The Live Green Smoothie Diet

Super-quick, super-flavorful, and made with Utterly Pedestrian ingredients so easy to keep on hand!

Enjoy without the meatballs — super-delish on its own, over “noodles” or “spaghetti” made from fresh, raw baby zucchini — or make a side of meatballs for a heartier repast!

And even if you make the whole Spaghetti & Meatball affair… it will still take you all of about 15 minutes, tops!

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And the theme for more savory, “meaty” raw and living food options continues…

“Meaty” dishes in the raw vegan world usually entail one (or both) of the following: mushrooms or dehydration. My project this week is to expand upon the meaty options not using either of these options. Because, in the mission to expand and develop the food culture involving all the ways we can possibly feed ourselves with nutrient-rich, enzyme-rich, vitality-rich raw and living foods, OPTIONS are so important.

New Options For A Raw & Living Food Culture

In the cooked-food world, we are more familiar with OPTIONS. When we look at the food stuff in our cupboards and in our fridge, we already have a rich cultural background that speaks to us almost instinctively as to how we can feed ourselves with what is on-hand. We’ve got family culture, television culture, cookbook culture, school culture, restaurant culture… all of that behind us.

But when we face our raw ingredients, we can get stumped pretty quickly after getting past the make-a-salad, eat-a-piece-of-fruit, make-a-green-smoothie options.

So… here is just one option for how to make a “meatball” type of recipe, something that will add a grounding, filling, savory quality to a raw pasta meal.

This particular meatball (raw vegans often call them “neatballs”… I guess as in “Not mEAT”), holds its shape nicely but is easy to cut into pieces, and in fact is better, in my opinion, when it is cut into pieces and eaten in small bits with your pasta because it is quite rich. Fresh garlic, red onion, and fresh oregano lend a simple classive meatball flavor, while raw almond butter binds the sunflower seed mixture together.

And they look like actual meatballs… and can be make on-the-spot, no dehydrating necessary!

Next, I’ll be playing with this recipe a bit and conjuring up something similiar but with a different texture, using raw zucchini! Once again… OPTIONS!

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I just love fresh, jumbo Medjool dates. Not when ground up and mixed into nut balls or energy bars… blech. In fact, I loathe those sorts of things, where the almost-juicy quality of the dates is destroyed by over-processing.

No, dates are best enjoyed whole, where their lovely succulence can be enjoyed full-on. I’ve said more times than I can count that the simple treat of a raw pecan stuffed into a whole date and popped into one’s mouth is like pecan pie, only the way pecan pie wishes it could taste!

Here, I’ve made up a salted vanilla filling for the dates without any additional sugar. All the sweetness comes from the dates themselves. And the overall effect when all is said and done is that of a salted caramel!

The dish is comprised entirely of non-perishables, so you can make this entire batch and keep at your desk at work, or in a container in your gym or dance bag for a quick energy pick-me-up when you need it… and with the added salt, it’s a great way to replenish electrolytes after a good workout! And shoot… I just finished one up as part of a late breakfast.

And forget those “nut balls” that so many raw foodies make with dates (did I say “blech” yet?)… these put those to shame. In my not-so-humble opinion.

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When you can make something quick and easy like this, forget oatmeal and any of the other hot cereals out there. This is the kind of dish that kids will go crazy over… and I mean crazy-crazy.

It tastes like warm vanilla cake batter.

Forget kids… how many adults do you know who still love to lick the batter out of the cake bowl?

This Corn Pudding is made from Utterly Pedestrian ingredients. And drizzled with honey and sprinkled with cinnamon, it makes for a brilliant breakfast, a cozy dessert, or a deliciously warming snack on a cold day!

Takes just a few minutes to make, including cutting the fresh corn off the cob, and is a great way to use up any corn you have that may have been in your fridge long enough to convert it’s sugar over to starch and lose its natural sweetness.

And, similar to my Warm, Live Polenta recipe: You can keep this recipe all-raw-vegan by using cold-pressed coconut oil to enrich the polenta, or — if like myself you’re an omnivore who eats as high-raw as possible — then you may follow in my footsteps and use organic, grass-fed, unsalted butter instead, for a truly authentic flavor.

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Want something warm, savory, starchy and comforting to go with your amazing “Mushroom Tapenade” dinner tonight? You can make this gently-warmed-but-still-raw “polenta” using corn freshly cut from the cob!

Probably takes no more than 5 minutes to make, including cutting the corn off, so — as nearly all of the recipes on this site are — it’s seriously hassle-free. This is also an excellent recipe for when you have corn that you may have left uncut in the fridge for a few days, when it tends to have lost its sweetness and get more “starchy” in flavor.

