Sunday, July 30, 2006

Lunch and Dinner, Super Yummy!
I did lots of study yesterday and also walked to the shops to buy oranges, garlic, zucchini and a new book for recording stuff in practical classes (add those foods to yesterday's End-of-Week Munchies). When I wasn't doing that, or blogging/reading other people's blogs, I was either (un)cooking or reading recipes (what a surprise!). The results were this:


(for lunch)
and this:


(dinner).
Lunch first, I had a Tuna Sandwich from Juliano's RAW and it was delicious. I don't think it tasted like tuna, although I can't really remember, but it was great anyway, and a lovely way to try my dulse for the first time. The only problem, which is not the fault of the recipe, is that my food processor refuses to grind sunflower seeds, it just spins them around, so I had a lot of whole seeds in the 'tuna' spread, rather than nicely ground ones - next time, I will just skip the soaking and grind them in my coffee grinder instead. I also changed the recipe very slightly by making more of an open sandwich, using only one slice of Real Toast and lettuce as the other piece of 'bread.' The Real Toast is probably my least favourite Juliano recipe, but this is definately the way to eat it!

On to dinner, I made a dish based on Macho Nachos (from Juliano, of course), which was awesome. Unfortunately the picture doesn't show just how delicious it was but here is what it consisted of:
thin crunchy slices of sweet potato arranged in a circle
a big dollop of guacamole in the middle of the circle
salsa spread on the sweet potato circle
dehydrated eggplant 'chips' around the outside
sprouted black-eyed peas and chickpeas sprinkled on
Mocksarella Cheese stuck in the guac
The cheese (also from Juliano) was AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS and I will be making it regularly, eating as I did here in the form of 'chips.' Dipped in guacamole it was mindblowing. If you have the book and a dehydrator, make it now!
Oh, and a word about the plate the nachos are on... it's another new one! Yay!Except I can't really say my collection is growing because the new plate I got last week was cruelly snatched away from me... I'll explain how. My Dad got a new job and the whole place was a bit of a mess - so was one of the women working for him (who was sharing his office). She decided to quit, which is good because she was apparently bad at her job. Anyway, last Friday was her last day and so you would expect that she would clean out all her things - on Saturday my parents went to the office to clean it and reorganise, and they found the very nice plate pictured here
(scroll down - it's the one with blue stripes), which they gave me to add to my collection.Unfortunately on Monday, the woman rang Dad and said she was coming in to collect all the things she had left in the office... ummm, why didn't she take them on her last day? Anyway, this meant my lovely plate had to return to its rightful owner. But now I have this lovely blue one, so that's okay - and it only cost 75cents!

Have an outstanding day everyone!

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Harmonias Midweek Munchies Meme
A Veg*n Meme

What wonderful foods did you bring home from the grocery store?

Midweek Munchies: What Freedom is contributing for the week



Well, I did my shopping in a number of different places yet again this week - I think this is a characteristic of all raw foodies cos we go searching for the best possible fruits and veggies. So anyway, I'm just going to mash it all together again. Remember, the $ means organic.

$almond date treat$
$apples$
$bananas$
$broccoli$
$capsicum$
caraway seeds
$carrots$
cashews
celery
$celery$
coconut (a whole one - it was soooo good!)
corn
$corn$
dates
$dulse$ (it's seaweed, if you're not sure - my recent bloodtests showed that I have hypothyroidism and my naturopath said seaweed is really good to stimulate the thyroid, as well as being packed with minerals. And tasty!)
$flax seeds$ (for the cookies posted about above!)
$eggplant$
kiwi fruit
$macadamias$
$onions$
oranges
$oranges$
$parsley$
$raisins$
$sunflower seeds$
$sun-glazed figs$
$sweet potato$

Links to other Midweek Munchies
(If you participate, leave your link in the comments and I'll post it below; or, you can post in the comments)

Click here for the Midweek Munchies code
Click here for Harmonia's blog

Trackbacks, pings, and comment links are accepted and encouraged!
Technorati Tag:

A special thanks to Running2Ks and Rift for all of their help with coding, graphics, and encouragement for this project.

PURPOSE of Midweek Munchies: Put together by a small group of Veg Women, we hope to spread the word about healthy vegetarianism while obtaining idea starters for meals, recipes, learn about new products, and meet other female veg*n bloggers. Visiting and commenting on other participants lists are encouraged but not required. Have fun and Go Veg!

