Sesame Seed Treats - Raw Food Dessert

Sesame seeds provide nutrients that include copper, manganese, calcium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, selenium, fiber and magnesium! Magnesium supports vascular and respiratory health. It lowers blood pressure and prevents migraines. Calcium and zinc are good for bone health which prevents osteoporosis. There are many health benefits to eating sesame seeds and it makes great raw food desserts! I only used organic pre-soaked sesame seeds and organic dried dates for this recipe and it tastes great! More benefits from eating sesame seeds include healthy skin, cardiovascular health, DNA damage from radiation, healthy digestion and they also help reduce pain and swelling. Try this simple recipe out and gain health benefits!

Information sources:
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=84
http://naturalsociety.com/12-health-benefits-of-sesame-seeds-sesame-oil/

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Leafy Greens With Avocado

Broccoli is great for the kidneys and provides anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and detoxification benefits. It contains calcium, potassium, iron, zinc, magnesium and more! It is rich in vitamin C and repairs skin damage. Since our skin is known as the third kidney, having skin issues such as dark circles under our eyes and pimples, is a clear sign that we are having problems filtering our kidneys and it would be wise to detox and eat fruits and vegetables that can benefit them. Such foods include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, bell peppers, grapes, strawberries and blueberries. Enjoy!
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=9
http://www.yourkidneys.com/kidney-education/Diet-and-nutrition/15-super-foods-for-kidney-health/2924
http://healthimpactnews.com/2013/5-health-benefits-of-broccoli/
http://www.kidneyservicechina.com/diet/1469.html

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Bean Soup (Sopa De Frijoles) with Faux Sour Cream

Sunflower seeds are high in Vitamin E - a potent antioxidant. It offers protection against damage to the fats that line the outside of every cell by traveling throughout the body neutralizing free radicals. Why bother with dairy when there are plenty of healthy alternatives, such as faux sour cream made with organic pre-soaked sunflower seeds! It's a simple recipe that goes great with Bean Soup and Avocados, Bean Salads, Yam Gnocchi and more! Nuts, seeds and coconuts are amazing alternatives for those of us who grew up on dairy not knowing about the harmful effects. Some of our favorite foods are hard to give up and now we don't have to. I'll be posting more recipes with faux dairy ingredients so stay tuned.
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=57

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Homemade CornChips With 'Sour Cream' (Sunflower seeds)

Over the summer, we bought some organic corn and made dehydrated corn chips with homemade 'sour cream'. We don't have dairy in our diet so we love to discover alternatives to our favorite dairy foods, such as sour cream. The recipe uses sunflower seeds as the key ingredient for the cream. We only eat certified organic food - both our sunflower seeds and corn were organic. We also made sure to pre-soak the seeds! Buying organic corn is a healthier option because Certified Organic farmers are not allowed to plant GMO seed. You can find out more information at the Non GMO Project website. Check out the simple recipe below - enjoy!

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Living Foods - Banana Nut Muffins (dehydrated and live with enzymes)

Living foods are raw foods (vegan) that contains enzymes, vitamins, and minerals that the body needs to heal and maintain optimal health. The 2 types of enzymes in our bodies are digestive and metabolic enzymes. Digestive enzymes digest food and metabolic enzymes carry out our body's functions. The digestive and metabolic enzymes in our bodies are in competition with each other. When we eat more raw food (live with enzymes), the digestive enzyme potential in our bodies does not have to be used for digesting, and so allows the metabolic enzymes, that run our body and keeps all organs and tissues working properly, to rebuild new and healthy cells. On the other hand, when we eat cooked foods, digestive enzymes are needed to digest these dead foods, which also accumulate in the body for years and become acidic causing disease. The constant use of digestive enzymes slows down the use of metabolic enzymes which in turn, slow down our healing/regenerating process that prevents us from maintaining optimal health.
We love our dehydrator and have recently come up with a recipe for 'Living Banana Nut Muffins'. All the ingredients used contain enzymes and have not been cooked. Our nuts were sprouted and we used fresh shredded coconut along with dried dates for added sweetness. We also topped them off with some raw cacao nibs. We absolutely loved the results and felt they tasted just like baked banana nut muffins! See recipe below.

Below: Before and after photos of our living muffins made in our dehydrator.

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Tomato Hors d'oeuvres

Tomatoes are fruit vegetables that are high in antioxidants. They have an excellent amount of vitamin C and beta carotene. Tomatoes are best eaten raw because if they are cooked, they become too acidic. Although they are acidic raw, they have an alkalizing effect once consumed. Since they have the ability to alkalize the blood, they are recommended for keeping a balanced PH level. Eating organic tomatoes are healthier than non-organic since the lack of pesticides allow them to strengthen their own natural defenses - increasing antioxidant levels. On average, fruits and vegetables that are grown organically contain higher levels of vitamins and minerals! For our latest (detox) recipe, we made some Tomato Hors d'oeuvres topped with fresh homemade pesto and alfalfa sprouts. You can try out a spicy version of this recipe as well. Enjoy!

