Recipes: Kale Salad!

Just because I want to spread the magic, I'm going to tell you how to make kale salad.

....It's not just any salad, mind you...

...It's...

photocredit.

...kALe sALaD!

You'll love it, I know it. If you don't, you can send it over to me and I'll eat it. :)

But seriously, I am amazed at how many palates this salad has pleased. I made this as a side dish for Xmas dinner last year, and my entire family loved it - this, coming from a family comprised of much Italian heritage! (Yes, it's a little-known fact that I grew up on my late grandmother's cooking: homemade meatballs, manicotti, lasagna, you name it.)

This salad is also a favorite among my housemates and a lot of our friends. Speaking of whom, I must credit Everett for discovering this recipe on the good ol' internets a long time ago...Thanks for passing this along to us, Everett!

Without further ado:

K a l e  S a l a d:

Ingredients:
1 or 2 bunches of kale, rinsed and cut up
1 large carrot, chopped into slices
1 red pepper, diced
2 scallions, chopped into slices
1 4''x4'' square of baked tofu, chopped into little rectangles (Trader Joe's Teriyaki style is what I use)

Dressing:
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup Vegenaise (Follow Your Heart brand)
2 TB soy sauce
2 TB rice vinegar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt

Combine the dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Whisk thoroughly.

Toss the vegetables and the dressing together in a large salad bowl.

Then tell me what you thought!

Kale salad with a side of organic pea shoots.

The handiwork of me, Shenee, AJ, & AJ's other half. photocred.

day 5 raw: How Much Raw Is Enough? A Synopsis.

My apologies for not posting this yesterday... But here is my word on day 5:

So, yesterday was my last day of the raw food experiment. I felt great! No more nausea, not as much sneezing, and I noticed something I'd heard can happen when you go raw: my complexion was looking really smooth and my eyes appeared brighter and clearer. Also, my cooked-food cravings were not as prominent. I did have a craving for strawberries, though, and in the early evening, I ate almost a whole package of them.

As for other changes, I know that often, people lose weight on the raw food diet, and so I'm sure some of you are wondering if that happened to me. Well, I'm sorry to report that I haven't weighed myself and I don't plan to do it any time soon. (I will say, though, that I do "feel" lighter.) There are a few reasons for this. First, I don't think 5 days is long enough to be able to accurately measure such a thing, what with the normal fluctuations that occur in one's body. Second, I mean to write about a lifestyle, not a weight loss plan. Raw foodism may be used for healthy weight loss, of course, but it's so much more than that. I think that often, weight loss is secondary to other necessary changes that occur, and trust me, weight loss will happen if it needs to. So, if you're looking to lose weight through raw foodism, just be patient and trust your body to do its work! Finally, I do not feel that weight is a sufficient measure of health and beauty, as there are so many factors that go into determining health (and well, beauty is subjective!).

I should also mention, again, that I'm not a medical doctor or nutritionist. These are simply my personal opinions, based on observations of myself and others and what I have read throughout the years that I've been vegan.

Onto some of what I made yesterday!

So, I'm really liking smoothies for breakfast. I think I might hang onto this custom. Smoothies are, hands down, one of my most treasured meals.

cheers! in my backyard

I've even begun to incorporate greens into my smoothies, something I haven't been able to successfully do until now (and by today, I mean post-raw food experiment!). In fact, this morning I made a smoothie consisting of 2 handfuls of kale + 2 bananas + 1/3 grapefruit + 2 handfuls of frozen mixed berries + 2 handfuls of frozen mango. A super healthy smoothie and I didn't even need agave for it!

Also of note, yesterday I took out my raw nori and made some delicious sushi out of long carrot shavings, spinach leaves, cucumber strips, and avocado slices. To finish, I sprinkled (non raw) sesame seeds on top and used tamari as dipping sauce. The results were really aesthetically pleasing to me. Oh! And I discovered that raw nori is high in iron, too!

A sharp knife is really helpful in such endeavors.

