Meredith's {Vegan} Pad Thai Amazingness

Meredith is amazing in general and today she completely blew me away with her Pad Thai recipe! She kills it in the kitchen and I'm so excited to share this with you. Here is her story:

Working in the food biz- doesn't always make for the most creative cooking at home. Sometimes when you think about food all day, you just want something really simple for dinner. We have a rotation of about 3 dishes that we always do variations of. 

But sometimes.... we mix it up! As I mentioned in my last post, we have a lovely intern Carly Gross here helping us this summer which gives me more ambition in the kitchen (does that rhyme?) and an extra set of hands. Not that you couldn't easily make this dish solo. It is very very easy.  

Anyways, the other night we made a lovely version of Pad Thai. It was absolutely a crowd pleaser, and not hard to put together at all.  It will certainly be a major player all summer long. 

The only special equipment need is a spiral slicer, but you could easily get away with doing a very thing julienne to the vegetables. 

We were serving 5 people so the recipe is kind of big- feel free to cut in half! 

Simple and delicious! 

We served it with an amazing bottle of chilled rose. 

Pad Thai Recipe
Serves 5

Vegetables / Salad

- 2 Zucchini’s, made into noodles with a spiralizer. Salt the zucchini for a least 30 minutes before serving. Rinse and drain. This takes the excess water out of the zucchini. 
- 3 Carrots, julienned 
- 2 Coconuts worth of meat, thinly sliced
- 2 Cups sugar snap peas, thinly sliced
-1 handful cilantro, chopped lightly
-Juice of one lime

Assembly

Toss vegetables with sauce. Garnish and serve immediately. 

Pad Thai Sauce

- 1 Cup Almond Butter
- Juice of half of a lime
- 1 Cup Coconut Water
- 1-2 Tbsp Fresh Ginger, grated 
- 1/3 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
- 2 Tbsp Red Chili, diced 
- 1 Tbsp Sesame Oil 
- 1 Tbsp Nama shoyu 
- 1 Tbsp White Miso 
- Salt to Taste 

Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender. 

Curried Cashews

Toss chopped raw cashews with a few teaspoons sesame oil, curry powder, and lots of salt. This MAKES the dish. If you don't like cashews you could sub almonds. 

Garnish 

Lime Wedge 
Cilantro 
Sesame Seeds 

And look at the set-up. Meredith is SO-COOL in SO many ways! {Thanks Meredith}!

Happiness! {it doesn't take much}

1) the prettiest, largest flower I have ever seen. had to buy it. INCREDIBLE 2) after school green drinks {avo, squash, stevia, pineapple, banana, spinach} 3) tennis courts at La Costa Resort 4) farmer's market radishes 5) caesar salad made with kale & radishes = best invention ever 6) thanks to the lovely ladies over at MyBarre3 for the workouts they sent me 7) my kids randomly started jiving to the live music at the local fair the other day. it was one of the funniest things ever 8) reading a book while my son actually sits still to listen and give hugs 9) the best game ever - hungry hungry hippos {my kids get so competitive} 10) cinepolis movie night. YES! 11) La Costa Resort pool on a hot sunny Saturday 12) we found this bugs bunny book at a garage sale. i love scoring cool used stuff. 13) my sweet one year old niece that i got to see for about 1 hour last weekend. SO CUTE. it's my favorite age for sure. 

Meredith Talks Giveaways & Matthew Kenney's Spring Menu

Ok... so one of the MAJOR perks of my job is getting to eat amazingly delicious, innovative, raw vegan food. I know right? SO SOOOO hard. All that WORK! (Right?) 

In truth, that doesn't happen as often as I'd like! I end up preparing most of our meals myself (even though they are still healthy and delicious). So I always look forward to going to our restaurant and culinary school Matthew Kenney in OKC. Students come from all over the world (literally) to learn this type of cuisine. What comes out of that kitchen is none short of truly amazing. I never leave without being BEYOND inspired. 

The students make great food, and so does the kitchen! We change the menu every season. Fortunately this season change was on the cusp of hiring our new (amazingly talented) corporate Chef Scott Winegard. He is from Brooklyn, NY and has worked with Matthew in various capacities - including  Pure Food and Wine. Scott is in OKC to help execute the new  spring menu and he brought his passion for vegetables with him.

While in OKC I spent a week testing (tasting) every dish so I thought that I would supply you with some food porn {wink}! note: all of the photos are of RAW VEGAN dishes. Amazing, right?

