Green Smoothie

If you haven't tried a green smoothie, you should! Although they sound gross, for the most part you can't taste the greens, especially if you add bananas, and they are the fastest way to get tons of greens, and fruit into your diet. I try to drink one every morning. I notice I have a lot more energy during the day, and overall I feel cleaner. Some of my smoothies turn out better than others. One of my favorite combos is an oarnge, a banana and a half, 5 strawberries, and a 4 of cups of spinach, with a cup of almond milk. I also like to add flax, and chia seeds. SO GOOD.

My green smoothie of the day was, a cup of frozen papaya, a handful of frozen strawberries, a cup coconut water, a frozen banana and a half, and spinach. This is a great green smoothie if you are backed up. Trust me!

Tips for making a green smoothie:

1. Buy ALOT of fruit when it is on sale and in season, freeze it on cookie trays and then transfer to a zip lock bag.
2. Buy the big bags of spinach at Costco and freeze the entire bag, I just pull chunks of spinach out of the bag and they break off beautifully
3. Buy the over ripe bananas on sale, peel and freeze them on a cookie tray
4. Don't be afraid to experiment, in a class I just taught, one of the woman said her favorite green smoothie was pear, mint, and swiss chard



(this smoothie is not green because it has berries in it that change the color, which is a good trick with little kids to get them to eat it, add berries, or tell them it is a shrek smoothie)

Here is a basic template for making a green smoothie

1 bunch of leafy greens (kale, spinach, collards, etc. 50% or more)
Fruit (50%)
Bananas
Optional: flax, chia seeds, kefir, etc.)

Fill the blender with greens, add liquid (Rice Dream, Almond Milk, Water) 1/2 to 1 cup depending on consistency you want for smoothie. Add frozen fruit, bananas, anything optional, and blend until smooth. ENJOY!

Raw Almond Joys

The recipe for almond joys is taken from this book. Although a lot of the recipes in this book are time consuming, and as a mom unpractical. However, I love their desserts, they come together fast, and are SO good. I made these for a raw cooking class I just taught, and everyone loved them.

Sorry no picture of the almond joys, they weren't any leftover from my cooking class. This is one of my favorite treats, they are BETTER than almond joys and aren't full of a whole bunch of ingredients that you can't pronounce. As an added bonus coconut oil, is so good for you, it actually helps you burn fat, and gives you energy, hows that for a dessert!
I usually store these in the freezer after I make them. I also use a cookie scoop and scoop them out, or I use a little silicone muffin mold, and put the vanilla mixture in, and then put them in the freezer. While they are in the freezer I make the chocolate sauce. I then pull the almond joys out of the freezer put an almond in the center and top it with chocolate sauce. I put them back in the freezer to set up. OUT OF THIS WORLD.
I prefer the vanilla almond joys with chocolate sauce as opposed to the ones made with cocoa powder instead of almond meal. The chocolate ones are a little bit bitter, kind of like a dark almond joy.


This recipe is taken from Raw Food Real World, which has really good raw desserts
(note: the chocolate sauce is not from the book, and needs a little bit of tweaking to get it the right consistency, play around with it)

3 C shredded coconut, unsweetened
1 1/2 C cocoa powder
1 C maple syrup
1/3 C coconut oil
1 T vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

Combine all ingredients and stir well, or use a standing mixer with a paddle attachment. Scoop out the dough onto parchment paper with an ice cream scoop.

For a vanilla almond joy

3 C shredded coconut
1 1/2 C almond meal
1 C maple syrup
1/3 C coconut oil
1 T vanilla
1/2 tsp sea salt

Combine all of the ingredients and stir until combined. Scoop out the dough with a cookie scoop.

I like to drizzle a chocolate sauce over these.

Chocolate Sauce

3/4 C coconut oil
1/2 C cocoa powder
1 T vanilla
1/4 C agave

Soften the coconut oil, add the cocoa powder, vanilla, and agave mix together.

NOTE: this recipe is rough estimates, play around with the coconut oil and cocoa powder to get the right consistency.

Fresh Corn Chowder

1 C cashews
2 C water
2 T raisins
1/4 C olive oil, or flax
2-3 stalks celery
1 jalapeno, seeds removed
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp cumin
12 oz bag frozen corn(thaw first or 2 c. fresh)

Puree first three ingredients in a high powered blender until warm, then add everything else but corn to the blender, blend until smooth. Then add corn and pulse until corn is partly broken down but soup is chunky.

Raw Friday Congo Bars

Coconut Congo Bars (recipe adapted from Living Food)

Equipment Needed

High- speed blender, food processor

Fudge Base

2 cups walnuts, preferably soaked and dehydrated

2 cups pecans, preferably soaked and dehydrated

1 1/2 cups Chocolate sauce (recipe below), chilled

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/4 cup dried shredded coconut

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup coconut butter/oil, warmed to liquefy

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

In a food processor, process 2 cups of the walnuts and 2 cups of the pecans until they just begin to release their oils. Transfer to a mixing bowl. Repeat with the remaining 2 cups of walnuts and 2 cups of pecans.

Add the Chocolate Sauce, raisins, coconut, maple powder, coconut butter/oil, and salt, and mix until thoroughly combined.

Transfer the mixture to a parchment- lined sheet pan and spread into an even layer.

Place in the refrigerator to chill and set.

Vanilla Coconut topping

1 cups young coconut meat

1/4 cup agave nectar

1 tablespoons vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon sea salt

3 tablespoons coconut butter/oil, melted

2 cups dried shredded coconut

In a high- speed blender, blend the coconut meat, agave nectar, vanilla, and salt until very smooth and shiny. With the blender running, add the coconut butter/oil and continue blending until fully emulsified. Transfer the mixture to a bowl.

Stir 2 cups shredded coconut into the mixture and spread it in an even layer onto the chilled fudge base. Sprinkle the remaining 2 cups of shredded coconut over the blended layer.

Place the pan in the refrigerator to chill and set, about 30 minutes or more.

Cut into 32 bars, cutting lengthwise into 4 pieces and crosswise into 8 pieces (or cut into any size you wish). Store the finished bars in the refrigerator.

Chocolate Sauce; makes about 3 cups; (use in fudge base recipe above)

3/4 cup raw cocoa powder

3/4 cup maple syrup or agave nectar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch of sea salt

1 1/2 tablespoons coconut butter/oil, warmed to liquefy

Combine all the ingredients except the coconut butter/oil in a blender. With the blender running, add the coconut butter/oil and continue blending to emulsify.

Store the syrup in a covered container in the refrigerator. Before serving, place it in the dehydrator to warm the sauce so that it’s liquid enough to pour. If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can also place the container in a warm water bath to liquefy it. (If the room is warm, simply let the sauce sit at room temperature.)