Raw Italian Demo

This week I experienced my first ever raw vegan food. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. The university I work at offers cooking demos in their new rec facility and when I found out they had vegan cooking demos I was psyched! Then I found out they were raw... which made me a little nervous.

I thought I'd give it a try anyway and am so glad I did. The young woman who did the cooking demo is a certified raw vegan chef from Boston and was energetic and very enthusiastic about raw foods! She worked in a raw vegan restaurant before coming to college (or during summers, I'm not sure) and definitely had the know how and really good recipes to share. She had prepared samples the night before so we were even well fed. We tried zucchini rolls that were stuffed with marinara, alfredo sauce, and pesto, as well as butternut squash stuffed beet ravioli and spiralized zucchini alfredo. To top it all off, she made raw tiramisu! It was pretty amazing. My eyes have been opened. I even ordered a spiralizer this morning.... raw recipe reviews coming soon!

The chef happens to also have a blog and posted all the delicious recipes here. Seriously check them out. There are some pictures of the raw foods I tried too.

Veggie Lasagna Recipe

Look at these veggies! I scored big at the farmer's market today. Check out that beautiful eggplant and round zucchini! I knew I needed to make a delicious lasagna. Bonus: this recipe is low-calorie.

 Veggie Lasagna
10 lasagna noodles
1.5 cups pasta sauce
1 large tomato
1 eggplant
1 large zucchini
1 cup spinach
1 cup tofu ricotta (see recipe below)

Boil a big pot of water and add the 10 lasagna noodles. Then get chopping! Slice the eggplant, zucchini and tomato pretty thin, about 1/4 inch.

 Before you start assembling, make the tofu ricotta.

 Tofu Ricotta
1/2 block extra firm tofu
1 large garlic clove
1 Tbl olive oil
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp salt
375 degrees for 45 minutes

I like to use the Ninja - does anybody out there have one of these? It is amazing! My sister got it for me for Christmas and it is like a blender and food processor all in one.

Throw in the tofu ricotta ingredients, then chop with the Ninja! 

Next is a whole lot of layering. 3 noodles in the bottom first, then tomato sauce and a couple spoonfuls of ricotta. Then add in a layer of sliced veggies and spinach. Top with more noodles and do it all again. The top layer should have just tomato sauce and ricotta but a few slices of tomato would be really pretty too! 

Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes at 375 degrees until veggies are tender. Enjoy with some fresh french bread! 

The Vegan Stoner Cookbook

The Vegan Stoner cookbook came in the mail today! I am so excited, and just in time for Vegan MoFo - now I can cook my way through this baby and post about it here. Get ready for some recipe reviews. I am most excited to try the Potatoes Au Gratin and Broccoli Quiche recipes.

The name of this book and their corresponding website might be throwing you - but the recipes I have tried from the site are simple, delicious, and very munch-able, so I think you should check it out too. Not to mention the illustrations! To die for, and very funny. I mean, look at these veggies doing yoga! What could be better?

Another one of my favorites:

The Loving Cafe in Ft. Wayne

My birthday week has officially begun... which means more vegan food and treats than usual! Fuel for the blog I guess. This holiday weekend we spent time at my sister's house which is 4.5 hours away. Conveniently in the middle of the drive is a strange little vegan restaurant called The Loving Cafe (which seems to be somehow related to the Loving Hut, but not directly related). Half the menu is Asian food and the other half is American but it is all vegan and pretty darn good.

Panini sandwich at the Loving Cafe

This time I had the panini sandwich which had tofurkey, vegan cheese, coleslaw, and vegan mayo on it. The bread was really really good too. I think I detected a hint of mustard on it as well. You sort of roll the dice at the Loving Cafe because the menu is constantly changing depending on what they happen to have on hand. They have a board at the restaurant that they can switch out the menu items so they change it often but always have a big selection. They also have really good soup. I have tried the Kale & Potato soup (2nd time this trip) and my husband got the Almond Broccoli soup. I prefer the kale potato - the almond soup was weirdly sweet to me.

Overall I give this place a good rating because it is a good find, especially in non-vegan friendly Indiana. That being said, you have to be a little flexible and open minded to enjoy it. They also have quite a few dessert options, some of them even raw. Last time I was there I ordered chocolate ice cream and they gave me a TON of it for just a couple bucks. It was really rich and delicious.

I wouldn't rate this place as necessarily healthy, but they advertise that it is healthy just because it's vegan. Many of the sandwiches are covered in vegan butter and mayo. The soup is made with vegan cream cheese. All of which is fine if you are looking for some vegan comfort food (which I was!) and not overly concerned with calories, etc.

On our way home we stopped by my father in-law's house and he gave us a TON of veggies from his garden. The picture below is just a fraction! We will be having a tomato-fest this week for dinner so get ready for some tomato recipe posts.

What is your take on the vegan = automatically healthy issue? How do you balance the (sometimes rare) access to vegan food at a restaurant and wanting to eat healthfully at the same time?