Raw City Life ~ live raw, live well! » Raw Food Prep

Big Screen green drink alert

Julie — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 15:33:24 +0000

We’ve seen the Iron Man drinking green drinks in his movies – I rememberd a Big Screen Green Drink Alert from the 1999 remake of the Thomas Crowne Affair starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo. Many times in the movie Rene Russo’s character, Catherine Banning, is seen drinking a thick green drink. Obviously the green smoothie is why she has that sexy trim body!

Another more recent Big Screen Green Drink Alert…

I just saw Queen Latifa in her role as Leslie Wright in Just Wright. She is a physical therapist working with an NBA All-Star Scott McKnight. During his recovery she hands him what looks just like a green smoothie. (I’ll post a green smoothie scene pic when I can – this photo is just clipped from the preview).

Have you seen a green drink on the big screen?

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Low Fat Raw Vegan

Julie — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:58:46 +0000

Found the Holy Grail in raw food. The 80/10/10 low fat raw vegan information from Dr. Doug Graham.

Every page I read I wanted to bookmark. Its informative and backed with tons of research. It’s all about the natural way we are meant to nourish our bodies… and you can find it all at your grocery produce department. You don’t have to order exotic supplements and powders and other fancy raw crap that is being peddled online — know I know why that peddled crap and the way it was marketed always bothered me. It’s because it’s just not natural. It’s not needed. (And OMG someone is actually selling “raw water” now).

When I read that the medical industry has published studies that say diabetics need to eat fruit and stay off the fat – it blew my mind. There are doctors out there telling people to not eat fruit because of the sugar content! When you eat fruit, the body sucks up that awesome juicy nutrition and uses the glucose for energy and the insulin receptors do their job and attach to the sugar and use it and move it out of the system. BUT when you have fat in your system taking forever to digest and get out of the system, the poor little receptors can’t do their job because the fat is blocking them. They are like little fat bouncers standing out front of a tough biker bar shaking their head no. So the sugar floats around wondering what to do. If diabetics stayed off fat, they could get off their meds.

The unusual title of the book refers to getting 80% of calories from carbs (fruit) 10% of our calories from protein (greens) and 10% of our calorie from fat (nuts, avo, seed). See NutritionData.com and NutriDiary.com to check the nutrients from your food. For example here is the nutrient data from my usual green papaya smoothie:

Papaya Green Smoothie
200 grams papaya (a good full cup cubed)
100 grams banana (one medium about 7″ long)
100 grams romaine (5 or 6 leaves)
2 cups water

Nutrition Data:
Calories – 253
Fat – 1 g
Sodium – 15 mg
Carbs – 65 g
Fiber – 10 g
Sugars – 42 g
Protein – 4 g

Here is the nutrition data on the individual ingredients:

Papaya – 200 grams (a full cup cubed) Calories – 78 Carb – 19.6 g Fiber – 3.6 g Sugar – 11.8 g Fat – .2 g Protein – 1.2 g Vit A – 2188 iu Vit C – 123.6 mg Folate – 76 mcg Calcium – 48 mg Iron – .2 mg Magnesium – 20 mg Potassium – 514 mg Sodium – 6 mg Omega 3 fatty acids – 50 mg Omega 6 fatty acids – 12 mg	Banana - 100 grams (1 medium about 7″ long) Calories – 89 Carb – 22.8 g Fiber – 2.6 g Starch – 5.4 g Sugar – 12.2 g Fat – .3 g Protein – 1.1 g Vit A – 64 iu Vit C – 8.7 mg Folate – 20 mcg Calcium – 5 mg Iron – .3 mg Magnesium – 27 mg Phosphorus – 22 mg Potassium – 358 mg Sodium – 1 mg Omega 3 fatty acids – 27 mg Omega 6 fatty acids – 46 mg
Romaine – 100 g (5 or 6 leaves) Calories – 17 g Carb – 3.3 g Fiber – 1.2 g Sugar – 1.2 g Fat – .3 g Protein – 1.1 g Vit A – 8711 iu Vit C – 24 mg Vit E – .1 mcg Vit K – 103 mcg Folate – 136 mcg Calcium – 33 mg Iron – 1 mg Magnesium – 14 mg Phosphorus – 30 mg Potassium – 247 mg Sodium – 8 mg Omega 3 fatty acids – 113 mg Omega 6 fatty acids – 47 mg	Medjool Dates – .25 grams (1-2 dates pitted) Calories – 66 Carb – 18 g Fiber – 1.6 g Sugar – 16 g Fat – .3 g Protein – .4 g Vit A – 35.8 iu Vit K – .6 mcg Calcium – 15.4 mg Iron – .2 mg Magnesium – 13 mg Phosphorus – 14.9 mg Potassium – 167 mg Sodium – .2 mg

