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!!