Asparagus Soup

Asparagus Soup over Whole Wheat Pasta

We found about 2 pounds of organic asparagus on sale recently and I had no idea what to do with it until a friend posted the link to Raw Asparagus Soup: blendtec.com/recipes/raw_asparagus_soup

Unfortunately (or perhaps I should say fortunately) the original recipe has dill which I don't like, and lemon which I'm allergic to, so I decided to alter the recipe a bit. Also, I did not have raw cashews around, but I did have raw almonds. You can make this in a blender other than blendtec, but it may be thicker. The first time I made asparagus soup it came out more the texture of a green smoothie but the taste of a savory soup. I served it over   whole wheat pasta so that the pasta and almonds made a complete protein, and it was pretty good. It was good enough that we finished it even tho the texture was a bit odd. I wanted to try making it again, but this time get the texture right, and cook it because I prefer warm soups, so here is the recipe I ended up with:

Ingredients For My Version of Asparagus Soup

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Whole Wheat Pasta
1 pound Asparagus Spears
Juice and rind from 1 orange
1/2 cup soaked almonds
1/2 cup almond milk
2 cups filtered water
3 cloves garlic
1 onion
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

Instructions:
Place 1 cup of almonds in 1 cup of water and allow to soak for at least 2 hours, preferably over night. I chose to soak all my raw almonds and made the rest into almond milk. I will write a blog about that experience some other time.  Soaking them overnight had better results for the soup as well. It is amazing how much water they soaked up!.

Pick tender tops off of asparagus spears and place in a small bowl.  I placed them in a dip bowl. Squeeze the juice of one orange over the asparagus tips and allow to marinate for 30 minutes. While they are marinating, cut the woody part of the asparagus stems off. Tip: Hold each end of spear and bend until lower part snaps off. Cut the tops in half and place in blender with 1/2 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup soaked almonds, and 2 cups filtered water. Blend on high until soupy.

Slice onion and 3 cloves garlic, cook on medium in 1 tablespoon of olive oil with 1 teaspoon parsley flakes, 1/2 teaspoon celery salt, 1/2 teaspoon chili powder, 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, and the grated rind of 1 orange.

When onion becomes slightly browned, add to blender. Remove asparagus tips from the juice of 1 orange placing aside, and add juice to blender. Blend and then place in a soup pan and cook on simmer for 20 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve over whole wheat pasta with marinated asparagus tips on top. I added the whole wheat pasta because I am working on getting complete proteins into my meat free meals and I believe the combination of whole wheat and almonds creates a complete protein. I will run the various combos I came up with by my dietitian at our next appointment to clarify.

The 2nd bowl of soup came out much more the texture I was looking for, and was very tasty! I saved the leftovers for Patch to try and will have some for lunch tomorrow. The original bowl of "soup" came out looking a bit like green glop. It was tasty, but an odd smoothie like texture. I am glad I tried again! Let me know if you try my version of the asparagus soup recipe and how you like it.

Overnight (no cook) Breakfast Cereal

Overnight Breakfast Cereals by TheYummyLife.com

I am really enjoying Pinterest! Lately I've found some great recipes on there, and today I finally got up the guts to try sprouting some quinoa and making overnight breakfast cereal. Here's one of the main articles that inspired me to try my hand at this:
http://www.theyummylife.com/8_muesli_flavors

So first off let's get to the good stuff, here's the recipe.

Tips:
Sprouting the quinoa first is not necessary, but adds to the nutrients. I set mine out this morning after eating overnight oatmeal with the intention of making the overnight breakfast cereal I'm posting here.
Some people do not feel oats are gluten free. If you do not eat oats, you could make this with just the quinoa
Be sure to grind the flax seed or your body can't process it and you won't get the binding/thickening properties (I use a coffee grinder we have set aside for nuts, seeds, flax, etc)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sprouted quinoa
1/2 cup dry whole rolled oats (or you could sprout oat groats to use in their place)
1/2 cup apple sauce
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons coconut palm sugar
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1 dash of salt
1 cup coconut milk

Directions:
mix dry ingredients well, add to sprouted quinoa, then add 1 cup coconut milk (the light kind that is the same amount of fat and less carbs than 1% milk, not the whole fat kind that comes in a can although I'm sure that would be delicious as well)
Stir well, cover container and leave in fridge over night.

