THE GARDEN LIFE

The Sauerkraut is Ready!

2009-02-26T13:14:00.003-06:00

We've been putting up quite a few goodies lately. Our sauerkraut was finally ready today and it tastes unbelievable. Since we eat mostly raw, I just put the kraut in sterilized jars to store in the refrigerator. I've read it should keep for months this way. If we had canned it using a water bath, we would have first brought the kraut to a boil on the stove and then canned it.

We started out by ordering a 3 gallon crock online from Lehman's. It's very heavy and so beautiful. The inside is a pretty chocolate brown.

When we received the crock, we then harvested the last of our cabbages - 4 large and 3 small/medium. Next, the cabbage was shredded super fast in our food processor in batches. As each batch was finished, we put in in a large bowl and added 1 T. of celtic sea salt, stirring it all with a wooden spoon.

When all batches were finished, the salted cabbage was put in the crock. The fun part was next--pressing the cabbage with a large (giant) wooden spoon until juices covered the cabbage. We used unbleached cheesecloth for a cover, placed a salad plate on top and weighted everything down with two gallon baggies filled with water (making sure all the cabbage was covered with the juices.) That was it! Every 2-3 days, we changed out the cheesecloth and plate and rinsed the water filled bags. We kept the top of the crock covered with a dishtowel throughout.

The whole process took around 4-5 weeks. Today was the unveiling and tasting. Unbelievable. So crunchy, not too salty, with a bit of tang and actually a bit of sweetness from the fantastic cabbage straight from the garden. I truly don't think this sauerkraut will last very long. It gave us 6 quarts to put in the fridge, and we've been munching on the rest this afternoon (probably another quart). Yummy!

From my Valentine!

2009-02-17T18:09:00.002-06:00

Yes, he knows my love for roses! He really "outdid" himself this year. My daughter is taking photography classes and had a fun photo shoot with these beauties. They really are a gift from God! This garden life is goooooood.

I'll be posting soon about the huge holes my valentine has been digging for our fruit trees this year. I'll share the ups and downs and how we've dealt with living on rock.

What does shelving paper and OUCH have in common?

2009-02-03T22:05:00.003-06:00

To prepare for our pretty jars of canned and dehydrated goodies this year, we decided to repaper our shelves in the pantry. And, of course, that meant it extended into the entire kitchen. Well, I managed to get myself into a pretzel papering one of the lower shelves, and pulled my lower back. Ouch! The pantry was completed, but some of the kitchen shelves still remain waiting for their new sunflower paper--just love those sunflowers.

This has been a great opportunity to really declutter and clean areas that hadn't been seen for quite some time. Is this spring cleaning in January?

Putting Up

2009-02-03T21:55:00.003-06:00

This will be the first of many posts on "putting up" for the year ahead. Although we enjoy most of our food fresh and raw, we have noticed this year that we've missed canning. What used to be a yearly event, sort of dwindled to tomatoes only the past 3 years. We enjoy the treats throughout the year and also the joy we receive from having something on hand for quick gifts (to a house guest, delivery man, music teacher, etc.) So it was a unanimous decision (the girls and I) to once again take on the Joy of Canning! The pings of the cooling jars, the bright colors on the pantry shelves are blessing us once again.

When Greenling's located some local organic apples this year, we ordered a case. What we didn't eat fresh, we made into applesauce. My husband and youngest daughter especially enjoy this. Elizabeth likes it on her rice waffles.

Local Meal Breakfast Dinner

2009-01-31T21:20:00.000-06:00

This was a local meal we made for Daddy. Local eggs from Edelen Farms with homegrown roasted hatch chilis (from the freezer.) The potatoes were from our Greenling's local box. Although the ingredients weren't local, Laura milled her own flour for this dutch oven no knead wheat bread. I think David also had some local honey on the bread.

Trying to catch up on local meal posts for the challenge at www.urbanhennery.com Although most all our meals include a large portion of local ingredients and many are all local, we just haven't been taking many pictures. I'll try to post some of the local raw meals soon. Actually, this afternoon my lunch was a collard wrap with collards from my garden, local grated carrot, and guacamole made from G & S Groves avocado from our Greenling's local box. I added a side of beet relish we just canned that I'll post on soon. .....Just need to get my photographer going! We've all been quite busy lately with our garden, new beds, seedling plantings, etc. We just love what God has been providing!

Local Meal

2009-01-30T09:01:00.005-06:00

The girls and I have been drinking quite a bit of juice this week. We especially like the green juices with various greens, cucumber, celery, etc. Except for the cucumber and celery, most ingredients have been local. So in lieu of posting a local meal we enjoyed this week, this is a dinner that Laura fixed back when our computer had crashed and we were unable to post our local meal for the challenge on www.urbanhennery.com

Laura made homemade gnocchi with a butternut/sage sauce. The girls sauteed greens from our garden to go on the side. Then they added some blackeye peas that I had made for David. All ingredients were local except for the peas and the flour (which we mill the wheat berries ourselves).

Laura's Smoothie

2009-01-30T08:56:00.006-06:00

Laura made a new smoothie that both she and her sister love! It's very rich, more like a desert than a meal. If you'd like to see the recipe, she posted it on their blog at www.prov31sisters.blogspot.com

Compost Time

2009-01-21T17:23:00.006-06:00

We had some organic garden soil and compost brought in to fill the 5 new raised beds that David built. Here's two hard workers.

Lizzy decided to play around with us and brought out the old radio flyer and toddler shovel. Very slow, but really cute.

Since we're adding beds this year, we're going to designate a couple of them for some perennials--asparagus for one. We'll be picking up the 2 yr crowns as well as some fruit trees at the end of the month.

Our seed orders are all in and the seed trays are prepared with freshly sifted compost and potting soil. The girls and I will be planting the next few days. I'll post soon with this season's list of babies. We're so excited--we purchased from Seed Savers Exchange and Southern Exposure and have many heirlooms that we can't wait to see sprout.

This is definitely our favorite time of the year. Too bad we have cedar allergies, not to mention really weird weather. One day I'm working in 44 degree weather wearing two petticoats and long johns under my skirt, and three days later it gets into the high 70's low 80's. And the wind is really kicking around the cedar pollen. I've had to stay inside for two days now--I had no voice for several days until this morning. Well, at least the seedling work is done indoors. This is when we transform the breakfast room into a nursery/greenhouse.

Kelp Noodles

2009-01-21T17:17:00.003-06:00

We looovvvvvveeeee kelp noodles. These are purely raw kelp noodles made from nothing but-------kelp! This day we had them in a cabbage slaw made from cabbage from our garden and shredded carrots. Laura made a sauce that's similar to the sauce at P.F. Chang's and tossed it through with the kelp noodles. The noodles have a crunch to them when eaten raw, but will soften a bit if warmed. They are so versatile and a great way to get extra iodine and nutrients. Yummy!

The site for the kelp noodles (very inexpensive I will add):

www.kelpnoodles.com

The Perfect Local Meal

2009-01-21T17:11:00.004-06:00

What could be more perfect for a local meal than a glass of fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. We get grapefruit from G & S Groves through Greenlings as well as Greg Edelen of Edelen Farms at our farmers market.

I mostly have juice in the mornings, and this was just exceptional.

The girls alternate each evening squeezing grapefruit and/or valencia orange juice so it's all ready for their Daddy the next morning for breakfast. They put it into a pint mason jar with a lid and pop into the fridge. It's a real treat for him!

Local Meal of a Different Kind

2009-01-17T20:42:00.002-06:00

No pictures this evening! We're still trying to reorganize things on our new hard drive, and we have a bit more tweaking to do before we load more pictures.

