Sometimes, we get to thinking about meals. We are so used to having to “cook” something, we bring this into our raw food diet. It seems like we should be preparing a meal, with a bunch of different sides. You know what I mean.

Well, here is a tip: Keep it simple. You always just eat regular fruit and vegetables without cooking them or making a meal out of them. Today, for work, I took with me 2 apples, 2 bananas, and a handful of grapes. I had some raw nuts and seeds to go with it. It does not seem like much, but you would be amazed at how this will fill you up.

Before venturing down the raw food road, I was always told bananas were evil. That there was so much sugar, and no fiber. What a bunch of buffoons. It is amazing at how the knowledge of main stream health is put out by people who do not have a clue about health.

You would not believe the amount of bananas and apples we now eat. When we went shopping this past Thursday, we bought 7 things of bananas (what are they called, bunches?). Yes, 7!!!! We use them in smoothies and eat them plain. If you want a really good smoothie, slice up the bananas and freeze them. Then add these to a smoothie. WOW!!

Back to the point. Do not get caught up in recipes. If you have time, make something. If not, just grab a handful of fruit and get going. Definitely do not let it be a deal breaker.

Raw Multivitamin

I was in Whole Check Foods on Sunday, buying the normal assortment of herbal coffees, organic fruits and veggies, and nuts and seeds. I thought I was just about done shopping, or hoping anyway, when I had to walk by the supplement section to check out. Right in the front of the aisle was a new display. Upon closer inspection, I soon discovered I had found what I had been looking for: A Raw Multivitamin

Yes, you read that correctly. This multivitamin has be minimally processes, and all of the raw components have been left intact. This is awesome. You may have read one of my other posts that we were using the whole foods vitamin, which is also a very good vitamin. But as always, you progress and advance is what ever you are doing. In this case, taking multivitamins, we have gone from the GNC multivitamins, to the whole food multivitamins, now to the raw multivitamins.

As it has only been 3 days, and if you are fairly healthy in the first place, taking a multivitamin should not have some immediate impact, like say, a jolt of caffeine. It is a gradual process, and just helps the underlying systems in the body. So, while I wish I could tell you I have so much energy, I can’t. But, this is because I already have energy, each and every day, based on my choices.

But I would recommend if you are going to be on a raw diet, or at least make your diet as raw as you can, to take a look at this raw multivitamin and see of it is something you are going to want to take.

They say to try to get as many different colors  of foods in your diet. There are special properties from each one of these fruits or vegetables that give it the color. So, I got to thinking as I was walking around the produce section the other day:

Are there any other fruits and vegetables that have the magenta color like the beet?

I could not think of any off the top of my head. Plus, I never did like cooked beets, so I was really searching hard in that produce section for anything else. I just could not find anything. So, I bought the beets.

Once I had them home, I had no idea what to really do with them. I honestly could not imaging slicing them up and chowing down on some raw beet slices. When all else fails for raw stuff, I turn to juicing.

If you are not into juicing, or are just getting started, then you should know there are some staples for juices. Just like SAD staples are flour, milk, and eggs, and most raw food diets have staples like agave nectar, honey, and raw nuts, juicers should have carrots, celery, and apples around.

So, first I gathered all of my ingredients:

Carrot Beet Juice Ingredients

Since this was my first time juicing a beet, I juiced the beet first just so I could taste this to see how it was. And, yes, I juiced the beet, the stem, and all of the leaves. And, I was surprised at how good it really was.

I still added all the rest of the ingredients above, and this was one of the best juices I have ever had.

Beet and Carrot Juice

The color in this juice is beautiful. And the taste is even better. I made so much, I bottled up some in one of my recycled bottles and took it to work with me. The one thing you need to know about this is it will leave your lips very red. So, be sure to have a napkin around.

Bottled Raw Beet Juice

I’ll post later about all of the health benefits of beet juice. But for not, juice away and enjoy!

One of the things I love about the raw food recipes is the simplicity of them. They are usually just a few ingredients, take a few minutes to prepare, and are ready to serve right away. This is a quick recipe that can be used for desserts or even breakfasts. It is always best if you have some fresh blueberries on hand. If not, you could substitute any other fruit or berry.

First, slice some bananas and place them in the bowl:

Sliced Bananas In A Bowl

Next, add your blueberries to the top. There really is not limit, so load it up.

Blueberries and Bananas In A Bowl

Lastly, add the cream to the top. Here is how to make the cream:

• 1/2 Cup of soaked Pine Nuts
• 1 Tablespoon of maple syrup (technically not raw, but you can add raw agave nectar)
• Filtered water

Add these ingredients into a blender and mix. You can add as much water as you want to get the consistency of a cream. Then, pour this over the top of the blue berries and bananas.

Blueberries And Cream

Raw Blueberry Crumb Pie Recipe

Here is a recipe I came across the other day, and after putting a raw spin on it, I came up with this. It works with just about any raw nut you have and any fruit you want to make into a pie. It is normally best to use the fruits that are in season where you live. I would also recommend using a fruit which is very juicy. This will more mimic the original blueberry pies we used to eat when younger. I like to call this my Raw Blueberry Crumb Pie Recipe.

