Raw dinner with kelly!

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Carrot and cucumber salad with a spicy peanut dressing, sprinkled with hemp seeds.

Recently my husband went to Costa Rica for a week. Lucky boy, but I missed him tons. I had this plan to do all this stuff while he was away. Yeah...didn't happen. Instead, I was reminded that I am so not good left to my own devices. I eat crap and watch way too much tv and then feel sick from eating too much and so poorly and generally can't wait for him to come home. BUT one thing that helped both the missing him and the eating crap blues was having someone over for dinner!

So I had my buddy kelly over! Yes, the very same kelly who this blog is named after! yay kelly!
We had...

• mushroom soup with zucchini soba noodles and marinated enoki mushrooms
• a carrot cucumber soup with spicy peanut dressing
• raw sushi filled with almond pate, carrots, cucumbers, avocados and enoki mushrooms
• big girl ice cream sandwiches for dessert. Which were raw cookie dough base with coconut ice cream filling.

When we started the soup Kelly said "so...is raw food filling?" I gave some vague answer, but then halfway through the soup I was STUFFED. She made it part way through the soup and through  her salad. Of course, we both made room for dessert...

Mushroom soup
I made this one from gliving but without the kombu, and with some soya sauce added. I marinated the shitake mushrooms and some enoki mushrooms for an hour in the sesame oil, soya sauce and 1/2cup of water. And I topped my soup with enoki mushrooms and green onion. It was unbelievably delicious!!! Mine definitely did not photograph as well as the one on gliving, and seems to be much creamier based on the pictures...

Don't let the picture fool you, this was a deliciously creamy soup with a light gingery mushroom taste.

Carrot cucumber salad with spicy peanut dressing
This. is. the. easiest. salad. ever!! And I ate it constantly while the boy was away.
Using a handheld peeler, peel thin strips of carrots and cucumbers. It's like the cheap girl's spiralizer!!
For the sauce, I made this peanut sauce but watered it down to salad dressing consistency and added chili pepper flakes.

You can easily make this sauce raw, but I always balk whenever I see the sodium amount in nama shoyu!!

Note: only dress the salad when serving/eating it. Because of the cucumber, when the salad sits it becomes watery. So, I like to keep the undressed salad in a container and when I'm ready to eat it, dish some out, leaving the water behind, dress it and enjoy!

Sushi rolls

 I took this picture the next day because my photos were so terrible. But the avocado had started to brown a bit.

To make
raw seaweed (I used roasted because I couldn't find any raw)
almond pate (I have no idea why it's called mock salmon pate, doesn't really have anything in common and really I think just freaks people out a bit. I just put everything in a food processor as I don't have a juicer.)
cucumbers, julienned
carrots, julienned
avocado
enoki mushrooms

shiny side of seaweed down on the rolling mat. Spread the pate in a thin layer over the seaweed, leaving a bit of space at the top and bottom. put your fillings near the bottom and roll, baby, roll! Use a sharp knife to cut. I didn't have any that were sharp enough, so I used a serrated knife.

Taken the night of. Food photos really don't work so great in dim lighting...

Little tip: because the pate is so wet, your sushi will not keep very long once rolled. But, it's super easy and fast to roll, so if you're not going to eat many, store the ingredients separately and roll as you go.

Grown up ice cream sandwiches

I love ice cream sammys. And when I was younger, my mom used to make them for us. For a fancy dinner (whatever, we're fancy darnit! kelly wore a dress and everything! And my cats didn't go on the table or try to stick their faces in our food once! THAT'S FANCY!), I felt a tart-style dessert was more appropriate. I used all the same elements of an ice cream sandwich, giving it a delicious cookie base and filling it to the top with coconut ice cream from ani phyo's raw desserts. Definitely one of the most delicious desserts I've ever had!!!