Raw Chocolate Fudge Sauce!
Hey everyone! For all those who couldn’t make it to my “Just Desserts” Class at Catch a Healthy Habit Cafe, here’s a lil’ taste of what was being whipped up!
Chocolate Fudge Sauce~
5 Dates (pitted …and checked for “frass”!)
1/4 cup of water
1/2 cup of agave nectar (or if you’re a freakin’ beegan like me, raw honey)
5 tablespoons of raw cacao powder (oh yes!!)
1″ piece of vanilla bean pod (or the seeds of a 1″ piece if you’re using a standard blender, or a 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract)
pinch of sea salt (to amplify the yummy goodness)
Blend everything until silky smooth. This cacao-concoction will keep in your fridge for 3-4 days and makes an awesome ice cream topping as well as a heck of a good dip for fresh strawberries or slices of ripe bananas!
The class was a blast and lookin’ forward to my next one “Viva la Mexicana!” hope to see ya there! :0)
Banana Ice Cream Fudge Sundae! :0)
Hey everyone! Summer may be winding down here in CT ,but anytimes a good time for ice cream as far as I’m concerned especially when it’s raw, dairy free, sugar free and easy as heck to make! So I wanna share with you this simple technique for whipping up banana ice cream using your food processor!
You’re gonna need~
Some beautifully ripened, peeled and frozen bananas. My recommendation is 3-4 frozen bananas per serving (for a generous portion…which is totally do-able when it’s something so guilt-free!). Chop these yummy mama-jamas into slices 1-2″ long.
And your standard run of the mill food processor. If you’re unsure of the durability of your food processor you could allow these chunks to thaw for about 5-10 minutes. I’m using a cheapy $30 food processor and haven’t had any problems with using bananas straight outta the freezer ,but you may wanna experiment. In my early days of raw food prep I killed a couple blenders with my zeal for thick, frozen fruit smoothies! Thats why you’ll notice in many of my recipe videos using my standard blender I’m blending the ingredients in stages. *lol*
Now just assemble your food processor and fire it up! I set mine to the highest setting. Then drop in your banana slices a chunk or two at a time until you got ‘em all going. The maximum amount I recommend per batch would probly be 4-6 bananas. You may occasionally have to stop the processor and scrape down the sides to get everything evenly ground. As soon as the mix looks blended (ie the bananas don’t resemble chunks anymore) it’s done!
Serve this banana ice creamy goodness immediately as it tends to melt quick! You can also experiment with blending in other frozen fruits with your banana chunks to concoct your own fun flavors! Try Banana-Mango, Banana-Blueberry or the classic combo Banana-Strawberry! For other awesome add-in’s try cacao powder for a chocolate ice cream, vanilla bean seeds or extract (preferably alcohol- free but, use what ya got!) or even shredded coconut!
Now to make this ice cream into my favorite sundae you’re gonna need to whip up some Fudge Sauce~
1/2 C of pitted dates
1/2-1 C of water (depending on how thick you like your fudge sauce)
1-3 Tablespoons of raw cacao powder depending on how chocolatey you like it! *for an awesome source of raw cacao powder keep reading after the recipe!*
seeds of a 1″ piece of vanilla bean pod (or 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract)
pinch of salt
Soak the dates in the water for about 15-20 minutes to soften. Toss the dates and soak water along with the other ingredients into your blender and blend thoroughly until smooth! Viola! This fudgey topping will keep in your fridge for up to 2 days …if you don’t drown your ice cream in it before than. It also makes a nice dip for fresh strawberries especially when you add in a lil extra cacao powder to make it dark chocolate style!
For the final topping simply use some soaked walnuts (you can use soaked and dehydrated for a bit more crunchiness ,but just soaked works fine!). I soak my walnuts for about 6-8 hours to get out all those tannic acids, this not only makes the walnuts easier to digest ,but leaves them sweeter and less bitter!
This Sundae is the bomb! Sure to win over you and many of your non-raw friends and family. It’s also great for anyone looking to avoid dairy and or refined sugars! Happy Sundaes! :0)
A lot of people ask me where they can get raw cacao powder and other raw goodies and now I got a good one! My buddy Justin of Raw Food Health Tips recently opened up an online raw food store called Shop Raw Foods (click on the link on my sidebar to check it out!). Justin not only shares a lot of awesome raw living tips on his website and blog but, also is striving to provide raw food staples at reasonable prices, so you don’t have to break the bank to get your raw goodies! He has raw food staples such as cacao powder, cacao butter and cacao chunks (at really awesome prices!) and he also carries books, dvds, raw food prep equipment and raw food supplements and superfoods for those looking to play around with some supercharged goodies! Check out his stuff and tell him Rory says hi! :0)
RAW BBQ Portabella burger and some fun news :0)
Are you hungry for a savory raw meal that you can whip up in minutes? Then give one of the recipes from my new e-book a try. The Simple BBQ Portabella Burger! This bad boy has a LOT of flavor, great texture and is super quick to make!
