The Raw Food Diet My Raw Recipes What's In Traci's Kitchen
Traci follows a raw vegan diet of fresh veggies, fruit, fresh juices, sprouts, and raw nuts
7/3/08
It is Just Plain Scandalous that I haven't updated this journal in 3 months!!! But I have been sooo busy creating new recipes & selling bikinis that I don't get as much time for journal updates as I'd like. I will post new pictures of some of the treats I've been making soon. I've been drinking 8oz. of wheatgrass juice everyday for 2? 3? weeks (I've lost count!) and I feel great. And summer is the my favorite Fruit season, Yay!!!
4/3/08
I've been soooo busy in the kitchen all this week & last, making Pizza bites, tons of flax crackers, raw chocolate orange brownies, coconut vanilla bars, crunchy marinated veggie salads, and more. Below you can see my very Favorite Mangos, champagne mangos! Yay!! I am so in love with them. They've had stacks of them at Costco lately. I should just camp out in their produce section. Ha! I've also making making lots of wheatgrass juice. Twice a week, I've been having 12 oz., all at once. Yikes!! I don't mean to juice so much, but it always turns out to be a lot. 12 oz. is like 12 shots of wheatgrass! I'll probably turn green any day.
I went to a terrific raw potluck last weekend, and the food was amazing! It's really fun to see what divine delectable creations everyone makes. So yummy! Have a fruitful, delicious week everybody!!
Flax Crackers & Marinated Mushroom Crunchy Salad, and my favorite cilantro parsley dressing
2/19/08
Well, I've been busy eating raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries all week, because I bought so many. Quite delightful, and I'm so overjoyed that Chile is shipping them over in mid winter. So delectable & divine, to be feasting on berries in winter! I still can't get over how fantastic this is. I bought several pineapples too, and juiced them. Yum!! Fresh pineapple juice is a frothy, foamy, sweet Tropical Treat. I made another asian type stir fry this week, with the most magnificent Marinated Mushrooms! I am Mad About Mushrooms this week!! I've been marinating them like crazy. Yay!! Below is a picture of the Marinated Mushroom Stir Fry I made which turned out very good.
I sliced & diced about (these measurements are fuzzy recollections & estimates) 2 C red bell peppers, 2 C celery, 2 C marinated mushrooms, 1 1/2 C sweet onions, 1 C shredded carrots. Pour marinade over, and set in fridge overnight or for 24 hours, shaking/stirring occasionally to mix flavors. Add a handful shredded zuchinni to each bowl about 20 min. before serving. And just before serving, sprinkle maybe 2 TB raw hempseeds over the top. The marinade for the sliced mushrooms (it's easier to buy the pre-sliced kind) was 2-3 oranges, juiced, 1 lemon, juiced, a few TB of nama shoya, several TB raw hempseed oil, a squirt of agave, sea salt, and big slices garlic & ginger for flavor (you probably want to remove these prior to serving). This is crunchy, vibrant and delicious!! I'm marinating more mushrooms at this moment, because I want to make spaghetti with zuchinni noodles, and I made the spaghetti sauce yesterday. I want to have lots & lots of mushrooms in the spaghetti!
Marinated Mushroom "Stir Fry" and me at the beach
2/11/08
It has been my experience, that following an amazing, sweet, mind-blowing durian, is an awful, retched, and noxious durian. Such was the unfortunate case of the frozen durian I opened up last week, that was pre-packaged in a hard little plastic case (see picture below in last post). As soon as I opened it, a bomb of sulphurous stench exploded into the kitchen, and soon stunk up the entire house. I actually kept it in the fridge for a couple days ( bad idea!!) hoping it would get sweeter and that maybe I'd be brave enough to eat some. No, it only got worse! I finally flushed it (attention sewer department: incoming Durian!!), because I didn't want to stink up the whole neighborhood by putting it out with the trash. The fridge still smells. Alas!! I don't know if that brand is always that awful, I have another brand of pre-packaged durian to try, and 1 more box of that same brand. Am I brave enough to defrost them? I don't know!!
Asian "stir fry" Salad
I did make lots of fun raw recipes last week. Dark chocolate orange bars with shredded coconut, and Asian type "stir fry" (above) that was really more like a salad, with marinated organic swiss chard, diced sweet onions, red bell peppers, and sliced celery, topped with raw sesame seeds. It was very good! I used nama shoyu, fresh squeezed orange juice, a little lemon juice, hempseed oil, fresh ginger, sea salt, a little agave, and a little tahini to make the marinade. And for the pesto pasta (below), I shredded zuchinni in the food processor for the noodles, and the pesto was soaked cashews & brazil nuts, basil, cilantro, sea salt, lemon juice, and hempseed oil. I let the sauce soak into the noodles for about 20 minutes before serving. Wow!! It tasted JUST like pesto!! It was really rich, and I just ate a little because it was so filling. Whew, oil & nuts, super rich combo. I served it with Pizza Bites, a 3 layer (sprouted seed crust, tomato sauce, and cheese topping) type pizza I concocted that I adore, and Marinated Mushrooms. These sliced mushrooms were fantastic!! I couldn't believe how good they were! The marinade was fresh squeezed orange juice, a little lemon juice, hempseed oil, and nama shoyu, soaked for a couple hours. Yum!!
