Breakfast of champions!

While getting ready to make my morning smoothie I decided to go seasonal, seeing as I have all these pumpkins around. I blended frozen banana with some cooked pumpkin and I'd course pumpkin pie spice. I made it really thick so I could enjoy with a spoon. I felt like being luxurious so I dished it up in a martini glass and generously topped with fresh coconut cream. Yum! I'm charged for the day!

Homemade coconut cream

Ooo! So glossy! I am experimenting with this in making a fermented "cheese"

Pumpkin time!

I love pumpkin season! I have a hard time finding a descent pumpkin in Texas so my family brought done a bunch of my favorite little jack pumpkins. Most people don't know that the best tasting pumpkins are those little short and squaty ones that most use as decor. Those little jacks are by far the tastiest of all! By no comparison what so ever! Well, that is if you get a ripe one. Because most people consider these tasty gems as mere decor I wonder if farmers pick them before there ripe. Such a shame. My parents brought me a mini patch (literally!) Of these pumpkins when they came to visit and I roasted some up in the oven. So freaking good! Better than I remember of what I'd get when I lived in upstate NY. These pumpkins are sweet! Really sweet! Now i'm googling for all kinds of ideas of how to put these babies to good use. For now, i'm just topping the pumpkin with some coconut cream. Yum!

Making "cheese" from soaked fermented almonds

Today's amazingly yum lunch!

Bruschetta!
Sauteed kale and spinach greens on top of homemade herb raw fermented almond cheese and homemade raw quinoa nut & seed crackers. Recipe for nut cheese coming soon. So good! Give me a glass of wine and perfecto!

How I fold my collard greens for tacos and burritos

1) First you need to cut the hard stem out of the collard leaf. I usually cut it to about half way up the leaf.

2) Removing the stem creates two long flaps. Fill the leaf with your filling. Not too much though. Place it right at where you removed the stem and the flaps begin.

3) Fold one flap over the filling.

4) Fold the other flap over that. It will already begin to simulate a taco shell.

5) I usually then take the round tip of the leaf and fold it over the filling, tucking it under the two folded flaps.

So it will look like this straight on.

6) Tug on the two folded flaps over that, to continue to secure the wrap.

7) Depending on the shape and size of your leaf, the two flaps may be quite long and drape off the ends of your burrito. Great! Fold those ends of the flaps around, to seal up the burrito.

8) Ta-da! Time to eat!

Quick RAW apple crumble pie

With the weather cooling down and all the pumpkins in the stores, I've got a craving for fall treats!  I made the crust by food processing 1 part almonds, 1 part cashews, 1 part fresh sprouted buckwheat (about 2 Tbsp of each) and a dash of salt and nutritional yeast to taste. I pressed about half that mixture into a little dish, then food processed 1 apple with some cinnamon, ginger, salt, honey and lemon juice to taste. Patted that into the crust and pressed the remaining nut mixture into flat crumbles to top. Yum! :)  I would serve right away or dehydrate the bottom crust a bit. I think the juices from the apple might make the bottom crust soggy if you made it ahead of time.

Tasty refreshing water

Here's a little trick I do to keep myself drinking enough water. After I brew my morning tea, I put the bag in a glass pitcher of water that I keep in the fridge. It flavors the water ever so slightly, without being as robust as ice tea. Plus it reuses the tea bag. So green ;)

No fast food lunch for me!

For quick lunches I make wrap sandwiches using collard greens or cabbage leaves in place of flatbread. To stuff it, I sauteed some leftover millet with onions, celery, collars stems and seasoned with garlic tumeric, cumin and bragg. I put a bit of the mixture with some avocado and cilantro in each collard green (from which I cut the thick stem out of). Folding the leaf can be a bit tricky to do sometimes without creating a mess, so it takes some experimentation. Time to eat lunch!