You’ll need ~
4-8 large portabella mushroom caps (depending on how many burgers ya like and or how many you’re serving) Don’t be afraid of having a couple of extras as they’ll keep in the fridge up to two days after making, great for popping in your lunch box for the next day or having dinner ready to go for tommorow evening!
Now for the BBQ marinade~
1/2 cup chopped tomatoe
3 sun dried tomatoes
2-3 dates (you could substitute with a tablespoon of honey or agave)
1/4 clove of garlic
1/2 teaspoon of ground mustard
1 tablespoon of chili powder
1/2 teaspoon of paprika
1/2 teaspoon of onion powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon (or more!) of cayenne pepper
pinch of black pepper
Rinse and gently clean your portabella caps and allow to dry either in a colander or on paper towels. They don’t need to be super dry, but it helps them to absorb the marinade.
Blend your marinade ingredients in your blender until smooth or smoothish, because of it’s sticky nature you’re gonna want to occasionally stop the blender and scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula.
Slather your mushroom caps top and bottom with the marinade and allow to sit in a dish to marinade for about 30 mins at room temperature. You could also pop ‘em in your dehydrator for about 30 mins to warm them up. Either way they’re great!
These burgers are crazy yummy! Serve them up either on your favorite raw bread or between romaine lettuce leafs, with some sliced tomato and onion, a sprinkle of black pepper, and maybe some of my Sunflower Seed Ranch Dressing!
This morning I had a ball talking with Revvell of Rawkin’ Raw Radio! I got to share how I got started in raw living, we discussed issues such as gettin’ too skinny on a raw vegan diet and how to avoid it also a bit about being raw in a cold climate. It was a lot of fun and will be up on Let’s Talk Raw August 25th! Hope you’ll check it out! :0)
More fun news! Not only will I be doing a food demo at Raw Spirit Festival East but, also at the Raw Spirit Festival In Prescott AZ!! Really geeked up about both events and hope to meet you there! :0D
Raw Vegan Burritos and other goodies for your eyes!
Hey Everyone! On Raw-Fu this week Bunny Berrys’ been focusing on the eyes and how raw foods can not only support your vision but, leave you with a set of shining peepers! Some people might wonder how much raw-foods have done for my vision considering that I’m still wearing glasses. Well, my vision hasn’t been totally restored *…yet! Hey I like to keep an open mind. :0) * but, about a year and a 1/2 into my raw foods adventure I went to pick up a new pair of glasses. After doing my exam the eye-doctor remarked that she was surprised that my lens prescription didn’t need an upgrade (!!). Awesome! So although I didn’t notice an improvement, the fact that I didn’t need stronger lenses after five years of using the same glasses was surprising, as the trend usually goes that your vision degrades over-time when your eyes are dependant on glasses!
Another benefit of eating raw I’ve noticed is that my eyes are a lot clearer than ever before. The red-lines that used to adorn them so frequently have faded to near-nill! The whites of my eyes are whiter and overall look and feel quite a bit better than they had prior to adding more raw-eats to my diet!
In my video contribution to the FU I’ve concocted a Raw vegan Burrito using some powerful foods that keep your eyes shinin’! Check it out below :0)
Heres a break-down of some other goodies that are good for your eyes~
Foods rich in sulfur such as garlic, radish, onion, broccoli, cauliflower, and cayenne to name a few. Our bodies use sulfur to produce Glutathione which is a powerful antioxidant that keeps your lenses strong and healthy. Sulfur is also said to have cleansing powers that can help clear out the junk in your fine capillaries!
Un-cooked raw-fats are a great stand in for cooked fats whenever possible in your diet (especially as a replacement for animal based ones) because cooked fats are missing the lipase enzymes necessary to break them down. These undigested fats float around our bloodstream and can settle in the capillaries of your eyes causing harmful blockages. Some ways you can reduce your cooked fats intake could be: using blended nuts and seeds in the bases of your dips and creamy salad dressings, making nut or seed based milks in place of pasteurized milk, and also making flax crackers and or raw chips to replace cooked tortillias and crackers. These stand-ins also have a butt-ton of additional benefits besides containing their own digestive enzymes!
Heres’ my Ranch Dressing Recipe Using sunflower seeds in place of dairy!
Silicon rich foods promote moist flexible joints and connective tissues, this also includes the ones in your eyes! Such helpful edibles include radish, hemp, romaine lettuce, marjoram, young salad greens, and the skins of cukes*, bell peppers* and tomatoes* ( *if using non-organic ones I give them a thorough scrubbing of the skins using either a pre-packaged veggie wash, all natural dish soap, or vinegar, and rinse thoroughly to remove that waxy coating because it’s not digestible :0P ).
