moving right along

Hey everyone!

I haven't posted in a few weeks. School started for my kids and my partner, and I've been throwing myself head-first into my own classes. I've also been working on developing my new website, phytophiliac. That has consumed a good chunk of my time. So most of my meals have been unremarkable.

I've been thinking a lot about this blog and how much I've enjoyed having it for the past year. I've posited my blog as being "all about the food" - exactly the kind of food blog I appreciate, free of contests, giveaways, photos without recipes (hate that!), advertisements, and blathering. But with so much going on at school, with so many new ideas challenging my knowledge, and with my impending graduation and business development, I've had a strong desire to branch out in my discussions of food and the flip-side of that - herbal wisdom and respect for the earth.

I started phytophiliac to discuss the latter, but I've tentatively decided to meld the two sites to create one all-inclusive space for all things plant-worship. I'm trying to streamline my lifestyle, and one aspect of that is limiting my time on the computer. I spend way too much time online, folks! Like my battle with sugar, this one just goes on and on and there is never an end in sight. I keep trying, though, and I think it will help to have just one website to maintain. My goals are to spend less time online and to have one excellent, high-quality, readable, beautiful, informative and inspiring website that deserves the time and care I invest in it.

I love the idea of integrating the two sites and sharing my experiments from many angles - not only cooking, but also making herbal remedies, learning about plant nutrition, and just being in nature. I'll post recipes about once a week, so it will be similar in frequency to this site. But my scope has expanded. I hope this isn't disappointing to anybody.

This site will be maintained as an index. Thanks for visiting whole food whole family over the past year, and I hope you'll enjoy the new site!

homemade cream (for coffee)

I'm very particular about the kind of coffee I drink - I'm an unabashed snob about it. Coffee is an indulgence for me, and I treat it the same way I treat chocolate. I buy my chocolate very dark, fairly-traded, unadulterated by cow's milk or a lot of sugar. It's an indulgence - it should be worth eating.

Likewise, with coffee, I only drink one cup, at most twice a week, so I want it to taste really good and I want it to be very high-quality - preferably locally-roasted, definitely fair-trade, shade-grown and certainly organic. I prefer dark roasts and I dislike citrus flavors. I experiment a lot to find a variety that I like, but once I do, I tend to be loyal to it. I also use a French press to get the best flavor out of my coffee.

Unfortunately, I have not been so selective in my use of creamers. I do like milk and a touch of sweetness in my coffee, but there aren't a lot of vegan options for creamer. For a long time I've used Silk's hazelnut creamer, but I've otherwise given up non-fermented soy foods as well as reduced my overall soy consumption dramatically, and I've certainly wanted to commit to quitting Silk products altogether. I've also been uncomfortable with how many ingredients are in Silk creamer. We just finished our last container of it, and when I tested it to make sure it hadn't gone over, I noticed that it smelled like some kind of kitchen cleaner. I don't know if that was the container or the cream itself, but either way, I don't want to put it in my body anymore.

I don't like black coffee, so I've tried different kinds of milk, without success. Hemp milk was the worst experiment - it immediately separated, fell to the bottom of the cup, and gave the coffee a terrible flavor. Almond milk is acceptable, except that it also tends to separate, so the coffee has to be constantly stirred. Regular soy milk works well, but as I said, I'm not using that anymore.

Have I mentioned that I've become a complete addict for coconuts? Well, I have. So it only makes sense that I would try to make a coconut-based creamer.


I started out with a very simple recipe, figuring that I could tweak it if necessary. It's not necessary. It tasted great and combined very well with my morning cup. The real test, however, is whether it retains cohesiveness in the hot coffee rather than separating, or worse, curdling.


It did not curdle, although I can't say how it would work with a cup of boiling, right-out-of-the-drip coffee. French press coffee is naturally cooler because the water isn't boiled, but the coffee was still plenty hot and the cream didn't curdle at all.

