Cooked Pasta with Raw Marinara VEGAN Dinner Ideas!

Steamed cabbage, whole wheat pasta with raw marinara and seitan sausage, steamed red potatoes, buckwheat and red lettuce.

Raw Vegan Tacos at the In-Laws

The boy spent the weekend at his grandparents house (Mil and Dil) We all went to a matinee of UP which is a lovely movie and I recommend it. After that we went back to their house and watched Half-Japanese: the Band that would be King which is one of my favorite rock-umentaries.

Jad Fair is a god.

We had dinner, of course. Dil made a salad and Mil picked some chard leaves from the garden and we ate raw tacos






Chard with a mixed greens salad, cucumber, crunched up kale chips and some sort of dressing that Dil whipped up.







The spread




Chard and buckwheat lettuce that Mil grew, goji berries, kale chips, cashews and that gorgeous salad. Morrocan style with plenty of forks for everyone.







How was your weekend?

Deer Live Here

I am afraid of deer.





















This one was too close for my comfort.






The biggest mouse he's ever seen.







I had a dream the other night that Mr. Mickey "Biscuits" Baker (that's what I call the cat) was fighting a kangaroo and the kangaroo killed him. I woke up crying and when I told The Man he laughed at me. *sniff. I guess it was pretty funny. I also had to wear pants with a high waist in the dream. Why? The apocalypse. I have apocalypse dreams a lot but never had to wear high waisted pants in one before. Believe me, it would take an apocalypse to get me to wear pants with a rise of more than 9 inches. If you don't know what I'm talking about, consider yourself lucky :)

Pina Colada and Peanut Butter Banana

We got some young thai coconuts and made smoothies with the meat and water, an inch of vanilla bean and some canned pineapple juice that was left over from the boy's lunch.






Scrumptious









The pickest eater in the world actually tried something new and liked it.





Plain bagel with earth balance, peanut butter and banana! That would work for breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch or a snack.


It was his idea. he had a banana and I was eating a piece of chocolate. He said "wow, I bet this banana would be good with chocolate and I gave him a piece. He ate it. It WAS good! The I said, "you know what would be even better? Banana, peanut butter and chocolate!" He tried that and It was even better. Then I said, "you know what would be even better? Banana, peanut butter and chocolate on a CRACKER!"


















Minnie's Grave is getting to be quite a jungle















The tomatoes are almost ready to eat

RAW Dinner or Lunch Idea: Veges Au Gratin and Salsa Salad

Happy kitteh sleeping in the window















Chipmunk eating the seed the birds drop from the feeder











Salsa Salad
2 roma tomatoes
half a ripe avocado
2 or more tbs chopped onion
juice of one lemon
pinch of cane sugar
pinch of salt
big pinch of finely ground black pepper








And finally! Veges Au Gratin



Broccoli, cauliflower and carrot cut up in bite sized pieces and some curly kale, shredded.

Make some seed cheese subbing cashews for the seeds and adding 1/2 of a ripe avocado and enough water to make it sauce-y.





Pour cheese sauce over the veges in a shallow baking pan and dehydrate at 125F for 1 hour or more.

The shorter the time in the D, the crisper the veges will be. ooo, that rhymes :)

Serve with steamed quinoa or wrap in a collard leaf, that's what I did with mine.

What did you have for dinner?

RAW VEGAN Summer Dessert Ideas! Chocolate Refrigerator Cookies

Even if you aren't a raw foodist, these cookies are perfect for summer. NO oven! NO heating up the kitchen!

The log of dough waits for you and you just cut off as many cookies as you need, no mess or waste!


I adapted this from the brownie recipe at imsorawkin

Chocolate Freezer Cookies

Makes about 12 cookies, depending on how thick you cut them.

1 cup of any nuts you prefer. I used a mix of walnut, pecan, almond, cashew and brazil
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup dates
2 tbs coconut oil
2 tbs grated coconut meat (optional)
1/8 tsp salt (optional, of course)
Put all ingredients in Food Processor and pulverize. You should be able to press the mixture together and form a ball.











Dump the nut mixture on a piece of parchment or wax paper and roll it into a log.
Place in freezer for one hour or more.
Slice off 1/2" wide cookies as needed and store them in the freezer or fridge until ready to serve. Don't worry if the slices crumble a little, just reform them with your fingers and chill...

Serve chilled.

Raw Vegan Chili And Cornbread Summer Dinner Idea

This dinner takes about half an hour to prepare, not counting dehydrating time of about 4 hours, minimum. The corn and rice take about 20 minute each. they are just steamed... The chili and cornbread can be prepared early in the morning and will wait in the dehydrator until you are ready to eat. It couldn't be easier or more delicious.


