Vegan Mac n Cheese

homemade sorbet

you're probably feeling this l.a. heat as i am! finally, summer feels like it's really here!

summer is a great time to go to the farmers market as it is filled with a great diversity of fruits and vegetables.

me personally, well i tend to go a little crazy at the farmers market and sometimes fill my bags with more than what Sunny and i can eat in time before things start making their way to the compost pile...

that's one thing about summer, fruits and vegetables ripen very quickly with the heat. so what to do about those yummy peaches, nectarines, berries, figs that you just can't eat in time? the solution:

homemade sorbet :)

yes! rather than throwing your very ripe fruits away because you know you're gonna be working, fruit flies are gathering and they're gonna go bad. rinse them or peel them, slice them, put them in a container and throw them in the freezer! from bananas to grapes, all fruits are suitable for delicious sorbet making! :)

then when you get home one friday and just wanna chill & watch a movie or something, or you wanna surprise that girl or boy that you're having over, but you don't want to go anywhere... just get those fruits out of the freezer, throw them in the blender with a little bit of juice, coconut water, or hemp milk, add maple syrup or honey and blend using the "ice crush" mode, until you get sorbet!

if your blender keeps getting stuck, you may need to add a little more liquid, use the pulse feature, or turn it off and mess with it with a spoon, then back on again. make sure you don't add too much liquid tho, as you'll end up with fruit flavored ice, not sorbet. just add and blend, mess with it with the spoon, blend...

then when you're done blending the heck out of it, put it in the freezer and in the meantime slice some fresh bananas. if you want to go all out you can mix coconut oil, cacao powder and honey or maple syrup, stir it for a few minutes, until you get a chocolaty yummy liquid. (if your coconut oil is hard, you may have to heat it a little until it's liquid).

now get the sorbet out, put it in some cute bowls, decorate it with the fresh bananas, pour some of that chocolaty mix on top, and if you want to add some cacao nibs and nuts, heck, do it!

this one in the picture i made with organic frozen strawberries and blueberries and hemp milk to make the sorbet. on top i added the chocolaty mix i just mentioned (which gets hard with the cold sorbet, yum! :), fresh bananas & peaches, with a dash of cacao nibs and raw almonds. YUMMM!

sorry for not having all the measurements, if you read my past blog postings, i never measure anything, this is how i roll... not very good for sharing recipes, but perhaps i have inspired you with the basic idea and you can get creative and go from there.

enjoy!

and now some inspiration:
www.davidwolfe.com
www.suncafe.com
www.lifefoodorganic.com

Dinner

had some left over verdolagas that i got at the farmers market on sunday. so i came home and made me these tacos with my mom's recipe i mentioned in my post earlier today: stir fried onion, tomato and verdolagas with a bit of sea salt. my mom used to make this when i was young and i loved it then and absolutely love it still, it is probably one of my top ten favorite easy dishes. this one took about 5 minutes...

Verdolagas

summer is such a wonderful time for going to the farmers market. you can find a great variety of delicious fruits and vegetables during this hot season. one of the special treats i always forget about, but get so excited when i find it at the market is Verdolagas aka Purslane, Pigweed, Little Hogweed or Pursley. (these in the picture i got last Sunday at Hollywood Farmers Market)

verdolagas were a common dish at my house when i was young and lived in Mexico. my mom would stir fry them with olive oil, onion and tomato, add a little salt and voila. she would serve them with rice and meat on the side. i quite loved the flavor, a bit tangy, a bit crispy and tiny bit slimy like okra.

little did i know back then that this delicious weed is actually super healthy. not only are verdolagas a good source of vitamin A, magnesium, potassium, iron and calcium, but according to the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources “one cup of raw common verdolagas is only 7 calories, yet it provides 15 percent of the daily requirement of vitamin C. crude protein is reported to be about 20 percent. furthermore, the plant is one of the highest non-animal sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease.”

wow! and they taste delish too!

