During Allergy Season I Give My Daughter Cookies

Have I mentioned that I love eating the raw vegan diet?

Have I said anything yet about how amazing the desserts are?

I kid, I kid! I am well aware that I am now a living and breathing advertisement for green vegetables. But seriously, when it's this good and this good FOR you it's hard not to rave.

As spring blooms around the desert I feel a tickle in my throat and find myself blowing my nose a lot more than usual. It's allergy season. Dum dum dum!

One of the best defenses against allergies is to acquaint your body with the local blossoms internally, i.e., through eating local plants and pollens. One of the hands down best ways to ever stop your allergies is to purchase local (LOCAL is key) honey and bee pollen. Farmer's Markets are stocked with this gold, by the way, and are a great way to ensure its locality. Bee pollen looks like small pellets of yellow dust and is literally the pollen that bees collect from flowers. It tastes a little funny to me (my husband eats it by the spoonful, though), so I take a small spoonful of it in yogurt or applesauce or something mushy but palatable. I am no doctor or scientist so I can't tell you how it actually works inside our human systems (Google anyone? Let me know what you find!), but I do know it works.

I had a co-worker once years ago who had been to his doctor several times with new prescriptions for one form of allergy relief or another but he still could not sleep or find any comfort from his dry, itchy eyes, runny nose and sore throat. The poor guy! I wrote down two things for him:

1. Bee pollen
2. Cod Liver Oil (This comes in many forms but I can only recommend the liquid form and recommend at least a tablespoon a day before and after symptoms show up. This particular brand and flavor is as part of my childhood as anything.)

I saw him later that same day and he had been running around trying to find me--turned out that my recommendation had relieved his symptoms almost from the very moment he tried it. Now, I know some things about food, but this kind of reaction I did not expect. In fact, I kind of thought he was exaggerating. It was one of those things were I knew it worked for me and my family, but I was wary of how other "normal" people would react. I was thrilled that my mom's home remedies proved helpful for him, too.

Another great way to get this pollen is through honey. But be warned: if your honey was purchased at a national chain store and its container is in the shape of a cute bear, it may not be very potent. In fact, most retail honey contains added syrup and has lost a lot of its potency through processing. Again, Farmer's Market is a great place to not only buy honey but also talk to the people who harvest it. Make sure it's local--one of the reasons pollen works is that it contains particles found in your particular environment. And make sure it's raw, unprocessed and unfiltered.

Once you've bought yours, though, hit the kitchen and make yourself some Allergy-Fighting Cookies! (*Please note that bee pollen and honey can trigger allergic reactions. Honey and bee pollen are also not safe for children under 12 months of age.) This recipe is, again, ridiculously easy and requires zero baking time (obviously). The cookies are surprisingly simple and satisfying. Plus they help keep allergies at bay! I've been giving them to Dia and she is in love. Have I mentioned how much I love feeding my daughter sweet treats that I actually feel good about her eating?



Allergy-Fighting Cookies
(Recipe adapted/adopted from Raw Food Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet--I highly recommend purchasing this book!)
Yield: 8 cookies

1/2 cup raw almond or cashew butter (this can be found at most grocery stores, online or you can make it yourself--recipe for this is at the end if you don't already have some in the fridge)
1/4 cup raw honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dash salt
1/2 cup almonds ground to flour in food processor

Place the almond butter, honey, vanilla and salt in a food processor fitted with the S blade and process until smooth. Transfer to a small bowl and freeze for thirty minutes. Form into 1-inch balls and flatten slightly. Roll each cookie in the almond flour. The book recommends freezing them at least two hours before serving, but since raw honey can harden quickly, I'd say no less than thirty minutes. If they've been frozen longer I'd also recommend setting them out for a few minutes before serving. Store in a sealed container in the freezer and they last up to one month. (Although you will probably eat them all before you even finish making them.)

Almond/Cashew Butter Recipe
Yield: 2 cups

2 cups raw almonds or cashews (you can use any nut or seed really for this)
1/4 cup oil (optional)

Blend almonds in food processor fitted with S blade or high-powered blender adding oil until it becomes smooth. I have found that using almond oil and adding a tiny bit of almond extract works great for almond butter. Here is a great blog post from a raw chef in the valley that shows how to make this at home and touts its many benefits as well.

Mylking It--Raw, Vegan Style

Full disclosure: my father and his family were raised on a dairy farm. They milked their cows daily (yep even on Christmas Day!) and sold most of it for profit, keeping a few gallons around for their own consumption. Milk, to my father, is as healthy as water. He loves it and drinks it with every meal.

