OOps I see it’s been a week since I last posted. We have been busy skiing, cooking and eating and trying out some new homeschool classes. I have been spending way too much time in front of the computer changing email addresses and joining a new blog group (more on that soon).  I hope to post more projects in the coming weeks.

We have been eating this for breakfast and dessert this week. It tastes like a home baked treat but really it is healthy enough to enjoy any time of the day. Or even multiple times!

Apple Crumble

You will need a 9×13 pan and about 10 apples

In a food processor puree 1/2 cup of raisins (I used 1/2 dates and 1/2 raisins), 2 lbs apples (about 10 small apples) with skin on, 1 tsp cinnamon

Line the pan with this mixture

For the crumble process 4 oz almonds, 5 oz pecans, 4oz oat groats soaked 8 to 12 hrs and 2-3 oz honey or agave. Add more dry oats if this is too wet.

Crumble over top of apples.

For the banana ice cream break up 4 frozen bananas into the food processor and blend until they reach a creamy consistency. This will take a while so be patient.

We added 1/2 a scraped pod of vanilla beans and a few squares of dark chocolate for chocoalte chip ice cream. Even my picky, junk food loving, husband like this ice cream!

I have seen many different additions to this ice cream–chia seeds, nuts, fruit–frozen or dried, carob powder or almond butter. I think next time I will add some mint leaves to make a mint chocolate chip.

This ice cream is really smooth and creamy and the banana flavor is not overwhelming at all.

Oooo these were so good and so easy!

I don’t have exact measurements because I threw this together.

Throw some raw cauliflower into your food processor and process until it is like grains of rice. Then do the same for a few large carrots.

Next I threw about a cup of raw sunflower seeds into the processor with a large handful of parsley and the tops of the peppers that I was stuffing. Mix all together.

Now for the sauce:  I used all the ripe cherry tomatoes I had, but could have used more!

Process them with a few cloves of garlic, 1/4 to 1/2 of a purple onion, some (1/4 c?) olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, cayenne.

I added a few spoonfuls of sauce to the stuffing mixture and then stuffed the pepper spooning more sauce over the top.

Really good stuff!

Do you have a recipe to share? Leave a link to your recipe post in the comments!

Well that was fast…it’s apple time again! Recently we visited our favorite orchard for the first pick of the season (jonafree, scarlett o’hare and liberty).

We filled ourselves with apples and raspberries while we were there and brought a few bags home.

Now what to do with all those apples that are sitting on my counter?! Pies, drying, cake, sauce..the list goes on and on! This week  I am going to re-post a raw apple pie recipe that I plan to make tomorrow (for potluck)!  I have made it several times and every time it is delicious!!

You will need both a blender and a food processor. Because, I guess you can’t put liquid stuff in the food processor or it will seep out of every crack and crevasse..nobody told me that!

For the crust you will need

2 cups almonds-plus a few more for dusting the bottom

2 cups dates

1 teaspoon salt

Put a few almonds in the food processor and line your pie plate with almond dust

Next process the almonds dates and salt until they make a sticky mass. Dump them into a bowl and make it into a ball with your hands, try to form it into your pan shape as best you can-it will be crumbly-press itinto the bottom of you r pie plate.

For the Filling you will need

6-8 apples chopped-or thinly sliced

1 cup raisins and or cranberries

2 Tablespoons cinnamon

Combine in a bowl

For the Syrup for the filling you will need (this can be doubled-I did, because I lost most of it when I tried to make it in the food processor instead of the blender!)

1/2 cup of dates

1 large orange

1/4 cup of water

Blend this all up until smooth and pour over your filling.

Be sure to pit all your dates!!!

This was so delicious!! I even ate it for breakfast the next day and it was even better because the apples had softened a bit.

Try it you’ll like it!!!

If you have a recipe to share, leave a comment with a link to your recipe post!

Remember I used to post recipes on Thursdays and invited readers to join in the fun and link to recipe on their blogs on Thursdays? Well let’s try again!! If you need the whole sorted explanation of why I chose to call them quarter recipes you can read about it here.

So here is my meager but tasty and healthy recipe for this week.

We enjoy smoothies many mornings. On this day we mixed up a couple of frozen bananas, about 3 large handfuls of spinach,  some orange juice, a couple of tablespoons of goji berries, a couple of tablespoons of chia seeds, and a whole lot of frozen blueberries in my VITA-MIX.

I keep my chia seeds in the freezer, that’s why they look sweaty.

This may be a green smoothie, but the blueberries really make it more purple.

If you have a favorite recipe to share (it doesn’t have to be raw) leave a link in the comments to your blog’s recipe post.

Or think about joining in next week. Because I have the world’s best salad recipe to share next Thursday! (I have been eating it for days)

Where have I been? Nowhere special, just sucked into the wonderful world of Spring cleaning! I don’t much like to clean so I do a massive clean up, top to bottom a couple of times a year and then just clean the middle of the room the rest of the time.

Last weekend I ran my first 5K. I have NEVER been a runner, even when I was young and in sports I hated running. So it is amazing to me that I was able to run that far. I did a couch to 5K training schedule and it worked. So, what I am saying is that, if I can run anyone can run! Just do it!

And the week before, I, along with my other Mother Artist friends put on the kids art show, KidzArtz. It was a huge success!

These are a couple of photos of the art making area where kids wrapped and weaved and decorated teepee structures with various materials. It was loads of fun to unwrap rolls of TP and balls of yarn. I would love to make one of these in the back yard this summer!

And this week is also Birthday week/Mother’s Day week. Both Jake and Ginger have Birthdays this week.

So I have been a little busy and blog neglectful. Sorry -when my house is clean and my garden planted I’ll be back!

Oh, and I have no new recipe to post. But if you do-leave a link in the comments to your raw recipe post!

The grocery stores around here have been having some great prices on fruit-some organic and some not. I try to buy organic whenever possible-which is about 90-95 % of the time. But there are a few things like pineapples and mango that I don’t often see here as an organic choice. But the last few weeks these have been really cheap. So I stocked up and have been making this smoothie over and over again with a few minor changes here and there.

These measurements are just guesses because when it comes to smoothies-I just dump things into my Vita-Mix.

1 to 1 1/2 cups pineapple chunks

1 to 2 mangos

1 frozen banana

a handful of ice

almond milk-enough to make it as thick or thin as you want

a handful of almonds

2 Tablespoons of chia seeds

2 Tablespoons of hemp seeds

dash of cinnamon

This tasted a lot like orange sherbet!  I almost always make green smoothies and adding spinach to this didn’t change the taste too much.   Other additions to this basic mixture that tasted good have been spinach, frozen strawberries, flax seeds and a cut up orange. You can pack tons of nutrition into these smoothies, which is a great start to the day!

If you have a raw recipe to share this week please leave a link to your raw post in the comments. Thanks!!

I made this raw potato salad this weekend and it was really good! Definitely tastes better when it’s not ice cold and the dressing does get runny the longer it sits, but it still tasted good a few days later.

RAW POTATO SALAD

2 c diced jicama

1/4 c diced yellow pepper

1/4 c celery

1 T minced fresh rosemary

2 T minced green olives

1/4 avocado, smashed

1/2 red onion thinly sliced

fresh parsley

Now for the dressing:

2 t tahinin

1/4 t ground cumin

1 1/2 T lemon juice

2 T water

2 t parley

1/4 t nama shoyu

1/4 t agave

pinch of chili powder

and more than a pinch of salt

I blend all the dressing ingredients in my Vita-Mix. Dressing should be a little thick as it does thin out after the potato salad is all mixed up.

If you have a raw recipe to add this week, leave a comment with a link to your raw recipe post.