Vegan MoFo Day 18: Key Lime Pie!

My husband is an anti fruit sort of person. He swears it's the texture that weirds him out. So when I try a new dessert that is admittedly very fruit based, being a key lime pie flavored with lots of fresh lime juice, I am very surprsied when he decides he likes it.

And eats it without my prompting. Lots of it!

This would be my daughter's fingers, swooping in for a taste.

This Key Lime Pie recipe came from Matthew Kenney's Everyday Raw Desserts. It's cool, sweet and tart-very refreshing for the warm fall days we've been having. Yes, I said warm. Come on, summer, let it go already.

Vegan MoFo Day 17: Raw Energy? Bars

So, I don't know what to call these treats, really. They are sort of like Larabars, which are billed as energy bars sometimes? When I think of energy bars, I think of cardboard coated in chocolate that tastes like a sock. These are so not that.

There are many, many recipes out there for "lara" type bars. Try googling your favorite flavor + the word "recipe" to see what sort of results you get. Probably at least one or two. I do like to eat them, and other brand name raw energy bars, though they can be costly and don't taste quite as fresh as the ones I can make at home. And boy, do we ever make these at home. They are "cookies" to my almost 3 year old. Packed full of nutrition, I'm not going to complain if she wants to call them that.

Today I'm going to make a chocolate-cashew variety, but I want to say now that you can use any kind of nuts you like! And the chocolate can be optional. Or replaced with carob powder. Mesquite powder also makes an interesting add-in (use just a little, though!) Spices are also a nice touch-cinnamon, as an example. This is the sort of thing that can't be horribly screwed up, so feel free to experiment. Actually, this recipe started out as a quick experiment when my kiddo wanted a cookie, now! while I was trying to make an uncheesecake crust she was determined to eat if I didn't get her something else to nibble on.

First step, gather some ingredients.

Hemp seeds, Flax Seeds, Cacao Powder, Medjool Dates, Cashews, Chia Seeds. Everything raw & organic. Not pictured: Vanilla Extract, Pink Himalayan Salt.

The base recipe is something like, dump in a cup of nuts and measure out an equal portion of dates. So 2 cups nuts = 2 cups dates. Pit the dates, if they aren't already. This is a very important step! Ask me how I know.

Grind the nuts for several seconds alone, until finely chopped.

These are almonds (for another upcoming post), not cashews, but you get the idea

Now run the food processor and add the dates one at a time, so we don't overload the machine.

You'll have a nicely ground mix of dates and nuts after you let it process for a moment.

Stop the machine. You officially have an energy bar. You can stop here if you like. One of my favorites is just pecans and dates mixed together. Or, throw in some other fun things you may like. I believe I added about 2 tablespoons each of chia, flax and hemp seeds.

Note that pre-grinding your flax into meal is ideal if you want it completely ground when making things in a food processor. I forgot here. But that's okay, it's still good.

Now add cacao powder! About 1/2 cup. This is completely dependent on you and your taste buds. Here is where I add some vanilla extract (alcohol free is preferred for raw desserts, but whatever you got!) and a pinch of pink Himalayan salt (less than 1/4 tsp).

Run the machine for a minute or so, and things will start binding together in a gooey yummy mess. Now let's make cookies!

All the fun of baking without the hot oven to contend with.

I find it easiest to make small balls and smoosh them flat by hand, thus the cookie resemblance. You can pat them into a large pan (I would recommend pre-cutting bars in this case, they firm up quite a bit!) or shape them into bars with your hands/plastic wrap. Husband even cut them out with cookie cutters for us recently. Pop them in the freezer if you like them cold like me, or the fridge if you prefer.

A flower cookie for C-bear from Daddy, left most section.

Ani Phyo has a great cookie recipe in her dessert book, Carob Walnut Cookies. They follow the same basics as discussed here, and she puts her cookies in the freezer-this is how I learned I like them really cold!

See you tomorrow!

Vegan Mofo Stardate 14 : Roll with it baby!

So, lets talk Spring rolls (no, not old 80s songs as implied by the title).  So, these were made at the direction of my wife, who, I might add, likes Spring rolls.  A lot.  Particularly the ones from a certain Thai place we happen to currently frequent.  Truth be told, I do to, so it's not like I'm complaining here; except when she eats all any of mine.

What we were really going for here was a raw roll, or at least mostly raw, in that once made, we wouldn't actually cook the rolls.  As it turned out, some of the ingredients in these were cooked, but the roll itself and the accompanying dippin sauce were raw.

You'll need:

1 pkg of Spring roll wrappers.
There are so many varieties of these I can't begin to tell you which ones to buy specifically, but you want ones that are for all purpose use, not frying.  Generally, the frying only ones are the "rice paper" kind, and the general purpose ones are wheat based.  You can also get them in many shapes and sizes.  The particular ones I used this time were dried triangular Vietnamese wrappers.   Next time I have a batch of frozen larger square ones to use.

