I have released four recipe books so far:

The Best of the Sunny Raw Kitchen
The Best of Raw Freedom Community
Delightfully Raw and
Deliciously Raw

These feature some of the most delectable creations to have come out of my raw kitchen and will appeal to anyone interested in a healthier diet, regardless of their level of knowledge and experience. From easy one-step everyday fare to more elaborate and involved gourmet dishes and layered cakes, they offer something for everyone and every occasion. Incredibly tasty smoothies, creamy and comforting warm soups, sexy salads, delicious nut cheezes, satisfying entrees and scrumptious guilt-free desserts...

Healthy food never tasted so good!

To learn more about my recipe books, click here!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Recipe of the Week: Lemon Coconut Bars

Don and I are finally somewhat settled down at Ashinah. (Yay!) Such beauty everywhere we look! It seems like new flowers are blooming every day. Hang on, let me show you a few pics I took over the weekend.

Here's the view when you first walk into Ashinah. You can see the community kitchen to the left and our new home in the background.


You can have a better look here.


Our strawbale home again, hidden by a field of flowers...

Actually, I think I may have to do a post on Ashinah as it's truly an amazing and special place, especially at this time of year. But back to the yummies I created...

Someone was having a raw dessert potluck last night at one of the nearby properties, so I prepared a bunch of treats, just in case we decided to attend. I made a couple of variations of Mysticat's wonderful Chocolate Chip Cookies: Oatmeal Raisin and Double Chocolate Cookies. They both turned out great and will be featured in my upcoming 'Best of Raw Freedom Community' ebook. By the way, it's coming along great and promises to be totally rawesome, with close to 90 recipes and lots of gorgeous photos. But not to worry, I'll be keeping you posted!

I also made Ani Phyo's Lemon Coconut Bars. I tweaked the recipe just a touch, mostly cutting down on salt and processing the dough in the food processor rather than by hand. These are soooooo good and super easy to boot!


Lemon Coconut Bars
Adapted from Ani Phyo's recipe

Makes 12 bars

1 cup almonds
1 1/2 cups pitted dates (Medjool, khadrawhi, or other semi-soft date)
Seeds of 1 vanilla bean
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup dried shredded coconut

In your food processor, chop almonds into small pieces. Use some of this nut powder to “flour” the bottom of a 9 inch square baking pan.

Add remaining ingredients and process some more until well mixed.

Press into baking pan.

To serve, chill for a couple hours until firm. Then cut into squares.

Will keep for six days in the fridge.


As it turned out, we ended up not going to the potluck after all. Instead, we quietly enjoyed dessert in the garden with Kreel who lives in the structure next to ours. Ah well... At least now we're stocked up in sweet treats for a while. ;-)

15 comments:

  1. I've read about Ashinah, but those pictures - dear God, that place is gorgeous!
    I've got ani's book out from the library right now - i think I've got the ingredients for those bars, will have to try them, thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your recipes look amazing, I'm salivating right now.

    I want a straw bale house some day, they are such a cool work of architecture.

    Looks beautiful where you at:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Carmella, you have done a great thing here, one, posting beautiful pics of your oasis and two posting these absolutely amazing treats! Seriously, adopt me, no it won't be weird, I promise!;) I'll take out the trash, water the cat, you know...lol

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am so happy for the both of you. I just linked up to you in my little blog in cyberspace. I am not sure how this all works, but my blog is momsraw.blogspot.com if you want to see what I posted. I am inspired by your post and wish you peace and fulfillment in your journey.

    Angela

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow, I wasn't expecting such a response re: our move. Thank you all! It promises to be an amazing experience!

    Yardsnacker,
    You never fail to put a smile to my face! lol

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yay girlie! Everything looks great! It's so funny - I was wanting that lemon coconut bar recipe when I heard you mention it and then, voila! It's in my inbox this morning :)
    Piece of paradise you are living in - can't wait to come out in August! :)
    xxx

    ReplyDelete
  7. So, I made the bars today, using the cookbook, and cripes yes! The recipe calls for one tablespoon of salt?! It has to be a typo, I used two pinches (I know, so imprecise, but...) and they were plenty salty. Like you, I processed all the ingredients, with the exception of the 1 c coconut, which I massaged into the dough before pressing it into the pan. And I could not wait for them to firm up in the fridge - I ate two just as they were. Yum.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh my Ashinah looks so beautiful! I looked at the website and that strawbale building is amazing! And so are your recipes:}

    ReplyDelete
  9. It is nice to actually see your new home. It looks so charming and I love the surrounding area, so lush and green ~ beautiful! Thank you Carmi and Don for sharing these lovely photos.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your home is so beautiful. Can you post pics of inside?

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a great blog! I found it when I punched ingredients into Google trying to find a recipe that would be close to some excellent raw food bars I bought. I'll try your lemon bars and look forward to finding more recipes on your site.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Made these tonight-- they are delicious! I'm bringing them to a raw potluck and am sure they'll be a big hit. Next time I'd double the recipe, though-- my yield is significantly less than 12 bars.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I made these this weekend for a group brunch - eveyone LOVED them! I only had about 1 hour to refrigerate them though, so they were a bit crumbly, but my guests loved them so much they ate the crumbs! Thanks for all the lovely dehydrator-free recipes :-)

    ReplyDelete
  14. I made the Lemon Coconut Bars on Friday and they were all gone by Monday. Really delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I made the Lemon Coconut Bars on Friday and they were all gone by Monday. Really delicious!

    ReplyDelete