Rss Feed

  1. Strawberry Green Juice

    April 18, 2011 by julie

    Brace yourself.  This juice recipe is going to make you want to go out and buy a juicer.

    So I bought three baskets of strawberries on Saturday at the Farmer’s Market.  I’m usually really good about eating them on the first day but then I subsequently forget about them, they go bad, and I throw the remainder out.  I know, I should be condemned for berry neglect.  Luckily for these berries, I noticed them on my counter tonight as I set about making my green juice for tomorrow morning.

    One more day and these berries would have been goners.

    But not tonight.  Tonight, rather than being dumped into the compost, they had the honor of having their berry blood squeezed out in my beautiful Omega juicer.  Such a more noble way to end one’s life, no?

    Berries sans hair and ready for the juicer. Notice how happy they look.

    Strawberry Green Juice

    One basket of strawberries

    2 large cucumbers

    1 bunch of kale (I used green curly kale)

    2 lemons

    2 apples

    Put everything in the juicer and strain any remaining pulp.  Enjoy!

    Strawberry blood oozing out

    Pretty rainbow of colors (soon to turn into a muddy green juice)

    I bought these cute jars with handles at the market too!

    Optional:  I also bought a tray of wheatgrass at the market.  Trays of wheatgrass are super easy to keep at home (just leave them on your kitchen counter and snip away everytime you need some wheatgrass juice!  No need to water or maintain) and are pretty cheap (I buy mine for $10 a tray).  Add a little wheatgrass to the Strawberry Green Juice recipe above for an added kick of chlorophyll.

     

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: ,,, | 5 Comments

  2. Raw Vegan Sushi Revisited: The Ghetto Version

    by julie

    Hello, hello.  I know, it’s been a while [Insert lame excuses here].

    According to my records, the last post I wrote was around Day 2 of my juice cleanse…

    So I guess I should confess something.

    I gave up on my cleanse a day early.

    I just couldn’t take it anymore.  I think two days is my limit and you know what?  I think I’m done with juice cleanses for a while.  I love food way too much.

    Anyways, for the past few weeks that I’ve been AWOL, I’ve been lazy and just eating the same thing everyday – my favorite go-to kale salad.  I know, I’m so boring like that.

    Luckily, inspiration struck a few days ago.  I was at Cafe Gratitude with my sister, celebrating her birthday and enjoying their new and supposedly cheaper menu (definitely new, not much cheaper).  I ordered their raw sushi rolls – sesame almond pate and veggies wrapped in raw nori.  TINY portions, big price tag, but hey, at least they were pretty darn tasty.

    Rather than paying $13 for another sushi roll from Cafe G, I decided to try to recreate the recipe at home.  And since raw almonds are on the expensive side, I decided to go ghetto with sunflower seeds.

    So, if you didn’t already know, sunflower seeds are super cheap and packed with vitamin E, vitamin B1, magnesium, selenium, and other fun stuff, along with protein and heart-healthy fats.  (They’re also really good covered in dark chocolate).  For an added flavor boost, I added black sesame seeds to this recipe, which supposedly help stop your hair from turning gray.  (One drawback – they look like little ants invaded your pate, but hey, try not to think about that).

    The best part of this recipe? It took me 10 minutes to make.  I’m thinking of having a batch of this pate in my fridge all the time so that when the urge hits, I can make a roll in a jiffy.  Enjoy!

    Ghetto Sunflower Sushi

    1 cup of sunflower seeds (soaked overnight)

    1.5 to 2 teaspoons of tamari (adjust to taste)

    1.5 to 2 teaspoons of toasted sesame oil (adjust to taste – I love sesame oil so I went with 2)

    3 teaspoons of black sesame seeds (if you don’t have black, brown will do but you’ll be stuck with gray hair)

    3 cloves of garlic (optional – omit if you’re lazy. The recipe will still taste good)

    Put everything but the sesame seeds in the food processor and pulse till creamy.  Add the sesame seeds and pulse to combine (you want the sesame seeds visible, not crushed).

    See what I mean about the ants?

    You can stop here and use this pate for anything – as a dip with raw crunchy veggies, as a protein topper for your salads, as a “meat” in a raw taco, or if you’re me and super lazy, just spoon directly into your mouth and call it lunch.

    For those of you who want a fancier meal, please proceed.

    Making the rolls

    Similar to my previous sushi recipe (see here), layer the bottom third of a raw sheet of nori with the pate.  I like a thick layer but do whatever makes you happy.

    Add in the toppings.  I put whatever I had in my fridge: Sliced red cabbage, sunflower sprouts, and mixed greens.  Avocado would also be nice, if you have it (I didn’t, shockingly).

    Roll.

    Not quite done...

