Birthday Yummies

I come from a family that believes in shameless celebrating when it comes to our birthdays. In fact, we've been known to celebrate a full month when we can get away with it. Really, isn't life supposed to be one big party anyway?

I could not wait to whip up some raw goodies to share for my birthday and started working early in the week to prepare a few treats for everyone to try. Everything was delicious and I thought it all turned out beautifully. Unfortunately only my mom and cousin would even try the raw goodies. (This is what happens when you have a party with your family because my friends would have left nothing. Not a crumb. Yes, beloved family, I'm talking about you and I love you anyway.) So my lesson from this is to no longer tell anyone that anything that I've made is raw. In fact, I'm just not going to claim anything and watch what happens next time. Hehehehehe. Yes, I am that evil!

Now for the eye candy:

Here is a plate of raw chocolate goodies that I whipped up. Seriously, this was the highlight for me.





First I made little chocolate tarts. This is my own recipe that I'm still working on. They were wonderful, but I haven't quite tweaked it just yet to perfection.





Next I made Heather Paces MoonPie's except I made them into bite sized pieces. I can not stress to you how wonderful this recipe is. Go to sweetlyraw.com for her book. I even made the peace crane decorations for a festive flare!




Now for the cake. Once again I used one of Heather's recipes. This one from Just Desserts. This is the strawberry lime mousse cake. Fantastic! It is very crisp and delightful and quite the show stopper topped with all those lucious strawberries.



I'm still enjoying the leftovers and grateful that I didn't make the other two raw cakes that I had planned as well. I'd have to invite everyone over to help eat it all!

Happy day, oh Happy DAY!

Salad Dressing

I had several requests for the three salad dressings that I made for Sunday's potluck. I told everyone at the meetup what I put into each one, but I've had several more people to ask that didn't make the potluck so I decided that I would just blog about it and that way everyone would have the recipes. I am terrible about not writing down recipes so this is a great opportunity to just get it done. Most of my recipes are pretty much made up on the spot. All 3 of these recipes probably have origins somewhere from one of my recipe books, but I tend to remember what I like and just throw something together and then taste it until I get it just right.

Mango Vinegarette:
- juice of 2 lemons
- 2 mangoes
- 1/4 cup Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar
- 2 TBS agave nectar or honey

Curry:
- 1 roma tomato
- 1/2 red bell pepper
- 1/2 yellow bell pepper
- 1 TBS curry
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 cup EVOO
- 2 tsp lemon juice

Sweet Black Sesame:
- 1/4 c black tahini or just black sesame seeds
- 1/4 c agave nectar
- 2TBS chickpea miso
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1/4 cup water
Blend in a high speed blender if you use the sesame seeds.