Raw Post-Run Pudding

Spring is here! The weather is warm, hot tea has turned to iced tea, and I no longer feel the need to wrap myself in a scarf and long coat before venturing outside. I absolutely love warm weather, and everything associated with it.

I've been trying to get back into running. The cold weather mixed with quitting track and getting a part time job on top of my grades had just about soaked up every ounce of desire I had to hit the trails. I've also been trying to eat more healthy. More fruits and veggies, less heavy cooked and processed foods. So far so good, I've been enjoying lots of fresh juices and smoothies every day, as well as doing more yoga and getting more runs in.

So, where is the damn recipe? A long run generally leaves me willing to eat anything in sight. I usually try to get some protein, because my diet is probably not very high in it, as well as some good fats and carbs. You know, a good balance. On the way home I usually brain storm in my head exactly what I want to eat, so that I don't eat the entire kitchen when I get home. A vamped up version of the classic banana-avocado-cacao pudding, this is loaded with the good stuff.

Raw Post-Run Pudding

makes a pretty big portion

1/2 avocado

1 frozen banana

1 ripe banana

1 tbls cacao powder

1/3 tsp cinnamon

1-2 tbls hemp protein powder

1 tsp almond butter

a teeny dash of sea salt

1.) Blend the avocado and frozen banana in a food processor.

2.) When the mixture is smooth, add the ripe banana.

3.) Add everything else and blend well.

4.) Feel free to top with bee pollen, granola, coconut, or just eat as is!

Microgreens: Buckwheat!

I've been growing and eating sprouts for a while. When I say a while I mean no more than two years, (I'm an eighteen year old, we think six months relationships are "long term") but nonetheless I've grown them enough to be familiar with them. Different flavors, textures, which are better cooked, better raw, which should never have been sprouted in the first place.

I go off and on sprout kicks, generally just motivated by what I'm craving. Lately I've been craving lots of raw, unadulterated foods. What can I say? They make me feel good. And they're much better of my sensitive digestive system than ToFurky or some gluttonous pasta. Enter buckwheat, which really just wanted to be granola. My work didn't have any hulled buckwheat groats, (the kind that doesn't have the hard, indigestible outershell) So I opted for the unhulled buckwheat, assuming that just like alfalfa, the hull would fall off during the sprouting process. Let me tell you, buckwheat is NOT like alfalfa. You think I would have done my research via SproutPeople, but I didn't. Turns out, unhulled buckwheat is used strictly for buckwheat lettuce, which is grown via growing trays, quite similarly to how wheatgrass is grown. That is , you sprout the grain in a jar, and then put the sprouts in soil and water them and they grow. So I had this buckwheat sprouting in a jar, still in its indigestible hulls, while the growing trays I ordered for my future wheatgrass was still in the mail. What's a girl to do? I put the buckwheat in the fridge, hoping it wouldn't die, and patiently waited until my trays came. When they did, I planted them, and hoped for the best. What a happy accident!

After two or three days. The little guys are popping up!

Right before the slaughter. They look like clover and have a subtle lemony taste.

So now I have a big bag of buckwheat lettuce sitting in my fridge, with a second crop (from the same tray) almost ready. They grow really fast, and they're a very inexpensive way to get some organic greens!

After this I'm going to be trying wheatgrass, which was the initial reason for buying the trays.

I've also tried making raw wheat bread, but (surprise) it has a very raw taste to it. Which is not necessarily what I'm going for. I love my Ezekiel bread, but it'd be nice to find something homemade that's less expensive and just as, if not more nutritionally satisfying. The batch I made was very standard: sprouted wheat berries, ground flax, sea salt, raw honey. I'll be experimenting with a cinnamon-raisin bread and an herbed bread. But for now, enjoy the greens!

Herbed Raw Cashew "Cheese"

It looks like we may be having our second major snow storm of the new year, which may mean two consecutive weeks of multiple snow days. I really can't complain. I don't really mind all of the shoveling, and the set back of graduating a couple days later to make up for the lost days doesn't really bother me. I probably should be using the extra days off to get more studying done, May will be here before I know it, laughing at me as I sit in a room for 4 hours taking AP tests, while she's shining her sun and warming the earth. But instead of studying, what do I do? I take time to prepare food I wouldn't have time to make during the school day. I think up little snacks that I would love to have. (Like the one I thought of today during Philosophy class: chocolate cashew butter. It would be sooo easy. And so good.) Sundays are also spent making foods for me to eat during the week. Dips and pates are the easiest, because I love munching on veggies during the day and salads aren't very ideal to be taken out in the middle of class. Some celery, or peppers, with a nice nut or bean dip, and no one even notices.

