Crackers

To kick off the weekend, D and I headed to a super fun concert at a cool venue called Red Butte Garden.

Representin' the Diet Coke, y'all!SLC ladies, if you have never been to a concert there, you should go. It was way chill (and a little chilly, because it's outside), and it's really pretty. Red Butte usually features artists that are a little off the beaten path, and Thursday was right on tune with Booker T and the DBT's as well as my new favorite band, CRACKER!!

I vaguely recall hearing at least one of their songs before, but seeing them in concert was rad (does anyone say rad anymore?? I do!)! They have a really unique alterna-country-punk sound, and I totally dug it. It's no wonder I love their sound--the band's bio page states that their drummer, Frank Fuanro, had played with Joey Ramone. The Ramones! Duh, my all time favorite band ever! I got a CD and I even got to meet the band to get it signed but I was too shy (ah too shy, shy hush, hush eye to eye) to get a pic with all the dudes. Please incorporate these two songs into your download queue immediately:
Low
Show Me How This Thing Works

Loves it.

On another cracker-related note, my cute little brother in law shares some of my experimentarianism and had ventured into a raw food store at my recommendation. He came out with these:
Raw Crackers

Little bro wasn't a fan, so he left them for me (Thanks Ollie!). These fascinating little crackers are cellophane thin sheets of savory flax seeds and dehydrated veggies. They were described by some others that I shared them with as "slimy," but I beg to differ. It's just the smooth feeling of flax seeds gliding over your tongue (which happens a lot because they are so smooth, they slip right between your teeth before you can mash em!) The flavor on these tastes a lot like a minestrone soup mix, and they are particularly tasty with hummmmmus. No, not the dessert kind, just regular.

These crackers are pretty odd, but also pretty delicious--just like my taste in music. Given the fine production of both music and edible delight in this context, you can call me cracker anytime. I don't mind.

Raw Crunch with Organic Dark Chocolate

These have to be close to my favorite bars ever. I've tried the Goji flavor before, and I really enjoyed that one. I finally got my hands on another one this weekend and have been waiting for days to try it out!
This one was a great balance between sweet and salty. The ingredients are so pure that it's kind of like just grabbing a handful of trail mix. This bar is sweetened with a touch of honey and yummy cocoa pieces. My favorite part is probably the tons and tons of pumpkin and flax seeds. And of course the dark chocolate chunks. Duh. Ingredients (all organic): sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, raw honey, cashews, dark chocolate (sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, vanilla beans, soy lecithin), pecans, flax seeds, macadamia nuts, celtic sea salt. These bars are pretty big for only 150 calories which is another thing I love about them. They contain 10 g fat, 3 g fiber, 5 g protein and also 15% DV of vitamin E.

In case you were wondering, while I avoid soy as much as possible, soy lecithin doesn't bother my stomach as much as processed or whole soy...I think. I think it also depends on the day!

I've been slacking in the bar department lately because I've been having trouble finding new flavors or brands that meet my requirements (200 calories or less, good balance of protein, fat, fiber, and most importantly, SOY FREE for my little tummy). So if anyone has some suggestions, I would love for you to pass them along!

Hummmmmus

Encouraged by the success of my last raw venture, I took a page from Miss Gena and made her Raw Zucchini Hummus. You can find the recipe here. I didn't have sesame seeds, so I followed the modifications listed. The only thing I did differently was the addition of some minced garlic. Garlic makes everything better! I was a little leery of hummus minus the chickpeas, but...the verdict?
Soooo good! I questioned whether or not to leave the peel on the zucchini, but as you can see, I left it on and it turned out quite smooth and even.I think I might cut the tahini down just a smidge, but overall I was totally impressed with the taste and texture.

Omar's Rawtopia

I've been so excited to share my first real raw food experience! Hubby's been out of town for the week, so my sister and I got together to hit the only raw food restaurant in town, or in Utah for that matter: Omar's. As you'll recall, I have tried cuisine from this place once before, but I wasn't down with the food choice, so I was super pumped to go and order what I thought would be interesting to try. My sweet sister agreed to share a few items with me, so we got:

Hummus Pizza ...
Hummus topped on pizza crust with veggies, avocado,
and seed cheese, and love

Falafel Bowl ...
Live tahini dressing over a bed of mixed greens, topped
with zucchini, tomatoes, onions, celery, olives, avocados,
our famous nut/seed falafel biscuits, and love.

Bean Burrito ...
Beans consist of a purée of Tahini and sunflower seeds mixed with Mexican herbs, and spices. Topped with macadamia nut sour cream, sprouts, and served wrapped in collard greens,
or with crackers, lettuce, cabbage, and love.

(This was a combo plate of the falafel and burrito)

Ginger Aid A lemonade blended with ginger, Goji berries, cayenne pepper, sea salt, and love.


Ok, first of all, the macadamia nut sour cream was the bomb. It was light, slightly lemony and majorly delicious. I asked our server what was in it and he said besides macadamia nuts, there was just Irish moss and spices. Of all the things we ate, it seriously stole the show!

The hummus pizza was the second best thing we ate, and sis and I both agreed that we would order this again, even though she likened it to "salad on a cracker."

Well, it kind of is....but I think that's the point.

Anyhoo, you can see that it was beautifully layered with tomatoes, red peppers, olives, avocado and sunflower sprouts. The hummus was made from almonds, instead of chickpeas, so it carried a more subtle flavor, not as smoky or thick as chickpea hummus. It didn't taste anything like pizza, but had it's own very unique flavors to enjoy.