    The ends are usually hard to paste together.  A lot of other recipes recommend putting a bit of water to hold the ends together but I find that makes the sushi wet and soggy.  Since this pate is nice and sticky, why not use it as glue? Put a bit on the ends like so:

    The finished product:

     

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: | 1 Comment

  3. Guacamole-Stuffed Raw Burrito

    March 28, 2011 by julie

    I’ve been thinking about this “burrito” all day.

    Fantasizing about the fillings the way some people fantasize about glamorous tropical vacations or early retirement (or other seedy and less PG-rated things – you know who you are).

    All afternoon, while sipping my juices and nut milk, I toyed with different versions that I could make -  pure torture for someone who would have sold her firstborn (or in my case, my dachshund Penny) for a tiny piece of anything edible that I could chew.  (Yes, I realize it hasn’t even been a full day since I started my cleanse but hey, the first day is always the hardest.  I hope).

    Should I make an Asian-style wrap with marinated veggies?

    Or maybe a Mediterranean version with raw hummus, olives, and tabbouleh?

    Or should I stay with the Mexican theme and go with a burrito overstuffed with guacamole and crunchy veggies?

    Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my keyboard.

    In the end, I went with what’s easy and full of healthy fats to keep me satisfied:  A guacamole-stuffed burrito.  After a day of just green juices and nut milk, I wasn’t really in the mood for an elaborately-prepared meal, and nothing’s easier than making guacamole (except perhaps, a green smoothie).

    If you’ve never made homemade guacamole before, prepare for the start of a beautiful addiction.  Until I met my husband, I never tried to make it – I usually just bought the (gross) store-bought versions, or just ate it when I went out for Mexican.  And until then, I never really cared for guacamole.  It always seemed a little bland to me – like unseasoned and mashed-up avocado.

    But whoa, what a difference homemade makes.

    The first time he made it for me, I finished off the whole bowl standing in the kitchen, sans chips.  Just used a spoon to shovel the green stuff into my mouth.  Very sexy, I know.  I probably had green mush all over my face the entire night.

    The best thing about making your own guacamole is that you can put whatever you like (and as much as you like) in it.  I’m a huge cilantro-lover and I like my guac spicy and chunky, so my guac tends to be a bit more colorful, thick, and flavorful than the smooth green guac you sometimes find in restaurants.  So beware when you try to follow my recipe below – it’s tailored for my tastes (which as I mentioned in my first post, can be “unusual”).

    Julie’s Favorite Guacamole Recipe

    Ingredients:

    2 large avocados

    1 very large tomato (or 2 regular-sized tomato)

    3/4 cup cilantro

    1 lime

    1 heaping tablespoon of minced jalopeno

    1/4 cup chopped shallots

    Sea salt to taste

    Put everything into a large bowl and mix.  Make it Asian Fusion by mixing with a rice paddle like I do.

    Put the avocado in a bowl. I keep the pits in the bowl to keep the guac green

    Add your chopped tomatoes

    Chopped shallots come next

    A heaping tablespoon of minced jalopeno

    3/4 cup of chopped cilantro

    Squeeze the juice of one lime over the mound of veggies

    Before mixing

    After mixing (add in sea salt to taste)

    Up close: Creamy green delight

    Guacamole-Stuffed Raw Burrito

    Now that you’ve made your guacamole, the next step is to fill and wrap up the collard green.  You can add in mixed greens and sprouts, crunchy carrots and cucumbers, or if you’re like me and have been craving a massaged kale salad ALL DAY, you can add that to your wrap for an even tastier (and ridiculously nutritious) burrito.  This makes for about two very large burritos (I used all the guac made in the recipe above).

    Ingredients:

    2-4 collard leaves

    Guacamole from my recipe above

    Large bowl of kale salad

    Step 1:  Prepare the collard leaves

    I like to use two leaves per wrap – this ensures that you get a huge Chipotle-sized burrito.

    Remove the step of the leaves.

    Turn the leaf around and remove some of the inner rib (this will make it more pliable).

    Using a knife, carefully slice off some of the inner rib

    Finished product (note that I suck at this - see ripped parts of leaf above the rib)

    Layer leaves so that they are overlapping but not right on top of each other

    Step 2:  Add in your fillings

    Pile on the guacamole.  Leave about an inch off the sides.

    A massive load of guac

    Now pile on your other veggies – kale salad, crunchy raw veggies like carrots, cucumbers or sprouts, or if you’re a meat-eater, you can throw in some grilled, organic, humanely-raised meat.  At least you’ll be getting a massive dose of healthy veggies.

    Pile on the kale salad

    Step 3:  Roll up the wrap

    This step is similar to wrapping up sushi.  Tuck in the layers and slowly roll.

    Tuck in the edges

    Gather fillings in as you roll

    Finished product – a pretty green burrito!

    Ready to cut and eat!

    Serve with a side of (more) kale salad (topped with Parma or nutritional yeast) - this is quite possibly the most nutritious meal you can eat!