His daughters, however, well, we're weirded out by milk. Please forgive us, Dad! Since I was young, dairy milk always left me feeling full of mucus (sorry, TMI, I know). I have never really liked the flavor, either (and I know so many people these days who are either lactose-intolerant or suffer from a full-on dairy allergy). So what's a girl to do when it comes to cereals and smoothies?

Make your own! No cow required.

The raw vegan lifestyle is all about getting the most possible nutrients out of your food. That's why we don't cook our food--heating food past 112 degrees destroys most of the natural enzymes that I believe God placed in food to help us not only absorb and digest nutrients, but also to assimilate them properly. There are a few exceptions: nutrients in cruciferous veggies like broccoli and cauliflower can actually be activated by steaming them just until their colors peak, i.e., they become bright white or green but are still aldente. But if you're looking for max nutrients and max enzymatic properties in your food, look no further than a raw apple or bunch of kale. In fact, I've heard people say before that they wish they could take a wire brush to their intestines, you know, to really clean out all the little nooks and crannies where food hides inside. Enter the green leafy vegetable! It's like a roto-rooter for your tummy.

Keeping this enzyme-rich goal in mind, it's important that I make the most of everything I eat. And when it comes to nuts and seeds, most of these are beneficial in the raw but still not enzyme-activated. Remember the raw buckwheat I sprouted? Sprouts are living and therefore chockfull of enzymes. By soaking things like nuts and seeds, you can activate them and then blend them into a milk, also called "mylk." Not only is it raw, living, enzyme-rich and much higher in protein than average milks or milk substitutes, but it's also super easy and pretty affordable. Plus, it's completely vegan and lactose-free.

Here's how we do it:

Nut Mylk
Yields 2 quarts

1 cup raw, organic nuts*, soaked in purified water for 2 hours or overnight
6 cups purified water

Blend until smooth and creamy, use it anywhere you use dairy milk or milk substitute. That's it! (I am telling you, raw foods are the easiest things to prepare!) Store in sealed jars in the fridge for about 2 or 3 days or until it smells funny. You can alter the amount of water to make it creamier or thinner according to your taste. The more water, the thinner the mylk and the less water, the thicker or creamier the mylk. I also sometimes add about a tablespoon or so of honey just because, again, honey is so nutritious that I try to squeeze it in everywhere I can. And lastly, this thick kind of mylk makes for the best hot chocolate or latte. It's so thick and creamy you might never want to go to back to dairy milk. (Don't tell my dad!)

*A few notes on nuts: most nuts contain something called an eznyme-inhibitor. These inhibitors make it very hard to digest the nuts. Soaking them removes this inhibitor by activating the enzymes. Also, with so many different nuts to choose from try a few different kinds to see which flavor and texture you like best. My favorite right now is cashew mylk--cashews are very rich and creamy but somewhat mild in flavor so the mylk adapts well to just about any use.

One of my favorite things about this mylk is not only that it's full of activated enzymes and highly nutritious fats and oils, but also that it's not full of all the preservatives found in most milk substitutes. Have you ever read the label on rice milk? It's not so pretty. With nut mylk, however, I know exactly what's in it and don't worry about preservatives, additives or anything else I can't pronounce (not to mention the chemicals used to line many of the cartons...yikes!).

And how does it hold up for us budget-conscious consumers? I'd say pretty well. One bag of 16 ounces of certified organic cashews typically comes to about $12--that's $6 a cup (buy in bulk, however, and that price drops to $5 a cup). One cup of nuts makes just over two quarts or one half-gallon of milk. At my local grocery store, one half gallon of organic milk comes to just about $5--that's the same price of nut mylk if you buy in bulk. Keep in mind, too, that you can always thin out the nut mylk by adding more water, easily putting you below the five dollar mark. You can also shop for various kinds of nuts and purchase what's on sale. If you're looking for an affordable way to get the most nutritious milk, look no further than nut mylk.

Happy Mylking!

Can Your Food Do This? (Sprouting Food + Another Choco Recipe To Love)

I think we are finding a great groove with our raw lifestyle. (And I should somehow be getting paid to advertise for it because I just can't stop talking about how much I love eating this way!)

The key to raw (and I love this so much) is to be constantly eating. Seriously. You can eat, eat and eat all day long. The amazing thing is that your appetite decreases, so, for example, having a huge breakfast is almost completely out of the question, but a green drink in the morning (I juice any combination of fruits and veggies using my Omega juicer) can do the trick. If I'm planning to do something more strenuous than usual, I'll make a smoothie and grab an apple with almond butter. But lately I've just been in the mood for a banana or even a small orange to start out my day. But I don't end there!

