Ethel is not a morning cat.I, however, am unexpectedly becoming a morning girl. I'm not sure if it's the result of becoming raw or simply learning to listen to my body, but if I've had a full night's sleep, I'm finding it easier to get up the morning. On my days off, I used to sleep well into the afternoon and feel tired and sluggish the rest of the day. If I set the alarm for 8 hours after going to bed, though, I feel much more alive and awake, not to mention the fact that I have extra hours in my day. Now if only 8am classes after 6 hours of sleep were any easier...
Yesterday was a great day. Madeline and I had tickets (since November!) to see a Wanda Sykes show, and we've been looking forward to a night out for so long. Mad had to be at work during the day, but I was productive at home. I took a hike, stopped by the produce market, cleaned the kitchen and prepared a raw meal for us to take. I'm really going to miss all this extra time when my spring break ends on Tuesday.
We had been planning to eat at a raw restaurant the was located near the theater, but the website was deceptive. Despite looking fully functional, they closed in 2007! We were really looking forward to eating out, but we are lucky enough to have a vegan restaurant with a raw night in walking distance that we'll try one of these days. And most importantly, at least we figured it out before getting there. Instead, I packed us a car picnic. I was really happy with the meal. I'm going to post the recipes so I don't lose them in cyberspace.
Indian Coleslaw from Raw and Living Foods
3 cups green cabbage, finely chopped
3 cups tomatoes, chopped
1 cup fresh grated coconut
1/2 cup peanuts, ground (make sure they're raw, not roasted)
1 large date, soaked, pitted and mashed
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. peanut oil (Flora Oils) or use olive oil
1/2 tsp. ground brown mustard seed
1/2 tsp. ground cumin seed
1/4 tsp. turmeric
pinch asafoetida (see Glossary)
1 tbsp. minced Jalapeño, or to taste (optional)
Nama Shoyu and/or Celtic sea salt, to taste
My adaptations: I doubled the dressing, since the cabbage seemed too dry and used a red chili pepper in place of the jalapeño. I left out the asafoetida because I didn't realize we had it in the house. Madeline said that it tasted south Indian and recommended adding some tamarind, so we'll try that next time.
Dessert was experimental on my part, and I was very, very happy with the way it turned out.
Mango Pie
Crust and topping:
1 cup pecans
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Dash of salt
4 dates
1/4 cup raisins
Filling:
3 peels, pitted and cubed champagne mangoes
Put the pecans, coconut, cinnamon and salt in the food processor with an S blade and process until a fine meal. Add dates and raisins and process until mixture begins to clump together. Divide into 4 equal portions. Press one portion each into the bottom of two dessert cups. Puree the mangoes in the food processor until smooth. Pour into dessert cups and top with remaining nut mixture. Refrigerate to set (or put it in the freezer to speed up the process).
We have a ton of mangoes in the house at the moment. They were on sale, and there was nothing more that I wanted in the world at the time, so we bought two cases: 36 mangoes! We've been eating mango salads and mango puddings, but mostly just straight up mangoes. I had five for lunch the other day. Fresh fruit used to be such a luxury for us. It was too expensive and too often went bad before we ate it. I love that we're eating as much as we want, whenever we want. Produce no longer gets the chance to go bad anymore.
Yesterday was a great day. Madeline and I had tickets (since November!) to see a Wanda Sykes show, and we've been looking forward to a night out for so long. Mad had to be at work during the day, but I was productive at home. I took a hike, stopped by the produce market, cleaned the kitchen and prepared a raw meal for us to take. I'm really going to miss all this extra time when my spring break ends on Tuesday.
We had been planning to eat at a raw restaurant the was located near the theater, but the website was deceptive. Despite looking fully functional, they closed in 2007! We were really looking forward to eating out, but we are lucky enough to have a vegan restaurant with a raw night in walking distance that we'll try one of these days. And most importantly, at least we figured it out before getting there. Instead, I packed us a car picnic. I was really happy with the meal. I'm going to post the recipes so I don't lose them in cyberspace.
Indian Coleslaw from Raw and Living Foods
3 cups green cabbage, finely chopped
3 cups tomatoes, chopped
1 cup fresh grated coconut
1/2 cup peanuts, ground (make sure they're raw, not roasted)
1 large date, soaked, pitted and mashed
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. peanut oil (Flora Oils) or use olive oil
1/2 tsp. ground brown mustard seed
1/2 tsp. ground cumin seed
1/4 tsp. turmeric
pinch asafoetida (see Glossary)
1 tbsp. minced Jalapeño, or to taste (optional)
Nama Shoyu and/or Celtic sea salt, to taste
1) Mix first 4 ingredients together in a large bowl and set aside.
2) In a small bowl, mash the soaked date, add in the balance of the ingredients, and blend to a smooth dressing.
3) Pour the dressing into the cabbage and tomato mixture and mix well.
My adaptations: I doubled the dressing, since the cabbage seemed too dry and used a red chili pepper in place of the jalapeño. I left out the asafoetida because I didn't realize we had it in the house. Madeline said that it tasted south Indian and recommended adding some tamarind, so we'll try that next time.
Dessert was experimental on my part, and I was very, very happy with the way it turned out.
Mango Pie
Crust and topping:
1 cup pecans
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Dash of salt
4 dates
1/4 cup raisins
Filling:
3 peels, pitted and cubed champagne mangoes
Put the pecans, coconut, cinnamon and salt in the food processor with an S blade and process until a fine meal. Add dates and raisins and process until mixture begins to clump together. Divide into 4 equal portions. Press one portion each into the bottom of two dessert cups. Puree the mangoes in the food processor until smooth. Pour into dessert cups and top with remaining nut mixture. Refrigerate to set (or put it in the freezer to speed up the process).
We have a ton of mangoes in the house at the moment. They were on sale, and there was nothing more that I wanted in the world at the time, so we bought two cases: 36 mangoes! We've been eating mango salads and mango puddings, but mostly just straight up mangoes. I had five for lunch the other day. Fresh fruit used to be such a luxury for us. It was too expensive and too often went bad before we ate it. I love that we're eating as much as we want, whenever we want. Produce no longer gets the chance to go bad anymore.
-Eloise
P.S. Blogger is driving me nuts! Despite my best efforts, the computer is choosing font sizes all willy nilly- though mostly extra small. Will work on resolving that soon.... though not tomorrow morning. My parents are coming for a visit, which is my personal equivalent of hearing The British are coming! I will be vacuuming the carpets, couches, walls and possibly the cats in preparation.
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