Tulsa Raw Food 101

Friday night, February 25th, I went to Raw Food 101 at our local Whole Foods. There was an awesome turnout of 43 people.  Faith Minier and Kat Conrad are the organizers of Raw Food 101 and are doing a series of 6 classes. Last night they discussed and showed us equipment used in the Raw Food world from blenders, to juicers, to spiralizers and more.  And the best part - they made us food!!

All 43 of us were served Zucchini Pasta with Marinara Sauce, topped with Raw Marinated Mushrooms and Cashew Garlic "Raw"mesan. It was fabulous.  Then we even had dessert too! Raw Strawberry Ice Cream. And to top it all off, we all left with the recipes! You too can have these recipes by going to Kat's website and clicking the link to MY RECIPES.

I was so involved with listening and eating I forgot to take pictures!  Luckily, Whole Foods posted an album on their Facebook page.  Click here to see it!

Next Friday, March 4th, they will once again be at Whole Foods at 6:30 p.m. doing a class on Smoothies and Juices. Locals sign up and come!  Please RSVP at Whole Foods Guest Services or call 712-7555. You all know those Green Smoothies are what gave me my leap to renewed health. Come learn how they are made, the benefits, and to taste them. It promises to be a great class.

Speaking of Green Smoothies.

Here is a picture at my house this morning: 

His and Hers!

His: Bananas, strawberries, blueberries, sprig of parsley, 

handfuls of spinach, chia seeds, hemp seeds and spirulina,

coconut juice, filtered water and ice.

Hers: Fresh mango, shredded coconut, fresh grated ginger,

sprig of parsley, handfuls of spinach, chia seeds, hemp seeds 

and spirulina, coconut juice, filtered water and ice.

Personally, I think hers was the best!

My new favorite salad

I attended a Raw Food class at Whole Foods. It was presented by Denise Madeja of Raw Intentions. She is another example of a person triumphing over illness and healing through simple nutrition.

She made a Sprouted Lentil Salad and also gave us the recipe. The little taste I got was more than enough to send me running through Whole Foods following the class to collect all the ingredients. When I got home the lentils went into my sprouting jar. It took a couple of days and like magic my jar was full of sprouted lentils!

This grew from an inch - maybe and inch and a half of dry green lentil! Gotta love living foods!!

The dressing for this salad has an avocado base and is fabulous! Add it to the colorful combination of fresh vegetables mixed with the lentils, and a delightful salad is at the end of your fork!!

This is the dressing

Here are all the ingredients

Put them all together, and what do you have?

My new favorite salad!!!

Wood and Jars

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new cutting board!

And I also love how jars are organizing my kitchen!

This is my second batch of jars that I bought.

Seeds, nuts, lentils, beans, and powders all in jars lined up neatly in my pantry. 

They keep it so organized!

Jars for soaking nuts

For storing liquids

For sprouting

and for keeping the refrigerator organized!

Way better than plastic.

My next have-to-have gadget, the Tribest Personal Blender, will also make great use of my jars.  It will screw right onto the jar and blend everything right in it. How cool is that!

Water Bobbles

Part of my quest for better health has included research on water.  While I am not an expert, nor do I pretend to know everything about it, I have begun to make changes. We have added a filter to the water line to the refrigerator, put filters on our showers, and shortly will have installed a water filter to the kitchen sink. After watching Tapped, I do not purchase bottled water, and I am not sure which is worse, the plastic bottle or in some cases, the water in them.

I have been hauling my own water from home to work everyday, and added to my lunch and all the other things in my bag, it is really heavy.  My shoulder problems are re-surfacing, and I am sure it's because of all this weight I am lugging!

I discovered the water bobbles at the Snow Goose in Utica Square (Tulsa) and left with two of them. I think they have been available for a while, and are not necessarily a new hot item, but I was delighted with this find. His and Her Water Bobbles came home with me!

The package says:

bobble: make water better

bobble is a revolutionary product that takes care of the planet, keeps your body hydrated, your wallet fat, and your taste buds satisfied - all while looking good doing it. bobble will change the way you drink

Tomorrow I will carry my lightweight, empty, water bottle, oops, bobble, to work and still have filtered water. My shoulder will be happy. My water will be free of contaminants. I am doing my little part for the planet. And for me!

Our 41st Valentine Day

Life and love have been so good to us. As my mother always reminds me, I am so lucky. I agree with her!

Tonight really wasn't all that much different than most of our nights, except for fresh flowers, presents and dessert! Every night we sit at our kitchen island, with the TV off, and we share a meal and share our day. The good, the bad, the ordinary, and the extraordinary. We talk and we listen.  I often take that for granted, but it really is very special and probably one of the best parts of my day. Is it luck, as my mother says, or exactly what God intended?

We opened a nice bottle of Pinot Noir and even used the good glasses! Hummus and veggies, and presents happened first.

Now look at this present. Is this not a man who knows me!!

So dinner was different for each of us.  I spent yesterday afternoon making one of his favorites, Moroccan Stew with Quinoa. Oh how far he has come. Last year we had tenderloin!  Last year we were not healthy. This year he eats vegetarian - almost vegan - and I eat vegan - mostly raw. So I was really happy to spend the afternoon making a meal he really likes - because it makes him happy, and makes me happy that he is accepting such healthy choices. I made my favorite too. Zucchini pasta on a bed of spinach, covered with marinara and portobello mushrooms. 

