raw ranch dip and fruit roll-ups

i'm grateful to live in the "garden state" and have access to amazing local produce. white and purple bell peppers are grown at my organic csa. i've never seen such peppers before - the white one looks glow-in-the-dark! incorporating these peppers into our repertoire was a must as they were too pretty to pass up.

... then john requested i make meredith of the raw seed's noritos again, but this time asked me to recreate his favorite dorito flavor - cool ranch.

meredith's original raw noritos recipe calls for a red bell pepper to get that orange color. *light bulb moment* to keep our noritos ranch-y, i thought to use the white bell pepper and modify the recipe with help from carmi's ranch dressing recipe. the result - a delicious raw cheezy ranch sauce perfect for ranch noritos, crackers, dipping, and topping raw tacos.

raw ranch dip

inspired by meredith of the raw seed and carmella of the sunny raw kitchen

1 1/2 cup cashews, soaked

1 white bell pepper, chopped

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder or 1 tablespoon fresh onion

1 teaspoon sea salt, more or less to taste

1 teaspoon dried or fresh parsley

juice from 1/2 a lemon

2 cloves garlic

blend all ingredients until smooth and creamy (high speed blenders work best). you may need to add a bit of water. garnish with chili powder (optional of course).

...

the ranch dip was so tasty, i decided to mix some with flax to make crackers. i love using flax seeds because a) they are nutritious b) they are inexpensive and c) they make a nice crunchy cracker.

 raw ranch flax crackers

using the corn and jalapeno from the csa, i dehydrated these crunchy chips...

raw tortilla chips

and we had a mexican feast with ani phyo's nut meat on collard wraps smothered in salsa, guacamole and raw ranch dip.

there goes the purple pepper!

...

for dessert and breakfast, on the same day, we enjoyed raw crepes with coconut cream and local jersey peaches and nectarines. mmm!!!

raw banana crepes are basically fruit roll-ups. there was an abundance of ripe fruit in our kitchen, so i made lots of them with peaches, bananas, pears, and strawberries.

fruit roll-ups are really simple to make - just blend ripe fruit with a little lemon juice (to keep them from browning). spread the mixture in rounds on teflex sheets and dehydrate at 115° until dry but still pliable (about 8 hours).

homemade fruit roll-ups are perfect for kids and adults with a sweet tooth, and are a much healthier alternative to sweets with artificial ingredients like high fructose corn syrup and dyes.

=)

weekend recap

friday, my four year old niece alaina came over to spend the night and the next day with us. what an imagination she has! the best was when she turned my crochet hooks into dental instruments. it was so cute watching john the dentist work patiently on alaina's teeth with two yarn needles.=)

source

we broke up our saturday with trips to the pop shop, the collingswood famers' market, and the local library. the weather was rainy and the last time i took alaina to the community garden, she wanted to go home shortly after. and i had to carry her back. so i didn't mention it this time. however, alaina surprised me by asking, "can we go that garden place again?" we sure can!=)

 community garden 9/18/11

this time she ate tomatoes and lettuce straight off the plants. she admired each and every flower and wanted to know what the plants were called. she asked if she could pick things for me to take home. it was so sweet!

at the library, i read her some stories then let her choose some movies to watch later. she picked ramona and beezus and one of those teenie bopper's concerts whose name i can't remember. (do i sound old or what?) i chose mary poppins.=)

thankfully we didn't get to the concert, but we did watch about 15 minutes of ramona and beezus, which i enjoyed more than she did! as a child i loved beverly cleary books, and this was a surprisingly good adaptation. like many booknerds, i'm hesitant to watch movie versions, but ramona and beezus was pretty cute.

before alaina left, she told me i was her best friend, then sang a song about me being her best friend. there's nothing sweeter than her little voice. really there's nothing sweeter than just spending time with a child. i'm already planning her next visit!

we finally got some sun and i was able to photograph the results of my kitchen marathon.

