Raw! Nom Nom Nom...

Eating is the best part!

It's been 5 days since we started our raw diet. We started the week by loading the fridge full of fruits, veggies, nuts, and seeds. Lots of kale, chard, lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, onions, tomatoes, radishes, bananas, blueberries, blackberries, mangoes, melon, pears, oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, grapes, cherries, sprouts, herbs, spices, raw nuts, raw seeds, etc...

But, after reading through a few books and websites, we quickly realized that we could make meals with our raw food, that would be way more fun. So we started brainstorming...

The first night was nothing too interesting. Just a salad. Dressed with the juice of an orange, and raw olive oil. Boring. Definitely not anything to get excited about. Donna hated it because it was bitter. I actually like bitter, but even I got bored with it pretty quickly. It was definitely better the next day for lunch. All the avocado had mashed into everything else, making more of an avocado dressing. Yum.

The second night was definitely more interesting. We had a Talapia and mango Ceviche, which we ate with cucumber chips.
Easy dish...

Ceviche:

• 2 fresh Talapia filets
• Juice from 1 lemon
• Juice from 1 lime
• Juice from 1 clementine (or "cutie") tangerine
• 1 Mango
• 1 large jalapeno
• 1 small orange or yellow bell bepper
• 1 large or 2 small green onion/s
• a handful of cilantro
• sea salt
• fresh cracked pepper
• raw olive oil

Cucumber chips:

• 3 cucumbers
• ground cumin
• sea salt
• fresh cracked pepper

For the ceviche, simply dice each ingredient, mix together, and cover with citrus juices, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Let marinate for at least 10 min, then serve.

For the cucumber chips, slice cucumbers into large, long, thick chips that can hold the weight of a pile of ceviche. Then toss all the cucumber strips with the sea salt and cumin.

No pics of the ceviche, but it was beautiful and delicious! And the cucumber chips were awesome even by themselves!

Last night was the best meal night, yet. We had a tomato gazpacho and a cucumber and radish salad, with home-made avacado dressing. But the best part was dessert. I invented my first raw recipe. Mike's chocolate cherry biscotti. They are SO good! Yet every ingredient is good for you. Superfood desserts! This could get fun!

Tomato Gazpacho

• 3 tomatoes
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 large or 2 small green onion/s
• 1 clove of garlic
• sea salt
  
• fresh cracked black pepper
• 6 basil leaves
• raw olive oil

Add all ingredients to blender or food processor, and blend to desired consistency. We both like our gazpacho chunky, so we opted to leave out some of the tomato, so we could chop it up and put it in the bottom of the bowl. Then we poured the soup over the tomato, and "POOF"! chunky tomato gazpacho. Garnish with basil and olive oil. Then serve. The gazpacho was awesome, but we were glad we had a salad as well. The difference in texture is definitely welcome. Here's the salad:

Salad:

• 2 cucumbers, partially peeled
• 5 red radishes
• 1 watermelon radish
• 1 green onion
• juice from 1 lemon
• sea salt
• fresh cracked black pepper
  

Dressing:

• 1 avocado
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 green onion
• 1 tbsp raw pistachios
• sea salt
• fresh cracked black pepper

For the salad, simply slice everything into even sizes, then toss with lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste. For the dressing, blend all ingredients together, then add olive oil until it reaches your desired consistency. Now for our FAVORITE part! Dessert! The secret of this dessert, is the secret of MOST raw desserts... DATES! Dates are the secret sweetener and binder for most good raw desserts. I saw it used in a few recipes, and quickly caught on to why it was being used, then I came up with my own variation. This is a small recipe, but can be multiplied and made in larger batches. Just cut it up, store it in ziplocks, then put it in the freezer.

Mike's RAW Chocolate Cherry Biscotti!!!

Biscotti:

• 6 pitted dates
• 2 tbsp raw cacao nibs
• 1/4 cup raw walnuts
  
• 1/4 cup dried unsulfured cherries, chopped

Put everything but the cherries, in the food processor. Blend until well mixed. Pour it out into a bowl, and mix in the cherries. Then spoon it all out into any kind of flat-bottomed dish. Spread it out to an even 1" thickness. Cover and freeze. You can freeze it overnight, but it really doesn't take more than 20 minutes to set. It won't actually freeze, but it will be perfect for cutting into biscotti-sized slices. Enjoy!

The biscotti was a perfect ending to our raw evening. We were both very satisfied, and inspired to try other raw creations very soon. The one thing we really want to get our hands on right now, is a food dehydrator. That is going to change everything. Look for those recipes in the future. Stay tuned for more recipes, and news of our progress.