Zinc laden eats are a must for eyesight (and many other internal happenings!). Zinc supports retinal function by allowing your body to release vitamin A from the liver and balance it’s optimal levels in the bloodstream! Zinc can be eaten in the tasty form of pumpkin, sunflower, poppy, and sesame seeds, pecans, coconuts and spinach. Sounds like a good salad recipe to me!
Eating lots of antioxidant rich fruits and veggies are another way to give your vision a boost. Blueberries and all other berries, grapes, dark leafy greens and cacao (oh yessss!) are all awesome sources.
Green smoothies!! Green smoothies are another awesome way to roll all this ocular nutrition into a delicious drinkable. Greens contain lutein which helps prevent cataracts. Also the nitrates in many leafy greens appears to be converted into nitric oxide in our bodies which it uses to regulate the vascular system and possibly lowering blood pressure! Well that sounds awesome right, but what does blood pressure have to do with eyesight? Well high-blood pressure puts excessive pressure on the tiny capillaries of our eyes, so the more you can do to maintain a healthy blood pressure , the better!
Here’s to healthy happy ocular orbs! Peace and love~ Rory :0)
Kevin and Annmarie kickin’ it at Catch!
Kevin and Annmarie Gianni stopped by Catch this past Tuesday for Cinco De Mayo! Kevin did a fun impromptu live video direct from his phone to twitter! Gotta love technology :0)
Click the above pic to check out the video!
Annmarie rockin' the food prep and Kevin talkin' about all things fun and healthy!
The evening was a blast! Kev and Annmarie did an awesome talk/food prep demo! The food was Mexican inspired, in honor of the holiday. An awesome taco “meat” made with sunflower seeds, carrots and spices that could easily win over any carnivore or raw foodies taste buds! This mix was served on romaine leaves with a dallop of spicy mole sauce (featuring raw-cacao powder) , a mix of avocados and tomatoes and generous topping of cashew cheese. Muy Bueno!!
Viva la live foods!!
During Annmarie’s demo Kevin gave a great talk about all things health! The main topics were the principles of his new book “High Raw”. The book is awesome for the average person getting started with raw-foods. Its focus is not setting a goal of 100% strict raw but, rather goin’ for a high percentage of raw-foods and the awesome health benefits that go along with it! I agree whole-heartedly with this approach to raw-eating as goin’ “100%” may seem too lofty a goal to start out with. When I first got into raw my goal was 70% and it just went on from there gradually and naturally winding up where I’m at now!
Kevin also got into many other subjects regarding health, from not gettin’ caught up in health protocols without stopping to check and see if they’re necessary, and the importance of not over complicating the simple truth that eating more fresh fruits and veggies is good for you! Great advice and a lot of fun anecdotes from their fun travels in the Kale Whale exploring the many venues and people in the world of healthy living!
After the talk ended and the crowd headed home Kevin and Annmarie hung out for a while chatting with Paul. Glen and myself. I told Annmarie how jealous Isabel was that Amanda and I had got to tour the Kale Whale at their send off party and she suggested right away that I invite them to come down so she could show her around it! Amanda and Isabel arrived and we all had a great time shooting the breeze and goofing off. We love what Kevin and Annmarie are all about with their mission of spreading healthy info through their work and they felt the same way about what Amanda and I are up to with our videos and my raw food classes, they even loved the smoothie jar bags we had given them for their trip! Annmarie hooked us up with a bottle of the Tooth Soap that they’re selling (amongst a slew of other healthy and raw-living goodies they’ve discovered during their travels!) and it’s awesome stuff! Check out Amanda’s post about it.
For an incredible wealth of fun, informative videos and drool worthy recipes I suggest you check out Kevin and Annmaries’ site www.renegadehealth.com and look into Kevins’ book at www.GoHighRaw.com ! Peace and happy healthy wishes everyone! :0)
The big 3-0!
Hey everyone! Long time no see! Things have been goin’ good and goin’ full steam since the big move here to CT! It’s been a transition for me and my family but, a very cool one. Lotsa fun stuff to catch you all up on, ain’t that the way it goes? When you have a whole buncha stuff to write about …you don’t seem to have the time to sit down (get in writing mode) and write about it! More of this jabbering to come but, first I wanna get it out there that this Friday April 24th I’m reaching the 3 decade mark! :0)
Check out more of my antics at www.RawFu.com !
