spicy, dairy free, cheese

I am just over a week into the dairy free portion of my experiment. I bought some almond milk, really not thinking it was going to be that good from what I've heard. It is definitely different than cow's milk, as one would guess, but it's pretty good. I haven't had any on it's own, just with food so I can't tell you if I like it alone or not. I can tell you I don't like cow's milk on it's own so I've never been in the habit of drinking it alone anyway. It's surprisingly creamy feeling. It only has35 calories a cup. I liked that.

On my weekly menu is enchiladas. I like cheese with mine so I looked at a bag of dairy free cheese. It's a small bag for $6 something and the ingredient list didn't look that great to me so I didn't get any.

Having done the raw diet before, I had heard about cashew cheese but never made it. I have an online friend who recently made some so I was ready to try it! But her's was fermented and I didn't think far enough ahead to do that...I didn't think far enough ahead to soak the cashews. Oh well. Such is life.

I didn't follow a recipe. I looked at a few recipes and took what I liked and used it. I added cashews, minced garlic, pepper, chili powder, paprika, lemon juice and water into the blender and let her rip.

I had little chunks in my cheese but I think soaking the cashews would have taken care of that. Here's what it looks like. I used paprika to change it to more orange...but that only worked a little.

It's thick like cream cheese. You can make it thinner or thicker according to how much water you put in it. I gave it a hesitant taste but was surprised...it's pretty good! It's not identical to dairy cheese, as one would guess. No one would be fooled in a blindfolded taste test but it is good in its own way.

Hey, I just realized I ate this spicy meal without my nose melting! Cool! I haven't been able to eat anything without my nose running like crazy in a few months now. Change is a good thing!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the enchilada guts were black beans, salsa verde and mashed sweet potatoes. Corn tortillas are gluten free.

summer cooking begins

Thanks for the suggestions of summer food. Adam broke down and turned the AC on, he couldn't take it anymore. It had been in the 90's for weeks with really high humidity. But since then, it's climbed into the low 100's with really high humidity. I am still going to do my best to make summery foods...and I have plans on cooking outside (we dont have a grill so I'm formulating a plan) when possible. At the very least, I am really going to try not to do any baking in the house, other than bread. I still want my bread.

To start off our summer food, I made this fruity chicken salad. It had cooked chicken (I had cooked it before and frozen it), 3 kinds of lettuce, sprouts, frozen strawberries and peaches (and pecans on my portion). It was yummy and nice and cool during the heat wave.

margharita pizza and raw brownies

Dinner...mmm. I'm so hungry right now that just thinking about it is making my stomach growl. Anyway, a couple of nights ago, we made dinner together. Adam had bought this log of fresh mozzerella and while we were snacking on it, I decided we needed to have a margharita pizza. It's our favorite kind, followed by hawaiian. After baking the crust, we topped it with a pizza sauce Adam made, chopped basil, pieces of tomato and small chunks of the fresh mozzerella. It doesn't melt very much like the hard blocks of mozzerella does. It was so good! Unfortunately, it didn't last very long. But the recipe made enough for 2 doughs so the other dough will be made into the same pizza in a night or two. Can't wait!

Then, for dessert, I made these raw brownies. I started making these when I was on the raw diet. I don't make them very often but they are good on occassion. They don't taste like brownies but they satisfy my sweet tooth.

It's a cup of dates, a cup of walnuts, a tsp. of cocnut oil (though you could sub butter, I'm sure) and 1/4 cup cocoa. You process it all in the food processor. The longer you proccess, the more dense they become. That's the way I prefer them. Then, you press into shape (I used a Ziploc container) and chill for an hour. Adam's never tried them.