The Live Green Smoothie Diet

This simple, quick-to-prepare dish makes for a nice little sweet-treat to have with your tea or coffee, or to give to your kids (and know that there’s nothing artificial or denatured about it in the least).

This little “white chocolate” candy is mild, not-too-sweet, and melts into a kind of soft-taffy texture that quickly melts down the back of your mouth with all that honey-vanilla goodness.

I also found an interesting article that mentions some research that has found that cacao butter suppresses excessive T-cell activity in the immune system, which could make it favorable for individuals suffering from overactive immune systems, with conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and the like.

Sounds like something that might be worth looking into for many people…

But I just like it because it’s a small bit of something vanilla-y, and for the lusciously melty texture as it warms up in your mouth.

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This is one of those recipes I wish I’d known how to make back when I first encountered the whole raw & living food world. Would have made staying “high-raw” so much easier.

This “hummus” is made from raw macadamia nuts and a few other utterly pedestrian ingredients. It takes only a few minutes, and what you get is a hummus I actually enjoy better than hummus made from sesame. It has a “cleaner” flavor, it explosive with garlic, tangy with lemon, and makes either a great dish for dipping or a delicious (and filling) raw sandwich spread!

An excellent recipe for rummaging up a quick supper!

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did…

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I’m visiting family in Florida right now for the holidays, and when I saw the giant bowls of freshly picked, home-grown oranges, tangerines, grapefruits, and lemons in their kitchen, I knew straightaway that citrus was going to figure prominently in a few of my recipes this week! Then my mom asked me to show her how to make some tasty raw chocolate goodies, and I knew the first thing I wanted to make: these deliciously juicy chocolate-dipped tangerine slices!

What a great combo… the sweet, juicy tang of tangerine with luxurious dark chocolate. And so easy… you whip up the chocolate in minutes, dip the fruit twice, and store the plate of treats in the fridge. Nothing complicated, other than waiting a few minutes in between dips for the chocolate to harden in the freezer.

When you bite into these babies, the delicate hard-chocolate shell crunches into the cool sweetness of the tangerine for a juicy bite that’s both refreshing and just slightly decadent! And if you can find “tangelos” at your grocer’s instead of tangerines, even better — you won’t have to spit out a pip when you’re done!

I brought this plate over to my brother’s for dessert and left the plate unattended in the kitchen, only to find it half-demolished just moments later by all the kids who’d gotten to it before dinner was served. But with this recipe… all natural, rich with undenatured nutrients… who cares? Was probably the healthiest thing they ate all day.

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These look like ordinary nuts, but I assure they are not. This unique recipe coats your favorite nuts in a sweetly savory combination of raw honey, cacao butter, garlic, cumin, and maca, calling up the taste sensation of authentic mexican mole seasonings, tho’ I left out cacao powder to keep them lighter in flavor.

Munch on these by themselves, or add them to salads, Salad Sandwiches, and Warm Live Soups. But be sure to include some the next time you entertain. They are festive and addictive!

And satisfies that desire for crunch and something salty in a wonderful healthy way. Plus… you get the potent adaptogenic health benefits of maca powder without being bothered by maca’s distinctive pungent flavor. An utterly win-win treat!

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A recent new member to my site specifically requested some recipes for raw cheeses, as she loves cheese dearly, and this is my first offering in that category.

I’m also a serious lover of seriously wonderful cheese. Irish cheddar… Dutch parrano… Greek feta… genuine Italian parmagian… I very much enjoy a few slices with a glass of red wine. Delicious. I’m not ready to bid those experiences adieu forever as yet, so I completely understand.

Consistent with my general paradigm around fresh, raw, living foods, I made this recipe to be easy to whip up on-the-spot so that it’s something one can turn to frequently, when a bit of something savory beckons. I chose not to start off with a recipe using raw cashews, although that is usually what raw food enthusiasts use for their “cheesy” recipes. Instead, this is made from the pulp leftover from making fresh almond milk, because raw almonds tend to be far easier to locate locally than raw cashews.

I have also included a small amount of Nama Shoyu, an unpasteurized soy sauce popular in the raw food community. I’m not a frequent user of Nama Shoyu, due to its reputation for containing glutamates (as do all soy sauces, raw or not). However, it is glutamates that give certain cheeses their compelling savoriness (such as with parmagian), and I wanted an undertone of that savory quality in this “cheese” spread.

If you don’t have Nama Shoyu, you can use a bit of Tamari, which is pasteurized and not raw, until you can get your hands on the unpasteurized product.

This is not a firm, sliceable recipe. It is soft, rather fluffy, a spread which you can also use as a dip with raw crackers, fresh vegetables, or organic tortilla chips for a “rawish” snack or meal. The flavor is mellow and nutty, not overpowering, quite light… but still has that savory quality (and rich calcium content) that may satisfy a craving for cheese.

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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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This tasty tart has a smooth creamy banana filling made rich with raw cacao butter, and is topped with a drizzled glaze of explosively flavorful dark raw chocolate. Got quite a lot of Ooos and Aaaaahs until it was finally done and ready for sampling by the marginally raw, 20-something set roaming my kitchen…who noisily gave their whole-hearted approval and demolished the entire dessert.