I also made Vanilla "ice cream" from coconut cream, frozen bananas, vanilla extract, and agave, and served it over the chocolate orange brownies, when they were still warm & soft from the dehydrator. Oh my gosh!! So heavenly. The brownies were soaked cashews & brazil nuts, shredded coconut, agave, soaked dates, orange zest, and soaked almonds. I've been having huge dinner salads lately (well, ok, every night for forever, really) with avocado, tons of broccoli sprouts and organic greens. My standard Creamy Herb salad dressing keeps evolving, and now it's 2 C orange juice, lemon juice from 1 lemon, 3 TB raw almond butter, 1 bunch Italian parsley, 1 bunch cilantro, several basil leaves (if I have them), sea salt, a tiny squirt agave, 3 cloves garlic, and a few baby org. carrots. I am in love with this dressing!! I had to use almond butter instead of sprouted sunflower seeds because my ridiculously cheap blender was smoking and going to explode from trying to blend up the sunflower seeds. Anyway, I think those are all the recipes I did last week and I wish soooo much that I had written down the exact recipes as I created them! But, oh no, I thought I would remember them forever, and now, of course, I can't. Ha!!
I went to the store this weekend and loaded up on berries, pineapples, and more greens, and I don't think there's one inch of empty space in the fridge. Yikes!! I also ordered boxes of Lemon LaraBars and the Jocolat Orange, plus the Chocolate Brownie, Apple, and Cranberry Orange bars from Pure. Yummy!! I just love having these around for easy desserts. I've also been mixing raw almond butter, agave, cacao powder, and salt into a divine chocolate spread and having it on banana slices. Oh, soooo good!! And so easy!! I like to keep dessert interesting every night, so I switch back and forth from having a cacao shake, to cacao-coconut cream pudding, to a bar or 2, to cacao spread on banana slices, to whatever cookies or raw bars I've made recently. Raw Dessert is much more fun for me when there's a wide selection!
Pasta with Pesto Sauce, Raw Pizza Bites, and Marinated Mushrooms
1/29/08
Oh Boy! Durians & coconut milk abound in my freezer! Yay!! At the enormous Asian superstore I visited this past weekend, I discovered packages of seedless durian in the frozen food section. This could be very exciting, if it tastes good. Because these are much cheaper and less messy than buying a whole durian! I haven't tried them yet, but the whole durian I did buy was the sweetest and best durian I've had in ages. Yum!! It was so sweet I didn't even blend it with banana and put strawberries on top, like I usually do. I just blended the pods in the food processor until it was smooth & creamy like pudding. I did try a few fresh blueberries on top. Berries make a fantastic durian topping!! I'm all stocked up on frozen coconut milk now, and I can't wait to try the frozen jackfruit I bought. The cats love durian too. They are crazy! They can't get enough of it. These cats also love watermelon, cherries, cantaloupe, honeydew, and my raw pizza and treats. Today they had some durian and then ran around the house for 20 minutes like wild animals!
Last week I made raw vegan pizza, and I've been having that for dinner, with chopped up super sweet Maya onions on top, after my enormous nightly salad. I also made a scrumptious, very moist, creamy coconut cake. These are just vague recollections of the measurements, but I blended up maybe 1 C soaked raw cashews, 1/2 C soaked raw brazil nuts, 2-3 soaked medjhool dates, 1/2 C shredded dried coconut, 2/3 C coconut milk, lots of agave, pinch of salt, 3-4 (or more!) tsp vanilla extract, all in the food processor. Then I stirred in about 1/2 C more shredded dried coconut. The result was very wet, rich and divine! I haven't bothered with a crust, since it's so rich & dense, but I did thaw some frozen org. strawberries and cut them up for the top. I just served it like pudding. But with a crust it would be the best coconut cake ever! Yum!!
As you can see from the picture below, I bought tons of fruit last weekend, avos, cantaloupes, mangos, pineapples, blueberries, blackberries, and Bing cherries. Hooray for fruit! All the veggies & greens I bought are probably pouting in the fridge, since I didn't take their picture. Oh well. I am a fruitarian at heart. My trays of buckwheat & sunflower greens are growing at glacial speed outside, which is very frustrating, but I did manage to grow several really nice trays of wheatgrass a few weeks ago, before all the rain. I don't know why they slowed down, maybe because it's been so wet & cold out? I need a greenhouse!! Today I'm making Veggie Juice, with lots of greens & celery. Have a gorgeous delicious week everybody!
1/8/08
I am feeling very lucky right now, because the kitchen is bursting with amazing food. I have lots of oranges, lemons, grapefruit, and pineapple, which is super duper. I also have cherries, blueberries, and blackberries, which is spectacular! A lot of fresh organic salad stuff, plus lots of cilantro, parsley for my dressings and for juicing. I have been buying a lot of raw cashew nuts & brazil nuts lately for my recipes, and I got several zuchinnis at the fruit market a few weeks ago and I've been making fresh zuchinni pasta with them. I have a spiral slicer hidden somewhere in the kitchen, which makes pretty, delicate ribbons out of the zuchinni, but I decided to just stick it in my food processor instead (lazy!!) with the shred blade. And I actually like it better!! The thinner, shorter "noodles" absorb the sauce faster.
One night I made an alfredo type sauce (soaked cashews & brazils, lemon juice, garlic, salt) and last night I made a sweeter red bell pepper sauce ( soaked cashews & brazils, a little lemon juice, a squirt of agave, garlic, salt). I just mix the sauce with the noodles and let it sit for about 20 minutes, then serve. Mmmm, SO yummy!! It doesn't keep long in the fridge though, maybe a day. I also made a huge amount of fresh herb dressing last night, with soaked sunflower seeds, 1 or 2 bunches of cilantro, 1 bunch Italian parsley, garlic, lemon juice, soaked raisins, baby carrots, and salt. I think that's what made my poor little $30 blender start smoking. Next blender, please! I have fried so many. Whew! This was after I made a lot of veggie juice, and wheatgrass juice. So, it was a marathon kitchen session. But my beloved cilantro doesn't keep long at all in the fridge, so I need to use it fast. Sigh, I wish I lived next to a cilantro & parsley farm, then I would never run out. Or maybe, a cilantro, parsley, arugula, basil, and zuchinni farm? Ooh, perfect!!!