    You can also use parchment paper under the leaves.  Roll up your wrap using the parchment paper.

    Same as before, tuck in ends and roll (taking parchment paper with you)

    As big as a Chipotle burrito!

    Finished product should look sort of like a Chipotle burrito (similar in size too).

    Messy but delicious

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: | 6 Comments

  4. Chocolate Milk-Juice

    by julie

    Quick post before I go to bed (I have a longer post on what I had for dinner tonight – FABULOUS – but my pics aren’t loading so I’ll post that tomorrow!).

    Along with the green juice recipe from yesterday, I made some “chocolate milk” for tomorrow.  I’ve heard other juicers also agree that this tastes like chocolate milk but my husband adamantly disagrees.  Eh, what does he know.

    Here’s the recipe:

    Chocolate Milk- Juice

    2 heads of romaine lettuce

    8-10 large carrots

    Juice everything.  Makes approximately 32 ounces of juice.  Pour yourself a nice large glass at recess time (aka your usual coffee/cigarette break time), stick a straw in and pretend you’re in kindergarten again!

    ********************************************************************************************************************

    Btw, how are you guys doing on your juice cleanse?

    Um, is anyone doing it with me?

    I feel so alone.  Especially now that my husband has given up.  I was so tempted to give up today but now, after a nice raw dinner, I feel really good.  We’ll see how tomorrow goes…

     

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: | 1 Comment

  5. T Minus 1: Prepping for My Juice Cleanse

    by julie

    I spent the weekend gorging.

    At least it was vegan gorging, but gorging nonetheless.  Given my last two torturous memorable experiences with juice cleanses, I think my body was trying to prepare itself for the next three days of starvation cleansing by taking in as much food supply as possible.  Definitely not the recommended way to ease into a cleanse, but at least now I feel so ill and overstuffed that I’m actually looking forward to three days of refreshing juices and light raw dinners.

    As promised, I’m posting the recipes for the juices and nut milk that I’ll be consuming tomorrow as well as a suggested schedule for juice consumption (for those of you who like to be controlled).

    Pre-juicing: When you look at it like this, it looks like I'm consuming a lot!

    All but the Kitchen Sink (green juice)

    This recipe makes 32 ounces of juice.  I suggest you double this recipe so that you have enough juice to last you through the day.  Trust me – you want to make your juices all at once because you’ll be feeling cranky and tired pretty soon and in no mood to make any juices.

    6 stalks of celery

    ¼ large (12-inch or longer) cucumber

    5 stalks of kale

    2 stalks of collard greens (I used very large leaves – if yours are smaller, use more than 2)

    3 tangerines (seedless)

    1 lemon

    2 large handfuls of spinach

    1 apple

    Put everything in your juicer.  I like to filter my juice using  a large colander to make it pulp-free and much more palatable to drink.

     

    Breakfast-lunch-and-snack in a bottle

    Mellow Yellow (fruit juice)

    1 Asian pear

    ½ large (12-inch or longer) cucumber

    2 grapefruits

    1 apple

    Put everything in your juicer and filter well (lots of pulp from the grapefruit and pear).  This juice is really tasty- the cucumber makes it a little less sweet so that you’re not bouncing off the walls.  Makes about 16 ounces of juice.

     

    Don't need to hold you nose for this one!

    Nutty Ending (nut milk)

    3 cups of almond milk (I used store-bought sweetened vanilla almond milk)

    ½ cup of  liquid vanilla

    1 cup soaked cashews (soaked overnight and rinsed well)

    Dash of sea salt

    1 teaspoon (or more) of cinnamon

    1-2 tablespoons of agave (you can omit this if you bought sweetened almond milk – or not.  You’ve been drinking green liquid all day – go ahead and live a little)

    Put everything in a blender (not a juicer).  Blend until creamy.  This makes for 1-2 glasses of nut milk.

     

    Better than a cheeseburger

    Suggested schedule for juice consumption

    Start your morning with some water and lemon, or go right to your first glass of green juice.

    Around late morning, drink another glass of green juice.

    Around lunchtime, when everyone else is eating greasy burgers and coma-inducing sandwiches, have yourself a delicious glass of the fruit juice.

    If you’re still dying of hunger after the fruit juice, wait about an hour or so and have a glass of the nut milk (but save some for later – you’ll need it!).

    Have another glass of green juice sometime after lunch.

    Around late afternoon, around 4 P.M. or so, pour yourself a nice, thick and creamy glass of the nut milk and enjoy.   Finish off your night with a light, raw vegan dinner (post to come).

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: | 2 Comments

  6. Friends Don’t Let Friends Juice Cleanse Alone

    March 24, 2011 by julie

    I’m thinking of going on a juice cleanse.

