Loving Superfoods

Chocolatey Chocolate Brownies

This is my new favorite when I crave chocolate chewyness (sorry chocolate cake recipe, this one wins out). I’ve taken a recipe from Ani Phyo’s awesome recipe book, Anis Raw Food Kitchen, and I’ve altered ingredients to make it taste like chocolate brownies with chocolate icing on top. Mmmmm!

Brownies (fills a 9×12 pan)

3.5 Cups Brazil Nuts

1 tsp Sun Fire Salt

3 Cups Dates

2 Tbsp Vanilla

1.25 Cup Cacao Powder (or use Carob if you prefer)

1/2 Cup Mesquite Powder

1/4 Cup Tocotrienols (also known as “tocos”)

3/4 Cup Pecans or Walnuts – chopped (I like brownies with nuts)

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Add the brazil nuts and salt to a food processor and grind into a fine powder. (Note that you do not need to soak brazil nuts – they don’t have enzyme inhibitors like most other nuts). Add the dates and vanilla to the food processor and process until a smooth cake batter like consistency (you may want to add the dates a few at a time).

Empty the brownie mixture into a larger mixing bowl and add the cacao powder, mesquite powder, tocos and chopped nuts. Mix thoroughly.

Line your 9×12 pan with waxed paper for easy clean up and lifting brownie pieces out later. Put the brownie mix into the pan and spread evenly, pressing down with your hands to make a uniform appearance in the pan.

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Chocolate Icing

1 Cup Dates

1/4 Cup Cacao Powder (or use Carob if you prefer)

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

2 tsp Vanilla

1 Cup Water

1 Tbsp Lecithin

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Add all ingredients except the lecithin to your blender and blend until smooth. Add the lecithin, which acts as a thickener, and blend on high until smooth.

Pour the icing on top of the brownies and spread evenly. Refrigerate or freeze for an hour for the icing to set – or enjoy immediately for an even gooier finger-licking experience.

Enjoy!

And stay tuned for my favorite upgrade on this upgrade … Chocolate Brownies with Raspberry Icing. MMMMMmmmmmmmmm, yummy!

Traveling With Superfoods

A common hurdle when introducing raw superfoods into your life is how to take your show on the road. And especially when you have the Chocolate Bliss drink as a staple, how do manage getting that through airports!?

Since Dan is a nature photographer and both of our extended families live on either coast, we have tried many kinds of travel, by car and by plane and even some camping, all with our raw superfoods in tow.

Here are our favorite tips for you to try out:

By Car
Traveling by car is of course easier than by plane since you can pack as much as you like, including the Vitamix blender. Here’s what we do when we go long-distance by car:

Pack a cooler full of 2 half-gallons full of Chocolate Bliss and ice. Do NOT put Vitamineral Green in this Chocolate Bliss or it will taste really nasty as it warms. I hate pouring out Bliss, but I have because it tasted so bad warmed with greens in it. ew.
Include celery sticks in the cooler – the sodium and water in celery balances the Chocolate Bliss nicely.
Yemiah’s Creamy Almond Spinach Dip goes well with the celery sticks and can help ward off any cheesy junk food you might otherwise crave.
Activated, salted nuts, especially pistachios and almonds are a favorite for quick snacks.
When you reach your destination, you can pull out the Vitamix and restock your Chocolate Bliss containers as needed.

We have driven well over 24 hours non-stop together with just us and the Chocolate Bliss to keep us going and it works awesome! Whenever it’s your turn to drive, have a swig of bliss and you’re perfectly alert and focused. When it’s time to switch drivers, the bliss won’t keep you awake and jittery like caffeine would … you can still take a nap while the other person is driving.

By Plane
This is where travel gets trickier since you have airport security and reduced space allowances. You’ve also got a lot of dehydration from the airplane air. Here’s what we do:

Make the Chocolate Bliss into Bliss Kisses for the airplane journey. Be sure to make the kisses with cacao butter instead of coconut oil so they stay nicely solid without refrigeration.
Bring Dulse Seaweed and/or Seaweed Energy capsules for the airplane since both will help your cells stay hydrated.
Carry on a small 2oz bottle of Chlorophyll to add to your water once you’re past security. Sometimes the flight attendants will fill your empty water bottle with their bottled water, but even if you have to fill from the airport drinking fountain, the chlorophyll makes the water taste better and makes the water closer to your blood’s ph.
Activated nuts and nori rolls make great travel snacks and meal replacements and contain no liquids!
Fiesta Mole is another great superfood mix that can be sprinkled dry on top of just about anything to enhance the flavor and upgrade your food. We especially like it on salads (instead of dressing) and it tastes yummy on granny smith apples (thanks customer Melissa Duke for the idea!).
Pack the Chocolate Bliss mix and Vanilla Agave Nectar in a checked suitcase (avoids xrays that way and the agave is a liquid).
Bring a small portable blender, like this Hamilton Beach blender we use. For this small size we use about 2 Tbsp of Bliss and 2 Tbsp of Agave to 8oz of water in the blender. Then we put this blended mixture in one of our BPA-free 24oz bottles and fill it up with water to about the 20 ounce mark and the rest with ice.

