Peach Raspberry Almond Parfait

 As you may be able to tell, we've had peaches galore around here. 

Five years ago, we put in a peach tree, crossing our fingers--and happily, the harvests have been amazing! It seems to go in cycles of every other year, and this year was a good year.  We have over a whopping 250 peaches (fresh! home-grown! pesticide-free!) from our tree that we just picked on Sunday.  (Throughout Monday, I ate ten peaches.  Ten! Fresh! Peaches!)

So, I've been dreaming up some peach recipes! This is a nice snack between lunch and dinner, having layers of both peach almond cream and raspberry lime sauce, with sliced peaches in between.  It's also pretty easy to prep.  So, without further ado, Peach Raspberry Almond Parfait!

 Peach Raspberry Almond Parfait (makes 4 decent-sized parfaits)

Peach Almond Cream:
3 peaches, pitted, peeled, and sliced into pieces (must be fresh)
1 1/4 c. almonds

That's it! Put the peaches and then the almonds into a blender and blend until creamy.  If it's too thin, add more almonds; if too thick, add another peach slice or two. 

Raspberry Lime Sauce:
1.5 c. raspberries (measure before thawing)
 Juice of 1.5 large limes (or 2 small)
2 tbsp. agave
Pinch of sea salt

Let the raspberries thaw for a while and then blend together.  It will be a thick sauce (in the picture, I let it sit too long, so it got thinner). 

To assemble:
Peach Almond Cream
Raspberry Lime Sauce
Sliced peaches

Dollop a bit of Peach Almond Cream in the bottom of a parfait glass.  Throw in some sliced fresh peaches and cover with a layer of raspberry sauce.  (My raspberry sauce had thawed too much, and got too thin, so I only did one big layer of it with more cream on top.  If it's assembled immediately, you can layer the cream and sauce a few times.) Keep layering this way until you reach your desired height in the parfait glass! Enjoy!

This is a nice, sweet treat in the summer, but still light and fresh. 

With any luck, this post will be part of 'Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays,' over at the Simply Sugar and Gluten Free blog.  This will also be a part of Wellness Weekend at Diet, Dessert and Dogs. 

Hope that all of you have a good week!

'Fried' Rice and Snow!

Hey everyone! I don't know about you guys, but we've barely had any snow here since a couple days ago.  Our dog is so excited that we finally got some snowy drifts! Everyone was hoping for a snow day on Friday, but since finals are coming up, no one held their breath :)

Anyways, here's some oriental recipes I've been working on the last few weeks...they're both delicious! The 'Fried Rice' is a mixture of long-grain brown rice, wild rice, veggies, and delicious Chinese seasonings...and the Mango Curry Soup is creamy, somewhat spicy, and ridiculously full of flavor.  Check them out!

I wanted a recipe with the flavors of fried rice, but didn't really want to fry anything...so I cooked the rice seperately, sauteed the veggies and seasonings, and mixed 'em together in a big bowl! Honestly, I love this recipe.  It's flavorful and sounds a lot more complicated than it is.  You just have to allow time for the rice to cook and chop your veggies!

Vegan 'Fried' Rice

1 cup long-grain brown rice

1/3 plus 1/4 cup wild rice

2 large carrots, cut into rounds

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

About 1/3 cup of diced onion--maybe 1/3, 1/2 of a medium onion

2 large cloves of garlic, pressed/minced

1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas

3/4 tsp. turmeric

3-5 tbsp. tamari (I use the San-J organic brand)

1/2 tsp. dried ginger powder

1/2 tsp. sea salt

First, cook the brown and wild rice in about 2  7/8 cups of water.  Bring the water to a boil, then bring it down to a simmer and cover it with a lid.  Mine had to cook for about 25 minutes until all the water was absorbed, but other people will probably have different times. 
Anyways, once your rice is done cooling, leave it to cool for a while.  Saute the onions in the olive oil in a large pan for about 2-3 minutes, then add garlic and saute as well.  (Be careful not to burn the garlic!) Add the carrots, celery, peas, tamari, ginger, turmeric, and sea salt.  Cook the vegetables all together for about five minutes, until they're soft but still a bit hard (not crunchy, but not limp).  Add to a large bowl with the rice and mix all together.  Taste, and if it needs more flavor, add some more tamari.  Enjoy!

This is so quick, creamy, and super delicious! I love this soup, and it's best served cold--I take a bag of frozen mango and let it thaw in the dehydrator for a while, then blend it while it's still cold.

Mango Curry Soup (makes enough for one big bowl of soup)

2 1/2 cups thawed or fresh mango chunks

1 heaping tablespoon Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste (can use another curry paste too)

1 tablespoon chopped yellow onion

A few good shakes of salt

Blend everything until it is super creamy.  If using fresh mango chunks, preferably chill in the fridge for a little bit before serving.  This soup is gorgeous, and can be easily doubled for more people.  I doubled it and gave everyone in my family a small bowl. 