    How trendy of me, right? (Remember, all the celebs are doing it, so this makes it legitimately cool).

    Ever since I started this blog, I’ve been testing and tasting a lot more desserts than I’m used to.  Yes, I’m that dedicated.  While raw desserts are packed full of vitamins, minerals and other stuff that’s good for you, too much of anything isn’t that good for you.  Except for kale.  You can never eat too much kale.

    Anyways, too many raw desserts + upcoming wedding to attend = need for a juice cleanse.

    The last time* my husband and I decided to go on a 3-day juice cleanse (a la Blueprint Cleanse style) was on New Year’s Day just a few months ago.

    We had this grand stupid idea that we’d start the New Year with a green juice (versus a glass of champagne).

    I know, depressing, right?

    *Prior to the New Year’s cleanse disaster, we tried to go on a juice cleanse over Valentine’s Day weekend – we seem to have a knack for choosing inappropriate days to cleanse.

    Our attempt at cleansing lasted about one day before I got all bitchy and irritable.  I get like that when I’m hungry and trust me, even one day of juice cleansing can leave you feeling like you’re dying of hunger.  Luckily I’m vegan or I might have eaten one of our dogs.

    So, for the sake of our marriage, we ended up giving up around the 2nd day and turned the juice cleanse into a juice-til-dinner affair.

    I can still remember (fondly) our first meal after almost two days of no solid foods.  Lacking energy (and again, feeling irritable), all I could conjure up for dinner was a bunch of raw veggies coarsely chopped, some raw, untoasted nori and a bowl of tamari and wasabi.  In other words, the poor raw man’s version of sushi.  I nearly fainted bringing these to our kitchen counter.

    Wow.  Never had a piece of cucumber or avocado tasted so good.

    I felt like my taste buds were reset – rather than craving processed, greasy, or sugary food, my newly rested taste buds were craving fresh fruits and veggies, things bursting with flavor that only exist in nature, not formulated in a sterile lab by scary men in white coats.

    After that amazing dinner that we devoured (rather unattractively) like a pair of jackals, my husband and I vowed that we would go on a one-day juice cleanse once a week.

    Not sure what happened to that vow.  All I know is that it didn’t happen.  Until now.

    Starting next Monday, March 28, I’m going to go on a 3 day juice-til-dinner cleanse.  If all goes well, I may continue and make it a 5-day cleanse.  Yeah, I’m wild like that.

    You know that saying that misery loves company?  Well, I’m a firm believer in going on cleanses with friends and family.

    You really need a support group to help you through those dark moments when that box of cereal or the bag of cookies is calling your name.  So, dear friends, let’s do it together.

    C’mon.  I know you want to.

    Everyday starting Sunday, I’ll post up juice recipes for the following day.  You’ll drink only freshly-pressed juices (and potassium broth – more on that to come) for breakfast and lunch and then for dinner, you’ll have a glorious, immensely satisfying raw vegan meal (I’ll post what I’m eating so you guys can follow along).

    Doesn’t that sound like fun??!?!

    It’s rough and you’ll probably hate me during those 3 (or 5) days, but I promise that you will feel AMAZING afterward.  Everyone needs a vacation once in a while – so does your body.  Give it a well-deserved break from digesting all those McRibs and bowls of Pho.

    If you don’t have a juicer, you can opt to purchase your juices from a juice bar (don’t buy the bottled ones at the store as they are flash pasteurized, which defeats the purpose of the cleanse).  (For those of you who live in or near San Francisco, I may take a few juice delivery orders – I’ll deliver juices that will last you until dinner for every day of the cleanse – email me if you’re interested).

    To motivate you guys further, here’s a delicious (really, this one is yummy) juice recipe:

    Grapefruits Gone Wild

    1 bunch of celery

    1 bunch of collard greens

    4 carrots

    2 lemons

    2 grapefruits (peeled)

    Put everything in a juicer. Makes about 48 ounces of fresh-pressed deliciousness.

    Look closely - you can see specks of pink and orange!

     

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,, | 1 Comment

  7. Crazy Hippie California Rolls

    March 16, 2011 by julie

    A long, long time ago, when I was an investment banker in New York, I wore black, ate meat and drank alcohol like a true Korean, worked out at the gym (usually doing something aggressive, like boot camp or boxing), and swore like a sailor with Tourette syndrome.

    Then I moved to the Bay Area for grad school and became a hippie.

    My dad calls it the “California effect”.

    A friend of his who lives in San Francisco told me once that my dad called him up a few years ago (supposedly after I became a hippie) and asked him if “California did this to people”.  By this, I guess he means make people into hippies?

    I can understand his confusion.  All of a sudden, his Type A ex-banker daughter was a vegan yoga instructor.  I wore black yoga pants, ate hummus and kale and drank wheatgrass and green juices, and carried my yoga mat everywhere.  I still swore like a sailor, but hey, even hippies swear (I think?).

