Oh, this porridge is good! Breakfast is ALWAYS one of the pitfalls for me in maintaining a high raw diet. Some mornings, especially in the colder months I just do not want a green smoothie. I have been loving my green smoothies recently, don’t get me wrong! Just not first thing in the morning. Hence, the buckwheat porridge! I first blogged about it over a year and a half ago when I was still pregnant, so it has been a while! I don’t really know why as it is also damn easy once you have your buckwheat prepared. You can even do that the night before- just soak a bowl of buckwheat before you go to bed, and it will be ready the next morning. Is it better and more optimal to have your buckwheat after two days of sprouting? Well yes, but sometimes ain’t nobody got time fo dat! And that is good enough for me!! So anyway,
This porridge has rosehips added for extra vitamin C action and shilajit for trace minerals.
Raw Vegan Sprouted Buckwheat Porridge
2 cups sprouted buckwheat 1 handful sprouted hazelnuts 1 banana 2 tbsp maple syrup 1 tbsp rosehips powder 1 tsp vanilla powder
1 tsp shilajit (optional)
Blend until smooth. Heat gently on stovetop if you want (I won’t tell!)
Top with fruit of choice ( my berries were not seasonal or local, but a needed burst of summer flavor I needed this morning) and more maple syrup if desired, and any toppings you like- hemp seeds, bee pollen etc.
Enjoy!!
Last night, our local vegan/veggie group here in Shreveport had our first potluck! The turn out might not have been insane, but it meant that we were able to chat more intimately with each other, and I personally am all about that kind of interaction 🙂
Also, vegans usually know how to rock a kitchen and there was no disappointment in the offerings- even considering that Dan and I don’t eat wheat! So much gluten- free vegan goodness. My friend Nancy even made gf vegan crab cakes and remoulade sauce!
We brought a Spanish Omelette and Raw Superfood Brownies. It is a real basic raw brownie recipe, but I pimped it out and wanted to share!!
Raw Vegan Superfood Brownies with Chocolate Coconut Ganache
3 cups walnuts 1/2 cup cacao powder 1 tbsp lucuma powder 1 tbsp Maca powder 1 tbsp mesquite powder 2 tbsp Sacred Strawberry Pura Vida Powder (or any other green superfood powder you like!!) Pinch vanilla powder Pinch kalahari or Himalayan salt 3 cups dates
2 tbsp coconut oil
In food processor, process walnuts until just crumbly. Add everything else except dates and coconut oil and pulse until combined. Add dates and process until the dates are fully broken down and homogenized with the mixture. Add coconut oil and pulse a final time. Press mixture into pan and leave in fridge to set while you prepare the ganache.
Chocolate Coconut Ganache
3 tbsp coconut oil 1/4 cup maple syrup 2 tbsp cacao powder
Pinch vanilla
Blend in high speed blender until smooth and drizzle or spread over brownies. Let set in fridge.
I happened to have some of my raw Chicha chocolates left over from an order, so I melted those and drizzled that on, too! Yum, total decadence!!
Tonight’s meal came together so quickly and was so delicious that I had to blog it immediately!!
We had Dandelion Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms.
First, you need to prepare your shrooms. Rinse them, pat them dry and remove the stem. Reserve about one fourth of the best looking stems. Put the caps in a big bowl and drizzle some good quality olive oil and a small amount of tamari or Nama Shoyu on them. Set aside to marinate while you prepare the rest.
Next, you want to make a vegan pesto. You can use any recipe that you like, but if you don’t have one then I’ll tell you what I did.
1 cup sprouted hazelnuts 1/2 cup nutritional yeast 1 tsp good sea salt
2 cloves garlic
Pulse in the food processor until nuts are in crumbs. Then add in
1/2 bunch dandelion leaves (about 1 cup)
1 bunch basil ( 2 cups)
Process again, and add in while the machine is running a few good glugs of the best olive oil you can afford! It is worth it for a good pesto!! Also add in the juice of half a lemon or a bit of apple cider vinegar.
This is your basic pesto. To this, add in the reserved mushroom stems (peduncles!) and about half a cup of raw crackers. I used my own brand onion crackers, but you can use anything!! Process again until smooth and thick. Now fill each mushroom cap with about a tablespoon of the pesto mixture. You can either eat them as is, dehydrate them at 120 for 4 to 6 hours or you can even bake them at 350 for 15 minutes. Either way, they are delicious and sure to please even the most discerning palates. Serve with a salad and you have a perfect meal. If you made it this far, you deserve a picture!
