Nacho Sauce - the new Ranch

No, I do not mean to say that it tastes anything like it, but this nacho sauce is like Ranch dressing used to be for me - it's good on almost everything!

Nacho Sauce

2 1/2 cups raw cashews
1 red (or orange, or yellow) bell pepper - seeds & stem removed, cut into chunks
1 clove garlic
3 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
1 lemon, juice only
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 - 1 tsp. cayenne - adjust to your taste
water to blend to desired consistency

Put all ingredients in blender (you will need a good blender but a high-speed blender is not necessary), bell pepper first. Blend, adding water as needed to help blend & thin the sauce, until smooth & creamy. Stays good for a few days in the refrigerator.

Here are some of the ways I've used it recently:


Raw nachos




Nacho dip - basically, I wanted nachos but was out of fresh stuff to put on top, so I just dipped the flax crackers into the dip.




Cheesy Quinoa: sprouted quinoa, sprouted mung beans (just a little tail - not full-grown sprouts) and veggies, with some nacho sauce mixed in.

Taking the Chill Off

I know it's spring, and summer is just around the corner, but we've had some pretty cold & snowy spring days. It's got me thinking again of how I stay raw & don't crave hot food in the cold winter (& spring?) months.

I didn't make up a plan, or read a book, or ask someone what to do. These are just things I naturally do, and they work for me:

1) I eat more fat - nuts, olive oil, etc. - when it's cold.

It seems counter-intuitive that eating refrigerated or frozen pies & ice creams would help a person keep warm in the winter, but it works.

2) I eat more.

When we're cold, we burn more calories to warm up. I add seed cheese & avocado to my salads, add more oil to my dressings, eat more raw desserts, etc.

3) I eat dehydrated food.

4) I eat salty foods.

5) I eat spring mix salads with heavy dressings and avocado.

In summer, I might go for something like romaine with cucumbers, alfalfa sprouts, tomato, etc., and the dressings might be lighter, but those things are too cold/watery for me in cold weather.

6) I juice my veggies.

It makes me cold to chow down on watery geens & veggies, but I can quickly drink the juice from the veggies and then move onto something else.

7) I wash my veggies in warm water or leave them out of the fridge so they're not so cold when I eat them.

8) I use spices like cayenne & ginger.

9) I eat dried fruit.

I think I figured out why, when I learned that the treatment for hypothermia includes giving the person a "sugary drink". Fast-acting carbohydrates help the body get warm.

10) I warm fridge leftovers in the dehydrator before eating them.

11) I don't look to the temperature of my food to warm me up.

I exercise, take hot baths, put on warmer clothes, etc.

Raw Peach Cobbler

Yesterday, I suddenly remembered that I had an event to attend in the evening. I had several other things to do before I went, so I wouldn't have time to make what I had planned for dinner. I had some peaches thawing in the refrigerator that I had bought at a farmers market last summer, chopped and frozen for a future peach cobbler. I discovered that I had also frozen a batch of the crumbly topping for the cobbler. I mixed up the cobbler in about five minutes and put it in the dehydrator to warm while I did other things.

It made a wonderful dinner! I highly recommend stocking up on summer fruit for your freezer if you get the chance!

Raw Peach Cobbler

Filling:
8 medium peaches, pitted
12 medjool dates, pitted
1 tsp. cinnamon

Peel & chop 4 peaches into bite-sized chunks and set aside. Save the skins to add to the filling. Put the dates, cinnamon and 4 remaining peaches into a high-speed blender (Vita-mix, Blendtec) and blend well. Pour into a baking dish (9x13 or smaller) and stir in chopped peaches.

Crumbly topping:
1 1/4 c. raw nuts
3 or 4 medjool dates, pitted
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Process all except dates in food processor until crumbly. Add dates again & process until well broken up. Sprinkle on top of the cobbler filling.

This can be eaten right away or warmed for an hour in a dehydrator set at 130 F.

Freezing the chopped peaches beforehand makes them softer and it will be closer to a cooked peach texture. I like it either way. :)

Peas & Carrots

I have four of these jars of peas ready to plant today. I rinsed them a couple of times, since it's been two days (instead of the usual 24 hours) since I put them in to soak.

Raw as a lifestyle is becoming more known now than it was when I learned about it a few years ago. Raw chocolate wasn't on the market yet (at least not here), agave was brand new, there were not very many raw products available in the stores, there were very few books published about raw food, etc. I can't tell you how many times someone would find out that I ate "raw" and the jaw would drop & the person would ask, "So, what do you eat - carrots and salad?"

Well, at the time, I hadn't found a good salad dressing recipe, so I didn't really like salad. I preferred to drink green juices. I also wasn't a fan of carrots. So I would respond to that question with, "No, I don't really like either one very much." The person's jaw would then drop even further, and I would be asked, "Well, then what do you EAT?!"

Yesterday, I started a new blog that will be all about what I eat. I will still blog here about all kinds of things relating to raw food & the raw lifestyle. The new blog will be kind of a food log, to show you (and myself) what I eat from day to day. I am hoping to show that healthy food can taste good, that it IS possible to get plenty to eat on a high-raw or all-raw diet, and that my food choices are far from being about deprivation! :) I also hope to give ideas to people (including myself!) who wonder what to eat when they're tired of carrots & salad. ;)

Check it out here: http://www.carrotsandsalad.blogspot.com/

Gardening help - I love machines!

If you have a lot of soil to prepare, then a rototiller can be an invaluable help in breaking it up.


If you have an even larger area, it helps to have connections.

Gardening

I am soaking peas today that will get planted tomorrow - the garden is on its way, baby! This summer, I am looking forward to grape leaves, malva, lamsquarters, dandelion, blackberries, raspberries, cucumbers, peas, lacinato kale, Siberian blue kale, romaine letuce, red salad bowl lettuce, butterhead lettue, four seasons lettuce, mesclun mix greens, red chard, carrots (with tops), beets (also with tops), corn, radishes, red tomatoes, little yelllow pear-shaped tomatoes, cucumbers, green zucchini, golden zucchini, yellow squash, chives, cilantro, lemon basil, edible flowers...I LOVE eating out of my back yard!

More budgeting & food storage :)

I have been taking inventory of my food storage. Although it's not all raw stuff (I stocked up on popcorn, beans, peanut butter, etc. for my son), it's stuff that would keep us alive if we didn't have anything else to eat. We have enough food for my son & me to last about four months, calorie-wise. :)

I have also been working on a plan of what to buy to even things out a little better - like having oil to go on the popcorn, etc. :P I have made a plan of what to buy so I can keep my supply at the four-month level while gradually evening out the calorie distribution (I'm getting pretty low on oils & seeds, not to mention that we'd probably get scurvy if I don't add some dried fruits, at least) and then gradually get it to contain more of what we regularly like to eat after that. I'll do it by stocking up on cheaper raw stuff (sunflower seeds, flax, etc.) at first and then gradually "branch out" to include more variety (dried fruits, more kinds of nuts, cacao, agave instead of just the bucket of honey we already have, etc.) It's feeling really good, and it will help me with the budgeting challenge, too, because I'm paying attention to what gives me the most calories for my money! I'm hoping to be able to save enough money by gardening this summer to save up & buy another 5-gallon bucket of olive oil by the end of August - it's about $17 per liter that way, rather than $23 per liter if I buy it in one-liter bottles...that makes a big difference when you use it as much as we do! :)

What's in your budget &/or food storage plan?