The Live Green Smoothie Diet

And don’t miss checking out this recipe for a Mushroom “Caesar” Salad, one of the best recipes on this whole site, IMHO.

Yah, okay… so there’s no egg in this. And no parm. And no anchovy. And there’s tomato in it.

But believe me when I tell you, if you love Caesar Salads, you’ll love *this* salad. And you’ll understand why it’s a “Caesar” when you take your first bite. Exactly how the ingredients of raw almond butter, olive oil, garlic, tomato, and lemon juice combine to give a parmy, anchovy kinda hit, with a damn-near unctuously yummy dressing coating each crunch of romaine the same way that a good Caesar does… well, I don’t know and I don’t care.

All I know, this recipe is a keeper and a staple, the kind you’re gonna wanna make once a week, provided there’s raw almond butter in the house. This also makes an excellent salsa-type dip, and is wonderful as a filling for a salad sandwich. Will keep well overnight in the fridge.

Why Raw Almond Butter Is So Expensive

I did go and splurge nearly 18 bucks on a jar of raw almond butter. Just scandalous how expensive it is. But you can thank those who allowed the law to pass in California requiring all raw almonds to, actually, no longer be raw… they must now (for nearly a couple years, actually) be pasteurized in some manner, denaturing them, allegedly to protect the masses from lurking salmonella.

So, without stepping too high on my soap box…just remember that when we allow the gov to force the denaturing and pasteurization of our food in the name of “safety”, it’s A) denatured (ewww) and B) it’s Just That Expensive. Eighteen bucks for a little jar of something that grows abudantly all over the world. Cray-zee.

However… raw almond butter is several celestial dimensions above peanut butter, in my book. And it makes some of the best salad dressings. To wit, this one… still one of my favorite things on my entire website.

So… if you can manage to afford this precious stuff, GET SOME TODAY. I promise to add several more really wonderful recipes to the library here using the heavenly stuff.

And as for the fat content… no, this is NOT low-fat. But come on, into every diet a bit of good fat must fall, and this is the good stuff! Enjoy…

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I LOVE this dish. At the whole thing, with a fork, no chips, no nothin’ on the side, just this straight-up for my main meal of the day, and it just rocked. Didn’t share a morsel with anyone!

I’m famous for needing crunchy side things to feel satisfied when I’m eating very high-raw, but I have been recently dedicated to creating recipes that don’t require that. And this one delivered! I had a “pesto” theme in mind, to use some of the wee-leaved potted basil growing here on the lanai, but instead I gave basil a far more supporting — rather than dominant — role. Add some fresh lemon, garlic, green onion, and earthy almost-potato-i-ness of the mushrooms paired with the juicy & refreshing crunch of the cukes, and this dish really delivers on a bunch of levels.

You can use any kind of mushroom you want, but I used simple Utterly Pedestrian button mushrooms. And With one tablespoon of olive oil for a very large salad, this could be argued as low-fat… or you could just reduce it to 1 teaspoon for your weight-watching purposes.

On a hot day (95 & humid here in the Florida heat at the moment), this was great. But it would also be excellent on a cold day… just substitute some baby zucchini for the cucumber and expose your bowl to the lowest temp of your oven for a little bit, to raise the temp by a few still-comfortable-against-your-skin degrees. It will be true comfort food… without the deadening effect of real pasta.

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Chalk another one up for iceberg lettuce!

Here, good ole Utterly Pedestrian but high-water-content, cooling, and very refreshing Iceberg Lettuce is used the way cabbage would be, in a “coleslaw”, which in this case is made with fresh basil, garlic, lemon, and olive oil. You could leave the olive oil out if you want to minimize the fat content, but it certainly adds a nice layer of flavor.

And it was delightful to just snip off a bit of the tiny-leafed basil growing on the lanai to imbue this salad with a bit of its spicy fragrance!

You can eat this with a fork for a very filling meal, or enjoy it as I did with my family, with organic tortilla chips, like a salsa. My father enjoyed it as a side to his grilled hamburger (hey… raw & living foods aren’t just for vegans!).

And this would make a great filling for a raw or “rawish” sammich! Slap it between two pieces of dehydrated flatbread, or use toasted Ezekiel bread, and it would be hearty and very tasty.

And like pretty much everything else I make on this site… it’s quick, easy, and un-fussy.

And ya gotta love something that’s both juicy-crunchy and creamy-smooth. Avo & iceberg are a natural pairing!

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This recipe is a basic one to enjoy as-is (it’s delicious and so easy!), or you can add whatever your favorite little extras you’d like, such as chopped sweet red pepper, fresh herbs, fresh corn off the cob, or jalapeno and cilantro.

It’s so versatile, very mellow and comforting, and when the weather is cold you can warm it slightly to jack up the “comfort food” factor, while still retaining the live-enzyme benefits. Something doesn’t have to be cooked and piping hot to convey “warmth”. You can expose this very briefly to a low-temp warm oven, take it out while it’s still comfortable to your bare hands, and it will be a very different experience than if you ate it cold.

