The demands in my life at this time are pretty radical, both professionally and personally. And I’m feeling the strain of it on my health. I know this is because short-cuts I’ve been taking with my diet have compounded, and I’ve reach that “buck stops here” impasse that drives a big change. It’s definitely time to get back on course, so I can be my best on every level.

Anyone else reaching that point right now?

These are intense times, with intense demands. Never before have we been subjected to such an onslaught of influences that would undermine our health.

So for my part, I’m going back to the basics that I know GUARANTEE a vital, balanced health and energy. Every aspect of these fundamentals increases the body’s alkalinity, which for me right now is the name of the game.

What’s The Big Deal About Alkalinity?

Here’s a vid of Dr. Coldwell, explaining a wee bit about how alkalinity stops cancer in its tracks:

And here’s the trailer for “The Beautiful Truth”, a wonderful movie about Dr. Max Gerson and “The Gerson Therapy” that has been used by many to cure their cancer.

I may not have cancer, but my body is giving off alarms that it’s pointing the wrong direction, so I’m going to head this progress off at the pass, and here’s what I’m beginning with:
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My Personal Plan…To Get Back On Track

Live Green Smoothies

 Two blenderfuls of LGSs in the morning. A third blenderful of LGSs in the evening. That alone is life-changing.

Live Green Nightcaps – No More Alcohol

No more wine or tequila nightcaps “to unwind” after a demanding day. Instead: Live Green Martinis, made with fresh parsley, blended mango, and zinged up with a juiced jalapeño chili!

Ixnay on the Ugarshay

No more sweets unless it’s in a good dark, raw chocolate. I’ve added the ingredients for my own “Best Dark Chocolate You Ever Had” recipe to this week’s shopping list, and plan on making a batch to take to work for my afternoon breaks.

Baking Soda

I need to get my body in a “healing state” of alkalinity, not just a “healthy” alkaline state, and backing soda added morning and night to a glass of spring water is a big help in achieving that.

Fresh Green Juices

Between my 96 oz. of Live Green Smoothies and a couple evening green-juice “cocktails”, I think I’ll be good to go with the chlorophyll. But if I’m able to get an extra glass in, I will!

Chopped Raw Salads

For me, this is a big deal — having these on hand makes all the difference for my success in staying “high raw” and in keeping me from reaching for the convenience foods that take me into an acidic state. If I make a big bowl every other day, that works pretty well. These recipes keep for a couple days in the fridge. Some of my very favorite workhorse recipes that always do the trick:

This Savoy Cabbage-Tomato Salad/Salsa, made with raw almond butter. Wowzers.

This rib-sticking Kale & Portabella Salad with Creamy Garlic Macadamia Dressing. Which reminds me…I need to find a local source of raw macadamias.

And this meaty recipe… a life-savor for those of us who are more into Savory than Sweet: a Mushroom Salsa/Dip/Tapenade/Meat Substitute, also made with raw almond butter.

What are you doing in your diet right now, to keep your own course in a healthy and productive direction?

I’d love to hear about it in the comment section below!

To view LGS Library Recipes, browse the EZ Browse Recipe Library or search the site categories.

ALERT:

As of February 2012, I am no longer creating & posting daily recipes.

I am preparing a series of books for publication. The first is ready to launch soon. After the series is published, the recipes will be released for free access. Until them, the fee to view this extensive library of original recipes is only $5.00 for one year, or until I take down the access controls for the library. I hope you enjoy them!

See more photos down below!

The LGS Recipe Library is a way to share my own raw creations with you, and to profile the talents of exceptional guest raw-food kitcheneers.

I am so happy to report that this recently added service has been extremely well-received, and I’m just having the time of my life creating these “un-cooked” recipes for you!p

Recipes with YOU in mind…

These are not intended to be fiddly, complex, restaurant-quality recipes — these are recipes for every day and everyone. Recipes include:

• Live Green Smoothies
• Other Raw & Superfood Smoothies
• Warm Live Soups
• Salad Sandwiches
• Raw Pastas
• Blended Salads (Savory Smoothies)
• Raw Ice Creams
• Delicious Raw Cocktails
• and many other Main Meals, Snacks, Drinks, and Desserts.

Every recipe includes ingredients, instructions, and photos. And even if you don’t make them all, they will surely give you inspiration in your kitchen and introduce you to new ways you can prepare your own meals!

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To register for access to the LGS Recipe Library, click here.

