Raw Vegan Pizza

I love raw vegan pizza.

Dinner tonight was Perfect Pizza Crust topped with chopped heirloom tomatoes, mushrooms, green olives onion and topped with raw cashew cheese that I froze and grated.















Here is the crust in the dehydrator. That is enough for 2 personal pizzas or four slices.
















I put some of the cheese on a cracker and put in in the toaster oven to see if it would melt.









It did not.





Layer the ingredients. I like to put a thick layer of tomatoes on first and build up from there.


A little shredded cashew cheese and tomatoes















Mushrooms on top of that.














And keep loading it from there. I put green olives, onions and a bunch more cheese then cut it in half and we each had a slice!
















Here is the cheese before freezing
















Here is some of the cheese after freezing and grating














Just a basic cheese, nuts, nutritional yeast, salt and lemon juice in the food processor until a very smooth paste (this was like play-dough) then roll it up in a piece of wax paper and freeze until hard. Grate and sprinkle quick cuz when it melts it's play-doh again.


Anyway, that is how easy it is to make raw pizza. I hope you try it soon and I hope you take photos and share them!

Sauerkraut Salad

Mid afternoon snack.













Sauerkraut, avocado, red bell pepper and flax crackers.

I'm thinking of dinner. What to feed the omni's tonight and how long it can go on this way? I have to cook something and not eat it but still have it taste good. These lunkheads aren't going to change so I will have to. I'm certainly capable. Adapt or die, as they say.

Vegan Carrot Soup, Fat Free Garlic Baked Potato, RAW Vegan Banana Pie with Raw Walnut Pie Crust Dessert Recipe

I love carrot soup.















This time I cooked up a bunch of carrots 1/2 cup of dry black eyed peas and some juicing pulp. Cooked it until the beans are soft then let it cool and blend the whole mess. Put it back in the pot and add more water, chopped carrots, 1 cup of dry black eyed peas and season to taste. Let it cook all day, adding more water if needed or turn it off when the peas are cooked and then reheat it at dinner time.

Vegan Fat Free Roasted Garlic Baked Potato

Prick a washed potato.














Put it in a piece of foil with a large, raw, peeled clove of garlic. Be sure to cut off the hard end of the clove, no one wants to eat that.














Bake in foil for 1 hour at 500F. Woo! that is hot. Don't try to touch them. I let mine sit on the table for over half an hour and it was still screaming hot! They are done when a fork easily poke in the side. If too hard, keep baking for 10 minute increments until done.











I served them in these little bowls for ease of transport. Just bake them right on the oven rack, no problem.



Cut the garlic into the baked potato. It doesn't need anything else but you could put some salt and herbs if you want.














Shot was blurry, sorry.


Dinner last night
















Baby greens salad with apple pear salsa, sauerkraut, seed cheese and some leftovers that I reheated. Carrot loaf in front and some Indian style veges. There is the roasted garlic potato before cutting. I think it's beautiful. You could even put some vegan buttery spread on this if you wanted, but then it wouldn't be fat free, oh well :)

I am in the process of making some raw seed cheese crackers. I put flax seed, yeast, some sunflower seed cheese and lemon juice together and put it in the dehydrator.














I will let you know if it works, but I don't see why it wouldn't.

The man has requested pie. He looked at the pile of bananas turning brown on the counter and asked if I had walnuts. Then he said, "you should make a pie". I will make a pie with walnut crust and a banana filling. I guess I will go look at some recipes and get some ideas. Maybe I can make a sweet sunflower cheese as a cream topping... The possibilities are only limited by my imagination and ingredients

Snacking Happens! Raw Living Vegan Nachos :: RAW Snack Ideas and Party Foods

My Recipe for Raw Vegan Nachos














Nachos. Short for Ignatius as far as I can see. Anyone know why they are called nachos? Aside from that joke about the little boy who stole the cheese from the cheese truck and they chased him yelling "that's NACHO CHEESE!!" (Not Yo Cheese, get it? I know, it isn't funny, but do you GET IT?).

