Category — Green Drinks

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’s a short video of me making a yummy green juice without a juicer. Juicing without a juicer is easy! If you don’t own a juicer you can still make delicious juices as long as you have a powerful blender such as a Vitamix and a trusty sprout bag.

 My body has been craving juices lately, perhaps it’s wanting to cleanse to get ready for  Spring. I also was inspired by Daniel Vitalis’ talk at Monday Night Live about eating dandelion greens.  Enjoy!

 Click here if you can’t see the video above 

 Click here for more info about juicing with  nylon sprout bags

*Raw Glow Blog Free Nylon Sprout Bag Giveaway*

Raw Glow is giving away one 12 by 12 sturdy nylon sprout bag as shown in the video. To enter all you have to do is answer this question in the comments section and I will choose a winner from the comments entered. The contest ends Mar. 10^th, 2010.

•  Question: What are some of the things you do in your everyday life to stay healthy? (Doesn’t just have to be limited to food)

Look forward to the answers!

Love,
C

Just checking in with everyone.  It’s the end of January, how are your new year’s resolutions going?

My resolution this year was to be more productive in all areas of my life and I can say that I feel like I achieved it this month. Yay!

On the downside, I feel like I got into a pattern of overeating over the holidays and I haven’t quite broken the cycle yet. One of the things I feel that got me a little bit off track was not drinking my green smoothie every morning which would fill me up and I’d find that I’d eat less during the day. So I’m back on my trusty green smoothies and in the spirit of celebrating green smoothies here is a recipe you can try that was inspired by a raw restaurant in Chicago called Cousens that has a great selection of juices and smoothies.

If you can’t see the video below click here

Carob Mango Green Smoothie

2 mangos
4 chard leaves (no stems)
water from 1 young coconut
1 tablespoon carob powder
1 teaspoon chlorella

Blend and Enjoy!

For more green smoothie recipes please see my Green Smoothie Challange E-booklet

Please do share your favorite green smoothie recipe and how your new year’s resolutions are going. I would love to hear from you!

♥,
C

A few weeks ago at my potluck group I talked about my list of top foods that I believe to be super nutrient rich. Stinging Nettles, urtica dioica, were on that list.

The reason I think they are so great is because they are rich in vitamins A, C, iron, potassium, manganese, and calcium. According to some sources they are one of the best plant sources of iron. They are 40 % protein which is considered high for a vegetable. Traditionally in folk medicine they were used to build the blood and treat anemia among other conditions. Recently they have been proven helpful to treat hay fever and osteoarthritis. (For more medicinal uses scroll down to the bottom of this post.)

Where to Get Stinging Nettles

To add stinging nettles to your diet, first you need to find them. I am lucky enough to live in Northern California where I can get them at the Marin Farmer’s Market for 6 dollars a pound. If you have a local wild edibles guided tour (please don’t eat any wild edible unless you are sure) you might be lucky to find them in shady spots, in flood plains, woodlands, along streams and river banks in Europe, Asia, North America, and Northern Africa. Or you can simply try to grow them in your own backyard. If you can’t get ahold of fresh nettles you can find dried nettles in the bulk herb section of your natural grocery store, which make a lovely tea.

Ouch!

They are called stinging nettles for a reason, they have stinging hairs which can really irritate your skin. For this reason I do not advise handling them with your bare hands. I personally use tongs, but you could use gloves as well. Some people recommend rolling them like a taco and then eating the leaves. Here is a video of David Wolfe, raw food author and speaker, showing you how to do just that.

Click here if you can’t see the video.

I personally prefer to enjoy them using the methods I describe below:

 The great thing about stinging nettles is that when you cook them, juice them, or blend them they loose their sting!

 My favorite thing is to make a nettle shake. (recipe below)

 Nettle Shake
(Thanks to Novalee for this idea)

2 cups fresh orange juice
1 cup nettles

 Blend for a minute in a high speed blender and enjoy. For a heartier drink you can add 1 banana and half an apple.

 Nettle Green Juice

You can also add nettles into your green juice. Just substitute whatever green you were going to use with nettles and run them through your juicer. I like to juice them with celery and apple.

Make Nettle Tea

Boil a pot of water and add a cup of nettles and let sit for at least 10 minutes. It makes the most beautiful emerald green tea you can imagine. Sweeten and enjoy.