Now if you asked me what I thought about turning 30 back when I was around 20 I’d probably have been like “blah” or worse, but after all the changes I’ve went through since gettin’ with the raw-foods and exercising I’m actually looking forward to it! Heck I feel waaaaay better now than I did back then! Besides the weight loss (which was a big change!) I have so much more energy, less aches, pains and stuffiness, and I rarely get sick! It’s been an interesting and sometimes challenging journey to where I’m at now, but it was always fun (as any raw-food journey should be. Keep it fun and you’ll keep with it!). If you want to check out why I went raw, here’s a link to an older post. I’m lookin’ forward to seeing where I’ll go from here and sharing some of my adventures, misadventures and things I learn along the way with everyone in hopes that it’ll inspire others to give this tao of munching a chance and seeing where it leads them!
This was me at 20 years old
This is me at 30!
Who says getting older has to be a bad thing?
I’ve got a lot of other stuff to report and catch everyone up on, but until then I’ll leave ya this fun lil’ video showing some of the cool synchronicities that have been popping up since I’ve landed in CT. What we’re the odds of running into Phil and Shazzie at the same time? I don’t know but, it was a lotta fun! They both have an awesome energy about them and it was kick-@$$ shootin’ the breeze and hangin’ at the cafe.
Peace everyone and keep it rawkin’! :0)
Knife Skills!
It’s actually an 8″ chef-knife but, you know we guys like to exaggerate.
I’m not gonna show ya how to throw ‘em …although that would be fun! I want to briefly talk about one of the most important kitchen tools I own, my chef knife. Sooooo many food prep tasks can be accomplished with one good sharp knife and a good cutting board. The knife is a non-serrated 8″ chef knife with a nice solid construction (aka the inner portion of the handle is actually part of the blade making it verrry sturdy). If you’ve ever had the mispleasure of using a knife with one of those bolted on wooden grips that actually wobbles a slight bit while you’re attempting to slice your food, you know how important this is! I prefer a straight edge to a serrated blade for two reasons, one it’s a lot easier to sharpen and two, it doesn’t tear up the produce as much. I use this bad-boy for everything from peeling watermelons to mincing herbs and smushing garlic. It handles about 95% of my cutting work. The cutting board is made of bamboo, which rocks because not only is bamboo beautiful, durable, and naturally water resistant but, it’s also a more sustainable choice than wood! I like the feel of a bamboo (or wood) cutting board over plastic because the cuts feel much more stable. The blade seems to grip the surface more securely (especially for mincing) with less slipping and the blade sinks into the board a bit going clean through the produce; whereas I’ve had many incomplete slices with plastic.
My weapon of choice
For the other 5% of my cutting tasks~
First, a few inexpensive paring knives. These are great for intricate cutting tasks like making garnishes, or slicing yucky bits off of produce. I always have one handy when I’m prepping a bunch of bananas for the freezer.
Gotta love frozen bananas! Awesome to have on hand for smoothies, shakes and ice-creams.
Lastly, a relic from my former meat eating days is this massive cleaver. This mamajama gets used verrrry infrequently, but it is worth having on hand because it’s perfect for opening young Thai coconuts! I simply set the coconut butt side down with the pointed tip up and make chops using the bottom corner of the blade in a square pattern around the tip. Since the base of the coconut is flat, you needn’t hold onto it as your chopping which could save your fingers! Rotate and repeat after each chop until the cuts get through the fiberous outercoating and the shell. Then you can just pop off the squarish cap you’ve created and and pour out the coconut water. To get the meat out try this technique I learned from Glen Colello; using a flexible rubber spatula begin to work it’s edge in between the meat and the shell and slowly go down and around in a sort of spiraling pattern and if done correctly the coconut meat will just fall out intact! Awesome time saving technique! I don’t usually do a whole lot with Thai coconuts, for cost and convenience reasons, but they are a fun treat and a great base for smoothies and raw ice creams!
Here's the coconut cut being demonstrated on a cantaloupe.
These 3 knives and a nice lil’ ceramic peeler (mentioned in my last post) are about all the hand-held cutting tools I need. I’m a kitchen gizmo fan at heart but in retrospect there’s been quite a few purchases I’ve regretted! I’ve since given many impulsively bought items away because I found that they barely got used and were cluttering up my kitchen draws. Just a lil’ advice for those (like me) who get lost in the kitchen section of the dept store for hours on end. Most people may already have an awesome set of knives on hand, but if not, a collection like mine wouldn’t set you back too much. The cleaver was about $12, my favorite chef knifey-knife was $10 and a set of the lil’ paring knives was about $3. One last important thing to invest in right away would be a knife sharpener. Maintaining a sharp edge not only makes your cutting tasks a lot easier, precise, and enjoyable but, it’s also a lot safer.