Makes 2 servings

Now to the cool (to me) part... how to sprout Quinoa. I have been wanting to learn to sprout various grains, seeds, beans, etc. for a while now, because it raises their nutrient value. It's a really cool little trick of nature, that when they start to sprout, apparently that's when the most nutrients are easily available to the body, because it's when the nutrients are trying to provide what the plant needs to grow. Obviously it's great to plant food and grow your own food, but if you're going to eat grains, seeds, nuts and beans, may as well eat them at the peak of their health impact right? Here's a neat little instructable on how to sprout quinoa: http://www.instructables.com/id/Sprout-Quinoa/ and here's a video using the same method: http://youtu.be/V0oam8VPFws plus there are some great kits out there, but all I used was a sealable plastic container, as shown above. It would probably be best to do this in a glass container now that I think about it, or anything but plastic. I put the quinoa in, put about twice as much water which turned out to be more than I needed, just need enough to cover the quinoa ... and then after the movie I got rid of the floaties, and put more water (from the filter) to just over the quinoa, then covered and let it sit all day, then rinsed again, and used it in the above recipe. They had started to sprout so I didn't feel the need to sprout them any further at that point.

Apparently some people do not do well with raw quinoa, so be aware of your body's response to eating such things, but I've never had a problem eating or processing raw foods. Actually, the entire meal could be considered a faw food breakfast, because nothing in it is ever cooked. I did heat mine up a bit in the morning just for a nice hot cereal feel, but it tasted just the same cold of course, so that's a personal preference issue.

Some people like to dehydrate their quinoa and use them in baking, or as the crispy part of foods like to make cookies have a crunch, on top of yogurt, to coat fish, etc. I'll try that out after we finish building our solar dehydrator and let you know how it goes! In the mean time, give this super easy breakfast cereal a try. It made it really great this morning when we were in a hurry to get out the door because I had a healthy breakfast all ready to go. Once my vegan protein powder arrives, I'll probably add that to it as well.

No Bake Coconut Chocolate Bars

I have a thing for chocolate, and recently I had gotten some coconut oil to try out in various methods of cooking. One thing I had heard you could do with it, is mix in cocoa and a bit of sugar to have a chocolate bar. Here's the recipe I used, and it turned out delicious.

3 Tablespoons coconut oil (solid at room temperature)
3 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
.25 cup of shredded coconut
plus 1 tablespoon shredded coconut to sprinkle over top

Made 8 servings about 1 inch square

Mix 3 Tablespoons coconut oil with 3 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder and 1 teaspoon brown sugar until smooth. Add a quarter cup of shredded coconut and mix well. Pour into shallow air tight container and spread across the bottom. Sprinkle remaining 1 Tablespoon shredded coconut on top and freeze. Easy-peasy!

We enjoyed these and they were ready about 20 minutes after putting them in the freezer. After that we moved them into the fridge, where they remained in good condition but didn't last long because we ate them up pretty fast.

Pesto - Raw Food you may already eat

Yesterday was Meatless Monday, and I guess today is Italiano Tuesday.

I love pesto. Did you know it is often made raw, and can be made with any number of ingredients? I first fell in love with pesto as a child, but didn't know what was in it. Later, I started asking restaurants where I found it particularly delicious, what is in this stuff? And soon I realized it can be as simple as 3 little ingredients, olive oil, nuts, and basil. It can also have cheese in it like Parmigiana or Romano, but I don't think cheese would qualify as raw. I'll have to look that up. Anyway, I left it out of this recipe, as I figured it's easier to just shake some on and know the measurements since I keep track of exactly what I eat on at least 3 days a week. If you choose to add cheese, I'd add about 1/2 an ounce, taste, and see if you want more.

Today I made some with Thai Basil from my neighbor's garden, (Thanks Amy!) and some pistachios that needed to be used up. We have a tiny food processor, so here's the slightly more complex recipe I used:

Ingredients:
1 cup of Thai basil (just the leaves, flowers and stems excluded) 

1/2 cup of green pistachios

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon Spicy Pasta Olive Oil 

The Spicy Olive Oil is a seasoned oil from The Dipping Well, a locally owned store that just opened down the street from us near 26th Ave and Baseline I believe. It basically has roasted peppers, basil, and sea salt infusing the oil, so you could add the above to some olive oil if you're not in the Phoenix, AZ area.

Instructions:

Pulse a bit to begin mixing, adding olive oil between pulses, and then using a spatula, push ingredients down and pulse until it is the consistency you want. You may need to push it down a few times to get all the leaves and nuts well chopped and blended. I chose to use less olive oil than most recipes I've found, because I am watching my weight and pesto is a high fat food. All good fats, but still, something to be aware of. 

