Birthday Roses

My husband did it again! Beautiful yellow roses tipped with peach. It's really sunny looking around here.

Modified Juice Feast

My oldest daughter joined in on the global juice feast this month. She's now started on a more modified juice feast adding blended soups and smoothies. This was a great soup--tomato and basil. It's from sunnyrawkitchen's ebook. The picture doesn't show, but I served mine in a BIG white mug with chunks of avocado on top.

Salade Du Jour

I felt like a salad with grated veggies. This salad was a mix of greens with all sorts of goodies on top--grated beets, carrots and zucchini. Then I sprinkled on some kohlrabi microgreens and capers. Had my usual lemon juice and olive oil dressing on top. Delish!

My Birthday Cake

My daughters surprised me with a raw chocolate birthday cake! They decorated it with strawberries we received in our Greenlings local box Tuesday and fresh mint from our garden.

The picture doesn't show my ONE candle they placed in the center. They said 49 candles just wouldn't fit on my little cake. :)

This cake is scrumptious. And the strawberries made it taste really alive and fresh--kinda cut down on the richness.

YUMMY!!!!

Miso Shiitake Soup

Wow! This soup was soooo good. It was Ani Phyo's recipe for Miso Shiitake Soup. Ingredients included light miso, grated ginger, minced garlic, scallions, olive oil and water. The shiitakes were first marinated in Nama Shoyu and olive oil. Just a few ingredients and unbelievably simple to make. The only change I made in Ani's recipe was to back off on the olive oil by around half. And I could have even used less.

This soup is just packed with nutrition. I had it as my only lunch item, but it would make a wonderful starter to an Asian meal. It's really light, but filling as a large bowl.

Garden Babies

Putting our tomato babies out to get a bit of sunlight. We're still experiencing a freeze or two at night between our high 80's days. But soon these babies will be ready for the big garden. We'll probably transplant them into larger pots this week and let them sit like that for a couple more weeks while we're waiting to plant. Can't wait for those REAL juicy tomatoes.

Love Kale Salads!

Nothing better than a kale salad--of any kind. I enjoyed this as an all green kale salad. I added avocado, green olives, olive oil, lemon juice and sprinkled it with pine nuts.

Kale salads are so quick and easy to put together. I just make sure that my additions are hardy enough to stand up to the firm kale--red pepper is one of my favorites to add. Avocado can be put in as chunks or can be massaged into the kale leaves. Raisins are also nice in this salad.

To soften the kale, just add your lemon juice, a tiny drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkle of celtic sea salt. Then, using your hands, rub all your kale bites together. This will break it down, and the lemon juice will help wilt it a bit.

My absolute favorite salad!

Snack Time

What do you make when you've run out of time and ideas?

Throw together some guacamole tacos.

I just mixed in some onion powder, celtic sea salt and lemon juice with my avocado. Then I piled the guacamole onto romaine lettuce leaves and topped with some leftover homemade salsa and raw black olives. You just fold them up like tacos to indulge. This was so quick and satisfying. It was pretty filling also.

Variations: Add some dulse sprinkles, chopped cilantro or diced red onion. Instead of romaine leaves, use collard or cabbage leaves.

Raw Food for Friends

A couple of weeks ago, we had three friends over to teach them raw food preparation. They each had been eating raw for a little while, but wanted some more ideas. So my daughters and I fixed all sorts of goodies for them as they watched on. Starting with opening young coconuts, moving through salads, then dehydrated goodies, ending with desserts. Here are just a few of the items we enjoyed that day.

This first is a picture of my 13 yo daughter's own recipe for a mock tuna salad.



Below is a picture of our beet ravioli made from Raw Food, Real World's recipe.


This is one of our favorites. It's the asian inspired marinated veggies from Rejuvenate with Serene.


And, although this picture doesn't look quite appetizing, it's Juliano's meatloaf recipe with barbeque sauce.


It was a great day with great food and great fellowship. The only problem was food combining so many differents foods all in one afternoon. Don't think we'll be doing that again anytime soon.

Coconuts, Coconuts, Coconuts

We have seen soooo..... many videos demonstrating the opening of young coconuts. We've seen hatchets, hammers, and jabbing/stabbing knives. I don't particularly want either of my daughters to lose a finger or hand just to enjoy this precious treat. So when we found this latest method, we were thrilled.

My daughters had a real hoot this afternoon making this video for us. Unfortunately, a few of the coconuts had already turned, so they just kept opening more. At least you get to see how easy it is each time.