I think this is the way our bodies were biologically designed to eat. Perhaps it’s not for everyone – but if you are a raw foodist that is having difficulty sticking to raw because of cooked food cravings – try low fat raw vegan, read the book. You will see that just eating more fruit obliterates the cooked food craving. And if you are eating 811 and still craving – you aren’t eating enough fruit, get those calories in! When you’re used to always trying to eat low cal, 2000 plus calories a day is hard to wrap your head around.

With all the calories you need to increase your activity – but the cool thing is…you are so full of energy that you just get up and move! You’re body wants to move. And have a total blast when you are consuming so much fruit, people are going to notice. When they see that and say the typical “where do you get your protein?” You can be straight and say “from fruits and vegetables.” Or you can have fun with them and say “How much protein do we need?” They never know. Never once has someone who has asked me that ever has an answer. There is 4 grams of protein in that green smoothie – and that’s just one meal or a snack. Well, the issue of protein is one for another post another time.

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Resplendent Raw Food

Julie — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:49:23 +0000

Sometimes, when I’m paying attention, I am mesmerized when I slice open some beautiful raw fruits or vegetables. It is all so amazing. I wanted to write about how beautiful it was but the word beautiful just wasn’t enough. I found the word “resplendent” in my Thesauraus: shining brightly; full of splendor; dazzling; splendid. It’s a good word.

There is no question in my mind that fruits, vegetables and greens were created to be resplendent so that we would be attracted to it and and want to eat our fill. It couldn’t be any simpler! Resplendent colors – (open a papaya!); incredible designs -(check out a cauliflower up close); amazing aroma (the list is too long!)

What about nuts and seeds? Look at the regal sunflower with its bright yellow petals. Almond shells hanging on a tree are covered by a thin layer of bright green meat that tastes like a Granny Smith apple. Look at dark green beautifully curly kale, so rich. Now think about that which we shouldn’t be eating… (I started to write some examples, but they weren’t resplendent and I didn’t feel resplendent writing the words.)

Mother Nature gave us a big clue what to eat: it will be resplendent! It can be so simple.

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Green Papayas

Julie — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 15:00:32 +0000

I love interesting salads. I get tired of salads that are made with lettuce as a base – at salad bars the lettuce is usually cut too big to fit in your mouth and it takes forever to chew them. This is a colorful and very flavorful salad – great to bring to a raw potluck or serve your cooked friends and family. Pecans or walnuts can be used, but the raw pistachios flavor really fits this combination of flavors. If you don’t have access to green papaya, you may use jicama, zucchini (soak zucchini the same as papaya), or experiment with hard squashes like butternut or carnival or for a more tart version use a Granny Smith apple as the base. (Full recipe on recipe page.)

My papaya tree is full of papaya that have yet to ripen. But the temps have been falling and I think I’ve got all the fruit I’ll get from it this season. Then this week we had snow and a hard freeze and so in preparation I covered some of my more tropical plants with plant blankets. I cut 3 of the largest green papaya from the tree to see if they would ripen indoors.

I really don’t think they were old enough to ripen indoors so I thought I’d see what I could make with the green papaya. There are other fruits that have “2 lives.” Green mangos are used as a relish and in salsas. Green plantain are used to make several cooked side dishes (patacones, chips…).

When you cut a green papaya it has a sticky sap that oozes and when dry it is waxy. (The papayas that were left on the tree were covered in dots of the waxy substance the next morning after the freeze.) I cut open the papaya, cut off the peeling, used a mandoline to make a pile of julianne strips. I soaked the strips in a bowl of water, salt and juice of one lime.

