Easy Peachy Dressing + A Sneak Peek

It's the end of summer :( I can't believe it's over! I feel like I didn't really have a real summer. Mainly because I was working the whole time. But now I'm rollin' in the benjamins! (Or should I say Queen Elizabeths?) Any way. There was a peach on our counter and we haven't been eating as much salad as we should this summer, so we made a peach salad! Are you happy now peach? Geez!

Easy Peach Dressing:

1 medium peach
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt

Whiz together in a blender. That's it! Drizzle over a salad of your choice. And don't forget the pecans!

Dive into the Peachy

We also have something else to show you! Some preview pics for our new e-book! I just want to explain the first picture you see because it's made with a crazy ingredient...wild rice flour! We were sent wild rice from Goose Valley and we were feeling kinda crazy one morning so we made a Canadian inspired pancake recipe using the wild rice ground into a fine flour. And they were actually really good! They tasted like a morning in cottage country. I hope you enjoy the pics!

Just wanted to show the pretty packaging of Goose Valley!

Woodsy Wild Rice Pancakes with Black Cherry Blueberry Sauce

Creamy Carob Fudge

All Canadian Gingersnaps

Baghetti and Beet-Balls

Toasted Coconut-Cocoa Cashews

Cocoa Pancakes with Peanut Butter Sauce

Pistachio-Orange Coffee Shop Cookies

Mango Salad w/ Spicy Thai Dressing

I've been trying hard for the last few days to eat entirely raw while also cutting back on fats. I obviously have been eating a lot of salads, but without the dressing. Until I made this super yummy mango salad made out of 100% fruits and veggies, even the dressing.

I couldn't even tell I was eating a gigantic bowl of fruits and veggies!

This would be perfect for bringing to a potluck picnic or family barbeque. You can keep it dressed in the fridge for several hours because there's no lettuce that will go soggy.


1 almost ripe mango, julienned
1/2 red pepper, julienned
1 small bunch of kale, chopped and massaged until wilted
1 zucchini, grated
2 carrots, grated
small handful of cilantro, chopped

Dressing:
1 almost ripe mango
1/2 red pepper
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp thai yellow curry paste
2 tsp lime juice

Blitz dressing in your blender and dump over salad. Mix up and eat!

Sweet and Spicy

Mix it all together and you've got a summer salad!

I love the sweet mango with the spiciness of the curry paste. If you don't have curry paste put some cayenne pepper and a garlic clove. That should do the trick.

This salad made it easy to make a change and STICK TO IT!

Apothe Cherry + Pink and Green Salad (Vegan, GF)

My favourite season is here! So here's a yummy fruity salad in celebration. This is pretty much a Green-Smoothie in salad form. Hey what can I say?! I didn't feel like blending today...:P Purium Health Products sent us a bottle of their Apothe Cherry Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate. I have a confession: ever since doing this candida diet I've missed fruit sooo much! And I've recently started eating it again, fruit is just so convenient for snacks, salads and smoothies. I'm glad to eat fruit again. I may try the candida diet in the summer, and found it really did work for me but seriously could not LIVE without fruit. Apothe Cherry Juice Concentrate is very low in sugar, so this was a good juice to drink while transitioning back into sweeter foods.


Apothe Cherry is also good for adding to smoothies, puddings, and applesauce. After reading the information about this product on their site, I couldn't believe how powerful tart cherries actually are, I never really considered them to be one of the top anti-oxidants out there until now. 


Jenn has been obsessed with frozen sour cherries for a while (it's one of those phases). So I went to visit her one weekend, and gave them a try they were sooo sour! But since she's been really cutting back on sugar, they actually tasted sweet to her. I still think they are super sour especially after drinking this juice, it starts off sour but then you start liking how healthy it tastes.


I drank a glass before going to singing lessons and my throat felt refreshed and open. I've always noticed that drinking tart/sour juice before singing helps a lot, so I will be taking this juice before singing from now on :).

You put the cherry in the coconut, and eat it on a salad.

You put the cherry in the coconut make you feel better!

You drink Apothe Cherry Concentrate and call me in the morning ooo ooo,

1 grapefruit, peeled and segmented
4 strawberries
Mixed greens (I used Mache greens)
Chia seeds (topper)


Dressing:
1 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp coconut cream (open unshaken can of coconut milk, it's what's sitting on top)
1 tbsp Apothe Cherry Concentrate (you could also use fresh cherries/berries)
Few drops of stevia or other sweetener of choice


Combine melted coconut oil, coconut cream, sweetener and Cherry Concentrate in small bowl. Whisk until combined. Drizzle on top of salad. Enjoy!

Post-Holiday Meal: Japanese Salad w/ Miso Dressing

After over-indulging in sugary treats all holiday season, I thought it was appropriate to make a colourful, healthful salad to offset all the heavy food we've eaten ;). I made a creamy miso dressing by blending the dressing in a mini blender. The olive oil got all whippy and creamy, it was perfection! We got a package in the mail from Truly Organic Foods which is a new Canadian based raw food company. We got to try their raw nut snacks. The Chipotle Pistachios were our favourite, the smokiness was phenomenal. We also got to try their Rosemary-Garlic Almonds and Pistachios which had the texture and taste of roasted nuts, but they were completely raw! I guess we're pretty new to the "raw-roasted" nut scene but these were amazing. So we sprinkled some on top along with sesame and flax seeds. I wish we had a picture of these nuts to show you, but they were so good we literally ate them all before getting a chance to photograph them. 

