It’s been CrAzY busy over here with house preps STILL going on (we’ve now had our dining table arrive, our new bedroom suite – sans new mattress but that arrives Saturday – oh it’s sooo good to have a larger bed with my growing belly) and even a great new outdoor setting which we are excited to christen next week for our Australia Day get together – more on that another day and pictures to come!

Plus I am still putting together my free ebook for y’all with some old favourites and also a new recipe that I have been testing out.

And I might just be doing a raw basics workshop in 2 weeks time for some other students from my Natural Wellness class that I attended. Quite exciting.

In the meantime though, I’ve been munching on these suckers.

Remember these from the other night?

Oops! So much for my tomatoes going into a salad or something. They were just too damn tasty.

So something I’ve not done alot of really, but is totally a mainstay of plenty of raw vegan diets, is sprout.

The most common thing I sprout are my almonds overnight ready for my delicious daily almond milk, and I often sprout my buckwheat too.

But these beans were eyeing me off in the cupboard this week.

Black beans (black turtle beans), akuki beans and chickpeas (garbanzo beans).

1st give them all a good rinse.

Then cover them with about 3 x their volume in water.

Make sure not to put them in direct sunlight.

I just put these guys on the kitchen bench, because tomorrow I have other plans for them.

Usually leave them for 16 hours or overnight is a good idea and watch them expand.

Come back tomorrow to see what I do next

Are you a sprouter and if so, what is your favourite thing to sprout and what kind of recipes do you put them into?

Something to read: Why not check out my guest post over on Vegan Backpacker on advice for travelling Raw/Vegan?

Chop ‘em up and put them in your dehydrator why of course

And if you don’t have a dehydrator. Stick them out in the sun like the olden days or you can even use your oven on the lowest heat setting, with the door ajar. Just keep an eye they don’t burn.

I’m leaving these beauties in my dehydrator over night at 110°F then no doubt I’ll have some other incarnation for these sweet smelling ‘maters.

Do you have a special recipe or trick for using old or going off produce? Sometimes I like to juice it all up or make a cleaning out my fridge soup/stew.

Today I started off the day with a hot lemon water

Then waited half an hour and made a Goji Orange Chia Porridge.

Gojis soaked in orange juice. A colonic therapist told me it’s best to have your gojis soaked for better digestion.

Some chia seeds

A touch of ginger

All mixed in with some clove spice and a touch of agave to even out the spice.

Not my greatest chia breakfast creation but I’m willing to try again.

I’ve got an even better idea for tomorrow’s!

Time to hit the sack! It’s been a bit house day, preparing for our new bedroom suite which arrives tomorrow. Can’t wait!

I’ve been posting the parfait recipe in parts as that is how I made it, but you can make it all in any order.

If you just joined, you might want to go back to the previous steps to ensure you have all the components to make your entire Breakfast Parfait.

• Coconut Yoghurt
• Mango Ginger Custard & Mixed Berry Layer

Candied Seeds & Nuts

As with all the other components of this dish, they can be enjoyed separately or combined altogether to make the delicious Breakfast Parfait that I made as part of my assessment at 105degrees.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

1/4 cup of sunflower seeds

1/4 cup of chopped pecans

1/4 cup of chopped almonds

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 t cinnamon

1 t of lemon juice

pinch of salt

Method: Soak all seeds and nuts for 1 hour in water

Drain then rinse.

Combine remainder of ingredients in bowl with soaked seeds and nuts and mix thoroughly.

Place mixture on dehydrator ParaFlexx sheet or greaseproof paper and dehydrate for 1 hour on 140°F, then turn down to 115°F until crispy (it took mine overnight.)

Now it’s parfait time!

Grab all your components and have them on hand ready to compile this:

1. First I layer coconut yoghurt on the bottom
2. Mango Ginger Custard
3. Mixed Berry Layer
4. Then begin all over again.
5. When you get to the top of the dish, garnish with the candied seeds and nuts
6. ENJOY

You will find different amounts of left overs which can be enjoyed together or separately. If I have a load of mixed berries and coconut yoghurt leftover, I will combine them and freeze to form a Frozen Berry Yoghurt! (even better if you have an Ice-Cream maker!)

And I loved it. After 10 hours of standing, washing dishes, slicing, dicing and dehydrating, I feel like I am back in the zone.

And I’ve not even finished everything I set out to make, so today and tomorrow I’ll be doing it all again.