As you roll it, you have to really bunch the veggies up toward you. To "seal" it, I improvised by mixing a little water and avocado into a paste-like consistency, then applied it to the edge with my fingers before pressing to seal. This was instead of the rice and water mixture that I usually use to seal my sushi rolls.

To garnish: I placed the sushi on two spinach leaves and put some of the cucumber stripes and carrot shavings off to the side. For me, making sushi is like embarking on an arts and crafts project. I take my aethetics seriously. ;)

I have to say, it tasted great, too.

In my reflections of the past 5 days, I've formed the following, mostly tentative opinions:

1. More often than not, I think I prefer the taste of simple raw foods, like smoothies and salads, rather than more complicated meals like "lemon caper pasta with nut cheese and sprouted raw bread." But let there be no mistake: I do appreciate the aesthetics and extreme creativity that goes into the latter culinary sensations, and I do love me some raw, vegan cheesecake and ice cream (quite possibly more than non-raw vegan cheesecake and ice cream!).

2. I think the reason I didn't feel like going raw was a huge adjustment for me is because I'm already vegan (and have been for a long time). I eat a a decent amount of fruits and veggies as part of my normal routine. It's just that I also eat other things in addition to that - like Daiya cheese, sauteed spinach, french fries, Thai food, and Ezekiel breads, for instance - some of which are healthy, some of which are decidedly not.

3. Given point #2, I don't plan to abstain from cooked foods, at least not now. There are many, many days when I eat raw for 2/3 of my meals, simply because it's what I feel like my body needs (I say "what my body needs," but it's more like "what I'm in the mood for," which I think is the same thing for me).

4. It's a crying shame that certain raw foods, like nuts, are more expensive than their cooked/roasted counterparts. This is backwards!

5. Strawberries, blueberries, bananas, and kale are perfect, amazing foods that I could probably eat every day for the rest of my life and not get bored with them. Mangoes and avocados are close seconds.

6. I, personally, have to be careful not to eat too many nuts. I believe that this contributed to me feeling "off" on day 4 (and why I had a gag-reflex reaction every time I looked at the photos I'd taken of the more nut-laden meals I'd eaten lately!). In fact, if I were to go 100% raw, I think I'd feel better on a lower fat raw lifestyle, as I think this is more fat than I can tolerate without feeling nauseous/getting stomach sick. Something close to 80:10:10. This was similar to how I ate when I experimented with the Eat to Live lifestyle, and as I said, I remember feeling pretty great while doing that.

7. During this 5 day experiment, certain raw food dishes tasted almost *too* vibrant for me! On certain days (namely days 4 and 5), I felt like fruits and leafy greens were mainly what I could tolerate, but things like tomatoes and culinary concoctions like fancy casseroles were too much taste for me. I find this strange and wonder if it was simply my body's way of saying, "hey, no more nuts!" Anyone else experience something like this?

8. Overall, I think I'm more of an ethical-enviro-politico-vegan than a health vegan. This presents a bit of an internal conflict for me, as everything is interconnected, and one cannot truly be an "ethical" vegan without caring about the rest of the reasons for veganism (e.g. keeping as healthy as I can leads to less doctor visits, which contributes less to the rise of health care costs). Don't get me wrong - I care immensely about health. But a) I don't necessarily feel the need to be as absolutely healthy as I can, b) I think that "health" encompasses body and mind, and there are certain cultural elements of my life that I'd miss severely if I went completely raw, and c) while I do "believe" in raw foodism, I am still thinking about what "raw foodism" means - e.g., must one be "100%" raw to achieve the benefits? Or does the maximum value lie somewhere closer to, say, 75%? I don't know! Also, what does "raw foodism" mean for me versus someone else? I do think that people vary in terms of needs.

Unrelated #9: One of my roommates is growing his own kombucha! I'm fascinated by this. It looks like an ear in a jar! (I'm not knocking it - I love kombucha.)

I hope you've enjoyed peering into my raw food experiment. Please leave comments or send emails if you have any thoughts to share!