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'Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth'

quote by: Buddha

All civilizations have depended on the sky to guide them in growing crops. Just as old astrologists studied the position of the moon, sun and stars, an elder of the Dogon tribe (from West Africa) climbs to a place amongst the rocks to observe the sun as it moves along a heel stone, in order to determine the exact time that the people must sow their seeds. Since their region is dry (dessert), planting must begin at the precise moment during the short rainy season. This will ensure their survival. 

Elsewhere, in order for crops to grow successfully, farmers/gardeners use a Farmer's Almanac to assist them in sowing seeds. An almanac contains yearly information that includes weather forecasts, planting dates and times of the sunrise, sunset, eclipses, the moon and full tides. It is believed that the earliest published Almanac was in 1457. Some early Farmer's Almanacs were written by Benjamin Banneker (1792-1797) who calculated the astronomical information himself and who also included information on medical treatments. 

Modern 'civilization' does not allow for us to observe the skies as our ancestors once did, with an exception to those who continue to live simply and with a strong connection to the earth. Farmer's Almanac.com provides information (both for U.S and Canada) on weather, gardening, preserving the earth and more!

For more information on this years Spring Planting Dates for Toronto, click here.

Worm Moon Image taken from Phillip's Natural World 3.0

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Orange And Mango Spring Salad

Today marks the first day of Spring! In celebration of this new season we created a recipe for Orange And Mango Salad with Hemp seeds. Organic oranges contain over 170 different phytonutrients. The nutrients and high amount of anti-oxidants found in oranges help protect from damages by free radicals and stimulates white blood cells (to fight infection) and digestive juices (to relieve constipation). Hemp seeds contain protein that is easily digestible and contain Omega-3 fatty acids which are considered essential for human health. Enjoy the recipe below!

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Zucchini 'Spaghetti' With Kale Pesto Sauce

The health benefits of Kale include vitamin K. Vitamin K is known for it's role as one of the key nutrients in maintaining healthy balanced blood clotting. Kale is also high in vitamin A and vitamin C. Our latest pesto sauce recipe includes kale, green peppers and green onions. We used it to top off our raw zucchini 'pasta'. Zucchini provides an excellent source of antioxidants that protect our cells from damage. Making your own zucchini 'spaghetti' with pesto recipe is easy!  Give it a try for lunch or dinner - enjoy!

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Ice Cream 'Cannoli' - Raw

For our latest raw dessert, we made Ice Cream 'Cannoli' topped with a 'caramel' sauce made of raw organic honey. Raw honey predigests food! It has a significant amount of plant amyalse which does not come from the bee, but from the pollen of the flowers. You can predigest food when you eat raw honey, and the more you chew, the more digestion takes place. Check out our recipe below for the 'cannoli' shell and assembly process. Enjoy!

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Double Cacao Dipped Mini 'Donuts' - Raw

Some common ingredients in raw desserts are nuts, pitted dates, seeds, coconut and raw cacao. Raw cacao is very nutritious and considered a 'superfood'. It contains unique properties and minerals that include high levels of magnesium.
For our new raw dessert recipe, we created Double Cacao Dipped Mini Donuts! We were limited by the ingredients we had available, so feel free to use other ingredients you may have such as shredded coconut. The ingredients in this recipe can also be used to prepare raw brownies or truffles as well. The process is easy and effective for creating mini donuts that look like the real thing! Give it a try. Enjoy!

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Homemade Honey Nut Muesli

We are incorporating raw foods daily, to take in digestive food enzymes that aid in digestion and overall health. Enzymes are necessary in our diet! Homemade Muesli is an excellent raw food breakfast idea, as long as you are not on a grain free diet. A couple days ago, we prepared Apple Cinnamon Muesli by oven dehydrating our ingredients for 2-3 hours (you can use a regular dehydrator). Our oats and nuts were pre-soaked for 24 hours prior to dehydrating. Today, we had some homemade Honey Nut Muesli- very tasty and healthy! Check out our simple recipe below.

Honey contains a variety of vitamins and minerals including Vitamin C, calcium and iron. Enjoy!

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Spicy Kale and Mushroom 'Cannelloni'

For our brunch, we prepared a dairy free and  grain free 'cannelloni', made with free range happy chicken eggs instead of pasta. Cannelloni is another one of our favorite pastas. This new recipe is very tasty with a touch of spice! The egg cannelloni is stuffed with fried onions, garlic, oyster mushrooms, raw pumpkin seeds and raw kale*. We topped it off with a spicy raw tomato sauce. Raw foods contain enzymes needed for a healthy immune system! See recipe below. Enjoy!