Take Three



Hello! No, I havent' fallen off the face of the Earth - unfortunately I've just been too busy with uni to post. But here I am now, so that's all that counts! The above picture shows my third attempt at making Juliano's Crunchy Flax Seed Cookies. The word 'attempt' kind of suggests that the last two lots didn't work out, which isn't exactly the case - you can click here
to check out the first lot but unfortunately I didn't post about the second. Juliano suggests using a combination of ground and whole flax seeds but the first time round I had only whole, and the second time only ground. Both lots tasted good but the first was way too seedy and the second was much too dense (not 'crunchy' at all). So for my third batch I used half ground flax seeds and half whole and they turned out amazing! The texture is absolutely perfect! Unfortunately they aren't quite as nice taste-wise as the others because I forgot the cinnamon (duh! how could I? I love cinnamon!) and I needed one more date I t
hink, but I'm very happy with the result and I will definately continue making these.

I realise that this post isn't very long considering I haven't posted in about 4 days - scroll down and you'll see 'Midweek' Munchies (my new timetable means that I'm shopping on Fridays, so like Catherine I'm now doing End-of-Week Munchies).

Have an incredible day everyone!

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Berry Porridge



Hello, I'm now back at uni (YAY) so unfortunately my posting/blog reading won't be quite so frequent as it has been in the past few weeks, but I have some free time now so I thought I'd post this picture of my breakfast from yesterday. It is Berry Porridge (from Juliano's book, of course) and is simple but yummy. Just soak some oat groats in water overnight, drain and stick in a blender/food processor with banana and berries (I used strawberries). Next time I will soak some raisins with the oat groats for a bit of different flavour.

Sorry this is so ridiculously short but I've got things to do, so I'd better go. Have a great day everyone!

Sunday, July 23, 2006

My First Raw Picnic Experience
Oh wow I had an awesome, or should I say RAWSOME time at my first ever raw picnic today. Last time there were apparently 23 people present but today was considerably smaller, with just six. It was wonderful though, we all got to chat to each other and it was a nice intimate get together. I didn't get as many photos as I would like, but here are a few. The other people present were Jen (my naturopath), her partner Gary, his friend Matt (who cycled about 90km before the picnic this morning!!) a girl called Em and a guy called Rachan.

Jen bought an amazing kale salad (the green thing in the big bowl), which contained kale (obviously), tomato, cucumber, avocado, lemon juice, a little olive oil, sea salt, cayenne pepper and maybe something else...? She also bought an Un-choc cake which looked delicious but contained honey so I stayed away. I wasn't that bothered as it was apparently very rich and I was never a big fan of rich chocolatey things. Gary (with Jen's help, apparently :-) bought some delicious flax seed crackers which I NEED the recipe for.

Em bought some yummy dehydrated pineapple things with a small amount of chocolate filling that was really very nice and Rachan's contribution was a tomatoey guacamole with veggie sticks for dipping - it was nice but a little watery. He said he made it in a rush and it's normally nicer, but it was good.


And here is my addition to the whole thing, the Kumquat and Nutmeg Cheezecake. Everyone totally adored it (me included!) and all went back for seconds. Actually, thinking about it, Em and Matt didn't. But the others did. Anyway, doesn't it look totally amazing?! I'm so impressed with myself - sorry for sounding a bit full of myself but I was just so happy that I made something so successful on my first attempt at a really gourmet raw dish. The kumquat flavour wasn't very strong though, so if (when) I make it again, I'll use more.


I ate sooooo much today. Honestly, you would not believe that I had an eating disorder three weeks ago! I just can't believe how much going raw has changed me mentally. It's an incredible thing. Goodnight everyone, have a wonderful day!

The World's Best Sandwich



Okay yesterdays post said it would be quick but then wasn't - this one might be the same. Who knows. I'm going to my first raw picnic today and I'm SOOOO excited - I will take lots of pictures and try to give you a full write up tonight, if I have time and can pry Dad away from the computer for long enough.
Anyway, I spent literally the WHOLE day in the kitchen yesterday, except while eating lunch (lounge room) and when I walked to the shop to buy dates. Here is a quick run-down of everything I made:

Real Toast (Juliano's)
Cheeseburger #1 (also Juliano's)
Cashew Coconut Halos (mine, and I promise to post the recipe when they're finished dehydrating and I have a picture)
Veggie crackers (an experiment that wasn't really successful but only used leftovers so wasn't a waste)
Kumquat and Nutmeg Cheezecake (Shazzie's - see last post for a link)
Some desiccated coconut
Dehydrated mushrooms (preparation for dinner)
Also, when all that was done, I made pumpkin and sweet potato soup and a plate of herbed potato fries for Mum's dinner

In between all that I made lunch and I had the WORLD'S BEST SANDWICH!! (pictured above). I placed slices of tomato on a piece of lettuce, smeared avocado on it then added cucumber, spring onions and grated carrot. Then I stuck another piece of lettuce on top and voila! It was so amazingly delicious! Normally I'm not a huge lettuce fan but this was a type of lettuce I've never tried before and it was beautiful - kind of celery-tasting (I love celery). I couldn't believe something so simple could be so tasty but I think that is a result of being raw - you come to really appreciate food for its own unique flavours.



This photo is of my dinner and it came out very badly - I just had stuffed mushrooms and they were really good. I'm kinda craving mushrooms at the moment - the texture is really exciting me! They are on a new plate, the latest addition to my collection of interesting crockery, which my dad bought home from his new office when he and mum went to reorganise it yesterday (who knows why it was there?) Okay, gotta go now :-)

Saturday, July 22, 2006

A quick post
This has to be quick because I have a very busy day ahead. I am going to make some of Juliano's Real Toast and Cheeseburgers this morning (quite large quantites, to store for future dinners - one of the beauties of dehydrated food). Then this afternoon I'm going to be making some cookies of my own invention and when this batch are done I'll remember to take a picture so I can post the recipe on my other blog!

The final thing I'm going to be making is in preparation for a very exciting day tomorrow... I'm going to a raw food picnic!! :-) Isn't that exciting? I've decided to go all out and make a Kumquat and Nutmeg Cheezecake, the recipe for which can be found here (scroll right down to the bottom of the page). While you're at this website I highly recommend reading Shazzie's journals - she is a huge raw food 'guru' and they make for great reading if you're thinking about going raw (or even if you're not). I'm going to make the base of the cake this afternoon, freeze it overnight and then do the filling in the morning. I'm excited about making it!



Now, I'd better give you some food to look at otherwise you'll not be very happy with me! The picture isn't awesome but the salad is! I got the recipe from rawpleasure.com, my fave website at the moment, and it is just something another forum poster put together and kindly shared:

finely shredded cabbage
finely shredded celery
" " red onion
" " cucumber
fresh grated coconut
corn scraped fresh from the cob
finely shredded carrot

dressing
juice of 2 small oranges or one large
2 fresh dates that have been soaked for a while in pure water(drained and pitted)
handful of kale
clove of garlic
1/2 bunch of coriander

blend until smooth

pour over salad mix and stir through,this is so delicious.

I only made half the dressing and it was plenty and I also added sprouted chickpeas and sunflower seeds. Oh and since I HATE coriander, I used parsley instead. It was truly divine.
Have a good day everyone!

Friday, July 21, 2006

Harmonias Midweek Munchies Meme
A Veg*n Meme

What wonderful foods did you bring home from the grocery store?

Midweek Munchies: What Freedom is contributing for the week



I am soo happy with my MwM list this week - I only bought two packaged items! One was my baby spinach and the other was the vanilla bean! Yay! I love being raw - I feel so incredible. I also have the best story to share from the wholefoods shop yesterday (where I did most of my shopping).Before I start, I'll just tell you that this is a total 'hippie' shop (probably all wholefoods places are) where I feel soo at home - I'm not big on labels but I'm a self-proclaimed hippie and I love it when my grandparents tell me I belong in the 1960s :-) Okay back to the story. There was a youngish couple and their cute little girl (about 4 or 5 I guess), all dressed in great 'hippie' outfits rather similar to mine and as they discussed whether to buy pumpkin or not, the little girl carefully chose a delicious looking organic mango and then stood clutching it and begging her Dad to buy it while he patiently explained that that one mango cost $6!!! and he was sorry but that was just too much. I missed the end of the conversation (although I'm pretty sure she didn't get the mango) but I just thought it was wonderful that here was a child who was pestering for not a chocolate bar or packet of chips (not even vegan chocolate or low fat corn chips) but simply one of natures most delicious foods, a fresh piece of fruit. It gave me some hope for the future of our society.
Now, after that let me tell you what lovely food I bought this week. It came from a variety of sources but I can't be bothered separating so it's all going into one big blob! Oh, and once again the $ next to a food means it's organic.