12/18/07
Hello everyone, I wrote a lot about the super duper raw food party & amazing food in my regular Journal, so the only real new information I can tell you is that I just want to eat cake continuously. Specifically, the cake from the party, which I really don't know how to make myself. But I am going to make a coconut cake today! Hopefully it will turn out yummy. Crust: blended up soaked pecans & soaked medjhool dates. Filling: blended up young coconut meat, agave, and vanilla extract. At least, that's the plan! I got my variety box of bars from Pure Bars, and wow!! Fantastic! My favorite flavors so far are Cranberry Orange, and Chocolate Brownie. And I finally ordered my EasyGreen Automatic Sprouter!! Yay!! If I love it, I will probably order 1 or 2 more, because they're stackable. How nice it will be to grow my own salads! I think I'll keep growing my wheatgrass outside in trays with dirt for now, it's been working pretty well. And how fantastic that my shell-less sunflower greens are growing!! Wow!! I'm going to try hull-less buckwheat groats next. Since I used to spend sooo much time picking the shells out of the greens.
I am totally in love with cilantro, and also, to a lesser degree, with parsley, and last night I couldn't sleep thinking about it. Yep, cilantro, my midnight fantasy! I just love making green juice with lots & lots of cilantro, parsley and Italian parsley!! And I was thinking how lucky I am, to have such a plethora of spectacular health food stores to choose from. Really, in S. California ( and Seattle, which has tons of incredible health food stores and awesome asian markets, and in so many other fine cities) you can pretty much find whatever you want! Hmm...now if I could just get all my favorite foods in one store, that would really be great! Oh well, I can dream. So, anyway, I just had to profess my blinding love for cilantro, and also for arugula & basil. I adore them all with a deep & abiding passion. In other shocking news, I bought SO MUCH FRUIT last week that I had to put a lot of it outside. I have so many fresh raspberries, grapefruit, pineapple, clementine oranges, bananas and dates right now!! Yikes. And I got the most luscious, sweetest ever, giant cormice (??) pears. Wow! I always get too excited in the produce section and over-buy. I'm quite guilty of that, ha! Have a delicious week everyone!!
12/6/07
Hi everybody! I wanted to give an updated version of my raw Cacao smoothie, because I made one last night that was out of this world! The ingredients are (quantities are best I can remember) 5 frozen bananas, 2 TB raw almond butter, 1 TB raw tahini, 3 TB Navitas Naturals raw Cacao Powder, 1 TB Navitas Naturals raw Cacao Nibs, agave nectar, dash of salt, a little water. Wow!! So creamy dreamy. For extra sweet creaminess, you can substitute sweetened almond milk or soymilk for the water. Yummy!!! Besides that excitement, I'm continuing my Citrus love affair, now with seedless Clementine oranges, still lots of grapefruit & pineapple. I'm growing wheatgrass right now, it looks ok, but I think I exposed it to the sun too soon. I'm also growing sunflower greens from shell-less sunflower seeds, to avoid all the bother of picking out the shells. Hmmm, so far it's working! They're growing! I have both the sunflowers & wheatgrass outside in large trays w/ drainage holes and about 1 in. of dirt.
My poor little sprouted spelt bread turned out too crumbly, so it will probably become bird food. The cherry/blueberry one is pretty tasty though. If I had added dates to glue it together it would have been better. Oh well! I don't know if I've mentioned this, but a few extremely exciting things are: Michelle's Wild Tibetan Goji berries, the best, softest, tastiest goji berries EVER, are available at Amazon. com, at a very reasonable price. Same goes for Navitas Naturals raw Cacao powder, which is superb in any recipe!! And Trader Joe's has raw almond butter for around $5.00. Wow!! Way better than paying $20!! Costco also has fantastic fresh organic basil in the produce section, and if you're lucky, your location might carry frozen organic blueberries, I think they're about $10 for 3 lbs.
Also, I was introduced to Coconut Cream by my friend Danny while I was in Hawaii. Ahhh...the brand in Hawaii is soooo good, and available at all the grocery stores. Here on the mainland, you'll have to search a little, and maybe settle for a slightly less tasty brand. But Coconut Cream is worth its weight in Gold!! Run, don't walk, RUN to your local Asian food store and look for blocks of Frozen Coconut Milk, in the freezer section, with nothing added. Thaw and add agave, eat it plain, drizzle over fruit, mix it with agaze & cacao, or add it to your favorite recipes. And Celebrate! This. Is. Heaven. Yum!!! Speaking of indulgence, just ordered a mixed box of Pure Bars, to try all their different flavors. They sound soooo good! Can't wait to try them. I just added some brand NEW salad dressings and a NEW cucumber salad to my Raw Recipes page. Have a fabulous, spectacular weekend everybody!!
