Cleanse - Day 2

Well yesterday was great. I had plenty of delicious raw food to keep my tummy full all day.

My very full fridge!

Strawberry Banana Ice Cream

1 cup frozen strawberries

2 cup frozen banana

3-4 tablespoons almond milk

Mix in Vitamix!

Tomato Zucchini Soup, topped with avocado and flax seed crackers

Mango Salsa

Romaine Lettuce, Mango Salsa and Mung Bean Sprout "taco"

Anybody else think sprouts look like sperm? I suppose that makes sense...

Sometimes I make ugly food. Spinach, tomato basil sauce with zucchini noodles.

Amazing Green Smoothie!

1 large handful Spinach
1 handful chopped Collard Greens
1 large Banana
2 cups pineapple or other frozen fruit
3-4 cups Water

Here is today's vlog!

Indian Pot Pies!

This weekend has been a tiny bit blah. Quilt making was a bust. How does anyone manage to line up all the layers??!! We didn't get much cleaning done. We did get our fridge stocked and ready for the 10-day cleanse we are starting tomorrow! I will be updating frequently about that, so keep watch.

But for today, we needed to clean out a few things that might tempt us next week. This recipe was so easy, you won't even believe it! I feel like a big cheater, actually, because it only took TWO ingredients to make it. I feel like one of those moms in the 70's who's discovered microwave cooking!
Hubs and I bought some little baking pans at a restaurant going-out-of-business sale. Hooray for small foods!



Makes 4 pot pies

Ingredients
1 pouch TastyBites Jaipur Vegetables
1 package Big and Flaky Crescent Rolls (6 count)

That's all you need!

Spray baking dishes with Pam.
Take one crescent roll, lay it in the bottom of the pan, rolling it in such a way that it forms a pie-crust type situation... (uses 4 rolls)
Then! Cut the corner off the vegetable pouch. Pour a quarter of the pouch into each pie-crust.
Take the remaining rolls, tear them in half and lay one piece on top of each pie to form the top crust.
You should have this:

Put your little pans onto a small cookie sheet for easy maneuvering. Bake at 375 degree for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cover with tin foil. Bake an additional 8 minutes. All done! These should pop right out of the pans. (This is why it's so important to spray!) Enjoy!

Wake Me Up Smoothie

Ran out of spinach yesterday, so today's smoothie is a very pretty peach color!









3 cups water
2 cups frozen fruit mix (pineapple, mango, strawberry, peach)
1 frozen banana
1 apple
2 large carrots
1/2 lime
1/2 tbsp chia seeds
1/2 teaspoon matcha green tea powder

I did not peel the apple or carrots, just cut them into manageable pieces. I did peel the lime!
Blend blend blend.
Yum.


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What's Jicama?

As I continue down this raw food exploration, I am learning so much! Not just all the valuable healing and health stuff, but practical things, such as what a jicama is! Apparently it is a strange mix between an apple and a potato. And it is slightly magical, in that you can make "french" fries with them, RAW! Whoa. Neato jicamo.
Here is an excellent recipe from Raw Intentions. Sign up for their newsletter to get free recipes!

Crunchy Jicama Fries

Base coating

1 large Jicama, peeled, and sliced into quarter inch strips to resemble French fries

1 cup nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

¼ teaspoon cayenne

Pinch of salt

Place all ingredients in a ziplock bag. Can be doubled if using more than one Jicama. Add herbs and spices of your choice and enjoy the great flavors. Best if eaten the same day.

Divide in half if making more than one flavor and add:

Herb Fries

1 teaspoon Herbs de Provence

1 teaspoon garlic

1 teaspoon thyme

Place all ingredients in a Ziploc bag with the base coating and mix well. Add Jicama Strips and shake in bag until well coated.

 Mexican Fries

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

½ teaspoon coriander

Place all ingredients in a Ziploc bag with the base coating and mix well. Add Jicama Strips and shake in bag until well coated.

 Sweet Fries

½ cup shredded coconut ground in a  

spice grinder or blender

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch of Stevia powder

Optional spices could include, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom

Place all ingredients in a Ziploc bag with the base coating and mix well. Add Jicama Strips and shake in bag until well coated.

© 2011, Denise Madeja

Free Recipe Cards!

I couldn't sleep last night. It's a long story, but the short of it is that Hubs and I are trying to figure out if we'll ever be able to buy a house. Apparently we stand a good chance of being approved if we buy a house in the next week... after that, the changing laws will make it nearly impossible for us for the next 10 years. That's a lot to deal with, but I just don't think it makes sense to buy a house tomorrow! I mean, we did find the perfect house for us... and it's in our price range... but there's just no way we could come up with the down payment in time. *sigh* C'est la vie.

So to lighten the mood, I created some fun recipe cards! Click on the links to download the pdf, which is designed to print 4 to a page. Enjoy!

	Silverware Recipe Card
	Beater Recipe Card
	Pig Recipe Card
	Tea Recipe Card

Big thanks to the Graphics Fairy for providing awesome vintage clipart!

Home-made Sorbet

Hooray for Vitamix!

