Best Salad Ever

This is one of those "recipes" that I can't believe I haven't posted yet.  It is my. favorite. salad. ever. ever. ever.   You all have probably had something similar, but I just wanted to post it on the off chance that someone out there is missing out!

Spinach

Slivered Almonds

Sliced Strawberries

Brianna's Blush Wine Vinaigrette

Combine these items in whatever quantity suits your fancy and try not to eat the whole bowl.  I usually eat a serving bowl size of this salad.

I'd love to find a good recipe for a dressing that's similar to this vinaigrette.  

My other favorite salad?  Nuts about Berries from Zupas.  If anyone has any idea how to duplicate that salad/dressing, I would love any tips.  It is so good!

Raw Banana Dessert

From the same lady who brought us the Happy Shake comes another great recipe: Her Banana Roadkill is deelish!  You just squish up two bananas between sheet of plastic wrap and form in the shape of a cookie then sprinkle honey, cinnamon, walnuts, goji berries and it was supposed to be cacao nibs, but I ran out and I'm pregnant and wanted some chocolate.  So I did regular milk chocolate chips :) freeze.  Break into pieces and eat!

Date Balls

I got this recipe from my cousin, Jamie, and I am in love!!  I made them yesterday and Jocelyn snitched 3 of them while she thought I wasn't looking.  I don't know if they are a dessert or just a snack, but they are raw (the way I made them).  I have never tried Emily's Date Balls, so I'm not sure how similar they taste.

1 cup dates
3/4 cup almonds
pinch salt
1/2 cup oats (optional, but good fiber)
Dark chocolate chips (optional)
Craisins (optional)
Dried Apricots (optional)
Cinnamon (optional)

Make sure your dates don't have pits and combine all the things you want to use in a high powered blender or food processor.  Blend until everything is in small pieces.  Feel the mixture.  If you push it together and it crumbles apart, put more dates in.  When it stays together, roll them into balls and set out on waxed paper for a while until they become less sticky.  You can also roll them in coconut, raw sugar, whatever.

I did everything except the dark chocolate chips and I gotta say, it didn't need the chocolate.  I didn't roll them in anything.  I did put quite a bit of cinnamon in and they were deelish!

Raw Granola Bars

2 cups of your favorite nuts ( I like using cashews or walnuts for this recipe)
2/3 cup soft dates (If they are not soft soak them in water)
1/4 cup seeds ( any kind is fine but I like hemp or sesame for this recipe)
pinch of salt

Chop nuts or put in food processor until ground up.I like my nuts a little chunky.

In separate bowl combine all ingredients and mix together with hands. The dates and nut/seed mixture will get all goopy.

Put in a small cake pan, flatten it down with hands, cut into granola bar size and eat. You can keep these in the fridge.

So easy! So fast! So yummy!

I love that you are all eating more raw! It makes me feel normal:)

date balls

1 1/2 almonds
3/4 cup dates
1 tbsp of honey or agave
pinch of salt

Put in food processor until well mixed.

Roll into little balls.

Rolls balls in finely shredded coconut (unsweetened).

Eat!

You can put them in the fridge if you want.

PIE

You need a food processor and blender. You might be able to get away with just a blender.

PIE

Crust

1 1/2 cup of your favorite nuts (I like almonds, cashews or macadamia).
3/4 cup dates
1 tbsp of honey or agave
pinch of salt

Put in food processor until all ground up and fine. Put in pie pan,smash it all down with hands, put in freezer until next step.

Filling-

4 mango's
2/3 cup coconut oil (melted)

Put in blender until creamy. Pour filling over crust. Stick in reezer until firm. Then eat!

I made this once using fresh pineapple and strawberries instead of mango. You could do any fruit you want. Good luck and let me know how you like this.

You could also just make the filling, put it in your freezer and eat as an ice cream or put in your fridge and eat as pudding. There is so much you can do with this simple recipe:)

Almond Milk

Once again, you all probably know all there is to know about making your own Nut Milk, etc.  But just in case, I thought I'd post some of the things I learned the hard way in my experimenting throughout the last month or so.  And if you have tips for me, I'd love to hear them.  I am a complete novice, but I've learned a thing or two.  I was desperate after spending almost $11 for a gallon and a half in one visit to the grocery store...ouch!

There are a ton of great videos on Youtube on making your own Almond Milk that you can go check out, and it's very easy.

Step 1:

Soak 1 cup of raw almonds in water at least 4 hours, at most overnight.

Step 2:

Rinse almonds and put in blender with 3 cups filtered water.  If you want a thicker milk, put only 2 cups water.  If you want thinner, put in 4 cups.

Step 3:
Blend.  I thought this would be too much for my little hand me down garage sale blender, but the almonds are so soft it doesn't take much to make a thick frothy milk.

**You can drink it like this if you prefer. Or...

Step 4:
Strain the milk through either cheesecloth (Walmart has a pre-packaged cheesecloth in the fabric section, Winco has it next to the kitchen gadgets...if you do use cheesecloth, you might want to double it up to catch more), or a Nut Milk Bag (anywhere from $8-15 online), a sprout bag (online or Good Earth has them for about $13, a strainer (I have a handheld strainer that has tiny holes and works really well, but I have to use a spoon to press the nut meal down to get all the liquid out), or you can even use a paint strainer bag from a home improvement store (they have 2 for $2, so it's obviously more cost effective).  If you use a bag, strain the milk through the bag, and then use your hands to squeeze out the liquid.  Save the Almond Meal for other uses.