First up was some kale chippies. I wish I could take credit for this genius but of course, I have to hand it over to my mentor and Soul Sister, Kristen who writes the popular blogs Kristen’s Raw and Green Mommy Blog

She initially developed her Cheezy Hemp Nacho Sauce as a dipping sauce and only recently discovered it makes an amazing marinade for kale chips also.

Spicy Cheezy Kale Chips

2 bunches of kale (I used 3 different varieties but not sure which ones?)

Remove kale leaves from stems and tear into chip size pieces into a large bowl ready for the sauce.

Cheezy Hemp Nacho Sauce from Kristen’s Blog here

By Kristen Suzanne of KristensRaw.com – if you are looking for some delicious and easy raw recipes to get you on you way to raw food heaven, Kristen offers some terrific Raw Food ebooks here and they were the first raw food recipe books I ever bought!

Yield approximately 1 1/2 cups

1/3 cup water
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 red bell pepper, seeded, rough chopped (approximately 1 cup)
1 cup hemp seeds (I used hemp powder instead)
2 1/2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes (it’s called savoury yeast flakes in Australia)

1 tablespoon chili powder* (I omitted this due to having none available)
2 teaspoons tamari, wheat-free
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan crystal salt (I used sea salt)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder

Blend all of the ingredients in a blender until smooth and creamy. This can be stored in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.

Pour all the sauce mixture onto the kale pieces and massage thoroughly.

I just had to use my hands

Place on dehydrator tray with paraflex sheet or grease proof paper and dehydrate for an hour on 140F then place on 105F for another 4 more hours on the mesh sheet.

Does anyone else ever have trouble letting them do their thang without having to quality ‘taste test’ a few??? These never last long around here and yep, they are ALL gone already!!

Next up…..

Raw Vegan Nori Rolls

Parsnip Rice

4 Parsnips

1/3 pinenuts

Juice of 1/2 lemon

2 t rice wine vinegar

1 t agave

pinch sea salt/cracked pepper

Process parsnips and pinenuts in food processor fitted with S blade til they resemble the texture of rice, be careful not to over process.

Combine ‘rice’ mixture with remainder of ingredients and set aside.

Fillings

This is where you get to be creative!

Today I used:

Julienned carrots, spring onions, cucumber, red capsicum, sliced avocado, bean shoots, baby spinach, fresh coriander/cilantro:

Then roll!

My instructor from 105degrees and friend Russell James, does a great video here on how to roll sushi, so why not check it out, but don’t forget to come back here once you’ve viewed it

Dinner is served!

I served this sushi with tamari sauce and wasabi mayonaisse that I discovered at the asian supermarket the other day. Both of these are not raw, but usually I would serve with a cashew based sauce with wasabi powder for extra kick.

And I said there was a 3rd recipe didn’t I?

Well it’s still incubating in the dehydrator, but here’s a hint:

I’ll share the recipe with you when it’s done!

Are you in the market for a dehydrator?: Check out Russell’s review here on two of the most popular dehydrators in the raw food community. I have the Excalibur and I used the TSM at culinary school and he explains the pro’s & con’s of each.

Whilst you are there, you can also check out his Home Study program here, for those of you keen to get learn more about raw foods and gaining raw chef skills without having to spend  the time and/or the money to get over to Oklahoma City and 105degrees for a month of training. Russell offers a 10 DVD set and binder of some wonderful recipe creations as well as techniques such as knife skills, “Chef’s Table”, meal planning and so much more!

If you are just keen to check out his range of awesome recipes books, click here.

With my tasting night around the corner, I’ve just a little recipe to share with you whilst on the run. But first, here some sneaky peaks of what’s going on in my kitchen in preparation

I cleaned out my fridge yesterday and found  two portobello mushrooms which were going to have an incarnation as a burger with some trimmings until I felt hungry and realised they didn’t have much time left whilst I busied myself in the kitchen doing tasting night preparations.

The aroma wafting through my house was reminiscent of my mum’s home made marinataed chicken wings, and the flavour wasn’t far off either.

Portobello Burgers (without the bun)

Ingredients:

2 Portobello Mushrooms

2 T Olive Oil

2 T Nama Shoyu

1 t Apple Cider Vinegar

1 t Maple Syrup

1 garlic clove

Pinch Cracked Pepper

Place all ingredients, save for portobellos in a bowl and mix. De-stem portobellos and toss through mixture. Let marinate for 10 mins. Place on paraflexx sheets and dehydrate in dehydrator on 110′ for 1 hour.