Our salad had romaine, cherry tomatoes, black olives, pea shoots and a simple parsley and apple dressing. Yum! Hope you enjoy! Let me know if you try it.
What’s up? Things have been going here, it’s all kinda crazy and some days I don’t really know which way is up or down or have time to even catch my breath, much less scrub the bathtub and vacuum the floors. Any other mamas out there feel me? But I wouldn’t change a thing, and the days of having an impeccable house can wait until the babe is older and/or I can afford some help 🙂
This smoothie here is perfect for one of those days when everyone seems to need a piece of you and it’s three o clock in the afternoon and you still haven’t had time to have lunch, much less make it to the gym!! Take care of yourself, get enough nutrition in, and most importantly ENJOY it!!!
-4 frozen bananas -3 cups almond milk (or whatever type of milk you do) -2 tbsp vegan protein powder ( I use my own Sacred Strawberry Pure Plant Protein blend, but anything mild will work) -2 tsp green powder ( I use my Sacred Strawberry Pura Vida blend, but again, anything green will work.) -2 tbsp raw chocolate hazelnut spread (I used my own, but there are some great ones on the market OR just add one tbsp nut butter and one tbsp cacao powder) -1 tsp vanilla powder
-10 drops Medicine Flower banana flavored extract (optional)
Blend in a high speed blender till smooth and creamy. Makes 2 biiig servings.
If I had to make a list of ten things I miss most about living in Spain, mangos would be on it! Not just any mangos, but the ones grown by a man named Rufino who has a food forest in the south of Spain near Granada. His finca, Fruta y Sol, has the most diverse offerings of anwhere- mango, cherimoya, passionfruit, green coconuts, fresh dates, macadamias and so much more!! Southern Spain has microclimates that are so much more tropical than most people realize. Anyway, every time mango season came around in early Fall, we would buy huge cases- like 15 kilos big ( a bit over 30 pounds!!!). I don’t even know what to say about these mangos. They were the ripest, juiciest, most luscious pieces of fruit to have ever graced these lips. Mango is a funny fruit, it most definitely has it’s own distinctive flavor but a truly tree ripened mango will tease you with other flavors- hints of coconut, pineapple, passion fruit, even vanilla! We would basically mono-meal on mango for a while, and then I would freeze lots of it for the richest and simplest sorbet ever- simply frozen mango in the food processor. Best Ever by far! The other day, i came across some nice looking mango in my local supermarket that smelled nice and fragrant ( yes, i am that crazy lady at the grocery store sniffing the fruit, LOL) so I bought a few and made a smoothie that was just beautiful and simple and delicious.
And it inspired this trip down mango nostalgia lane. Is there a fruit that holds a piece of your heart?
This was that smoothie, by the way:
Mango Love Smoothie
3 ripe mangos 2 bananas lots of crushed ice, 2 tablespoons of lucuma powder
1 tsp ashwaganda powder for some adaptogenic goodness!
Blend in a high speed blender until ice is fully blended and the texture is light and creamy. Feel free to add in any fresh greens or green powder you fancy. Green is always good 🙂
I am still smoothie-ing it up! Although today I also had a raw lunch. My morning smoothie was this one, and I was just blown away by how complementary these two flavors are until today! So if you have ever wondered what to do with mesquite powder, try this out.
Blueberry Mesquite Smoothie
3 frozen bananas 2 cups fresh blueberries 2 tbsp mesquite powder 1 tbsp lucuma powder (optional) 1 tsp purple corn extract (optional) 1 tbsp Vitamineral Green (or other green powder, chlorella, Spirulina, etc.)
2 cups coconut water
Blend and serve! Makes 2 large servings.
For me right now, working the Farmer’s Market Saturday mornings (4:30 wake up, yo!!) Friday night has become super busy work time for me followed by a “lets get as much sleep as possible” thing. Tomorrow will be the third market this week, as there was a special July 4 market yesterday. With a just turned 10 month old in tow, it is hard work! I’ve been relying on lots of liquid nutrition like smoothies and juices to power me through.
I had some noni juice for the first time! Verdict- foul by itself but pretty damn great mixed with kombucha! I will be having this the next time there is a festive occasion where I don’t want to be drinking alcohol.
I also had this quick and dirty green juice:
And this banana soft serve, pimped out with superfoods!
