RawFoodBlog

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Plant Pest Remedies From Your Kitchen
via Green Living | Apartment Therapy by Matthew Noiseux on 4/27/12

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/post-21-116903

How To Keep Contaminants Out of the Kitchen
via Re-Nest by Amber Byfield on 10/3/11

http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/cooking/how-to-keep-contaminants-out-of-the-kitchen-157366?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+apartmenttherapy%2Fre-nest+%28Re-Nest%29

Someone recently asked if I would list the staples in my kitchen, so here goes!
H I’ve gathered them little by little and replace when I’m out. These things I use consistently!
All raw:
-nuts: almonds, pine nuts, walnuts, macadamias, spanish peanuts and jungle peanuts, almond butter and almond milk made consistently (not cashews or hazelnuts anymore, acc. to the Eat for your Blood Type Bk),
-seeds: sesame, chia, sunflower, flax, poppy, alfalfa for sprouting (not clover anymore acc. to the book)
-supplements: nutritional yeast, bee pollen/royal jelly, blue-green algae, MSM, aloe vera juice, rejuvelac, kombucha, wheatgrass, ginseng
-sweeteners: honey, agave, lucuma, mesquite, stevia, raw sugar for the kombucha, vanilla powder, carob
-faux grains – buckwheat groats, oats, quinoa
-fruits – fresh apples, berries of all kinds, some frozen, frozen pineapple, dates , pears, cucumbers (no more tomatoes, anything from the nightshade family like mangoes, papayas, no more bananas or oranges from the Blood Type Book) etc…
-coconut oil and almond oil for skin care, olive oil, cacao butter
-essential oils – lemon, eucalyptus, rosemary, lavender, rose
-vegetables/greens – wheatgrass, mixed greens : different lettuces, spinach, celery, kale, wakame (seaweed), carrots, beets, onions, squashes (not peppers anymore)
spring wheatberries for rejuvelac
- hard red winter wheatberries for wheatgrass
-all kinds of herbs, herb teas and garlic, ginger root
***********************************************
Staples for M’s Raw Food Kitchen:

ALL RAW where possible

Supplements: aloe vera gel/juice, ground flax seed, maca powder, vitamin c powder, blue green algae capsules (replacing these though with something Type A’s can consume), MSM capsules, magnesium, B12 spray, vitamin D3 capusles, nutritional yeast (for kale chips)

Teas: ginseng, white tea, peppermint, valerian/mint

Fruits: What’s in season. Trying to leave out bananas for Type A. Currently apples, pears, raisins, frozen raspberries, frozen strawberries

Vegies: Kale, lettuce, carrots, zucchin, celery, cucumbers, butternut squash (prechopped or forget it), Boxes of snack size Whollly Guacamole to go with my work salads or for snacking with carrot sticks or crackers (comes with 6 individual packets of guacamole which are single serving, 8 grams of fat, 100 calories)

Grains: Oat groats, lentils

Seeds/Nuts: Sesame seeds, almonds, pine nuts when available reasonably, almond butter, raw flax seed (Bob’s Red Mill)

Sweeteners: Chocolate stevia drops, vanilla creme stevia drops, lemon drop stevia, raw honey, cacao powder, cacao nibs, cacao bliss when Dorothy gifts me, peppermint extract, vanilla extract

Other: Coconut oil and cacao butter for skin cream, vegetable glycerin and baking soda for toothpaste, coconut water for once in a while

I think that covers the basics. Ifyou are near Trader Joe’s, mine is now stocking at the very best price anywhere: raw almond butter, raw almonds and other raw nuts, occasionally pine nuts, raisins, peppermint tea, coconut water. They also have raw honey but not as cheap as Vitacost.

Re-Using Tea Bags: The Good, The Bad, and the Green

http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/kitchen/reusing-tea-bags-the-good-the-bad-and-the-green-128466

As most avid tea drinkers will tell you, if you are using tea bags, you can get extra use out of them if you are willing to do so. Most people just chuck them into the trash, compost heap, or recycling bin, but saving them for your next tea is also an interesting idea.