 Something large enough to hold the wrapper so it can soak in
Water

As for the filling:
This time around I used shredded Napa cabbage (1 whole head)
shredded raw carrots
some pre roasted green beans
a lightly toasted combination of 1/4 cup of each of the following (6-7 minutes in a 350 oven)
Amaranth, sesame seeds, ground up cashews and ground up walnuts
If you want to leave these raw, I'd swap the amaranth for Hemp or Flax seed instead.  Totally up to you, I just chose these because they are mild in flavor.

The assembly table...

To make a roll, soak the wrapper in the water for about 15 seconds, until it gets soft.  Don't leave it in too long or else it'll turn to mush.  Also, once you take it out of the water it will continue to soften until it starts to dry, so don't worry if it's a little stiff when you take it out.

Lika dissa...

Add the filling ingredients at the bottom, being careful not to over stuff.  For these wrappers, you'll notice i put everything in the middle at the bottom of the larger rounded edge.  This gives you the ability to fold the sides over before you finish rolling in the vain hope that your filling won't fall out of the ends when you pick it up or bite it.  I used about a tablespoon each of the cabbage and carrots, added 1 or 2 beans, then a tsp or 2 of the seed and nut combo.

The order does.....not matter

Once you get everything added, roll up by first lifting the bottom up and over the stuffing, then pulling it back to tighten it up and get it started.  Fold the ends over toward the middle, making sure to tuck the wrapper over the filling.  You want to fold it once, then go back and pull the little flap that's left over into the middle too.  It's hard to explain, but once you do it a few times, you'll see what I mean.  If everything falls out, don't panic, just start over.  If the wrapper tears, just get a new one, no big deal.  The art of making these is something that takes patience and practice, so just hang in there and you'll get it.  For reference, the first time I made rolls, I put the ingredients on the wrong end and couldn't for the life of me figure out why they wouldn't roll up correctly.  It's all about the skills.

I couldn't take pictures and roll at the same time... so work with me here!

Finish rolling by using your index fingers in the middle, and your middle fingers on the ends, and roll it up, keeping it taught, but not so tight it tears.  You can feel the wrapper stretch as you roll, and that's ok.  Once you reach the top, make sure to gently press the little pointed part down so that it will bond to the rest.  Place it on a cookie sheet to sit for a few minutes, so that the wrapper sticks to itself and seals up the roll.  Were you going to fry them, that would be the time, but as I said we chose not too.

1 down.. 4 bajillion to go

After I ran out of beans, I switched to shredded broccoli slaw.  I let them sit for about 10 minutes (after I made the last one) before serving them.  In the end I stopped because I ran out of wrappers.  As you can see I did get quite a few done.  After they sit, they will be a little gummy, but they won't stick to your mouth when you eat them.  With all the crunchy veggies inside, the texture of the wrapper gets lost pretty easily.

These ones have peanuts and soap in them!!!!

If you can name that show.. you win a cookie.
ANYWHO...
Somewhere in there I made the dippin sauce.

Raw Nut dipping sauce
1/2 cup raw almond butter
2T Tamari
1/4 cup water
1T of Rice Vinegar
a few dashes of Sriacha (or Asian chile sauce)
tsp of garlic powder
tsp of date sugar

I whipped this up in a bowl with a whisk for a minute or so.  If you like yours thick like, leave out a tablespoon of the water.  This was pretty thick to begin with, so experiment a little with what works best for your desired consistency or flavor.  One idea I have is swapping the Tamari with Coconut Aminos...

That's right..I'm awesome.  The pan on the right has the string beans, broccoli slaw on the left.  It didn't matter..for them.

All was eaten with great fervor by the wife and I.  C to her credit tried one, but didn't like the wrapper, so she got something else to eat instead.  As far as the filling goes, you could really use about anything.  Any crunchy item works well as the base, so any cabbage, or crunchy raw veggie is good (oooooo, I wonder what shredded jicama would be like in these!!!).  Rice noodles would work too, just make sure to soak them first to soften them.  We would have added avocado to ours, but ours were bad and so we missed out on that.  The great part is that since these aren't cooked, you don't have the issue of things releasing water and making the roll soggy, so you can use mushrooms, and the like.  I know I used some cooked ingredients, but I'm labeling these as raw because it's very easy to make them that way.  I liked the idea of lightly toasting the seeds and nuts for extra flavor, but it's certainly not required.  Go crazy, I won't tell.