Even with all that goodness + the goodness that is my life, today I sort of hit an emotional and physical wall. Seeing Amethyst transform from a dependent, bald little baby into an independent little girl is so beautiful to see, but at the same time it is testing my ability to enjoy each moment and to allow myself to let go and surrender to the inevitable flow of life to the limit! Of course I want her to grow into the being she was meant to be, but I can’t help but selfishly want her to stay a baby! She is my little starseed. I felt her grow inside of me and then I released her, into the world. Each contraction that rocked my being to the core, each primal push that brought her a little closer into this dimension is forever etched into not only my memory, but my cells themselves, as I am forever changed because of it. Along with by body which opened to give her passage, my heart as well was cleaved wide open, raw and exposed. And right now, I feel it all too well. I see her, this living, breathing, laughing expression of me, of my heart, out there in the world and I know that it will never return. And so I continue to breathe deeply, wipe the tears off of my face (and hers), thank the Great Spirit for the gift of this experience, for the ability to feel such divine pain, kiss the tip of her nose and brush my face against hers. Kind of heavy, I know. But I have to be real and this is what I am going through now.
The Medicine though, is right here:
Kale and Kelp Salad
1 large bunch of kale, destemmed and broken into pieces. We are lucky to have locally grown awesome kale! 1 packet of kelp noodles, rinsed and drained.
3 banana peppers (they are in season at the moment here and so good. You could use any veggie, and red pepper would be especially nice), sliced finely.
For sauce: 1/2 cup cashews 1/2 cup coconut ( shredded or fresh) 1/2 cup wild jungle peanut butter (or any nut butter you have) Juice of 3 limes Juice of half an orange 1 tsp green curry paste (or curry powder. The point is to impart a mild curry flavor) 1 tsp toasted sesame oil (not raw and optional) 2 tbsp hemp oil 1 tbsp white miso 3 tbsp wheat free tamari 1 clove garlic
2 cups coconut water or spring water
Blend in high speed blender until smooth.
Pour sauce on top of kale, kelp and peppers. Massage in with hands roughly until kelp noodles are evenly distributed and kale is coated with sauce and softening. Leave to marinate for half an hour and then serve!
Serves 4
This meal was sooo nourishing and good! It would be just so perfect topped with homemade sauerkraut or some other type of fermented veggies.
We chopped some up superfine and Amethyst gobbled it up!
A while back I promised a recipe for some amazing apricot cookie squares that I made. Ever the procrastinator (well, that and super-busy mama!) it has taken me a little longer than planned. But here we are, better late than never!
Apricot-Cardamom Cookie Squares
For the base:
(this recipe is adapted from the lemon lavender doughnuts I posted about earlier.)
2 1/2 cups brazil nut flour
2 1/2 cups shredded coconut
1 cup sprouted buckwheaties
pinch salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup coconut nectar
Place all ingredients except for the coconut nectar into a food processor and process until combined and flour like. With food processor running, slowly add coconut nectar. A thick dough should form. If it is still dry, add a little water a tablespoon at a time. Take the dough out of the food processor and spread out onto a teflex sheet. Score into squares now to make it easier on you later 😉
For the Apricot-Cardamom topping:
2 cups dried apricots, soaked in warm water for 20 minutes
1/2 cup medjool dates, pitted
seeds from 1 pod of cardamom
3 tbsp chia seeds
3 tbsp coconut nectar
Add all ingredients to high speed blender and blend on high until smooth. Spread over cookie base and dehydrate at 115 degrees for 8 hours.
This recipe makes 16 big huge squares. They keep in a sealed container for at least a week, but I put half of them in the freezer to have in a pinch.
For some reason, I haven’t been able to find any jicama locally. It isn’t a common sight in Spain so it has been a really long time since I have been able to enjoy it. This past weekend, I saw some at the supermarket in Lafayette and just had to buy one. I didn’t really know what to do with it but yesterday I was so hungry and wanted something filling but light and it had to be raw. I also remembered all the dandelion flowers I have been pickling this spring and wanted to use some of those.
I just sort of threw this together but it would be a wonderful substitute for guacamole for any kind of Mexican meal. Lower in fat, higher in fiber, and certainly cheaper! A win-win situation!
Jicama Avocado Dandelion Salad
1 small or half large jicama 1 avocado 2 tbsp pickled dandelion flowers 1 tsp aji amarillo powder or other mild chili powder
Pinch kalahari salt or sea salt
Finely dice or shred jicama and place into a bowl. Then add all other ingredients and mix thoroughly until avocado is mashed into everything. Serve immediately.
