Barefoot Healthy Hippie

Another raw win! This recipe was so simple I just have to share it. I used another raw veggie tortilla.

To make the tortilla, take the meat of a young thai coconut and blend it up with 4 cups of veggies, spread it out on Paraflexx sheets, 1 cup per sheet and dehydrate 12-24 hours depending on where you live, humidity comes into play. Temp at or about 115 if you want it to retain enzymes, higher if it doesn't matter to you and time is important.

And the filling was a simple bruschetta recipe with spinach and seasonings.

Recipes:

Bruschetta

6-8 cherry tomatoes, diced (about a half cup for one sandwich)
pinch salt
1 tsp (or more to taste) basil, dried or fresh
pinch black pepper
1 tsp olive oil

Mix it all together and voila! If you are making bruschetta to top bread slices with you can increase the recipe, and don't mix in the oil, you drizzle the oil on the topped slices in the end. It may not seem like a big deal, but it makes a difference.

The rest of the filling was 1 cup spinach, chopped and tossed with 1/2 tsp garlic granules and 1 tsp balsamic vinegar.

I took the veggie tortilla, folded it in half and topped it off and rolled it up. It was delicious AND completely made out of veggies! Veggies have seriously never been more satisfying.

Raw Veggie "tortilla" and my assortment of fruits and veggies on it.

I found this great idea one day online while I was perusing for raw food sites and ideas, so I don't remember exactly where I found it.

Since I am trying to be healthier, lose weight, and cut down on processed foods I have given up eating breads and tortillas as often, I have been eating foods in a more whole state, but I miss having a good wrap sandwich!

I found this awesome and very good alternative, but it works best if you have a dehydrator, if you don't want it to be raw I'm sure the oven would work also.

You start with the meat of a young Thai coconut. Crack it open, put the coconut water into a smoothie and drink it! Then, scoop out the coconut meat with a spoon and put it in the blender. Next, add up to three cups of veggies, the above tortilla was made with carrots, cabbage and celery because I have an abundance of it. Blend it all up, if you have a Blendtec or VitaMix of something like that you won't need to add any water, just use the Whole Juice function and Juice It!

Then spread one cup of the mixture out on the Paraflex sheets, dehydrate for 12 or more hours on the living foods temp, about 115. If you can't dehydrate that low, it won't remain living, but it will still be a healthy and low calorie food, and a great way to eat more veggies!

Tips:

If you have too many veggies, the veggie "leather" will be brittle and crack when you try to use it. It's still good, but way harder to eat. The above recipe was made with 5 cups of veggies and it was too much. The flavor is still fine though so if you make this mistake you can still eat it.

I have also made them out of celery only, and it was really good that way too, and it's far prettier, it has a living green color, unlike the one I made with the carrots and green veggies!

Imagine making them with carrots only, celery only, broccoli only and beets only, it would be so colorful and pretty!

I am trying to figure out how to eat to be fulfilled and be my healthiest me. I am currently vegan, moving toward whole food vegan. I am also learning a lot about raw eating and considering it. I might do a blend of the two, I feel good when I am macrobiotic, and I feel good when I eat raw. I know I don't like to label myself strictly so who knows what I will end up doing. I need to find something that suits me that I can continue doing for a lifetime. Something that promotes health and helps me maintain a healthy weight without a lot of fuss. Becoming vegan was not the answer, though it's much healthier that I was before, there is something more for me.

For now I am experimenting with both and trying to find my place. It's hard. I have so many cravings that try to undo me.

Here is one of the treats I have discovered along the way so far. It's based on a recipe I found in a free online raw food cookbook, I can't find the direct link, but I found it on this page. I modified it slightly to include pumpkin which I have an abundance of currently.

Raw Harvest Doughnuts

1 c milled flax seeds (or mill them yourself)
1/2 c pumpkin processed until smooth. Or used canned, but it won't be 100% raw.
1/4 c sucanat
Spices to taste (I used Pumpkin Pie Spice)

Mix together, roll into balls, flatten slightly and add a hole.

I dusted them with cinnamon and a sprinkle of sugar for my son to make it look more appealing. You can make a quick glaze to turn them into proper looking doughnuts.

Taiten, my 6 year old, is the pickiest child I have met and he ate 3 small ones and is asking for more. I am honestly in shock, but so grateful that he likes them!

I have been going muffin crazy for a month or so, muffins are so easy and good, and they can even be healthy. I have been trying to get more nutrition in my kids and I think this is a great way to do it.



DO NOT preheat the oven.