A lot of people get anxious around a really sharp knife but it’s actually the safest way to go. A dull knife can easily roll off produce during an attempted cut and get a finger instead! So keep it sharp and keep it safe!Haha. Sounded like a knife safety spokesperson for a moment there, maybe a I should draw up a lil’ mascot. Maybe a shiny chef knife with a sharpener in one hand and a box of band-aids in the other, posing the question “Which do you prefer?” *lol* I digress!
Peace everyone and fun slicin’, dicin’, mincing and choppin’! :0)
My top five books
Recently I was tagged by my buddyYardnsacker asking “What are your top five favorite books?” This was a tough question as I have soooo many faves so I picked some that were particularly inspirational to me. :0) I hope you enjoy!
Green Vanilla Bean Shake – Blindfolded!
I actually invented this yummy green goodness when trying to bulk-up for the winter. This isn’t to say that this a fattening smoothie by any means though. The raw fats in the almond milk allow for optimum absorption of the amino-acids and minerals in the greens. Good for people trying to work-out and put on some muscleage. Also it’s great for anyone who’s having trouble gettin’ enough greens in their diet, kids especially! Even my youngest nephew, who tolerates but doesn’t get too excited by green smoothies, downed a bunch of it. And a friends’ teenage son housed three glasses in a row! If you like vanilla shakes you’re gonna looove this dairy free version and if ya have issues with the color.. pretend it’s a shamrock shake! lol
2 cups almond milk
2 -3 frozen bananas
pinch salt
2 big handfuls of greens
3 Tbsp raw honey (or to taste) or any sweetener you prefer
1/2 vanilla bean pod
Blend and enjoy!
Autumn days and Creamy Teriyaki Salad Dressing!
Hey everyone! Autumn is in full swing here the leaves are dropping and the weather is getting chilly. Not lookin’ forward to the diminishing supplies from local farm-stands but, it’s all good – we’ll just have to do some improvising. Regardless of the produce situation I enjoy this time of year! For some reason what most consider ”dreary weather” was always comforting to me …nature’s way of shrugging off Summer’s growth and settling down for a nap before starting the whole cycle over again…something oddly soothing about that. :0)
Here’s the recipe and video for the Creamy Terryaki Salad Dressing that I promised you in the salad post!
1/4 C of water
1+1/2 Tbsps agave nectar
1+1/2 Tbsps Braggs’ liquid aminos (or raw tamari *wheat free*, or nama shoyu)
1/2-1tsp. fresh grated ginger root (you can substitute with powdered ginger root)
1/4 clove of garlic
1/4-1/2 tsp. black pepper
dash of cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp. of hemp oil
4 Tbsp.’s raw tahini (or you can use whole sesame seeds if you’re using a high-powered blender)
Then ya blend!
This recipe covers about two large servings of salad but, you can double it and store the leftovers for about two days in the fridge. Enjoy :0)
Pumpkin carvin’ and pumpkin smoothie’ing
This Halloween we were inclined to forgo the trick-or-treating. The weather was bitter cold and Isabel isn’t that much of candy lover, so we put in a scary movie with big killer bugs (“Mimic“-kick-a$$ movie if ya like sci-fi horror flicks) and attacked some hapless pumkins!
Things were groovy until when carving the top off the big one we started to get a craving for raw-pumpkin pie…and we didn’t have a lot of the ingredients on hand. What to do? Smoothiefy that mofo!
For this autumnal beverage you’ll need the following…
1 C Almond (or other mild nut-milk)
1+1/2 C cubed chunks of fresh pumpkin
1/2 C soaked dates ( or 2 tbsps honey or agave… less if you don’t have much of a sweet tooth)
1/2-1 tsp. minced fresh ginger root
1″ Piece of vanilla bean ( or 1 tsp. extract )
3/4 tsp. powdered cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
about 1/2 tsp. nut meg ( fresh ground is the bestest )
pinch of salt
2 frozen bananas ( broken into chunks )
Blend everything until smooth and creamy and have your pie and drink it too!
*Some pumpkins were definitely harmed in the making of this smoothie*
Viva la Salad
When most people hear that I’m a raw-vegan they ask me “what do you eat? Salad??” To this I say…
Well to be fair I do eat a LOT of salad. Not because there aren’t other delicious raw-dishes to munch (Raw-pizzas, seed cheeze wraps, living miso soups, raw burgers (meat-free of course),
Un-chicken salad, raw tacos, veggie-nori rolls with mock salmon pate and many, many other amazing choices in healthy cuisine) but because salads are freakin’ easy and tasty. Average prep-time of 10 mins for a dinner for two, and average yumminess ..up to you!
Most people think of salad as boring because of the lame examples out there.. all these resteraunts crankin’ out bland iceberg laden creations with watery tomatoes and the occasional bit of red onion…if you’re lucky. To give salads a fair shot for all those doubters go pick up a bag or 16 oz. box (or three if you’re like us) of organic mixed baby greens, a couple of niiice tomatoes, an apple if you like, some red-onion (a lil’ goes a long way in my opinion) or scallions if you like, and maybe some avacado! Whip yourself up a salad with such a yummy melee and you might change your opinion of them!
