March is destined to be a good month in my book.  Of course, my month/Monday began with a yummy dinner.

Raw Zucchini Spaghetti

Spiraliaze (or  use a hand peeler) the zucchini to make spaghetti.  I have found that a quarter to a half of a zucchini is a suitable serving for one.  Of course, go to town and it the entire thing if you want!

Raw Meatlessballs

• 1/2 cup soaked walnuts
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 clove minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon fresh parsley
• dash salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a food processor (or Magic Bullet) and blend.  Hand-roll the pate into four balls.

Not-Really-Sauce Sauce

I was lazy and didn’t want to make an actually sauce.  Instead, I added all of the usual red sauce ingredients on top of the noodles without doing any mixing.  All of the flavors were there, just un-blended.   The sauce included: 1 chopped vine ripe tomato, 2 chopped sun dried tomatoes, Italian seasoning, dash cayenne pepper, drizzle of evoo, and salt and pepper.

Yes, you noticed correctly.  I know what you are thinking.  Those meatlessballs are a little weird looking.  And if by weird you mean, gray.  Yup, I was surprised too.  If I think back to the color wheel we learned about in art class in the 2nd grade, combining tan (walnuts) and green (parsley) apparently makes gray.

PS I Googled grey vs gray and learned that grey became the established British spelling in the 20th century and it is but a minor variant in American English. Canadians tend to prefer grey.

Canada can have the gold.  But we can have the gray.

I worked from home today which meant that I could spend extra time making my lunch and not scarf down whatever was in my way.  I turned to a cookbook Santa bought me for Christmas this year (PS Santa = me).  Raw Food Made Easy is just that, easy.  The book is simple and straightforward.  The recipes use ingredients you probably already have in your cabinets/ fridge or ingredients that you can easily find in the store.  I have yet to read a recipe that has a fancy ingredient that is impossible to find and costs a fortune.  This book is one of my favorites.  Learn more about Jennifer Cornbleet and her book on her website.

I decided to make the Cream of Cucumber Soup (page 76 if you have the book).

4 romaine lettuce leaves, chopped  I forgot to include the romaine — whoops!
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 clove garlic, minced
1/2 ripe avocado, chopped  I used a whole avocado
1 tablespooin extra-virign olive oil
1 tablespoon minched fresh herbs (dill, mint, tarragon, or cilantro), or 1 teaspoon dried I used 1 teaspoon of dried tarragon

Place the lettuce, cucumber, water, lemon juice, garlic, and salt in a blender and process until smooth.  Add avocado and olive oil and blend again until smooth.  Add the herbs and blend briefly to mix.  Serve immediately.  For a chilled soup, refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.

I really didn’t like the garlic.  I was hesitant to add it in the first place because cucumber and garlic didn’t seem like a food combination that I would enjoy but I followed the recipe like I was supposed to do.  Don’t get me wrong, I love cucumbers and I love garlic but putting them together is like putting Tiger and Elin together.  They just don’t get along.

Not going to lie, I seriously didn’t like this soup.  It was just funky.  I couldn’t even eat it and that made me super mad — I wasted a perfectly ripe avocado!  I haven’t totally given up though, I really want to try this soup again when I have fresh mint.  I think mint and cucumber are perfectly matched.  And I would definitely forget out the garlic.  The garlic is just a third wheel in this relationship.

Just in time for the Olympics!  Who are your Olympic crushes? Bodie Miller, Apollo Anton Ohno, Evan Lysaek.  All of the above!

Those aren’t really my favorite things.  I guess I could technically agree with the whiskers on kittens line because I think if a kitten without whiskers crossed my path I would be creeped out.  However, all of my favorite things involve food.  And the more food the better.  I love when the deliciousness of a meal exponentially increases with the amount of ingredients you add.  Think sundaes.  Can a sundae ever have too many toppings?  Hot fudge, rainbow sprinkles, cherries, whipped cream, cookie crumbs, chocolate chips,  little marshmallows, gummy bears — the more the better!  There was always such a moment of panic every time I went to the ice cream parlor as a kid and I had to choose one topping for my ice cream.  Just one topping.  To a kid, that is pure agony.  The fear of choosing the wrong topping is enough to send most kids to therapy.

I felt a glimmer of that agony making a salad/pileoflettucewithguacamoleontop for lunch today.  I just kept adding and adding ingredients to the guac that I eventually I had to tell myself to stop.  I think I would have been more out of control if I had more ingredients at my disposal.  My fridge is still building back it’s power after being emptied before going to Colorado.

This guacamole included:

• 1 avocado
• 1 vine ripe tomato
• 1/4 red bell pepper
• 1 clove garlic
• raw agave syrup
• lemon juice
• lime juice
• Louisiana hot sauce
• red pepper flakes
• salt
• pepper

11 ingredients in one guacamole?!  I think that equals awesomeness.

PS Maybe I shouldn’t be admitting this but I have never seen the Sound of Music.  That is definitely a lifeskill I am lacking.

The goods:

• romaine lettuce
• kale
• avocado
• cherry tomatoes
• carrots
• dulse
• Celtic sea salt
• raw agave syrup
• lemon juice
• awesomeness

I just can’t stop eating this salad.  Seriously amazing.  I am totally in love.

In Oprah news, she did a great show today with Michael Pollan (Food Rules) and Alicia Silverstone (Clueless) about eating wholesome, real food.  Oprah was moved to do the show after she watched Food, Inc. — a movie I have been wanting to see since it came out this summer.  Oprah has teamed with Amazon to offer Food, Inc. at a discount for $9.99 until this Friday at midnight.  I will be ordering mine tomorrow.  Check it out here.

Obama time!

The salad included romaine lettuce, avocado, and a vine ripe tomato.

For the dressing, I included:

• Louisiana Hot Sauce
• lemon juice
• garlic, minced
• salt and pepper

Just two pics of food?  Mega borning for me.  A Laverne picture is needed to combat this.  Yesterday I found a picture of Laverne on my old laptop.  This was taken just after she had been groomed one day in 2006.   She was only four years old.  She does not look happy about that bow.

I guess we all have bad hair days.

Zucchini and Broccoli Soup — 2 servings

1 zucchini, roughly chopped

1 cup broccoli

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1/2 avocado

1 teaspoon fresh dill seed

1/2 cup water

dash of salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. I ate this raw but I think it would have been better if I had heated it on the stove. I am starting to love uncooked soups but now that it is cold outside, warm soup belly is a necessity.

Enjoy your martedì!