Emerging Out Of The Shadows…

I have so missed posting to the site! New work responsibilities and continued demanding personal obligations just seem every day to intercede. And it’s resulted in a challenging personal quandary, as I have unfinished business here, and a great love for a message I so dearly wish to continue sharing with others!

Enter…modern technology: a new iPad, purchased for work, but which just may serve as the bridge into a new phase with the site. I can use the iPad to take photos on-the-go, and — thanks to the beautifully designed Blogsy app — post something new in minutes!

There is no way for the time being that I can return to the daily recipes and photography with a macro lens and digital SLR camera, followed by lengthy blog posts and recipe descriptions, and I don’t see the way clear for another couple months yet for me to return to setting up the publishing side of things, so I can release my first set of books.

But blogging briefly about Live Green Smoothies and how to Jack Up The Raw…this may be possible with my new little techno-pal. I’m gonna give it a go…

Raw Lunches On-The-Go

If there is anything I am these days, it is Biz-Zee. I’ve returned to the corporate world, in a hectic haze of IT projects and in a managerial capacity that could easily have me doing something urgent 24/7. The only way I can fit working out into the equation is to schedule it early-early, before work, and — with walking my dog Kitty and packing my work and Get-Dressed-After-Yoga-Or-Bar-Method bags — that usually entails a 4:30 wake-up.

I am not a morning person. And I am SOOOoooo not interested in laboring over food prep at that hour. So simple rules the day, and food has to be packable within 15 minutes. Max. What makes things even trickier is that where I work, there is no cafeteria. So if I want to eat I need to bring food with me. And my tastes aren’t exactly utilitarian, so…what to do, what to do?

One helpful solution: those triple-washed organic salad greens containers. I often bung one of those into my food bag, along with a lemon, an avocado, an apple, and a banana or mango, and I’ve got lunch in the waiting. Add a blenderful of Live Green Smoothies — which takes all of 2 minutes to make AND clean up –, which I pour over ice into a large glass container, and all I need are a few munchies for an afternoon or mid-morning snack.

I keep some things at work: I’ve got a container of Himalayan Crystal Salt (to give my salads a few sprinkles). I keep a small knife for the fruit and to chunk up my avocados (makes a handy salad dressing with a good squeeze of lemon!). I keep various raw nuts in my snack drawer…some excellent organic chocolate…some raw or rawish honey macaroons. And I have an espresso machine in my office to minimize Starbucks runs.

Real food. Real life. Habits that work.

A question for all readers, who are welcome to comment: What are some of YOUR tricks for satisfying and practical raw and rawish meals on the go?

Smoked Chipotle Kale Chips

Yummy Kale Chips… and No MSG!

Everybody who tries them seems to rave about Kale Chips…and for good reason. Their texture crackles, crunches and delicious disintegrates in one’s mouth, and the ruffled edges of curly kale so nicely capture whatever flavorings have been added.

Thing is, many of the favorite recipes out there use raw cashews and/or nutritional yeast to give a kind of “cheezy” flavor. I love raw cashews, but I almost never used them in my recipes because they are both hard to find and very expensive. And I never use nutritional yeast - A, because I don’t like the flavor, and B, because I minimize the use of anything that may include forms of monosodium glutamate (MSG). People debate about whether nutritional yeast does or does not include a form of MSG, but whichever the case, it doesn’t taste “right” to, it doesn’t taste or feel “undenatured” in my body, and that’s always what I go with. So I won’t be including it in any of my Dehydro recipes.

Instead, I’m going to explore recipes that can be made from Utterly Pedestrian ingredients, or very simple, natural “superfood” ingredients very common in the raw world, such as Chia Seeds, Raw Cacao, Goji Berries and such.

Fresh curly kale, rinsed and shaken dry.

Adding the dressing to the kale...

Smoked Chipotle Kale Chips

These Smoked Chipotle Kale Chips use the neutral taste and texture of blended Zucchini to help create a kale-sticking dressing to distribute the flavor before dehydration. And the flavors are simple: smoked paprika, Chipotle Tabasco sauce, olive oil, lemon, and quality natural crystal salt.

So E-Z!!

Take a few minutes to rinse & shake the kale dry, a few minutes to make the dressing and rub & squish it into the kale, and then you just pop it onto a couple dehydrator trays, bung them into your Dehydro unit, flick on the machine and off go! No reason to feel intimated by the process of dehydrating, or to think that it is something laborious.

“How Long Do I Dehydrate? What’s The Right Temperature Setting?”

