Raw Food

1. Eat a head of greens a day

2. Replace a meal with a smoothie

3. Eat an extra piece of fruit every day

4. Eat something raw every day

5. Add a salad to your day

6. Do a physical activity 3 times a week

7. Add a supplement – goji berries, blue-green algae, MSM powder, Maca Root, a green powder, a medicinal mushroom, crystallized salt

8.Increase your water consumption by one more glass a day

9. Stop eating one hour earlier than you usually do at night. (for instance, if your last meal is at 9 p.m., try making it at 8 p.m.)

10. Take one thing out of your diet (that may not be so good for you) this week, and put in one good thing this week. For instance, take out fried foods this week – add a smoothie)>

Okay…11.

11. Change to a lower-glycemic sweetener. For instance, if you’re eating sugar, change to a raw sugar, to raw agave, to raw honey, to stevia, to lucuma or mesquite powder, to fruit!

12. Change one soda a day to sparkling fruit juice, sparkling water, or water.

Raw orange tahini -

To make tahini, soak 2 T sesame seeds in water for at least 40 minutes. Blend ’til creamy.

2 T raw tahini

1/2 c. orange juice

pinch salt

1 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. cumin

3 drops liquid dulse

1/8 tsp. curry powder

optional – 1 garlic clove

Blend. Use within 3 days. GREAT to marinate cucumbers and as a dip for vegetables, as well as a salad dressing.

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Saucy Salad Dressing Recipe:
Basic Raw Sauce Recipe for One Person:
1 T raw nut or seed butter (ex: tahini, almond butter, cashew butter)
1 tsp. raw oil (olive oil, sesame seed oil)
1 T Bragg’s Amino Acids or Nama Shoyu

Juice of 1 orange (you could use lemon juice or apple cider vinegar)

1/3 tsp seasoning curry powder
Variations: ½ to 1 clove garlic or ginger, minced
Stir everything by hand in a cup or in a food processor using the “S” blade.  Pour over vegetables (steamed or fresh). Calories are about 200, regardless of recipe (100 for the butter and 100 for the oil).

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Chipotle Mayo/Salad Dressing if you add 1 cup water

1 cup macadamia nuts, soaked 1 hour
1 chipotle chile, soaked 1-2 hours or 1/2 tsp. chipotle powder
1 cup soaking water from chile
Sea salt to taste

Blend all ingredients in blender until completely smooth. Yields 3 cups. Add more

water for a creamier dip. Great with warm broccoli or veges/raw crackers of any kind, as a dressing for salad or rolled up in a lettuce wrap!

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The Original Liquid Gold Dressing

Just two tablespoons of this tangy, tart, slightly sweet, with a hint
of cheesiness, is a nutritional powerhouse.  It packs nearly 4 grams
of omega-3 fatty acids (more than a day’s requirement), along with all
your B-vitamins, especially B-12.  Depending on the nutritional yeast
measure used, you can get up to 80% of your daily B-12.  And there’s
even a good dose of iron, about 8%.  In just two tablespoons. And
these are all happy things my body really likes right.

Add fresh ginger and a garlic clove for extra punch.  Cilantro
is excellent, too!  The original recipe calls for some non-raw
ingredients such as balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, and Bragg’s
aminos (which questions have been raised over the years concerning
processing practices that suggest this product isn’t truly raw or even
safe to use).  However, modifications are easy and without compromise
to the nutritional basis.

You may find that the freshly blended dressing is a bit watery.  I
reduce the water and add more nutritional yeast.  Letting it stand
over time, especially in the refrigerator overnight will also help to
thicken it.

A watercress, zucchini noodle, daikon sprout, and dulse salad tossed
with Liquid Gold are excellent.

The Original Liquid Gold Dressing

1/3 cup flax seed oil
1/2 cup water (begin with 1/4 then check for consistency)
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 tbs balsamic or raspberry vinegar (omit for 100% raw prep)
1/4 to 1/2 cup nutritional yeast (such as Red Star)
1/4 cup Bragg’s liquid aminos (substitute with nama shoyu)
2 tsp dijon mustard (or omit)
1 tsp ground cumin

Adds: 1 large garlic clove + 2″ long piece of peeled ginger root = YUM

Blend all ingredients in a food processor.  Keeps for up to 2 weeks in
refrigerator.

