Sunday, August 24, 2008

I love this...

“Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.”

- Psalm 119:165

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Drink your green drink!

Dark green leafy veggies are sooo good for you!! Especially when you eat them raw packed full of living enzymes and nutrients! Raw greens are also packed with calcium which is really important for vegan and those eating raw. Recently our family has been starting the day with a blender full (or two or three!) of green smoothie! It is actually very filling and sooo good for you. Even Elisha has been eating them!

I still can't believe that's what the our family has for breakfast every morning. It's a long way from bacon, eggs, scones, waffles, etc.

We have been using different kinds of organic kale, spinach, collard greens, chard greens and wheat grass for the "green" in our green smoothie's. I also add things like bananas, berries (especially blueberries- they are really high in anti oxidants!) orange (I hear that adding the oranges help you to absorb the iron) and I like to add cranberry juice. (It's REALLY important that you check the label to make sure that the cranberry juice you use doesn't have any corn syrup or sugar, it's best if it is 100 percent juice and organic only sweetened with other juices. It's also great if its not from concentrate. But you don't even have to use cranberry juice :) You can also add some ground flax seed. (To learn about how amazing flax seed is click here and check it out!)

Throw in some berries or orange, toss in some greens and add some healthy juice or water and blend. It takes some getting used to, but when you use bananas and berries and things it's not bitter and tastes better than you would think. Drinking it through a straw helps me too. We have been doing this every morning as a family and it's made such a difference!!

Thinking about thanksgiving

I know it will be a while until we have Thanksgiving, but this is our family's first vegan/raw thanksgiving and I am already practicing some recipe's so I can make some great food come holiday season. Tonight I used the recipe below as a guide and made some raw pumpkin pie only I changed it a lot (and used squash instead of pumpkin) it was sooooo delicious!

Autumn pumpkin pie
(From "Ani's raw food kitchen" cook book)

Crust:

1/4 C sunflower seeds
1 3/4 C pumpkin seeds
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 C pitted dates

(You can make a raw pie crust with dates and almost any nut/seed combination.
I used dates and cashews/Brazil nuts for my pie)


Syrup:

1 C pitted dates
1 1/4 C water

Filling:

4 Cups pumpkin peeled seeded and cut into 1 inch cubes ( about 1 1/4 whole before peeled)
2 t ground cinn.
1 T psyllium powder

To make crust, process sunflower seeds into a fine powder in your food processor. Use this to "flour" the bottom of your pie dish

Next process pumpkin seeds and salt into course meal. Slowly add 1 C dates to make dough. press in pie dish. Set aside.
To make syrup, blend 1 cup dates with water until smooth. Set aside.

To make filling, process small batches of cubed pumpkin and cinn into a puree. Slowly add in the syrup. Process until completely smooth. Place pumpkin filling in bowl and hand mix in psyllium powder really well. ( I placed mine in the freezer for a little while and it helped thicken it and it was really good!)

To serve, scoop filling into pie crust.

Will keep for 4 days in fridge.




Some things to remember:

*Organic food tastes better ( and is healthier) than non-organic. Some foods I thought I hated -I realized I actually enjoyed when I ate them organic.

*Organic food is more expensive. I used to believe that we just couldn't afford it. Then I started doing some research and I was horrified! Food has come along way when how it used to be and how God intended it to be. (I really recommend seeing the movie "King Corn" to learn a little more about conventionally grown food) We decided as a family being healthy is important and than it was something we wanted to invest in. A cost effective way to eat organic is to shop at farmers markets or grow some veggies yourself! I grow organic tomato's in a pot in my side yard and it was like $3-!

* Investing in the right equipment makes a big difference! Having a really good food processor, blender, and juicer make all the difference. Also having really good knives's that you can sharpen and a good space for chopping can make a HUGE difference. (especially with raw foods) Obviously you work with what you have. I have a nice food processor I got for a good price at Costco, an inexpensive blender ( although I am planning on getting a vita mix!) and a good juicer I am borrowing from my mom. When ever I make a green smoothie ( which I try to do everyday) my blender never really blends it all the way, because it's just not the best quality. I am mentioning this because some recipe's might not turn out right if you have really cheap equipment.