    My dinner tonight is something that he would call true California food.  I took a normal California roll (which is hippie enough for some people) and made it even hippier.  Take a look at my take on sushi:

    Crazy Hippie California Roll

    Other than the fact that my roll looks like it was rolled by a 2nd grader, it looks pretty close to a real sushi roll, right?

    (Cue card for audience: Enthusiastically nod yes).

    ————————————————————————————————————————————————–

    A lot of sushi lovers get excited about the raw food diet.

    “This means I can eat sushi all the time, right?”

    Sadly, no.  Although I suppose you can define raw food to be whatever you like and create your own movement (e.g., the raw meat movement, yikes), the raw food diet that most people follow is for the most part vegan.  And the rice in sushi?  Not raw.  (And you probably don’t want to munch on crunchy raw rice anyways).

    Making raw vegan sushi is not that much harder than making regular sushi.  In other words, either way, it’s pretty labor intensive.  But, if you’re a sushi lover, this recipe is definitely worth a try.  (And really, it’s so much fun!)

    Here, I substituted jicama (that crunchy, sweet root veggie that tastes sort of like an Asian pear) for the sushi rice.  Throw in some rice vinegar, agave, sesame oil (not in traditional sushi rice but I love sesame oil and find that it makes everything taste a tad bit more Asian) and sesame seeds (same argument) and you have something that tastes pretty damn close to sushi rice (the only thing lacking is the texture – you won’t get the chewy stickiness of sushi rice – but then again, you also won’t get the food coma and spike in blood sugar either).

    For the “fish”, I used marinated shitake mushrooms.  This adds a nice, flavorful “meaty” component to the roll (sort of like the seasoned beef in Korean kimbap).  Finish off the roll with whatever other fillings you like (e.g., avocado, carrots, cucumbers and sprouts are in mine), and you have yourself a Crazy Hippie California Roll worthy of any sushi restaurant in hippie California (Note: It’s not 100% raw because of the toasted sesame oil and seeds, but it’s so worth adding those in).

    Ingredients:

    Raw nori sheets

    “Sushi Rice”

    2 cups of jicama pulp

    2 tablespoons of rice vinegar (if you want this even healthier, use apple cider vinegar)

    4 teaspoons of raw agave nectar

    4 teaspoons (toasted) sesame oil

    4 teaspoons of (toasted) sesame seeds

    Marinated Mushrooms

    2 cups shitake mushrooms, cut into small slices

    1 tablespoon of minced garlic

    1 tablespoon of (toasted) sesame oil

    2 tablespoons of Nama Shoyu (raw, unpasteurized soy sauce) or tamari (not raw but wheat-free soy sauce)

    Fillings

    1 carrot, sliced into matchsticks

    1 cucumber, sliced into matchsticks

    handful of sprouts

    1 avocado

    Step 1: Make the sushi rice

    For those of you who have no idea what jicama is, print and cut out the following picture and take it with you the store:

    Jicama is a really watery vegetable.  The first time I made this, I peeled the skin, chopped it up and put it into the food processor to pulse into small tiny pieces of “rice”.  The problem was that I ended up with jicama soup and spent over half an hour trying to drain out the jicama juice.

    This time around, since I have a fancy new juicer and all, I decided to juice the jicama and use the pulp for the rice.  This is by far the best way to do this.  You can also save the jicama juice to put into your green juice for the morning (it tastes a little like pear juice, yum!).

    Pulp for dinner, juice for breakfast!

    Put the pulp into a large bowl together with the seasonings and toss.  I like to use my rice paddle – it makes me feel more legit.

    Doesn't it look just like rice?

    Step 2: Marinate the mushrooms

    Put the sliced mushrooms into a small bowl together with the seasonings and toss.  Let the mushrooms marinate for a few minutes.

    Mushrooms bathing in a pool of garlic, tamari and sesame oil

    Step 3: Time to roll!

    You can use toasted nori (which is a lot easier to find) but if you want to step up the healthiness of this meal (which is already pretty damn healthy), try raw nori.  Raw nori is darker – almost black in color – and has a slightly more “seaweed” taste than toasted nori.  It’s also a lot tougher to cut (that’s my defense for why my rolls look so unprofessional).

    Raw nori

    Prepare your “sushi station” – your rice, mushrooms, nori sheets, and any additional fillings you want to put in your rolls.  Note that you’ll also need a sushi mat for this.

    Layer (and pat down) about 1/3 to a little less than 1/2 of a sheet of nori with jicama rice.

    Add in your fillings.

    Layer fillings next to each other, as opposed to in one big pile

    Carefully roll into a tube.  To seal the tube, I like to use a pat of sesame oil.

    You can eat it like this (like a burrito!)

