GOODBYE

Due to my crazy busy life these days, no new posts will be added to this blog. I will also not be able to respond to all the wonderful (and sometimes unusual) emails I've gotten since we started this raw adventure. Good luck to all & I hope these recipes will continue to be a helpful resource.

Judy

Chocolate/Peanut butter Cookies

No picture this time - you don't need it. What you DO need though is the recipe. It's divine!

Chocolate/Peanut Butter Cookie. Put everything into the food processor and whirl until you have a perfect cookie dough. Dehydrate - or eat just out of the container!

2 cups raw rolled oats
1 cup raisins
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup maple syrup mixed with 1/2 c plain cocoa
A touch of vanilla

Mix and eat. Simple and to the point. Jacob wants to take this cookie to his teacher! Yahoo!
After they have dried - they are still so moist and beautiful. I think that even shredded coconut would make them taste heavenly. I will try that next time.

Banana Cookie Bars

If you want to try a really great and healthy banana cookie (or bar) - you've gotta try this recipe. I bought a raw bar at the health food store and came home and changed it a little bit. The more ripe the banana - the sweeter the cookie! Here goes!

Banana Cookie Bar
2 cups raw oats
2 cups raisins
1 cup nuts (walnuts or pecans)
1/2 c ground flax seeds
2 very ripe bananas
a touch of cinnamon and salt if you want
about 3 T agave nectar


I put everything into the food processor at one time and turned it on.
It turned into a perfect cookie dough.
I dehydrated them for a little while - but we LOVE raw cookie dough!

They didn't last very long around here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for - FAMILIES and FRIENDS are on top of my list. REAL FOOD (as my grandkids like to call it) is high on the list too. Here I am teaching my grandkids how to make REAL apple juice and a REAL pumpkin pie! Every time I go in the kitchen - Will wants to see what I am doing and always wants to help.

He thinks that making apple juice is easy!

He is a pro at cutting up the apples and using my Champion Juicer. I didn't know it could be so easy for a 5 yr old!

Rachel is 10 and she is always eager to help too!

Then there is Matt. At 3 years old - he likes to be cute, funny and right in the middle of the action. Today is no different!
Now it's time to make a RAW PUMPKIN PIE! Will is now making the pie crust. This is 2 c. almonds and 1 c. walnuts or pecans with 1 c. unsweetened shredded coconut. Put them all in the Vita Mix and whirl until it is ground fine and turns into a dough like pie crust. You don't have to add any water or anything to this.


See - it just pats out just like a regular pie crust - only easier!

Now for the yummy part. I soaked 20 dates overnight. I peeled and cut up 2 large sweet potatoes and put the drained dates and the cut up sweet potatoes in the vita mix. I used about 3 tsp pumpkin pie spice and a little agave nectar. It actually pureed the sweet potatoes and it seems all cooked! It even surprised me!I forgot to take a picture of this next step. I soaked 2 c of cashews in water overnight and drained them. I put the cashews in my VitaMix with some agave nectar, vanilla and some of the soaked date water. This whirled to be creamy and smooth. I then mixed THIS cashew mixture with the pureed sweet potato mixture. This is what we got! TWO DELICIOUS raw pies. I dehydrated it for about 6 hours and put it in the refrigerator.
Now it's time for PIE!

This was the best pie ever! Thank you Rachel Talley for the recipe and the explanation. I would have never attempted this but she promised me that I would L O V E it.
She was right......again!

Applesauce and cranberry sauce

I got this recipe from a friend. I wanted to try it out. YUM!!!!
I cut up 2 apples and 2 pears and pureed dates in water in my Vita Mix.

I put them all together in my food processor. Viola - applesauce!
It was outstanding - tart - and super tasty.

Then someone recommended cranberry sauce. Well - Thanksgiving is almost here so I wanted to try it before my company comes! (no brainer) I used 2 cups fresh cranberries, 1 cup raisins, 1/2 c ground flax and a touch of agave nectar. I made it in my vita mix.

It was super tart as soon as I made it - but sitting overnight - and well - it was the best cranberry sauce I ever had. Even Jacob LOVED it. You will too if you like cranberries!


I want to make some raw bars for a boutique coming up. I used soaked almonds and dates.
I haven't had treats in a long time so this was really sweet. I dehydrated them for about
6 hours so they weren't so wet - and they are definitely a treat for grandkids. They don't call me "Grandma Cookies" for nothing.

Veteran's Day Celebration

Today is not about food (although we are in a restaurant). I really wanted to say thank you to my twin brother, Jim, for all he is doing in Iraq to keep us safe here in the USA since this week is Veteran's Day. He is here visiting us for a couple of days....then back to the war. Thanks Jim for your dedication and your committment for the cause of Freedom. By the way, the beautiful lady next to me is my 80 yr. young mother. We are going to also celebrate her 80th birthday soon!

I had to include my side-kick, Jan, my sister.
She is my best friend and keeps things "arollin" in this family!

Fajita Veggies

Jacob wanted something with salsa. So I made this up - and put the homemade salsa in it.
I call it Fajita Veggies.

Fajita Veggies

Red bell pepper
3 very big fresh tomatoes
Zucchini
Celery
Cumin
Salsa - homemade.
Serve with avocado.

(side note - Joey put black olives in his - they aren't raw - but he said that his bowl was better than mine. Go figure)

ASIAN SALAD

Here is a different flavored salad. It looks like similar ingredients like the other days, but it has a completely different taste than the others. I went to the Asian Market and purchase a spice there - called Bull Head Barbecue Powder. It added a nice punch! It has garlic, chili powder, coconut powder and dry shrimp. Go figure. We liked it.

ASIAN SALAD
Broccoli
Bok Choy (this made it fabulous)
Celery
Red bell peppers
garlic, ginger, sea salt if you want.

