I'm Back!

Happy Monday everyone! Yeah, I know... it's been almost a whole week since I last posted! Yikes! Sorry about that! I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and weekend! I went home (3 hours from where I live now) and got to see my parents and sister. It was nice and relaxing.

To recap my Thanksgiving raw treats, I made the family a raw apple pie (from my recipe of the raw apple crumble) and Cafe Gratitude's Pecan Pie. Both were so good!

Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeecan Pie

I also got a delivery at work right before I left on the long drive to meet the family...

Raw Tree Nut Cheese!!!

I know, I'm such a dork. I get excited about the little things in life.

From Dr-Cow Natural Living & Organic Foods, I received their Tree Nut Cheese Box that comes with five aged nut cheeses plus one nut cream cheese. Really, their good, but so odd. My favorite so far is the Cashew Cream Cheese, followed closely but the Aged Cashew Cheese with Hemp Seeds.

Green from the blue-green algae it's made with... only this one though. Told you it was odd!

Yum, yum! Raw aged cashew cream cheese on Ezekial bread.

While I was home I made my family a new recipe I found while being bored online... I jazzed up a recipe that I found on the internet, but for the life of me I cannot find it again to supply the source. Anyway, here is what was for dinner:

RunLori's Butternut Squash Casserole

(I really need to be more creative on my recipe names...)

Ingredients:

•  1 medium butternut squash (or any other squash of choice)
• 1 medium white onion (diced)
  
• 2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
  
• 1 cup bread crumbs (I used raw, gluten-free sunflower bread)
• salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste
  
• goat cheese, raw nut cheese, or any other cheese you would like

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Slice the squash in half, length-wise and remove the seeds. Place skin-side up on a baking sheet lined with tin foil and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the squash is tender.

While the squash is baking, heat the coconut oil in a pan and saute the onion and garlic until onions are soft. Set aside.

When done, remove the squash from the oven and scrape out the insides, placing it into a casserole baking dish. Mix in the cooked onion and garlic, the bread crumbs or equivalent, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cheese of choice.

Place the casserole back into the oven and cook for another 10 minutes or until warmed throughout. Sprinkle with cilantro, green onions, or finely chopped parsley.

Get creative here! You can spice up the recipe by adding so many different spices. Cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, cumin, cinnamon (make it Mediterranean), the possibilities are endless.

This dish was served with a big simple green salad and roasted brussel sprouts (quite possibly my favorite veggie ever. At least when roasted!!!)

 

I hope everyone has a great Monday night and I will see you all in the morning!

You're the apple of my eye.

Well, you're really the raw apple crumble in my mouth! haha!

Sweets don't stand a chance against me!



So, the second photo was before I decided to make an actual topping to my apple crumble... but oh my, the crumble is GOOD.

Happy 2 days before Thanksgiving! Enjoy the recipe!

Raw (tastes liked cooked) Apple Crumble Pie
(based on a recipe by my favorite raw chef, Ani Phyo)

Filling Ingredients:

• 4-5 cups apples (about 5 apples), thinly sliced
  
• 1 cup raisins
• 1-2 tbsp cinnamon

Gooey sauce Ingredients:

• 3 tangerines (or 1 orange, I only had tangerines)
  
• 1/2 soft, pitted dates
• 1/4 cup water

Mix the apple, raisins, and cinnamon together in a bowl and set aside.

Blend the tangerines, dates, and water in a blender until smooth.

Mix the gooey sauce into the apples and toss until well coated. Spoon all of your apple filling into a dish/pie pan/holding apparatus until crumble is ready.

This step can be done one day ahead of time to let all the flavors meld together and soften the apple slices.

Crumble top ingredients:

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup old fashion oats
• 1/4 cup yacon syrup
• dash salt

In a food processor, process the walnut for a couple of second to break down a little. Add the oats and process again. This is subjective; you can make your crumble relatively smooth (I choose this) or chunky- this will determine how much to process the walnuts and oats.

When you have reached a desired consistency, add in the yacon syrup. Can add more or less depending on how sweet you want this, but the filling and gooey mix is pretty sweet already... Add in a dash of salt and you're good to go!

Taste the crumble to make sure it's to your liking (Mine was interesting tasting on it's own but when combined with the apple filling... oh my goodness, it was delicious.) Spoon crumble over your apple filling mixture and serve! Keep in the fridge for a couple of days (if it lasts that long).

Raw, vegan, healthy Apple Crumble Pie. (as a Campbell's Soup Commercial would say)
Mmmm Mmmm good!

Add a little Shabu Shabu to your step

First, I would like to start out this post with a Thank you for reading!! Second, Happy Monday!! And third, I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! I know I did!

My weekend started on Friday night with a girls' night spent with delicious homemade Spiced Mulled Wine (thanks Kaila!!) and the New Moon movie!

***Guys reading this, you will probably want to skip to down a couple of paragraphs at this point...***

Side note with this one.. I LOVED the Twilight books! I have never been more into a book or series of books than I was with this one. The first movie, however, not so good. It was almost embarrassing for me to watch this one in the theater. I guess the characters (and acting) just was not what was in my head from the books.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the squeal to Twilight! The acting was much better in this one and the time seemed to fly by during the two hour movie. I thought it followed the book a little more closely than the last one. All in all, it was good. And Jacob... oh my... he's hot. Too bad he's only 17 in real life... *sigh*

***Guys can return reading now***

Anyway, Saturday was spent getting a much needed hair cut and walking around downtown San Jose, followed by lunch with the boyfriend.

Sunday I decided to actually attend one of the Meetup.com groups that I am a "member" of and go on an 11 mile hike! We hike the steep hills of Almaden Quicksilver area in San Jose. It was beautiful and the weather Gods were on our side during the whole 4 hours that we were outdoors. The actual hiking milage was a little over 10.5 and took us 3 hours. The whole hike took 4 hours since we stopped a few times along the way to have our guide tell us a little history of the area.










