Cookie dough + MORE SALAD!

One of my favorite raw snacks is 'cookie dough,' an easy and customizable treat which, for me, totally satisfies cravings for things like peanut butter cups and chocolate chip cookies.

Today's cookie dough.

My usual recipe (though, like I said, it's very customizable) goes something like this:

• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup hemp seeds
• 2 tbs. coconut oil
• 1 tbs. cacao butter
• 1 tbs. vanilla extract (as you may have guessed, I LOVE vanilla)
• 2-3 tbs. carob powder (you may also have noticed my carob fetish)
• 6-10 drops liquid stevia, to taste
• few drops of almond extract
  
• dash of Celtic sea salt

Then you just toss it all in the food processor, let it rock, and voila!  Delish and nutrish.  AND not a food-combining nightmare.  So an all-around winner!

Now for the salad report.  You may be thinking something along the lines of, "Jeee-zuss, does this chick have taste buds?  So much lettuce!  So much carob!"  Let me assure you, not only do I have taste buds, I have very discerning taste buds, and I promise you all these salads and strange doughy concoctions are scrumptious.*

Here are a couple recent salads:

Mixed baby greens, cuke, tomato, alfalfa sprouts, chickpea sprouts, avocado, black olives, hemp seeds, olive oil vinaigrette.

Mixed baby greens, cuke, carrot, alfalfa sprouts, chickpea sprouts, garlic kraut, black olives, olive oil vinaigrette.

Speaking of chickpea sprouts, I recently came to the important decision to refer to chickpeas as chickpeas exclusively.  I've spent much of my life torn between 'garbanzo beans' and 'chickpeas,' and I have come to the decision, after long moments of deliberation, that chickpeas is the superior term.  Mostly because it sounds cuter.

On another note, I recently attended a lovely raw potluck with my mother and Claire!  I hadn't been in over a year, and I had a great time.  It inspired me and reminded me how much I love being part of a community of loving people and families that share my ideals about food and living and school (or lack thereof).  Claire has a post about it (with lots of yummy pictures!) over on her blog.

In gratitude-
Mada


*I will concede that my palate is probably a little health-warped at this point.  My mother often enters the kitchen to find me moaning in food ecstasy over a mixture of sauerkraut and almond butter, or, on one memorable occasion, soaked prunes with cinnamon.  She finds these encounters hilarious.