rutabaga fries

This weekend has been filled with great new recipes, great conversation and the most amazing chocolate I have ever had. On Saturday after a crazy morning filled with bagels, markets and lots of coffee the Hubz and I came home to prepare for our dinner guest. We took a break from cleaning and organizing to enjoy a Dominex Eggplant Burger over greens with tomatoes and avocado served with rutabaga flax fries.

More cleaning and a little napping happened and then it was time to make dinner for Allie from Healthy Balance, Healthy Life. Allie wanted to make hummus using her new food processor so that set the tone for the entire meal.  I decided to go with a Mediterranean themed meal which included lemon-garlic-oregano marinated tofu, tomato, onion and pepper skewers, olives, pita, tahini-parsley dressing and carrot sticks and radishes with Allie’s roasted red pepper hummus.

The marinade/baste for the veggies and tofu included:

• 1 cup vegetarian chicken broth (could sub vegetable broth)
• 2 Tablespoon chopped parlsey
• 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 2 teaspoons oregano
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil

Whisk these all together and pour over skewered veggies and tofu and allow to marinate for 2-4 hours.  Remove from the marinade and place on parchment lined baking sheets; pre-heat oven to 425F. Place the remaining marinade in a small sauce pan and place over high heat; bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer until the sauce has reduced by half. Remove from the heat and brush the veggies and tofu. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove and baste with more of the reduced marinade; return to the oven and bake for 15 more minutes.  Remove from the oven once again and baste the veggies and tofu with the remaining marinade.  Turn the oven on to broil and broil on high until the veggies and tofu are lightly browned.

For dessert we enjoyed Lulu’s raw chocolate which is easily by far the most amazing raw chocolate I have ever had.  I find a  a lot of raw chocolates do not have enough of a chocolate flavor and are sometimes chalky tasting but this chocolate was amazing and not only is the best raw chocolate I have ever had but one of the best chocolates.  I will blog about these more once I try the other flavors I have.

After our late night chatting and enjoying Proseco with Allie we dragged ourselves out of bed this morning and headed to my parents house for the day.  We enjoyed the day with my parents, grandma and Aunt Carol; we ate, played cards and laughed. When we got home we were hungry and ready to enjoy a nice high-raw dinner.  This week we are going to eat high raw in hopes of detoxing our body a bit after enjoying lots of pasta, bread and drinks this weekend.

Dinner tonight consisted of a spicy carrot-avocado soup and raw tuna salad sandwiches which was served on multigrain Manna sprouted bread.

Spicy Carrot-Avocado Soup (raw)

Serves 2-3

• 1 & 2/3 cup carrot juice
• 1 avocado
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 jalapeno
• 1 small garlic clove
• pinch of cayenne pepper

Place all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.

You can get the Aioli Mayonaise recipe for the mock tuna sandwich here.