Serve on raw bun with salad or on it’s own, like I did. I pretty much inhaled them both.

I also threw some cherry tomatoes in that had seen some better days in the dehydrator. Such a great way to prolong the life of old fruits and vegetables. I’ll either keep them as dried tomatoes or grind them into a tomato powder for use in seasoning at a later date.

For those of you asking about dehydrators and what are they and what type you should buy, here is an edited review I did last year. Since writing this, I have been to culinary school where we used another model, but I still use this one at home and still remains the most popular in the ‘raw food world’. The dehydrator at culinary school worked as well, just cosmetically looked different.

Which brand of dehydrator should I buy and what kind?

I love my dehydrator! I try to not use it too much when I am concentrating on more wholefoods, but it certainly adds some more variety to a High Raw diet such as mine. You can use it in so many ways, including to make my birthday cake, raw pizza, flax crackers, veggie crisps, and even COOKIES.When I was looking around at dehydrators, I consulted some friends who already had theirs and they ALL recommended without fail an EXCALIBUR 9 Tray with 26 hour timer (even though I was interested in a 5 Tray initially). As dehydrating foods can take some time, a timer is a necessity as you may wish to stop the process whilst asleep or away from home. Also, as much as Excalibur offer a 5 tray model, anyone I have known who has ordered a smaller version has wished for the 9 tray after the fact. It has more room to make larger items and easily a couple of tomatoes dehydrating can take up to 5 trays or more.

So having said that, today was spent mainly trying to get some more of my 3 course meal sorted out. It’s not so straight forward with raw food, when you have dehydration, fermentation and sometimes even sous vide prepartions to do. What is a sous vide you ask?

It’s this!

It is a piece of equipment used in plenty of commercial kitchens and I’ve even seen it make an appearance or two on Iron Chef America (I LOVE THAT SHOW!)

Here’s what Wikipedia have to say about it.

Sous-vide (pronounced /suːˈviːd/), French for “under vacuum”,  is a method of cooking that is intended to maintain the integrity of ingredients by heating them for an extended period at relatively low temperatures. Food is cooked for a long time, sometimes well over 24 hours. Unlike cooking in a slow cooker, sous-vide cooking uses airtight plastic bags placed in hot water well below boiling point (usually around 60°C or 140°F).

Of course at 105degrees to ensure it doesn’t go above the optimum temperature for live food, we keep it at around 115degrees

Don’t forget you only have 3 more days left if you want to purchase my instructor, Russell James’ recipe books or home study program at discounted prices for his birthday celebration HERE. The discounted prices close on Friday at midnight GMT.

Also just for a bit of fun, I’d thought I’d include a poll for what you would like to see on the blog post my culinary school training in a few days time. Go on, give me some feedback. See you tomorrow.

View This Poll

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for all your wonderful comments regarding my weekend visit to my newest favourite state of the US of A, Arizona and my pals at the Kristen Household.

Did anyone notice that I ran out of time to blog about Day 10 (Friday at 105degrees?).

In pictures…

Kimchee – expect to see this ALOT in YOUR & MY blogging future  Freakin yum.

Then we made it into a filling:

For it’s future incarnation:

Kimchee Dumplings

A little secret: I actually wasn’t very good at this bit…I gave up and got a bit cranky at having to do something that I clearly wasn’t very good at. Of course I have shared the GOOD photo with you all

Then it was onto making fillings for the savoury tart shells we had made earlier in the week. I decide on Mexican & Italian.

Back in for some more dehydration love.

Then onto today.

Time to check on my chia sprout babies….

Oopsy, they need a bit more water….

Then it was time to get into CHOCOLATE mode. Who knew that today was going to be a chocoholics paradise???

First we began trying to dominate the hunk of cacao butter….

Maybe I will invest in Cacao Butter and not Gold…this stuff is pretty pricey.

Russell made me promise to blog about this, and if I didn’t he would reveal it to the world about my airhead moment when trying to melt the Cacao Butter for our recipe. I was wondering why EVERYONE else’s butter was melting so effortlessly with a water bath, then after complaining about it, it was apparent, I had doubled up my bowls so no heat could get to it….

DOH!

