Raw Thai Lettuce wraps

I don't have a specific recipe for this, so you just have to eye ball it. As i have stated before I am not a big fan of Asian cuisine, but you have to make exceptions sometimes. This is one of those times.

Here's a photo of everything you need.

To start you need maybe 2 - 3 tbs of sesame oil 1-2 tbs of noma shoyu ( raw soy sauce) 2 tbs of sesame seeds 2 heaping tbs of raw locally sourced honey some red pepper flakes to taste. half clove of garlic and a nub of ginger Blend all of the above in your food processor to reach a creamy consistency.

to complete the wrap you need to add the "meat" 2 cups of raw soaked walnuts a bunch of cilantro 1 - 2 carrots depending on size and a stalk of celery. Dump those items into the food processor and pulse until you get the desired consistency. spoon into some butter lettuce or other, and top with green onions, shredded carrots, mung beans and Thai peppers ( of course that's all optional.) Enjoy!!

Raw CHEEEZ-IT

I am a big snacker, and when switching to raw, I really needed to find a replacement for my favorite snack foods. Cheez-its are definitely one of those. not nips. That is a poor example of a cheese cracker. Anyway, This recipe is super simple and super delicious. Soak your nuts, minimum 4 hours, preferably overnight. add one bell pepper, ( red will give you a better more cheez-it style color)

1/2 cup each of Cashews, Macadamia nuts. you can go with a full cup of either but I like the blend. 1 medium to large bell pepper 2-3 dashes of Celtic sea salt some Cayenne pepper to taste. I like em spicier. some filtered water for consistency if needed. The bell pepper should have enough liquid but sometimes to get it to blend you need to add a little water. Place all in blender and blend.

Spread mixture onto a teflex sheet. I use a cake icing spreader. All those years working behind the counter in the Kroger bakery payin off. :)

Dehydrate for ~ 4 hours, flip over and pull off the teflex sheet and score them into squares, dehydrate for another 4 hours.

Eat. Yum.

Raw Chili with Avacado

On tonights menu is Raw Chili. Sounds weird. Now to be clear, I shoot for ~ 85 to 90% raw, so I will on occasion partake in cooked food and beverage. No Dogmas here. But part of my take away from moving to a more raw lifestyle is to find replacements for the things that I like. If I can find a tasty equivalent, then the chance of a successful switch is increased exponentially. Take chili. I love it. Especially in the Frito pie style with cheddar cheese. Now lets make a raw version of the chili. I still am working out a good corn chip recipe.

What you'll need. Sun-dried tomatoes ( rehydrated for ~ 1 hr)
2 chopped avg size Tomatoes
3 regular sized carrots
1 Jalapeño - seeded, or at least partially seeded if you want some heat like me.
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons Braggs Aminos( substitute Tamari or nama shoyu)
1 tablespoon Olive oil
1 TBS Raw organic Apple Cider Vinegar
1 TBS Raw Agave
1 TBS Chili Powder
1 tsp Freshly milled Cumin ( ok, you don't have to mill it yourself ) 
1 tsp oregano
1/2 cup cilantro
 Freshly milled black pepper to taste. Thats the base. Throw into a high speed blender and blend. Then transfer into a food processor.

Now its time to add some chunkiness.
2 stalks of Celery
1 pablano pepper
1/2 cup cilantro
1/2 cup of onion couple of mushrooms
1 avocado
 Chop coarsely and add to the processor except for the Avocados and some cilantro. Pulse until you get the desired consistency. Put in the refrigerator for a few hours to allow the flavors to marry. Overnight would be fine. Warm in the dehydrator prior to serving. Garnish with avocado cilantro and maybe some green onions. I have tried some other recipes but this one has been the best.

Raw Kale Salad

Today's recipe is for a Kale Salad.

To be clear I don't like salad dressings, raw or not. I think it has something to do with the vinegar. Anyhow this recipe calls for a dressing. It tastes fine without it though. Dagger likes dressing so I made it. I do like kale and seeing as there was a ton of it in the garden,

, i felt like I had to do something with it. so for this you will need.
 2 bunches of Dinosaur kale, thats the big flat leafy kind. de-stemmed and cut in to strips
some Red Cabbage ( i put some since not everyone is a fan, so use as much as you like here )
Fresh corn kernels off the cob. on decent sized ear should be good.
1 small tomato quartered a little onion finely chopped
some fresh parsely ( a bunch ) course chop
1/2 cup of pecans, also course chop
1 Mango Thast your salad. the recipe called for Papaya, but seeing how neither of us like it so well, and since I had some over ripe mangos I used that instead.

