Raw Junk Food Class

On Saturday I had a raw junk food class for my Montclair Vegans meetup group. It was a lot of work and I started preparing for it on Thursday. I had a lot of fun though, and everyone that attended seemed to enjoy it. My friends Karen and Jessica helped me with cleaning and passing out the food, and I don't know how I would have been able to do it without them.

In the middle of the class, my cat Schroeder threw up. I ran through the crowd and caught the vomit on paper towels. No one seemed to mind though. They were all concerned that he wasn't feeling well. Schroeder's always had a bit of a queasy tummy. He's been throwing up often since he was a tiny little lad (he's almost 13 now), and the vet has never found anything that could be causing it.

Anyway, back to the class... I started out with raw pizza. I made sesame sunflower bread ahead of time for the crust, and I marinaded mushrooms ahead of time too. In class I made sunflower seed cheese and marina sauce. I also topped the pizza off with some chopped olives, red bell pepper and basil.

Then I made sunburgers. I showed how to make thim in the class, but I dehydrated a big batch ahead of time. I also made ketchup and spicy jicama fries.

Raw tacos are one of my favorite things to make. The meat is made with sunflower seeds and sun-dried tomatoes, and then the tacos are topped with salsa, guacamole and cashew cheese. (Everyone LOVED the cashew cheese.) Lettuce leaves are used as taco shells.

I ended the class by making chocolate mousse pie for dessert. I made the crust with almonds, coconut and dates. The filling is made with dates, avocados and raw cacao powder.

My next class will feature cooked foods. My friend Jenna and I will be making meals that focus on healthy, plant-based proteins. We're also going to teach a Thanksgiving cooking class in November. If you're in the area, join Montclair Vegans to find out more about them or to sign up.


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Green Pizza

This little pizza was inspired by the mini pizzas I made last week.  Once again, I used Mini Rustic Crusts. I wanted to use pesto sauce again.  I didn't have any basil or spinach, but I did have kale. I thought it would be interesting to give kale pesto a try, so I mixed the kale up with some olive oil, nutritional yeast, garlic and cashews. It tasted great, and kale pesto is a great way to get more kale into your diet! I topped the pizza with zucchini, green zebra tomatoes, olives, sun-dried tomatoes and Daiya cheese. It was delicious - even better than last week's! (Although Dennis once again said that the crust reminded him of frozen fish sticks.)

Kale is the most nutrient dense food there is, and his many health benefits, so it's good to have it in your diet on a regular basis. I like to sautée it with olive oil and garlic, but it's also great chopped up into kale slaw, dried into kale chips, blended into smoothies or even used raw in a salad in place of lettuce. 

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Gluten-Free Pizza at Rutherford Pancake House

The Rutherford Pancake House in Rutherford NJ has quite a nice selection of vegan items on their menu. They recently added gluten-free vegan pizzas to the list. Several of my friends have tried them and Dennis goes there often for lunch during his work day, so I figured it was time for me taste one for myself.

I'm sure if I hadn't already had amazing gluten-free vegan pizza at Pala Pizza in NYC, I would have liked this more. But Pala is a tough act to follow. The crust at Rutherford Pancake House was premade and a little soggy. They used Daiya cheese, which always tastes good and topped the pie off with spinach, mushrooms and peppers.

I also ordered a salad to go with my pizza, primarily because I've been eating so much raw food lately, and I felt I needed to get a little raw into my otherwise cooked meal. Interestingly, I fell asleep as soon as I got home. Was it the pizza? Or the hot weather? Maybe I should have another pizza on a cool day and see what happens!

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Spicy Pepper Pizza

Yes, I just had raw pizza, but sometimes a girl just needs some cooked pizza with gooey cheese and fluffy crust. This was another "clean out the fridge" pie. It just so happened that I had the ingredients for a nice Mexican style pizza. I used onions, shallots, bell peppers and spicy peppers. I also used some spinach to get my leafy greens in. Once again, I used Bob's Red Mill gluten-free crust and Daiya cheese. It was super yummy!

