It's finally getting warmer out! YAY! I bet you are looking forward to the spring just as much as I am. I can't wait to get more Vitatmin D. As you all know my basil tomato cashew pasta is Seth's favourite dish so I try to make it once a week for him. And tod loves Kale salad and we haven't had it in a while so I thought I'd make both of the men in my life happy today. (Except Seth isn't diggin the kale so I'm always happy to make him a lettuce salad instead, at least he is loving some veggies, right!?)
I can't wait. My parents are coming home from Hawaii tomorrow. They have been missed for 3 long weeks. However did I survive? I miss my mommy and daddy! My mom and I are super close. We got to Zumba together twice a week and talk on the phone and hang out. She always listens when I need her and I can't wait to have her home. Plus I need to through her a late birthday dinner. She was on vaca during her bday. Jealous or what!
I got to hang out with my other mom today, Tod's mom Connie! She is such an important person in my life. In all of our lives! She baby sits for me while I work out and she always calls to chit chat about anything! Those calls turn into hour long awesome convos. Girl talk! She always puts a smile on my face and she is such a good listener. I was talking about my cookbook proposal with her and she inspired me to have a girls night where we can look through cookbooks and pick out ideas such as
- front cover ideas
- title and subtitle ideas
- nutritional notes
- if I should write it like tsp. or teaspoon/ T. or Tbsp. or tablespoon
- if the ingredients should be above the instructions or to the right
- help me pick colours for titles
- help me chose font styles and sizes
- help me think of cooking and raw tips
- any other suggestions
- cookbook petpeeves....
And all that jazz! I will have treats from my book and I will get them to be my taste testers. I am so grateful to have a few close friends who I can really trust to give me their best advice. I am blessed to have them in my life. You know who you are.
I am in the works of getting together a blogging team. I want to ask other bloggers to add me to their circle and I will add them to mine. I will share their recipes that I love and hopefully they will share mine. I will add as many people as I can and hopefully that way I can boost my stats a tad bit and get my name out there, since I'm still so new to this blogging world. Fingers crossed!
Anyway here are the recipes! Thanks for reading and take care!!!
Basil Tomato Cashew Pasta
This is the recipe that my son always asks for. “It’s the best pasta in the world.”
Serves 3
Prepare ahead - Soak 1/2 cup raw cashews, covered in filtered water, for 4 hours
· 1 pk. brown rice spaghetti noodles
· 2 tsp. coconut oil
· handful raw almonds, chopped and toasted (optional)
Pasta Sauce
· 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked
· 1 cup vegetable broth
· 10 basil leaves
· 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
· 1/2 tsp. celtic sea salt, ground
· 1 clove garlic
· 1 Tbsp. Mrs. Dash seasoning or 1 tsp. onion powder & a dash of pepper
· 15 cherry tomatoes or 2 medium tomatoes
1. Soak cashews in filtered water. Rinse. Place pasta sauce ingredients into a high speed blender and blend until smooth.
2. Fill a medium sized pot 3/4 full of water. Bring to a boil. Add brown rice pasta. Turn heat down to a medium/low heat. Set the timer for 9 minutes. Stir every 3 minutes. At the 9 minute mark, take a noodle out, blow and bite. If the noodle is still hard, set the timer for another 2 minutes. The noodle should be cooked on the outside and slightly firm on the inside. After the noodles are cooked, drain and rinse them with cold water. The noodles will continue to soften. Leave noodles in the pot. Add 1 tsp. coconut oil so the noodles don’t stick together. Cover and place pot off heat until ready to eat.
3. While the noodles are cooking melt coconut oil in a large pan on low/med heat. Add pasta sauce and heat on med/low heat until hot. Stir often.
4. Toasted almonds - Preheat oven to 350° F (175° C). Chop raw almonds and place on a cookie tray. Bake for 5-10 minutes or until you start to smell them. Check often. Pour the roasted almonds into a bowl as soon as they are out of the oven. They can burn if left on the tray.
5. When the sauce is hot and the noodles are done, add the noodles to the pasta sauce pan and stir.
6. Garnish with a dash of ground celtic sea salt, toasted almonds and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast. Serve hot.
This pasta has been modified from Angela's 'Easy basil tomato cream pasta' and I have also seen it in the Vegan Yum Yum recipe book. 'Super quick tomato basil cream pasta'! It's a good one!
Kale Salad
This is the salad I use to impress our guests and it works every time. Make sure you have the recipe printed out for your guests because they will be asking for it!
Serves 4
Dressing
Makes just over 1 cup
Prepare ahead - Soak 1/2 cup raw cashews, covered in filtered water, for 4 hours
· 1 cup of raw cashews, soaked
· 2 cloves garlic
· 1 tsp. unpasteurized honey or clear unpasteurized agave nectar
· 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
· 1/8 small onion (optional)
· 2 Tbsp. unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
· filtered water if needed
Salad
· 10 branches of green kale
· 1 avocado, cubed
· 12 cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
· 1/2 head of broccoli, cut in chunks
1. Mix the sauce ingredients in a high speed blender until smooth. The mixture should be thick but pourable. If it's too thick to blend add water until it becomes creamy. Cashews should be fully blended into a creamy dressing.
2. Wash kale and dry. Cut off stem and discard. Rip kale into bite sized pieces. Place into a large bowl. Add ½ cup dressing. Massage the sauce into the kale until fully coated. Add more dressing if needed. Cut vegetables and add to the kale. Serve!
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