lovely, colourful food

i've just finished one week of a 30 day raw food program and i'm loving the adventure. i've been eating almost 100% raw and it's pretty good.

today i just HAD to take a picture of the wonderful food i had for dinner

tabouli with hemp instead of bulgar
red pepper and almond dip

i made enough to share but doesn't it just look so colourful?

mmmmm more hummus

so i made the spinach and artichoke hummus but i swapped lime juice for the lemon juice and i added 1 tsp of cumin and a generous splash of chipotle hot sauce

it was awesome!!!

almost tasted the same as guacamole

and i finally found sugar snap peas in my local grocery store

have you ever tried them? great to eat raw

healing with the angels cards

ok so i'm still new to EFT and i really need to look for my handout again because i NEED to get back on that train

but another thing i find that helps me before i go to sleep is my healing with the angels cards.

it a deck of beautiful cards and each has a different word

i shuffle, pick three then read the description for each

they are all positive and they remind me that i'm loved and that all is well

ahhhh they're like a breathe of fresh air

what do you do to help settle your mind before bed?

memories of safety harbor hummus

or really you can call this artichoke and spinach hummus

i haven't really eaten much of any spinach and artichoke dips because this became popular after i started eat to live and gave up dairy...most are laden with cheese and icky stuff that makes me cringe so i think i may have taken a little taste of one once but didn't ever think that you could make a hummus with spinach and artichoke

after many years i find myself in safety harbor florida for the t-tapp retreat and my wonderful room-mate and fellow t-tapp trainer jen had stocked the fridge we had by accident with lots of fresh fruit and veggies in addition to an artichoke and spinach hummus

wow...was i amazed at how good it tasted...we ate it with fresh veggies and were actually the envy of some who saw us walk into a meeting with a plate full of cruditees and this awesome hummus.

i left the retreat and knew that i needed to make up my own version with no added oil or added salt...i'm a eat to live groupie or nutritarian...are you surprised?

well i finally got around to it and as promised in my previous post, here is the recipe...

artichoke and spinach hummus

3 cups chick peas, cooked
half a pkg of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed well
2 gloves of garlic
juice of one lemon
1 14 oz can of artichoke hearts, rinsed and drained
1/4c water to get 'er going

i threw this all into the vitamix and blended until it was pureed. if you prefer it a bit chunky then pureed the chickpeas, garlic,lemon juice and water first then add the artichokes and spinach and blend to the desired consistency

awesome and oh so tasty

i gave my husband a bit to taste and he said i should probably hide it because my older son will be more than willing to help me eat it all up



this is my new favourite hummus

nori wraps

i'm truly in heaven

i just finished eating some wraps that i made for lunch.

originally i was going to make artichoke and spinach hummus and eat it in some romaine lettuce leaves with some extra veggies and sprouts...super tasty as is

on our way from a two hour hike with lots of dips and climbs i needed sprouts and happened to walk by nori in the store and *ding* a light bulb went off. why take some extra time to wash the lettuce (i still had to get home and make the hummus too) when i could roll it all into some nori sheets and have awesome wraps

i saw this idea once on someone's website and it stuck with me but i never tried it

boy am i glad i did

i made the hummus (recipe in the next post) then i lay a thin layer on the nori, topped it with some baby spinach leaves then added some fresh carrot slaw mix from the produce section and topped it off with sprouts.

i filled them a little too much but by working quickly i could gently squeeze the filling and pull the nori...very gently!

i ended up with some fantastic wraps and i'm thrilled it was so good

the hummus was so good it deserves it's own post

the key thing to note when working with nori is that it is dry and brittle until you add a moist ingredient...then it is soft and kind of stretchy. if you don't fill them too much you can actually roll it completely and the hummus will help it stick together into a "burrito" of goodness.

my camera and video camera batteries were both dead so i got my phone because this was worth documenting

the possibilities are endless...i hope you give this a try and let me know what you made!!

mmm i made the soup

as you know...based on my previous post...i was craving soup

it is a longer process than any other soup i've ever made but it was soooo worth it

here's the final recipe with a few more mods

Vegan Butternut Squash Soup Recipe
Ingredients
•1 butternut squash – cut, remove seeds and roast (cut side up) 45-60 min at 350
• 1 bulb of garlic – roast for 45 min
Saute the following until the onion is caramelized
• 1 onion diced
• 1 celery stalk diced
• 1 carrot diced
• 1 leek, sliced
Add 10 cups water
• 4 potatoes cubed (soaked and drained)
• 1 large yam cubed (soaked and drained)
• 1 can chickpeas (drained and soaked)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1.5 tsp cumin, 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Puree once you add the roasted squash and garlic and everything is soft.

Add some hot sauce or lemon juice when serving to jazz it up

it's cold...i want soup

I'm coming off a raw fruit and vegetable detox and the biggest irritation has been feeling cold the whole time.

I'm craving a warm soup and I've got the perfect recipe to start off with.

I found it here

They forgot to mention the garlic in the ingredients. By omitting the salt and oil it should pretty much be perfect for me. I won't bother with vegetable stock...I'll just add some carrots and celery to the onion and leek mix to give it more flavour.

Oh and I'll probably add a bay leaf and skip the maple syrup and cinnamon...hahahaha. There's a reason I said it was the perfect recipe to start off with.

I also hate recipes with long instructions...c'mon it's soup not brain surgery.

Here is my modified recipe

Vegan Butternut Squash Soup Recipe
Ingredients
•1 butternut squash – cut, remove seeds and roast (cut side down) 45 min at 350
• 1 bulb of garlic – roast for 30 min
Saute the following until the onion is caramelized
• 1 onion
• 1 celery stalk diced
• 1 or 2 carrots diced
• 1 leek
Add 10 cups water & 1 bay leaf if using curry
• 4 large red potatoes cubed (soaked and drained)
• 1 large yam cubed (soaked and drained)
• 1 can chickpeas (drained and soaked)
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon or curry powder (depends on mood)
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Puree once you add the roasted squash and garlic and everything is soft.