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Raw Almond Mayonnaise/Dressing – add 1 cup water

1 c. sprouted almonds
1/4 c. water
1/2 tsp. sea salt
4 dates, soaked 20 minutes
juice of 1 lemon
Blend until creamy. This is a great dressing, dip or salad dressing mixed with vinegar!

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Goddess Dressing

Dressing for 2 big salads for me:

Soak 1/4 c. sesame seeds in water for at least 40 minutes. (the longer, the better)

Blend until creamy. Add:

2 cloves garlic

1/2 c. water

1/4 c. apple cider vinegar

1/4 c. parsley

1/4 c. chopped chives

1/8. c. Bragg’s Amino Acids of Nama Shoyu (soy sauce)

juice of 1/2 lemon

Shake well. Refrigerate. Keeps up to 5 days.

Mattie Dora shows us how to make your own mesh screen for your dehydrator:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MattieDora2

Cool idea, Mattie!

Featured Video

What is the best raw food diet? Watch this very special interview with David Wolfe.

http://www.thebestofrawfood.com/

1. Add more alfalfa to your diet, which contains iron and a slew of other nutrients like calcium and folic acid. This veggie also detoxifies the body and treats diabetes and arthritis.

2. Eat more bowls of raw oats for breakfast. A bowl of raw oats has seven times the amount of iron and potassium as a bowl of hot oatmeal.

3.Add more kale to your salad or eat it as a snack. Kale is rich in nutrients, especially iron. Eating raw veggies, seeds and nuts in general on the raw food diet are generally a good idea. All of these items are rich in iron as well.

from- http://www.ehow.com/how_2290199_get-enough-iron-raw-food.html

spinach, leafy greens, basil, fennel

http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/iron.htm

Iron is an essential nutrient because it is a central part of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the blood. Iron deficiency anemia is a worldwide health problem that is especially common in young women and in children.

Iron is found in food in two forms, heme and non-heme iron. Heme iron, which makes up 40 percent of the iron in meat, poultry, and fish, is well absorbed. Non-heme iron, 60 percent of the iron in animal tissue and all the iron in plants (fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts) is less well absorbed. Vegan diets only contain non-heme iron. Because of this, iron recommendations are higher for vegetarians (including vegans) than for non-vegetarians. The RDA for iron is 14 milligrams per day for vegetarian men and for women after menopause, and 33 milligrams per day for women prior to menopause ¹.

Iron Status in Vegans

Some might expect that since the vegan diet contains a form of iron that is not that well absorbed, vegans might be prone to developing iron deficiency anemia. However, surveys of vegans ^2,3 have found that iron deficiency anemia is no more common among vegetarians than among the general population although vegans tend to have lower iron stores ³.

The reason for the satisfactory iron status of many vegans may be that commonly eaten foods are high in iron, as Table 1 shows. In fact, if the amount of iron in these foods is expressed as milligrams of iron per 100 calories, many foods eaten by vegans are superior to animal-derived foods. This concept is illustrated in Table 2. For example, you would have to eat more than 1700 calories of sirloin steak to get the same amount of iron as found in 100 calories of spinach.

Another reason for the satisfactory iron status of vegans is that vegan diets are high in vitamin C. Vitamin C acts to markedly increase absorption of non-heme iron. Adding a vitamin C source to a meal increases non-heme iron absorption up to six-fold which makes the absorption of non-heme iron as good or better than that of heme iron ⁴.

Fortunately, many vegetables, such as broccoli and bok choy, which are high in iron, are also high in vitamin C so that the iron in these foods is very well absorbed. Commonly eaten combinations, such as beans and tomato sauce or stir-fried tofu and broccoli, also result in generous levels of iron absorption.

It is easy to obtain iron on a vegan diet. Table 3 shows several menus that would meet the RDA for iron.

