Orange Cashew Dressing & Veggie Butterflies

Essie was excited and determined to make these cute creations after seeing them pictured in our most recent church magazine. We discovered this idea of veggie butterflies during our reading time last week. It was in, "The Friend;" a magazine our church publishes for children.

This is the second vegan snack idea we have found through our church magazines that we really love. The only problem was that they did not provide a tasty vegan dip for eating the veggies. So we set out to find one.

We then looked in Dr. Fuhrman's "Disease-Proof Your Child," and found exactly what we wanted.

I followed the directions for the dip fairly closely (I used 2 cutie oranges instead of orange juice), but regret adding the vinegar because the kids thought it was delicious until they figured out that there was a bit of a sour bite to it.

I love vinegar, so if you are making this for yourself it is oil free. It pairs nicely with a spring mix salad with sprouts, avocados, orange slices, slivered almonds, and cucumbers. Blueberries or craisins would also taste great if added to the mix.


For the Veggie Butterflies:
From, "The Friend Magazine."

4 lettuce leaves
1 carrot stick, sliced in half lengthwise
1 celery stick, cut in half
2 craisins (or raisins, or grapes)
4 cucumbers, radishes, grapes, or your favorite round fruit or veggie as decor for wings

Arrange lettuce leaves as the wings, celery sticks as antennae, craisins as eyes, carrot as the body, and round veggies as decor on the butterfly wings. Dip in Orange Cashew Dressing (recipe follows) and devour!


Orange Cashew Dressing
From Dr. Joel Fuhrman's, "Disease-Proof Your Child."
Serves 4-6

2 peeled naval oranges
1/4 cup orange juice (I used two cuties because I didn't have any orange juice on hand)
1/4 cup raw cashews
2 tablespoons of blood orange vinegar or pear vinegar (optional)
3 tbsp plant milk--only if using cuties instead of orange juice

Blend ingredients until silky smooth. Use liberally on salads or as vegetable dip.