Another Banana Smoothie Idea, Sun Dried Tomato Pine Nut Cheese, and Pumpkin Pie in a Bowl!

                                           (Sun dried tomato pine nut cheese on endive)

I've got lots to share with you today.  I aim to share three new recipes every week, but how about three new recipes in one post!  Woohoo! I have been feeling oh so inspired lately to try new recipes.  I can't stop!  I'm not feeling so hot these days, fighting off a cold, but I can't help but want to get off my butt and make some food!  

Last night, after teaching dance for four hours with a sore throat (yes, I'm whining a little), I wanted nothing more than ice cream to soothe me.  Instead, as any smart raw food punk should, I decided to concoct a smoothie that would soothe my throat and satisfy my sweet tooth. I came up with a raw Caramel Banana Smoothie that's delicious and super easy!

Caramel Banana Smoothie (1 hefty serving)

1 banana

1 cup almond milk

scant cup of ice

2 teaspoons raw caramel

Throw everything in a blender and blend until smooth.  Pour into a glass and enjoy!

Next up, I was making my way through the copious amounts of raw sites I have started looking at on a daily basis and came across a recipe from Natalia Rose for Pumpkin Pie in a bowl on goneraw.com.  The recipe looked easy enough and I was eager for some more cold, smooth, raw stuff for my burning throat.  I am going to share this recipe with you because I think if you are a huge pumpkin pie fan you will really like this.  I, unfortunately, am not sure that I love pumpkin pie without a huge serving of whipped cream on top, so I don't know how I feel about this one.  It does taste a lot like pumpkin pie, that's for damn sure.

Pumpkin Pie in a Bowl

32 ounces carrot juice, about 4 lbs of carrots

1 cup raw sweet potato, peeled and chopped

4 pitted dates

1/2 ripe avocado

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (2 tbsp cinnamon, 2 tsp nutmeg, 2 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp allspice)

Put everything into a blender and blend until smooth.  Chill before serving for best results.  This will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days.

One woman on Gone Raw recommended omitting some of the carrot juice to make this more mousse like.  I personally can't imagine consuming pumpkin pie as a soup so I went for the mousse route.  I also added 2 extra dates to make it a bit sweeter.  Thanks to Formosa on goneraw.com for the pumpkin pie spice recipe!

Lastly, I decided to add some spunk to my left over pine nut cheese just for fun today.  I added the rest of my sun dried tomatoes and a few fresh basil leaves and really enjoyed the outcome.  This would make a great spread or dip for veggies.  I threw mine on some endive leaves, which was pretty good too.

All ya gotta do for this one is take some pine nut "cheese" and throw it in a food processor with some sun dried tomatoes and a few leaves of fresh basil.  If you have a full batch of "cheese" I would recommend about 10 sun dried tomatoes (soak them if softening is needed) and 5 leaves of fresh basil. Process everything together and serve with fresh veggies, raw crackers, or anything else you creative punks can come up with!

Oh, by the way, I ate 100% raw yesterday and it was great!  Banana and apple for breakfast, salad with raw russian dressing for lunch, and a caramel banana smoothie for dinner.  I snacked on some carrots while i was teaching and I did drink a lot of hot tea.  I thoroughly have trouble thinking that hot water takes away from being raw, so for me it doesn't count.  Feeling good today, Mom said I looked really thin yesterday and despite my cold I feel pretty energetic today.  So far so good today too, started my day with some green lemonade and just had a salad and some pine nut cheese on endive for lunch.  

One more thing!  I searched online for natural remedies for a sore throat and I found a little elixir that actually did some good.  Add 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon raw honey, and a pinch of cayenne pepper to a cup of hot water.  My throat feels better after just one cup, brilliant!

Music Fix:  Trouble with Dreams-The Eels