Cruciferous Salad

This is the best oil-free vegan salad EVAH! 

Cruciferous Salad

1/2 bunch fresh kale-ripped to peices

1/4 red or green cabbage-chopped

1/2 cup fresh dill-chopped

1 avocado

1/2 lemon squeezed

1 tsp fresh garlic-crushed

curry powder

liquid aminos to taste

Get your hands in there, mash it all up,

and feel the energy!

Then add: 2 Tbsp hemp seeds and

1 cup alfalfa sprouts.

Seed Nibbling, Cabbage Munching and Alligator Pears

Toasted Curry Flax Seeds

1 cup gold or brown flax seeds

sea salt and curry powder to taste

In a frying pan toast seeds until they begin to jump out of the pan.

Add salt and curry.

Great for movie night!!!

I have been feeling like I need more omegas and more cabbage in my life these days. I started nibbling on flax seeds a few weeks ago and I haven't stopped. At first I was munching the seeds raw and then I started toasting them in a frying pan with sea salt and curry powder. This method is a much tastier snack and easier to munch. Toast the seeds until they start jumping, then they're done. Around this same time I started mashing up avocado, cabbage, and kale. I prefer red cabbage, but green is good too. Cabbage is super sweet and last night, in bed, I munched a quarter of one like an apple. The monounsaturated fat, oleic acid(omega-9), in the avocado makes this fruit the best thing in the world to eat with kale and cabbage or any other super greens. These omega 9's are a carotenoid's best friend. The absorption of the other nutrients in the greens is increased 200-400% when an avocado is added. I may have already written about this magical food relationship, but this is exciting news!

Nori Rawrap

Nori Rawrap

1 sheet raw nori
1/4 avocado sliced
4 thinly sliced cucumber slices
2 sliced shiitake mushrooms
small handful of sprouts(alfalfa, clover, sunflower greens) or romaine lettuce

Roll it, dip it, and enjoy

          

Sunflower Green Rawrap with Carrawt Ginger Dressing

Rawrap Figgy Dipping Sauce

1 cup dried figs
1/2 cup raw cashews
1 1/2 cup coconut or filtered water
1 small chipolte pepper
1/4 lemon lemon squeezed
1/4 tsp rock salt

Blend and use as dip or salad dressing

 Sprout Rawrap with Figgy Dressing

Ginger Carrawt Dressing

1 cup carrot cut into pieces
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup water
1 lemon peeled and de-seeded
1 inch fresh ginger root
Liquid aminos to taste

Blend ingredients and use as a dip or salad dressing

Carrawt Ginger Dressing

The idea for the Rawrap was introduced by a beautiful Danish girl. It's beauty is in it's simplicity. I took it and ran with it...but not too far. The great thing about a raw dish like this is that it's so incredibly healthy and super easy to make. It is filling and you feel like you can float away after the meal. The nori seaweed wrapper is so good that you will start to crave it after a few times. Avocado is in my top two most important foods...after leafy greens of course. Sprouts are in my top five and shrooms are growing on me. lol Mushrooms are an underrated nutrient powerhouse... shiitakes are an excellent source of vitamin B-2(riboflavin), B-3(niacin), B-5, B-6 as well as potassium, zinc, and selenium. Mushrooms and sunflower greens are also plant sources of vitamin D. I take complete responsibility for the raw Figgy Dressing. I wanted something sweet with a little heat for this set of Rawraps. The flavor of the figs goes amazing with the smokey heat of the chipolte pepper. The Ginger Carrawt Dressing is something I just made up an hour ago and it is out of this world good! This is way better than any oil-spill ginger dressing at a Japanese restaurant. Both these dressings are top-notch and would fly equally as high on a salad or anything that needs a little kick. I've eaten a Rawrap every night this week and with unlimited dipping sauce possibilities this will be a staple food for a while :)
Flavor rating: 5 stars. Energy spent rating: 1 star (1=least energy 5=most energy)

Evolving Through Food

I was thinking that there is hope for mankind. Even though we are destroying our planet and constantly at war, there is an awakening taking place. I see it every day. People are beginning to change their ways and their ideas about food. This is the most important aspect of the health of our species and we are in the midst of an awakening. Those who see the truth and eat the good food will evolve, while those who continue to eat the bad food will die off. Natural selection will take it's course. It sounds harsh and clinical but it is the truth. In this food awakening I have found hope for our species survival.

If we can start here, with our  own bodies, in our own temples we can go out and spread love elsewhere. But we must start here first and then we will be mentally and spiritually fit to address the global issues that are ripping our planet and civilization to pieces.

