(Before chocolate is completely set.)

Chocolate is set here, but much darker than shows up in the photo.

Frankly, this is a great chocolate to make when you just want chocolate… forget the nuts & nibs.

Honestly, when you make a raw chocolate treat like this for the first time and experience and fast and easy it is to make something so satisfyingly delicious, you’ll wonder why you ever made those Peanut M&M runs to 7-11.

This particular chocolate is a little different from my other raw cacao recipes… it highlights some awesome Mexican vanilla a friend so graciously gifted me recently (a gigantic quart-sized bottle… can you imagine???), and is nicely salted to offset the sweet. For best results, definitely use the best quality vanilla and naturally mineralized salt you can get your hands on.

And if you have all these good-but-simple things already in your kitchen as staples, this is a no-brainer to whip up on-the-fly. If you don’t have macadamia nuts or nibs, you can use any other nut or seed — and don’t forget Goji Berries. Or you could just eat the stuff off a spoon as soon as it’s mixed up.

I swear to you, it takes probably just two minutes to get to that point. That’s how quick a chocolate-fix this really is. Heh.

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Still one of my all-time favorite ways to start the day!

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The post below was originally published on my “This Raw Life” blog on March 29, 2009: My New Favorite Raw Breakfast Smoothie…

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My Breakfast Smoothie: Papaya, Raspberry, Goji Berry & Lime!
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The fuschia color of the smoothie against the orange of my countertop is just so dang cheerful… who could remain grumpy or sleepy in the face of that vibrancy, I ask you!

I just had to post this photo, taken this morning, of what’s going to be my new favorite way to start the day… papaya availability withstanding. It’s made with Papaya, Red Raspberries, Goji Berries, and Lime… an improvement upon my old stand-by recipe that I posted yesterday one blog over.

I used one whole giant papaya, about 7 oz red raspberries, 1/4 cup Goji Berries, and the juice of one lime.

Absolutely, utterly DELICIOUS. I made two batches… great way to start the day!

Here is a “blended salad” type of Live Green Smoothie, loaded with salad vegetables, but it’s very mild… not at all like a V-8 cocktail. Goji berries, cold-pressed coconut oil, and a bit of agave nectar (or raw honey) softens and melds the flavors into a gently-flavored smoothie that’s chock-full of good things.

With some humor, I noticed that it also had the same coloration as my parents’ granite countertop.

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Recipe for: Mild “Goji-Veggie” LGS

A Live Green Smoothie/Blended Salad With Goji Berries

• 1/2 red pepper
• 1 medium tomato
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 tablespoon goji berries
• 1 tablespoon cold-pressed coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar or raw honey
• 1/4 teaspoon quality natural salt, such as Himalayan Crystal salt
• water to 32 oz. (about 2 cups)
• 1 cup ice (optional)

Blend everything up and drink!

This is an excellent base recipe for other additions. As the flavor is quite mild, you can intensify it by adding just a wee bit of red onion, scallions, and/or garlic, and a splash of raw, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. Add chile or jalapeno for heat, or some fresh grapes for a bit more sweetness. [/quote]

After a couple days of over-doing the holiday feasting, this is a great refresher and digestif to help repair some of the damage and get things moving in the right direction again!

Goji berries, cold-pressed coconut oil, and either agave nectar or raw honey help mellow out the boldness and bitterness of the grapefruit. After drinking a tall glass of this, you’ll feel invigorated and refreshed… I promise.

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Two exotic flavors combine luxuriously into a fragrant concoction… for romance, rejuvenation, and longevity. Take your pick for what you need: A whole-food raw, Live Green Smoothie whipped up quickly in your blender, a virgin superfood cocktail made with fresh juice and the healthful power of goji berries… or a full-on cocktail to “get your intox and your detox on at the same time”.

The Martini: One of my new faves. So pretty, so exotic… like drinking perfume, but refreshing and not cloying. Lovely.

The Virgin Cocktail: A treat for non-drinkers.

The Live Green Smoothie: Exquisite. Creamy. Aromatic. A new favorite. Make this one, for sure!

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My son Auden is the Carrot-Goji Smoothie King, regularly combining these two into smoothies for himself and his friends. I can’t say I was ever much into carrot-based smoothies until I tried his concoctions, so let it be known he’s the official inspiration for this very yummy ginger-goji smoothie recipe!

If you like ginger ale, you’re gonna dig this raw smoothie. It would be hard to pack more beta carotene into a drink, and this one also has the antioxidant, adaptogenic power of goji berries to get you cranking smoothly for the day.

And a nice feature: the ingredients are utterly pedestrian… provided, of course, that goji berries are staples in your kitchen. As they very well should be.

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The Dream Team

Galangal tastes something like ginger, but with a more pungent flavor and with perhaps more heat. Paired with Goji berry, the King of health in Traditional Chinese Medicine (considered its #1 food/herb), the two are like the Dream Team if your energy is lagging. Mango joins them beautifully together. There’s a lot to recommend the taking of this Raw Smoothie on a daily basis!

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What the heck is “Galangal”?

