blended fresh fruit salad dressings, RAW Asian wraps, Greens and more fabulous dining-coooking tips

There is no set theme for Monday's menu, I just wanted to create some dishes to combat the treats that some of my clients would be getting for Mother's Day, tomorrow...I love to work with vinegars and citrus elements in all my dishes whether raw or cooked, sweet or savory.

For Monday I am making the following ( and as is the case with all my delivery menus, my  clients make their choices from a much bigger menu):

Asian style, RAW filled, rice wrapped Spring Rolls..these are an almost Raw dish except the wrap is made from a cooked form of rice flour..the wraps are soaked in lukewarm water for about 3 mins then folded with the food in them.
The filling is  raw carrots, scallions, fresh baby spinach, avocado, jicama, "sprouted"cashews and almond butter,  fresh ginger, 'Persian" Cucumber, sea kelp...with a dip of  roasted sunflower seed butter with poached satsuma kumquats ( home grown) and lime juice.

Cannelli ( white kidney) beans with wilted greens..these will be completed at the client's home..warm cannelli beans with lime zest and lemon juice, topping fresh spinach with garlic.


Also my now famous, non-dairy, "Cream" of tomato soup with tempeh bakon, coconut milk  & fresh basil

The I am preparing some great salads
a citrus one with grapefruit, limes, tangerines with roasted and salted pistachio meats and mixed salad greens.
The dressing is a tangerine, blue agave syrup, olive oil;
a crunchy Apple-jicama-feta-walnut with romaine and cooked beets with a balsamic dressing;
a mixed herbs and greens salad with roasted unsalted pecans, Bosc pears, and a pomegranate molasses dressing.

I have found a secret to great dressings ...to blend chunks of cored fresh fruit ( leave the skin on apples, pears, etc) directly into the vinegar/acid of the dressing and then add this to the oil and just shake to mix..the flavor is supreme to any of the flavored vinegars you can buy and it still retains it's vitamins..also no need to add  salt or other herbs.

also making some Vegetable strudels..with Yukon gold potatoes, green peas, red onions, cheese,  carrots and parsnips. These come in puff pastry, ready to eat and can be sliced as needed.

Some grilled vegetable soft tacos ( originally wanted to use hemp tortillas but the ones I located were dry) so I am using cilantro-corn tortillas with grilled white squash, eggplant, Roma tomatoes, red onion, asparagus, Portabello mushrooms..these also come with a strawberry -tomato salsa.


I love to blanch (in boiling salted water or steam)vegetables, drain well & then saute in olive oil with herbs and garlic..sometimes I add maple syrup to strong green like Kale or Mustard Greens, or smokey tempeh bakon and scallions to collards..the results are fantastic!

For desserts on Monday I am preparing some oatmeal toffee almond cookies and a fresh poached plum, cake.

here is as far as I have got..just air drying my market purchases: