Day 5 - Friday

Breakfast: Smoothie - apple, banana, raspberries, spinach, cantaloupe. Yikes. I guess I don't like raspberries, they were frozen and so tart I added the cantaloupe to water it down. Edible, but not recommended.

Lunch: Carrots & Hummus, big salad (spinach, broccoli, tomato, caesar dressing).

Nathan and I were both tempted with free catered sandwiches at our respective workplaces yesterday...I will let him describe his anguish in another post. We had a catered caesar salad also, which I admit to eating some croutons off of.

I was craving something sweet and rich so, when I got home, I immediately made Raw Chocolate Cake:

RAW CHOCOLATE CAKE (source forgotten)

Ingredients:
-1+1/2 cups raw walnuts, unsoaked
-Dash salt
-12 pitted medjool dates, unsoaked
-1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa or carob powder
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
-2 teaspoons water
-1/2 cup fresh raspberries for garnish (optional)

Instructions:

1) Blend walnuts and salt in a food processor until finely ground.
2) Add dates, cocoa powder and vanilla, and process until the mixture begins to stick together.
3) Add the water and process briefly.
4) Transfer to a serving plate and form into a 5-inch round cake.
5) Chill for 2 hours.
6) Decorate the cake and plate with fresh raspberries before serving, if desired.

Covered with plastic wrap, the cake will keep for three days in the refrigerator or two weeks in the freezer. Yields one 5-inch cake.

It hit the spot, but tasted a little too much like cocoa powder. I would've added a couple more dates maybe or a bit of agave nectar, or just less cocoa powder. This dessert definitely has potential though, and would look nice if you put it in ramekins with a garnish. When we took the above pic I wanted to keep picking at it, Nathan loved it too and had some for breakfast this morning =).

Last night we also made Asparagus Cream Soup:

ASPARAGUS CREAM SOUP (source forgotten)

Ingredients:
-8 asparagus spears
-1/4 cup raw cashews
-juice of half a lemon
-salt & pepper to taste
-water

Instructions:

1) Cut off tips of asparagus and chop them into tiny bits
2) Put the bits of asparagus tips into a bowl and squeeze/pour the lemon juice over them.
3) Cut remaining spears in pieces and put in blender with cashews.
Cover with warm water & blend until smooth (if you blend long enough in the Vita-Mix, it gets warmer)
4) Pour into a bowl and stir in the lemon juice/asparagus tips.

This is the second time we made this. Nathan gulped down a double batch last night. It's a bit creamy for me, I'd pour just a little over zucchini and other chopped veggies to lighten it up.

After dinner last night, we went over to Jesse & Erin's condo. Jesse is an old friend of Nathan's who I've never met, and it was a fantastic time. I can't remember a time when I've had better hosts (I'll save my rant about how rude our generation usually is for another post....). They knew about our experiment and, when we got there, 3 huge platters of fruits and veggies were waiting, along with the best sangria I've ever had. (Sangria wasn't entirely raw, but who cares. I also had a couple brandy cokes).

We played 500 and went to bed at 3 a.m. I'm writing this still in my pj's at 5:30 p.m. while our Day 6 experiment is in the dehydrator....

-Kelly