Shredded Zucchini Salad

I love discovering new simple salad ideas that are just so great. Shredding vegetables adds variety and different texture to salads. Here I shredded zucchini and layered it over chopped romaine lettuce. Sliced some tomatoes, avocados, and green onions, drizzled Bragg's and lemon juice for dressing, then topped it off with some raw sesame seeds. Delicious!

Enjoy!
<3 Dani

Real Food Daily

Bianca and I had a fabulous weekend in LA browsing the Getty on Saturday and running the Santa Monica Classic on Sunday. But the most delicious part was dining at the best organic vegan cuisine in the city, the Real Food Daily. This place is great guys, the environment is friendly and the food is spectacular. Any non-vegan would walk out happy too!



Bianca always changes what she orders at the last minute and really likes to get the waiter's opinion. Her requests were for something delicious and filling. The Supreme Burrito dry perfectly hit the spot. I ordered the Pizza You Can Eat-za. The herb corn meal crusted pizza was topped with sun-dried tomato pesto, spinach and basil. The best part was the melted mozzarella and cashew cheeses. Millie, our LA local who housed us for the night always orders the Grilled Veggie Wrap with tofu but Bianca told her to switch things up and she ordered the El Bandito Rojo instead. Our other local friend, Cassie took Millie's advice to order the veggie wrap and loved it...and she's not even vegan.

Now for the best part, the Real Food Daily has a Bakery right next door! We ordered three dishes and all dug in; the German Chocolate Cake, the Banana Crunch Cake and the Double-Layer Chocolate Cake, which was gluten free but probably one of the best desserts I have ever had.
It was around this time in the night that we discovered the sad fact that we're all single...we laughed at the sight of the four of us single ladies stuffing our faces with chocolate cake and banana pie. Our extravagant Saturday night was forced to come to an early end since we had to be ready for the Classic the next morning. Really, it was quite the ladies night out :)
This restaurant is fabulous, if you are ever in LA you must stop here!
<3 Dani

Baby Bok Choy

I have really taken to the Asian vegetables at the Farmer's market. I buy almost all of my produce at their stand now. Anyways, I've been trying different things and I decided to grab some baby bok choy. I had totally planned to cook it and then at the last minute I chopped it up and created a delicious salad! I had never really even had bok choy before and now I love it!

Baby Bok Choy Salad

5-6 baby bok choys
1 shredded carrot
2 green onions
1/2 avocado
T chopped fresh ginger
lemon juice from half a lemon
splash of Bragg's Liquid Aminos

Chop up the bok choy, leaves and heads. Throw in thinly slice green onions and carrot. Add in avocado and chopped up ginger. Squeeze in the lemon juice and splash with Bragg's. Toss well in a bowl mashing in avocado well. Top with sesame seeds.

Delicious, enjoy!
<3 Dani

Doughnut Holes

Probably surprised to see a post called doughnut holes, but really these raw treats are so delicious! Ani Phyo certainly knows how to do great raw desserts, this recipe is taken out of her book, Ani's Raw Food Kitchen. This is a great book if you're wanting to venture into raw foods, the recipes are simple and she does a great job explaining the benefits of a raw diet.

Dreaming about Donut Holes
1 3/4 C raw almonds
1/2 t sea salt
1 vanilla bean, scraped or 1 T vanilla extract
2 C dried pineapple, chopped
2 C pitted dates
1/3 C shredded coconut

You can soak the nuts before, I like to because it increases digestibility but Ani's recipe doesn't require it. In a food processor, grind almonds, salt and vanilla. Next, add in chopped pineapple and dates and blend well. Mix in the coconut by hand. Using an ice cream scooper or spoon form donut holes out of the mixture. You can refrigerate them or freeze them like I do, there so much better really cold. If you soaked the nuts, the mixture will be creamier and you will most likely want to freeze them so they harden.

Optional: Roll the donut holes in shredded coconut after they've been shaped.

Love, Dani

p.s. I prefer 'doughnut' over 'donut' because it just looks so much more doughy and therefore makes a better treat :)

Toiling, Pruning and Picking

Trav and I had a great Mother's day down in Rancho with our Nan. We spent a lot of our time working in the backyard, gardening, planting tomatoes, picking citrus fruits and pruning the peach tree. God never ceases to amaze me with His creation and how beautifully it illustrates so much about His character and relationship with us.

