Rawtastic Eats on the Sweeter Side

I’ve been rawing it up lately and loving every single bite and minute of it! I’ve tried some new foods, including buckwheat groats, that have expanded my horizons and my health! Raw sweeties can be as simple as your favorite fruit and a spoonful of raw nut butter. Delicious! Here’s a look at some of the sweeter things I’ve been munching on these days:

Green lemonade (recipe to come, don’t fret!)

Soaked buckwheat groats topped off with walmond butter (raw walnut and almond butter), banana slices, and chia seeds.

Red wine (Hey! I said “high raw” not all raw!) with raw Himalayan salt chocolate from Triangle Raw Foods–pure deliciousness!

And my newest addiction:

Raw ginger snaps bought at the co-op! LOVE!

What healthy snacks satisfy your sweet tooth?

Bious!

Rachel

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Raw Beans, Oh my!

Beans the wonder rabbit with her best friend Olive the cat. Beans only stays in her cage at night, but she knows it’s her little nest, so we leave it open for her to go in and out as she pleases during the day.

Beans, beans, beans. Not only the name of my rabbit, but also a delicious form of protein and nutrients much loved by the vegan community. I was pretty confused by the idea of raw foods using beans, but after reading around and doing my rawsearch, I’m getting very very used to the idea.

I’ve started my sprouting experiments with my favorite of all beans, the garbanzo! I’ve always been a fan of this cute beaked legume and when I figured out I could make raw hummus, why I was just over the moon! It’s just like making regular hummus but instead of using canned or cooked garbanzos, you use soaked and sprouted raw ones, straight from the bulk section at your local health foods store.

Now it’s time to discuss the importance of soaking and sprouting. I soak my beans and grains in twice as much water, rinsing occasionally. The soaking times vary depending on the bean or grain in question (for my beloved garbanzos it’s about 12 hours each). I squeeze a bit of lemon into the soaking water to allow the acid to further break down the enzyme inhibitors and let those rawbies flow! Then, after several hours and draining off the water, I add my sprouting lid or a paper napkin with a rubber band and let ‘em sprout! I water them occasionally (usually whenever it comes to mind) and let them sprout away on my kitchen counter. You’ll be amazed at how fast the little boogers seem to germinate, I sure was! Literally overnight they’ll go from a regular old bean to a cute little bean with a tail!

My favorite thing to do with raw sprouted beans? Why raw hummus of course! Here’s my recipe and it’s easy as pie, er uh… garbanzo bean dip…

Rawk on Raw Hummus

1 cup garbanzo beans, soaked for 12 hours, sprouted until they have noticeable tails

1/4 cup lemon juice

salt to taste

2 tablespoons raw almond butter

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons water

Combine ingredients in your food processor until smooth. Some good additions to try: diced jalepeno, sun dried tomatoes, basil, or bell pepper. It’s hummus–go crazy! You really can’t go wrong here folks….

Bisous! And happy beaning!

Rachel

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Adventures in Rawganland: The Rawtastic Triangle Raw Foods Truck!

Last Wednesday night, I surprised Maddie with a spontaneous date night, to the hottest food truck in the area: Triangle Raw Foods! We went on another adventure in Durham, NC (about 20 minutes from our little Carrboro bungalow).  Biking home from class that day, I made a pit stop at the co-op and bought us a couple of Buchis for beverages with our meal. Then, GPS in tow, we headed off to Durham as soon as Maddie got home! I didn’t tell her where we were going, only that the place closed at 8…

Our (hyphenated) name emblazoned on the side of the truck! Maddie and I donated to TRF’s kickstarter program and got our names on their donor doors! It’s easy to find too, right in the bottom right hand corner on the right door! We loaded up on raw deliciousness, including dessert and an appetizer.

Jane, one of the 2 owners, told us we just had to try the TuNot Nori Rolls. They were out of this world! I loved that they even played with the look of a classic tuna roll with the tomato in the center of each. It gave them a delightful crunch to contrast with the creamy texture of the “TuNot” surrounding each red center.