$apples (pink lady)$
$apples (granny smith)$
$almonds$
almonds
$apricots$ (dried)
$bananas$
basil (fresh)
black-eyed peas
brazil nuts
$coconut dates$
corn
$dates (medjool, the big soft ones)$
figs (sunglazed - oh god these are incredible!!)
kiwi fruit
$macadamia nuts$
$oat groats$
$oranges$ (uncertified organic)
$raisins$
strawberries
vanilla bean
walnuts
watermelon (about 1/4 of one)

That was expensive but now that I look over it, not as bad as it could have been. Before I leave you for today, I'm going to tell you what I ate yesterday (still going for very low nut consumption - just a few in my breakfast):

Breakfast (6am): 1 Juliano oatmeal cookie, two cookies of my creation (recipes and pics on my other blog soon, I promise), one and a half oranges.

Lunch (12 noon): Another stunning fruit salad like the one I had on Wednesday.

Snack (3.45pm): 1 sun glazed fig (heaven), some raisins, 1 and 1/2 coconut dates (actually this was all heaven). I ate this standing under a bus shelter in the pouring rain while waiting for the bus after doing my shopping. Fun, but I wish I hadn't missed the earlier bus because it came seven minutes early. Why do they even have a timetable if they're not going to keep to it? GRrr.

Dinner (7.45pm): Superbly yummy salad - will post pics and more details tomorrow.

Bye everyone, happy midweek (end of week) munchies!

Links to other Midweek Munchies
(If you participate, leave your link in the comments and I'll post it below; or, you can post in the comments)

Click here for the Midweek Munchies code
Click here for Harmonia's blog

Trackbacks, pings, and comment links are accepted and encouraged!
Technorati Tag:

A special thanks to Running2Ks and Rift for all of their help with coding, graphics, and encouragement for this project.

PURPOSE of Midweek Munchies: Put together by a small group of Veg Women, we hope to spread the word about healthy vegetarianism while obtaining idea starters for meals, recipes, learn about new products, and meet other female veg*n bloggers. Visiting and commenting on other participants lists are encouraged but not required. Have fun and Go Veg!

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Scrumptious Soup

If you've been following my blog, you may just have fallen off your chair - this is because I have NEVER blogged about soup before, which in turn is because I haven't eaten soup in the whole time I've been writing this blog. In case that doesn't make it obvious, I am NOT a soup person - at least I didn't used to be. I think that may now have changed.
I don't really know what drove me to decide to make soup last night - perhaps subconsciously my body told me that it was something it could deal with better after the nut overload mentioned yesterday. Anyway, I don't care why I had it I'm just glad I did. The soup is super (souper! :-) simple and really tasty - I think going raw teaches you that foods can be so enjoyable just on their own, they don't need to be in fancy combinations to look and taste great. The recipe came from a book called Juicing For Health by Julie Stafford, which my parents gave me for Christmas 2004 when they gave me my juicer. It's a cool book, with lots of information about juicing and healthy diets in general, plus LOADS of information about vital minerals, nutrients and vitamins and in which fruits and veggies they can be found. Oh and HEAPS of recipes for juices, soups, smoothies and sorbets. I think the soup I made was just called Avocado Soup and the basic recipe is: juice some carrot and celery, then stick the juice in a blender or food processor with avocado and some lemon juice, whizz it up and serve garnished with chives. I didn't have any cihves (confession: I don't even know what they look like!) so I sprinkled it with parsley and some spring onion. It looked really nice and tasted outstanding - funnily, it reminded me of very non-raw potato soup a little, although not in a bad way. If you're thinking it looks like a pretty small dinner, then you're on par with my parents - I had a little bowl of salad consisting of sprouted chickpeas, tomato and corn to go with it (I love sprouted legumes!) I highly recommend you try this if you have a juicer - it's great.

Now, as I realised yesterday I have not been sharing my food intake with you, so now I will - here is my FLOG for yesterday:

Breakfast (6am) - 2 Juliano Oatmeal cookies, one cookie of my invention (yet to be titled) and an orange.
Lunch (12 noon) - Big fruit salad (see last post for scrummy pic!)
Snack (3.30pm) - 2 dried figs, 3 dried apricots and 5 soaked cashews
Dinner (7.30pm) - Soup and salad as detailed above

That's similar to what I've been eating lately but with less nuts :-)
Have a good day and thanks for visiting!

