Beet Greens and Chocolate

TGIF! And thank goodness, it has been an interesting week. But the weather has been gorgeous here after all the rain and Miko is enjoying playing in the backyard.

Skipper is enjoying exploring all of our new weeds I need to do something about.

And kale is flourishing in our backyard after so much rain, I have about 8 plants that need harvesting!

This has been an odd and slightly deflating week, work has been busy, lots of house work, and sinus problems. I’ve been sticking to comfort foods like this steaming bowl of miso soup with tofu and carrots.

We did receive a farm box this week with lots of goodies including these gorgeous organic beets with beautiful greens still on them.

They looked too pretty to compost, so I decided to use them in a raw salad since they’re edible.

And a bit of a super food loaded with vitamins A and C and pretty high in protein.

The greens were very good in a salad, not as bitter as raw kale can be and the stalks seemed slightly sweet and nicely crunchy.

After I had to prepare a raw chocolate brownie “pie” for a pi day potluck at work today. I used the chocolate cake recipe from Jennifer Cornbleet’s Raw for Dessert and formed it into a flat pie instead of a cake.

The recipe came together quickly which was good because I was tired after a long day.

Raw desserts are typically much easier to make with no baking required and this recipe was just layering food processed ingredients into a cake pan. Some how the chocolate frosting turned out extra gooey and thick, but it looked lovely, smooth, and shiny layered on top.

I wasn’t looking forward to the potluck though because everything was supposed to be pi themed which meant Shepard’s pie, quiche, and not a lot of vegan options. There were lots of interesting looking meat and/or cheese loaded pies and non-vegan friendly desserts. I brought my salad leftovers too as a backup plan and had a not-bad lunch of salad, strawberries, and raw chocolate cake.

I debated whether or not I should feel rude bringing my own salad to the potluck, but there wasn’t anything else I wanted to eat and nobody seemed to notice it or question me on it. My raw “pie” was actually a hit, there was more of it gone than the other desserts, which was nice. But I got some leftovers for the weekend, which is nice too.