Monday, June 21, 2010

Chocolate Mishaps and Pasta Goodness

(Tonight's dinner: Zucchini-Pineapple Pasta)

Sometimes not following a recipe and just going with whatever flavors you think will compliment each other turns out to be a delicious meal. There have been times where I've added too many of one ingredient or flavors that just weren't meant to be. When I make those kind of mistakes (lets call them that) I try to mend them by either adding a few more ingredients or creating a different dish with my mistake. I'm not a fan of wasting food and to be honest I can't afford to waste food, who can!?

Tonight's dessert was created due to a "mistake." I made a mistake while un-baking this chocolate treat. I ended up adding too much raw honey, which overpowered the flavor and made it lose it's truffle like texture. Instead of feeling disappointed, since the ingredients for this recipe are not cheap, I tried to work with what I had. Feast you eyes on....

(Tonight's Dessert: Oreo-Brownie Ice cream)

In a food processor, I added a couple frozen bananas and a few little pieces of my chocolate mistakes. Blended it until ice cream consistency and threw on a few crumbles of chocolate to top it off. It was a delicious, rich, chocolaty dessert! It reminded me of oreo ice cream with chunks of brownie mixed in, hence it's name. I'm just happy something delicious came out of a potential "waste" of raw chocolate goodness.

Even though I had some bad luck this afternoon with the chocolate, tonight I made one of the best dinner's I've ever had. Go figure :) Tonight's dinner had four easy components...

1. Pasta Noodles
1-2 cups of spiralized zucchini (you can use squash, carrot, or whatever you prefer)

2. Marinara Sauce (A recipe that I have memorized from "Raw Food Made Easy" by Jennifer Cornbleet.)
1 ripe tomato
1 red bell pepper
1/2 cup of sundried tomatoes
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 clove garlic (optional, if you sensitive to raw garlic)
1 tsp of dried Oregano
1 tbsp of fresh Basil (I used dried basil)

Blend everything together in a food processor until it creates a nice sauce.

3. Veggie toppings
I used a handful of...Mushrooms, kale, carrots, green onions, and sundried tomatoes.

Basically take whatever veggies you have on hand that you enjoy on pasta and throw them in the food processor. Pulse a few times, but don't go to far that it becomes watery. You want a diced consistency.

4. Pineapple Marinade
This totally made the dish. Cut up chunks of pineapple, squeeze half a lime, add salt and pepper. Mix together all in a bowl!

Assemble the dish in layers like in my photos or blend it altogether. I blended my dish together after eating about half of it and oh my it was even better! The pineapple's citrus flavor with the sauce is so amazing.
~~~~
I guess what I learned from being in the kitchen today was to not lose hope. A culinary mistake can turn into something new and wonderful :) Oh and I rock at making raw pasta dishes!

Enjoy your eats!
~Maggie

8 comments:

Lorra Fae said...

dude, you need to try kelp noodles, they are SOOOOOO good!!!

Maggie said...

OOooo yes I totally wanna try those, but the only store i've found them at around here charged an outrageous amount for them :( It's so sad! :(

I could probably try searching Victoria a bit better...Where do you get your's in Van?

:D

Anonymous said...

I have had the same thing happen to me before also...experimenting..ha! They both look really delish! Enjoy!

Lori said...

Wow. Seriously, I'm drooling.

That chocolate "mistake" what else is it composed of???

And that zucchini "pasta" medley looks great! What great toppings! The sauce and the pineapple creation. Wow! Flavor city!

AnastaciaMa said...

Hey Maggie! Great Blog!

Would you like to review raw soapnuts? If you haven't heard of them, it is an ancient way of cleaning and can replace cleaners packed with synthetic chemicals (many of the "natural" cleaners even have them). Check it out here: http://www.maggiespureland.com/index.html

Maggie said...

Hi Lori :)

The original chocolate treat "mistake" had quite a few ingriedents including goji berries, pecans, cacoa butter, coconut oil :) You can find the recipe here...
http://livingfoodjunkie.blogspot.com/2010/03/chocolate-indulgence.html

And since I had the mishap it joined a banana to make icecream :)

~Maggie

Maggie said...

Hi AnastaciaMa,

Wow that sounds interesting and being that I have a 3 year old I'm even more interested in natural cleansers. Would love to review your product. I'll get in touch with you.

~Maggie

Maggie said...

Hi Samantha,

Your business and e-book sound amazing!! What a wonderful idea! I'm all about feeding kids healthy, whole foods and would be very interested in being part of your project. I'll contact you :)
~Maggie