If you’ve developed your own super tips for traveling raw, please pass them along. We’d love to share them with the rest of our online community.

Nutrition Label Info

We get a lot of questions asking about the nutritional analysis of Chocolate Bliss and other superfoods. The simple answer is that we do not know or have access to the nutritional breakdown … yet. We have asked David Favor, the creator of the SunFire Super Food line we carry, for this information. He says it is on his list of things to do.

In the meantime, the lack of a nutritional panel exposes yet another way we’ve been conditioned to think of food that might not always serve us well. Here are a few perspectives for you to consider:

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From David Favor’s Perspective

David tells us that he is a little bit reluctant to put the nutritional breakdown of his products on the label, because it doesn’t really tell you anything useful. He feels that if the label is on there, people will compare what’s on the label to what is on the label of other foods which are not as pristine, natural or nutritionally packed. Also, natural foods don’t just have more nutrition, but that nutrition is also much more available to the body. For instance, when you eat a conventionally grown tomato that’s been picked a while ago, shipped and ripened chemically, and you eat a fresh tomato organically grown in your own garden, they are very different tasting and one is clearly much better for you. But if they had nutritional labeling on them, the labels would be virtually identical.

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From Natalia Rose’s Perspective

I love this excerpt from her Raw Food Detox Diet book:

“Ask an average American to choose which is the better food choice, a Power Bar or an avocado, and he/she will likely point out that the Power Bar has 200 calories and 2 grams of fat while the avocado has 400 calories and 14 grams of fat, and therefore choose the Power Bar. But the body regards these two items very differently. To the Power Bar, it says, ‘That’s sugar and chemicals, which I can’t break down. That will cause me to store waste and gain weight.’ But to the avocado it says, ‘Oh, I know exactly what to do with you. I can break you down completely!’ So you see, the number of calories, protein grams, fat grams, and carb grams are not the information you need to make informed choices about what to put in your body. You’ve been told for decades to read nutrition labels, but you probably haven’t been reading the right part of the label. Forget the counts and read the ingredients. Or, better yet, when you think of putting something into your mouth, ask yourself, ‘Is this food in its natural state and is its source recognizable?’ If the answer is ‘no,’ put it down. If the answer is ‘yes,’ go to town!”

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From Our Perspective

The true test of what is good for you, is to try it in your own body and see how it makes you feel. We pride ourselves in carrying what we believe to be the best superfoods available. We use many of them daily.

Dan and I have both lost weight, feel much better, have much more energy, clarity and focus. Many of our clients report similar results.

The Vanilla Agave we use is what we prefer after trying other sweeteners in our chocolate bliss, including honey, dates and even other agaves. We hope that you will use whatever feels best in your body.

Of course as soon as we have nutritional analysis info on any of our superfoods we will publish that information on the individual product pages. In the meantime, we encourage you to pay attention to how your body feels with every food you eat … your body knows best.

Watermelon Gazpacho

More kudos to Sarma and Matthew for an outstanding flavor-packed recipe. This one didn’t require any changes (though you could add a little Fiesta Mole Powder if you want to “soup” it up with extra superfoods). What a pun!

I usually only like my watermelon straight up, but this is one watermelon recipe that’s worth making, eating, and repeating. The blend of flavors does a beautiful dance on my tongue, starting with the sweetness of the watermelon and ending with the gentle heat of the ginger and jalapeno. The more you dice the ingredients to the same size pieces, the better this will taste as you get the full flavor sensation in every bite.

Here’s the easy though chopping intensive recipe:

3 Cups Watermelon (seeded and pureed in blender)

1 Cup Watermelon diced

1 Cup Tomato diced (it’s OK if the seeds don’t make it in)

1 Cup Cucumber diced (seed the cuke before dicing, peel it if you prefer)

1/2 Cup Red Bell Pepper diced

2 Tbsp Lime Juice

1/4 – 1/2 Cup Cilantro leaves

1 tsp Ginger minced

1/2 Jalapeno minced (and seeded!)

