Hemp Sunburgers & Avocado Fries

This picture does no justice to these wonderful burgers (shown with eggless egg salad schmeared on top) and avocado fries!

Yesterday was Saturday, the day I somehow think the imaginary maid is coming to whip us up some dinner. The routine that's in place the rest of the week kinda flies out the window, and it's not until I am hungry that I start to figure out she's not comin'.

On top of this delusion, this particular Saturday started out kinda wonky.

I woke up all pwa-faced after having one mother of a detox dream. We recently chatted about these on the message board, and we tend to agree that being newly raw detoxes more than our physical bodies, it detoxes our emotional selves as well.

This dream was from hell. Well, my personal hell; it really poked me where it hurt. It stayed with me a little while after I woke up, and because I've been just springing out of bed lately, happy to start the day, my boyfriend had first questions, then hugs. (He's awesome that way.)

Feeling a little better, I decided to make my green smoothie. But I walked to the counter and stared in dismay at my dirty blender. The kind of dirty that can only come from leaving it unwashed from the morning before's green smoothie. Aw man, that would take a scrubbie brush, some elbow grease, and the maid! And she's not comin'!! ;)

So... I ate 2 bananas instead, and stuck the blender in the dishwasher along with all the other dishes that had a late night, and set it on whirrrrr.

Then I said, "I need to give my head a shake!" So we decided to go rip roarin' around town on the Harley. That, my dears, did the trick. Aaaahhhhhh.

We bombed around all morning into afternoon, stopping in at thrift stores as we're wont to do. Bought a cute 2 dollar hoodie, yay.

It wasn't until 2 pm that I realized that I was still running on the fuel of 2 bananas. And I was only mildly hungry.

But I was going out for the evening, and needed to get all my ducks in a row and get our supper figured out.

Hey yeah! My blender was clean now! So I did what any rawbie would do and I whipped up my belated green smoothie then sat flipping through my recipes that didn't require long dehydration time. The ones I saw, we had already enjoyed this past week .

So I looked through my other stack of tried and true recipes and luckily, right near the top, was Ani Phyo's recipe for Hemp Sunburgers. Well now! That was doable...it only called for 104 degrees for 3-4 hours dehydration time (known around here as *'hamper time'.)

*hamper time is what I call the time food spends in the dehydrator. When I tell people who aren't accustomed to raw foods that after you prep certain raw food recipes, they spends anywhere from 1 - 18 hours in the dehydrator, it's usually met with wide eyes and balking, as they say, "Oh my GOD, that's SO much WORK!"

But I tell them it's like, a few minutes of prep, then the rest of the time it's no different than when you throw your clothes in the hamper before you decide to do laundry. The time spent in the hamper is no skin off your back; you can leave it in there and get on with your day, your life, until you do laundry.

Or, for a more appetizing analogy, it's like a crock pot, where you prep your food in the morning, stick it in the crock pot and have it ready for dinner when you come home. It's just a trick of timing, no more than that.

The recipes that require long hamper time are the ones I make when I'm on a roll and feel like un-cooking, or when we have a particular hankerin' for gourmet raw, like rawvioli or lasagna...mmmmm.... totally mouth watering and worth every second! But you can keep raw as simple as eating an apple or prepping a salad.

Back to dinner, I already had most of the ingredients, but we walked the dog to the store and got a red pepper and some hemp seeds, which I'd run out of the day before, and some avocado because we decided to make avocado fries on the side.

We had a wonderful meal, and again, with its nutrient density, I was sated the whole evening, even though I only ate one of the burgers, and even though I didn't get home until midnight. I stood there and checked in with myself before going to bed, asking, 'Really? I'm not hungry?!' and I was easily and comfortably able to go to bed with nary another bite.

Without further ado, the recipes...

Hemp Sunburgers

Hemp burgers going into the dehydrator

"This recipe is vegan, vegetarian, organic, gluten-free, wheat-free, sugar-free, healthy, delicious and raw!" - Ani Phyo

Ingredients:

2 stalks celery, chopped (about 3/4 cup)
1⁄2 c yellow onion, chopped
1 c red bell peppers, chopped
1 t sea salt
2 t oregano, fresh or dried
1 c sunflower seeds, ground
1⁄2 c flax seeds, ground
1⁄4 c hemp seeds
1⁄2 c filtered water


Directions:

Place all ingredients in bowl, adding the water last. Mix well.Form 4 balls, flatten into patties.
Dehydrate 3-4 hours at 104 degrees, and serve warm with Flax Flat Bread (or on your favorite whole grain bun).

