Posts tagged ‘raw food’

Spicy Raw Avocado Pea Soup

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

This recipe was adapted from one of my favorite raw food blogs, Raw on $10 a Day or Less.

Just the thought of this soup made me want to vomit. I already have a love/hate relationship with avocadoes. I’m not big on peas and have never given them a chance RAW. But I figured I’m going to come across tons of raw recipes that I’ve never tried before and I’ll never know what I like or dislike if I don’t try them.

Her photos are much better than mine, so check out the original post as well. My recipe is below. I had to add a kick to it! My changes to the recipe are italicized.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 cups of peas. (I used an organic brand in a can)
  • 1 avocado. (organic)
  • 1 1/2 cup water. (I really didn’t measure. And it had been infused with cucumbers)
  • 1 small onion
  • salt & pepper
  • 2 jalapenoes
  • garlic to taste
  • a little lime juice
  • a little lemon juice
PREPARATION
  • Set aside a half cup of the peas.
  • In a blender, puree the rest of the peas and the avocado with enough water to blend and give the desired consistency. Add all the other ingredients such as jalapeno, garlic, lime and lemon juice. It takes a few minutes of blending to get this really smooth in a conventional blender. Salt and pepper to taste.
  • Pour in bowls and top with the reserved peas and minced onion.
I made enough of this recipe to take some to work the next day. Unfortunately, that didn’t happened. I loved the soup so much I ate it all that night. Now, if the idea of raw food grosses you out, heat this soup up. It’s worth trying. I would never have thought to combine peas and avocadoes.
Do you have a raw soup recipe? What’s your favorite?

Raw Lemon Spinach Pesto with a Kick

Monday, April 26th, 2010

As mentioned before, I am trying to become a more eco conscious foodie. Its easier than I thought and a lot more refreshing and flavorful. Last week I tried Danielle’s recipe of Raw lemon Spinach Pesto from Danielle Cooks.

Of course I had to put my twist on it too!

Danielle used a food processor but I just used my every day blender.

INGREDIENTS (as Danielle describes)

    • 1/2 lb baby spinach, washed and dried
    • 1/3 Cup evoo
    • 1/4 Cup lemon juice
    • handful of pine nuts or walnuts, about 1/3 Cup (I chose the pine nuts)
    • 1-2 tsp salt
    • fresh ground black pepper to taste
    • 3 jalapenos (I added this because I like a nice kick!)
    • chopped up fresh garlic. (Add it to taste. I’m addicted to garlic!)

PREPARATION

  • Blend until smooth. It is easier to add the spinach in stages because it is so bulky. (pay attention that that note from Danielle. Adding it in stages is key!) This keeps well in the fridge for a little over a week because of the high vitamin C content.

After adding garlic and jalapeno since I have very spicy driven taste buds, I was in heaven. This meal was SO tasty! And it was so easy to make. Only downfall was the expensive price of the pine nuts. I’ve come across a couple more recipes to try out with pine nuts so I’m going to have to find a cheaper vendor and buy them in bulk. – SLY

Adjusting to Eco-Conscious Eating

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

10 days ago I wrote about some new habits I was going to work on in regards to my food regime. A fellow blogger friend, Homegirl Quel even used that as inspiration to work on a week of Veganism. I find that if I give myself daily or weekly goals, its easier to acheive them than just completely switching my entire lifestyle.

Let’s review my progress so far.

Photo Credit

1. Drink more water.

I’ve gotten so great at this that I am so proud of myself. One night I drank two glasses of water before drinking juice, so then I went a drank a third glass. Then I didn’t even want the juice anymore or desire it. Seriously, I’ve been drinking water nonstop unless I’m drinking tea. No soda..not that I drank a lot of that anyway. Just an occassional Ting. But I always keep lemondade and pomegranate cranberry juice in the fridge. That usually last me a week. Now that stuff has been in there for three weeks! And while is an organic brand, I’m considering finding a very small juicer to make homemade juice. Especially considering that I am a part of a CSA now and will be getting tons of fruits and vegetables.

2. Cut out all processed food for the week.

I slipped twice. I had a green tea frap from starbucks and a slice of cheese pizza. Everything else was organic, wholesome and real! I kept wanting these snickers we keep at word and so I hunted in the kitchen and discovered almond and peanuts and pumpkin seeds and walnuts made a great snack too. Granola as well.

3. Take my vitamins

Epic fail on my part. I went from taking them five days a week to taking them once last week. Not sure why I slipped on that one but I’m hoping to revitalize that!

4. Attempt to be a vegan as much as I can.

This wasn’t as hard as I thought since most things had already been adjusted. I did take the yogurt out of my everyday breakfast smoothie. I even started adding spinach and blackberries and blueberries. Yum Yum! One thing that does not work. VEGAN CHEESE. I made an omelet the other day and tried some vegan cheese. Oh hell no! That stuff does not work. I picked around it in my omelet and then felt bad for wasting the food because that money could have been spent on another avocado or something else. Yuck!

5. Put more flax seed in things.

One of my favorite bloggers suggested adding it into my oatmeal. So now its in my cereal and oatmeal. I need other things to put it in. Maybe the banana nut oatmeal cookies that I’m making this weekend. Or maybe I should have added a couple teaspoons into my almond butter cranberry cookies. Is flax seed good to bake with?

6. Try three new raw recipes.

Well, I tried the breakfast deviled avocadoes. , And in general, I just grabbed the vegetables and fruits in my fridge and mix and matched stuff. I made this once salad that had fresh jalapeno and hot sauce and I nearly burned my tongue off but it was so good! But I want to get more into creating actually meals.

Recipes I plan on trying in the coming week includes Spinach Lemon Pesto from Danielle Cooks. The recipe is so simple that there really isn’t any excuse. I will also be trying Pea Soup from Raw on $10 a Day or Less. I’ve made my version of her Deviled Avocadoes a few times now and am slightly addicted.

7. I’m like to bake almond butter cranberry cookies as well as banana nut oatmeal cookies.

I made the almond ones. I used all organic products like whole wheat flour, vegetarian eggs, raw sugar, organic butter and the taste was astounding. Everyone at the all very quickly. This weekend I’ll bake more cookies.

What have I noticed since being very intentional about my eating habits.

1. I have lots more energy.

2. After eating I feel refreshed.  Normally I feel stuffed or weighed down because I ate huge meals with lots of processed things. And now when finishing a meal, I feel satisfied but refreshed.

3. I’m saving loads of money but drinking more water and a lot less juice. It wasn’t my intent but I notice that. I’m going to throw some sliced cucumbers in the water though. I love cucumber infused water!

4. And while I can’t see the effects now, I feel like I’m helping the future Sheena. The 30, 40 and 50 year old Sheena by putting pure ingredients in my body. And perhaps when I am near 50 I’ll be in as great of health as Mr. Officer is. I wish I could show you a picture of him. He is a greek god and african warrior rolled into the anatomy of a man and he makes me speechless. But he is very big on health and maybe if I keep this up, I’ll be uber healthy like him!

5. I generate a LOT less waste by cutting out processed foods! Which is good because I don’t look forward to carrying trash down four flights of stairs.

What have you noticed about your body and energy levels since eating more eco-consciously?

Maybe next I need to do one a week of a high raw detox or something like Eco Mama.

On a side note: I came across this article and I love their take on SOUL Food.  Seasonal. Organic. Unadulturated. Local.

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