Actually, the meal this evening didn't even include pictures. The photographer was too busy in the kitchen. It was a local meal of a different kind. Here's the story.....

My husband and our two daughters - 14 and 17 - coordinated an evening for the lady of the household.

Dear husband asked me out on a date night this evening and wouldn't tell me where we were going - just that reservations were for 6:30. So I showered and got all purtied up for my date and we left the house. My date then proceeded to drive me around the neighborhood and ended our trip by pulling into our very own driveway. He opened my car door and escorted me to our front door where there was a sign reading "Welcome to Ninetta's". (From a song my classically trained opera singing youngest daughter used to sing) We rang the doorbell and was greeted by a fair haired angel wearing an apron. She ushered us to a dimly lit formal dining room lit with only hand dipped beeswax candles. Romantic Italian opera was softly playing in the background while my husband proceeded to pour me a glass of wine.

The waitress then entered once more with our menus -

Freshly made sourdough bread (made with my daughters own starter) with a local olive oil and balsamic dip.

Salad with greens fresh from the garden, tomatoes from a local farmer, croutons made from freshly made sourdough bread and homemade salad dressing with the feature ingredient being some hickory mustard we picked up at the Santa Fe farmers market.

Whole wheat angel hair pasta with meat sauce made from Edelen Farms grass fed beef (which I just purchased at the farmers market this morning). An alternative of fresh zucchini pasta with tomato sauce was offered to the "lady of the house".

Dessert was sauteed peaches over local vanilla ice cream for the gentleman, and local pumpkin and almond torte freshly made by the eldest daughter.

WOW! Unbelievable! Sooo....... romantic, precious, delicious, and mostly local to boot! As my husband said, "we will definitely be coming back to this restaurant"!

Again, no pictures, but it was a date night you know. The servants left us to ourselves most of the time. (I do have to say, though, that it was the only time I ever had a waitress give me a hug and kisses.)

We're Back Up

2009-01-14T17:55:00.003-06:00

We've had a wild couple of weeks here as our iMac slowly died on us. We first couldn't do much of anything because it was taking so slow, and then it finally just stopped. The guys at our Apple store sent us to a local company that works on Apples and we're truly thankful. They not only installed a new hard drive 4X the size of what we had, but they restored almost all of our old hard drive. Thanks MacTLC!

We gratefully got back our old pictures, but little nuisances such as bookmarks and email addresses didn't make it. It's going to be a bit tedious to gather all the addresses of our raw food class students, but things will get going soon.

I, obviously, haven't been able to post our local meals for the Dark Days Local Meals challenge, but hopefully I'll catch up this week. Laura has quite a few pictures to load up and there's still a bit of organization to deal with, but we're just ecstatic that the retrieval process went so smoothly.

So, with an update on the spring garden, lots has been happening. My wonderful husband dug out 5 new raised beds for us. They're much smaller than our others (8' x 3' instead of 18' x 5'), and they're going to make cute "boutique" type beds. Each one will eventually be permanently planted with perennials, but for now a few will be just extra space for some of our regulars. I'll plant one bed with asparagus at the end of the month, and a couple will be earmarked for strawberries to be planted in the fall. For now, the others will house carrots, potatoes, zucchini and tomatoes.

At the end of the month, we'll also be buying a few more blackberries and some fruit trees. Right now we're thinking dwarf apple, pear, peach, fig, persimmon, and pomegranate. Just depends on how many holes my husband can dig in this rock. Can't wait!

Pictures to come soon......

This Week's Local Meal

2008-12-20T16:24:00.005-06:00

My youngest daughter was so excited when we received our Greenling's local farms delivery, that she asked if she could make our local meal this week from start to finish. The following was what she prepared:

We first started with a salad made with beautiful green leaf lettuce. She topped it with sunflower sprouts and a dressing of valencia orange juice and olive oil.

Next were the cabbage cups. I thought this was a great idea, and they were so delicious. She simply took leaves from cabbage from our garden and filled them with roasted beets. She then drizzled meyer lemon juice on top and added a sprinkle of celtic sea salt.

The final course was sweet potato souffle with sauteed beet greens. She lightly cooked the sweet potatoes and added just a touch of butter made with raw milk by local Amish, and then topped it with local pecans and some apple sweetened cranberries (the only item in the entire meal not local). The beet greens were sauteed and topped with a squeeze of meyer lemon juice and dollops of local goat cheese.

Her creative dinner was pretty to the eye and scrumptious to the mouth.

Local Meals - Raw and Cooked

2008-12-13T12:04:00.000-06:00

We were thrilled with our Greenling's box this week--great goodies including all sorts of root vegetables, greens and wonderful citrus! We made two meals for our local meals this week, one cooked and the other raw (for me).

First we roasted some veggies - turnips and cabbage from our garden, and carrots and beets that came in our local box. While they were roasting, we cooked the local potatoes and then mashed them with Texas Olive Oil and some of our home grown hatch chilis that Laura roasted and put up in the freezer. Then we assembled our roasted root veggies in the bottom of a deep dish pie plate and loaded the taters on top. Then the pie was baked for a bit so the flavors could marry.

Next came the sauteed greens. We used a combination of our garden turnip greens and local beet greens. These were topped with sauteed local yellow onions. My daughters absolutely loved these dishes.

My raw meal was sooo...... good! Collard wraps.

I started with two collard greens from my garden. (So much better and softer than what you get in the grocery store) I made some guacamole from avocados, lime juice and minced onion--all local, of course. I spread that on top of the collards and topped it with shredded local beets and turnips from my garden. I then topped it all off with pieces of baby lettuce and chives from our garden. Wow!

Here are the names of some of the local farmers that contributed to our local box from Greenling's:

Avocado, lime, meyer lemons, grapefruit and oranges - G & S Groves
Beets and potatoes - Naegelin Family Farm
Baby carrots - Animal Farm (We're saving the carrot tops for soup this weekend)

Snow? In My Garden?

2008-12-13T11:42:00.001-06:00

Snow? Here? In December? We awoke a few days ago to snow covering our deck and garden and scattered over the grass. For some of you, that doesn't sound odd. But here in south central Texas, it's kinda fun to see. We haven't had a really decent snow since, I think it was, 1985.

Anyway, I thought I'd share some of my snow dusted veggies - broccoli, collards, chard, and cabbage for a few.

Veggie Juice of the Day

2008-12-12T11:39:00.000-06:00

I've been enjoying a veggie juice lately that's sort of like a green V-8. However, I use fewer ingredients and VERY green. I start with one large cucumber and add two stalks of celery, 3 hydroponically grown tomatoes (taste better than other out of season tomatoes), one LARGE bunch of cilantro, and one large clove of garlic. I whir that up in my Vita-Mix and then strain through a nut mylk bag. Then I add a dash or two of cayenne for some pop (I don't have any jalapenos left from my garden) and a spoonful of one of my favorite green super foods.

This is such a great juice for breakfast. Very alkalizing and no need for salt because of the wonderful natural sodium from the celery.

Today's green food was chlorella from Watershed. This picture was taken prior to adding the chlorella, so the end result was a much deeper green.

Some of my other favorite green superfoods are:

E3Live - Blue Green Algae
Spirulina - from Health Force Nutritionals
Vitamineral Green - from Health Force Nutritionals
Pure Synergy

Local Salad

2008-12-07T20:22:00.001-06:00

Many of our meals consist only of a large salad. This was a truly local salad. Every ingredient came either from local farmers in our Greenling's local box, or our garden.