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

My raw life
I realised yesterday that I've been recording my raw food intake in my private diary but not on here, which annoyed me a bit. It also occured to me that I have been eating 100% raw for a whole week (except one nori sheet for sushi, which was roasted). I was planning to have a cooked meal tonight to use up a couple of non-raw things in the kitchen but I don't really want to so I have a different dinner planned (pics tomorrow :-)
Yesterday I didn't feel that great and I got abtou a third of the way through my dinner (raw) but felt sick and couldn't finish it - I never, ever have stomachaches! I think the cause is the huge amount of nuts I've been eating - they're very hard to digest. Also, because of my eating disorder I haven't allowed myself to eat any for AGES, so I think my body is struggling a bit with all the fat from them, avocados and coconut. It's hard because I know that I need to put weight on. Anyway, today I cut right back on nuts and the five cashews I had were soaked for a few hours, which makes them easier to digest (plus they taste nice and creamy :-) The reason I think yesterday was the day the nuts 'hit me' so to speak was because I ate more than usual - I got the results of my blood test and so mum had one of her usual freak outs about my weight, although very much less than in the past. If you're interested/confused, no she doesn't know I've got an eating disorder but it's a bit hard to miss me being thin (although she thinks I weigh about 7 kg for than I do).

Sorry if this post is a bit all over the place, I'm reading other people's blogs as I type :-)

The results of my tests weren't bad, by the way - everything is pretty normal (including B12) but I probably have hypothyroidism, which is linked to my weight - I'll tell you more after I've discussed them with my naturopath next week.

I have to go make my mum's dinner but I'll leave you with some super yummy food porn - this is what I had for lunch and it was absolutely delicious. Apple, banana, coconut, paw paw, pear, pineapple, raisins, and watermelon. Pure, raw, fruity heaven!

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

I'm so BORED!

Okay, so I know I'm not normal, which is why what I'm about to say shouldn't surprise you too much - I'm DESPERATE to go back to university. I still have 6 days left of holidays and absolutely NOTHING to do. Jeez, I'm sick of being on the computer. Yesterday I opened up my recently arrived issue of PETA's Animal Times magazine and wrote letters to everyone they suggested writing to, about everything from glue traps to KFC slaaughterhouses - and it took all of about an hour. I read some of the Peter Singer book I currently have from the library (called How Are we to Live? and very interesting), planned what I'm having for lunch today, made dinner for my parents, dried dishes and loaded washing machine, watched Law and Order: SVU (I don't watch much TV but I love crime type shows) and played with my gorgeous ratty Spirit. Oh, and I made the nummy lunch pictured above! (And below!)
It is of my own creation but I'm not going to put it on my recipe blog because I used no measurements. So, here are the ingredients:

carrot (not peeled)
sweet potato (not peeled)
butternut pumpkin (peeled!)
fresh scraped coconut meat
fresh squeezed lemon juice

All you do is mince the first four ingredients in a food processor, scrape down the sides and give a few pulses with the lemon juice in there, then serve and enjoy this gorgeous orange salad. I deceded it wasn't quite veggie-ful enough and stirred through some chopped cucumber as well, which was yum. I'll definately be taking this to uni with me! Oh, a tip - rinse your food processor right away, or it'll be stained bright orange!

For dinner last night I made RAW Spaghetti Bolognaise, which was as totally delicious then as it was when I made it up last week (although I had to use regular tomato and the roma is definately nicer!)

Well, I'm going to go and try to occupy myself for the day... wish me luck!

Monday, July 17, 2006

Just in case you didn't get it yesterday...



I LOOOOVE raw pizza! So much so that I had one for lunch yesterday using the one lonely raw pizza base sitting in my cupboard. For toppings, I mashed up some avocado with a tiny pinch of sea salt and some minced garlic and spread this on, then added chopped red capsicum, chopped zucchini, raisins, some chopped spring onions and... I think that was it. Then I decided that my meal was nowhere near colourful enough so I grated some carrot on top - I felt a weird feeling while doing this and then suddenly realised it was just like grated cheese! :-)

This was yummo and made a great lunch - not as nice as the pizzas pictured yesterday but not so filling (good for a lighter meal). Also, I like lots of veggies at lunchtime so it was good to use the avocado in place of a nut-based 'cheese' sauce.



