Chances are you already know how to make almond milk (if you’ve been around raw foods for awhile), but if you don’t, then enjoy this video where I show you how to make almond milk with my new favorite large 1 gallon nut milk bag! If you’re already an almond milk pro,  then fast forward to the end of the video where I show you how to make a blueberry carob almond milk elixir.

Click here if you can’t see the video

If videos don’t tickle your fancy, click here for step by step instructions with pictures on how to make almond milk.

And of course, click here for the best  nut milk bag on earth:) IMO

Blueberry Carob Elixir

1 cup almond milk
handful of blueberries
1 date pitted and chopped
1 teaspoon carob
1 teaspoon Maca powder
1 teaspoon blue green algae
seeds from 1 vanilla bean
pinch stevia powder

Blend in the blender until smooth for an antioxidant immune boosting pick me up!

♥,
C

Any good almond milk recipes you’d like to share? Please share them in the comments section. Thx!

Here is a video of me (Cecilia) using the spiralizer to make a simple raw food pasta dish with my tried and true raw food pasta sauce + how to make your own raw food dehydrated tomatoes.

Click Here if You Can’t See the Video

Zucchini Angel Hair Pasta with Marinara Sauce

8 medium small tomatoes (or 4 large tomatoes)
1 red bell pepper
1-2 cloves garlic
2 sprigs basil (about 10 leaves)
2 sprigs oregano (about one teaspoon fresh leaves)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne or chili flakes
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes
1-2 dates or a pinch of stevia
6 medium zucchinis spiralized on thin setting
Optional:
1 cup chopped bell pepper
1 cup chopped tomato
4 tablespoons chopped raw olives (black, green, or a combination of both)

Garnish:
1/2 cup chopped parsley

Blend all ingredients except the 2 cups chopped bell pepper, tomato, olives and the spiralized zucchini into a blender until smooth. You can add more sun dried tomatoes for a thicker sauce. Mix chopped bell pepper, tomato, and olives into the sauce for a chunky style sauce. Pour the sauce over spiralized zucchini.

How to Make Your Own Raw Food “Sun” Dried Tomatoes:

Slice some tomatoes and lay them on your dehydrator trays and dehydrate them for about 14-16 hours at 115 degrees until they are completely dry. The thicker the cut, the longer they will take to dry. Eat them as is or use them in recipes. In my opinion, they are so much better than any sun dried tomatoes you can find in a store! They’re sweet, tangy,  and crunchy like a chip!

Manga!

♥,
C

Don’t have a spiralizer? Click here for more info on the spiral slicer.

For more spiral slicer recipes check out the spiral slicer recipe ebook.

I made a gorgeous basil avocado summer seaweed salad recipe using almost all local, in season, and organic ingredients with my two favorite types of seaweed: Silky Sea Palm and Bull Whip Kelp from Ocean Harvet Sea Vegetables. This is one of my favorite seaweed salad recipes of all time and one of the easiest to prepare as well.

If can’t see the video above click here to watch the seaweed salad video

Basil Avocado Sea Vegetable Salad

1 English Cucumber (thinly sliced into disks)
2 medium tomatoes sliced
½ large avocado diced
handful of basil leaves chopped (about ten leaves)
Torn pieces of whole leaf seaweed such as Silky Sea Palm, Bull Whip Kelp, or Dulse
sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste
drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
juice from 1 lemon (optional)

Layer the cucumber and tomato slices attractively on a platter. Top with the chopped avocado and basil. Drizzle on the olive oil and squeeze on the lemon juice. Sprinkle on the salt, pepper, and sea vegetables. Makes 1-2 servings.

Hope you enjoyed this video and for more seaweed recipes be sure to check out my sea vegetable recipe ebooklet.

♥,
C

In the first part of my two part series on The Raw Diet and Weight Loss I talked about the importance of being aware of calories when trying to lose weight; if you missed the first part click here. In this next installment I wanted to talk about raw food and satiation and how keeping yourself feeling full can ultimately help you to achieve your weight loss goals. A lot of people tell me that they always feel hungry on a raw food diet and that this can lead to binge eating and sabotaging their weight loss efforts.

When transitioning over to a lower fat whole foods diet a lot of people don’t anticipate having to eat more often to stay satisfied and many wonder what they are doing wrong.

For example, on a typical SAD diet a breakfast might consist of eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast, and orange juice which can definitely fill a person up for awhile, at least 4 hours or so. If you suddenly switch over to a high raw diet you might adopt a lighter breakfast such as a juice or a green smoothie. Even though adopting a lighter breakfast is a step in the right direction, don’t expect it to keep you full as long as a heavy fatty breakfast.

