SPICED CARROT CAKE with CASHEW YOGURT FROSTING

Hello! I have returned after a loooong hiatus! I've just been, you know, getting through this global pandemic and trying to take care of myself. These past few weeks have been really good for me, though, and I feel myself starting to get inspired again. The skies are opening up, and so is my spirit. So, there's no better a time than now to share a wonderful recipe I have been working on.

energy elixir

as i said on my facebook, i was feeling a bit drained yesterday after my weekend. but today i got TONS of sleep (maybe too much - i just kept sleeping because my dreams were so enthralling...) then had a great workout and drank a gorgeous pink jar of juice.

yum yum. i'll give you the recipe in a minute (or - due to the magical nature of the internet and time-space continuum - you may just scroll down.) last night i felt like just having juice today to get my energy back and guess what. it's already returned! all it took was some deep sleep, weight-lifting, and the elixir of living fruits and vegetables. i made a glass for mom too, since she was in desperate need of some nourishment after a busy day of random errands like getting a bunch of knives sharpened.

oh! just remembered something. heard of global girl? well if not - check her out. she just did a raw vegan dessert round-up for her fave recipes; one of them is mine. yes, i am indeed tooting my own horn. if you've got a problem with that - well you can DRINK MY JUICE!

oh wait, you should do that anyway. 

everything awesome life juice: serves two

2 carrots

3 tomatoes

2 apples

1 cucumber

3 slices of pineapple

4 beets

chunk of ginger

lemon

2 bell peppers

i think that's all i put in there... 

wash, slice, peel, chop and cut as needed. throw it all in the juicer! not literally, that would be messy. drink!

oh one more thing. PLEASE take a listen to this amazing woman. she is a visionary in my opinion. her albums are "projects" and she makes a video for each song. you can watch them all in a particular order and it becomes an emotional journey. she keeps you guessing. it's beautiful. 

pasta with cashew sauce & avocado

Raw pasta is so satisfying. You think you won't be full after eating it, but you always are! Well, maybe I shouldn't use the word "full" in it's conventional way. I mean you feel like you don't need to eat anything else. You feel satisfied! Probably because of all the fiber and water in veggies, plus the delicious sauce on the noodles.

The second easiest way to make raw pasta is on the mandoline, which I've been doing since I went vegan. It works well enough, but it wasn't made for making raw noodles. The EASIEST way to make raw pasta? With a Spirooli. Guess what.

I HAVE ONE NOW! Thanks to my lovely and too-nice vegan, non-biologial sista, Eva.

She is the most compassionate, caring and selfless person I know. So of course, she spends way too much money on other people. Me included. She justified buying this wonderful new toy as a "late Christmas present". Who am I to deny her generosity!? I'll take a free Spirooli any way I can. The first thing I made was pretty simple and also simply delicious.

I made pasta out of carrots, put on some creamy cashew sauce and sliced avocado REALLY thin to add to it. The spiral slicer worked great! I'm gonna be eating so much zucchini pasta from now on.

Sorry, salad.

Carrot Pasta with Creamy Cashew Sauce & Avocado Slices: makes one serving

Sauce:

2 Tb cashew butter

1 t miso

1 Tb tamari

4 Tb water

1 clove garlic

Pinch of salt & pepper

1 Tb nutritional yeast

1 Tb hemp seeds

Pasta & Avocado Slices:

3 carrots, peeled (you could also use zucchini or any other long and wide veggie)

Slightly pre-ripe Avocado

Blend all sauce ingredients - except hemp seeds - together until smooth and creamy. If it's too thick - add more water, tamari or agave. If it's too watery, add more cashew butter or miso. Then stir in hemp seeds.

To make the pasta, slice the carrots on a mandoline, or in your Spirooli! Mix in the sauce. 

To make the avocado slices, cut the avocado in half the non-symmetrical way. This is probably the direction you usually don't cut it in. Then peel off the skin. Now just slice the avocado on your mandoline or with a sharp knife. Plate as you like! I added some hot sauce on the bottom.

In other news: my friend Alex wants me to mention how insanely attractive he is. Now you know.

Also: I'm leaving for Mexico SOON, people! So stoked. I'll post more about it tomorrow.
Until then, enjoy your pasta! Have the best day ever.

raw beets with pesto and carrot & bell pepper puree

I adapted this recipe from gliving.com - a great site, do check it out! - and really loved how it turned out. The pesto is the star. It's sooo yummy. Even my older brother who is a pesto/cheese LOVER said it was great! He couldn't stop eating it. The beets were also yummy, I chose to soften them by dehydrating for an hour or so. I also didn't put any oil on them, just salt.

I added more basil and less parsley to the pesto because we have basil growing on our deck. (I'll be posting more on growing your own herbs and food later.) I also used sun-dried-tomato-infused extra virgin olive oil and that stepped up the whole thang. I used carrots from our garden in the puree and it actually became a general sauce for the rest of dinner that night. Way better than gravy, that's for sure.

Beets are one of those foods that taste very different raw than cooked. They're crunchy, refreshing, and even more earthy. I truly love beets. Their colour is ever-impressive. Speaking of...

Did you know? You can use beets for your lips! Instead of smearing animal-tested chemicals and Red 41 on your lovely lips, swipe a beet across them! You can also use them for blush. Nature's first lipstick, edible of course.