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.
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!