Cooking Nettles

Nettles can be steamed or boiled and are probably one of the most delicious greens out there. They have a mild nutty flavor and can be substituted in any cooked recipe that calls for spinach or kale. They are so good that they can be enjoyed just steamed plain or perhaps with a touch of sea salt. I have also seen recipes where they are boiled with potatoes, leeks, and other ingredients to make a creamy blended soup.

Medicinal Uses

Nettles have been used medicinally in folk medicine for such things as: allergies, water retention, anemia, poor circulation, asthma, wound healing, as a diuretic, to build the blood, and for arthritis and rheumatism. Recently, nettles have been proven effective for treating hay fever and osteoarthritis.

*Now if you are going to use nettles medicinally I would definitely work with a professional for the correct dosage and there are some contraindications and drug interactions you might need to be aware of especially if you are pregnant, have kidney issues, diabetes, or are on blood pressure medication or other medications.

Hope you can enjoy this powerful superfood as a regular addition to your diet!

♥,
C

Sources:

Wikipedia/Stinging Nettles
Rain Tree/Nettles
Web MD/Stinging Nettles

Nettles

I know that in most of the U.S. the weather has cooled and people are gearing up for the cold winter ahead. Here in Northern California we usually have an Indian summer and just last weekend watermelons became in season at my local farm, hence the timing of this article!

 How to Pick a Watermelon

I have to admit that I never knew how to pick out a watermelon, which is strange considering my husband considers me an expert at picking out the ripest most sweet fruits whenever we go shopping. I have to say that at my local farm they were all good, but there is a trick to picking a sweet one that I finally mastered.

• The best advice I can give you is to buy them from a local farm or farmer’s market where they pick them when they are ripe.
• Then you want to make sure they have a yellow or light spot on them.  This spot develops from the watermelons sitting on the ground as they ripen. If a watermelon doesn’t have the spot it was likely picked too soon.
• Then you want to tap the watermelon and what you a listening for is a high pitched tone,  that my husband described as “springy” because the sound feels like it bounces back at you like you are tapping something that is hollow.
• The sound should NOT be low, flat, or dull. 
• If you follow this advice you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the quality of your watermelons.

Nutrition Info

I did a little research on watermelon and as it turns out they have a lot more nutrition in them than I realized. They are an excellent source of vitamin A, C, vitamin B1, and B6. In addition, watermelon is a good source of thiamin, potassium and magnesium. It is also a good source of beta carotene and red watermelon is a great source of the antioxidant, Lycopene.

Source:
The World’s Healthiest Foods

I couldn’t fine much information on the rind since most people in our country don’t eat the rind except for in the South. In the South and in some cultures they pickle it. What I did find though, is that it contains the amino acid known as citrulline. Our bodies use citrulline to make another amino acid, arginine, which helps cells to divide, wounds to heal, and has the ability to relax blood vessels among other important functions in our bodies.

Sources:
Want Citrulline? Try Watermelon
Watermelon May Have Viagra-effect

I also suspect there are other nutrients in the rind and, at the very least, they are a good source of chlorophyll.

 Juicing The Rind

One of the things that I’ve been doing lately is adding the rind along with the fruit to my green juices instead of cucumber or celery and I’ve gotten great results. Juicing the rind is a great way not to waste the rind and it cuts the sweetness of the watermelon juice. Not only do I feel great when I drink them, but I notice they keep me full for longer than I expected. I don’t feel a sugar rush and even though I know you aren’t supposed to combine watermelon with any other food for proper digestion, I found they digested fine. 

My tricks for watermelon for digesting well:

• Only eat ripe and sweet watermelon
• I always eat it alone or blended with greens or I juice it with greens and some other water rich fruit
• Always eat watermelon or watermelon drinks on an empty stomach
• Eat or drink watermelon very slowly
• Never overeat on watermelon! If you overeat on watermelon you will get a bad stomach ache that I affectionately call, watermelon tummy, but it really hurts!

 Watermelon Green Juice

1-2 small apples
3 crescent slices of watermelon with the fruit and rind
( about 3 cups chopped )
1 bunch parsley, cilantro, OR spinach
1 cup water

Chop all ingredients and blend in a high speed blender and squeeze through a sprout bag. If you want to make it less sweet you can substitute one of the apples for a small cucumber. Enjoy!

Please drink these juices on an empty stomach and slowly. Stop drinking them if you notice any stomach discomfort at all. I didn’t notice any discomfort but everyone is different.

If you live in Northern California I hope you can add this healing green juice to your routine, if not I hope you can enjoy it next summer!

♥,
C