One of my readers, Sue, mentioned that she frequently turns to this Banana with Hempseed Milk recipe (quick & easy, no straining required), and it reminded me of one of my all-time favorite recipes, this Vanilla, Macadamia, Hemp Seed Topping, which would be fabulous on top of those bananas… or any other kind of fruit… or the raw oatmeal which I just posted!

This topping is easy to make ahead of time and keep in the fridge, too, so… it’ll be there when you need it, another layer to the convenience that’s required in order to make a high-raw lifestyle workable.

This topping is just so good, I have never had any leftovers unless I make a large batch, because if I don’t scarf it all down, the kids will.

Between the fact that I just used my last young coconut and I haven’t bought raw macadamias in months… I think I feel another trip to Whole Foods coming on!

p

This Fruit Topping is wonderful, nutritious, addictive, quick-to-make, and hard to keep on hand because everybody wants some!

The recipe portions are small because I used to make it in one of those mini-food processors, but I’ve since realized that I should at least double (or quadruple) the portion and use a larger machine… otherwise I’m liable to try to bogart the whole batch!

You could just sprinkle on sliced or chopped fruit and go, but the way I normally eat it is to sprinkle it on fruit in a bowl, pour some fresh pecan or almond milk over it (or other fresh nut or seed milk), sprinkle with hemp seeds, and then dig in. Exactly as it looks in the photo:

Try Different Kinds of Honey

It’s fun to experiment with the type of honey you use because different honeys lend different nuances of taste. One of my fave honeys for this recipe is the organic Hawaiian Lehua honey by Garden of Life – it’s one of the tastiest I’ve tried. Quite floral… delicious with vanilla.

Try Different Kinds of Nut and Seed Milks

Most people quickly become familiar with how to make fresh Almond Milk when they begin exploring a raw foods lifestyle, but there are other kinds of nut and seed milks which are wonderful!

I love Pecan Milk (shown in the picture above). It’s rich, warm, and nutty tasting, it’s full of healthy zinc (great for men and their prostates and for pregnant women… and well, everyone needs zinc for healthy growth, cell development, and DNA synthesis).

Also, in my house Sunflower Seed milk rules because you get a tremendous nutritional bang for your hard-earned buck! Much cheaper than almonds or any of the other nuts, you can buy a huge bag of them and not break the bank. And they are high in fiber, protein, essential fatty acids, vitamins A, B complex, C, potassium, and magnesium! They’re also GREEN, and make a very pretty creamy-green milk. So… bring on the Sunflower Seeds, I say!

Vanilla-Macadamia-Hempseed Fruit Topping Recipe

• 1/4 C. raw Macadamia nuts
• 1 t. raw Honey
• dash “Himmy” salt (Himalayan Crystal Salt)
• 2 T. Hemp seeds
• 1/8 t. Vanilla extract (or a snippet of Vanilla Bean if you have some on hand)

Blend in small food processor, or just chop the nuts & mix by hand.
Serve on fresh fruit with fresh nut milk. Sprinkle with extra hemp seeds, if you like.

This is an excellent breakfast recipe, but I’ve also had it as a snack, and for a light dinner many times. It really satisfies on a number of levels — sweet, crunchy, creamy, tart, and belly-filling!

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.

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!

Okay, so this isn’t really a “pie” in the sense that there’s a crunchy or flaky crust filled with something… but this is a fresh version you can make on-the-spot, with zero dehydration, and it is all raw, all living… and absolutely scrumptious.

When I made this, I thought I was full and didn’t have room for more food. Buuuut… dang this sure went down easily!

The Vanilla-Walnut “crust” is like a thick, slightly salted pudding, and it offsets the juicy mango bits that have been coated lightly with a Vanilla-Honey glaze. Together… it tastes a bit like fresh mango and vanilla cake batter. I mean… for a vanilla whore like me… really. That’s just nuts.

Make for two for dessert… or just for yourself for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

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!

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”.

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!

Since moving from New Jersey to Tampa, I’ve had to enlist a whole new crew of tasters of my recipes. Conveniently, my little nephews are 11 and 14 years old,not in the least “raw”, and thus perfect candidates in my mind for some good recipe feedback.

I loved little 11-yr-old Jayson’s response… “Wow, this is gooooood! There’s corn and zucchini in it?? No kidding!” I mean, you can’t taste either of them, and he got such a kick out of the fact that the ice cream was made almost entirely of vegetables… and yet he wanted more!

There’s no fat added to this Vanilla Ice Cream… no nut milk, no seed milk, no hemp seeds, no avocado. This is straight-up fresh sweet white corn off the cob with baby zucchini, raw (or “raw-ish”) sweetener, and great vanilla.

Who knew that corn and zucchini could be used this way? I surely did not.

Even if you’re not raw, if you need to cut back on fat and dairy, this is a wonderful treat to know how to make! Add some raw cacao and you can easily turn it into a delicious Dark-Chocolate Ice Cream as well!

