Bonjour tout le monde!
Did you had an awesome weekend? Montreal was crazy this weekend! The weather changed so drastically! We had a huge snow storm for two days it was bananas! haha, I was so happy it hadn’t been that cold for the last couple of weeks but I guess winter has no intention to leave.. at all!

Anyways, into other nicer topics: food! I’m glad you all liked the macadamia-carrot bowl, I swear it was so good! I really enjoyed it so I hope you did too. As you can see, there’s no excuse as to say eating raw is too complicated I’m a living proof of that! That’s why I always try to make simple things here, of course I could go more into the “complicatied way” but eating raw is about eating closest to its natural state right? I mean I’m not a monkey of course, but I do try to eat simple and “clean” so I can really enjoy the taste of each ingredient at its best!

Today I have another great recipe! This was one of my favorite meals I ate while I was back home in Mexico. When I’m there I think I’m a little bit more creative than when I’m here I guess the feeling of being home and having the kitchen all for me makes my mind fly, even if I don’t have all my “equipment”. But don’t worry, I still have many other great recipes that I’ve been doing here, so there won’t be any lack of recipes in Gastrawnomica.

This is a great recipe if your looking for some party food ideas, or even if you just have a few guests or for you and your couple or for whatever you want to use it for, trust me on this one, you all are going to love it! The secret in here, of course, is the dipping sauce/dressing. It is so easy to do and it is a little bit alike to a dressing I made a while back, I really love this sauces, I love when experimenting when things you have on hand end up being a total success! The recipe is basic veggie rolls that I filled with different things like jicama, red cabbage, carrots, beets and many other goodies. I actually made the video so you can follow the instructions step by step.

The thing with this recipe is that you can do 2 different things using the exact same ingredients. When I made the recipe it was only for me, so instead of doing like 50 rolls haha, I made a big salad using the rest of the ingredients an the sauce was my dressing. My mom always give me the two thumbs up/down level of success and she told me it was delicious! You can see both processes in the video, because I only show how to do a couple of rolls.

Party Rolls and Salad with P’s Sweet Sauce

Kale, collard or any other green leave
1 jicama, grated
2 large carrots, grated
1 beet, grated
1/4 cup red cabbage, sliced
1 zucchini, sliced
Alfalfa sprouts
Cilantro leaves
P’s Sweet Sauce
4 medjool dates, soaked and pitted
1/2 cup fresh apple juice

Follow video instructions.

Don’t forget to tell me what you think about the recipe, seriously one of my favorites ever! Have tons of fun this week, I for sure have hundreds of things to do for school, can’t wait for spring break!!
Talk to you soon! Bonne semaine!

Hi people!
A few days ago I received a box in the mail and I instantly knew what was waiting for me! The kind people from Artisana Foods send me a package full of goodies to try. First of all I have to say I love both of their nut butters presentations! Being able to carry around wherever you go a proper quantity of nut butter for any “emergency” makes me thrill, so cool! I had seen this before but not here in Canada, just the glass containers.
Anyways, they were so nice to send me each one of their different flavors. They have so much variety! My first move was to open the almond single serve pack. Delicious! Then after a while I opened the walnut flavor and again: two thumbs up! I do have to say I wish it was a little bit smoother I felt it was too chunky, but that’s just my personal opinion because I prefer smoother butters. Anyways, I kept tasting them with the pass of the days and OH MY GOODNESS.. THE butter finally came to me: Cashew Butter! I swear I kept squeezing that little pack until I think there was nothing else than plastic haha. So good! I definitively declare myself a fan number one. Of course I didn’t ate them all just like that, I made a few recipes that I’ll be sharing with you in the next couple of posts, so keep an eye!

Today, to begin with, we’ll start with Macadamia Butter! I made something super easy and so, so good! I used it as a dressing, but if you reduce the liquid amount you can spread it over some collard or kale, fill them up and make some rolls.
You know must of the time my dressings are fruit-based and I love them, but this time I decided to go a little bit creative and try something new. The verdict? DE-LIGHT-FUL!