My Nan always plants tomatoes around this time each year. She bought seven little plants and was waiting to plant them until I came up. Trav was in charge of the weeding and placing the little guys in each of the wholes Nan had dug. I'm fairly positive this was his first time in any garden :) Nan put me in charge of patting down the soil and then digging a little mote around each one to keep the water around the roots. As my Nan was watering the plants, my brother kept saying, "I think that's enough, I think that's enough!" As if he knows anything about watering plants...but the crazy thing is that the plants really need a lot of water to grow. This is their life source; without it they grow dry and weary and eventually fade away. This is how much we need our source of life, JESUS, everyday! And it's so evident that we think we're doing fine and we don't need more, but we can NEVER have enough of Him! Ah, He is so good to overflow our cup and let His living water flow through us. "And the LORD will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail." Isaiah 58:11

Now, the pruning, OMIGOSH did He show me so much about the importance of pruning. My Nan has a little tiny peach tree but it seriously must have thousands of little green peaches growing. Now, if we simply left it like that and allowed it to do it's own thing they would never be able to grow or produce any fruit at all. JUST LIKE US! We need pruning in order to be able to bear good fruit for the kingdom. We're completely incapable with out God teaching us lessons and bearing up through hard times. Even more, I realized how difficult it is for him to prune us! Pruning the tree was anything but easy for me guys, I was having such a hard time picking off the little green peaches and just throwing them away. I didn't really want to at all, but my Nan kept saying we had to for the sake of the peaches. This is such a picture of His heart for us, He doesn't want us to suffer or struggle but it has to be done for the sake of bigger and better things to come! It's because of His deep deep love for us that He does it. "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every one that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bring forth more fruit." John 15:2


My Nan has a courtyard with around ten or so rose bushes that are beginning to bloom. The colors we're just radiant! Now really, who can look at these and not stand in awe at how truly beautiful God's creation is.

And for the citrus fruits. Trav was needed for reaching the highest of oranges and he helped gather some lemons. He was so helpful today :)

Hope you had a blessed Mother's Day!
<3 Dani

Hand-Made Sushi

I have been wanting to make sushi ever since Bianca and her family had such a success with trying it over Christmas break. So finally, during our weekly dinner with our friends Emma and Erin we gave it a shot. It was actually really fun, laughing at each as the rolls fell apart all over the place. We sort of ate the whole roll like a burrito, without slicing it at all, it was hilarious. Bianca certainly had the upper hand and the rest of us needed serious help throughout the rolling up process. Once you get the hang of it though, it's not that bad.

What you'll need:
-brown rice, cooked with a little bit more water because it needs to be sticky
-a bowl of water to dip your hands in with working with the rice
-sushi maker, we used a magazine inside of a big zip lock bag, We get creative, I know :)
-a sharp knife to slice the sushi rolls into pieces
-plenty of julienned veggies, we used carrots, bell peppers, and cucumbers
-lots of avocado!
-freshly pickled ginger
-dipping sauce, we used Bragg's, tamari or soy would work also
-chop sticks, we'll we tried to use them :)
-seaweed paper

To make sushi:
STEP 1: Place seaweed on top of your sushi-maker. Layer a good amount of rice on top of the seaweed, spreading evenly. The rice needs to go to the sides of the seaweed but leave about an inch at the top.
STEP 2: Layer the vegetables and the avocado on top of the rice, all the way to the sides again.
STEP 3: Now, this is the tricky part. Wet the last inch of the seaweed that doesn't have rice. Grabbing the end of the rice paper closest to you with your sushi maker, fold over and attempt to land directly where the rice ends and inch before the end of seaweed. You need that last inch of the seaweed to roll over the sushi and stick to the outside, securely holding it together. It's going to feel awkward but in order to do this you simply continue rolling and rolling with the sushi maker. Un-roll and wallah!

This is really fun to do with friends!
<3 Dani

Double Decker Veggiewich

Bianca came home the other day starving, or should we say completely ravenous. This is not uncommon around here and I know that I'm known for exaggerating but really I'm not. We've all learned the ways of Bianca and when she's hungry, she is H-U-N-G-A-R-Y. So in a matter of a couple minutes she created this masterpiece and it hit the spot...just perfectly :)

To start you must have on hand Bianca's infamous hummus which I can not believe I have not shared with you until now.
Recipe:
1 C cooked or canned garbanzo beans
3 T extra virgin olive oil
1/4 C lemon juice
2 t cumin
2 T tahini
1 clove of garlic
Blend all ingredients together in a food processor.

Spread hummus on sprouted wheat bread. Layer thinly sliced cucumber, tomato and bell peppers on one half, stuff the other half with sprouts and top with a think layer of avocado.

I dare you try it!
;) Dani