Rawsauge Lasagna Recipe

I've decided to post my recipe for sausage lasagna. I had considered making the first recipe post an easy one, but I get so many requests for this recipe...so here it is.
Live Jolly Food's Rawsauge Lasagna:
This lasagna is made up of five exquisite layers of raw food perfection: The 'noodles', the sauce, the spinach, the sausage and the cheese. Before I begin, aside from doing the obvious, like making sure I have all the right ingredients, I also always check to see if, what, and for how long I may have to soak, sprout or dehydrate. There is nothing worse than going to make something, only to find out you have to soak for twelve hours, sprout for three days and dehydrate overnight. With that said, I always start preparing the lasagna by making the sausage and cheese first.

Pumpkin Seed Sausage:
3 carrots, peeled, rough chop
12 ounces green cabbage, rough chop
3 cups pumpkin seeds, ground
4 tbsp nutritional yeast (not a raw product)
2 tbsp Nama Shoyu

Start by peeling and chopping the carrots, then chopping the cabbage. Add the two to the food processor and pulse for a few seconds. Next grind the pumpkin seeds in your Vita-mix or other high speed blender. Add pumpkin seeds and all remaining ingredients to food processor and process thoroughly. Once you have your mix, use a spatula to spread it out on a lined dehydrator sheet about a quarter of an inch thick. Now it is ready to go into the dehydrator. Dehydrate at 105 for 3-4 hours and then flip, making sure you use the spatula to flatten the mixture into a smooth sheet once again. Dehydrate for another 3-4 hours. By this time you should be able to pick up the sausage in your hand and crumble it into smaller pieces. I usually crumble them fairly small, as they will dehydrate faster. Keep an eye on the crumbles as some may dehydrate faster than others; remove what is done and dehydrate the rest until no longer moist. Set sausage crumbles aside.

Cashew-Garlic Cheese:
3 cups cashews, soaked 6-8 hours and rinsed
2 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3-4 cloves garlic
1-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (not a raw product)

It is best to set the cashews out to soak the night before, just make sure you rinse them well before using them. Combine all ingredients in the blender. Once the mixture is smooth use a spatula to spread it out, much in the same way that you made the sausage. Following similar protocol, dehydrate for 3-4 hours on 105, flip and dehydrate for another 3-4 hours, When starting to firm, crumble with your fingers into small pieces and dehydrate until no longer moist. Set aside.

Sun-dried Tomato Basil Sauce:
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked 2 hours
2 cups tomato, chopped
1/2 bunch fresh basil,chopped (4-6 tbsp dried basil if you're substituting)
4 tbsp dried oregano
1 lemon, seeded and juiced
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp agave
3 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until slightly chunky.

Hand-massaged Spinach:
1 bunch spinach leaves, chopped
1/4 cup or more of olive oil

This is the easiest layer to make. I use a pair of kitchen scissors to remove the leaves from the stems and then rinse them. After the spinach is cleaned, chop the larger leaves into small pieces and mix with olive oil. Massaging the spinach leaves by hand will help to rupture cell wells in the plant making the leaves more tender and similar to cooked greens. Allow to marinate for at least an hour.

Lasagna 'Noodles':
3-4 large zucchini, peeled, sliced longways into thin slices
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tbsp dried basil
1/2 tbsp dried oregano
1/4 tbsp mustard powder
salt to taste

Peel zucchini; then, using a mandolin or veggie slicer, slice into thin, long strips. Mix with remaining ingredients in large bowl, making sure all the zucchini is well covered. Marinate for at least an hour. Place the zucchini strips into the dehydrator for 1-2 hours on 105; this will make them a bit more firm, like pasta.

Once you have all your layers, it is time to assemble the lasagna. Start by covering the bottom of a large, rectangular glass dish with zucchini strips. Place atop the zucchini a layer of the spinach. Next, spread out a layer of the tomato sauce over the spinach. Take the sausage and top the sauce. Don't set out to cover the entire pan from end to end, simply sprinkle it over the whole dish. Finally, repeat this step with the cheese. Once you have all five layers made, start with the zucchini and proceed through to the cheese once more. Your lasagna is now finished and ready to enjoy. This is a great dish to serve to people who are not yet raw, and is difficult to tell apart from its cooked counterpart.

