Blog / Category_raw food recipes

first day at work for the week and I was once again short staffed so it's not the easiest to do. Mainly because I have lots of things I want to do but have to totally let them go as they just don't get done. I wanted to make kim chee and some pesto with the produce I have but had to put it on the back burner to help customers and pack up orders, etc. Thankfully our sewing maven Catherine helped me here and there. Matt helped too when he could. I had 15 minutes left to get a whole bunch of stuff done and my daughter dropped and splattered a green smoothie everywhere. I mention this only because in that 15 minutes I was desperate to make my juice before we had to leave (we had an appt in Burlington which is about an hour away) and the green smoothie she had splattered all over the floor and walls and counter where my juicer was. (I also wanted to get the compost out, wash all the dishes, put all the things away for the night that didn't get done, etc. A lot to try to accomplish in 15 minutes but I was motivated to do it before the smoothie bomb.) So needless-to-say, I had to take some deep breaths and change direction. I was still desperate for my juice because I was very hungry but I didn't want to be snapping. Instead I felt like crying. Day two and I'm definitely having moments of emotions getting to me. I'll back up a little bit to the start of the day. I exercised and did about 5.6 miles or so on the stationary bike. I made an incredible juice. it was THE BEST JUICE to drink and I'm now quite grateful for that Hurom slow juicer I got a few months ago. It does pulpy fruit very nicely and I'm not complaining that it makes those kind of juices like a thick nectar. This is what I did (if I remember correctly) Afternoon Lunch juice - best ever (this made 2 16ish ounces of loveliness)

• 1 big bunch of local curly kale (from the garden)

• 1 red bell pepper (because I had it)

• 2 stalks of celery (because I had it)

• 4-6 peaches

• 2 oranges

It was amazingly incredible. The best juice all day by far. OK, so drank that gorgeous peach nectar and went to work. There was no easing into the day (there hardly ever is) so I just went right into it. Helping customers, packing orders, answering phones, making food. Somewhere around 4 pm I started to get hungry again but still had customers I had to help. 5:45 rolled around and I thought it would be a good time to make a juice. That's when the smoothie went KABOOM and that's when I felt like crying. I didn't cry though. We cleaned up. I made my juice. Someone came in at 5:55 and then I wanted to cry again but thankfully she was self-sufficient and it was quick to be able to close the doors and get to my juice and get out the door to the appointment. Dinner juice

• 1 big huge bunch of kale from the garden
• 4 granny smith apples
• 2 stalks celery
• 4-5 carrots
• 1 small cuke

this was a yummy juice that hit the spot. We went to our appt in Burlington and had to make a pit stop to PEE! OMG, the peeing has been amazing so far! We got home and we were both feeling hungry AGAIN so it was time for another juice. We're definitely used to eating the heaviest meals at night and this is something to change if we can. Evening juice - interesting flavors

• 1 lb local baby lettuce mix
• 1 small bunch local mint
• 2 granny smith apples
• 3 ripe mangos
• 1 small cuke
• 1 red bell pepper (because it was the last one)

the mint dominated the flavor. Next was the mango. If I were to make this again, I'd keep the cuke out as that was the third flavor and I didn't necessarily like it. But I've got to say that juicing feels like instant nutrition. Hit the spot. So this gets me to the end of the night of Day two. So far, so good.

Matt made a delicious juice this morning: 1 bunch of curly kale from our garden 4 oranges 1 local beet 4 small local carrots

I'm looking forward to getting my produce delivery today. I'm getting kiwi and black cherries and pears and a whole bunch of fruits. It will be yummy to have them. When I was in the shower yesterday, I thought about CHERRIES and decided to order a whole bunch of fruit I don't eat a lot of. It's been nice to juice oranges and peaches. I'm glad my juicer will do the pulpier fruits. These things keep me looking forward to juicing and it also helps me to drink all my colors. OK, I'm about to do a bit of exercising. And then off to the cafe. oh p.s. I'm 4 lbs lighter today. YAY!

dinner juice was:

• 1 bunch local kale

• 4 green apples

• 1/2 big cuke

this served 2 16ish ounce glasses. DELICIOUS! a couple hours later we were hungry again so made the same thing (plus 1 red bell pepper) except used sour apples the second time. I only drank 1/2 of mine because it was too sour for me. Matt was happy to have more. The tip to remember is to do other things to keep yourself occupied instead of thinking about food. The kids had a large green smoothie because I didn't even want to make a salad (and be tempted by it) and they had some leftovers. (I made a boatload of food last night for them to eat.) The smell of their meals was making me hungry. So that's when the 2nd juice was made. I did the bills and did some laundry and read a lot of magazines on my day off today. Plus sat in the sunshine for a while. It was a nice day off!

this morning's juice: serves 2 16 oz juices.

