Thursday, January 28, 2010

a take out kind of day: leaf cuisine


I thought I would treat myself today.
I never forget how lucky I am to live in Los Angeles. There are several raw cuisine restaurants that I like.
One place is called Leaf Cuisine.
They have a dish that I love, a  raw version of Pad Thai.
While I was waiting  for my to go order-I could not look away from the dessert cubby and chose a slice of vanilla caramel cake. It consisted of thick creamy custard layers with a darker strip of custard sandwiched in the middle.
The top was sprinkled with coconut shavings.
It was really beautiful, but kind of melted in the car, so I didn't get any good photographs. (The "cheese"cake is the brown spoonful on the edge of my plate in the photo above.)
The Pad Thai was $11.99 and the cake was $7.99.
Twenty dollars for such great tasting food that I didn't have to make has really made my day. I can get three meals out of the generous portions, and the thing that hits home today-no clean up in the kitchen!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

fiber in the morning



I woke this morning not quite feeling my regular self so I tried to make up a porridge that would include some fiber.

1/2 ripe avocado
1 banana
1 teaspoon honey
1/4 cup apple juice
3 tablespoons psyllium powder
2 cups blueberries (frozen left out to room temperature)
2 handfuls spinach
2 tablespoons chia seed
 small handful of the pulp and skin from apple juicing

I divided the mix into three servings.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

portabello steak and asparagus -saturday late brunch


my try at raw-cuisine mushroom steaks



inspired by...
Gena's steak and potatoes.



photo from choosing raw blog
http://www.choosingraw.com/steak-and-potatoes/

I was thinking about this dish everyday (every meal, actually) this week. It's been my food porn photograph of the week from the time I saw it on my blogroll last Tuesday.
It's from a great blog and website: http://www.choosingraw.com/ 
The recipes for the dishes in the photo above are on this site.

I have a few food allergies so I needed to make up my own marinade.

Portabella Steak
2 large Portabella mushrooms (I cleaned the gills and snapped the stem off)
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
dash of black pepper
3 sun-dried tomatoes sliced into thin ribbons
fresh basil
 dried oregano
2 cloves garlic, slightly smashed.
Mix ingredients.
Pour over cleaned Portabella mushrooms. Let sit just long enough to coat bottom of mushrooms with seasonings. Drain oil, keeping sun dried tomatoes, garlic and herbs for use.
Place mushrooms face up in food dehydrator. Spoon sun dried tomatoes, herbs and garlic into bowl of mushroom, placing 1 garlic in each bowl. 115 degrees until shrunken in size.

My sides:
washed cherry tomatoes
dehydrate along with mushrooms
Asparagus
marinade- 3 finely diced Kalamata olives, 1/4 cup red onion, 1 teaspoon olive oil, tiny dash cayenne pepper
Toss asparagus with ingredients. Drain olive oil. Arrange coated asparagus and onions in dehydrator at the same time.
My dish took about 5 hours (One movie: The Young Victoria and a visit to the bookstore).
I was home for a few minuets until I had had enough of the gorgeous smells filling my office, distracting me from my work. It was actually warm when I enjoyed it (after I took some photos).
I loved the sweetness the mushrooms picked up for the marinade.
(Next time I will make two large mushrooms per serving if I'm only having asparagus on the side. I would also double the amount of garlic.)





weekend grocery haul from fresh&easy
( first time shopping there)

I didn't make it to the farmers market this morning so I'm going to try fresh & easy this week.
I looked up what should be in season for my area. It's so hard to tell what's really in season when I go to the supermarket to shop instead of the farmers market.

I used this site to find my choices for seasonal and local for my area:



California (Southern): Late January

Artichokes Asparagus Avocado Beets Blood Orange Broccoli Cabbage Carambola Cauliflower Celery Chard Cherimoyas Dates (Medjool) Grapefruit Green Onion Green Peas Kale Kohlrabi Kumquats Lemons Mushroom Mustard Navel Orange Passion Fruit Strawberries Tangelos Tangerines

    I will need to get bananas, frozen blueberries, strawberries,kale and more avocados the next time I go out.

    Fresh&easy store review:
    This store has small packages in the produce section. Great for me- I am usually cooking for one. Not much organic to choose from, in the location I went to.
    This store is good in a pinch, but I found the prices on the non organic produce similar to organic food from trader joe's.
    If I'm going to the movies again I can pick up a bottle of carrot juice at fresh&easy to sneak in with me as I am still searching for glass travel containers (that are drip proof and attractive).

    I loved this recipe.
    It's easy and quick preparation. I used the same bowl to marinade each item.
    My (so-not-raw) sister Rachel had to admit it smelled great when we came back from the movies.











    Tuesday, January 19, 2010

    on the go raw


    photo from 105 Degrees

    This photo has inspired me to get creative with the look of how I store my raw food on the road.
    I use glass in my own kitchen but still travel with Rubbermaid sealable boxes.
    Gone are the recycled plastic containers I have been using for on the go food transport.
    I like to pack what I eat for the day when I know I have to leave the house.
    Now I'm on the hunt for great looking glass travel containers.
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