    Carefully cut into slices.  I like to cut the roll in half first, then cut into smaller pieces.  Plate and serve with fresh wasabi (not the kind with crap in it) and tamari (although the roll is flavorful enough that you can eat it as is).

     

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: | 6 Comments

  8. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Pecan Milkshake

    March 15, 2011 by julie

    Sometimes you wake up craving a green juice.  Other times, you wake up wanting a bowl of butter pecan ice cream.  For those kinda days, I recommend making this:

    I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Pecan Milkshake

    Better than Cheerios!

    Who says you can’t have a milkshake for breakfast?  Certainly not the President of the World Raw Vegan Health Organization! (Okay, so I admit, there isn’t such a president nor even such an organization but if there were, he or she would certainly agree that you can definitely have this milkshake for breakfast.).

    This is what attracted me to the raw vegan lifestyle in the first place – the fact that you can have dessert for breakfast and still be healthy, look great, and feel energetic and vibrant (and no, it won’t make you fat).

    Raw desserts, my friends, are the gateway drug to the raw vegan lifestyle.

    You get hooked in with them.  You start off eating “cheesecake”, “milkshakes” and “chocolate cake” and before you know it, you’re playing drinking games with shots of wheatgrass and eating kale chips and raw vegan chili on Super Bowl Sunday.  Of course, eating only raw desserts is probably not a good idea (greens should eventually make up the bulk of your diet), but it’s liberating to know that you can have a milkshake for breakfast and know that it was packed full of nutritious plant protein, vitamins, minerals, and healthy plant fats (which your body needs!).

    Have I sold you yet, or did I have you at “milkshake for breakfast”?

    The following recipe is a variant of my Shamrawk Shake from last night.  Note that this makes a huge batch – you can feed your whole family a large glass for breakfast, or keep it a secret so that you can have it for yourself throughout the day.

    Ingredients:

    3 cups of vanilla almond milk, unsweetened

    2 cups of raw pecans, soaked for a couple of hours (see here on soaking)

    2 cups of raw cashews, soaked for a couple of hours (see here on soaking)

    1/2 cup of liquid vanilla (see here)

    2/3 cup raw agave

    1 tablespoon of yacon syrup*

    3 tablespoons of soy lecithin (see here)

    1/8 teaspoon salt

    *Yacon syrup is a great sweetener derived from the yacon plant.  It’s full of antioxidants and is great for those suffering from diabetes, as it doesn’t raise your blood sugar levels.  It has a caramel/molasses flavor, so I thought it would help me get that “butter pecan” taste.

    I got this at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market but you can find yacon syrup at Whole Foods or any health food grocery stores

    Looks and smells like molasses!

    Super Complicated Instructions

    Put everything into a high-speed blender and blend until smooth and creamy.  Put in your fridge to cool and thicken, then enjoy!

    Frothy goodness

    Blueberries and butter pecan milkshake - the breakfast of champions

     

    P.S. I was trying to make butter pecan ice cream but my ice cream bowl still won’t freeze (have a bad feeling that it’s broken) so I’ll have to settle for milkshakes for the indeterminate future.  So sad.

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,,,,, | 1 Comment

  9. Shamrawk Shake

    March 14, 2011 by julie

    It’s that time of the year again.  The time when my husband and I drive from one McDonalds location to another (usually in the middle of the night, as that’s when the craving seems to hit him) in search of the elusive Mickey D’s dessert only offered in March in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

    I see some of you nodding your head.

    The Shamrock Shake.

    The disturbingly fluorescent green milkshake flavored with artificial mint, artificial vanilla, high-fructose corn syrup,  yellow 5, blue 1 and God-knows-what else (knowing McDonalds, I’m sure they put some beef lard in there as well).

    And every year, the same thing happens.  My husband gets the largest size there is of this green milkshake, gulps it down on our drive back home, and has a stomachache and heartburn all night long.  Then the next year rolls around, amnesia hits him and he wants to go back for one again.

    This year, I’m hoping to circumvent this search-drink-feel-ill cycle by making him a much healthier (and hopefully still tasty) version of this shake.  So folks, tonight I bring you:

    The Shamrawk Shake

    This recipe is based on the vanilla ice cream recipe from Sweet Gratitude, with some modifications and additions to make it shamrock-y.

    Fresh mint is so much better than Yellow 5 and Blue 1

    Ingredients:

    1 cup of almond milk, unsweetened (I used the Almond Breeze unsweetened vanilla flavor for convenience but it’s even better if you make your own!  Future post to come, I promise)

    1 cup of soaked (raw) cashews*

    1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons agave syrup

    1/4 cup liquid vanilla (see here)

    1 tablespoon soy lecithin*

    1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon salt

    3 and 1/2 tablespoons of fresh mint, chopped into small pieces

    1/4 teaspoon spirulina*

    * Cashews: Soak cashews overnight (or at least a few hours) in cold water.  Once soaked, drain the water and rinse cashews thoroughly.