1 head escarole 2 stalks celery 1 tiny peach 4 oranges 1 grapefruit

It was a tasty juice and the dominant flavor was grapefruit. I thought after making the juice that I might not have enough stuff to last the whole day (what if we are super hungry!!?) but the thought subsided after I visited my garden and the cafe. I pulled out various fruits and veggies and came back home with them. All is again well in the world.

I went to the doctor this morning after the juice so it was a sort of rushed morning for me. It's so weird for me to go to the doctor. I'm not used to the various questions and insurance questions. They are also not used to me saying that I take superfoods instead of vitamins, etc. So it makes for an interesting experience all the way around. When I got home with all my fruits/veggies for the next day and a half or more, the thought popped in of how nice it would be to have the whole week off to do this. Part of the challenge will be to incorporate juicing in the middle of the day. Not so much of a challenge when you have a raw food cafe with a juicer, but already today when I stopped by the cafe to pick up fruit, my first inclination was to grab some nuts because my stomach was growling. the juice I made for lunch was a lot bigger. Here's what I did: 1 small bunch local collards 1 bunch local kale (lacinato) 5 small oranges 1 red bell pepper 1 big piece of ginger This made 2 mason jars full of a very spicy green juice. Ginger dominated the flavor here. It is yummy. (I'm still drinking it as of this writing.) I'm using the Hurom slow juicer. It's got some pluses and minuses. I have a Breville at the cafe and I like that a lot. It's super easy to use and clean up is good. With the Hurom, you have to cut things up small so it takes longer to juice. The good news, though, is that you can juice pulpy things like oranges and strawberries, etc. So I'm not complaining at all!

I'm writing this quickly as I have an appt here soon. But I wanted to write a lil pep talk for me as much as anyone else that may read this. We were inspired to do a 10 day juice fast after watching the excellent and most inspiring movie called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. They certainly made doing a 60 day juice fast look very easy. We are only doing 10 days and I've done fasts before with varying degrees of ease or difficulty. The thing that I have to say that was of most importance when doing a fast is the intention behind it. That way you can keep your eyes on the prize, so to speak, particularly if/when the going gets rough. So I've got my intention. I'll write about it later. I'm going to begin here with a juice and I just want to say that I love love love my morning green smoothie so switching to a green juice is just different for me. I did it a bit last week and it wasn't bad at all. Some notes:

• drink 4-6 juices a day that are around 16 oz each.
• MAKE SURE to drink all your colors.
• Vary greens and get in all the colors each day for fruit and veggies.
• Something I heard a long time ago stuck with me: fruits are the cleansers and greens are the healers so eat them both often and vary them for good health.
• If at any time there is a desire for crunching, then eat a juicy crunchy apple but mostly that won't happen on such a short term fast.

OK, now let's begin! xoxo, me

There's a great vegan recipe book out called Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook. I've made several recipes from it and while some of the recipes are tofu- or seitan- heavy, all the recipes I've tried so far have been tasty and it's really nice to have a cookbook like this to make things to switch things up a bit in the food department. Tonight I had some zucchini and wanted to do something new with it so I did their zucchini fritter recipe. They suggested to make the cucumber dip to go with it and serve it with a salad. The dip recipe is a raw vegan recipe and I made it and it is VERY tasty. It goes without saying that when I make a recipe from a book, I change lots of things and I hardly ever do the recipe the way the book recommends. This recipe is no exception. Mainly I don't do the recipe as follows because I'm a rebel at heart and because I can't be bothered to do all the many steps that the recipe lists. I love making food, love being in the kitchen but I never want recipes to rule my time there. I just want to make the food and go. So even with the fritter recipe, I did it altogether differently and I changed many of the ingredients. I typically just use the ingredients as a guideline. LOL So here's the recipe. This can be found on page 66 of the Veganomicon book but please realize that I'm writing what I did so I don't forget for the next time. This would make an EXCELLENT dressing or sandwich spread as well as the dip that it suggests. It's creamy and smooth and very tasty.