“Dipping Salads” are another tasty and fun way to enjoy them. Just prepare your fave raw-dip or dressing, put it in a small bowl and arrange greens and finger-food sized veggies around it! These are great to munch on while enjoying a movie!
For non-raw peeps go with whatever salad dressing that gets you to include more of this great stuff into your diet! If you notice gas or indigestion after eating salads, this is probably a sign of hydrochloric acid deficiency. A lot of people aren’t getting enough greens in their diet so your body slows down it’s production of this important digestive juice. To help your body out try enjoying an orange before or after your salad to add some organic acids into your system. This helped me a lot when I started gettin’ hardcore with the greenage!
If your looking into adding more greens to your diet (which I strongly recommend to everyone, it’s worked wonders for me!) a great way to get ‘em in an easy to digest form is green smoothies! These give you the greens in a very palatable and easy to digest form and encourage your body to begin puttin’ out the hydrochloric acids. Which will allow you to enjoy your salads more! Green smoothies deserve a post (or ten) all their own because the health benefits of them are incredible! For more info about the importance of green smoothies, check out Victoria Boutenko’s Green for Life. For smoothie recipes in the meanwhile check out one of my older recipe videos!
For raw-dressing options there are tons of recipes out there. I’m going to share my recipe for creamy terryaki but I really want to do a vid for it so that’ll be coming soon!!
Going raw on the go!
This year for Isabel’s birthday we headed to the Baltimore Aquarium to see some awesome fishies and other animals! I love going on trips but sometimes the lack of raw-food options can be a bit annoying, so ya gotta improvise!
One of the most important tips I can offer to those trying to stay raw (or eat healthy in general) is eating a good breakfast. Usually I like to roll outta bed at the last minute and take off but, when I’m gonna be gone the entire day I try to make it a point to get up earlier and give myself a chance to fuel up. This morning I had a cereal consisting of pumpkin seeds, soaked walnuts, raisins, sliced bananas and lightly-sweetened walnut milk!
For the trip up we brought along jars of green smoothie that we prepared the night before. Green smoothies are amazing powerhouses of nutrition and can be quite satisfying. They also travel well! Get yourself an insulated travel mug (preferably one with a non-reactive glass or stainless steel lining) or jar and your mobile!
Filling up before you get where you’re going is a good idea because avoiding the various munchies they have will be a lot easier on a full stomach!
If the place you’re heading to doesn’t allow “outside food or drinks” to be brought in *grrrrrrr*, then relax, you still have some options for sticking to your raw-ness. You could try being ninja and sneak in a baggie of trail mix! My fave lately is pumpkin seeds, raisins and some walnuts or pecans. Most places have vendors or a food court that will offer salads and maybe fruit. At the aquarium they had both options. I went for the fruit cup which wasn’t bad at all.
We hit Hershey Park this year and went the Subway route where they have salads, no raw or vegan dressings though *bummer*. When we can bring our own eats we like to take along a big salad with a container of raw-dressing or dip and some fruits.
With a cooler and some imagination the sky’s the limit when it comes to bringing along raw-goodies for a nice picnic!
In the car we usually like to have a cooler with some fruit and raw-snacks ready to eat when we leave. This gives us something to look forward to if the place had nothing raw! You could always stop at a near-by grocery or health food store to score some raw-eats if that option presents itself.
Hope these tips help make your trips a lil’ easier. Peace! :0)
Super easy raw tacos!
Raw avocado tacos~ super quick and tasty!
Your taco filling is complete! Now to serve it up right!
Raw Orange Soda
Raw Soda??
You may have noticed that some soda companies have put forth efforts to “naturalize” their products by removing high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors and flavors. This is cool I guess …a lil’ half-butted step in the right direction. I won’t bother to go into a rant on sodas negative impact on our health, but rather take the idea of a healthy alternative a few steps further!
When I first began to go raw I was down to a couple of glasses of soda a week but, I had been meaning to cut it out all together for a while. One day when contemplating ways to replace this fizzy badness with some fizzy goodness I remembered a fave drink from back in the day when we had this lil’ Italian grocery store up the street…Orangina! This stuff was awesome! Basically an effervescent orange juice flavored beverage. It was really refreshing and not too sweet. Eureka! Splash of fresh squeezed OJ and Sparkling mineral water for the fizzy goodness! Mineral water is generally rich in calcium, magnesium, silica, potassium and may occasionally contain iron and zinc as well (depending on the springs location and geological constituents). Wow! Going from a beverage that typically leaches minerals from the body to one that adds them! That’s a big leap in the right direction! The effervescence is naturally occurring in some cases but is usually adding during the bottling process. The carbonation (whether naturally occurring or not) adds carbonic acid to the drink which can cause some leaching of calcium from the body but, I’d imagine that in the case of mineral water this is balanced out by the calcium content of the water, either way …it still beats the heck outta soda!