Soak for at least 30 minutes. Drain and then toss with sliced purple cabbage, julianned cucumber, chopped or julianned apple, chopped cilantro, chopped pistachios and orange zest. Drizzle cranberry dressing over the salad and top with a couple of sliced soaked dates per serving.

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Raw Food Leftovers

Julie — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:10:44 +0000

A really cool thing about preparing raw food is that you can keep working with the finished product. I really don’t know what to call it – for example if you cooked a lasagna – you probably couldn’t puree it and re-cook it to create a new meal.

But raw food, for example raw soups you can dehydrate, or add more raw ingredients and dehydrate into a raw cracker. Raw food never needs to go to waste.

I made a few special recipes to take to Thanksgiving with my family, (they were eating cooked). I made a green salad to share that turned out really good.
Chopped romain with pecans, diced tomatoes, diced yellow bell pepper, soaked goji berries, strawberries, cucumbers. With a light balsamic vinegar/olive oil/honey/cinnamon cranberry dressing.

My side dish was Bartlet Pears with Cinnamon Cranberry Sauce and Spiced Ginger Cream. Found the recipe on Gliving.com – this sauce had an amazing flavor!

I also had a slice of carnival squash topped with raw dressing. Just a few bites of that and I was stuffed! Guess all those nuts fill you up. I soaked the squash in salt water, drained it, dehydrated it for a couple hours which softened it a bit. Then I rubbed it with cumin. The dressing was a handful each of pecans, walnuts, almonds. Processed with a little squash, celery, sage, onion, parsley, salt, pepper. Pretty tasty!

For dessert I had a Mango Cream Tart (also from GLiving.com)

What to do with the leftovers? The squash and stuffing I turned into a savory raw bread! I ran the squash and nut stuffing through my Omega auger juicer to turn it into a paste, adding some left over red and yellow bell pepper. Then I stirred in fresh ground flax seed, the leftover cinnamon cranberry sauce, dulse, kelp, chopped raw olives, sunflower seeds and a little coconut oil. Spread out on 2 teflex sheets and dried at 110 for a few hours.

I cut it into little squares that remind me of those little “coctail rye” bread loaves. Probably high in calories with all the nuts. So I’ll make them last! Should be good with lettuce and tomato!

The mango tart was only a 6″ tart, but was so filling I only had a sliver. And everyone else was chowing down on 3 different kinds of cooked pies and didn’t try mine…so I had lots left over.

I put the entire tart in a food processor with 2 bananas, a little fresh ground flax seed, vanilla and cinnamon. Spread it on one teflex sheet about 1/2 in thick or less. Dried it at 110 for a few hours. When it was dried enough to handle, I cut it in small squares – spreading honey on some and adding coconut just for fun, (then dried some more).

These turned out good. Probably could have added something to sweeten it more – but I think they will be good as a side to a green salad with pears I think!

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Soup and leftovers

Julie — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:08:31 +0000

The weather has turned cooler here and I was craving some soup.

Using my Vitamix I pureed up some soup – kept it on high for a little longer to warm it up a bit. Being a high speed blender you can do that!

This was adapted from an Elaina Love recipe – I blended up a red bell pepper, half an avocado I had left in the frige, one small organic carrot, handful of cilantro, dash salt (I use Real Salt available from WholeFoods), dash of cumin. It made way too much for one serving so I refrigerated the rest.

Taking a tip from Ann Wigmore I dehydrated the leftover soup. I added a half cup of sprouted buckwheat (which I turned into “nut butter” by running it though the auger juicer).

I also added 2 chopped green onions, minced about 4″ of fresh rosemary, added more salt and cumin.

I poured this mixture out on a teflex dehydrator sheet and dried it at 105 degrees for about 2 or 3 hours.

I used a spatula to spread it around evenly and even shook the tray to even it out. It dried really fast, I flipped it over onto the screen in about an hour. It was too thin to actually be crackers. I broke them up and put them in a jar. If I can keep out of them, I will use them to sprinkle over salads! Really tasty, made the house smell great!

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Biologically Appropriate Food

Julie — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:16:59 +0000

It is biologically appropriate for humans to eat a plant based diet. We know this because we don’t have claws, fangs and short digestive tracts to name a few reasons.