The base of the salad was three different types of greens. We mixed in a large amount of sunflower sprouts and several herbs such as dill, chives, cilantro and tarragon. Next to be added was grated zucchini, sliced avocado (yes, local) and sliced radishes. We then made a dressing from the juice of a meyer lemon and Texas olive oil. The absolutely only ingredient that wasn't local was the celtic sea salt we sprinkled on at the end.

We actually had several other salad items we could have added, such as cabbage, broccoli and dark greens from our garden. But we wanted this salad to have a light texture with the baby lettuces and herbs. It had such a light delicate taste.

Raw Food Class - Part 3

2008-11-25T23:35:00.001-06:00

Teaching

A peak at the dinner

More of the dining experience

Donna making cranberry sauce while Elizabeth works on the sweet potato casserole

Shall we gather in the kitchen?

Raw Food Class - Part 2

2008-11-25T23:26:00.001-06:00

Our menu for the class was:

Eggless Nog
Christmas Kale Salad
Walnut/Almond "Stuffing"
Sweet Potato Casserole with Honeyed Pecans
Cranberry Sauce
Apple Pie
Pecan Pie
Chocolate Torte

Everyone seemed to enjoy the dishes and the colors were just beautiful - great for the seasons!

We didn't quite get pictures of all the dishes alone, but I'll share some of them in the making.

Thanksgiving and Christmas Raw Food Class

2008-11-25T22:58:00.001-06:00

We had a great raw food class this last Saturday highlighting healthy alternatives to holiday favorites. I'll probably post a couple of times on this class. I first wanted to say thanks to my two sweet helpers. Not only did they help with preparations (Elizabeth made all the table decorations, set the table and provided us with prettily folded autumn napkins) but they both contributed recipes and actually demonstrated them (Mom's not a "pastry chef"). Elizabeth's contribution to the meal was a yummy sweet potato casserole topped with dried cranberries and honey pecans. Laura made the most scrumptious desserts - apple pie, pecan pie, and chocolate torte. What can I say but -- WOW!

Eat Local Challenge

2008-11-21T21:32:00.000-06:00

We joined a challenge sponsored by Urban Hennery this week called the Dark Days Eat Local Challenge It runs from Nov 15 - Mar 15. The object is to eat a meal that's derived from completely local ingredients each week during the "dark days" of winter. Well, here in Texas, our winter days aren't so dark, and our garden produces year round. But we thought it would be fun to join in and see what others are doing. In fact our family is coming close to trying this challenge for an entire year - and every meal not just one a week. It's still in the planning stages, but our discussions have been really exciting so far. So.... here's our local dinner for the week of Nov 15.

It was almost too easy for us, as we chose to make this local meal the evening our local box from Greenling.com was delivered to our door. Between the box and our garden, it was pretty much a no brainer, but really fun. Again, not much raw as we decided this last minute. I'll work on making each meal more raw in the future.

We started with a salad of baby greens and dill from Greenlings and added chives from our garden. The dressing was made from a meyer lemon from our local box and Texas olive oil that we also bought from Greenlings.

We harvested chard from our garden, lightly sauteed it and topped it with little dollops of chevre from Pure Luck Dairy in Dripping Springs.

The red potatoes also came in our local box. I thinly sliced them and layered them in a dish, alternating potatoes with a drizzle of the Texas Olive Ranch olive oil and a dusting of local raw milk parmesan I ordered from Greenlings. So light and so good. (I don't normally eat cheese, but again, is was in the spirit of the evening)

The eggplant was also from our local box and was roasted in the oven with the Texas olive oil. The absolutely only non-local ingredients used were our celtic sea salt and freshly ground pepper from Frontier. Can't do without that!

What a local meal! It was great!

Casa de Luz Lunch

2008-11-18T21:08:00.000-06:00

We drove to Dripping Springs recently to pick up some goat cheese from Pure Luck Dairy and decided to continue to Austin for lunch at a place I had been wanting to try. We weren't disappointed. It's called Casa de Luz - a restaurant that specializes in macrobiotics. While I'm not big on macrobiotics because of the emphasis on grains, this was a great meal. 98% of their ingredients are organic and they try to get as many items locally as possible.

The menu is set daily, and you can either partake in the whole meal or break it down to something like grain and bean, or soup and salad. We chose the entire meal. Each day is the same framework -- all you can drink tea, and all you can eat salad and soup. Then a plate with that day's bean, grain, veggie, greens with topping and "pickle" is brought to you. And you may ask for seconds on that plate also.

Our meal that day was wonderful. The soup was creamy cauliflower and corn. (Everything served is vegan) The salad was delicious and included sprouts and a platter loaded with raw veggies including beets, carrots, etc. The grain of the day was a mixture of millet and butternut squash and was topped with an onion gravy. We also enjoyed pinto beans and a veggie mixture of turnip, carrot and snap peas. The fermented "pickle" item was purple sauerkraut. Each one of us really enjoyed this meal. So much so that my daughters decided to make a "Casa de Luz" meal each week.

These are pictures of last week's spread. We started with a salad topped with sunflower sprouts and apples. Elizabeth made our soup which was basically a carrot broth with fresh parsley from our garden. Our grain of the day was quinoa, and we topped it with the same onion gravy (we purchased their cookbook). Laura made our veggies with butternut squash and zucchini from our Greenling's box and carrots. Our green was chard from our garden, coupled with pintos with cilantro. We sort of cheated on our fermented item and just dished out a spoonful of Bubbies pickle relish. No this meal wasn't wholly raw, but the girls worked hard and it was really delicious!

Blended Veggie Soup

2008-11-02T18:54:00.000-06:00

What a delicious soup! I just put all the ingredients in the Vita Mix and blended. Spinach, zucchini, basil, tomato, celery, garlic, salt and a tad of water. I then added half an avocado and blended some more. Garnish was another tomato and avocado chunks. Wow! Sort of a goodbye to summer soup.

This recipe came from Jennifer Cornbleet from Raw Rood Made Easy DVD

Locavore Dinner

2008-10-28T12:15:00.000-05:00

Last night, Laura asked if we could eat the butternut squash that came in our Greenling's local box last week. Because we had been gone for the retreat this weekend, we still had quite a bit left that hadn't been eaten. So we brought out the recipe books to find a dish that would be worthy enough of our locally grown squash. Well, the first book we looked at had a pretty good looking recipe that Elizabeth could eat (because of her many food allergies). As we read the list of ingredients, we noticed that the majority of these ingredients were actually items that came in the local box we got from Greenling's.

This one recipe snowballed into an entire dinner made with mostly everything coming from either local farmers' produce from Greenling's, our local farmers market, or our own garden.

Laura made the squash dish which included butternut, yellow and zucchini squashes, onion, red pepper, and eggplant--all from the Greenling's box. We added fresh parsley and thyme from our own garden. The only ingredients not local was the lemon juice, garlic and olive oil dressing and a can of organic chick peas.

The side dishes were a salad of mixed lettuces and also a side of slightly sauteed collards all from our garden.

We couldn't leave my husband out, so I just made up a dish which he named Poblano Beef Bake. I just sauteed the red potatoes from the Greenling box and added them to some browned ground sirloin that I get for my husband at our farmers market. (I've been buying this gentleman's grass fed beef, free range chicken and eggs for years. Much healthier and tastier for David.) To that mixture I added roasted hatch chilis from our garden and a touch of onion, garlic, cumin, and chili powders. Then I stuffed this concoction into freshly picked poblanos from our garden and baked in the oven for a bit. He absolutely loved this dish and wants the leftovers for dinner tonight.