The sunflower sprouts were definitely another yummy adventure. They tasted almost exactly like a sunflower seed, only fresher and more "green." I would highly recommend these for a nutty flavor addition to any salad.

I liked the bean burrito as well, but it was super messy to eat! I must need to hone my kale rolling technique!

I cared for the falafel bowl the least. The falafel was just tiny dry flakes on top of a salad with a creamy avaocado dressing. I didn't care for the dressing, and I thought the falafel flakes were very salty and cinlantro-y tasting, which is one of the few spices I absolutely do not like to experiment with!

Oh, and I loved the ginger lemonade too! It was super tart and spicy from the cayenne--it kind of reminded me of what that Master Cleanse stuff must taste like. I liked it anyway, but as a beverage only, not as a meal plan :)

It was kind of funny by the end of the meal, my sister and I each had little miscellaneous piles on our plates of things we had picked off our food (olives for her, avaocados for me)--we almost had enough to make another little raw entree of our own :)

All in all, I really enjoyed my "raw experience." The food was fresh and beautifully presented with obvious pride in the product. The food did take a while to come out, but I think that's all the more indicative that it is prepared to order and with "love," as the menu states. It was rather pricey, but I think it truly allowed a bite out of the raw lifestyle and an encouraging window for new experiments to come!

Raw Crunch with Organic Goji Berries

This bar smelled really good despite being smashed to smithereens. Slightly salty and crunchy. The bigger chunks were delightfully chewy, and I loved how you could see every single ingredient. And whole goji berries, finally fulfilling my goal to try whole ones. They taste kind of like a bitter raisin.

I loved the label, " No Artificial Nothin!" Touted as soy-free (yay!), gluten free, dairy free and peanut free. It contained (all organic): sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, raw honey, cashews, goji berries, flaxseeds, macadamia nuts and celtic sea salt. One bar has only 150 calories, 10 g (healthy) fat, 3 g fiber and 5 g protein.

There were a few other flavors at the store where I snagged this one, so I can’t wait to go back and grab them. I think they had a chocolate one, and I’m all for that—especially if it’s even half as good as this one! Yum!

Failed cheese

Sadly, this is one of my culinary experimentations that did not turn out so well! I've been fascinated with the concept of nutritional yeast since seeing it here last summer/fall. Nutritional yeast is high in protein, and often used as a cheese substitute by vegans. The idea is that the yeasty flavor mirrors cheese taste, especially in things like mock alfredo sauce, when combined with a few other spices. I was really hoping this guilt free cheese wasn't too good to be true, so I snapped up one of these packets at my local natural foods store. My intention was to bake up a spaghetti squash and use the cheese sauce to make my own raw version of fettuccine alfredo/mac and cheese.

The powder looked fairly promising when I opened it, but it didin't really smell like much, or taste like much except salt.

Instructions say to mix contents with 1/2 c. boiling water and whisk until mixture thickens...Blech!!


The sauce was very chemically tasting (how can that be?? It's organic!), slightly bitter and other than that, very very bland! The instructions also suggest adding a little butter which might have vastly improved the flavor, but it's supposed to be a vegan cheese substitute, so I figured doing so would be a little against the purpose. It was really only palatable after I added salt and pepper, and red pepper flakes AND a few squirts of spicy Dijon mustard.

I am, however, undeterred by my failed cheese sauce concerning the concept of nutritional yeast, and will probably attempt its use again at a later date. But perhaps this time, I'll use one of the recipes on the web and add my own spices to see if it turns out a little more edible.

Raw Food Sample

My sweet, ever encouraging sister knows of my raw food curiosity and recently helped me out with my "experimentarianism." While she is not raw, vegan, or even vegetarian, she lives with some folks that dabble in the lifestyle. So when they had untouched takeout from the other night, I got to be their human garbage disposal (it's not a bad thing!!).

There is only one raw food restaurant in my city and it's called Omar's Rawtopia, so that's where all this came from. The plate contained a "tabbouleh" salad (but I didn't see any tabbouleh?) with dressing, two raw "sushi" rolls and a cute little dessert cup.

I had a little of the dressing on a forkful of salad. It was interesting-really creamy texture, but slightly bitter taste. I tried to pick out some of the individual flavors, but only came up with garlic, maybe some tahini and possible cilantro which I'm not a huge fan of anyway. The salad had lots of avocado chunks in it, as did the sushi rolls, which only furthered the idea that I could never be a raw foodist because I have a strong aversion to highly fatty foods, no matter how good they are for you (unless it's peanut butter). Plus avocado kind of tastes like nothing to me. Anybody?
Olives, tomatoes, sprouts, parsley, avocado and almond hummus. I had to cut off the seaweed wrapper since it was kind of slimy and grossing me out a little bit. It also imparted a yucky "fish" taste to the rest of the roll, so I only ate about half of one after trying to pick all the veggies and almond hummus out.

The dessert was by far the best part. It was topped with some kind of tropical fruit puree--mango and passion fruit I think. There was chopped coconut and nuts on the bottom with just the slightest hint of chocolate flavor. All in all, I didn't care for this meal, but it made me all the more curious to continue to try raw food. Thanks to my sister for giving me the chance to broaden my culinary horizons a little--we'll have to actually go to Omar's sometime soon! Their menu looks pretty intriguing, and I've got my eye on the hummus pizza or the bean "burrito"--too many decisions!