Raw Strawberry Shortcake

Yep, It's raw and from I am Grateful - the recipe is too long to post! If you're up for a challenge, this is the recipe!

Taco Rawco Salad

Taco Rawco Salad (I double it)

We recently made this version of a popular Mexican salad in a class I taught. It's light but filling - but then most live food is!

1 ½ cups raw walnuts

1 teaspoon taco seasoning

½ teaspoon coriander

1-2 tablespoons soy sauce (Namu Shoyu or Braggs)

blend in the food processor

A head of lettuce, dried and torn into small pieces

Avocado or guacamole (I bought it Whole Foods) – smooth onto the lettuce

Pumpkin seed oil sprinkled on lettuce and guac

1 ½ cupos chopped tomatoes (I used cherry)

3 grated carrots

crinkle tortilla chips on top and grated raw goat cheddar

1 container mango salsa (or chop your own and add cilantro and red onion)

sprinkle taco rawco on top and toss

Chocolate YoYo Muffin

What to do when you're snowed in? Come up with a cream filled cup cake alternative! It was my husband's idea to call it a YoYo - a joke after the Hostess Ding Dong! But this little muffin is packed with great stuff:

* 1/2 cup almond meal (I save mine from making almond milk - it's what's left over in the nut milk bag when you strain it)

* 2 organic eggs

* 1/3 cup coconut milk (or water)

* 1/2 avocado oil (or canola or walnut)

* 1/2 maple syrup

* 2 cups freshly ground flour (I use spelt)

* 1/2 cup raw cacao poder (or any)

* 1 teaspoon cassia cinnamon

* 1 tablespoon baking powder

* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

* organic cream cheese

After mixing, let rise for 5-7 min. Put one large spoonful in the bottom of each muffin tin and then add a teaspoon or more cream cheese (whipped works best) and then cover with another large spoonful batter. Bake at 375 for about 12 min or until tops crack.

Juice pulp muffins with almond cream

A little live cream with your muffin?

Muffin:

1 cup juice pulp from juicing carrots, apples, lemon

1/2 cup oil (non-gmo canola, walnut)

2 eggs

1/2 maple syrup

little coconut milk (or soymilk)

2 cups spelt flour

2 teas cinnamon or cardamom

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 teas baking soda

after mixing, cover for 5 min - batter will rise a bit, sprinkle with poppy seeds

bake at 375 for 12 min

Almond Cream

1 cup almonds, soaked 12 hours

1 cup water

2 tablespoons maple syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla powder (I use livingtreecommunityfoods.com)

puree in Vita-mix and voila, pour over muffins!

bake

Blood Orange Juice - Bloody good for you!

Interesting study on blood orange juice vs regular orange juice:

Antioxidant impact of juice not due to vitamin C

Experts believe that heart disease and cancer have their origins in long-term damage to the body’s cells caused by free radicals. Free radicals are highly reactive molecules created during normal metabolism or via exposure to pollutants in the environment e.g. cigarette smoke. Normally, the body is able to protect itself from free radical damage with antioxidant nutrients in the blood. However, the stress of daily life combined with poor diets often leaves individuals with a deficient antioxidant defence. This increases the importance of dietary sources of antioxidants.

One major source of antioxidants in the diet is fruit juice, particularly orange juice which is rich in vitamin C. Vitamin C is used widely in food manufacturing to prevent spoilage (oxidation). In the same way, vitamin C is believed to protect human cells from oxidation by free radicals. However, a number of clinical trials, involving vitamin C supplementation, produced disappointing results. This has left researchers wondering whether the antioxidant capacity of orange juice might be due to other nutrients, not vitamin C.

To test this, seven healthy subjects were asked to consume a different test drinks on three separate occasions. The three drinks were pure blood orange juice, a sweet drink with added vitamin C, and a sweet drink with no vitamin C. All drinks contained the same amount of sugars. Subjects were given the drinks in a random order, and two weeks elapsed between each type of drink to allow blood levels to return to normal.

On each occasion after consuming 300ml of the test drink, subjects were asked to give blood samples to estimate whether the vitamin C in the drinks was being absorbed. This was confirmed when blood levels of vitamin C were seen to rise after the orange juice and ‘vitamin C’ drink, but not after consumption of the ‘vitamin-free’ drink.

The researchers then tested the subjects’ blood to discover whether the drinks had affected resistance to free radical damage on blood DNA (genetic material from blood cells). The results showed that DNA damage was 18% lower when subjects had drunk the pure blood orange juice. The protective effect persisted for 24 hours. No such effect was seen with either the ‘vitamin C’ or ‘vitamin-free’ test drinks. This was despite the fact that the ‘vitamin C’ drink contained as much vitamin C as the pure orange juice (150mg/glass).

This study showed that drinking 300ml of pure blood orange juice was enough to protect the body’s cells from free radical damage for 24 hours. However, the protective effect was not due to the vitamin C, suggesting that other important nutrients are at work in orange juice. It also suggests that vitamin C pills would not influence our risk of chronic diseases.

For more information, see Guarnieri S et al (2007). Orange juice vs vitamin C: effect on hydrogen peroxide-induced DNA damage in mononuclear blood cells

British Journal of Nutrition, vol 97, pp 639-643.

Raw Chocolate Cashew Pie

Crust:

1 cup dried coconut

1 cup walnuts

8 dates

mix in vita mix and pat into pie pan

Filling (from Everyday Raw by Matthew Kenny)

1 cup cashews soaks a few hours (makes them creamier)

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup agave

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I use www.Livingtreecommunityfoodscom)

1 cup plus 2 Tbls raw cacao powder

3/4 teas hazelnut or almond extraxt

Blend all ingredients in the vita-mix till smooth and pour over crust and refridgerate.

I added mango on top

Tomato Soup in a minute, really

Tomato Soup in a minute

-boil water

- pour a mug full of water into blender

- 1Tbsp Quantum Nutrition Labs Tomato Concentrate (lots of lycopene!)

-1/4 avocado

- 2 tsp Nutrition Flakes (also Quantum Nutrition)

Puree and sprinkle sea salt and fresh pepper on top