For dessert, Laura made David an apple dessert made with apples from, where else, but from our Greenling's local box. She served it with David's favorite ice cream - Blue Bell. Not organic, but sort of local. He was one happy camper.

Elizabeth set the table with ideas she learned from the retreat last weekend, and she asked David to bring home some flowers for the table. We had such a wonderful meal. The windows were open letting in the fresh cool air from outside (it was a little too chilly to actually eat outside), and we enjoyed an almost all local dinner.

Through our discussion at mealtime, we realized how economical, healthy and fresh this dinner was (although my future local dishes will be raw--I wanted to join my daughters on their veggie delights). We're now excited and feel challenged to try to eat as "locally" as possible. It sure beats the taste of veggies and fruits that have traveled such long distances and have sat for so long.

Can't wait to see what Greenling's brings this week! And we also can't wait til our cabbage and broccoli is ready in the garden. For now, our garden will just continue bringing in the greens.

With our current economic times being a little on edge, we are trying to find creative ways to be better stewards of what we have been given. I think these locavore meals are a keeper.

God is so good and faithful!

Mother/Daughter Retreat in a Garden

2008-10-28T12:00:00.000-05:00

My daughters and I went to a country ranch this weekend for a Mother/Daughter Retreat. The retreat was great, and I felt like I was in a garden the whole time.

The cottage we stayed in was a one bedroom/one bath that was one of the earlier buildings on the ranch. It had huge thick walls with giant heavy doors with the door knobs that are really low. The front porch had a porch swing and overlooked a courtyard with a gazebo in the center and blooming bushes everywhere. The butterflies were particularly attracted to the mexican sage with their purple/blue flowers.

Our bedding, window treatments and shower curtain were English country.

And we even had fall looking flower bouquets on our dining tables.

Truly Raw Almonds

2008-10-28T11:48:00.000-05:00

We just received our order of raw organic almonds straight from the farmer -- Organic Pastures in California. Because of the new law requiring pasturization of even organic almonds, the only way to insure they're completely untouched is to order them straight from the farmer. And October is harvest time! We put up 6 one-gallon freezer bags in the freezer. They're ready and waiting to be soaked, dehydrated, and then made into almond milk, breakfast cereals, breads, desserts and whatever else we can think of. Great source of calcium and helps to lower cholesterol.

Love that (not) Tuna

2008-10-28T11:46:00.000-05:00

Alissa Cohen's not tuna tastes the closest to tuna that we've tried. I'm thinking it's the bit of almond butter that helps. I also add extra kelp and some dulse to further the "sea" taste. This day I wasn't prepared with some of the sprouts, so I just used extra clover and broccoli sprouts. I also add chopped Bubbies pickles, and some more on the side. I was trying to use up some tomatoes, so I just served the "tuna" on tomato slices. Perfect, light, and filling.

Bad Coconut?

2008-10-28T11:23:00.000-05:00

Can you tell a when a young coconut is good? Here's a picture of a bad coconut mixed in with the good.

Young coconuts seem to be like avocados. We think they look perfect on the outside, only to find out they're not on the inside. You want only the coconuts that have white meat and a clear to whitish liquid. If you see pink to purple colors, just do like you do the bad avocado--throw it out.

I was amazed when I was served a purple coconut at a restaurant in Santa Fe that serves raw food. They thought it was just fine. Naaahhhh.

A Lovely Catered Al Fresco Dinner

2008-10-28T10:29:00.000-05:00

We catered a dinner two Fridays ago at the home of one of our students. It was so much fun! My youngest was still getting over the chicken pox, so Laura and I handled this by ourselves.
We kept it a simple meal so that guests would think (hmm... maybe I could make this myself!)

The setting was on the deck in the backyard with tons of beautiful flowers and landscaping. You know how we love gardens! So relaxing and just plain pretty.

We first served coconut water for the before dinner drink and set out appetizers. Laura made some wonderful spicy avocado fries. She came up with the recipe from scratch (you'll find the recipe in our "soon to be" recipe book) and they were scrumptious. The other appetizer was guacamole stuffed creminis, a take off Alissa Cohen's portabello entree.

The guests then sat down at beautifully decorated tables with cloth linens with candlelight and tree lights from above. The pineapple cucumber gazpacho was waiting for them. (from Raw Food/Real World)

For the entree, we stuffed huge dark green romaine leaves with a seed cheeze and Rawvolution's mango salsa and topped it with clover sprouts. The side salad was made from mache, herb salad mix, and baby romaine topped with pomegranate seeds, walnuts and honey crisp apple slices. The dressing was a simple blend of fresh squeezed orange juice, olive oil and celtic salt. This was a really colorful plate.

And because everyone seems to ask for Laura's chocolate pudding, we served it up with raspberries for dessert.

The weather was also perfect for a lovely al fresco dinner. And did the guests enjoy a raw meal? Hardly a plate came back with even a crumb. Everyone seemed to enjoy it so much that we had questions galore. We think there will be a few more people looking into the joy of raw food!

Raw Food -- Take Me Away!

2008-10-14T15:41:00.000-05:00

Well, for the last few days, we've been nursing my youngest with the Chicken Pox. Just around the time that she probably would have contracted them as a little girl, the vaccine came on the market and it became impossible to find anyone with them for her to be exposed. Soo.....she's now almost 14 and has finally experienced this uncomfortable nuisance due to the chicken pox coming back in fashion. I guess all those who took the vaccine are finding that it doesn't work as well as they had been told.

This has been a bittersweet event. You never want to see a loved one in such agony, but on the reverse side, we're glad that they finally found her so that she won't have to go through this as an adult.

So after some looonnng days and a few sleepless nights, we were looking for something quick but fun and very refreshing. We decided on this dish that was served as an appetizer in a local restaurant. Look through some of my back posts for the actual picture of the yummy concoction that was made for us tableside.

We sliced very red tomatoes for the base and topped with a mix of diced zucchini, cucumber, and green and black olives. We sprinkled on some rosemary olive oil we get shipped from Napa Valley and ended with some fresh cracked black pepper. The combination of the veggies was such that not one veggie in particular stood out--just a very clean and fresh taste--just what the Dr. didn't order.

We love these flavored olive oils. Their store in St. Helena is so much fun. They have tables and tables of different olive oils, vinegars, and lavender products that are just loaded with goodies. Just dip a little spoon in the samples and taste the olive oil straight. Our favorites are rosemary, garlic, and jalapeno. These flavored oils are not labeled organic, but after discussing it with one of their helpful associates, found that they are grown organically without pesticides, etc.-- just haven't paid for the certification. Are they raw? Don't know, but just a touch here and there on some fresh fruits and veggies are delish--no different than occassionally using maple syrup, agave, etc.

Black? Smoothies?

2008-10-11T23:31:00.000-05:00

Our green smoothies are starting to look a little like black smoothies--especially Elizabeth's. She LOVES to add in the spirulina as well as E3Live. This beauty was strawberries, spinach, E3Live and a bit of spirulina. The extra protein helps balance the sugars and gives a great boost to the day. YUMMY!

Great Veggies in Midland

2008-10-11T23:19:00.001-05:00

What a great sign! When traveling, it's always wise to scout ahead of the trip and find what veggie friendly restaurants are available. This was a great find in Midland, Texas -- Strawberry Fields. Perfect for our family of mixed diets. Plenty of organic vegetarian items with a few free range chicken dishes thrown in for my husband. Great juices and smoothies as well as a salad bar. It's name came from the owner's love of the oldies. There were album covers all over the walls. My husband was in absolute heaven.