I also got the Thai Kelp Noodles:

which were absolute heaven on a fork. (Speaking of forks, TRF has by far the CUTEST compostable forks I ever did see.) There was just the right amount of spice along with som thai basil and slivers of red pepper. The noodles had this almost silky quality to them and their sauce was pure decadence.

We also got TRF’s Green Burrito:

which was HUGE. I don’t know where they got their collards, but they’re BEAUTIFUL! I had the second half of this for lunch the following day the burrito was so big!

I know you’re wondering, so here it is:

Dessert! A Himalayan salt raw chocolate bar. Nothing short of divine.

TRF has a super clean style that merges health and happiness, so it was really hard to pick a favorite. (Probably a tie between the nori rolls and the noodles! But then there is that chocolate…) I seriously loved every single bite, and will visit them again as soon as I have the chance. (I’m dying to try their raw peanut butter cups, Asian Marinated Kale, and Pad Thai!)

Be sure to check out their website and drool over their photos as I so often do!

Bisous!

Rachel

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Through the Looking Glass: Rawkin’ Raw All Day

So far I’ve been raw for going on 4 days! I’ve loved every minute of it and I feel great! I haven’t felt this good since I went vegan, and I think that my addition of more raw foods has me feeling even better! I wanted to share with you what one of my all-raw days looks like. So here’s what I ate this past Saturday:

Breakfast: 

Simple sprouted buckwheat groats topped with chia seeds, raw homemade almond butter, and sliced banana. Kept me full till:

Lunch:

Rawcos (raw tacos) on lettuce leaves! Topped with homemade filling (raw almond pulp from my nut milk + unroasted red pepper sauce, cilantro and tomatoes), diced red peppers, cucumbers, local green house tomatoes, fresh cilantro, avocado, and a squeeze of fresh lime.

Snack:

Newest obsession + delicious fruit

Juice of kale, cucumber, apple, ginger, and a squeeze of lemon

Dinner

Raw sushi, raw falafel from Triangle Raw Foods, dipped in raw salsa, coconut aminos, and  raw tzatziki. To drink: the rest of my juice watered down with a squeeze of lime.

And finally to finish off my rawtastic day of eats:

A slumbering Olive and

White chocolate strawberry mousse! (recipe to come!)

Hope your weekend was just as raw er uh rad! Bisous!

Rachel

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Rachel’s Adventures in Rawganland: RAW vegan sushi

I love a good roll of vegan sushi! They taste delicious and make you feel oh so healthy when you’re also indulging yourself a little. During my rawscapades I’ve rolled up a rawtastic alternative to the conventional sushi using cooked rice. This is the simplest of the raw sushi rolls as there is no rice replacement, but stay tuned folks! I’ve got a couple of cauliflowers in the crisper that have “raw rice” written all over them…

Maddie and I made these sushis as an appetizer for a bowl of delicious gnocchi, but I’m planning on making a raw meal out of them soon! For these raw rolls, we bought some untoasted nori sheets at our local co-op for our wrappers. Nori is the traditional sushi wrapper, unless your having ngiri, or what I call “naked sushi” that has no seaweed around it in the classic roll. Inside our sushis: raw marinated shiitakes, sliced cucumber, ginger, and avocado. We went green on this one, choosing our favorite sushi fillings to get wrapped up in (pun intended) for our delicious appetizer. To make raw sushi, just make sure you get untoasted nori sheets, then add your favorite raw toppings and roll away! You can get creative with raw “rice” and a variety of other fillings from patés to bean sprouts! I’ll hopefully be working with those fabled cauliflower soon, so look out for some raw rice trials! In the meantime, I give you my shiitake marinade.

Raw Shiitake Marinade:

~ 2 Tablespoons shoyu (raw soy sauce)

~ juice of 1/2 lemon

~ 1 nub ginger, peeled and minced

~ 1 clove minced fresh garlic

Whisk to combine ingredients, then gently pour over thinly sliced shiitake caps. Marinade for at least 1 hour. To stuff your nori rolls, remove mushrooms with a fork then add to the nori sheets along with other toppings of your choice. Reserve marinade as a delicious dipping sauce.