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Simple Date Tarts - Nut free

Dates are naturally sweetened and healthy for you. They contain nutrients such as calcium, fiber, amino acids, sulfur, iron, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, copper and potassium. They are also a good source of dietary fiber and are rich in vitamins A1, B1, B2, B3 and B5. We love the flavor in butter tarts and noticed that our dried dates tasted similar to butter and sugar, so we decided to make some simple date tarts that consist of only 4 ingredients! The date filling is raw and nut free so it is a good choice for those who presently have nut allergies. The tart crust is gluten free and grain free so they are very healthy! See recipe below. Enjoy!

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Zucchini 'Fettuccine Alfredo'

One of our favorite pasta dishes is Fettuccine Alfredo. We had some coconut cream available so we decided to create a dairy-free version of the Alfredo sauce and incorporate it with some zucchini pasta. Although it didn't taste like the Alfredo sauce we were used to, because coconut cream is sweeter as opposed to Parmesan being saltier, the results were still very tasty! It's worth trying out! (See recipe below.) The health benefits of coconuts include fiber, vitamins and minerals. Coconuts are used in modern medicine to kill viruses that cause influenza, herpes, measles, hepatitis C, SARS, AIDS, and to kill bacteria that cause ulcers, throat infections, urinary tract infections, gum disease and cavities, pneumonia and other diseases! Enjoy good healthy eating!

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Beet and Kale Cauliflower Crust Pizza

The super-nutrients found in kale include glucosinolates, which help to activate detoxifying enzymes in the liver that neutralize carcinogenic substances. It is an excellent source of vitamin K - a key nutrient for regulating the body's inflammatory process. Since we are incorporating raw foods daily, for our latest dairy free pizza recipe, we baked a cauliflower crust topped with raw kale and red onions that were oven dehydrated (at 130°) for 30 minutes. Oven dehydrating at a low temperature of 130° removes the water content, but keeps the enzymes, vitamins and minerals in place. The pizza crust and other ingredients were baked at a regular temperature (of 325°F) for about 15 minutes in total. We also had a side of raw avocado soup. See pizza recipe below. Enjoy!

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Zucchini 'Lasagna' with Eggplant and Shiitake Mushrooms

Our latest zucchini pasta recipe that we created was inspired by Citron Limette. Our recipe included eggplant and shiitake mushrooms with a homemade salsa sauce (see recipe below). It required a little more preparation than our Zucchini 'Ravioli', but it is worth trying out if you want to incorporate more raw foods, or are on a grain free diet. Zucchini is a great alternative to pasta and is high in vitamin C, potassium, magnesium and manganese. Give it a try!

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Cauliflower Rice With Lentils and Shiitake Mushrooms

Cauliflower has excellent health benefits and is often used for detoxification because of the antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nutrients it provides! Since we're adding more raw foods to our diet, but enjoy eating rice, we created a cauliflower rice dish to test out as an alternative to rice. We want a wide range of options if we go 100% raw so we are going to be putting everything to the test. We added a small amount of cooked French green lentils and lightly fried our shiitake mushrooms, onions and garlic with some coconut oil. We waited for the lentils and mushrooms to cool down before adding them to our raw dish. We also had a side of our delicious Avocado Soup so we could incorporate more raw food to our dinner. And for dessert, a yummy homemade ice cream sundae topped with pumpkin seeds. It was a tasty and energizing meal! We are definitely going to be making cauliflower rice again and possibly replacing our brown rice with it. See 'rice' recipe below. Enjoy!

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Homemade Fudgesicles With Pumpkin Seeds

The best raw dessert we have tried so far is homemade ice cream. It's organic, dairy-free and sugar free! It contains enzymes, nutrients and antioxidants! There is a variety of flavors that we choose from including strawberry, vanilla, cacao, and green tea. Over the weekend, we purchased some IKEA Popsicle Makers for only $1.99! We used our ice cream recipe and tried it out on the popsicle makers. The result was tasty fudgesicles! See recipe below. We also made some fresh cacao syrup that we dipped our fudgesicles in, once they were frozen. And then we topped it all of with chopped organic pumpkin seeds... yummy!

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Yellow Zucchini 'Ravioli'

Zucchini pasta is very tasty, energizing and easy to prepare! After trying out zucchini pasta noodles, and loving it, we decided to try it a different way and make them into 'raviolis'. There were different recipes online but they were all grilled in order to keep the zucchini rolls closed to hold the 'stuffing'. We didn't want to cook them (or it would kill the enzymes) so we just used toothpicks to close them shut and we stuffed them with lightly fried oyster mushrooms, leeks, shallots, red onion and garlic! We topped them off with our homemade salsa/tomato sauce. Check out the recipe below for the Yellow Zucchini Ravioli assembly process. Our salsa tomato sauce recipe can be found here.

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