Peace, 
CYoFC

days 3 & 4 raw: Eat Your (Raw Vegan) Desserts

I didn't have time to post yesterday, so this post will be two-in-one.

Yesterday, "Day 3" of this raw food experiment:

For starters, I woke up feeling pretty normal - no cold-like symptoms, although I did sneeze more than usual throughout the day. For breakfast, I ate plain fruit and later made a banana-blueberry-mango smoothie with maca powder and agave nectar. This time I increased the amount of fruit per the amount of maca, and the result was flavor success. My boyfriend enjoyed it, as well (but, then, he enjoys most foods).

Good Mood Foods' "Veggie Casserole"

Later, I tried another one of Good Mood Food brand's delectable, pre-made raw meals: the veggie casserole, which was nearly as amazing at the veggie-nut nuggets (damn, those nuggets are just impossible to top). If you're curious, the casserole contained the following: cashews, brazil nuts, zuchinni, almonds, sundried tomatoes, onions, flax seeds, garlic, pumpkin seeds, pistachios, raisins, extra virgin cold pressed olive oil, parsley, lemons, sea salt, Braggs Liquid Aminos, chili pepper, basil, mustard seeds, and apple cidar vinegar. Again, very delicious - surprisingly so! As I said in day 2's post, I didn't think it was possible for raw food to be so satisfying and tasty, but now I stand corrected.

Then, sometime after dinner, I had a really strong craving for kale. I wanted kale, lots and lots of it. I've actually had kale cravings before, believe it or not, but this was different somehow. It was stronger, more specific. (I think that my normal kale cravings are often just cravings for the tahini-vegenaise dressing I use in my favorite kale salad recipe.) So, I had a few bowls of fresh kale topped with some carrot shavings and flax seed oil. No vinegar this time, because I didn't want to cover that kale taste too much.

My body said kale, I said okay.

I'm interpreting this kale craving to mean that I must need more greens while eating raw. Way back when, I tried out the dietary advice from Joel Fuhrman's Eat To Live, which called for - at minimum - an entire pound of raw veggies, daily, most of which were supposed to be greens. Yeah, I know that sounds like a lot, but I felt really good while doing it.

Raw foodism has a lot of similarities to the Eat To Live philosophy, I've noticed, although I don't know of any source that says, outright, that one ought to eat this quantity of greens while being raw. Whether or not it works for everyone, I've decided that it does for me, and so tomorrow (which will be my 5th and final day), I'm going to aim for greatly increasing the amount of greens. My refrigerator is already stocked with a massive amount of green spinach and the remainder of the kale.

Finally, since I keep bringing up maca, here's a photo of the brand I'm using: 

Maca was reportedly used by Incan warriors to provide stamina and prevent fatigue.

Okay! Onto today, "Day 4" of raw:

There's a lot to say about today. First off, I had to get up earlier than usual today, so my sleeping is a bit off. I woke up feeling normal (other than not having slept enough). Still had more sneezy/nose-type symptoms than usual, although I'm not sure if this is because of detoxing or me having allergies. Most notably, today I felt pretty nauseous all day AND I finally started having "cooked-food cravings." (I really can't believe it took 4 days for me to miss cooked food!) I'm also craving soda, which is really odd for me, and I even considered stopping by a local vegan restaurant just to buy a homemade gingerale. To be fair, it's normal for me to feel nauseous and crave certain foods around "this particular time," but my current symptoms are far more intense than usual.

Speaking of intense, I tend to have a pretty good sense of smell (or perhaps I simply pay a lot of attention to scents) but today my olfactory bulb is burning ever so brightly! This could very well be why I feel so nauseous and why I'm craving cooked foods, as cooked foods are typically more bland (yes, really - I didn't believe it at first, but now I can get why raw food veterans call cooked food tasteless!). Perhaps my sense of smell is so intense because, lo and behold, my sinuses may be detoxing. Ah, it all comes full circle after all. Though, the soda thing remains a mystery to me.