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Food Allergies and Asparagus Spinach Pizza

Sometimes I just have a hankering for pizza. This was one of those times. I used asparagus, spinach and olives. The crust is Bob's Red Mill gluten-free pizza crust mix and, of course, the cheese is Daiya.

If you remember back to December, asparagus and spinach were on the list of foods I needed to avoid. I've slowly added most of those foods back into my diet, without noticing any symptoms. I am still avoiding most nuts, wheat, corn and soy. There have been times where I have had some nuts and my mouth has begun to itch shortly afterward. My eyes tend to itch as well. For years I've haven't been able to wear contact lenses, a problem my optometrist hasn't been able to figure out. I can't wait to go for a check up and tell him it was from food allergies!! If your eyes itch in the inside corners, it's probably a food allergy. If they itch all over, it's more likely that it's an environmental allergy. Food allergies tend to show as strange symptoms though, so if you suspect you have a sensitivity to something, you should get tested. It is possible to try an elimination diet, but I've found that most people with food allergies have multiple sensitivities, so it's difficult to pinpoint the culprit without testing. There are several different types of allergic reactions, so both skin and blood tests are recommended.

In the meantime, enjoy some pizza!



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Raw Pizza

I'm not really sure if this does qualify as pizza. It may be considered an open-face sandwich. Either way, it was delicious! This was an attempt to recreate the raw pizza I had at Om Garden in Miami back in March.

I made RAWvolution's Famous Onion Bread in the dehydrator. It took a total of 36 hours to make, and my house smelled amazing! It didn't come out perfect because I didn't grind the flax seeds properly and the onion slices were a little too large. I was expecting it to be like a flax cracker, but it was pretty soft and fell apart easily. It was really tasty though, so it didn't matter.

Then I made sunflower seed cheese and a quick pesto sauce. I spread them both over the onion bread, then added large slices of tomatoes, sliced sun-dried tomatoes, sprouts, olives and avocado. It was difficult to pick up, but it was really yummy. I looking forward to experimenting with more breads and crusts in the dehydrator and trying out other pizza recipes.


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Babycakes

I've been eating super healthy lately - mostly raw, nothing processed - but that changed on Saturday when I spent the day in NYC with my friend Irina. That's okay though. I'm a firm believer in the 80-20 rule: eat healthy for 80% of the time and then the rest of the time eat whatever strikes your fancy. Food should be nourishing and healing, but you should not feel deprived. If you eat healthy food most of the time, splurges are okay once in a while. And following my "never feel guilty about what you eat, consider it a science experiment" philosophy, I wanted to see if my energy level and good spirits were affected by a change in diet for a day. They weren't.

Irina and I went to Pala Pizza for lunch. I've been thinking about their delicious patatosa pizza since I ate there in February, so I ordered it again. Irina ordered a gluten-free mushroom with dairy cheese. She's not vegan and was worried about not liking the dairy free Daiya cheese. I gave her a small piece of my pizza and she said I definitely had the better pie. We also had large salads. I was super full, but I had to finish it all because it was so delicious!

After lunch, we wandered around for a bit and then ended up at Babycakes Bakery. Babycakes is known for their gluten-free vegan treats. They also have a cookbook, which I've made a few treats from in the past. I've had people tell me that they make the best cupcakes in the world, and others tell me that they have the worst cake they've ever tasted, so I really needed to try it out for myself. I usually go for anything chocolate, but it seemed like too much after the pizza, so I ordered a carrot cake cupcake. Irina ordered a donut with chocolate frosting. Babycakes is about the size of a small closet, so we took our goodies outside to enjoy in the sun and wind. The carrot cake was moist and a little too crumbly, but was pretty tasty. I've had better, but I've also had a lot worse. Irina's donut was more cakey than donuts usually are, but it was still really good. The chocolate frosting was messy and divine. I'll definitely go back.


I've been caffeine free for a few weeks now, but I had a huge amount of iced teas over the course of the day. I think it was the tea that affected me more than anything else I consumed, because I was really buzzing, even late in the evening. I have no regrets though - the food was delicious, the company was great, and it was an awesome day!