Here’s a sneak peek at the chocolate torte we made today as well…more on that tomorrow

See I told you it was chocolate day!

Bit of quality assurance of course (best bit about being a chef me thinks!)

And one of my fellow students, thought it was funny that I took over 2 workstations…lucky the space was free..but more cleanup for me I’ve never claimed to be a tidy cook!

Blonde Macaroons!!!! (Were supposed to be chocolate but we were either all wearing or full or both of the stuff by now – chocolate is messy business)

Lunchtime. I chose the Mexican Tartlet that I had made last week. And ordered a side of Kale Caesar Salad from the Cafe.

Then it was back to work to learn how to make Nut Cheese. We will come back to this.

Then if we didn’t have enough chocolate already, I broke out some of this stuff I bought in Arizona for my kitchen buddies to try.

(What is up with the creepy hand angle???) I think I like this flavour better than the Caramel. Sorry Kristen, but that leaves more for you

Chocolate cookies.

Ready for my tummy tomorrow.

Here’s a sneak peak at a recipe I’ll hopefully be able to share with you tomorrow

And my attempt at ‘Rawnola’

Lots of you have been asking for recipes as would I looking at all the lovely stuff I am learning how to make, well hopefully tomorrow, if my ‘Rawnola’ turns out as I hope then I will be more than excited to share it with you. This is our first attempt at our own recipe creation so I will be excited to see how it turns out. The only requisite on Chocolate Day was, you guess it, it had to have Chocolate in it.

For those of you emailing me with questions on the course and other things lately, please bear with me, I am in my 3rd week of my 4 week course so I may not get back to you straight away, but I will get back to you Don’t forget if you do want more info email me at girlonraw@gmail.com

Share on Facebook ]]> http://girlonraw.com/2010/04/who-doesnt-like-chocolate-day/feed/ 15 http://girlonraw.com/2010/04/sprouting-fermenting-dehydrating/ http://girlonraw.com/2010/04/sprouting-fermenting-dehydrating/#comments Thu, 15 Apr 2010 05:03:05 +0000 GirlonRaw http://girlonraw.com/?p=1429 more »]]> Up until today, Culinary School = Eating School, but today was not so much the case.

We did some more practical on sprouting. I’ve only ever sprouted alfalfa in my kitchen before, it’s kinda daunted me, so I have really been enjoying my learning on this. Expect to see more sprouting in my future Do you sprout?

Here’s my chia babies. I’ll keep you updated on their progress.

Grow babies grow!

Then we began to make some Kimchi for use in a recipe later.

Here’s what Wikipedia says about Kimchi

Kimchi is very spicy and can also be exceptionally sweet. Kimchi is made of various vegetables and contains a high concentration of dietary fiber, while being low in calories. One serving also provides up to 80% of the daily recommended amount of vitamin C and carotene.^[8] Most types of kimchi contain onions, garlic, and peppers, all of which are salutary. The vegetables being made into kimchi also contribute to the overall nutritional value. Kimchi is rich in vitamin A, thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), calcium, and iron,^[9][10] and contains a number of lactic acid bacteria, among those the typical species Lactobacillus kimchii.

The magazine Health named kimchi in its list of top five “World’s Healthiest Foods” for being rich in vitamins, aiding digestion, and even possibly reducing cancer growth.

Pizza Bases!!!

Ready for dehydration magic.

And some savoury tart shells ready for you guessed it, the dehydrator.

Lunch time. Seeing as we hadn’t made anything to eat,  I ordered a Kale Caesar Salad with extra avocado and jalapenos.

And a green Hawaiian smoothie. (lovely pine nut parmesan from my salad in the background!)

Back to class where we made some wraps for future use…

Into the dehydrator!

Tomorrow we are off on a field trip (any guesses where?) so there won’t be much food to share with you all from class, but judging by what we made today, I’d say I will more than have enough to share on Friday.

105degrees is also having an event tomorrow night to celebrate a local musician Kyle Dillingham, with set courses to match his music. If you are in the Oklahoma area you should come down and join in. Cocktails begin at 630pm, seating at 7pm.

Workout: I’ve not been working out as often as usual, but yesterday I did a Body Pump class and today I feel like I need assistance to walk! I really wanted to do another today but realised my muscles need to recover so I did an easy hour jog on the treadmill.

Does the thought of your first workout back after a break scare you? I sometimes think the battle is over once you have your shoes on and are out the door!