11/27/07
Well, I have enough fruit & veggies right now to open my own grocery store. Ha! I've been making tons of super green juice with my spectacular GreenStar juicer. This juice is amazing! I put lots & lots of spinach in, 4 bunches of celery, 2 bunches Italian parsley, 2 bunches regular parsley, 2 bunches cilantro, about 10 carrots, 4 apples, 2 inches of fresh ginger, 2 garlic cloves, and I added some beet greens too, since I happened to have them. This juice is greener & healthier than any green juice you'll get at a store or juice place. (Except wheatgrass of course!) I also bought a big bag of fresh cranberries, and made cranberry apple juice. Yum! So fresh and tart. My favorite juices lately are the super spicy ginger/garlic/apple/carrot and ginger/garlic/pineapple/carrot cocktails I've been making. Wow! They have such a kick! And they'll scare away any vampires and also anyone who may want to kiss you. Ha!
I started making sweet breads too, in the dehydrator. I made apple/cinnamon/raisin bread with sprouted wheat berries, which turned out yummy. (Although I personally don't really like the taste of wheat berries in recipes, because I think they taste sour.) So yesterday I made banana/mango bread and blueberry/cherry/banana bread, both with sprouted spelt berries. I have a friend who doesn't like to eat dates or nuts & seeds, so I'm trying to create some "lighter" recipes he'll like. Whew! It's tough! Dates add wonderful texture that "glues" any dough together. And nuts & seeds add a rich taste & creamy texture. Sprouted wheat tends to just fall apart, unless you mix an apple in. In these breads, I just used a banana, and so far my bread is pretty crumbly! But I'm excited to try them, I think they're both going to be yummy. Crumbly, but tasty!
11/19/07
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I got some totally incredible pineapples over the weekend, and lots of grapefruit too. And fresh basil! I've been cutting up basil on my salads lately. Yum! Plus using it in all my cracker & dressing recipes. I don't know what I'll have for Thanksgiving yet, probably a big salad, since I have one almost every single day. Ha! I doubt I'll make anything fancy this year, since I'm tuckered out from my near constant recipe-creating over the past few months. Simple will be perfect! I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving! Don't fret if you over indulge or accidentally scarf down a pile of mashed potatoes or pumpkin pie, despite your best efforts to only eat salad or whatever. The holidays can wreak havoc on your will power! Drink lots of pure water throughout the day, and try to fill up on healthy food first. Eating a little bit of junk food once in a while is not the end of the world, even if you are on a raw food diet. Remember, it's only calories, and you can burn them off. It's much better to be kind to yourself, enjoy yourself and have fun with your friends and family!
11/5/07
Yay! It's Persimmon season!! I LOVE persimmons. Mostly the hachiya variety best. I dried some fuyus though in my dehydrator and they turned out great! So sweet & yummy. Do you know that persimmons are only ripe & sweet when they are super soft & squishy, like water balloons? I've been making lots of flaxseed crackers lately, and I tried lemon bars and pizza bread too. I really need to grow an enormous basil plant, because I find I'm buying it fresh constantly for all my recipes. And it doesn't last long! I discovered, to my great surprise, an enormous green catapillar happily living in my last bag of store bought basil. I put him & the basil outside. Hopefully he was ok. I really want to buy an automatic sprouter too. I've said that forever, but I'm still sprouter-less. I would just love to be able to grow buckwheat & sunflowers greens for salads inside the house! No fussing with dirt outside, no cute little mice trying to dig up the seeds at night. And I would always have lots of fresh salad material!! Hmmm, maybe soon. Eat some persimmons everybody, and have a wonderful day!!
10/10/07
Wow, I can't believe I haven't updated this journal since I got back from Hawaii. Sorry everybody! Well, over there I was in Fruit Heaven. Mangos, avos, coconuts, papayas, apple bananas, jackfruit, fresh organic greens, citrus, lychee, passion fruit, everything!! So yummy. Everyday, I ate about 8-10 papayas, lots of apple bananas, and a huge giant salad. My fantastic raw friends were so good at foraging for coconuts & fruit! We had lots and lots of gorgeous sunset & moonlit picnics on the beach, following unbelievable days of hiking, swimming, dancing, kayaking. My beautiful friend Diana shared her amazing methods for making creamy herb sunflower seed dressings & fabulous flaxseed crackers. And my friends Danny, Robin, and Kenny made huge divine salads and other delectable feasts. Sigh, it's raw food paradise there! But now that I'm back in southern Ca., I bought a dehydrator and I've been making crackers & raw cacao brownies like crazy! Mmmm..I love the way they make the whole house smell good. Yum!! I'll write more about my raw food adventures soon, and you can watch "Traci's Hawaiian Workout" to see a jackfruit up close.
3/31/07
Holy Cow! Wow, I finally made a really good bread recipe! And cookies too! Yay!! I'm in shock. The bread recipe is roughly: 1 C sprouted spelt berries, 1/2 apple, 1/3 C raw pumpkin seeds, 1/4 C ground flaxseeds, herbs of your choice, salt, and agave to taste. Blend all ingredients together in a food processor and spread dough on baking sheet about 1/2 in. thick. Dehydrate at 100F for a couple hours and flip, dehydrate a few more hours, until bread is crispy on the outside, but still very soft, chewy and bread like. I like mine sweet, like sweet whole wheat bread. YUM!! It's so good!!! I had this bread, fresh and still warm, with lots of gently steamed asparagus the other night (yes, I know that's not raw, but I LOVE asparagus!!) and I think it may have been the Best Dinner I've Ever had in my Entire Life. I'll try to post the cookie recipes soon, they're kind of still in the works. Plus it's midnight right now, and my yoga & pilates classes kicked my butt today. I feel like a limp noodle!! Have a gorgeous day everyone!