**Note: For the above nori cones, I simply cut my nori sheets into quarters, then rolled each little square up into a cute mini roll or cone, using water to seal the seams.**

We followed up with this dish, as I wasn’t quite as rawtastic at the time when we ate this meal:

Gnocchi is probably one of the most elegant entrées you can have in my book…

Bisous!

Rachel

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Beautiful photos of beautiful things

You know how I’ve been inspired by just about everything lately?

 

What beauty have you seen in your life lately?

Bisous!

Rachel

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Rachel’s Adventures in Rawganland

A recent raw lunch, recipe for the pasta to come!

So. I’m seriously into raw foods. (You’ve probably seen some hints of this before…) Several of my monthly goals in recent moons have been to eat more of them and I’ve even purchased a super rad new uncookbook that I’m very addicted to. I love to juice, and I love a good piece of raw fruit and a Lara Bar for snack. Lately, I’ve been doing my rawsearch, and I’m becoming more and more addicted to live, pure foods. I love them, and I love the high-raw vegan diet I’ve been grooving to in recent weeks. I guess you could say I’m giving my diet a bit of a boost and taking it from fabulous food to super food! I’m trying to eat as much raw as I can, and I just can’t get enough of it! (I’m turning into Beans, my fluffy little rabbit, day by day!)

All of that said, I’m kicking off a brand new series and welcome to it! I’ll do this in a series of FAQ’s I get about my diet, so here goes!

Raw snacks can be as easy as a rawnola bar and a piece of fruit. Delicious.

Why raw?

I’m adding more raw foods to my diet because the more raw foods I eat the better I feel! They’re very addictive and so are the results! Eliminating processed and refined foods especially gluten and sugar helps maintain overall health. I’m already vegan and reap the benefits of an animal product free lifestyle, and high raw just helps me clean up my diet even more. If I cut the crap, I just feel better and feel more aware and connected with my body.

What do you hope to gain/achieve? 

I hope to gain better body mindfulness, and overall health. I also hope to wrangle in some of the persistent digestive problems that I experience related to certain foods.

What does “raw” mean?

Raw foods are defined as anything that is not heated above 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius). These foods are uncooked, organic, live, and enzymatic meaning that they’re packed full of readily accessible nutrients that are very easily absorbed and assimilated into the human body.

So basically you’re just going to eat salads?

Even though I love the crunch, taste, look, and texture of a good old fashioned salad, they’re not the only things raw foodists eat! Raw foods have made tremendous strides in recent years, and many raw foodies are skilled at everything from noodles to desserts! As with cooked foods, it’s important to get a variety of foods in a variety of forms in your diet for maximum energy and nutrients.

What are you going to eat?

Lots of things! Raw foods can be anything from fruits and veggies to nuts, grains, seeds, and naturally dried foods like dates, sun dried tomatoes, and dehydrated foods like kale chips! I’ll be chronicling a lot of my raw food adventures right here on Veganland. Here a few raw foods I’ve uncooked so far. I’m hoping to make lots and lots more, with the help of a couple of raw cook books and the interwebs.

So, ready to go raw with me? Cool, let’s go! Now, here are some goals (and stipulations) for my rawesomeness:

~ I’m eating lots of raw, but not all the way raw. I love all sorts of foods both cooked and uncooked and for me I think variety is the key element to a healthy lifestyle. An all raw diet can be both time consuming and expensive, two areas I’m limited on right now. I’m seeking to expand my raw repertoire as much as possible within my means, which is an important thing to remember to do if you’re like me and get extra vivacious and excited about food!

~ Over the next month, I’d like to reduce the processed sugars in my diet in a step to fully eradicate them.

~ I’d like to try my hand at uncooking some new raw foods dishes, including:

Pad Thai     Kelp noodles      Kale salad     Refried Beans       Cake    Burritos

~ I’d like to do some rawsearch to understand how and why raw foods work so beautifully with the human system.

So here we go, folks. Welcome to Rachel’s adventures in Rawganland!

What questions do you have about RAW?

Bisous!

Rachel

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