Garnish with tomato, lettuce, catsup, mustard as you would any burger.


*****************************************

Avocado Fries

These are so great!! Filling and fabulous, simple and satisfying, these are*just* the thing when the fried food craving hits ya! This recipe is by Peggy and Curtis at Raw Inspiration. (I bow down to you guys; this one is a staple at our house!)

Directions:

Slice up some avocados into 1/4- 1/2 inch strips

(Tip: After slicing the avocado in half, score the flesh while it's still in the rind and invert the rind to pop out your slices.)


Rawkin' note: I do these shake n' bake style, putting the avocado slices and the breading into a clear little produce bag saved from apples and shake shake shake until everything's well-coated.


Breading:

1/2 cup ground flax seeds
1-2 tsp garlic, minced or powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp oregano
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
After breading the avocado slices you can dehydrate them for about an hour. This warms them up as well as allows some of the oils of the avocado to soak into the breading. The original recipe doesn't mention the temperature, but ya can't go wrong putting the temp at 115. You could just eat them right away too! They're THAT good!!

Enjoy your dinner, Rawkers!

Hemp Sunburgers & Avocado Fries

This picture does no justice to these wonderful burgers (shown with eggless egg salad schmeared on top) and avocado fries!

Yesterday was Saturday, the day I somehow think the imaginary maid is coming to whip us up some dinner. The routine that's in place the rest of the week kinda flies out the window, and it's not until I am hungry that I start to figure out she's not comin'.

On top of this delusion, this particular Saturday started out kinda wonky.

I woke up all pwa-faced after having one mother of a detox dream. We recently chatted about these on the message board, and we tend to agree that being newly raw detoxes more than our physical bodies, it detoxes our emotional selves as well.

This dream was from hell. Well, my personal hell; it really poked me where it hurt. It stayed with me a little while after I woke up, and because I've been just springing out of bed lately, happy to start the day, my boyfriend had first questions, then hugs. (He's awesome that way.)

Feeling a little better, I decided to make my green smoothie. But I walked to the counter and stared in dismay at my dirty blender. The kind of dirty that can only come from leaving it unwashed from the morning before's green smoothie. Aw man, that would take a scrubbie brush, some elbow grease, and the maid! And she's not comin'!! ;)

So... I ate 2 bananas instead, and stuck the blender in the dishwasher along with all the other dishes that had a late night, and set it on whirrrrr.

Then I said, "I need to give my head a shake!" So we decided to go rip roarin' around town on the Harley. That, my dears, did the trick. Aaaahhhhhh.

We bombed around all morning into afternoon, stopping in at thrift stores as we're wont to do. Bought a cute 2 dollar hoodie, yay.

It wasn't until 2 pm that I realized that I was still running on the fuel of 2 bananas. And I was only mildly hungry.

But I was going out for the evening, and needed to get all my ducks in a row and get our supper figured out.

Hey yeah! My blender was clean now! So I did what any rawbie would do and I whipped up my belated green smoothie then sat flipping through my recipes that didn't require long dehydration time. The ones I saw, we had already enjoyed this past week .

So I looked through my other stack of tried and true recipes and luckily, right near the top, was Ani Phyo's recipe for Hemp Sunburgers. Well now! That was doable...it only called for 104 degrees for 3-4 hours dehydration time (known around here as *'hamper time'.)

*hamper time is what I call the time food spends in the dehydrator. When I tell people who aren't accustomed to raw foods that after you prep certain raw food recipes, they spends anywhere from 1 - 18 hours in the dehydrator, it's usually met with wide eyes and balking, as they say, "Oh my GOD, that's SO much WORK!"

But I tell them it's like, a few minutes of prep, then the rest of the time it's no different than when you throw your clothes in the hamper before you decide to do laundry. The time spent in the hamper is no skin off your back; you can leave it in there and get on with your day, your life, until you do laundry.

Or, for a more appetizing analogy, it's like a crock pot, where you prep your food in the morning, stick it in the crock pot and have it ready for dinner when you come home. It's just a trick of timing, no more than that.

The recipes that require long hamper time are the ones I make when I'm on a roll and feel like un-cooking, or when we have a particular hankerin' for gourmet raw, like rawvioli or lasagna...mmmmm.... totally mouth watering and worth every second! But you can keep raw as simple as eating an apple or prepping a salad.

