My Favorite Nice Cream Maker

So what’s the best ice cream maker?? One that you use, of course. As the weather is heating up around here, I’ve put my maker base in the freezer to have it ready whenever I want.

Which one do we use around here? It’s a small electric one that doesn’t use ice or rock salt or makes a mess, which I love!! No worrying about having to have ice and salt on hand every time you want to make nice cream. The base doesn’t have Freon or anything, it’s just like a freezer pack in a bowl shape. The small size is a plus too, cuz how many of us really need to make huge amounts of sorbet at a time on a regular basis? If you’ve made your own at home, you know that it is soft at first, but if you freeze it for long it becomes hard (although Raw for $10 a day (or less)’s blog had a creamy-soft-smooth-when-frozen-longer nice cream recipe which I have yet to try).

You want some recipes, you say? Of course!!!

One site I recently stumbled on is called Rawmazing.com, and they had just finished a raw ice cream cake contest with 29 entries. Pics are posted, as well as links to every entrant’s blog or website. Sunflower Lord has a great e-book out for $10 (I think) with 20 or 30 raw ice cream recipes (Love this!!). And if you google, I’m sure you can find some other great recipes. Or get creative. Tristen came up with Carrot Ice Cream, which I would never have thunk of.

Here’s a base I frequently use, cuz it’s just too easy.

When I make my nut milk, I’ll double the recipe and not add all the water at first. Then, I pour half into a container, make the remaining into milk as usual and put it away, then pour the 1^st reserved half back in the blender. I add a bit more sweetener, sometimes more nuts or coconut, and whatever flavor I want (fresh or frozen fruit, cacao powder, extra vanilla or almond, etc.), some ice, and blend it. (This is great at this point for a milk shake.) Then I pour it into the maker base, plug in the top, and wait 10-15 minutes. That’s all it takes (which is great, because we don’t always practice patience around here LOL).

Here’s some more basic recipes, but get creative—add whatever superfood, fold in nuts or fruit or raw vegan cookie dough when frozen, top with fudge, maple syrup, agave, etc.

Cantaloupe Sorbet

1 cantaloupe, frozen in chunks

1 frozen banana or some

other sweetener if you like

Raspberry Sorbet

2 bags frozen raspberries, or 2 lb. fresh, then frozen

3 T. agave/ honey

Strawberry Sorbet

2 bag frozen strawberries or 2 lb. fresh, and freeze

3 T agave/honey

Mango Sorbet

1 bag frozen mango

or 4 mangos, frozen

3 T agave/honey

With the sorbets, you could use either a little water or nutmilk to help blend, though I prefer to allow half of the fruit to thaw, blend it, then add the rest of the still frozen fruit and sweetener. Put it in your maker and wait 15 minutes. That’s quicker than picking lettuce and veggies from the garden, washing, chopping, making a dressing, and mixing. Also, please note that the fresh, then frozen fruit has all been washed, peeled, seeded, and/or cut into chunks. Sometimes I reserve a few berries and mix those in by hand or add to the maker so there’s berry chunks in the sorbet. That’s nice too. Hmm, fresh veggies . . . how bout a green smoothie sorbet!! Blend the greens, add the fruit n blend, add the frozen b-na chunks, agave . . . blend and freeze. Cool!! Probabally not collards or kale—too strong for ice cream. Spinach or leaf lettuce??

Creamy Chocolaty

Nice Cream (this is from the Raw on $10 a day or less blog)

1 avocado
2 bananas
2 T. agave or honey
4 T. cacao powder

1 t. vanilla or ½ bean
pinch salt

Just blend. You can fold all kinds of things after it's hardened up a bit.

I was going to post more creamy recipes, but instead thought I’d post something special I just made up:

Black Forest Nice Cream Cake

Dark almond-cacao cake base:

1 C. ground almonds

¼ C. cacao powder

2 T. maple sugar

¼ C. dates, pitted

1 C. fresh shredded meat from a young coconut

1 T. agave

Process the almonds, cacao, maple, and dates in your processor until “grainy.” Add the coconut and process about 5 seconds, pouring the agave in as you do so.

Gently press this into a plastic-wrap lined pan or tub (I used 5” deep cardstock taped into a 7” circle and set into another pan and lined with plastic), and put in the freezer while preparing the next layer. If you want a thicker cake, double the recipe.

