Fennel Grapefruit Salad.

Fennel Grapefruit Salad.

Fennel (Anise) is one of those vegetables that most people don't use often, if ever. I have been trying to incorporate new and different produce into my diet to help get a broader range of nutrition. It's so easy to eat the same old salad! Unfortunately,  I can't take full credit for this salad. I saw a similar recipe in Raw Food Real World, but realized I didn't have all of the ingredients after I got started. I just improvised a little and the end product was quite amazing!!  

My main reason for making this particular salad today, was that I had a fennel bulb sitting in the frig just dying (literally) to be used! Poor thing was starting to dry out a bit and I just didn't want it to go to waste!  If you've never eaten Fennel, I recommend adding it to your diet now and then. It actually has a nice mild flavor and a nice crunch to it. It also has great health benefits:

*High in Iron, so it's great for anemia.

*Anetol, a component of the essential oils in Fennel, is helpful for renal colic (usually caused by kidney stones). Anetol, along with Cineole, have anti bacterial and disinfectant properties that can help with diarrhea that is caused by a bacteria, or any other problems caused by bacterias. They also have expectorant properties and can help with lung problems like congestion, cough, or bronchitis.

*It's good for the GI system and can help with indigestion, gas, and constipation. Helping the bowels move helps to get toxins out of the body!

*Female friendly:) Helps regulate menstruation by regulating hormonal action in the body. Helps increase milk production in lactating mothers too.

*It's also a diuretic (increases the frequency of urination) so it helps to remove toxic from the body and decreases swelling. 

What you will need:

Fennel Bulb sliced thinly

Mixed Greens

Grapefruit or Oranges (squeeze some of the juice into dressing)

Dressing:

1-2 tablespoons Sunflower Oil

1/2 to 1 tablespoon of Lime Juice

Pinch Himalayan Salt

Pepper to taste

I'm sorry that these are not exact measurements for the dressing. I made it pretty quickly and forgot to measure. It's delicious though, and you can't really screw it up!

Can you see how this poor fella is drying out?!

Cut off both ends of the Fennel.

Slice the bulb in half.

Remove the fibrous center by cutting a v shape. I actually missed a small part in this picture and had to go back and cut it out.

It's important to cut the grapefruit so the membranes don't remain. If you leave the membranes on it makes the grapefruit tough. Cut grapefruit in half and then cut the ends off so you can stand it upright. Slice along the membranes to remove them from the fleshy part of the grapefruit. Cut away from peel. Save any juice to add to the dressing.

Mix Fennel with salad greens and toss in Grapefruit. I used prepackaged organic herbed salad greens. It's delicious with the arugula and dill in it! Cut the grapefruit into small slices and add to salad. Top with the dressing.

My Favorite Juice!

This is my absolute favorite juice! I ordered it from our local coop's juice bar and fell in love. I have recreated it at home and it's just perfect.

Sweet Greens!

5 apples
12-14 pieces of kale (any variety works)
1 bunch of parsley


What does parsley do for you? Well, here are a few big things: helps fight cancer, serves as an anti-inflammatory, high in antioxidants, strengthens the immune system, heart healthy, and it's high in vitamin K, which helps strengthen bones!

Kale, apples, and parsley.

Cleanse Soup!

Wow! What a fabulous Thanksgiving we had! We were able to spend the weekend with family in Iowa and then ended our weekend with an overnight in Galena, Illinois. It was fantastic! I have to admit that I was not able to maintain the 80-90% raw diet that I have been doing. I did bring a few items with us so I could eat some raw, but it's always hard when you're visiting people that don't eat like you. I would never want to offend anyone. We brought salad fixings, raw oatmeal, and some veggies along with our old juicer. I am glad that we got some raw things in over the weekend.

I decided that I should do a bit of a cleanse upon returning home. I came across this recipe that sounded perfect:

Cleanse Soup from the Do Eat Raw App.