Laura's Chocolate

2008-10-11T22:12:00.000-05:00

Laura's chocolate pudding is just unbelievable! Made with avocado and so...... smooth.
This was one of the desserts served at our last raw class.

Raw Comfort Foods Class

2008-09-30T21:23:00.000-05:00

I'll be following up with a picture or two of our latest class. Actually there are probably only a couple because we were so busy with 19 of y'all attending. This was probably one of our favorite classes because we were fixing some of our favorite foods.

For those not able to join us, here's the menu:

Best Ever Nut Mylk

Mango-Cherry Mylk Shake

Strawberry Mylk Shake

Nacho Cheeze Dip

Serene's Energy Flat Bread

Garden Burger with Ketchup and Mustard

Mango Salsa and Tomato Salsa

Laura's Hot and Spicy Chili Fries

Seed Cheeze

Spicy Beenies

Two flavors of Elizabeth's Yogert with Berries

Laura's Famous Chocolate Pudding

We started with the shakes and then made several of the staple items. Since some of the attendees were on an anti-fungal diet, we had a couple of choices for some of the items that followed the anti-fungal principles (including no vinegars, mushrooms, nutritional yeast, sweet fruits, etc.). The girls really had fun altering some of our regular recipes to accommodate these needs.

We put all of the savories out on the kitchen island and showed how to make burgers, pizzas or tacos using the bread and flax crackers as a base. Then everyone got in line and made their own fun creations based on their tastes.

Some took time to go out and look at our fall garden. Can't wait for all the babies to be ready for harvest.

It was a great day and we really enjoyed the fellowship with everyone!

Ladies Lunch

2008-09-23T14:51:00.000-05:00

The girls and I had quite a lunch today. We started making smoothies and just kept going through entrees and dessert!

Laura started out making almond milk. Just 4 cups water and 1 cup almonds with a bit of coconut oil, agave nectar and vanilla blended in the vitamix. This has been a staple for Elizabeth who uses this not only for the nourishment but also calories. We make this milk with all sorts of nuts--hemp which provides the omega 3s and 6s and brazil nuts rich in selenium are our favorites.

This smoothie today was made with mango and cherries added to the milk. Tastes just like a milk shake (only better)!

Next came the entree for Laura and I. (Elizabeth is allergic to a couple of the ingredients so her entree is below.) We called it Mexican Pizza for lack of a better term. It wasn't from any one recipe but a concoction of several and even altered at that. To duplicate this yummy lunch, just use your favorite recipes for pizza bread, seed cheeze and refried beenies. Top with baby spinach, soaked sun dried tomatoes, diced red pepper, and raw olives. We served it with a side of sliced avocado and a squeeze of lemon juice. I can't even describe how luscious this was--and very filling.

Here's Elizabeth's entree--I Can't Believe It's Not Egg Salad

Because of her allergies, she had to tweak the recipe in Rawvolution--no yellow turmeric here. She also added Bubbies dill pickles to the mixture of macadamia nuts, lemon juice, garlic, red peppers, and celery. Always the artist, she decorated her plate with baby spinach sprinkled with macadamia nuts.

And the best part? Laura surprised us with a raw apple pie. She uses the recipe in Jennifer Cornbleet's Raw for 1 or 2 People as her base and changes it to suit our tastes. Just unbelievable! It was even fragrant with the cinnamon and nutmeg - didn't miss the smells from the oven.

Of course, this wasn't very good food combining. But sometimes you just have to have fun in the kitchen!

Orchestra and Pictures

2008-09-22T21:52:00.000-05:00

Our daughters and I just came back from orchestra rehearsal. They play their violins in this group and I play the flute. (No students to play my instrument at the moment)

This is a chamber group put together to accompany a young harpist who plays beautifully. It was my first experience to get to accompany a harp. It's so beautiful. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to take a picture of such sweet sounds, to actually "see" the color of the notes as if in a garden?

The Fall Garden

2008-09-22T21:39:00.000-05:00

Here's what's in the garden this fall. We're looking forward to some pretty awesome salads this year. Pictures will follow later. Most of the babies are just barely peeking out of the soil and aren't too photographic yet.

Collards

Broccoli

Cabbage

Kale - two types

Lambsquarters

Chard

Turnips

Beets

Spinach

Lettuces - 6 types

Chinese greens - including Pak Choi

Radishes

And the summer leftovers that we kept:

Peppers - 5 types

Herbs of various kinds

What's Summer Without Watermelon

2008-09-22T15:16:00.001-05:00

This was our first year growing watermelon. They were absolutely huge! Our only problem was deciding when to harvest. I think we finally got it down by the last two. Some say to use the "thump" method while others look at the tendril closest to the fruit to see if it has wilted and dried. It's still a toss up for this family. But we do know that we'll have a better idea for next year. Sadly, they're all gone.

Watermelon juice is scrumptious! I liked adding my E3Live to get in some of my greens for the day.

Our Florida Trip

2008-09-22T15:04:00.000-05:00

We took a break and went to Florida. I had been looking for a good bit of down time just sitting on the beach and reading. Well, the girls kept us hopping--tennis, biking, miniature golf, kayaking, more biking. But we did get mornings and late afternoons of the white sand and clear water. Surprisingly, it wasn't as crowded as we had anticipated. Footprints in the sand....

Picking Up Where I Left Off

2008-09-22T14:53:00.001-05:00

Elizabeth sang The Star Spangled Banner at a Fourth of July celebration. This was her third year in a row they requested her to perform. What does this have to do with the garden life? GOD's BEAUTY! Both her voice and the colors. Just breathtaking.

Juice Feasting

2008-07-09T21:46:00.001-05:00

My oldest daughter and I juiced for a week or so again. Yummy! We'll probably do it again, only I'm going to try for several weeks next time. It takes a bit of organization and time to juice feast correctly. Can't wait!

Flowers at Home

2008-07-09T21:40:00.000-05:00

We're blessed with colors AND fragrance.

Memories of Raw Food Classes

2008-07-09T21:30:00.001-05:00

I'ts been awhile since I've posted. My, how life happens.

Here's some of the dishes we taught raw food students to make at some of our classes. We have another beginning class next week and an advanced class in August. We really enjoy the time we spend with the attendees and we even learn quite a bit from them.

Not Charlie the Tuna Salad

I Can't Believe It's Not Egg Salad

Zucchini Fettucini with Donna's Summer Marinara

Kale Salad

Pineapple Gazpacho from Raw Food Real World

And a bit of the rest

2008-04-27T17:51:00.000-05:00

What's a garden without at least one zucchini plant. Actually that's all you need.

Cucumbers are great in juice, in salads, or just eaten plain. We also like them in pineapple gazpacho.

Collards are a staple in our family. We're already making wraps.

Corn blowing in the wind.

We love our blackberries!

You say tomato, I say tomoto

2008-04-27T17:47:00.001-05:00

The tomatoes are really looking great this year--all 42 of them

Green zebras are one of our favorites. They're really pretty on a plate with the reds and yellows.

OK, so tomatillos aren't really tomatoes, but I thought I'd through them in here.

Tomatillo bud

Peppers!

2008-04-27T17:44:00.001-05:00

Our peppers are already producing!

Juicy jalapenos

Serranos are a bit hotter

Spring Flowers

2008-04-27T17:39:00.000-05:00

We plant marigolds throughout the garden to deter pests.

The girls planted rose bushes this year and they're already presenting us with beauties.

Spring Garden

2008-04-27T17:28:00.001-05:00

It's been awhile since I've posted. We had a mishap (parents left daughters camera at a restaurant in California). Sooo...... we bought her a new one, and now she's back being our resident photographer.

