Walnut Pate-Delicious

I am starting to organize my life into daily and weekly food preparations that set me up for easier and less panic at the last minutes dinner ideas. One such raw and ready food that I can make ahead is walnut pate. I have tested this out on a few on my friends and it passed with flying colors. 

Taste develops over time just like discipline habits. Our taste can get reconditioned and pressed into the habit of good taste but this is not one of these.   I do like to pass it on a few of my discerning friends who all in different places in their raw and natural food journey.  Walnut Pate may is even a starter food  if you want to impress your skeptical neighbor. (or mother in law)

Soaking helps prepare the nuts for better digestibility so I soak the nuts over night. (Saturday night) Sunday night I start preparing for the week. I make a batch of walnut pate and sunflower pate (see tomorrow's post) and I am set for salad toppers, dips, fillings for wraps and sandwich spread for the week.

This recipe comes directly out the the book, Raw Food Made Easy For 1 or 2 People by Jennifer Cornbleet. There are many books at the library to check out but this one I would buy. It supplies many good basic and easy recipes for starter and maintenance foods in the raw food exploration diet.



Walnut Pate
1 cup soaked walnuts
1 Tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon tamari (fermented soy sauce)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
dash salt
1 Tablespoon minced parsley
1 Tablespoon minced onion

Place walnuts, lemon juice, olive oil, tamari, garlic powder, and salt in a food processor, fitted with the S blade and process into a paste. Stop occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.  Transfer to  small mixing bowl. Stir in the parsley and onion and mix well. (I put all the the above ingredients into the food processor for a smooth paste. ) Store in a sealed jar and will keep for five days. 

It will probably be gone before that.  Enjoy!

Now it's your turn.
Did you try it?
What do you think?....a little more salt?
What did you use it on?

Living a Lifestyle of Learning daily.

Spiced Squash Raw Salad

Another raw food winner.This time I am posting a recipe for a salad. Many erroneously think that raw food people (officially called raw foodists) eat only salads. Nothing could be further from the truth BUT salads are part of good nutrition and this one happens to be quite economical as well. If you happen to have planted one only zucchini plant in some remote garden corner you will have enough summer veggies to enjoy this recipe simply entitled Spiced Squash, taken unaltered from the bookThe Raw 50: 10 Amazing Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Drinks for Your Raw Food Lifestyle


1/2 c chopped sun dried tomatos, soaked for 2 hours and drained

2 T cold pressed extra virgin olive oil.

1 T minced white onion

1 T minced fresh oregano

1 T minced fresh dill

1 t Himalayan salt

2 zucchini, sliced and 2 yellow squash, sliced.

Combine all in a mixing bowl, add salt, oil, and herbs. Toss to coat all the vegetables and marinate at least 2 hours.

The next day this salad is even better and the fresh herbs need a little time to really permeated the sauce and the skin of the zucchini.

Enjoy!

Living a Lifestyle of Learning daily

Key Lime Pudding

I have discovered raw puddings! Wow!This is reminiscent of lemon chiffon pie, with a strong citrus flavor (my favorite) instead of that artificially fake taste.

I have taken this from a web site somewhere, (I cannot remember where right now) and adapted it to a smaller amount so you can use just one avocado for a meal or dessert for two.

This is really, really yummy if you have a perfectly ripe avocado, no brown spots and you can use lemon juice and zest instead if you do not have lime on hand. In fact, I have only tried it with lemon so far but I call it key lime pudding because it is green and STILL no one knows that I use frog as an ingredient, (so I have a to have reason it is green!!!)

1 whole large Haas avocado
1/4 c fresh squeezed lime juice
1 T lime powder (or fresh zest taken from the lime)
1/4 t Celtic salt
1/4 c agave nectar (or more)

Whip all ingredients in a blender and serve with kiwi, bananas and raspberries. Enjoy!
Living a Lifestyle of Learning daily

Raw and Probiotic Ranch Dressing

In keeping with my determination of cleaning out my kitchen (and menu) of all natural flavors which is one of the many guise words for MSG, I have discovered and developed a raw ranch dressing and one that is a probiotic feast as well. "Discovered and developed" simply means that I found the recipe in a book and then adapted it to make it truly raw, and added probiotic benefits, and in this particular case adjusted the seasonings to make it just right, AND it passed the Mikey test!