The first thing that you should know is that there is no problem in reusing tea bags. The drawback is that after the first cup, you lose flavor and strength. Naturally, if you enjoy strong tea, there is a way to reusing your tea bags.

First of all, you’ll need to store the tea bag in a moist medium. Once they get dried out, they become a breeding ground for mold and bacteria. So your best bet is storing them in a small shot glass filled with water. That will keep them seeping while they are being stored. While you can leave them out in your kitchen, I usually put them in the fridge so that there is less of a chance of bacteria growth. If you’re wondering if you’ve got bacteria or mold in your tea bag, the best indicator is smell. If it smells funky, trash it.

A tea bag can be reused one or two times. After that, it’s spent. Reusing green or white tea works better than darker blends. I usually reuse Orange Pekoe tea bags because I use two bags in one cup: I like strong milk tea in the mornings, with milk, no sugar. Once I’ve infused a cup, I’ll keep the tea bags for my next cup. Then, I’ll infuse both bags again with one new tea bag. The resulting second cup of tea is only slightly less strong than my usual cup, perfect for the afternoons when I don’t need too much caffeine.

Reusing tea bags is best reserved for tea drinkers who drink a few cups a day, otherwise keeping the tea bags becomes an issue.

[images via Leaf and Bean, Natural Family World, Lifehackery, Wikipedia]

One of our readers just asked what are the foods I use as staples.  What a great question! Because if you fill up your cupboards with staples, you’re not as inclined to eat the cooked stuff. Here’s what I wrote:

What I eat as staples are:

wheatgrass, kombucha, avocadoes, almond butter, guacomole and salsa with raw veges, salads
bananas, mixed greens: lettuce – all kinds (except iceberg), spinach, kale, collards sorrel, chickweed, etc…, rejuvelac(sprouted spring wheat as a fermented liquid), cacao, raw honey or raw agave, lucuma, stevia or mesquite,(from The RawFood World)
pears, fruit in season,(melons, pineapple) berries, lemons, coconut,cacao powder from Navitas Naturals, alfalfa, mung bean and clover sprouts,
and seeds and nuts – almonds, cashews, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds and pumpkin seeds
sesame seeds (mostly to make tahini), pine nuts, nutritional yeast (not raw), a little miso (not raw) and Bragg’s amino acids (not raw) (But these foods are SO good for you)
and vegetables – squashes, carrots, garlic, onion, celery, cauliflower, broccoli.
Keep your eye out for a dehydrator. One of the simplest things to do is to warm your vegetables in the dehydrator for a couple hours, just a couple, and they’re warm and less crunchy, more pliable, and delicious! You can drizzle olive oil and Bragg’s over them, lemon, any kind of sauce. GREAT for your dinner menus.

Dried fruits : figs, dates, occasional dried pineapple, papaya, sun-dried tomatoes

Grains  and legumes- raw corn, oats, garbanzos (to sprout), lentils (to sprout), quinoa (to sprout), raw spanish peanuts, goji berries

supplements – blue-green algae, MSM

fun things : olives, pickles, pepperoncinis
Here are M’s suggestions: 
Go online and try to find someone raw in the vicinity who you can ask about raw resources.
 
Make green smoothies with fruit the mainstay of the eating plan.  Buy whatever is cheap and available locally rather than trying to find certain greens and fruits.
 
Find a dehydrator.  Used is fine.  This is for the emergency crunchy snacks and crackers.

For the crackers:  raw homemade jam (see Dorothy’s bog – very fast), guacamole, Dorothy’s raw oat/sesame cheese
 
I don’t know how much it costs but Vitacost ships internation pretty fast:  http://www.vitacost.com/Help/#InternationalOrders
You can get most of what you need here:  blue green algae capsules, maca, raw honey and probably raw cacao.  They have a flat shipping rate in the US; hope they do internationally.
 
More munchies: sprouted chickpeas (1 or 2 days), nuts, bananas and cinnamon, strawberries and maple syrup

Grow garlic greens.  They go grow around the year in my kitchen window no matter the weather.  If you have a green thumb, see the book “Container Gardening” or look up that term on the internet.