3/20/07
Hi everybody! Wow, I bought a slice of raw pizza at the health food store last week, and ever since, I've been in a huge raw food recipe frenzy trying to recreate the crust. Even though I've been a raw foodist for several years, I've never really made a good tasting raw bread. Most of my endeavors have been tossed to birds. I even got rid of my dehydrator I was so frustrated! But when I tasted this kamut crust, I knew I had to try to make bread again. It was soooooo Good!!! Actually, the kitchen it came from has a raw food weekly home delivery service, where they deliver fresh, raw vegan meals right to your door. I'd love to try it, but it's not quite in my budget right now. I already spend a bunch every week on fresh produce! And really, I don't eat a lot of gourmet raw food. But I could sure use a good bread recipe! I also came up with a new all natural hand/body cream, Dream Cream, which is sooooo nice.
So lately, I've made Carrot Soup, Carrot Sweetheart Bread, Total Tomato Sauce, Cacao Date Balls, Strawberry Sauce, Spinach Surprise, and lots of my Rainbow Super Crunch Salad. I just added these newer recipes to my Raw Recipes page. I try to keep all my recipes fairly "light" without a lot of the heavy nuts, oils, and spices that a lot of fancy gourmet recipes contain. But my Carrot Bread recipe is still in the works.
One of these days, I will splurge and buy an excalibur dehydrator, a better food processor, and maybe even an automatic sprouter for those pesky broccoli sprouts that refuse to grow in my jars. Yikes! These appliances are expensive! I was searching for a full size food processor the other day, and found one for $800. Whoa! You can totally do the raw food diet without any expensive appliances, but they sure make your recipes better. My food processor (which was about $50) just won't blend a lot of stuff, and is so annoying that way. Sprouted wheat berries? Forget it! Thawed fruit? Nope. Everything is chunky-monkey instead of silky smooth, the way I want it. Anyway, check out those recipes if you want, and I'll keep you updated on my Kamut Bread Quest. Have a great week everybody!
2/13/07
Ok everybody! If you like chocolate, you should really try the chocolate Lara Bars. They should be at your local health food store. If they're not, throw a tantrum. They used to have the word "Maya" on the label, now they say "Jocalate." (??) They are sooooo amazing and soooo much better than regular chocolate. They come in Mint Chocolate, Orange Chocolate, Chocolate, and Chocolate Coffee. Bliss!! They're all I want for Valentines Day, I changed my mind from the durians. I think I like the regular Chocolate flavor and the Chocolate Orange the best.
I made a super good salad last night, I'm calling it my "Rainbow Salad". It's so spectacular!! Really pretty, so colorful and VERY yummy. It's orange, yellow, and/or red bell peppers, tomatoes, and avocados (all in equal proportions) with a little bit of chopped red onion, some shredded purple cabbage, shredded carrots, a handful of raw pumpkin seeds (or pepitas) and a few raw cashews. I sprinkled mine with fresh lime juice, salt, and garlic powder, but you can use any dressing you like. Mmm, this is SO good!
I also made some fresh pineapple & orange juice this past weekend, and pineapple juice is SO heavenly. Frothy, creamy, foamy and SWEET!! It's a huge treat, and you'll feel like you're on vacation when you drink it. Save a few pineapple pieces to rub on your face, this is the BEST beauty treatment ever. Just leave the juice on for 15 minutes then rinse off and moisturize. Do this a lot and your skin will glow. I'm still having about 1 TB of Acai powder in my smoothies in the morning, plus the powder from 1 noni capsule and 1 mangosteen capsule. I don't notice any super powers developing, but these additions make my smoothies taste better, super nutrition and really yummy. Have a happy healthy Valentines Day everyone!!
2/5/07
Hi everybody! I am very happy right now, because I have 2 huge bags of goji berries from Navitas Naturals. They are very spectacular. And this whole past week, it was Fruit Paradise in my kitchen! I had pineapples, peaches, blackberries, kiwis, bananas, pears, apples, very good mangos, oranges, grapefruit, limes, and probably more that I am forgetting. Oh my gosh, I was really missing mangos. I Love them! And I can't stand stringy ones. The ones I have right now are perfect, non-stringy, creamy and super sweet. For Valentines Day, I'm going to get a couple durians, fresh strawberries, and more fruit. Although the freezer is packed solid right now with exciting frozen fruit and I have no idea how I'm going to stuff some durians in there!
1/19/07
The winter is a super time to stock up on citrus fruits & pears. Grapefruit, pineapples, mandarin oranges, navel oranges and other citrus fruits are often on sale and readily available in the winter months. And they're great for snacking & breakfasts because a small amount fills you up! Perfect for shedding some post holiday pounds. Pears don't really excite me, but I have several bowls in the kitchen and I've been blending them up into smoothies with bananas and Mexican papaya. (The big red ones, very inexpensive) I just ordered 2 lbs of goji berries, and I've been experimenting with a few different Acai berry products. Acai berry is the newest superfood, from the Amazon jungle. I'm trying pills, powdered Acai, and Monavie, the juice. I feel an increase in energy so far and I will let you know any other benefits I experience. Like if I sprout wings and fly directly to the Amazon rainforest where I meet Tarzan and we spend the rest of our lives eating fruit and swinging on vines through the jungle. Hmmm...anyway!! It's all the rage and supposed to be the best thing for you. It's expensive, trying to keep up with all the new & spectacular super foods, whew! One of these days I'll try maca powder too. I whipped up a yummy, cheesy type spread/dip the other night from 3-4 TB raw pumpkin butter, 2 cloves garlic, juice of 1 lime, 2 mandarin oranges, and salt. Kind of like a blue cheese or feta taste? Very good! Pumpkin butter has a kind of cheesy pungent smell...which was putting me off whenever I tried to use it. But it's perfect for a cheesy dip! I ate it plain, but it would make a great veggie dip or dressing. You can substitute raw cashew nuts if you want a more mild spread. Happy weekend everybody!
