Baked Ziti with Zucchini and Olives

Like I’ve said before, the weather has been a little erratic in NJ lately. I made this baked ziti a few days ago when it was chilly. The recipe is from the Supermarket Vegan. It’s made with tomatoes, zucchini, olives, rice pasta and herbed breadcrumbs (gluten-free, of course!). I topped it off with a little Daiya cheese. I think I made too much pasta, because after I mixed everything together it seemed a little light on veggies. It was super tasty though! Served with a salad, this is a perfect meal!

Zucchini Pasta al Pesto

This is really delicious raw dish that’s perfect for a warm spring evening. It’s zucchini “pasta” with pesto sauce. Zucchini pasta can be made in several ways. I have a spiralizer that transforms the zucchini into either long thin angel hair pasta or thick ribbons. I usually make angel hair pasta, but I accidentally had the blade set to ribbons. It doesn’t matter, because either way it’s delicious! If you don’t have a spiralizer, don’t worry! “Spaghetti” can be made using a julianne peeler, and ribbons can be made using a standard vegetable peeler. I made a simple pesto using basil, lemon juice, garlic and olive oil. Pesto is traditionally made with pine nuts, but I used cashews instead. I sprinkled nutritional yeast and olives on top of the dish when it was done for a little extra flavor.
Botanically, zucchini is considered a fruit, but it food terms, it is treated as a vegetable. It is high in Vitamins C and A, folate, lutein, manganese and potassium. Zucchinis contain powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
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Spicy Pepper Pizza

Yes, I just had raw pizza, but sometimes a girl just needs some cooked pizza with gooey cheese and fluffy crust. This was another “clean out the fridge” pie. It just so happened that I had the ingredients for a nice Mexican style pizza. I used onions, shallots, bell peppers and spicy peppers. I also used some spinach to get my leafy greens in. Once again, I used Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free crust and Daiya cheese. It was super yummy!

Raw Pizza Italiano

This pizza was inspired by the Pizza Italiano recipe from RAWvolution by Matt Amsden, but the base is Ani Phyo’s Sesame Sunflower Bread. There’s a layer of sunflower seed cheese, then a layer of raw tomato sauce. The pizza is topped with fresh basil, oregano, chopped red peppers and marinated mushrooms. When I made this, I didn’t think two “slices” would fill me, but it did – it was really filling and satisfying. The cheese is rich and delicious, and the tomato sauce is tangy and flavorful. The mushrooms really did taste as if they were marinated and cooked – not raw at all. This was a really great meal, and I now need to make more bread so I can use up the rest of the tomato sauce and cheese I made!
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Sweet and Sour Roasted Pineapple and Peppers


This recipe is from The Supermarket Vegan by Donna Klein. It’s a simple dish with onions, peppers and pineapple that have been roasted in the oven for about 45 minutes. I served it with sautéed chard and brown rice.

Pineapples one of my favorite fruits! They are high in manganese, vitamins C, B1 and B6, copper and dietary fiber. Pineapples contain a compound called bromelain that is known for aiding digestion. Other compounds in pineapples are known for their antioxidant protection and immune support.

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Raw Vegetable Chips


My friend Irina and were browsing through the cookbook section and Barnes and Noble, and I came across the book Raw Energy by Stephanie Tourles. I had never heard of it, but I’m always intrigued by new books. The recipes are mainly snacks, and many of them looked really tasty, so I decided to buy it.

There are three chip recipes that looked really good: Sweet Potato Chili, Zesty Zucchini and Sea Salty Squash. I thought I’d make all three so that Dennis and I would have plenty to snack on. Luckily, they fit into my new dehydrator nicely.

The sweet potato chips needed to be sliced really thin so they would turn out chip-like. I used the mandolin slicer that I bought last year at a friend’s Pampered Chef party. I’m not a big fan of those Come-To-My-House-and-Buy-Stuff-So-I-Can-Get-Free-Merchandise parties, but I am a fan of kitchen gadgets, so I bought this really nifty mandolin slicer. It came with four different blades and it has a safety feature so you don’t slice bits of your fingers off. I’ve only used it a few times, but I consider it a worthy investment, because when I do need it, it does the job well. It sliced the sweet potatoes thinner that I would ever be able to by hand.


The sweet potato chips are seasoned with olive oil, chili powder, Braggs Liquid Aminos, and sea salt.


