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

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...

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.