1/1/06
Happy post holidays everybody! Whew, well I don't know about all of you, but I was Surrounded by loads of chocolate & goodies for my entire Christmas vacation. Not just any chocolate, but the classy yummy kind, like Lindt, Dove, and many more, just sitting there in their pretty wrappers, in piles all over the house. I shocked myself with my own good chocolate behavior. I only had a couple here and there! But I did have several servings of vegan pizza, spaghetti, cinnamon bread, and other things. I ate a huge salad and smoothie everyday, just like normal, had my raw cacao shakes too, and worked out everyday. I also tried marinating dinosaur kale (I LOVE dino kale! It's very bumpy, dark green, and has very narrow, spear like leaves) for 24 hours with diced red onion, shredded carrots in a marinade of hempseed oil, lime juice, and salt. It was super good, but the dino kale didn't get much softer.
And I just discovered some fun uses for the leftover almond pulp when you make almond milk. Raw Almond Milk Recipe: Soak 1 Cup almonds in filtered water overnight or 24 hours, drain, blend in blender with 3 Cups filtered water. Strain, and mix liquid with Agave nectar or honey and a little vanilla extract. The almond pulp can be stored in the fridge for a few days. Almond milk is sweet, creamy, totally healthy and so delicious!! Fantastic by itself or in a raw cacao shake, or with bananas or whatever.
Anyway, good almond pulp ideas: You can mix a few TB of the almond pulp with agave or honey and cinnamon and raisins or dried fruit as a porridge type breakfast that's really fabulous. Or, for a spectacular Berry Pie, mix it with agave and cinnamon and press it into a small pie tin. Then defrost your favorite fruit (like cherries! or raspberries, or blueberries) or use fresh fruit and you'll have raw berry pie! It's good to keep the two separate until you're ready to serve, otherwise it's gets soggy. Just slice a piece of pie crust, top with fruit and you're done! You can sprinkle with cacao nibs, drizzle with more agave, or top with coconut! I think almond pulp would make a good veggie quiche, with diced red bell pepper, herbs, onion and some other veggies. Hmmm...Happy & Healthy New Year everyone!!!
12/12/06
Have spectacular holidays everyone! If you're worried about over-eating too many holiday treats, remember that fresh fruit smoothies, apples, dried fruit, fresh salads, and raw veggies are all super snacks and perfect for filling up on before any big parties or dinners.
10/27/06
Are you all gearing up for the holidays? Yipes, treats everywhere! Last year I was Very naughty, and ended up eating some Halloween candy. Whoops! This year, I'm on my best raw food behavior and I've been eating tons of sprouts. My daily diet is usually: fruit smoothie, veggie juice, salad, raw cacao shake. Plus I just bought some sundried organic Turkish apricots, and they are the Perfect snack! I feel SO much better when I only eat raw food. Anyway, check out our NEW Funny Video, the "Help Yourself Halloweener" because all my favorite raw foods and treats make guest appearances! You can see what the inside of my fridge looks like, so fascinating, and part of my beloved Green Star juicer, which is just to the left of the fridge. Have a super Fun, safe Happy Halloween!
10/4/06
I'm still Really missing spinach, but I just started growing sprouts again because it's cooler now, and hopefully the heat waves are over. I've been having pluots and Italian prunes because I Love them and they're in season now, yay! I'm craving crunchy salads, something I always start to do when fall comes. Crunchy salads are perfect to take with you to work, if you're following a raw food diet, or just want to eat healthier lunches away from home and not give in to eating junk food at work or going out to lunch all the time. In a food processor, you can shred carrots, jicama, bell peppers, celery, beets, etc. These veggies store well in the fridge for several days. Just add some lettuce, sprouts, dulse, chopped raw nuts or whatever else you like, bring your dressing, and you have a yummy salad that travels really well!
9/21/06
Well, there's no spinach around because there was a big e. coli outbreak and all the spinach was immediately pulled off the shelves. So there's no organic baby spring mix either, my salad of choice. So sad! I bought lots of red leaf lettuce and extra broccoli sprouts to make up for it, and am now having salads with that plus dulse. The poor spinach farmers! I haven't grown my own sprouts or wheatgrass all summer because we've had so many heatwaves! The greens and sprouts kept shriveling up. I'll start growing sprouts again as it gets cooler, and I've been juicing way more parsley to make up for not having any wheatgrass juice. My nails are super strong these days, probably from the extra parsley. Greens are an excellent source of calcium! And I also started taking a different brand of calcium pills that are calcium citrate. My nails are so long and stronger than they've ever been right now! (If I start climbing trees or playing my Pink Guitar, they will have to go.) The solution to brittle nails is parsley juice and lots of fresh greens. It's funny, I know manicures and fake nails are wildly popular, in fact almost every woman and girl I see in Southern California has fake nails, but what a pain to maintain! And expensive too! Plus they can break, just like real nails. I've never understood it. And what's up with fake toenails? I just don't get that. Hey, just drink parsley juice and eat your greens and you'll have super long, strong natural nails! Have a Happy & Healthy day everyone!
