A different kind of salad

Going towards a raw based diet we sometimes rely on salad since it's easy and we can get a ton of stuff in without thinking about it. Leaf salads get boring though. My mother in law makes a fabulous cucumber and tomato salad that she picked up in Chile on her mission. I've since seen it on recipe sites as a greek salad (a real one...not the attempt Americans do). Who knows! She makes it every Sunday for Sunday dinner and we love it. Last night we got home late so we called her up to see if she would make it for us if I brought over the cucumber and tomato. She said sure. Now I know the recipe and I can make it BUT she uses a salsa in it that I don't know how to make. It's jalepanos, jabernos, lemon juice, and something else. This stuff is BRIGHT green. And HOT! It's fabulous. I'm going to learn how to make it on the next time she makes up a batch and I can't wait. Anyway, we had some last night and the husband mentioned that he liked saucy salads. So for lunch I attempted to make a saucy salad.




Saucy Salad

2 carrots- shaved
1 large cucumber- shaved
6 radishes
2 stalks celery
3 florets of broccoli
1/2-1 cup raw pumpkin seeds

Avocado sauce

1 large avocado
olive oil
1/2 lemon
salt
pepper
chives
basil
1 clove of garlic

Shave carrots and cucmber. Slice in half and chop into bite sized pieces. Slice radishes and celery and broccoli. Toss together.

Cut avocado and scoop all the meat out and out in a blender. Blend for about 30 seconds to soften. Add in olive oil and squeeze lemon into the blender. Blend for a minute and then add in spices. Keep blending while you chop garlic into tiny pieces. Turn off blender and add in garlic. Blend until all the spices are mixed. (Note: you can add in as much olive oil as you like to get desired thickness). Add avocado sauce to the veggie mix and stir until all vegetables are coated. Top with pumpkin seeds and mix them in.

Salt and pepper to taste.

With those amounts it was enough for two large bowls for 2 adults. The nice thing is it works with any veggie combo you can think of! Super tasty! I wish I had more. I will definitely be making more. I think I'll do some for Sunday dinner this week. I'll have to do a ton though. This made a large amount but with the amount of people there on Sundays I'll need to do about double. Thats fine though..this would be a welcome left over. :)

Stuffed

Lunch ended up not being cucado soup. I tried to get a good picture of it but the natural browning of fruits and veggies kicked in and it was no longer green. It was grey. Mottled, dead grey. It was gross. Oddly enough the tot tried it and liked it whereas the night before she tried it and then hid it so she didn't have to eat it. :)

Instead we had stuffed tomatoes. They were tasty and hearty! But not a gut heavy hearty. And since I strayed from the recipe (I don't follow directions hehehe) here's what I used:

Stuffed Tomatos

1 carrot

1/2 cucumber- peeled

1 handful mushrooms slices (I say slices since that was I had bought the other night)

4 radishes

3 broccoli heads (I pulled them off one chunk/stalk)

4 tomatos (2 per person so more if you need them)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

chives

salt

pepper

basil

Cut tomatos in half and scoop out the insides and put them in a bowl. Using a grater/food processor grate all the veggies. Add to the tomato pulp to this mixture and stir well. Add in spices and lemon juice and mix one last time. Scoop into tomato halves. Enjoy!

Super easy and tasty. When I made them I had misread the part saying to cut them into halves and just cut off the bottom like a lid. That way they were more like cups. I wish I had cut them in half but mostly for ease of eating. These were kind of bulky.

See? Don't they look tasty?

Experiments in soup

Last night we had salad for dinner (huge and tasty! I love my salads!) and wanting something "more" I looked up soups. There was one the other day that sounded so good so I tracked it down.

Cucado Soup
2 large cucumbers (peeled)
1/2 avocado
1 tsp. lemon juice

And then I stray from the recipe. :) It called for parsley or something like that. Whatever it was I didn't have it (it was a tame flavor). So I added chives and some salt.

Blend until liquid and smooth.

It was....different. The flavor needs some tweaking. He thought it needed salt and pepper but I don't know if that's what it needed. Maybe something like a mint. It has a very smooth even flavor but it's not quite a discernable flavor. I don't know. Neither of us ate very much so it got stuck in the fridge. It doesn't seem like much but it makes a good amount. Definitely enough for me, him, and a little for the tot. I think a big gtting used to thing is the fact that it was cold and traditionally soup is hot. I know there are some cold ones out there but they aren't very common. Knowing this was a "soup" and having it was cold as it was was hard to wrap our minds around. I think I might throw it back in the blender today (it thickens as it stands it seemed) and try it again at lunch. I think it's just a matter of getting used to it.

This was a green food too. :) I'll take a picture at lunch so you can see the color. Pretty shocking to dip your spoon into green soup.

Mmmm

And now for the white stuff!


We got another coconut last night. The first one we got had a crack in it that we didn't notice. By the time I opened it the water had evaporated and the meat was starting to go bad. So last night when we got groceries I grabbed another one. They had 3 there and one was cracked and getting mold on it from sitting in its water. The other one looked like it might have had a crack but was hard to tell.