My 16yo daughter just shaves off the cone top, finds that "just right" spot, and voila! Beautiful, sweet coconut water. As Serene Allison says, they are truly gifts from God.










My husband and I bought these crystal glasses at William Sonoma and keep them in the freezer. They are perfect for the delicate taste of young coconut water. The thin rim of the crystal and the ice cold taste is wonderful.




My daughters choose the more rustic form of drinking their treat. Just stick in a straw and sip.

More leftovers for my Smoothie

Smoothies are the perfect items to make with leftovers. You just can't go wrong with any combination in a green smoothie. (At least I haven't disliked one yet).

In this smoothie, I used the last of a pineapple and the last bag of spinach. I added some frozen peaches, bee pollen and a tablespoon of E3Live. Very, very good.

Leftovers and Cooked Food

Every now and then I have one of these moments where I'll have a bit of cooked food. For example, I used Muir Glen pizza sauce a couple of months ago on my raw pizza to save some time and effort. Today, it was using some organic whole wheat chili tortillas to make raw veggie wraps with leftovers.

Sometimes I'm ok with that and other times I'm not. I normally don't know until after the meal. Although the wraps below were absolutely delicious, they just leave me with that "stuffed feeling" that cooked food brings. But for people who are wanting to eat a "mostly" raw diet, they would be fantastic.

So what was in them and why did I succumb to the tortillas? Well, Greenlings is delivering today and we're trying to empty out our two refrigerators to make way for our goodies. Our youngest daughter has just been diagnosed with food allergies including gluten, wheat, eggs, turmeric and mustard among others. Further testing is to come, but she will definitely no longer be eating tortillas. So mommy came to the rescue and decided to help out the other sister with finishing off this latest bag of chili tortillas.

The rest of the ingredients in these wraps were my leftover curry hummus, shredded chinese cabbage, shredded carrots, cauliflower and diced red pepper. And, oh, I also just had to throw in one of the Bubbies pickles. I think that once every few weeks with cooked is enough for me (maybe too much). Every time I indulge, it just reminds me of why I'm eating raw. P.S. My daughter is starting her own blog documenting her journey with food allergies. She's basically starting from scratch now eating just a few items and will slowly be adding more every few days. (Of course, there will be foods that she'll never get to taste again) It may take her many months, but she is so patient and very creative. It will be a slow process of healing her body. I'll let you know her blog site address soon. It will have MANY raw food dishes.

Curried Hummus

One of my favorite meals is hummus with tabouli. This hummus is based on a Gabriel Cousens recipe. I just took my favorite recipe and added a bunch of curry and cayenne. I'm not giving exact measurements because curry and cayenne both seem to be really personal spices. Some like a little, and some like much more. Me, I just dump until it feels like enough.

I always serve my hummus the same way. I plop down several spoonfuls in the center of the plate and make a well in the center. This makes a nice bed for the tabouli.

The tabouli in the picture is pretty simple. Just a whole lot of parsley, red bell pepper and green olives. I squeezed meyer lemon juice all over the top, sprinkled some celtic sea salt and drizzled olive oil over the whole thing.

The fragrance of this dish was spectacular! The curry and the fresh scent of the parsley. Not a morsel was left on the plate.

Red Roses for a Veggie Lady

My sweetheart of 23 years knows I love red roses. He's currently clearing an area in the back of our property to put in some new flower beds. He loves them too.

Dining Out Raw

Another successful dining experience. Excellent service and excellent food.

Started with water with orange slices.



I didn't even have to ask for a raw appetizer. It was automatically served as an "amuse bouche" (palette teaser). Scrumptious. Sliced tomato with a zucchini, cucumber, mushroom, olive relish and generously drizzled with olive oil and freshly cracked black pepper. They prepared these right at our table. I asked for more than one, so they presented me with three on my plate, (no extra charge).

This was the exciting part. I went online before we ever went to the restaurant to see what they offered. I wrote out all the ingredients I wanted on a salad and handed it to our server. He came back to the table and said the owner/chef would personally prepare my dinner. It was absolutely fantastic with a perfect olive oil/lemon juice dressing. It may not look like it in the picture, but this was a HUGE salad, just as I requested. Couldn't have been better. It had so many depths of flavors because they included every veggie they had on the menu. And with the addition of raisins, well "c'est magnifique"!


The next amazing thing was that they were so pleased to assist me with my special meal, they're going to put my little recipe on file for my subsequent visits. Now that's service.

And yes, once again my "paparazzi" was there with her camera. She never leaves home without it. Sure wish I new how to use a camera like that.