Awesome Ranch Dressing

1/2 cup purchased mayonnaise* (unless you have time to make your own) recipe given at bottom of post)
1/4 c or less raw milk (pasteurized only if you have to) , used to thin out the dressing so don't add too much
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t black pepper
1/2 t dried marjoram leaves
1/2 t celery salt (optional because I didnt have any and it was good without)
1/2 t dried savory leaves (optional because I didn't have any and it was great without)
1/2 t or more dried parsley
1-2 t liquid whey.

Blend till smooth and leave out on the counter for 4-6 hours to develop the probiotic benefits and then refrigerate or serve. Will keep for 1 week or more - if it lasts that long.

IF you do not have whey, that's OK. It will not affect the flavor much with or without but will help to promote healthy intestinal flora and aid in digestibility of itself and anything that you eat with that meal if you add it. However, if you use only raw milk there will still be some probiotic benefit.

To make your own whey from raw milk (very easy) see my new post, called "Curds and Whey") ..oops... to be published in a few days.

* Follow your Heart mayonnaise or vegennaise is raw and is found in the refrigerated section of your health food store. Any mayonnaise not found in the cooler is not to be trusted, and is certainly not raw, nor healthy at all!

Oh, and here is the raw mayonnaise recipe as well. This is great.

Raw Mayonnaise, taken almost directly from Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats

1 whole egg
1 egg yolk, at room temperature
1 t dijon mustard
1 1/2 t lemon juice
1 t whey (optional)
3/4 - 1 c expeller pressed sunflower oil, or grape seed oil or other natural but mild oil
generous pinch of Celtic or Himalayan salt.

In your food processor, place the egg, yolk, mustard, salt and lemon juice and optional whey. Process till well blended, about 30 seconds. Using the attachment that allows you to add liquids drop by drop, add oil while motor is running. Taste and check seasonings. You may want to add more salt and seasonings. If you have added whey, let the mayonnaise sit at room temperature, well covered, for 7 hours before refrigerating. With whey added, mayonnaise will keep several months and will be firmer with time. Without whey, mayonnaise will keep 2 weeks.

Living a Lifestyle of Learning Daily

They don't like it? Hide it!

Our fresh weekly garden share has me pressing my mind on how to use fresh wonderfully GREEN curly kale as much as possible. My daily reading right now is taken up in raw nutrition and I am actively searching for ways to incorporate all this wonderful fresh produce.

So far I have sneaked in several leaves of kale in our morning berry smoothie without evidence in either color (if it is a blueberry smoothie) or taste change either. It is quite amazing. Although kale is a tough green, if you cut off the stronger tasting spine, it blends really well into a smoothie. If your smoothie is a lighter color as in peach or pineapple some color does give you away, but I asked my sons to close their eyes and sip a pineapple/mango smoothie and neither one could tell that is was made with kale. (this blender picture has mango and kefir on bottom, then two leaves of kale, then a pile of marion berries.(cross between blackberries and raspberries) It was delicious!

I just started another book by Victoria Boutenko, Green for Life on the newest of her mastery list - green drinks (non smoothie-just greens) and am going to try some of the recipes this week and post some of the best later on in the week. But in the meantime here is a great starter green drink that is pretty (but colored green) and delicious, taken from her book 12 Steps to Raw Foods: How to End Your Dependency on Cooked Food


Green Drink
3 leaves of kale-any variety-with the spines removed.
1 whole apple
juice from 1 lemon

Blend and enjoy the surprisingly non green taste!

Living a Lifestyle of Learning daily

RAW Oatmeal? It's Actually Very Delicous!

This is hardly a recipe as the process is really all there is to it. You will need to use not oat flakes but raw oat groats, usually found at a health food store. This is so that the soaking actually helps to germinate the oats overnight multiplying proteins and other nutrients in the process.