Dessert often comes first in the raw food kitchen. If you have never experienced a raw food dessert, be prepared to be truly amazed. In our kitchen right now we have the lovely pastry fairy Tatiana Jankowski. This round of desserts was unbelievable.

I'm not biased. I truly can't say enough good things about all of the excitement that comes out of that kitchen in OKC. If you are passionate about health and beautiful food, please stay in touch! 

Check out all of the new dishes on our website. 

Our Tumblr is an endless amount of mouth watering photos!

Giveaway:

And guess what, I've decided to give away the Matthew Kenney iPad app as well as a copy of our new book, Raw Chocolate!

RULES:

Simply like MATTHEW KENNEY'S Facebook page and leave a comment here on PUREmamas that you did so! 

For extra credit, mention Juli Novotny & Meredith Baird in a tweet. 

JANICE IS THE WINNER OF THIS CONTEST ------- CONTEST CLOSED!

More Intimate With Meredith Baird {the interior designer?}

As you might already know, I {Juli} am in the process of moving and designing a small house here in San Diego. So this piece by Meredith couldn't have come at a better time. She is not only such an inspiration with health food and vegan lifestyle but her taste in decor and architecture is also a TOTAL inspiration! She doesn't cease to amaze me and keep me on my toes. 

She's been so busy writing her new cook book {photo shoot & behind the scenes look coming soon} but has taken the time out to share this peek into her latest design project. 

Take a look below and a quick read!

Meredith says:

One of the most fulfilling aspects of my life is the “randomness”. Part of my story has been the tendency to follow my gut, and my passions. I’ve never really thought too hard about this; I have just been lucky enough to have strong desires and opinions that lead me to unique opportunities.

I try not to wear TOO many hats so that I don’t end up looking like a clown, but for some reason the hats keep coming my way and I try to make them look good! (I’ve been told I look good in hats- so maybe that is it)

I am not an interior designer, but one of the most exciting and fulfilling projects that I have worked on in the last two years was doing the interior design for a friend was building a brand new contemporary home in Oklahoma City. She asked me to do the interior design, and I am forever grateful. This project was one of the most uniquely challenging, inspiring and creative projects that I have ever been a part of. I helped in the selection of virtually everything.  I was lucky enough to work with a super talented team of architects and contractors, and the results are STUNNING. One thing that Oklahoma City has going for it that is hard (and expensive) to come by in larger cities is access to some really young and hungry local artisans. So COOL!

Oklahoma City is a major part of my life right now because of the restaurant (Matthew Kenney) and this project. The restaurant continues to evolve (more on that later) and my design project is coming to a beautiful end. There are still some finishing details that I need to do, and a professional photography session for the portfolio, but I am too anxious to wait for all of that.

Check out the iPhone snap shots that I took from my most recent OKC visit.

Crazy Beautiful Chandelier – Custom made by Christie Hackler (Who is a yoga friend of my client)Wow! Right? 

Custom Woodwork- Todd Graham http://www.treetheory.com/ (AMAZING DETAIL)

Architect- Brett Johnson

Contractor- Monty Jacobs  

And that beautiful blue sofa… is vintage Milo Baughman that I foraged at Surfing Cowboys in Venice beach.

Enjoy!

Cabbage, Kale, Apple Chop & Avocado Dressing

Today was such a great Sunday. Especially because the entire family was together. It has been me and the boys all week for almost 7 days now. Work was also insane. So the stress and exhaustion had set in about Friday.

I have to apologize for all the salad recipes latey but when I'm by myself all I eat are salads. Not just greens but jam packed nutrition in a bowl - sprouted nuts, seeds, omegas, fiber, dark greens, herbs and sometimes quinoa too. So...here I am sharing these with you, hope you aren't sick of salads yet {wink}!

But today was extra wonderful and made up for all the craziness last week.

We not only went to brunch with a few friends up the street but we also saw the waves and explored the reefs at low tide. Then we all spent the rest of the afternoon at the farmer's market. 

We found such a beautiful array of veggies and fruit. I bough this amazing {above} dark green cabbage, organic kale, lemons, avocado and spring onions. 

I decided to make a huge green salad {surprise surprise! i really need to branch out again} out of everything we had purchased. 

I had this great avocado dressing in mind. I wasn't sure how it would turn out after all was said and done. But I decided to go for it and YAY it turned out better than I could have imagined. 

