Category — Raw Food Recipes

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

I don’t usually buy too many prepared raw foods in the super market but there are two delicious and healthy, might I add, items that I just couldn’t pass up. One of them is an organic raw fermented no fat salad dressing by Zukay, they have 6 flavors and Sweet Onion Basil is my favorite. Because the dressings have little or no fat, in my opinion, they need some oil or blended avocado or nuts mixed into them. In this recipe I used the Sweet Onion Basil dressing by Zukay and some hemp oil to make a lovely seaweed salad. If your local natural food grocery store does not carry Zukay products, they are also available online at www.zukay.com

 Seaweed Salad with Sweet Onion Basil Dressing

2 cups half moon sliced English cucumbers. I like to use the ceramic mandoline.
½ cup soaked and rinsed Emerald Cove Brand Wakame Seaweed (about 1/3 a cup before hydrated)
¼ of a large avocado or one half of a small avocado diced
½ of a cup chopped cilantro
2 green onions chopped
2 heaping tablespoons ground raw sesame seeds (no hulls) You can grind the sesame seeds in a vitamix , food processor, or use a mortar and pestle.

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl so that the avocado gets smashed a little.

 Dressing

4 tablespoons Zukay Sweet Onion Basil Salad Dressing
1 tablespoon hemp seed oil
Pinch of cayenne to taste

 Mix dressing ingredients in a bowl and pour over salad. Makes 1-2 servings.

This next recipe is a recipe for a quick raw blended soup. To make  it, “over the top” top it with Farmhouse Smoked Jalapeño Sauerkraut available at some Whole Foods in Northern California.  Farmhouse Sauerkraut is the best sauerkraut I have encountered so far, they have three flavors: Apple Fennel, Smoked Jalapeño, and Classic Caraway. To learn more about Farmhouse Sauerkraut go to: www.farmhouseculture.com/

Fiesta Soup

1 cup carrot juice (I cheated and used store bought carrot juice from the refrigerated section, not raw, but quick)
¼ an avocado
Juice from 1 lime or lemon
Small handful cilantro
2 green onions
½ teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper or less

Blend the ingredients in a blender to make a soup. Garnish with green onion, cilantro, bell pepper, avocado, and to make  it, “over the top” top it with Farm house smoked jalapeño sauerkraut or homemade or another brand of raw sauerkraut.  Makes 1 serving.

Enjoy and Happy Spring!

♥,
C

What  prepared raw foods do you like? Please share in the comments section below.

I love seaweed! I eat it, every single day. I sprinkle it on salads, put it in blended soups, snack on it, and sometimes makes nutritious mineral broths with it. I used to joke that I was part mermaid because I love seaweed and swimming in the ocean so much:) For me, seaweed is an ultimate wild superfood full of minerals including iodine, calcuim, and iron and it’s naturally salty flavor is a great substitute for table salt. What stumps me is why more people don’t eat it more often.

This post is meant to encourage you to add seaweed into your diet and if you are excited about trying seaweed I recommend my sea vegetable recipe ebooklet, with some of my favorite raw seaweed recipes.

If you’ve ever heard me speak at a raw food event you know that I love seaweed from Ocean Harvest, a local California company off the Mendocino coast. My favorite seaweed from them is silky sea palm!

Today I’m going to share with you two simple raw food seaweed recipes!

Here is a video of me making a simple seaweed recipe contributed by my friends Simon and Coco. They call it Nori Baku.

Click here if you can’t see the video above.

Nori Baku

1 ounce whole laver seaweed
3 cherry tomatoes, or 2 slices of tomato, or the juice of 1/2 lemon

Process the ingredients in a food processor with the S blade for about 10 minutes until they turn into small fluffy pieces, that can be eaten as a snack or sprinkled on recipes. Enjoy!

Simply Wakame Salad

EJ James from www.wholisticmama.com was gracious enough to contribute this simple seaweed recipe

Gomasio  (makes 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup raw unhulled brown sesame seeds
2 tsp himalayan or celtic salt

Combine seeds and salt. Grind in a coffee grinder  or a high speed blender  (Vita Mix or Blend Tec ) until finely ground. Store in a shaker jar.

Wakame Salad (makes 2 cups)

2 cups wakame seaweed *, soaked and drained
1 tsp lemon juice or umeboshi plum vinegar
1 tsp red pepper flakes, optional
½ cup gomasio

*Soak the wakame in pure water. Rinse and drain very well.  The other ingredients meld together much better when the wakame is empty of the water, though not in the ‘dried state’ it started off in before you soaked it.

Toss the lemon juice or umeboshi plum vinegar and wakame together. Add the gomasio and fully coat all the wakame. Add red pepper flakes if desired. Serve.

Hope you enjoyed these two recipes and for more seaweed recipes be sure to check out the my sea vegetable recipe ebooklet.

♥,
C

Announcing the winner of the *Raw Glow Blog Free Nylon Sprout Bag Giveaway*

Iceblueyes

please e-mail me your shipping address at glowingraw-info@yahoo.com.

Thank you for all who entered I appreciated your answers they were all inspiring!

Here is a short video of how to make crispy raw sweet potato chips:

Click here if you can’t see the video above

Raw Dehydrated Sweet Potato Chips Recipe

1 large sweet potato
Few sprinkles of sea salt
Drizzle of olive oil

 Slice the sweet potato thinly with the adjustable ceramic mandoline on the thin setting (0.5 mm) using the handguard, and put the slices into a large bowl. Drizzle the sweet potato slices with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt until well covered. Dehydrate the chips in the dehydrator on at least 115 degrees for 24 hrs or until crispy. Makes about 2 dehydrator trays of chips. They start to get soggy soon after they are taken out of the dehydrator, so put them in an air tight container and consume them within a few days.

•  If the chips are not crispy perhaps you did not use sufficient olive oil or perhaps you did not dehydrate the chips long enough.
• Please do not try to make raw potato chips.  Potatoes are part of the nightshade family and have natural toxins when consumned raw.

 Click here for more info on the adjustable ceramic mandoline slicer

 Click here for more info about dehydrator sheets

Thanks to Carol Bundock for this recipe

 Happy Creating!

♥,
C