At first, I was sure that the milk had separated, but I finished stirring it into the coffee and it looked pretty wholesome to me. Plus, the texture of the cream is much thicker than any other plant-based milks. When you first pick up the cup, there is a slight scent of coconut, but there's no flavor of coconut in the coffee. All in all, I consider it a success. Now I just have to find a hazelnut extract or maybe just a syrup. (Or maybe I could make one? Stay tuned.)

ingredients
1 1/2 c. coconut milk
1 T. vanilla extract
pinch of salt

instructions
1. Combine the ingredients thoroughly in a blender.

2. Store in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. It may need to be shaken or stirred after being stored.

farfalle with heirloom tomatoes and arugula

The end of summer is the perfect time to enjoy tomatoes as they should really taste. I used to hate tomatoes. Growing up, I couldn't stand their mealy texture or gooey interior. I liked tomato sauce and other forms of processed tomato - if it didn't really taste like a tomato, I was happy to eat it. But I would pick tomatoes out of sandwiches and salads, and after I lived on my own, I almost never bought tomatoes to eat myself.

Then I discovered farmer's markets. And now I eagerly await tomato season. I rarely buy tomatoes at a grocery store, except the local varieties that co-ops and health food stores occasionally carry. And I never buy fresh tomatoes out of season. Regular tomatoes from a supermarket are never really ripe. They're so bland and the texture is so awful because they are always picked unripe. If you've experienced the soft, moist texture and explosive flavor of a truly ripe tomato, you know why tomato producers choose to pick their tomatoes before they have barely blushed with color. Hard tomatoes ship well, store well, and last a long time, while a truly ripe tomato cannot be shipped and must be eaten within a few days. Unripe tomatoes are gassed with ethylene to give them the color of ripeness, but their flavor and texture wouldn't fool anybody who is lucky enough to have experience with ripe, local, heirloom tomatoes just bursting with flavor.

In the off season, I rely on canned and frozen roasted tomatoes. I set aside recipes with fresh tomatoes until the summer, or I use different ingredients or preserved foods. And some might consider this an unnecessary loss when tomatoes are "available" year-round. In our culture, we've certainly become accustomed to having produce available whenever we want it - tomatoes in January, strawberries on Valentine's Day. For the convenience of being disobedient to earth cycles, we sacrifice flavor. But we also sacrifice something more subtle - the pleasure of sweet anticipation. Especially for frequenters of farmer's markets, U-pick farms, and seasonal restaurants, the experience of that first summer blueberry or the bright flavor of a winter orange are worth the wait - a concept that's become alien in our economy of instant gratification.

This is not to say that I never eat produce out of season - I use lemons year-round, as well as most tropical fruits. Sometimes I jump the gun on my anticipation, especially when I'm winter-weary, and buy something completely extravagant. But for some things, it's certainly worthwhile to wait for them to appear at the market.

This dish made everybody happy. If you have an infused olive oil, I encourage you to use it, as the flavor will really shine here. I used the oil from a jar of sun-dried tomatoes, and it was delicious, but basil- or pepper-infused oil would also be wonderful. You can use any sort of truly ripe heirloom tomato - I used Marvel Stripe.


I love the intensely green, peppery flavor of arugula, but you can use spinach or another soft green instead. You can also try this with other pastas, or skip the pasta altogether and just enjoy it as a fresh salad.


ingredients
4 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
1/2 red onion, sliced thinly
2 T. balsamic or white wine vinegar
2 T. infused olive oil

1 bunch of arugula, chopped
1 c. fresh basil, chiffonade
salt and pepper, to taste

1 lb. whole-grain farfalle
1 T. infused olive oil
salt

macadamia sprinkle:
1 c. macadamias, preferably soaked for 1-2 hours, drained and rinsed
2 T. nutritional yeast
salt to taste

instructions
1. Cook the pasta according to package instructions.