If you’re nervous about navigating potential enzyme-killing heat… relax. First, ascribing fear to how you’re feeding yourself is hardly a health-promoting outlook. Thinking stressfully is as much (or even more) a liability for your health as eating denatured food. And that, in my view, is the key here: you are minimally denaturing your food. You are taking a whole food, cutting it, seasoning it, subjecting it to some low temps to remove moisture. That is all.

Dr. Gabriel Cousens, a well-known raw guru, discovered that the “sweating” phase when dehydrating fruit & vedge actually lowers the temperature of the food and cause mold or fermentation if not adequately heated at the outset of the process. His recommendation is to start the process out at 145 degrees F, and then lower it to around 115. And that is what I do: 145 for the first hour, then 115 for 4-5 hours, or overnight, til done.

Smoky, zesty, spicy topping

Ready for the dehydrator!

Crunchy & ready for snacking!

To register for access to the LGS Recipe Library, click here.

To view LGS Library Recipes, browse the EZ Browse Recipe Library or search the site categories.

ALERT:

As of February 2012, I am no longer creating & posting daily recipes.

I am preparing a series of books for publication. The first is ready to launch soon. After the series is published, the recipes will be released for free access. Until them, the fee to view this extensive library of original recipes is only $5.00 for one year, or until I take down the access controls for library.

Note: You need to be logged in to see the rest of this recipe.

Click here to log in.

Not registered? Click here to register.

If you have any problems registering, please send notice using the Contact Us form. Thank you so much!

It’s A New Day

What a great relief, on both accounts.

It feels so good to be “kitchening” again after such a long hiatus. Setting up a new homestead, settling into the rhythm of a new job, adjusting to life in a new town, and stabilizing all these changes took awhile to sort out, but the dust has settled and I’m ready to pick up where I left off!

Where that was: hitting the dehydration recipe phase of my “Daily Recipe” program, which I will be ending around Labor Day. All subscribers will retain access to the recipes through that weekend. And between now and then it’s going to be very heavy on the Dehydro Recipes, as that is the one group of recipes I haven’t touched upon.

Dehydrated Raw Recipes

Me, personally… I need crunchy, bready, savory cracker & sandwich-bread raw substitutes in order to stay extremely high raw. I need chips to eat my Chopped Salads with, and wraps or flatbreads for my Salad Sammiches, and normally I use organic corn tortilla chips and toasted Ezekiel bread to fill the bill.

As I just loathe the taste of flax seed, which is what most raw crackers & breads utilize to get everything to stick together (because of its gelatinous nature when moistened, flax seed has been called the “egg” of the raw world), I’ve been at a disadvantage as far as what to use for chips & flatbreads. So…I’m going to be experimenting with other methods to bind raw ingredients into chips & flatbreads. Chia seeds will factor in heavily, as they have an even higher “binding” quality but a milder flavor. I’ll also experiment with using some high-pectin, high-soluble-fiber fruits as binders. For example, Persimmon has been on my mind as potentially being a great Dehydro ingredient. And berries as well. We’ll see. I anticipate some interesting surprises to emerge as they did in previous recipe-creating waves.

For example, the versatile nature of Zucchini! That was a revelation. And not surprisingly, my first two Dehydro recipes both include Zucchini as a main ingredient! Also, the Miraculously Meaty combo of Mushrooms and Almond Butter…that’s one of my fave discoveries, ever. Wow. A combo even a steak-eater can appreciate. I suspect they are going to find their way into more than one Dehydro recipe

Not all these Dehydro recipes will be crackers and chips and flatbreads. I’m going to focus on crunchy raw snacks as well — a whole range of Kale Chips, Sweet Potato Crunchies, Raw Granola, Dehydro Fruit Crunches, and lordy knows what all else. Thus far with the recipes, it has felt like pioneering a new food culture, learning how to use and think about simple ingredients differently. And the intention to stick primarily with Utterly Pedestrian ingredients remains. Simple foods one can make without any fanfare, and enjoy on a daily basis. Food For Real People, not the Fussy-N-Fab that you’d order in a raw restaurant.

My new Smoked Chipotle Kale Chips...yum!

The Live Green Smoothie Challenge

If you’re new to the LGS Challenge, click on the link at the top of my site to read about it. It’s an approach to using Live Green Smoothies to help radically “jack up the raw” in your diet to help faciliate a radical improvement in your health, energy, and well-being, and to help with weight loss. It was a critical factor in how I transformed my physique back in 2005 from a size 18/20 to a 6 in just 7 months, without “dieting” or any kind of fat/carb/portion monitoring. (Read My Story for those details, or just check out my Before & After pics.) And be sure to use my EZ Browze Recipe Library link to scan the photos & recipe titles for recipes you might like to try, yourself!

