Cream of Tomato Soup

Cream of Tomato Soup by Nomi Shannon

3 cups roughly blended tomatoes (5-6 tomatoes) 

1/4 lemon, peeled and seeded 

1 avocado 

1 cup sprouts

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil 

2 tablespoon chopped onion (optional) 

1 small clove garlic, chopped (optional) 

Additional sprouts and or Basil flowers

 Add enough cut-up tomatoes to blender to measure 3 cups, roughly blended. Add lemon, avocado, sprouts, basil and garlic, blend until smooth. Pour into serving bowls, top with additional sprouts and basil flowers. Serves 2.

YUM! I love avocado and basil so this was delicious!

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Cream of Mushroom Soup by Nomi Shannon

1/4 cup almond butter 

1 1/2-3 cups quartered Crimini* or button mushrooms, to taste 

1- 2 teaspoons chopped onions 

1 tablespoon chopped parsley 

2 teaspoons Nama Shoyu*, or tamari* (or increase sea salt) 

1 pinch sea salt 

1/2 cup water 

4 tablespoons minced mushrooms

In a blender, combine the almond butter, mushrooms, onions, parsley, Nama Shoyu, salt and water. Blend until smooth. Pour into a serving bowl. Top with the chopped mushrooms. Yields 1 cup, which in a perfect world should serve 2.

This soup is pretty rich so 1/2 cup is perfect. Nomi also suggests using it as a gravy too if you wanted. It was delicious!

Spicy Vegetable Juice

1 cucumber
1 celery stalk
3 carrots
2 tomatoes
1/2 yellow and 1/2 red pepper
1/2 jalapeno
small bunch of cilantro
S&P to taste

This is all that was left from the veggies above after juicing! Amazing!

 I usually save any glass jars so I can reuse them for juice storage. I take containers like this with me to work. They are great for raw soups or juices. And cheap.

Raw Food Night at Green Owl Cafe.

So, you all know just how much I love raw food night! The last one was back on April 12th at the Green Owl Cafe. I have been thinking about posting this since the day after, but time slipped away from me. I didn't have to have a one on one date with my 2 year old this time, although I wouldn't have minded. My husband and I went with a co worker of mine and her husband, so it was nice to have conversational company! We did bring Gabe along with us, but he sat and watched "Dora" the whole time. Sad I know! 

Here are the pictures that I took (from my phone since I can't seem to remember my camera) of our raw food courses. It was a good night to have my picky husband and newbies because it was a Mexican themed meal. Who doesn't like Mexican food? Well, I'm sure there are some people, but this is always a great start to raw food.

Small Plates

Cucumber-Pineapple Gazpacho (I love this soup! I have made a similar version at home before so I was excited for this.)

Seasonal salad of fresh greens, orange sections, red pepper slices, corn tortilla croutons, and creamy avocado citrus dressing topped with pumpkin seeds. (I enjoyed this, but it could've used a bit more dressing. Everyone else put the gazpacho on their salad as a dressing)

 Sweet pepper rellenos-sweet baby bell peppers filed with a nut-based taco "meat" filling and topped with creamy cilantro-lime sauce. (These were definitely my favorite part of the meal. They were SO amazing! If you look at the back of the plate below you can see the little orange peppers.)

Raw tacos in fresh corn tortillas-corn tortilla shells filled with spicy sunflower seed "bean" filling, lettuce, tomato, onion, and yellow zucchini, guacamole and pico de gallo. Served with fresh Mexican coleslaw. (I thought these were great too, but everyone else thought they were a bit too spicy. The shells weren't as crunchy as a typical "American shell" but they were dehydrated of course. I would eat this meal again any day!)

 

 Mexican Slaw. Delicious!

 Pina Colada Cheesecake-fresh pineapple and nut-based dessert including coconut and macadamia nuts. (My favorite part of this was the pineapple layer on the very top. Gabe didn't hesitate to eat a large portion of mine!)

 

Breakfast Chia Pudding!

Breakfast Chia Pudding

By Healthy Green Kitchen

 Ingredients

1/3 cup pecans soaked overnight in water
2-3 pitted dates, preferable soaked in water over night to rehydrate
3/4 cups filtered water
2 Tb. Chia seeds
Cinnamon to taste
Pinch of Himalayan Salt
Fresh or dried berries to top

Put the pecans and dates in a food processor with water and blend. You can leave a little texture to it. Place chia seeds and salt in blended mixture and stir. Chia will absorb water so if it seems too thick for your liking add more water. I put bananas on mine, but you can add any fruit, fresh or dried. Cinnamon is your choice of course!

Chia seeds do have a little crunch to them so you may also like to use them in salads. Smoothies, oatmeal, or mixed in a small amount of water will work too if you're looking to incorporate them in your diet. Enjoy!

A raw family meal!

