Vegan grain free pizza

Yum!
Ok, so i came up with the crust after googling recipes for chickpea flour pizza crusts.  If you are familiar with gluten free baking, you probably have then realized the chemistry for gluten free and grain free baking is entirely different.  Pretty much through everything ya know out the window.

Ok, my crust:
Normally i use chickpea flour, but i was out. I used lentil flour and tapioca flour. About equal parts to yield 3/4c. I'd say.
To that i added:
1/4-1/2tsp salt, about the same in baking powder, 1/4c nutritional yeast, some spices and garlic powder.
If ya don't have tapioca ya could use some flax. Basically ya need a binding agent.
Also added about a teaspoon of cider vinegar to get the baking powder going and to mimic a sour dough.

Get all dry ingredients wet. Add a little water at a time throughly mixing to get rid of lumps.  As this batter sits, it absorbs water and thickens, so ya need to continue to add water to it and let it sit a few minutes. When it's a little thicker or about the same as cake batter consistency, add about 1/4c virgin olive oil.
Heat large nonstick skillet, or large cast iron skillet.
Oil pan.
Spread batter all around pan bottom and interior sides.
Put on slightly higher than low heat.
Let cook for about 20-30 min.

Preheat oven to 250.
When crust is ready to release from skillet, transfer to wire rack placed on baking sheet (or just the baking sheet). The wire rack-such as one has for cooling baked goods, lets the crust get nice and crispy. One could put the crust directly on the oven rack, if ya don't mind that getting dirty.
Drizzle w/a little olive oil.
Bake at 250 for 20min? Should start to get crispy on edges but not all the way through.

Raise oven to 350.
Top pizza, bake another 20 min? Until crispy.

Topping:
For my sauce i made a pesto from garlic, basil, mung beans, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, lemon juice.
Topped all that with:
Tomato, arugala, onion, olives, oregano.

Yum yum yum

Caramel apple oatmeal. So good!

This is seriously so good!

I cooked 1/4 cup rolled oats with water, 2 dried apricots (chopped finely), salt and half n half (to your liking of creaminess).

I put chopped salted roasted peanuts (2-3tbs) and chopped 3/4 of medium apple in a bowl.

Then tossed the cooked oatmeal into the peanuts and apple.

Not cooking the apple nor peanuts in with the oatmeal makes the dish wonderfully crunchy and really reminiscent of caramel apples on the stick.

Yum yum yum

Ginger lime watermelon sorbet with whipped coconut cream

One of my favorite uses of watermelon (besides devouring it by the spoonful!) is to freeze it for smoothies. Here I've blended frozen watermelon with fresh squeezed lime juice and ginger juice. If you want it sweeter you could add some honey. Or you could turn this into a watermelon margarita! Just add tequila, maybe a little basil or mint too!

To make the ginger juice: slice a bunch of fresh ginger and blend with water, and strain the pulp. Proportions depends on how spicy ya like it. I like it spicy! This is not a drinking juice, but something ya add to other things or take just a shot of for a quick pick me up.

For the coconut cream i like to use Trader Joe's coconut cream. It's really thick. There is usually  about 3 tbsp of liquid at the bottom of the can which i separate out from the thick cream. I whip the cream up with a blender so it's fluffy. I usually keep this in an old yogurt tub. It's a nice deep container just wide enough for blender blades (easy for re-whipping), put the top on and keep in the fridge. Try to resist putting coconut cream on everything!

Does this look appetizing to you?