Back to dinner, I already had most of the ingredients, but we walked the dog to the store and got a red pepper and some hemp seeds, which I'd run out of the day before, and some avocado because we decided to make avocado fries on the side.

We had a wonderful meal, and again, with its nutrient density, I was sated the whole evening, even though I only ate one of the burgers, and even though I didn't get home until midnight. I stood there and checked in with myself before going to bed, asking, 'Really? I'm not hungry?!' and I was easily and comfortably able to go to bed with nary another bite.

Without further ado, the recipes...

Hemp Sunburgers

Hemp burgers going into the dehydrator

"This recipe is vegan, vegetarian, organic, gluten-free, wheat-free, sugar-free, healthy, delicious and raw!" - Ani Phyo

Ingredients:

2 stalks celery, chopped (about 3/4 cup)
1⁄2 c yellow onion, chopped
1 c red bell peppers, chopped
1 t sea salt
2 t oregano, fresh or dried
1 c sunflower seeds, ground
1⁄2 c flax seeds, ground
1⁄4 c hemp seeds
1⁄2 c filtered water


Directions:

Place all ingredients in bowl, adding the water last. Mix well.Form 4 balls, flatten into patties.
Dehydrate 3-4 hours at 104 degrees, and serve warm with Flax Flat Bread (or on your favorite whole grain bun).

Garnish with tomato, lettuce, catsup, mustard as you would any burger.


*****************************************

Avocado Fries

These are so great!! Filling and fabulous, simple and satisfying, these are*just* the thing when the fried food craving hits ya! This recipe is by Peggy and Curtis at Raw Inspiration. (I bow down to you guys; this one is a staple at our house!)

Directions:

Slice up some avocados into 1/4- 1/2 inch strips

(Tip: After slicing the avocado in half, score the flesh while it's still in the rind and invert the rind to pop out your slices.)


Rawkin' note: I do these shake n' bake style, putting the avocado slices and the breading into a clear little produce bag saved from apples and shake shake shake until everything's well-coated.


Breading:

1/2 cup ground flax seeds
1-2 tsp garlic, minced or powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp oregano
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
After breading the avocado slices you can dehydrate them for about an hour. This warms them up as well as allows some of the oils of the avocado to soak into the breading. The original recipe doesn't mention the temperature, but ya can't go wrong putting the temp at 115. You could just eat them right away too! They're THAT good!!

Enjoy your dinner, Rawkers!

My Adventure in Kale Chips

Wowza I've got kale chips in the dehydrator, and I hear choirs!! They're not even half done and they're gonna be half GONE if I don't stop it. Somebody slap me!

Here they are on their way in, freshly coated: Aren't they purdy? Well they don't look anything like that now! :) They are darkened and all the coating has been absorbed. My son and boyfriend came in and said, "Ugh, that smells strong, what is it?" And I proudly pulled the door off the dehydrator and said, "Kale chips! They're not ready, but you wanna try one?" I'm all smiles and my son makes a face and tells me they smell like socks!

This doesn't offend me, it brings me joy... more for meeeeeeeee!

I've also got Carrot Pecan burgers in there for dinner, and I'm going to make raw lemon pudding for dessert. I love a good uncookin' day around here!

My pal Mermie passed on the kale chips recipe to me, here it is:

Ingredients:

2 head Kale, Washed and Torn

¾ cup Tahini

¼ cup *Nama Shoyu

½ cup Cider Vinegar

½ cup Water (didn't need it)

2 scallions

1 clove garlic

1 lemon (juice of)

¼ teaspoon Sea Salt

¼ cup Fresh Parsley

Preparation:

Place kale in a large mixing bowl. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth to get a thick consistency. Pour over kale and mix thoroughly with your hands to coat the kale. You want this mixture to be really glued onto the kale. Place kale onto a Teflex sheet, on top of a mesh dehydrator screen, and dehydrate for 6 hours @ 115 degrees. You’ll need to use two trays. Rotate kale occasionally to dry uniformly.

*note - dark miso is a good substitute for nama shoyu

Like I said, these aren't even out of the dehydrator and they're already addictive! Mermie calls them "Eat A Whole Head Of Kale Chips In One Sitting Recipe" :)

Here they are during: (I removed the teflex and flipped them onto mesh after a couple hours.) Um, notice the empty spaces. They shrink. Yeah, that's it...they shrink!

