Easy Raw Sushi!

The other day my friend mentioned to me that he was going to try to make some sushi but he didn't even have nori!  I, on the other hand, had a whole package of nori that I had yet to use. So, with a slightly competitive spirit, I set out to make some sushi.  And since my sushi was going to be raw, I immediately decided for myself that mine would be way better than his.  Well, my sushi was a little messy but incredibly yummy and he is now a self-proclaimed sushi master...So I may not have won in the rolling department but I think I win for creativity.  I used zucchini as the "rice" and threw in red peppers, cucumber, and avocado.  Yummmm! Here's what I did:

Easy Raw Sushi (makes about 3 rolls)

3-4 Nori Sheets, quickly brushed over heat (stove-top) to toast

1-2 large zucchini

2 tablespoons rice vinegar (optional, not raw)

2 tablespoons raw agave nectar (don't use if you skip the vinegar)

1/2 avocado, sliced

1/2 red bell pepper, sliced

1/2 cucumber, julienned 

1.  "Rice" the zucchini in a food processor with the vinegar and agave nectar.  Be careful not to over-process as the mixture will get too liquid-y and hard to work with.

2. Layout one nori sheet and place a good amount of zucchini rice on the sheet.  Spread the mixture out a little.  Place the bell pepper, avocado, and cucumber on top of the zucchini.

3.  Roll your nori sheet up tightly.  Slice according to your desired size, my nori sheets had little markers to show the proper size.  

(Again, my rolls were a little sloppy so you may want to watch some youtube videos on how to roll sushi.  I used a little bit of rice vinegar to keep my roll sealed, that worked very well.)

When I ran out of zucchini mixture I decided to try sweet potato.  I riced half a sweet potato with some vinegar and agave nectar and repeated the steps to make the roll.  This version was crunchier and a little easier to roll but I didn't think it was as tasty.  Go ahead and try it if you'd like, they turn out very pretty!

When I got over sushi, I decided to mess around with the rest of the sweet potato I had.  I wanted to do something similar to the pumpkin pie in a bowl because I ended up really enjoying that.  I'm not going to give you exact measurements because I would be making them up.  What I ended up with is very tasty though, so I recommend trying this out too!  I would say I had almost a whole sweet potato; threw that in the food processor with 3 dates, about 2 tablespoons maple syrup(not raw), a generous sprinkle of cinnamon, and about 2 tablespoons of almond milk.  Process that until you've got a nice mushy texture, serve and enjoy. : )

Lastly: a note about attitude and having a positive outlook.  I didn't end up staying 100% raw all last week.  That being said, however, I refuse to say I failed.  What a terrible way to look at life!  I just found that I am not in a place in my life where I am ready to eat a 100% raw diet.  Maybe I will someday, or maybe I will never be 100%, who knows.  The point is, don't set yourself up for failure.  Give yourself realistic goals and guidelines and allow yourself to be human.  Also know that if you don't do things exactly as you had set out to it does not mean you have failed, it just means that maybe you should re-evaluate your goals or plan of action to better accommodate where you are in life.  You do not need to eat 100% raw to receive the benefits of adding more raw foods to your diet.  So don't you worry your pretty little head if you ate something cooked today!  Its not the end of the world, and its certainly not the end of your journey to health.  What I did achieve was getting back into some good habits such as juicing almost everyday, eating fruit until dinner and eating all raw dinners at home, not to mention a little bit of self-analysis and discovery. : )   That's all for today, later punks.

Music Fix:  Romantic-Soulive

Eat Happy. : )

Another Banana Smoothie Idea, Sun Dried Tomato Pine Nut Cheese, and Pumpkin Pie in a Bowl!

                                           (Sun dried tomato pine nut cheese on endive)

I've got lots to share with you today.  I aim to share three new recipes every week, but how about three new recipes in one post!  Woohoo! I have been feeling oh so inspired lately to try new recipes.  I can't stop!  I'm not feeling so hot these days, fighting off a cold, but I can't help but want to get off my butt and make some food!  

