Almond Milk

 

What a wonderful way to start the day - a fresh batch of almond milk! Almond milk is my favorite beverage. It is delicious by itself or with cereal/granola, or as the base for a creamy fruit smoothie. I've also been known to whip up batches of chocolate almond milk for myself sometimes just because it's so delicious! It's so easy to make. Here's a quick recipe:
Soak 1 cup of almonds overnight.
Drain them and place the almonds into a blender.
Add 3 cups of filtered or spring water.
Blend at a high speed for about 2 minutes.
Then, pour the contents of the blender through a nutmilk bag placed over a large bowl.
Sqeeze the bag very gently and slowly until all of the liquid is in the bowl and you are left with only almond pulp in the bag.
If you want to make it sweeter, put the milk back into the blender and add 2 or 3 dates. Blend again.
Then, pour into a glass mason jar and store in the refrigerator.
Using these proportions should yield one mason jar full of almond milk.
Enjoy!
I also dehydrate the almond pulp and save it to use as almond flour for later.

Raw Chocolate Pudding

 

It was difficult to get a picture of this because we ate it up so quickly! I decided to use a different sweetner with my pudding this time and I will never go back to using agave in this recipe again. The coconut crystals made it taste so much better - kind of like fudge!
Ingredients:
Avocado
Raw cacao powder
Coconut crystals (coconut sugar) - grind in a grinder to make more fine
Tiny bit of vanilla

Mix ingredients together in a food processor adding cacao and sweetener to your taste. This is delicious and even my son loves it!

Coconut Bliss Ice Cream

 

I love Coconut Bliss ice cream - it's non-dairy, organic, and sweetened with agave nectar. I usually just eat the vanilla flavored one because it's just so blissfully delicious, but the other day I felt daring and added some cinammon, raisins and walnuts. The result was even more blissful than the plain vanilla! Trust your instincts and be daring - you may love the result!

Raw Chocolate Nutty Candy

 

YUM!!!! I made these for Thanksgiving dessert and they were a huge hit with my son and my husband! The recipe comes from Mimi Kirk's Live Raw cookbook, which is my current favorite cookbook. I left out the coconut and they were still delicious. As they are raw, you get all of the nutritional benefits from the cacao, walnuts, and dates. And I put the extra raw chocolate into the freezer and made candy bars!

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

 

You can still enjoy creamy smoothies even without dairy! I used almond milk as a base and added frozen organic strawberries, and one organic banana and mixed it all up in the blender. You could also use coconut milk or other types of nut milk as a base. No need to add sweetner when you are using fruits.

Not Cheese Cheesy Popcorn

 

This is so delicious and my son loves it! Simply pop some organic popcorn in an air popper. Place the popped corn in a bowl and pour some olive oil over it. Not too much, just enough to get a little bit on each piece. Add some salt to your liking, and then sprinkle with nutritional yeast. It tastes like cheesy popcorn! The nutritional yeast adds nice B vitamins, too!

Mint Nib Macaroons

My friend, Alissa, is a raw foods chef. Here she is teaching how to make delicious looking mint nib macaroons! And she's got a plug for my new healing book at the beginning and the end. Check out her other uncooking videos, too:
http://tv.punkrawklabs.net/?p=396

Hearty Grain Free Bread

 

This is a delicious and simple bread that my son and husband give two thumbs up!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a grinder, place 3 tsps of chia seeds and grind into a powder
Mix the chia meal with 16 tsps of water to form a gel. Allow to set while assembling other ingredients.
In a large bowl, mix together:
2 cups of almond flour
2/3 cup of garbanzo bean flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
Then, add the chia gel and mix together.
Add 1/2 cup of water and mix together to make a dough consistency.
Place into a loaf pan lined with unbleached parchment paper.
Pour olive oil over the top.
Bake for 45 mins.
Allow to cool and enjoy plain or with butter or jelly.

World Food Day 2011

 

If you can, find a World Food Day event near you and see if you can sign petitions for labelling GMOs. There is a huge march in D.C. tomorrow, too. Everyone has the right to know what they are consuming. Those of us dealing with food allergies, sensitivities, and special needs really must avoid eating these products. Look for soy and corn and dairy ingredients in every product you buy and if it isn't organic, then you will not know if you are consuming genetically altered food, which means that the insecticide is actually within the grain itself. GMOs need to be labelled on products so that consumers will be informed.

Almond Vanilla Cookies

 

These are absolutely fantastic! They taste just like sugar cookies, but they aren't!
They are simple, gluten free, casein free, and vegan.
Ingredients:
1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup clear agave nectar
tsp or so of vanilla (I didn't measure this exactly)
1/4 cup of coconut oil

Melt the coconut oil and mix it in with all of the other ingredients. Preheat oven to 300. Place cookies onto baking sheet into already formed shapes (they won't really spread out much). Bake for 20 minutes or until just browning on edges. Allow to cool before eating. They will be really soft when they come out of the oven, so you have to let them cool off first, I know it's hard because they smell so good!
Enjoy!

Vegan Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

 

YUM!!! I dipped these beautiful, organic strawberries into a chocolate pudding I had made out of the following:
avocado
cacao powder
agave
vanilla
I mixed the ingredients in a food processor and just kept tasting until I had the right amount of cacao and agave. It's so delicious on its own, but when you mix it with strawberries, it is unbelievable!

Grain Free Granola

 

This is my new favorite breakfast or snack. It is delicious and simple!
Smush one banana with a fork.
Add some cinammon - a few sprinkles to taste
Add some berries of your choice
Break up and add some walnuts or pecans (preferably soaked and then dehydrated for easier digestion)
You can even add a little vanilla if you want.
Enjoy!

Grain Free Wraps

 

These are the BEST grain free, raw wraps!!! I love them so much! They are delicious and sweet,full of coconut nutrition and goodness. You can find them online at raw foods sites.

Vegan, Raw Mac N Cheese

 

I had no idea that making something like was a possibilty before, or I would have done it a long time ago. This is vegan, raw macaroni and cheese. No soy, no tapioca, no fillers, just healthy and delicious. And the "cheese" sauce tastes great on other things that you would put a cheese sauce on like nachos, veggies, veggie burgers, etc. I got the recipe for this from Mimi Kirk's Live Raw Cookbook. The "pasta" is slices of zucchini and the cheese is made from cashews, nutritional yeast, olive oil, lemon juice, water, and some spices and garlic and onion and miso. YUUUUMMMM!! I highly recommend this cookbook!

Cashew Thumbprint Cookies

 

Delicious, nutritious, and easy cookies! I got the original recipe for these from the Fresh Cookbook by Sergei and Valya Boutenko, but I didn't have any dried apples, so I modified them. I simply used for the cookies - 2 cups of raw cashews, 1/3 cup dried figs, and 1/3 cup dried apricots, ground up together with a little bit of water in the food processor. Then, for the filling, one mango, 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract, and one banana blended until smoothe in the blender with a little bit of water. Roll cookies in a ball, and make an indentation with thumb and fill with yummy fruit filling! That's it! I think that he cookie part is also great by itself formed into a bar like a Larabar. Tastes delicious!

Raw Goodness

 

Something new for breakfast this morning! I based it off of a recipe in Mimi Kirk's, Live Raw book for pancakes. I didn't want to spend the time dehydrating it, though, and I didn't add any extra sweetner. But, it was incredibly delicious like this!!
Ingredients:
One ripe banana - smushed with a fork
Handful of blueberries
Handful of soaked and dehydrated pecans, chopped
Spoonful of flax meal
Sprinkle of cinammon
Combine in a bowl and enjoy! So simple, so nutritional, so delicious!

 

My blender broke, and as I've been awaiting my new one's arrival, I've been juicing my green drinks. This one is apple, spinach, carrot, and raspberries. Delicious!!

Almond Milk

 

Making almond milk is so easy! And it tastes so much better than the kind you can buy at the store, which has so many added ingredients. I followed the recipe in the book, Fresh, by Sergei and Valya Boutenko. This book is incredible and I would recommed it to anyone, especially if you have kids. My son loved this milk! And the fun part is that you have almond pulp left over afterward that you can make into cookies or crackers or pate or cakes. There are recipes for them in the book, too. Here is all you need to do to make this delicious drink (from the book Fresh, page 151):
Soak three cups of almonds overnight
Drain the water from the almonds in the morning
Take half and put into blender along with 4 cups of distilled water (I used spring water). Blend for 3 mins or until smooth. Strain the mixture (I used a nut milk bag, totally worth the 8 bucks I spent on it). Pour the strained nut milk back into the blender and add 3 dates and 1/2 tsp of sea salt. Blend again until smooth.
Pour into a pitcher. Then, do the whole process again for the other half of the almonds along with the same amounts of other ingredients. If you have a giant blender, I supposed you could do the whole thing at once, but I had to break it up into two groups.
This is delicious room temperature or cold. I could drink the entire pitcher right up. You could use raw honey for the dates if preferred. I love it with the dates! Sweet and creamy and delish! My son ate it with some raw oats and thought it was great.
You can use almond milk in anyway you would use any other kind of milk.

Raw Almond Pate and Veggie Crackers

 

After making almond milk, here are some delicious and fun things to do with the almond pulp that is left over. I found these recipes in the wonderful cookbook, Fresh, by Sergei and Valya Boutenko. The pate is on page 92, called Better Than Real Burritos. It is simply, almond pulp, green onion, fresh dill, olive oil, lemon juice, and sea salt.
The crackers are on page 171 and are called "chips". They are simply almond pulp, golden flaxseeds, tomato, lemon, garlic, cilantro, and sea salt. So simple, so healthy, and so delicious. I love raw foods!

Rawtella

 

Oh, my goodness, we have found the most delicious treat! It's called Rawtella, and is a raw food version of Nutella. The ingredients are simply organic raw hazelnuts, organic raw cacao nibs, and organic coconut sugar. I melted some and poured it over organic cherries and pecans. Absolutely heavenly! My son loved it, too!

Raw Candy Bar

 

Sometimes it's just nice to have a treat. This was absolutely delicious and my son loved it, too. I love eating raw treats because I know that it's not only delicious, but that there is actual nutrition in it, too.

Raw Cashew Dip

 

YUM!!! This is so simple and sooo delicious! It's kind of like hummus, but sweeter because of the cashews and no tahini. This is great as a dip with crackers or any veggies. I found the recipe here and and I made it without the pepper: http://easyveggie.blogspot.com/2009/04/cashew-dip.html
Here it is from the wonderful Oraphan's website:
Ingredients:
2 cups raw cashews
4 tbsp lemon juice
3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp sea salt & black pepper
1/4 cup water
Process cashews, lemon juice, garlic, salt & pepper until smooth, adding only enough water as needed. Will keep 4 days in fridge.

Raw Mango Pie

 

I think that mangoes are my favorite food! This awesome and super easy pie was a new way for me to enjoy eating them! The mango flavor blended so beautifully with nutty, sweet crust! I found the recipe here: http://www.squidoo.com/EasyRawFoodRecipesforKids#module67357651

I made a few changes. First, I used fresh mangoes.
2 mangoes - place into blender with a little bit of water and puree until smoothe.
Because mine weren't all the way ripe and I love sweetness, I added just a little bit of raw coconut sugar to the puree.

For the crust - 3/4 cup raw walnuts, 3/4 cup raw almonds, 3/4 cup dates (you can add a little coconut sugar here, too, if you want it sweeter.
Place into blender or food processor and chop until they are in small pieces.
Press the nut/date mixture into a pie or cake pan.
Add the mango puree on top.
Refrigerate and and enjoy for a wonderful, summer, delicious dessert!

Cashew Vanilla Ice Cream

 

If you can't have dairy, but can have sweeteners, do not despair because you can still enjoy delicious ice cream! Made from cashews, vanilla, and agave (or whatever sweetener you want, really), it is easy, protein packed, and delicious!
Ingredients:
tsp of vanilla extract - use two vanilla beans to make it RAW
2 cups raw cashews or pieces
2 cups purified water
1/2 cup maple syrup or agave - add the amount of sweetener to your liking

Directions:
Simply, combine ingredients in a blender.
Pour into an ice cream maker and freeze according to instructions. Or, if you are like me and don't have an ice cream maker, just stick it all in a container and put it in the freezer. Take it out and give it time to defrost a little before you eat it, or run it through the blender again to make it creamy.

Gluten Free Coconut Flour Bread

 

Here is a great gluten and casein free coconut flour bread! I found several versions of it on different websites. I didn't have enough coconut oil, so I cut the recipe in half. It still turned out great! Here is my version with notes of how you can modify:

Ingredients:
6 eggs
1/2 cups coconut oil, either expeller pressed or unrefined (for dairy can use ghee or butter)
5 drops of vanilla stevia (recipe calls for 1-2 tablespoon honey, depending on taste)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup coconut flour

Preheat your oven to 350. Mix all ingredients and blend until lumps are gone. Grease a bread pan with butter or coconut oil or line with parchment paper, and place batter inside. Bake for 40 minutes.

My son, who usually will not eat anything made with coconut flour really enjoyed this bread!

Grain Free Cheese Bread

 

I was originally trying to make a pizza for my son, but it turned into a delicious cheesy bread instead. He was going to a social event where pizza would be served to the other children. One of the other mothers there kept commenting on how good his pizza bread smelled and how she wished she had some of it, too. :)
The ingredients I used were:
2 cups of blanched almond flour
parmesean cheese - anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 cup
1/2 tsp baking soda
enough almond milk to make a dough consistency
dash of salt
organic cheddar/monterrey jack cheese for topping

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Mix the first 5 ingredients together in a bowl. Don't add too much almond milk, just enough to make it stick together and be doughy.
Spread the dough out on a parchment lined baking sheet as evenly as you can. You can use a rolling pin if you cover the top with another piece of parchment paper to avoid sticking.
Bake in the oven until it is no longer wet feeling and slightly firm. Basically until it seems just about finished baking.
Add shredded cheese of your choice on top and melt in the oven for a few more minutes.

Cut into pieces and serve! You can store leftovers in the refrigerator if there are any. :)

GFCF Lasagna

 

This was absolutely delicious! It turned out even more tasty than I thought it was going to when I set out to make it. My son and I gobbled it up!
Ingredients:
organic brown rice lasagna noodles
1 package mozarella Daiya "cheese"
1 jar organic pasta sauce (I used Whole Foods 365 Fat Free Pasta Sauce because it has no sugar or oil added)
organic garlic powder, oregano, basil

This is just like making regular lasagna.
Preheat the oven to 350.
Boil 9 noodles for 14 minutes.
While boiling, put sauce in a pan and add some garlic, oregano and basil. Let it simmer.
Drain and rinse with cold water.
Put 1/3 of sauce on bottom of baking pan.
Add layer of three noodles on top.
Add another layer of sauce.
Add 1/3 of Daiya on top of that.
Add layer of noodles, top with sauce and another 1/3 of cheese.
Add layer of noodles and top with rest of the cheese.
Bake in the oven until bubbly on the sides.

 

We had these beautiful organic berries along with it, and some organic cashews for some extra protein. What a fun dinner!