Holy Moly

Between weekly potluck dinners, recipe testing for my newest venture, and trying to fatten up my husband (seriously, he needs to put on weight - what a sad story eh?), I have been making, eating and sharing a lot of tasty food! For last week's potluck, I made stir fried veggies with celery, asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, young garlic, and tofu, in a tamari, garlic, and ginger sauce. It was very good, and even those who don't normally 'love' tofu really liked this dish.

About an hour before my guests arrived, I realized I had no rice to accompany my veggies. Instead, I made quinoa and millet cooked in veggie broth, in the same pot at the same time. I am not a big millet fan, but it was ok this way - the quinoa gave it a toothsome texture, and together they held up well under the veggies.
My friend Lisa brought a bright and delicious salad with lettuce, cucumbers, olives from Italy, shredded carrots, tomatoes, sprouts, and the best orange poppy seed dressing ever....
....along with these equally fabulous spelt buns from the bakery where she works.

(I used one the next day for a tomato and avocado sandwich that was truly divine.)
What a yummy spread we had, and that photo doesn't even include dessert.
Speaking of dessert, here is a raw vegan strawberry cream pie that I made up. It tasted great, but the texture was not as firm as I would like. Everyone else loved it however, and said I was being too fussy and particular. I can be like that sometimes.

Lisa brought these gluten free chocolate cupcakes, and they were the perfect end to a perfect meal among friends and family.

While we're on the topic of dessert, here is another raw vegan pie I made recently. It was a decadent chocolate and banana pie with a rich crumbly crust, made with mostly raw, organic, wholesome ingredients. Imagine a delicious dessert that is healthy for you...and then multiply it by 1000 and this is what you get. Every time I make it, I impress myself - it is just that darn good.
And let's see if I can't get everyone's blood sugar levels back to normal with a nice, fiber rich plate of steamed cauliflower topped with red lentil dal, and olive oil roasted potatoes. Oh yum, this was a good meal. So good in fact.....

....that I made a similar red lentil curry for potluck dinner a few days later. It's pretty unfortunate how much red lentils look like baby poop in both of these pictures. Oh well, they tasted good enough that it didn't even matter.

This time around, I thought ahead and bought some brown basmati rice to serve underneath it. I don't like plain rice, even with some hot, yummy curry on top of it, so I quickly sauteed it with some onions, young, garlic, ginger, turmeric, and curry powder for flavour.
Lisa brought the fixings for rice paper veggie wraps, complete with marinated tofu, marinated veggies, sprouts, and peanut sauce. Unfortunately I forgot to get a photo of everything except the marinated veggies, which are the prettiest of the items anyway.
I made another berry cream pie for potluck this week, but I used raspberries this time and actually followed a recipe (almost). It was really good and everyone liked it, but I don't think I will make it again. I think I just prefer the more decadent, chocolate pies over the fruit ones.

So that's precisely why I also made this mostly raw vegan chocolate banana cream pie! It was wonderful. Each time I make my version of a raw chocolate pie, it gets better and better.

Two slices side by side. How cute.

Lisa is as addicted to dessert making as me, so she brought this awesome mango coconut tapioca pudding. I am loving really textured foods lately, so this was perfectly sweet and chewy.

My name is Judy, and I am addicted - to tomato and avocado sandwiches! They are so so so good, much better than the plain tomato sandwiches I ate as a child, but still very simple and understated. Perfect for breakfast too.

Here is my artsy smoothie photo. It was a delicious smoothie too, made with blackberries, bananas, and rice milk.
I made this simple and tasty tomato and red lentil sauce one afternoon, but never got around to eating it that day. It is now tucked away in the freezer, awaiting its fate atop some kamut pasta.
And lastly, my newly organized cupboards. I buy a lot of bulk foods, so I finally got some glass jars to hold them. I even deliberately bought the brand that contained no plastic packaging. Environment = 1, Plastic Industry = 0.