 Servings

2 cups raw cashews or macadamia nuts
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon nama shoyu (raw soy sauce)
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup water (or as needed)

Use a food processor or strong blender to process nuts, lemon juice, nama shoyu, turmeric, and cayenne. Slowly drizzle water into food processor or blender while processing until desired consistency is reached.

This delightful dairy-free nacho cheese is perfect for drizzling on vegetables like zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, and asparagus. This dairy-free nacho cheese will keep in the refrigerator in an air-tight container for up to three days.

Why go dairy-free? Check out "The China Study" by T. Colin Campbell, phD or "The 80-10-10 Diet" by Dr. Doug Graham. I have copies of the latter if you are interested in one. There is a huge anti-dairy website at www.notmilk.com if you’d like lots of additional resources and information. From personal experience I can tell you that I have had dramatic improvements to my health after giving it up. Since cheese was such an important part of my life, this was not easy for me, but I have reaped the benefits of my “sacrifice”. I have known for many years that the liquid produced by bovine lactation systems was better
suited to their calves who were intended to go from 100 lbs. to 800 in a short space of time. Apparently my system was not quite as efficient as a calf’s – I hadn’t quite hit the 800 lb. mark before I gave up the moo juice (although I was well on my way!). When I learned of the addictive substances in milk, I realized why it had been so hard for me to give it up. Now free of these, I am grateful to be rid of them!

[Originally published in the newsletter distributed on or around May 16, 2009. Editorial written by Mom Trunk]

Recipe archives

2009-09-07T14:56:00.000-07:00

I will be posting recipes that have appeared in the newsletter that we have sent out each week. We include at least one recipe in each newsletter, so please let us know if you are interested in signing up to receive it every week. We usually include a recipe for a new item we gave out as samples the previous week. So the idea is that you get to try it, and then you can get the recipe for how to make it!

Live Food Demo

2009-09-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

"Live" in more ways than one!

We will be doing them every Saturday at the Beaver Street Farmers Market now, starting with one of our "Pasta" dishes, this Saturday at 10:00 A.M. and 1:00 P.M.

New Creation of the Week

2009-09-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

So we've come up with this new TRIO of recipes that taste good when all combined. They were in our catalog last week, but we are just trying them for ourselves:

1. Mashed No-Taters (made from Cauliflower and Macadamia Nuts)

2. Mushroom Gravy... MMMMMM

3. Can't figure out the name yet. Either Mescla de Verduras, ¡Viva la Verdura!, or simply Veggie Mix.

In the catalog that we sent out last week, we called it “Shepherd’s Pie” Veggies, because when combined with the taters and gravy, the taste was like the traditional dish with the same name.

It is easy to make! It is basically just seasonal vegetables (zucchini, broccoli, carrot, bell pepper, strips of green kale, all marinated in lemon juice, a little bit of olive oil, salt, and vinegar). See the entry in the catalog for ALL of the ingredients.

This dish was AMAZING. We are going to be bringing samples of it Saturday to the market, and tomorrow to our friends at the Y. We are hoping it tastes just as good the day after as it does the same day it is made. Why not? More time for everything to marinate = more deliciousness!

Today's meals

2009-08-25T16:24:00.000-07:00

Besides breakfast, of course... breakfast for me was after the gym and included some nectarines, bananas, and tangerines. Delicious! We usually do eat just fruit for breakfast... enough to satiate our needs. We also try to "earn" each of our meals by working in the garden, running around in the "pie" shape outside, or working out at home or at the gym, usually doing hte latest CrossFit "Workout of the Day" (WOD).

Today for lunch Alicia made Kale Salad, Carrot Salad (mixed with Avo Mayo), and something new--mushrooms stuffed with our No-Net Tuna Salad. I requested Kale Salad because we brought some as a sample to the YMCA, and some of our friends tried them there. They even placed an order later in the day! So anyway, I was actually a little jealous when I saw them eat it, so we had to make some more for lunch. You can find the ingredients and the recipes for all of these things in our catalog and newsletter each week! Please ask if you missed an issue with one of these things, and we can get it to you!

Also shown on the right is a strawberry mylkshake, which was absolutely wonderful. We made it using the Vanilla Mylk, which is now in our catalog. The almonds are blended with vanilla, lemon juice, and water, and then strained in a nut mylk bag:

We then blended that mixture with some fresh strawberries, ice, and agave nectar. Here is the result:

Here is a picture of Alicia making the stuffed mushrooms:

Don't they like good? Our No-Net Tuna was great this week, as we added more pickled cucumbers than usual, and the finished product was nice and moist:

For dinner, we had our new "Roasted Veggies" (shown in the bowl topped with fresh mushrooms and grape tomatoes from the garden) with some Alicia Crackers, as well as some Tomato Sandwiches (which were also topped with the Tuna--we had a LOT of extra of it this week, much to Wyatt's delight!). The roasted veggies are seasonal vegetables marinated in oil, lemon juice, and herbs and then dehydrated. This batch included squash, broccoli, and tomatoes.

This was a delicious dinner, and the kids loved it too! This was the first time we got to eat the roasted veggies, and they were a hit!

Grape Tomatoes from the ¡Viva La Verde! garden:

Questions? Comments? Yes, it was all very delicious. We can't wait to see what we come up with next! Our next post should be about the Chocolate Morsals. Stay tuned...