Raw Hamentashen, Hair Wrap, and Hearty Soup!

Jesse bought apricots a few days ago that started going bad almost immediately. I decided to blend them up and make raw hamentashen!

I will give you the recipe, but I do not recommend you make them the same way I did! The taste is delicious, but the 'cookie dough' part was nearly impossible to work with. I will make this again, but in the form of jam thumbprint cookies! If anyone has any ideas as to how to make the dough more pliable and less sticky, let me know :)

Raw Vegan Hamentashen

Dough

3/4 cups almond meal

1/4 cup cashew meal

1/2 tsp ground vanilla beans

1/2 tsp lemon zest

4 dates

1 tbsp coconut oil

Filling

2 apricots (or any other fruit)

1/2 tsp lemon juice

agave syrup to taste (my apricots were very bitter, but usually I wouldn't add any sweetener to fruit puree)

I blended the dough ingredients until well incorporated. Some of the almond/cashew meal began to turn into butter but I stopped before it got too creamy. I scooped it out, rolled it into a ball and put in into the refrigerator to set a bit. Then I pureed the filling, rolled out the dough and used a cookie cutter to cut out circles, put a spoonful of jam into each circle and pressed into triangles. Then put them into the freezer to set.

It sounds easy, but it was nearly impossible to keep those dough circles together and then fill and press them without it turning into a crumbly mess. Next time, I'll roll the dough into small balls, press an indentation in each with a finger then fill the hole with jam. Much easier. And I'm glad I don't have to give up on this recipe, because it's really good!

I found the bead to make my hair wrap complete!

I had it all along, the power of cleaning is amazing! Here I am, complete with finished hair wrap.

I got the idea from a woman working at The Museum of Jurassic Technology (don't ask, I spent two hours there and I sill have no idea what it is) who had a thick felt hair wrap in beautiful deep colors. I asked her where she got it done and she said a friend had done it for her :( I really wanted one, but I knew there was no way I could felt on myself and make it look halfway decent. My alternative was to pull out a bunch of wool yarn I had from my mom that she made when I was a kid.

First I selected the piece of hair and braided it. Then I wove a piece of yarn through the braid using a wide eyed needle (I basically sewed the yarn into my hair). I left some of the yarn hanging past my hair to make it longer in the end. Then I took another piece of yarn and wrapped my hair in it, almost like a knitting needle, sewing through my braid every once in a while to keep it from falling apart. Then I did the outside layer, just wrapping and sewing through and wrapping and sewing through until I had several lumps of yellow then switched to pink/brown, then turquoise. I left the ends at the bottom after I tied them off and threaded the ends back into the wrap to hid them. The bead had a very small hole, so I used plain thread to sew it on then wrapped more yarn around the top to hide the thread. It took for every, but I'm so happy with it!

At work today, my boss asked me to make a soup from the cookbook 'Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen'. They didn't have all the ingredients for any soup, but I got so many ideas for raw and cooked soups from looking through the book. In the end, I made a soup inspired by the Spicy Chick Pea Tomato Soup recipe.

I wish I had had my camera with me to get a picture that does this soup justice, it was out of this world! It just melted in my mouth, so flavorful with a bit of spice. I ate a bowl of it with half an avocado and plan on making it again for Jesse and I soon!

Tomato Chick Pea Sweet Potato Soup

1 red onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 carrots, sliced

3 celery ribs, chopped

4 tomatoes cubed

1 large sweet potato peeled and cubed

1 15 oz can chick peas

1 15 oz can diced tomatoes (I used Trader Joe's fire roasted tomatoes with green chilis)

4 tbsp canned green chilis (optional, mine were included in the canned tomatoes)

1/2 tsp Trader Joe's lemon pepper

1/2 tsp paprika

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp sea salt or to taste

1 liter water

I put everything together in a pot, brought it to a boil, then stirred and let it simmer for about 40 min (or until the sweet potato is soft). It was easy, flavorful, beautiful, and out of the ordinary. It inspired me to try a raw chick pea soup, I'm going to start soaking some chick peas now to get them ready.

I can feel my period coming, I'm craving chocolate and peanut butter!!! I've been trying to eat as healthy as possible, I know I'll feel better if I can maintain a high nutrient diet!

For lunch I brought green juice, tangerines, a bag of broccoli, cucumber, carrots, celery, peppers, and sweet potato spears, along with some Superfood Mudstacks. I had an orange for breakfast and a bowl of soup for lunch. Why do I feel so bloated and fat??? My period really does a number on me, before, during, and after!

I caught this photo at work today, I'm amazed at the joy the baby seems to be exuding. She cried most of the afternoon, this photo was taken within the breif moments she was happy.

She really is cute :)