first we have apple-banana fruit roll-ups. making fruit roll-ups is great because 1) they're a perfect way to use up ripe fruit 2) they're easy and inexpensive to make 3) they're a nice candy-like snack for when i'm craving something sweet and chewy.

i don't have a recipe for my fruit roll-ups, though my friend heidi has some good ones on her blog. what i do is throw about 2-3 ripe bananas and 1-2 apples in the food processor with juice from half a lemon per excalibur dehydrator tray. i've used all kinds of fruit with banana, like watermelon, pear, peach and berries.

when using ripe banana, there's so need for added sweetener. after processing the fruit until smooth, i spread the batter onto teflex dehydrator sheets thin, but not so thin that the teflex shows through, and dehydrate until dry and pliable anywhere from 110-135°. then with kitchen scissors, i cut each tray of fruit leather in sixths, roll them up, and store them in ziploc bags or glass jars.

rosemary and sage are growing gorgeously this time of year. i paired the two herbs to create savory flax crackers and raw pizza crusts.

a sweet version of flax crackers was made with apples, dates and maple syrup. they were lovely with a little peanut butter. i'd like to do some tweaking before i share the cracker recipes, as the batter was a little too thick and took a long time to dry.

my mom and i also had a nice two-and-a-half hour gabfest on the phone. we love to gush over alaina, and we're talking about doing a detox challenge together.

i hope your weekend was full of love, laughter, and yummy treats!

::floral divider source

mother's day ice cream cake

happy mother's day! the month of may is flying by! it's such a nice time of year with the foliage and warm weather - i wish it would slow down just a smidge. i've been on the go a few weeks now and am in need of a recharge day (or three.=)



amidst babysitting, gardening, family visits and spring cleaning, i found time to plan and execute a three-layer ice cream cake for my mom. the pansies and pea shoots were inspired by my blog friend aimee from bitt of raw.

bottom layer up: coffee coconut ice cream, blonde crunchies, chocolate ice cream with chocolate-covered almonds, chocolate buckwheat crunchies, vanilla ice cream.

two years ago, i made a similar cake since my mom likes chocolate, coffee, almond and coconut. both were pretty good, but i prefer the fruitier cakes.

my mom's biennial pear tree will be producing fruit this year and i plan to pair them with local raspberries or blueberries to make a variation of pearberry bliss. i'm also excited to make fruit roll-ups with organic strawberries from muth. yay for fruit season!

oh, and john ate the first of our eight strawberries today, declaring it perfect! also, he made us a new 4 by 6 foot bed! garden update coming soon...

csa week six

muth family farm's organic csa week 6: savoy cabbage, eggplant, sweet corn, green beans, dinosaur kale, green onion, basil, green leaf lettuce, purslane, beets, eight-ball squash, patty pan squash, cucumber, zucchini and heirloom tomatoes

blueberry season is winding down here so i purchased a case of 12 pints from little buck organics (which yields about 24 cups of blue gems!) we already ate a pint and i froze about two-thirds of the case. john rattled off a list of what he'd like me to make. don't hold your breath, buddy.=)

  this is one of the two trays that were frozen. 

there's a great little produce market about a mile from muth farm. i love to stop there and peruse their dollar discount section. 

sometimes i find ripe bananas, which i freeze immediately for smoothies and banana soft serve. most of the produce is conventional, though today i made the best find yet...

organic d'anjou pears!

 

usually the fruit in this section is very iffy, but i couldn't find much wrong with these babies.

pears and blueberries taste great together, especially in smoothies and homemade fruit roll-ups. 

to go with a dinner salad i made a double batch of blueberry vinaigrette. this time i used coconut oil and balsamic vinegar, and it solidified in the fridge. next time i'll try olive oil and balsamic vinegar - i think that'll be the winning combination!

enjoying summer's bounty

muth family farm's organic csa week 8: red chard, bok choy, yellow watermelon, lettuce, canary melon, sungolds and other heirloom tomatoes, white and purple pepper, onions, amaranth leaves, raspberries, yellow squash, cucumber, 8 ball squash, beets, corn...