This recipe can be remixed many ways using different citrus juices. We’ve also experimented with concord grapes that we’ve blended and strained, adding a touch of agave to sweeten it up and ya got a pretty good grape soda goin’! Now all you need is a bowl of soaked and dehydrated pumpkin and sunflower seeds tossed with either a lil’ hemp or cold pressed olive oil and a dash of salt (and or other spices) and you got an awesome snack to enjoy while kicking back and watching a movie!
Detoxifying your home
Detoxifying ~ it’s not just for bodies!
Looong before I discovered the awesome health benefits of the raw-foods lifestyle, yeah way back when I was a teenager and munched my share of junk-food, I had a passion for living an earth friendly lifestyle. I learned a lot about the many issues surrounding the use of synthetic chemical household products from the pollution involved in their production, the effects they have on our indoor environments (i.e. our homes!) and the after effects when they were washed down the drain (adding more volatile compounds to our wastewater). I was excited whenever I found a safer version of a cleaning product my family used (yeah I’ve always been a bit dorky!) and often the best ones were also ones that I could make myself using non-toxic (often formerly edible) household products such as baking soda and vinegar! Like I once heard in a movie, “With enough baking soda and vinegar one could blow up just about anything” wait…they were talking about soap…oh well back to the dynamos of eco-friendly cleaning. BS and V. You can use either of these on their own or in combination to clean darn near anything!! There have been whole books written on the many uses of both of these products.
You can replace your:
Carpet freshener, stain remover, tub and tile scrub, toilet cleaner, all purpose spray cleaners, window sprays, fabric softeners, laundry boosters, sink drain deodorizers, oven and range top cleaners and shower spray using either baking soda or vinegar alone or in combination!! Imagine what a huge reduction in pollution that would amount to!
How they work.
Let’s start with baking soda, a.k.a. sodium bicarbonate. Baking soda has a natural tendency towards neutralizing acids and balancing ph. What this means is that odors which are generally acid based are neutralized! Also most dirt and grease around the house is composed of fatty acids which can be neutralized by baking soda and will then dissolve away in water! Baking soda has a soft crystalline molecular structure which makes it an awesomely effective yet gentle abrasive substance for scrubbing!
On the other side of the ph scale we have vinegar. Vinegar is formed when alcohol is allowed to ferment into acetic acid. Being an acid, vinegar boasts the power of a solvent and also has been found to have disinfectant, antifungal and anti-mold properties! In many studies it’s been found to kill 99% of bacteria, 82% of mold and 80% of germs (viruses) when used straight up with its original 5% vinegar solution!
Here are some formulas to get you started!
A spray bottle full of a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water can be used to clean windows and other glass surfaces, wipe down counter tops, cutting boards, stove tops, and get rid of food residues on your fridge and freezers’ interior. Spritz it on your dishes in the sink as a pre-wash to loosen up the tough stuff, clean your toilet seat and lid and spray down your shower after each use to prevent mold and mildew growth and reduce hard water build up and soap scum. Spray on clothes and carpet stains and blot out with a rag or paper towel (this works better the sooner you get to it, just like other cleaners).
Use about ½ cup of vinegar in a bucket of water to mop your floors. It’ll dissolve all sorts of spilled dried on foods, grime, and reduces germs and molds in the process!!
Pour a cup of vinegar in your toilet and let it sit for about half hour then scrub as normal without the need of any synthetic cleaners!
Adding a ¼ cup of vinegar to the rinse cycle of your laundry will act as a natural fabric softener. I’ve also found it boosts the cleaning power of my detergent when I add it to the wash cycle!
Pour some vinegar down a smelly drain and let it set for an hour (if possible) to dissolve food gunk deposits and kill bacteria and molds in the p-trap.
A neat way to unclog drains ~ pour about a ¼ cup of baking soda into the drain and get the sinks plug ready. Next pour in a ½ cup of vinegar and plug ASAP! The chemical reaction will cause a fizzing and build of gas which may help push the clog down, kinda like a lil’ model volcano goin’ off in your plumbing! Sweet!
Baking Soda can be kept in a squeeze condiment container on your sink top where you’ll find it handy for scrubbing the grime and mildew off of your sinks interior and gently polishing the faucet and fixtures as well as your tile backsplash. It’ll also help scrub away oily residues from plates, pots, and pans etc., and de-funkify your plastic storage containers! Keep one of these squeeze containers handy in the bathroom as well for scrubbing tiles, sinks, fixtures, and the tub!
