Yum in The Tum!

Did anyone else watch The Secret Lives of Women episode last night? It was called Extreme Diets and they profiled a freegan, a raw foodist, a Calorie Restriction couple, and this religious lady who lost weight by praying about her food. I usually don't watch things like this because I don't think they portray those who deviate from the SAD diet in a fair or positive light. However, I think WE did an excellent job and really got down to the true core values of each way of life. The woman they chose to represent raw food did an amazing job. She was so chill and radiant and very inspiring as she used to work in the restaurant biz and that lead her to doing drugs and drinking pretty heavily. She went raw over night and now she has her own raw food catering business and she teaches home classes. I love stories like this! It makes me feel even more ambitious about my own culinary pursuits and I just overall feel so lucky to be apart of a group that is so positive and awesome!

Anyway, I have been spending a lot of time in the kitchen whipping up some really awesome dinners. Here is a sampling of what I have been up to!

This is a salad with my super easy honey mustard dressing and a marinated portobello mushroom topped with garlic marinated swiss chard, "roasted heirloom tomato", onion sprouts, avocado, and apple-wood smoked dulse. It was delicious. The tenderness of the mushroom paired with the creaminess of the avo mixing with the swiss chard left me speechless. And well, the dulse always makes everything better.

This is my Spicy Cream of Cucumber and Spinach Soup garnished with more tender baby spinach, a touch of almond cream, and onion sprouts. This was really easy to make as you just through some jalapeno, cucs, spinach, almond milk, garlic, shallot, lemon/lime in the blender until totally pureed. Serve with whatever garnish you like!

This is my Rustic Lasagna. Usually, It has more creamy "ricotta" cheese and raw-Parmesan and I layer it up in a pan, but since moving I haven't replaced my platters yet. In that case, I simply had to layer it on the dehydrator and for fear of it falling over I wasn't able to press it down or stack it as high. Taste-wise it turned out pretty well, but I am still working to perfect this recipe. I'm Italian, so getting this recipe spot-on is essential to me. I made one at Christmas that rocked. And, I am happy to say that I have finally perfected my Raw Marinara Gravy!!! It has taken me a while, but I've got it down pat to the point where I have been eating zucc. pasta with the sauce like every other night!

Here is my zucc. pasta with my perfected raw marinara! It tastes so creamy and almost like it has been cooking on the stove for hours and hours just like the way my Mom and Grandpere used to make it. Tip: Quality sun-dried tomatoes as well as fresh herbs are really the key to quality sauce. Make sure when you are buying sun-dried tomatoes that they don't contain the preservative Sulfur Dioxide used to keep the colour of your tomatoes. Preservatives are something we want to keep out of raw food! You may not get the reddist marinara sauce, esp. if you use yellow heirloom tomatoes like I do, but the taste is out of this world!