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)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.
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)
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.
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