Raw Cheese Spread

At Christmas time I was searching for a raw cheese ball and never found one I wanted to try. Finally last week I was making some Honey Almond Crackers and found this great recipe for raw cheese.

http://www.rawmazing.com/raw-vegan-cheese/
 I followed the directions to first make

Rejuvalac.
1/2 C sprouted wheat berries (sprouted just until tails start)
4 C filtered water

Place the wheat berries and the water in a jar. Leave in a warm place for 24-48 hours. You will see a little fizz. The liquid should be a little tart but not smell off.

Then for my cheese I used:

1/2 C Cashews

1/2 C Walnuts

1/2 C Rejuvalac (the water that formed from sprouting wheat)

1/2 tsp Sea Salt

Process until smooth and thick. Transfer to a bowl and coat the outside with Raw Parmesan Cheese.

Set it in the pantry with a cloth over it for 1/2 a day, you can form it and the outside will start to harden a little. Then store it in the fridge. 

It was a great find and next Christmas I will definitely be making it.

The rejuvelac is in the green cup.

Raw Chocolate Chip Cookies

These raw cookies were a fun and healthy alternative to baked ones, plus you can eat the dough, as with all raw food cookie doughs! They were great as cookie dough balls straight, frozen, or dehydrated into cookies. The whole family loved them and they went way too fast!

1 1/2 C Cashews
3/4 C Oats (you can grind oat grouts into flour, or I actually used rolled oats for this one)
1/8 C Agave
1/8 C Pure Maple Syrup, grade B
1 tsp Pure Vanilla
1/8 tsp Sea Salt
3 T Cacao Nibs

Blend or Process Cashews and Oats into a flour consistency, but not into a nut butter. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse or process until well mixed.Scrape dough out and put it into a bowl.
Roll into 12 cookie dough balls or take the balls and flatten them with your hand and transfer to dehydrator and dehydrate for 6-8 hours until a little crunchy. Serve with a tall glass of Basic Almond Milk.

Stacked Fruit Dessert with Coconut Date Drizzle

Dates have become a favorite treat around here. Today we decided to put our Young Thai Coconut to use with them and came out with a delicious coconutty drizzle sauce.

1/2 C YT Coconut Meat
1 C YT Coconut Water
6 Medjool Dates, pitted

Open YT coconut and pour water into a jar. Measure out one cup and pour into a bowl.
 Pit dates and soak in coconut water while you scrape out the coconut meat.
Measure 1/2 C Coconut meat. Transfer all 3 ingredients into a blender and blend on high until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides when needed. Drizzle over any fruit!

Here it is with sliced apple, banana, and blueberries.

Honeydew, blueberry, apple Spinach Salad

One of the many new foods our family tried this week was a honeydew melon, it tasted a lot like a cantaloupe. Luckily we got a really ripe one and it was full of sweetness. Here we put it with blueberries and apples on a bed of spinach. No dressing needed because of all the sweet goodness.
Bed of baby spinach
Fresh Blueberries
Chopped Gala Apples
Chopped Honeydew

Grapefruit with Dates

I love grapefruit, but growing up I always poured sugar all over it. So now I usually eat it with a little swirl of agave, but last week I found this great alternative. Sweet, sour, AND chewy.

1 Grapefruit
2-3 Chopped Medjool Dates
Cut the grapefruit in half and top with dates.

My raw food goal 2012

 Happy New Year! With the new year underway I have been working on all kinds of new goals and one of them is to learn more about the low-fat raw vegan lifestyle, or 80/10/10, and find and create new recipes that fit in this category, and of course I will be blogging about it here.
 Ever since I started the raw vegan lifestyle almost 3 years ago (in April) I have loved learning about raw foods and trying new things. Raw food is so exciting to me! I have seen incredible changes in my life and in the lives of my family. I have also felt great about how we are choosing to take care of our bodies and spirits. I feel like I am finally to the point where I am not even tempted by meat, dairy, and sugar. Partly, because I know how I feel if I do eat those (almost instantly sick) and partly because I have learned a lot about what they do to a body, inside and out. I am grateful I have a new found, and still developing, talent and hobby of making up recipes and especially raw desserts! SO, what is my goal again? Oh yeah, while I love all the raw food, I have wanted to try going with out added salt, even sea salt, and oils.
  I have been learning about Dr. Douglas Graham, who has become an expert in the raw food world, teaching people about staying on a raw food diet, a low-fat raw food diet. His research shows that a main reason that people get on and off the raw food wagon is because they are not consuming enough carbohydrates, aka FRUIT, (not bread and pasta), but fruit carbs, who knew that fruit was considered carbs? I didn't, but now I do. :) So he wrote an incredibly motivating book called The 80/10/10 Diet, which I have come to mostly agree with. Dr. Graham shows that a low-fat raw vegan lifestyle is best maintained while eating 80% Carbohydrates (mostly fruit-and getting enough of it!), 10% Protein (veggies and nuts/seeds), and 10% Fats (nuts, avacodo, coconut etc.). Also, not adding any oils and salt. This is where my goal for the week comes in.
 If you knew me as a kid, I was the one at the lunch table who liked to shake the table salt into my hand and lick it, yep, you could call me a salt addict. I have come a long way in that regard, however, I do still use salt frequently in raw dessert and especially in raw dips, and salad dressings, which has worked for us in the past, and we've been fine with it. However,  I am ready for a new challenge!
 *So, for one week I am going to prove to myself that I am completely satisfied and happy eating all fruits (including dates), veggies, and greens without added salt and oils in my life, this is big step for me, but that's what is great about trying new things. With this goal I have a few things in mind to keep it exciting for me, here they are:
1. The first reason I want to do this is to FEEL my optimal best. I know in the past when I eat mostly fruits and veggies I feel my best.
2. I plan to try at least 10 new fruits or vegetables that I have never tried! My 4 kids are excited about this part, because we are planning a special shopping trip on Monday where they all get to pick their favorite fruit plus one none of us has ever tried!
3. I will try new recipes, and create my own. Who knows, maybe I will find a new family fave.
4. I want to taste things in their purest form, tasting their true flavors, without my tongue "salted over." I know when I eat a lot of fruit I do what I call "the celery test" and if celery tastes naturally salty, then my tongue is clean.
5. Last of all, I hope to motivate others to make healthy choices and goals this year. Whether it be to eat one more fruit a day than you are use to eating or trying a new healthy recipe, any healthy change will do! Good luck to everyone and a Happy, Healthy New Year to you!

Just Bananas Ice Cream

This is the simplest healthy ice cream you could possibly make, and so yummy!

3 Frozen, chopped bananas

Put in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth and creamy, it comes out like soft serve ice cream. Then you can eat it, or add toppings of your choice. We liked cacao nibs and crushed pecans.