For a serving for 1, (Shown is enough for three)
Soak overnight

1 cup of oat groats

1/3 cup of raw almonds

in plenty of filtered water

In the morning drain and pour into a blender. Process till as liquified or as chunky as you like it, adding water or milk accordingly.

That's it!

For variety you can add a ripe banana, or fresh juiced apple juice and some cinnamon to the blender or keep on top as a garnish. Serve with raisins and raw cream (if you can find it) and a dab of honey or/and butter. Other combinations might be fresh pineapple, mango or chopped dates, (shown in the picture)

(Even though this is delicious, some may miss the piping hot feel of conventional oatmeal. If it is a cold morning and you want to heat it a little, not over 115 degrees or you'll destroy the living enzymes, mply add a little warm water to the blending process and the chill will be taken off. It just takes a little getting used to and warm will feel hot after a while. It really does happen!

Living a Lifestyle of Learning daily

Another easy RAW Cracker Recipe.

These crackers are predominately flax with a whole bunch of other delicious veggies and nuts added in for flavor and even more nutrition. You will need a good dehydrator and a couple of days and these will be ready to eat and will store well in an air tight container.

Flax is an excellent source of fiber, clean the colon, and act as a very
gentle laxative. It contains vitamins B1, B2, C, E, and carotene. The
seeds also contain iron, zinc, and trace amounts of potassium,
magnesium,phosphorus, and calcium.

They also contain up to 100 times
more of the phyto-nutrient than buckwheat, rye, millet, oats, and soybeans. It
appears that lignins flush out excess estrogen out of the body, thereby reducing
the likelihood of developing estrogen-linked cancers, such as breast cancer.
Flax seeds also seem to reduce the incidence of colon cancer. Besides their
tumor inhibiting properties, lignins also have antibacterial, antifungal
properties.(making them a good food on a anti candida diet)

Taken from Carol Alt's The Raw 50: 10 Amazing Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Drinks for Your Raw Food Lifestyle

Kelly's Super Flax Crax
1 pound of flax seeds soaked 4-6 hours and drained
1/4 pound pumpkin seeds
1/4 pound raw pistachios, soaked for 4-6 hours
1/4 C fresh lemon juice
1 red bell Pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
3/4 medium onion - roughly chopped
1 garlic chopped
2 T ground cumin
1/4 c dulse flakes
1/4 c Bragg Liquid aminos
2 1/2 purified water
1/2 bunch fresh parsley, stemmed and chopped.

Grind the soaked flax seeds in a blender and transfer to a large bowl. In a food processor combine everything else and process till thoroughly combined. Stir into the flax mixture. Let sit for at least 30 minutes. The batter should be thick (actually quite mucky) and spreadable. If necessary add a little water to increase spreadability.

Spread out batter on a teflex dehydrator sheets and dehydrate overnight. Flip over and continue dehydrating till fully dry and crispy. (maybe only another few hours) Cut into squares with a pizza cutter and store in a sealed container till needed.

These crackers are great with raw cheese, a slice of guacamole, slices of sweet red pepper and sprinkled with raw gomachio. (oh, I guess I need to post that recipe too. Watch in a few days for a great raw seasoning made with sesame seeds)
This cracker makes a great substitute for standard bread. Although it is not soft and fluffy, it is a great dipping cracker or can be used to make an open face sandwiches using many savory toppings and sandwich fillings such as guacamole, sprouts, fresh tomato, sunnyseed spread, etc. The options are as limitless as sandwich bread itself.

Enjoy!

Living a Lifestyle of Learning daily

Eat your colors!

Eat your colors! Wild colors, bright colors.

That's it.

It is that simple!

Eat a variety of colors everyday and you have some of the most basic ingredients for a healthy diet.

Have you ever noticed how colors fade as they are cooked? Perhaps another indication that we need to eat more raw. Furthermore, have you ever noticed the lack of colors in fast food restaurants. They have to include in their logo and all of the surrounding decor very bright and varied colors-perhaps to make up for the lack of color in the actual food!

