My Raw Dinner Party

As it turns out, my grand plans of starting my next naturopathy school assignment of going 100% raw in the month of February have been thwarted. I decided it just seemed like a crazy idea to go 100% raw for 7 days in the dead of winter. LOL. This doesn't mean I'm not gonna do it as the assignment is still due - I'm just gonna time it a little better, probably at the start of April. This will also be my version of a Spring detox for this year. Win. And Win. :) The more I thought about it, the more my body was screaming out "YOU'RE BATSHIT CRAZY!" Constitutionally, I'm just one of those people who needs warmth and nurturing in winter. I can't even eat a salad for lunch in the winter without feeling like something was "off". So while it would've been amazing to time my week of raw with my friend Monique's month of raw, I've decided I'm gonna time it better with the changing seasons and what my body constitution calls for instead.

That of course didn't stop me from having ONE night of raw this month. I've never done an entire meal RAW, and at a dinner party with friends, no less. So I decided to invite Monique over, right after I got my hands on this baby: Judita Wignall's "Raw & Simple" cook book (it's not really a "cook" book since there's no "cooking" involved with raw food. HA.) Click on the book pic below to read more about it:

This book of amazing raw recipes kept popping up with good reviews and seemed to go beyond just the regular salads (coz really, how much salad can one eat, right?) I figured I might as well start somewhere and buy it. And boy, am I glad I did! Loaded with beautiful pictures and background info on the raw lifestyle - from the "why" to "how", including how to stock your pantry and what gadgets/ utensils, etc, you need. And no, you DON'T need a dehydrator with this book. :) Highly recommended.

For my dinner party last night, I made her Thai-style kelp-noodle salad, with her five-pepper chilli with walnut "meat", and a cauliflower couscous. Here are screenshots of the first two recipes, as they're really amazing. The book is loaded with lots more ideas for breakfast, mains and desserts too. And yup, they all pack a flavourful punch! Someone else at dinner last night - a full-on meat eater who's even talking about having "meat smoothies" for breakfast (!) - was also pleasantly surprised by the spread we had. WOOHOO!!

A while ago, I bought a vegetable spiralizer but haven't used it yet. So last night was a good excuse to take it out for a test drive. Super fun stuff! All those raw recipes that call for "zucchini pasta" or any kind of raw vegetables turned into "noodles" can be made with this nifty little gadget. It's really just another way of getting different textures onto your plate of raw veggies. ;)

This is the Lurch Spirali spiralizer I bought off Amazon, and to be fair, I've only used it this one time. Based on first impressions, I'd say it's not uber expensive and comes with 3 different blades for different width spirals. It's totally plastic and will probably break on me at some point, but it's got nifty little suction cups at the bottom that hold it in place on your counter while you crank 'em veggies into spirals. It's not something that would sit permanently on my counter top like a blender would - so if you've got the cupboard space to store this baby, I'd say: GET IT! If you wanna read up more on the one I've got, click on the picture below:

This  is what the dishes turned out looking like:

And Monique had brought a raw chocolate dessert with her - you can find the recipe link on her blog here. Here's a pic of her DELICIOUS dessert. The strawberries were the perfect touch to finish this off with!

To be honest, this was the first time ever I'd done an entire meal from scratch that was 100% raw. Frankly, I was rather intimidated at first. But now that I've churned out 3 dishes in one go, I figure I could probably get the hang of this. Plus side: NO COOKING TIME! NO POTS AND PANS TO CLEAN! :) :) :)

OK. April week of raw: I think I'm ready. BRING IT. ;p