Until recently, the only experience I had with Galangal was fishing it out of my Tom Ka Gai soup because it was such a surprising flavor I wasn’t too keen on biting into again. But after my youngest son purchased some dried Galangal and brewed up some tea, I did some research and was so impressed with what I read that I began to drink the stuff quite frequently to acquaint myself first-hand with its effects and benefits.

Turns out, my favorite visionary chantress Hildegard Von Bingen (1098-1179) was also an accomplished herbalist, and to her Galangal was “The Spice of Life”. About this wonderful root, not unlike ginger but more potent, she said “If there would be a herb to wake up the dead, then galangal would be the first choice.”

After my experience of it, I would not argue.

Hildegard von Bingen was partial to using Galangal for its beneficial affects on the heart (she recommended it for heart pain for instant relief, akin to nitroglycerine today). But she also used it for deafness, to tonify the liver, as an aid to digestion, and a dispeller of nervous energy and worry.

A notable effect I experience when I drink a strong tea of Galangal is that not only does it seem to open up my heart area, as I can readily feel more oxygen moving throughout my body, but it appears to affect my central nervous system with a relaxed kind of calm. It’s *not* a sedative. In fact, my energy goes through the roof. But it’s not a stimulant, either, as I feel completely relaxed and at ease… just full of life.

“Spice of Life” indeed.

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To Purchase Galangal

There are four different types of Galangal. The spice (a root) is commonly used in Thai cuisine, so if you can find a local source for Asian cooking you are likely to find Galangal. Failing that, just purchase online. But honestly, in my experience, most local grocers are very happy to provide whatever you request… if you are enthusiastically persuasive enough.

In my kitchen, we have a dried Galangal root of the type Kaempferia galanga, which was purchased online.

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And As Always, Add Fresh Greens…or Even Some Micro-Algae!

I’ll be adding some of my “RevitaPhi” super-greens/super-herb powder (from Elements for Life) to my next batch of Dream Team, but you could add fresh greens, spirulina, blue-green algae, or whatever your own super-green powder is. Use this recipe as a base for whatever kind of “super-hero” smoothie you’re in the mood to make. 

It just has that vibe — super vitalizing, but with a mild (though spicy!) flavor that will make many additions taste wonderful.

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Lemon juice made by running whole organic lemons through the juicer... rich, tart, and very lemony!

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I picked up a beautiful bunch of organic lemons this week and thought they’d make a great lemonade…which I incorporated into this extremely wakifying Live Green Smoothie recipe!

I juiced the lemons whole through the juicer, which allows me to get all those scrumptiously healthful bioflavanoids in the peel and pith, but you can bypass that step if you’re in a rush or feeling lazy and just squeeze the lemons by hand. Won’t taste the same, though… it’ll lack the flavor and energetic “zing” that comes from juicing them whole. But, well… it’s good to know one can take shortcuts when the day requires it. 

I used collard greens here, but if you don’t have collards on hand certainly you can substitute another mild-tasting dark leafy green instead. Parsley would taste great, spinach of course, and kale or baby romaine would also work.

As for the Goji Berries… hey, they’re the King of Health in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and any way you can slip some into your smoothies and other raw recipes is a great investment in your health, especially your immune system during these tricky times.

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This is a seriously versatile recipe you can use many different ways, and it’s a nutritional, energetic powerhouse! Definitely add this to your repertoire, to create delicious quick snacks, a perky no-oil salad dressing, a fruit topping for perhaps any fruit under the sun, or a great dip for both fruit and vedge!

It’s fresh, fluffy, gorgeously orange, tastes not unlike Ginger Fruit Loops, has no added fat, will be a hit with both kids and raw pot luck munchers…and has the combined nutritional power of goji berries (without their raisiny flavor), the potent adaptogen raw maca powder (you will be hard-pressed to taste its strong flavor in this combo…), fresh ginger (great for digestion and a sore tum!), raw honey (anti-inflammatory to soothe the lungs), and fresh lime juice (vitamin C). In other words: Major Zing!

Takes minutes to make. If you’re into superfoods…and even if you’re not… this is a recipe you can make frequently and not get tired of!

Homemade Goji Powder...part of the recipe. :D

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Here’s my lunch.

I grabbed a gigantic handful of delicate organic parsley I picked up recently at the health food store, threw in a bunch of red grapes, a small handful of goji berries, an organic apple (skin, core, & all), a generous sprinkling of gorgeously sparkling blue-green algae, a small toss of cordyceps (a medicinal mushroom in the form of a beige powder)… et voila! A quick, super-filling Live Green Smoothie!

LGSs are not always brilliant hues of spring-like green. Often, because of what happens when you blend up bright greens and reds you get very dark colors that at first might be reminiscent of pea soup or 70s avocado kitchen appliances.

But… soldier on. New color associations will develop! There are many lovely shades of green (and brown…) on the planet. One just needs to get used to enjoy seeing them being poured into a glass.

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Today’s Green Smoothie Recipe

• handful parsley
• one apple
• large bunch of red grapes
• small handful goji berries
• about 1 tablespoon blue green algae
• about 1/2 teaspoon cordyceps
• spring water to 32 oz.
• 1 cup ice

Blend and drink!

Drink the whole blenderful, unless you’re sharing with someone. Can’t do it in one sitting? Pour it over ice in water bottles and take on the road with you. It is SOOOO refreshing!