At this juncture, I’m endeavoring to bring my own weight back down to where it was — I put on some unwanted weight this past year, where frequently I was just logistically very challenged to include significant amounts of live foods in my diet. Generally speaking, in the last couple years where my dancing has been very much on hiatus, my physique took a toll and I’m soooooo ready to reclaim it!

So if you’re in a similar boat, or just wanting some company while you “jack up the raw” for your own reasons, please check in daily here. I may be posting around 4 recipes a week, but I plan on blog posting daily to the site on other subjects. And I’d love your comments, feedback, and participation in the discussion.

A Kale & Red Grape LGS with "Moringa" protein/chlorophyll powder. POWERFUL.

Going Down a Size…

Day 4 started with my putting on size 10 pants for work, rather than size 12. So… although the size down is snug, I’ve worn them only twice since buying them (at the same time as the 12s… for “when”), and I wore them comfortably all day and that’s a decent milestone for just three days into this fresh Challenge!

Meals

Breakfast: Two slices of toasted sesame Ezekiel toast, with grass-fed butter and raw honey.

Live Green Smoothies: Just one blenderful today… it’s all I had ingredients for in the morning, though the spirit was willing to make more. Kale, Red Grape, and Pear.

Lunch: A “Salad Sandwich” conjured from the corporate cafeteria — I had the chef toast up some multi-grain bread while I assembled a pile of baby greens, carrots, red onion, dried cherries (or are they cranberries, I wonder?) and crumbled feta with a decent squirt of hot sauce. And then I stuffed the toast with the salad, with a bottle of LGS on the side. ‘Twas scrumptious!

Afternoon Snack: Quick run to the Starbucks-around-the-corner for a warmed-up chocky-chip cookie and a doppio espresso macchiato “with extra foam” (AKA, “roman cappo”, from my experience).

Dinner: I had a couple bites of a washed-rind cheese similar to Brie while grocery shopping at King’s after work, with a couple rice-life wafer crackers. And I had a few bites of Ritter dark chocolate-marzipan. And after a trip to the salon for a much-needed haircut, I poured a couple small martini glasses of Shiraz to enjoy whilst cocktail-chatting with the Boyz and our Visitorz for the evening. But… that’s it.

Low appetite for the day, and it feels directly connected to the increased inner sense of balance, calm, and energy I’m feeling! I was BUZZING with energy all day long, and was super-productive & creative at work — a great feeling!

Exercise

Nada. Bizzy after-work errands segued into relaxing & festive social Friday gathering, with early-to-bed. And that capped the day of great!

“Tree of Life, Vigor, and Vitality”, art by Elle Nicolai

Energy!

Things seriously started to kick in Day 3!

Staying higher raw starting to become easier… living foods start to have their own magnetic pull, as if they’ve deposited something in my bloodstream that makes me turn to them with more ease. And the feeling of having tossed off lethargy and becoming more alive is so palpable and rewarding… why turn back now?

Meals

Breakfast: French press Italian Roast with two slices of toasted sesame Ezekiel bread generously slathered in grass-fed butter.

Live Green Smoothies: Whoops… dashed out of the house without making them for work! The Big Snow, and all its associated shoveling, took up my morning smoothie-making time. But the day ended up being high-raw, nonetheless! And in the evening… enjoyed 1/2 a blenderful of an LGS with rich Kale, Red Grape, and Goji. My son had the other half.

Lunch: A large salad with baby greens, carrots, cucumbers, red peppers, red onion, dried cherries, and a bit of feta and Saracha hot sauce to give it zest. Also, some clear broth from a bowl of chicken soup.

Afternoon snack: I love something smallish & sweetish in the afternoons, but I wasn’t equipped with my healthier choices and the snow kept me office-bound, so… I found myself sniffing out the coffers of my colleague’s office drawers. A few of those mini Reese’s peanut butter cups did not satisfy, and reminded me that raw cacao and Green & Black’s are far superior choco-offerings than what’s readily available out there!

Dinner: I made a giant bowl of a Savory Papaya Salad, with one giant papaya, two avocadoes, some red onion, fresh garlic, 1/2 a jalapeno, and bit of sea salt. Self & Boyz scarfed this down like salsa with some organic tortilla chips… ’twas awesome. Explosively juicy, slightly sweet, savory, crunchy, salty, creamy, and rich!

