Multi-taskers

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!