Last night, after teaching dance for four hours with a sore throat (yes, I'm whining a little), I wanted nothing more than ice cream to soothe me.  Instead, as any smart raw food punk should, I decided to concoct a smoothie that would soothe my throat and satisfy my sweet tooth. I came up with a raw Caramel Banana Smoothie that's delicious and super easy!

Caramel Banana Smoothie (1 hefty serving)

1 banana

1 cup almond milk

scant cup of ice

2 teaspoons raw caramel

Throw everything in a blender and blend until smooth.  Pour into a glass and enjoy!

Next up, I was making my way through the copious amounts of raw sites I have started looking at on a daily basis and came across a recipe from Natalia Rose for Pumpkin Pie in a bowl on goneraw.com.  The recipe looked easy enough and I was eager for some more cold, smooth, raw stuff for my burning throat.  I am going to share this recipe with you because I think if you are a huge pumpkin pie fan you will really like this.  I, unfortunately, am not sure that I love pumpkin pie without a huge serving of whipped cream on top, so I don't know how I feel about this one.  It does taste a lot like pumpkin pie, that's for damn sure.

Pumpkin Pie in a Bowl

32 ounces carrot juice, about 4 lbs of carrots

1 cup raw sweet potato, peeled and chopped

4 pitted dates

1/2 ripe avocado

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (2 tbsp cinnamon, 2 tsp nutmeg, 2 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp allspice)

Put everything into a blender and blend until smooth.  Chill before serving for best results.  This will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days.

One woman on Gone Raw recommended omitting some of the carrot juice to make this more mousse like.  I personally can't imagine consuming pumpkin pie as a soup so I went for the mousse route.  I also added 2 extra dates to make it a bit sweeter.  Thanks to Formosa on goneraw.com for the pumpkin pie spice recipe!

Lastly, I decided to add some spunk to my left over pine nut cheese just for fun today.  I added the rest of my sun dried tomatoes and a few fresh basil leaves and really enjoyed the outcome.  This would make a great spread or dip for veggies.  I threw mine on some endive leaves, which was pretty good too.

All ya gotta do for this one is take some pine nut "cheese" and throw it in a food processor with some sun dried tomatoes and a few leaves of fresh basil.  If you have a full batch of "cheese" I would recommend about 10 sun dried tomatoes (soak them if softening is needed) and 5 leaves of fresh basil. Process everything together and serve with fresh veggies, raw crackers, or anything else you creative punks can come up with!

Oh, by the way, I ate 100% raw yesterday and it was great!  Banana and apple for breakfast, salad with raw russian dressing for lunch, and a caramel banana smoothie for dinner.  I snacked on some carrots while i was teaching and I did drink a lot of hot tea.  I thoroughly have trouble thinking that hot water takes away from being raw, so for me it doesn't count.  Feeling good today, Mom said I looked really thin yesterday and despite my cold I feel pretty energetic today.  So far so good today too, started my day with some green lemonade and just had a salad and some pine nut cheese on endive for lunch.  

One more thing!  I searched online for natural remedies for a sore throat and I found a little elixir that actually did some good.  Add 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon raw honey, and a pinch of cayenne pepper to a cup of hot water.  My throat feels better after just one cup, brilliant!

Music Fix:  Trouble with Dreams-The Eels

A Rawsome Book Review and Recipe! Plus, Going Raw at Fridays.

I am finally ready to post my first book review!   I want to do my best to help you guys find the best raw resources out there.  I'm going to be looking through all the raw-related books I can find, give you some info about them, and let you decide if they are worth picking up for yourself!

The first book that I wanted to let you know about is Rawsome by Brigette Mars.  Brigette has a light-hearted, honest and good-humored approach to presenting raw food information.  This book is super informative if you are interested in the ins and outs of raw foods.  There are sections that cover the basics such as why raw is best, weight loss, getting started, stocking a raw food kitchen, and recipes.  But this book goes above and beyond by providing relatively detailed information about enzyme activity, research studies, sprouting, dehydrating, and fermenting.  It also has a Raw Foods Encyclopedia that takes up almost 100 pages of the book describing and giving the nutritional benefits of foods you will be consuming on a raw food diet.  