Salad:
Handful of mixed greens
Broccoli, chopped
Sweet pepper, chopped
Tomato, diced
Green onions, sliced


Dressing
1 tsp miso paste
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/4 tsp dulse flakes (or sea salt)
6 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp water
1 1/2 tsp honey
1 clove garlic


Whip dressing in a blender until smooth. Pour on to salad. Sprinkle salad with seeds and nuts.


Question:  How are you counter-acting the holiday binge?

Ezekiel's Wheel Salad- from Aarti Paarti (Vegan, GF)

You may have already noticed, but we are huge fans of Aarti from The Next Food Network Star and she won! So now she has her own show on the Food Network called Aarti Party. Unfortunately it is not being aired in Canada as of yet but when it does you can bet we will be following her wonderful Indian food adventures religiously! We've been watching her video blog (before she was famous) for some time now, and her videos are just so silly! But also informative; AND a lot of the recipes she makes are vegan, like this salad! You can watch Aarti make it here, and I bet you will be tempted to watch more you'll see! Aarti also explains in the video why she called it Ezekiel's Wheel Salad if you are curious :)

So onto the salad, it features so many yummy components it's hard to believe that it would taste anything but delicious! It's also very filling which is important for vegans, and it has pomegranate seeds in it! which are in season right now and apparently they go really well with tahini. Also, a side note about the spices: I was unable to find Zaatar, the middle-eastern spice blend, so I looked it up and all it is, is ground sumac, oregano, marjoram, thyme and toasted sesame seeds, I couldn't find sumac so I substituted lemon zest and put in a little extra salt. Enjoy!

1 shallot, minced
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt
3/4 cup tahini
1/2 cup or so of hot water
1 clove of garlic
Splash of extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp pine nuts
2 cans chick peas, drained and rinsed (2 small or 1 and 1/2 large cans)
3 roasted red peppers
Handful of pomegranate seeds or 3-4 pickled beets
Handful chopped parsley
Zaatar (3/4 tsp oregano, 3/4 tsp marjoram, 3/4 tsp thyme, 1 tbsp lemon zest, salt)
Ground black pepper

Combine shallot, lemon juice and salt in a large bowl, let sit while you toast your pine nuts. Add tahini and water until you have a dressing that is not sticky but the consistency of a cream-based salad dressing or yogurt. Combine everything else in! Mix until combined. It gets even better if you leave it overnight.

Sweet Potato Salad with Blueberry Dressing (Vegan, GF)

Nothing like a good, hearty salad! Jac and I were feeling salad-ish (?) today, so we scavenged the kitchen in search of inspirational food items. We found a sweet potato, an apple, arugula and frozen blueberries. We thought these ingredients would make a perfect fall salad...


1 sweet potato, cubed, tossed in olive oil and roasted at 400 F until tender (20 mins)
1 red apple (we used organic royal gala), cubed
1 handful of arugula
Toasted sunflower seeds and almonds to sprinkle on top


Blueberry Dressing:
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp maple syrup
1/4 cup frozen blueberries, defrosted and pureed.
Pinch of salt


Blend together in a food processor. Drizzle on salad. Makes one big salad.

I put the sweet potatoes in right away, so it was a warm salad. I would highly suggest doing this because it makes the blueberry dressing more pungent. Nobody likes an ice cold salad any way! The blueberry dressing tastes so smooth and is lightly sweet, it goes great with the peppery arugula greens.

Blueberry Fields Forever

Chickpea Salad Sandwiches (Vegan, GF)

I made a chickpea salad out of the leftover raw caesar salad dressing and tossed in some chopped onions, celery and parsley. I mashed the chickpeas with a fork to get a "chicken salad" consistency. Recipe is inspired by: http://blissfullyvegan.wordpress.com/

In salad form

In sandwich form on toasted brown rice bread. Delicious.

It has been so long since I've had a sandwich! I feel like I've been living on salads for way too long. The salad was so creamy and thick! You could substitute any sort of dressing or mayonnaise and add in any veggies you have lying around the fridge.

-Jennifer

Raw Caesar Salad Dressing (Vegan, GF)

I know caesar salad dressing is already raw, but at least this one doesn't have eggs in it! Super simple too.

Raw Caesar Salad Dressing

1/2 cup soaked and peeled almonds
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 garlic clove
2 tbsp olive oil
juice 1/2 of a lemon
4 tbsp water (or until desired consistency)
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper


Whiz ingredients in a blender until smooth (this makes about 3/4 cup of dressing)

Yummy yummy doesn't it look like a legit caesar salad? For the croutons I used brown rice bread (which is gluten-free). I cut the bread into cubes and drizzled olive oil on them and put them in the oven on broil until they were golden. I also put in chickpeas for protein :) 

-Jennifer