I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a terrific Mommy's Day. I know I did. It was a relaxing and fun weekend and I have never been so happy for lousy weather on Sunday because it meant my son's double header was canceled and I was able to spend Mother's Day home with my family. My parents came later in the day and we had a nice time.

The above picture was my dinner on Saturday. We had one of our favorite neighbor couples over for dinner. They are just the nicest people and we love spending time with them. They all had hamburgers with chips. I made a big salad for anyone who was interested. I used mixed greens, oranges, cucumbers, and pine nuts. I made a lemon dressing from the Raw Food/Real Worlds book It was pretty good.

I also made the Indian Spinach Dip again from Alissa Cohen's Book. I put it in romaine leaves and topped it with some tomatoes. It was very good and satisfying. I ended up dipping some carrots in it later as we played cards for a little snack too. Yum.

Sunday morning I woke up and decided that since it was Mother's Day and I could do WHATEVER I wanted without guilt I was going to watch the new movie I bought called All Jacked Up. I was thrilled that the hubby wanted to watch it with me. He is usually not into this kind of thing.

There was a lot of good information in the movie and there was some traumatic scenes of what goes on in the slaughterhouses. I was crying and crying during that part. I just couldn't stop. Unfortunately there were some pretty slow parts that dragged on and the movie was a bit all over the place but I am glad I watched it and I am especially glad my hubby watched it.

I told my teenagers that I wanted them to watch it for my Mother's Day gift (yes I milked the Mother's Day thing but with 5 kids I have to :o). They were less then thrilled and I had to wake up my 14 year old a few times. :o( We talked about it at the end and they were surprised at how horrible the animals were treated in the slaughterhouse. When I asked them if the movie changed their idea about anything they pretty much told me no. I was pretty disappointed but I did my part by showing it to them and they have to make their own choices in life so what can a mom do?

I got some beautiful handmade cards, art projects from school, 2 apple trees and 2 Raw Cookbooks. I got the above mentioned Raw Food/ Real World book that I've been contemplating purchasing for 2 years now. I've always steered away from it because everything looked so difficult but I decided that it would be nice to have for special occasions. I also got the new book from Fresh The Ultimate Live Food Cookbook by Sergei and Valya Boutenko. I haven't had a chance to look through it yet so I can't say anything else about it.


For dinner on Sunday I made a salad and some pesto pasta with my lemony pesto oopsie sauce. It was fair. I also made Chadd Sarno's Pasta Puttanesca which was pretty good. The funny thing is that while I ate it I would rate it a 6 out of 10 but the taste in my mouth after eating it bumped it up to an 8 or 9. How weird is that? I also made a mango mousse for myself that I enjoyed while everyone had ice cream. Yummy.

After my parents left we watched the Survivor Finale and I have to say we were a bit disappointed at the outcome. I said it was a bad ending to a good season. I won't say more in case my overseas friends haven't heard who won yet. xo

So all in all it was a wonderful weekend. I guess the downside to all this relaxing is that it has carried over to today. I don't feel like doing anything today except taking it easy. I know I have a busy day coming up later so I just feel like being a blob. Oh well, it is Monday.

Weekend Menu

So you all know I've been craving seaweed. I decided to whip out my wakame that I had in my pantry and see what I could do with it. I made the first salad yesterday. It was OK. A little boring but OK. I have never had wakame so I was surprised that I couldn't really taste it too much. I was so excited that the taste was so bland and yet so good for me so I gave my husband a strand. Ha ha. He was gagging and spitting it out. It was the funniest thing. Hee hee, I'm evil. No, I really didn't think it had that much taste. Oh well. Here is the recipe I used. I did not use the Bragg's and I used romaine lettuce and tomatoes. No nuts.

Simple Wakame Salad

Recipe contributed by Dorleen Tong
1 clove garlic, grated
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
1/2 avocado
Bragg's to taste
3 cups greens (sunflower, buckwheat, spinach, lettuce, etc)
1 cup soaked wakame seaweed
optional: tomatoes, walnuts, pecans, almonds or pine nuts

Grate the ginger and garlic. In a small bowl, mash the avocado, ginger, garlic and Bragg's together. Break greens and wakame up into bite size pieces. Toss all ingredients together thoroughly.
This recipe is courtesy of San Francisco LiFE

Today I decided to try again. I made Japanese Delight that is in Alissa Cohen's book, Living on Live Food .I added a bunch of alfalfa sprouts and substituted the Bragg's for a little bit of miso. It was pretty good. Better then the first one. Still not to die for but still, very good.

Now the nori rolls I made to go with it are another story. Wow, I loved them. I mixed some fresh grated ginger with a bit of miso, a bunch of alfalfa sprouts, avocado, cucumber, cilantro, and red pepper. I really loved these and wanted more and more and more. :o)

For lunch I made the Indian spinach dip from the same book. I didn't know what to expect and I was thrilled at the taste of it. It had 4 cups of spinach in it and I ate about 1/2 of it. I put it in a collard wrap with more alfalfa sprouts, red pepper and grape tomatoes that I cut in half. Yummmmmmy! I didn't take a picture of it because honestly it didn't look that great, but it tasted wonderful!

I did take a picture of the sandwich I made with it for dinner though. I used the Black Sesame Bread I made from Ani Phyo's Book and topped it with cucumber, tomato, alfalfa, and red onion. It was pretty good. Better in the collard wrap though. I guess I can't be a good critic of the bread because when I was supposed to put sunflower seeds in it, I put sesame seeds. Oops, I think that might change the taste a bit. I am going to have to try it again.

I don't know why I decided I wanted a dessert tonight. Maybe I thought it was a special Sunday treat. I made this Mango Mousse and Berry Parfait. I don't know where I got the recipe because I copied it off the Internet about 2 years ago but boy oh boy was it good. My husband and kids thought it was good too. I made a smaller amount.

Red Mango Mousse and Berry Parfait

4 cups Fresh Red Mangoes (I don't know what red mangoes are. I just used a regular mango)
4 TB Coconut butter
1/2 vanilla bean (I used liquid)
2 TB lime
1 TB lime zest
1/2 cup agave (I used a lot less, a drizzle)
Pinch of salt
1 cup berries (I used strawberries)

Put all ingredients except the berries and 1 cup of the mango in food processor and process until smooth and creamy. Chill in the fridge 1-2 hours or overnight. (I didn't do this)

Fill the cups with a layer of the mousse, a layer of fresh sliced mango, then another layer of the mousse, then a layer of fresh berries and so on until full. Top with a layer of fruit and fresh mint leaves.

I was so excited on Saturday when I went to a local kitchen store Sur La Table and bought myself a spiral slicer. I was able to make the most beautiful angel hair pasta with it. I topped it with marinara and it was delicious. I love that slicer! It's so cool. I also got this neat mango cutter. You just press down on it and it takes the pit out. It makes it so much easier. I loved it.

So that was my culinary weekend. I hope you enjoyed the recap. I am enjoying my food so much that I wish I could eat more:o) There's always tomorrow!