Cream of Winter Soup

This rich, decedent soup is so full of flavor and color, and you'd never guess there's no dairy cream! Serve with a hearty whole grain bread. Keep warm and enjoy!

1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 large stalks celery, thinly sliced
2 large carrots, sliced
4 - 5 large mushrooms, sliced and cut in half
6 cups water
About 1 cup of your favorite greens, torn into bite size pieces
1 cup walnuts
1 cup water
1tsp arrowroot powder or organic cornstartch
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp rosemary
1/8 tsp sage
1 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp paprika
Dash of coriander
Salt to taste
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped (optional)

Combine sweet potato, onion, garlic, celery, carrot, mushrooms, and water in a dutch oven. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer until veggies reach desired tenderness. Add greens. Meanwhile, combine walnuts, water, and arrow root powder in blender, and blend on high until completely smooth and there is no grit. Pour this mixture into veggies and stir well. Add seasonings, and let simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes. Add fresh cilantro and serve.

Raw Oat Groat Porridge

This creamy, full-flavored porridge sticks to your ribs like no other breakfast I have tried! Soaking the oat groats softens them so they can be blended, and also activates the enzymes and greatly increases the nutrition in these powerhouses. Feel free to experiment with different fruits and variations, this is just a basic recipe. I got this, although I'm not exactly sure of the proportions, from the DVD series from Rudy and Jeannie Davis, "Removing the Mystery Behind Disease". You guys should all check it out, its eye-opening!

1 cup oat groats, covered with water about an inch over the groats, soaked overnight, or at least 7-8 hours
6-8 dates, soaked until soft (the time may vary depending on how dry your dates are, we typically just soak them overnight as well)
1 ripe banana

Drain oat groats; rinse. Combine all ingredients to blender or food processor and blend until desired consistency. You may add some of the date soak liquid if the porridge needs thinning out. Kids love this one, so make plenty if there are kids involved!

Raw Creamy Cucumber Dip/Dressing

1 c. slivered almonds, soaked for at least 6 hours and kept refrigerated (other nuts could be used and may not need to be soaked first, although that would make it easier to blend them)
1/4 c. lemon juice (or to taste)
Water to desired consistency, start with 1/4 cup 
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 - 2 cloves fresh garlic
1/2 tsp citric acid (optional)
2 avocadoes
1 large cucumber, halved and seeded
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp dill weed
2-4 drops stevia (optional)


Blend almonds, lemon juice, and water until almonds are smooth and there is no grit. Combine remaining ingredients and blend on high until smooth and creamy. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Fluffy Banana Cake with Creamy Carob Frosting

Vegan cakes, especially when made with whole wheat flour can often turn out to be either gooey mound or a hard brick. Bananas keep this cake soft and moist without weighing it down or making it gooey, while using whole wheat pastry flour keeps it lighter than regular whole wheat flour would. The frosting is a mock buttercream made with avocados of all things! This just came to me while wondering how I was going to make a "buttercream" frosting for my husband's birthday cake with no butter, margarine, or powdered sugar. I had a basket full of ripe avocados, so I thought, "Hey, it's worth a shot". I had to tweak it a bit to get the consistency and taste I wanted, but I turned out great, and no one at the table was any wiser about the lack of butter.

Cake:
2 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 tsp stevia
1/2 cup xylitol
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup almond milk
3 small ripe bananas
3 1/2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Frosting:
2 ripe avocados
3 - 4 Tbsp carob powder
1/4 tsp stevia
3- 4 Tbsp xylitol
1 - 2 Tbsp honey or agave (optional)
Pinch of salt
Splash of almond milk

For cake: beat all ingredients with electric mixer on low speed for about 30 seconds, then on high speed until well mixed and smooth. Do not over mix. Pour into cake pan(s). Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes for rectangles, 30-35 minutes for 9-inch rounds, 20-25 minutes for 8-inch rounds, or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack.

For frosting: beat all ingredients with electric mixer on high until smooth and whipped. Adjust sweetener and carob powder to taste. Frost cooled cake as desired.

Carob Fudge Cookies

Coming from a family of chocolate lovers, I learned to enjoy chocolate at a young age. Now that I'm older, not only do I realize the high fat and sugar content in chocolate deserts, along with caffeine and theobromine, I also have a chocolate sensitivity. Carob, a low fat and more nutritious substitute for chocolate, gives this cookie a rich, decadent taste, without the need for copious amounts of fat and sugar to mask the bitterness and make it palatable. Carob is also free of insect parts (yes, you read correctly, insect parts!) and is much better for diabetics.You may use cocoa powder if you want, but many people find that once they get used to the subtle differences in carob, they prefer it to chocolate.

1/2 cup xylitol
1/4 tsp stevia
1 banana, or 1/4 - 1/3 cup peanut or almond butter
1/2 - 1 tsp vanilla (optional)
6 Tbsp carob powder
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp flaxseed meal
1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp aluminum free baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 chopped nuts (optional)

Mix xylitol, stevia, banana or nut butter, vanilla, carob powder, water, and flaxseed meal in a medium bowl with an electric mixer set to low until smooth and no chunks of banana/nut butter remain. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix well. Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet, spreading out the dough a bit to flatten. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10-12 minutes, or until just set in the middle. Remove from cookie sheet on to wire rack immediately and allow to cool.

Zucchini Lasagna

This gluten free take on a long-time favorite is a crowd pleaser for taste buds of all kinds! There's no noodles to worry about, and zucchini seems to always be on sale or your next door neighbor or friend at church is always giving them away, so its more cost effective too. Its also a better alternative for those wanting to jump-start their weight loss. Feel free to add more veggies like mushrooms, eggplant, onions, etc.

1 jar marinara sauce (no added sugar or oil, or very little olive oil)
1 lb firm water packed tofu, drained
Juice of one lemon
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp each garlic powder, onion powder, basil, and oregano
8 oz. spinach or greens of choice, chiffonde (you can use more if you wish)
1 - 3 Awesome Oat Burgers, crumbled (optional)
3 - 4 large zucchini, cut in half and sliced thinnly, lengthwise
1/2 cup raw cashews
3/4 - 1 cup water
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1/8 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tsp onion powder
Splash of lemon juice or pinch of citric acid

Spread a layer of sauce over a 9 x 13 glass or ceramic baking dish. Crumble tofu into medium bowl, and combine with lemon juice, salt, and seasonings. Prepare zucchini. Add cashews and remaining ingredients to blender and blend on high until there is no grittiness. Layer the Lasagna top top of the sauce in the following manner:

zucchini
tofu
oat burger crumbles (if using)
spinach
zucchini
sauce
tofu
spinach
zucchini
sauce
cashew sauce

Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 30 minutes, or until zucchini is tender, sauce is bubbly, and cashew sauce has begun to harden.

World Famous Chocolate (or Carob) Chip Cookies

This recipe was given to my mother by my dad's aunt out in California back in the mid-eighties. All I did was replace the eggs ands butter. Makes about one and half dozen cookies.

1/2 cup non-hydrogenated shortening or Earth Balance spread
1/2 cup organic cane sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp flaxseed meal
6 Tbsp water
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
1 cup chocolate or carob chips
3/4 cup chopped nuts (pecans are best, in my opinion)

Combine shortening, sugar, flaxseed meal, water, and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl, and beat with an electric mixer until well blended. Sift flour into liquid mixture, then add salt and baking powder and mix well. Stir in chocolate or carob chips and nuts. Drop my spoon fulls on to cookie sheet, and flatten out slightly. These cookies don't spread very far, so don't leave them highly mounded. Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes or until tops are just set. Cool on wire rack.