• 1 euro cuke, cut in half and then chopped (I used a little more than 1/2 of the cuke)
• 1 cup raw cashews
• 2 super large cloves garlic
• 1 drizzle olive oil (I just drizzled)
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 large drizzles of lemon juice
• good pinch of cayenne
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh dill

I just literally put everything into the VitaMix and blended until smooth and creamy. I didn't bother with grating and straining and whatever else they recommend. It would be nice to do if you were making it a chunky dip but this was such a creamy smooth and thick enough sauce that it just made the whole dinner so lovely. For dinner, we had:

• the zucchini fritters from page 51 of the book although I followed the directions even less than the above recipe. I didn't deep fry them either.
• lots of local greens which were washed, chopped and put in a bowl
• local carrots which were spiral sliced to look like carrot pasta
• sauerkraut that I made a long time ago from locally grown cabbage
• cucumber dip recipe from above

Here's how I put it all together: I put a whole bunch of lettuce on the plate, added some carrots, sauerkraut and added a fritter on top with a couple dollops of the dip. Everything tasted so good together. It was a great meal that was fast to make and easy to clean up. I'm excited to have leftovers! Enjoy and please let me know what if you make this or other recipes. I love to hear what people do in the kitchen. xoxo

I received a request for some cinnamon bun recipes. I found two online that look very interesting so I'm adding them here. Please try them and tell me what you think. Which turns out to be your favorite? I should say that I haven't tried either of these recipes and so I am not adding much of anything or changing them. I've got the links to where I obtained the recipes. If I ever get a free moment to make these, I'll post on what I did, etc. :-) ++++++++++ ++++++++++ Raw Gooey Cinnamon Buns by Anne Marie Gianni (if you click on her name, you'll be taken to her recipe) Ingredients: 1 1/4 cup almond meal 1 cup ground flax seed 1 1/4 cup soft pitted dates 1/4 cup water or more if needed 1/4 cup softened coconut oil 1/4 cup raisins 1/4 cup chopped pecans 2 tablespoon cinnamon 1 tablespoon coconut butter 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 pinch sea salt Preparation: Fold the almond meal, ground flax seed, 1 Tbsp. cinnamon, pinch sea salt, and pinch of vanilla in a bowl. Set aside. Process dates, 1/2 of the raisins, water and vanilla into a paste in a food processor. Then remove half of that paste mixture and add it to the dry ingredients, along with the coconut oil. Mix these ingredients with your hands until it forms a dough. You may need to add a little water or oil if it is too dry. Spread the dough out on a piece of parchment paper, and shape it into a 1/4-inch thick rectangle. Take the rest of the date paste left in your food processor add the remaining raisins, 1 Tbsp. of cinnamon and coconut butter. Process until smooth. Then, spread a thin layer of the paste onto the dough. Using the parchment paper to help hold everything together, carefully roll the dough into a log. Chill in the refrigerator, and then slice into about 1-inch thick rounds. These cinnamon rolls can be eaten right away or warmed in a dehydrator. Optional: Cashew Whipped Cream By Nomi Shannon 1 cup cashews, soaked at least 2 hours 4 dates – soaked at least 2 hours vanilla bean water (enough to yield a light fluffy mixture) Blend in the vitamix blender and drizzle over the top of the cinnamon buns.