You just gotta try this to see for yourself…

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!

What a lovely texture… and you can whip this up in minutes! Easy ingredients, all fresh, all wholesome… and there’s no way you’ll find this combination in any store!

Fresh mango paired with fresh blueberries, quality vanilla (in this case, some richly fragrant vanilla from Mexico) and natural sweetener whips up lickety-split in your blender (easier if you have a high-speed Blendtec like mine, of course). And then you can eat it straight-away more as a *slushie*, or you can freeze it rather briefly, maybe an hour, and scoop it out as classic sorbet.

Often, raw sorbets get “icy” and hard crystals, but this one remains smooth and velvety in texture (thanks to the pectin in both the mango and the blueberry). It’s just wonderful.

Make it tonight, and have the leftover remainers with breakfast in the morning, or as an after-work refresher tomorrow afternoon!

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!

This is another “revelation recipe”, the sort of thing one never imagines would be so good, and yet works so very well!

This is also one more feather in my cap as far as nailing down another great raw recipe exquisitely highlighting vanilla… a personal quest of mine, since I love vanilla so much, but milk and cooked grain (two ingredients normally providing the blank backdrop that vanilla requires to shine) are excluded from the raw realm.

Avocado and raw zucchini have so far provided the most impressive raw food backdrops for vanilla, and this is a great example of the two of them working together to provide both creaminess and substance in a dish with vanilla.

This “hot cereal” takes just a few minutes to make, doesn’t dirty up your blender (you whip it up quickly by hand), and is true comfort food, raw or otherwise. I finished my bowl and immediately wanted another… it went down much too quickly! When’s the last time you said that about a bowl of zucchini?

This dish is so gentle, comforting, and bland-in-a-good-way it will likely have some universal appeal in your home. When I think that kids could be waking up to this in the mornings instead of sugary cold cereals or packaged oatmeal, it really inspires me to get the word out. Try this and pass the recipe on to your family!

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!

]]> http://www.live-green-smoothie-diet.com/2010/04/warm-live-vanilla-hot-cereal-reinventing-breakfast-with-avocado-and-raw-zucchini/feed/ 2 http://www.live-green-smoothie-diet.com/2010/03/warm-live-creamy-vanilla-pudding-drink-it-like-hot-cocoa/ http://www.live-green-smoothie-diet.com/2010/03/warm-live-creamy-vanilla-pudding-drink-it-like-hot-cocoa/#comments Sun, 28 Mar 2010 23:30:48 +0000 Angela Leeds http://www.live-green-smoothie-diet.com/?p=6478

I doubt you’ve ever had avocado this way before. And you wouldn’t know that’s what makes it so creamy unless I told you.

Enjoy it warm, like a Warm Live Tea or Hot Chocolate, and enjoy the mild, smooth, cozy, comforting vanilla-ness, a combined sensation that is quite unlike anything else found in the world of raw food recipes.

This is recipe is a keeper. And with just a few utterly pedestrian ingredients, it’s something you can make any time!

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!

]]> http://www.live-green-smoothie-diet.com/2010/03/warm-live-creamy-vanilla-pudding-drink-it-like-hot-cocoa/feed/ 0 http://www.live-green-smoothie-diet.com/2010/02/creamy-non-fat-vanilla-smoothie-with-zucchini-and-just-add-greens-for-a-green-smoothie/ http://www.live-green-smoothie-diet.com/2010/02/creamy-non-fat-vanilla-smoothie-with-zucchini-and-just-add-greens-for-a-green-smoothie/#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:14:56 +0000 Angela Leeds http://www.live-green-smoothie-diet.com/?p=6082

Fresh, raw zucchini added to a smoothie is a revelation, and especially when added to a simple, plain vanilla smoothie, which thrives on having as much of a neutral (as well as a creamy) backdrop as possible. This is just lovely. And there is zero fat in it!

Anyone who follows along with my recipes knows I’m crazy about vanilla and am utterly delighted when I find a way to enjoy vanilla in raw vegan recipes, without the use of dairy products. This is an excellent on!

I’ve used bananas in this recipe. Don’t like bananas? Use raw honey instead, and possibly add a bit of coconut oil to gain some of the texture the bananas provide.

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!

]]> http://www.live-green-smoothie-diet.com/2010/02/creamy-non-fat-vanilla-smoothie-with-zucchini-and-just-add-greens-for-a-green-smoothie/feed/ 1 http://www.live-green-smoothie-diet.com/2010/02/honey-vanilla-white-chocolate-treats-made-with-raw-cacao-butter/ http://www.live-green-smoothie-diet.com/2010/02/honey-vanilla-white-chocolate-treats-made-with-raw-cacao-butter/#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:24:45 +0000 Angela Leeds http://www.live-green-smoothie-diet.com/?p=5980

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.

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!

]]> http://www.live-green-smoothie-diet.com/2010/02/honey-vanilla-white-chocolate-treats-made-with-raw-cacao-butter/feed/ 2