raw yummies and kitchen gadgies

while the rest of my kitchen was looking a mess, this colorful nook was all clean and cute. i wish i could tell you that all the fruit in the picture was organic, but only half was. in my opinion, ORGANIC FRUIT is SOOO much TASTIER!!! who agrees?

my newest fruit obsession: organic valencia oranges. like candy, i tell ya!

if i had the moola, i would eat only organic fruits and veggies. buttt i don't, so i've been shopping around for the best produce prices while doing my best not to compromise quality. as my friends don and carmella point out that if you have to choose between the two, it's better to eat non-organic raw rather than the alternatives.

if you are wondering why more and more people, including myself, are striving to eat RAW, or live foods, you can read the Details and Benefits of a High Raw Diet.

john and i have been doing a pretty good job eating healthy lately, and in return, have been feeling GREAT! we can vouch for all the energy we have, the mental clarity, and *knock on wood* the fact that we've been avoiding all the yucky illnesses that come with the changing of the seasons.

i believe Hippocrates was dead-on when he said, "let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." (and so was john, when he said, "sleeping and eating - that's all you need to keep a healthy immune system." two great minds, if ya ask me =).

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zucchini pasta is a quick and tasty raw dish we make at least once a week. it's really simple and yummy! we make the pasta in our spiral slicer we purchased for $25 (there are nicer, more expensive models out there, but this one does the trick).

 

this time we topped our pasta with Carmella's Basil Pesto, sliced avocado, cashews, and a nice seasonings mix from Tastefully Simple.

Basil Pesto

4 cups fresh basil and spinach, packed (I like to use 1/2 of each)
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup walnuts
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice

blend basil and spinach until finely chopped. then add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth.

kelli's notes:  i use less lemon juice (about 2 tsp) and less olive oil (about 1 1/2 T plus a few splashes water).

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my magic bullet is perfect for making a smooth pesto and other sauces. i dream of owning a vita-mix someday, but for now make due with my mb. it works wonderfully for wet and especially dry, high-speed blending. i make flax meal, almond milk, chocolate sauce, dressings and marinades, and lots more in this handy dandy little gadgie. =)

magic bullet's sell for around 50 smackaroos, but i purchased a used one via craigslist for only 25 bucks. one really nice feature of the magic bullet is that it comes with a bunch of containers and lids so you can conveniently make your sauce and store it in the very same container!

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we finally put our $20 ice cream maker to work with a strawberry ice cream recipe that - get this - i came up with! well, i purchased heathy's Just Desserts e-book to use her chocolate sauce recipe and an ice cream recipe. since none of her "n'ice" cream recipes consisted of ingredients i already had, i cleverly used them as a guide to make my own - and it was a keeper! (blended cashews, coconut, and strawberries?...how could it not be tasty?!)

kelli's stRAWberri ice cream

(serves 2)

3/4 C cashews

1/2 C young coconut meat

1/2 C young coconut water
1 C strawberries (frozen or fresh)

2 T + 1 1/2 tsp agave

2 T melted coconut oil

3/4  tsp vanilla extract

pinch sea salt

blend all ingredients until very smooth (my regular ol' blender did the trick). process according to ice cream maker directions, or freeze in ice cube trays.

kelli's notes: the original plan was to double the recipe, but after opening our young coconut we saw that we only had 1/2 cup coconut meat. next time i will get two young coconuts and try to double or even triple the recipe!

Whipped Cream

(this is a third of Carmi's Recipe)

1/3 C cashews

1/3 C coconut milk (blend 1 part dried coconut flakes to 3 parts water)

1 T agave

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

2 T+2 tsp coconut butter/ melted

1 tsp non-gmo soy lecithin*

*lecithin is derived from soybeans and acts as an emulsifier. look for lecithin (preferably non-GMO), in granules or powdered form, at your local health food store. if using granules, make sure to grind them up in a high speed blender or coffee grinder.

blend all ingredients except lecithin until smooth. add lecithin and blend until thoroughly mixed. set in fridge for about 1 hr.

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i got my hands on a $10 multi-slicer to slice zucchini for carmi's lasagna magnifica. this lasagna is sooo good and fun to make!!! the recipe is in her e-book The Best of the Sunny Raw Kitchen.  

my $10 slicer didn't slice as thin as i needed it to (you get what you pay for!), so i added "padding" with cut pieces of rubber band to lift the ramp thingie closer to the blade. with the extra padding, the slicer worked pretty well and did a nice job slicing the zucchini noodles. i've also used the slicer to make sweet potato chips. a quality multi-slicer would be nice, but my $10 one will do for now.

the spiral slicer, magic bullet, and multi-slicer are a few tools that make eating healthy and raw much easier. carmella has a very useful Ulimate Guide to Equipping Your Raw Kitchen.  if you are new to raw food, please don't let the list overwhelm you. i'm finding there are ways to eat healthy without buying expensive, new equipment.

i have been getting by with borrowing, buying cheaper models and just making do with what i have. (that does not mean i don't want to get the nice kitchie gadgies somewhere down the line!)

good news is you don't need any appliances to eat a juicy pear or organic valencia orange!

=)