On another topic, I'm thinking of renaming my blog. I am currently of the opinion that even when I go fully raw I will get one of my 'health food shop' muffins when I go home to Adelaide but aside from that, I'm kinda over the muffin thing. In all honesty, the muffins I made were never that good because I just couldn't perfect the art of light, fluffy, fat-free muffins. Let me tell you, cooking (uncooking!) raw vegan recipes that non-raw vegans like is a hell of a lot easier than cooking fat free vegan recipes that non-fat free vegans like!
Back to the blog name, I'm thinking of 'The raw vegan dehydrator-cookie princess' or something along those lines, although I know that is a bit of a mouthful! This is in honour of the fact that I have discovered a real talent for these delicious treats - keep an eye on my other blog (see link in sidebar) for more recipes appearing soon. There are some dehydrating away right now, so we'll see how they turn out! Any suggestions/comments on blog title are welcome. Have a rawesome day everyone!

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Raw Pizza ROCKS!!




Oh wow, raw pizza is the most divine thing... I love it sooo much it's not funny. And I've only had it twice! The base is made of:

ground flax seeds
carrot
onion
tomato
fresh parsley
dried basil and oregano

which is all mixed up in a food processor then dehydrated for about 13 hours. The 'cheese' sauce (which you can just see peeking out in the pic) is Mac Cream from Juliano's RAW (utterly divine!) and the red sauce is just carrot, fresh tomato and sundried tomato, all processed with a splash of water. The toppings I used for this particular pizza are mushroom, pineapple and shredded basil leaves - last week when I made it but couldn't take a pic it looked better cos there were olives (left over from the BLack Olive and Cream Dim Sum) but I really don't like olives so I wasn't about to buy them just to make my pizza look better :-)



On now to something(s) which can be described only as heavenly. As you will know if you've been following my blog, I am just a tad obsessed with RAW: The UNcookbook by Juliano and I've found fault with only one of his recipes so far - the others have all been divine, outstanding and utterly perfect. However, the most recent one I made is sublime - I'm not religious but if I believed in heaven I would say that I would be living on these things when I got there. What I am referring to is Oatmeal Cookies.I have been desperately searching for oat groats so that I could make these and silly me forgot to mention yesterday that my wholefoods store has finally bought in organic oat groats in bulk! They're expensive but I now know just how worth it they are and I will be buying ALOT to try in recipes. I altered the recipe very slightly by not using the ground cashews which were only for "easier handling of the batter" and adding a little water - apples are optional but I added just a little bit for more moisture. Despite Juliano's amazing skills in recipe creation, I don't think his maths is outstanding - either that or his idea of a 'serving' is rather different to mine. I have not made the full quantity of any recipes but have always had at least twice as much as I was expecting, and these cookies were no different - Juliano says that the whole recipe makes 12 cookies but I didn't have enough oat groats for the whole thing so I made half. I ate an awful lot of batter during making :-) and still ended up with seven decent sized cookies. Go figure. Anyway, if you have this recipe book and a dehydrator, go NOW and make. In fact, even if you don't have a dehydrator just make the batter and eat it with a spoon.



Happy Sunday to everyone and thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Harmonias Midweek Munchies Meme
A Veg*n Meme

What wonderful foods did you bring home from the grocery store?

Midweek Munchies: What Freedom is contributing for the week



WOW this week was so expensive - I went totally over budget, although I didn't spend all my food money while I was away so it kinda balances out... I hope :-) Once again, the $ indicates that the product is organic. This was all in bulk and came from the wholefoods shop.

$Apples$
$Avocado$
Celery
Cucumber
$Oranges$

$Almonds$
Cashews
Dates
$Dried Apricots$
Dried Figs
$Macadamias$
$Medjool Dates$
Pine Nuts
$Quinoa$
$Raisins$
Walnuts

I also got a bottle of organic orange juice free because it was out of date - it wasn't actually that nice but hey, it was free so who can complain? :-)

From the all organic fruit and veg shop I got

apples
broccoli
capsicum
carrots
cauliflower
garlic
ginger
pumpkin
sweet potato
tomatoes

And, last of all, at the supermarket I grabbed

bottled orange and mango juice
sundried tomatoes (not oil packed)
tofu (probably the last block I'll ever buy as I become 100% raw. Yay!)