1 green onion minced (both white and green parts)

1 tsp Sun Fire Salt

Fresh Black Pepper to Taste

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Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and stir well. Tastes best chilled. Makes about 6 cups serving about 4 people (depending on how much you lick it up of course).

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This is another great recipe from my current favorite raw food book, Raw Food/Real World by Sarma Melngailis and Matthew Kenney. Their unique combination of flavors have been worth trying every time!

Raw Hummus for Pizza Cracker Topping

You could buy hummus at the store, but it wouldn’t be raw. Garbanzo beans (the main ingredient of hummus) are cooked when made into hummus. Sometimes I buy hummus, but it’s nice to have this completely raw and lighter fare version made with cashews.

I tried out this yummy raw hummus recipe in order to have an excellent topping to our favorite pizza crackers. Turns out it’s also a great dip for pea pods or other veggies and easy to customize with additional spices to your liking.

Here’s the simple recipe:

4 Cups Cashews (soaked 4 hours and rinsed)

1/2 Cup Lemon Juice

2 Garlic Cloves

1/4 Cup Tahini (Sesame seed butter)

1 tsp Sun Fire Salt

2 tsp Olive Oil

1 Cup Water (add as needed)

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In a food processor, add everything except the water and process until finely ground. Slowly add the water about 1/4 Cup at a time until the whole mixture is a smooth, almost fluffy consistency. Eat immediately or chill for later use.

Check out the Pizza Cracker recipe as this is a great topping for it!

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Many thanks to my current favorite raw food book, Raw Food/Real World by Sarma Melngailis and Matthew Kenney for this inspired recipe!

Tomato “Pizza” Crackers

OK, we have a new favorite Flax cracker. The Green Crackers used to be our favorite, and we still make them now and again, but these tomato crackers (“The Red Crackers”) are so flavorfully awesome that they’ve taken the #1 spot.

What’s more, we found a way of making a yummy pizza-like treat with these crackers, earning them even more kudos.

You will need a dehydrator to pull this recipe off, but it’s worth it! Plus, then you can make the green crackers and nori rolls and all sorts of other yummy treats that last a good long time.

Many thanks to my current favorite raw food book, Raw Food/Real World by Sarma Melngailis and Matthew Kenney for this recipe. My only changes to their original were more sun dried tomatoes and a specific quantity of specific herbs and superfoods to get that pizza flavor every time.

Tomato Pizza Crackers

5 Cups Walnuts (soaked 1 hour and rinsed)

1 Tbsp Sun Fire Salt

1.5 Tbsp Basil (dried – use more if you have fresh available)

1.5 Tbsp Oregano (ditto above)

1.5 Tbsp Marjoram (ditto above)

1.5 Tbsp Fiesta Mole Superfood Powder

5 Cups Zucchini (cut into small chunks)

2 Cups Sun Dried Tomatoes

4 Green Onions chopped

1 Cup Flax Seeds finely ground

1/2 Cup Hemp Seeds

1/3 Cup Lemon Juice

1/3 Cup Nutritional Yeast (optional, and it makes it slightly cheesy)

1/2 Cup Water

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In a food processor grind the walnuts into a fine texture. This works best when you process the walnuts in two batches so that the bottom part of the processor doesn’t turn into a paste. Transfer the walnuts into a large bowl and mix in the seasonings (salt, basil, oregano, marjoram and Fiesta Mole). If you are using fresh herbs, add them instead to the next step.

In the same food processor (don’t bother washing it out) process the zucchini, sun dried tomatoes and green onions until a fine paste. Add this mixture to the spiced walnuts in the large bowl and mix well.

Now grind the flax seeds into a fine powder. This works great in the dry container of the Vitamix blender or you can use the food processor again, but you’ll want to clean it out and make sure it’s dry.

Add the ground flax seeds, hemp seeds, lemon juice and nutritional yeast to the large bowl and mix well. Add water as needed until a sticky dough forms (you shouldn’t need more than 1/2 Cup). If you taste the batter now it shouldn’t taste quite as salty or flavorful as the finished product because all the flavors are enhanced when dehydrated. Notice in the photos below how the uncooked dough is pretty light in color, but once dehydrated the crackers turn a lovely shade of red.

Spread the batter on the Teflex Sheet on your dehydrator tray. I find spreading it to about 1/8 – 1/4 inch thick works best. On my Good4U 10-tray dehydrator I get about 6 and a half trays filled with this mixture – making about 65 2 inch by 3 inch crackers.