First of all, I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! My husband and son went to IA for the weekend because I had to work. I missed them terribly, but work kept me busy and I got to have a massage on Friday since they left early. It was wonderful. I also ate raw meals every night for dinner while they were gone and didn't have to worry about making something my husband would eat too! It was so great to see them on Sunday night!

Ok, so last week I shared about our family weekend at my parents and how we had some raw items for dinner on Friday night. On Saturday, we did a mostly raw taco boat dinner. I love knowing that my family is eating healthy and taking their of bodies! Plus we all feel better when eat healthy too. It turned out so delicious and everyone loved it! My sister-in-law hosted and had a beautiful table as always:)

My bother and sis-in-law have been doing some slight remodeling in their house! My brother just built those black built-in shelves on the wall.  There are even gorgeous lights in them. He's not quite finished, but they look amazing!

Home made Guacamole.

Raw taco "meat" and "cheese"

Romaine lettuce leaves for boats....aka taco shells! Unless you are my husband and then you just use an organic taco shell:)

Go here to get the raw taco boat recipe! If you've always been interested in raw food, but afraid to try it, this is a perfect meal to start with!

Make sure to use lots of good toppings: black olives, jalapenos, sour cream (not raw but helps it to feel more like a real taco for newbies) salsa, guacamole, fresh corn, tomatoes,  or any other things you like on your tacos.

Fresh watermelon!

This probably doesn't look all that appetizing to you, but they are so delicious!

Beetiful morning!

I recently decided that our family was in a "juicing rut." That being said, I'll be posting some new juicing recipes we are incorporating into our days! Variety is so key, but the craziness of life can sometimes get in the way. So, if you are also stuck in a rut, or not, hopefully you can enjoy some new juicing recipes!

Today is a beetiful morning for this juice!

Nice electrical outlet eh? That's not really what you're supposed to be looking at, but I uploaded this pic from my iphone and it's pretty hard not to look at:)

INGREDIENTS

1 beet
4 small apples
Bunch of fresh wheat grass or frozen. Sometimes fresh wheatgrass is hard to find.you could always grow your own;)
Large bunch of grapes (I like red)
7-8 carrots

Juice all above ingredients and enjoy!

Here are some benefits of wheatgrass:
Boosts the immune system
Reduced high blood pressure
Regulates blood sugar
Appetite suppressant
Prevents graying of hair (I'm totally increasing my intake!) and removes dandruff
Helps treat acne
Antioxidant rich thereby repairing damaged cells
Improves digestion and metabolism
Helps purify the blood and cleanses kidney, liver, and urinary tract (add it to your detox regimen)
Provides energy
Increases red blood cells


Health benefits of beets:
Great for cardiovascular health
Helps slow growth of rumors in cancer
High in iron do helps with anemia
Great for pregnant women d/t high levels of folic acid
High in antioxidants
Anti-inflammatory properties
Helps detox process
Have been shown to lessen tumor cell growth

Not sure about you, but these are motivating health benefits for me! My body should be detoxing as I type!!

A glass for Eric and I and some left over for later in the day!

Add caption

Gabe liked it! Nice look my son!

Zucchini Soup!

 ZUCCHINI SOUP
Recipe by Nomi Shannon

Bowls compliments of my sis-in-law!

This past weekend, we headed to Illinois so my husband could play basketball in a tournament with my brother. I haven't seen the two of them play basketball together since 2002 when they were in their last year of college. They played college basketball together at the University of South Dakota. They were also roommates and that's also how I met Eric! I'm such a lucky woman!


Anyway, we had a fantastic weekend and got to enjoy some raw food together! My parents and my brother and sis-in-law try to incorporate raw foods into their days, so it's always fun to try new things with them when we are together. On Friday night, my sis-in-law had grilled veggies and potatoes, salad, and I made raw zucchini soup. Here's the recipe from the soup. 


Zucchini Soup by Nomi Shannon

1 medium cucumber, cut up 

2 medium zucchinis, cut up 

1 avocado, cut up 

1/4 cup chopped parsley

 1/4 cup chopped basil

1/4 cup chopped scallions

 1/2 yellow pepper, chopped (optional) 

1/2 lemon (peeled and seeded) 

2-4 tablespoons chopped onion, to taste 

1 small garlic clove, chopped

 Nama Shoyu*, or sea salt to taste

This was delicious and I will definitely be making it again! I do not have a high powered blender (ie vitamin, blendtec) so I juiced the cucumber and zucchini instead of putting them into the blender. I didn't think they would blend very well. I also didn't use the 2-4 tbs of chopped onion. I was afraid it would be too overpowering. I'm not a huge raw onion fan to begin with. It turned out great!

And let's not forget of course a night is not complete without an amazing raw dessert. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures, but you can click here to see what we had. It was a huge hit! Since the ganache tart is made with coconut oil, it's important to mix and pour it very quickly so it doesn't start to solidify. My first attempt at making this didn't turn out very pretty.  Delicious, but just not pretty! So, after several attempts, it's much prettier these days!