Our idea of what constitutes "food" in American culture has become so skewed that it is almost unrecognizable. Our supermarkets are packed with products whose ingredients include unpronounceable chemicals, dyes, bacteria, and growth hormones. They are irradiated without our consent and contain GMOs.It's time to bring back FOOD. Pure unadulterated organic RAW food.This blog is a documentation of my continuing journey on a plant-based lifestyle.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

You Know You're Italian When...

Thank you so much everyone for the well wishes a la the eco-friendly wedding planning and finally settling on a place. I swore I would never do a 'destination' wedding and here I am planning not only the very thing I swore I would never do, but taking on the raw vegan eco-wedding challenge as well. Apparently, I like to do everything the hard way. Alas, I think it's important and I don't think I would feel right otherwise.

 This was another busy food week for me. Kevin and I were leaving for Vegas on Sunday morning (more about that later!) so I had to have all food prepped and ready to go by Saturday for early deliveries. Just thinking about it makes me exhausted. I can't believe how fast I was able to get everything done. I had Kev wash dishes (lol) so that cut a considerable amount of time off my work load.

Anyway, last week I finally got around to making what was supposed to be Eggplant Rollatini di Melanzane except there was no rollatini-ing here since all the eggplants I could find at the farmers market were pretty stubby and in no shape for rolling. I just laid them flat, stuffed 'em, and stacked them instead. I guess this was more of a lasagna than anything else, but either way, my sources are telling me that this is turned out exceptionally well.

Eggplant Rollatini di Melanzane

I went for an all out Italian-themed menu last week. Italian is my favourite and I love trying to create raw versions of the food I grew up with. I don't normally use beans, sprouted or otherwise, when making raw food. They never taste the same as the cooked version and I'm just not a fan. However, I figured, 'what the heck' and made this raw minestrone soup. I soaked the beans for almost 48 hours but, didn't sprout them to avoid that strange taste they develop when sprouting and made a tomato, celery, parsley based broth. I loaded it up with a variety of greens and three different types of beans. I have no words. I couldn't believe how similar it tasted to the real thing. Yum yum!

Minestrone Soup

Italian-themed menu's wouldn't be the same without pizza. I veered from the traditional margarita pizza and opted for a white pizza with raw, ricotta cheeze, 'sausage', garlic cashew cream sauce, and lemon-parsley butter on an herby crust. Two thumbs up all around!

White Pizza

We've been getting really ripe, juicy fresh strawberries from the farmer's market lately. I love farmers market strawberries. You can totally taste the difference; they are so much sweeter and make for a mini raw cobbler that is out of this world. I like to put it in the dehydrator so that all the juice from the strawberries turns into this yummy, thick syrup. Pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but it is worth mentioning again. Cobblers have become one of my favorite raw desserts to make. Their simple, but always allow the flavors of the fruit to come through. The only sweetner I added here was some coconut sugar- my new fav. It tastes like graham crackers!!

Strawberry Cobbler

Mangia! Mangia!

9 comments:

  1. I love cobblers too! So simple. I also enjoy coconut sugar--you are right it is like graham crackers.

    I am scared of raw beans. Cannot digest them at all! Wish I had a gut of steel.

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  2. Love white pizza!! Love coconut sugar!

    Pure2raw twins

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  3. Mmm!! Love cobblers also and just tried coconut sugar a couple weeks ago- I dig it, too! Your pizza and minestrone look yummy! ;p

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  4. Wow, everything looks so delicious!!! YUM!! I have a big bag of coconut sugar I have to crack open soon!!!

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  5. Wow, you've totally sold coconut sugar... I know what my next pantry addition will be! Congrats on the wedding!!

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  6. Have you taken the farm tour at Tanaka Farms in Irvine? I love the strawberries at the farmer's market too but the ones at Tanaka are the best! I'm not talking about the strawberries in the barrels out front either- you have to pick them in the field!

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  7. Hey..just got your comment..that's the place we are going to the blueberries!! Near Great Adventure..about an hour or so from me, but worth the trip!! :)

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  8. Incredible that everything in this post is raw! Looks amazing:)

    Have fun in Vegas!

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