I'll be sharing some pictures of the spring garden in the next few posts. The veggies and flowers in spring are just the most beautiful of the year. (The summer garden gets to looking like an overgrown jungle.)

This little friend just appeared. We haven't had to bring any in yet (that will be later in the hotter weather)

The color of the eggplant flowers are gorgeous!

Some red basil mixed in with the tomatoes.

We love the chard in green drinks, green smoothies and salads. They also make great wraps.

Haricot verts -- not as many came up as we had hoped, but they're my husband's favorite.

Spring Garden--Aaaah!

2008-03-30T20:49:00.000-05:00

Our spring/summer garden is almost fully planted. I'll share photos later, but here's what's in the soil now:

35 Tomato plants -- romas, juliets, marvel stripe, brandywine, sweet 100s, yellow pear, solarfire, sunpride, celebrity, bin 44 and a couple miscellaneous I can't now remember

42 Pepper plants - poblanos, habaneros, anaheim (green hatch), serranos, green bells, red bells, jalapenos, thai chilis

4 Tomatillos

12 Eggplant

2 Zucchini - That will be more than enough

More corn than I can count at the moment--we're adding more every 10 days

28 Haricot verts

15 Red chard

12 Collards

Every herb you can think of--They have their own home on the opposite side of our property, but we do plant quite a bit of basil and chives in the veggie garden

Our five blackberry bushes look better than ever this year - We'll probably be doing quite a bit of freezing (and some canning of blackberry jam for my husband)

Marigolds take their place at the end of each raised bed--they add beautiful color and help confuse some of the not-so-sweet buggies

Everything looks just absolutely fantastic so far, but we'll see what weather God has for us. Sometimes the garden has been awesome in the past, and then a lovely storm with gusting winds and hail comes along and pelts holes in the tomato plants and blows over the peppers. We're just praying for good rains and glorious sun (we'll no doubt get the latter).

I'm tasting that rainbow platter of tomatoes already. Yummmmmmy!

Birthday Roses

2008-03-10T22:03:00.001-05:00

My husband did it again! Beautiful yellow roses tipped with peach. It's really sunny looking around here.

Modified Juice Feast

2008-03-10T17:34:00.001-05:00

My oldest daughter joined in on the global juice feast this month. She's now started on a more modified juice feast adding blended soups and smoothies. This was a great soup--tomato and basil. It's from sunnyrawkitchen's ebook. The picture doesn't show, but I served mine in a BIG white mug with chunks of avocado on top.

Salade Du Jour

2008-03-10T17:28:00.001-05:00

I felt like a salad with grated veggies. This salad was a mix of greens with all sorts of goodies on top--grated beets, carrots and zucchini. Then I sprinkled on some kohlrabi microgreens and capers. Had my usual lemon juice and olive oil dressing on top. Delish!

My Birthday Cake

2008-03-06T13:14:00.001-06:00

My daughters surprised me with a raw chocolate birthday cake! They decorated it with strawberries we received in our Greenlings local box Tuesday and fresh mint from our garden.

The picture doesn't show my ONE candle they placed in the center. They said 49 candles just wouldn't fit on my little cake. :)

This cake is scrumptious. And the strawberries made it taste really alive and fresh--kinda cut down on the richness.

YUMMY!!!!

Miso Shiitake Soup

2008-03-03T20:37:00.001-06:00

Wow! This soup was soooo good. It was Ani Phyo's recipe for Miso Shiitake Soup. Ingredients included light miso, grated ginger, minced garlic, scallions, olive oil and water. The shiitakes were first marinated in Nama Shoyu and olive oil. Just a few ingredients and unbelievably simple to make. The only change I made in Ani's recipe was to back off on the olive oil by around half. And I could have even used less.

This soup is just packed with nutrition. I had it as my only lunch item, but it would make a wonderful starter to an Asian meal. It's really light, but filling as a large bowl.

Garden Babies

2008-03-01T21:59:00.000-06:00

Putting our tomato babies out to get a bit of sunlight. We're still experiencing a freeze or two at night between our high 80's days. But soon these babies will be ready for the big garden. We'll probably transplant them into larger pots this week and let them sit like that for a couple more weeks while we're waiting to plant. Can't wait for those REAL juicy tomatoes.

Love Kale Salads!

2008-03-01T20:49:00.000-06:00

Nothing better than a kale salad--of any kind. I enjoyed this as an all green kale salad. I added avocado, green olives, olive oil, lemon juice and sprinkled it with pine nuts.

Kale salads are so quick and easy to put together. I just make sure that my additions are hardy enough to stand up to the firm kale--red pepper is one of my favorites to add. Avocado can be put in as chunks or can be massaged into the kale leaves. Raisins are also nice in this salad.

To soften the kale, just add your lemon juice, a tiny drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkle of celtic sea salt. Then, using your hands, rub all your kale bites together. This will break it down, and the lemon juice will help wilt it a bit.

My absolute favorite salad!

Snack Time

2008-02-28T14:51:00.001-06:00

What do you make when you've run out of time and ideas?

Throw together some guacamole tacos.

I just mixed in some onion powder, celtic sea salt and lemon juice with my avocado. Then I piled the guacamole onto romaine lettuce leaves and topped with some leftover homemade salsa and raw black olives. You just fold them up like tacos to indulge. This was so quick and satisfying. It was pretty filling also.

Variations: Add some dulse sprinkles, chopped cilantro or diced red onion. Instead of romaine leaves, use collard or cabbage leaves.

Raw Food for Friends

2008-02-27T17:39:00.001-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, we had three friends over to teach them raw food preparation. They each had been eating raw for a little while, but wanted some more ideas. So my daughters and I fixed all sorts of goodies for them as they watched on. Starting with opening young coconuts, moving through salads, then dehydrated goodies, ending with desserts. Here are just a few of the items we enjoyed that day.

This first is a picture of my 13 yo daughter's own recipe for a mock tuna salad.

Below is a picture of our beet ravioli made from Raw Food, Real World's recipe.

This is one of our favorites. It's the asian inspired marinated veggies from Rejuvenate with Serene.

And, although this picture doesn't look quite appetizing, it's Juliano's meatloaf recipe with barbeque sauce.

It was a great day with great food and great fellowship. The only problem was food combining so many differents foods all in one afternoon. Don't think we'll be doing that again anytime soon.

Coconuts, Coconuts, Coconuts

2008-02-26T18:53:00.000-06:00

We have seen soooo..... many videos demonstrating the opening of young coconuts. We've seen hatchets, hammers, and jabbing/stabbing knives. I don't particularly want either of my daughters to lose a finger or hand just to enjoy this precious treat. So when we found this latest method, we were thrilled.

My daughters had a real hoot this afternoon making this video for us. Unfortunately, a few of the coconuts had already turned, so they just kept opening more. At least you get to see how easy it is each time.

My 16yo daughter just shaves off the cone top, finds that "just right" spot, and voila! Beautiful, sweet coconut water. As Serene Allison says, they are truly gifts from God.

My husband and I bought these crystal glasses at William Sonoma and keep them in the freezer. They are perfect for the delicate taste of young coconut water. The thin rim of the crystal and the ice cold taste is wonderful.

My daughters choose the more rustic form of drinking their treat. Just stick in a straw and sip.

More leftovers for my Smoothie

2008-02-26T15:58:00.001-06:00

Smoothies are the perfect items to make with leftovers. You just can't go wrong with any combination in a green smoothie. (At least I haven't disliked one yet).

In this smoothie, I used the last of a pineapple and the last bag of spinach. I added some frozen peaches, bee pollen and a tablespoon of E3Live. Very, very good.

