Fun and Mental Changes

A few years back I decided to make a change in my diet to incorporate raw fruit and veggies. As with many who attempt the raw food lifestyle (I do still eat meat, just much less and I try never to cook my veggies), I over-complicated things. But I've discovered two key tips that EASILY incorporate raw food into my diet... mix of flavors and marinate, marinate, marinate! 1.) Green smoothies ROCK! Mixing 60% tropical fruits and 40% dark green leafy vegetables together makes for an AWESOME drink!!! What an exotic and fancy way to get 5 servings of fruit and vegetables into your diet without a lot of work! Today I mixed 2 cups of spinach with 1 mango, 1 orange, 1 banana and 1/2 of a large pineapple with a splash of water into my Vitamix blender (you REALLY need a high speed blender for these smoothies) and got a wonderful drink that started out my morning quite nicely. Tomorrow I'm mixing coconut water, 1/2 cup coconut meat, 1 mango, 1/2 of a large pineapple with 1 - 1.5 cups of d...

Ok.... Green Smoothie Revolution by Victoria Boutenko... High Five Victoria, High Five!!! I was SUPER excited to start this cleanse after reading the book and even convinced my husband to do this cleanse with me. I think he agreed to it since there isn't a "salt water flush" to do every morning and I can change up the smoothies every day. Not to mention that the smoothies are blended (more bulk) instead of juiced (more liquid), so I'm thinking that "full" feeling will help the cause. He agreed to 7 days with no meat, dairy or wheat, drinking only the green smoothies from this book for all his meals during the day. I told him that he can drink as much and as many smoothies as he wants. Today was the first day for both of us and I mixed a WONDERFUL concoction using fresh, organic, pineapple, peaches, dandelion greens and celery mixed with water. The pineapple and peaches made it REALLY sweet.... so I would have to say that the first day is a SUCCESS. Tomorrow...

Well... this last Master Cleanse only lasted me 5 days.... UGH! I was so hoping to finish a 40 day cleanse this time! DANG IT!!!! Oh well, I guess I'll just switch some cleansing gears. I just read Green Smoothie Revolution by Victoria Boutenko and now I'm SUPER motivated to give this "experiment" a shot! A special shout out to my sister for recommending the book! What a great (and tasty, judging by the recipes) way to continue cleansing at a slower pace while still filling up on fruit and veggies! You just blend it all down to liquid form with a high speed blender and "viola" super green super food perfect for on-the-go! I gotta admit, a smoothie seems like the perfect vehicle to get the cleansing job done without "emptying" (you devout lemon heads KNOW what I'm talking about here) and time prepping. Plus... did I mention some of these recipes rock? Even though I'm drinking my meals, which I'm totally used to with The Master Cleanse, ...

Sorry, no pix for this one. I made these to take with me to the Halloween party last night and returned empty handed! LOL! I was complimented by a request for the recipe, so I thought I would post it here for EVERYONE!!! :) They are actually just a spin off of an old favorite of mine..... Banana Cupcakes . What a versatile recipe! Click the link for some serious YUM! Pumpkin Muffins 2 1/4 Cups whole wheat pastry flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1 tsp. baking soda 2 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg 1/2 tsp. ground ginger 1/4 tsp. ground cloves 1/2 Cup agave nectar or maple syrup 2/3 Cup unsweetened applesauce **** 1 whole egg 1 egg white 2 Cups pumpkin puree 1/3 Cup crushed pecans (optional) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients together; set aside. Mix the pumpkin, agave nectar or maple syrup and applesauce together. Beat the eggs into the wet mixture. Add wet mixture to the dry and mix well. Fill lightly oiled muffin wells 3/4 full and bake for 30-35 minutes (mini...

Ever wonder why homemade zucchini bread is so moist and yummy? Are you looking for a super moist cake recipe? I was throwing together a box cake mix and realized that I did not have the vegetable oil that the recipe called for. Remembering the snippet I read from the New McDougall's Cookbook regarding oil substitutions, and really not wanting to drive to the store, I quickly grabbed two small apples from the fridge. It took me about a minute to cored them, peel them and throw them into the Vitamix with 3 Tbsp of water to make applesauce. The recipe called for a half a cup of oil. I ended up with about 2/3 cup of organic, unsweetened applesauce... I added the whole 2/3 cup to the recipe. That little substitution was the difference between a good cake and a GREAT cake. I have NEVER had a more moist cake! The same principal applied a few weeks ago when I was preparing a meatloaf. After reading a blog post at PeerTrainer.com about hiding vegetables in everyday recipes to increase veg...