A stop at Cafe Samana put the bean slaw on the plate.  It is one of my husband's favorites so I had to get some today for this dinner. Sprouted mung beans, shredded carrots and slivered almonds - I could do that - but they make a great peanut dressing that I can't come close to duplicating! He loves this stuff!

We don't often do dessert. But how could we not have dessert on Valentine's Day?? And how could we not do chocolate. After all, we are human!!!

Strawberry brownie parfait. It was awesome. It was very very awesome!!!

He thought it was awesome.

I think he is awesome!

Nori at noon!

Today, while keeping out of the storm, I made my very first Nori rolls.  I had never even eaten Nori before, let alone made something out of them.

So here are the filler ingredients

First a layer of the grated cauliflower, a layer of carrots, zucchini slices, red peppers, and avocado

then roll it all up and slice

I took all the leftover filler and combined it with a little nama shoyu and um plum vinegar and used it as a "rice" side, made a dipping sauce, added the nori roll slices to the plate, and lunch on a snowy day was born!!

Here we SNOW again!

We have about six inches of snow at this point and it is still expected to snow a few more hours.  Just crazy!! So we are home today. It certainly isn't the blizzard of last week, but with the temperature at 11 degrees, the wind chill at minus 5, it is not a day to be driving around and getting stuck! Today should break the record amount of snow for one season.

I think the birds have probably had enough too.

These robins must be having a debate over who made the decision to come to this place!

They are all just plumped up, sitting in the trees waiting out the storm!

So we sat in the kitchen watching it snow out the window and drank this:

So we will have plenty of energy to shovel that:

As my mother always says, "it's only temporary!!!"

Rapping Romaine!

I love it when it just all comes together.  I stood looking in the refrigerator wondering what to make when the light bulb came on! My light bulb, not the refrigerator bulb!

I grabbed a carrot, parsnip, celery stalk and a red pepper.  I ran it all through the food processor and then added some chopped cilantro and squeezed half a lemon over it all.  This is what I call wrap stuffing. Pretty, huh.

I make this kind of combination often, and it varies every time depending on what I find in refrigerator!

Now more items from the refigerator.

Nice big romaine lettuce leaves, guacamole, sliced avocado, cucumber spears, sliced tomatoes, bean sprouts, and my thousand island dressing. Now that dressing is a great recipe and a staple in my refrigerator - we use it as a dip, a spread or a dressing.  It's great. Let me know if you want the recipe.

Ok, so first spread the guacamole on the romaine.  Then add the cucumber slices, avocado and tomato slices.

Top it off with the wrap stuffing, sprouts and then drizzel with the dressing.

Now roll it all up and have at it!

Now if all else fails, and you get tired of rapping, it can be an un-rapped romaine rap!

It all ends up in the same place, right!

It's Cheesecake

The wait was totally worth it! What an amazing dessert!

And here it is, in all it's beauty, all dressed and ready to go.

This tastes as good as it looks! The sauce and berries make the presentation lovely and adds a delightful additional flavor.  Any fruit could be used, or a chocolate sauce maybe, or whatever you want. 

Yes, this is a raw dessert, in case you were wondering.  It contains no dairy, refined sugar, or processed food. It is made from all natural whole plant based foods.

This is the my husband's plate, AFTER he ate his piece!

I think this says it all!!!

The Chia is in the Pudding!

Or is it in the cereal?

I know it is in my smoothies and salads.

This is one of my favorite superfoods. Chia is good in so many things and is so good for you.  In this link, there is a good explanation of what these seeds are, reasons to eat them, as well as what you can add to them.

I have read about people using then to make a cereal, make a gel with them, and also pudding, so today I gathered my ingredients of choice and decided to experiment. Cereal was my goal.

I combined:

• 3 Tbl Chia Seeds
• 1/2 cup Almond Milk
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 vanilla
• 2 Tbl raisons

I mixed it all together and let it sit long enough to let the raisins plump up and soften, and for the mixture to  thicken.  After 10 minutes it was pretty thick, and after 20 minutes it was so thick a fork stood up in it!

I divided the amount this made into two bowls. It was really pretty thick. The second bowl is in the refrigerator and I will see what it is like tomorrow.  This will be my test to see if I can make this ahead of time.

Can you tell by the above picture how thick this mixture became?

I have to say I loved this! I added fresh blueberries (that are huge) and some chopped walnuts, and then topped it all off with more almond milk. It could be topped off with any fruit.  Make it with more liquid and maybe you wouldn't need to add more milk. The texture reminded me of tapioca. It was kind of like eating a dessert, but I am calling this a cereal. I didn't need any sweetener, but you could add honey or agave if needed.

I would encourage you to check out the value of Chia Seeds for yourself and give them a try.

Here are two more links you might find helpful:

http://www.living-foods.com/articles/chia.html  and

http://www.nutsonline.com/cookingbaking/chia-seeds/premium.html

Almost Cheesecake

Today we broke another record here in Oklahoma - an actual temperature of minus 6 with a wind chill of minus 20!!

We can, however, get out the front door should the mood hit!

Today I was all set to make the cheesecake when I realized I needed to soak the cashews for four hours. So the delay means we don't get to try it until tomorrow. It is in the freezer now. This is Kat Conrad's recipe and I just hope mine comes out as great as her's did!

Everything is all measured out and I am ready to go.

Blend - Blend - Blend

Spring pan ready with the crust waiting for the mixture to be added

Here it is - ready for the freezor.  Tomorrow it will be covered with blueberries!

Remember my blog about the mung beans?  Well, they actually sprouted! I put a bunch of them in my salad tonight!  I can't wait to spout again!

More on the cheesecake tomorrow!