Creamy chocolate nice-cream layer:

2 avocado
4 bananas, frozen into chunks
4 T. agave or honey
8 T. cacao powder

1 T. vanilla or 1 bean
pinch salt

frozen cherries

Blend or process everything except the bananas and cherries until smooth. Add the frozen bananas and process smooth. Pour into your ice cream maker until frozen. Fold in the cherries and pour on top of the cake layer. Return to freezer.

Vanilla coconut cream:

½ C. pulp from a young coconut

½ C cashews, soaked

1 T. vanilla or 1 whole bean

1 T agave (if desired)

Blend until smooth. If this is too liquidy, you can add powdered dried coconut to help thicken, then pipe “flowers” with a frosting tip around the top and in the center of the cake. Put a frozen cherry in the center of each “flower.” Allow to set for a couple hours, cut, plate, and eat.

If and when I get a pic before this is eaten, I'll come back and post it.

And remember, Nice Cream is HEALTHY. Today Ro and I had sliced banana and strawberries on chocolate-coconut nicecream and topped with walnuts, hemp and chia seeds, and a quick fudge sauce made with 1 T oil, 1 T agave, and 1 teasp. cacao powder. We both did a happy dance. ((Giggle)).

Have a nice (cream) day!!!

~~~Rowan and Sharilyn

P.S. This formating is driving me CRAZY, so if the spacing is off in some areas of the post, I appologize!!

Sody-pop!!!

I had to post this quick, cuz I'm excited about my creation.

Healthy Soda-Pop
Fresh juice, with or without a sweetener. Raspberry is AWESOME!
Sparkling water

Mix a little water with the juice and sweetener, then add the rest of the bubbly. Add some ice and enjoy!!

I've been sucking this stuff down!

~Sharilyn

ADDED:
I am absolutely tickled right now!!! I just found out this blog is # 1 on google for "raw baby." How cool is that!!!

Monthly Post

Ha Ha Ha Ha . . . seems that it's once a month any more . . . kinda like a woman's "friend." Okay, pardon my (fill in the blank) sense of humor. . .
I'm kinda bummed - - all of the blogs that i follow (and i only follow 4) have gone private. Ouch. So I'm looking for any blogs on raw pregnancy right now--haven't found any (sep the now private ones). If anyone knows of anyone raw, pregnant, and blogging, please leave me a comment, or e-mail me at rawbabyrowan@yahoo.com.
Pg life is getting better--the first trimester wasn't the best, quite a bit of vomiting, lost some weight, couldn't eat much. I made sure to get my pre-natal whole food supplements in me every day though. (http://www.nutritiongeeks.com/ ) They did help ALOT as they contain a couple things that combat the nausea. Plus I made ginger-lemon-honey pops to have on hand as needed. (Had to make extra for the kids!!)
When I wasn't nauseous I had some interesting cravings. One was banana slices with Parmasean cheese (which I never did have, since we didn't have any cheese). Dark romaine leaves were another. Beyond that, a lot of aversions.
Thankfully, I'm in week 15 (i think??) and the nausea is mostly gone. Felt babe "kicking" for the last 3 weeks. Lovin' it!!!! At least until the "kicks" start interrupting sleep. LOL. My midwife was concerned about my protein consumption last visit, so I'm focusing on that right now. Hemp, pumpkin, sunny, chia seed smoothies, Oh Joy!! (Among other things.)
Ro-Ro moved into a "big girl" bed two nights ago and is loving it--probally has something to do with the newfound freedom. I heard a noise last night about 1 am and found her playing in her closet. Hmmmm, maybe the bed wasn't such a good idea . . . oh well. Makes for some laughs, even at 1 am. She's also started reading a few words, loves singing, and makes up the best stories . :o)
Tris has been helping me in the yard quite a bit, helping dig/edge beds, raking, picking up sticks. Now that it's warming up we've all had bursts of energy and just seem to want to soak up that sunshine! Babies have been started indoors again, and Rich and I both get excited seeing what's newly popped up. Can't wait for the new nettles to arrive--good iron, and perfect timing for the new one!
Here's the ginger-pop receipe:
Squeeze some lemons, pour into blender
add equal amount of sweetner as juice
add 1/2 to 1" ginger root
add a little bit of water, blend and strain. (Can also add berries at this point)
add water to taste
Drink your ginger lemonade or pour into popsicle molds and freeze!