Anyway, I posted this the other day and got a response from this guy requesting the recipe.

Here are all the individual recipes for the components of the RAW LIVING VEGAN NACHOS!

Raw Vegan Nachos
As far as I am concerned, this serves 1. Me. But there is always someone who wants to share so you might want to make extra.

Here we go...

Flax Seed Chips.
These are easy to make but you need a dehydrator and you should make them the day before to be sure they are crisp enough to be used as chips.

1/3 cup each whole flaxseed, sunflower seed, sesame seed, soaked over night and rinsed.
1/2 cup vegetable pulp from juicing or 1/2 cup vegetables such as carrots, onions, tomato or a combination
1 1/2 tbs nutritional yeast (optional. I like the cheesy flavor it lends to the crackers)
1/8 tsp salt
Mix well, smooth on a plastic sheet and dehydrate until crackers. There are more detailed instructions to be found by following the link above.

Sunflower Seed Cheese

Soak your seeds over night and rinse then mix in blender:

3 tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt
juice of one lemon, about 1/4 cup
1/3 cup sesame seed
2/3 cup sunflower (add 1/3 at a time)
water to blend
All ingredients in blender except 1/3 c sunflower seeds. Add enough water to keep it moving.
Could be made spicier with the addition of some cayenne or chili powder.
When it's pretty well blended, add the rest of the seeds and some more water. It will thicken as it sits, so make it sort of thin.

Salsa!

Apple/celery salsa is apple and celery in equal amounts (about half an apple and two small ribs celery), diced
one clove garlic, 2 tbs yellow onion and a tbs ginger, finely chopped,
2 roma tomatoes, diced
4 tbs lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
Mix all ingredients well and let sit overnight or for at least one hour.

Here is another, more complex recipe that I call Mango Salsa! Ai yi yi!
Ingredients:
One very ripe mango
One roma tomato
Half red bell pepper
One small onion, finely chopped
Two cloves garlic, minced
One rib celery, finely chopped
One Tsp fresh ginger, finely chopped
Fresh Oregano leaves, chopped.
Juice of one lemon, about 1/4 cup

Chop all ingredients, mix together well and let set 1 hour or overnight

Last, but not least

Guacamole

1 med avocado
1/2 roma tomato
2 tbs lemon juice
1/8 tsp onion powder
mix well. sprinkle lemon juice over the top and store lidded.

If you need heat, and I know some of you must, here is a bonus recipe:
Raw Pickled Jalapeno Peppers!

4 Large jalapenos about 1 cup
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp curry powder
pinch asofoetida

mix together in a clean dry jar and leave for 4-6 hours so the peppers can marinate in the spices. The salt will draw the water out and there will be liquid in the bottom of the jar.

Then add 3 tbs lemon juice
1 1/2 tbs apple cider vinegar

Leave jar with contents for a day then it is ready to eat. Shake the jar every couple hours to mix it up and make sure all the peppers are covered.

Ok, I hope this was helpful. Here is another photo of nachos that I made back in January

Raw Vegan Pizza By The Slice

Raw flax seed crust smeared with sunflower seed cheese, vegan sausage (leave the sausage off if you want it really raw), apple/celery salsa* and vegan "parm"** sprinkled over the top.

I put the avocado on the side and ate it like fries, yum yum yum. Best lunch EVAH!!


I wanted to let the world know that this blue funnel:












Is my new favorite kitchen utensil. It is a canning funnel and it makes any jar into a wide mouth jar so it is SOOO easy to get ingredients in.














Thanks again to Goodwill for that.