When we are conscious of what we are putting in our bodies, we are showing ourselves love. When we eat an organic vegetarian diet, we are showing our planet love. When we make this food for friends and family, we are showing others love. This simple act of respecting ourselves can have an unlimited impact on us and those we come in contact with. Everything we put in our bodies becomes a part of us. We are what we eat.

At this point the humans are in a period of devolution. We are living shorter lives than our parents and our quality of health is the worst it's ever been. Heart disease, diabetes, and cancer are all at epidemic proportions. The good news is these are all food-related diseases. The better news is these are also food reversible diseases.

We have an opportunity to heal our planet with the good food instead of killing it with the bad food. We can choose to devolve or we can choose to evolve. The answer is: evolve and eat more plants!

From Raw to Cooked & the Zombie Kitchen

I ate cooked food for the first time in 28 days yesterday and I felt ok. Then today I made sprouted Whole Grain Pasta and I felt like I had the flu. I had cold sweats, light head, queasy stomach, and indigestion. It was rough. I now know that a proper raw food diet is the healthiest food path for me. I will continue my raw ways except for when I do my cooking classes. haha Sounds insane right? A raw food chef who cooks. Luckily I am able to come up with accurate recipes on the fly and do not require much recipe development. I love cooking and I love raw foods! So, I was thinking that it makes sense to combine these two elements into a hybrid 1/2 cooked 1/2 raw recipe series. If I make pasta sauce I will put it hot over raw zucchini. Or if I make a delicious raw Asian sauce I will put it over lightly steamed bok choy and shiitake shrooms. This way my meals will be half alive and half dead...like the Zombie Kitchen!!! This is much better than all the way cooked and a little easier for people to 'stomach' than straight raw foods. I can always end the meal with one of my 5 star raw desserts too :)

Day 28: Raw

So, after 28 days of eating 100% raw food I decided to break the streak today. I ate 2 whole wheat spinach empenadas.They were so freaking good! I felt great when I was raw and eating enough food. But the days that I didn't have copious amounts of fresh fruit, or lettuce for a salad, or kale for a green smoothie...raw food life was physically draining. Observations from my experience raw:
1. More balanced mood/calmer at all times
2. Sleep was more efficient/less hours with better rest
3. Raw culinary vision heightened
4. Ate about 1/3 the food as before
5. Spent a lot of $$$ on food
6. Frequently hungry
7. Lost 5 pounds
8. Missed cooking

Raw food makes the most sense most of the time for me...however, I will go back to where I was pre-raw to part-raw. I will make my green smoothie everyday, salad for lunch, quinoa/brown rice with nuts and beans, and fruit in between. I was on this journey with a beautiful friend of mine who made this a memorable and inspiring experience. I highly recommend doing any fast-like activities with a friend or a group for support. I will be teaching my raw food series at the store twice a month and this is a great place to meet raw foodies and health conscious friends. It is also in my job description to cook healthy food, so I am excited to reunite with my hot plate! I will continue posting raw and cooked oil-free healthy recipes on here until I am ready to write my book :)

Persimmon Pudding(raw)

I taught a raw food class yesterday and made Cream of Sweet Potato Soup, Kalocado Salad, and Persimmon Pudding. The soup is amazing, the salad is delicious, and the pudding is uniquely flavorful.

Our produce department had a some persimmons that were on there way out, so I rescued them and cut out the goodness. Persimmons are one of the sweetest fruits in the world when they are ripe. There are two main varieties; Hachiya and Fuya.

I prefer the acorn shaped Hachiya against the tomato shaped Fuya. If you eat a persimmon before it is ripe(when totally mushy) it will have an awful chalky affect and leave your mouth feeling like you just bit into a pile of powdered drywall.

The variety we had at the store was Fuya, so that's what went into the pudding. This is the first time I ever made this and I made the recipe up as I went along. Adjust spices to taste:



Persimmon Pudding.

8 ripe persimmons de-seeded and peeled
3/4 cup raisins
1 Tbsp chia seeds
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp ginger

 Blend ingredients and serve chilled. Garnish with a mint leaf and ground cardamom.

I use dates to sweeten everything, so I found an opportunity to use raisins and it worked perfectly! The chia seeds are there to add the jello like consistency to this pudding. They really work!

I was going to add cinnamon and nutmeg and turn this into a Christmas style dessert, but then I realized that this flavor is played out, so I got Slum Dog Millionaire on it and turned into an Indian delight! These flavors complement the sweet complexity of the persimmon and raisins.

This is an excellent dessert to enjoy with a cup of warm almond milk or your favorite tea. Taste rating : 4 stars. Energy spent rating: 2