a delicious way to enjoy them is to eat verdolagas fresh in salads ~ just chop 'em up and add some cucumber slices, tomatoes, avocado, lemon, olive oil and salt and there you have it. sometimes i add it to other greens such as lettuce or kale to make a bigger portion.

also, inspired by my mom's recipe, i like stir frying verdolagas with onion, tomato and zucchini with a bit of salt and pepper. eat over quinoa and yum! when i make it this way i start stir frying the onion first, then the zucchini and last the tomatoes and verdolagas which i only cook for a tiny bit. verdolagas are sort of like spinach, they cook rather quick so no need to over cook.

this cooked version can also be eaten as a taco, simply put 'em in a warm corn tortilla mmm mmm mmm, or you can also chop some fresh verdolagas as a topping over your favorite tacos. verdolagas can be steamed too!

what a treat verdolagas are. i love how healthy they are and how easy they are to enjoy!

~ the end

and here some inspiring organizations i love:

sea shepherd
tree people
amazon watch

Damn Good Green Salsa

ok, i normally don't brag about my recipes, but i have to be honest, this one made me proud. while i usually think of ways in which i can improve a recipe immediately after i taste it, this one was so good Sunny and i almost finished the entire bowl before i could even think about it... i had to put some aside for my roommates to try, because it wasn't gonna last otherwise.

aaaanyway, the recipe calls for these organic ingredients:

((as always, i recommend visiting your local farmers market for fresh, local, seasonal, organic produce. for this one in the pic. i went to the Hollywood Farmers Market. ))


tomatillos
red onion
garlic
serrano pepper
olive oil
cilantro
sea salt

...look at the picture for quantities, you know i don't write them down! ;) this is a tiny iron skillet just so you know.

(if you're new to tomatillos, to prepare them you should peel the paper-like skin off and rinse them well in warm water)

pour a teaspoon of olive oil in the skillet. set it to medium-high heat and once it's hot semi fry all the ingredients, except the salt and cilantro, until they look like this:



tomatillos should be a bit brown to black on the outside, but you should still be able to see some fresh green. to me paying attention to this is important to what flavors you're gonna end up with. tomatillos tend to taste different depending on how cooked they are.

once cooked let them cool down, then blend together with a teaspoon of salt. i like my salsa a bit chunky, so i don't blend it for too long, instead i use the pulse feature until the ingredients are blended into a nice texture.

pour in a bowl and add some chopped fresh cilantro.

taaah daaaah! get you some chips or make yourself some tacos and there you have it.

enjoy!



and here some inspiring organizations i love:

sea shepherd
tree people
amazon watch

Avocado Super Green Dressing

i recently decided to try Amazing Grass' Green Superfood powder and i'm loving it.

i know this is silly, but i was first attracted to the design of their label, it has a very earthy feel and i like that. also prefer that it comes in a glass container rather than plastic (there's too much plastic in the world already and none of it will decompose for the next 500 years : / so i always support and choose glass over plastic when i have to decide between brands).

anyway, besides the esthetics ;) of this super green powder, i love the flavor of it. i actually enjoy drinking it mixed in water, it has a very balanced green flavor, some other brands i've tried taste too much like sea vegetables which although super healthy, i'm not always in the mood for.

of course i also love that it is grown and harvested in the US. other super green powders that i've liked contain greens grown and harvested in other countries. this creates a bigger gap between them and sustainability, and personally i support closing that gap.

in the last two weeks i upped my raw food intake, i ate about 99% of my food raw and this super green powder played a major role in my diet. now i've fallen in love with it so of course i'm gonna share it with you.

this powder took some simple recipes to a delicious new level. from drinks to this one recipe that came out which i really love:

to me it's like the super healthy version of a caesar dressing, i call it Avocado Super Green Dressing

all you need is these organic ingredients:

2 lemons
2 tbs olive oil
1 avocado
1 tsp super greens
sea salt to taste

cayenne if you want to give it a little kick

again, remember that i don't normally follow recipes or write down measurements so try it out starting with these and give or take, change it up to your taste.

basically you just mash the avocado (the riper the better), and just mix all the ingredients in with a fork. it's a thicker dressing that goes delicious when you mix it in a dirty salad. if you want it thinner just add more lemon and oil.

for my salad i like organic mixed baby lettuces, kale, raw zucchini, persian cucumbers, tomatoes, green bell pepper, olives and sprouted pepitas. here's a picture of it :) grateful for the Hollywood Farmers Market and our garden where all the fresh veggies came from.


enjoy!

