Tomato Woes, Raw Coconut Date Rolls & Short-lived Feelings of Invincibility

I had a step forward last week. I was strict with myself - even foregoing the occasional glass of wine - and by mid-week felt confident and optimistic about a tomato trial. Many people who have issues with tomatoes can handle them cooked. I think the premise is that it lowers the acidity, and may remove certain proteins with high heat or processing. This could mean big things. This could mean soups, chilli, pasta sauce, salsa... buckets and buckets of salsa.

So, at a group dinner hosted by friends, we made brown rice gnocchi with simple herbed tomato sauce. Other than my sad comparison to everyone's side baguette- garlic-inflused vegan "butter" spread on a rice cake- it was perfect. And- no stomach ache.

I drummed my fingers into the following afternoon before proudly declaring myself cooked-tomato friendly and announcing that I would have pizza for supper (I was once that girl in the cafeteria asking for two extra sides of pizza sauce for one slice). I picked up tomato paste on my way home from work, singing all the way home. Oh, the possibilities.

Well, I must have been overexcited, because my usual freestyle gluten-free pizza crust tasted terrible. So terrible, in fact, that I could not eat it. How could I make it time and time again without fail, and then let myself down on such an important occasion? It was 9pm. I was sad, famished and exhausted. So, what did I do? I hastily scraped the tomato paste and vegetables off of the crust, spooned them onto the only immediate vessel (lettuce) and ate them.

I do not believe in regrets. Everything happens for a reason. If you can't see the reason right away, you must be patient. I think the reason for this painful result of my short-lived feelings of invincibility is in a lesson to take it slow. I may be able to have the occasional cooked tomato for now, but perhaps I should hold off before spooning its purest of forms onto my plate.

Either way, ambitious thoughts of tomato-sauce featured weekend dishes were set aside for the time being. I was little bit blue about it. Since tomatoes were off the menu, I busied myself with other ideas. Sometimes I like to make myself feel better with sugar, and sometimes with salt. This weekend, I chose sugar, and the simplest of recipes: the date roll. 

Raw Coconut Date Rolls

Ingredients 

1 cup pitted dates
1 cup shredded and toasted unsweetened coconut
1 tbsp natural peanut butter
1/4 cup salted brazil nuts (or other nut of your choice- almond would be my first pick if I could eat them)

Directions 

Using a sharp knife on a cutting board, dice the dates. Using your hands, work the dates together until you have something of a date pancake. Slowly mix in the coconut, about a tablespoon at a time, adding it to the middle and folding the date over until it's blended throughout. The mixture should be fairly soft and easy to work with.

Flatten the mixture back out again, this time making two long cakes, about 10" by 4" and about 1/2 cm in thickness. Press the mixture into your surface as much as you can so that it's fairly dense.

Spoon about 1/2 tbsp of peanut butter into the middle of the flattened date mixture, and spread it out thinly along the centre, leaving about 1/2 an inch along the edge.

Place nuts just on the long edge of the peanut butter spread on one side, and carefully roll the flattened date mixture evenly, pressing with your fingers as you go. The mixture may break as you do this, just work it with your fingers to seal it again. Using a very sharp knife, slice them diagonally into smaller pieces. They keep best in the fridge, since they tend to get a bit soft room-temperature. Good for taking as a snack or quick and healthy dessert.