Lightly steamed corn on the cob, Red lettuce with shredded carrot salad, Spanish style rice, raw chili, raw corn bread.











This is the second time I made this dinner and we really love it!


Spanish rice is:

2 cups vege broth
1 tomato pureed in the blender and strained through a seive to remove the seeds and skins
1 cup rice
Cook this like you would normally cook rice. Takes about 20 minutes.

Raw Corn Bread is:

8oz frozen corn kernels
half a carrot
rib of celery
3 tbs ground flaxseed
3 dates
1 tbs vinegar

Put all in FP and process until its a thick, chunky paste. Spread it on a sheet and dehydrate at 125F until it's as dry as you want. I like it thick and flexible for this recipe. Thin and crispier and it will be CORN CHIPS. Two recipes for the price of one!

Raw Vegan Chili is:

1 med carrot
2 stalks celery
1 bell pepper
2 roma tomatoes
2 leaves of kale, or more.

Chop everything into bite size pieces. Used the food processor with slicing blade to slice carrots, celery and pepper. Hand chop the tomatoes and kale.

Mix veges together in a flat pan. I used my 9x13" glass baking casserole. Put them in the dehydrator at 125F while you make the chili sauce.

Chili sauce:

5 roma tomatoes
1 avocado
2 tbs ginger, peeled
2 cloves garlic
1 med yellow onion
1/2 tsp dry mustard
2 tsp Mae Ploy Curry Paste. I looked it up, this curry paste IS RAW! Watch the vid on the website. The one they show used shrimp but the yellow curry does NOT! A Major Coup.

Pour this into your mixed veges and stir it up.
This is ready to serve now, or dehydrate it at 125 F until you are ready to eat it. It just gets softer and tastier the longer you leave it in the D.

I hope you try this and I really hope that you enjoy it. Please, take photos and let me know!

RAW VEGAN Wraps Lunch or Dinner Idea! How to use a Collard Leaf like a Tortilla Instructions and Pictures!

Yum! Doesn't that look good?












It's really easy, too!

First, find a nice, round collard leaf and cut the thickest part of the stem out. Save the stem for juicing, or using in a stir fry.











Put your filling in the middle as shown, against the grain.


I used raw vegan chili but you can put anything in them that you would put in a tortilla. The only limit is your imagination and the dimensions of the leaf :)









Fold the two flaps up.













Roll it just like a burrito, tucking the extra leaf in and pressing the filling back as you roll.

Position the wrap seam down and cut in half at an angle.

















Pretty impressive, huh?

Raw Cornbread and (mostly) Raw Chili in the Dehydrator w Pictures

The man said to me after the RAW UNION festival, "are you inspired to make your yummy raw dinners again?" I love him so much. I've fallen out of my groove. It happened in February when the fam came to visit. Right after they left, someone came to stay with us for 3 months and I really fell out of the groove then. I'm here alone again and I want to try to find my groove again. Statements like the one above really help. Thanks, baby for being so supportive and understanding...














The corn bread is so easy to make.
8oz corn
half a carrot
rib of celery
3 tbs ground flaxseed
3 dates
1 tbs vinegar

Put all in FP and process until its a thick, chunky paste. Spread it on a sheet and dehydrate until it's as dry as you want. I like it thick and flexible for this recipe. Thin and crispier and it would be corn CHIPS, so have fun.






The chili is also very simple. About 15 minutes prep time. I make them both in the morning so they are ready by lunchtime. Then I can fridge them until dinner. Read on, Gentle Reader...











Today I made the chili with:

1 med carrot
2 stalks celery
1 bell pepper
2 roma tomatoes
2 leaves of kale, or more.

Chopped everything into bite size pieces. I used the processor to slice carrots, celery and pepper and hand chopped the tomatoes and kale.
Mix veges together in a flat pan. I used my 9x13" glass baking casserole. Put them in the dehydrator at 125 while you make the chili sauce.

5 roma tomatoes
1 avocado
2 tbs ginger, peeled
2 cloves garlic
1 med yellow onion
1/2 tsp dry mustard
2 tsp chili paste (this isn't raw as far as I know. You can use chili peppers, or cumin or curry powder, depending on your taste. It's chili, make it your own)

Pour this into your mixed veges and stir it up.
This is ready to serve now, or dehydrate it at 125 F until it's the consistency you want. I will pro0bably leave it in until noon and then fridge it until an hour before dinner when I will put it back in the D at 125F and serve immediately with the cornbread.

