Raw "tuna" salad

I do love the fall.  Pumpkins, spices, baking, Halloween(my favorite), scary movies. What are some of your favorites?

I finally made a raw "tuna" salad.  I don't know if it's because my tastebuds have changed or that I really wanted it to taste like tuna.  I was very pleasantly surprised.   

This is the mixture in a bowl.  I made a wrap for Dave using this mixture, avocado, lettuce, tomato and Miso Mayo.  

Raw "Tuna" sushi roll. 

There are quite a few versions of the Raw"Tuna" Salad recipe out there but this is how I made mine.

Raw "Tuna" Salad

1/2 C. raw sunflower seeds, soaked 6 hrs or more

1/3 C. raw almonds, soaked 6 hrs or more

2 T. lemon juice

1 T. water 

3 T. carrots, shredded or finely diced

2 T. celery, finely diced

2 T. green onion, finely sliced

1/4 tsp salt or more to taste

1/2 tsp. dill, dried  (optional)

In  a food processor blend until quite smooth sunflower seeds, almonds, lemon juice, water and salt.  In another bowl add carrots, celery, green onion and dill.  Add the seed and nut mixture into veggie mixture.  Stir to combine. 

I read that if you wanted to you could add a little mayo to it if you wanted it more tuna style.  But I don't think you need to.

Colbie Caillat at Ventura Farm Walk 2010 and vegan cooking in school

So this past Saturday a friend and I participated in the The Farm Sanctuary, Walk for Farm Animals in Ventura. Colbie Caillat walked right along with us and after the walk sang one song with guitarist Justin Young.  I didn't actually meet her cuz, well, I'm kind of shy in that area but she seemed very down to earth.

This is Melissa on the left who has been hosting the Farm Walk for the last 4 years and is doing a fabulous job!  I'm on the right with a goofy face(I don't really like my picture taken).  The event was solar powered thanks to her boyfriend.  There were vegan baked goods for sale, I made cranberry pumpkin bread, raffles and a plant based dietician, Julieanna Hever, to answer any nutrition questions.  Julieanna is coming out with an idiots guide to plant based nutrition next year. Check out Julieanna's site at http://www.plantbaseddietitian.com/. 

Colbie Caillat

You can see  more photo's from the walk by clicking here from the newspaper.

Carrot Bread



One of the required classes at my son's school is beginning cooking.  He was able to bring home all of the recipes and we went through and veganized them all.  He's really enjoying the class and the extra perk of making all of the recipes vegan is that he and his partner gets to eat and bring more food home than the rest of the class. He thinks that part is pretty cool.  Like this carrot bread above, he made with another student.  They each got to bring a loaf home whereas the other students had to split up their loaves. The great thing about this class is that they rotate partners so that all of the students get to try their hand with vegan cooking/baking.  The verdict so far is that the students are pleasantly surprised with the outcome of the vegan recipes.  I was told that the vegan carrot bread turned out alot better than the original recipe and that everyone loved the vegan rice pudding over the dairy based one.  So, so far so good.  I just think it's great that the kids are learning that vegan food is just as good or even better.

Walk for Farm Animals!!!!

I'm so frustrated!  I've been using our laptop because our office is out of sorts do to painting, etc. and I now can't seem to download my pic's.  Arghhhhhhhhhhhh.  I'll have to wait until Keaton gets home so he can help me.  I'll be brief this post and explain what we've been doing and why I haven't posted lately.

Dave and I have been busy redoing our office/music/guestroom.  We are also refinishing a piano that was given to us from a neighbor who decided years ago to paint it a white shabby chic style.  It looks like she painted rather quickly and with a flat paint which doesn't clean very well.  We are trying to refinish as quickly as possible so we can bring it back inside the house and so Keaton can get back to playing. I'll post the finished piano when done. Lastly we are working on our yard.  So lots of house stuff!

This past weekend, out here in California, we got hit with a heat wave. We may be under 100 today, yay!  At least the nights are down in the 50's which is good because we don't have air conditioning.

Before I continue my day....Have you signed up the Walk for Farm Animals, Farm Sanctuary Walk?  Tomorrow morning I will be walking for Farm Animals with a good friend of mine. If you don't have a walk near you, you can make a donation on line or go to my fundraising page, First Giving which located on the top right of my page here.  It should be a really good turn out this year I'm really looking forward to it and then afterwards we will all be eating at Mary's Secret Garden, which is a great little vegan restaurant right across the street from where we will start our walk.  I'll post all about it afterwards.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Raw Caesar Dressing

It's officially Autumn.   You know how you can just tell when the seasons change, it's the feeling in the air?  I'm already missing the longer days.   We have a pick-your-own Apple Farm up the road that I pass a couple of times a day taking Keaton to and from school  and they already have these really huge, bright orange pumpkins growing.  At the farms there are quite a few autumn/winter squash available too, and so realising that summer is gone, I gave in and bought my first seasonal squash, a nice delicata. It's also the season for baking to begin so I need to stock up on all my baking ingredients.  During the summer I'm not much into baking just because it heats up the house and there is so much fruit available to eat as is, in it's natural state.  Don't get me wrong or anything, I'm not going to pass up a berry pie.

Move over bell peppers,the Italians are in town! Sweeter and tastier than bells, what's not to love about Italians. Yummmmm... I've tried growing these and not much happened, so I was so happy to see these beautiful red Italians sitting there on the table of the onion/garlic guy at the Farmers Market.  Last night at the F.M. I was telling him how much I loved these beauties, he agreed, and he said he was selling alot more of them than his bells.  2 for $1 and his Anahiems are 3 for $1.