Most people mean well and think they are doing a really good job by eating light during the day by just drinking juices and smoothies, but when it comes to dinner time they are so hungry that they eat way too many calories just before going to bed.

Not only will you overeat if you don’t eat enough calories throughout the day, but eating a heavy meal just before bedtime can reduce the quality and length of your sleep, making you feel sluggish the next day. Also, eating fatty foods before bed will slow down the emptying of the stomach which can exacerbate indigestion. The trick is eating more often throughout the day to keep energy levels up and cravings away while still consuming less calories than if you were eating the standard 3 heavy meals a day.

Here Are Some Tricks to Stay Full on the Raw Diet to avoid Overeating at Night.

•  Always eat breakfast- Even if you’re not very hungry in the mornings eat a little something so you’ll be less likely to overeat at night, you’ll be glad that you did.
•  Split your light breakfast into two meals about two hours apart. My favorite breakfast of choice is a green smoothie. I usually make anywhere from 40-64 ounces. I split the smoothie into 2 glasses. One glass I drink right away and the other glass I mix in a spoonful of whole chia seeds and let it set in the refrigerator till I’m ready to drink it in a few hours.  The mucilaginous fiber in the chia seeds helps me to feel full throughout my day.

If you can’t split your breakfast into two meals make sure to add a little extra fat and protein to your smoothies so that you won’t be hungry again in a few hours. My favorite is to add a little avocado or coconut kefir to my smoothies, but you could also add some young coconut meat or a handful of your favorite nuts or seeds.

• Use fiber to your advantage. Fiber can help you feel full longer without adding a lot of extra calories. Snack on apples or celery or add them into your blended soups or smoothies. Add a spoonful of ground flax seeds, chia seeds, or pysllium husks into your blended soups, smoothies, cereals, and salad dressings. Since ground flax and chia seeds are so good at thickening things up, if you add a spoonful to a nut based salad dressing you can actually add less nuts (hence less calories) while boosting the fiber and omega fatty acid content of your recipes at the same time.
•  If you juice, don’t expect it to be a meal replacement. Think of a juice more as a living vitamin supplement and plan on eating something an hour later.
• Snack healthfully throughout the day to ward off hunger. Most people tell me that the main reason they get off track is because when hunger strikes they don’t have any healthy snacks available. Some healthy snacks to have around are cut up fruits and vegetables, raw energy bars, and small handfuls of trail mix. The trail mix can consist of your favorite dried fruits and nuts, but be aware of the portion size because the calories can add up.
• Eat More Vegetables- Don’t be afraid to eat a lot of vegetables. They are low in calories but high in fiber and nutrition so your portion size can look quite large but still be fairly low in calories. Most people I know that eat a high raw food diet (and have a gorgeous figure) eat a huge salad every night, about 4 times the size of a side salad you might order at a restaurant!
•  Adding Some Healthy Cooked Food to Your Diet Can Go A Long Way- Some people, for whatever reason, just don’t fee full on raw foods and end up binging on nuts and seeds or going back to a Standard American Diet. In this case, it might be useful if  they add a few healthy cooked whole food items to their diet such as steamed vegetables, squash, sweet potatoes, brown rice, quinoa, legumes . . .just to name a few. Why? Because these foods are low fat yet high in fiber and nutrients. As long as they are cooked with water, they don’t have the same damaging effects as foods that are fried or baked at high temperatures. If you are one of those people that just doesn’t feel full after eating a salad try adding some steamed broccoli, a cup of black beans, lentils, quinoa or brown rice on top. It can really make a difference.

By being aware of calories and keeping yourself full during the day you are less likely to get off track or overeat and it will go a long way in helping you reach your weight loss goals. 

If you would like to lose weight but need more guidance, consider scheduling a raw food coaching session with Cecilia to reach your weight loss goals. Cecilia will give you the practical tools you need to easily add more raw food to your diet to lose weight, experience more energy, look and feel years younger, and radiate a happy healthy “raw” glow.”

Heres to a happy and healthy body!

♥,
C

And if you have any tips on loosing weight or staying full on the raw diet please share them below in the comments section. Thx:)

I would venture to say that a large percentage of people initially try a raw food diet for weight loss because they would like to easily and healthfully lose a little weight. There is no need to mention that obesity is an epidemic in today’s society, everyone already knows that. And most people know they should be eating better, but it’s not always easy. Cravings, social situations, and finding the time to prepare healthy meals can be a challenge in today’s world.

