Category — Raw Food Recipes

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

Most people use avocados in savory dishes but did you know that avocado has some sweet applications as well? In this blog post I will share with you two sweet raw food avocado recipes including a recipe for raw food avocado pudding.

In California summer is avocado season and we are so blessed to have the most delicious creamy avocados available in season!

 According to the California Avocado Comission:

Avocados provide nearly 20 essential nutrients, including fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B-vitamins and folic acid. They also act as a “nutrient booster” by enabling the body to absorb more fat-soluble nutrients, such as alpha and beta-carotene and lutein, in foods that are eaten with the fruit.

But you really don’t need a reason to eat avocados do you?

In the Canary Islands where my family is from, they have an amazing juice bar called Maria’s where they put avocado in their smoothies to give them a creamy consistency and a lovely flavor. I tried this at home recently and was not disappointed!

Summer Avocado Smoothie

2 peaches
½ cup strawberries
1 banana
¼ slice of an avocado
1 cup orange juice
Pinch stevia powder or a few drops of the stevia liquid

Blend and serve over ice! Very tasty.

Lemon Avocado Pudding

This isn’t my recipe,  it’s from my very favorite raw recipe book Raw Food Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet. She calls it Lemon Mouse and I modified it just slightly.

3 avocados (1 and ½ cups mashed avocado)
1/2 cup raw honey
1/4-1/2  cup fresh lemon juice (2-4 lemons approx)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3-5 drops lemon flavored stevia to taste (optional)
blueberries and sliced strawberries for garnish

Put all the ingredients in the food processor with the S blade, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Garnish with berries if desired.  4 servings.

I took this to a raw food party and it was a hit. I also served it to my family and they loved it! I have made it a few times and depending on the tartness of the lemons I needed to add more or less lemon juice. I like it really lemony!

Hope you are having a wonderful summer and enjoying those avocados!

♥,
C

Click here to Purchase the book Raw Food Made Easy For 1 or 2 People  
by Jennifer Cornbleet-this is an amazon affliate link.

Click here to see what other raw food books I recommend

Now that summer is near, most of us need to be drinking more water to stay hydrated. Even mild dehydration can drain your energy and make you tired.  According to Dr. F. Batmanghelidj who wrote the book, “Your Bodies Many Cries for Water” he believes that Unintentional Chronic Dehydration (UCD) contributes to and even produces pain and many degenerative diseases that can be prevented and treated by increasing water intake on a regular basis such as preventing heartburn, backpain, migranes, asthma, and other ailments. Click here to learn more about his groundbreaking work .

There is so much information out there about how much water we should be drinking a day and everyone’s needs is going are going to vary a bit , some say 64 ounces a day (8 ounces 8 times a day), some say more than that. According to the Mayo Clinic website  a good rule of thumb is to drink enough fluid so that you rarely feel thirsty and produce 1.5 liters (6.3 cups) or more of colorless or slightly yellow urine a day.

Regardless of what the experts say I bet most of us could feel better if we drank more water, but if you are like me you are not always motivated to drink enough water. I’m not a fan of plain water, but luckily I’ve found a way to make it taste really good so that I actually enjoy drinking it! Here’s my simple recipe:

Citrus Mint Water

You can use a big glass water pitcher or make it one glass at a time.

Add a few slices of one or a combination of the following fruits: apple, lime, lemon, orange, grapefruit, and/or cucumber and add them into your glass or water pitcher.

Then add a sprig of fresh mint.

To make it over the top, you can add a few drops of liquid stevia, my favorite is Sweetleaf’s brand Lemon Drop, naturally flavored Stevia.

 I can’t wait until our stevia plants start growing and then I’ll add a few stevia leaves to the water to replace the liquid stevia.

Make it a glass at a time if you want it at room temperature, or put the pitcher in the refrigerator and make sure you drink it in one or two days at most before the fruits go bad.

For a fizzy soda type drink you can use natural sparkling mineral water, which should help you kick the soda habit forever!

It tastes so good, especially with the stevia, I’ve never enjoyed drinking water more and I’ve never felt so hydrated.

Enjoy!

♥,
C

Do you like those raw energy bars you can get at the grocery store? I love them, especially when I’m traveling or too busy to prepare something, having one on hand gives me a little energy boost. When I was traveling in Southern California recently, a typical breakfast for me was a non sweet green juice from a local juice bar and a yummy raw bar. Talk about a breakfast on the go:)

Making your own raw energy bars can be just as satisfying as buying them because you get to control exactly what ingredients to include and make them taste exactly how you want!

To make them you’re going to need a food processor and a blender (a high speed blender is best ) or a spice/coffee grinder that will grind seeds.

The basis of a raw bar is dried fruits and nuts or seeds but you can also add your favorite super foods such as spirulina, carob, maca . . . and your favorite spices such as cinnamon and vanilla. You can use one nut or seed or a combination of different nuts and seeds. I like to grind my seeds first in the blender and if I’m using nuts I like to food process them in the food processor with the S blade until they reach a coarse flour like consistency.

