Clean Food from a Non-Chef, Non-Photographer

I’ve always wanted to try zucchini pasta. I finally dished out the surprisingly low amount for one of these. You can see the awesome veggie-pasta maker above. The Thrive Forward program been reminding me to eat more raw, fresh foods. It has inspired me to use my Vitamix daily, boil some quinoa, and eat less wheat. I haven’t started sprouting yet, but I do have my own organic herb garden growing! The pasta above is mostly raw, minus the silken tofu. I was searching for an oil-free pesto because I try and follow the Forks Over Knives philosophy of not eating oils, or keeping them to a minimum. I actually looked at a few vegan pestos and then made up my own. (Recipe below.)

Oil-Free Avocado Pesto & Raw Zucchini Pasta
Recipe

1 avocado, small and ripe
1 oz basil (1 pack)
1 cup parsley
1/2 cup silken tofu
dab of ground garlic (mine is in a squeezy tube)
juice of 1/4 lemon
sprinkle of sea salt
sprinkle of vegan parmesan, optional

One zucchini

1) Place all ingredients, except the zucchini, in a Vitamix or Food Processor. Leave on for 5-10 minutes, stirring down sides as needed. I used the Vitamix stirring tool to keep things going. If it’s not moving, add more lemon juice.

2) As it is churning around on low, turn your zucchini into pasta. If you don’t have the pasta machine, use a vegetable peeler to make thin strips.

3) Stir it all together and eat… or cover and refrigerate for dinner, or lunch the next day. Enjoy!

The entire bowl of pasta is under 300 calories! I’m proud of this recipe and it is all clean and organic! =D

*The calories include all of the ingredients listed, including the zucchini.*

Soon after, I went on to making these cookies.

2013-01-20 20.38.55 — I need to start using my expensive camera. Dang blurry phone pics!

Personally, my boyfriend and I wouldn’t call these cookies. They are more like little bundles of yumminess, but not a cookie. They are gluten-free and don’t contain any flour. You could honestly eat the dough for breakfast or dessert, without even cooking it. It’s great, but not a typical “cookie” dough form. I bought some coconut flour on sale today, so maybe my next cookie dough will look/taste more like a wheat cookie.

The main ingredient in these “cookies” is quinoa. Freshly-cooked plain quinoa, quinoa flakes, and bananas make up the bulk of this dough. It truly is guilt-free. Look at the Nutrition Facts. I measured each cookie out with a tablespoon measuring spoon.