Sweet ‘n Sour Cole Slaw
We made this for the fist time with our friends in Cambria, CA…and we all LOVED it! This would be a great dish to take to a potluck…it doesn’t scream “RAW” 🙂 But it is amazingly tasty and addictive. I kept going back for more. There is just something about the mixture of sweet and sour that I love.
Sweet ‘n Sour Cole Slaw
Living on Live Foods by Alissa Cohen
Serves 2-3
1 medium cabbage, shredded (I used green and red to make it pretty)
2 large carrots, shredded
1/3 cup dried apricots, finely chopped
1/3 cup olive oil (I always try to cut the oil by half if your tastes will allow)
1 T honey
3 T apple cider vinegar
1/2 t sea salt
Pinch of allspice
1/2 cup raisins
Place the cabbage, carrots, and apricots in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients except the raisins and pour over the cabbage mixture. Cover and let sit for 1 hour. This is an important step…as it will help soften the cabbage a bit. Mix in raisins just before serving.
Avocado Bliss
Avocados make me really, really happy. Some of my best memories are of eating avocado with my friends and family. Good times. But I had never experienced an avocado in all it’s glory…straight from the tree…until we arrived in L.A. While we were there, my friend Carrie-Anne brought me a bag full of these amazingly creamy gems. They are perfect. I have been in avocado bliss ever since :). I am so totally jealous that she has an avocado tree in her yard. And if you have one too…don’t rub it in. Maybe I could plant one on top of the RV. Hmmmm….
I once read that in Hawaii avocados can grow up to 5 lbs. each. OH. MY. It’s worth the plane ticket just for that. 🙂 Anyone else want to move to Hawaii so we can all live in a fruit-filled utopia?
Quick Tip: Fruit Stickers
Besides being useful for craft projects, those little stickers that come on your fruit actually tell you something. Did you know that you can tell if a piece of fruit is organically grown by the numbers on the sticker? If it starts with a “9”…it’s organic. If it starts with a “4”, it’s not. If it starts with an “8”, it’s genetically modified. Now you know. 🙂
Photo credit: kiwehowen (Creative Commons release)
Feelin’ the Love in L.A.
This week in L.A., we had the pleasure of meeting the owner of Euphoria Loves RAWvolution, Matt Amsden. Matt is also the author of RAWvolution. Be sure to check it out next time you’re in Santa Monica! His restaurant also does raw food delivery (“The Box”) and will deliver nationwide. You can see Matt speaking on YouTube here.
We also spent some time in Redondo Beach at Terra Bella, owned by the lovely Melissa Davidson. I’m still dreaming of their Coconut Curry soup. Wow. Check out the close up of Melissa’s tattoo here!
I’ll be writing a full blog on our raw restaurant visits soon (including Cilantro Live! in San Diego)…complete with food photos, of course! Stay tuned!
Rainbow In My Bowl
I love color. I have colorful clothes. A colorful home. Colorful things in my hair. A very colorful daughter. Color just makes me really happy. 🙂 It’s no wonder I LOVE eating raw foods so much…they just add to the happiness. If you’re wondering how to be really healthy and live for a long time…just try to eat every color of the rainbow, every day. In this particular salad, I had:
- mixed greens
- spinach
- red, yellow, and orange peppers
- grated beets (my new favorite…thanks Em!)
- heirloom grape tomatoes (red, yellow, and green)
- sprout mix (sunflower seed, pea, lentil, alfalfa)
- cucumbers
- red/purple cabbage (oh how I LOVE the crunchiness!)
Yum! Chopping up the ingredients for a huge salad is very meditative for me…and eating it brings great delight. I eat at least one large salad a day, and I look forward to it with anticipation without ever getting tired of it.
Here is some interesting info from Prevention Magazine describing the benefits of each color. This is what they have to say:
The more colorful your diet, the more antioxidants you get. These compounds reduce overall cellular damage and prevent the hardening of the arteries that can lead to heart disease, stroke, even memory loss. “Every hue — green, yellow, orange, red, purple, and even white — signifies a different class of nutrients, each of which offers a unique benefit…”
1. Yellow/Orange
Sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, mango, corn, and melon all contain a variety of carotenoids, which reduce the risk of developing cancer.2. Green
Vegetables such as spinach and broccoli are high in lutein, which keeps your vision sharp and clear.3. Blue/Purple
Blueberries and blackberries are chock-full of anthocyanins, which prevent tumors from forming and suppress their growth.4. Red
Tomatoes and watermelon are loaded with lycopene, which may protect against cancer and heart disease.5. White
Cauliflower offers the same cancer-fighting benefits as broccoli, its cruciferous cousin, and potatoes are a good source of vitamin C.
