Raw Hazelnut & Cacao Nib Refrigerator Cookies

As winter approaches, I am becoming less strict about my adherence to a raw diet. However, I have found I prefer many raw recipes to their unraw counterparts—I am maintaining my switch to cashew yogurt and nut milk, and zucchini hummus is just so delicious, and much easier to make than chickpea hummus. I really did miss tea, though.

Zucchini Hummus

I am still eating raw, but I spend all day working in a kitchen, and with summer weather drawing me outside, my food preparation at home has been very minimalist. Mostly, I just eat an assortment of fruits and vegetables with no preparation required.

Raw Dough-Nots

Fruit is my typical raw dessert, but James was visiting this week, and I wanted something to distract him from my cherries and watermelons. So, I made raw dough-nots.

Raw Rhubarb & Strawberry Crumble

I usually care more about eating locally than eating raw, so I was disappointed when I realized that rhubarb season was here, and that I didn't know how to enjoy it raw. Inspired by a couple of recipes, I decided to make a raw crumble. 

Green Apple Guacamole

A problem I have with a lot of prepared raw food is that it's often heavy on the nuts. I love nuts, very much, but my stomach reacts negatively when I eat large quantities of them. So, I've been looking for more vegetable based meal ideas.

Hazelnut Milk

Hazelnut milk is the answer to my mild aversion to Almond Milk. It's strange that hazelnut milk tastes just like you'd expect—hazelnuts—but almond milk doesn't taste much like almonds to me. Not only do I prefer the taste, but I am a bit obsessive about not repeating too many of the same foods in one day. I like to diversify my nut consumption, and since there are already whole almonds in my muesli, I'd rather eat it with hazelnut milk, than more almonds.

Raw Corn Chips

Last summer I worked for a local farmer, whose primary crop was sweet corn. Wonder of wonders, the farmer gave me and the other employees permission to bring home any unsold vegetables and as much corn as our families wanted, which, for us (dad), was a lot.

Cashew Yogurt

I know I had previously wished for winter's early demise, but 24C in March is unsettling. I tried to take advantage though—I went for my first run of the season yesterday(!), turned soil and de-pooped my garden, and planted a few flats of seeds. Hopefully my garden will be more successful than last year...chicken wire is definitely going up before my dogs have a chance to pee my plants to death.

Cauliflower Popcorn

Continuing on my path to raw, I have been collecting snack recipes. Raw cauliflower popcorn was a recipe I'd heard about, but never could bring myself to make. Mostly because the ingredients list usually included nutritional yeast and I had no idea what that was, or where to get it. As it turned out, nutritional yeast was easy to find—I happened across it in the organics section of my local grocery store. 

Raw Almond Milk

I have been feeling dietarily stagnant lately, so I decided to make a new goal for myself. I would like to try being completely raw for the summer—from May to August—while fresh vegetables and fruit are more local, plentiful and, of course, cheaper.

Strawberry Cinnamon Fruit Leather Hearts

I wanted to give out heart shaped fruit leathers as Valentine's gifts this year, but I ate them all. 

Hazelnut Chai Brownie...Balls

Finally, I have forced myself to write about another recipe I served at my Christmas party—one of my favourites, too.  This one comes from Green Kitchen Stories, a blog I love and which has very reliable recipes; I used a couple for my Christmas party. I had been wanting to make their Raw Hazelnut Chai Brownies forever and, after a few failed cookie recipes, I thought it'd be a nice break from baking.

Strawberry Banana Fruit Roll Ups

I wonder if it is pure coincidence that I am making Fruit Leathers around the same time as my first attempt last year? Or maybe there is some unknown force at work...

Cocoa Mint Macaroons

I spent last weekend trying to add more recipes to my Christmas party repertoire. It's actually become more of a challenge than I initially anticipated. Of the three recipes I tried, none of them turned out to be appropriate. Two of them, a sugar cookie and a gingerbread, just...weren't good. They were bland and boring...so they've been dumped. It was pretty heartbreaking...watching all those ingredients go to waste. I get so frustrated when recipes don't work.

Eating Raw in Montreal: Crudessence

As I have previously mentioned, my favourite restaurant, WOW, blew me off a couple of months ago and left a hole in my heart. I have been trying to fill the void with homemade Almonds Burgers, Salad Dressings and Cashew Cheesecakes...but it isn't the same. I am lazy and not as talented as the fine people of WOW.

I don't think anything makes me quite as happy as eating raw food…especially when someone else makes it for me. This past week, I finally accepted my loss and started Googling for nearby raw food restaurants...which ended up being in Montreal. So, James and I drove to Montreal, under the guise of shopping and showing James the city, but, by dinner time, we had to admit we came just to eat at Crudessence.

Lemon Tahini Salad Dressing

As promised, here is the salad dressing I made for the Raw Food Dinner I had with James and friends. My goal was to mimic the salad dressing from WOW (as usual...).

I had a pretty decent start, since I asked my server once what was in their salad dressing. Unfortunately, the only ingredients he could remember were celery and olive oil, though I was pretty sure there was lemon in it too. To fill in the gaps, I searched one of my favourite food blogs, Rawmazing, and used her Maple Tahini Dressing as a base recipe.

Raw Food Night

Sorry for the delay, but I've been away, visiting my cottage, and overwhelmed with being home and trying to get organized. Anyways, as I was saying, from Williamstown, James and I headed to his family home in Swansea. One of the nights I was there, we had somewhat of a raw food dinner party. I finally got the raw food dinner I was longing for since my convocation...

Raw As I Can Get Cashew Cheesecake

HA, fooled you. One more planned blog post. Let´s hope I am safe and sound in Barcelona.

I love cheesecake. I could eat an entire cheesecake, yet I haven't had the motivation to try and make a sugar free version of real cheesecake.

However, I discovered at WOW (the raw foodist restaurant I am in love with) that I also love raw cashew cheesecake. I could easily eat an entire raw cheesecake, but I don't live near WOW anymore...so this is kind of a tribute to my long, lost love.

Raw Almond Burger with Cashew Cheese

SURPRISE! I scheduled one last post to be published post-departure. By the time you are reading this, I should be living it up in Europe...let's hope. Unfortunately, this is as far ahead as I could get...see you in less than 6 weeks.

Carob Walnut Fudge

No story to this post. The other day I was bugging my dad to give me more ideas for baking—things like bread, or cakes, or cookies. He suggested fudge...with walnuts.