New Year = New Food

New restaurants are popping up in Dallas, mirroring the new health trend. My new favorite Dallas restaurant you absolutely must try is True Food Kitchen! The drinks at True Food are fabulous! Despite the lengthy wine list, I highly recommend the healthy elixirs on the front page of the menu. On my previous post, I pictured the delicious Kale-Aid! This time I would like to show off the Medicine Man: sea buckthorn, pomegranate, cranberry, black tea, and club soda. It taste like a black cherry fresca but 10x better and completely healthy. A total antioxidant blast! You must try!

True Food Medicine Man

Another surprisingly delicious menu item is the Kale Salad made with lemon, parmesan, and bread crumbs. It is an outstanding appetizer or entree! Ever doubted that you would like kale? Well, give this salad a try and let me know what you think! I bet you billions it will knock your socks off!

True Food Kale Salad

For dinner, I highly suggest and beg you to try the Butternut Squash Pizza. It is one of the most unique dishes I have ever tried, but I am just joining the foodie world so I hope to try more amazing dishes! Unfortunately, I do not have a True Food picture of the pizza since it never seems to last long enough on the plate, but my family and I recreated it at home. Check it out:

Recreated Butternut Squash Pizza
(before adding arugula)

Recreated Butternut Squash Pizza

The ingredients my family used to craft our recreation:

-your crust of choice

-sweet balsamic onions

-garlic pieces

-walnut pieces

-sprinkle of mozzarella

-butternut squash slices

-topped with fresh arugula

The crunchy walnuts, sweet butternut squash, mixed with spicy arugula is the perfect combination. My whole family loved it! Funny story is my dad took a handful of the arugula and stuffed it in his mouth only to choke because he was not expecting it to be spicy. Be cautious of the powerful punch certain greens can have! 

Next up is my favorite raw restaurant Be Raw Food And Juice in Dallas! I have eaten here countless times and brought countless family and friends along for a taste test: my brother, my mom, my friend Lila, my "little sister" aka my favorite 7th grade girl, and more! Each one of them were surprised to try items they actually enjoyed - the kale salad, the bliss salad, the pizzas, the juice, the rawko taco, the pastas, and the raw brownies! Here are some of the recent dishes I ordered:

Bliss Salad with Ginger Miso Dressing

The Pizza Sampler

With the new food processor I got for Christmas, I finally recreated a scrumptious version of the Be Raw brownie so I can enjoy whenever!

The ingredients:

-1 cup walnut

-1 cup dates

-1/2 cup of cocoa and flaxseed (any ratio)

*The flaxseed gives it a nice flour-y taste like real brownies but obviously a million times healthier!

-about 2 tbsp of agave as needed 

-top with cocoa nibs and fruit

You can really make these brownies with numerous variations. Add chia seeds or any other superfoods. Add coconut, vanilla, or any other flavors. Dozens of possibilities await you! 

My own Be Raw Brownie!

Speaking of exciting food processor recipes, I also recreated Gwyneth Paltrow's candy bars with a few modified ingredients. This ooey gooey cashew date bar is the best raw, healthy candy bar I have ever tasted. My family ate these bars for breakfast, snack, and dessert because they loved them so much! Make them for a healthy snack for your kids!

The ingredients used: 

-1.5 cups raw cashews (put in first and grind almost to a meal)

-1.5 cups dates 

-0.5 cups almond butter

-0.5 cups agave 

-0.5 cups almond flour (can be previously ground from raw almonds)

-0.5 cups shredded coconut

-0.5 tsp vanilla

-enough cocoa nibs for topping

Cashew Date Bars
(pressed with cocoa nibs)

The ooey, gooey inside!

Another fun craft is making homemade lotion so you know all the ingredients that go in. It is simply four ingredients! Melt together shea butter and coconut oil together in the combination you prefer. Pour into glass jars. Add a few drops of Vitamin E and your desired essential oil (I recommend lavender!). Then, refrigerate until cooled and solidified. Make it with a friend to share this soothing, glorious lotion.

Another skin indulgence is nutritious juices! One of my new year favorite juices is the Spinach, Basil, Orange smoothie by Fully Raw Kristina! Trade your morning coffee for this energizing juice! It is gorgeously green :) 

Fully Raw Kristina's
Spinach, Basil, Orange Smoothie

When I returned to my apartment in College Station for school, I found out my roommate got a juicer for Christmas, so we had a fun time experimenting making juice. We threw in a bunch of fruits and veggies from strawberries, raspberries, beets, carrots, spinach, kale, pineapple, oranges, apples, and more. This is the stunning juice that resulted:

Juice Experimenting

Juices are one of the best sources of nutrients, but not everyone has a juicer, not everyone can afford high end juices, and not everyone has access to juice, so I like to share other healthy recipes as well. Inspired by the colorful juice, I crafted a beautiful veggie roast full of colors.

Ingredients:
-sliced carrots
-chopped butternut squash
-sliced beets
-fresh garlic slivers
-rosemary
-olive oil
-dash of balsamic vinegar

Roasting Veggies

Leftover Veggies on Quinoa

My most daring recipe experiment yet this year is a Cauliflower Crust Pizza. Ever think pizza could be healthy. Well, try Green Kitchen's recipe for Cauliflower Crust Pizza here! Outstandingly unique and definitely different. My favorite part was the homemade sauces! Also do not be afraid to try ingredient swaps. I used chia seed gel for eggs, added red bell pepper, sprinkled on Daiya cheddar cheese, and more.

Cauliflower Meal

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

Trying new, crazy recipes is so fun, so inspiring, and so addicting! I dare you to try some new, healthy recipes this year. You never know if you don't try! Have your family join in for the fun that way if you mess up, you can all laugh about it together :) 

Cheers,

Alexis