Just a quick post today.  I made a salad with romaine, red onion, red pepper, and two types of sprouts.  Then I wondered, "What kind of dressing would be delish, and also kick up the nutrition another notch?"

What I came up with was AMAZING AND DELICIOUS!!!

Amacuba's Heavenly Green Dressing

1 part extra-virgin olive oil (preferably cold-pressed, but if not that's OK too)
1 part lemon juice

1/4 to 1/2 tsp spirulina powder
1/2 tsp Bragg's Liquid Amino's/Bragg's All-Purpose Seasoning (or tamari)
Honey

Mix everything together.  I really liked it a tiny bit sweeter than the sour and tart lemon, but adjust to your taste.

That's it!  Just pour over your salad.  It made my salad a most verdant green!!

OK!  Gotta run!!

Juice Fasting - The Battle for Health

A friend of mine called last night.  She says to me, "I have flax meal and peppers.  Do you want me to bring them over?"  I thought, "What's happened to my life, that my friends think they have to bribe me with healthy ingredients to get an invite to my home?"

Turns out she wanted me to show her how to make the raw crackers I'd made for her a few weeks ago!  Of course the ingredients she brought--flax meal and peppers--were only about 1/3 of the ingredients, and she'd have to use my dehydrator--she doesn't have one--but that's just fine.  I'm more than happy to share!

She was very excited about the whole process.  I let her use my new Japanese (and very sharp!) chef's knife, my food processor, and my dehydrator.  She became very fascinated and then very focused on making sure the mixture was spread really evenly on the Teflex sheets.  REALLY FOCUSED.  I wanted to move her along, but she really seemed to be enjoying herself, so I didn't want to take that from her! : )

When I got home today, I nibbled a small piece--apparently teamwork makes tasty raw crackers! lol

If you're interested in the recipe, you can find it here:

Raw Flax Crackers

The beautiful glass of chocolate goodness to the right was my BREAKFAST today!!

Yes, ladies and gents, I had a delicious and HEALTHY chocolate smoothie for breakfast.  It was SO filling that I didn't even drink half of it, which means there is more for later!  YAY!

Here's the recipe:

Delicious Chocolate Breakfast Smoothie

Avocado
Milk or milk alternate (almond would be especially good)
Honey dates to taste (make sure there are no pits)
Cocoa to taste
Cacao powder to taste (optional--I used it because it's a superfood and I had it in my pantry)
1 whole young coconut, meat and water
1 banana (optional)

Blend all together until very smoothie, and enjoy!!  Easy peasy!

By the way--I've decided to do the raw foods thing for the whole month of June again, so stay tuned!!!  Very excited!!!

I have an unholy love for kale chips.  It's on par with my unholy love for really great French fries, but fortunately it's a lot healthier.

Out of all the people I've shared kale chips that I've made with, every single one of them had the same reaction (in order):

*  Askance look at the weird green things in the container.
*  Fearfully taking a piece, usually one of the smaller ones.

*  With a "let's get this over with" look on their face, in the mouth it goes.

*  Pause.  Chew.

*  Eyes grow wide.
*  Chew with more enthusiasm.
*  Say, "This is really good!!"

Followed by me smirking, saying "I told you!"

Converted.  Every time.

Through trial and error, I learned that making kale chips on a lower temp for a bit longer time is much tastier and less stressful!

Most recipes you see online say to bake the chips at about 325F or 350F.  The problem with that is that the flavour suffers in my opinion by baking on that high a temperature, and also there is a very narrow margin for error--there are only a few minutes between done and overdone.  And overdone kale chips aren't very tasty.

The best way, if you do it in a conventional oven, is to turn the temperature way down.  For most that's 150F, and if that's true for your oven too, then the cooking time is about 1 hour.

If you have a dehydrator that's even better.  If you can't change the temperature, just keep an eye on the chips--they'll be done when they're completely dry and crunchy.

My two favourite kale chip recipes (for now anyway!) are:

Krispy Kale Chips With Nutritional Yeast

Any kind of kale will do.

Ingredients

Raw kale
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Nutritional yeast

1.  Wash kale leaves, and trim the middle stalk out. 

2.  You can leave the leaves that size, or you can make them bite-sized.  Keep in mind that the kale will shrink by about 50%, so keep that in mind when you chop/rip them.

3.  Place the kale leaves in a large bowl.  Pour on some extra-virgin olive oil, and massage into kale leaves.  You want to use just enough to very lightly cover all the leaves and make the other ingredients stick.

4.  Add sea salt and nutritional yeast to taste.  Massage into kale leaves, until all are covered.  Feel free to use as much nutritional yeast as you like--it's very low-cal and very good for you!

5.  Spread on a cookie sheet if using an oven, or on a dehydrator tray if going that way.

6.  The kale chips are ready when they're completely dry and crispy. 

If you are going to put them in a zip loc bag or container, make sure the chips are totally cool before doing so, otherwise they'll go soggy.

Cool Ranch Krispy Kale Chips

This one you need a dehydrator for.  You can use an oven as above, but it will take significantly longer to dry--about 24 hours--which is a lot of hydro!  Food dehydrators use significantly less hydro, which is nice. : )  Plus, in a dehydrator you can make other things at the same time (no need to adjust the temperature, just the time), if your dehydrator is big enough, thus saving even more hydro!

Ingredients

1/2 cup cashews, soaked for 4 hours (or more if you can't get to them at 4 hours)
Sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper

Smoked paprika (regular sweet paprika is OK if you can't find smoked)

Lime juice
Nutritional yeast


Prepare the kale leaves as above, up to and including #2.

All seasonings to taste, but make sure that you taste as you go, 'cause once they're in, they're in!

1.  Drain cashews, and put in blender.  You can make more by doubling the recipe if you need more for the amount of kale you have.
2.  Blend cashews with just enough water to allow the blender to do its thing.  If you over-do it, don't fret, it will just mean that the chips will take longer to dry.
4.  Once you have a nice cream, add the remaining ingredients.  Add smaller amounts of everything, taste (stop the blender to do it!!), and add more to your taste. 
5.  Place the kale leaves in a big bowl.  Pour cream over top, and massage thoroughly into leaves.  Yes, it will be goopy.  But in this case goop is good!  The cream, when it dries, gives the chips this thoroughly unbelievable taste and texture.  They're SO CRUNCHY!!  They kind of have the texture of Doritoes (from what I remember!) but even better because they're not flat, so they're even crunchier.  Seriously.  No seriously!!

I challenge you to try and NOT love kale chips.  There are so many combinations I've heard of but haven't tried yet--BBQ, curry, salt and vinegar...  Mmmmm...  I think I have a craving coming on!!

RAW FOOD TRANSITION RECIPES - HEART WARMING VEGGIE SOUP