Red: tomatoes and tomato sauces, raspberries, apples, strawberries, pomegranates, cherries, peppers, radishes, and watermelon

Purple-blue: plums, grapes, blueberries, blackberries, red cabbage, beets, and eggplant

Oranges: oranges, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, carrots, winter squash, apricots, peppers, and mangoes

Orange-yellow: tangerines, oranges, peaches, papayas, pineapples, peppers, and nectarines

Yellow: lemons, corn, peppers, and yellow squash

Green: salad greens, kiwi, broccoli, avocados, Brussels sprouts, chives, green onions, parsley, cilantro, green beans, spinach, peppers, Swiss chard, and kale

White-green: celery, asparagus, honeydew, and pears

White: mushrooms, onions, cauliflower, garlic, leeks, shallots, bananas, artichokes, and bamboo shoots

Living a Lifestyle of Learning daily

Delicious RAW orange Salad Dressing

Into a strong blender drop
3 peeled whole oranges
1/4 cup olive oil or milder natural oil
1/3 - 1/2 c fresh pineapple
touch of Celtic salt
1/4 - 1/2 c water or thin to desired consistency
small amount of stevia to taste
1 T or so of young coconut pulp (optional)

Blend on high till smooth and pour over a spinach, red pepper and papaya salad. Yum. What a way to celebrate the arrival of spring and summer weather. Raw food dressings are so easy to make up on your own. If you have a great one, would you share it with us all? We would love to hear it! I'll make it, photograph it and post it and give you the credit! (unless you already have a picture, then I'll let you send me your picture)

Sheer Raw Cookie Delight

If you love macaroons, and I do, these will satisfy the
craving, naturally and they are raw. The key is letting
them dehydrate long enough before you eat them!
The ingredients are a little expensive, but they are a
treat and I have been splurging upon occasion.
Besides I'm not buying other treats that cost me in
health issues later so I feel like I can totally justify
these cookies every now and then.
They are taken from Carol Alt's second book,
The Raw 50: 10 Amazing Breakfasts, Lunches, Dinners, Snacks, and Drinks for Your Raw Food Lifestyle


Mac Macs

1 cup dried coconut
1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped
(I put them in a blender to pulverise)
1/2 cup almond flour (again pulverise soaked almonds)
1/4 cup agave nector
1 T vanilla extract
1 T coconut oil
1/4 t celtic or Himalayan (pink) salt

Mix the ingredients with your hands, or a spoon, in a large bowl. Form the mixture into 1 inch balls, flatten and place them on a teflex lined sheet to dry at 115 degrees for 12 hours or more. (Don't eat them all yourself. Please learn to share!)

Make Your Own Vanilla!

I found this recipe in one of my raw food recipe books and decided to try it. It doesn't sound like it should work. Surely the real vanilla that you pay a fortune for in the stores must be a whole lot harder to make than this. NOPE! This is so easy and it works great. The liquid (vanilla extract) is fragrant and flavorful and always ready.

I estimate it to cost about half of commercial extract and it is alcohol free, another bonus.
I get the ingredients from my home delivery coop, Azure Standard, who only delivers on the Pacific coast right now and some inland states as well, but you can also order for UPS delivery if your order is over 40.00. For those of you regular Azure people I've included the order codes and prices for your convenience.

Here is the "recipe"

Cut up (or leave whole) 2 or 4 whole vanilla pods.(HS664 $4.40 oz.) These are dried black long pods and are somewhat rubbery to cut. Don't be confused by the "instructions" on the Azure page. I have not found the beans they talk about being inside the pod. I just use the whole pod.



Add them to a pint of food grade glycerine (NS075 $4.40 pint) and leave overnight. By morning the thick, clear glycerine liquid will have extracted the powerful flavor of the pod and is ready to use. I just leave the pod pieces in the liquid or I guess you could take them out. The liquid will not be dark like the commercial vanilla. I'm not sure why. Perhaps manufacturers puree the pods making the liquid dark, but your vanilla will be perfectly clear and flavorful.

