Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Raw Sesame Crackers

I have a calcium deficiency and needed to find a way to incorporate much more calcium in my diet. I found sesame seeds to have quite impressive stats when it came to calcium, 30% of your daily recommended amount in 1 ounce compared to cow milks' measly 5%! So I thought I'd whip some up! 



These were a thicker cracker that turned out salty and delicious and tastier than my raw corn chips. I imagine there are a million variations of this recipe...you could add sundried tomatoes, greens, different spices or even omit the yeast and go for a sweeter, fruit sweetened cracker.
2 C sesame seeds, hulled
1/2 C Golden Flax, ground
2 Tbl Olive Oil
2 Tbl Yellow yeast
1 tsp Salt 
1 tsp pepper2 clove garlic, minced
Dash paprika
Enough water to make a thin paste



Grind up half of the dry sesame seeds in a coffee grinder then combine everything in a bowl. Then spread in a 1/4 inch layer on your teflex sheet in your dehydrator and dehydrate at 104 for 15 hours or so, flipping and scoring in between.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Morning Exercise + Raw

Just thought I'd throw this question I have out there...

What do you guys usually eat in the morning before you exercise, if anything? I've read such conflicting things. Some say that exercising on an empty stomach burns fat cells because you haven't got any food-fuel to run on-and some say that it puts your body into starvation mode and makes your metabolism lag.

I am so confused! I usually have a green smoothie for breakfast but I feel like that'd be a bit heavy before my morning cardio, like I'd get a side stitch or something.

Please, I'd love to hear what y'all know about it!

Raw Chocolate Covered Macaroons

Thursday is farmers market day! So I am a happy girl. But before I left, I popped these roonies in the dehydrator. For once a raw treat NOT made mostly of dates and nuts!

My AMAZING Chocolate Covered Nilly Macaroons:
(half batch)
1 C coconut
1/4 C almond or walnut flour
1/8 C coconut butter or oil
1/4 C maple syrup or agave
1 T mesquite powder
1 t vanilla
pinch sea salt

I mixed these all together by hand and then popped them in the dehydrator at 105 for about 2 hours until they were firmed up but still soft on the inside. I then chilled them in the freezer and dipped them a few times in Ani Phyo's liquid chocolate made with real cacao nibs.

I am in LOVE with raw mesquite powder. I was hesitant to buy it because it was $8 for a 16 oz. bag, but I am so glad I did. It has amazing health benefits and is great in oats and with desserts because of its blood sugar balancing properties. I love the taste, so caramelly and smooth, and recommend it blended with dates for caramel apple dip!

These were sooooo foodgasmic :)

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Raw Carrot Cake with Kream Cheeze Frosting



This is one of my raw culinary triumphs. I based the recipe on the lovely Chocolate Covered Katie's raw cheesecake recipe, which was great to build on. The cake turned out delicious and the frosting tasted just like the philly cream cheese frosting I grew up on :D


Try this- it's not as difficult as it sounds! I usually don't attempt things with more than six ingredients, but I'm so glad I did...




Carrot Cake
1/2 cup raw almonds (unsoaked)
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded dried coconut
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 heaping tablespoon raw mesquite powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch ground nutmeg
1 cup raw walnuts
1 cup raw pecans or almonds 
8 pitted medjool dates
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/4 to 1/2c shredded carrot
Directions Add ingredients, in order to a food processor or blender, blending things separately as needed. Press into a pie dish or spring form pan and frost with Kreme Cheeze frosting.
Kreme Cheeze Frosting
1 C raw cashews or brazil nuts
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 a banana
1 t lemon juice
20 drops agave nectar or maple syrup
water for blending, about 1/4 C if your blender is dodgy like mine
Directions: Blend 'er up, adding water as needed..\\


Warning: This cake is super rich, it gave me quite a tummy ache so I suggest resisting the urge to shove three pieces in your face.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

DOES ANYBODY KNOW

when young thai coconuts are in season? if they have one...

Sunday, August 15, 2010

my favorite things...

I have always told people that if my first profession of choice doesn't work out, I will become a mushroom forager. Not only is there good money in it, (shitakes are what, $15.99 a pound?) but you get to be outside all day and I suspect mushroom forgers are sortof like a secret society. 




Today's Green Smoothie
1 orange
1 banana
arugula
water

today...

today's green smoothie:
water
1 mango
spinach


i think a banana would have made it more palatable but i wanted to keep the calories reasonable for a smoothie.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

A Green Smoothie a Day

So recently I have been doing a lot of research on the 'raw family.' You may have heard of them...they're the Boutenkos. Very russian and I'm assuming partly crazy. But they claim raw food and green smoothies have saved their lives and have done a lot of noteworthy things for the movement and they SWEAR BY green smoothies.