You can also eat this by itself with a fork, you can use it as a salsa, use it as a topping (my family enjoyed some of this tonight over their salmon!), spoon it over some cooked & buttered Yukon Gold potatoes… there are so many uses for it, a kind of “live-food staple” you can add to your regular kitchen repertoire.

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Another recipe that reflects the exquisite simplicity when following nature’s natural measuring system: “one tomato, one avocado, one banana, on green onion…”

Banana Guacamole? Is anyone else doing this? Surely it must have been done before, I just never heard of it. Wish I had heard of it sooner. It’s delicious. And with the amount of fresh tomato and chunky, non-mushed, just-peeled banana folded into the guac, the result is a very high-water-content, juicy guacamole.

Aside from what my son pilfered, I ate the whole damn thing for lunch with some organic tortilla chips… and I only wanted more. Crikey it was yummy.

Chalk up yet another great recipe using Utterly Pedestrian ingredients!

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A tomato, a banana, a green onion… who knew these guys made such a great team?

But it’s not so surprising, really… Bananas have been used in all sorts of savory dishes around the world, and tomatoes are technically a fruit. The combo makes me think of fried sweet-banana cuban “maduros” with fresh salsa. But of course… without the calories, the heaviness, the toxicity of fried things.

This dish is quick, luscious, juicy, and I enjoyed the entire recipe myself for a filling meal without the benefit of crunchy side things, such as raw chips or organic tortilla chips. This was entirely satisfying on its own.

And, again… the theme of delicious food made from Utterly Pedestrian ingredients continues admirably. I am pleased.

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When I served this, the kids at the table loved it… “Looks like blood!”

Well, that’s not exactly how I’d put it, but.. yes… it sure is a striking dish.

Substitute several mangoes instead of the cantaloupe and you’ll have another gorgeously simple dessert or breakfast option. It’s absolutely company-perfect, and you could probably whip it up during a commercial break, that’s how quick it is.

Nature sure is amazing.

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Some of my favorite moments are when I try something completely new and find it to be so tasty and satisfying that I wish I’d been eating since I was a kid. This is one of those recipes.

Don’t let the monochromatic appearance fool you… this is wonderful.

Traditional Greek-style seasonings — garlic, fresh mint, cumin, olive oil, fresh lemon juice — combine with the mellow meatiness of fresh chopped mushrooms and the crunchy-juicy sweetness of fresh corn cut off the cob to create a super-juicy, full-flavored-but-still-comforting taste in that mellow way that only comfort food can be.

The filling is gently warmed in the oven at the lowest temperature to slightly sweat the juices out of the mushrooms… but honestly, the mixture was still cool to my touch when I took it out, so “warmed” isn’t precise. “Exposed to heat without damaging the un-denatured aspect of the food” is a better way of putting it. But certainly you could leave it exposed to heat long enough to bring it up the point where it’s slightly warm to your touch… and taste buds. Would be an excellent cold-weather recipe in that regard.

I put these guys into little iceberg lettuce cups because I’m endeavoring to bring a little more respect toward iceberg’s way… and what a perfect match!  But this could be used as a filling for any sort of wrap, and it would make for an excellent salad sandwich filling. Or… just plain as a sidedish. Make a large batch for a buffet… no doubt your guests will go crazy over it!

This recipe feeds one as a meal, and it satisfied. I know because I had it for dinner, without nothing else. And I was quite full afterwards… though I was sorry the yummy experience was over!

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I love rose water almost as much as I love great vanilla. Almost. And if you’re like me, and you appreciate quick & filling meals that also taste great, you’ll love this combination.

Which, by the way, you can also make with either vanilla or orange blossom water instead of the rose water! *swooning on all counts*

It’s sooooo simple, you’ll wonder why we haven’t been enjoying this type of thing for aeons already in our food culture. But… start now. This should become  a classic!

This is a salted dish, which you can alter for your own tastes, if you prefer. For my part, I am currently living in the 85-95% raw zone, with at least three 32-oz blenderful of Live Green Smoothies every day, and I find I need salt to balance out all the fruit & greens. It’s a “yang vs. yin” thing which I have observed time and time again when I go high-raw.

So, salted and fat-rich dishes help very much to allow me to take the high-raw journey with comfort and satisfaction, as well as that emerging “raw glow”.

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Talk about a quick and uncomplicated dinner…! Alas, I’m munching it for lunch, as is my son, and my mother… so, there’s nothing left of it for dinner!

This is a dish to eat with a fork, at room temperature. Don’t chill it. Let the air, even the sun, warm it a bit, and enjoy it as the main feature of your meal.

If you’re a lover of savory things with watermelon — goat cheese, kalamata olives, red onions, olive oil — you’ll “get” this dish. With a small amount of a creamy-ish dressing made from avocado, garlic, olive oil, and salt, it distributes just enough across the surface of the little watermelon chunks to give a simple savory hit to the taste buds.

And the sauce it makes in the bowl as it mixes with the water from the watermelon is lovely, unctuous. To this Greek, it’s something I’d love to sop up with a bit of fresh crusty bread! Alas… not on today’s menu.

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