Handful of ice
Large spoonful of frozen juice concentrate- I used apple raspberry
Splash of Pom juice
Splash of apple juice
1/3 banana

Delicious!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Me eat chocolate

I have been consuming an inhuman amount of dark chocolate lately. In order to change things up a bit, I tried a recipe from Raw Intentions.

Hooray for chocolate pudding!

The mad scientist secret?

It's made of avocados.

MUAHAHAHAHA!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cilantro Smoothie

Good morning! Yesterday was a very blah day for me. I was supposed to go take a blood test to see if I am preggers, but the clinic was closed. Hubby and I drove to 3 different drug stores to buy a home pee test. In the end, it was negative and we ate some nachos.

Today, I am feeling lighter. I may not know what the heezy is going on baby/body wise, but I can find much comfort in the people around me and the life I am lucky enough to have. I trust the universe to continue working as it is meant to; I'm down for the ride.

So! This morning's smoothie was a bit of a risk. This is how it started out...

1 cup Simply Apple Juice
2 Oranges
2 handfuls Spinach
8 sprigs Cilantro
2 Carrots
1 cup Frozen Strawberries
1 cup Ice
plus some Maca and Flax seeds

How did it taste, you ask? Like rubbing your face in a pile of cilantro.
Hmm.
Then we tried this...

Add:
1 Carrot
1  handful Spinach
1 Frozen Banana
1 cup Frozen Mango

And now? Better! Certainly drinkable. It's hard to mellow out cilantro once it's in there.
What did we learn today?

LESS CILANTRO FOR OPTIMAL YUMMINESS.

Have a great day :)

Pineapple Green Smoothie

The green smoothie saga continues. This morning we have apple juice, water, spinach, romaine lettuce, baby carrots, frozen banana and lots of pineapple. Also, maca, chia seeds and matcha green tea powder.

Yes! This is excellent!






Any body have any good green smoothie recipes to share?



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Vegan Mug Cake

Uh- that's right, fellas and ladies. Vegan... Chocolate... 1 minute... CAKE! IT'S TOO MUCH TO BEAR!!!
(link to the recipe I used )

And to think, Hubs was about to go to the store just to prevent me from having a psychotic episode. What a swell guy.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (with a secret)

I absolutely love homemade choc chip cookies. Recently I was whipping up a batch and realized I had no vanilla extract! In a moment of panic came a stroke of genius. I used pure maple syrup instead. I seriously suggest you incorporate this mistake into your next batch! The maple flavor is very subtle but you can definitely tell the difference.
If you're curious, here's the recipe I've been using (since I left my Joy of Vegan Baking cookbook at my mom's on Thanksgiving) http://allrecipes.com/recipe/best-chocolate-chip-cookies/
Get baking!

Low-carb Cream Cheese Mousse

I have been to low-carb heaven. It tasted like cheesecake.
The inspiration for the recipe can be found here.
Get ready for bliss.


Yin Yang Cream Cheese Mousse with Raspberries
16 carbs total

To make the filling:
  1 8oz package low fat cream cheese (check the label and make sure it says 1 carb per tbsp) allow to soften at room temperature at least 1 hour
2 tsp Splenda
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp Hershey's Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder (added later)
  Beat heavy cream in a bowl until it forms soft peaks. Add softened cream cheese, Splenda, and vanilla. Beat whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture, using low speed of electric mixer.
Remove half of mixture into one half of a bowl.
Add cocoa powder (add more to taste) and mix well.
Add to the other half of the bowl.

You can line your bowl with raspberries first, and then garnish some on top, or just use this as a dip! Or hell, just eat it with a spoon.
  Chill at least one hour. This will keep in the refrigerator for several days.

Cheesecake-Stuffed Strawberries

As a new lover of Pinterest, (feel free to follow me!) I have discovered many wonderful things lately. One of these favorites is originally from Sugar Derby ... Cheesecake-filled Strawberries! Well holy crap, yes!

These were really easy to make and came out looking super fancy, so this will be my new go-to dessert for all parties. I didn't follow their recipe, though. Here's what I did:
Bought a 16oz box of strawberries (afterwards I realized I could have bought 2 or 3 boxes and had plenty of filling)
Sliced off the leafies.
Used a peeler to core out the white center of the strawberry, being careful not to cut all the way through.
(I saved all the strawberry cores for later...)
Bought a box of no-bake cheesecake mix.
Prepared the cheesecake filling according to the box's directions.
Got a ziploc bag and cut the corner off (very small cut! You don't want a gaping hole. You need to be able to fit it into your strawberry)
Scooped some filling in the bag and used the bag to fill the strawberries.
I also bought a box of raspberries and filled those, too. No coring required!
I poured some of the crust powder from the box onto a plate and dipped the tops of the filled-fruits in that.
Refrigerate at least an hour.
Voila!
As for the left-over strawberry cores, the hubby put them in the blender with some Nutella to create a dip. aaammmmmaaaazzzzziiiinnnnnggg. Gotta love brilliant hubbies.

Spectacular Vegan Sauces

As promised, I am posting the recipes for the two sauces I made to accompany the delicious asparagus and coconut curry my roommate and I cooked up on Monday. I have never made a sauce before so this was really exciting! And lifted my spirits quite a bit, since my baking has taken a turn for the worse as of late.