I've been experimenting with nut "cheeses" a bit lately, trying to ferment them to get that tangy cheese taste. The fermenting hasn't been too successful. I'm going to try adding more miso, and if that doesn't work then just breaking open a probiotic and adding that. So the cheese I made is not notably tangy, but it is still very good. The consistency is very smooth, and the olive oil-rosemary combination gives it a creamy herby flavor.

If you left this out for say, a couple days, it may legitimately ferment, but to be honest I wanted some good dip, and I didn't feel like waiting.



Herbed Raw Cashew "Cheese"

2 cups raw cashews
1 cup raw walnuts
1 tbls extra virgin olive oil
3/4 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp miso paste

1.) Soak cashews and walnuts for at least 2 hours, or over night.
2.) Drain nuts. Puree them in your food processor until crumbly.
3.) Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until the mixture is very smooth, like a creamy nut butter.
4.) Put a cheesecloth over a small bowl, and then put the cheese mixture on top of the cheesecloth. Then put plastic wrap over the cheese mixture to keep it from drying out. I used a rubber band to hold the cheese cloth onto the bowl like a cover. The weight from the nut cheese will sink it down a bit.
5.) Let the "cheese" sit like this for 24 hours (or more) in a warm place.
6.) Put the cheese on a plate and enjoy with veggies, chips, crackers, in sandwiches, or whatever else suits you.



On cheesecloth, covered with plastic wrap.


Being enjoyed with Mom's homemade brown rice crackers.

Rawish Chocolate. Kind of.

Most teenagers go to the mall and go on shopping sprees. I go shopping at work (a natural foods store) and to the occasional Whole Foods, where I generally buy things that I don't need with money that I shouldn't be spending. For example, the excessive amount of chapsticks that I bought on my most recent visit. Hey, it's the winter, okay? We all need a little bit extra chapstick. I also had to buy the burdock root I found, even though I have no idea how to consume it. Do I make tea? Would I have to dry it first? Can I just pan fry it and eat it? Who knows. I'll find out eventually, I promise. Maybe I'll post it. A few other first time purchases were cacao beans and maca powder. You can never get enough super foods. And while I don't have any cocoa butter, I do have a 3.5 lb tub of coconut oil, which I can probably sub in while I experiment with a rawish cacao bar, which I don't think I can accurately call chocolate because of the lack of cocoa butter. It doesn't taste like the Green & Blacks chocolate I buy when I have a craving, but then again it is primarily raw, so I wouldn't expect it to. It was my first try, but I would definately make this again. And it would be a great base if I wanted to add anything extra. Cacao bar with goji berries, anyone? This is what I think about instead of paying attention in calc class.

Cacao Bars
makes 16 little squares

1/2 cup raw cashews
3/4 cup ground cacao beans
3 tbls maca powder
3 tbls raw honey
2 tbls coconut oil
1 tbls cocoa powder

1.) Grind cacao beans in a coffee grinder so that you have 3/4 cup of powder (you could of course just use raw cacao powder, but why be simple?)
2.) Put all of the ingredients in a food processor and mix until the cashews are just little specks of white.
3.) Taste. Add more honey, oil or cacao if desired.
4.) Put mixture into pan and press down until the mass is very thin, like a chocolate bar. I would recommend using a smaller pan so that the edges of the pan shape the sides of the mass and you don't just have a giant blob. Unless you want a giant blob.
5.) Put in freezer for about 15 minutes, then take out and cut into 16 squares. Store in fridge and enjoy!

Kale Chips

Ah, fresh veggies. Ripe, in-season fruit. Long, warm days- Oh wait, it's winter. Everything is cold and dead. And the worst is yet to come. I'm a very optimistic person, can't you tell? Despite the cold, i'm still trying to get in the fruits and veggies that make me feel so good. Room temperature smoothies have been keeping me going through the school day, but these conspicuous green concoctions in translucent red nalgene bottles aren't quite enough. I like solid food sometimes too, you know?