…is that???

My husband brought this little gem home from work for me to try.  One of his coworkers passed by with a big box of them and offered him one.  He thought I’d enjoy the new adventure.  I was pretty excited because I’ve wanted to try tamarind for a long time and I actually knew what it was when Emma brought it over to me.  I’ve never had it in it’s raw form before.  It comes in a big pod turd-looking thing.

You crack all that outside stuff off, which is almost bark-like, and you’re left with an even funkier, worm-looking inside.  Peel away all the stringy bits and there are little segments with seeds inside.  As I expected it to be, it was very sweet, with the taste and texture very close to a dried apricot.  I have to say it was a pretty tasty little snack.

I’ve been trying hard lately to eat more Raw dishes; salads obviously being the easiest way to accomplish this goal.  I get tired of the same salads with the same dressing.  In fact, I find myself getting tired of salads altogether if I eat them every day.  So, I try to change it up a bit and give each it’s own uniqueness.

A few days ago, I tried this Fennel Orange Kale Salad from Kristen’s Raw.  In place of the hemp oil, I used cold-pressed organic flax oil.  I also didn’t have any kalamata olives, which was SOOOO depressing because I bet they’re awesome in this salad, so I used some cherry tomatoes.  My salad base was a mix of romaine lettuce and chopped kale.  Raw kale in a salad is a bit much for me, so I had to mix it up a bit with some crunchy lettuce.

Yesterday for lunch, I whipped up this salad using romaine lettuce, fennel, raw beets and cherry tomatoes.  I made this Sweet Dijon Dressing to go over it and it was AWESOME!  I found it to be a little thick, so I thinned it out just a tad with a TB or 2 of water.  This dressing is seriously good.  I think I’ll even try a ranch style version using the raw zucchini as a base and incorporating some of the herbs found in ranch dressing.

Today’s lunch was the same salad from yesterday, except I used a box grater to grate some carrot, beets and fennel.  Once I put the dressing on, I squeezed some fresh lemon juice over the top, which really made it super delicious.  I’ll have to remember to do that from now on.  Today, I had my salad with a banana and some coconut water.  Fresh coconut water is so delicious.  If you’ve never tried it, you’re seriously missing out.  I put mine in the fridge right when I bring them home from the store so that the water is nice and cold when I am in the mood for having some.  And, I’ve found that Asian markets have the best prices on coconuts, about 20 cents cheaper than my Whole Foods.  Be sure to buy the young coconuts (they have white all the way around).  The brown ones are older and don’t have the water inside.  Intimated about opening up a fresh coconut?  Here’s a video to help you:

Nothing but frozen mango and pineapple.  Whirl it all up in a food processor and enjoy!

I don’t know that this could really be called a recipe, but whatever it is, it was successful and I thought I’d share.  I took a bag of frozen banana bits (probably 3 or 4 bananas worth) and put it in my food processor with a bag of frozen strawberries (probably 15 or so).  I drizzled in a little agave nectar and it made an “ice cream” of sorts.  It was really, really good.

I’m going to try this with the frozen mangos that I have left and see if I get the same tasty results!

It’s a very orange salad, isn’t it?!  I LOVE golden beets, but you could substitute them for regular ones here.  You could also change up the citrus depending on what you have on hand.  This salad was SO GOOD!

Golden Beet & Citrus Salad

1 medium orange

1 large grapefruit

2 small tangerines

1 large beet (or 2 medium), cooked

1 TB chopped mint

Dressing:

Juice of 1 lime

1 tsp agave syrup

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

Peel and segment all of the citrus.  It would be most convenient if they were the seedless varieties but, if they aren’t, remove all of the seeds.  Combine them with the rest of the salad ingredients in a bowl.  Whisk together the dressing ingredients and drizzle over the salad.  Toss to combine.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Last night’s dinner was super refreshing. We had corn and black bean salsa atop a crispy flour tortilla, a tostada of sorts. The best part about this meal was that it was perfect served cold (except for the tortilla, of course) and is a great meal to make when it’s too hot out to heat up the kitchen cooking. Earlier in the day, I charred all of the veggies under the broiler, threw them in with the beans, added some lime juice, S&P and cilantro and refrigerated until dinner time. Very, very easy!

Since corn is so plentiful (and inexpensive) this time of year, I used 2 ears of fresh corn instead of frozen. After shucking the corn, boil it for about 5 minutes. Then broil, allow to cool, and cut the kernels off the cob. It tasted pretty much the same as it does when I use frozen corn.

On the side, we had a yummy fruit salad. It was so pretty that I had to post a photo.

Pineapple, mango, grapes, strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. All organic, except for the pineapple! Delicious!

I was in the mood for a smoothie this morning and I had a peach that had seen better days, so this is what I came up with:

Fruity Smoothie

1 cup apple juice (or more if the blender needs more liquid)

1 peach (skin and all)

1/2 cup mango chunks

1 cup frozen banana chunks

1 cup kale, stems removed

Put everything into the blender and let ‘er rip. This was SO delicious!

Thanks to Brianne, Paul and Tater, we received our waffle iron on Friday afternoon.  I was so excited to use it that I decided to make some homemade waffles for breakfast on Saturday morning.  The only problem was that I had a really hard time finding a recipe for vegan multigrain waffles, which is what I had hoped to make.  Here’s what I came up with, which ended up being a combination of a couple of different recipes:

Vegan Multigrain Waffles

2 cups non-dairy milk

2 TB white vinegar

1/2 cup oats

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 cup toasted wheat germ

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2 TB ground flaxseeds

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 TB canola oil

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup organic unsweetened applesauce

Add the vinegar to the non-dairy milk and set aside.  Put all of the dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix well to combine.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add in all of the wet ingredients.  Stir until just combined (be careful not to overmix).  Cook them up in your waffle iron and enjoy!  Although I haven’t tried it, I’m sure this recipe would make some tasty pancakes too.

To go with our waffles, we had a bowl of fruit and fresh squeezed OJ.  So delicious!  I have found the most wonderful permanent farmer’s market near our house (thanks, Amy!)  and have done all of my produce shopping there the last few weeks.  They have an amazing selection of locally farmed organic fruits and veggies, and their prices are very reasonable.   Anyway, all of the fruit for breakfast came from there– organic strawberries, mangoes, bananas and oranges.

As you can see, my waffles turned out a little bit dark.  I could definitely use a little more practice with my iron, but they were still really, really good and I’ve been enjoying the leftovers all week.