Our pet cats and dogs should eat a raw animal based diet because they do have sharp teeth and the short digestive tracts. And like humans, when they live a mostly raw diet, our pets become amazingly healthy and vibrant and shiny.

One of my fantail goldfish died and it prompted me to move the remaining fish from the small outdoor bog pond to an indoor aquarium. The aquarium set up came with water treatment filter, heater, light and tropical fish flake food. I wondered if it was okay to feed tropical fish food to my gold fish – so I asked online.

And I learned a lot.

Where do I find biologically appropriate food for my gold fish? It’s not in the flake food sold at pet stores.

I started reading the labels of the fish food I had on hand.

TetraFin Goldfish Flakes lable: fish meal, ground brown rice, yeast shrimp meal, oatmeal, wheat gluten, soybean oil, fish oil, corn gluten, algae meal, sorbitol, lecithin, potato protein, ascorbic acid, yeast extract, inositol…and then about 20 more words of things I can’t pronounce as well as red, yellow and blue dyes.

Hai Feng Fast Color Gold Fish Food label: (pellets) wheat flour, fish meal, wheat germ, shrimp meal, spirulina, corn meal, soybean meal, L-lysine hydrochloride, algae meal, lecithin, choline, BHT, citric acid, calcium, phosphate monobasic, minerals, 16 vitamins.

Aqueon Tropical Flakes:Whole fish meal (salmon, herring & other mixed fishes), whole wheat flour, soybean meal, whole dried krill, wheat gluten meal, dried yeast, squid meal, wheat germ, corn gluten meal, kelp meal, fish oil, spirulina, garlic, natural astaxanthin, marigold powder, chili powder, spinach … and about 18 more words that are unpronounceable.

Fish were not created to swim up the plowed rows of a farmers field trying to get at the potato and wheat, rice and soy. I’m on the hunt for awesome food for my little fantail friend. I had some floating anacharis (a water plant) in the bog pond, so I put that in the aquarium. I had it because they produce oxygen – but I’ve since read that goldfish like to eat them. So at least the little guy is getting his greens.

Some may say that worrying about biologically appropriate food for a simple goldfish is taking things too far. Well, people that have fish as pets and love them would disagree. And it’s also the principle of the thing – I’m sick of how manufactures use dyes, wheat, rice, potato, soy and sorbital in everything on the shelf.

It’s not all their fault – the public contantantly demands cheaper prices, so manufactures have to use cheap fillers and cheap lab made ingredients to bring the price down.

If you don’t want that – vote with your dollars.

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Emergency Preparedness Raw Food Style

Julie — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:16:13 +0000

In anticipation of the coming hurricane, the store shelves were empty. Many were completely bare. I stopped at the store and called my mom to see if she needed anything – she was craving some split pea soup. So I turned down the soup aisle and had to laugh at the destruction. Not a can of tuna remained. Most of the soups were gone as well. Except for the “healthy version” of the soups – those shelves were still full.

They are stock piling survival food but not ”healthy” survival food. It struck me so funny I pointed it out to a woman shopping. She laughed as she rolled her cart down the aisle and kept laughing. I wondered if she was sharing my humor or maybe she just thought it was funny that some strange lady had to stop her and point it out! (I spread the joy anyway I can!)

So I rolled around and took photos with my phone. Not a slice of bread to be found in the store. Sugar coated cereal boxes scattered and few. But turn into the produce department and it was full and lush. Bins piled high of lovely produce. Much of the produce would fare just fine if power were to go off. I’ll be dining on apples, grapes and nuts while the cooked fooders are wondering how they will heat their canned soups they stocked up on.

Above is my emergency supply – plenty of raw flax crackers, seed, things to sprout, fresh produce, water, candles and if I am jonesing for some juice… low-tech-Y2k-compatible hand tools.
Here are the photos of the soup shelves. Funny how there are still lots of the the “healthy” versions of the soups. I guess people crave high sodium and fat content during an emergency!

And here is the bread aisle! ….

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What are you eating?

Julie — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 23:04:56 +0000

Don’t try to go raw overnight. We have spent years developing eating habits and it may take some time to change those habits. Habits such as what kind of condiments we purchase. Pay attention to the labels. When you run out of a spice or ingredient – look for a raw, fresh or organic alternative. For example: When you run out of salt – look for “RealSalt” or any other natural unprocessed salt. This can be purchased in bulk at Whole Foods, Central Market or found on-line.

