Rawsta! (or raw vegan "pasta")

We had raw pasta for dinner twice this week!  The first photo is of a Low Fat Raw Vegan Pad Thai by raw foodist Megan Elizabeth.  The recipe is within the video, so if you don't have time to watch it all, you can fast forward to the end and there is a slide with the full recipe.

I also purchased some of Megan Elizabeth's Low Fat Vegan recipe eBooks.  I'll be blogging about some of those recipes in the coming week!  I've just found that my body does so much better when I restrict nuts and fats, so I'm happy to have found her videos and website!



The second photo pictured above is a modified recipe from Choosing Raw.  I wanted to reduce the nuts so I used 1/2 cup of raw Zucchini in place of 1/2 cup of the nuts.  I am going to work with this one more because it ended up being a bit watery, probably because of the zuchini.  So I suggest if you make my modification that you add only a 1/4 cup of water and then check the consistency.

If you are wondering how I Spiralized my zuchini, I used a Spirooli!  They are cheaply made in China so I don't how long they last, but so far it's getting the job done.  You can find Spiroolis on Amazon.

Baked Eggplant with Ginger and Agave Marinade

I needed to get dinner on the table in a hurry last Friday night because everyone was crying about how they were "starving".  Okay, so I was starving too!  When I eat lunch at 12pm and then have dinner at 7:30pm, even with a snack in between, it's hard not to be really hungry.

Adapting a "Ginger and Honey Marinade" recipe from Modern Spice by Monica Bhide, I think I did okay, because everyone gobbled up every last bit of the eggplant.

Ginger and Agave Marinade
1 tbs grated peeled fresh ginger
1/4 cup Raw Agave Nectar
1 tsp red chile flakes
1/2 cup no sodium veg stock
1/2 tsp grated lime zest
1 tbsp low sodium tamari
Sauteed Onions and fresh chopped basil for garnish

I combined the first 6 ingredients in a bowl and then poured over my 1/4 inch sliced eggplant.  Then I put it oven at 400 and baked it until it looked all nice and cooked.  I think it was not more than 15 minutes.  Oh, and you will need 2-3 medium size eggplants for this :)

Vineet was out in the garden when he saw me taking photos of dinner...

 

Meet our new Family Member (And what he eats!)

He's a little camera shy but isn't he a cutie?!  Meet Raju, our newest family member. He is a 9 pound Chihuahua that we rescued from Orange County Animal Services about 6 weeks ago.

Believe it or not we are first time dog owners. We've always been cat people, but decided to look at dogs one day when we were at Animal Services looking at kittens.  We found this little guy and just fell in love.  He has been a wonderful addition to our family especially since my kids have been asking for a new sibling.  No, we won't be having more of those!  I love my kids, but I feel like adding more kids will take away from the attention I'm able to give them.  A dog was the perfect new addition.

We started him right away on a Vegan kibble by Natural Balance.  He had hook worms when we got him and I figured I would wait and see if the food would help rid them from his system since it's more alkaline, and I was right!  The worms were gone within 2 weeks!

I'd love to hear from any of my subscribers who have had their pets on a vegan diet for more than a year and how it's working.

Stuffed Poblano Peppers

Nothing here was from our garden, but boy these peppers are really YUMMY!  I have blogged about these previously under "The Worst Thing We Ate Last Week and Then Came Monday Scones" but didn't put a recipe with it.  Gotta love the title of that post!  And it looks like I sprayed them with oil last time, but it's not necessary.

As I mentioned before, I originally got the idea for the recipe from my Sister In Law who got the idea from the Food Network Show "Throwdown with Bobby Flay".  Of course his version was not vegan.

I have since made some changes to the sauce to make it a little less fattening.  Served with salad these make a super easy and delicious weeknight meal.

Serves a Family of 4

Ingredients
6 Poblano peppers
4 Red Bell Peppers
2 packages cooked Seeds of Change Brown Rice Pilaf (I used only one packet of the seasoning for both packages of cooked rice)  Alternatively you can cook your own brown rice in low sodium veg broth or no sodium stock.
Cilantro (for garnish)
1/2 can of light coconut milk or 3/4 cup of unsweetened organic soy milk (room temperature)

Directions
Place Poblanos and Red Bell Peppers under the broiler until lightly charred and soft. I put them on a non stick baking sheet. Take them out of the oven and remove any major pieces of char (unless you like that stuff, but realize that it ages your body :-/). 

Cook pilaf according to box directions, adding only one packet of seasoning to keep sodium down.    While rice is cooking you can start making the sauce.

Put your red bell peppers into a high speed blender along with the coconut milk.  Blend until smooth and warm.

When the rice is done, stuff your Poblanos with the rice and then pour the sauce over the top! Garnish with chopped cilantro if you like.  Super easy and super yum :)

Pair this meal with a green salad or bean salad and you have a healthy, delicious and quick weeknight meal!