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Here is the menu – and the recipes – I created and served for the 3-day Delicious Soul Retreat with Susan Greene, M.A. Psychology and certified SoulCollage Facilitator, in West Marin this past June.
Click here to see what her (our) weekend entailed.
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This text taken from the Sweet and Sour Cantaloupe Salad.
Here are yummy uses for coconut water:
I’ll add more uses to this list, check back in a week or so.
Here's a very yummy breakfast: toast with piccata butter, chicken sausage and fresh thyme. Sorry this is blurry ....a result of this operator's learning curve with the camera.
This was a big
The left over piccata butter (see June 30th Dinner menu and recipes) went to gooood use in this early morning breakfast.
The toasted gluten-free bread absorbed the piccata butter verrrrry nicely, and the warmed chicken sausage and fresh thyme made this breakfast verrrry tasty. It was a very satisfying way to feed my hunger after my early morning run…. that and my raw veggie drink, which I’ll write about another time. Thankfully, there are several fully-cooked sausages to choose from now that several brands use ‘clean’ meats.
KISS …. Keeping It Savory and Simple!
1) Toast the bread (I like mine toasted well, almost to the point that it’s like croutons). I use a toaster oven, which I bought at a yard sale for a couple of dollars.
2) I put the sliced sausage on a small plate in the oven, next to the toast.
3) Spread the piccata butter on the toast, cut the toast into bite-sized pieces and top each one with a slice of sausage, sprinkle with fresh thyme.
Cantaloupe w/Thai Young coconut meat, lime, umeboshi plum vinegar and toasted pine nuts and pumpkin seeds.
I brought this dish to Sasha and Ann Shulgin’s 4th of July potluck party. People loved it, I hope you do, too. I’ll serve the same ingredients but in a soup version for dinner Thursday evening.
I used the deep strong flavors of toasted pine nuts and pumpkin seeds to off-set the strong flavors of the Cantaloupe.
The lime was the perfect citrus to bring in high notes to balance the earthiness of the toasted nuts and seeds …and to minimize the fatty-factor of the coconut meat.
And the Ume Vinegar (see image) really brought in a great salty sourness to the dish.
Used for its salty-sour flavor.
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The recipe ↓↓↓
Mix the ingredients and then toss in the nuts and seeds.
Garnish: (for a raw dish – use untoasted nuts and seeds and add a bit of smoked salt to get that toasty flavor)
Here are yummy uses for the coconut water:
This combination is exquisite: sliced pear dusted with freshly ground black pepper, fresh coconut meat with lime, blueberries sprinkled with cardamom.
Our housemate, Jay, and I created a very tasty evening snack. The organic blueberries he brought home tasted unusual – like they had cardamom on them – so – he cornered me before doing my nightly yoga salutations, wanting to pick my brain as to how to incorporate those two flavors – blueberry and cardamom – with other fruit and flavors.
Jay was very excited of the possibilities b/c we had so much fruit in the house to pick from… mangoes, berries, pear, apple, melon, plum, oranges, lemons, limes and more. He had already broken open a Thai Young coconut, using the water for a smoothie so when I saw the meat I immediately thought of a creamy strong-sour-like yogurt to balance the sweetness of the blueberries and match the strong lemony-fruity-pungent flavor of the cardamom.
Jay liked the idea, and wanted more. The pear caught my eye. Mainly b/c I thought its texture would go well with the blueberries and the creamy coconut. Jay was pleasantly surprised that the skin color of the pears accentuated – so well – the inner color of the blueberries.
Cardamon pods and seeds, part of the ginger family, are pungent with flowery notes of lemon and mint. Its handpicked and said to be the 3rd most expensive spice, following saffron and vanilla. Uses: In Indian rice dishes and Chai drinks, Ethiopian berbere blend and northern European baked goods.
1) In a small food processor, blend well:
2) Slice the pear, about 1/4 inch thick, and sprinkle with fresh ground black pepper, and set aside.
3) Slice the blueberries in half and set aside.
4) Open the cardamom pods with your fingers to remove the seeds. Grind the cardamom seeds. See TIP, below. Or, use cardamom powder (I had a bit left over from previous ground seeds).
Start with the pear slice (dusted with pepper). Drop a dollop of the coconut ‘yogurt’ onto the peppered pear. Toss on the sliced blueberries and sprinkle with freshly ground cardamom. YUM.
Being they are quite spendy – I buy the cardamom pods and grind the seeds myself. Otherwise, the ground cardamom would sit in my spice drawer for quite a while losing its pizazz over time (b/c of the fluctuating heat in the kitchen and exposure to light). Many people store spices in the fridge to extend the lifespan of the spices. I prefer my spices in the drawer – for easy access – just below the counter space where I perform my alchemy.
If you are using fresh cardamom: Peel open a pod with the fingers and remove the seeds, grind them with a mortar and pestle or small spice grinder. If you don’t have either of those, then crush the seeds with a knife (laying the knife on it’s side on top of the seeds and pushing down, repeat until you have small small granules). This works much better if the pods are chilled (stored in the refrigerator) b/c the warmer the seeds are the more gooey they become prohibiting grinding the seed into a powder. Hmm, I guess you could use a hammer with little pressure to crush the seeds.
Cardamom aids in digestion and increases metabolism b/c of its warming properties. Click here to learn more: http://www.augustayurveda.com/showarticles1.asp?id=468
The anti-oxidant-rich Blueberries are rated #5 in Mercola’s TOP 7 super foods …. click here to see his list.