8/24/06
Recently I was lucky enough to get to try some raw chocolates from NatuRaw and wow, are they amazing! They are foil wrapped heart chocolates that have the exact texture and look of regular dark chocolate, except they are raw! They are SO good. Mine were unsweetened, but I think they may have sweetened ones too. YUM! I eat bites of the dark chocolate with bites of raw coconut date rolls, and it's a Perfect combo. I also wanted to mention that I found organic white turkish (or smyrna?) figs at Trader Joes a few weeks ago, in their dried fruit section. These are the most Fabulous figs on earth!! Really sweet and perfect for when you're craving some sugary dessert! Yay!! I'm So glad TJ's has them now, I hope they continue to carry them. Whole Foods had them for awhile (maybe some stores still do, I can't find them down here) and they were huge, soft and soooo sweet. Total heaven. Last weekend I was elated to find FRESH black figs at the health food store. Fresh figs are a spectacular treat!!
8/7/06
I just added 3 new recipes to my Raw Recipes page, my very beloved Cacao Shake recipe, my Naked Dressing recipe, and also one for raw Almond Milk. Enjoy!!
8/3/06
Well, my absolute favorite Champagne mangos (the skinny yellow ones, they're super creamy and sweet with no strings) have gone way up in price, so sad! I was eating a LOT of those when they were cheap. I still have a lot of cherries in the fridge, but they haven't been too exciting this summer. Kind of watery tasting. The pineapples have been GREAT though! I've gotten several really sweet ones lately. Pineapple is a Perfect food for lots of reasons. It's terrific for when you want to slim down or just eat less, because it's almost impossible to overeat pineapple! Even the sweet ones will make your mouth too tangy if you eat a lot. A little bit fills you up, and it's fantastic for your digestion because of the bromelain, a natural enzyme that's really powerful. Pineapple is also my very Favorite Beauty Treatment. The bromelain in the juice is also wonderful for your skin! You can eat some, and rub some over your face and have a fabulous facial at the same time! A lot of expensive facial lotions have enzymes in them, but nothing commercial is as good as fresh pineapple. It's very gentle and very effective, so you can use it everyday. Your skin will be softer, smoother, and will glow!
6/29/06
Hi everybody! It's Super Hot here, in the high 90's. I added a few New Recipes that I've been using a lot lately, My Favorite Fruit Salad, and Summer Salad. They're SO Yummy! Have a super fun 4th of July, please keep your pets inside so they don't run away, and Have FUN!!
6/17/06
Cherries are here! Yay!! I wait all year until cherry season. Raspberries and blueberries are here too. Heaven! I always splurge on them all and buy a lot, since I love them so much.
6/7/06
Trader Joes has Lychees!! And they are cheap! And truly magnificent! Hooray!! I forgot that lychees are in season now, and usually have to go to the asian market to get them, where they're expensive, so when I saw them at TJ's, I almost started dancing in the produce section! Hopefully they're still there, I got them about a week ago. Lychees have a tough, thick, dull red skin and are about the size of strawberries. You peel the skin, and the fruit is clear, like the inside of a grape. They have a sweet, almost flowery taste and are So addictive!! I picked lychees with my friends when I lived in Hawaii. People really go crazy for them there! There were "secret lychee trees" and everyone is very hush hush about them. We picked a few bags once, and drove to the beach, and one bag was stolen out of my friend's truck. People will resort to all kinds of shady behavior to score some lychees!
Anyway, the other exciting thing is that Costco has boxes of Lara Bars! Wow! 18 in a box, cherry, chocolate coconut (my favorite) and apple pie, for only $18! They're almost $1.60 each at the health food store. And I discovered 2 new flavors, Lemon, which is amazing, and my new 2nd favorite flavor, and also Cinnamon roll, which I haven't tried yet. Pecan pie is very yummy, it's another fave of mine. After our hike last weekend, my friends and I went to the Whole Foods in La Jolla and got salads from their enormous and very gourmet salad bar. They have all these fantastic veggie concoctions, in addition to fresh greens and other veggies. But we didn't check the price per pound before hand, and we all ended up with $12 salads!! Oops! Whoa, that heavy stuff adds up. My favorite item from the entire salad bar was the marinated red bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms. Wow!! It was so good. I've heard people call Whole Foods "whole paycheck". But it is a beautiful store, with a lot of gorgeous, fabulous food. That's all for now, it's smoothie time!
5/24/06
Yay!! I am finally growing a good crop of sunflower greens!! Hooray! I got the large striped sunflower seeds, a big tray with lots of drainage holes in the bottom, and I am keeping the seeds covered from sunlight under a loose fitting black plastic garbage bag until the greens are about 3-4 inches high. I pick them just before they start growing their second set of leaves. And they are turning out Perfect!! I'm so excited. I've got a tray of buckwheat greens that's almost ready to be picked, and my wheatgrass looks pretty good too. Sunflower greens are so yummy just by themselves, and make a super snack. They are the easiest salad in the world! Plus they store and travel well. If you mix them with sliced tomatoes and a little dressing, you have a very elegant and tasty salad that takes about 1 min. to make! They are SO good for you. I'm happy because I usually buy organic baby spring mix, which is really expensive and goes bad so fast! It's hard to even find a good batch at the store.
4/27/06
Recently, I got to go to one of my Very favorite raw vegan restaurants, Au Lac. They have amazing food! My friend and I split the guacamole, which was totally Fantastic, the primavera, also very good, the pistachio bread, wonderful, and a Hawaiian smoothie, which was delicious. I tried to order a jackfruit smoothie and a durian smoothie, but they were sold out of both. Afterwards we went to the beach. So Fun! So now I'm totally craving durian, since they were out. I added a new Raw Food picture gallery of my Pictures with Fruit, which I will update whenever I pose with produce.
