Cleaning out the fridge ...

... and the freezer, too. Not being one to let anything go to waste, I occasionally find myself creating menus out of what happens to be left in my raw kitchen. As you can see, today was one of those days.

My son, who is usually on an apple kick, has slowed down a bit since I purchased a large bag of the crisp delights (not local like the majority of my produce, but who's perfect).

Lucky for me, I found this recipe, which I "rawified" for lunch today. I'd give you a link, but unfortunately, this issue is not posted online yet. This probably explains the fall theme.

Okay, so it's not fall yet, but it seems to be closer than ever. Jacob starts school in a little more than a week, and Vegetarian Times has already sent out its September 2008 issue to its subscribers. Although it is a predominately cooked magazine, I still have fun making raw versions of the dishes inside. I do the same thing with my copy of VegNews (congrats Kristen on your winning recipes!).

Now back to today's gem, I rawified Cafe Flora's Candy-Apple Coupes, which was featured in the Vegetarian Times September issue. It's simply a vegan apple ice cream with a tofu base, topped with a macadamia praline crumble and surrounded by a candy apple sauce. Now that will make up for the sundae I didn't get Tuesday.

To make my raw version in a hurry (as always, it was a last-minute decision/craving), I mixed together some leftover chopped raw macadamia nuts (nice and crumbling from the bottom of the bag), with some sea salt and grade B maple syrup (if I had planned in advance, I would've dehydrated this topping a bit to make it more like the cooked version or purchased these), and set them aside while I made the n'ice cream.

The main reason I make so many banana-based versions is because my freezer is always stocked full of frozen bananas. Most of the time, we are like monkeys in this household. I never know how many to buy to keep up with the three banana-eaters (myself included), so I always end up buying too much (I gotta supply the demand). The really ripe ones end up in the freezer.

I replaced the tofu with banana (duh, but you can also use coconut or another favorite base), the peanut butter with raw almond butter, the turbinado sugar with a small drizzle of agave, the applesauce with peeled and chopped apple chunks, and I eliminated the soymilk altogether. I kept the cinnamon and vanilla bean seeds the same. Delicious!

After whipping the ingredients into n'ice cream (using my handy mini food processor), I scooped it out into a ramekin, which I had lined with my macadamia/maple mixture. Then, I placed it into the freezer to firm, while I made the candied apple sauce (diced apple, lemon juice, maple syrup, agave, cinnamon, nutmeg and sea salt).

An hour and a half later, I removed the frozen treat from the freezer, popped it out onto a plate and circled it in sauce, which I also drizzled over the top. As it began to melt, I quickly grabbed my camera to take a pic.

It was yummy, like this simple treat Rawbin gave me the other day. Don't be fooled by the blueberries in the background; this tart is actually filled with a dragon fruit filling. Yum!

Speaking of Rawbin, I didn't get a chance to tell you about the end of our excursion. It was getting late at Java Green, and we still needed to take Dea shopping at Whole Foods as promised (that was okay with me; I love checking out other WF locations).

So, we said our goodbyes to Nic and D.J., and set out on our way. Of course, we kept losing each other in the store, as each one of us was either hunting down an item from Dea's list or just taking a moment to explore the store.

For instance, I found a display of raw food items, and while perusing the salad bar, discovered some raw kale salad. I could really go for some of that right now. I guess it will have to wait until I restock my fridge.

But, back to the story, we did find each other in the end. We almost made it through the checkout without Dea's kombucha exploding, but hey, it added to the excitement of the day.

Then, we rolled everything into the elevator (where I snapped a blurry photo of the store's local support; Rawbin got a much clearer pic in her photo bucket), dodged the other vehicles in the parking garage, packed up the car and drove to where Dea was staying. We helped her bring up the groceries and hugged her goodbye (I feel like I've known her forever).

Now, for the answer to the dinner question, I was 45 minutes late, but better late than never. It was worth having the opportunity to meet a new friend :-)