Blackened Tofu w/Raw Caesar Dressing on romaine with grilled veggies.  The blackened tofu recipe actually comes from The Real Food Daily cookbook but it's used with tempeh, I just didn't have tempeh on hand.  I also cut way down on the oil that's in the recipe.

I've  made a couple of different versions of caesar dressing but I really love the Raw Caesar Dressings best.  The recipe below is one of our favorite raw dressings, especially my son. I hope you like it too.

Raw Caesar Dressing

adapted from a Woody Harrelson recipe

1/3 C. pinenuts, raw

1/4 C. cashews, raw

4 T. tahini

2-3 garlic cloves

3 T. nutritional yeast

2 green onions or 3 T. sweet onion, chopped

2 T. maple syrup or agave

3 T. apple cider vinegar

2 T. olive oil or flax oil

1/2 - 1 C. water

salt & pepper to taste

In a food processor blend all ingredients together.  It can be thick so add more water

to desired consistency.

 The cool thing about this recipe is that it can be played around with, if you like garlic add more, you want more lemon, add more lemon juice.  You can also add kelp granules or dulse flakes.

Leftovers

Good morning!  I just thought I would leave you with a quick post before I get ready for my girlfriends that are coming up to spend the day with me.

Remember the Corn Saute from my previous post.  Well the next day I had it for lunch but added some extra yumminess to it.  I sauteed up some swiss chard in a hot pan, added some chickpeas, Corn Saute mixture and heated it through.  Next I spooned it into a bowl and topped it off with avocado.  This made for a very filling lunch.


Lemon Cucumber

If you think regular cucumbers are refreshing you must try these, just a slight lemony taste to them.

Have a great weekend!

Grilled Seitan Cutlets with Cilantro Lime Sauce and Summer Corn Saute

Blog issues...The photo of the flowers below and the Summer Corn Saute are only showing part of the picture and it's not letting me delete it and re post a new pic.  Frustrating!  Oh well, It's Friday! 

I'm still working from our laptop, I prefer our desk top PC.

Certified Organic Flowers from the Farmers Market

Grilled Seitan Cutlets with Cilantro Lime Sauce

When you are looking for something with texture, flavor and something to satisfy that carnivore in your life, grilled seitan smothered in a sauce seems to do the trick.  For a quick seitan recipe I love to use the Seitan Cutlets from Veganomicon.  Dave loves grilled seitan smothered in some kind of sauce.

Cilantro Lime Sauce

In a food processor I blended 1/3 C. cilantro(don't be shy make sure the  cup is packed high), 1/4 c. sweet onion, 4 garlic cloves, 1/2 jalepeno, juice of 1 large lime, 1/4 C. olive oil and s & p to taste. 

In a small casserole dish I poured about 3/4 of the sauce over the seitan cutlets and let it sit for about an hour.  Use the rest of the sauce over the grilled seitan.

                                                                 Summer Corn Saute

This kind of reminds me of a succotash but there are no beans.

The market down the street was selling locally grown corn 3 for 98cents and the cashier said they were so sweet and good we bought a few more.  I usually use up fresh corn the day I buy it because the older it gets the more starchy and less taste it has. So just make sure to wrap it up well and store in the refrigerator if not using the same day you buy it. Thinking of how to use the rest of the corn besides grilling it again, Succatosh came to mind.  I didn't have any bean to use in it so I just thought of what would go well with it and I ended up with a sweet and flavorful dish.

Summer Corn Saute

3 fresh corn on the cob, corn sliced off into bowl
1 T. olive oil (if more is needed use water a little at a time instead)
1/2 large sweet onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 Italian red pepper, diced
1 small tomato, diced
1/4 tsp. oregano
1-2 T. chives
1/4 c. cilantro
salt & pepper to taste

In a small saucepan heat water and add sweet potato, cook until almost done.  Strain and set aside.

Heat a cast iron skillet and add 1 T. olive oil, you will probably want to use more oil but I usually add some water a little at a time instead.  Next add the onion and garlic, saute until just translucent. Then add the Italian pepper, corn and sweet potato, cook until corn is fully cooked. Add the tomato and oregano, stir until soft. Turn off heat and stir in the chives, cilantro salt and pepper.
Enjoy!

The Cove

Hi everybody!  I hope you are all doing well.  I know you were expecting to read about my family vacation and I was expecting to blog about it, but it has been put to the side at the moment due to some unforseen computer issues.  Right now I'm using our laptop which doesn't have any of our photo's in it so you'll have to wait just a bit longer.  Until then.....I would like to share that Dave and I just celebrated our 15 year wedding anniversary!  We made it 15 years so far.  I think that's pretty good.  We had a really nice day to celebrate  together.  We ended our day with a nice dinner out and for our appetizer we had an heirloom tomato bruschetta(all organic and from their garden) and I have to tell you....Dave and I still can't stop thinking of it. Big chunks of tomato with all the goodness mixed in and then it was served over a warm baguette.  Yummmmmm! I was so close to going back the next day for lunch when  Dave was at work but he made me promise I wouldn't go without him.

The other night on Planet Green I watched a documentary called The Cove starring dolphin activist Rick O'Barry. It's about how thousands of dolphins are being slaughtered in Taiji, Japan, in this little cove every year and it's been kept quite secret even amongst the rest of Japan. Why are they doing this? You can find out more about by clicking here. Last year I read the book Dominon by Matt Scully and in it he gives an in depth look of the whaling industry, among other animal industries, so I had some background. When I actually sat there watching these wonderful creatures being slaughtered and the water turning red, there is no explaining all of the emotions that I felt. This is something that needs to be stopped!  This goes right along with the beatings of seals and the torturing of cows and pigs on a factory farm.

Have a wonderful and delicious day!