And remember,
Eat Raw; Live Jolly

Gratitude

Before this day expires I would like to take a few moments to express my gratitude for the many blessing in my life. Where to begin but to say that I am one of the most fortunate people to walk the face of the earth. I live on a tremendous and beautiful planet in an interesting and challenging age. I share the earth with countless and diverse multitudes; I am grateful for them, for our very lives are built upon the things that they provide. I am grateful for my consciousness, and the ability to focus it wisely. I am grateful that there are compassionate and humane alternatives to outmoded and barbaric traditions. I am grateful to have others who share my dietary inclinations, so as to have someone to eat with. I am grateful for always having enough, for the abundance of the universe...a truly tremendous multitude which I am so lucky to partake in. I am grateful for my family-blood relations, human and otherwise-with whom I am so fortunate as to share this moment. I am thankful for kind words, for a light in the darkness and for possibilities. I am thankful especially for my son, the light of my life, and the reason that I dream of, and work for, a better world. I am grateful, for changes both big and small, and that they come at all. I am thankful for the wonderful gifts that have been bestowed upon me in this life, and that I am able to use those gifts to make the lives of others richer as well. I am grateful for the support and sometimes seemingly unfounded, unshakable belief my partner has in me; and for all her hard work and sacrifices. I am grateful for Buddha, and my meditation and the spirit. I am grateful for the sun, the birthplace of life. I am grateful for the water which nourishes that life; the earth from which we are all formed, and the wind that shapes us. I am grateful for the seed, the tree, the sand, the rocks and soil. Were I to live my every last moment in reverence to that which I owe all that I have, I still would not expend all the gratitude I feel. I am thankful for having seen another year. I am grateful for what comes next. My gratitude is without limit; my thanks are boundless: endless, my blessings. Any time I prepare to eat something a say a small prayer of gratitude. Any time I uncook, I am sure to put my gratitude into the food. I thank all the forces and creatures, the many lives in service, that I should be fortunate enough for the apple to come to my table. I say thank you to the vegetables and that which gave them life, and that it should give me life as well. I am thankful for everything, for everything must always be exactly as it is. Everything will always work out; even if its working out is beyond our limited sight. Everything, every moment, is a blessing, for each thing, each second, is an opportunity to live a little bit better than we have lived before, to be a little more conscious than ever, to be a little bit more thankful as we revel in the wonders of this world. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Peace and Love

A CindeRAWlla Story

Salutations-
My name is Chris Jolly (a.k.a. 'The Jolly Rawger') and I am the head raw foods chef for the New Jersey-based organic raw vegan food delivery company Live Jolly Foods and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to my blog. This blog has been created in order to share with a wider audience the many benefits of the living foods lifestyle which I have experienced since I began incorporating more raw foods into my diet, as well as recipes, resources, photographs, inspiration and whatever else I may deem useful in helping others down the raw road. Wherever you find yourself in your journey to raw-whether you are a raw rookie and this is your first foray, you are transitioning to more and more raw foods, looking for inspiration to stay raw in a world of cooked, processed and denatured food temptation, are a seasoned (I prefer cayenne and chili powder) vet, a fellow living foods chef-or if that journey has yet to begin, you're sure to find something here that piques your interest. It can be a long way from here to raw, but as the proverb says, you must begin with one small step. Whatever your step, there are a few things that you should remember. First, we are all only as far along as we are. We all wish for better things for ourselves and for our lives; it can be natural to want instant, or relatively quick, gratification. If only we could snap our fingers and be (fill in your own blank here). But then what would be left to work towards, what else could be attained? Though there are a number of miraculous SAD (standard American diet, for the uninitiated) to RAW overnight stories out there, chances are high that you are not likely to be among them. In fact, if your like most raw foodists, or raw foodists in training, you're journey to 100% raw--or whatever your goal is--is likely to be a long, winding road with many twists, turns, diversions, pitfalls, setbacks, wrong turns and so on. Those things most having are those things that are worth working for, and certainly the transition to a more healthy, more whole, more well and more conscious being should be high atop the list, if not at the pinnacle. Still, no matter how desirable something is, no matter how much we wish to attain something, we are never further along at any given moment than we are. No matter how hard we try, no matter how far in the past or future we may let our mind wander, we are always just here now. In Psychonavigation by John Perkins there is a paragraph that reads: "Nature knows no failures, it evolves. Birth, life, and death are milestones along a continuum. There are outcomes, but no failures. Failure simply does not exist in nature." With that in mind always set aside a heaping helping of forgiveness for yourself. There is no failure; things just move forward, move in, move in a different direction. You can beat yourself up all day for your faults, some people spend their whole lives doing this. This will not move you any further along, and in many cases is liable to set you back. Second, and this is paramount, whether you are the beginner or the Buddha, each and everyone's journey is made easier with love, compassion, kindness, and support. We are all the Atman, the Atman is us. You are your brother and sister, and he and she are you. As Carl Sagan famously said, "We are starstuff, harvesting starlight." We are bonded together in eternal unity; now we must make our common unity into our community. The revolution may not be televised, it may not be broadcast, but who says that it cannot be blogged? We must all be the change we wish to see in the world-and much of the change that I would like to see must start upon a foundation of beings who are whole, healthy and well. Better nutrition is the key to a better society, since everything we do in life depends upon the energy we are able to summon. That energy itself is a direct result of the processes of life, processes that rely exclusively upon nourishment. As we learn better to nourish our bodies, minds and spirits, we will also learn to become better individuals-and better individuals are the cornerstone for better communities, and better communities the keys to a better world. This blog is one of my many efforts to be the change that I wish to see; it is my profound hope that you will use its contents to help you be the change you wish to see as well.
And remember: Eat Raw; Live Jolly
Chris Jolly