    Soak cashews in cold water overnight

    Soy lecithin: This is a supplement found in health food stores.  In this recipe, it acts as a natural emulsifier and makes the shake creamier.

    Spirulina:  A ridiculously nutritious superfood.  Spirulina, a type of blue-green algae, is rich in protein (has approximately 60% protein content), vitamins and minerals.  It’s an acquired taste (and a scary green-blue color) but I only add a bit to this recipe to add a pretty green color to the milkshake (so much better than yellow 5 and blue 1).

    Step 1: Blend!

    Put the almond milk, cashews, agave, liquid vanilla, lecithin and salt into the blender and blend well.  Stick your finger in the blender (once you’ve turned it off, of course) and taste.  It should taste like melted vanilla ice cream.

    Blending away sans fingers

    Step 2:  Put the mixture in the freezer

    Put the mixture in a container and put in the freezer for about 30 minutes.  You want it to get really cold.  Originally I was going to make this mixture into an ice cream and then put the ice cream in the blender, but I’m impatient and didn’t want to wait for my ice cream bowl to freeze (24 hour wait! Who can wait that long for ice cream?!).  If you have an ice cream maker and have more patience than me, try making ice cream with the mixture, use the ice cream for your milkshake and tell me how it goes! And send me some while you’re at it.

    Step 3:  Blend again

    So I have a confession to make.  I drank some of this vanilla mixture while it was chilling in the freezer because, well, I really wanted some.  And, because I drank it straight from the container (I know, I know), I have no idea how much I drank.

    I wanted to give you folks exact measurements for the mint and spirulina (wrong measurements could result in disaster, especially with the spirulina, and you would hate me forever, trust me), so the following instructions apply to only 1 cup of the liquid mixture.  Adjust accordingly and feel free the drink the leftover mixture like I did.

    Put 1 cup of the liquid mixture, mint and spirulina in the blender.  Blend well but be careful not to blend too long or you will warm up the milkshake.  Put the milkshake in the freezer a bit longer for it to thicken and get really cold and enjoy!*

    Shamrawk Shake - No beef lard in this one!

    * For my husband’s colleagues: I am sending him to work tomorrow with a bottle of this (about 2 cups).  Feel free to bug him for a sample!

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,,,,, | 5 Comments

  10. 5 Dolla Make You Holla

    March 13, 2011 by julie

    It’s 1 A.M. on a Saturday night (so technically Sunday morning) and I’m at home making chocolate pistachio butter cups.

    I party hard like that.

    But let’s back up a bit lest you think I have a serious addiction to chocolate (because let’s face it, why else would someone be up at 1 A.M. making chocolate unless they had a serious addiction, right?).

    So yesterday afternoon on my way home, I popped into Cafe Gratitude (a raw/vegan restaurant in San Francisco with the best raw desserts ever) and bought a chocolate pistachio cup for $5.  It was tiny, just a tad bigger than a Reese’s miniature cup.  I took one bite of it while driving home and nearly had an orgasm in my car.

    Wow.  It was quite possibly better than sex.

    Worried that I might kill someone, I pulled over to a curb to finish the last couple of bites.  While the 5 dolla piece of chocolate was indeed enough to make me holla (South Park anyone?), the thrill was gone all too quickly and I wanted more.   Like, 30 bucks worth more.  And yes I realize this is beginning to sound more and more like an addiction.  Crap, maybe I do have a problem here.

    But back to the chocolate cup.

    I couldn’t stop thinking about it.  It haunted me.  It called out to me in my dreams last night.  I had to make some, or return to Cafe Gratitude with my tail between my legs (um, I mean my hypothetical tail) and 30 bucks in my hand and failure written all over my face.

    Luckily, my experiment today was a success.  See for yourself:

    (Salted) Chocolate Pistachio Butter Cups

    This may look like a complicated, difficult and time-intensive recipe.  It’s not.  I just posted a lot of step-by-step pictures.  The whole thing took less than 30 minutes from food processor to mouth.  And luckily I took down measurements as I was making these.  Usually when I experiment in my kitchen, I throw this and that into my processor or blender and hope for the best.  While these are not raw (the filling is raw, the chocolate is not), they’re much healthier than a Reese’s.  Plus, they’re made with pistachios, which are packed with heart-healthy fats, copper, magnesium and B vitamins.  As an extra kick, I added maca, a superfood that improves your energy and stamina, as well as your sexual libido.  Yep, maca is Mother Nature’s viagra.  And yep, I went ahead and put them in my cups.  Have fun, y’all.

