raw collard wraps

Monday Night is Raw Night

It seems my children have gotten used to the idea of Raw Night. I didn't say they've gotten to like it - just that they now remember to moan...'oh, yeah. It's Raw Night,' sigh and walk away.

No matter! Onward we go!

Tonight's culinary delights involved a marinated collard wrap, encasing a puree of fresh-shelled peas and kohlrabi. The puree is mixed with walnut pieces, slivered spinach, bean sprouts and minced Fresno peppers. Accompanying the wraps are a cucumber salad, marinated shiitake and nama shoyu vinaigrette.

I found the meal well-balanced, the flavors, textures and colors all complementing each other. David thought it wasn't bad. Kate liked it. Mikel and Cat humored me tasting the wraps. Mikel told me making raw taste good is hard. After I gave him a Mom-look, he amended that to getting him to like raw is difficult.

When dinner was almost ready, Cat sprang on me that it is her Half-Birthday. Great! So? Well, we have some dear friends who do celebrate all five of their children's half birthdays, and since I was just jumping out of my skin that my daughter was doing math of any kind, I immediately set to work to produce some dessert in celebration. ...a raw dessert.

Mudslide Pie.

No fear, blog readers, desserts of any kind - raw or otherwise- are always welcome at our house! Desserts are not collards, after all.

By the way, this pie has three fillings - almond butter, chocolate and vanilla. My blender needed to be cleaned thrice. And the food processor once. This is a gluten free, albeit not soy free dessert - the thickener is soy lecithin.

Cost Breakdown:

1/2 collard bunch: $1.50

filling: $4

mushroom: $3

1/2 cuke: $.50

nama shoyu, limes, pepper, oils: $2

Total to feed 3 people:

$11.00

Raw Mudslide Pie Recipe

gluten free and fat free biscuits

Like I said before, my kids simply do not care if they have the same things in a row. Last night we had Seitan and Dumplings (read: biscuits) and today Kate wanted to make Biscuits.

We make a whole wheat biscuit that is fat free. This is probably the fifth time she has made these. The kids love it and I don't cringe when they put Earth Balance on it because I did not add fat to it.

Today I tried my hand at making gluten free biscuits, thanks to Simply Healthy Family blog. It certainly can't hurt to be moderate about wheat - one of the key reasons why we don't eat anything exclusively, like soy. Too much of a good thing is not necessarily a good thing, and all that.

I made them the same way we make the regular biscuits, just replaced the whole wheat pastry flour with GF flour. It needed a half cup more flour than wheat recipe, but I still didn't want to add xanthan gum or fat. Because they were still a little softer than the wheat ones, I baked them in my cast iron biscuit/cornbread pan. I'm sure a little more baking time would be nice, and preheating the pan would be great, too, to get them golden brown. In the end, they are fluffy, held together, are light and tasty. I'm sure adding 2-4 T of fat would make them even better, but like I said, my kids would add it no matter what I did to the batter.

Cost Breakdown:
Regular:
whole wheat flour: $.50
almond milk: $.50
chives, bak. powder: $.25
Total to make 6 biscuits:
$1.25

GF biscuits:
GF flour : $2
almond milk: $.50
chives, bak. powder: $.25
Total to make 7 biscuits:
$2.75

WW, FF on right

GF, FF on left

Gluten Free Biscuit Recipe

FAT FREE BISCUITS PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE