Valentine's meal + too much cake:(

Happy Tuesday!

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Did you do anything special for Valentine's day? It was a pretty lazy weekend here, besides work. The weather wasn't great either so going outside wasn't a treat like it had been all week. Went to the gym on Saturday morning and had a killer workout and then followed that with an awesome breakfast at The Full Circle..yum! Then on Sunday night I made something new for dinner-nori rolls. I also made a carrot cake with cashew frosting. As we really didn't catch up on our sleep, Monday was a pretty laid back day at our household. Hence, the late blog post! Ryan walked to school only to find out it was a Pro-D day. I didn't know they still had those in college. Apparently they sent a notice through email but as it so worked out, our internet was down all weekend. I worked but felt pretty sluggish and I totally know why (I'll get to that later). Ry had a long nap with Nemo (apparently he was feeling sluggish too)...ahh the life of a student lol!




Now for the food! I followed the directions for the nori rolls in Nomi Shannon's The Raw Gourmet. I made some of her sunny roll-ups but I wasn't a fan of having so much Sunny Pate in there so I made a mix of this recipe and her Vegetable Nori Roll-Ups. I started out with about 2 tablespoons of her Sunny Pate. PS Check out Gena's version of this pate. I added slivered carrots, zucchini, and cucumber. Topped this with slices of avocado, and finally I added lentil sprouts. I didn't have any other sprouts ready at this time so feel free to use other sprouts. I did not marinate the veggies as Nomi suggests but the results were still fabulous! I am definitely going to experiment more with roll-ups. Some things I want to improve upon are:

• Keeping the nori as crisp as possible. I think my cutting board was too moist and so by the time you ate the roll-ups they were a bit chewy.
• Perfect my roll-up skills. I got some of them to stay (the moist ones) but others unravelled quickly
• learn to proper placement of the veggies and pate to make rolling up easier and the end product a whole lot prettier.

If you have any tips about roll-ups please let the world know!! I am all ears..or eyes in this case!

On to Dessert...The hubby wanted carrot cake so I decided to make this recipe I found on Vegweb with this recipe for cashew frosting except I used brown sugar.

It was really good except I think I should have used a shallower pan. It was a little too soft in the very center. The frosting was really good too but I want to learn how to make a raw frosting that is pretty close to cream cheese frosting that is traditionally found on carrot cake.

I haven't made such a large dessert in a long time. I usually just make something that is suitable for two people. And for this I paid the price. I was weak and even though my inner soul was screaming for me to stop, I snacked on the cake all day yesterday. A spoonful here, a mouthful there. I totally lost it and gorged myself. I felt gross - my mind went to mush, my body felt weak , I was moody, and my intestines were pissed off. I am finally feeling a bit better today, but I still feel off. I am amazed at how quickly I feel gross and lethargic by sugar and flour now. My body really went for a spin and I did not like it one bit. I can really appreciate how awesome I feel when I'm eating clean. I take this as a lesson and I'm going to learn from it, big time! I also learned another lesson: If its not there you won't eat it. It's simple and really profound. I told the hubby after this experience that I was going to only make a bunch of great raw treats and freeze them for when we are in the mood for something sweet. Yet Ry suggested that I should only make something small that is going to be eaten that day and so there are no temptations later on. I totally agree (for once..lol jk) and have decided to only make desserts fresh and in small portions. Maybe this will work for you too if having sweet goodies around is just too tempting.

Have a great rest of the week and don't eat too many cinnamon hearts! I'm off to make a green smoothie with some berries hoping this will help restore my body back to its normal self!