CHILI - oo - la - la!

Today is Sunday and Gina, my daughter, and Caleb and Jacob agreed to make dinner after church. It's called....."Chili". (Not very original now is it) Caleb is the navigator of the recipe. (Sorry, I didn't write the source where I found this about 2 months ago)

Jacob is really giving me "the eye" here because I told him that the celery had to be cut up in smaller pieces. He thought he was going to be finished within seconds....now it was going to take longer.Gina doesn't know that I caught her making Caleb's hair "just right" for the photo shoot! Ha!What a handsome dude!Okay - this is what we did.The bowl on the left is the small vegetables - carrots, celery, red bell pepper, green onions.
We poured Udo's oil and a little sea salt over them and let them sit while we made the "chili".
The chili on the right is:
6 tomatoes
2 avocados
1/2 c sun dried tomatoes
1 T. fresh ginger
2 tsp sea salt
2 T chili powder
2 tso cumin
2 tsp cayenne pepper
We put all of this in the food processor and "let it rip".

Then we combined the veggies and the sauce to be this. Then we
served it with a salad. I know - I know - I was trying to sneak the picture and I didn't get it into focused fast enough but you'll notice that Jacob is having a second helping.
I promise....I want to make this "chili" again.
It was that good!

KEY-LIME DREAM CREAM Pudding

I just got an email from my friend, Sheri, and she highly recommended this recipe. I decided to make it right away and whoa - it made 2 of these bowls full - and I ate one of them before I could take a picture! She is right - it is outstanding - you better run to the store - not walk - and get the ingredients. It is good enough for the most fanciest dinner - or eat outside by the pool! I have to say that it's my very favorite so far especially when it's very cold. It's better than a Key-Lime Pie. Thanks Sheri. I will ALWAYS believe your recommendations! Key Lime Dream Cream Pudding

1 cup young coconut meat
1/4 cup virgin coconut butter
1/2 c agave syrup or maple syrup
1 Tblsp ground ginger (or a tiny piece of fresh)
a dash of cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla flavor
1 avocado
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (about 4 limes)
Blend in your vita mix.
Chill.
I quote Sheri, "Please try this. You will be in heaven."
She wasn't kidding.
I'm floating.

Honey Infused Lemon Rind

We saw this in the book "The Raw Food Primer" by Chef Suzanne Alex Ferrara. It sounded interesting and I have learned that the rind has some great nutritional value afterall. Cut the rind off of a clean lemon - keeping on some of the white pulp. Cut the pieces into little bite size pieces..

Soak them for a day (in the refrigerator) in raw honey. They turn out so sweet and nice.
It's definitely a sweet treat.

Chef Suzanne said, "....these little candies are like bursts of sunshine."

Raw Raviolis - but I wouldn't call them that!

Okay - I went to the library and checked out the book "The Raw Food Primer" by Chef Suzanne Alex Ferrara. It's a little book and had some different ideas. This recipe just sounded wierd to me so I just HAD to make it. Here we go.

I started by mixing 1 c soaked walnuts, 1 cup zucchini, 3 T Braggs Amino, 2 cloves garlic, 1 tsp oregano in my vita mix until smooth - it's in the container on the right. Then in the food processor, 1 red bell pepper and a bunch of celery and chopped it until it was pretty fine. The container on the left.Then I just mixed them together. Duh.

The recipe calls for wilted butter lettuce leaves but I was too cheap to buy those - so I used my romaine lettuce leaves - not wilted. Wilted lettuce leaves sounded gross to me. Then I put a scoop of that walnut mixture in the leaf and rolled it up.I made a "carrot almond sauce" from the book (1 cup of carrot juice, 4 T almond butter, 1/2 avocado, 2 T Braggs Aminos, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp honey). I spread this sauce on the plate first and then arranged the "rawviolis" on top of the sauce. The "carrot almond sauce" was very mild and very yummy. I don't know what the heck I will do with it now that I have a bowl left over. I'll probably end up eating it with a spoon or putting it on my flax crackers. Oh I just used it as a dip for celery sticks - it's okay - but I still would rather have "ranch"!
Here is baby Judy's dad - Caleb and my son Jacob testing the "Raw Raviolis". They actually loved the tomatoes and the sauce the best.
Go figure.
It only took me about 1 1/2 hr in the kitchen.
I could have just sliced and salted a tomato.

