Hummus

 

I don't know about you, but I get frustrated that almost all of the hummus in any of the stores I go to, including natural health food stores and Whole Foods, is not organic. The good news about this is that it is really easy to make your own hummus.
You can use canned garbanzo beans, which are already cooked, or you can make your own. It's fun to do this because then you can have some left over to eat later on salad or however you like them.
Hummus is made with a set of ingredients, but tastes differently based upon the amounts of each that you use. Basically, you have to taste it as you go to get the taste that you like.

Ingredients:
Garbanzo Beans, cooked (boil in water for about 1 1/2 hours after soaking for a few hours), or canned - around a cup or two
Sesame Tahini - usually around 1 - 2 tablespoons
Fresh lemon juice - start with half a lemon and then adjust to taste
olive oil
sea salt
use some of the garbanzo bean water to make sure there's enough liquid for blending

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smoothe. You may have to stop and wipe the sides a few times. Make sure to use just enough liquid to blend, but not too much to make it watery.
Hummus is great as a dip for veggies or chips or on a sandwich or wrap.

Asparagus "Pasta"

 

I had this beautiful, fresh organic asparagus and I wasn't sure what to do with it. I saw a nice recipe online for asparagus with pasta, but I didn't want to eat the grains, so I decided to turn all of my asparagus into green pasta! It was absolutely delicious! Just steam the asparagus until it's soft, then add ingredients like you would for pasta:

olive oil
fresh garlic, minced, or chopped up into small pieces
nutritional yeast
basil
sea salt
and I added some mozzarella Daiya, too

Soooo good!

Veggie Coconut Milk Curry

 

I've been on a kick lately of making dishes with coconut milk and then adding yummy spices. I used to love eating at Indian restaurants, but now that I eat almost strictly organic and I don't eat any dairy, I have had to figure out how to bring those yummy flavors into my own kitchen. I don't have a specific recipe, but here are the ingredients I use:

1 can of organic coconut milk
organic broccoli and/or green beans - as much as you want
1 can of organic kidney beans
2 cloves of fresh garlic
yellow onion

a few sprinkles of coconut sugar
Put some sprinkles of these spices in to your liking:
turmeric
sea salt
coriander
cumin
cardamon
ginger

Pour the coconut milk into a pan and then add other ingredients, simmering until veggies are cooked and spices are blended. Trust your nose to tell you when the ingredients are just right. One of these days I'll get some measurements of how I like it.

Quinoa Veggie Burgers

 

These were soooo good! I couldn't wait to make them when I saw this recipe posted by Wendy Polisi on her site Cooking Quinoa: http://www.cookingquinoa.net/baked-veggie-quinoa-patties
I did discover that sprouted quinoa tastes a lot better and feels easier to digest than unsprouted, too.
These patties were great with ketchup!

Almond Milk

 

What a wonderful way to start the day - a fresh batch of almond milk! Almond milk is my favorite beverage. It is delicious by itself or with cereal/granola, or as the base for a creamy fruit smoothie. I've also been known to whip up batches of chocolate almond milk for myself sometimes just because it's so delicious! It's so easy to make. Here's a quick recipe:
Soak 1 cup of almonds overnight.
Drain them and place the almonds into a blender.
Add 3 cups of filtered or spring water.
Blend at a high speed for about 2 minutes.
Then, pour the contents of the blender through a nutmilk bag placed over a large bowl.
Sqeeze the bag very gently and slowly until all of the liquid is in the bowl and you are left with only almond pulp in the bag.
If you want to make it sweeter, put the milk back into the blender and add 2 or 3 dates. Blend again.
Then, pour into a glass mason jar and store in the refrigerator.
Using these proportions should yield one mason jar full of almond milk.
Enjoy!
I also dehydrate the almond pulp and save it to use as almond flour for later.

Raw Chocolate Pudding

 

It was difficult to get a picture of this because we ate it up so quickly! I decided to use a different sweetner with my pudding this time and I will never go back to using agave in this recipe again. The coconut crystals made it taste so much better - kind of like fudge!
Ingredients:
Avocado
Raw cacao powder
Coconut crystals (coconut sugar) - grind in a grinder to make more fine
Tiny bit of vanilla

Mix ingredients together in a food processor adding cacao and sweetener to your taste. This is delicious and even my son loves it!

Coconut Bliss Ice Cream

 

I love Coconut Bliss ice cream - it's non-dairy, organic, and sweetened with agave nectar. I usually just eat the vanilla flavored one because it's just so blissfully delicious, but the other day I felt daring and added some cinammon, raisins and walnuts. The result was even more blissful than the plain vanilla! Trust your instincts and be daring - you may love the result!