chocolate & vanilla ice cream sandwiches (suitable for hipsters)

I've made ice cream sandwiches before... but that was when I was just starting out with this whole blog thing. I'm so happy with where I am now. Thank you all for your kindness. Anyways - I was deciding what to make last night and ice cream sandwiches popped into my brain (not literally... that would be gross. How would that even work? Okay, never mind.) 

They turned out exactly as I had hoped. Soft chocolate pieces holding together raw, dairy-free ice cream. In fact, I used three different kinds of ice cream for these guys. Banana soft serve, olive oil, and vanilla caramel. Each one is unique and delicious in it's own special way... AW SO SWEET. (Now that I DO mean literally.)

My boyfriend liked them so much that he tried to eat them all but I was able to stop his beastly manner and satisfy his sweet tooth with just one. Must save the rest for my family! And... myself...

The crust is nut-free (if you don't add peanut butter) because I used mostly buckwheat groats - they are rawkin' and seriously nutritious; gluten-free too, which is never a bad thing. Another plus? These babies are suitable for hipsters! I used triangle molds for some of them so I know the trendy alternative youth of my generation will flock to these like a grimy pair of used sneakers. I'm not judging - I have only love for you (and you and you). To be honest, I myself have been called a hipster on many an occasion. Ain't no thang.

Make these for your sweet heart, your friends, family or complete strangers. I wish I had made more so I could eat more but alas, it's just one for every member of my family. Feel free to play around with the crust - I bet it would be awesome if you added a bit of cayenne. Let's get spicy up in here. 

I don't really remember what a conventional ice cream sandwich tastes like but it can't be better than this. Whole food frozen treats? Count me in! There's simply nothing better than indulging in something decadent and delicious, knowing you are making your body, the earth and the animals happy. Well I don't really have anything else to talk about for today so I will leave by saying: MAKE THESE! The recipe is below.

chocolate & vanilla ice cream sandwiches: makes 8-10, depending on the size

Crust:
1 cup buckwheat groats, preferably soaked in water for 1-3 hours
1/4 cup cacao powder
1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons hemp seeds
1 cup dates, or more as needed 
2 tablespoons nut butter (optional)

Ice cream:
banana ice cream OR
coconut ice cream (this is the more decadent option) 

To make the crust: pulse the dry ingredients in your food processor until it's like a rough flour. Add the rest of the ingredients and process until it forms a ball or clumps together.

Using half the crust mixture, press into the bottom of cookie cutter molds or whatever else you want to use. Scoop softened ice cream into each one and then set in the freezer for an hour or so, until the ice cream is hard again. Press on the remaining half of the crust mixture. Let them set in the freezer for 30 more minutes and then push them out of the molds, gently. Enjoy!

raw pad thai - oh yes

*Strictly speaking, the sauce isn't totally raw. But c'mon. What're ya gonna do. If you really want a 100% raw sauce, make a blend of tahini (or other nut butter), chili, tamari, garlic and ginger.

The pasta of course, is just zucchini, sliced on le mandoline. Good news! Soon I will be purchasing one of these puppies from Organic Lives. Yippie! However, if you can only afford a mandoline - no worries! As you can see, they work just as well.

The sauce is a lot like authentic Pad Thai sauce, just healthier and vegan. I had my mom to guide me; she and my dad lived in Thailand for years before they had kids. That's probably a reason I love Thai food so much. It may be my favourite kind of cuisine.

Real Pad Thai is made with rice noodles, a tamarind-, chili- and fish sauce-based sauce, and topped with cilantro, chili paste, peanuts, bean sprouts and perhaps other veggies. Not a lot of meat in Thai food.

That's why they live so long =)

(Plus the daily manual labour, low calorie intake and unprocessed diet of local plants. They have no choice! The healthiest people in developing countries tend to be the middle class and lower-middle class; they can't afford meat, or the ability to sit around all day like us. 

It makes sense. For our ancestors (and still in most developing nations), calories were/are scarce so the fittest got the most. We simply apply that to modern day - the wealthiest get the fanciest (most calorie-dense) food. The only difference now is, in developed countries, calories are the OPPOSITE of scarce. They're in excess. Yet we still hold the ideal that more calories are better. Unfortunately, our brains agree, since they haven't had time to adapt to environmental changes.

Isn't it funny? Once you are rich (i.e. developed regions), you can afford unhealthy processed, animal-based foods, and you can afford to be lazy. Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, celiac disease and even diabetes are seen virtually only in Western society. They are diseases of the wealthy. For more info on all this - read The China Study.

