Raw Vegan Pasta-n-Pesto & Peanut Sauce-Recipes

What's shaking in your world on the weekend?  Have you had a productive day?  By productive I mean, nourishing your body, mind, and soul.  Hopefully you've gotten to lazily read the paper or some blogs while drinking coffee or tea, or maybe you got in a lovely workout.  Whatever it is, I hope you've had a chance to recharge your batteries and be "productive" in the way that best works for you!

Thanks for all the praise from yesterday's Vegan (almost Raw) Girl Scout Samoas Cookie remake that I did.  They were really fun to make and I am pleased with how closely they resemble the real Samoas! If anyone tries them, please fill me in!  I know a couple of you hotties wrote to me saying you were going to make them, so let me know how it goes!

And I also posted the Raw Vegan 5-minute Donut Holes if you've got 5 mins to spare and are feeling munchy, these are for you.

 

I know that I've done sooo many desserts recently so I thought I'd switch it up and show you a dinner I made.

First, I spiralized 2 zukes.

Then, I combined:
About 15 basil leaves (loosely packed it would be 1/2 c, tightly packed it'd be 1/8 c, I just used 1 package of organic fresh basil, de-stemmed)
About the same amount of spinach, about 1/2 c very loosely packed
Juice of 1/2 lemon (careful if you don't like things lemma-licious, go easy)
1/4 c raw walnuts
Cracked black pepper

Then I mixed this in my New Blendtec using the Pulse feature

And then added about 1 Tbsp EVOO and pulsed again

The Result

I must thank the Fitnessista for her recipe inspiration.  In her recipe, she also added garlic and salt, but since I am a fan of neither, I omitted both.

While I was making this, Skylar was hot to trot to have a taste.  What 2.75 year old begs their mom for raw spinach, walnuts, and basil?  Why the offspring of a raw vegan mommy, I guess. 

Anyway at dinnertime, I tossed it together with zuke noods for Raw Vegan Pasta-n-Pesto.  

And added mixed greens, B.S., Cauli, Carrots, Cukes and Tomatoes to the Mix.  Very good.

But remember how I had spiralized 2 zukes?  Well, I whipped up another batch of Peanut Sauce in the Blendtec.

Averie's Peanut Sauce Today (I even tweak my own recipes so if you look back the last time or the time before that, they are all slightly diff.)
I used the last 1/3rd of the jar of PB (so a generous 1/2 c)
Juice of 1/2 an orange, about 1/3 c
3 Tbsp Maple Syrup
2 Tbsp Agave
3 Tbsp Sesame Oil
1/2 Tsp Ground Ginger
Cracky Blacky

Blend

Tip of the Day: When in doubt making Peanut Sauce, there are 3 things you cannot skimp on: Peanut Butter, Sweetener (agave or maple syrup), & Sesame Oil.  If you are feeling like you're almost there with your concoction, but not quite, use more Sesame Oil.  And then, you will probably need to add more sweetener, and trust me, it will all work out.  Beautifully.

 I've said it before to some of you privately, but don't be afraid to use your sweeteners when cooking, raw or otherwise.  If you don't, the food is not going to taste quite right or it will seem a little low cal, off, or just not quite there.  Some may disagree, but I have to say Katie, here's your Hug-A-Carb plug via my little plug for sweeteners.

Anyway, then I poured it back into the jar for storage.  It'll last 5-7 days in fridge I'm sure.  If it lasts that long before I slurp it all.

And had a little boatload reserved to go over the other zuke noods.

For dessert we munched the Vegan (almost Raw) Girl Scout Samoas knock-offs I made.  And yeah, they went down like butttahhhh.  

And I also popped a couple Raw Vegan Donut Holes

VeganMofo in the house today.
 

Yoga today is an Astavakrasana Variation

Please go enter my Vegan Blondie Macaroon Give Away if you haven't already!!!!!!!!!!  I'd love it if you could spread the word about it, too!

 

You know I like to make my own sauces and dressings and really don't use store-boughts for those things.  What do you make at home that you're proud to shun storebought for? Or, what do you wish you could make at home so that you could give up store boughts?  Maybe if you tell me what you're wishing for I can help you create a recipe....


Stay tuned for A Desserts Week Recap....