In the famous words of Chef Suzanne:
"These scrumptious little pillows will enchant any diner."
I am busting up.
I made this only because I wanted to ...but won't do it again.

Mango pudding and Baby Judy

We just made MANGO PUDDING. Easy as pie for my 9 month old granddaughter ! See -
Judy is showing you that it's fun to touch!AND FUN TO EAT!

I found this from the "Raw Food Primer" by Chef Suzanne Alex Ferrara
MANGO PUDDING
2 T. ground flax seed
1 whole mango cut up into pieces
1/2 T maple syrup
1/4 tsp vanilla
touch of nutmeg
I put it all in my vita mix - refrigerate before serving.
Mmmmm.. Chef Suzanne said, "I like to serve this pudding
to little girls at tea parties. Elegant glasses are a must!"

MORE TACOS????

I know that we just posted a taco recipe. I know - I know. But this recipe was highly recommended to me today by two of my friends so I decided to rush out and get the eggplant and try it. The recipe comes from the book, "The Raw Food Primer"by Chef Suzanne Alex Ferrara. Peel the eggplant. (we have never liked eggplant before but I thought I would try it anyway. I had a back up of lettuce and cabbage leaves we would stuff just incase we didn't like the eggplant.)

Slice it into very thin rounds and sprinkle with sea salt. Place on the dehydrator at 105 degrees. You want it to soften so when you fold them - their sides don't split.Place all the ingredients (recipe below) in the food chopper and process until it's creamy. You'll place a small spoonful of this mixture on the eggplant round and then fold it over for a "taco" look. Dehydrate it for about 2 hours or so. Jim actually thought they had been grilled - but nope - this
is what the dehydrator did to them - looks browned!Serve with salad, avocados and lots of homemade salsa!I have to say that we really enjoyed these a lot. They were nothing like I expected. When I think of eggplant - it turns me off - but these were perfect little veggie rounds that didn't taste or resemble eggplant in the slightest. Some eggplant tastes bitter - so be careful about that. I was told that putting the salt on them before hand helps to get rid of that bitter taste. I also cut these a little thick - so make yours thinner.
Recipe:
1 c soaked walnuts
1/2 c chopped celery
1/4 c minced white onion
1/2 c chopped zucchini
1/4 c water
2 cloves garlic
3 T Braggs
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp minced fresh oregano

Soft Tacos

We had the best soft tacos yet tonight- with a filling that was out of this world!

The little bowl has the secret "meat filling". I used walnuts and grinded them in my mini-grinder.
I added a touch of cumin and 2 squirts of Braggs Aminos.
That is all. It tasted like a beef taco filling. I found the recipe
in "The Complete Book of Raw Food" book.

We made homemade salsa and stuffed the Ezekiel tortillas with cucumbers, lettuce
tomatoes and avocados. We felt it was good enough for company.
So....we invited the Helland's over to eat.
Darn. They left before we got their family picture.

GRADUATION COMPLETE!

Adrian, Jodie, Derek and Ryan all graduated from BYU recently. They all live within
walking distance to each other in Provo, Utah and are such outstanding friends. Pictured here
are 4 of our 5 daughters and their families (plus Jim and I)

For graduation presents - of course everyone got their own dehydrator! Thanks
rawguru.com - they have the cheapest prices in town! Here is Jodie, (due in June),
Jenny (had Katie in Feb), Gina (due in Aug), and Jamie (had Emma in Oct) making
cookies, granola, crackers and dried fruit. The dehydrators never did get turned
off for the 4 days we were there!

Here is Jenny's husband, Derek with Katie.
Wow - even Derek enjoyed this plate of "raw".Jamie and her family is getting ready to move out of state
so she is making flax crackers frantically in her
new dehydrator before she leaves ! (chopping veggies here)Jenny is making fabulous granola for everyone!Ryan wants to help too!Okay - here's Ryan testing the granola. Mmmmmm good.Gina wanted to dried pineapple just for fun!...and Caleb wanted the "no bake" cookies!
They lasted all of 20 mins.
Don't ask me why I took a picture of this dead food. We took everyone out
for dinner to celebrate their graduation and I wanted to stay "raw".
So I compared this dish... to this dish.... fresh greens, cucumbers, avocados,
tomatoes and blackberries. Jim wanted to have a green burrito since he has been raw since
February just for the heck of it. When we got home - he told me,
"It wasn't as good as I was expecting.
I guess my taste buds have changed.
I should have had a salad."
That comment... just "made" my day!