Paper making and violets

Inspired by the spring seed paper tutorial from Rhythm of the home, my homeschooling friend guided us through a paper making session that the children enjoyed a lot!

Inspirée par le spring seed paper tutorial de Rhythm of the home, ma copine d'école à la maison nous a guidés dans une séance de confection de papier qui a beaucoup plu aux enfants!









Now we only need to write a love letter to Mother Earth and to plant our paper to see our seeds grow!

Maintenant, il ne nous reste qu'à écrire une lettre d'amour à Mère Terre et à planter notre papier pour voir nos graines pousser!



And this morning, we went violet picking in the forest behind our house.

Et ce matin, nous sommes allés cueillir des violettes dans la forêt derrière chez nous.





I had my first taste of young coconut meat and water. Oh My! It is sooo good! I am kefirizing some of the water right now (with water kefir grains). It's supposed to be so healing for your gut...

I know, this is miles away from my new year resolution to eat only local food (that young coconut comes from Thailand...), but right now, I am on a health mission and this is my top priority (and I make up for it with plenty of other ingredients).

J'ai goûté de la chair et de l'eau de jeune noix de coco pour la première fois. Wow! C'est vraiment bon! Je suis en train de kéfiriser de l'eau de coco à l'heure actuelle. Il semble que c'est super bon pour le système digestif.

Je sais, c'est à des kilomètres de ma résolution de la nouvelle année de ne manger que des aliments locaux (cette jeune noix de coco vient de Thaïlande... aoutch!), mais pour l'instant, je suis en mission santé pour régler mes migraines, et c'est ma plus grande priorité (et je compense avec plein d'autres ingrédients locaux).





Avocado fries (for greasy food cravings. The girls didn't need another reason to eat avocadoes, but they loved those nonetheless)

Avocado Fries
from Peggy and Curtis' Blog: Raw Inspiration

Here is a simple and satisfying treat for when the fried food craving hits!
Slice up some avocado into 1/4-1/2 inch strips.

Tip: After slicing the avo in half score the flesh while it is still in the rind and then scoop out the meat and it will already be in strips.

Roll the avocado in a flax breading that is made up of:

1/2 cup ground flax seeds
1-2 tsp. garlic minced or powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. oregano
1 Tbs. nutritional yeast

After breading the avocado slices you can dehydrate them for about an hour. This warms them up as well as allows some of the oils of the avocado to soak into the breading. You could just eat them right away too.





Cream of Zucchini Soup
From Jennifer Cornbleet’s 'Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People'

Serves 2

½ cup water
1 zucchini, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon mellow white miso
½ teaspoon crushed garlic (1 clove)
¼ teaspoon sea salt
dash cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ avocado, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh minced dill, or 1 tsp dried

Place all of the ingredients except the olive oil, avocado and dill in a blender. Blend until smooth.

Add the olive oil and avocado and blend until smooth. Add the dill and blend briefly just to mix.

Serve immediately. I loved it!







My friend raw cake was amazing (It was our Mayday cake)! It's not as gorgeous looking as the one Carmella made, but delicious nonetheless! But be careful with the serving size, it's pretty heavy (it's still sitting on my stomach actually...).

Mon premier gâteau cru était délicieux (c'était notre gâteau pour la fête de mai). Il ne paye pas de mine et n'est pas aussi joli que celui de Carmella, mais quand même succulent! Faites attention avec les portions, c'est plutôt lourd (je l'ai d'ailleurs encore sur l'estomac...).

Raspberry Chocolate Rhapsody Cake
from Carmella

Chocolate Brownie Layer:
2 cups walnuts
2 cups pecans
1 cup pitted dates
1/3 cup cacao
1/3 cup carob
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 Tbs water

Place walnuts and pecans in a food processor and process until ground.

Add dates, cacao, carob and vanilla extract. Process until well mixed.

Add the water and process briefly.


White Chocolate-Raspberry Layer:
(Adapted from Vanessa Sherwood's wonderful White Chocolate-strawberry Cheesecake)

1 cup frozen raspberries, thawed
1/2 cup cashews and/or macadamia nuts
3 Tbs melted coconut butter
1 Tbs melted cacao butter
2 Tbs honey or agave
1 tsp lemon juice
Pinch of salt

Blend in Vita-mix or high speed blender until smooth.


Coconut Vanilla Creme Topping:
1 cup young coconut meat
1/4 cup coconut or regular water
1/2 cup cashews, soaked
2 Tbs coconut butter, melted
1 Tbs honey or agave
2 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Blend in Vita-mix or high speed blender until smooth. Put it fridge or freezer to thicken up.

Assembly:
In a springform pan or large plastic margarine tub lined with saran wrap, layer 1/2 of the chocolate mixture, followed by 1/2 of the raspberry mixture.

Put in freezer to set. Then repeat.

Again, let set in the freezer.

When the last raspberry layer has firmed up, gently transfer the cake onto a serving plate.

Cover with the Coconut Vanilla Cream topping.

If desired, decorate with chocolate sauce (just mix 1 part melted coconut oil with 1 part agave or maple syrup and 1 part cacao powder) and/or fresh raspberries.

Close your eyes and savor how scrumptious raw desserts can be!


We also made an avocado mango salad and everybody LOVED it (I forgot to take a picture...). It was about 5 mangoes, 3 avocadoes, 1 lime juiced, some fresh cilantro, sea salt and raw sesame seeds.

J'ai aussi fait une salade de mangues et d'avocats et tout le monde à ADORÉ (j'ai oublié de prendre une photo). J'y ai mis environ 5 mangues, 3 avocats, le jus d'une lime, un peu de coriandre fraîche, du sel de mer et des graines de sésame crues.