Vegan Peanut Sauce
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup water
a sprinkle of ground red pepper to taste

Mix it all up. Stir it with all your might! Cause that peanut butter isn't going down without a fight. (ooooh, a rhyme!)
This sauce came out a little sweeter than I expected. But when drizzled lightly over curry and rice, KAPOW! Awesomeness.

Vegan Lemon Aioli Sauce
1/2 cup Vegennaise
2 garlic cloves, minced (or 1 tbsp minced garlic from a jar)
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon basil

Mix it up!

This sauce went really well with our almond, garlic asparagus.

But really I just love opportunities to eat mayonnaise.

NOT a diet

I am absolutely, positively not on a diet. If I were, my body would immediately shut out all reason and demand cookies until I cave. However, I snack A LOT. Every 2-3 hours, I'd say. And I've come to the conclusion that there are probably better snacks to eat than cookies, crackers, bagels, carby carby mccarbersons.

So today begins my adventures in "healthier" snacking.

Today I ate a small portion of cottage cheese and mandarin oranges for morning snack (I don't eat breakfast.)

For pre-lunch snack, I had walnuts and dried cranberries.

Lunch was a bowl of hearty tomato soup.

After-lunch snack was possibly my favorite of the day: two spoonfuls of cottage cheese, 1/3 cucumber, 2 cherry tomatoes and pepper.

That's healthy, right?

For dinner, my roommate is making asparagus and some coconut tofu while I whip up vegan lemon aioli sauce for the asparagus and vegan peanut sauce for the tofu. Recipes for those sauces to come!

Sloppy TVP - not quite as catchy...

My day started out really great! I won a giveaway from madewithlove so now my button will be on their page. Weeee! I'm excited.

On to other news, this next recipe is so simple yet positively mind blowing (for me, anyway). For 8 years I didn't eat barbeque sauce because I was a bad vegetarian and mostly ate cheese and bread. One day my husband made a baked potato with barbeque sauce all over it and my life has not been the same since. Here is my favorite recipe made with, you guessed it, barbeque sauce.

Sloppy TVP

Put 2 tbs oil in a medium skillet.
Add 1/2 cup TVP and slightly less than 1/2 cup water
Let that heat up a minute while the TVP soaks up some water
Squirt barbeque sauce over TVP mixture, stir in, add more til it looks coated
1 tsp liquid smoke
1/2 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce (optional)
I like to add a little chipotle seasoning or vegan bacon salt
salt and pepper to taste

This goes great on a hoagie bun with a little vegenaise and a sliced claussen pickle! Or atop a baked potato.

Vegan Mulligatawny Soup - I'd get lost on an island with this soup

This soup is so amazingly awesomely delicious that you will decide to invite friends over to help you eat the giant pot of soup and then silently cry that you won't have enough leftovers to eat for breakfast.
* Be wary of growing feelings of resentment when your friends get seconds.
* Do not steal the pot and elope to Mexico. No one will understand your love.

Mulligatawny Soup (vegan version)

1 yellow onion, chopped
6 stalks celery, chopped
6 carrot, diced
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
8 cups vegetable broth (or Not Chik'n Broth)
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup rice (jasmine rice is good)
1 can coconut milk
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
1 pinch dried thyme

Jazz it up with extra pinches of cumin, coriander, ground red pepper, and more curry powder.

Saute onions, celery, carrot, and oil in a large soup pot. Add flour and curry, and cook 5 more minutes. Add stock, mix well, and bring to a boil. Simmer about 1/2 hour.
Add applesauce, rice, coconut milk, salt, pepper, and thyme. Simmer 15-20 minutes, or until rice is done.

Spicy Pumpkin Soup Recipe

I know that soup season is nearly over, but I feel the need to share this recipe.
(for vegan recipe, use rice milk and omit butter and cheese)

5 cups Vegetable Broth
1 can Evaporated Milk
30 oz Pure Pumpkin, puréed
16 oz Yellow Corn
1 packet Lipton Vegetable Soup Mix
1 cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated
2 tbsp Stick Butter
6 tbsp. Dark Brown Sugar (this part is VERY important!)
2 tbsp. Chili Powder
1 tbsp. Ground Cumin
1 tsp. Ground Coriander
1 tsp. Ground Red Pepper
1 tsp. Thyme
½ tsp. Celery Seed
Salt and Pepper to taste

Blend pumpkin, vegetable broth and evaporated milk in large stock pot.
Add remaining ingredients and whisk for 2-3 minutes.
Bring to boil over medium heat.
Reduce heat and simmer until flavors blend, about 30 minutes.

Makes about 3 qts.

When we first made this, we used a whole pumpkin. Let me be the first to say, when you are standing in the kitchen holding a HUGE PUMPKIN, life can become very confusing. We ended up with 75 ounces of pure pumpkin, whereas the recipe only calls for 30. We put up a post on facebook calling all nearby residents to bring a bowl. There should be a proverb about how time and effort put into a pumpkin can feed a small village.