here's my sweetie cakes recipe 2 cups golden flax seeds 1 cup soaked and/or sprouted raw buckwheat 1/2 cup raw agave 1 tsp lemon oil a pinch of himalayan sea salt 1 cup filtered water In a dry Vitamix pitchers, blend 2 cups of dry golden flax seeds in order to turn them into flour. Pour into a bowl. Then take 1 cup soaked raw buckwheat and blend in the Vitamix pitcher along with the agave, lemon oil and sea salt and pour into the bowl with the flax. Then add 1 cup filtered water and hand mix until well combined. Pour on a dehydrator sheet and spread evenly with a rubber scraper. This recipe is for one 14 x 14 dehydrator tray only. This should be thick on the tray. Score into the shapes/sizes you want and dehydrate for 6-8 hours at 105 degrees. Then flip the sheet and take off the dehydrator sheet and see if it needs anymore dehydrating. These cakes should remain pliable and chewy. NOTES on soaking and sprouting raw buckwheat For this recipe, you want to start with hulled raw buckwheat. You do not want to use the buckwheat seeds that you use for sprouting in soil that have the dark hulls still on them. You also don't want to use kasha - that is toasted buckwheat and it will turn to mush as soon as you soak it. To soak the buckwheat: Put a slightly rounded 1/3 cup of buckwheat in a bowl and cover it with fresh water. Let it soak overnight. The buckwheat will plump up in size considerably. Pour buckwheat into a colander and rinse under the tap. Soaked buckwheat will turn the water slimy so keep rinsing until the water goes clear. They are ready to blend now unless you want to sprout them. To sprout the buckwheat: After you've rinsed them, put them back in the colander and keep the bowl underneath to catch the water. Cover with a clean kitchen towel. Continue to rinse the buckwheat two more times on that first day: once in the evening when you get home from work and then once before bed. In the morning, rinse again and repeat rinsing in the early evening and night before bed. After about 2 or 3 days (depending on the time of year) you will have sprouted buckwheat. Now you can use them to make sprouted recipes. Using sprouted grains are much more digestible for people and the yields are good, making this a very economical way to eat! (By the way, buckwheat are not a gluten product!) Happy sweetie cakes! Linda

So I have to say that I sometimes forget to eat. I get into what I'm doing and my stomach isn't growling or anything so I just work away. Well I did this the other day and then hunger came on and I was looking for something really yummy to eat. It was around 5 or 5:30 and I decided to make a pudding. Here's what I did: • 1 ripe banana • 1/2 perfectly ripened avocado • juice of about 1/2 lemon • rounded TBSP raw honey (use whatever sweetener of your choosing • 1 scoop Sun Warrior rice protein powder Put ingredients into a small food processor and blend until creamy. Man-oh-man, this is a hella yum pudding!

posting this up as a request: (one very special ingredient that I include in all my recipes is LOVE!) If you ain't got it while you are food prepping, it will show! So get in love and put it in your food! This is a simple but delicious recipe: 3 cups cashews 1 cup fresh or filtered water 2 Tbsp lemon juice 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar 1-2 cloves garlic 1 tsp dried mustard, ground 1 tsp dried tumeric, ground (not yet posted but have it for sale) 1 pinch sea salt Put all ingredients in the Vitamix and blend until creamy. Use as a spread for sandwiches or put a dollop onto a salad. Cut up red bell pepper, tomatoes and onions and combine for a delicious salad spread.

I was munching on raw cauliflower today whilst painting and wishing that I had some lovely dip to dip the crunchy pieces in. So I decided to make something. I was really jonesing for my cheddary cheeze but am out of red peppers. I really love making recipes from scratch. It's fun to throw things together and see how they will turn out. So without further ado, here's the recipe I just concocted: Curry Carrot Dressing 2 cups raw cashews 2-3 dates, pitted 1 large carrot, washed and chopped 1/2 smallish yellow onion 2 Tbsp lemon juice 2 Tbsp miso, or nama shoyu pinch cayenne 1 tsp hot curry 2 Tbsp coconut oil 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast (optional) 1 cup+ fresh water In the VitaMix, blend until smooth. Add more water if necessary to make it more like a dressing. Feel free to adjust the spices to your liking. It's a really nice dip and I'm enjoying it now with everything: brown rice, veggies, salad, as a spread for wraps or sandwiches. This made quite a lot so it's good to just put in a container and keep in your fridge. Happy blending and experimenting! much love, Linda

Well, I just made this and it is quite delicious. Make it for yourself and let me know how you like it. Crust • 2 cups hazelnuts • 1 cup dried apricots (organic/unsulphured) • 3/4 cup fresh water In the VitaMix, put 1 cup hazelnuts in the pitcher and blend until it turns into a powder. Empty into a large bowl. Repeat with the 2nd cup of hazelnuts. Then add 1 cup dried apricots. Add about 3/4 cup water and blend until it looks like a jam. Scrape out into the hazelnut powder and mix together. Stir until evenly mixed and then press into the bottom of a pie dish or spring form pan. Filling • 2 cups raw cashews • 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries • 1/4 cup coconut oil • 2 Tbsp cacao butter • 1 Tbsp cacao nibs • 2 Tbsp raw agave Blend in the VitaMix until smooth. Pour into the crust and decorate with fresh blueberries, orange peel shavings, or whatever you'd like. Put in the fridge or freezer to set. Serve and enjoy!