Making life easier
Tonight I made dinner for everyone in about 10 minutes. Half of it was raw and all of it was vegan. More gratifyingly every bit was eaten and was loved.
This post falls into one of those top tips for eating well and staying healthy whilst still having a life.
I really am amazed at how many people seem to resent spending anytime in the kitchen preparing food or those that think that raw food is time consuming and difficult in comparison to cooking.
The key to doing anything well and efficiently is preparation and flexibility. Oh and you have to care. If you don’t care then it is really hard to motivate yourself to do anything. If you do care, if you are into eating yummy things and feeling great then it is really easy to take a few steps towards making raw food fast food.
Our dinner was Roast Vegetable soup with Raw Pizza bread.
Now clearly the roast vegetable soup was cooked, in fact it was cooked weeks ago. The roast veges were planned leftovers from a huge vegetarian roast that included fennel and loads of sweet potatoes and pumpkin. They went straight from the table to the blender, were joined by a bunch of fragrant basil and then into the freezer.Done. Ready to be a meal in a minute.
The raw pizza bread was assembled in 5 minutes from standard staples I have in my fridge.
I keep a thick raw marinara sauce in the fridge always- I cant imagine not always having some on hand. It takes 10 minutes to make in the blender and you can use it in vegetable pasta, lasagne, as a dip, dressing or spread or as a base for soup. It is easy to tweak flavours with chilli or other spices.
I also always have a raw basil pesto and a nut cheese. They keep well, they take no time at all to make in the blender and you can eat them with anything.
Tonights pizza base was Kamut essene bread and although it wasnt exactly like junk food pizza none of us expect it to be like that. Given that junk food pizza bears no relation to proper Italian pizza or real food for that matter I hardly think it is something I want to emulate anyway. We buy our essene bread from the local healthfood shop and try to buy different grains each week or two.
I smothered the essene bread in marinara sauce, basil pesto, tiny pieces of tomato and onion and a finely pureed nut cheese.
I grilled them just to warm them as it is the middle of winter here and served them on the side of the fennel and roast vegetable soup.
The whole thing was a 10 minute job of assembling and warming and completely delicious.
Things you care about are easy to prioritise, things you value you will find time for. If you say you would love to (fill in the blank) but there isn’t enough time then you really dont value it. Everything you ARE doing, ARE finding time for mean more to you. That can be challenging for some people to hear- they will protest that they really do want to exercise/ eat good food/ meditate/ what ever it is, but the truth is it just doesnt mean enough. Until it does. Your life depends on it.
Basil Pesto
Basil pesto is one of the joys of summer. Coming in from the garden with a big bunch of warm basil with its dark green fragrant leaves makes me happy right there.
If my garden crop isnt ready then there is always a bunch from the green grocer, still in its pot and looking perky.
Clearly basil pesto is one of the easiest recipes around and can be effortlessly adapted to being raw and vegan whilst retaining all the flavor and more nutrients.
Recipe:
Big bunch of basil
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup pine nuts or walnuts
2 cloves of garlic… more if you like more
1/3 cup nutritional yeast for the cheesy flavour
1/2 teaspoon of salt- something nice and good for you, not the white kind
1/2 tsp black pepper
Method:
whack it in the food processor and blend until it is the perfect consistancy for you. Pesto is supposed to have texture, it is a paste but not too thick. You can thin with water if necessary.
Use it on Pasta, Raw vege pasta, as a dip, on bruchetta, make fiddly little cucumber crackers with pesto and sundried tomatoes to impress friends… anything you want really.
Recipe index
May 14, 2009 by Vidi
Filed under the Raw Recipe index
Here it is all in one place for your convenience and because life should be simple.
Breakfast:
Smoothies and drinks:
Dips:
Mains:
Mexican style lettuce roll ups
Sides:
Pasta sauces:
Nut cheeses:
Salads:
Winter fennel and orange salad
Sweet:
Afternoon pick me up bliss balls
Sweet and sticky choc chip brownie, mint or orange?
Tahini Balls- Gwinganna recipe
Spreads:
Chocolate Macadamia nut butter
Sports Nutrition: