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Raw pizza, Chia seeds and Cashews

3/29/2012

March 30, 2012
New Favorite Food – CHIA seeds!!
What you can do, with a good cashew…
Raw pizza

I have been experimenting with Chia seeds the past two weeks and LOVE what I’m finding. I had a bit
of a hard time trying these Chia seeds… all I could think of was “Chia Pets!” You know… those animal clay
molds, onto which were slathered this icky chia seed mixture, and then the whole thing sprouted and grew green leaves. Gross, just plain gross.
However, many of the raw chefs whom I follow rave about the virtues of Chia seeds and create many “possibly delicious” dessert recipes. Here are two informational links so that you can read about the health benefits of these little black seeds.

http://www.living-foods.com/articles/chia.html

http://chiaseedssuperfood.com/

Here is my new favorite breakfast!
2 heaping
Tablespoons Chia seeds
1 c Almond Milk (could use Coconut, or even orange
juice)
Mix in a bowl, let sit for 15 minutes, stir a few times. Top with fresh fruit and sweetener if desired. Just bear in mind that the pudding becomes thick, the seeds clump in a gelatinous mass (I’m sorry, I
know this sounds gross) but break it up with a fork.
The seeds have NO taste (at least that I can discern) but the pudding is light, satisfying and oh, so GOOD for us.
Take my basic recipe template above and personalize. Here are some ideas.

Add some unsweetened cocoa powder and cinnamon
Soak some cashews the night before, whirl in a blender, and add to your pudding
Add some unsweetened coconut.
This breakfast gets me through a yoga class comfortably and lasts until mid morning, when I have my carrot juice.
These little seeds seem to have real staying power.
  ☻☻☻☻☻☻☻

What you can do with a good cashew is… create awesomely delicious substitutes for dairy, as in whipped cream, cream cheese icing, béchamel sauce, parmesan cheese AND… CHEESECAKE to name a few. Cashews work so well for dairy substitution because they are creamy when blended, naturally sweet and soft so that they blend smoothly. My personal opinion is that dairy is
pretty toxic, especially for women.
There’s plenty of data out there, pro and against this stance. You have to decide how you feel on dairy and if you want to consider a switch. I give you options in this blog…something to think about.

Therawtarian.com has recipes for cashew cream cheese icing, whipped cream and cheesecake.
Rawmazing.com has some stunningly decadent cheesecake recipes.

I make raw cashew béchamel sauce for zucchini pasta dishes and raw pizza. For one person, soak
1/4c raw cashews (2 hours or so), blend with one clove of garlic, some high quality olive oil, pinch sea salt, Italian seasoning.
I’ve been adding a good tablespoon of fennel seeds – they impart a delicious, real Italian flavor.
Add a little water until you get the consistency you want.
Finally, cashew parmesan cheese (who knew!): 1 c cashews, 1 clove garlic, pinch salt. Rough
chop in food processor. Keep in fridge. DELISH on a Caesar salad of romaine, balsamic vinegar and best quality olive oil.
☻☻☻☻☻☻

Finally, raw pizza.
This has been a pet project of mine for a long time!
I finally have a crust recipe which I think, is delicious.
However, this is a lengthy explanation and recipe, which I don’t want to belabor unless you’re interested.
If you are, please contact me via Facebook or email.
I am selling these on a limited basis, but would be happy to instruct in preparation. My FB page does have
a picture of the raw pizza which I regularly enjoy.
Labor intensive, different, but I think…amazing!
And… you can keep your oily pepperoni, white flour, salt, and rubbery cheese, thank you very much.

Final observation, sad but true…

A gentleman friend, who is morbidly obese, diabetic, a heart attack survivor, heavily medicated for heart and asthma issues, blood pressure and diabetes said to me,“Those concoctions you come up with are disgusting. Drinking and eating that stuff would kill me.”

No, you’re slowly killing yourself one forkful at a time. I am so sad to see you suffer all the
time, and then hear you say this.”

Truly, we are what we eat, for better or
worse.

Thank you for reading!

6 Comments

Post Title.

3/20/2012

6 Comments

March 16, 2012

I’m a huge proponent of the 85/15 rule, which simply means that what you do 85% of the time is what counts. The 15% should be left for treats, slips, variations, not raw, etc. I aim for 85% raw and vegan every day.
Dr. Mercola recommends the 85/15% format as well, with an emphasis on consuming high quality animal protein every day. Hallelujah Acres advocates 85% raw and
15% cooked, with everything being vegan.
You have to experiment and see what feels right for you.

I want to talk a little bit about salads this week.
First of all, I would be the FIRST person to bolt if a plate of“traditional” lettuce was plunked down in front of me.
I’m NOT a huge fan of salads.   Here are some different
ideas:
1.
Again… work across the color spectrum with your
food.
2.
Combine fruits and veggies.
My favorite combination is sweet juicy red grapefruit combined with red peppers. Here are other
delicious combos: cantaloupe + fennel or cucumber/ green grapes, apples and baby spinach/ any citrus fruit +
peppers
3.
Add some protein – hard boiled eggs, nuts, seeds, animal
protein
4.
Go for taste and texture variations.
Try for salty, sweet, sour, crunchy, creamy, spicy… all in one salad.

This is what a multi-dimensional salad with the above guidelines might include: sprinkle a little
coarse size sea salt over the whole salad, sweet from grapes or raisins or craisins or dried pineapple, sour is the acid in your dressing, smooth might be a nut pate dolloped on the salad, spicy might be chili dehydrated croutons or flatbread, chili roasted nuts, crunchy can be any of these ingredients… you get the idea!
5.
Learn some awesome dressing recipes.
They’re usually the difference between “ho hum” and “this is delicious!”
Here are a few beautiful and tasty salad combinations to
try: Shredded red cabbage, craisins, red grapes, herbs (dill is what I would chose) topped with raspberry
vinaigrette.
Pink grapefruit, red pepper, scallions, cilantro, cashews tossed with citrus chili vinaigrette and set atop baby spinach.
ANY finely shredded or minced veggie combination topped with a delicious Asian dressing, shredded basil and unsweetened coconut.

ANY finely shredded or minced veggie combination topped with a creamy Tahini dressing.

Finely shredded kale, craisins or raisins, cashews, diced red or orange pepper, orange sections with honey citrus
dressing
Here are recipes for the dressings:
Raspberry Vinaigrette: Blend by hand 4 T olive oil, 3 T
raspberry vinegar, 1 T honeyHoney
Citrus Vinaigrette: Blend by hand 4 T olive oil, 2 T apple
cider vinegar, 2 T citrus juice (frozen orange juice concentrate works great here), 1 T honey, maybe grate some citrus rind into the dressing.
If you want a Mexican flavor, add some chili powder and
cumin.
Asian Dressing: Blend by hand 2 T olive oil, 1 T sesame
oil, 1 T apple cider vinegar, 1 t soy sauce, 1 T raw tahini (or almond butter), 2 t honey or sweetener of choice, few grates of fresh ginger, salt if desired. Sometimes I add a few tablespoons water to thin this down.
Your choice.
Creamy Tahini Dressing: Into the blender: one-half c each of olive oil and tahini, 3 sprigs parsley, 4 T apple cider vinegar, 1/3 c cashews, 2 cloves garlic, 2 T soy sauce or tamari, 3 T sweetener of choice, one half to three quarter cup water. Blend all in the blender, adding water slowly to desired consistency.
Making great salad dressings is NOT an exact science. The above ingredients are what I use,
but you might want to tinker with the ingredients until you love the taste and consistency! Recipes should be viewed as “suggestions” only.
A few thoughts about ingredients:
Honey –buy it raw, unfiltered, unprocessed
Olive Oil – invest in a good one!
The Natural Food and Garden Store on Rt. 45, has two excellent brands. These are not inexpensive,
but in my opinion, very necessary.
Sesame Oil – small bottle, ethnic food section at
Weis
Raspberry vinegar – any grocery store
Tahini (ground sesame seeds) – health food store
Apple Cider Vinegar – buy the Bragg’s brand, maybe Weis has it, definitely health food store definitely has it and refrigerate after opening.

6 Comments

Raw Soup, De-mystifying kale chips, Favorite raw food sites

3/11/2012

3 Comments

March 9, 2012

Raw Soup
De-mystifying kale chips
Favorite raw food sites

Raw soup
is another hurdle I crossed with caution and skepticism.
I had mastered juicing, smoothies, and salads and was looking for something new. Juices, smoothies
and salads can get REALLY boring, REALLY fast. I had the same reaction to raw soups as I initially had to the “avocado in the pudding” concept.
Raw soups are handy to have in your repertoire because they are QUICK and EASY to make, and… gasp, they taste GREAT!

It’s important to remember that eating raw means we don’t heat our food over “about”105 – 115 degrees, in order to preserve all enzymes, nutrients, etc. Raw soup does not
have to be cold or even room temp; it can be GENTLY and sparingly warmed. I use my dehydrator or my Vitamix blender, which will gently heat the soup if I run the blender for a few minutes. In order to enjoy raw
soup, you HAVE to leave the “piping, hot bowl of soup” concept behind.

The recipe link below is my favorite “gold standard” for raw soup. I use it as a base for whatever else I happen to have on hand.
This soup also is high in GOOD fats, as we discussed last week. A LITTLE bit is very satisfying. This is another difference between traditional cooked and raw soups.
Raw soups are usually fat-based, and nutrient and fiber dense, so you are satisfied with much less. One cup
of the soup below is very, very filling!
My experience has been that I am satisfied with half as much raw soup, as a cooked soup.

http://www.hacres.com/recipes/cards/caroles-white-christmas-soup

The other raw soup flavor grouping I regularly make is a curry with an orange vegetable.
http://www.hacres.com/recipes/cards/curried-butternut-squash-soup

Use the above recipes as guidelines!
One thing I LOVE about raw food uncooking is that once you understand basic taste and texture components, you can get really creative, using whatever
you have on hand.

Raw soup tips: soaked nuts make the soup creamy and rich, lean heavily on seasoning, think fat – add some high quality olive oil or a tablespoon or two of coconut oil in a curry type soup, do NOT heat these –
gently warmed is what you’re after, adding a can or cor also thickens the soup and adds some sweetness, I nearly always add 1 T raw sugar to the recipe, compose soup recipes by color. For example: tomatoes, red pepper, garlic, basil. Or butternut squash, sweet potato,
orange pepper, or spinach, fresh herbs and soaked
cashews.
I use raw soups primarily for dinner, with a salad and some raw crackers. This is food that is easily digested, has staying power, and doesn’t lay heavily on my stomach overnight.
**********
Onto KALE CHIPS!
Prior to eating raw, all I knew about kale was that it was those weirdly colored, curly leaf things that wound up on my plate as garnish at a restaurant. Then I found out that kale is in the cabbage family, which made me even more
reticent to try it. I also read it had a strong taste, and I was SO done with thinking about this vegetable. Months passed, and someone offered me a salad of raw shredded kale, golden raisins and cashews with a dressing of olive
oil, orange juice and honey. WOW! I wound up eating nearly the entire bowlful, and have been eating/juicing
kale ever since.
Kale chips sounds like one of those weird “things” health nut hippies eat, people who are just not “normal” about food. Perhaps this is true, but I assure you, that kale chips are delicious and EASY EASY EASY to make! I’ve given
you YouTube video link because there’s a little bit of an art to stripping the green leaves off the stem. Use
the video to watch THAT part of the preparation. The second link is for Rawmazing, my
favorite recipe site. She gives
offers 9 kale chip recipe variations.
For what’s worth, here is my standard
recipe:

5 bunches kale, leaves stripped and into pieces (BIG pieces, otherwise you wind up with kale “flakes.”)
4 T good olive oil
At LEAST one half cup nutritional yeast (I love that stuff,
gives everything a cheese taste)
Coarse salt, pepper, a good shot of Mrs. Dash salt-free
garlic/herb seasoning.
The technique video will instruct you to “bake” them at 350 degrees in the oven. NO NO NO NO,
don’t do that! I set my oven on the lowest possible setting, and start checking them for crispiness in an hour. I
do turn mine over once to crisp up the underside.
Leave them in til they are crispy.
Store in a plastic container, I’ve kept mine for over a week, they’re still good.
Kale is very high in calcium and fiber. Who doesn’t need more of that?
Technique link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTXXGDISnOg
Recipes:
http://www.rawmazing.com/raw-food-kale-chips-9-ways/

Here are links to my favorite raw food sites.
There are hundreds out there, you’ll probably find you own but these have
consistently produced great recipes, information and
products.
http://www.rawmazing.com

http://www.rawmazing.com

http://www.hacres.com/recipes

http://www.therawtarian.com/category/recipes

http://goneraw.com

3 Comments

"Uncooking" classes

3/5/2012

1 Comment

For readers of my "Get a little RAW with your food" weekly blog and my raw recipe posts on FB, I am VERY excited to launch a series of "Uncooking" classes. The first class will instruct in juicing. We will juice using a juicer and
commercial grade blender to compare taste and texture. Included will be hands-on work, equipment and recipe sourcing information, shopping list, and recipes. Juice tastings/samples will include a carrot juice, my much requested diruetic juice and a meal replacement, protein based green smoothie. Cost is $25 per person and space is
limited to five people per class. First class is Wednesday, March 14 at 1 - 3 pm at my home. Please contact me with any questions and or to confirm your enrollment via email ONLY at
ngiuntini@dejazzd.com.

1 Comment

Ode to Fat, Eating Across the Color Spectrum, Desserts

3/5/2012

0 Comments

                          Get a little raw… with your food!

                     Great food - Great tastes - Great results
                          No gagging recipes, guaranteed.

March 2, 2012
Ode to fat
Eating across the color spectrum
Dessert recipes

“I need chocolate in a hurry” raw pudding
recipe

Most of what I know about raw food and nutrition, I have learned by lots of reading, and then experimenting on myself.
I suppose I am fortunate to have survived all of my self-inflicted experiments! The drivers for my quest have been to manage osteoarthritis pain and weight. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that if you maintain healthy weight, there is less wear and tear on your joints, which in turn means less pain, which means you exercise more, which full circle, means you manage your weight. I have done the low-fat, fake sweetener approach for years. The pitiable result was worse arthritis pain and more weight. I strongly believe that in order to lose or maintain weight, we MUST regularly consume fat – healthy fat.
At the end of this article, I have posted two links with articles and information about the importance of fat for stabilizing mood, easing joint pain, aiding brain function and managing weight. Americans are neurotic about eating fat but an important goal to consider is increasing your intake of GOOD fats. The vegan options for this
include olive oil, Udo’s Choice oil, nut oil, coconut oil (my absolute favorite), avocados, nuts, and seeds.
I regularly eat salmon and locally raised eggs in order to get the Omega3 fats which are HIGH in anti-inflammatory properties.
Here are some easy ways to up your good fat intake, from a raw vegan standpoint:

Add 1 T coconut oil to your smoothies
Soak a few raw cashews overnight in water, drain and add these to your smoothie

Dip fruit slices or raw veggies in NUT butters.
Peanut butter does NOT count because peanuts are a legume (bean.) Instead, use almond, cashew or
sunflower seed butters.

Put half an avocado in your green smoothie.
Don’t panic at what this would taste like.
Avocados don’t have a strong taste. Pairing them with greens and a strongly flavored fruit renders the avocado invisible. Avocados do add a luxurious thick,
silken smooth creaminess to the raw food preparation. Half an avocado, half a frozen banana, some fresh pineapple or mango, protein powder
and greens in a smoothie are unbelievably delicious, and will stave off hunger for hours.

Put 1 T of any good oil in a bowl of raw soup (we’ll get to this topic next week)
Put a handful of nuts and/or seeds on your salad

Increasing my fat intake as been key in easing joint pain (think lubrication here) AND curbing my appetite. Fat fuels the satiety (fullness)
response of your brain and helps keep blood sugar stable for hours.

Finally, the dessert recipes at the end of this article have a
high good fat content.   Just don’t do what I did when I first went raw… “WOW! These desserts are so healthy,
full of great ingredients, it’s OK for me to eat them… a lot.”
It was NOT OK to eat a lot… I gained weight!
One small serving a day is plenty – it satisfies your sweet tooth and boosts your fat intake.

Articles:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/17/the-7-laws-of-leanness.aspx?e_cid=20120217_DNL_art_1 from Dr. Mercola

http://udoerasmus.com/firstscreen.htm (Udo’s Choice
Oil)

Eating across the color spectrum
When I studied the role of food in Traditional Chinese Medical Theory classes, it was taught that each food color has an inherent energetic imprint. Each color strengthened
and toned the body in varying ways, depending on season, order in which eaten, and cooking techniques. Skeptical as ALWAYS, I took in all this information, and then began experimenting… you guessed it, on me! I ate all red fruits and vegetables for days, then green, etc. Nothing remarkable happened, other than veggie fatigue and a sugar binge!   Later, I took a course from a
very successful NYC acupuncturist, Dr. Liu, who specialized in treating high-stress women with issues of weight gain, water retention, depression, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, digestive distress, etc.
His technique focused on a simple diet of lightly cooked fruits and vegetables ONLY, for a period of time. Most importantly, he stressed eating across the color spectrum of reds, blues, whites, greens and yellows because he
knew about the energetic effects of varied colored fruits and vegetables. I tried his ideas and BINGO!!! Everything felt better and worked better. Since then, other main
stream health professionals have presented this same concept.
In fact, I think there’s even a cookbook out there with this theme! Here’s what this looks like for me on most
days:
Red: berries in my
protein shake for breakfast
Orange: Carrot, apple, ginger and lemon juice mid morning
Green: Green
protein smoothie for lunch
Blue: Blueberries
every day, either in breakfast or lunch
smoothie
Yellow: lemon in the carrot juice, yellow squash, yellow pepper
and or corn in a salad, or homemade veggie
burger
Whites: These were always a little sketchy to me, and experts often don’t include this as a color category. If you’re really a perfectionist, pears, radishes and turnips fit this group. I don’t pay any attention to the
“white.”

I believe that it is the varying energetic properties and
pigments of these colors that impart the beautiful glow and healthy coloring to the skin of raw foodies. Cosmetic
companies… you can KEEP your blush (and I’ll keep my
money)!

Desserts
Actually, I’m just going to give you the link to my FAVORITE raw food site. Scroll down through her
recipes to the Dessert section. IF you want to satisfy a sweet tooth AND increase your fat intake, look for recipes
that contain avocado, nuts, coconut, coconut oil, cacao to name a few.

When I first started eating raw, I freaked when I saw avocado in the pudding recipes. Frankly, I
couldn’t think of anything more disgusting!! I have learned that ALL the avocado does is add incredible smoothness to the pudding, and it picks up the taste of everything else. So, go ahead and use it, you won’t gag. I promise!

Here’s my go-to, “need chocolate in a hurry” recipe:
Use a blender to process one ripe avocado, unsweetened cocoa powder, sweetener of choice and to taste.
The pudding comes out brown (not green from the avocado), the chocolate taste is dominant and it’s EASY…and good… I promise! Once blended, you could
spice this up a la Mexican style with a little cayenne, cinnamon and some orange extract, or use mint or almond extract, throw in a little coconut, dried cherries – it’s ALL good!
Again,
learn from my mistake about these desserts… a LITTLE bit is very good for you, but you’re NOT going to be happy with your shape if you eat a lot! J

http://www.rawmazing.com/rawmazing-recipes

Next week, we’re going to face down the raw soup concept, demystify kale chips and I am going to share my favorite, frequently used raw food sites.

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Raw pizza, Chia seeds and Cashews

Post Title.

Raw Soup, De-mystifying kale chips, Favorite raw food sites

"Uncooking" classes

Ode to Fat, Eating Across the Color Spectrum, Desserts

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