Cause it does to me! ;)
I put hemp protein powder in my morning muesli and it turned a lovely green color. Green is BTW my favorite color :)
This mornings muesli is made with:
Quinoa
Chia
Flax meal
Oats
Soaked almonds
Raisins
Dark chocolate
Hemp protein
Peanut milk
Salt
I usually eat a muesli every morning. Probably my favorite breakfast! My muesli varies from day to day. Sometimes i add greek yogurt, cinnamon, fresh fruit.... sometimes the grains are different, etc. Sometimes it has everything but the kitchen sink in it, and sometimes only 3-4 ingredients.
I loooove chocolate in my muesli, but can't do without nuts, and a little bit of fruit to sweeten it up is nice. I usually soak my oats overnight (or other grains that can be eaten raw like buckwheat). Sometimes i cook a batch of quinoa (i don't like the taste of sprouted quinoa) or a batch of long grain wild rice, let it cool and add extra water and chia and flax to it, let it chill overnight so the chia can soak and expand and make a nice gelatinous consistency. I usually keep a small tub of this concoction in my fridge, then every morning i take a little out and add some yogurt and nut milk to it to get the consistency i love! Then of course add toppings. Yum yum yum!

Experimental bread!

A garbanzo rice Irish soda bread. 
Yummy!
Especially as a grilled cheese :)
Recipe? I challenge you to make sense of my notes! ;)

White raisin sweetened fresh ginger lime margarita!

Fruity-pie smoothie

I like to make my smoothies super thick like ice cream and serve in a martini glass so I can lick it up like an ice cream cone. Yum! I thought I'd try something a little different today after talking with some friends about what fruit turmeric might go well with in a smoothie, and I ended up with something that reminds me of peach pie. Even though I didn't use peaches! This is what approximately used:
1/3c frozen strawberries
1/3c frozen banana chunks
2/3c frozen mango chunks
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp turmeric
1tsp vanilla
1/4c walnuts
Maybe 1/4 c peanut milk (just enough to blend thick)
1tsp dried super greens

I'm guessing the turmeric, walnuts and vanilla all worked together in forming the essence of pie crust.

Definitely a winner!

A pretty yam plant-to-be

:)

RAWvioli party!

I had some friends over for a RAW food emphasis Sunday brunch making party. I put them to work and had them assemble the RAWviolis.  I did a simple peanut keifer cheese seasoned with garlic powder, salt, truffle oil and nutritional yeast. The sauce was a fresh basil and tomato sauce with a little cashew keifer cheese to make it creamy. For dessert... frozen mango blended with yogurt and topped with a "whip cream" i make from coconut cream, almond milk and agar. Garnished with strawberry "sugar" (ground dried strawberries ). A success!

It ain't oj

A cocktail I made up from vodka, turmeric and fresh grapefruit juice.  A beautiful color that kinda reminds me of tang! ;)  The cocktail is actually quite good! I do have a palate for the unusual though. I did 1 oz vodka, 1 tsp turmeric, 1 oz fresh juice

What could possibly be better than a mountain of strawberries and "cream"?

Mangos and "cream"!
It's hard yo believe this is part of a detox regimen but it fits the fill! Frozen fruit blended with greek yogurt and topped with a "whip cream" i make from almonds, agar and coconut. That's a little more involved so i'll post later. But i couldn't get over how much of a mountain my strawberry dream looked and how dreamy the blended mango tasted! The "whip cream"i i male is delish! I can't get enough! Especially with it being berry season ;)

Like chocolate for honey

100% cacao dipped in neem honey

I am loving this honey!

I got this organic wild collected raw honey at trader joes and am loving it!  What i think is most interesting about it is that it primarily comes from the pollination of Neem flowers. So for those of you who know what neem is..... i was first introduced it as a natural pest and mold control for gardening. So it's taste has a mild essence of what neem smells like but it's also really buttery tasting, which is really addicting! But that's not a bad thing, considering honey is a natural antibacterial.  I especially like to dip chips of 100% cacao in it :)

Burger and frites

Turkey burger with sauteed fennel, spring onions, and garlic mixed in the patty.
Topped with mexican hot sauce (another irreplaceable condiment of mine)
White truffle garlic yogurt
Sliced fresh mushrooms
Served on a pan grilled eggplant "bun"
Served in a couple of brussel leaves as a wrapper
With a side of pan fried garlic yam fries

I know how to lunch ;)
But then again i eat lunch at like 3:30 so maybe that's linner ;)