I just got back from a very exciting vacation to San Jose, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco (pictures soon!) and ate a lot of organic apples and bananas, which are both Excellent travel foods. I made sure to drink lots of water, and thank heavens, the hotel had an excellent workout room, so I got to workout twice a day, just like usual. I was able to order salads and fruit in the restaurants we visited, so that was great. It's a little challenging to stay raw while traveling, but water, apples, bananas, and cucumbers are the best and easiest snacks! Better than date and nut bars because they're lighter, but Lara bars are a super treat when you're really hungry and craving something heavier. Have a fabulous weekend everybody!
4/13/06
Hi everybody! I'm still very excited about my cacao hemp shakes, my raw kim chee and my hempseed butter from Rejuvenative Foods. They make the Creamiest, Dreamiest hempseed butter ever!! It's heavenly. I spread some on medjhool dates yesterday and Wow! Amazing. I've also been having big salads for dinner with lots of sprouts, baby organic spinach, shredded carrots and avocado with a special dressing I made up. It's just the juice of 2 limes with 2-3 TB cold pressed hempseed oil, sea salt and garlic powder. Or you can mince up fresh garlic and let it sit for awhile. Really yummy! I'm almost out of goji berries and raw cacao, so I totally need to get more. Have a happy day everyone!!
2/27/06
How many cacao bean and hempseed shakes can you drink in one day? Hmmm. It's a question I've been pondering. I haven't yet swilled down more than 2, but the moments I've spent contemplating it are many. Oh, they are scandalously good. Plus I just tasted a new Lara Bar flavor, Chocolate Coconut Chew, and it is SO Yummy!! My favorite Lara Bar so far. They do have cocoa powder in them, so they're not totally raw, but close enough for me! I'm feeling pretty spoiled lately, now that I've finally started allowing myself to buy hempseed protein powder, hempseed butter, and raw cacao beans on a regular basis. Expensive tastes, but hey, life is short! And who needs fancy clothes, jewelry or shoes anyway? Raw food and bikinis are my only splurges. And they're worth it!
2/21/06
Besides running around in bikinis lately I've been drinking a LOT of cacao hemp shakes. They are SO yummy!! 2 bananas, 2 scoops hempseed protein powder, 2-4 TB raw almond butter, 2 TB ground cacao beans, 2 TB agave nectar, 1-2 C pure water, and blend until smooth in the blender. You can adjust ingredients to your liking, and grind the cacao first in a coffee grinder, but not too fine, you want it to be crunchy, like a chocolate chip milkshake. You can also substitute raw tahini (cheaper than almond butter) but you'll need to add more sweetener because it's bitter. SO divine!! Just don't drink this before you go to bed. You will be up for Hours! I buy the world's best raw almond butter and hempseed butter from Rejuvenative Foods a wonderful raw organic company in Santa Cruz. All their products are amazing. They make the best ever raw Kim Chee, which is SO good for you! I've been buying and eating a lot lately. They are super easy to order from online, with really fast and affordable shipping.
1/26/06
Well, that's it, I'm Totally Addicted to raw cacao. If I puff up like a huge whale, we'll know what did it! My favorite kind is by Nature's First Law, and is from Ecuador. I have a different variety that's from Peru too, and I don't like it half as much. The NFL cacao is richer, sweeter, and has a heavenly dark chocolate taste and smell, with a hint of coffee. I totally splurged and bought several bags, along with a pound of goji berries and several jars of raw hempseed butter. Yikes! Expensive treats! But hempseed butter is about the same price as raw almond butter (which I also bought!) and I love it. I've also been growing and juicing TONS of wheatgrass too, and the extra energy is amazing!
1/10/06
I recently tried Raw Organic Cacao Nibs (watch my video, Loco For Cocoa) and I must say, they are fascinating, fabulous, and dangerously delicious!! Raw Cacao Beans are real dark chocolate, unprocessed with nothing added. The nibs have been broken into little bite size pieces that are easier to grind up or just pop in your mouth. It's not only the taste (dark, slightly bitter) that is divine, but the Crunch. Ooooh!! The crunch really gets me going! It kept me up last night just thinking about it. The way the cacao nibs gently crunch in your mouth is deliriously exciting.
First I ground up some nibs and mixed them with Agave nectar and raw almond butter, and it's quite heavenly. Then I sprinked plain cacao nibs on top and it was even More titillating. I ate some last night, and a little more this morning (instead of my smoothie, whoops!) and am Very Happy, Totally Buzzed, and Blissed out. I am not hungry, even though I only had a few bites, did a big workout, and it's now mid afternoon. And I got a Lot of energy from them! So, in short, cacao beans are fascinating, seductive, and possibly addicting. Yum!!
Another fabulous raw food that gives you a real buzz is durian. Click here to see my video, Durian Kung-Foo. I used to blend frozen durian (after it had thawed) and eat it with strawberry slices on top. This combination would cause me to dance all around the house for hours afterward to trance music!! All in a very blissed out frame of mind. I used to eat one whole durian every single day! (Though, if you are a Durian Virgin, experiment with a couple first. They are a crazy fruit, and it's an aquired taste!) So I think durian pudding with strawberries and cacao afterward might be a mind blowing, reality altering experience!! Try it with someone you love, or just with someone you think is real hot stuff. Could be a totally fun time!
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