The good news is, is that most people can lose weight just by switching to a whole food diet and if a large percentage of their diet is raw fruits and vegetables, even better!  Most people when starting a high raw diet notice that the pounds just start melting away in just a few months. I actually have had a few people ask me how they could gain weight on a raw diet because they had lost too much weight!

But there is a percentage of people who are still struggling with loosing weight even after adopting a high raw diet. I would probably guess that these people have a slower metabolism, and are probably best described in Ayuverdic medicine as a Kapha Dosha body type. Kapha’s tend to have a small appetite yet they gain weight easily.

Whatever the reason or the theory, some of us (including myself), need to be to be a bit more calculating when wanting to loose weight, even on a raw diet.

My First Tip about Raw Diet and Weight Loss:

Tip #1 Be Aware of Calories

If you are seeking to lose weight on a raw food diet I think it is really important that you start to understand the caloric content of the foods you are eating. I know some people might argue that not all calories are created equal and maybe there is a grain of truth to that statement but the bottom line is: if you’re trying to lose weight, calories count.

The first thing you need to figure out is how many calories your body needs to maintain its current weight. There are many calorie calculators online, I used this one.  According to the calorie calculator, I need about 1700 calories per day. So, in theory, if I wanted to lose weight I would need to eat a little less than that per day or to burn some calories off through exercise to eventually lose some weight.

Here is a list of some common foods on a high raw food diet and the amount of calories they contain:

Foods With a Low Caloric Density

1 bunch spinach is about 80 calories

1 head romaine lettuce is about 105 calories

1 cucumber is about 45 calories

Foods With a Moderate Calorie Density

1 medium banana is about 120 calories

1 mango is about 140 calories

1 mejidool date is about 24 calories

Foods With a High Caloric Density

1 cup almonds is about 850 calories

1 cup sunflower seeds is about 820 calories

1 cup macadamia nuts is about 950 calories

1 tablespoon olive oil is about 120 calories

1 teaspoon raw tahini butter is about 85 calories

1 avocado is about 240 calories

Okay, so now lets do some simple math. If you’re making a smoothie in the morning with 4 bananas your smoothie is at least 480 calories. If you are snacking on 5 mejidool dates you are eating 120 calories. If you make a salad with a head of romaine and a chopped cucumber with a raw dressing of 2 tablespoons raw tahini butter to your salad, the salad is about 660 calories because just one tablespoon of tahini butter equals 255 calories A snack consisting of a ¼ cup of macadamia nuts is about 240 calories.  I hope this gives you a better idea of how many calories are in some common raw foods.

You also need to take into account where your calories are coming from. According to the Institute of Medicine these are the recommended ranges for macronutrients:

Carbohydrate: 45 to 65% of total Calories

Fat: 20 to 35% of total Calories

Protein: 10 to 35% of total Calories

For example, I need approximately 1700 calories to maintain my current weight so 20% of 1700 is 340. This means if I want to get 20% of my calories from fat, I can only eat 340 fat calories per day. That means that I wouldn’t want to eat more than 3 tablespoons of olive oil a day (they are pure fat calories) or I wouldn’t want to eat more than a ½ cup of sunflower seeds a day. Make sense?

If you want to lose weight, it is best to maximize the number of lower caloric density foods in your diet and use the higher caloric density foods wisely. So that means eating more fruits and vegetables and using nuts seeds/oils not as a meal per say, but as a tasty way to dress up more vegetables. Rarely do I just snack on nuts by themselves. My preferred way to eat nuts is blended in the blender to make a lovely salad dressing that I pour on top of a huge salad. The salad is more likely to satisfy me, compared to just snacking on a handful of nuts.

Just by being aware of the high fat and high calorie content of oils, nuts, seeds, and nut/seed butters you are so ahead of the game when it comes to loosing weight on a high raw diet!

To find out how many calories are in your favorite foods and to figure out how many calories you are eating per day plus other cool and useful nutritional information you can use my favorite online nutrition database.

Click here for my salad dressing e-book where I show you how you can turn nuts and seeds into fabulous raw food salad dressings!

If you would like to lose weight but need more guidance, consider scheduling a raw food coaching session with Cecilia to reach your weight loss goals. Cecilia will give you the practical tools you need to easily add more raw food to your diet to lose weight, experience more energy, look and feel years younger, and radiate a happy healthy “raw” glow.”

Stay Tuned For The Raw Diet and Weight Loss Part 2 . . .

♥,
C