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 cup of raw pumpkin seeds
• 1 cup of raw pecans (you can substitute any other raw nut for this one)
• Dash of Sea Salt
• Couple table spoons of oil (olive will give it an olive taste, so if this is a concern, then go with canola oil)
• About 1/2 cup of dates

Process the first 4 ingredients into crumbs. Then add the dates and process them until they are in fine pieces like the crumbs. Place this into the bottom of a pie pan and press down to make the crust.

Blueberry Sauce:

• 1 Cup of blueberries
• 1/2 cup of dates
• 1/2 cup of purified water

Combine all of these ingredients into a blender and process until smooth. then, pour this sauce over the top of the crust in the pie pan.

Topping:

• 1 cup of fresh blueberries

Add the blue berries to the top of the sauce. Now, serve.

Raw Blueberry Crumb Pie

People are always looking for some healthy snack recipes for children. We always play it safe when we are traveling somewhere. There is always bottled water in the back, and we normally try to put together some healthy snacks to take with us. The last thing you really want is to be out somewhere, and start to get hungry. You will then end up with headaches and stopping at the closest thing to get some food. Not a good situation at all.

For the kids, we just don’t buy anything bad for the house. I normally make my own granola and keep this around. The kids love it. They eat it plain, and also with almond milk. The granola is not 100% raw. But, I do add all of the raisins, cranberries, and nuts at the end. This keeps this part raw.

For the recipe, I sort of just wing it. But here is the basics:

• 3 – 5 cups of organic oats
• 1/2 cup of honey
• 1/2 cup of agave nectar
• 1/2 cup of 100% pure maple syrup (can add 1/2 cup of coconut oil is you want instead)
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• pinch of nutmeg
• dash of salt

I heat the honey, nectar, syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt at a low heat to mix everything up pretty good. Then I add this mixture to the oats and mix around. Ensure the oats are all wet and sticky.

Bake this at 250F for about 2-3 hours. I keep the heat lower just because I think it keeps me closer to raw (yeah, as if it really does!). When it is all done, remove from oven and allow to cool

Once cool, we place ours in a cereal tupperware thingy. I then add as many nuts, cranberries, and raisins as I want. All of the nuts are raw, and we make sure to keep them that way.

If you keep this around, you just can not go wrong. It is a healthy snack recipe for children.

Let me know if you have anything else you add to granola so I can try it.

Now is the time for corn to be in season. It is getting to where it is almost .10 per ear in the stores. Plus, it is coming as part of our Angel Food Ministries packages. So, I wanted to find something I could make with this corn, and still keep it raw. This has led me to this video on making corn chips. Enjoy!

You can see more of his videos here

Apparently, anyway. An article came out today saying the research shows that:

A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs, but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance, said Alan Dangour, one of the report’s authors. Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority.

It really amazes me people like this call themselves journalists or even researchers. I don’t believe anyone who knows anything has touted organic produce as having more nutrients than regular produce. I mean, a tomato is a tomato.

Our My biggest concern is from the junk that is sprayed on them. Pesticides can and will cause harm over the long term, and there are reports and studies to prove this. So, I am not eating organic carrots because they have more nutritional value in them. I eat them to eliminate at least one of the many ways people can get cancer.

I found this article, The Pesticide Picture, that can give you some more information on this topic.

You see there are 2 problems with this original study saying that organic is not healthier than conventional.

1. We actually paid someone to come up with this garbage. I would like to know how much of someones tax dollars went into this study?
2. More ignorant people who do not know any better or who do not think for themselves will think this is gospel. They will now go around and tell other ignorant people this very statement, and make it to be fact.
   (Trust me, I have family members that actually believe your heart only has a certain number of beats in a life time. And, if you use it up too fast, via exercise, then you will die sooner – honestly, I can not make this stuff up)

Please do the research yourself, and see where all of the arrows are pointing. Do not just follow some story by some yahoo that has no evidence of this being true. It is also bad journalism to even report this as fact. There is no other side to the story, so it makes it seem as this is fact.

Just stick to what you know is true and you will be just fine.

We have a fig tree in our backyard. Nothing we actually planted, it just came with the house. And, for the past 3 years we did absolutely nothing with them. I mean, the kids would walk around the tree and eat them right off of it, but as for us, there were of no imporance. Since we have been educated about the benefits of raw food, figs seemed like something we should investigate. Afterall, they are free!

You can eat them raw like this. And, there is nothing wrong with them. They are actually pretty good. But, I mean, who can eat a bucket of figs? And, I am not too sure about freezing them. So, we looked into dehydrating them. This, my friend, is the ticket to eating figs.

All I did was pick as many as I could (that were ripe). I washed them all pretty good. Birds love figs, so this means they are all around the tree and around the good figs. So, wash them pretty good. Then you just slice them up. As you can see by the pictures, I sliced them inquarters and in flat slices. Just to see how each one turned out.

Here art the ones I sliced into quarters:

And here are ones I sliced into, well, slices:

Notice I used the parchment paper on the slices. After you have them all sliced up, then just dehydrate them. Depending on how long you want to listen to a dehydrator will determine the settings of your dehydrator.

Now, once they are done, just store them in an air tight container. We store all of our stuff like this in mason jars.

The kids can come and eat the figs as much as they want to. And, they are still considered a raw food. Also, they are delicious when added to granola instead of raisins or dates.