Over it.

Today's highs are supposed to be in the 20's.  We got another foot of snow.  Another snow day.  I am stomping my feet in protest and making Summery bright veggie-filled food all day (It's March, I refuse to eat canned pea soup until November).  I drove through the sleet and snow to be at Adah and Ilse's birthday party in a very gray RI yesterday and then went back to Shura's to prepare a raw vegan feast: raw golden and red beet ravioli with cashew boursin, pea shoots and parsley pistachio pesto and a red pepper pignoli sauce.  I'm inspired to say the least.  Our very clean plates looked like they'd been finger painted - coral (pepper pignoli sauce), magenta (beets), gold (golden beets) and green (pesto) swirls made such pretty designs on our plates we had to stop and admire them, and contemplated putting paper on them to take an imprint!

I also find that lately many of my friends are complaining about not feeling well and about weight management.  Aside from becoming veggie or vegan, they seem to lack strategies, and often have disappointing, if not dangerous, results. I think there is a case of nutrition ignorance going around -  I have become a little dogmatic about high fiber, fresh, mineral-driven nutrition, out with you junk food vegans!  Salsa and corn chips do not a wholesome dinner make!  I've been reading Gillian McKeith books and raiding the bulk food bins at the co-op, taking more supplements and brewing more homemade tea blends from herbs I gathered up at Christina's Spices.  I've opened more than a half a dozen young coconuts in the past couple of weeks to make raw pad thai I am scarcely willing to share even though I want everyone to know how satisfying and delicious raw vegan food can be.  Yum yum yum.  I feel like a raw glutton (although I'm not going raw again, not on my current schedule anyhow - just as raw as I can manage), being sinfully good to both my tastebuds and my poor winterized digestive enzyme reservoirs. 


Here's today's adventure in anti-winter cuisine:

Breakfast - my daily smoothie
1 Tbsp ground flax
1 tbsp hemp protein powder plus fiber
1 thick slice of banana
3 frozen strawberries
1/4 C frozen blueberries
1 Tbsp lime juice
1/2 C soy milk
1/4 C soy yogurt
Throw it all in a blender and blitz until smooth, like summer in a glass.  Also, it has a full color range, green hemp, blue and red berries, brown flax, etc.  Tons of fiber, protein, omega 3's and delicious to boot.  All with some milk thistle seed and dandelion tea to kick my liver into high gear.  Talk about something to get out of bed for, I love the mauve of this smoothie so much I painted the bathroom in my last apartment the same color.  Delish.

Lunch - delicious raw salad plate:
A scoop of tofu curry salad
    - 1 package extra firm tofu (you could sub 2 cups of cashews soaked for 2 hours then ground to a crumbled texture in a food processor to keep it raw)
    - 1/3 C finely chopped of each: celery, green apple, raisins, and red onion
    - 1 tsp cinnamon
    - 1/4 C soy yogurt
    - 2 tsp raw agave nectar
    - 2 tbsp raw cider vinegar
    - Juice of one blood orange
    - 2 tbsp curry paste
Salad
    -Wild arugula
    -Organic pea shoots
    -Half an avocado
    -Sliced red pepper
    -Sliced red and green cabbage
    -Sprouted sunflower and pumpkin seeds (an incidental leftover from my aduki bean patties last week)
    -Dressed with Braggs raw ginger sesame dressing
Another raw rainbow plate!  This was so tasty that my cat, Basil, actually licked my plate clean after I had to fight her off to allow me to finish eating the food! 

Dinner (cooked all morning) Aduki bean chili
    - 2 tsp olive oil
    - 1 spanish onion chopped
    - 1 red onion chopped
    - 1/2 leek, rinsed and chopped
    - 2 cloves garlic, minced
    - 1 Summer squash, chopped
    - 1 red bell pepper, chopped
    - 1 fresh tomato, chopped
    - 1 can San Marzano tomatoes, chopped, plus canning liquid
    - 4 C sprouted aduki beans
    - 1 package extra firm tofu
    - 3 C filtered water
    - Salt, cayenne pepper, cajun blackening dust, pepper etc, to taste.
Saute the onions, leek, and garlic with oil and spices until softened, add squash until soft, then add everything else and simmer until stew-ish and thick.  Serve with fresh avocado slices and sprouted aduki beans on top. 

Snacks?  You bet.  Juiced spinach, grapefruit, watercress and a little cilantro this morning to take all my supplements with (fish oil, grapefruit seed extract, milk thistle seed capsules, and digestive enzymes).  Mid-afternoon may be an aduki bean burrito (heat aduki beans in a pot with salsa, throw them on a corn tortilla, top with fresh greens and sliced avocado, roll up and eat!), or some of the gorgeous blood oranges I bought yesterday with a sliced champagne mango (so happy to see those at the stores again!).  Since fruit is best eaten without protein, carbs or veggies, it makes a perfect between-meals snack. 

Just because it is too delicious to keep a secret, here's the raw pad thai recipe:
   Noodles (toss them together in a large bowl)
    - meat scraped from 2 young coconuts, sliced into thin strips or "noodles"
    - sprouts
    - long thin strips of:
       - red pepper
       - fuji apple
       - green cabbage
Dressing
    - 1/4 C raw almond butter
    - 3 tbsp bragg's liquid aminos
    - juice of 1 lemon
    - 1 clove garlic
    - 1/2 tsp agave nectar or honey (optional, I leave it out)
    - a few shavings of fresh ginger
    - a slice of a jalapeno pepper
Blend the dressing ingredients in a blender then pour over the salad and toss until evenly coated.  I could eat this everyday, Shura calls it ambrosia, I am too busy eating it to bother describing it.


Does it sound like I'm on a summer produce kick?  I am.  I am kicking my cold and my winter slump to boot.  I'm also getting giddy about traveling to Italy in May and taking a cooking class at our villa in Umbria, I have never had a kitchen to use while in Italy, so I can't wait to prepare food for everyone there.  Mangiamo cibo grezzo!