Friday, March 26, 2010

Sprouting


Growing sprouts is antasty, convenient way to add some fresh veg to your day.

You can get a great selection of seeds here at Sprout People.

Start out by soaking a tablespoon of alfalfa seeds over night in a mason jar.

You will need these handy screens to use this method.

In the morning, use the smallest screen to drain the water from the jar. Make sure you get all the water from the jar.

I like to lay the jar on the side so that the seeds are spread out and are getting air. If they don't get enough air, they can die.

Here is my jar sitting in a bowl at an angle to let excess water drain and also allow air to circulate.



















Once or twice a day, run water in the jar, swish around and drain. Again, making sure to get all water from the jar.

After a few days, you will need to switch to a bigger screen so that you can let the seed hulls through the holes in the screen. After about five days, you will be left with lovely sprouts.

Here is my jar with fully grown sprouts!~ Some like to let their sprouts sit in the sun for a day. I'm not too picky.














Dump your fully grown sprouts from the jar into a large bowl. Fill the bowl with water and swish around with your hands. This will separate the sprouts from the seed hulls. Grab small handfuls of sprouts and put in another bowl. This will leave the seed hulls in the larger bowl. Let them drain or pat dry with a paper towel. Then put in your storage container.


Alternatively you can put the sprouts in a salad spinner. The seed hulls will fall through the slots in the spinner while the sprouts stay in the colander. Dump the seed hulls out. You may need to rinse and dump a few times.

Once most of the seed hulls are out, spin your sprouts dry.
















Store the sprouts in a container with a lid in the fridge or they will dry out.

Make a sprout salad, just add some tomatoes, cucumbers, and salt and pepper to a heaping handful of sprouts.

Put some on a salad, use them in a sandwich instead of the usual lettuce or fill a wrap with sprouts for some crunch!

Monday, March 22, 2010

Raw Food Diet


Time to give it another go. It's been a while since I have felt myself and not needed 10 hours of sleep to feel rested. I have been moody, can't focus and did I mention tired?

I will make this post a list of intentions with recipes. Hopefully this will make it easy for me to stick to the plan.

Every morning start with a green smoothie.

Snack on fruit (apple, banana, orange, melon etc.)

Drink water!
Carry raw bars/nuts/fruit etc with me at all times.

Lunch is a salad with either a pate or raw nuts/seeds or a wrap or seaweed roll

Snack again on fruits
Drink kombucha, on tap at Whole Foods. I have strawberry in my fridge now and it is so delicious!

Dinner will be a raw food dish of some sort. Ideas below:
Taco
Pasta
Sandwich
Salad with mushrooms
Nachos
marinated veggies
Raw cereal
raw burgers

Recipes to make or things to do:
Grow sprouts
Make onion bread
Make zuch chips
Make pate
Make Crackers

Soak almonds for almond milk

Stick to it even when cooking regular foods for my family. That is the hard part, making food for the other 4 members of my family and trying not to eat it!

Here's to day one.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Raw Cereal



My favorite morning staple when smoothies get a little tiresome.

Add to a large bowl:

One chopped apple
One sliced banana
A cup of your favorite berry
Handful of nuts (pecans, almonds, sunflower seeds etc)
Handful of raisins

Pour your favorite almond milk over the top and enjoy!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Almond Milk


Soak one cup raw almonds over night.

Drain them in the morning and toss in a blender that is 3/4 full of water.

Blend, blend, blend.

Strain with a nut milk bag. Put the liquid back into the blender.
Reserve your almond pulp for other tasty recipes.

Add two seeded dates, a sprinkle of cardamom and a tsp of vanilla and blend again.

Savor the first cup with the foam on top right away. Store the rest in the fridge for up to a week. You can use this in raw cereal, in smoothies or just straight up!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Cherry Bliss Smoothie



I haven't been able to cook many extravagant meals lately, due to my finger getting hurt and then a weekend of camping.
The smoothie has been my friend for a week or so. My standard Green Smoothie is getting a little boring. So I have been experimenting.

Here is my latest and greatest. I love this one so much!

Cherry Bliss Smoothie

In Vitamix:
1 ripe banana
2 soft pitted dates
1.5 cups of frozen cherries
1.5 cups raw almond milk

Blend until smooth

Friday, February 20, 2009

Onion bread





This is a fabulous onion bread that lasts forever in the fridge. I like to eat it on the side of a salad of make open faced sandwiches with it. It is really my favorite raw cracker/bread there is.

Onion Bread (this was from Alissa's cookbook I believe)

3 lg yellow onions
¾ c. flax, ground
¾ c. raw sunflower seeds, ground
½ c. Nama Shoyu or soy sauce
1/3 c. olive oil

In a food processor, grate onions using the grating blade. Transfer onions to a large mixing bowl, add remaining ingredients, and mix until thoroughly combined.

Spread 2 cups of the mixture on a dehydrating tray with a teflex sheet. Repeat until all mixture is used. Dehydrate 24 hrs. Flip tray over removing treflex sheet. Return to dehydrate another 12 hrs. When done cut into desired shape.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Chocolate

Brownie?? Fudge?? Call it what you will but just eat it!

Take 1 cup of walnut or pecan and blend in your food processor until fine.
Add one cup of pitted dates to your nuts along with about 3 TBL spoons of raw cacao.

Blend this until it makes a ball.

Form into a one inch layer on a plate and stash in the fridge.

When you feel the need to indulge, take a slice from your fudge and pop it into your mouth!