~~~Sharilyn

We’re Back!

It’s been a busy, busy month. The garden, of course, has taken up most of my time, digging new beds (all with a shovel, not a rototiller—we love our worms!), planting seeds and transplants, moving sod from the newly dug beds to the bare patch in our yard, and so on. Illness struck Tristen for about five days—fever and sore throat, then hit Rowan, though she was sick only a day. (Hmm, could that be because she eats 99% raw and he eats only about 75% raw??) Car troubles, tax return troubles (The IRS screwed my return up, still haven’t received our refund and it was in by the 2^nd week of February. Hrrmmmph! ), other paperwork issues, yadda, yadda, yadda, rent, rent, rent.

We’ve tried a few new raw recipes--strawberry granola, sour cream and salsa, corn-lime chips, bbq chips, garlic-almond crackers, cashewbutter squares, goji-maca-cacao bars, and Portobello sausages. All turned out great. I plan to attempt a mashed potato using jicama. I’ll let you know how that transpires. The best discovery was the garlic almond crackers. This has the BEST TEXTURE of a cracker, and with some tweaking, I could probably come up with a good soda cracker. Here’s what I do, to the letter:

First I make almond milk using a cup of almonds. I grind almonds with water and pour this into my nutmilk bags (I use doubled up paint thinner bags --MUCH cheaper than nutmilk bags, 2 for a buck and a half). I squeeze the milk into a bowl then I pour the milk back in the blender and finish adding my salt, oil, honey, and water, and dump the pulp into the bowl. Nutmilk done, I grind about half a cup of flax seeds in the coffee grinder and add it to the pulp. At this point, I could mix and spread for a plain cracker (soda crackers!), but I blend a clove or two of garlic with just a little water and add that to the batter. You may need a little more water, but I like a thick consistency. This is then spread with wet hands on dehydrator sheets (the wet keeps your hands from sticking) in either small round spoonfuls or larger sheets that are then scored before drying. Sprinkle on a little salt, and again later when you flip ‘em. Again, the texture is remarkably like a Ritz or a heavy soda cracker. But don’t take my word for it!

The berry rootstock is/are planted: 40 strawberries, 5 blueberries, 4 raspberries, a gooseberry and a boysenberry. Most of my veggies are in or started indoors for transplant later. Next on my todo list includes digging beds for flowers—chamomile, bachelor buttons, zinnias, cornflowers, and other cut or edible flowers. The herb garden is pretty well established. The best surprise was finding out how much rootstock I had in my overwintered parsley! Whew! I was able to plant 16 plants in the veggie beds and kept about 5 larger plants in the herb garden by the house. I will definitely pot some up again next winter.

Hope you’re keeping as busy! We’re off to hunt for morales.

Keep it raw,

~Sharilyn

DID YOU KNOW: The Jerusalem artichoke contains inulin. which helps stabilize wildly erratic blood sugar levels, keeping them smooth and even. Diabetics, take note!

UPDATE: Another plant that contains up to 36% inulin is chicory--you know, the common roadside weed with the stunning blue flowers. You can add the leaves to a salad. The root is used medicinally, and some add the roasted root to flavor coffee.

Sore Feet

Here's a pic that got corrupted of the free organic oranges we got. When I gave Tristen some of the fresh juice, he asked if I had added honey! No, baby, that's how they're supposed to taste! Not too pretty to look at, but infinately better for you.

Today was busy and activity filled. Tristen and I have been working on a project together for quite some time, and it is finally nearing fruitation (Love that word!). We spent a couple-few hours on it and I expect to be spending a lot more hours on it in the next couple of weeks. We’ll tell all about it soon.

We also spent a good portion of time in the kitchen making food. First we made lots-o-orange juice, then cookies, then lunch consisting of cut up veggies and flax crackers with cheese sauce which is pictured below, then we made Lemon-berry tarts, some bread for Rich, and finally fruit smoothies. I also managed to get the piled up dishes done and the kitchen cleaned up, as it’s gotten behind by a day or two.


Here’s the recipe for the cheese sauce we made. It’s based on a recipe from Rejuvenate Your Life, by Serene Allison.

