In the Kitchen

I made this Exotic Fruit Salad Today for breakfast. It was super easy and yummy. A nice change from the ordinary smoothie.



I didn't have much in my fridge so I took out everything I had, combined it with some things from my pantry and came up with the above salad. I thought it was going to be better then it actually was. I mean, it was OK and I ate the whole thing but I wouldn't rave about it so I won't bother giving you the recipe. I can tell you it is an Asian Rapini and wakame salad. The dressing tasted so good in the bowl but when I mixed it with the greens it was just sort of boring. Oh well.

Ooopsies in the kitchen

So today was an interesting day in the kitchen for me. It started off good with my morning smoothie and then I moved onto my lunch which was wonderful. I made a corn salsa and put it on top of my mixed greens. The salsa was rather sweet and eating it on its own was a bit much but mixed with the bitter greens it was a nice balance.

Then I decided to make some pesto. I bought 2 bunches of basil because I wanted to freeze some. So I turned on a taped episode of Oprah and started throwing things in my food processor. I whipped it up and took a taste and blech! It was weird and yucky. I couldn't figure out what the heck was wrong. I've made pesto before so what the heck. I looked down and saw my garlic cloves lying there on the counter. Duh, I pressed them and mixed them and gave it another taste and blech! I thought back to what I had done and it dawned on me that I put, are you ready for this? A half cup of lemon juice in it! I know, how does someone hand squeeze 2 lemons and add them to a recipe that doesn't call for them without realizing it? Good question. I blame it on Oprah! :o) Oh well, it started to grow on my so I stuffed some mushrooms anyway and froze it so we'll see.

So then I decided to quickly whip up some sunflower pate before I had to run out the door for 2 baseball games. I would have just made some nori rolls with avocado but I didn't have any. I threw everything in my mini food processor and then it dawned on me that because I hadn't soaked the seeds I should have ground them up in the coffee grinder like I do every other time I've made this. Duh again. My food processor sucks the big one so the consistency was crappy. I didn't have time to care so I made up some rolls, threw them in a to-go container and ran out the door.

So there you go. Superstar in the kitch yesterday and super stupid today! hee hee.

OK, I think I am over nori rolls. I have officially burned out on them. I didn't even really enjoy them that much. It's good because I just ran out of the wrappers. I went through 4 packages. Can you believe it? Well I guess my body has had enough of them. Now I have no idea what I am going to eat tomorrow and I have a game to go to at 10:00am. I am not prepared. I was out until 9:00PM and had to come home to my kitchen that looked like a tornado went through it and then I watched Independence Day on TV and now it is midnight and I am just going to go to bed and let the chips fall where they may tomorrow.

Nighty night.

PS I meant to tell you guys what happened yesterday at my son's baseball game. Remember when I told you that I worked that garage sale for a fundraiser and I brought my lunch with me and everyone was looking at it and smelling it (that's putting it lightly, I stunk up the whole garage and had to sit outside to eat it. It was broccoli rabe). Anyway, one of the moms who was there came up to me and asked me if I would give her the recipe. I was shocked. She said she had never heard of it but it smelled good. I don't know, raw rapini might be a bit much to start her out on >;o)

Now I am going to BED!

Ramblings

Every night my husband and I start the routine of preparation for the next day. We get the kids' lunches ready and we prepare all the ingredients for the morning smoothies. My husband likes to make his smoothie at night, put it in a mason jar and put it in the freezer. I don't think you're supposed to freeze them and I told him but he says it works so what the heck.


For a long time I wasn't preparing mine at night and then one day I realized it was crazy to do the work twice and now when I go to have my smoothie each morning I just throw all the cut up stuff in the blender and flip it on. So easy!

I've also been making an extra glass of smoothie each morning and leaving it in the fridge for an afternoon snack. I like to have it ready to go without any preparation. It's like a bonus!


More, More, More

I was so excited when my grocery store had kale in stock again. It's been 2 weeks with nothing. Boo hoo. I decided to make James Russell's Wilted Kale with Chipotle Dressing because I've been waiting...well, 2 weeks to try it.


The recipe calls for 4 heads of kale. I don't care how much it wilts, I can't eat that by myself so I decided not to halve it, but to quarter it. One bunch of kale. I also didn't have any hemp seeds so I used sesame seeds. I took a series of pictures to document the process.


I titled this More, More, More because I felt like every step of the way that is what this dish needed, more. In defense of the recipe, I think if I followed the recipe as written it probably would have tasted better.


Here are my mores:

1. Massaging. I think I should have massaged the kale longer and maybe even let it sit out and marinate for a while like I do with my broccoli rabe. I didn't like the raw taste I would get from time to time while eating it. Blech. I've marinated kale before but I've never had it taste like this before. Massage your kale a long time people. And when you think you're done, massage it some more.


2. Tomatoes - I would have like a bunch more tomatoes in my salad. Maybe if the kale tasted better I wouldn't have wanted more tomatoes but as it was I threw some more in after I started eating it.

3. Just more - I think I would have liked a bit more taste. The chipotle taste was good but I would have liked more. I think it would have benefitted from some garlic or pepper or something. I was thinking about adding more stuff to it as I was making it but as I said before I like the idea of trying things the way they are intended so I know where to go from there.


I usually rate all the things I make with stars. I would rate this one about 2 1/2 out of 4 but with some tweaking I know it would be just what I like. I will also make notes on recipes so that the next time I make it I know what to do differently. It has come in handy many times.

On the Go
I am the queen of eating on the go. I used to be so good at GO-ing to the drive thru or GO-ing to get pizza. Now I am the queen of raw food on the go! I only had a few minutes to prepare before I ran out the door for my son's baseball game today. I mean seriously, it was probably about 10 minutes. In that time I managed to make zucchini noodles, slice up and massage some mushrooms and spinach, and sprinkle on some pine nuts.

I packed it in a container (plastic- bad- I know) and grabbed a container of marinara I had ready and bam! I was out the door.

Now, that probably doesn't seem so fantastic BUT I also managed to get 4 bags of snacks made for my little guys, get the dogs put away, corral the kids to go to the bathroom, get their sweatshirts, coats, baseball mitts, shoes on and loaded in the car. I also got my husband's extra clothes ready, grabbed my coat, packed waters, and got everything in the car and ready to go. Whew! I amaze myself sometimes.


I guess what I am trying to say is that eating a raw and living foods diet doesn't have to be hard. It can be simple and it can be easy. It can be great. If I can do it, anyone can.