Chop all of the ingredients and mix in a bowl. Except the pecans and mango.

its important to remember when cutting a mango that there is a big seed in the middle and you just go around that. Then make slices in both directions flip inside out and then cut off the pieces.

Now time for the dressing.
 2 tablespoons of Apple cider vinegar
1 Lime ( juiced)
 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
2 tablespoons of Agave or other sweetener
1 tablesppon Mint ( Chopped)
1/2 clove garlic finely minced

Whisk all ingredients the recipe that I was using called for mashing the fruit and adding it to the dressing. I forgot that step. Oh well. Drizzle dressing over the salad and toss well with your hands. Put in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to allow the kale to soften up with the dressing. top with mango, and pecans prior to serving.

New My yard by your yard poster. I am playing it again this year, solo acoustic Shriner Threat set, and maybe some other stuff. Come out and see the show. Following me is the always impressive Leslie Sisson ( of the wooden birds).  Sweet!!.

12pm Brendan Payne, 1pm Shriner Threat, 2pm Leslie Sisson, 3pmCity Men, 4pm Bad Lucifer, 5pm Guitar Pig, 6pm Secret Society In Smaller Lies, 7pm13 Heavens, 8pm Precious Blood, 9pm Susquehanna Hat Co.

Raw Lasagna

I was originally going to make raviolis, but I like to have larger Zucchinis for that, so I opted for Lasagna.

The ingredients.
2-3 Zucchinis
1 cup soaked nuts minimum 4 hrs (cashew and macadamia)
Lemon Juice
2 Cups Basil Tightly packed
Some Spinach
3-5 Mushrooms marinated in a bath of Braggs Aminos, olive oil, and italian spices
4 Cloves Garlic
 1/2 cup walnuts or pine nuts. I used some pecans that I had.
 2 cups roma tomatoes
1 cup Sun Dried tomatoes (soaked for 1hr)
 Some fresh herbs (marjoram, rosemary, oregano, basil, and thyme)
 pinches of salt and cracked pepper

First make your cheese. Nuts, a red or yellow bell pepper, salt and lemon juice into the vitamix. Add filtered water as needed. Set your cheese aside and make your chunky red sauce. Put the Sun Dried tomatoes in to the proccessor and pulse a few times to break them down. Quarter the Roma tomatoes, and add 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon of Braggs, salt, pepper and your fresh herbs. Pulse until you reach the consistency that you are looking for. It should remain a bit chunky.

Next rinse out the processor and make a quick pesto. Put the walnuts/pine nuts/ or in my case I used pecans into the processor. Pulse to break them down in to bits. Add basil and salt, pulse while adding olive oil. Continue to add the oil until you get the desired consistency. Slice your Zucchinis lengthwise to make the noodles. Add a bit of red sauce to the bottom of the plate, then layer 4 noodles. Add a layer of "cheese", then another layer of noodles.

Next I added a layer of Spinach and mushrooms.

More noodles and a pesto layer.

Finally more noodles and top with red sauce. Then into the dehydrator for ~ 4 hrs.

Delicious!!

Raw Thai Coconut Soup

Todays entree is a Raw Thai Coconut Soup. Let me start by saying that I don't care for Asian cuisine, but Dagger Deb certainly does, and so you have to make sacrifices. For this recipe, you'll need.

2 Young coconuts
1 Clove Garlic
1 inch of Ginger
1 TBS cold Pressed Virgin Olive Oil
2 Limes/Lemons or a mix
1/2 Cup of Basil
1/2 Cup Cilantro
1 Tomato
1/3 cup of green onions sliced
Thai Pepper
Cayenne to taste
 This made ~ 40 oz. Probably enough for two small bowls or 1 entree. To start shave down the top of your young coconuts to expose the hard shell. Crack the top with the edge of your cleaver and work your way around to open a fist sized to larger opening.

Pour the Coconut water into your Vitamix or high speed blender, scoop out the Coconut "meat" and add it into the blender. I have found that a flexible plastic tsp, or TBS with a bit of an edge works best to scoop out the coconut.

Blend at high speed to produce yummy Coconut "Milk". Add all of the ingredients into the blender or a food processor. If you use a food processor, I would recommend slicing, mincing, dicing and what not to the veggies so there aren't big chunks in the soup.

Viola!! Serve. You can serve this as is or warm to 112 or so. As I stated I am not a fan of Asian, so I am not sure how good this tastes. It tasted o.k. to me, and my eldest said it had the right flavors. It certainly was fresh tasting. Enjoy.