hippie haven highlights & hemp sauce

Well folks, I have returned from Tofino on Vancouver Island. 

It was an awesome vacation that was much needed, and I wish more than anything I was back there right now... listening to the ocean, walking in the rain, hiking through old-growth forests, laughing til my abs hurt with the fam, and drinking smoothies on the beach. Instead, I'm back here studying for midterms and worrying about trivial matters. 

Ah well. C'est la vie. 

I won't give you too many details about the trip because you probably don't care, but here's some highlights: saw a pet pig, watched a fire dancer, played hours of Settlers of Catan, laughed until we all cried, my brother bought me a vegan cinnamon from The Common Loaf, gave my mom a foot massage when she got poisoned by a sketchy calzone, hugged a lot of wise old trees, made delicious veggie meals every night, survived a wind storm, watched my brothers do dishes, visited the all-new vegan health food store/gallery and bought RAW JUNGLE PEANUTS! 

(Only in Tofino will some guy come to your door and say:

"Hey dudes, my buddy's a fire dancer if you wanna watch.")

A couple crazy things that happened - I saw a guy from one of my university classes at The Common Loaf! C'mon, what're the chances. 

Also, avocados are 5 for $5 at the Tofino Co-op!!! ARE YOU KIDDING? That's cheaper than here. How does that happen!?

My mom let me bring the Vita-Mix this year so I was able to make green smoothies every morning =)

The family had some too! You can see their fruit smoothies in the background. Mmm.

This smoothie was a bunch of dino kale, a banana, 1 cup of frozen blueberries, raspberries, peaches and water.

I also ate a lot of seaweed, since it's delicious and stuff... ya know. Plus, we're surrounded by it on the beach so how could I NOT? My brother said it looked like stained glass in the sun - I agree. It amazing how often I have the thought "Wow, I am eating art."

Tofino is such a great place. Everything is local, hand-made, organic and friendly - landscape included.

All the people are so chill, and predominantly hippies. So it's makes sense that the health food store is all vegan, and substantially raw. It's called Green Soul Organics, and they're expanding! This year they added a top floor, which is a total chill zone. It's got funky tunes, tons of old couches, vegan potlucks, 420 Sundays, and a gallery of what residents think "humanity" means to them. 

Yeah. I belong here. 

We bought prayer flags, raw jungle peanuts, and were GOING to buy glass straws; but they were too small for my thick smoothies. So we're gonna buy them online at Upaya. 

Besides our trip to town, we basically just relaxed in our cabin, visited beaches, and went on some hikes. 

Now, on to the stuff you're really interested in: food! While we were in Tofino, I brought along some killer hemp sauce, and used it to make some awesome raw veg wraps for dinner one night. The whole family liked them so I KNOW you will. 

And I have some special news! I am going to be featured in an E-Book! I will give you more details soon =) For now, just enjoy these wraps. 

NOTE: You can use this hemp sauce on ANYTHING. Dip, sauce, marinade, add more water and an avocado to make soup, use it on kale chips, and anything else you could possibly think of. Seriously. This is a go-to sauce. 

Hippie Hemp Sauce: makes about 1 1/2 cups or so

1/4 cup plus 2 Tb hemp seeds

3 Tb nutritional yeast

2 Tb miso

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 date (or 1 t honey, agave, or maple syrup)

1 Tb mustard 

2 Tb nut butter (or 3 Tb nuts)

2 Tb tamari

1/2 cup water

1/8 - 1/4 t chili powder/cayenne

2 t sun dried tomatoes (optional)  

1 t hot sauce (optional) 

Pinch salt & pepper

3 Tb black sesame seeds 

Blend all ingredients EXCEPT black sesame seeds together until smooth. Also, be sparing with the water; add it only as needed to get a creamy, saucy consistency... you can always add more. Then mix in sesame seeds with a spoon. They add nice contrast and texture. Taste it! Sooooo good, right?

Veggie Seaweed Wraps: serves... ?

Avocado

Corn

Bell Pepper

Mushrooms

Hippie Hemp Sauce

Nori Sheets

Chop all the produce and mix in enough hemp sauce to coat them all. Add salt & pep to taste. Wrap in seaweed. Enjoy! Best served by the ocean.

EAT THIS NOW.

