Day 22 - Happy Spring & New Recipes!

I think spring does not officially begin until Friday, but in Minnesota, the first day you can walk to the bus in the morning without a winter coat definitely counts! It felt like a miracle to not be cold this morning, to not be cowering under my hood, to not race in misery from the bus to the warmth of my office building. Yay for 41 degrees.



This weekend I also tweaked two recipes that turned out fabulous. First, a variation on the Raw Chocolate Cake:

Raw Chocolate Balls with Strawberry Sauce

Chocolate Balls Ingredients:
-1+1/2 cups raw walnuts, unsoaked
- Dash salt
-18 pitted medjool dates, unsoaked
- scant 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa or carob powder
-1/2 t vanilla extract
- 2 T water
-1 T agave

Strawberry Ingredients:
-2 cups strawberries
-1/2 cup agave
-1/4 cup maple syrup
-2 tablespoons lemon juice
-1 teaspoon cinnamon
-1/4 teaspoons nutmeg

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) Blend all strawberry sauce ingredients together.
5) Roll chocolate mixture into small balls and arrange on plate.
6) Drizzle with strawberry sauce and garnish with mint leaves.

My Notes:
-The number of dates vary on which type you use. I used awful small tasteless dry dates from Fleet Farm. The other day at the co-op I had some large, delicious gooey dates, so probably would've needed less of those.
-Really go easy on the cocoa powder. You can always add more.
-Agave is a natural vegan sweetener from a cactus plant that doesn't cause your blood sugar to spike like sugar. You can get it at Trader Joe's for about $3 a bottle if I remember correctly.
-I somehow forgot maple syrup for the strawberry sauce, but it tasted great anyway.
-The Strawberry Sauce recipe is from The Raw Chef.


We brought these to my sister's birthday dinner on Saturday and everyone who tried them loved them. The name of the dessert is also increasingly hilarious with each glass of wine consumed. My very non-raw family also sampled the sushi rolls with ginger almond pate and buckwheat bread with zucchini hummus, all which went over really well, and my family isn't the type to just be nice!

The zucchini hummus was the second new recipe of the weekend. I had seen variations of this recipe around a lot on raw food boards, but was reluctant to try it, being a huge fan of chickpea hummus. It tastes surprisingly similar to regular hummus though, and really easy to make.

Zucchini Hummus

Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups peeled zucchini, chopped (make sure to peel!)
- 4 Tbs. olive oil
- 1 1/2 T lemon juice
- 1/2 cup ground sesame seeds (tahini)
- 3/4 tsp. sea salt
- 2 garlic cloves
-1 tsp. paprika
-1 tsp. ground cumin
- Cayenne to taste

Instructions:

Blend everything in food processor or blender. Next time I will probably ease up on the olive oil and tahini, because tahini is very high in fat and calories and the hummus has more than enough tahini flavor.

Hope everyone had a great weekend,

-Kelly