2. Toss the pasta with infused olive oil and salt to taste. Set aside in a large bowl.

3. Combine the tomatoes and onion with oil and vinegar.

4. Fold in the arugula and basil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss lightly with the pasta.

5. Combine the nuts with nutritional yeast in a food processor; pulse until crumbled until no large pieces remain. Add salt to taste.

6. Serve at room temperature in bowls, garnished with macadamia sprinkle.

susan-inspired eggplant & red lentil stew

I bought some Chinese eggplant a week ago, for some unknown reason. I think just because they were pretty and vibrant and colorful and I'd just finished The Week of Bagels. I never know what to do with eggplant.

I was getting to the point at which that eggplant was always sitting back in the mind because I was guiltily aware that it was going to have to be thrown out in the next day or two. I hate throwing away food. We can't even compost it, so it's doubly wasted.

I visit Susan's blog with some regularity. I ventured over there today after following a link from a random blog that I don't actually read (which I followed from a blog that I do actually read). (Feel free to roll your eyes.) I found a post about Susan's blog and naturally followed the link so I could be reminded of all the carrot stick, lettuce and celery recipes she shares (as the writer postulated). I found this recipe at the top of the page and immediately thought of those eggplant. Susan saves the day again!

I wonder if the writer actually visited Susan's blog before going on about how boring and flavorless and pointless it must be. Susan's blog is a celebration of flavors and textures and colors. Now, I use a lot of fat in my cooking. I have two small children who require fat for their development. So I often add fat to Susan's recipes. But that doesn't change the basic fact that the foundational recipes are amazing. She's such a creative cook. Susan is an example, an icon to food writers everywhere, vegan or not, low-fat or not.

Initially, I posted a link to the post, but I decided it would be unkind to direct readers to this lady's blog just because I have something grumpy to say about it. The writer had a lot to say about how stupid, depressed and self-punishing vegans are, how Susan must have nothing left to eat and no brain in her head, and how much she enjoyed cooking bacon while writing her post. That sort of vitriolic spewing exasperates me. I think it's important to recognize that there are a lot of different ways of eating, and that most people don't bother talking about it online unless they have something special to share. And most people don't have wildly successful blogs like Susan's unless there's a reason.

(By the way, as Susan explains in her FAQs, she does include whole, unrefined sources of fat in her diet - nuts and seeds, avocados and coconuts. She just tries not to use extracted fat. So not only does she get fat in her diet, and probably plenty of it, but she gets fat in the best packaged form possible - from the original source. I'm really thinking that the writer did not bother to visit Susan's blog and instead extrapolated her entire post from the title "Fat-Free Vegan." In fact, I went back to check, and she says that she didn't even enter Susan's blog. She just saw a link for it. Picture me pulling my hair out.)

People who care about what they eat, and especially those who choose plant-based diets, are constantly grappling with ignorance about their choices. Our food is referred to as "sawdust" or "bunny food," always by people who have never bothered to taste it. People sneak meat into our dishes or try to go behind our backs and take our kids to McDonald's. Most of us hope that we're making good choices, but it's tremendously difficult to be a conscientious eater in a careless culture. And rants 'n' raves about how we're stupid, pointless, tasteless, ugly, boring, weak, self-loathing, evolutionarily-incorrect or depriving ourselves is, well. Not very helpful. Really kind of hateful.

Personally, I'm grateful for Susan's blog because not only does she make completely original, healthy vegan food, but she also takes great photographs. Just looking at her blog makes me happy. Go there, so you can feel happy, too.