Gastrawnomica’s Macadamia-Carrot Single Serving Bowl
Serves 1, 5 min preparation

1 cup fresh spinach leaves
1 large carrot, peeled
1/2 red apple, in small chunks
1 long celery stick, chopped

Macadamia-Cilantro Dressing
1 Artisana’s Macadamia Butter Single Serving Pack (34 grs)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 medjool date, pitted
*If you’re not used to eat salt-free, season the dressing according to your taste

Mix your salad ingredients in a bowl. Blend the dressing ingredients in a high speed blender and serve over salad.

It was super good, super easy and seriously a 5 min taker! You must try these butters, specially this presentation which I think is super practical! As you see, I only needed one package and the dressing was more than enough, not too little, not too much.
Anyways, don’t forget to tell me what you think and keep an eye on the blog because more goodies with Artisana’s nut butters will come!
Have an awesome weekend! TTYL

Hello everyone! Hope you had a great weekend! I sure had a good one.. tons of homework as always but pretty pretty pretty.

While I was in Mexico, I thought I would be eating mangos like it was the end of the world but actually it was pretty hard to find them and they were very expensive too because of course, they weren’t in season. That’s why I was experimenting with new flavors like sapodilla, black sapote, tons of different bananas, pineapples oh my, how I miss my tropical fruit. Anyways, who would think that actually it would be easier for me to find mangos in Montreal, and cheaper! Maybe yes they do travel from long distance but oh boy they are so good! They come from Mexico and Ecuador most of the time.

Here it’s a little picture of how my weekly fruit stack would look like.. and yes it was all for me haha.

Plus all the veggies in the fridge and “hundreds” of bananas.. anyways today I have 2 recipes in less than 10 minutes.
Mangos 2 ways: Dessert and Lunch/Side Dish

While I was in high school I used to make this ice cream almost every single day, it was my favorite dessert, lunch time in Mexico is like dinner time in Canada or USA so the biggest meal of the day is around 2-4 pm. After having lunch time with my family I would enjoy this dessert and it seriously made my day. Mostly because it is so simple and easy to do but yet so good.
And of course I used to go big, I’m not talking about 2 mangos, I would eat this huge cup of mango ice cream. Yum yum yum

Mango Ice Cream
Frozen mango chunks
Water if needed

As you can see, simplicity is part of this recipe. I believe we can find the most delicious flavors in nature without altering them and just really enjoying the pure flavors.
Blend the frozen mango in your food processor, adding a little bit of water if needed to make it super creamy and delicious. No big secret here that’s all I used. Blend blend blend!

Mango-Kiwi Pasta Salad
Serves 1-2
2 zucchinis, spiralized
Flesh of 2-3 big mangos
4 medium kiwis
3 medjool dates
2 small dried figs
Raw kale leaves
1 teaspoon dried herbs (optional)

Blend the fruits in a high speed blender until smooth. Cut your kale leaves in small size, mix with zucchini and dried herbs. Serve in a bowl and top with the sauce.
Mix well and enjoy!

There you have it! Two easy recipes using the same ingredient. Give it a try they both are so simple!
I’ll talk to you soon, now I have to go back to reality and start doing homework! Have an awesome week!

Hello!
How’s your week going? TGIF! I can’t believe how fast this week passed! Seriously, I just can’t seem to figure out how my days seem to be so short! School is crazy this days, tons of homework, tests, readings.. anyways like I said before, TGIF! I hope you all have an amazing weekend and enjoy it a lot because when you realize, is monday again..

Ok, well today I don’t have a recipe, just wanted to share with you something that I bought a couple of weeks ago..
I went to my usual asian food market where I always buy durian but since I came from Mexico at the beginning of January they never had durian! I mean, they did but just the little boxes that has like 1 pound and for sure that’s not enough for me haha. So I was like when will you get durians and the owner who always saw me looking for it and never buying anything and leaving with a sad face asked me if I would like to order a box, and I was like… YES! He told me it was a 12k box and it could be 3 to 5 durians, depending on the size.
I was super excited that I would be having my own durian feast! Yum yum yum!

