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!

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 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...

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?

it's a chocolate kind of sunday

MEDICINAL RAW SUPERFOOD CHOCOLATE

1 C ground cacao nibs
1/2 C agave nectar
a scant 1/4 C coconut oil
1 T Mesquite powder
1/4 C soaked goji berries
a sprinklin' of sea salt

Blend everything together while calling in ancient wisdom, longevity forces, and ecstatic states of bliss :)

Next time I'll leave out the goji berries, they made it sortof 'spicy,' which i don't like much in my chocolate.



Enjoyed with a glass of almond milk(or chocolate, like mine)...that is devine!

sea salad

I love kelp noodles, and this recipe is adapted from Ani Phyo's recipe I did it a bit differently, and now it's my go-to salad dressing! And it's pretty low-fat for a typical raw salad dressing, there's no olive oil at all. Try it, it's delicious!

1 1/2 C kelp noodles (soaked for less crunch, if you prefer)

6 mini sweet peppers (one for the sauce)
a few green onions
1 T soy sauce, bragg's, or nama shoyu
1 T lemon juice
1 T almond butter
spices-i used red pepper flakes and black pepper

Chop up 5 of the red peppers, and some green onion, and toss with your noods. Blend everything else and add water until you reach desired consistency. Toss with the noodles.

Rawcos!

Raw fiesta!

These were inspired by the raw tacos I love from House of the Sun, though theirs were fancier. But these were just as delicious, and cheaper too!

Ingredients:

2 Mini Red Cabbage leaves(for the taco shells)

Taco Meat:
1 grated/peeled carrot
1/2 C Sunflower seeds
1/3 C sliced red bell pepper
1 t Cumin
1 t garlic
squirt olive oil
squirt nama shoyu or soy sauce
salt & pepper
red pepper flakes

Basic Pico:
Tomatoes
White onions
Jalepeño
Garlic
Lime Juice
Salt & Pepper

Or just buy some :)

Combine all of the nut meat ingredients in a blender/mixer type of gadget. I also threw in some pico just for a tomatoey tastes, next time I will add flax and lime juice. I made a layer of sliced carrot on the bottom of my cabbage leaf, divided the nut meat between the two leaves, and then topped both with a generous helping of pico de gallo! This would also be fantastic with avocado, but it's really effing expensive in seattle...enjoy!