Ok, I will come back with photos of dinner. It tastes phenomenal. I may have a bit for lunch :)

I had some juice today, too. 2 heads of celery and a granny smith apple.

RAW VEGAN Dinner Ideas! Raw Chili and Cornbread Teaser!

Raw Vegan Chili tonight. The cornbread is in the dehydrator now and I am about to go make the chili. See ya later with photos!

The Raw Union Experience

Angela Stokes and Matt Monarch were married on June 21st 2009, at the RAw Union Festival in Central Point, Oregon on Angel's Organic Farm.

Here are some of the photos I took.

John Kolher showing us how to properly eat a young Thai Coconut. He also had some very useful information about different kinds of coconuts and what each one is best for what use.





Our table. We were late and all the reps were gone but we used it as a base camp. Very handy.

There was a kids talent show before the ceremony. The boy was very active on the mic.

The couple after the ceremony having their photo taken by the "raw-parazzi" Papa-RAW-zzi? :)

Before the ceremony, in front of the beautiful altar that was made from... Well from compost! I will go into that more later...

I missed the actual ceremony.


This was the centerpiece on our table. There was one on every table, of course. Each one was different and had shells in them to take home as souvenirs. Are seashells vegan? IMO, no. Did I take one home anyway? Yes, I did.

Dinner. Some kind of broccoli with what tasted like a spicy thai-stlye sauce. (Must duplicate only not so sweet), a chutney of some kind, sprout salad and some seed pates on raw crackers.

Everyone got a plate like this delivered to their seat. If you wanted more you could wait in line and get all you wanted. There was a lot of food. I went back for seconds and got plate full of that broccoli. NOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM


Kevin Gianni giving the Man some silverware and the Boy taking his obligatory taste.

"No, I don't like it. But I tasted it, BYE!" There was a playground with a trampoline. We didn't see him for most of the day.

The Beautiful Altar was made from Empty coconut shells, juiced lemon rinds, empty pistashio shells and flower petals.

Cacao elixer. There was an open cacao bar. Long lines, well worth it. I also had some chocolate covered durian. It was my first taste of durian. It tastes sort of like puke at first but then it has a sweet aftertaste. I will save my judgement of durian until I have some fresh.

The crowd. Happy couple is on the left.

These two guests seemed to be having fun.

Sunset. The line for cake.

Cake. I think it was made by Victoria Boutenko. There is chocolate and coconut creme. So rich. There was also a almond cake that I like much better. I did NOT get good photos of the cake, sorry.

Ahem. A shell, a flower petal, a spoon and a finger.

Me, high as a kite on cacao. More, more, more, more, more, Please!. They ran out. Damn. The addict in me loves that stuff.

The line for cake. The Boy was working the door back there. He earned his cake. I think that is Bunny Berry from RawFu, but I'm not positive. In the back in the white coat is Chaya Ryvka Diehl.

Blurry Cake

The bride and grooms view of the altar. That flat of wheat grass is covering a hole where a time capsule is now buried. Open in 50 years. Be there!

The audience view of the altar. I can't remember the name of the man who, I assume, designed and set it up, but he was very talented. It was beautiful and made entirely of organic substances. Inspiring.

Chaya Ryvka Diehl looking like she is fretting over her vita-mix. In that carafe is blueberries and Irish Moss. I got some very good tips from her demo and we bought some irish moss for experimenting with. I'd like to see what it tastes like plain. Irish moss is a seaweed that has "jelling" properties. I want to make cheese with it.

The Trip: It was a very nice drive. The weather was gorgeous. It sprinkled a tiny bit in the morning and there were some big clouds all day but it was warm enough to go without a jacket and all around perfect weather.

The Farm, Angel's Organic Farm is a perma-Culture, organic farm, gathering place, venue type thing with an animal sanctuary on the premises that I didn't get to see.

The People: There were a couple thousand people there. It was nice and busy but not too crowded. I was very happy to be in a place where there were people who were not only vegan but interested in healing through food. As always you have to weed out the people who are just trying to sell you something and the people who genuinely care about animals, the planet and the future of all living beings on the planet. They are out there and quite a few were at this event.

The Water Blessing. World wide and simultaneous. Matt read something and we echoed back. All about love and hydration. There was a lot of energy involved and it felt very positive.


My feelings summed up in a few words: Hopeful, Romantic, Renewed, Inspired, Peaceful, Joyous, Energized, and part of a community.

Thanks for reading. I'm sorry it's not a longer entry. If I try to over think it ti will never get published. I have been looking around the internet and haven't seen any other articles or blogs about it. Get busy People!!!

Cheers!

Twice Baked Potatoes