Evening snack: Whilst watching the 2nd disc of The Fellowship of the Ring, enjoyed a scoop of freshly home-made Pumpkin-Spice Frozen Yogurt… and then the afore-mentioned LGS!

Exercise – The Bar Method!

Completed most of the “Designer Sculpting” Bar Method workout. I am a serious Bar Method aficionado. The Bar Method shares similarities with Callanetics and The Lotte Berke method… and I’m fans of all of them.

And yes, that’s an affiliate link, if you feel called to order the workout and give it a try!

Sandra Taylor’s Art – “Blissful Heart” water color

Bring On The Bliss!

Woke up this morning with that “raw bliss” settled neatly on my heart. Happens so quickly for me when I’m jacking up the raw with LGSs, like I’ve tapped intravenously into the Living Joy of the universe. Truly, Live Green Smoothies are “liquid sunshine”! They’re my “stress guard”, enabling the stresses of this fast-paced, high-pressured life to roll off my back like duck off a water.

Yesterday’s Grub

Started off the day with an LGS: a large handful of rich, dark curly kale blended up with three “seedless” clementines, a large gob of cold-pressed coconut oil, and some locally harvested spring water.

I say “seedless” because the bitter taste of blended orange pips that permeated my smoothie pretty clearly proved the label on the clementine box wrong. But I drank that whole thing anyway, and am glad for it. Good thing, too, because the day was fraught with some dietary challenges.

Grabbed a pumpkin scone from Starbucks on my way into work. And then whoops, forgot, team luncheon in celebration of someone’s birthday! We headed to a Persian restaurant where I made a light choice of some falafel with salad. Expertly done; clean, quality food. Not high-raw but at least… “rawish”.

Dinner… finished off the smoothie. Had a small portion of eggs & such I made for my Boyz, along with some freshly home-made goat yogurt “ice cream”.

‘Twas a day of 50%+ raw, only one blenderful of Live Green Smoothies… but the knowing that on the path to things eventually hitting critical mass. In a good way.

Update on yesterday’s first day with my own 2011 Live Green Smoothie 85% Challenge…

Came home from work and rested, and resting segued into more resting, then deep resting, then sleeping, then deep sleeping… and waking fabulously refreshed this morning!!!

Haven’t felt so refreshed in zonks! And that is worth not having pushed the envelope to “get my sweat in” as was my original intention.

Thing about “jacking up the raw” with live foods… they can put you very quickly horizontal at first, as a way to cleanse, repair, and nourish.

And such was deliciously the case for me last night.

As for the food…

What I posted in yesterday’s pic is pretty much it, minus one of the avocadoes, and plus a raspberry scone at Starbucks in the morning! I had a small bit of leftover potato gratin in the evening, then finished the rest of the choco-LGS from earlier in the day. Quite high raw, despite the white-carb elements.

Lunch was one avocado mashed in a bowl with a bit of honey, to which I added two sliced bananas. This was executed in the corporate cafeteria, at the table with a bevy of my male colleagues, a tall bottle of choco-LGS on the side. Yes, there were a few comments… yes, there were a few giggles. Who cares? Am happy to provide a little levity, no skin off my revitalizing hide.

And I plan the same for today!

The Starting Point

Weight? I don’t weight myself… I don’t have a scale, even. I go by clothing size, which for me is a better system. So… size? Loosely fitting size 12. After spending years normalized at a 6, ballooning up from too many filling-but-cheap-carbs is not comfortable. Size 12 was a celebration back in 2005 on my way down from a size 20, but now… no thank you: back to 6, pleez, and I’ll raise you a 4!

My Raw, LGS Stash For The Day

Two bottles of choco-rich Live Green Smoothies, made with a very large handful of curly kale, 3 small bananss, a gigantic knob of cold-pressed coconut oil hacked out of its container on this below-zero morning, a massive toss of raw cacao powder, a scooch of Mexican vanilla… and spring water from a local spring.

Also: two bananas, two avocadoes, and a fresh fruit cup snagged at Starbucks on the way in when I stopped to pick up an Americano for the office.

Plans for Getting My Sweat On…

If the weather allows, I’ll hit the gym tonight. But what I really want to do it set up my sauna!!!

I’ve got a 3-seater far-infrared HealthMate sauna, recently retrieved from storage, and the perfect place in my attic to set it up! Though it’s been so cold up there I’ve been putting off the task. Am so looking forward to being able to crank that baby up, pop in a CD (it’s got speakers inside!) and chill…er… bake… while the winter storms rage to their heart’s content outside.