You can keep this recipe all-raw-vegan by using cold-pressed coconut oil to enrich the polenta, or — if like myself you’re an omnivore who eats as high-raw as possible — then you may follow in my footsteps and use organic, grass-fed, unsalted butter instead, for a truly authentic flavor.

The ingredients are all Utterly Pedestrian… corn, salt (you know the drill on that, tho — Himmy or Celtic salt, or something else in that vein), fresh black pepper, and either coconut or dairy butter, as per your preference.

The result? You have one more cold-weather staple to pull out of your hat when you want something cozy and warming!

Variations:

Turn this into a fun Tex-Mex side-dish with an assortment of options, including chiles, cilantro, green onion, and tiny sweet tomatoes.

Or make a nice Mediterranean side-dish, with black sun-cured olives, red onions, basil, and olive oil!

This is a great “template” style recipe you can customize lots of different ways.

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This is definitely one of the most gorgeously spring-green Live Green Smoothies… a spectacular shade of vitality!

And did you know that people in hot climates tend to eat spicy foods because it makes them sweat and helps keep them cool? What a great drink for the summer months… or even for the cold months, when you want something to heat you up!

It’s also not overwhelmingly spicy, and is actually quite mellow. But… there is enough heat in the recipe that as you drink it, your lips get a nice tingle. If you want to clear your sinuses, you’re going to have to double the jalapeno (or other chiles used).

I made this with parsley, which is my favorite green to pair with mango because they complement each other so nicely! And one of the fun things about parsley is that, when juiced or smoothified and left to sit, it gels up, so this will turn into a nice thick shake-texture after a short while.

This is such a great smoothie. Will be LGsing with this one lots over the summer!

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I must be doing something right in the kitchen, because here’s another recipe I just wasn’t fast enough to grab my portion! Sure, as the chef de cuisine, I get my taste, but so often everything disappears before I can settle down for a good munch!

In this case, my son scurried away with two bowl-fuls, only to return later in the day to have off with the last bit I’d wrapped and stuck in the fridge! No complaints, tho… I think it’s just good evidence that this is a keeper.

Using raw almond butter with garlic, green onions, and fresh lime to give that “caesar salad” effect, this filling main dish also includes half of a giant papaya for some mellow-sweet juiciness! The papaya offsets the “caesariness” of the salad so nicely. I’ve actually often thought of papaya as having a strangely “cheesy” quality to it. Nicely mellow.

One wonders why this hasn’t been done before. It’s so gorgeous!

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If you have key limes around, use those for an even more fragrant limey flavor! You can increase the amount of lime I’ve used, but as it is here, it’s not too powerfuly… it’s a delicate, mild, soothing dish. This would also be great with Orange Blossom water!!!

This makes a great quick dessert or even breakfast, or a light supper when the weather is hot. It’s creamy, cool… and you can freeze any leftovers like ice cream.

However… I must say, I was hard-pressed to get my share of this. Both of my parents and my youngest son scarfed it up before I could stake my claim!

This is so not just for the “raw” crowd.

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Yah, I know… who thinks about Broccoli and Vanilla in the same breath?

Hah, well… clearly I do!

This is a great combination, and there’s a sizeable amount of raw broccoli in this! But when broccoli is raw in a smoothie, it doesn’t have the rather potent sulphuric taste not uncommon when it’s cooked. And because it’s naturally high in protein (calorie for calorie, zips in a bit higher than sirloin steak!), it lends a creaminess to smoothies.

Paired with some avocado, then, and this really takes on a nice creamy texture. Tastes not unlike a light vanilla cake batter. You will not find the broccoli off-putting.

Then again, if you don’t buy organic broccoli, I’m makin’ no guarantees because organic broccoli tends to be significantly sweeter and more delicate in flavor!

Enjoy. And feed to your kids… and spousal units who refuse to eat their vedge.

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I want to continue adding some “zero-point” Live Green Smoothie recipes (pretty much “blended salads” without fruit or fat) as an option for my readers who are partial to Weight Watchers.

These smoothies are of course all going to taste a bit better with some sweetness and/or some fat, so customize however you’d like. But I wanted to give you some good base recipes to start with.

Anyone can use these, and certainly most of all anyone interested in non-fat, low-cal, high-water content LGSs.

This one gets its sweetness from grape or cherry tomatoes, and has a sizeable amount of fresh ginger root to fire up your metabolism and digestion… and to make it all taste great, like an un-fizzy dry ginger ale (well… if you really stretch your imagination, hah).

Broccoli is also high-protein, which gives a naturally creamy texture to Live Green Smoothies, which is a nice quality here. This LGS has a bit of substance to it, rather than a watery texture. You will find it surprisingly filling!

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