Raw Banana Pancakes

I got a serious pancake craving today. So I turned to my trusty copy of Ani Phyo's Raw Food Essentials  and found her recipe for Brazil Nut Banana pancakes. I modified it for the ingredients I had, and was really happy with the results! I used some delicious coconut nectar for syrup :)

Chia/Banana Pancakes for 1:

1/4 C almond meal (or any other nut)
1/4 cup chia seeds
1 mashed banana
1 tsp cinnamon or mesquite powder
1/2 C> water for mixing

Combine and dehydrate at 105 for 7-8 hours!

This is for real.

I think I have a problem. A coconut water problem. Actually it might be a coconut everything problem. Not to mention I annoying rave to anyone who will listen about the amazing benefits of coconut oil on your skin. There are so many brands, but I only drink the kind thats not flash pasteurized and have had to go through a bunch before I find the ones that taste the best. 

Likes:

• Amy and Brian's all natural coconut juice with pulp. Trust me, it's wonderful. Their lime kind comes in second. 
• Taste Nirvana's coconut water/pulp AND their coconut water with aloe vera juice. Both are very good. Here are the benefits of aloe vera juice (not like the cream you put on sunburns!)
• Cracking open a young thai coconut and going to town!

Dislikes:

• Zico coconut water! It's gross, made from concentrate and tastes nothing like coconut water. Don't be suckered in even though they have lots of fun flavors, their nasty!
• O.N.E., Harvest Bay, and Vita Coco are all heat processed.

Coconut water hydrates you better than any man-made energy/sport drink out today. Whether you excersized hard or are just hungover, coconut water will gets your body the electrolytes it needs to recover quickly. Read about just how amazing it is here!

A few fun facts about coconut water:

• Coconut water is more nutritious than whole milk-with no fat and cholesterol.
• Coconut water is more healthy than orange juice-much lower in calories.
• Coconut water is naturally sterile. Water permeates through the filtering husk.
• Coconut water is a universal donor. It is identical to human blood plasma.
• Coconut water is higher in potassium and magnesium and lower in sugars than any sports/energy drink.

Vegan Dragon Roll in Amazing Sauce

This is the brand new Dragon Roll from my favorite raw/vegan restaurant in town,
Thrive. Every time I go it's impossible to choose what to get, everything is so delicious!

I tried their brand new Dragon roll with red rice, avacado, cucumber, cilantro, wrapped in sesame ginger sauce and nori. It came with a truly amazing "garlic cilantro god sauce" for dipping. I will be saving the remainder for my salad tomorrow. I am seriously interested to know what's in that amazi-balls sauce, but can understand why it would be a secret...

Hemp Brownies

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Sorry about the shottie iphone photo!

Ingredients: 

1/3 cup hemp seeds

1 banana

2/3 cup ground walnuts

pinch salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup ground cacao powder

1 T coconut oil (opt)

1 T Mesquite powder

stevia to taste(I used 2 packets)

Preparation: 

Mash banana, wisk together liquid ingredients then add dry ingredients. Sprinkle wit hemp seeds and freeze. These are low sugar and packet with healthy antioxidants to get you through the day! I love hemp seeds!

nummy raw 'fast food' salad

If you're on the go and are lucky enough to have a Chipotle in your town, I totally recommend you stop by and give it a try! I'm not sure what their method of preparing everything is, but everything tasted very fresh and delicious! They best part is you can bring your omnivore friends in and everyone can get something to enjoy :) Omit the fajita veggies and sauces for a truly raw salad. Here's what I got:

Have you been to chipotle? What do you think?

a new sally obsession

If you're like me and you consume a family-of-four sized salad once or twice daily, you know what I mean when I say I often have to ;switch it up' to not get bored. Well, my new obsession is Rawmesan. A friend actually recommended Parma, a vegan parmesan which I will definitely try next time, but in the same section I found Rawmesan for a cheaper price and less ingredients. I usually roll with olive, macadamia, or coconut oil for salad dressing, but when I sprinkle this on, it really pumps up the flavor and satiety of my salad, almost like a cooked meal. It's also great sprinkled on veggies! This stuff is great for people who are okay with nutritional yeast, but think it's a little overpowering.

Ingredients:Organic walnuts, organic sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast, celtic sea salt. 

Nutritional Facts: 1/2 tsp (3g) Calories 15, Fat 1.5g (Sat. 0g), Carb 1g, Protein 1g, Vitamin B12 (8%DV), Zinc (2%DV), Selenium (2%DV), Phosphorus (2%DV). % Daily Values (DV) are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. 

Any one tried Rawmesan, Parma, or Vegan Grated Topping?