Once all your trays are filled, turn the dehydrator on at 115 degrees. After it’s been dehydrating for a while (about 4-6 hours) the top of the batter should be dry to the touch. To dry the bottom, take each teflex sheet with the batter attached, flip it over onto the mesh tray, then peel the teflex sheet off and leave the batter on the mesh tray so the wet side is facing up. If there’s any residue on the teflex, scrape it off with a spoon and smooth it out onto the rest of the cracker. You can also watch the video of how this is done.

After you’ve flipped your crackers and removed the teflex sheet they’ll probably need another 18-20 hours of drying before they are done (about 24 hours total drying time). I prefer to break my crackers into rough pieces after they’ve been drying a bit. At about the 16 hour mark or so I break them into squares so they dry more evenly the rest of the way. You can also score your crackers when you first put them in, but I find that flipping and removing the teflex is just a bit more challenging this way. (See photo on the right of scored crackers and check out this video that shows the process of scoring crackers).

Finally, when you taste test the crackers and deem them dry enough, I suggest you store them in an air tight container. If you’re keeping them longer than a week or two I suggest you store them in the fridge to keep the oils from going rancid.

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And now here’s how we turn these yummy crackers into mini pizzas …

Create the raw cashew-based hummus recipe which can be stored in the fridge for several days (haven’t tried freezing this yet – let me know if that works for you)

Spread some raw hummus on the cracker (or use store-bought hummus if you don’t mind cooked garbanzo beans)

Place a fresh piece of basil on the hummus, top with sliced tomato and add salt and pepper to taste.

Of course, this is the kind of recipe you can really play with. Enjoy getting creative with your own topping ideas!

Raw Ice Cream Without An Ice Cream Maker

We love ice cream, but it doesn’t treat our bodies very well. The dairy, high sugar content and sometimes even high fructose corn syrup in ice creams really puts on the inches around our waistlines. We’ve found a few store-bought alternatives that are nice, albeit more cost than regular ole ice cream. We don’t like soy-based stuff (too likely to be infected with GMO soy and not really that easy for your body to process), but we do like some coconut-based ice creams.

Nevertheless, we were on a quest for a raw ice cream we could make at home, without investing in an ice cream maker that might take up our much valued freezer space. And boy howdy did we land an awesome recipe!

The original recipe is from Cafe Gratitude’s Sweet Gratitude book, and though they say to make this with an ice cream maker, it works great without one. We’ve also adjusted their original recipe for a vanilla version as well as the original chocolate.

Here are the recipes – they make about 5 cups of ice cream each.

Raw Vanilla Ice Cream

2 Cups Cashews (soaked 4 hours and rinsed)

2.5 Cups Almond Milk

3/4 Cup Vanilla Agave Nectar

2 Tbsp Lecithin

3/4 tsp Sun Fire Salt

1.5 Tbsp Vanilla Extract

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Blend all ingredients in high powered blender (we like the Vitamix). Pour into a container (we use empty hummus plastic tubs). Chill in the fridge for an hour or two. Stir, then move it to the freezer. Stir every couple of hours if you can. If not, it’s OK because it’ll still be a yummy ice cream when left in the freezer – just maybe a little harder than if you have the opportunity to stir it.

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Raw Chocolate Ice Cream

2 Cups Cashews (soaked 4 hours and rinsed)

2.5 Cups Almond Milk

1 Cup Vanilla Agave Nectar

1/2 Cup Raw Cacao Powder

2 Tbsp Lecithin

3/4 tsp Sun Fire Salt

1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract

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You can easily play with additional flavors from this basic recipe. We tried using Hazelnut milk and Coconut milk instead of Almond milk, but we liked the gentle flavor of almond best. Let us know if you come up with another flavor combination that you adore.

Enjoy!

Thai Coconut Bliss Soup

Oh my goodness this soup is delicious! When I make a raw dinner for friends I often start with this soup, then serve Thai Veggie Wraps and finish with the Coconut-Hazlenut Chia Pudding. Yummy!

I’ve found this soup will also freeze well – just freeze the marinated mushrooms separately. This recipe comes straight from one of my favorite raw info/uncook books: The Raw Food Detox Diet by Natalia Rose.

Makes about 5 cups serving 2-5 people depending on how much of a meal you make it

Marinated Mushroom Topping

1 Cup Shiitake Mushrooms thinly sliced

3 Tbsp Fresh Basil chopped

1/4 Cup Lime Juice

1 tsp Sun Fire Salt (or less – add salt to taste)

Place all ingredients in small bowl and mix well. Set aside (or refrigerate if making far in advance of eating). The mushrooms will “melt” or shrink as they marinate. Note: I often double the recipe for the topping because I love the mushrooms so much.