Footnotes:
*Apple/celery salsa is apple and celery in equal amounts (about half an apple and two small ribs celery), diced
one clove garlic, 2 tbs onion and a tbs ginger, finely chopped,
2 roma tomatoes, diced
4 tbs lemon juice, 1/4 tsp salt
mix all in a jar, let rest for an hour and EAT!
** Vegan Parm Sprinkle:
3/4 cup almonds
1 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 tsp salt
blend until powder, store in a jar in the fridge.

Raw Vegan Casserole Project Part Deux.

A continuation of this entry. In which I attempt to create a RAW Vegan Casserole due to inspiration from this Rawkin' lady

I don't know. It had a lot of sesame in it and that with the onions made it a little, well, strong tasting. However the texture was aces and with a small tweaking I could make this good.

Here are the photos:















Served with spinach salad and some seed crackers.

Raw Snacking Happens! Flaxseed Crackers with Sauerkraut

Raw sauerkraut seed cracker with seed cheese and pickled ginger
































So good, so simple. So full of fiber...



EVERYONE gets the munchies once in a while. No matter how I try not to, I want to snack sometimes. I don't want to eat something processed, cooked, colored and flavored artificially and DEAD. Sometimes fruit or celery with nut butter just won't cut it! You need a crunchy, crispy, slightly salty, filled with flavor snacky, chippy, SNACK!

These really hit the snack spot and they are raw and alive! You could put these crackers in water and they would sprout!
These are great by themselves or with seed cheese. You can make them any size you want for maximum snacking convenience. I like to make nice round ones and use them as crust for RAW pizza!

1/3 cup each whole flaxseed, sunflower seed, sesame seed, soaked over night and rinsed.
1/2 cup sauerkraut
1 1/2 tbs nutritional yeast (optional. I like the cheesy flavor it lends to the crackers)
Mix well














Basically, after that i used to spread the mixture on a sheet of parchment paper, score them and dehydrate until dry.

But I made up a new way to do them that is so easy and fast I couldn't even believe it! I was so happy I am still doing a happy dance every time I think of it!

A plastic bag to the rescue.













A simple grocery produce bag. I wash all mine, hang them to dry and take them back to the store with me to re-use. And to make seed crackers with!

Simply put the mixture in the bag





























Then smooth it all out














Watch out for wrinkles. Wrinkles will cause unwanted creases and gaps in the finished cracker. Also, the mixture will dry onto the wrinkles making it impossible to peel off.
This type of bag is the perfect size for my dehydrator. If yours isn't the right size, you can make your sheet of crackers the right size in the next step.

Use scissors to cut the top layer of the bag, leaving a one inch edge for ease of handling your sheet of crackers. The plastic peels away with no problem, leaving just the sheet of wet cracker mix.















Peeled sheet. The mix does not stick to the plastic. If it does, put it back down and run the palm of your hand over the sheet, it should come up easily then.














Score the sheet to the size of crackers you want and straighten up the edge, nice and tidy. Scrape off as much of the edges as you need to with a rubber spatula if you need to re-size the sheet.

I have a clear flexible ruler that I use to score the crackers. I tried a knife, tried a spatula, both were messy, inefficient and a pain. This ruler scores a perfectly straight line with one press!





























Score as small or large as you like and it slides right on the rack, ready to dehydrate














So much easier than the old way of spreading it with a rubber spatula onto parchment paper. That way was messy and I could never get it evenly spread and spent more time pushing it around than I needed to.

Dehydrating time varies. I put them at about 115F until they are dried enough to take off the sheet and lay on the bare rack, about 3 hours. Then lower the temp to 110F and let them dry until they are done. The time varies for me, sometimes a just few hours, sometimes over night. You really can't over dry them, so no worries. I just leave them in until dry.















They store in the freezer almost indefinitely, but I can never keep them around that long!















Well, those are my new innovations in making RAW SEED CRACKERS. As far as recipes go, use your imagination. I often use my leftover juicing pulp in the recipe. I sometimes will make onion or garlic flavor or carrot or tomato.