I use a blendtec to grind wheat, you can also just use flour if you don't have a wheat grinder.


3/4 c oats

3/4 c whole wheat

3/4 c sugar or sucanat (any granulated sweetener)


Then choose between

3/4 c dehydrated carrots, 3/4 cup cream of wheat, 3/4 cup bran cereal or wheat germ.


Put it in the blendtec and blend on 9 for 50 seconds, if you use cream of wheat don't blend it, add it to the dry ingredients after blending. Empty contents into a bowl. Add to the dry ingredients:


1 1/4 Tablespoons baking powder

1/2 tsp salt


3/4 c hydrated beans (pinto and garbanzo are good)

3/4 c almond milk, juice or water

3/4 c olive oil (if you want to substitute, use at least 1/2 c oil


Then pick from at least two, or all three of the following:


1 c sweet potato, squash, pumpkin etc, cooked or steamed.

1/2 c veggies (i.e. celery, radish, hominy, water chestnuts, or anything that strikes your fancy)

1/2 c fruit (i.e. half of a banana, pear, apple, fruit cocktail or anything you want)


Blend all the ingredients on 5, or until smooth, completely smooth. The wet ingredients should be the consistency of cake batter, add water if it's too thick and blend again.


Add to the dry ingredients and mix. If you want to, add some cinnamon, pumpkin pie seasonings, ginger etc.


Let set for a minute or two to let the carrots hydrate and divide into muffin cups. These muffins don't need paper, they don't stick. These make 12 muffins and 12 mini muffins.


Put in a cold oven, set to 350 for 18-20 minutes.





Tip: If you plan to omit the oil, don't, they will stick and if you try to use muffin liners they won't come off. You can do 1/4 cup apple sauce and 1/2 cup oil, but you will need a minimum of 1/2 cup oil.


These are really cool because these are made primarily from LDS church food storage, the stuff you can get at a church cannery. Wheat, carrots, sugar, oats, beans, and you could do apple slices for your fruit, all from food storage.


My kids eat the entire batch in a half hour.

This comes from Green Smoothie Girl. I have been wanting this recipe for a long time and here it is! It's not vegan, but that's easily fixed by adding 1 1/2 whipped bananas or a little flax seed. I would probably mix in a tablespoon flax seed and add one ripe, whipped banana to the mix. Her substitution is for chia, which I haven't yet done, I'll have to try that next time! While I'm making substitutions, I'd probably reduce the oil a bit too.


Chocolate Beet Cake

3 eggs (organic, free range) or 9 Tbsp. water with 3 Tbsp. chia soaked in it
1 1/2 cups unrefined coconut sugar
3/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cup pureed, steamed beets (about 3-4 medium size)
1/4 cup baking cocoa (non-alkalized) or raw powdered chocolate
2 cups finely ground whole-wheat flour (soft white wheat is best)
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. sea salt

Puree beets (steamed about 15 min.) in a VitaMix or BlendTec till you have 1 3/4 cups. Add eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla and blend until smooth. Add chocolate and other dry ingredients. Bake in 9"x13" greased pan at 350 degrees for 30 min.

Fudge Frosting

1 cup unsweetened non-alkalized cocoa or raw powdered chocolate
2 cups coconut cream concentrate (soft, room temp or slightly warmed)
2 cups coconut sugar, blended in dry blender container until "powdered"

Cream together by hand until smooth. This frosts a 9"x13" cake and leaves some extra for a treat.

Being Norwegian, I grew up with yummy shortbread treats in the house. Full of butter and crumbly and delicious. Now that I am vegan I have been missing those flavors until I found this recipe for muffins.

It's crumbly and even has a buttery shortbread like flavor. And my kids love it too! It comes from the book, "The Complete Vegan Kitchen." I am not totally in love with this book as it uses a lot of specialty ingredients instead of real food, but some of the recipes are total gems like this one.

The book calls them "Polka Dot Muffins" and I have altered the recipe a little bit.

1 1/4 cup flour (white or wheat works)
1 cup uncooked cream of wheat
1/2 cup sucanat (I love this because it's way better than sugar, but if you don't have it sugar is fine)
1 Tbsp plus 2 tsp baking powder (Aluminum free is best!)
1/2 tsp sea salt
3/4 cup almond milk (or rice, or soy, or hemp, or any of them)
3/4 cup olive oil or other oil
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat to 375, grease or line 12 muffin tins.

Combine all the dry ingredients, then add all the wet ones.

Divide batter between the 12 cups.

The directions say bake for 35 minutes, but I have never needed more than 20. So set it for 20 minutes and check it!