If there are any left, ahem, when they're done, I'll post a photo...;)

UPDATE: And here they are! They are crispy and fabu!!! The other full bowl is on my desk, and there are crumbs in my keyboard. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmake these!!

My Adventure in Kale Chips

Wowza I've got kale chips in the dehydrator, and I hear choirs!! They're not even half done and they're gonna be half GONE if I don't stop it. Somebody slap me!

Here they are on their way in, freshly coated: Aren't they purdy? Well they don't look anything like that now! :) They are darkened and all the coating has been absorbed. My son and boyfriend came in and said, "Ugh, that smells strong, what is it?" And I proudly pulled the door off the dehydrator and said, "Kale chips! They're not ready, but you wanna try one?" I'm all smiles and my son makes a face and tells me they smell like socks!

This doesn't offend me, it brings me joy... more for meeeeeeeee!

I've also got Carrot Pecan burgers in there for dinner, and I'm going to make raw lemon pudding for dessert. I love a good uncookin' day around here!

My pal Mermie passed on the kale chips recipe to me, here it is:

Ingredients:

2 head Kale, Washed and Torn

¾ cup Tahini

¼ cup *Nama Shoyu

½ cup Cider Vinegar

½ cup Water (didn't need it)

2 scallions

1 clove garlic

1 lemon (juice of)

¼ teaspoon Sea Salt

¼ cup Fresh Parsley

Preparation:

Place kale in a large mixing bowl. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth to get a thick consistency. Pour over kale and mix thoroughly with your hands to coat the kale. You want this mixture to be really glued onto the kale. Place kale onto a Teflex sheet, on top of a mesh dehydrator screen, and dehydrate for 6 hours @ 115 degrees. You’ll need to use two trays. Rotate kale occasionally to dry uniformly.

*note - dark miso is a good substitute for nama shoyu

Like I said, these aren't even out of the dehydrator and they're already addictive! Mermie calls them "Eat A Whole Head Of Kale Chips In One Sitting Recipe" :)

Here they are during: (I removed the teflex and flipped them onto mesh after a couple hours.) Um, notice the empty spaces. They shrink. Yeah, that's it...they shrink!

If there are any left, ahem, when they're done, I'll post a photo...;)

UPDATE: And here they are! They are crispy and fabu!!! The other full bowl is on my desk, and there are crumbs in my keyboard. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmake these!!

These jalapeno crackers were a big hit! We ate them with raw salsa...just divine!
It was all I could do to get this photo...4 dehydrator trays were gone so fast. I just suddenly went, "Oh shit!! I've gotta take a picture!!" haha. I'll make these again, but I will use more jalapeno, and will crisp them up longer. But MAN, they pretty much rawked!

And this is my corriander green cupboard. It was dirty-white yesterday. After the weekend, my tilesetter boyfriend is going to slap a bunch of tile on the counter part. I *think* that's what I want. ;)

Today is 'organize the kitchen' day here at my house. More to the point, get rid of the messy spice packets and pour everything into little bottles with shaker tops and labels. I know this sounds pretty basic, and I used to have it like that, but now it's somehow back to paprika spillage all the time.

I ate all raw yesterday, and bought some gorgeous tangelos at the organic market. They are sooo sour and perfect! My boyfriend hates them sour! More for me, yay! I love these because their big nipples make them easy to peel:

Enjoy your day, Rawkers!

These jalapeno crackers were a big hit! We ate them with raw salsa...just divine!
It was all I could do to get this photo...4 dehydrator trays were gone so fast. I just suddenly went, "Oh shit!! I've gotta take a picture!!" haha. I'll make these again, but I will use more jalapeno, and will crisp them up longer. But MAN, they pretty much rawked!

And this is my corriander green cupboard. It was dirty-white yesterday. After the weekend, my tilesetter boyfriend is going to slap a bunch of tile on the counter part. I *think* that's what I want. ;)

Today is 'organize the kitchen' day here at my house. More to the point, get rid of the messy spice packets and pour everything into little bottles with shaker tops and labels. I know this sounds pretty basic, and I used to have it like that, but now it's somehow back to paprika spillage all the time.

I ate all raw yesterday, and bought some gorgeous tangelos at the organic market. They are sooo sour and perfect! My boyfriend hates them sour! More for me, yay! I love these because their big nipples make them easy to peel:

Enjoy your day, Rawkers!

Energy to Burn...

Took my young man bowling the other day, and had a riot!! We pretty much had the place to ourselves, which was nothing short of awesome. Both of us have a tendency to act the fool, so it was right up our alley...oooh a pun.