You could put like an olive oil, lemon dressing on this also. We like it a little more spicey.
I also put raisins on mine the next day and actually liked it better with the raisins.

It would be great with a homemade flax cracker. But I didn't have time to do that.

Cauliflower - and more of it please!

The first time I made this salad, my son, Joey said - "mom - I want more cauliflower!" So - voila I used more cauliflower.......like I used the whole head! Is THAT enough, Joey?

CAULIFLOWER SALAD
cauliflower - the whole head
cabbage - about 1/4 head
green onions
red and orange bell peppers
raisins
honey mustard dressing
(vegannaise, honey & mustard)

This big bowl fed 3 of us. Jim LOVED it. Jacob grabbed 2 bowls full before leaving for baseball and Joey is still eating! Way to go Joey!

Try it ... you'll like it!

ITALIAN SALAD

I should have posted this first - because it is my favorite Italian Salad ever. Just cut up tons of vegetables and mix them up.

Italian Salad
Tomatoes
Red bell peppers
Green onion
Mushrooms
a whole stalk of Celery (not just a rib)
Basil
Sun dried tomatoes in oil.
(sea salt if you are not avoiding salt and maybe a little garlic)

You can mix up and eat it just the way it is....or put on an Ezekiel tortilla if you want to have a veggie pizza. It is outstanding either way.
Enjoy!

Meal for hypertension?

A very close girl friend called me yesterday and told me that her husband went to the doctor and he was told that he has hypertension. Darn. But he has been a heavy meat eater all his life so it was not so surprising. I told her that I would start posting some great raw salads that she can make for him. Raw is perfect - steamed veggies would be a slower transition for him of course and would be better than none at all. This salad recipe I got from Rachel. It's all raw. Her family loves it and my family loves it when there is way more pineapple than anything else! I put the Dulse flakes on top of mine but my family didn't really care for that!

Ingredients:
Red bell pepper, celery, tomatoes, cucumbers, pineapple, avocado and cilantro.
Here I only cut up half the pineapple - but ended up using the whole thing.
Here is how it looks ready to serve.
The pineapple is what makes it taste so so good!

The Best Tea Party Ever!

So the kids came home from school and we got all ready to have our 2:00 Tea Party! Matt and I had gone to the store earlier and bought all kinds of fun fruit. Will was so excited to be incharge of cutting up the kiwi and the canteloupe. You can tell he helps Jana in the kitchen a lot. He could use a sharp knife with no problem and he's only in kindergarten!

Matt is still loving this part of the tea party and kept saying, "This is the best Tea Party I've ever had!" Rachel and Will kept saying it too - so I believed them. They made my day!

Rachel is so good with the camera (she's 10 now) and snapped this shot. Will reminded me that we should have put up our little fingers! Sorry it was too late! (What a guy!)

We were able to prop the camera in the sky and take this shot of the "Best Tea Party Ever".

You can see how much fun we had in setting it all up and we enjoyed it so much that we "partied" for about 2 hours! I didn't want to stop either.

Here's a closer shot of the food. It was mainly all fruit. Persimmons, grapes, canteloupe, kiwi, oranges, apples, pears, pomegrantes, celery and carrots.

When we were finished with our party - Will got his way! He had been dying to do this the whole time but it just didn't seem appropriate during the fun - now that we were about finished....I let him do anything he wanted! Go for it boy!

I would definitely say - my goal was accomplished! Great memories were made and cemented in all of our brains - especially mine! Oh Happy Day! I'm still smiling.

Tea Party for Breakfast

I have discovered that whenever I go visit my grandkids - that it's important to make a fun memory with them. On this trip - I took a fun tea party set to make some great memories. Matt and Will are so excited to help set it up. It's time for breakfast, you know.

Will is cutting pears.

Rachel is washing grapes.

It's time to eat our breakfast of fruit - and head off to school.

Now that Rachel and Will are gone to school - Matt is playing "tea party" with water while they are gone.

You can see that this boy totally enjoyed the fun!


I promised Rachel and Will that when they came home from school - we would have another BIG TEA PARTY! Oh.....it was hard to wait!

Small pumpkins or juicy persimmons?

Since I am eating so simple these days - I thought I'd show Gina my new "fruit stand". See - this is what I got at Cosco. The top fruit on the top left are the persimmons I bought while in California. I am still waiting for them to ripen. They are so juicy and delicious. I never had them before this trip to California. Jenny and I went to a great, organic Farmer's Market while I was there. Actually I got the watermelons, the avocados, the oranges AND the pomegranates there too - not to mention the Asian pears, White peaches and the Nectarines that I have in the refrigerator (what was I thinking!) Well - there ya go. :) If you need any fruit - I suppose you would have some pretty good luck finding what you want at my house! Hope you have a "fruity" kind of day!

MONO - Eating

Okay - I have to admit that Ryan is so cute that I decided to use him in my photo shoot while I was still in California. He is helping me cut up honey-dew for breakfast. He loves to help in the kitchen.

Look at how careful he is to cut the tiny piece in the bowl!


It made it right into his mouth!


This was a delicous melon. It was our entire breakfast.
Now...that is called "mono-eating"!

Breakfast in California

At 6:30 am every morning - Derek gets up and gets ready for work. Ryan has a built in sensor in the mornings and always manages to get up without anyone waking him - to eat with his dad. Since I am doing the cooking around here - you guessed it - watermelon for breakfast! Ryan didn't know how to eat it off the rind. Derek is showing him how to do it.

I think I had more fun taking pictures of Derek this time!

I know thatRyan is having a good time.
And he actually loves watermelon and it sure is filling for all of us.

What a cute guy!

Even Katie enjoyed what Ryan gave her! She is scraping the
juice with her 2 bottom teeth!