Onto what I ate today... For starters, I ate (no, devoured) one of my tried-and-true favorites: Earth Cafe's "find your thrill on blueberry hill" raw vegan cheesecake. You might not love the long name, but the cake is to-die-for, whether you're vegan or not, raw or not. What I especially like about this cheesecake (aside from it being amazingly healthy and vegan) is that it's not overly sweet. Instead, it's lightly sweet with a nice, tangy zing to it. And it has a wonderfully creamy, smooth texture. I swear I don't get any money for saying this!

Remember those chick peas I was soaking? Well, they've been waiting for me to eat them, so today I tossed them in a salad and had my first experience crunching on raw chick peas. Not bad. I think I could grow to prefer them over the cooked variety.

Today I snacked on a lot of fruit (that CSA watermelon was amazing). Then I decided to try something I have been curious about for a long time: Rawk-n-Roll Cuisine's kale chips in the Kaletaliano (pizza-flavored) variety. (I know. Vegan and raw food companies just won't stop with the puns...) My first bite was questionable, but after that, I was sold. They really do taste like pizza. Kind of reminiscent of the pizza-flavored Goldfish crackers, though way more pungent. 

For dinner, friends and I took a trip to Mooi, a gourmet, organic, raw food restaurant in Echo Park. This was a special treat, as I'd been drooling over their photos for weeks. And let me say, an appetizer, an entree, and two desserts later, and I learned that it is possible to get that "full stomach" feeling on raw foods. I warn you, though, it's not something I'd recommend aiming for!  

But more importantly, let me tell you about Mooi. The decor is fabulously Alice-in-Wonderland-esque, complete with eclectic furniture and accents; our table had exaggeratedly-high-backed, pink chairs and the menus are glued inside Dr. Seuss books. Adorable. For starters, we had the jalepeno peppers with smoked paprika nut cheese and eggplant bacon. They were every bit as delicious as they sound, and I don't know how they got the eggplant to taste like bacon, but they managed. Quarrygirl has a much better photo of them on her blog.

the jalapenos

For their entrees, my friends both ordered the enchiladas in tomatillo sauce with walnut refried beans and vegetables, while I ordered the lemon caper tomato pasta with garlic bread. I vastly preferred my friends' meal to mine and will totally consider ordering what they got next time I go to Mooi. My pasta was kelp noodles, which I was determined to try and like tonight, but...alas. It's such a shame, because I was really hoping to like them! I should say, however, that the sauce, vegetables, and seasoning on my pasta were all delightful. I loved the delicately sliced and folded zucchini. In fact, I've decided that I much prefer eating moistened/soaked zucchini over cooked zucchini. Also, the "garlic bread" was good - it tasted like baked bread, somehow, yet denser. The butter on top strangely tasted a lot like butter, too.

Lemon caper tomato pasta w/garlic bread

Choosing which desserts to get was a serious matter. Finally, my friends settled on the chunky monkey ice cream and blueberry cheesecake. I got the blueberry cheesecake ice cream and snickers pie. ALL of these were delicious, but the ice creams were especially impressive. Chunky monkey has cacao, banana, and peanutbutter in a sort of vanilla-ish base. The peanutbutter was actually, I think, sunflower butter, but the taste of peanutbutter dominated this flavor (which I appreciated). The blueberry cheesecake ice cream was a dream. It tasted like...well, blueberry cheesecake, but without all the cholesterol, lactose, acid, et cetera. Not surprisingly, we devoured our ice cream before I even remembered to take my camera out. Mooi, you get a "10" when it comes to raw, vegan ice creams.

Mooi's snickers pie

As for the cakes, my friends' blueberry cheesecake was good, but it paled in comparison to Earth Cafe's. My snickers pie was really flavorful, but much too rich and sweet for me. I'm not one for rich, sweet, decadent desserts (I never liked chocolate fudge type cakes and I usually prefer hummus to cake anyway). Definitely overloaded on dessert today. Felt a bit sick after dinner but feeling mostly better now.

Mooi's blueberry cheesecake

That's about all I have to say for now. Stay tuned for tomorrow, when I finish out my 5-day raw food experiment! Thanks for reading!