Leftovers and Cooked Food

2008-02-26T15:34:00.001-06:00

Every now and then I have one of these moments where I'll have a bit of cooked food. For example, I used Muir Glen pizza sauce a couple of months ago on my raw pizza to save some time and effort. Today, it was using some organic whole wheat chili tortillas to make raw veggie wraps with leftovers.

Sometimes I'm ok with that and other times I'm not. I normally don't know until after the meal. Although the wraps below were absolutely delicious, they just leave me with that "stuffed feeling" that cooked food brings. But for people who are wanting to eat a "mostly" raw diet, they would be fantastic.

So what was in them and why did I succumb to the tortillas? Well, Greenlings is delivering today and we're trying to empty out our two refrigerators to make way for our goodies. Our youngest daughter has just been diagnosed with food allergies including gluten, wheat, eggs, turmeric and mustard among others. Further testing is to come, but she will definitely no longer be eating tortillas. So mommy came to the rescue and decided to help out the other sister with finishing off this latest bag of chili tortillas.

The rest of the ingredients in these wraps were my leftover curry hummus, shredded chinese cabbage, shredded carrots, cauliflower and diced red pepper. And, oh, I also just had to throw in one of the Bubbies pickles. I think that once every few weeks with cooked is enough for me (maybe too much). Every time I indulge, it just reminds me of why I'm eating raw. P.S. My daughter is starting her own blog documenting her journey with food allergies. She's basically starting from scratch now eating just a few items and will slowly be adding more every few days. (Of course, there will be foods that she'll never get to taste again) It may take her many months, but she is so patient and very creative. It will be a slow process of healing her body. I'll let you know her blog site address soon. It will have MANY raw food dishes.

Curried Hummus

2008-02-26T13:11:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite meals is hummus with tabouli. This hummus is based on a Gabriel Cousens recipe. I just took my favorite recipe and added a bunch of curry and cayenne. I'm not giving exact measurements because curry and cayenne both seem to be really personal spices. Some like a little, and some like much more. Me, I just dump until it feels like enough.

I always serve my hummus the same way. I plop down several spoonfuls in the center of the plate and make a well in the center. This makes a nice bed for the tabouli.

The tabouli in the picture is pretty simple. Just a whole lot of parsley, red bell pepper and green olives. I squeezed meyer lemon juice all over the top, sprinkled some celtic sea salt and drizzled olive oil over the whole thing.

The fragrance of this dish was spectacular! The curry and the fresh scent of the parsley. Not a morsel was left on the plate.

Red Roses for a Veggie Lady

2008-02-26T10:23:00.000-06:00

My sweetheart of 23 years knows I love red roses. He's currently clearing an area in the back of our property to put in some new flower beds. He loves them too.

Dining Out Raw

2008-02-25T21:32:00.001-06:00

Another successful dining experience. Excellent service and excellent food.

Started with water with orange slices.

I didn't even have to ask for a raw appetizer. It was automatically served as an "amuse bouche" (palette teaser). Scrumptious. Sliced tomato with a zucchini, cucumber, mushroom, olive relish and generously drizzled with olive oil and freshly cracked black pepper. They prepared these right at our table. I asked for more than one, so they presented me with three on my plate, (no extra charge).

This was the exciting part. I went online before we ever went to the restaurant to see what they offered. I wrote out all the ingredients I wanted on a salad and handed it to our server. He came back to the table and said the owner/chef would personally prepare my dinner. It was absolutely fantastic with a perfect olive oil/lemon juice dressing. It may not look like it in the picture, but this was a HUGE salad, just as I requested. Couldn't have been better. It had so many depths of flavors because they included every veggie they had on the menu. And with the addition of raisins, well "c'est magnifique"!

The next amazing thing was that they were so pleased to assist me with my special meal, they're going to put my little recipe on file for my subsequent visits. Now that's service.

And yes, once again my "paparazzi" was there with her camera. She never leaves home without it. Sure wish I new how to use a camera like that.

Delivered To My Door

2008-02-25T21:19:00.001-06:00

Speaking of Greenling's, I just can't say enough. Here's some pictures of our last Tuesday's local produce box. These are local, in season fruits and veggies that are wonderful. And they're delivered every Tuesday right to our door. Every week is like opening up a new birthday present. We LOVE Tuesdays.

When Life Brings You Lemons

2008-02-25T20:56:00.001-06:00

Actually, Greenling.com brought me these gorgeous meyers. We order them by the case. The case a couple of weeks ago looked like oranges, they were so large and deep yellow.

It's been pretty warm around here, so we've been getting the garden in shape. And, yes, it was so hot, that our daughters made us a fresh pitcher of meyer lemonade. They just added pure water and agave nectar to the juice. Really refreshing and perfect after working in the heat. (We've been hitting the 90's already.)

Thanks to my personal photographer. She's really getting creative with her shots. She loves to take pictures and it seems like I'm always standing there just dying to dive into my food. I did take a sip here before I let her have it.

Raw Bean Burger with Bubbies

2008-02-20T18:48:00.001-06:00

Here's another meal I made using Whole Foods raw items. Bean burgers are pretty popular in this area, so I decided to make a raw version.

I took some of the wonderful romaine that came in our Greenling.com Tuesday box and used it as my "bun".

Then I spread on some of the "refried beans", placed the raw patty over that, and spread on some hatch chili mustard we brought back from the Santa Fe farmers market. Then the whole thing was topped off with Bubbies pickle slices, avocado, a few onion slices and a dollop of homemade salsa.

Whata burger!

I heard about Bubbies on a couple of raw food websites and thought I'd give them a try. Are they raw? I don't really know, some say so. They don't use vinegar, just veggies and salt. Are they good? Please, just give me a fork and a cold jar. My oldest daughter and I fought over the sauerkraut and it was gone in two days. Fortunately, we have another. We're seeing how long we can wait before we open and devour the next one.

Raw Food Restaurant

2008-02-20T08:33:00.001-06:00

We not only don't have a raw food restaurant where we live, but we have only one vegetarian restaurant, and that's 40 minutes away. So when we went to Austin recently, we went to the largest Whole Foods for dinner and shopping. They have a mini raw food restaurant in the store. Yummy. I brought home a few a la carte items to replicate some of it at home.

This is a tostada that I used their shell and "refried beans". Just topped it with spinach, guacamole and tomatoes. It was so nice to just assemble and not have to make our own. I'll show a few others later.

Altering Recipes

2008-02-20T08:22:00.001-06:00

We like to take recipes from cookbooks and play around with them to make raw versions. Here's a simple example from a Barefoot Contessa cookbook. It's a simple avocado salad that called for black beans. We left that out (along with the corn) and added some capers and yellow onion (I didn't have any red). It also has yellow bell pepper and a great lime dressing. Fresh, simple and raw.

Asian Lunch

2008-02-12T13:54:00.000-06:00

Here's what my creative daughters came up with for lunch today. They each made their own.

This first one is a coconut "asian goulash". That's what she named it because she just dumped different ingredients in her dish. The base was young coconut meat. (I was the happy recipient of the coconut water). Then she added:

Red bell pepper
Jicama
Cucumber
Carrot
Mint
Cilantro
Tomato

The dressing was a mixture of nama shoyu, toasted sesame oil, and hot chili oil.

My youngest made a veggie stir fry. Her base was soaked wild rice and added:

Jicama
Carrot
Broccoli (from the garden)
Sprouts
Orange pepper
Cilantro
Mint
Celery

Her dressing was lime juice, toasted sesame oil, celtic sea salt, and pepper.