I'd rather use our fortune and wealth to my body's advantage. We now have an unprecedented opportunity to be the HEALTHIEST generation of all time. We have every nutritionally excellent food (i.e. raw plants and super foods) at our finger tips, and at very affordable prices. 

I love grocery shopping.  I go to the produce section and pick out my greens and fruit. Kale? A couple dollars a bunch; even cheaper for spinach and lettuce. Fruit? Depending on what it is, about a few dollars a pound. Vegetables? Even cheaper. 

The cheapest foods in the market are the ones that will give you a long, healthy life. 

Then you go past the meat and dairy section, and packaged food; they are all substantially more expensive. Why do we pay MORE for foods that will plague us with pain, discomfort, disease and eventually premature death?

The answer is complicated and simple at the same time. Basically: politics and tradition. I suggest you research this for yourself. It's fascinating, albeit mind-boggling.

My point in all this writing is this - we have been given the special chance to be the healthiest we can possibly be - for cheap. Being healthy costs far less than being sick, and it's way yummier. 

So let's eat to long life, not early death.

Let's eat RAW PAD THAI! (and Dilly Bars for dessert, anyone?) Nom. 

Radical Raw Pad Thai: serves 2, more or less

Sauce: 

1 Tb tamarind paste

1 Tb chopped ginger

1-2 cloves chopped garlic

1-2 Tb agave (or 1-2 dates)

6 Tb tamari

2 Tb chili sauce

3 Tb tomato puree

1 t chili flakes

Juice of 1 lime

1/2 t coriander

1/2 t paprika

Pinch of cayenne and chili, if you want it hotter =) 

Raw oil, if desired

Water, as needed 

Pasta:

1 large zucchini 

Garnish:

Cilantro

Raw jungle peanuts!

Bean sprouts

Hot sauce

Scallions

Marinated mushrooms and broccoli (put some tamari on and warm for an hour in the dehydrator) 

To makes the sauce, put all ingredients in blender and add enough water to just cover them. Blend until smooth, see if you want more heat, or anything else.

To make the pasta, slice the zuc on a mandoline or spiral slicer. Add enough sauce to evenly coat the noodles. Garnish. Eat! The heat of the chili makes this dish perfectly warming on its own - no heating necessary.

In other news: while I enjoyed my Pad Thai, the fam had a sandwich night. We used the best bread in the world, baked yesterday with love at The Common Loaf Bakery in Tofino. My mom also baked some eggplant (which I could not resist, and added to my pasta), tofu, and laid out a bunch of different toppings.

You know it was a successful dinner when my little brother, Daniel, was fighting for the last tomato, sprouts and lettuce!

bad girl

I'm the worst raw foodist ever! A couple nights ago, I was really hungry and since I don't fall asleep until around 3 AM now - don't ask - I wasn't going to go to bed for several hours. What was I craving for no reason? A big, fat sandwich (I don't even GET cravings, let alone eat sandwiches, so it was truly bizarre). What'd I decide to do? Make a big, fat sandwich.

It was so comfort food-y. Delicious.
First, I toasted some organic sprouted chia bread and put on lettuce and avocado. Then I baked some butternut squash mac n' cheese leftovers, and sauteed some tofu in Bragg's, homemade breadcrumbs and nutritional yeast. Stacked it all up and cut it in half - then sat down and enjoyed.
I know! Even typing this out makes me feel indulgent. Oh man. This is the most unhealthy thing I've eaten in... forever.

 I'm comfortable with this, occasionally. I've written posts about this before: there's many reasons I'm not 100% raw. My living situation, my family, my lifestyle, and also what eating all raw means to me - because sometimes it's NOT for the best. When I eat 100% raw, I unfortunately become a little obsessive about it, to the extreme. I get too idealistic. This isn't healthy. Ultimately all I want in my diet is health. So for me, eating a percentage of cooked food is healthier mentally, than eating totally raw.

In the future I do want to become pretty much 100% raw, after I move out and buy all my own food (another reason I'm not all raw - it stresses out my family). But I need to get comfortable with myself and how I think of the diet before this happens, otherwise I'll be doing it for the wrong reasons. 

Note: If you don't care about raw food, sorry you have to read this! It probably sounds insane. If you're a raw foodist, I hope you know what I'm talking about.

At the end of the day? Loved every bite of this sandwich.