I am reading a book by Alicia Silverstone called, The Kind Diet. This is a great book for anyone who is thinking about reducing meat and dairy in their diets, people who want to try being vegan and then what I am most excited about, Macrobiotic eating. In her book she calls it the Superhero diet.

(Click on her name to see her blog and click on the book title to see her book)

When I say diet I don't mean the "lose weight quick" kind of diet, but the kind where you change your lifestyle and start to just be healthier in general.

I have been flirting with the idea of eating a macrobiotic diet, but I didn't have a good source in information. This book is that. She goes into detail about the reasons why to go vegan, flirt with being vegan or vegetarian and why the macrobiotic diet is so good.

The only thing I didn't like, and I skipped most of it, was a section on inhumane treatment of animals. I know it's bad, I don't want to know why because those images will forever be in my mind.

And she has amazing recipes, it's far better than other cookbooks I have tried. There are a few specialty ingredients that you'll have to learn about like many kinds of sea veggies, umeboshi plums and ume plum vinegar etc. I even had to order some of the food online because it's not in a nearby store.

Enough of the book review! Macrobiotic eating in a nutshell:

Your meals should be 1/4 whole grains (quinoa, brown rice, etc), 1/4 protein like beans, and half veggies.

Limit nightshades which are tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant. Sweet potatoes aren't nightshades!

And then in her book she has a list of extra foods that you would benefit greatly from like Umeboshi plums, which are pickled plums. Vinegar made in the pickling process called Ume Plum vinegar. Eden foods carries these. Other foods are daikon (large white radish), miso soup, and a variety of sea vegetables. Table salt is a no-no but sea salt is ok.

Sweeteners: No sugar! You can have maple syrup and brown rice syrup, barley malt syrup and blackstrap molasses. I never had brown rice syrup before, it tastes like caramel and is super yummy.

Another note, you should eat veggies that grow in your climate, so you Washingtonians eating pineapples and mangos in the winter, that's not helping you stay warm! So, living in Georgia I should be eating oranges, pecans and beans. It's recommended that you eat as much organic as you can, but honestly, I would prefer you have a bountiful selection of healthy foods in your house rather than have 3 organic veggies and nothing else.

This is just the basics, if you want to try it please go buy her book, even if you are already doing this way of eating, her recipes make it worth the purchase price!

One thing I LOVE about this book is she tells it like it is. She has been vegan for years and years, and she has been eating macrobiotic for just a couple years. But she comes out and says that extremely rarely she'll have a bite of cheese, or on a bad day she will make a really rich vegan dessert. Which is what I do to, there is no pressure to be perfect!

I have been eating 90% macrobiotic for 3 or 4 days and so far I am less hungry, I crave less stuff, I am more satisfied by the food because it's high in texture and the flavors are so simple you really taste the food, not the spices, and I have lost a couple more pounds in just a few days. I find myself thinking about food less, and I love that I know that if I need to, I can "cheat" and then get right back on track. Oh, and I detoxed a little, my thyroid was aparently clogged with junk and macrobiotic eating started to clean it out so that is so great!

That's how simple it is.

http://belleadorn.blogspot.com/2008/08/best-salsa-recipe.html

The blog above has the best salsa recipe I have ever used. I love the stuff, so if you are thinking about canning your own and need a good recipe, this is it!

This is just a personal experience...

We went to Disney World for the last four days and in an effort to eat healthy food I packed 80% of the food I ate every day. What I packed was all vegan. However, I underestimated the amount and I had to order one meal a day. Still, I did pretty good and I felt good while we were there. All of the walking I did probably displaced the food I ordered.

On our last day we left about 6pm and everyone was starving. My husband needs a ton of food because his metabolism is insanely high so we decided to go to a popular buffet. I haven't eaten at one for the last 7 months because the likelihood of there being vegan options is slim. So I ate rice, salad, vegetables and then tried a few bites of some of the desserts even though I knew they were not vegan. I didn't actually eat a large quantity of food.

About 30 minutes after we were back on the road I felt so full of chemicals, it was terrible. I was in an "additive" induced twilight sleep the rest of the way home and I felt bad. I decided to drink lots of juice the next day to flush out some of the junk.

So this morning I did just that. I flushed out toxins and I was feeling better. And then the cravings hit. I always crave pizza when I am detoxing and then my husband comes home with some for dinner. I resisted for a half hour and then devoured a few slices of cheese pizza without taking the cheese off.

