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.

This was my first time using my new kitchen gadget and it was a lot of fun.  The best part was that it was so simple to use (except for when I turned the handle the wrong way and thought that I broke it).

It is just like the box!  It looks rather scary but it isn’t.  In fact, it is all plastic so it is not super sturdy but it gets the job done.

The blades. The middle one is upside down (oops).  It comes with three blades.  The back of the box calls them: The Chipper, The Slicer, and The Shredder.

I love that the box is in English and Italiano.

I tested each blade before deciding which one to use.

Big Momma Spirals. I really want to spiralize a sweet potato at this setting and bake them.  Sweet potato chips are definitely in my future.

Medium Spirals. Great for steaming.

Teeny Spirals. I think the really thin noodles will be ideal for eating the zucchini raw.

I lightly steamed the zucchini after I spiralized and combined with a homemade basil tomato sauce.  I used the medium spirals for steaming and it was perfect.  I was afraid that the teeny spiral would be too small and practically disappear during steaming.

What else can be spiralized? I was thinking of spiralizing a sweet potato, cucumber, and yellow squash.  The box shows a picture of cabbage.  I had not thought of that one.

After running 4 miles this morning, I was starving for lunch.  I checked to fridge to find that I had a weird mix of food.  I had bought a huge bag of basil and cabbage earlier that morning.  I figured that the only way to combine these two was to use a yummy tomato as my middle-man.  I made my lunch in just minutes, which was great since I was super hungry.  All I did was add basil, raw goat cheese, tomato, salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar to a cabbage leaf.  Delish– I devoured my lunch in minutes.

The secret to capese salad (or any meal for that matter) is to have fresh ingredients.  Really fresh.  

The mozzarella I bought was hand rolled.  I have learned that the mozzarella that comes in the tubs of water does not have the best taste but the hand rolled ones are better.  This mozzarella was very fresh.  

Usually caprese salad is served with balsamic vinaigrette but I wanted something lighter.  I combined equal parts of olive oil and red wine vinegar to make the dressing.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Simple and airy.

I cannot remember the last time I had ravioli.  Sad.  Cheese ravioli has always been one of my favorite dishes.  I didn’t really know how I could make a raw version of my old favorite but I knew there had to be a way.  I went to the store this morning to get an idea as to how I could make raw ravioli.  The red sauce and filling would be easy but the shell was another story.  I thought about using zucchini but then I saw baby cabbage in the store and the decision was made.  I bought 1 green cabbage that was the size of a baseball.  I will definitely start buying more cabbage to use in place of bread, tortillas, and ravioli.

Ravioli Filling (1 serving)

3/4 cup soaked cashews
2 soaked sun dried tomatoes, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt

Soak the cashews and sun dried tomatoes for a few hours.  Combine all ingredients and blend.  I added a few tablespoons of water while blending to get a creamy filling.

Red Sauce (1 serving)

4 sun dried tomatoes, soaked 
1 plum tomato
1 clove garlic, minced 
few leaves of fresh basil
dash of oregano
dash of red pepper flakes
salt

Combine all ingredients and blend.  I made my sauce spicy with a lot of red pepper flakes.  

Ravioli 

Use a single piece of cabbage as the shell by placing 1 heaping teaspoon of cashew filling.  Fold the cabbage to make a taco and then cut the edges to make squares.

Fabulous fabulous fabulous!  This was my first attempt at making manicotti (raw or cooked) and it could not have turned out more delicious. This was also the first time I made a nut filling.  I was surprised how simply everything came together.  I was worried that it would taste funky but it was great.  And very filling.  I was stuffed.

Manitcotti is usually made with a ricotta filling but I used cashews.  For the macaroni shell, I sliced an eggplant very thinly using a mandoline.  I made a really quick, unfancy sauce.  Un-raw manicotti isn’t served with macaroni but I felt like I was lacking something.  I have a ton of zucchini and squash so I added that.

“Ricotta” (1 serving)

1 cup raw cashews (I didn’t soak mine but next time I will try that)
4 sun dried tomatoes, chopped
juice of 1 small lemon (I used half of a huge lemon)
few leaves of basil
dash salt

Blend all of the ingredients in a food processor or blender.  I had to play around with the consisteny a little by adding extra virgin olive oil. 

Red Sauce

1 roma tomato
3 sun dried tomatoes, chopped
handful of basil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Combine all ingredients in a blender and pulse.  Enjoy!