Delightfully Raw in Utah: Part II

The drive from Eagle Mountain to St-George was a breeze. It was pretty much just a straight shot down I-15 S. The forecast was predicting rain but it only started about 20 miles from our destination. No biggie.

Visiting Friends in St-George
It had also been two years since our last visit with Barbara and Duane, so we were glad to get a chance to spend a bit of time together. As you may recall, Barbara is the president of VSU, the Vegetarian Society of Utah, and has done SO much to spread the good word about the benefits of eating healthily in her community. Barbara & Duane have been following a whole food plant based vegan no-oil diet for the last five years and are lovin' it! It has helped Barbara in overcoming several health issues, including obesity. Now at 68 years young she's like an energy bunny and her enthusiasm is contagious!

Just a short two months before we got there Barbara had back surgery done. Thanks to her surprisingly good health it couldn't have gone smoother (they were able to operate from the front). In fact, her doctor says he's never seen anyone recover so quickly from such a major surgery! ;-)

B&D really get into the Holiday spirit; they are notorious for putting up sometimes as many as 7 Christmas trees around their home! But this year, with Barbara's surgery and their new feline daughter Chai, they decided to stick mostly to lights and little festive decorations.

Raw Potluck
The day after our arrival VSU held a raw potluck at B&D's lovely home. They were a wonderful bunch and I had lots of fun demoing two of our staple recipes: my Strawberry Banana Shake and Sweet Pea Soup.

My little elves getting the samplers ready.

Once again VSU members really outdid themselves and got very creative with their dish contributions, even though raw is very new to many of them.

Kevin Kirkland, a gentleman who is just opening a smoothie bar in St-George called TruBerry, brought a couple of samples of his concoctions for us to try.

Tru Green Smoothie
Apple juice
Banana
Acai berries
Blueberries
Strawberries

Tru Berry Red
Apple juice
Banana
Acai berries
Blueberries
Strawberries
Raspberries


A beautiful salad with the colors of the season made from kiwi, pomegranate, cilantro, avocado, onions and peppers.

Golden Onion Morsels

Golden Onion Morsels
From Joel Fuhrman's Super Immunity

Makes 30-40 balls

1 1/2 cups raw cashews
1 cup raw almonds
1 med. Golden Delicious apple, peeled, cored and sliced
1 tbs nutritional yeast
1 tsp ground chia seeds
1 tbs onion powder
Toasted seame seeds - for coating
Minced chives - for coating

Grind cashews and almonds into a powder in high power blender.

Add apples, nutritional yeast, chia seeds, onion powder and blend again.

Form into small balls and roll each ball in sesame seeds and chives.

Savory Oat Rice

Posted by Jinjee on Gone Raw

We have finally found a way to make raw rice! The secret is not to use rice at all, but raw, soaked oat groats. You can buy the raw oat groats in bulk or in bagged packaging. They look just like brown rice. Soak them for 24 hours and follow the recipe! It is amazing how much this tastes like a rice dish, and satisfies just like rice too. However, the germinated oats give you a ton of energy, which of course cooked rice does not. The men in my family love this recipe, as it is high in protein!

1 c oat groats
1 c button mushrooms, diced
3 tbs olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 tsp sea salt
Savory herbs (thyme, marjoram, sage, or oregano, etc..)
1 Hass avocado

1. Soak oat groats for as little as 24 hours and up to 48 hours. The grains become softer the longer you soak them.

2. Marinate mushrooms for 24 hours in garlic and 2 tbs. olive oil

3. Drain oats, rinse, place in bowl, and add the marinated mushrooms

4. Add 1/4 tsp Celtic sea salt, 1 tsp olive oil and savory herbs

5. Let sit for 1 to 3 hours

6. Add 1 Hass avocado, cubed

7. Stir and serve

Guacamole and raw crackers

This was a yummy cheezey spread made with cashews, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, turmeric, red chili, miso, turmeric and green peas.

Another lovely salad: kale, cabbage, zucchini, tomato, bell pepper and pomegranate. It was served with a ranch type dressing made from cashews, garlic, lemon juice, dates, vinegar, onion, basil and salt.