Ok, for those who may ask... here is my recipe for my gelato. As soon as I make another batch, I will post a pic. I just froze some organic peaches, so that's going to be the featured flavor... see how that works!?! hahaha! Gelato 2 Cups of Almond Milk 3/4 Cup of Coconut Oil 1/2 Cup Agave Nectar 1 tsp. Pure Organic Vanilla extract 2 Cups of your favorite organic fruit. Mix all ingredients in high speed blender and chill until very cold. Prepare in ice cream maker per manufacturer's instructions. If preparing in a Vitamix, you do not need an ice cream maker. Just increase fruit to 3 Cups and make sure fruit is frozen prior to blending. Be sure to use tamper while blending for a creamy consistency.

So I have an indulgence that has kept me going on my lifestyle change to eat healthier. In fact, I credit this for piquing my interest in raw food... almond milk!!! I have NEVER liked milk . I did not drink it growing up and in fact, watching others drink milk makes me gag. I just never got it! For me, cow's milk had a very 'off' consistency (somewhere between liquid and solid, GROSS) and an even more 'off' flavor. Enter almond milk. Almond milk was the very first raw food recipe that I attempted. I was quite successful, if I do say so myself.... and I do! I made the almond milk as a base for a gelato recipe I was also trying for the first time. I have an equal and opposite reaction to almond milk from cow's milk, but had no way of knowing, so imagine my surprise when I finished making the almond milk and poured myself a "test glass". With pursed face and squinty eyes, I plugged my nose and took a sip. "Holy Machunka! This stuff is good." Th...

Yesterday I made Coconut Ice Cream from one of my favorite raw recipe books called Raw Food Real World . The recipe itself called for an ice cream maker as well as a Vitamix, but I just used my Vitamix and it turned out AMAZING!!! It tasted great with strawberries too! I did alter the recipe from the book just a little because of the ingredients I had on hand and it still turned out fantastic! I used 1 cup of raw, organic coconut meat that I had frozen in a food saver bag a couple of months ago. I also used (from frozen) 1 1/2 cups of raw, organic coconut water, 1/4 cup agave nectar, 2 stevia packets, 1 teaspoon of organic vanilla extract and 3 tablespoons of coconut butter blended in the Vitamix on high for about 1 1/2 minutes until it was very well blended. I placed the Vitamix pitcher with the mixture into the freezer for about 3 hours and then blended again on low using the tamper until the mixture was smooth and placed back into the freezer for another two hours. It turned out PE...

Yesterday I posted a blog with the recipe for my raw candied yams and mentioned slicing the yams. I forgot to put in the post that the fun little gadget that I used to make all my yam slices uniform was a "mandolin" slicer. So this got me thinking about all the gadgets in my kitchen that I use and LOVE. As I have posted in the past, I am a gadget girl and thought it would be fun to showcase some of my "must have" tools. Here are my top 10. This is my #1: the mandolin slicer. Mine is an OXO V-Slicer. It is, in my opinion, the very best slicer on the market and the one I used to make my candied yams. It is easy to use, easy to clean (everything goes into the dishwasher) and easy to abuse. Basically, "it takes a lickin and keeps on tickin". It will slice four different slice thicknesses as well as julienne and fry cuts. I literally cut an entire bag of yams in about 10 minutes. Seriously quick food prep. And speaking of quick food prep, #2 is a food process...

One of my favorite blogs is The Raw Chef Blog by Russell James. For my birthday, my sister got me his e-recipe book filled with Tai inspired recipes. Last night: I am currently working on crepes and I gotta say that so far they are AMAZING!!! I ate the remaining batter from the blender pitcher and it was sooo yummy... um, raw. hahaha! I can picture the batter as some sort of sauce for a fruit salad maybe??? It was really that good just the way it was. This delicious batter is 2 Zucchini peeled, 1 1/2 C. of mango chunks, 1 T. lemon juice, 1 T. vanilla extract, 4 T. Amaretto flavored agave nectar, 2/3 C. flax meal that I blended in my Vitamix until it formed a slightly thick pancake-like batter. I spread the crepes to about a quarter of an inch thick on my plastic, non-stick dehydrator sheets and set the dehydrator to 105 degrees for about 4 hours. I removed the crepes from the plastic sheets and flipped them on to the dehydrator tray mesh. Because I had to go to bed, I slipped the tr...