Zucchini Pasta (with Hemp Pesto or Tomato Basil)

Simple, light, yummy & raw. Some of my favorite things!

Regular pasta is a heavy dish that is acidic to the body. Using zucchini instead of pasta noodles is a great way to get the same hearty flavor with much added health benefits!

First, peel & grate a zucchini. Then pick a sauce, whip it up & enjoy! The sauce ideas are endless. Here are two of my favs!

Vegan Hemp Pesto

Hemp seed oil is sooo tasty and good for you! It has a high amount of beneficial essential fatty acids, up to 80%, the highest amount of any other plant. The 3:1 ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids is important in preventing heart disease, promoting heart health, and alleviating acne, psoriasis and ezcema. It is also good for building strong hair, nails, and skin, as well as helping your body to fight and ward off degenerative diseases including cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

In addition, hemp is the only plant containing Vitamin D, which is necessary for calcium absorption. This is especially helpful to those on a vegan diet.

Hemp seed oil is also a good source of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) which makes the oil a rival to flax seed oil and Evening Primrose Oil.

Hemp seed oil also contains ingredients that give it unique anti-inflammatory properties that are not often found in other oils. This, added to its antioxidant properties, allows hemp oil to detoxify and clean your skin, as well as evening out your skin tone.

Ingredients:
1 cup walnuts
1 1/2 cups basil
1/8 cup olive oil
1/4 cup hemp seed oil
4 medium cloves of garlic
Pink Himalayan sea salt to taste

Put all ingredients in food processor & blend!

I added a few tomatoes on top for flavor. :D


Basic Tomato & Basil Sauce

Ingredients:
4-6 tomatoes
1/2 cup basil
Add onion, garlic, and salt to taste

Put into food processor and blend until desired consistency.

Flackers & Guacamole

Sometimes you crave something salty & crunchy and it's hard to find a raw treat that meets those requirements. I made this recipe for a potluck and everyone loved them! I love it when I can prove to others that eating raw food doesn't mean that you won't be eating tasty treats.


Flackers

Ingredients:
2 cups of flax seeds
2 cups of water
Pink Himalayan sea salt
1 tbsp of minced herbs (optional)

What to do:
1. Cover the flax seeds with water and soak for at least 1.5 hours. You want the mixture to be gooey, but not runny and not too thick.
2. Stir in herbs/salt if you choose.
3. Spread the mixture about 1/8 inch thick on parchment paper in the dehydrator.
4. Dehydrate at 110 degrees F for about 4-6 hours.

Guacamole

Ingredients:
1 whole avocado
1 clove of garlic
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
Pink Himalayan sea salt as desired
1/4 cup onions (optional)
1/4 cup tomatoes (optional)

What to do:

Pop everything into a food processor and whiz it up! If the mix is a little too thick, just add a little bit more olive oil to the processor to loosen the mixture. You can also do it by hand if you don't have a processor.


I put a tomato on top to garnish, but you can use anything you want!


A note for those with IC...
I have always been afraid of tomatoes, thinking they are not IC friendly, but I decided to give them a try. The ICN Diet List has homegrown tomatoes on the "Try it" section. The tomatoes I used I got from the farmers market, so I know they are organic and local, which is considered to be homegrown. I know that store-bought tomatoes are more acidic than homegrown ones, I think it has something to do with the time they are picked, if they are ripe when picked or not. Either way, I tried them, and I'm glad I did, because they were delicious and not painful! It's a good recipe without them, too, so don't push yourself if you don't think you can tolerate them.

Cabbage Veggie Wraps with Coconut Garlic Nut Pate

There are so many great recipes out there for veggie wraps! Some use collard greens, cabbage, or rainbow chard as the wrap, then just throw in a variety of veggies, and pick a delicious sauce and you have yourself a great, raw wrap. The sauce ideas are endless, but here's one of my favs.

Ingredients:
1 Thai coconut (meat & water)
2 cups of soaked almonds
4 cloves of garlic
4-5 pitted dates
Small piece of ginger
A couple shakes of dill

What you do: Put all ingredients inside of a food processor and blend until smooth. That's it!