Organic, Vegan, Raw Ceviche on Nopal Cactus Tostadas

welcome to my new blog "food, love, spirit"

i was inspired to start this blog because of this ceviche recipe i came up with this summer. i've made it for my friends and have been asked several times for the recipe. after my friend Heather requested it, i thought "heck, i need to do something about this." so here it is, the beginning of a new journey... thank you for coming along.

this is a refreshing, healthy, easy-to-make recipe that even meat lovers enjoy (true story!). and some even have said it tastes just like fish ceviche. whatever your diet preference, i think you'll find it delish.

what makes this recipe addictive is the freshness of the ingredients. i recommend you grow your own vegetables, or get them from your local farmers market. for this one showing, all the ingredients, except for the hot sauce, came from the Burbank Farmers Market and our home garden.

before i continue, i have to admit i'm not one to write down recipes, i never make the same thing twice, and personally i enjoy this creative process ;). i remember my proportions visually, if you want to have an exact recipe i say try it out and change it up and keep track of your measurements...until you find how you like it, then write it down...

start with this:

the base of this recipe is cucumber, zucchini and carrots, cucumber being the most abundant. so comparing carrots & zucchini with cucumbers, you should have 3 times more cucumbers than carrots or zucchini, whatever that equals to ;)

you don't want too many carrots because they overpower the taste of everything else. (you want everything to taste evenly, with the only obvious taste being lemon juice).

so lets say you have two carrots and two zucchini, then you want eight cucumbers.

going from there, here goes:

8 cucumbers
2 zucchini
2 carrots
1 bell pepper
3 tomatoes
1/4 red onion
bunch of cilantro
6 lemons
sea salt or himalayan
avocado

optional if you like spice: 1 fresh jalapeño or serrano (hotter) pepper

yep, that's it.

another key thing about this is getting it to be the right texture, so i recommend using a food processor, if you don't have one you can use a cheese grader and use the medium size grade...

you are going to process the cucumbers, zucchini, carrots and bell pepper. i use the "pulse" feature, you want it less chunky than mexican salsa/pico de gallo but also not like soup nor puree.



put all the processed vegetables in a big bowl and squeeze the lemons over them, add salt. you want to add plenty of salt, this is key in ceviche. this is why i recommend sea or himalayan salt. never ever ever use common table salt, yes the one with the little girl holding the umbrella or others like it, such salt has been bleached, processed and turned into something unnatural and not good for you.

continuing after my rant about salt:
while you let it sit, chop the onion, tomatoes and cilantro, then mix them in with the processed vegetables. let sit for about five minutes, this allows for all the flavors to soak in.

while they soak lets talk tostadas. if you are lucky enough to live in l.a. at the local farmers markets, burbank, culver city, encino, and others, there's a vendor who sells organic nopal tostadas called "nopaltilla". they are crazy good, with a perfect crunch.

nopal is a cactus traditionally eaten in Mexico. when dried and grounded nopal harina can be made into tortillas and of course tostadas just like corn can. and what's cool about nopal tostadas is that they're non-gmo, while most of corn in the u.s., over 80% has been genetically modified, ugh...

anyway, nopal also has a high nutritional value. you can learn more about it here



to serve, cover the tostada with the ceviche, don't be greedy ;) then add sliced avocado on top, and of course it couldn't be ceviche without hot sauce, my favorite: cholula



thank you for reading!

the end...

and here some inspiring organizations i love:

sea shepherd
tree people
amazon watch

food, love, spirit,
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