We had gone to Deer Lake to rent a boat to row around in, but were stunned and amazed to see the ducks and geese walking ON the water.... yep, it was frozen. The rest of our city has thawed and spring is in the air, but not in this shady spot. It cracked us up big time!! So plan b was bowling and it turned out GREAT! My morning smoothie took me into late afternoon without hunger pangs, which was good.

At dinner I went to Eternal Abundance on Commercial Drive and ate in the back at the Truffle Cafe. Best salad in town, this place. The Truffle is a mostly raw cafe and the one thing cooked that I enjoy is the 'green soup', with broccoli, kale, and chard. It is sooooo tasty. That and a salad, and I'm good to go. (the yellow sticks that look like cheese are actually yellow beet...mmmmm)

And today, I got up and made Jalapeno Corn Tortilla crackers. They're hummin' away in the dehydrator as I type. I can hardly hear the hum over the opera I've got blaring. For a girl whose only opera exposure (until recently) was the Bugs Bunny cartoons, I've turned into an opera fan kinda overnight. It was brewing for years, but now that I've had a taste of a real opera, I am sofa king hooked!! So between the wild arias, my cat meowing along, the food processor, and now the dehydrator, it feels alive around here today!!


Here's a photo of the crackers in progress. Ya score them into crackers after ya flip 'em off the teflex sheet on 'hour 6'. SO......1 hour down, 13 to go... they should be ready by midnight...hahahaha am I the only one who thinks this is hilarious? :D



Oh yeah...not to mention, my living room is upside down because of a fit of feng shui and the subsequent declutter. Well, I'm in the clutter part of de-clutter, as usual. But today I'm not kidding, it's a bloody mess. Wanta seeee? Might make ya feel better about yourself!! ;)


I know, right? :) All that shit came out of this one cupboard, (well, except the plant). I'm going to paint mr.cupboard 'coriander green' today.


So now you have the 'before' shots of my crackers, my living room, and my cupboard... and I'll give you the 'afters' tomorrow or maybe even later today, depending on my ambition/burn-out!

Raw Powahhhhhhhhhh....

Energy to Burn...

Took my young man bowling the other day, and had a riot!! We pretty much had the place to ourselves, which was nothing short of awesome. Both of us have a tendency to act the fool, so it was right up our alley...oooh a pun.


We had gone to Deer Lake to rent a boat to row around in, but were stunned and amazed to see the ducks and geese walking ON the water.... yep, it was frozen. The rest of our city has thawed and spring is in the air, but not in this shady spot. It cracked us up big time!! So plan b was bowling and it turned out GREAT! My morning smoothie took me into late afternoon without hunger pangs, which was good.

At dinner I went to Eternal Abundance on Commercial Drive and ate in the back at the Truffle Cafe. Best salad in town, this place. The Truffle is a mostly raw cafe and the one thing cooked that I enjoy is the 'green soup', with broccoli, kale, and chard. It is sooooo tasty. That and a salad, and I'm good to go. (the yellow sticks that look like cheese are actually yellow beet...mmmmm)

And today, I got up and made Jalapeno Corn Tortilla crackers. They're hummin' away in the dehydrator as I type. I can hardly hear the hum over the opera I've got blaring. For a girl whose only opera exposure (until recently) was the Bugs Bunny cartoons, I've turned into an opera fan kinda overnight. It was brewing for years, but now that I've had a taste of a real opera, I am sofa king hooked!! So between the wild arias, my cat meowing along, the food processor, and now the dehydrator, it feels alive around here today!!


Here's a photo of the crackers in progress. Ya score them into crackers after ya flip 'em off the teflex sheet on 'hour 6'. SO......1 hour down, 13 to go... they should be ready by midnight...hahahaha am I the only one who thinks this is hilarious? :D



Oh yeah...not to mention, my living room is upside down because of a fit of feng shui and the subsequent declutter. Well, I'm in the clutter part of de-clutter, as usual. But today I'm not kidding, it's a bloody mess. Wanta seeee? Might make ya feel better about yourself!! ;)


I know, right? :) All that shit came out of this one cupboard, (well, except the plant). I'm going to paint mr.cupboard 'coriander green' today.


So now you have the 'before' shots of my crackers, my living room, and my cupboard... and I'll give you the 'afters' tomorrow or maybe even later today, depending on my ambition/burn-out!

Raw Powahhhhhhhhhh....