Good work on the veggie guessing from yesterday. Emily got it right! (Christine you got it half right and Sheri got the buckwheat correctamundo!)

This was a watermelon radish (an antique asian radish with a slight peppery taste the whiter it is)

And a golden beet. Cool eh?

So today was quite a full day of coconut opening again…as you can see, a lot of fun (and sometime frustration!)

To open up one of these babies (or 9!)

My reward!

Everyone knows I love my coconuts, and also the water. I made a video here and my Soul Sister (who I get to see on Saturday wahoo!) made one here on how to open them sometime ago. Mine is a little more labour intensive.  We use a little different technique at school. One which involves me wearing quite a bit of the outer shell by the end opening a whole boxful!

We used some of the coconut meat to make these wrappers to use in a later recipe.

Then it was time for lunch.

Remember these burger buns we made yesterday?

They were ready from dehydration.

READY FOR MY TUMMY…

Portobello Burger (which clearly was bigger than my bun), with avocado spread, wilted spinach and pistachio pesto topped with heirloom tomato.

LUNCH! And it’s now dinner time and I am still full!

In the afternoon we prepped some Kim Chi ready to make tomorrow.

See you tomorrow.

PS we are going on a field trip this week

Share on Facebook ]]> http://girlonraw.com/2010/04/nice-buns/feed/ 16 http://girlonraw.com/2010/04/what-vegetable-is-that/ http://girlonraw.com/2010/04/what-vegetable-is-that/#comments Tue, 13 Apr 2010 01:12:51 +0000 GirlonRaw http://girlonraw.com/?p=1372 more »]]> Sorry I lost ya for a day, my sleep patterns are messing up again but here’s hoping I am not officially on Oklahoma time. How was your weekend y’all?

Yesterday saw me heading to 105degrees for the Sunday Supper Menu presented by Sous Chef Kelly Dennis.

This was my first course:

Shaved Fennel with Blood Orange and Yogurt

Pecan Encrusted Portobello with Wilted Spinach, Heirloom Carrots

Coffee, Cardamom, Coriander / Date Custard with Candied Pistachios, Macadamia Mascarpone, Citrus, Saffron.

Couldn’t believe this was a raw dessert. Tasted reminiscent of the butterscotch sauce served with Sticky Date Pudding.

Yeah this pretty much rocked my world! All raw and deeelicious. Every Sunday Supper for $25 if you are ever in Oklahoma, you should check it out!

Onto today at chef school…

We tried out some wheatgrass – I am the freak in the group that actually enjoys the taste of wheatgrass.

Mixed with apple juice

Then it was time to do something with the seaweed we had soaked last week. I made a Kale and Seaweed Salad with a tangy spicy sauce

Now here is a bit of fun. Can you guess what these two vegetables are?

I’m meeting some very new and exotic ingredients of late. I’ll reveal what they are tomorrow, unless you already know?

I chased my lunch with a Seductive Strawberry Smoothie (I think it was strawberry, banana, almond milk, coconut butter and cacao). The Spring menu debuted today so I am looking forward to getting through it over the next 3 weeks

Can you guess what this is soaking away ready to sprout?

Then it was onto bread making, for burger buns.

Ready for the dehydrator…

Then I called it a day with a cup of hot Teccino Hazelnut Herb coffee. I have been wanting to try this for some time since my pal Kristen (of KristensRaw and Green Mommy Blog) has spoken of it. It’s a coffee replacement which helps to restore alkaline balance.

Ingredients
Organic Carob, Organic Barley, Organic Dates, Chicory, Organic Chicory, Almonds, Natural Hazelnut Flavor, Organic Figs. Contains: Almonds.

Not being a huge fan of coffee anyway but enjoying one now and then, this was quite a tasty alternative. Would be delicious with a tasty dessert.

Speaking of Kristen, my soul sister, I am sooo excited that we are finally getting to meet up next weekend. I first ‘met’ Kristen over 2 years ago, when I became interested in the raw lifestyle and I purchased her e-books and we became email buddies. Ever since then, we’ve maintained a great friendship and I credit her ALWAYS with my transition onto a high raw diet, she has been my biggest support! We call each other  Soul Sister (SS) as we have a lot in common and I even call her mum Soul Mum. And now we’ll finally get to meet Pretty exciting stuff.

Do you have anyone that you look to for inspiration or support in any area of your life?