Vegan Gratin Potato

Today is my husband's birthday. He wanted a standing rib roast and au gratin potatoes for his birthday dinner. Due to dietary issues within the household, vegan, non dairy... we developed this recipe to meet our family needs.
All of our dairy eating men LOVED these, as well as the vegans. They were so creamy!!!

Ingredients:
1 onion, sliced thin, we used a mandolin
2 pounds potatoes, sliced thin, we used a mandolin
1 bag of daiya cheese
salt and pepper to taste each layer

2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 almond milk
1 TBS olive oil

Directions: Spread the olive oil on the bottom of the casserole dish. Layer potatoes slightly overlapping. Salt and pepper. Layer the onions over the potatoes. Sprinkle the daiya cheese. Repeat until all the potatoes and onions are used, with the daiya cheese topping it. Pour the broth over the potato casserole. Add almond milk until the liquid is just below the top layer. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Press the potatoes into the bubbling liquid and bake for another 35-45 minutes.

We used a typical standing rib roast recipe
Ingredients:
3-4 pound standing rib roast
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 sprigs of thyme
1 TBS olive oil
1 TBS course Celtic sea salt
1 tsp course ground black pepper

Directions:
Placing the roast rib side down, we coated it with the crushed garlic, salt and pepper
We allowed the roast to come to room temperature (~2 hours).
Preheat the oven to 450. Roast for 20 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 and finish roasting for ~1 hour (15-20 minutes per pound). We wanted it medium rare, meat thermometer at ~140. Allow the meat to rest about 20 minutes prior to serving.

Jicama guacamole from Clean Eating

We loved this recipe and served it at a dinner party last night. It was a hit! 

We are able to purchase jicama at the farmers market for $1 a piece and always looking for recipes. Thank you Courtney for helping make this with us yesterday!

We added a 1/4 of a jalapeno instead of a whole one and used frozen organic strawberries instead of fresh.

Ingredients:
2 avocados
1 tsp course Celtic Sea Salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 jalapeno
1 cup strawberries, diced
1/2 cup jicama, diced
1/3 cup red onion, minced
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
juice of 1 lime

Directions: Mash 1 and 1/2 avocados with 1/2 tsp salt and the garlic powder. Set aside.
Dice the jalapeno, strawberries, onion, cilantro, remaining salt, and  lime juice. mix in a bowl. Fold in the mashed avocado mix with the diced fruits and vegetables.

We served it with sliced jicama

Raw Cashew Cream Cheese

This recipe is from the Cherie Soria's ebook, A Cheese Lovers Guide http://rawfoodchef.com/PDFs/LivingLightACheeseLoversGuide.pdf.

Ingredients:
2 cups cashews, soaked for 6-8 hours, drain, rinse and drain (macadamia nuts could be used instead)
1 cup filtered water
1/4 tsp live probiotic powder

Directions:
Add the above ingredients to a high speed blender, blending until smooth.
Place the cream cheese in glass jar to ferment for 8-12 hours in a warm place. It thickens as it ferment.
It stores in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

It is the best alternative soft cream cheese we have tried.

Raw Almond Yogurt from Cherie Soria

Almond Yogurt from Cherie Soria
This has been such a hit in our dairy free home!!! The recipe is from her ebook, A Cheese Lover's Guide, http://rawfoodchef.com/PDFs/LivingLightACheeseLoversGuide.pdf

Ingredients:
2 cups of peeled almonds, soaked for 8 hours after peeling
2 cups filtered water
1/4 tsp of probiotic powder (make sure it is live, from the refrigerator section of a store and store in the refrigerator in your home)

6 tsp lemon juice
vanilla to taste

Directions:
To peel the skins off the almonds, soak in boiled water for 5 minutes, drain and the skins (mostly) slip off
After soaking the peeled almonds for 8 hours, add the almonds to a high speed blender with the water and the probiotic. Once smooth, divided into 6 pint mason jars to ferment for 8 hours (on your counter). After fermentation, add 1 tsp lemon juice per jar and a dash of vanilla (if desired) and refrigerate. This will store for a week.

nutritional information
calories: 272.1
fat: 23.4 g
carbs: 10.2 g
fiber: 5.8 g
protein: 10.0 g

If desired, use the sweetener of your choice.
We use date paste as our sweetener, 1 TBS per jar.
Ingredients:
1 cups of pitted medjool dates
1 cup of filtered water
1 inch of a vanilla bean

Directions:
processed in a high speed blender until smooth.

We also added 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries per jar.

Avocado Sweet Pepper Dressing

This is an amazing salad dressing from Brian Clement's book Living Foods for Optimum Health. We are always looking for a good salad dressing that has fat and fiber, instead of just fat (oil).

Ingredients:
1 avocado
1 TBS fresh coriander leaves
1 bell red or yellow pepper
1/4 cup water

Directions:
place all the ingredients in a high speed blender on a medium cycle for 30 seconds.

Raw Butternut Squash Soup from Brian Clement

This recipe is from Brian Clement's book Living Foods for Optimum Health, page 199.

1 butternut squash, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 red onion chopped
4 stalks of celery, diced
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Braggs liquid aminos to taste, (we used coconut aminos)
1/4 cup water*
inch of fresh ginger root**
1 medjool date, pitted**

Place everything in a high speed blender, adding enough water* to have the consistency desired.
** we added these to the recipe

Another raw butternut squash recipe is posted on http://heal-thy-self-cb.blogspot.com/2014/08/august-potluck.html This is a sweet, almost dessert type of soup.

Lucuma Caramel

I saw this recipe somewhere but can't find it again to cite. This is served with apples slices. If someone finds it, please let us know, so we can cite it.

Lucuma Caramel
serves 1
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon lucuma powder

1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
apple cored and sliced