Yellow squash and zucchini are easy to slice by hand, so I just used a knife with them. The yellow squash is seasoned with salt, pepper and olive oil.


The zucchini chips are seasoned with olive oil, sea salt and Italian seasonings. I don’t have a jar of “Italian seasonings”, so I mixed together oregano, garlic, thyme, rosemary, sage and basil. There was a slight accident with the oregano shaker, so the chips were a little heavy on the oregano. I would probably omit it next time I make these.

Zucchini, yellow squash and sweet potatoes are all high in water content, so the chips all shrunk down considerably while dehydrating. The zucchini chips ended up being teeny tiny! I think they were all a little too oily, so I will cut down on the recommended olive oil amount when I make them again. They were more chewy than crunchy, so I think they may need to be dehydrated longer next time. I’m going to try making these again at some point but I want to experiment with them a little to make them crispier and less oily.
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Raw Sandwich


This is very similar to the pizza/sandwich I made last week. This time, I made raw bread from Ani Phyo’s Raw Food Kitchen. I messed up while mixing it and added too many flax seeds, but it came out just fine anyway. The bread held together nicely and held up to the toppings.


I also made a raw cheddar cashew cheese in the food processor. The orange color comes from a red bell pepper, which is what gives this cheese it’s “cheddar-ness”. Did you know that most of our taste comes from what we see and smell? If this cheese didn’t have the pepper, it would be white and would probably be considered ricotta, and therefore taste more like ricotta.


The bread and cheese together make a great snack! For the sandwich, I topped it with pesto, tomatoes, olives and avocados. I also made some collard wraps with the cheese, sprouts, peppers and zucchini. This was the perfect lunch!

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Pad Thai


It’s been a while since I’ve made Pad Thai. It was a little chili outside, so I wanted something warm. I have been eating a lot of raw foods lately, but since it’s not warm, it’s not very comforting, and we all need comfort food from time to time. There is something about spicy peanut butter than I really enjoy too. I mixed together broccoli, sugar snap peas, red peppers, onions, mushrooms and peanuts. After the veggies were almost cooked, I added spicy Thai pepper sauce, peanut butter, a touch of rice wine vinegar, lime juice and a little peanut oil. After a few minutes, I mixed in mung bean sprouts and served the whole thing over rice noodles. This dish has become one of my favorite meals!



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Food Allergies and Asparagus Spinach Pizza


Sometimes I just have a hankering for pizza. This was one of those times. I used asparagus, spinach and olives. The crust is Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free pizza crust mix and, of course, the cheese is Daiya.

If you remember back to December, asparagus and spinach were on the list of foods I needed to avoid. I’ve slowly added most of those foods back into my diet, without noticing any symptoms. I am still avoiding most nuts, wheat, corn and soy. There have been times where I have had some nuts and my mouth has begun to itch shortly afterward. My eyes tend to itch as well. For years I’ve haven’t been able to wear contact lenses, a problem my optometrist hasn’t been able to figure out. I can’t wait to go for a check up and tell him it was from food allergies!! If your eyes itch in the inside corners, it’s probably a food allergy. If they itch all over, it’s more likely that it’s an environmental allergy. Food allergies tend to show as strange symptoms though, so if you suspect you have a sensitivity to something, you should get tested. It is possible to try an elimination diet, but I’ve found that most people with food allergies have multiple sensitivities, so it’s difficult to pinpoint the culprit without testing. There are several different types of allergic reactions, so both skin and blood tests are recommended.

In the meantime, enjoy some pizza!



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Potatoes for Brunch


I usually like to have smoothies for breakfast during the warm months. The weather has been a little erratic here in New Jersey lately, and it’s been a little chilly in the morning, so I decided to make something warming for brunch on Sunday. I made potatoes with spinach, onion, bell pepper and mushrooms with a little bit of red pepper flakes. It really hit the spot and was the perfect dish to warm me up.

Unfortunately, most Americans only consume potatoes in fry or chip form, which is extremely unhealthy. But potatoes do contain many nutrients. They are full of vitamin C, B6, copper, potassium, and manganese, as well as dietary fiber. Potatoes have been important food staple in human history and the continue to be the number one vegetable crop in the world. They are available year-round as they are harvested somewhere every month of the year. I always caution people who have arthritis to stay away from potatoes, as well as other foods in the nightshade family, because they contain compounds that can trigger arthritis flare-ups.


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Dr. Fuhrman