Fill a mason jar with baking soda and add in some powdered cinnamon, or dried mint leaves and/or essential oils. Shake it thoroughly and keep it stored in a cool dark place. This powder can be sprinkled on your carpets and allowed to set for an hour or more it will absorb and neutralize odors then just vacuum away! This powder can also be sprinkled in funky trashcans and the litter box!
And everyone knows about baking sodas ability to absorb fridge and freezer funk! Just leave a slightly open box in the fridge. Mind the placement though; I’ve had the displeasure of having to clean up a butt-ton of spilled powder a few times myself.
Now you have an arsenal of earth-friendly cleaners to get your place clean and still keep it “green”!
Many of these cleaners can be further pimped out with the addition of all natural essential oils such as lavender, patchouli, ylang-ylang, lemon, lime, orange, cinnamon, vanilla, sandalwood, thyme- the list of awesome scents available goes on and on! Many essential oils have aromatherapuetic qualities which is an added bonus! Be sure to check any precautions with the oils and use your best judgment when adding scents to the cleaners for their purposes, i.e. you might not want to put patchouli in the spray you use for the fridgerator unless you wanna get a whiff of the 70’s when you open the door, not to mention what your food would taste like! Ewww)
Smoothie Jar Bag
Smoothie Jar bags! My name is Rory and I like crafts…there, I said it. A lot of people like to goof on a guy that digs crafts (especially ones involving sewing) but I don’t care! This kinda stuff rocks! I’ve always been into drawing, making hemp-jewelry, painting on rocks and pots, and making lil sculptures out of random stuff. Art was definitely my favorite class back in the school days. When I discovered YouTube my instant fave was Threadbangers, Man I love that show! I started drawing on my t-shirts (and I am soon to start experimenting with appliqué) and dreaming up new ways to pimp out my clothes and give them a custom twist. At the same time I was delving into the raw-foods world (Smoothies galore!) and began to realize that there were no decent portable drink containers with a glass lining.
Why was glass so important? Well it has been found that plastic drink and food containers can leach chemicals into the foods they store (yeeeech to say the least). I didn’t need a scientific study to confirm that I could often taste a funky plastic aftertaste in my beverages after they’d been in my travel mug for over an hour. So I started using glass mason jars to tote around my beverages. This was great because they’re inexpensive, non-reactive, and are easy to clean. I’d simply pour in my smoothie, pop a bendy straw in there so I could just unscrew the lid and take a sip, screw the lid back on and I was on my way…sounds good right? Well sometimes it was a pain in the hinder. (laughing) The inner lid often fell out of the sealing ring and would plop on my clothes (yay…) and the straw was always a mess with smoothie so taking a sip meant my soul patch getting a nice primer coat of smoothie stucco. This madness had to stop!
Luckily this was easily fixed, by drilling a hole in the lid for a straw I could keep the lid on and still get a drink. Sweet! But, the store bought drink containers still had a leg up on my jar, they were insulated! Mason jars rock but, glass is very conductive and my smoothies would warm up pretty quick and leave a gallon of condensation on whatever it was sitting on. What to do? In comes those cheap $2 or less) freezer bags from the grocery store! Yeah! Now to cover the jar in this material and bag it up! In our early version my wife beautifully sewed together a bag out of the pattern I cut from an old band T, add a strap for easy carrying and voila! We had a smoothie jar bag!
Well some people were pretty impressed with these lil’ bad boys and suggested we sell them so we concocted a much more pimped out version with some awesome fabrics, wide comfy straps, and a better insulating material; a foil coated bubble-wrap insulation used in homes! It’s completely non-toxic and the bubble-wrap adds quite a degree of cushioning to the jar which should help reduce incidences of a breakage, which I’m told is a common problem amongst smoothie jar carrying super heroes! We’re soon going to be offering the jar bags complete with a couple of pre-drilled jar lid inserts!
RAW “Peanut” Butter Cup Smoothie
Raw “Peanut” Butter Cup Smoothie – healthy and delicious
The origins of the peanut butter cup smoothie…no someone wasn’t standing next to me and spilled their cacao in my tahini and a brief argument didn’t turn into a best selling candy. This recipe came about when I was experimenting with tahini and banana smoothies, I noticed a peanutbuttery aftertaste…mmmmMMMMmm. One thing I missed when I went raw was the occasional peanut butter sandwich, so when I noticed this I was really geeked up! The next logical step was “let’s throw some cacao in there!”. With a lil’ tweaking and a pinch of salt this became one of our favorite smoothies. We must’ve been drinking one a night for a month on end. Hope this smoothie helps curb those peanut buttery cravings. Enjoy! :0)
