Raw Pumpkin Pie!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! Since it's pumpkin time, I decided to try a RAW Pumpkin Pie recipe the other day. The verdict? RAVE REVIEWS! Everyone that tried it thought it was really good. HURRAY for healthy dessert recipes!!!! Here it is!




Aren't I smart? I made mini-pies in a muffin pan. You know you're SO going to copy this idea ::smiles:: These were made using half of the recipe listed below. Thank you Raw Foods Witch for the recipe- it's FAB!!

Raw Pumpkin Pie Crust

• 2 cups pecans or walnuts
• 1/2 cup soaked dates
• Dash of sea salt

Blend the crust ingredients in a high speed blender or food processor, then evenly distribute in the bottom of a pie plate.

Raw Pumpkin Pie Filling

• 2 cups shredded pumpkin, butternut squash, or sweet potato flesh
• 1 cup soaked dates
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. freshly diced ginger
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 tsp. coconut oil
• Dash of vanilla
• 1/4 cup almond milk or water to help blend

If you donʼt feel like shredding the pumpkin by hand, simply cube and place in a high speed blender or food processor until itʼs nicely chopped.

Then add the rest of the ingredients and blend until nice and smooth. You might need to add more liquid to get it to blend well.

Pour into crust, then chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before serving.

OK let me tell you- this was fantastic. Brenton even said "I think this is better than normal pumpkin pie!". I will be making this again, needless to say!

Happy Halloween!!

Bunch 'O Halloween!

Good evening, muah hah hah.

Was that Halloweenie enough? Hehe- well it's right around the corner, so I figured I might as well get into the spirit of things. To be COMPLETELY honest... I don't love Halloween. I don't like things that are scary... I don't like candy that will give you cancer.... I don't like pranks (we were egged last year).... bah humbug!

So, to go along with my bah humbug-ness... here is what will be out on my porch on Thursday evening:





Hehehe- that's right... we're not going to be contributing to the ADHD and Diabetes of children, no sir! No Hydrogenated crapola from this house! This year, I'm handing out (ok... I'm not really 'handing' because I'll be making raw pumpkin and raw apple pies... so they'll be helping themselves) little tricky games where you have to get the 4 little balls in the holes at one time. Just about impossible- you bet I tried it! Hours of fun. HOURS. These little guys were pretty cheap. I got them from Factory Card Outlet, 50 for $4.25.

That said, my student workers (college age) will be 'trick or treating' on Thursday around the office, so for them, I got Trader Joe's Organic Lollipops. 27 lollipops for $2.99.



Look at these ingredients!!! Fantastic!



Soooo much better than the normal candy that's handed out!!! I may (MAY) even be tempted to try one...

Even though I don't LOVE the holiday, I do like decorating the house with cute Halloween things, and we DID carve pumpkins this weekend.



Mine is on the left, and my brother/sister in law's is on the right. We should go into business. I'm even, like I said, will be making a raw pumpkin pie for the first time on Thursday- so I'll be sure to let you know how that goes. I'm a little leery of eating a raw pumpkin, but I'm sure it'll be good.

Speaking of eating, check out ye olde dinner tonight!



So, I was going to make shepherd's pie again, but ran out of time because Brenton had an MBA chat online tonight. So, I made the filling (all I did was cook on the stove some Morning Star Veggie Crumbles, some frozen bagged organic soup veggies, a dash of salt and pepper, some water, and a little bit of tomato sauce, and poured it on top of 1/2 of a small spaghetti squash (cooked in the microwave... shame on me... in 1/2 c water for 9 minutes). VERY TASTY!! I have the other half of the spaghetti squash in the fridge for tomorrow's dinner concoction... which is yet to be determined. You should try it! You'll like it! It gave me tons of energy- and I actually did Jillian's 30 Day Shred, ironed clothes, did the dishes, emptied the dishwasher, AND made lunches for tomorrow, all within 3 hours. I think I deserve an Epsom salt bath!

Yep, I do. Good night everybody!

BBQ Tempeh Sammies!

Good evening everybody! I tried a new recipe tonight- BBQ Tempeh Sandwiches! These were so quick to make (LITERALLY from pan to plate in 15 min), and super good!! Here's my recipe-

Ingredients:

BBQ Sauce
Equal parts Ketchup, Vinegar, Mustard (I used 1/2 C each)
Salt, Pepper, Brown Sugar to taste

1 Package of Trader Joe's 5 Grain Tempeh

*In a small sauce pan, heat BBQ Sauce on medium, until simmering (a minute or two)
*Cut up tempeh into small pieces, and put into pan. Mix with sauce until covered and cook until hot (this particular tempeh is pre-cooked already)
*Make into a sandwich using whatever bread/roll you'd like (I used Trader Joe's Sprouted Wheat, toasted for a minute or two in the toaster oven), cheese, veggies (I used spinach, but onion, pepper, and tomato would also be good), and BBQ tempeh. Serve immediately.

The verdict? Well, Brenton took the first bite and said "this is... funky" (LMAO!.... great...), so I tried it and it tasted (to me) JUST like sloppy joe's! I'll definitely make them again, well, for me anyway. Brenton doesn't LOVE BBQ sauce to begin with, so that's why he was kind of like 'meh...'. But they were definitely a quick, healthy, and filling meal! We didn't even have fruit after dinner for dessert!

Here's a pic of my sammie before I dove in:



Try it, you'll like it (wink wink)

Escopazzo FAB-O!

