My good friend, Laura (who's a newly appointed Asst. Professor at UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine! Congrats, LY!), introduced me to Wimer's Organics which is a reasonably priced CSA with a great variety of fresh produce.  Every week I make new dumpster smoothies and green juices based on what Bud sends us and also create new dishes based on what I receive.  Nearby our house is a farmer's market from Delaware that sells fantastic organic berries, white peaches, figs, and herbs.  I rarely cook the same meal twice. 

The summer is passing by too quickly.  In between working on the newly expanded menu and website, I've had the pleasure of taking two week-long trips to NYC's Natural Gourmet Institute, a long weekend to California's northern coast (including San Fran), a weekend in Ithaca, another long weekend in beautiful Westerly, RI, and next week will be a 10 day road trip to the wild west! Hope I won't starve on the road... I'll post pics on this trip.  Throw in seeing Kathy Griffin in the mix and it's been a great summer so far, indeed. 





 

My other favorite food group (besides dumplings and ramen) is ICE CREAM! I tried making ice cream once before and it failed miserably. It was terribly crystallized from the lack of cream. With a new Vitamixer in hand, I decided to give it another shot.

Result: a little too thick! Fearing it would be too "icey", I didn't add additional nut or coconut milk. I will next time. It could've used some because the ice cream came out a bit thick from the mix of raw cashews and coconut meat. However, It's kicking major butt as a milkshake. The flavor is perfect and it's as creamy as cream!


Ingredients:

3 cups organic raw cashews
2 cups of green tea
1 box of organic creamed coconut (Let's Do Organic makes a great version)
1 cup of organic grade B maple syrup (or preferred sweetener)
1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 T. organic unsweetened vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean scraped
1 T. organic peppermint extract
1.5 bars of Endangered Species Deep Forrest Mint Chocolate, finely chopped to create flecks in ice cream

Directions:

• Soak raw cashews in water overnight. Enough water to barely cover cashews. (Don't let this sit for more than a day or mold will come a trampling.)
  
• Cream cashews 1 cup at a time in Vitamixer or blender.
  
• Add 2 cups of brewed green tea instead of water for added nutritional benefits. Liquid here helps cream the cashews to a smooth consistency. If you don't want to bother with tea, feel free to use water or milk substitute. You can't taste the green tea in the end anyway. It was just handy!
  
• Throw a box of creamed coconut into the Vitamixer and blend until smooth.
  
• Add sea salt, vanilla and peppermint extract. You may also use fresh mint instead, but I didn't have any on hand at the time. Plus, I prefer the taste of peppermint over regular mint for ice cream. I bet the local farmer's market has peppermint mint... will check it out.
  
• Finely chop 1.5 bars (or more if desired) of a mint chocolate bar. I like Endangered Species because it uses unrefined beet sugar and not much sugar compared to other bars, as well as donating to wildlife. I find their chocolate less sweet in general.
  
• Add chopped chocolate to Vitamixer and pulse a few times. Be careful not to blend all the chocolate into the cream.
• Pour mixture into ice cream maker and follow manufacture's instructions.
  

I left this in the freezer overnight and the ice cream turned into rock. I took the ice cream container and moved it to the fridge to thaw. A day later, it was a creamy soft serve, which is my favorite form of ice cream. Wish I could make some swirls with it. It's a good start, but not perfect yet. I'll make some adjustments and try again soon.

What are your tricks to making creamy vegan ice cream?

I must be motivated because I woke up earlier to make this drink and to post this for Day 2.

I bought greens last night for today's Green Juice #2, but not really in the mood for veggies at 8am. Decided to make another dumpster drink (whatever I could find in the fridge got thrown in).

Ingredients: (sorry, no precise measurements this morning because I'm running late for work.)

1 pint organic pink grapefruit
1 pint organic papaya
1 organic lime
1 cup of coconut water

• First, pulverize the grapefruit which creates a great deal of liquid and helps blend the remaining ingredients together.
• Squeeze limes into grapefruit liquid. I prefer limes over lemons for flavor and lack of seeds.
• Blend the papaya. Papayas are starchy, so the smoothie becomes rather thick at this point.
• Add coconut water (or filtered water) to your liking to dilute.

This tastes much better than yesterday's Green Juice. It's actually good enough to sell in a juice bar. It was like a lime-ade with papaya. Didn't even notice the grapefruit, it balanced the sweet papayas well. I love lime juice with fruit because it reminds me of Mexico.

I caved yesterday and bought a Vita-Mixer at Wholefoods where the Vita-Mix guy sold me with an extended warranty and discounted dry blade, neither offered online. Not having to wait for it to be shipped didn't hurt. I already knew what this machine could do, I've been wanting one for 5 years, but couldn't justify spending that much on a blender.

Well, now I have professional reasons to invest in one. It makes creaming nuts and creating raw desserts so much easier and with consistent results. At least that's what I told myself. It will definitely make sticking to my raw/cleanse project much easier!

I started making another green juice in the masticater and it was great with the spinach leaves. I could see dry, fibrous spinach pulp coming out of one orifice and a vibrant green juice coming out of another. It clogged when I threw in juicy chunks of pineapple. Note: not good with watery fruits. I transferred the juicy mess into the Vitamixer and threw in a bunch of other random citrus and fruits leftover in the fridge. The combo of sweet fruits and tangy citrus is a match made in heaven. Love, love, love!


Ingredients:

1 cup of organic spinach
1 cup of organic pineapple
1 cup of organic frozen blackberries
1 small organic mango
6 organic key limes
3 organic Meyer lemons


Besides my post-workout smoothie of banana, spinach, and unsweetened soymilk, I finally had a chance to use up my ripe avocados for a shake. I wanted to sip on something all day until our dinner party tonight. (I'm bringing supplies to make your own brownie fudge sundaes with coconut ice creams, homemade brownies & hot fudge, and my special candied walnuts.)


Here are the ingredients for my avocado shake:

1 ripe organic avocado
1 organic lime
1/2 large organic cucumber
1/2 cup frozen or fresh organic blueberries or any fruit you like

Directions:

• Blend the avocado, lime juice, and cucumber (skinned, but included seeds) together until it becomes a creamy smoothie.
  
• Add water or coconut water to desired consistency.
• Pour into glass(es).
• Clean out Vitamixer and add blueberries with some water or coconut water.
• Add the blueberry puree to the avocado shake, and gently stir with a spoon until blueberries emerge throughout.