I'm assuming they both were delicious by the absence of talking and the crunching of veggies.

Summer? Gazpacho

2008-02-12T13:13:00.001-06:00

Maybe I'm antsy for summer, but I've really been enjoying variations of gazpacho the last few days. I've been getting some really red juicy organic romas from Whole Foods that will do until the garden comes in.

This is a blended soup of roma tomatoes, cucumber, garlic, cilantro, lime and celtic sea salt. I blended it up in the vitamix and topped it with avocado, scallion and more cilantro. Very creamy and fresh tasting. It will do for now.

Eating Out

2008-02-11T16:11:00.001-06:00

Who says you can't eat out and stay raw. These are just some examples of dinners I've enjoyed at restaurants. I just look at the menu and pick out "ingredients" from all the dishes that sound good to put on my salad. I ask for a large mound of their darkest greens and then request different raw goodies to be placed on top. I usually ask for them to make me a lemon/olive oil dressing. Sometimes they just bring me the oil and lemon on the side.

Sometimes they get creative in the kitchen and make something beautiful. Yumm. I LOVE mango in my salads.

This one was so great. The chef actually came to our table personally when he was told of my request. He had a notepad and pen and wanted to make sure he got it just right. As you can see, I think I got a little bit of everything. Asparagus, peppers, olives, oranges, tomatoes. It was so good.

OK. This one was easy. This was at a raw food restaurant in Seattle. I can't remember exactly what went into this one, but at least I ordered it straight from the menu.

Funny thing is that even at the nicest of restaurants, my dishes normally look so much better than their cooked specialties. It's like God's rainbow on every plate.

Flowers, Flowers, Flowers

2008-02-10T17:02:00.001-06:00

This was one of those impulse buys. I ran into the store to get just a couple of items we needed, and I passed right by the florist area on my way to the register. Just LOVE sunflowers. I think they're my favorite. Maybe because of their size, or just that luscious golden color. Anyway, they made it into my little carry basket also.

Our resident photographer, (my photog daughter) played around with them to try to capture the beautiful colors that God has bestowed. Wow! Breathtaking!

Simply Mango

2008-02-10T16:50:00.000-06:00

Sometimes simplicity is best. And when I'm looking for something satisfying and delicious, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING better than a juicy organic mango. These came from Whole Foods and are the best we've tasted in quite awhile.

Simply delicious, and simply mango. That was my meal.

Herb Salad with Guacamole

2008-02-10T16:41:00.001-06:00

Love Salads! I look in the fridge to see what looks and sounds good at that moment. Today it was an herb salad with guacamole.

I started with an herb mix from our organic veggie delivery service. Then I added a mound of guacamole made with avocado, lime juice, onion powder and kelp powder. Next came generous sprinklings of chopped cilantro and dill over the whole salad. Tomatoes finished the salad with color. Then for a last touch, I squeezed more lime juice over it all.

VERY FRESH!

P.S. Our veggie delivery service is wonderful. They deliver fruits and veggies that are grown from local farmers right to our door. They have the most unbelievable customer service I've ever experienced. And the product, well what can I say? We're a very happy family.

Pizza Time

2008-02-10T16:30:00.000-06:00

Looking forward to pizza again. But not yet. I'll be waiting awhile before starting back into seeds and nuts. But to give a flavor of some goodies in the future, here's one of our favorites.

This is probably known best as a fridge pizza, because it just depends on what's available and what we're in the mood for.

This pizza was made with an onion bread crust, similar to the one in the Rawvolution recipe book. I topped it with some seed cheese, collard green and then I sort of cheated. I didn't take the time to make a fresh tomato sauce, but used some Muir Glen organic pizza sauce we had on hand and then added my veggies--baby salad mix, avocado, fresh dill, parsley, oregano, green olives.

We never turn out the same one twice!

Juice Feast

2008-02-10T16:00:00.000-06:00

I've recently finished a juice feast. That means that for a couple of weeks, I consumed nothing but juicy juices, primarily green juices. It's different from a fast in that I drank as much as I wanted through the day and added extras such as super green food powders, bee pollen, hemp seed oil, etc. I included a minimum of 2 lbs. of greens each day in addition to all the other veggies and fruits I wanted. And, boy, what variety. Spinach, escarole, beet greens, turnip greens, collards, chard, cilantro, parsley, romaine, and I could go on and on. Add in zucchini, celery, tomatoes, cucumbers, ginger, lemons, limes, carrots, beets. It felt like every drink was alive.

This smoothie is one of the foods I used to transition out. (You don't just jump right into eating all solid foods. I probably won't even get into seeds and nuts for a few weeks.) It was scrumptious! Greens, banana, blueberry, mango, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, bee pollen, hemp seed oil. 32 oz. in all. (Obviously I had to refill my glass) Very sweet!

Warming Porridge

2008-01-15T17:55:00.001-06:00

Sometimes when it's cold outside, we like to have foods that are warming and comforting. Our whole family enjoyed this the last two days. It's a combination of a couple different recipes.

Sliced bananas, soaked wild rice, almond or brazil nut milk. Sprinkle on some cinnamon, bee pollen and drizzle a little raw honey. Sooooothing....

Seed Cheese Sammy

2008-01-12T21:40:00.001-06:00

We're always looking for ways to make a filling sandwich without the bread. This is the seed cheese sandwich from Rawvolution. The collard leaves are spread with a sunflower seed cheese and filled with whatever goodies we have on hand. This day we used avocado, tomato, sprouts, kalamata olives, dulse leaves, scallions, basil and cilantro. It was really filling and warming on a cold day.

Green Smoothies

2007-11-06T13:53:00.000-06:00

I love green smoothies! They're so easy and versatile to make!. This one had pineapple, frozen mango, frozen banana, mache, raw almond butter, and raw coconut butter. The vita-mix blender is in daily use at our house. It makes everything from puddings to smoothies to dressings--and they're all so smooooooth.

We try all sorts of combinations with whatever we have on hand. For an e-book filled with wonderful smoothie recipes, click here. Not only does Melissa have a book for regular smoothies, but also one for babies--a great way to introduce greens in their diet.

Strawberry Salad

2007-11-06T13:47:00.000-06:00

This is one of my favorite salads so I'll start with this one. I know it isn't strawberry season anymore (although you can still find strawberries in the stores). It starts with a base of baby mixed greens, and then I pile on the sliced fresh organic strawberries. For a different texture, add some sliced red onions and chopped walnuts. The dressing is simply olive oil and balsamic vinegar with a splash of raw honey. I also like to add a slight sprinkle of celtic sea salt.

This is a salad I like when the strawberries are in season. They're so fresh and juicy and worth the wait! Of course, fresh baby lettuces from the garden that melt in your mouth can't be matched.

Introduction

2007-11-06T13:43:00.000-06:00

What can I say? I love the garden life! I love our garden, farmers markets, veggies, fruits, cooking (or should I say not cooking?). Before becoming a raw foodie (early 2006), I was just a foodie. I loved cooking in the kitchen with my daughters and preparing simple to gourmet meals for my husband.

But now I have found that raw food brings it's own challenges, creativity and joy. My daughters are vegetarians, and we love to create new raw dishes in the kitchen. We're still cooking for my husband, but incorporate healthier choices for him. We even serve raw side dishes that he enjoys.

I am starting this blog to share the joy and fun of gardening and preparing healthy raw dishes. There is such an abundance of fruits and veggies that God has provided, and we are having fun exploring them all.

I'll reference items that come from some of our favorite raw recipe books, as well as share our own creations.

Hope you enjoy!