2 little red bell peppers

6 green onions

3 celery stalks

1 avocado

2 tomatoes

5 leaves of kale

1/2 inch root ginger

1 cup fresh cilantro

1/2 cup fresh spinach

1 teaspoon Himalayan Salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 cup warm water

Chop all of the ingredients, place in a food processor, and blend until creamy! I didn't have any spinach so I left that out and I also only added about 1/2 cup of water. I like my soup a bit thicker, but you can add as much as you'd like. 

My husband had some work to do, so it was just the little man and I making soup together. He loves to help. Surprisingly enough, he loved this soup too! He ate about half of my bowl and kept saying, "spicy" in his sweet little voice! Trust me when I say that I was one happy mama seeing him eat this soup. So good for his little body after a weekend of "not so healthy" food! Soups and smoothies are always an excellent way to get young kids to eat leafy greens and other veggies they can't really chew!

Love that chubby little helping finger!!

He was leaning in to get a taste!

One of many bites! And yes, he's sitting on the cupboard!

It's difficult to take pictures when your 2-year old is attempting to help and eat at the same time. I attempted to take several pictures of the soup in the bowl all while he kept leaning over like he was going to lap it up like a dog. I'm sure he would've if I'd let him:) 

BTW, I really liked this!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow raw food lovers!

Raw Thanksgiving from Health in High Heels.

Raw Hummus from Raw Food Nation.

Raw Cranberry Sauce form Elana's Pantry

From Raw Diva Keely.

Raw Creamy Mushroom Soup.

Marinated Mushrooms, Mashed Root Vegetables, Brussels Sprouts, Stuffing, and Cranberry Sauce. From Sarma Melngailis.

 Raw pumpkin mousse with raw kreme and chocolate drizzle! From Pure2Raw

Raw foodies all over the world will be enjoying Thanksgiving dinner too, just a healthier and more "alive" version! I wish you all the best Thanksgiving! I will return here next week. See you then!!

Sweet Potato Pasta

Sweet Potato Pasta

Sweet potato pasta from Do Eat Raw App

Ingrediendients:
sweet potato, spiralized 1
tomatoes 2
sundried tomatoes, soaked 4
almonds, soaked 4 hours 1/4 cup 
lemon juice 1 tablespoon 
extra virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon 
fresh basil 1 bunch 
fresh chives 2 tablespoons 
fresh oregano 1 tablespoon 
chili powder 1/4 teaspoon 
celtic sea salt pinch of
black pepper dash of
water 1 tablespoon

Yield: 2 servings


Description :
Dry almonds with a paper towel and place them in a blender and blend into a flour-like consistency. Add lemon juice, olive oil, water, herbs and seasonings. Add fresh and sundried tomatoes and blend into a thick, creamy sauce. Divide sweet potato noodles into two plates and top with the sauce. 

 Yes, you see TWO bowls of the Sweet Potato Pasta here. Guess what? I made my husband attempt it for dinner. Not only did he try it, he ate half of the serving. That's pretty great for him. He didn't love it, but he tolerated it. That's all I ask!

Raw Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites

Let's start the week out with dessert, shall we? This recipe is E (my picky husband) approved!

Raw Cookie Dough from Oh She Glows.

1 3/4 cups ground raw cashews (I soaked mine for about 1 hour prior to grinding)

3/4 cup raw oats ground (I used my raw oat groats)

1/4 cup agave nectar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup coconut oil

Grind cashews and oats in food processor. Hand mix the rest of the ingredients together with the cashews and oats.

Raw Chocolate Chips

2 tablespoon coconut oil

1/2 cup carob powder

1/2 cup cocoa powder

4 tablespoons agave nectar

2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix all ingredients in medium sized bowl then roll it out on parchment paper. Place in freezer for 30 minutes. May turn it over at 15 minutes. Once frozen, cut into chips. A pastry slicer or pizza slicer would work.

Mix chips and dough and enjoy!!

You can place the remaining dough balls into the frig on parchment paper. They will get pretty hard.

I actually didn't have the carob powder (you could substitute cocoa powder instead) on hand.  Since I made these by my husband's request, I just used organic chocolate chips. Probably not quite as healthy, but a safer choice since the "picky man" was eating them for the first time. He actually enjoyed them! My guess is that he will eat them for breakfast tomorrow. Bad habit of his!