Anyways, a couple of days later I went to pick up my box (which by the way, here in Montreal I don’t have a car so I loaded the whole thing by myself, how? Don’t know! haha, it wasn’t that bad actually.
I promise myself to make it last! Durians can be sooo addictive! Well, if you like them of course. But they kind of “disappeared” pretty fast. 6 days! I was proud I made it last 6 days actually haha.

The box had 5 durians! 2 were huge! And the other 3 random size.
I was like having a piece of heaven on each bite! De-li-cious!

My 12 kilos of durians:

Well, nothing special just wanted to share with you this random thing that made some of my meals so exciting! Have a great weekend everyone, and have lots of fun!
Next post I promise I’ll give you a new rawsome recipe!

Hi everyone! How was your weekend? Mine was really nice but I was freezing! The last couple of days have being pretty cold here in Montreal, on Sunday morning we were around -18C, hopefully this week we’ll be back to a more decent weather.
Anyways, Valentine’s Day is almost here! My last recipe for you is a super healthy green and sweet way to start your morning with your valentine!

I made a green juice a few days ago, I love juices. Specially green juices and beet juice, oh my! It had been a long time since I had a green juice, mostly because I don’t have time to make them during the week and during the weekend well I just haven’t craved for one.
So, what I did to make this green juice a little bit different and special for your V Day morning, is that I blended it with dates to make it sweeter and more nutrient and calorie dense.

Valentine’s Sweet Green Juice
7 celery sticks
3 zucchinis
Kale leaves
2 big apples
6 medjool dates, pitted

Juice all of your ingredients except for the dates. Blend juice with dates in a high speed blender until smooth. Serve and top with one small date (I used barhi dates).
You can also serve this with some red (organic) grapes, or drink it alone.

Well I wish you all have a great Valentine’s Day, whether you do something special or not enjoy it!
This week is a “heavy” school week, with tons of homework and quizzes etc etc. But I’ll try to keep in touch for more goodies during the week!
Talk to you soon! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Hi guys! I’m so glad to hear you all liked the 5 min cookie pie, it was delicious right? And so easy to do! I will try to make more 5 min recipes for busy people like us haha.
I’m so happy today is friday! Two thumbs up! The best part of the week is finally here!

Well, as you can see I’m spending my Valentine’s Day “solo”, I mean is not such a big deal, probably will hang out with my friends but still, if I decide to come home and watch movies the Bridget Jones style and sing “aaaaaaaaaaaaaall by myself” Just kidding!

But if you’re spending your Valentine’s Day alone too and you’re planning on eating chocolates all day long STOP! Why don’t we do it the healthy way and with something even better! Banana-Açai Soft Serve! Oh my! You can eat as much as you want to and still get tons of vitamins, minerals and healthy carbs!

I made this soft serve/ice cream a few days ago and OMG it was seriously so good! And actually, it took me like 5 min to do it so there you have it! One more 5 min recipe! And I bet you’ll love it!

Banana-Açai Soft Serve

3 frozen bananas
1.5 teaspoon organic Açai powder or 1/2 cup frozen Açai puree/berries
3 medjool dates, pitted

Leave 1 date aside. Blend in your food processor until super creamy and purple. Add a tiny bit of water if it takes long to make it creamy. Cut the date in small pieces. Serve and top with date pieces.

Well I hope you all have a great weekend and that you try this deliciousness soon! If you don’t have Açai fruit of course you can use any other fruit, like blueberries, raspberries or strawberries but I wanted to make something original and use a different ingredient.
You can find Açai fruit in both powder and frozen puree/berries in almost any health food store.

Don’t forget to leave me a comment and let me know what you think!
TTYL

Hi everyone!
I can’t believe the day is almost gone! I don’t know why but this day went by so quickly.. I guess being super busy with school makes my days shorter. How’s your week going so far?

Today I have the most easy recipe so far, well, I think all of the recipes I make most of the time are easy, no time takers (except for the raw mexican rice, but it is worth every second!). I had the chance to make this quick pie during the weekend, you all know how it feels when a craving hits you so I put my hands to work and it really hit the spot!