Garlic for dessert

I've always loved garlic but lately i can't get enough.
Is my body trying to protect me against vampires?  ;)
After my meals I always want something more that's garlicy. Garlic on veggies is only a teaser.  I don't really eat bread so i never have any on hand to sop up a quick dipping garlic oil. So i made a variation of garlic rissoto using buckwheat and oats ( i don't really eat rice, it has always upset my stomach). I kinda followed traditional rissotto cooking methods... browning the grains in a bit of olive oil before adding water. I didn't cook as long as these grains cook faster than rice and can actually be eaten raw, and i needed me some garlic fix pronto! I added a little coconut milk, white truffle oil, salt and ALOT of garlic powder ( my addiction had no patience to chop fresh garlic ;)
I topped it off with some whipped unsweetened coconut cream which was a nice creamy touch, kinda like mascaprone cheese. Yum! With vino! Great way to end a meal :)

Pecan cream

The creamy pulp from making my pecan milk

REAL olive oil

Apparently real extra virgin olive oil doesn't even make it into the USA, and all that fancy olive oil they sell in the stores, may not even be olive oil at all. Also, to actually get all the health benefits of this liquid gold, it needs to be consumed within 3 months of it's cold pressing. I joined this real extra virgin olive oil club, and this is the first bottle of the real deal that i got. Tastes greener and this particular bottle actually tastes a little bitter to me. I'm looking forward to trying the different bottles of oil as they come

Grapefruit fennel salad and tuna salad with pecan cream

My fridge is full of so many wonderful produce i've acquired from various friends gardens :)
I made a delicious lunch today.
The salad:
Fennel, grapefruit, green onion, pickled red cabbage, garlic powder, and REAL extra virgin olive oil

For the tuna salad, i used pecan cream in place of mayo.
The pecan cream was the creamy foam left over from making my pecan milk after running the milk through my nut milk mesh i use to filter out pulp.
The pecan "pulp" is really creamy! I normally disgard the nut pulp but with pecans, it's different. I could eat it straight, like coconut cream.
So it seemed like a yummy replacer for mayo in my tuna salad, which i also added garlic powder, turmeric and hot sauce. 

Yummy!

Green eggs n' a nest

While visiting a girlfriend this winter we came up with a variation of deviled eggs.
We processed the yolks with:
avocado
Jalepino
Cilantro
Lime juice
Garlic
Salt
...and i think that was it.

Here i added a bit of coconut vinegar which sweetened it slightly. And served on top of a bed of arugala, cilantro and parsley tossed with garlic powder, salt, sesame seeds, cider vinegar and white truffle oil.

Yum!

Now that's a lumberjack breakfast! Wait, what's a female lumberjack? Maybe woman of the woods? Now that's a woman of the woods breakfast! ;)

Gluten free french toast with cinnamon, flax and sunflower seeds,  topped with shaved 100% cacao, white truffle oil and a fresh blackberry sauce. Yum!! I love white truffle oil and chocolate together! Literally, i bet you white truffle oil would be good on anything. :)

One of the best dishes I have ever had!

A friend and I went to Triniti restaurant in Houston and the starters were so beautiful we found it hard to dig in. He got the deviled lobster and I got pan seared foie gras served on a bed of candied bacon on top of a blueberry pancake with pomegranate pecan syrup and topped with a quail egg. Incredible!! Beats the pan seared foie gras ontop of rhubarb pie I had at Gemini Bistro in Chicago a few years ago.

Beet and collard green slaw

Over Thanksgiving my sister made a beautiful slaw from raw butternut. It inspired me to invent this slaw for lunch.
Shredded beets and collard greens
Chopped brazil nuts
Finely chopped dates
White truffle oil
Blueberry balsamic and coconut white balsamic vinegar

Soooooo goood!

Muscles and beets

The earthiness of the beets go so well with muscles. And the orange color of the muscles to purple of the beet broth is just so pretty!