Although the bulk of this book is comprised of information for you to read, it also includes over 200 recipes.  Some are simple, I recommend trying the salads and dressings.  There are lots of creative beverage ideas and fun sauces including barbeque sauce and ketchup!  Unfortunately, however, many of the recipes require soaking, sprouting, and dehydrating.  Also, many of the entrees and other recipes are nut-based and relatively heavy as far as raw foods go.  

Basically, I enjoyed this book and I would recommend it for anyone who is ready to delve head first into the raw food lifestyle.  If you are just starting out and you want to keep things simple, I might not start with this one but it is definitely worth adding to any raw food library!

Last night I made the Russian Dressing Recipe that Brigitte has in Rawsome and topped a simple salad with it for my mother and me.  We both decided the color and flavor were great!  I wouldn't necessarily say it tastes much like commercial russian dressing but it did have that characteristic sweetness and color.  Regardless, its really yummy no matter what you call it.  

Raw Russian Dressing

(From Rawsome by Brigitte Mars)

3 dates, pitted,soaked for 20 minutes (as long as your dates are soft you do not need to soak them)

1 cup chopped tomato

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil (cold-pressed)

1/2 cup lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon Celtic salt (I used Himalayan sea salt)

1 teaspoon paprika

1 clove garlic

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Note:  I actually added 2 extra dates to mine and was very happy with the result!

Hope that's helpful!  If you would like to buy Rawsome you can do so right HERE!

Preparing that recipe for dinner was part of my 2nd all raw day!  I was totally successful until my friends showed up unannounced at my door and took me to Fridays.  Holy raw challenge nightmare!  Late night Fridays usually equals brownie sundaes for me, I was certainly facing a big obstacle.  I decided to stick to my guns, and order a salad.  Even though I wasn't hungry, I knew if I didn't have something I would munch on my friends' fries and that would totally defeat the anti-brownie mission's purpose.  So I did what I never, ever thought I would do, I wrote a note for the chef!  I took a look at all the salads, wrote down the raw stuff that I would want and included a little note being as cute and gracious as I could be.  According to my waitress the chef replied with "Really!?  A note!?" (with exasperation)  and then, after reading it, "Okay, is she hot?"  When I got my salad, which was a delightful, that's right, delightful, combination of romaine lettuce, tomato, cilantro, red and green onion, red pepper, and carrot, my chef, Tony, had written me a little note back.  Tony told me he took extra special care in making my salad, and hoped I enjoyed it.  I did have some Asian ginger dressing on my salad, which I'm sure was not as healthy as I would have made for myself at home but it beats a brownie sundae, right?  So, my first ever written request to the chef went great!  Thanks so much to Tony for making my raw challenge doable, even at Fridays!  My server was super helpful too and made the experience much less annoying than I thought it would be.  The point is, if you are gracious and friendly about your special requests people won't have a problem with accommodating them!  Be polite, respectful, and willing to answer questions graciously about your lifestyle and no one will spit in your food! : )

Music Fix: You're So Damn Hot-Okay Go!

Eat Happy, Punks. : )

Raw Challenge: Day Two. Banana Almond Butter Smoothie and Tomato Stack with "Cheese," Basil, and Balsamic Vinegar.

I'd like to think that, although sloppy, my lunch yesterday looks like art!  Stacking food always makes it look cool, doesn't it?  I made this little tomato stacker super fast yesterday and it made a wonderful lunch/dinner before I had to go in to work.  I found a recipe online for "cheese" to use up my pine nuts, layered it with slices of fresh tomato and basil leaves, and topped it all off with a drizzle of balsamic, yum!  The pine nut cheese recipe is from a site called thehealingfeast.com but I added some more pine nuts to mine because I wanted it a bit thicker.

Pine Nut Cheese

1 cup raw pine nuts

1/4 cup water

1 clove garlic, peeled

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon Himalayan sea salt or Celtic sea salt

Process all ingredients together in a food processor until smooth.  