Links to other Midweek Munchies
(If you participate, leave your link in the comments and I'll post it below; or, you can post in the comments)

Click here for the Midweek Munchies code
Click here for Harmonia's blog

Trackbacks, pings, and comment links are accepted and encouraged!
Technorati Tag:

A special thanks to Running2Ks and Rift for all of their help with coding, graphics, and encouragement for this project.

PURPOSE of Midweek Munchies: Put together by a small group of Veg Women, we hope to spread the word about healthy vegetarianism while obtaining idea starters for meals, recipes, learn about new products, and meet other female veg*n bloggers. Visiting and commenting on other participants lists are encouraged but not required. Have fun and Go Veg!

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Finally 'Home'!
Yes, I have now returned to Perth from my stay in South Australia - SA will always truly be home but my house, parents and beautiful animal friends are over here in WA so I think I have two 'homes' at the moment. Anyway, this means that I can finally share with you the wonderful foods I enjoyed on my trip. Although (as I mentioned in
my last post) I was not 100% raw for the whole nine days I did have two totally raw days and every single dinner was raw (okay, except when I had sushi and the nori was roasted, but it was pretty close to raw! :-)



Tuesday - On my first night I was staying with one of my three very best (human) friends, Amy, and the picture you see is in the kitchen of her beautiful 1800s stone house (how I miss my 1914 house). I had Cheeseburger #1 from Juliano's RAW, served between two pieces of Real Toast with generous smearings of Mayo #2 (both from the same book) and some lettuce and tomato. It was superbly delicious - I've raved about the mayo and burger before but the toast was a new one. It was tough to make but worth it.

Wednesday - Night number two was spent with another of my best friends, Alycia, but I didn't have a chance to take a photo of dinner there. It was quite simple - a salad with Sunlight Burgers (actually a sunlight burger). It was nice enough but a bit dry and didn't hold together all that well. I don't think I'll bother making that recipe again.



Thursday - I was with my Nanna and Grandad on the third night and I made the Black Olive and Cream Dim Sum, yet again from Juliano's RAW. I didn't like it. This is the first recipe of his that I haven't enjoyed and I REALLY didn't enjoy it. There was way too much lemon juice and it overpowered everything and I have never really been an olive lover so maybe this was doomed to fail from the beginning... the picture isn't even very good :-(

Friday - Still at Nanna and Grandad's, I had an absolutely amazing dinner but no time for a photograph as I was rushing to go to bingo :-)
I'll definately be making this again soon though, so I'll tell you all about it then!



Saturday - My two cousins and I stayed with my other grandparents on the fifth night and I had Pesto Pasta (from RAW), although slightly altered. The recipe calls for some of Juliano's pesto sauce, but blends it with lots of olive oil, which I chose not to do, and for the 'pasta' I just used zucchini, onion, red capsicum and sweet potato. It was REALLY yum (back to the normal Juliano style) and will be appearing again.



Sunday - At the grandparents again, although minus my cousins this time, I made sushi which was so pretty it needed two photos. One roll contained Juliano's RAW Ricotta Cheese and the other was Mac Cream, with a selection of veggies including sweet potato, carrot, cucumber lettuce to cover and (with the Mac Cream) mushroom. My grandma (omnivore, harasses me constantly about food) tried one and thought it was so delicious that she made me write the recipe out with sushi-rolling instructions :-)


Monday - I was with close family friends who I refer to as my Auntie, Uncle and Cousins, one of whom is the third of my best friends and repeated the meal from Tuesday, so no picture.



Tuesday - For the last night I returned to my grandparents and threw together a recipes completely off the top of my head and it was absolutely superb, if I do say so myself! I will be posting the recipe in my other blog very soon, so check it out.

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Wednesday - I was on the plane flying home at dinner time, and my mum pre-ordered me a fruit platter. It looks a little unappealing with all the glad wrap but the fruit (kiwi, passionfruit, pineapple and orange) was fresh, juicy and delicious. I had this with some cashews and it made a great dinner!

And so that is the end of my wonderful food journey - well done for making it to the end! If you can possibly read anymore, check out the latest recipe on my other blog: Zucchini Cashew Dip
I whipped this up for lunch on Sunday while at my grandparents with cousins - they all tried some and thought it was really yummy, even my cousins who eat full on SAD (Standard Australian Diet).