For the recipe you won’t need many ingredients, unless you want to add/omit something feel free! It is so easy that adding a few spices or other fruits won’t be a big deal and I’m pretty sure you’ll find most of the ingredients in your pantry if you’re vegan, raw or 811.

Gastrawnomica’s Fruit Cookie Pie
Serves 2-3 individual pies

Cookie Base:
15 medjool dates, pitted
2 tablespoons coconut flakes, unsweetened
Blend in food processor until you have a nice dough.

Cream Layer
2 bananas
2 big dried figs, soaked 10 min
Pinch of cinnamon
Blend in food processor until creamy and smooth.

Toppings
1 peach, ripe and sliced
1/2 big mango, ripe and sliced

Top your cookie pie with the fruit. You can use any fruit you have in hand, I would have loved to use some raspberries or blueberries but the whole point here is to make it easy, fast and proof of last minute cravings, so whatever you have on hand will be great!
You can add some carob powder to the banana cream to give it a “chocolate” touch.

I hope you like it and try it! The cookie is super sweet, I mean why do you need a SAD cake when you can have the sweetest and most natural thing on Earth? Let me know what you think, I promise it won’t take more than 5 min. Enjoy and have an awesome week!
Talk to you soon!!

Hello people!

It’s been a while since my last post and even though I’ve been trying to post since the last couple of days I just don’t find time to do it. This week has passed very quickly so far, this week I’m having my first quizzes in some of my courses so my head is seriously all over the place!
But into more happy things.. I’m sharing one of my favorite raw vegan recipes! I made this rice for the first time a long time ago, when I first started eating raw foods and I became vegan. And I was seriously hooked with it! I know there are tons of recipes for raw vegan rice, but let me tell you this is completely different and made by mexican hands so it is 100% mexican flavors yumm!

There are 3 ways to serve this rice:
1. SOLO! You can spoon some of the rice in red cabbage leaves like I did and top it with alfalfa sprouts.
2. You can use it as a side dish, with “portobello burger”, with some cooked veggies if you’re not completely raw and use it as your side salad.
3. Roll them up! I made some rolls using collard leaves, you can use any of your favorite greens, just fill each one with the rice and make the Spicy Mandarin Sauce in this same recipe.

So, as you can see you can make so many different things with the same recipe! So it will be like eating 3 different things but at the end is kind of the same thing.

The video shows part of the process, but I will post the complete recipe here for you guys to follow in case of any doubt. Sorry about the cut in the middle of the video. Ugghh second time that happens! The only part you’ll miss is when I served it into the red cabbage and also rolled it, so the “how to” for making the sauce and rice is complete.

Priscilla’s Mexican Rice
1 medium size jicama, peeled
2 cups cauliflower, chopped
1 medium-large carrot, peeled and chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped
1 teaspoon dried herbs (optional)
1 thin slice of red onion
1/4 jalapeño pepper
1 big lime
Small bunch of cilantro and parsley
Alfalfa sprouts
Red Cabbage leaves for serving

Follow the video instructions.

To make the rolls fill each leaf (collard, swiss chard or romaine lettuce leaf) with the rice and top with alfalfa sprouts or spinach. Roll them and serve with the Spicy Mandarin Sauce.

Spicy Mandarin Sauce
4 medium mandarines
1/2 dried chipotle pepper, seedless
1/2 chile ancho, seedless

Mix all the ingredients in a food processor or high speed blender. Pulse constantly, the consistence has to be chunky. Specially if you’re using mandarines with seeds is better if pulsing. Serve in a small bowl and serve with rice rolls for dipping sauce. Super flavorful! Very spicy and sweet.

Today is the LAST DAY to vote for the next Hot Raw Chef 2012! If you haven’t voted yet, please go to the website and vote for me! I’m video 14. If you haven’t watched my video yet you can go directly to my youtube channel or also read the blog post here. I hope you give it a try, and let me know what you think! I really enjoy reading your opinion!

The rice is a great idea if you want to share some raw food with your family and friends, super flavorful and very easy to do.

Wish you all a great week! At least what’s left of it. I promise I’ll do my best to keep posting I really love blogging but sometimes “life” gets on my way haha.
Talk to you soon!