This recipe was simple to make and it tasted great. I made significant departures from the original recipe according to what ingredients were available; I also eliminated the seitan. I thought I might add some garbanzo beans instead, but it was hearty enough without them. I ladled the stew over brown basmati rice and added a dollop of yogurt to bring it all together. I bet this will taste even better the next day.

ingredients
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
3 small eggplant, cubed (about 1 1/2 lb.)
1 t. paprika
1 t. coriander
1 t. cumin
1/2 t. allspice
1/4 t. nutmeg
a pinch each of cinnamon, cardamom and cloves

1 1/2 c. red lentils
5 c. vegetable broth or water, plus another cup at the end of cooking
2 dry red chile peppers, or a pinch of red pepper flakes
1 T. blackstrap molasses (or 2 T. pomegranate molasses, which I didn't have)
1 T. lemon juice or apple cider vinegar (omit if using pomegranate molasses)

4 c. brown basmati rice, steamed
1/4 c. cilantro, minced
plain yogurt, to serve

instructions
1. Heat a tablespoon of coconut oil in a soup pot over medium heat and add the garlic and onion. Soften the garlic and onion and then add the eggplant.

2. Cook the eggplant, stirring regularly, for 5-7 minutes, until softening.

3. Add the spices (and a few tablespoons of water, if the oil is absorbed), and toss with the eggplant.

4. Add the vegetable broth, lentils and chile peppers. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 25 minutes, until the lentils are cooked through and falling apart.

5. Stir in the molasses and lemon juice and season to taste with lots of salt and black pepper. Serve over rice with a dollop of yogurt and a sprinkle of cilantro.

cornmeal pancakes with wild blackberries

Since moving to Northern California, we've been looking for places to forage wild food. We're definitely beginners at this practice, but it feels amazing to find something you can eat just out there in the wilderness, without it having been deliberately planted and tended. Wild food tastes great, and if it's not growing in a ditch beside the freeway, it's safer and healthier than its conventional, monocropped, pesticide-soaked, slave-picked, flavorless cousin. So far we've found untended fig, plum and walnut trees, as well as a quarter-mile stretch of blackberry brambles. (You can see photos of our blackberry discovery here.)

It's hard work gathering blackberries. Some of the brambles were taller than us while others were spread out on the ground. However they were arranged, they were so laden with thorns that I couldn't pick a single berry without getting stuck. And it was so frustrating to see all the perfectly ripe, fat berries that we could not reach. For some reason, any area that I am stuck or scratched with thorns (from any plant) rears up in red itchy welts that bother me for hours. It was hot and humid and basically just a complete pain in the ass to gather those blackberries. But it was worth it, truly so worth it.

There seemed to be a few different varieties of blackberries. Some were large, plump and easy to pick and resembled the fruit found in supermarkets (though it definitely tasted better). Most of the blackberries were small, seedy and hard to pick as they easily dissolved in our fingers. They might have contained a lot of seeds but those berries tasted amazing, like nothing I've had in my life.


I made a raw blackberry tart when we got home, but the crust needs some work so I decided not to post it. I didn't know what to do with the other berries. I posted a request on Facebook for blackberry recipes that were not pie (because I didn't have enough berries for pie) (and I don't really like blackberry pie) (and I hate making pie crust) (and did I mention it was hot?). Lots of suggestions sounded great, including cocktails, frozen yogurt, muffins, syrup, salad, cake, compote, and coulis over blancmange. I wanted to make something that would really highlight the intense flavor of the berries, but I'd used the big berries for the tart. So I also needed a recipe that could hide their seediness.

I thought about it...and thought about it...and thought about it. And meanwhile, the blackberries sat in a basket on top of our refrigerator and got drier and smaller. Finally, I knew I'd have to use them or throw them out, thus wasting our effort. So I decided to put them in pancakes.

I'm having problems with wheat again, probably due to my week in Utah that I spent completely broke, living on bagels. So I'm trying not to eat too much of it. But I really wanted to make pancakes. More, I thought my family deserved pancakes, especially my love, who started teaching his third-graders this week, and our kids, who started their own first week of school ever. A pancake celebration seemed in order.

I made these pancakes using minimal whole-wheat flour. The rustic texture of the cornflour was a perfect choice to pair with the seedy berries. I didn't notice the seeds at all. I sprinkled blueberries over the top and drizzled them with maple syrup, and they were absolutely perfect.