Also, Sergei is really easy on the eyes :)



Anyhoo- So I've decided to drink a green smoothie a day at least to see how it makes me feel and if getting the extra greens really changes my life and what not... we'll see.

Today's Green Smoothie:
banana
blueberries
pineapple
water
rainbow chard


what green smoothie combos should i try? I don't want to get bored...

Monday, August 9, 2010

whole paycheck...

why do you do this to me?!!?

shredded coconut 2.99
2 almond milks 4.00
almonds 2.80
1 lb. walnuts 3.99
sesame seeds 1.75
1 rawvolution cashew brownie bar 1.00
organic virgin coconut oil 6.99
almond oil (for my skin) 9.99
Organic Rainbow Chard 2.49

Seeing that i almost bought 5 Rawvolution bars since they were on sale, but I totally restrained myself! That cashew brownie bar was absolutely delicious though! Seriously, if all of their flavors are that good I am going to have an addiction on my hands.

I also noticed a few things while I was there...

Hemp Dream, has got a new look! I laughed to myself as I thought, maybe they're trying to appeal to the 1960's hemp loving crowd? Honestly...tie die? I'm sortof a hippie myself, but I'm stickin' with almond milk. I have heard of the insane health benefits of hemp seeds and have used the raw seeds in smoothies and raw oats, what do you guys think of the milk? does it give you a raw high? :D




















It's awesome that Whole Foods has started carrying a local business' vegan pastries...introducing Mighty O' Doughnuts! I was full from my beastly salad lunch, but had I been hungry it would have taken much strength to resist the WF raw salad bar.
Another thing that made my day was the fact that they were selling blackberries for $7. Honestly, who the FCK do you think you are selling a pint of berries that grows WILD practically everywhere for that much?! I was miffed about that until I finished my shopping to head to my bus stop and lining the road were bushes and bushes of blackberries! I, having no boundaries whatsoever, had myself a little foraged, completely free snack while I waited for the bus.
Take that, Whole Paycheck.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Raw Dibs!

on a hot day, right?

So I made my own version :)



All it is is chopped frozen banana and some of ani phyo's liquid chocolate. Accept, to make the shell thicker and harder I switched the amounts of coconut oil and ground cacao nibs. But if you like a more brittle shell, keep them as they are.

I will be trying this recipe tomorrow to take home to my highly UNRAW family, with blueberries though.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Jicama Fries and a Shake

Fries: chopped up Jicama tossed with salt & pepper
Ketchup:
-1 tomato
-1/2 C sun dried tomatoes
-1 T lemon juice
-1/2 a date
-salt & pepper to taste
>instructions: blend 'er up.
I used the wonderful Lisa Paris' recipe. She's a cool chick, with ultra shiny hair. This was an okay recipe, definitely shouldn't be compared to the real thing, but I <3 the taste of sun dried tomatoes so it didn't matter to me. For me, when making raw recipes with tomatoes, I have to put something in there to enhance the color, because without the sun dried tomatoes, this mixture is a peachy pink, definitely not appetizing whatsoever. I try not to do too much 'mock food,' because raw recipes should stand on their own instead of being modeled after their cooked, deep fried and boiled counterparts. Next time i will blend this longer to give it a creamier texture.

what raw food do you think is much better than the cooked original?

Shake:
banana
homemade almond milk
raspberries
blueberries
two big handfuls of greens(spinach, today)

what's your favorite green smoothie combo?

Monday, August 2, 2010

Cacao Cow Chip Cookies

Okay...So they look like dog biscuits. But they taste very good! I added quadruple the sugar I think, but it's the only way to calm the flavor of these INTENSE cacao nibs.

Again, enjoyed with some homemade almond milk, they're super tasty.

1 C oat groats
4 t ground flax
32 raw almonds
pinch sea salt
4 t lemon juice
3/4 C almond milk
2 t vanilla
1/4-1/2 C ground cacao nibs or cocoa powder, depending on how intense you want it
1/4 C date paste or agave (I ended up adding WAYY more)

1. Grind the oats into fine flour.

2. Add the oats to a food processor or blender, with the remaining ingredients. Mix well.

3. Transfer dough to a bowl, rub hands with coconut oil and shape into cookies. Dehydrate 1 hour at 105, flip, and dehydrate until you like the texture, I did 6 hours.

THIS RECIPE IS BASED ON A SCONE RECIPE BY THE LOVELY FITNESSISTA It is all hers, as far as I'm concerned.