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Mini Pizzas

I've been really busy this week, and as a consequence, I've been very tired and haven't felt like cooking much. I was wandering through Whole Foods looking for something quick and easy to make for dinner, and I found these mini pizza crusts from Rustic Crust. I've never seen them before, so they must be new. There are two in a package, and they're about 7" wide. Mini pizzas for dinner suddenly seemed like a great idea! I also bought some pre-cut kale, mushrooms and Daiya cheese. I quickly sautéed the veggies with garlic when I got home and I piled the crusts high with them, sprinkled on some cheese and cooked them for about 20 minutes. The crusts were a little crumbly and had a bit of a strange taste to them, but since they were covered in veggies and cheese, I didn't mind so much. It was a nice, quick and tasty dinner!



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Another Pizza!

We made another pizza! This time we used Bob's Red Mill's gluten-free pizza crust. It takes a little longer to make because it uses yeast and needs time to rise. The package makes a large amount of crust, so we made a larger pizza and had leftovers. The crust was pretty good, except it tasted a little dry. We topped the pizza off with diced tomatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, red bell peppers, shallots and Daiya cheese. This definitely wasn't as good as anything from Pala Pizza, but it was good enough!




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Broccoli Cheddar Pizza

When I was in high school, I worked at the CVS in Fair Lawn. After work, my friend Irina and I would walk across the street and get something to eat at the Land and Sea dinner. My favorite dish there was the broccoli cheddar pita melt and it's sort of become a comfort food for me. I've recreated it many times with soy cheddar and whole wheat pitas. I decided to recreate it again in pizza form for dinner last night. Dennis and I made another gluten-free pizza crust with the recipe in The Gluten-Free Vegan. We wanted to make a larger portion than we did last time since it was so thin, but we didn't have enough flour. We baked the crust for a few minutes before we topped it, but still was a little doughy. We topped the pizza with chopped broccoli and mushrooms and then covered it with Daiya cheddar cheese. It definitely satisfied my need for comfort food!

When I first tried Daiya tapioca cheese, I didn't like it. But Dennis likes it, and it's soy-free, so I've been using it here and there lately, and I have to admit that the taste is growing on me, and I do like it now. I've been ordering it from Vegan Essentials and Pangea online, it's becoming more and more popular and I think it will be available in local stores soon. I just found out that the Whole Foods in Paramus carries it, so it's just a matter of time before other Whole Foods start carrying it too. Keep an eye out for it.


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Pizza Night!

Sunday used to be pizza night in our house, but my food allergies have put a halt to that tradition. Dennis and I would buy a pre-made whole wheat crust and top it with veggies and Vegan Gourmet soy cheese. We revived our tradition yesterday and made a gluten-free pizza crust using a recipe in The Gluten-Free Vegan by Susan O'Brien. We topped the crust with tomato sauce, broccoli rabe, mushrooms and Daiya vegan cheese.

The crust was made with Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten-Free flour and potato flour. The recipe doesn't call for pre-heating it before topping it, but I think we will do so the next time we make it because it was a little bit doughy in the middle and it seemed thin. We'll probably make more than one batch the next time we make it so it will be a little thicker too.

Daiya is a new vegan cheese on the market, and currently none of the stores around me carry it, so I had to mail order it. It's becoming more popular, so I think it's just a matter of time before my local Whole Foods carries it. It's made with tapioca and somehow melts like dairy cheese, which most soy cheeses don't do. I have to admit that it's not my favorite vegan cheese, but it is growing on me, and I'm happy to have a soy-free cheese option.

I'm happy to have pizza night back and am looking forward to experimenting with doughs and toppings!



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Tostada Pizza

I bought rice pizza crusts, which kind of look and taste like giant cornflakes for some reason. But I topped them with all sorts of goodies -- refried beans, diced tomatoes, sautéed onions and peppers, guacamole and a sprinkling of hot sauce. It was a tasty lunchtime treat!