The rain and wind started later in the day and so we decided to cook up some tofu to add on top of the hearty, raw dark green salad. 

Avocado Dressing

1/2 avocado

2 lemons, juice

1 Tbls tahini {i used raw but you don't have to}

1/4 c olive oil

5 Tbls rice vinegar

1.5 tsp agave nectar

large pinch, sea salt

In a Vitamix or high speed blender, add all of the above EXCEPT for the rice vinegar. Blend well, until smooth, as shown above. 

Read below to see what to do with the rice vinegar. 

Cabbage, Kale & Apple Chop

1/2 head kale, thinly chopped and washed
1/2 head cabbage, thinly chopped and washed
1 apple, julienned
2 green onions, sliced {optional}
1/3 sprouted sunflower seeds
1/3c goji berries
1/3 golden raisins
sesame seeds, sprinkled, garnish

In a bowl combine all of the above ingredients. Mix. Then add RICE VINEGAR {from above}. Toss again with the rice vinegar. Then add about 4 heaping tablespoons of the avocado dressing! Mix and keep adding dressing until desired texture/consistency. 

Enjoy!

It was a wonderful weekend. So great that I can't wait until the next one!

PureMamas Reader Asks...Christine Answers!

A PUREmamas reader recently wrote in asking a question about anesthesia and I was at a loss for words. So as promised, I reached out to those around me that are better equipped to answer such specific questions. 

Christine, my favorite integrative health specialist and follow PUREmamas contributor, has the answer: 

Hi Anonymous,

That's a great question. Anesthesia can often leave kids feeling groggy, drained and temporarily nutrient deficient (depending on the actual medication given). While many health care providers won't say much about the residual affects of anesthesia, it's definitely great that you want to take a proactive approach to get it out of his system.

One of my top suggestions to patients for wanting to remove residual from anesthetia is ascorbic acid, aka vitamin C. Ascorbic acid is an excellent, alkaline source of vitamin C that assists in tissue health, immunity and the removal of metabolic waste and residual from toxins. While you could give your little guy powdered ascorbic acid (fortify his food with it) you can also supplement directly with many common foods. If you decide to supplement his food you can add it to mashed fruits and veggies quite easily without him being able to detect any taste. Like adults, babies, toddlers and children tolerate ascorbic acid very well (even in very high doses). 

Another great suggestion for babies and kids are Bach Flower Essence preparations. Of particular use is the BFE Olive. Olive helps when children feel mentally and physically exhausted by helping to restore vitality, strength and energy. 

If you've decided to choose food over the supplemental form, a few delicious smoothie combinations will do the child good. You can make a smoothie drink or a food mash. 

Here are two to try and the batches can be split up throughout the day. If your child doesn't like the taste directly, don't fret, use the mixture(s) to add to their foods. Both recipes help to gently detoxify and purify while improving immunity, tissue health and general ocular health. 

Green Re-Gainer

1 scoop greens powder (I like Amazing Grass or Nano Greens)
1 organic granny smith apple
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup organic tomatoes 
1/4 cup organic cherries
1/4 cup hemp meal
8-10 ounces of plain coconut water

C Boost

1 scoop greens powder
1/2 packet of stevia
1 cup organic strawberries
1 cup organic blueberries
1/2 cup frozen organic mangoes
1 organic carrot
1/4 cup hemp meal
8-10 ounces of coconut water

Check out this helpful list of fruits and veggies abundant in ascorbic acid for more nutritious goodness.

Other nutritional considerations include:

• vegetarian based omega 3 oils (I like Nutiva: Hemp Oil) or fish oil (I like Health From The Sun: Pure Fish Oil).
• juicing carrots, beets, dark greens and tomatoes to fortify your child's foods.

The nutrients contained in the foods I've referenced include: lutein, zeaxanthin, beta-carotene, zinc, omega 3, 6 and 9 essential fatty acids, bioflavonoids, ascorbic acid and vitamin E all essential for optimal ocular health. 

Without knowing exactly what other medications or nutriceuticals your son might be using, remember to consult with an integrative health care specialist who understands pharmacology and nutriceutical sciences before beginning any regular nutriceutical program.  

Have a question about nutriceuticals for kids, ask Christine here. 

NOTE: THE BEAUTIFUL PATTERN YOU SEE ABOVE IS A DESIGN BY LISA RUPP. Check out her lovely web site.