Sunday, July 09, 2006

I have returned!
Hello everyone! I now have access to a working computer again although I am still away in South Australia, staying with my Grandma. Photos are not possible at this point, but I have lots to share when I get home! Food has not been a problem at all so far - I'm not one of those people who compromises my vegan beliefs when I'm away but I haven't found this in the slightest bit difficult. I had two 100% RAW days last week, which was great, but Friday and Saturday were only about 70% raw, due to having toast for breakfast at my Nanna's place. I have great photos of all the yummy raw stuff I have made, but as I said I can't post them now, so instead I'll fill you in on what I did on Monday before I came over to SA. I went to a naturopath for the first time (she's read the blog a few times so if you see this, hi Jen!) It was a very interesting experience, so much better than the doctor I used to have who was very motherly and didn't want to do much other than tell me to put on weight - she didn't get the vegan thing but Jen is a raw vegan so she obviously did! It was weird because I admitted my eating disorder - prior to when I posted about it on here a few weeks ago, I had never told anyone that I had a disorder (although my best friends new) but I knew that in order for me to get better, Jen needed to know. I definately think that posting it on here gave me the courage to admit it out loud for the first time.
Well I know this hasn't been much of an interesting post but I just can't find the motivation without the pictures to jazz it up. Ooooh, I'll tell you what I had last week though - totally not raw but totally yummy. There is a little shop in Adelaide which sells the most AMAZING muffins you've ever eaten, I was so depressed to leave them behind when I went to West Australia, and I had one on Tuesday right after my plane came in. Wow it was good. I felt a little guilty about not eating raw, but still enjoyed it - I'm having another (hopefully!) on Wednesday before i leave, so I'll get a pic. Back to my muffin-loving roots there!

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Raw Pot Piele and Today's Lunch

I was 100% raw yesterday! It felt great and I'm really proud to say it, plus I had the nicest food! For dinner I wanted to have RAW Pot Pie (from Juliano's book, of course) but due to dehydrator size constraints, I couldn't form the pie base so I just made two circles of pie dough and made a 'piele' (pile). I love that word! I think I should try and get it in a dictionary :-)
Anyway, the pie filling was super delish and also good because it allowed for some creativity. Among other things, it contained coaked cashews, sunflower seeds and "a
cup of vegetable pulp from juicing a two pound combo of veggies such as carrot, yam, celery, broccoli or red bell pepper." I used carrot, celery, sweet potato (yam) but I also had a single lonely beet sitting in the fridge so I threw that it, and it made the dish the most beautiful shade of pink! Some might not find at appealing but I think it's gorgeous! And, as I said, it tasted superb. Yet another Juliano sucess!

For lunch today I had a simple salad of sweet potato, tomato, cucumber, corn, a little avocado and Flax Seed Crackers. (Do I need to tell you where the recipe is from? :-) The crackers (seen around the outside of the plate) tasted really great but they were the first recipe that I would say wasn't complete perfection, as they didn't stay together too well. I think this could be due to my dehydrator though, and the bits that are really small can just be sprinkled on salads as a topping. Yum.



In other news, I'm flying back home to Lobethal in South Australia (about a 3 hour flight) to see family and friends for a week on Tuesday. I will give a good post tomorrow with some more dehydrator treats but Tuesday and Wednesday I probably won't be able to post. I should be back everyday after that though - luckily both my Nanna and Grandma have computers (although they struggle a little :-) so I can use them.
Have a good day everyone.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Cookies, cookies everywhere!

Well, I haven't been wasting any time with the dehydrator - it has been going just about non-stop since I got it! I have been desperate to try some cookies and so yesterday I did. I made two batches (although dehydrated at the same time), one of them was Crunchy Flax-Seed Cookies from Juliano's RAW and the other one was my own creation. Juliano is yet to disappoint me - that man truly is a master of raw cooking, as I have not yet had a recipe that didn't blow me away. These would be better if my recently purchased coffee grinder had come though - he uses ground flax seeds (although suggests a combo of whole and ground) but my food processor doesn't like grinding flax seeds, instead just spinning them round and round and round. So the cookies were just a tad on the seedy side - but still delish!


These cookies are my own creation and I have to say, I'm pretty happy with them! After 12 hours in the dehydrator they were still pretty moist rather than crispy like the flax ones, but very yummy. Checkout the recipe here: Betternut Bites
If you don't have a dehydrator you might struggle a bit :-) but the recipe is worht a look, and you may be able to cook them on low heat in an oven if you're not worried about them actually being 'raw.'
Thanks for stopping by everyone!