Here is a recipe I came up with recently and you can use it as the basis for making your own raw bars.

Lemon Omega Bars

1 well packed cup of soft medjool dates chopped really fine
2 cups raw dehydrated coconut
1/2 cup ground chia seeds*
1/2 cup ground sesame seeds*
2 tablespoons lemon zest (I like mine really “zingy” but you can use less zest if you don’t, I used the zest of about 6 lemons)
10 drops lemon stevia (optional)

First grind the chia seeds and sesame seeds in a blender or a grinder until fine. Then add all the ingredients to the food processor with the S blade on and process them until they are well incoporated. Then press the “dough” firmly into a small glass pan greased with coconut oil (optional), 8 X 8 works well. Cut them into bars or squares and then freeze them in the freezer at least overnight. Pop one out any time you need a boost. Makes 16 squares and 8 bars.

*I used chia and sesame seeds because I wanted to get my omega fatty acids and I find them easier to digest than nuts but for a richer (better tasting) bar I recommend using 1 cup ground almonds or 1 cup ground brazil nuts ground in the food processor with the S blade.

Fun!

This is another one of those everyday recipes I wanted to share with you. Speaking of everyday raw recipes my friend Shea Lynn Baird came up with 2 incredible e-books called, What Raw Chef’s Really Eat.

In the E-books you will find out how 15 raw chef’s eat everyday and their favorite everyday raw recipes. Both e-books contain over 80 everday raw recipes from top raw food chef’s including Matt Samuelson, Melissa Mango, Abeba Wright, Chaya-Ryvka, Cherie Soria, and many more including yours truly:) Click Here to learn more about the What Raw Chef’s Really Eat E-books.

 ♥,
C

I often get asked, what do you eat in a day? I hesitate to answer the question because what I eat tends to change seasonally, it changes with new information I get about nutrition, and it changes depending on what I’m in the mood for:) Also, I would venture to say that everyone is just a little bit different in their tastes, metabolism, their caloric and nutritional needs so what might work for me may or may not work for them. I don’t want people to feel like they need to eat exactly like me or someone else for that matter!

I will say though, that I keep it really simple. Yes, their are a lot of beautiful gourmet raw food recipes out there and I definately appreciate them when I’m making food for a raw dinner party, celebration, or raw potluck, but day to day I actually feel so much better and have more time if I keep things light and simple.

 As a general outline, I typically eat a large green smoothie  (about 40 ounces worth broken up into two servings, two hours apart) for breakfast. For lunch I prefer to have a raw blended soup, and for dinner I usually have a large salad sometimes with one of the following: steamed veggies, squash, brown rice or quinoa and sometimes not. Dessert usually consists of some coconut kefir sweetend with some flavored stevia. Throughout the day I munch on carrots and apples. That’s the basic routine for this week anyways!

I wanted to share you with you a really simple blended soup that I’ve been eating almost everyday. It’s a recipe that can change slightly according to what’s in your fridge. This is not a gourmet recipe and I probably wouldn’t make it for a dinner party, but it’s what I eat almost everyday.  It’s easy, and it keeps me happy and satisfied.

Cecilia’s Everyday Blended Soup

3 really ripe medium sized tomatoes
1/2 of an apple (for sweetness)
1/4 of a red, yellow, or orange bell pepper
1/4 of a medium cucumber
1/4 of an avocado (for consistency)
1 green onion (white part only)
2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 small cloves garlic (or 1 large clove)
few pinches sea salt or pink salt to taste or a small handful or dulse seaweed (for saltiness)
cayenne pepper to taste

Garnish (choose all or only a few)
Your choice of chopped green onion (green part only), chopped cucumber,chopped bell pepper, chopped apple, chopped tomato, and/or chopped parsley
Sprinkle with ground pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, or whole hemp seeds
Sprinkle with dulse flakes or kelp granules
Top with sauerkraut (optional)
Drizzle with olive oil

Rough chop the tomatoes, apples, and cucumber. Then add all the ingredients to the blender and blend until smooth. I choose different garnishes everyday, whatever I happen to have on hand. The more chopped vegetables you put into your soup the more filling it’s going to be. You can add fresh herbs and seasonings to the soup such as basil or oregano for variety, whatever you have in the fridge works:)

If you are curious about what other long term high raw foodies (love that word) eat you’d love the Monday Night Live Presentations, “What the Top Raw Chef’s Really Eat” – two 90 minute panels of some of the country’s top raw chefs talking about what they eat everyday! For access to the presentations and over 100 HOURS of Audio and Video from some of the top raw food educators in the country as well as experts in other fields please check out the Monday Night Live All Access Pass It’s a wonderful resource to keep learning about health, raw foods, the law of attraction, and much more in the comfort of your own home.

Have fun with your blended soups:)

♥,
C