I have lots more coming up soon! Everyone have a great week, and to high schoolers across the nation, good luck on semester exams!

Babycakes success!

Hey everyone! A few days ago I got the much-famed vegan, mostly gluten-and-sugar-free cookbook for desserts and delicacies called Babycakes from the library.  Their bakery in New York City is called Babycakes NYC, and they even have a store in Downtown Disney in Florida! Anyways, I thought that since their recipes are amazingly healthy (no white flour! no refined sugar! nope, not here!), we'd try making them for the family.  The first recipe Mom and I tackled was banana bread.  And boy, was it a-mazing!!

Before I say anything else, I'll give you some pictures.  Half the loaves were plain (pillowly deliciousness!) and half were with chocolate chips for my little sister and dad.  They turned out great!!

Plain.......                                                                     ......and chocolate chip (enjoyed by my little sister)

They were sooo delicious! It was amazing to think that they contained ingredients like garbanzo bean flour, agave, rice milk, coconut oil, xantham gum, and so on! I would highly recommend this recipe...there's no nasty bean aftertaste like in some breads.  I won't recommend this book yet, but we'll be attempting more recipes soon, so I'll let you know the verdict!
For now, here's the recipe:

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tbsp. Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour (gotta be Bob's, no sub)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup rice/almond milk
2 tablespoons of good quality vanilla
1 1/4 cups mashed bananas
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Brush your loaf pan with oil and set aside.
In a medium bowl, measure in flour, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, salt, cinnamon and whisk. Add oil, agave nectar, rice milk and vanilla and then mix again. Fold in bananas until nicely distributed.
Pour batter into loaf pan (only halway!) and set in the oven. After 20 minutes, check on the loaf and continue baking until it passes the toothpick test. Remove from oven and cool for 30 minutes.

Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Megan

What a high-fruit, high-greens raw-foodist has for Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
A ton of my friends lately have been asking me what I'll make for Thanksgiving.  Well, I was going to make a big fall-themed feast for myself, but I was really in the mood for lighter dishes last night, and a nice hot soup. 
Sometimes I'll have cooked soup--usually not more than once every two weeks.  My favorite is a Chickpea Wild Rice Veggie Soup by Kahakai Kitchen.  Here's a link to her recipe: http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/2011/06/chickpea-wild-rice-soup-simple-but.html
I usually make a couple modifications, such as soaking and sprouting my wild rice instead of cooking it, skipping the potatoes and paprika, cooking my own chickpeas (don't want any BPA :) ) and cutting down the cooking time.  This is a delicious soup, though, and I highly recommend it as a hearty, warm, satisfying vegan soup! Here's the Kahakai Kitchen's picture of the soup.

Speaking of wild rice and chickpeas, though, some of you might not know how to prepare them.  So, for sprouted wild rice (chewy and tastes the same as cooked wild rice!), soak about 1 cup of dry wild rice (make sure it's high-quality) in 4 cups of water for a 2-5 days, changing the soaking water once a day.  I've had wild rice be ready as early as two days; as soon as most of the rice is split open to reveal the whitish inside and it has increased by about x3, it's done.  Make sure you rinse it every day so it doesn't go bad! Sprouted wild rice is delicious in a variety of raw food dishes, and I like it more than cooked wild rice. 

Next--chickpeas! Chickpeas aren't raw, but I enjoy having chickpeas in the fall and winter.  I cook my own, since I don't want any of those BPA chemicals and more that come from can linings! Also, when you soak your own dried chickpeas, you can get rid of the majority of the inhibitors that are on chickpea skins to protect it.  (Look into why soaking nuts before you eat them is good--nuts have the same type of phytic acide on them that makes it harder to absorb nutrients.  It's an ingenious method, really! Plants are amazing!)
Soak however many chickpeas you want in a bowl with x3 as much water overnight, or for at least 8 hours.  Rinse and drain the chickpeas, and boil them in water, then simmer them until they have reached your desired consistency.  Enjoy!

So, for my lighter supper, I made a turkey out of fruit.  Cute, right?!? Everyone loved it!

It's just sliced bananas on the bottom, topped with an orange half.  Then, you make 8 skewers, with grapes on each end and a variety of berries (blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry are nice, though I only had raspberry on hand) in between.  Lay those out and cut half of a pear as the turkey body.  You can add raisins for the eyes, and cut dried fruit (I used mango) for the mouth.  Lastly, I used a goji berry for the wattle. 

I also had a green smoothie for my supper in addition to the turkey.  It was a great Thanksgiving! Everyone enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend! :)

Megan