Playing Catch-Up

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!

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

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?

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

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

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

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!