This was also my first experiment with coconut sugar. I've been trying to stay away from cane sugar, mostly using maple syrup, agave nectar or, rarely, honey for sweetening (and just generally reducing my sugar intake, which is APPARENTLY A LIFELONG PROCESS DEAR GOD), but sometimes you just really need a granular sweetener. (I'm also interested in trying date sugar, so you might see a recipe for that soon.) Whole Foods has coconut sugar in bulk now, so I decided to try it. (I will try anything from the bulk department. I am an absolutely whore for the bulk department.) Coconut sugar is not cheap - it's even more expensive than the fair-trade, organic Sucanat that's been my dominant sweetener in the past. So I only bought a little bit.

I enjoy its caramel flavor and it has a great texture. It's definitely not as sweet as cane sugar, but that's a good thing. And its high cost will encourage me to restrict its use even further. I'll definitely be buying it again.

Of course, this means that coconut byproducts are dominating my kitchen the way soy once did. Coconut is just so incredibly versatile and easy to use. We use coconut milk for cooking now that we've eliminated soymilk, and coconut oil, and shredded, dehydrated coconut, and coconut kefir, and fresh young coconut flesh, and coconut water, and now coconut sugar. Days go by without using soy, but we use coconut every single day. The only soy products we eat regularly are tempeh, which we have perhaps twice a week, and plain, unsweetened yogurt, which my kids eat almost every day. And we use miso and Bragg's as condiments.

I feel healthier since eliminating soymilk and other forms of unfermented soy. I do admit, however, that I continue to use Silk creamer in my coffee, even though I hate the Silk company. I just haven't found something I like better - other non-dairy milks separate in coffee or just taste weird. Luckily, we've cut way back on our coffee consumption so we only go through one small carton a month. I wonder if our extensive use of coconut is healthy. I can't wait for the backlash!!

ingredients
1 1/2 c. cornmeal
1/2 c. whole-wheat pastry flour
3 T. coconut sugar, or another sweetener
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt

1 1/4 c. milk (from now on, you can assume I'm using this milk unless I say otherwise)
1/2 c. plain yogurt
2 T. ground flaxseed + 3 T. water
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. blackberries

instructions
1. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

2. Combine the wet ingredients, except the berries, in a smaller bowl, then combine with the dry ingredients without overmixing.

3. Fold in the berries.

4. Heat a skillet over medium-low heat and brush it with oil. When the pan is hot enough that you can feel the heat with your hand held a few inches above it, form small, thin pancakes with the batter.

5. When the edges appear dry, flip the pancakes and cook through the other side.

6. Drizzle with your favorite syrup and sprinkle with additional berries.

cajun fig cake with cinnamon ice cream

Veganized fig cake? Say it ain't so!

I planned to make this cake back around Mardi Gras, but I wanted to use fresh figs and they weren't in season. When we found some wild fig trees (pictured in the header) after we moved to NorCal, we decided to keep a close eye on them, and just recently they have finally begun to ripen.


I've never made this cake before, and actually I've never had this cake before, but it's really tasty and easy to make. I don't think it's lacking anything for not having three eggs or cow's milk.


Vegan ice cream is very easy to make and completely delicious when using coconut milk as a base. My master recipe is very simple. I start with a can of coconut milk, which is 1 1/2 cups. I add 1 cup of another milk, usually almond milk. Then I add some sweetener to taste, usually ending up with 1/4 - 1/2 cup. I almost always use maple syrup, unless I need a more neutral flavor, in which case I use agave nectar. I also add extracts, according to the flavor - vanilla, coconut, coffee, peppermint, and so on. After blending, I use an ice cream maker.