I was transported back to the way I felt in High School all the time. I ate school lunches every day and felt terrible every day, I didn't realize what was doing it back then. Since I have been vegan I didn't notice how much better I was feeling until yesterday and tonight when I went back "to the dark side" of food.

It's horrible to feel full of preservatives and chemicals. I went back into that food induced coma for a little while. 6 hours later I still feel exhausted, I am feeling very full, and I still want to eat. That's the chemicals talking, they lead to more cravings. I now want to eat yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I refuse to eat it because I want to end this cycle and feel good tomorrow!

So learn from my mistake: Make good choices and you will feel so much better!

Part two of one of my first ever blogs, about milk. In the first milk blog I discovered that if you are drinking cow milk, then 100% grass fed, organic, whole milk was the healthiest, and not lower fat varieties. For a refresher, here is that blog: The Truth about Milk.

Since then I learned my cholesterol was way too high, 251 to be exact. I examined my eating habits and decided to become vegan because at my age, I don't want to have to start taking life-long medicines quite yet (or ever...). To date I have been about 95% vegan (because there is quite a learning curve) for 6 months and my cholesterol has come down to 188 and will hopefully keep dropping.

Because of this new lifestyle I have had to learn an entire new way of cooking, eating and living. One of the things I have had to do is replace milk because I still like to eat cereal and cook things that normally require milk!

And finally, the research:

I am including research on Rice milk (Rice Dream) and Almond milk (Almond Breeze). I was going to include Hemp milk, but so far I can only find limited research. I will include a couple helpful links at the bottom of the page. These can be made at home, except Hemp milk if you live in the United States and abide by the laws. Don't get me started on laws regarding hemp! If you are interested in soy please see my two posts: Soy: The Good, and Soy: The Bad.

Rice Milk


Brown Rice itself:

Nutrients that are naturally found in brown rice include magnesium, manganese and selenium. 1 cup of brown rice, not the milk, supplies 88% of the manganese you need in a day. Manganese ensures healthy bone structure, bone metabolism, and also helps build your bones.

Rice also supplies 4% DV Iron, 10% DV Vitamin B1 (Thiamin) and 10% DV Vitamin B3 (Niacin).

Brown Rice Milk, Unsweetened:

Ingredients: filtered water, brown rice (partially milled), expeller pressed high oleic safflower oil, tricalcium phosphate, sea salt, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D2, vitamin B12.

In an 8oz (1 cup) serving there are 120 Calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 23 grams of carbohydrates with 10 of those grams being sugar and 1 gram of protein.

Some of this may be naturally occurring, but it's also fortified (added in by people) to contain 30% Daily Value (DV) Calcium, 4% DV Iron, 25% DV Vitamin D, 25% Vitamin B 12 and 15% DV Phosphorus

(Tangent: To learn more about Vitamin D, there is a good chart on this site. On the Table of Contents is says Sources of Vitamin D.)

In my research I found an interesting article on a question and answer board which you can find by Clicking Here. The man who wrote the letter was concerned that his wife had changed from cow's milk to rice milk and about the effect on his young children. Part of the reply was:

"Milk, per se is not absolutely essential in early brain development, although human milk is superior in that department. What is important is that fat, and essential fatty acids be included in their diet. In sum, Rice Dream can be okay for your sons, just so long as you are sure they are getting in other foods what they are no longer getting from milk."

Because plain, unsweetened rice milk doesn't have a robust flavor it is good in baking and won't flavor the foods you are making.

Rice is cheap so if you make rice milk yourself you will save a lot of money vs. buying it in the store. In my area it's almost the same price as almond milk, which is more expensive to make.

It is not high in nutrients naturally, and I prefer to get my nutrients from real food and not additives. If you make it yourself you won't have the additives, so there will be way less nutrients in your milk, but it will also be more natural.

It has a light "oaty" flavor, it's not super creamy

It's extremely high in carbohydrates.


Almond Milk

Almonds themselves

In a serving of 1oz, Almonds contain: 170 Calories, 15 grams of fat, 6g protein, 6g carbohydrates with 2 of them being sugar. They are high in Vitamin E at 35% DV, they supply 20% DV Magnesium and 8% DV of Calcium. They supply other nutrients as well, look here for a more detailed look.

Almond Milk (Unsweetened Almond Breeze)

Ingredients: Filtered water, Almonds, Calcium Carbonate, Tapioca Starch, Natural Vanilla flavor with other natural flavors, sea salt, potassium citrate, carrgeenan, soy lecithin, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D2 and D-alpha-tocopherol (Natural vitamin E)

I am embarrassed to say that I did not look at the ingredients list when I bought this. I was surprised to see they put soy in my almond milk!