and another cute eggplant - this time a girl!

emma the eggplant

the vase in the center is holding just a fraction of the pears i have from my mother and stepfather's tree. pears are up there as one of my favorite fruits, so i've been eating them as often as possible.

smoothie ingredients pre-blending

(pear, collard leaves, lemon, canary melon, cucumber, purslane, bloobs and banana)

yummy pear-based smoothie with frozen watermelon

i made pear-tinis with frozen banana...

and used pear in most of my fruit roll-ups, along with bananas, blueberries and canary melon.

the idea struck to recreate my pearberry bliss ice cream cake with muth raspberries. (can't believe it's mid-august and i haven't made a raw ice cream cake - shame on me!=)

...

our generous neighbor has been sharing her harvest of cantaloupe, tomatoes and potatoes. john and i made a delicious italian-style tomato sauce to top our raw pizza, with garden basil pesto sauce and zucchini pasta.

(some purists may think it sacreligious to put cooked tomato sauce on raw food, but i say, why not? it tasted great, and i'm told that cooking tomatoes increases the lycopene, an antioxidant known to decrease cancer and heart-disease risk.)

we found another little friend in the potatoes...

potsy the potato

that we fried in a big wok with olive oil, garlic and rosemary. the potatoes made a delicious side for grilled tomato sandwiches on ezekiel bread smothered in raw ranch dip. super yummsies!

the raspberries for the vinaigrette were from muth, as well as the tomatoes...

and our garden green apple cucumbers topped the salad.

...

my mom sent me this funny picture of a friend she found in her cucumber patch with the caption

"has anyone seen my friend edgar?"

ha! like mother like daughter!=)

...

on the gardening front, things aren't looking too good in our raised beds. i'm not sure why. it's been a pretty dry, sunny summer, though our plants at the community garden are flourishing.

we've got at least 10 butternut squash growing from seeds that i saved last summer. with global seed saboteurs like monsanto, i feel it's wise to save seeds that have not been genetically modified. no franken-fruits in my house!=)

here's an interesting video i had to share (cute goats about 7 and a half minutes in!=):

i hope you're enjoying fresh fruits and veggies around your way!

=)

squash and greens

two words: delicious. nutritious.

roasted veggies over herbed cole slaw

quinoa with butternut squash and greens

black bean burrito on sprouted grain tortillas
salad with maple balsamic vinaigrette

escarole soup with kabocha squash and chick peas

john and i have been enjoying winter squash and greens almost every evening. during the day, we like to drink our greens. trips to animo juice, an organic cafe a few towns over are so colorful this time of year.

we usually order a juice and a wheat grass shot. the juice below is called garden state and was made from carrot, greens, apple and lemon. i forgot what john had, but it was yummy and contained spirulina.

green smoothies at home haven't been too exciting. (i miss my berry smoothies!)

blub blub

=)

*

so what are your plans for the weekend?

i have an idea for the mommies that read my bloggie:

make food with your kiddies!

this is a great time of year to make soup or baked goodies. my friend made pumpkin bread from scratch with her 2 and 3 year-old and said they had an absolute blast! it's a cute way to spend time with your children and celebrate natural foods, while teaching them the important skill of preparing their own food.

roasting pumpkin seeds is a fun activity for the kids, and you could puree the pumpkin for all kinds of yummy treats like pie or cookies.

here's an easy and deliciously rich peanut butter cookie recipe from pam i recently tried that would be perfect for the little ones - only 3 ingredients!
 

note: i recommend using unsweetened peanut butter or less sugar

if you have a blender and a dehydrator, you could make some apple cinnamon fruit roll-ups.

with homemade green powder for added nutrition

you can see the little green specks, but the taste is masked by sweet apple and cinnamon. a nice idea for the pickier eaters to get their greens in!

just some ideas. i'd love for you to share yours in the comments!

also, what were some things you loved doing with your family as a child?

i was reminded of how special it was to eat dinner with my family every night by this article. stephanie nielson is truly inspiring.

have a wonderful weekend!

=)