Even within this list, I believe that dark leafy GREENS (kale, spinach, collards, etc) are the most important thing to focus on. If you’re not taking in lots of greens each day…start working to make a change. Add one green salad to lunch or supper. Add a green smoothie…just get your greens wherever you can! Eating more greens will stop cravings dead in their tracks…and will actually cause you to want MORE greens. The more greens you eat, the more you want! Check out Green For Life for more information on why your body can’t go without the greens.
*For those of you who love a great bargain…I found my this amazing orange bamboo bowl at a Goodwill near San Diego for $9.00! The tags were still on it…and this exact bowl retails for $40+! Woo hoo! When Matt and I turned the corner into housewares that day, we GASPED out loud and grabbed it as fast as we could. Because…and you’ll never believe this…I’ve really been wanting a big salad bowl, and he was going to buy me the smaller one just like this at Whole Foods for $25 for Mother’s Day. What a sweet blessing. Yay!
Raw Strawberry Pie
Birthdays are very special in our family…soI wanted to make Bella something really delightful for her 4th birthday last month. We talked about her options, and this is what she chose. It was so good…we’ve decided to make it her birthday tradition every year! 🙂
Raw Strawberry Pie
The Joy of Vegan Baking
By Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
It is best when served within an hour or two of preparing it, since
it is at its most fresh then, but it holds up just fine in the
fridge.
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Chilling Time: 1 hour
Servings: 8-12
Crust:
2 cups raw almonds or pecans
3/4 cup pitted dates, preferably Medjool
Filling:
5 cups sliced ripe strawberries
5 pitted dates, soaked 10 minutes in warm water and drained
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Place the nuts in a food processor and grind until they’re a coarse
meal. Add the 3/4 cup of dates (for the crust) and process until
thoroughly combined. Press the mixture into a non-stick or very
lightly oiled pie plate or spring form pan.
Arrange 4 cups of the sliced strawberries on top of the crust and set
aside.
In a food processor or blender, combine the remaining 1 cup of
strawberries with the 5 soaked dates and lemon juice. Puree until
smooth. Pour the sauce mixture over strawberries.
Refrigerate the pie for 1 hour before serving. This will help the pie
set and will be perfect for slicing.
Walnut “Meat” Taco Salad
We have made this recipe more times in the last month than any other. It’s delicious…and even those in your life who think they don’t “that raw food stuff” will like it! We eat this either as a salad or in romaine leaves. When you stuff the romaine leaves with these mixtures, it “feels” more like a real taco. It’s all about the texture!
There are a lot of ingredients, but it really doesn’t take that long to mix up. And once it’s made, it keeps well for several days, which makes it great for a quick supper. Enjoy!
Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen by Ani Phyo
1/2 cup almonds (you can also substitute pecans or any other nut)
1/2 cup walnuts
1 T ground cumin
1 T ground coriander
1/3 cup olive oil
2/3 t sea salt
1 t nama shoyu or soy sauce
Process almond and walnuts and put aside in a bowl. Add other ingredients and mix well with a spoon. Keeps for 4-5 days in the fridge.
Salsa (best salsa ever!)
Living on Live Foods by Alissa Cohen
4 tomatoes, chopped
2 scallions
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup parsley
1/2 cup cilantro
1 T cider vinegar
1 T olive oil
1 T lime juice
1 t cumin
1 t sea salt
Jalapeno to taste
Pulse blend in food processor to blend (I like to leave large chunks of tomato in and add separately). Let sit for an hour in fridge so the flavors can blend.
Guacamole
Living on Live Foods by Alissa Cohen
2 avocados
1 tomato
1/4 cup onion or green onions
1/4 cup cilantro
Sea salt to taste
Pinch of Cayenne
Food process until desired consistency.
Cashew Sour Cream
I Am Grateful by Terces Engelhart
1 1/2 cups soaked cashews (soak 8 hours and rinse)
1/2 t salt
2 T lemon juice
Approx. 3/4 cup fresh water
Blend in blender until smooth. Add more lemon juice or salt to taste. I like to put this in a squirt bottle and squirt it on top of the taco or other wraps. It looks pretty 🙂
Top with fresh avocado or guacamole.