Coconut meat has lauric acid and caprylic acid … both are anti-microbial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal. …. click here to read more about health other benefits. Also, most of the fatty acids in coconut meat/oil are medium-chain fatty acids, that the body burns quite efficiently for fuel (it doesn’t require bile to break it down) … providing quick energy ….while increasing metabolism …. which aids in weight loss/ weight management.
Watch these YouTube videos to learn how to open a Thai Young coconut with ease…..
Watch these YouTube videos to learn how to open a Thai Young coconut with ease…..
NOTE: I believe, women – b/c of our physic – will be unstable performing the technique shown in the first video. I can attest to this, with my finger still wrapped in a bandage with the worst knife cut I’ve had in a long time. ouch.
Join Steve and me for Dinner on Thursday, July 8th, for an intimate conversation on ….
How thoughts, feelings, intuition and spirituality affect our health and well being. It’s not just about taking supplements and eating good food. Steve will discuss the religious-spiritual side of nutrition, including exercise and metabolism…. and the neuroendocrine mechanisms of disease: insulin resistance, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and aging.
We are what we think, we are what we feel, and we are what we believe. Being true to ourselves lessens the challenge of change: being able to resolve differences in thought and belief. We’ll talk about various tools that we all employ: affirmation, appreciation processes, cultivating unconditional love, awe and wonder.
The conversation will also include aspects of consciousness – balancing self-transcendent and self-assertive experience….. such as the conflict between selflessness and self assertiveness with sharing, giving and service.
Click here (link to come) or contact me
Sooooo many fruits are available to us so I thought it would be apropos to accentuate it in our meal, plus, it goes well with the spirituality theme. Fruit has been used – I’m sure for eons – to enhance spiritual communication. I know for me it raises my vibration, yet, couldn’t think of why it raises our vibration. SO – I asked Steve the big ‘why’ question and he replied with these reasons…. it’s sugar content feeds the brain, it’s in abundance so people are able to contemplate during this time of reprieve from scarcity, and it’s alkalizing and thus anti-inflammatory.
Rest assured – I’ll balance each dish so that our blood sugar levels remain stable and those who want to remain in ketosis will be able to do so. I’ll use various fats and oil sources, from nuts, seeds and pressed oils such as hazelnut, walnut and pumpkin seed. Protein sources will be nuts, seeds, feta cheese, turkey, tofu, quinoa and beans. This is a vegetarian- and meat-lover menu. Most of the fruit will be raw, mixed with some cooked foods.
Appetizer: Marinated Watermelon with Feta Cheese
Soup: Creamy Cantaloupe, Peach and Tofu Soup
Entree:
Dessert: Steve’s soon-to-be-famous Brownies w/Walnut Cream and Strawberry Coulis
I have yet to create the recipes, and I improvise while I’m in the kitchen – so – I’ll post the recipes here within a few days after the dinner.
You’ll also see the recipes and a recap of our Dinner this past Wednesday, on June 30th:
Starter: Marinated Cucumbers with Smoked Salt
Appetizer: Coconut Cream Tomato Basil Soup
Entree:
· Chicken Piccata
· String beans w/caramelized onions and shallots
· Roasted Summer Squash w/hazelnut oil and herbs
Dessert: Homemade Very Berry Coconut Cashew Ice Cream
This recipe first appeared in my blog post: June 30th Dialog Dinner menu and recipes.
Serves 10, 6 – 8 bite-sized pieces per person.
Time: prep is minimal, perhaps 10 minutes, but you’ll want to start 2 hours before serving (or the day before) so that the cucs can sit with the salt for an hour and then sit for at least an hour (or overnight) with the vinegar – chilling in the fridge.
Roll cut for the cucumbers.
This is one of my favorites b/c it’s easy to make, tasty and promotes stomach acid (the vinegar helps to produce stomach acids, getting the body ready to digest the oncoming meal).
1. Trim the ends of the cucs and cut (see “Roll Cut” image, and link, above).
2. Sprinkle with salt, toss, sprinkle more salt, toss and sprinkle more salt, let sit for an hour or two.
3. Drain the excess liquid, and add the vinegar, toss well. Refrigerate for at least an hour, toss often.
4. Sprinkle with smoked salt and serve. Hmmm, this is interesting, click here to learn how to make your own smoked salt. See image of smoked salt.
Smoked salt has no artificial colors or flavors, and is a great way to give raw food that wonderfully deep smokey flavor.
This tip first appeared in my blog post: June 30th Dialog Dinner menu and recipes.
String beans have a hard time absorbing flavors b/c of its tight waxy skin, so, the trick is to soak them in a salt bath in order to get the tight cellulose walls to open up, which will allow flavors to be absorbed. Here’s the best way to make good tasting string beans …
1. Wash the beans and remove the stems. Remove the tails only if they are wilting and/or are turning dark/black.
2. Soak the beans in enough water to cover, add 2 tsp sea salt to the water and stir well, let sit for at least one hour, then drain the salt water.
FYI – I would reuse the salt water – for soaking other veggies – like zucchinis, or soaking kale or other dark green leafy vegetable, or use the water in a soup.
I have more biochemical info to share about the salt bath process, yet feel I need to put my attention to writing the recipe. Let me know if you want more info about this technique, I’d be happy to share.
This tip first appeared in my blog post: June 30th Dialog Dinner menu and recipes.
There are two quintessential steps, no, there are three steps, to do in order to have the most tender meat you can imagine.
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