Nom. I don't say that a lot, but I do when it's necessary. I don't know what it is about this meal, but I've made it several times and I always want more.
It's not mind-blowingly amazing when you first bite into it... but after a few minutes you start to realize how simply YUMMY it is!

That's all I can say about it - it's pure and simple yummy.

Sorry, the pictures are kinda lame today. I didn't have the patience - I just wanted to eat this! Plus, our house has terrible lighting.

Anyhoo - These are basically just rice paper OR seaweed (I'd prefer nori seaweed but we didn't have any big sheets, just the mini ones) with a mix of veggies and avocado inside, and a spicy-savory asian-y sauce! Everybody you know will LOVE this.

Note: I never measure anything, and this is always a total improv dish, it really doesn't matter. But I've given general amounts for the sauce. 

Savory Spicy Veggie Wraps: serves 1-2

1 Avocado

1/3 cup corn

1 Bell Pepper

2-3 Mushrooms

Red onion?

Cucumber?

Tomato?

Carrot?

Any other veg you like/have

Chop all the veggies (and avocado) roughly, put in a bowl and pour on a little tamari. Let them marinate while you do the other stuff.

Spicy Asian-y Sauce: makes about 1/3 cup?

1 Tb mustard

1 Tb miso

1 Tb nut butter

2 Tb nutritional yeast

Salt & Pepper

I also add hemp seeds and other spices if I want. 

Blend all the ingredients until smooth, adding water as need to make it creamy. This time, I added black sesame seeds at the end to add some contrast. Do whatever floats your boat!

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Finally - prepare some rice paper by soaking it in hot water for a minute or two until it's super pliable. OR just get out some nori seaweed sheets. Spoon a little of the sauce into the nori or rice paper and then load on the veg mix! Wrap it up. Repeat until you use up all the veg.

Want another really easy way to do this? Don't even make the sauce - just put tamari on all the cut up veggies and mix in the avocado with your hands, mashing it up a little - it creates a salty, creamy avocado sauce all on it's own! I did that the other night and it was great; saves you time.

I usually make two or three wraps, and eat the leftovers outta da bowl. YUM!

My brother's reaction to this?  
"Dang, why do you vegans always get to eat better food than us!?"
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rainbow sushi

Have conventional ideas about Japanese-North American Cuisine? Throw 'em out. There's no reason you have to eat imitation crab and cooked white rice - or worse, deep-fried tempura - to enjoy sushi. For me, sushi can basically have the contents of a fresh salad in a different form, and be even MORE delicious. You can get all the flavours and textures of the real thing - while eating your greens, grains veggies.

I make this ALL the time since it's so easy and as long as you have a ripe avocado, the rest of the ingredients should be hanging around your kitchen anyways. You can even make it without an avocado, but personally I think it makes the dish; nothing like those creamy omega 3's (NOT from poor little fishies). I can literally feel my hair and skin start to glow!

I had pictures of one time when I made sushi and it was just gorgeous, very gorumet-cuisine-looking; but it seems I've lost them. Oh well, I'll make it again soon I assure you!

These tasted just as good. And I think they're beautiful in their own way. I didn't have any nori sheets (a type of seaweed, very nutritious) so I used some organic rainbow chard from the farmer's market (3 huge bunches for $5! Who says bein' raw is expensive?)

Rainbow chard has got to be one of my favourite greens. The beautiful, vibrant colours of the stems that run through the leaves like living veins; it's one of those foods I don't want disrupt by eating! But I do =) That and dino kale. It's a split.

Rainbow Sushi: serves 3 

3 big leaves of greens, or nori sheets

1/2 cup of your fave raw thick sauce or spread (I'll provide recipes for all my sauces eventually...)

A big handful of sprouts (you can even use sprouted/cooked whole grains like buckwheat or quinoa)

Bell pepper

Celery stick

1/2 avocado

1/2 tomato (optional) 

Walnut-Parma 

Cut all the veggies and avocado into sticks. Spread thick sauce onto inside of each big leaf. Put on the sprouts next (all over the leaf), followed by the veg sticks and avocado, on one side. Put a bit more sauce on the opposite side and roll up. The sauce keeps the rolled over leaf stuck to it so it doesn't fall apart. (You're basically making a burrito here, people.) Then cut the roll into sushi-sized pieces, plate, and sprinkle on walnut-parma. Yum!