Raw Caesar Dressing
This is Matt’s current favorite dressing…it has amazing flavor and when paired with super crisp romaine, it’s so satisfying!
Caesar Dressing
“Living on Live Food” by Alissa Cohen:
3/4 cup pine nuts
1 T flax or olive oil
1 1/2 t sea salt (preferably Himalayan Pink Sea Salt)
1/3 cup olive oil
1 date, pitted and soaked or 1 T agave nectar
1 large clove garlic
2 1/2 T lemon juice (1 large lemon juiced)
2 T water
1/2 T white miso
Sea salt/lemon as needed to taste
1. In a food processor, blend/pulse the pine nuts, 1 T oil, and sea salt until grainy. Do not over blend.
2. Remove from processor and place in small bowl.
3. In a blender, combine 1/3 c olive oil, miso, date/agave, garlic, lemon juice and water and blend until smooth.
4. Remove this mixture and place in the same bowl as the pine nut mixture.
5. Mix well by hand.
6. Serve over a generous portion of crisp romaine lettuce. Add your favorite salad “fixins” 🙂 It helps to put a plate over your salad bowl and vigorously shake it to spread the dressing around. It’s a thick dressing, and needs a little help coating the salad leaves.
Note: It’s important NOT to “cream” the pine nuts with the other liquid mixture, as you want them to retain a grainy texture. This is what will give it a cheesy taste. If the dressing needs more “bite” add more lemon juice and sea salt.
Sweet Corn Chowder
This is a delicious raw soup from Ani Phyo’s cookbook, Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen. I absolutely love sweet corn…being that I grew up in Iowa, that is practically a requirement 🙂 This recipe has the perfect blend of flavors…and you can go wild with toppings! I like to add tomatoes, seeds, nuts, etc. to make it chunkier.
I also like to cut back on the olive oil a bit…and add a little more water. You can also blend the avocado into the soup for a creamier base. Enjoy!
Sweet Corn Chowder
Makes 2 large bowls or 4 small bowls.
Chowder Base:
3 ears sweet corn, cut off the cob
3/4 cup walnuts
3/4 extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 t sea salt
2 cups water
Chowder Toppings:
1 cup corn kernels, set aside from above
1 avocado, diced
1/3 bunch cilantro leaves
1 t cracked black pepper
Blend base ingredients until smooth and top with toppings. Store separately in the fridge for best left overs. 🙂
Vita-Mix Update
Several of you have emailed me and asked what the main differences are between the 5000 and the 5200 models of the Vita-Mix blender.
I called Vita-Mix directly to find out the details, and found that the most important health related benefit of purchasing the 5200 is that the container no longer contains BPA’s (Bisphenol-A). If you are unaware of why this is important, here is an article from the Green Guide. Here is more information from Vita-Mix’s website:
Vita-Mix Corporation (Olmsted Township, OH, US) recently upgraded the containers of the household blenders ( Professional Series, Vita-Mix 5200 and Turbo Blend 4500) with a new copolyester material that does not have BPA (bisphenol-A) content. Vita-Mix chose to use the new material because of its superior durability and sound-damping properties, but can now offer a container that is also BPA-free.
The newest Vita-Mix household blender containers are made of Tritan copolyester from Eastman Chemical Company (Kingsport, TN, US). Vita-Mix is the first company to use the new BPA-free material in a kitchen appliance. The material is as durable as polycarbonate and also offers improved resistance to chemicals found in cleaning compounds. This is expected to provide greater durability over time, even with heavy use. These new containers are available, at a minimal charge, to Vita-Mix owners who choose to upgrade to a BPA-free product.
Please note that last sentence…if you are currently using an older canister, you can call to upgrade. The other new features of the 5200 are quieter motor, better “parts”, and what not 🙂
In other news, we now have a DIRECT contact at Vita-Mix who will handle any questions Happy Foody readers have about Vita-Mix’s.
Here is Brenda’s contact information:
Brenda Kilbane
Sales Consultant
Vita Mix Corporation
8615 Usher Rd
Cleveland, OH 44138 11am-7pm EST
1-800-848-2649 Ext 2305
bkilbane@vitamix.com
If you are going to order a machine, please call Brenda directly and give her our affiliate number to get free expedited shipping!
Our affiliate number is: 06-003082
A big thanks to those of you who have already ordered yours! Shoot me an email and let me know how you like it!
Happy Foody 
