Potluck

When's the last time you threw a party for yourself? You know, a deliberate, "This-event-is-for-me-but-I'm-couching-it-in-some-sort-of-theme" guise?  

Anyone? 

Anyone? 

(Bueller . . .?) 

Either way, I highly recommend it.

It was my birthday recently and I invited a few friends and their kiddos over to celebrate.

The catch?

No gifts.

Just make and bring good, raw vegan food.

And after you see these photos, "good" and "raw vegan" in the same sentence will hopefully no longer be considered an oxymoron.

As the ladies trickled in, the table filled up fast. 

Entrees on one table, desserts on another.  

This little number is zucchini pasta with fresh tomato marinara sauce. If you're curious as to how I got the zucchini to look like spaghetti, you can check out the Health Investments post and see the spiralizer.

These gorgeous little nori rolls are filled with almond butter, hemp seeds, cucumber, carrots, cabbage, avocado and ginger. Wasabi was available for the spice-lovers.

I'm still a novice at making sushi, as you can see with toothpicks holding some of them together. Oops! 

What would a raw vegan potluck be without smoothies? Three smoothies graced this little party: 

1. A Berry blast

2. A classic Green smoothie with all the greens; kale, spinach, spirulina and chlorella . . .but also pineapple and bananas for a pleasant flavor (What? I didn't want my guests running off right away!)

2. A Tropical smoothie. Mango, papaya, pineapple, banana, crushed ice

The verdict?

No one left, so that's gotta be a good sign. 

This is a beautiful Pad Thai Salad made by a friend.

A colorful, fiesta-style Gazpacho, with raw corn chips on the side. 

Spring Rolls! These were great. Plus, the friend that made them brought a peanut thai dipping sauce which simply made the dish out-of-this-world good!

This is a fennel thai salad with mandarins and pecans in a lemon ginger soy dressing. Is your mouth watering yet?

Darn it. I should have taken the plastic wrap off. This was a fresh tomato, onion and avocado salad bathed in a luscious vinegrette made by friend. Mmmm-mmm. 

The StRAWberry pie.

Vegan fudge! 

I seriously was amazed and delighted with the flavor of this. Very dense and chocolate-y!

This was technically my "birthday cake." It's supposed to be a mock ice cream cake. 

I don't know what everyone else thought, but truth be told I wasn't too impressed. (Not to worry, I made it, I can say that.)

 It looked nice, but I could have tweaked the chocolate and made it a little sweeter. But the "vanilla" and chocolate almond crust layers were tasty. 

Dishes not pictured: 

Sweet potato "fries," stuffed mushrooms, Spicy Mango Ginger Soup, broccoli raisin sunflower seed salad, and ginger apple salsa.

I was impressed with all my friends' creativity and willingness to participate.

(And for not making fun of me...at least to my face.)

In light of that, I thought it was a smashing success. 

I think one other guest was okay with it, too.