**You can drink it like this if you prefer. Or...

Step 5: pour the milk back in the blender and sweeten however you prefer.  This is where there's a ton of trial and error.

First, some almonds leave a pretty bitter taste.  For some reason, the Good Earth bulk almonds made some gross almond milk.  BUT...I put it in the fridge and was planning on just calling it a loss, but a few days later, the bitterness settled at the bottom with the dregs and the stuff on top was delicious!  So don't throw it out if it's not good at first!

Once you have a good base, you can try anything as sweetener.  I tried Stevia and thought it was nasty (does anyone have a good use for Stevia?  I spent $11 on that stuff and it grosses me out).  I tried just agave and it was pretty good.  I've tried honey and medjool dates with marginal success.

Our best successes so far have been Banana Almond Milk (put 1 cup of milk in the blender with half a banana and a pinch of nutmeg...Jocelyn calls it a milkshake and I feel good she's getting some fruit too), and Vanilla Bean (Scrape the seeds of one vanilla bean and put it in the entire batch of Almond Milk.  I also added a bit of agave and I think it doesn't taste too far off the yummy store-bought vanilla stuff, although it's less "manufactured" tasting if that makes any sense).  And if you live near a Sunflower Market, that is the cheapest place I've found for Vanilla Bean.  $4 for 2 beans.  Last summer I bought 2 beans for $12 to make Pioneer Woman's Vanilla Bean Scones which were literally To. Die. For. although not in keeping with this lifestyle :(

Winco is the best source I've found for almonds so far ($3.68/pound in the bulk section), but someone told me Costco has a great deal too. I just haven't checked it out yet.

Bottoms up!

OH!!  There's quite a bit of Almond meal left over from each batch, so I've been getting double duty out of the almonds (they're so expensive, you may as well use them twice and get the entire nut in your body!).  Keep it in the fridge in a ziploc or other airtight container.  I put some of the almond meal in my smoothies every morning.  I've put it in smoothie popsicles I made for Jocelyn, and I've put it in some muffins and breads, etc.  There's a lot of recipes online for almond meal pancakes, etc. but my meal isn't very fine, so I haven't used it in anything that you can't conceal it very well.

Do any of you have more tips to add?  I am all ears!

An Indulgent Sunday Breakfast

Hello veggie loving darlings. Our breakfast this morning was good. SO good. Way better than I thought it would be actually. It looks like just another breakfast bar, but we thought it was very special. Try it if you like. I call it indulgent because it has more sugar than we all would like, but there are a lot of great things in it too- and my kids won't eat nuts, but they loved this, so I figure it's worth it. Promise me if you try it that you won't healthify it too much. I know, I know. We all LOVE to do that to recipes- but just don't with this one will ya?

And to give credit where credit is due this recipe is from Ellie Krieger over at the Food Network. I got two of her cookbooks from the library and am absolutely in love. She's their "healthy," chef and for the most part I think she does a truly great job. I got the books "So Easy," and "The Food You Crave," (which is a collection of favorite recipes made healthy. Tonight we are trying her macaroni and cheese which has 20 ounces of pureed winter squash in it, and significantly less cheese than normal recipes... it's baking as we speak and smelling SO good)

Walnut and Dried Cherry Bars

1 cup quick cooking oats
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup toasted wheat germ (I toasted normal wheat germ in a pan over med heat for a few minutes- worth the extra effort in my opinion)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup honey (okay I didn't put the entire 1/2 cup but it was close)
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg, beaten
1 egg white
3/4 cup chopped dried cherries or cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup fruit only apricot preserves

Preheat to 350. Spray 8x8 pan. Stir dry together. Stir wet together until well combined. Stir walnuts and dried fruit in wet. Stir wet into dry until well combined. Spread in pan. Bake 30-35 min. When bars are nearly done heat preserves in small saucepan until runny. When bars come out immediately spread preserves on top. Cool and cut into bars.

They are very filling so one bar and a piece of fruit is a very satisfying breakfast! Yumm! And for pete's sake do NOT cut the preserves out of the equation. That was a stroke of genius!

I am so excited to share this new healthy recipe with you. I am sure that not only will your taste buds love you but your husbands and children’s as well. I have wanted a raw “granola” recipe for a while or something close to that. I did not want nuts; only seeds and I found it just a few days ago.

I am going to give you the original recipe and then I will tell you the way I did it.

Pecan Bars

1 ½ cup sesame seeds
3/4 cup honey
1c coconut
¼ cup powdered milk
½ c sunflower seeds
½ tsp vanilla
½ cup pecans

Place seeds and coconut in 11x8 pan, toast in oven 400 for 15 minutes. Put honey and powdered milk in sauce pan and bring to boil; remove from heat and add vanilla. When seed mixture is done toasting pour honey mixture over the seed mixture; stir well and press together. Allow to cool; cut into bars and wrap individually in plastic wrap. Make about 16-18


MY WAY

No pecans. I used ½ cup pumpkin seeds (green, in bulk at health food stores or health food isle), ¼ cup flax seed (omega 3), ¼ cup honey and ½ cup AGAVE (my new favorite thing), 1 tsp vanilla (I love VANILLA a little too much). Those are the only changes I made. You can do whatever the heck you want. You could add dried fruit, almonds or chocolate. The sky is the limit!

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.

Love,

Emily