Put some sauce on a piece of cabbage, add your choice of veggies and it's a wrap! Or just use it as a veggie dip or salad dressing.

MMMMMMMMM good.

Banana Nut Rawies

This can be a granola bar, raw cookie (rawie!), or cereal, depending on how long you dehydrate it and how you shape them! So good, so raw.

Ingredients:
4 bananas
1 1/4 cup pitted dates
1.5 cups soaked (& dried) almonds, roughly chopped
1.5 cups dried, shaved coconut meat
1/8 cup flax meal

What to do:
1. Blend bananas, dates, and flax meal in food processor until smooth.
2. Stir in nuts and coconut.
3. Evenly spread mixture on dehydrator tray lined with teflex sheets, wax or parchment paper. Make it into the size and shape you prefer.
4. Dehydrate at 105 degrees. After 6 hours, they become warm, chewy granola bars! You can leave them in for longer (up to 20 hours) to make them crispier is you prefer.
5. Store in fridge or freezer for up to 4 months.

YUM!

Avocado & Cucumber Soup

Delicious & creamy raw soup.

1 avocado
1 cucumber, sliced & seeded
1 garlic clove
Dash of dill
Pinch of Pink Himalayan sea salt
Lime juice

Put all ingredients into food processor & enjoy! Sweet & simple.
If you're craving a hot soup, you can boil 1/4 cup water than add that to the mix.

Raw Chocolate Truffles

OMG, you guys. This is my favorite raw food desert I've made (so far)! It's so yummy, all raw, and so totally good for you.


Ingredients:

1 cup raw cacao powder
2 cups raw shredded coconut
8 large dates (pitted)
1/3 cup raw coconut oil
1/3 cup filtered water
1 tsp cinnamon
A touch of vanilla extract
A dash of pink Himalayan sea salt

Topping ideas (to roll the truffles in):

raw cacao powder
raw cacao nibs
vegan chocolate chips
pistachio bits
goji berries
shredded coconut

What to do...

1. Mix the dates & water in food processor until it forms a paste.
2. Mix in cacao powder.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the shredded coconut with the coconut oil.
4. Add the two pastes together in the bowl, then add cinnamon, vanilla, and sea salt. Mix ingredients until it forms a thick batter.
5. Form into small balls and roll in the toppings. Toppings are not necessary, but just add a fun touch and great flavor.
6. Place on wax paper in fridge for 15 min. Enjoy!

If you want more of a sweetener than dates, you could add honey, agave nectar, or stevia.

I couldn't believe how much these tasted like pure dark chocolate treats. Everyone loved them and were very surprised to hear the ingredients & that they were raw and healthy!

Raw cacao is different than it's sad, processed brother, cocoa. Cacao is a superfood because it is extremely high in antioxidants and flavonoids. It turns out that all the bad things commonly attributed to non-raw chocolate bars, such as cavities, weight gain and diabetes, are actually caused by the dairy, sugar and others fillers added to the chocolate. Health benefits of chocolate when it is in the form of raw cacao beans, butter, nibs and/or the powder include; weight loss (because of its high chromium and coumarin content), prevention of cavities (theobromine actually kills streptococci mutans one of the strains of bacteria that cause tooth decay) and regulation of blood sugar which is beneficial for diabetes (chromium can naturally regulate blood sugar). Also, raw cacao benefits the heart and the entire cardiovascular system as a whole.

Cacao is the highest whole food source of magnesium, which also happens to be the most deficient mineral in the diet of modern cultures. Magnesium relaxes muscles, improves peristalsis in the bowels and relaxes the heart and cardiovascular system. The dark chocolate antioxidants have been clinically proven to literally dissolve plaque built up in the arteries, which helps in reversing heart disease and causes naturally lower blood pressure. Also, various other vitamins and minerals in raw cacao benefits the cardiovascular system.

And I love that this recipe uses coconut oil! Out of all the oils out there, coconut is one of the healthiest. The health benefits of coconut oil are immense and it adds great flavor to desserts!