That's it. The pint will cost you $8.80 total and I've even reused the pod pieces in another batch of glycerine with almost the same results. The flavor does seem a little weaker though.
Add to raw smoothies or baked goods. The flavor seems to last either way. Enjoy!

A delicious, easy, fast, and inexpensive and RAW salad dressing.

This seems to be a dressing that everybody likes. It is gluten and dairy free, of course, and so I often take it to pot lucks and shared meals.

Leslie's Salad Dressing
Leslie is a friend of mine from about 25 years ago.)

3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup (fresh squeezed)lemon juice
or apple cider vinegar
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves
1 tsp dijon mustard
2 tsp salt (celtic salt)
2 tsp honey (or more)
1 tsp black pepper
red onion chunks,(maybe a 1/4th cup) or
2 Tbs dried onion flakes

Blend all and serve in a shakable jar. Enjoy!


Live a Lifestyle of Learning daily!

My First Raw Restaurant!

Today I did another first in my life. My Husband and I ate at Chaco Canyon Cafe - an almost completely raw restaurant in downtown Seattle. Seattle is not the mecca of raw food eating establishments and in my search so far have only located one. More of a cafe bistro feel that a restaurant, it was still enjoyable and we got to try a few interesting dishes.

I really wanted to order about three entrees knowing I could probably eat them all anyway since you can eat much more raw food and not feel as full or stuffed. But I did restrain myself and ordered only a raw pizza and a side salad. Elvis ordered a Egyptian pea soup and sandwich. (He was too chicken to go all raw) The food was very good and to top it all off we shared two desserts. One was a raspberry Tart and the other carrot cake. The Raspberry Tart won hands down and I am determined to make it at home once I figure out all the ingredients and their priority.

I have also been viewing the DVD set that I purchased from Amazon, The Raw Gourmet 3-DVD Set They are live demonstrations of Noni Shannon "Cooking" several dishes that are in her book,The Raw Gourmet which is a thorough collection of all kinds of foods, company and everyday banquets. The DVDs were quite pricey but since we are book sellers anyway, I knew we could sell the set again once I had viewed them so I will list them in the next few days.

For someone who is making a huge jump from a regular SAD diet (Standard American Diet) her videos might be a real kick start if you were starting from scratch. Since I have been on this road for a long time I found them a little basic but still interesting. It is nice to see someone proficient at a new method quickly preparing beautiful dishes before your very eyes.

I am off to try raspberry tart, the recipe made up from scratch. I'm sure it will take several tries so when I get it perfected I'll post is as a new recipe. Have a great day tomorrow.

If you have a new favorite recipe that is either raw or almost raw give me a comment or two. I'd love to hear it.

A delicious RAW onion cracker recipe.

In keeping with my goal of consuming between 30% and 50% raw foods this year I thought that I would post a very interesting recipe that I found on Dr Mercola's site a few weeks ago. Raw Onion Bread is more like a cracker than a bread but don't be shied away by the name, this is delicious! Reminiscent of old fashioned onion soup mix straight from the package, it is full flavored and is great with just about any savory topping you can come up with - hummus, tomato salsa, guacamole, etc.

You will need a dehydrator (or you might be able to dry it in your oven, but most ovens do not go low enough. Remember this is to be RAW, not just dried)

3 large onions, red or yellow sliced very fine or chopped in a food processor very fine.
3/4 c. flax seeds, ground
3/4 c raw sunflower seeds, ground
1/2 c. Bragg's Liquid Aminos (or you could use regular soy sauce)
1/3 c. organic cold pressed olive oil.

Combine all ingredients and mix well by a hand.

Spread the batter out to approx 1/4 inch thickness onto dehydrator trays. You will need some kind of a flat sheet that covers the plastic screen on most dehydrators. They can usually be bought as an accessory to your brand of dehydrator.

Set on 115 degrees and leave for about 12 hours or overnight. Check in the morning and if ready turn over and dry another 12 hours.

When ready it will be crispy and you can cut it or break it into pieces and serve or store for later.