Week 3 of Raw/Gluten-free ~ Clarification, CAKE, & Sundry

 After reading some feedback, I think I've been a little misleading.  I am not, nor do I ever plan to be 100% raw.  My goal is to eat raw for breakfast, lunch, and snacks for eight weeks and gluten-free all day.  Also, although I like to pull from some vegan recipes, I never plan to be vegan.  I tend to be on the Weston A. Price side of things (my love of raw dairy sits nicely with that).  More on the similarities and differences between Gerson (vegan diet) and Price (pro-animal fat) later (and I am really excited to share that post with you!).

Because of my affection for what some people like to call real food, I am whole-heartedly a whole foodie.  Meaning, unless a gluten-free baked good has only whole ingredients, you won't be seeing me whip it up.  Xanthan gum is not an item found in my pantry.

So what do we eat around here?  This is what:

Such striking colors.

I was slightly nervous to try this Cabbage Kale Slaw in Simple Greek Dressing on account as it looked... too healthy to taste good, but it surprised me.  The friends I subjected to it actually seemed to enjoy it, too.  You Guys.  Ani's salads, particularly her dressing recipes?  Addicting and quick to make.  A healthy quick fix.  I can dig it.

My kids have been desperate to enjoy something familiar.  I get it.  We tried making raw peanut butter.  Have you ever had it?  I used the Vita-mix recipe first and oh my gosh.  Gag.  I tried Nourishing Tradition's recipe annnnd... Yum.

I did cheat a little on the gluten-free thing and used sprouted tortillas to make peanut butter and "jelly" wraps, the new version.  Sorry, kids.  I tried to make something familiar.  Really, I did.

At least they liked them.

We delved into the dessert section of Ani's Raw Food Kitchen.  Oh my.  The first one we tried was the All-American Apple Pie.  It was happy.

Then we moved on to her Summer Berry Cobbler with the frozen blueberries I saved from last season.  Amazing!  It took only ten minutes to put together and it was completely consumed in the same amount of time.

Today...  Today.  Today, the kids helped me make the Deep Forest Carob (cacao) Cake with Fudge Frosting.  Sweet mercies from heaven was it rich.  It was delicious, and everyone in the house agreed.  Hallelujah.

It's like a blank canvas, ready to be painted with berries, mint leaves, nuts...  Be the artist.

It was so good, it deserves two pictures.

I'm not sharing the recipes because Ani has them published in her book and copying them here feels a little plagiarize-y.  If you want to try them free of charge, check it out in the library to see if it's something you want to buy.  If you want some tried-and-true delicious raw recipes right away, visit my friend Sky's blog.  I've made just about all her dishes and they are amazing (only I substitute all agave nectar with maple syrup).

I'm sharing this at Fight Back Friday.