Barbara had made Carrot Crackers and one of my variations from the wonderful vegan cheeze that she introduced me to during our last visit.

Carrot Crackers
Published in VegNews Magazine 12/11 issue

Makes about 35 crackers

1 cup raw sunflower seeds

2 1/2 cups grated carrots (approx. 10 organic carrots)

4 tablespoons flaxseed meal

1 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1/2 to 1 cup water

1.  In a food processor, grind sunflower seeds into a fine powder.  Add carrots, flaxseed meal, salt, pepper, and ginger.  Pulse a few times to combine.  With processor running, add water in a thin stream.  Stop processing when mixture is thick, but moist enough to spread.

2.  In a dehydrator on two parchment-lined dehydrator sheets, spread mixture until 1/4 inch thick.  With a knife or pizza cutter, score into cracker shapes.  Dehydrate at 115 degrees for about 6 hours.  Flip dry dough and dehydrate on the other side for another 4 hours.

3.  For a non-dehydrator option, preheat oven to 350 degrees.   On two parchment-lined baking sheets, spread dough 1/4 inch thick.  With a knife or pizza cutter, score into cracker shapes.  Bake for 40 minutes or until dry and crispy.
 

Tarragon Mustard Vegan Cheeze

She also whipped up a batch of this awesome Tropical Chutney that she discovered when she attended the 40th IVU International Vegetarian Congress in San Francisco last October.

Tropical Chutney
By Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff
Recipe posted here

Makes 4-5 half-pint jars
 
You can use any combination of mangoes, papayas, pineapples, peaches and/or apricots along with sultanas (yellow raisins).
 
1 cup dried and chopped tropical fruits
1 cup warm or hot water
1 cup yellow raisins
2 tablespoon fresh, grated ginger root
Juice of one large lemon or lime
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon salt
Additional water as needed

Place the dried fruit in the warm or hot water and set aside for ½ hour or longer to soften.

Then place all ingredients, including the water in which the fruit pieces are soaking, in the jar of a blender or a food processor. Puree the mixture, adding more water as needed to yield a fine-grained pudding-like consistency.

Allow the chutney to stand for a few minutes before transferring it to a serving bowl for storage, or to clean glass jars for gifts.

This chutney will keep for several weeks if refrigerated.


And on the sweet side...

There's an older gentleman named Frank who has been a member of VSU for years. At every potluck he proudly brings his very own creation: a raw pie made from almonds, dates, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries.

Chocolate Nut Balls made from walnuts, almonds, cranberries, raisins and cacao powder.

This was my personal favorite brought by a lovely lady named Hazna. It started off as a raw apple pie that she got from a lady named April Fazini. She then modified it by adding mango, pineapple and persimmon folded into a yummy cream made with cashews, almond milk creme sauce and sweet potato. Decadent! In fact I even had 2 servings! ;-)

There was also a delicious Chocolate Pudding but I didn't get a chance to take a pic as the dish arrived while I was doing the demo. BUT you can see it at the bottom right corner of Don's plate. It was made with coconut meat, agave, maple syrup, raw cacao powder, carob, vanilla and a pinch of salt. Gina served it with fresh raspberries. Yum!

Let's munch! Yay!

This was my serving. I'm such a foodie; I had a hard time not trying a little of every dish. As a result I momentarily forgot that it had been less than a week since I was eating solid foods again. I later had to pay the price, as my belly complained about this mistreatment. As good as it tasted this feast ended up sending me on a downward spiral in terms of digestion. In the end I had to go back to liquid foods to give my body a chance to recover. In fact, I'm still not totally back to normal yet. *sigh*

A few of us stayed quite late after the meal as we were all caught up in interesting conversations. 

Greg and Mark, two super nice men I had met at the last raw potluck that Barbara held here.

Donnie caught Pu and I the next morning while we slept in. ;-)

Before we left we had a little photo shoot with Barbara and Duane. ;-)

Barbara had the idea to get some family shots with Miss Puss.

I hope you too had a wonderful Holiday Season filled with joy, radiance and beautiful people!

Delightfully Raw in Utah: Part I

After spending over 4 weeks in Matt and Dawnen's yard just south of Walla Walla, we finally got back on the road and continued our journey south. Since the going is rather slow when pulling a 27' trailer I figured that we'd be ready to stop after 5 hours of driving. (And I was soooo right!)