My ice cream maker doesn't freeze completely. The ice cream usually ends up like soft-serve. I like to stir in additions at the end of processing in the ice cream maker - maple walnuts, a chocolate swirl, chopped strawberries. Then I store the ice cream in the freezer to freeze completely. The ice cream usually needs to be left out of the freezer for about ten minutes before scooping.

ingredients
fig cake:
2 1/2 c. whole-wheat pastry flour
1 T. baking powder
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. ginger
1/4 t. salt

1 c. milk + 1 T. vinegar
1/2 c. coconut oil, melted
1/2 c. maple syrup
3 T. ground flaxseed + 1/4 c. water
1 t. vanilla

1 c. fresh, ripe figs, diced
1 c. walnuts, chopped

cinnamon ice cream:
1 1/2 c. coconut milk
1 c. almond milk (or another variety)
1/4 - 1/2 c. maple syrup, to taste
2 T. cinnamon
1 T. vanilla extract
1/2 t. nutmeg
two pinches of salt

instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a square baking pan and set aside.

2. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

3. Combine the wet ingredients in another bowl, then stir them into the dry ingredients until just mixed.

4. Fold in the figs and nuts.

5. Spread the batter into the prepared pan.

6. Bake for 1 hour, until a tester comes out clean. Set aside for 10 minutes before slicing.

7. To prepare the ice cream, combine all ingredients in a blender and process until combined.

8. Pour into an ice cream maker and process. Or you can pour the ice cream into a shallow dish and stir it every hour or so until about half-frozen. Blend the ice cream again and then return it to the dish. Freeze through until ready to serve.

9. Serve the cake warm with a scoop of ice cream, garnished with additional walnuts and figs.

FAIL.

On a food blog, you never see the mistakes. You see the masterpieces, or at least the moderate successes, but you definitely do not see the recipes that end up in the trash, or the compost bin, or the toilet, after being ejected forcefully.

I receive emails from readers who profess that they could never cook like I do, they don't know how I ended up with so much knowledge, they don't understand why my kids eat real food, and other such flatteries. I'm here to set the record straight. I cook like this because there is a long line of failures leading up to each success. I have this knowledge because of trial and error . . . and error and error and error and error and error.

Case in point.


I made this dish for lunch. It's long beans and cucumber in a sesame-chili dressing over black quinoa. That might not sound too bad, except that the beans had gone over a bit, even before I overcooked them. Plus, the dressing was not suited for quinoa. And the textural combination of quinoa, beans and cucumber was just . . . weird.

My son would not touch this dish, and I can't blame him. I don't think he ate a single bean, which is saying a lot since green beans are one of his favorite foods. My daughter had a few bites - she's really a trooper if she knows there's a cake in the oven. I picked off the beans and cucumber and tried to eat the quinoa separately, but I haven't liked quinoa for a while. I went through a period last year of eating it almost every day, but after the price went up, I stopped buying it. I bought this quinoa just because I was intrigued by the intense color. But I've lost my taste for it, if only temporarily.

I make a lot of mistakes. I know my limitations. You don't see a lot of baked goods on this blog, do you? Part of that is because I don't think they're very healthy, even with modification. But mostly, it's just that I am not a baker. Baking is a science, not an art, so I struggle with it. You also don't see a lot of multi-dish meals. That's because I'm not very good at juggling a lot of different preparations.

On this blog, you see a fraction of the meals my family eats. Our daily diet is pretty mundane. Our kids eat porridge for breakfast almost every day. Sometimes we make pancakes. Occasionally we get really wild and make something with tempeh. For lunch, we eat a lot of wraps, or soups, or burritos, or sandwiches, or salads. One of my favorite quick snacks is pretty unhealthy and also really lacking in artistry. I microwave a tortilla, sprinkle it with nutritional yeast and salt, and dip it in salsa. That's something you won't ever see on this blog.

I make something new and different for dinner almost every day, and that's where most of these recipes come from. That's where we get our variety. Dinner is where I really get to play, experiment, be artistic, and also take decent photographs. But I make so many mistakes, Dear Reader. You just don't see them.