    Ingredients:

    1 cup shelled pistachios (raw, not roasted)

    4 tablespoons agave nectar (raw)

    1/8 teaspoon salt

    1 teaspoon liquid vanilla (see instructions below)

    1 teaspoon maca (feel free to add more if you need it – wink wink)

    2 teaspoons of cacao butter (melted) (this is optional so if you don’t have it, the recipe should still work fine.  I like to add it for the extra decadence as well as antioxidants that raw cacao butter brings to the recipe)

    dark chocolate chunks *

    *I decided against using raw chocolate for this recipe because it’s difficult as well as expensive to make.  Plus, I wanted a quick fix.

    Step 1: Make liquid vanilla

    This takes less than 5 minutes.  You make it once and have enough to last you weeks.  You could add it to homemade almond milk, my raw vegan protein balls, cookies, cakes, whatever.  Totally worth the extra step but if you don’t have vanilla beans or the 5 extra minutes, feel free to substitute vanilla extract here.  Note that I cannot guarantee a food orgasm with this substitution.

    Here’s how to make it.

    Chop up 3 whole vanilla beans into small pieces.  Put them in a blender with 1 cup of water and blend well.  Put the mixture into a bottle or jar and store in your fridge.

    Liquid vanilla

    Step 2: Bottom chocolate layer

    If you have chocolate molds, great.  I don’t but I used to bake a lot in my pre-raw days so I used my mini cupcake tin and mini cupcake liners.

    Line with foil cups (I find foil works best)

    Melt chocolate until you have about half a cup of melted dark chocolate. If you need more, you could always melt some more.  There are several ways to do this but the quickest way is to stick a bowl of chocolate in the microwave.  You can also use a double boiler or my makeshift double boiler method (see below on melting cacao butter).  Whatever floats your boat.  Just make sure that you melt the chocolate so that it is still somewhat thick and chunky (as opposed to completely melted and burning hot).

    Pour a little bit of chocolate into a cupcake liner (about half an inch layer).

    Using your fingers, drape the chocolate along the sides of the cupcake liner (this is where you’ll be grateful that you didn’t melt the chocolate until it was burning hot).  You want to try to make as thick of a layer on the sides as you can.  You’re basically making the outside layer of your chocolate cup – the thicker the layer, the less likely your filling will break and ooze out and hit you in your face (not a bad thing, just messy).

    This is probably the most labor-intensive part of this recipe. Don’t worry – you will have your reward soon enough.  Put the cupcake tin in the freezer to allow the chocolate to harden and set.

    Before the freezer

    After the freezer

    After a few minutes in the freezer, the chocolate should be hardened.  You’re now ready to fill them.  (Keep them in the freezer while you prepare the filling).

    Step 3:  Pistachio filling

    Put the pistachios, salt, and maca into the food processor and pulse into pieces are broken down into tiny pieces.  Don’t pulse until you have creamy butter.  Add in agave and liquid vanilla and pulse to combine.

    Before pulsing

    Adding agave and liquid vanilla

    If you choose to add the cacao butter, here’s what it looks like:

    Raw Cacao Butter

    I broke off a tiny piece, put it in a small bowl and then put the small bowl into a larger bowl with hot water (basically a makeshift double boiler).  This will melt the cacao butter slowly so that you end up with this:

    Melted cacao butter

    Add the cacao butter to the mixture and pulse.  Your filling is now done.  Feel free to sample.  You’re almost there.

    Step 4:  Fill and top the chocolate cups

    I like lots of filling.  Lots.  As you can see from the picture below, I basically fill the cups to the brim with the pistachio filling.  If you prefer a higher chocolate-to-pistachio ratio, go ahead and add in less filling.  In that case, you could probably make a few more cups than the 12 I was able to make from this recipe.

    Spoon filling into cups and pat down

    Filled to the brim

    Melt some more chocolate if you need to.  Cover the tops of the chocolate cups with melted chocolate.

    Halfway there...

    Once you’re done, at this point, you can stick the tin in the freezer for the chocolate to harden.  BUT, if you want to make these even better, sprinkle the tops of the cups with chopped pistachios and coarse sea salt.  I LOVE SALT ON CHOCOLATE. I love it more than Edward loves Bella.  Just saying.

    Look at those beautiful, delicious salt crystals waiting to melt in your mouth

    After setting in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes

    Carefully take the wrappers off

    Testing a sample (Quality control is VERY important to me)

    OMG OMG OMG

    P.S.  Before I leave you with some food porn:

    I’m on twitter!  You can follow me @vanillabeanpole.

    Also, coming soon in future blog posts: Raw vegan “sushi”, spirulina “cheesecake”, butter pecan “ice cream” and all sorts of other raw vegan treats that are spelled with quotation marks.  And of course, more smoothie and juice recipes.  Feel free to contact me with requests!

    Gratuitous Food Porn:


     

     

     

     

    Actual Sales achieved:

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: ,,,,,, | 2 Comments

Older Entries