Definitely going to make this one again for the holidays. :)

Fruit Salad

This is fast & easy. Chop up whatever fruits you have on hand, add some rasins, goji berries, walnuts, honey, cinnamon, etc. and you have a fantastic, healthy RAW desert right there. Get creative and make it your own. Enjoy!

Apple Cinnamon GRAWnola

This is awesome because it satisfies that crunchy, sweet craving, but is still completely RAW and healthy for you!

Binding ingredients:
1 cored apple, chopped 1 ½ cups date paste (dates soaked in water for 1-2 hours, then pureed with ¼ cup of water until smooth)
1-2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons sea salt

Raw seeds/nuts/fruits:
½-1 cup sunflower seeds
2 ½ cups pecans
2 cups walnuts
2 cups almonds
1 cup pumpkin seeds
½ cup chia seeds
½ cup flax meal
1 cup raisins
½-1 cup organic dried unsweetened coconut

These ingredients are just suggestions. You can add or subtract whatever you want, just make sure to have something sticky (ie date paste) in the binding ingredient list you use.

What to do...
1. Grind the binding ingredients and ¼ cup of the sunflower seeds in a food processor until smooth. Place in a large mixing bowl.
2. Put the nuts and seeds into a food processor (you’ll probably need to do it in 2 batches). Chop coarsely, using a few quick pulses. Place this mixture into the large bowl with the apple/date (binding) mixture, add the dried fruit, and mix the rest by hand.
3. Spread granola on a Teflex sheet (parchment paper will work too).
4. Dehydrate at 105-110 degrees Fahrenheit for about 5 hours or until the granola is crunchy.

Serve with fresh fruit and almond milk or coconut milk. YUM! Or just eat it on it's own.
Store in an airtight place and keep refrigerated for freshness.

Purple & Green Dream Juice

I just threw this together from what I had in the fridge and it turned out great!

Ingredients
3 leaves of kale
4 leaves of purple cabbage
3 stalks of celery
1 cucumber
1 orange
~30 concord grapes

Put through juicer and enjoy!

Remember: Try to eat (or drink!) all the colors of the rainbow, EVERY DAY!


peace, love, & light.
melissaintheraw.

IC Green Smoothie!

The green smoothie changed my life. There are tons of different great recipes out there! This is the one I started out with when I first started my IC healing journey. With IC, our bladders and bodies are more sensitive, so our food choices are pretty limited. This was my daily breakfast when I started my raw food plan!

Ingredients:
1 Thai coconut (use water & meat)
1 pear (or apple if you can tolerate it)
1 banana
3 stalks of celery
1-2 cups of spinach
1 tbsp flax meal
1 tbsp spirulina powder
ice if desired

Instructions:
1. Put all ingredients inside blender and blend! May need to add in some water if there is problems blending.

Suggestions:

If you find you can't tolerate the apple and/or banana, leave them out. You can use stevia as a sweetener if desired.

Coconut: It's hard to always have a fresh coconut, and even harder to open them! Don't be intimidated. These tasty treats have electrolytes and alkalizing properties, as well as many other health benefits. So it's worth it! I've made friends with the produce guy at Whole Foods and he always opens them for me, then wraps it back up. The downside to this is I have to use it soon, but that's usually not a problem, since I have smoothies every day. You can also search Youtube for how to open a coconut. Sometimes when coconuts are too expensive or I am too busy, I use coconut water or make my own almond milk. Be careful when buying things in cartons because they are not raw and have added ingredients that can hurt IC.

Seeds: I use flax for the Omegas and fiber, but feel free to get creative and try other ideas!

Spirulina is a great superfood that helps alkalize your body! It also is a good source of protein and vitamin B12. It's also been proven to help IC. But if you don't want to use it, find another green super food powder that you want to try.

Healthy breakfast: This is a great, healthy way to start your day! Ever since I started drinking 1 green smoothie a day, I've experienced many positive health benefits, including extreme IC pain reduction. :)