Tomato Stacker

1 tomato, sliced thickly

pine nut cheese (see above)

a few fresh basil leaves

balsamic vinegar (I don't think balsamic vinegar is really raw, optional)

Place a spoonful of pine nut cheese on the a slice of tomato and top with 1-3 basil leaves.  Place another tomato slice on top of the cheese and basil and continue layering in this manner.  Top layer should be a dollop of pine nut cheese and a few leaves of basil.  Drizzle lightly with balsamic vinegar and serve.

Okay, next up on the agenda, I am on day two of my all raw challenge!  Yesterday went pretty well!  I actually had absolutely no problem eating all raw (I did have some steamed cauliflower but that barely counts as cooked!)  I had my peach raspberry smoothie in the morning, tomato stacker and some butterscotch pudding for lunch, a huge salad at work, and some steamed veggies as a midnight snack.  Not bad, huh?  Not as green as I would have hoped, and I did have some tea which is technically not raw, but I am proud of the integrity of everything I ate yesterday and look forward to another day just like it!  It was a bit challenging to walk away from the free pumpkin apple muffins at work last night, but I left empty handed and opted for the steamed veggies at home.  It paid off because I felt great all day yesterday and woke up feeling pretty good today.  My body didn't feel like it was still trying to process yesterday's food, so I could start fresh today!  

Unfortunately, I am fighting off a cold right now and don't feel 100% today.  I always crave junk food when I'm sick, even though my appetite is barely there.  Instead of making juice this morning, which probably would have been better for me, I made my new favorite raw treat, a banana and almond butter smoothie.  I have been drinking this slowly all morning and its soothing my throat a bit.  Plus, it's delicious, that never hurts either.  So day two of this punk's all raw challenge has started off a little heavier than usual, but absolutely raw.  I plan on having some raw coleslaw for dinner since I have a bit of leftover cabbage to get rid of and I don't have to work tonight so I won't have to be tempted by muffins and brownies!  

Okay, I will leave you with the smoothie recipe, it really is delicious, you must try this one!

Banana Almond Butter Smoothie (1 serving)

1 banana

1/2 cup almond milk

1/2 cup ice

1-2 tablespoons raw almond butter

1 tablespoon maple syrup (agave nectar can be substituted here if you don't eat maple syrup)

Throw everything in a blender and blend til smooth.  Enjoy!

Music Fix: 3-string George- Gov't Mule

Eat Happy. : )

Peach Raspberry Smoothie with Green Tea and my All Raw Challenge, Day One!

(If you don't care about my self-analysis scroll down for the Peach Raspberry Smoothie recipe, I won't be offended.)  : )

I have been struggling with dieting and obsessing about food for about three years now.  I used to be a skinny little thing without thinking twice about what I ate, then I developed hypothyroidism from an auto-immune thyroid disorder, gained about thirty pounds and started spiraling into a food obsession frenzy.  I have now lost 15 pounds and am thankful for my weight gain as it brought me to learn so much about being healthy.  I learn more and more about nutrition, natural foods, raw foods, and healing the body naturally everyday and I can't wait to learn more.   Unfortunately, as most people who diet do, I have  gotten into the habit of worrying about everything I eat, feeling guilty if I stray from my healthy habits and worrying about weight gain if I eat a bite of cake.  In an effort to get over that and back to the carefree attitude in high school I recently gave myself the freedom to eat whatever I want and not think about it.  For the most part, I still ate raw, because I have become so accustomed to it that its really all I crave.  

This is what I discovered in this past couple weeks: 

I never suddenly crave unhealthy, cooked food, I only really eat it when its sitting in front of my face.  

I have been eating unhealthy food not because I really wanted it but because I was allowing myself to so I might as well do it.  

My body feels amazing on raw food and I can perceive such a difference in how I feel based on what I eat.

My body does absolutely feel more energetic, lighter, and healthier when I eat raw.

I want to follow rules.  When your rules are self-imposed its okay to follow them.  Make your own rules punks, but stick to 'em.