I loved it. And, I'm not even sore today! I am surprised since those hills, that made up most of the hike, were very steep and we walked pretty fast. Hmmm, maybe I'm in shape. ;-)

Here's a few pics from dinner with the boyfriend. He's my little chef, as I've mentioned before, and he likes to eat. So, we ate! And this was his treat for me... he did all the chopping and preparing!

Shabu Shabu!

Shabu-shabu is a Japanese variant of hot pot. The dish is related to sukiyaki in style, where both use thinly sliced meat and vegetables, and usually served with dipping sauces... The dish is prepared by submerging a very thin slice of meat or a piece of vegetable in a pot of boiling water or dashi (broth) and swishing it back and forth several times. (The familiar swishing sound is where the dish gets its name. Shabu-shabu directly translates to "swish-swish".) -Wikipedia

Wine, cabbage, tofu, glass noodles, green onions, carrots, pork, beef, wasabi, and raw Thai sauce
We loaded own little "baskets" with whatever items we would like then simmer them in the broth in the middle (on hotplate)
Did I mention this was a picnic in our den? Movie and Shabu Shabu night.

Casual Friday

Good morning and HAPPY FRIDAY! Today's post is casual. ;-)

Today is a great day! The sun is shining (still) and I love the light wind we have here in the South Bay area of California. It truly feels like fall now.

My drive to work... don't worry, I was stopped... : /

Love the colors!

Last night was a little crazy but the food was fantastic! I got off work an hour late, due to a long patient appointment and rushed home to start dinner. My sister was driving up, from school in Santa Barbara, to our parents' house for Thanksgiving break, and stayed the night at my house last night. This cuts the trip in half. Otherwise it's a looooooooong drive. Ug.

So, I got home and started chopping away! I'm always excited to make some raw or clean dish for my family since they don't always eat this way. Especially my poor college student sister. ;-)

Last night's glorious meal was based on a recipe by my favorite bloggers, the Pure2Raw twins. Their recipe was for Shredded Brussel Sprout Hash with Pecan Butter Sauce, which looks delicious to me so hey, why not, right? Well, I did not have all the exact ingredients they used so I put my own variation or twist to the recipe.

Without further introduction,

RunLoriRun's Baked Root Veggie Scramble with Creamy Raw Sauce (long name, amazing results, haha)

Bake Root Veggies

Ingredients:

• 1 butternut squash (or any squash)
• 2 medium carrots
• 1 zucchini
• 1/4 - 1/2 green cabbage
• 3 - 4 tbsp coconut oil**
• 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp or so sea salt
  

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Chop or process all of the veggies, as close as possible, into strips. I did mine by hand. It took a while. Shred cabbage.

Toss all the veggie strips, into a large Pyrex pan or baking dish and toss with salt, apple cider vinegar, and coconut oil.

**The coconut oil is solid at room temp or pretty much frozen at my house since it's so cold. I scooped out about 4 tbps onto the top of the veggies and then tossed them after about 5 minutes in the oven.

Place the veggies into the oven cooking until tender (about 40 minutes). Check and toss every 5 to 10 minutes.

Creamy Raw Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup walnuts
• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
  
• 4 tbsp white onions or shallots, chopped
• about 1/2 cup water (may have to add more or less depending on consistency)
  
• 1 tbsp yacon syrup (can use agave or honey)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• 1 tbps miso paste (optional)

Place all ingredients into blender. Blend until creamy and delicious. Taste and adjust to your liking. This should have a "fall" taste to it... if that is a taste...

Blender full, ready to blend!

We enjoyed this dish with a giant green salad of red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, thinly sliced white onion, and avocado. The salad dressing was a simple one of extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, white balsamic vinegar, a little yacon syrup for sweetness and depth, and salt and pepper.

The meal was wonderful. One of the best things I have had in a while. A++ to the twins for their creativity in the kitchen and for my efforts to recreate a variant of it!

And the reviews from my sister: "Wow, this is REALLY good! It tastes like homemade macaroni and cheese! Real cheese!"

And it really did. It wasn't suppose to but it still tasted great! Definitely try this recipe!

Well, I had a great time with my sister! We didn't take any pictures so I thought I'd include 2 old ones. She's the younger one... if that helps, since people say I look younger.

Last Thanksgiving, Christine and me

A couple of months ago at a fundraiser for my Team In Training Marathon Fundraising
Myself and the little one

Have a great Friday night!
Tonight, some friends and I are planning to wine and dine ourselves before going to see New Moon which came out this morning at midnight! Can't wait! (Yeah, I'm a dork! But the books are SO GOOD!)

Bye!!

Riddle

What is kind, needs your help, and is covered in chocolate? Oooooooooh chocolate.



Scroll down for clues and the answer.

Clue 1: She makes chocolate fudge babies
(and they are AMAZING.)






Clue 2: She makes macaroon babies
(yeah, those are probably just as amazing.)

Clue 3: She even makes peanut butter fudge sandwhiches

Give up?

ANSWER:

Operation Chocolate Covered Kindness


Katie over at Chocolate Covered Katie is quite a talented blogger. She make the most mouthwatering desserts and dishes and even better, donates all of the money she makes blogging (when people click onto her site) to charity. That is where Operation Chocolate Covered Kindness comes in.

So please, click on the above link and do a little chocolate covered clicking! Trust me, your tastebuds will not be disappointed... well, actually they probably will because one can only look at all of her wonderful treats. Damn, when are they going to invent lickable blog sites??? (ew, that actually sounds pretty gross.)

Until next chocolate covered time...