Cheezy Spread
½ to 1 red bell pepper
1 cup cashews, ground in the coffee grinder
1 T. sesame seeds, ground with the cashews
1 T. Bragg’s Liquid Aminos
1 tsp. Celtic Sea Salt
a small slice of onion
1 clove garlic
juice of ½ to 1 lemon
water as needed.

Blend everything except the cashews and sesame seeds, then add them in. Add water if needed a little at a time. Scrape the sides as you go to get everything nice and smooth.

This is the best tasting raw cheeze sauce I’ve come across, and both kids LOVE it. We use it as dips for veggies and crackers, and on raw pizza. I’m not sure how long it will keep, as it always gets eaten up within a day or two.

Another simple cheeze spread that I love is a jar of tahini (ground up sesame seeds) with minced garlic cloves and the juice of a lemon and some sea salt. You can make a little at a time or a whole jar. It keeps about a week.

After spending most of my day standing mainly in one spot, my feet are tired. I may just give them a ginger and cayenne soak.

Today Rowan ate:
orange juice
banana oatmeal
veggies and flax crackers with cheese sauce
sesame seed milk
grapefruit, cranberry, lemon, orange, mixed berry, banana smoothie
salad with cuke, tom, carrot, romaine, and onion in ACV and herb dressing
more smoothie, sans grapefruit, cranberry, and lemon

Tristen ate:
orange juice
dried coconut
sesame seed milk
lemon-berry tart
veggies and flax crackers with cheese sauce
orange, mixed berry, and banana smoothie
slice of freshly baked bread
freshly shelled almonds


Hugs,
Rowan, Tristen, and Sharilyn

Raw Carrot Cake

Today Rowan and I made carrot cake. She did her “Happy Dance” that she just naturally performs whenever she eats something that she loves and that resonates with her. It reminds me of the gratitude dance I saw once on YouTube. Hers is completely her own though—no one taught her.

I also LUV this carrot cake recipe. It is so soft and cake-like in texture, not like the cakes that use nuts. The secret (I think) is that I have a centrifugal juicer and I use the carrot pulp from one pass i.e. the carrots are only put through the juicer once. I tried using the pulp after re-running the carrot pulp through, but the cake turned out to be a hard lump, so I’m pretty sure the pulp texture is key. Well that and how hard you press the batter. I obtained this recipe online in my earlier raw days, and unfortunately haven’t a clue what site I found it at. An Australian site I think. Anyway, I don’t mean to step on anyone’s toes or not give credit, and although these are tweaked a little from what I originally printed off, if they were yours, dear reader, let me know and I will add your name to them.

Raw Carrot Cake
Ingredients:
pulp from freshly juiced carrots, about 3 cups
½ cup finely ground almonds
½ cup dates, chopped
½ cup psyllium husks
1 T. cinnamon, or other herbs of choice, like nutmeg
2 T. raw honey or agave
Icing

Directions: Put everything in the food processor (except the Icing of course!) and blend until well mixed. Gently press batter into a bowl to mold. I like to put ½ in, gently press, then the other ½ and gently press. That way, it really retains the softness of cake. Turn the cake onto a serving plate and frost. I also like to press the batter directly into storage containers with lids, frost it, put the lid on, and pop it into the fridge. Keeps GREAT—a few days at least.
Note: Psyllium husk causes peristalsis, the movement of the large intestine that helps to eliminate waste. My husband loves this cake, but I either have to omit the psyllium husk and up the almond flour, or he has to eat it when he doesn’t have to work the next day! LOL. I don’t notice any similar effect, but then he eats a SAD and I have access to a restroom anytime I need one.

Here’s a great Icing recipe:

Ingredients:
½-3/4 cup raw cashews, soaked. Or you can use raw cashew butter if you don’t have a high-speed blender. Or grind dry cashews in a coffee grinder. Or eat it lumpy. Whatever!
½ cup soaked pitted dates, or 3 tablespoons raw honey or agave
½ tsp. vanilla
squeeze of ½ lemon, maybe less

Blend it baby! The lemon gives it a reminiscent flavor of cream cheese, though it is definitely lemony.

Today Rowan ate:
banana
tahini milk
green smoothie—OJ (of course!), apple, banana, spirulina
salad—parsley with cukes, carrots, onions, apple, rosemary, thyme
raw carrot cake
coconut milk
carrot-orange juice

~~~Rowan & Sharilyn