I don't know what I waited so long to try these things!

new year

Hola, raw kids :)

I took a few days off and now am back strong with some "Resolutions" for you. After eating all of that Raw Junk Food over the holiday I am ready to reduce some of the high fat and sugar foods in my diet and focus on vegetables and greens as much as possible. It seems everyone in the bloggy world is making resolutions. I admire Tina so much for sharing her sugar difficulties with everyone. As you probably know, many people experience emotional AND physical cravings for sugar that are tough to get over, and I am so happy to see her success!

Some diet/fitness goals for 2011:

1. Eat a salad every day.

You would think I already do this, but sometimes I either crave fat or carbs and choose some 'vegan junk food' instead or simply just want something HOT.

2. Reduce sugar intake.

Sugar shakes me up. Even the natural kind can mess with me and my blood sugar. I would be lying if I didn't say I'd love to eat an entire box of dates in one sitting, so I feel that by purposefully reducing my sugar intake I will also reduce my cravings for it.

3. Make more raw food 'meals,' not just desserts, as to not get bored. 

I got Ani Phyo's Raw Food Essentials for christmas and I plan to use it!

4. Reduce unnecessary fat intake.

Now, I know that fats are essential to life, so I promise to not over-do this. I always have a healthy dose of olive, macademia (I received some Hawai'ian oil from 'santa' this year), or coconut oil on my salad and love to munch on raw nuts and avacados. But just because things are raw it doesn't mean I should exceed the daily normal value. I don't need 10 handfuls of Brazil nuts or 25 raw cookies made of almond flour with cashew icing. This goal is to simply be more mindful, that's all.

5. Fruit for breakfast.

Instead of nothing.

6. No Starbucks food.

My sister and I both work at Starbucks, so this will be a toughie.

7. 30 minutes of exercise a day with one rest day!

My sis and I are both committing to this, you can too!

8. Do yoga once a week.

For some reason this is harder for me than it used to be. I just can't seem to make my mind relax, and that makes me anxious and stiff. I would really like to get back into this. Any tips?

9. Incorporate more fermented foods/probiotics into my diet.


I love Kombucha and Rejuvelac, but I definitely drink a lot more black coffee and tea than I do that. I think that would definitely make a difference in my health and general well being. Any more probiotic food suggestions?

10. Dance, laugh, sing, create, be...


What are your diet/fitness/life goals for 2011?


I raise my green smoothie to 2011, it'll be a good one!

Whole Foods Salad Bar - Raw foods

I wanted to write this post because today I discovered some good news...Raw Dehydrated flax chips at my local whole foods' salad bar! Now, as we all know Whole Foods is not a cheap lunch, so I am by no means a regular, but my boss was treating me today so I thought I'd make a post of it!

• Raw Flax Crackers: Delicious! I can't seam to make something this good! I taste ground flax, whole flax, sesame and a delicious blend of spices that makes these crackers anything but bland.

• Raw Marinated Veggies: Mushrooms, tomatoes, cilanto(or parsley?) peppers, red onion, sun dried tomato what more could you ask for? This is delicious and goes great on top of the crackers.

• Raw Broccoli Crunch: Now, I have had the real broccoli crunch. The one containing bacon, cashews, and parmesan. This raw vegan version really stands up! The broccoli is lightly sweetened(I suspect with agave) and this great mix also includes raw cashews and currants!

• Raw Fettucini: This is kelp noodles with some sort of mild, semi-creamy sauce. It's really not great, anyone could make a better one at home.

• Raw Watercress Salad: Plain, nice tasting, and a good way to get greens in!

There is also a nice variety of cooked grains that I highly recommend sprinkling over whatever you choose to get!

I know the selection varies by region, Gina is always talking a delicious 'miso slaw' that I've never seen or heard of...what's your favorite salad bar find?

Raw Gingerbread Cookies with Vanilla Cashew Icing

Sorry about the bad photo, they're actually a really lovely gingerbread brown color.

My mom makes the best sugar cookies. Clean white, buttery cookies with what we call "Royal" icing, loaded with powdered sugar and all of those scrumptious things that make the holidays so tempting. I decided to test-run these Raw Vegan 'totally guiltless' Gingerbread Cookies before I bring them home this year.

Also, I've decided this holiday season to ban Agave Nectar from my diet. There is a lot of controversy surrounding agave nectar, but I really just have to go with how it makes me feel, which is not great. I still have a big 20 oz. bottle of Mathew Kenney's OhAgave! Syrup on my shelf, but especially in this season of sweets and treats, I'm going to avoid it and thus avoid over-using it. Thoughts?