Soup

Meat of 3 Young Coconuts

1.5 Cups Coconut Water (or add a bit more for a thinner soup)

1 Tbsp Ginger minced

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

1/4 Cup Lime Juice

4 Dates

1 Tbsp Nama Shoyu (raw soy sauce)

1 clove Garlic

Blend all ingredients in high powered blender (I use a Vitamix) until smooth. Pour into bowls and scoop marinated mushrooms on top.

I serve this soup at room temperature – it’s a very creamy, warming soup. You can refrigerate it for a bit under a week or freeze it for months. Just blend the soup again when you’re ready to serve.

Tip: I’ve found the meat of young coconuts frozen without additives (you have to read the labels closely) at my local Asian market in their frozen food section. You can also get 100% young coconut water in juice box form at Whole Foods and other natural grocery stores (and at Asian markets). This could save you some of the work of opening young coconuts if you can find these sources. Though it’s also a lot of fun to whack the heck out of the coconut.

Enjoy!

Savory Fiesta Mole Smoothie

Do you like V8? Or another version thereof? I think I’ve got something you’ll really like. I’ve created this savory smoothie that uses our yummy Fiesta Mole raw superfood mix and it’s super-delicious.

Here’s the recipe:

In a Vitamix or other high-powered blender add these ingredients:

2 Tomatoes (about 2 cups)
2 Celery Stalks
1 Granny Smith Apple (or other tart apple) quartered
2 Tbsp Fiesta Mole Mix
2 Cups Water
1/2 Cup Cucumber (optional)
Ice as desired for a chilly drink (optional)

Blend on high until smooth. Just like the Boutenko-Style Green Smoothies, this smoothie can last for about 3 days in the fridge or otherwise kept cold. You can also play with the ingredients … we’re experimenting with adding cucumbers in since we have so gosh darn many of them from our garden right now.

>>>We just tried the cucumber in the smoothie at our raw food dinner tonight and it was scrumptious! Made for a delightfully refreshing smoothie!

If you don’t have a high-powered blender I suggest you cut the ingredients into smaller bits (and core the apple). You might have to blend it longer than you would in a vitamix, but it should still work out great.

Enjoy!

Green Smoothies Boutenko Style

Dan and I went to see Victoria Boutenko and her kids talk when they were in Dallas/Fort Worth this last year. I really like them. They’ve got great information and their green smoothie concept/recipes are awesome!

I encourage you to check them out directly for all the details behind why this style of green smoothie is so great: http://www.rawfamily.com/

In a nutshell, or an apple seed, here’s why this style of smoothie works so great:

1. They taste great. It might look green, but all you taste is the sweetness of the fruit. YAY!

2. The ratio of 60% ripe fruit with 40% leafy greens is optimal for humans

3. Blended foods are easy for your body to digest.

4. Green smoothies are a complete food (as compared to juices) because they have all the fiber which is important for your elimination system.

5. Green smoothies are really easy to make (especially with a Vitamix) and way easier to clean up after than juicing!

6. Green smoothies can keep in the fridge for up to 3 days (fresh pressed juices are only good for about 30 minutes).

OK, enough singing praises, here is the basic principle recipe:

2-4 fruits or about 3 Cups.
For the Vitamix I suggest you cut fruit into quarters (keep the seeds in apples and the like, remove pits from peaches and the like).
1 large handful of green leaves.
This is usually 5 large leaves. Don’t use roots – the value here is in the minerals and chlorophyll in the green leaves.
2 cups water or liquid.
I love using young coconut water.

In a Vitamix you can add all these ingredients whole. For a less highly powered blender, you may want to cut out the seeds of the fruit (like core the apples and pears) and chop things into smaller bits in order to help your blender along. Blend until smooth. Optionally add ice if you’d like it cold. Sip and enjoy!

Here are some of the recipes I particularly like:

Read the rest of this entry »

Loving Superfoods

Chocolatey Chocolate Brownies

Traveling With Superfoods

Nutrition Label Info

Watermelon Gazpacho

Raw Hummus for Pizza Cracker Topping

Tomato “Pizza” Crackers

Raw Ice Cream Without An Ice Cream Maker

Thai Coconut Bliss Soup

Savory Fiesta Mole Smoothie

Green Smoothies Boutenko Style

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