As a blogger and all-around food enthusiast, I do feel a certain pressure to perform. I feel that pressure even more as a "niche" food writer - my food is supposed to be vegan, and healthy, and easy to feed to children, and quick and easy to make, and acceptable to omnivores and people who think they don't like real food. Most of the time, I think I do my job pretty well. But sometimes I make a dish like this one and I just laugh to think of those emails from kind people who haven't thought outside the box of this little blog to all of the dishes I make that don't get photographed, or typed up, or shared with teh intrawebs - and it's a good thing, too!

Dear Reader, don't be afraid to be playful in the kitchen. Screw up freely. Experiment. Consider the three foods you would want on a desert island and explore those ingredients. (In case you're curious, my three foods are garlic, butternut squash, and brown jasmine rice. Don't ask me how I could use these foods on a desert island.)

I check out cookbooks compulsively. I've never bought one, because the library has everything I'd ever want. I always have two or three cookbooks in my house. I don't limit myself to vegan cookbooks or healthy cookbooks. I might check out books about steak, raw food, Spanish cuisine, potatoes or bulk cooking. I always find something inspiring. Spending a lot of time with cookbooks is one thing that makes me an adventurous cook.

When I've worked with hesitant cooks, I've noticed that they have an intense fear of failure. They're afraid to experiment because they have to feed other (often explicitly picky) people, or they're on a strict budget and they can't afford to waste ingredients. There's also a misconception that they need to prepare many different dishes to have a "complete" meal, or that their meals need to be complex and beautiful, both of which add unnecessary stress.

A dish doesn't have to be beautiful or complex to taste good. My meals were yummy long before I learned how to plate them attractively. (I'm still not very good at that, actually.) I've also recreated many meals from failed recipes. That quinoa, for example, will be used in wraps for lunch tomorrow, or maybe as part of a salad, and the beans and cucumber will be eaten cold, sprinkled with sesame seeds and cilantro.

If a dish fails, it's peanut butter sandwiches that night! Steam up some broccoli and you've got a decent meal. Don't be afraid to fail. It's essential. Just like photography, the only way you'll become a confident, experienced cook is by doing it.

strawberry-banana pudding with crumbled nuts

This could easily be a dessert, but I made a lot of this last summer for breakfast. I usually don't like to eat breakfast as soon as I wake up, but my kids are famished the second their eyes open (or at least they claim to be).

(She's screaming inside.)

("If you don't feed me, I just might eat you.")

So I usually can't spend a lot of time making breakfast and it's good to make something that can be eaten a little later. This pudding works both ways.


I've made many variations of this pudding; mango is another favorite. My belly has been perpetually pissed off since my trip to Utah so I'm trying to eat a lot of raw food and get some probiotics in every meal. I used coconut kefir for the probiotics in this dish. Most recipes for raw pudding include dates, but this pudding is quite sweet enough without them.

ingredients
pudding:
1/2 c. cashews, preferably soaked
1 young coconut
1 ripe banana
1 c. strawberries (frozen or fresh)
juice of 1/2 lemon
seeds from 1/2 vanilla bean, or 1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/4 c. kefir, yogurt, coconut water or another liquid

walnut crumble:
1/2 c. walnuts
1/4 c. almonds
2 dates, seeded
2 pinches of salt

slices strawberries and bananas, to garnish

instructions
1. Open the coconut and remove the meat as outlined here. Reserve the water for another use, or use it for the liquid in place of kefir or yogurt.

2. Put the cashews in a blender. Top with the coconut meat, fruit, lemon juice, vanilla seeds and kefir.

3. Process at a low speed until the cashews are broken apart, then increase the speed to blend the pudding very smoothly.

4. In a food processor, combine the nuts, dates and salt and process until beginning to come together in sticky crumbles.

5. Distribute the pudding into bowls and top with crumbled nuts and sliced fruit.