I work at a coffee shop and we get all the leftover pastries to take home at the end of the night and I have felt like if it was being given away I had to take it, right?  Last night, as I was driving home, stuffing a vegan muffin in my mouth for an already full stomach, I  decided that I had given myself enough time to do what I want and the experiment was over.  

As of today I know that I can eat whatever I want and not obsess about it and that what I want to eat is the stuff that makes me feel really good.  SO I am going full throttle.  I have transitioned enough at this point to jump in, I am putting myself up to a 7 day all raw challenge.  No cooked food for me this week!  I may allow some cooked veggies, sweet potatoes, or brown rice, we'll see how I feel about that when the opportunity arises.  But for now, all raw!  I'll let you know how its going for me everyday.  

Today is day one for my 100% raw-ness and my body feels okay, not great because I laid on some carb heavy cooked food for a good deal of the day yesterday.  I didn't start putting any new food in my body until about 3 hours after waking up today though, so hopefully that was enough time for my digestive system to catch up a bit.  

I made myself a new smoothie for breakfast that I think is pretty darn tasty.  I used green tea in my smoothie recipe because I wanted to try something different and 'cause the antioxidants can't hurt!  If you do not want to use green tea, technically not raw if you brew it hot, you can just use water no problem!  

Peach Raspberry Smoothie with Green Tea (2-3 servings)

1 cup of ice

1 cup of brewed green tea

16 ounces peaches (I had to use frozen since they aren't in season)

4 ounces raspberries

1 tablespoon agave nectar (optional, for added sweetness)

Add all the ingredients together in a blender and blend until smooth.  Pour into a glass and enjoy!

Music Fix: Sometimes-Wax Tailor

Eat Happy.

Chocolate Banana Milkshake

This recipe is such a treat.  Mom and I are sitting on the couch enjoying two very rich chocolate banana milkshakes.  I wanted to try to make raw pudding with almond milk, bananas, cocoa powder, and agave nectar but I ended up with liquid.  I added some almond butter but that didn't help much.  Finally, I gave up, added ice and ended up with a ridiculously good milkshake.  Thank goodness for mistakes, cause this failure turned out great. : )

Chocolate Banana Milkshakes  (2-4 servings)

1/3 cup 100% cocoa powder

2 bananas, peeled

2 tablespoons raw agave nectar

1 cup almond milk

1/2 cup raw almond butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (not raw, optional)

1-2 cups of ice

Put the first 6 ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.  Add in the ice and blend again until desired consistency.  Split into glasses and enjoy!  We have also decided that this would be a good base for fudgsicles, try it out! Enjoy.

Music Fix: All for the Buzz- Free Henry!

Raw Butterscotch Pudding

This is raw butterscotch pudding. Not gorgeous, but certainly better than that artificial color you get from the unnatural pudding mixes.  My roommate and I used to make sugar-free non-fat butterscotch Jell-O pudding on really hot days in summer, slather it with whipped cream and just take two spoons to the big bowl.  With summer approaching, I was excited to try to re-create that while maintaining my own healthy guidelines by trying this recipe I found in Rawsome.  

I'll admit that what I ended up with was more like a banana apricot mash than butterscotch pudding, but I could sense a vague resemblance.  I did some doctoring and I think I ended up with a pretty good product.  Unfortunately, I am not a big fan of mushy, so this is not my all time favorite recipe.  But it is sweet and a little salty and has notes of that very distinct butterscotch flavor.  I definitely recommend trying this one for yourself and letting me know what you think!  Here is my recipe for raw butterscotch pudding:

Raw Butterscotch Pudding

2 bananas, peeled

10 dates, pitted

1 cup dried apricots (Rawsome says to soak them, but I was too lazy)

1/2 cup raw almond butter

1/2 cup almond milk

2 teaspoons raw agave nectar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (not actually raw, optional)

1/2-1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

Throw everything together in a food processor and blend until smooth.  Its best if you chill it for a while before serving.  Enjoy!

Music Fix: I've Got to See You Again-Norah Jones 

(One of my all time favorites, such a sexy song!)