The one I did grab was full of water! A ton. I opened it for lunch (perfect timing too...one of the eyes was getting soft in a questionable way) and filled a large glass (the same one in my green stuff post) almost completely! I tasted it before I even got it all out since I've never had it before. Even though it was warm it was still really good. I was surprised at how strong it was. I was expecting the same flavor in the meat. I poured out the rest of the water and then cracked open the coconut. I chipped off a piece and was pretty disappointed in the flavor. Although it just makes me wonder what the hell they do to the dried packaged stuff.

I added some of the juice to a smoothie and was sad to have lost the flavor. I did use some strong flavored fruits though so that could have been why. I saved some for the husband to have some. I can see us buying even more though! This is tasty!

Another green drink

It wasn't intentional though.

Apple Juice
3 granny smith apples
1 large grapefruit
1 lemon
1 lime
1 Bartlett pear

Juice and stir! Mmmmm. It turned out green due to the lime and apples. I did scoop the foam off though since the lemon and lime put out a lot more rind than normal. It was good but it was so potent that I scooped it.

I am lovin' the juicer!

Green stuff

Oh Green Lemonade how I love you! (That's drink foam..not chunks :) )

After reading post after post at RawFoodTalk.com (based off Alissa Cohen's book which we don't have lol) about green lemonade I sat here actually wanting one. I did a quick search on the site and found a basic recipe and whipped a couple up for us. This is the first time I've had to rinse all my parts in between making juices. Normally I make up his and then mine with no problems. Not the case here. I wasted a good amount of spinach finding this out.


Spinach (the recipe posted actually said Kale but after a quick use of google found out that they are in the same family so I subbed)
Celery
Lemon
Apples

2 handfuls of spinach, 2 stalks of celery, 3 apples (I used Gala this time around), and 1.5 lemons (peel and all!). Mmmmmm! Aside from the neon green color it tasted just like lemonade! I'm sad that we have no more spinach...I would totally start every morning with that! I think I might post the recipe on the fridge where he can see it and then maybe he'll make it for himself in the mornings. It's supposed to be great for energy. He loves coffee for that extra boost so maybe this can be his coffee replacement.

Last week for lunch we had some pretty unremarkable wraps. My own creation based off some recipes I had been reading. I wanted a sauce for them though so I whipped one up. That's where the loveliness was!

Avocado dressing (or spread depending on how thick yours turns out)

1 large avocado
2 teaspoons olive oil
dry chives
basil
sea salt
pepper
1 lemon (I juiced 1.5 lemons so I have no idea how much I used in regards to tsp./tbls.)

Add avocado and olive oil to blender and blend until mixed together. NOTE: It will not mix entirely right away. It will still be slightly chunky. Add in seasonings and turn on blender. While running add in lemon juice (you can do this before turning it on..I find it mixes easier if I do it this way). Blend until smooth.

It turned out sooo good! I had a bit much lemon juice though. If that's the case you can always add in more avocado. As written there it'll be more spread like vs. dressing like. You can make it thinner though. I wouldn't do it. This was great like this! I spread it onto some lettuce leaves and then topped them with shredded carrots, cucumber, and radishes. Then I folded/wrapped them up. Super simple and super tasty. I plan on making this again but am going to use different leaves. I used plain ol' lettuce ones (can't remember the variety) so it had a spine which made folding/rolling them difficult. The spines split in half (which I knew they would) so these weren't nearly as neat and tidy as I wanted. I also had rinsed my veggies well and then didn't wait for them to dry. I shredded them first and by the time I got the spread made and on the leaves all the water from the washing and the natural water in them had settled into the bottom of my food processor making them wet. I think next time I'll rinse, dry, and then strain the mix before using it. I would love to try these on a seaweed wrap of sorts. It'd make a tasty appetizer for sure.

Raw thinking

We've decided to take the plunge! After a recent business trip he came home ready to make some drastic changes. We have talked about going to a raw food diet before but never got the momentum. This last trip though sealed the deal.

We went grocery shopping last night (I managed to eat most of the food we had while he was gone) and went all out. We got the appliances we needed (a new blender, a food processor, and a a juicer...we also got some new tupperware and salad bowls) and then went and got groceries. So far so good! We had a big ol' salad last night with some homemade dressing. The dressing wasn't raw (olive oil, vinegar, chives, thyme, and one other spice I can't remember) but it was fantastic! We're working on getting our spices raw and trying to see if we can get olive oil and vinegar raw as well.

He had a fresh juice this morning and then another one at lunch. His detox has kicked in (like last night after dinner) but we knew it would be fast for him. It's crazy to see what a real juice looks like color wise...not bright and fake. And not cheek puckering sweet/bitter/sour.

Day one:
Salad with romaine lettuce, apple, orange, almonds, sunflower seeds (and I think necterine).
Salad dressing: olive oil, red wine vinegar, chive, thyme, and another spice

Day 2:
Morning juice: apple, peach (I think), carrots, spinach
Lunch: Juice (apple, orange, 2 carrots, spinach), almond/sunflower seeds/spanish peanut mix

Current weight: 250 (guesstimate on his end)

So far no gut issues other than the detox. Even the Spanish peanuts didn't bug him and peanuts normally do! We were going to wait to switch our drinks since he does get a coffee in the morning but we decided to do it all last night (we had planned on getting milk) and skip those. He did have a coffee this morning but said at lunchtime he can see himself giving it up very fast. Yay!