No Vodka Cream Sauce and Zucchini Pasta

Zucchini is a great raw veggie for health. The Vitamins A, C, and folate found in it act as powerful antioxidants to fight oxidative stress that can lead to many different kinds of cancer. These 2 vitamins (A and C) also help fight inflammation in the body. The folate will also help to fight homocysteine, which if levels are too high can lead to heat attack and stroke. Gentlemen, this ones for you: the phytonutrients in it can help prostate health. It's also high in manganese, which is great for the synthesis of fatty acids and cholesterol. That just a few!

The Sauce

3/4 cup sun dried tomatoes

4 medium sized tomatoes, cut in half (seed 3 of them) 

1/2 cup raw tahini

1/3 cup yellow or red onion, chopped (I used two scallions)

3 tablespoons fresh basil leaves, chopped or 1 tablespoon dried

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons tamari, wheat free

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 clove garlic

5 kalamata olives, pitted and sliced, optional

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, to taste

black pepper to taste

pinch Himalayan salt to taste

The Pasta

5-6 zucchini or carrots, spiralized into angel hair pasta or peeled like fettucini with a vegetable peeler.

Top pasta with sauce and enjoy! 

 Sorry about the quality of these pictures. I am not a photographer and sometimes they just don't turn out well at all:)

These Zucchini noodles were a bit bigger than I prefer.  My smaller  blade would've worked better.

This was a really good dish! 

Raw Night Out!

On the second Thursday of every month, The Green Owl Cafe, has a raw food menu! It's the only establishment around that serves a raw meal. Bummer! Anyway, I'm glad there's at least one. It's quite popular because things go very fast unless you call ahead to reserve your raw food. I was blessed with the presence of two lovely ladies and we had a great time! It was a wonderful start to my weekend!!

These mini quiches took 36 hours in the dehydrator. Wow! Talk about lengthy food prep!

Mini spinach and "cheese" quiches. 

 I forgot to take a picture of the main course until I was already eating it! The walnut-cranberry salad was probably my favorite. The sauce on the "meat loaf" was so salty I couldn't finish mine.

Harvest Plate with onion bread, walnut-cranberry cauliflower "rice", walnut-vegetable "meatloaf" with tomato glaze.

French onion soup.

I was less impressed this visit. Everything was good, but just too salty for my taste. Someone got carried away with the Nama Shoya I think!! Unfortunately, we didn't get to have the salad they offered, but maybe next time!!

Controversial Post!

In case you didn't remember, my husband loves documentaries. One weekend when I was out of town, he watched, "The Gerson Miracle." I titled this blog post "Controversial Post," because the Gerson miracle documents Dr. Gerson's discoveries of a cure for cancer through diet. There are many beliefs for and against the Gerson Miracle, and although this post isn't specifically about Dr. Gerson's discoveries, it's about one of his diet treatments: Juice! When undergoing the Gerson treatment, patients drink 13 glasses of fresh raw juice a day. That's not all they get, but it's just the biggest part. They get fresh raw orange juice at breakfast, 8 glasses of carrot and apple juice, and 4 green juices throughout the day. My husband decided it would be good for us to start juicing carrot and apple juice everyday, which prompted him suggesting we buy a new juicer. Yay me!! I'd been begging for a while, but thanks to Dr. Gerson I finally got an upgrade. 

Dr. Gerson said that by pressing the carrots and apples, a reaction takes place that provides the healing properties of the juice. Before we bought our new juicer, I squeezed the pulp through a mesh bag since our old juicer didn't press through any of the process. Not fun! You will have to watch the video to get details about how this juice works. I don't remember things so well and I only watched it once!

We drink this multiple times a day at our house. Our son absolutely loves to help juice and partake!

Let me just tell you that this juice is so delicious! Since we started doing it, we've added kale to the recipe so we get the benefits of greens too. I personally have my own beliefs about Gerson's theory, but regardless of whether it actually heals cancer or not, I can tell you there are no bad or ill side effects from drinking some fresh apple and carrot juice!