GREEN!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, fellow people of Irish descent!  Being half-Irish myself, I'm celebrating the holiday with a SUPERGREEN smoothie.  I know, I know, I only ever post about smoothies.  Right after this I'll tell you about an exciting *buckwheat* treat I had recently.  (You know you're a foodie when buckwheat is exciting.)

Spinach, mango, avocado smoothie.

St. Patty's Day GREEN EXPLOSION!

• 1 mango, peeled and chopped
• 4 cups spinach (I'm usin' local!)
• 1/2 an avocado
• handful of ice
• stevia to taste (optional)

And just blend it up!  So simple, so creamy, so sweet, so healthayyyy.  And so festive!  The picture above is just the empty jar after I finished the smoothie.  It was devoured before I even thought about grabbing my camera.  Oh, well!  I think the green-ness comes through.

Now for the promised buckwheat.  I've posted about my obsession with 'buckmeal' before, and now I am THRILLED to announce that I've improved upon my last recipe.  I was craving it real bad one day, and I didn't want to wait to sprout the buckwheat, so I came up with this version.

OBSERVE.

Maple Buckmeal with nuts, seeds and berries 

• 1 cup buckwheat groats, soaked for 1 hour and thoroughly rinsed
• 2 tsp. coconut oil
• 2 tsp. tahini
• hot water as needed

Blend all that up in a food processor, then add:

• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt

 and blend again.  Top with:

• sunflower seeds
• chopped walnuts
• hemp seeds
• maple syrup (LOTS!)
• blueberries
• diced apple

This is a little much for my stomach some days, what with all the not-so-smooth food combinations, but MAN is it delicious.  Certainly a worthy treat.

In other news, I had my first day back at work yesterday!  I work on an organic/biodynamic vegetable farm, and had time off for the winter starting in mid-December.  I'm so happy to be back!  I spent the day harvesting from an ocean of spinach, washing salad greens and transplanting the most beautiful little red chard plants.  Mmm.  My next workday is Monday, and it's supposed to be a gorgeous day.  Very, VERY exciting!

Other recent events:

A new painting of mine.  I'm calling it "Chakra" for now.

Beautiful sister o'mine all dressed up for a gala!

Me (also in gala attire) and that girlfriend character.

The aforementioned gala was this one, a gala to raise awareness for suicide, and to celebrate the life of our friend Jordan Porco, who took his own life in February 2011.  It was a beautiful event with Jordan-esque touches all over the place!  To find out more about the Jordan Matthew Porco Memorial Foundation, go here.  It's an amazing cause.

In love, gratitude and Spring excitement-
Mada

Greeeeeeen smoothie time

The first thing I consume every morning is a quart of water.  After that, I like to have something light and nutritious to satisfy and energize me until the next meal.  Usually this is a smoothie, a juice or a salad.  My current favorite green smoothie recipe (below) is warming, hydrating, delicious and packs a major nutrient punch.  (For more info about the benefits of green smoothies, go here.)

Gingerberry Shake

•  2 cups (or more!) spinach, baby or mature
• 1 cup frozen wild blueberries (antioxi-daaaaance!  shimmy shimmy!)
• 1 cup coconut water, preferably fresh
• 2 inches vanilla bean, scraped (or 1-2 tsp. vanilla extract)
• small knob fresh, peeled ginger root
• handful of ice

Pop it in the blender, and voila!

SO YUM!  It's like sunshine in a glass!

Smiles-
Mada

Beautiful food

As any reader of this blog may have noticed, I get very, very excited about food.  (My friend Joe says I hum when I bite into something delicious.)  Half of the excitement is the taste, but the other half is the appearance.  Take this blood orange:

I mean, WOW!  I could stare at it forever!  So, so beautiful!  The same goes for these soaked almonds:

!!!!!!!

Deeeeeeply appreciating the taste and appearance (and the basic existence) of everything I eat is a huge part of the gratitude I feel every day.  To me, cultivating gratitude means cultivating joy, so it's obviously pretty high on my priority list.  If you take a minute out of your day to take a deep breath and feel real gratitude for just one thing, you'll see how hard it is to stay unhappy!