Both calcium and tannins (found in tea and coffee) reduce iron absorption. Tea, coffee, and calcium supplements should be used several hours before a meal that is high in iron ⁵.

spinach,

leafy greens,

basil,

fennel

Change the water in your shake to:

-herb teas! There are a multitude of tastes to change the flavor!

-seed/nut milks. They’ll make your smoothie creamy and packed with vitamins.  Try flax seed, then chia seed, (which will make it like pudding), sesame seeds (tahini), hemp milk, almond milk, etc…

-Add some nut/seed butter to the mix – 1 Tablespoon should do it, especially if you don’t have nut/seed milk.

Change the greens in your shake:

- try a different kind of lettuce, romaine, escarole, baby greens! Or a mixed variety!

- try the cabbage family – kale, bok choy, red cabbage, etc…

- try parsley, celery, cilantro, chickweed

Change the fruits!

- Add a kiwi, a mango, different kinds of berries, different varieties of apples. Look for fruits you’ve never tried.

-Add 3 dates, 3 prunes, or 3 figs to your smoothies. They’re very sweet, so probably no more than 3.

- Try a frozen banana instead of room-temperature

- Mix a different combination of fruits. (Smell them first. That helps determine if they’ll go well together. For instance, if you want to see if kiwi and strawberry go together, smell the strawberry, then smell the kiwi. If you “mmmmm…” use it!

-All a little raw honey or raw agave, lucuma or mesquite powder. These 2 powders go extemely well with coconut, for example.

Add some spice to your smoothie! Spices often add heat to the mix, a valuable addition, especially in the winter, or for those with cold hands/feet.

- 1 tsp. cinnamon with coconut, banana, apple mixtures

- 1/8 tsp. cayenne, with carrot or orange fruits

- cardamon, nutmeg, ginger

- carob with dates, figs

Look at your spice rack, and then do the smell test. Smell the fruit you’re using, then smell the spice. If you think they’ll go well together, they probably will!

You have to watch this video – called Validation, about a parking lot guy who validates.
(He does get depressed during the film, so keep watching!)

http://evolutionezine.com/will-make-you-smile/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfberry

It is also known as Chinese wolfberry, mede berry, barbary matrimony vine, bocksdorn, Duke of Argyll’s tea tree, Murali (in India),^[2] red medlar, or matrimony vine ..Cultivated along the fertile aggradational floodplains of the Yellow River for more than 600 years, Ningxia wolfberries have earned a reputation throughout Asia for premium quality sometimes described commercially as “red diamonds”.^[9] Government releases of annual wolfberry production, premium fruit grades, and export are based on yields from Ningxia.

http://www.gojijuices.net/nutritioninformation.html

According to sources citing the Beijing Nutrition Research Institute analysis, the fruit contains more beta carotene than carrots, and 500 times more vitamin C by weight than oranges (if this is the case, they would have 26g of vitamin C per 100g of actual berry – miscalculation when looking at analysis results perhaps?). The fruit also contains over 18 amino acids, 21 trace minerals, and substantial amounts of vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin B6 and vitamin E. The analysis also apparently discovered the berries to contain essential fatty acids and to be an incredibly rich source of carotenoids (more than any other known food). Many of these findings have been verified by subsequent studies, although the vitamin C content claim is interesting to note and will be discussed momentarily. Verifying the Nutrition Content

To see the video on how to make Raw Goji Bark, go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Jm1dIMPKo8

Dorothy, from taichibozeman.com/rawfoodblog, shows her recipe for Raw Goji Bark, a chocolate bar made entirely from raw ingredients:
2/3 c. cacao butter, shaved and melted in the dehydrator, or coconut oil
1/2 c. cacao powder
2 T. raw agave or raw honey
1 heaping T. mesquite powder (or lucuma powder) – both are optional
1 c. goji berries, raisins, nuts or seeds
Melt the cacao butter or coconut oil in your dehydrator, or a double boiler, or over a bowl of hot water.
Mix in the other ingredients by hand. You may add a little water, if necessary.
Other options:
add vanilla, orange, (yum!) extract or juice,peppermint, cacao nibs