Vegan MoFo Day 13: Almond Pulp Cookies

One of the (delicious) side effects of making your own creamy almond milk at home is all the lovely almond pulp that we have leftover. (I sometimes dream of Alots of almond pulp.) In efforts to use it up (read: keep it from taking over the refrigerator and the freezer) I have been experimenting with dehydrator cookies combining it with other fun superfoods to eat.

You know you are not used to blogging when you get about halfway through a project and then think, "Hey, I should take pictures. I could blog this!" This is sort of what that scenario might look like.

The olives were not part of the recipe.

Using the Macaroon recipe from Raw Food Real World and this recipe found by Googling as a guide, I combined a big mess of stuff into a bowl.

Using my hands I mixed it all up, and then scooped the mix all fancy-like into a cookie scooper. (I like that word, scoop. Scooooop).

And then scooped them onto a dehydrator screen.

And popped them into the dehydrator.

 And after about 16 hours, ate them.

There were a few more than this leftover, but not many.

They were really good, though next time I might dehydrate them a bit longer-I love these cookies crunchy! I also love how the dried fruit rehydrates a bit and takes on a new texture.

To make this recipe, I used leftover pulp from about 3 batches of almond milk-so 3 cups of almond milk pulp total. This is a rough guesstimate and can be tweaked in either direction.

Leftover Almond Dehydrator Cookies
3 cups of almond milk pulp
1 cup of goji berries
1 cup of cranberries
1/4 cup cacao nibs
3/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1 and 1/2 cups maple syrup (actually a bit less)
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
3 Tbs Chia seeds
(I would use flax meal and hemp seeds next time-I was out this day!)
Cacao powder. Several heaping tablespoons. I would guess about 1/4-1/3 cup, but there will be an accurate measurement after I make them again!

I used the smallest size scooper we have-a size 60, or 2 tsp. Place them on your trays, turn the dehydrator on to 105, and let it run until your cookies are as dry as you like, about 16-24 hours. And enjoy! I think I will go have a couple more myself now.

Vegan MoFo Day 12: Lunch

A typical adult lunch around here is salad, full of yummy things. I enjoy it layered with a very light drizzle of dressing. Today's salad was washed fresh lettuce and baby spinach, broccoli sprouts, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, cranberries, and tamari roasted chickpeas. My broccoli & carrot slaw wasn't looking good so I skipped it today, sadface. Exciting posts about salads are here and here. Well, exciting if you are a salad nerd like me. Also pictured: My future avocado snack and my "green" smoothie.

Today the C-bear had chickpeas, a small Rhode Island style pizza, smoothie, and carrot sticks for lunch.

Vegan MoFo Day 8: Make Your Own Adventure in Nut Butters

Nut butter can be expensive. Especially the raw kind. Unless you live near a Trader Joe's or your grocery store has a wider selection than the standard peanut butter you might not even see such awesome choices as almond, brazil nut or cashew butters. My grocery stores have such offerings in the "healthy" food section-ringing up at $8 to $12 dollars a jar. Ouch!


We are lucky to have a lovely local food co-op that allows members to make bulk purchases as needed. This makes purchasing organic, raw nuts very affordable for our family. Last month we found on sale and purchased a 25 pound case of organic almonds for nut milks, butters and raw desserts, a 25 pound case of walnuts for the same purposes, and the month before that a 25 pound case of cashews for, you guessed it, nut milk, butters and raw desserts. Cashews also lend themselves to making raw cheeses and pates. So much fun! The other night, Husband and I realized we were nearly out of tahini-and having just picked up a 5 pound bag of sesame seeds, I decided to embark on a tasty nut butter adventure of the mediterranean type. Step 1-Get out your food processor.

Just don't do whatever the Warning is telling you not to do. Pick up spiny sea urchins? Throw Ninja Stars? You decide.

Step 1 can also involve a Vita Mix or Blendtec blender. But I tend to make a large batch at once and the food processor is my chosen implement of destruction.

Step 2-Pick your nuts/seeds. As we mentioned, Sesame is on the menu today. Don't like raw butters? Roast your sesame seeds first in an oven on low heat for a couple of minutes.

Yep, Sesame Seeds. Says so right there.

Step 3-Add to food processor bowl. Guesstimate about how much you want to put in there. There's no right or wrong answer.

This will work.

Step 4-Turn it on!

Spin baby spin.

Now we play the waiting game. I find that sesame seeds, cashews, and walnuts turn into butter fairly quickly. Raw almonds will take the longest, at upwards of twenty minutes. Yep, twenty. Just when you think you are wasting your time and the food processor starts to overheat, bingo-you hit the sweet spot of creamy nut butter.

Luckily, it's not hard to tell when you've reached it.

This is not it. Keep going.