I am juice feasting today, and this was my breakfast this morning:

The juice of one lemon, the juice of one lime, 1 tbs. Vitamineral Earth and stevia in a quart of water.  Mmmm.  I am grateful.

In love and gratitude-
Mada

Sunshine cookies + salad report

Sunshine cookies!  I've had a huge, beautiful butternut squash sitting on my counter for weeks and I finally decided how to use it.  Recipe as follows:

•  1/2 butternut squash, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup coconut butter (not oil)
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. cardamom
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• few drops almond extract
• 8-10 drops liquid stevia
• maple syrup (or extract) to taste

Peel, chop and food process the squash until it makes a soft mash.

Then add the rest of the ingredients and process until well combined.  Form into little patties and place on a dehydrator tray covered by a piece of parchment paper (or Teflex sheet).

Let them dehydrate overnight (or until they feel crisp on the outside- keep in mind that once they cool off they will harden more because of the coconut butter). 

Sunshine cookies with a zucchini/carrot latke in the middle- recipe forthcoming.

They're delicious warmed up with coconut oil and a sprinkle of salt.

Now for the salad report.  Here are two recent creations:

Massaged red kale, alfalfa sprouts, avocado, black olives, tomato, cucumber, hard-boiled egg*, hemp seeds, olive oil vinaigrette.

Mixed baby greens, tomato, alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, avocado, olive oil vinaigrette.

SO DELICIOUS!

Now I'm off into the big wide world of today.  Our Italian group gathers this afternoon!  To help fund our ground transportation while in Italy, click here.  Thank you so much!

In gratitude,

Mada

*A note about eggs: I don't, as a general rule, eat animal products (except honey), but you will see me occasionally eat an egg or two (even though, to be honest, eggs make me a little congested).  This is partially because I think they're very nutritious and partially because they're so crazy yummy.  The other day I was craving an egg like nobody's business, so I made this salad.  Whenever I eat eggs, I make sure they're local and free-range with the reddest yolks I can find (happy hens!).

Introduction / Breakfast for lunch

Hello!  I'm Mada, and here is where I intend to keep a colorful log of all the delicious food I create and enjoy.  I eat pretty much 100% raw vegan.  Sometimes I like to keep things very simple, other times I like to make more complex dishes, but I always love to experiment with whole, organic, living and life-giving foods.  Most of the year, I work on an amazing organic and biodynamic vegetable farm, so a lot of my produce comes from there.  I am 17 years old and live at home with my mother, grandfather, two sisters, brother and girlfriend, so I have a lot of willing (and not-so-willing) taste-testers!

Today I had breakfast for lunch!

'Buckmeal' topped with blueberries and cinnamon.

Live 'buckmeal' recipe:

• 1 cup sprouted buckwheat
• 1 tbs. ground flax seed
• 2 tbs. raw almond butter
• 1 tbs. carob powder
• hot (boiling) water as needed
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 6-8 drops liquid stevia
• 1-2 tsp. cinnamon, according to taste
• 1 digestive enzyme capsule, opened (optional)
• dash of maple syrup (or 1/2 tsp. maple flavor)
• handful of blueberries, fresh or frozen
• hemp milk (optional, recipe below)

First off, you have to sprout the buckwheat.  You can find step-by-step instructions online.  It usually takes 2-3 days depending on temperature/sunlight.

Extremely haphazard and jerry-rigged sprouting department.

Once you have your buckwheat, combine all ingredients except the blueberries and hemp milk in a food processor and process until smooth and smooth.  You can add water until it gets to your preferred consistency.

Then top with blueberries and hemp milk, recipe as follows:

• 2-3 tbs. hemp seeds
• 1 cup water or coconut water
• stevia to taste
• vanilla to taste

Blend everything in a high-speed blender until creamy, then pour over the buckmeal.  Enjoy!

I practically drowned mine in hemp milk.  Shameless.

Leftover hemp milk- fridgeward bound.

My youngest sister, Deidre (age 9), made herself this delightful platter as part of her lunch.  I couldn't help but take a picture.  It's so beautiful!

With love,
Mada