Something in The Middle of Something

I was making a post about some raw chocolate chip cookies and chocolate ice cream (double chocolate, yeah!) when I realised I forgot to note where I got the recipe for the cookies and wasn't able to backtrack to the place again...I know where I got the ice cream recipe, but that's my first and only raw food recipe book, so I can't even post that - guess the purpose of that post kind of petered out. I'm all fired up about the ice cream though, so there's definitely a post-worthy topic for later...

No tea, no cuppycakes...

I tried baking a raw cupcake to contribute to Shannon Marie's quest to bring her cupcakes to the attention Ellen Degeneres (plus, these cakes look sooo delish I just have to able to make them so I can EAT them), and I miserably failed. Absolutely nothing to do with the inventive and instructive recipes in Shannon Marie's e-book - I was simply a little over-confident and got a little too bold and...botched it.

Oats, Dark Rye Bread...and something new!

When I lose my drive to keep cooking up new things and keep eating a variety of things I start eating lazy, shabby things. I lose my energy, and what happens is I fall back on trying to emulate the things I was eating before I knew I had celiac disease, and I invariably fail. That's when I know I need new inspiration to get to that place where I don't see all the restrictions, but all the possibilities.

Real oats and heavy, dark rye bread full of grains are about the two only things that can still spark some serious food envy in me when I look at what the "normies" are eating. Probably it's no use trying to convince non-Danes who didn't grow up with the rye bread phenomenon that it's any good, but hey, Oprah was here and it's said out there on the web that she was converted and brought some back to the states. Sorry, tried to google for some links on that, but I just fell in to a long and useless joyride through different versions of rye bread recipes...

Green MONSTER!

Please try and make the recipe from this post over at Vegan Strong if you need a little extra protein and are fairly open-minded about food textures and about mixing at-first-glance-weird-sounding ingredients or if you need a quick filling breakfast option or indeed all of the above. I realise that protein is probably not something that any of us actually lack and I have never obsessed about it, but I like to add it sometimes for a nice filling feeling. I am not a vegan, but the debate about protein-intake and a vegan diet seems to be ongoing as witnessed by this post, with lots of links to articles and resources, at Love Veggies and Yoga. I am easily convinced of the logic that we don't need animal protein to grow muscle. It's probably true that most monkeys = super strong = plant eaters?

Something else I have to mention about this recipe and I don't know which was there first - I'm guessing the term "green monster" is not exactly patentable - but this recipe should not be confused with the Green Monster Movement started by Angela from Oh She Glows to promote green smoothies. These are green monster breakfast cookies.

Oooh! Where can I get these?

I have just been reading this post over at Rawdorable and I went straight from being fine and happy with the health food choices around here to feeling downright deprived!

We haven't HALF the variety of Larabars where I live. I'm pining for info if anyone has it: do these interesting varieties (and the pack with the minis!!!) ship from anywhere in Europe, maybe some UK internet shop? Or is it US only? As if it didn't enduce enough shopping envy when Averie posts her "wall of..." pics, like the wall of nutbutters in this post. Sigh. I guess I'll manage ;-).

Nut milks and Raw Food book

Just to round off Meghan's prize draw, she was super-kind enough to reward everybody who participated (incl. moi!) with a download version of her most recent guide, the 5 days healing with everyday superfoods tutorial. It is not really a five-day challenge in the spirit of her low-glycemic or smoothie cleanse challenges, it is more like a guide to superfoods, and how to incorporate them into tasty meals on an everyday basis without breaking the bank.

So, I got all that new info to read, plus I picked up a present I got from a family member - actually what I got was a gift certificate when we celebrated my birthday and I made okay/not so great tasting but very festive looking cupcakes - a book in Danish on Raw Food, called..."Raw Food".

More balls for me, please.

Speaking of smart, strong women like Meghan and Averie: I have another of my favorite ball recipes from this Danish site belonging to Thorbjørg Haffsteinsdottir. If you read Danish, try the "sweet and sugarfree carob balls" - or donut holes, whatever you choose to call them - from the "snacks" section, or if you're not raw, try the glutenfree pizza crust, which is positively the best gluten free pizza solution I've encountered. Thorbjørg has a website too - where there's an "English" option but it doesn't have as much info as the Danish version - and a blog with health and nutrition news in Danish. I mean to try her recipe for "Delicious Liquorice-Chai Tea" next :-)

Raw asparagus, and buying Tempeh in Copenhagen

I made a bloomin' brilliant - and easy! - raw asaparagus soup last night from this beatiful recipe - I added a half an avocado to the mix because we had a mis-communication the other day about who was buying avocados and we got ourselves pretty well over-stocked up on those things. Also, I toasted some almonds without skins in a sip of olive oil and some turmeric, which turned out to be just the thing to drizzle on top with finely diced red onion. Boyfriend looked queasy when he first tasted it, but claimed he liked it after a couple of spoonfuls. I adored it. The recipe is from Jasmine's Recipe Box - which doesn't get updated any more I think but the recipes there are very neatly labeled with a "yes" or "no" for lots of food intolerances. Bliss.

Another site with the same level of service towards special-diet recipe readers but without the raw food twist is this one, by Susan Jane Murray, where there is both a recipe index and a blog.