Hey there,
If you’re new to my blog, I happen to be in the middle of a raw food month. It’s a little experiment on healthy living and taking things back to good ole Mama Nature (cause Mama knows best!) that my husband and I (and a few friends) have embarked upon.
Here’s how it’s going so far: The beginning of Week 1 was full of excitement, nerves, anticipation and… a bad cold. I had no idea if I’d actually be able to keep this up and my cold was definitely messing with me. The end of Week 1 was full of potato chip and pasta cravings.
Thankfully, I’ve moved past Week 1 and Week 2 has been pretty great. I no longer crave chips (other than kale chips), I’ve totally forgotten about coffee, and I’m feeling light and full of energy! It’s feeling like less of a struggle and more like a way of being. I think it helped that my husband came home with a dehydrator a few days ago. I didn’t even know what a dehydrator was before starting this raw food month but it basically sucks the moisture out of foods and even warms them up a bit (but at acceptable raw food temperatures). I’ve been making kale chips religiously ever since.
I’m also learning just how perfect raw “recipes” may be for someone like me who generally does not enjoy cooking! It’s a happy coincidence that all these super healthy alive raw recipes only ever really call for a blender, food processor or dehydrator. This kinda “cooking” is totally up my alley – less prep, less time, less risk, less stress! Hallelujah!
Below are some of our recipes from the week and here’s a NY Times article a friend sent me on the health benefits of a plant based diet: click here
SMOOTHIES
Cilantro-Pineapple Shake (from Living Raw Food)
2 cucumbers, peeled & chopped
½ pineapple, peeled & chopped
1 large bunch cilantro
½ cup coconut water or filtered water
2 tablespoons agave
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Puree all ingredients together in blender
JUICES
The Glow (from Living Raw Food)
2 large cucumbers
2 large carrots
3 cups chopped pineapple
3 limes, rind cut away
2 lemons, rind cut away
1 inch knob of ginger
Dash of cayenne pepper
Run all ingredients except for the cayenne through a juicer. Add the cayenne and serve as is or over ice.
LIZ COMBOS
To the left: 
4 carrots
1 beet
2 oranges
½ inch ginger
bunch of wheatgrass
To the right: 2 cucumbers, 1 pear
That’s it! Cucumbers are super healthy so you can even just enjoy cucumber juice alone!
To the left:
3 carrots
3 celery stalks
1 orange
1 apple
1 beet
Delicious!!
Nutritious!! YUP!
KING OYSTER MUSHROOM “CALAMARI” (from Living Raw Food)
This dish was supposed to look like calamari but things didn’t go so smoothly for me
… first my hubby came home with the wrong mushrooms, then we went out to try and find king oyster mushrooms, no easy task… we couldn’t find them anywhere, even at Whole Foods, so we settled with regular oyster mushrooms. The recipe actually said you could substitute with regular oyster mushrooms but I was not a huge fan of them or their texture. The recipe for this is 
really long because you also make tartar sauce and cocktail sauce so I won’t post everything here (unless asked!). I will say that the tartar sauce is SUPER delicious and the cocktail sauce is also really yummy, and the recipe made a huge amount so I’ll have condiments for weeks… fine by me!
My husband had great success with the recipes he made, unlike my above recipe, which is usually our dynamic in the kitchen so the raw food month hasn’t changed that! Here’s what he made…
SPAGHETTI AND TOMATO SAUCE (modified from various internet recipes)
Review: This was so delicious and so simple. It really felt like you were eating spaghetti because the zucchini gets very soft so it was a nice break from all the crunchy veggies. The sauce was amazing. And all so good for you!
Spaghetti:
2 zucchini (depending how much spaghetti you want)
Shred the zucchini into long strips (he used a thick cheese grater and slid the zucchini all the way down from one end to the other to make long strands)
Sauce:
1 cup sun dried tomatoes
1 bell pepper
1 clove – garlic
2 tablespoon – extra virgin olive oil
Tablespoon – salt
1/2 tablespoon – black pepper
1/2 tablespoon – red pepp flakes
Tablespoon – oregano
Handful of fresh parsley
Handful of fresh basil
Dash of garlic powder
Throw everything in a blender and pulse until the thickness you prefer.
Note – If you get dry sun dried tomatoes, you must soak them in water for 30 minutes’s prior to blending (unless they’re soaking in oil already).
RAW VEGAN CHILI - Incredibleraw.com recipe
Review: This chili is AMAZING. One of the best things I’ve eaten since we started this raw food month. It doesn’t look so pretty but it is full of flavor and so darn hearty!! This recipe calls for a dehydrator.
Base:
- 1/2 cup chopped organic celery
- 1/2 cup chopped organic zucchini
- 1/2 cup chopped organic red onion
- 1/2 cup chopped organic red pepper
- 1/2 cup finely chopped organic carrots (optional to add a crunch)
Sauce:
- 1 cup sun dried tomatoes, soaked
- 1 cup chopped tomatoes
- 1/2 cup chopped red onion
- dash of salt and pepper
- 1-2 tablespoons chili powder (to taste)
- 2 tablespoons cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Directions:
Finely chop all vegetables for the base and dehydrate them for about 2 hours to make them soft. Do not dehydrate them for more than 2 hours because they may get too dry and crispy.
Next, blend all sauce ingredients in a high-speed blender or food processor until it has a creamy texture. Once the base vegetables are dehydrated, mix them into the sauce. Grab a spoon and enjoy!
KALE CHIPS:
And lastly, to satisfy my urge for chips, I made kale chips, multiple times. I massage coconut oil into them for a few minutes (or you can use extra virgin olive oil and lemon) with a little salt and then throw them into the dehydrator. If you don’t have a dehydrator you can put them in the oven at the lowest temperature possible for almost raw kale chips! You can also put sunflower seeds into a coffee grinder and mix that with nutritional yeast and massage it into the kale for an even crunchier version (sadly our coffee grinder was broken so I couldn’t test this). Either way, they are crispy, delicious and so healthy!
DESSERT
Strawberry Shortcake (another Raw Foods Witch dessert!)
Review: This recipe is so healthy, fresh and delicious and so darn simple! It took me all of 12 minutes to make! You can make it with fresh or frozen strawberries.
Cake Base:
2 cups raw nuts of your choice (mix of almonds, cashews, walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, etc.)
1 cup soaked raisins
Dash of stevia to your desired sweetness
Dash of vanilla
Dash of sea salt
Place all ingredients into a high speed blender or food processor and blend until nice and crumbly. Pour into a pie plate or bowl.
Strawberry Topping:
1 cup fresh strawberries (I used more)
Dash of stevia to your desired sweetness Place into a high speed blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Put on top of your cake base. Done!
Lastly, best find of the week – RAW VEGAN ICE CREAM! YUM!
Hope you all had a happy, healthy and humane week!!
I love tea. I’m always on the search for new flavors. I scan the health store shelves and get excited when I read about the health benefits of each leaf. Admittedly I’m a tea fanatic but I wasn’t always such an advocate. I used to shrink away when someone would offer me a cup. I just couldn’t handle the tannins and bitter flavor and much preferred to get my morning jolt from a cup of coffee.
green tea is lighter and has a more subtle flavor than the Japanese version most of us are familiar with. The health benefits of tea are well-known. Green tea is a potent antioxidant, which is believed to fight certain cancers, aging, obesity and quite possibly even heart disease. 
Recipe for Ginger Tea