You can chop veges in your food processor to get them really fine and then just mix with the seeds.
You can make them with nothing but flaxseed and water, if you like things pure.
I haven't tried yet, but you could go sweet with them and use fruit instead of veges.






Annnnnd, you may begin snacking, NOW!

Vegan Cruelty-free Tuna Melt Sandwich :: Juicing Pulp Recipe

Oh, look! An entry that isn't about cats!
















I was making a nutmeat mixture to stuff in acorn squash for dinner and accidentally made a vegan tuna-type salad mix.

I used vege juice pulp (celery, cucumber, parsley, kale, bell pepper, tomato and lemon). I put that in the food processor with walnuts, oats, a 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/4 tsp sage, four black figs, one sm yellow onion, one lrg clove of garlic and some almond milk to get it mixed and chopped them with the S blade until very fine.

When I tasted it, I thought, wow! This kinda tastes like tuna salad and would be very good raw as a sandwich filling.

For lunch I smeared it on some of the bread that I made with pulp, layered some seed cheese on top and popped it in the toaster oven. Holy Nutmeat, Batman! I just had a tuna melt!
















The cats wouldn't eat it :)

I then cut an acorn squash in half and removed the seeds. I rubbed about a TBS of evoo on the inside of the squash and put about a TBS of seed cheese in the hole. I put a layer of the "tuna salad" in the bottom of the pan, set the two squash halves on top of that, filled the squash and covered the top. I wish I would have gotten a photo. Sorry :(

I baked the whole thing at 350F for two hours, then took the lid off and let it brown. I served it with a huge salad, red lettuce, avocado, carrot sticks, tomato, cucumber, sunflower seeds, and flax crackers on the side. mmmmmm.....

Giant Avocado! Get the Knife, Quick! And some pepper!

While shopping yesterday we came across these.















The one on the left is a normal Hass avo. The one on the right is obviously some freak of nature, but there were a bunch like it so I guess I just don't get out much re: avocados.


Cut in half. We were wondering if it would have a regular sized pit or a huge one.
Holy crap, that is friggin huge!
















"But how does it taste," you ask?
ZB tastes it for YOU!!












hmm. Tastes like avocado only bigger.

"What do we do with it?"
Salad-o-tize TM it!














Avo, napa cabbage, quinoa, sauerkraut, some pulp from juicing ginger and garlic (oh my, bod! delicious!), flax crackers and a sprinkle of Raw Parma. I am starting to like that raw parma stuff. I can't wait until i run out, I am going to make my own.

There is still like over 3/4 left. I made avo fries once. in the dehydrator. I wonder if I could make avo "steaks"?

Another Pulp Recipe! Vegan Vege Quick Bread, Raw Vegan Pizza and Marinating Tempeh

Using my regular soda bread recipe, but instead of almond milk and vinegar, I used the pulp from juicing this morning. It was celery, zucchini, kale, ginger, garlic and onion. The dough was a bit dry, so I added a little more water.

The raw:













Un-hulled sesame seeds (an excellent source of calcium, unlike dairy) sprinkled on top

And the cooked:














It was very moist. Like zucchini bread, but not sweet. Savory. I don't know if it would make a good sandwich, but hot with earth balance, it was a tasty treat. It would be very complementary with chili, along side a giant green salad, or toasted for a high fiber breakfast.


Today's lunch was a sauerkraut and sweet pepper mini pizza














Flax seed crust, smeared with seed cheese and piled high with home made sauerkraut and chopped sweet peppers


Tonight I am making tempeh cutlets for dinner. Here they are marinating with some zucchini slices.














The marinade is just ACV, water, garlic powder, a couple of drops of Tulsi tea and some horseradish powder. I had a horseradish root and it dried up. I tried to chop it in my mini blender and it CRACKED the little plastic carafe! Thankfully, the thing came with a bunch of them. I have read a couple of recipes but none of them really moved me, so I decided to fake it. I will let you know how it comes out.

Cheers!