Three minutes later…

The filling here is quite sweet, which is offset beautifully by the dark, slightly bitter chocolate. If you have a sweet tooth and enjoy both bananas and dark chocolate, you’re going to love this.

It’s neither hard nor time-consuming to make, although it does require two ingredients which are rather exotic to most kitchens: raw cacao butter and organic soy lecithin, both of which my health food store stocks as a matter of course. I use Navitas Naturals brand cacao butter.

With the soy lecithin, it’s a recent experiment in my own kitchen, as I normally don’t go anywhere near soy products, whether processed or natural. But I’ve been reading of certain health benefits it possesses, and I know of some respected raw food enthusiasts who use it regularly in small quantities, so I’ve decided for the time being to stock it in my kitchen and play with it. It’s a great emulsifier, allowing fats to incorporate smoothly and creamily into liquids, which is what it does in this case.

If you prefer not to use it, you can leave it out. The frozen banana filling will just be a bit more crystalline in texture and less creamy, which isn’t the end of the world. If you do use the soy lecithin, make sure you purchase an organic product, otherwise you’re pretty much guaranteed a product genetically  modified to withstand higher levels of pesticide…not a good thing.

In this recipe, there is more pie filling than the shell can accommodate, so you can freeze it in a bowl and drizzle some of the chocolate glaze over it to make a nice frozen raw ice cream treat. But if you’d like, you can double the tart shell recipe for a larger portion and use all the filling for a single dessert.

Needless to say…great for company!

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This recipe just explodes with flavor. I’ll remember to make a double-batch next time, because once the twenty-somethings came round, they were practically licking the bowl to get up every last drop. Almost felt bad I’d eaten so much of it for dinner. Uh…almost.

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Eggplant… Tricky For Some Sensitive Eaters

I’ve always had a problem with eggplant — although it’s delicious, the acid in eggplant is extremely irritating to my tongue and I can usually barely manage a few mouthfuls before the discomfort sets in. So I was wary when I had the idea of trying a raw eggplant dish.

But I saw just the cutest little miniature eggplants at the Indian market around the corner, and thought it was worth the risk, because if I could figure out  a way to prepare eggplant so that it didn’t hurt me, it could open up quite a few options for some great raw, living savory dishes. I was imagining Indian curries…Thai curries…Asian sweet “BBQ” eggplant…shoot, I bet I could even find a way to give it a smokey, “bacony” flavor.

Well, I’m glad I went for it, because this recipe has become an instant favorite of mine. I don’t remember ever tasting a Baba Ganoush recipe this yummy before (if I do say so myself), and you can’t tell that the eggplant is raw. Although I ate nearly half the recipe for my dinner, my tongue (though tingly!) wasn’t uncomfortably bothered. And the dip was both absolutely delicious and very satisfying… a major thumbs-up as far as raw dinners go.

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Extremely Versatile, Crowd-Pleasing Recipe

There is no sesame or tahini in this recipe. I’ve used raw macadamia nuts instead. And one thing I really like about the flavor in this dip is that you can’t taste “nuts” in any way…just the happily enthusiastic mediterranean flavors of lemon, garlic, cumin, and olive oil!

Serve with raw dehydrated chips or fresh vegetables for a raw meal, or with organic tortilla chips for a “rawish” meal. This would also make a killer Salad Sandwich filling — use some toasted Ezekiel bread, top with some delicate fresh greens or sprouts, and you’re good to go!

Great for raw pot lucks and when you’re having company over as well. The only drawback is that the eggplant is sliced and marinated overnight, to tenderize it and draw any irritating acids, so it’s not a recipe you can do at the last minute. But it’s certainly easy, and takes just a couple minutes to finish up the next day.

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You wouldn’t guess that this creamy, rich chocolate mousse is whipped up with fresh avocado. But so it is, and with a good does of raw cacao powder, which has the highest concentration of antioxidants and the most magnesium of any natural food source on the planet!

Paired with a crust of raw nuts that does not require dehydration, it’s super-easy and quick to make! You can be sitting down to a delicious slice of this chocolate heaven within minutes of opening your fridge to rummage for ingredients!

The raw nuts, chocolate, and avocado combine to give your body a great hit of calcium, magnesium and other good things to help create a feeling of well-being. And because this stuff is so rich, it’s practically impossible to over-eat. You can enjoy without guilt, knowing that you’re nourishing your body…as well as your chocolate craving!

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Oh dear…another seriously “You *gotta* make this recipe!” recipe. Totally addictive. Even my eldest son who HATES mushrooms shooed me away from the dish after I persuaded him to try it. Whatever he left, I gobbled up…and licked the plate clean to get all the sauce. This makes for a great “salsa” type dish with raw chips or non-raw organic tortilla chips for the “rawish” set. I’m serious… you gotta try this.

This is also another dish you could take to a non-raw dinner party, and nobody would guess it’s non-dairy or “raw”. It’s garlicky though, so… um… well… not best when you’ve got a hot date that night. Unless you both partake, of course.

Kale NEVER tasted so good. And the portabellas contribute more of a soft underlying potato-y texture rather than any mushroomy flavor. It’s a dish of illusions… and fabulous health.

If you’re into fresh reishi mushroom-hunting…this recipe’s for you!!!

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