Table Salt
The table salt we’ve been using has been striped of its natural minerals in the superheated processing. It has chemical additives. Even “sea salt” has been heated. They have processed salt for our “convenience” so it comes out of a salt shaker nice and easy. Raw, naturally colored salts retain their mineral content and the flavor is much better. Choose Celtic Sea Salt that is light grey in color or RealSalt which is mined in Utah and comes from ancient sea beds that don’t contain any of the pollutions of today’s seas. I use the pale pink RealSalt and keep it in a fat glass spice jar. The consistency is such that I use pinches of it instead of sprinkling through a shaker. (it almost feels moist) Do a side by side taste test and you won’t believe what you have been missing!

SWEETENERS - The good news is that there are lots of alternatives to refined sugar to sweeten your beverages, snacks and and desserts. I personally have to have a little sweet in my herbal teas – I think it brings out the flavor. But you will notice real quick that when you get off the sugary soft drinks (including diet sodas) and reduce your sugar intake – that you start needing less sugar to sweeten a beverage. You become more sensitive to it.

DRIED FRUITS like raisins, prunes and dates are very sweet. Look for the ones with no added sugar! They are naturally sweet (don’t mess with Mother Nature!) Creating recipes with chopped up dried fruit will satisfy your cravings.

STEVIA is an herb – it’s a little green bush! The leaves are very sweet and we can now purchase it powdered in little packets just like the “pink” and “blue” fake sugar packets. But a word of warning – it only takes a TINY amount. They really need to make those packets half size or produce them in the same packages as the salt and pepper packets found a fast food restaurants! You can find it in bulk as well – it will be white or green. Stevia is an excellent choice for diabetics as the body does not recognize it as a sugar. It is interesting to note that as an herb it is used to feed and heal the pancreas, which is often damaged by refined sugar consumption! Another one of natures miracles.

RAW AGAVE NECTAR is found in jars or plastic bottles like honey. It’s a bit thinner than honey. It’s mild and delicious!

SPICES – I’ve been guilty just like everyone else of keeping bottles and those little cans of dried out spices in my cupboard for years. Dump those jars and refill them with fresh dried. Spices bought in bulk at places like Whole Foods are so much fresher and more flavorful and less expensive because you aren’t wasting money on packaging.
If you have ever sprinkled nutmeg or cinnamon on your hot cocoa or anything else – you are in for a real treat if you purchase a nutmeg grinder and a few nuts to put in the grinder. And grating cinnamon sticks with a fine grater makes the flavor go POW! Many of the common herbs and spices we use in our food prep are easy to grow – I recommend putting them in the ground (in the south) and not in little pots.
Oregano – low ground cover with tiny leaves. So good with Italian style meals. Display a pretty dish with sprigs of oregano and impress your family.
Rosemary – lots of varieties, gets big and bushy. Also wonderful for adding sprigs to decorate your plate.
Basil – Many varieties, grow several and see which grows best for you. The beautiful curly leaves or the purple leaf basil are really strong and fragrant and are very tasty dried as well.
Garlic chives – once established it takes off. A couple of blades of the chive clipped into salads or meals add a nice hint of garlic. Chop some up with tomato and avocado for a great veggie dip.
Peppermint and Spearmint are beautiful ground covers and make great tea. Or just add a few leaves to your regular tea when making sun tea to add some minty freshness.
Using fresh or fresh dried herbs with your food preparation will make your family think you’ve turned into a gourmet. You will have amazing tasting meals and you will receive more nutrients as well as flavor.

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Excaliber Dehydrator and drying temperatures

Julie — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 23:29:32 +0000

The Excaliber Dehydrator is the leading dehydrator for serious raw foodists. Visit their website – it has a lot of great information. They have an article directed specifically to raw foodists explaining about enzymes and temperatures.

It explains, in depth exactly what temperatures to dry your raw foods, in order to retain the enzymes.

“We have also done some experiments by soaking various seeds, dehydrating them at different temperatures, and soaking them again afterwards to see if they will sprout, and they did, which proves that the enzymes are alive.”

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