Good evening, everybody! For those of you from the South Florida area, you probably already know about Escopazzo. If you don't know about this restaurant, ohmygosh, you have to (HAVE TO) check it out. It's so hard to find restaurants that offer raw food (other than salad...bo-ring!), and this restaurant is unique because they lable themselves as an Organic Italian restaurant. There are vegetarian, vegan, and raw dishes available, with none of the CRAP that I always complain about. (Que the heavens opening and angels singing). After reading their website, it appears that Janet Jackson, Harrison Ford, Cameron Diaz, Kevin Spacey, and other very famous people have dined there as well! So, it must be good, right?! Ok, enough is enough, what did I eat?!

First, take a look at the part of the menu I went right to:



Beautiful, isn't it? I was so excited. I ended up getting the Spaghetti of zucchini with sundried tomato and walnut pesto, and Brenton got the Vegetable lasagnetta with pine nut ricotta and pesto. Pure joy. We shared both meals (because I wanted to taste both, of course!). Look how lovely!!

Spaghetti


Lasagnetta


The pine nut ricotta in the vegetable lasagnetta was to DIE for. Brenton ate almost all of it before I had a chance to try it. And then... the truth came out. Brenton said "WOW, this is really good! I feel full, but not stuffed. I've never had raw food that has tasted like this! How come your raw food doesn't taste like this?"

Happy anniversary to you too. Hahahahaha. Ok ok, so my raw food has been trial and error (and mind you, I'VE liked it all). I did argue that he's liked Ani's Raw Apple Pie recipe that I've made, and that was agreed upon... but I will admit that my raw pasta has NOT tasted as good as this did. Not overly seasoned, and VERY fresh.

I wasn't sure if I had room for dessert, but we decided to split their Avocado Ice Cream.



Looks like guac, no? It was a very unique set of flavors. At first, the ice cream tasted like, well, avocado, mixed with hints of basil. Then, a strong citrus flavor came through that made it taste like a dessert, rather than guac! It was so neat! Brenton and I both liked it, and actually, I was surprised at Brenton's reaction. He's typically the guy who likes the double-chocolate-monkey-fudge-cookie-blahblah, but I actually think he surprised himself, too, by liking it! Maybe his tastes are becoming as hippie as mine! No, not hippie- sophisticated (right?).

So my overall reaction to Escopazzo? Out of this world! If you're ever in the Miami Beach/South Beach/Southern Region of Florida- RUN to 1311 Washington Ave.

Veggie Shepherd's Pie- YUM!

Good afternoon everyone! As I type, but Bucks are winning 14-10. Take that Badgers!! I swear, every sports announcer has it out for Ohio State. It's always ''blah blah blah complain complain complain those bucks did this wrong coach made a bad call blahblahblahblahblah''. GEEZ!

So anyway, last night I made a FAB-O vegetarian shepherd's pie!!! I got the recipe from my mother-in-law, and adapted it for us veggie types.



Here's my adaptation recipe...

1 sweet potato, scrubbed
1/4 t pepper
1 c frozen meatless crumbles (Quorn or Morning Star)
1/4 red onion, chopped
1 t dried thyme
1/2 t poultry seasoning
dash red pepper flakes
1/4 c tomato sauce
1/2 c water
1/2 bag frozen veggies (I used peas and a mix of carrots, peas, corn, and green beans)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Prick scrubbed sweet potato and cook until tender (I used the microwave... shame on me).
In a skillet on medium high heat, 'cook' meatless crumbles with chopped onion. When hot, stir in water and tomato sauce and simmer for 1 min.
Mix in thyme, poultry seasoning, red pepper flakes, and frozen veggies. Simmer for 4 min.
Scoop out meat of the sweet potato and mash in a bowl. Mix with pepper.
Pour 'meat' mixture into a baking dish and top with mashed sweet potato.
Cook in oven 10 minutes.

It was SO good. Look at the mixture.



It REALLY looks like normal shepherd's pie, and tasted like it too!! Super yum... I'll definitely make it again!

Happy Saturday to you all! T minus a couple days until Miami!

You bet'chyur bucha!

So here it is- my bottled kombucha. The science experiment was a success, and I'm on to round 2!

My brother-in-law has been brewing his own kombucha tea for over a year now, maybe two years, and he passed one of his kombucha mushrooms on to me so I too could brew my own.

For those of you who are wondering what the heck kombucha is, here is what wikipedia says:

Kombucha is a fermented tea that is imbibed for medicinal purposes, although there is currently no specific scientific information supporting any purported benefits.^[1]. However, numerous studies of "pro-biotics" are available. Kombucha is available commercially, but can be made at home by fermenting tea using a visible solid mass of microorganisms called a kombucha culture or mushroom.



There's my mushroom, and round two of my bucha brewing. The little jars on the left is the bottled bucha from the last batch. Generally, I buy my kombucha tea from Bexley Natural Market. My favorites are by GT and Kombucha Bob, but it's great brewing my own now, too! Cheaper, I must say. Each bottle of GT's is in the $3.50 range, but well worth the price.

So what does kombucha taste like? Well, it all depends on how long you 'brew' it. Mine tastes kind of like apple cider vinegar and sweet tea- more bitter than sweet. It's good for my insides and I can really feel a difference when I drink it. When I drink GT's it's almost like a euphoric type feeling. It's really carbonated and almost makes me feel like I have no legs. Ok, yeah, that's kinda weird... but entertaining, no less.

If you haven't tried kombucha before, you should go out and get some! Convert.... convert... come to the bucha dark side... hahahaha.