Bacon wrapped Thanksgiving bird

My sister and I were in charge of the bird this year. We tried brining for the first time, then after we washed and dried the brine off we rubbed sage butter all under the skin. My sister did the meticulous task of braiding the bacon on the bird. OMG! Best bird ever!

There's camping and then there's livin' large!

I don't know why people think camping is a time to eat just hot dogs and beans. These are some small pumpkins i wrapped in foil and baked on campfire coals for about 20 min. We even toasted the pumpkin seeds on the fire! We filled our pumpkin bowls with lentil soup heated on my coleman. Chicken sausage and broccoli both wrapped in foil and cooked on the fire. I have a great travel spice kit so we seasoned everything with lots of garlic powder, cayenne, salt, and varing between curry, sumac, ginger, and nutritional yeast... and olive oil.

Dinner with my sister :)

My sister is in town and I made us a lovely and hearty mostly RAW dinner.
Herbal riced cauliflower topped with a hearty mushroom ragu. :

1)  I processed/shredded cauliflower, seasoned with italian seasoning, porcini salt, and nutritional yeast.

2) I food processed mushrooms, coconut milk, garlic powder, salt, black pepper, nutritional yeast and white truffle oil.

* I LOVE WHITE TRUFFLE OIL!!!!!!

Dessert was a chocolate vanilla cream pie I made from leftover frosting and fillings from some cupcakes I made the other night.

 

Crust: food processed sprouted/dried peanuts, oats, cinnamon, nutritional yeast, pureed coconut.

Chocolate ganache: cocoa, fruit smoothie, maple syrup, coconut oil, coconut cream, 100% cacao.

Vanilla frosting: whipped coconut cream; banana caramel made from a reduced bananas blended with water, salt and cider vinegar; and whipped topping made from agar agar and coconut cream and coconut "sugar"

Custard (whipped topping): 2 TB agar agar heated with 2 cups coconut milk. Cool. Mix in blender with 1 tsp vanilla and more liquid as needed for whipped creamy consistency.  

Garnish: grated 100% cacao, whipped coconut cream and berry! :)

What's for dinner? Triple chocolate sundae!

Well not really a sundae, but triple chocolate frozen banana puree parfait doesn't have the same ring to it ;)
But this is a much healthier option that is yummy!
Frozen bananas, a little ice, soy yogurt, cocoa and salt in the vitamix. Then shaved 100% cacao for the chips, and dark chocolate balsamic vinegar as my chocolate sauce. All that potassium from the bananas and magnesium from the chocolate, great way to replenish electrolytes after a 18 mile bike ride :)

And it's another edition of "What's on your oatmeal?"

At times people have questioned the nutrition nut in me when I reveal I often have chocolate for breakfast. But the chocolate I eat is 100% cacao, so there is no terrible sugars, the real culprit to what makes chocolate junk. Of course most people can't understand how i can eat 100% cacao as it is bitter, but it's something i got i used to after years of liking darker and darker chocolate. Plus, when using 100% cacao i get to control the sweetness level and type. So for instance, today's oatmeal is sweetened with handpicked blueberries, "beefed up" with some pumpkin seeds and topped with grated 100% cacao. My oatmeal itself consists of quick oats, brown rice and amaranth cooked with home made sprouted brown rice milk and of course salt. I can't have my oatmeal without salt! I love the salty creamy texture :)  Now this is one delicious breakfast of champions!

Healthy "Hostess" Cupcakes

I've been craving chocolate cake nonstop for the past two weeks and I'm still not satisfied.  No i'm not PMSing. So I've been doing alot of experimental baking and OMG! These vegan grain free naturally sweetened cupcakes are to die for! And low cal too! The vegan cream can be a bit involved to make but an easy alternative is coconut cream, just not as low cal. The only sweetners are fruit smoothie and a little real maple syrup. I'll post my recipe soon, as I'm still tweaking.

Balsamic on my oatmeal

Strawberries and balsamic go so well together, I thought it might be tasty in my oatmeal too! Yum! :)