I snack all day long. Take today for example. I started out with the banana. Added a few kiwi slices after a while. Then I shared some sprouted buckwheat cereal and home-made cashew milk with D. Not long after made a power-packed green smoothie (1 frozen banana, home-made cashew milk, huge handful of spinach, chia seeds, flax oil and spirulina--this thing was as green as Gumby and lasted me most of the day. I just kept sipping on it (and sharing it with Dia). At some point I squezed in an apple with home-made almond butter. Then had a few handfuls of blueberries. I put baked potatoes in the oven for us for dinner and served it with an avocado for each of us and our old classic Mock Tuna Salad (this meal is seriously our comfort food!). Afterwards I made some chocolate mint pudding. (Are you also noticing the home-made theme with our food? Raw food is so ridiculously easy to make at home, you'd be crazy not to make it yourself! And I love knowing exactly what is in our food.) I kept up with lots of water as the raw food diet keeps you intimately acquainted with your thirst--such a good thing! So it's not that I am necessarily eating that much more as in calorie-intake as much as that I am just eating more often. I feel very much like a little rabbit or bird eating bits and pieces of fruits and veggies throughout the day. And the energy level? Through the roof! Sometimes I wake up hours before Dia and just putter around, up and awake (something that never happened when I lived off of goat cheese quesadillas!).

I like to think that part of my energy comes from the fact that my body doesn't have to work overly hard to digest its food because all of the natural enzymes are still intact. What really excites me is when I can take seeds or nuts and watch them grow (aka sprout)! Then I know that I am really eating living foods and there's plenty of research on how beneficial living foods are, especially sprouts.

And of course the biggest reason we keep eating this way is that it really is so simple. (I recently read a raw recipe book that touted if you know how to slice an apple, then you are a raw food chef, but if you know how to dice an apple then you're a gourmet raw food chef! Ha!)

Here are some recent buckwheat sproutlings (these took less than 24 hours):

Baby plants!

See it's cute little tail? I grew that in my cupboard!

I stay away from fancy sprouting techniques and find that my good ol' colander does the trick just perfectly. Dia liked eating them just like this--they are very soft and easy to chew.

So are you on pins and needles, anxious to sprout your own food? It's just a matter of soaking and then allowing enough time and the right environment to sprout. Make sure that you're using un-processed nuts or seeds (for example, oatmeal is the processed form of oat groats; you cannot sprout oatmeal, you can sprout oat groats), follow this chart for the right soaking times and then once adequately rinsed let them sit in the colander covered with a towel for the necessary time as listed in the chart.

Have I lost you? It's really just that easy. Want to sprout some sunflower seeds (again, not the salted roasted seeds you buy at the convenience store, but the hulled raw seeds you buy from the health store or Whole Foods or even Trader Joe's)? You would place a cup or two (the amount usually doubles so if you want four cups of sprouted seeds, start with two) of seeds in a bowl with twice the amount of water. Let it soak for about 2 hours. Then put them in the colander and rinse them very, very, very well as the water it soaked in is now full of yuckies like enzyme-inhibitors and other "dead" material, so rinse until the water runs perfectly clear. Cover the colander with a towel and place it in a dark area at room temperature (I use my cupboard). Let it sit there for about two days, rinsing every 8-12 hours to prevent mold. Before you know it, you'll see those cute little sprouts start to form and suddenly your seeds have become tiny little plants packed with nutrition. Use them in salads or wraps as the ultimate superfood addition.

With the buckwheat I sprouted aboved I simply added milk and agave and our whole family had a delicious "cereal" that would bring any bowl of Wheaties to its knees.

And my delicious, under five minutes to make all raw chocolate mint pudding:

You won't believe how easy (and rich and creamy and delicious) this is:

Chocolate Mint Pudding*

1 avocado, pitted and the insides scooped out
1/4 cup honey or to taste
1/4 cup raw cacao
1/4 cup water (I use mint water sometimes for an added minty kick)
1-2 teaspoons mint extract, again to taste

Blend and enjoy. No cooking, no dairy, no sugar. Instead wholesome honey (nature's only complete food), omega-packed avocado, antioxidant-rich chocolate and deliciousness.

*You can also make this without the mint extract and mint water for plain chocolate pudding.

You don't have to be a raw fooder to enjoy the many benefits of raw foods. Try replacing your family's dessert with this pudding next time and see what happens!

