Saturday, February 23, 2008

A spread fit for three

So, now you get to see what happened to that lovely pineapple in my son's photo. It has taken almost center stage in this pic of our latest Thursday Night Raw spread, or in this case, fondue night.

As simple as it was, it may have been one of the more successful raw family nights in our house. Matthew said he would do that one again, and it even brought a smile to my son's face (if he would stay still long enough for me to capture it with my camera. But, I can't complain, because all that movement was just him chewing his food).

How could I have given birth to such a picky eater? Oh, yeah; he gets that from his dad. It's so hard to come up with something they will eat (whether it be cooked or raw), so I always make sure to offer a lot of variety.

Maybe that's why I ended up with a party-sized spread for just the three of us. We had both a classic "cheesy" fondue with veggies and a chocolate one, served with fruit.

To please everyone, the veggies included cauliflower, broccoli, celery root (I had to throw something new in there for them to try), red bell pepper slices, sugar snap peas, carrots, mini zucchinis (I couldn't resist; they were so cute), yellow squash, mushrooms, grape tomatoes, celery and asparagus (hey, I forgot to put that out. Oh well, I think we had enough options). My hubby tried most of it, while Jacob stuck to the carrots and celery. I, on the other hand, had a little of everything, of course.

Now, the best part was the fruit dipped in chocolate (the boys love chocolate ... I guess I can include myself in that statement, too). Again, to make sure everyone had their fill of what they liked, I set out bowls of apple cubes, thick banana slices, mango chunks, whole strawberries, cut up pineapple (there's our star, again), nectarine slices and orange segments.

To my surprise, my husband had never tried a nectarine. According to him, he only tasted it because he mistook it for a peach (no wonder my son is so bad about trying new things). When I asked him if he liked it, he responded, "I guess so; it tasted like a peach."

He definitely ate his fair share of the fruit and chocolate, leaving the table with a full belly. Who says you can't satisfy your man with a diet rich in fruit and veggies? I just did.

I was feeling a little full myself when I left the table. It's so easy to overdo it with the dessert fondue. It was worth the clean up in the end (we had a lot leftover, so I had it for lunch and dinner yesterday. But, I'm not complaining).

11 comments:

Penni said...

Look at that fabulous raw fondue spread! Lauwdy..that looks good! And NO, you are not the only one not juicing. Thin people like you and Dhrumil have to be careful! I have plenty of booty to burn and I think this will be quite the experience. Thanks for stopping by to see me!
Mwah!

RawBin said...

And the recipe for the cheese sauce is... ?

Charis said...

Rawbin, that's exactly my thought! Shannonmarie, will please share it soon!!! :0)

Colleen Miller said...

Wow those look delish! Can't wait to try that sometime with my family! Love that idea!
Hey we had a raw picnic last week with my mommies group. One of my friends made your cinnamon rolls, they were out of this world! She used to be a professional chef, and she is just getting into, loving and learning about raw foods! Check out the photos.

Colleen Miller said...

oops forgot to leave my new raw blog site where the photos are at: http://greenridge.typepad.com/rawleen/

Jenny said...

i'm not juicing either. . . and sometimes i feel a bit like i'm missing out on something!! LOL . . . but i made a version of your cookies Shannon and oh my goodess are they good- nut free lemon and chocolate sandwich cookies. . . reminding me of those classic boxes from my girl scout past!! ;)
xx

shannonmarie said...

Thanks Penni. I guess that means you don't need to be juice feasting either :-)

Rawbin and Charissa, I wish I could help you with that "cheese" recipe, but since I was taking it easy I didn't write anything down. I just started tossing and tasting.

I can tell you that I had originally planned to use my usual cashew base, but forgot to soak the nuts in advance. Therefore, I made more of an olive oil-based dressing type sauce that I thickened with flax and flavored with nutritional yeast, garlic, red wine vinegar, dry mustard, Bragg's and a bunch of other stuff. I think I even threw in some carrots and red bell pepper.

Rawleen, I saw your blog; the photos look great. I wish I could have been at that picnic. I don't get to go to many raw events.

Jenny, I'm glad someone is still eating raw goodies with me. I'm dying to check out your versions of the cookies.

Colleen Miller said...

The picnic was really amazing. One of the mom's found out that I raw and threw out the idea for our mom's group (we're called the "Hip Mamas") to have a Raw picnic. Everyone loved it and like 12 moms showed up and they all made something. None of the other moms are raw, or even vegetarian. Everyone said what fun they had and how it was all delicious. I couldn't believe it!!!! I think that most of them will be incorporating some of the recipes, or at least eating more fresh foods. No converts though, yet.....
:)

shannonmarie said...

That's so sweet. I wonder if any of the mamas from my son's preschool class would be interested in doing a raw picnic. Thursday, we are getting together at McDonald's, but I won't be eating any of the food.

JulieK said...

Wow, how fabulous...raw fondue! Love it! The photos are wonderful! :)

<3JMK

shannonmarie said...

Thanks Julie. Your new site looks great. I can see why you made the switch.