A Raw Review (Rawview?)

I've been hesitant to dive into the world of raw.  Warm, crispy, cheesy foods; if they were a love language, nothing would say "I love you" more to me.  Slightly exagerarting.  Slightly.  But the greater love of health and energy trumped the wonderous warmed, cheesy tasties and I started to dabble into the, what I thought would be the cold, rough abyss of rawness.

As I waited for my first un-cook book to arrive in the mail one summer day, I did a search for raw peach cobbler because I needed something to put the plethora of peaches ripening on our tree in.  I found this amazing recipe.  It was nice & quick to assemble, but the best part (outside of it being deemed absolutely delicious by some anti-raw foodies) was that it was warm.  I made it in a pie pan and set it in the dehydrator for a couple hours and the whole kitchen filled with the scent of peaches.  Success!

Then, the aforementioned un-cook book came.  I was so excited to plunge into it head first!  Until it took two hours to make a simple dish.  Oy.  Don't even get me started on trying to hack into three coconuts to make a couple cups of raw chocolate pudding (before I knew I needed to buy baby coconuts which are much easier to break open).  Drat.  I'm a mama for four.  I can't really justify spending about six hours a day in the kitchen, even if the food is wonderful and nourishing.

Thankfully, a friend came to the rescue & lent me "Ani's Raw Food Kitchen."  It seriously took me a couple of weeks to even crack it open. I couldn't deal with the thought of being responsible for more knowledge of how important raw was for my family & then neglecting it because of time restrains.  Once I did, I was very encouraged about how do-able these recipes seemed.  Before I knew it, I was back into raw, and so happy about it.  So far, I've made this:

Almond Nog.  I loove egg nog.  This totally works.

Garlic Walnut Soup.

This rich soup is for garlic lovers (me!) and 1/2 cup will fill you up.

Coconut Chutney

Great to garnish on anything you want to add spice to.

Walnut Cranberry Squash "Rice" topped with Coconut Chutney

There's a first for everything & this was the first time I ate raw butternut squash.  Delish!

Spicy Kream of Avocado Soup

A small bowl of this soup gives me more energy than a cup of coffee.  No joke.

I love that she has seasonal recipes, meaning you can grow/buy in-season, local produce all year 'round and use this book.  Good for you, good for the earth.  Happy.

So raw is the new cooked.

Also, my friend Sky just started a new blog where she shares raw recipes of her own & let me just say, I gaze upon the foodie photos with great desire.  I can't wait to try them out; you should too!  Be raw with me.  :)