Gingerbread cookies:

1 C dry Buckwheat groats
1 t cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
1 t nutmeg
2 T melted coconut oil
1/2-1 C soaked dates
1/8 C ground flax(optional, for a denser cookie. If you do use it, make the cookies thinner)

Soak dates for 15 minutes-an hour and then blend into a syrupy paste. Grind the buckwheat groats into a fine flour and mix with the spices and flax. Combine the dry ingredients with the date paste and coconut oil. Mix well a flatten a section of the dough onto a nonstick surface like your teflex sheets. shape into whatever you like and turn onto your dehydrator sheet like you would regular sugar cookies. Dehydrate 8 hours on 105 degrees until they reach desired crunch/chew.

Vanilla Cashew Cream Icing:

1/2 C Cashews
water
1 T vanilla extract
1 T coconut oil(optional, if you want the frosting to solidify better)
liquid stevia/agave/raw sweetener of choice to taste

Blend 'er up. This will make plenty. I piped it on to the cookies using a ziploc bag with a hole cut in it because I found it difficult to spread with a knife.

Add a few dried cranberries to make them a really special treat!

Happy Holidays :)

RAW: day 1 continued...

Lunch:
-a mix of 3 raw salads from the whole foods cold bar: raw corn salad, raw marinated veg. salad, raw kelp noodles salad

snack:
-4 Tablespoons hemp seeds
-1 C Higher Power Raw granola

Dinner:
-1 yellow bell pepper
-1 cup carrots
-1 banana
-1 Raw Revolution Chocolate Cashew bar

I know the granola and Raw Revolution bar are sortof considered "raw junk food," but it's a hell of a lot better than regular junk food! I feel good. I am still drinking tea, but that also helps me get my h20 in. I'm listening to a podcast from Stave Pavlina's blog, where a raw good expert is saying we should eat fat all alone at the end of the day. Eat fruit all alone... I guess foods ferment in your tummy when you eat them in the wrong order/wrong combination of food.

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.

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 :)

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.

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...

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.

Raw Dibs!

You know...these guys ^^ It's hot here...I want ice cream...but I wanted to make them without all the scary, fatty ingredients. There's nothing like MILK INGREDIENTS, MODIFIED MILK INGREDIENTS, SWEETENED CONDENSED WHOLE MILK, SUGAR, WATER, CORN SYRUP, BROWN SUGAR, SODIUM CITRATE, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, POTASSIUM SORBATE, PALM OIL, UNSWEETENED CHOCOLATE, GLUCOSE, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, CELLULOSE GUM, CAROB BEAN GUM, CARRAGEENAN, SOY LECITHIN, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOUR, COLOUR.

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.

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?

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.

My First Raw Soup

I like hot soup. Hot, steaming, comforting soups that warm your belly and fill you up. I never thought I would like cold soup, I have never even eaten chilled cucumber soup. I just thought it would taste like...COLD, OLD, conventional soup. But today, I made Ani Phyo's Creamy Mushroom Bisque, with a few alterations. And it was AMAZING!!
FOR 1:

Bisque Base
1/4 C Brazil Nuts
1/8 C EVOO<<<<<<<<< I only did this because I ran out of Olive Oil, but it was quite good
1/8 C liquid coconut oil<<
1 t minced garlic
1 T nutritional yeast
3/4 C water

Bisque Toppings
1 C mushrooms, I used white button
drizzles of olive oil
Nama Shoyu or Braggs for marinade
1 T fresh herbs, her recipe calls for Thyme but I used cilantro because it was what I had.

Start by marinating your mushroom pieces. Toss them with oil and nama shoyu. Set aside to marinate at least 30 minutes.

Blend nuts, oil, garlic, salt, and water, and nutritional yeast until smooth. I also added just a single mushroom here for color.

Chill soup for a bit and then pour over toppings, or let it heat up blending if that's what you're into.

It was nummy as hell.

Five Reasons to be Vegan from my #1 bitch!

WHAT I THINK?

#ONE: That may be true, about the chickens, but I don't feel great about eating highly processed soy omelettes either. I would almost rather have egg whites, they've been one of the hardest things for me to give up. But after seeing what they do to the animals, I agree.

#TWO: Milk 100% grosses me out. There are so many non-destructive, more healthy alternatives!! People become lactose intolerant for a reason. Milk makes me break out, too. Get your calcium from greens, yo!

#THREE: Go vegan, be happy! It's your life and your body, and you only get one!

#FOUR: "You'll do more good switching to a vegan diet than you will switching to an energy efficient car" This makes me feel like a fantastic person.

#FIVE: She's right, it really isn't that tough. The hardest part is explaining to family and friends, in which case you just have to tell them that you need to do what's best for you and let them accept it.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?