Lots of Salad, No Lettuce

Today was my monthly raw food cleanse, and I ate a ton of salads without crunching down on a single piece of lettuce! Nothing against lettuce, but sometimes it gets boring. I get stuck in salad ruts with the same old veggies on the same old romaine.

My morning didn't start with a salad though. I woke up to this delicious glass of Made In Mexico Mylk from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen:

This was amazingly tasty — almonds, dates, carob, cinnamon, and vanilla bean — and surprisingly creamy. I'll certainly be making this again!

Of course, I knew a little ol' glass of nut milk wouldn't satisfy me for long. So I brought this Tomato & Watermelon Salad to work as a pre-lunch snack:

The recipe comes from Mark Bittman's "101 Simple Salads for the Season," a New York Times article with plenty of vegan salad ideas. This one contains fresh watermelon, tomato, basil, and a basalmic vinger/olive oil dressing.

Lunch was this crisp Raw Corn Salad with Zesty Lime Dressing:

The recipe is here. I found it on a quick internet search for raw corn recipes. I had some delicious local Silver Queen corn that needed usin', and it was perfect paired with crunchy radishes and tangy lime.

I also slurped some Harvest Soup:

This creamy raw soup recipe came from Kristin Suzanne, but I found it on Gena's post about blended salads on her blog, Choosing Raw. Ever since Gena waxed poetic on the wonder of blended salads (basically just veggies whirled in a blender until creamy), I'd been wanting to try some. This one contained zucchini, tomato, carrot, celery, and flax oil.

I was starving by 3:30 p.m., so I snacked on a fresh plum and these local veggies — heirloom cherry tomatoes, green bell pepper strips, and cucumber slices:

After work, I scarfed down this Raw Revolution Cashew & Agave Nectar bar before hitting the gym:

These huge bars contain 280 calories and 16 grams of fat, so I certainly wouldn't eat the entire thing on a regular day. But on raw day, I figure I need the fat and calories. This is one of my all-time fave bars!

After my workout (45 minutes on the treadill while reading Twlight), I rushed home to cool off with this Fresh Watermelon Popsicle:

My mom recently bought me popsicle molds, and I filled them with fresh watermelon juice from a local melon I picked up at the farmer's market last Saturday.

For dinner, I had Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms:

I was inspired by Voracious Vegan's Summer Stuffed Mushroom post a few weeks ago. But hers were cooked, so I googled "raw stuffed mushrooms" and found this recipe. It calls for dehydration, but I don't own a dehydrator (sometimes I borrow my parent's though). Instead, I placed the stuffed baby bella caps in the oven on its lowest setting for an hour. They didn't cook, but they did get dehydrated-ish. I'm sure they're not techinically raw now, but whatever.

Alongside the mushrooms, I ate this Carrot Avocado Bisque from Choosing Raw:

Yes, I know it looks quite similar to the Harvest Soup (and both recipes came from Gena's blog), but the taste was totally different. This soup is made from carrot juice, avocado, ginger, and flax oil. The avocado gave it a crazy creamy texture that was almost like pudding!

Finally, for dessert, I had the best raw treat ever — Raw Banana Soft Serve with Carob Syrup:

Also from Gena at Choosing Raw, this dessert blew my mind! It's simply frozen bananas whirled in the food processor until creamy. That's it. And it may be the creamiest thing I've ever eaten, far smoother than any ice cream I've had. I think I may start making this every raw day and even some non-raw days in between.

The syrup is simply a pinch of carob powder mixed with a little agave and water. It's tasty, but not totally necessary. The banana cream is pretty sweet on its own.

By the way, my kitty Polaris had fun trying to chase the banana chunks as they spun around in the food processor!