Raw Vegan Update + Healthy Choco Recipe

So we're still raw vegans over here. Well, 98% raw vegan. One night a week we eat red meat and one night we eat fish so technically we're not vegans. And surprisingly, the two nights a week of cooked protein come a lot more often than you'd think! This healthy balance that we're finding is actually kind of hard. It's one thing to be raw and it's one thing to eat the standard American diet (SAD), but combining them...well, if feels right, but it's weird.

So we start out the day with either a green smoothie (spinach, frozen bananas, fresh strawberries, rice milk or coconut water, spirulina, flax oil and dates is our favorite right now) or a vegetable juice (carrot, spinach, cucumber, celery, lemon, apple, ginger and either romaine or kale or chard depending on what's going bad first). The rest of the day is mostly a combination of snacks rather than solid, sit-down meals. We eat nuts, raisins, oranges from the tree, apples, almond butter, dehydrated onion bread, dehydrated flax crackers, avocados, and here's the best part, dessert!

Raw desserts are unlike anything you've had before. They're amazing. Let me try that again. AMAZING. Can I tempt you? Would you be interested in chocolate brownies for breakfast? Oh yeah. You read that right. Brownies. For breakfast. It's gooooooood. (I substitute honey for agave in that recipe, by the way. Agave is still somewhat controversial but honey is almost always a great sub that we know is nutritious.)

We don't make a habit of it, but when the mood strikes I actually have no hesitation serving Dia a lovely raw vegan brownie for breakfast. This girl is well-versed in her chocolates. Raw chocolates, that is. High in essential oils, the superfood raw cacao (which does not have caffeine in its raw state) and yes, even protein (from the walnuts and almonds).

And just in time for Valentine's Day, here's our most beloved recipe for raw chocolate. It's super duper easy: mix, pour and freeze. You may get carried away and eat the whole batch by yourself...but it won't give you even one little cavity (I'll tell you the story someday about how I went five years without seeing a dentist and without brushing regularly while never flossing, but since cutting out sugar had zero cavitities at my first dental appointment and did NOT even require a deep cleaning as is per usual for someone who hasn't been to the dentist in that long). Instead, it will hydrate your skin, improve your mood and dole out a delicious dose of antioxidants. Who doesn't feel good about that?!


Raw Chocolate
1 1/2 Cups Cacao butter or coconut oil (in its liquid state)
1 to 1 1/2 Cups Cacao (not cocoa, but cacao--check online or at Whole Foods) depending on taste, the more cacao the darker the chocolate flavor
1/2 Cup Agave or maple syrup or even liquid honey
1 Tbsp Vanilla extract
1 1/2 to 3 Cups Almonds or other favorite ingredient (raisins, walnuts, goji berries, etc.)

Mix ingredients in mixer adding almonds last. Spread on wax paper on cookie sheet, freeze. Score into small pieces 15 minutes after placed in freezer.

(Did you catch that? This makes an entire cookie sheet of chocolate! All for you!)

A few notes:
-Coconut oil is very, very good for you. Some people tried to get us to believe that fats from things like avocados and coconuts were bad for us, but it's not true (that is so 80's!). So don't feel bad about this "saturated" fat. It does harden when frozen which is what keeps the chocolate solid, so make sure to keep it in the freezer and only take out as much as you can eat, otherwise you will have very chocolately fingers!
-Agave is not exactly good for you. There are a lot of rave reviews out there and while I will always believe it's better than sugar, splenda, equal or any other chemical, it should be eaten in conservative quantities. Unless it's that time of the month. Then you eat this entire cookie sheet of chocolate by yourself. In one sitting. While watching Steel Magnolias (80's on the brain, I guess). With a glass of pinot.
-You can buy most of these ingredients at your local health food store, Whole Foods has everything for sure or you can always go online for better deals (although then you'll have to wait longer for the chocolate...hmmm...). Don't hesitate to buy a large container of coconut oil--it's one of the best oils to cook with (it may leave a slight coconut flavor, though, which I've never detected but just be aware).
-Since the beloved V-Day is right around the corner, feel free to pour this chocolate into heart molds or anything else cutesy. Just store it in the freezer and you're good to go.
-You can buy this chocolate in stores (well, Whole Foods or the hippie herb store Chakra). It's stored at room temperature (if I knew their secret I wouldn't be handing out my recipe for free...) and is made with love in Sedona. They are called L.O.V.E. Cups and are good, but not quite as rich and hearty as this yummy recipe.
-You will love this. I recommend keeping a sheet in your freezer at all times. Not only will it save you money, but it might just save your health (and your teeth!), too!