In an 8oz serving it has 40 Calories, 3 grams of fat, 190mg (5% DV) Potassium, 2g Carbohydrates, 0g Sugar, 1g Fiber and 1g Protein.

Because it's fortified (and some of it natural) it also has 10% Vitamin A, 30% Calcium, 25% Vitamin D, 50% Vitamin E and 6% Manganese, 4% of Iron, Magnesium, and Copper, and 2% Zinc.

In doing online research I found more doctors and health food advocates recommending almond milk than other alternatives.

Almonds naturally have a little bit of calcium.

Almonds are more expensive, so making almond milk at home is more expensive, but has a higher nutrient content. This is the only type of milk I have made on my own. I prefer home made to store bought, store bought is cheaper, but has far less nutrients because they have to water it down more to keep the prices low.

It tastes kind of bland, it's creamier than other alternatives and has a slightly nutty aftertaste. When I make my own I usually add a small amount of 100% natural maple syrup to boost the flavor.

This can be made with roasted or raw almonds so it can be a completely raw food.

It may also be a healthier option for children because it has a higher "good fat" content.

Recipes:

Click here to find a recipe for rice milk and oat milk.

My recipe for Almond milk (there are a lot out there so you can find your own if you don't want to use mine.)

1c almonds
3 c water
1/4 c or less 100% pure maple syrup (optional)

Soak the almonds in the water, uncovered over night, at least 8 hours, I have soaked them up to 24 hours. (I tried doing it covered to see if it made a difference and the result was nasty slimy milk.) After 8-24 hours put the water and almonds in the blender and blend it until it's fine. I used a regular blender, this was before the blendtec so what you have will work fine. Then you strain it through a cheesecloth. You can discard the almond bits, bake them into bread, or cookies or whatever, or use them as compost. (The Hippie in me begs you to not discard them!)

What you have left will be your milk, add the syrup to taste or leave it out. You can vary the amount of almonds, you can use more or less, it all depends on your taste.




A note on Sweeteners:

I found this on an article that is pro-Almond milk and against Soy and rice milk, which you can find here. Regardless of the type of milk you get, watch out for the sweeteners.

"Some brands of soy and rice milk contain rice syrup, evaporated cane juice, or some other natural sweetener. Natural or not, most sweeteners put significant stress on your pancreas and liver. They also raise your insulin levels, which significantly increases your risk of suffering from unhealthy weight gain, high blood pressure, heart disease, premature aging, and several other negative side effects."

What I will do with this information:

I am going to make both kinds of milk in my blendtec and give them a try for flavor. I prefer Almond milk because the nutrient content is higher, but the price of it is a problem. I think I will mix them together so I can still have the benefits of the almond milk that I like, but with the the added benefit of having more quantity. And the nutrient content will still be higher than store bought because I will be "watering it down" with rice milk instead of water.

Hemp Milk Sites

Here is a site for a product and it's nutrient content. http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prmenbr=655972&prrfnbr=950025

This is an article about why Hemp milk: http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/natural-health/benefits-of-hemp-milk/

I have tried one brand of Hemp Milk from Trader Joe's. The flavor was fine, but the texture was a little strange, it was almost like they had stirred in flour, it was grainy. This may not be true for all brands though.

I had set my settings to have my comments on this blog not moderated but I must have forgotten to save it or something. All this time you have been trying to write to me and I had no idea. I hope it's fixed! So my apologies to you all!

While writing this article I came across a great reference. They have done their research and instead of publishing what I wrote, I'll direct you to their page. So if you want to know: Read it! You can find it here.

If you don't want to take the time, here are the nuts and bolts (taken from the page):

Following are some of the major problems caused by soy, as described by the Weston Price Foundation on their website:

* High levels of phytic acid in soy reduce assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking. High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children. (Like developing too early)

* Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders. In test animals soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth.

* Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.

* Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.

* Vitamin B12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body's requirement for B12.

* Soy foods increase the body's requirement for vitamin D.

* Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein.

* Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.

* Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods.

* Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys.


What will I do with all this information?

I am a new vegan, so learning about soy is important to me since it is high in protein. I have felt uneasy about soy products for some time now but never took the time to research it until now. Now that I have the facts I choose to not drink soy milk and instead drink almond milk. Almond milk contains calcium naturally and is cheaper than rice milk in my area.

I use beans for protein, I don't need tofu. I can get along fine without adding additional soy into my diet. I feel safer for myself and my family without it. So for me, the bottom line is to limit my soy intake and use it only as a condiment.