We arranged to spend that first night parked in front of some strangers' house near Boise, Idaho. See I found out about something really neat called the Boondockers Welcome Club. For a very small fee you can join the Club and in return be able to communicate with other members and stay on their property for free. Pretty darn cool if you ask me! Our hosts lived in a quiet neighborhood so the next morning we were well rested and ready to make our way to our next stop.

Miraculous Soak
While scouting online for a place to camp I discovered that a slight detour from the main road would take us to one of the best hot springs in all of Idaho. Now you're talking! Not only does Miracle Hot Springs have several neat camping domes but it also has a little campground. Perfecto!

It was a short two hour drive, which was great as our plan was to arrive early so as to make the most of the hot springs. Lord knew I could use a good soak in healing waters with my kidneys hurting like they were. The weather was cool but none of that mattered once we were in! As a bonus since we camped there we received a free one hour session in a private pool. Yay!

We then went to the outdoor pools which varied in temperature. We stuck to the warm ones. ;-)

Donnie getting ready for a dip.

Soaking my health troubles away...

The camping domes

Cloud-O-Rama
The next morning we continued our travels towards Utah. The drive was rather uneventful, other than my kidneys hurting badly, especially with all that bumpy sitting. Once we turned onto the I-84 E the sky suddenly got super interesting. I'd never seen anything like it! Don and I joked that some of the clouds looked like alien ships. ;-)

This next cloud formation was simply incredible!

If you look closely you'll see the sun disappearing behind the clouds and the upper right side showing the colors of the rainbow.

Woo hoo! I so love clouds!

Driving through Salt Lake City was super stressful. We suddenly found ourselves on 6 lanes and lots of traffic. Slow as we were we stuck to the right lane but it kept turning into 'exit only's. Eeek! Were we ever glad when we saw ours come up!

Visiting the Fox Family in Eagle Mountain
After a bit of a detour we thankfully made it safely to the Foxes, which we hadn't seen in nearly 2 years. Thomas is in the blender business. After selling various machines like Vita-Mix, Blentec and Waring, he turned his focus to the OMNI V 3 HP, an awesome high power blender a great deal more affordable. (You can learn more about the Omni here.)

Don, Thomas, Jasmine and Angelica

Their dog Coco is still as sweet as ever! She has calmed down a great deal since we were here last. Too bad Kyky couldn't be here too; the two of them got along fabulously!

Eagle Mountain is fairly high in elevation, and while there wasn't as much snow as last time we were here, the temperatures dropped to well below freezing at night. And so we gratefully accepted the warm bed that Angelica had made for us in their spare bedroom. It was also nice to be able to easily sneak in and keep Miss Puss company who was confined in the room - Coco can get so excited, you just never know! - rather than having to go over to the trailer. Jasmine LOVES cats so she made sure that Pu didn't get lonely.

I was a little concerned about how it would go around the table, with me having been on liquid foods for a week or so. So much for playing in the kitchen or even eating together, I thought. But I discovered that my digestion quickly improved while I was there. Yippee!

Some of the food we enjoyed...

Cheezy Corn Chowder

Marvelous Mushroom Soup

My first solid food, Spring Rolls in rice paper, with just a teeny bit of Ginger Dipping Sauce went down fine. Woo hoo! And so I continued to expand my repertoire little by little.

Collard Wraps

Angelica was intrigued by Matthew's Hot & Cold Salad but felt intimidated by the many steps. I reminded her that it's mostly a bunch of chopping. It certainly helped to do all of the work together; between her, Don and I we had everything ready in a reasonably short time.

Our cold components were lettuce, arugula, spinach, basil, red and yellow bell peppers, celery, cucumber, tomato and a little green onion to sprinkle on top. Our hot components: cabbage, red onion, bok choi and carrots.

I thought we did a fine job; it was super delicious!

Here you can see how the salad sits in a warm broth. Yummo!

I was even able to have a bite of the lovely dessert Angelica made: my Cheesecake with Berry Sauce.

Coming up next: our adventures in St-George, Utah!