Raw-Full Week

Not Raw-Full like, "awful," but "full" of "raw" foods! With hubby out of town (welcome back, Mr. PLV!), I spent the week concocting raw dishes that appeal to me, me, me. It's amazing how much more "alive" and wholesome I feel, eating these foods. I almost feel like I'm ruining plants by cooking them!

Anyway, let's start with these Cinnamon Girls, from Rawvolution, for my monthly Veg Group potluck (more about that, later). They were really very sweet. They called for 3/4 cup agave nectar, but I ran out so I used part brown rice syrup. I was dissapointed in these only because they were just too sweet for me. Either I'm losing my sweet tooth (hardly) or there is a limit even for one as sweet-dependent as me. I prefer raw dessert balls such as these to be made purely from wholesome ingredients such as raisins, nuts, oats, etc. They also required freezing and/or refrigeration, otherwise they tended to get runny. Overall, though, three stars ***for being a great dessert!
Now that I have overcome my fear of the dehydrator, I set to work making these Strawberry-Coconut Macaroons, this time from,
Ani's Raw Food Desserts, my newest procurement. I was also overwhelmed with the amount of sweetener this called for -or at least how sweet it tasted. But, there are plenty of other great recipes in this new book that are fresh and naturally sweet.


Still, these were a big hit at the Veg Group, earning a four-star rating **** or at least three and a half. I used a melon baller to scoop out the mixture (fresh strawberries, vanilla extract, unsweetened coconut and agave nectar) and dehydrated it for about 6 hours.






Not all of my meals this week were raw. I found this amazing fresh, local, handmade artisan bread at the farmers market: black olive sourdough! It made the rather blah Tuscan White Bean Pate from The Candle Cafe Cookbook literally sing, along with fresh tomatoes and greens from the CSA. Yum! I couldn't get enough of this "sammich" - ate it all week, just about. The pate was a two, but the bread was a four, so overall, this was a three star meal ***.

Meanwhile, my longest dehydration ever (over 32 hours) made these Veggie Cakes with Creamy Dill Sauce something to treasure! Rawvolution came to the rescue with this dish, providing me with plenty to nibble on and the rest sent to the freezer. The color comes from fresh (and local/organic!) beets. Most of the rest of the mixture is raw sunflower seeds, celery, and spices.



They were umm, umm, good, warm and straight from the dehydrator! I felt so full and satisfied!











The creamy dill sauce was also good as a regular salad dressing, on a CSA bed of greens, snap peas, carrots and fresh beets! I always hated beets, mostly because they came from a can growing up, but now that I've had them raw, they even rival roasted ones! This came about because I had leftover beets from the veggie cakes and no time to roast them. Three and a half stars ***1/2 for the veggie cakes, three for the salad (I prefer more stuff in my salad).

These Super Asparagus Wraps from Rawvolution weren't all that super, because I didn't have the super food powder to put in them, but they were still really good! They also weren't completely raw, as I didn't have a cabbage leaf to eat them and needed to use up some whole wheat tortillas instead. The filling is avocado mashed with various spices, onion, celery and chopped, raw asparagus and tomatoes. Very, very good, filling (all that good fat!), and energizing for a lunch! Three and a half stars ***1/2.
To say thank you to some very kind friends, I tried two non-raw cookie recipes this week: Butterscotch Blondies from My Sweet Vegan, and Chocolate Crinkles from, The Joy of Vegan Baking.








Like a similar recipe I tried from My Sweet Vegan, these blondies were strangely "doughy" tasting, even when fully cooked. The butterscotch flavor wasn't as pronounced as I'd like - mostly in the crust which was great, but the middle had that strange flavor that I associate with being underdone. Needless to say, I managed to eat several of these in one sitting. Three stars and very easy to make! ***.


The Chocolate Crinkles, however, were pure bliss. I'm not a big chocolate fan (white chocolate doesn't count, which is my all-time fav!) but these were still amazing. Light and soft and simply beautiful. Four stars, easy! ****. They do require some prep work - chilling the dough overnight, and only made 1 1/2 dozen, not three dozen (I swear, I couldn't have made them any smaller!).


So, I leave you with this ginormous Chinese cabbage from my weekly CSA bag o' produce. I think I'll make a coleslaw out of it. Or, since I just got a solid case of food poisoning yesterday (yes, you can get it from veggies, not just meat and dairy!), I think it may end up in my compost heap, sadly, as my stomach is doing flips right now at the end of the post, after viewing all these rich and sweet foods. Ugh.