For lunch I had some on flaked salmon with wilted spinach and arugula and a pear. BtW, we got some amazing pears from a neighbor recently. DELICIOUS! If I had my aquaponics system up and running, I could have had everything grown at home or from neighbors. But we canned some of those pears, and today I gave a can to the wonderful lady who gives me as much basil as my heart desires. Why spend money on food, when you can share your excess with neighbors! I call it being neighborly, but I suppose in a way, it's a form of Freeganism. I am not freegan myself, but I try to incorporate as many sustainable practices in my life as I can. Step by step, I've been learning and adding more. 

Who knew Thai Basil would be so good in pesto! It has a more floral scent and taste than Italian Basil, but is very good. Everyone who has tried it today has enjoyed it. And I didn't end up putting any cheese on my meal, which means I can have some on my chicken spaghetti later for dinner. Hooray! 

Green Pear Jicama Salad

Tip:
A little dressing goes a long way on this To zest an Orange, use a small grater or a microplaner
For Dressing: 1 tablespoon olive oil Per 2 tablespoons pear balsamic vinegar A bit of orange juice from the orange you zest 
The pears were free from a neighbors tree & the zucchini was from a neighbors garden. It's always nice to find local fruits and veggies!

Ingredients:
2 small, green, apple pears, julienned (finely sliced)
2 cups jicama, julienned
1/2 cup zucchini, sliced into round thin strips and then quartered
1 small slightly tart tomatillo sliced into similar pieces as the zucchini then halved
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Zest of one orange

 Dressing:
1/8 cup olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic
the Juice of 1 orange

 This dressing keeps well in an airtight container in the fridge I made this salad and dressing based on what was in the pantry and fridge that seemed like it would make a nice mix of sweet and tart. We took this with pear balsamic kale chips to a pot luck along with a container of almonds that people could sprinkle on top instead of croutons. People went back for seconds and some wanted the recipe. I'm finishing the rest off for a snack now.

Yummy and I believe it fits right into the DTOUR diet I've been using for recipe inspiration, tho I made it up myself so who knows. I hope you give it a try if these fruits and veggies are local and in season they will be the tastiest. Enjoy!

Orange Jicama Salad - Adding More Raw Vegan Foods to Our Plan

Hint: If you're just looking for the recipe, scroll down towards the end the next few paragraphs are about raw food and veganism.

Several years ago I went about 90% Raw. I remember the conversation with my doctor who thought raw meant I was eating raw meat. Even tho I had mentioned it was a form of veganism where foods are not cooked, unless you consider dehydrating and low temperatures to be cooking (which I do, to be honest)  At that time, I had a lot of issues around eating in this healthy, meat free way which was very confusing to me. As it turned out, I was eating tons of things that I'm allergic to. Carrots were in many recipes I was preparing, since they were a low cost filler for things like raw vegan burgers. The food was delicious, and I really enjoyed the creativity it allowed me, but between the hives, foggy thinking and low energy, my doctor told me to knock it off even after she knew what it was. She wasn't educated enough in it to even begin to guess at what was going wrong. If you are still wondering what exactly is Raw Food, here are some helpful links:
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianlifestyle/f/rawfoods.htm
http://altmedicine.about.com/od/popularhealthdiets/a/Raw_Food.htm
http://www.rawfoodlife.com/#axzz20p6qQC6E
http://www.thebestofrawfood.com/

These days I am a bit more tuned in to what my body likes and doesn't like as well as how to get protein out of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, so I've been moving back towards more and more vegetarian, vegan and/or raw meal preparation. I'm paying close attention to how my body responds to the meals, and making sure I get enough protein, which was one of the things my previous doctor felt was missing from my temporary Raw Food attempt.   http://www.incrediblesmoothies.com/raw-food-diet/raw-nutrition/protein-sources-on-a-vegan-raw-food-diet/

Recently we got a box chock full of organic fruits and vegetables for $25. I don't want it to go bad, so I've been making sure we add it into meals and flat out plan meals around it. I think we'll eat it up quickly since all 3 of us have been increasing the amount of vegetables in our diet. Sometimes we'll make a whole meal which is vegan, and other times we'll mix and match like I did today for lunch putting a raw vegan salad along with a tuna melt and some kale chips on the side. About 440 calories, it was a great lunch! Here's the recipe for the salad:  http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=2174697 ENJOY!

What are your favorite raw and/or vegan recipes? If you like sharing healthy recipes, you might enjoy this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/171662566292397/