Raw Chocolate Fudge

YUM! The credit for this delicious, nutritious fudge goes to Whole Foods. My son and husband loved this!

Ingredients:
 2 cups raw walnuts
2 cups packed pitted and roughly chopped dates
10 tablespoon cacao powder (or unsweetened cocoa powder, but then it's not raw)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 tsp sea salt (I used only a small pinch of sea salt)

Directions: Soak walnuts in cold water for 4-6 hours. Drain and place in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until chopped. Add dates and pulse to chop, stopping frequently to scrape down sides as needed. Add cacao powder, vanilla, and salt. Process until mixture is almost smooth, scraping down sides as needed to keep mixture moving. It will eventually form a ball similar to dough with some tiny pieces of walnuts remaining. Don't get discouraged, even if it seems like it's not going to work, just keep pushing it down and pulsing the food processor; it will work. Transfer to an 8-inch square baking dish (or whatever you have that is similar) and press down evenly with wet fingers. Freeze for 4-6 hours until well chilled. Cut into squares. Store in freezer until ready to serve. I think it tastes better when it's sat out a little while from being frozen. 

ENJOY! And thank you, Whole Foods for the free recipe!

Raw Cashew Dressing

This is so great and versatile! It is so simple and easy to make, too. You can use it as mayonnaise, sour cream, or mix it with olive oil and make a salad dressing.
Here's the simple recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup of raw cashews
2 1/2 tsp of apple cider vinegar (or 2 tsp of a.c. vinegar, and 1 tsp of lemon juice)
pinch of sea salt
1/4 cup of water.

Directions:
Blend ingredients in a high speed blender until smooth. That's it! If you don't have a high speed blender, you may want to soak the cashews for 1/2 and hour first so that they will be softer for blending.

I used this as mayo on a veggie burger and it was yum! Then, I made it into a dressing for this pasta salad by mixing in these ingredients (sorry, I didn't measure): olive oil, sea salt, dijon mustard. I mixed into some quinoa pasta and added some fresh spinach and it was delicious!!