I sort of timed how long this batch took to make. And by sort of, I mean not really. And by timed, I mean I took pictures of the wall, floor, ceiling, entire kitchen complete with Husband not paying attention (I can't really believe I'm going to post it, the mess makes me cringe), the kiddo as she runs in and out of the room, the baby as she watches me in the swing, and some more shots of the food processor spinning. Outtakes, you know.

But don't tell your husband you took this photo, just post it on the blog. He loves surprises.

Back to the nut butter. 3? 5? minutes later, I stopped the machine, scraped the sides and turned it back on. And watched.

Entertaining for a short while.

Let's discuss the Almost-There-But-Not-Really issue. At some point you will see the butter forming a large ball and the standard reaction is "Ding! Butter done!"

No. It is not.

Close!

Scrape down the sides and keep going. Just a few more moments, I promise. It could be 30 seconds, it could be 2 minutes, but the ball will disappear and then the real creaminess will shine through with all the natural nut oils helping things along.

In the meantime, pour all those tiny seeds into a giant container. Don't spill them. You'll think you swept them all up but in fact will be finding them years later, trust me on that one.

After the ball disappears, check the machine periodically, as is comfortable for you. I don't really think this sort of thing can be over processed, so go ahead and stare at the wall for awhile do something productive for a moment.

Fin: Creamy, delicious nut butter.

I know there's not much difference between the last picture and this one, despite this one having a strange color cast (I fail at fixing in Photoshop) but when you are actively doing this in the field, you will be able to tell the difference by touching and tasting. Also if you try to spread it on something, the texture will be evident. Practice! Do not be disappointed by small set backs! This is the advice I have for you.

Step, um, I forget. Pour your butter into a glass mason jar, recycled other-kind-of-jar, plastic tub, whatever floats your boat. Label and enjoy. No matter what direction your adventure takes, the results are just as tasty. Now if you'll excuse me, there are some almonds that need to be pulverized in the refrigerator. Huzzah!

Vegan MoFo Day 6: Blast Off Pops!

 
Happy Monday! While today is day 8 in MoFo festivities, I will be opting to take the weekends of this month off to spend with the family-lots of decluttering, cleaning and general fun to accomplish with my loves! So this is entry 6 for me.

Today I want to post about another quick snack my two year old enjoys. Chocolate fudgesicles! These aren't your ordinary run of the mill fudgesicles, though. These are packed with nutrition and the best part is, my kid loves them. With a capital "L"!

Although I still feel a bit like a delinquent mom when I let her have one after breakfast.

The idea behind this recipe is to make a very thick smoothie, flavored with lots of Cacao powder. The thicker you make it, the more creamy it will be when it freezes! And please note that I use the term "recipe" very loosely here. This is basically a green smoothie in popsicle form, there is a very wide margin of error!

That said, I have been experimenting with this recipe to make about 6 pops (And I always end up with extra, which the kiddo will drink while waiting eagerly for the pops to freeze. I really need a second set of molds!)

Into the Vita Mix, I throw:
6 or 7 medjool dates, pitted
Enough water to cover the dates by about a half inch
1 banana
1/3 to 1/2 cup of cashews
1 heaping handful of washed spinach (pictured) or kale
1 heaping Tbs each of chia, flax and hemp seeds (called the seed trifecta in this house)
1 1/2 Tbs of vanilla extract (alcohol free is preferred in raw desserts, this can also be called vanilla flavoring, though I am using up my extract first and they turn out fine)
3 Tbs organic raw cacao powder, or more or less to taste

To start, place the dates and water in the blender and let them set for 10 minutes or so to soften. This will make them a bit easier to blend. After that, load up the blender with everything else listed-plus anything else you might want to throw in (liquid stevia for sweetness, different nuts or seeds, etc). Remember that you are basically making a thick, creamy chocolate smoothie here-anything you typically put in your smoothies you could add if you like. Experiment!

 Pour into molds (these are BPA free rocket pops by Tovolo, gifted to us by a lovely grandmother. This company also makes stars and a large groovy style set. So cute.)

Freeze and enjoy one! Or two. Hey, they are good for you, right?

Happy Monday!

coconut haystacks!

These are the best treat, I think, right now as summer has wound down but fall isn't quite here yet in the south mid-atlantic. Cool, but not too cold. Of course, they are mighty hard to photograph in an exciting, eye pleasing way...
But I find that is normal when I'm rushed, trying to keep tiny hands from grabbing them away before I can take a picture.

These are coconut haystacks, a raw vegan treat brought to my attention by a couple of awesome blogs such as this. The basic recipe is very good on its own, but I also threw in some hemp seeds, flax meal and chia seeds to boost nutrition and get some good EFA's into my kidlet. And boy, do these ever get into the kidlet (and myself!). So yummy, and a great afternoon treat on a warmish September day.