Raw Vegan Recipes

80/10/10 Recipe: Mellow Yellow Summer Smoothie With Mangoes, Peaches, Oranges and Banana

June 27, 2012 by Veronica Grace 11 Comments

I don’t know about where you are, but summer is really just starting where I live outside of Vancouver, Canada. The whole Pacific Northwest area is just so darn RAINY we only get a day or two of sun or mixed sun and clouds each week! It’s crazy. May was such a beautiful month, we had almost 2 weeks of sunshine and as soon as June hit it was like June-Gloom… Now that it’s almost July I’m starting to feel that panic set in that summer is fading away before it even really started…

Do you ever get that feeling? You wait all year for summer and as soon as you’re in the midst of it, you’re already sad that it’s almost over and can’t believe you have to wait so long for it again. Maybe not if you’re in the southern states, or Australia, but it’s sure like that here for me.

On the Eastern side of Canada and the US it’s the total opposite of our weather. They’re getting beautiful warm humid weather and lots of sunshine.

My garden is getting jealous… Already some of the plants have called it quits and shrivelled up and died. First to go was the delicate Thai Basil. They REALLY hate getting too much water and want lots of full sun. They gave up… The dill I transplanted is not happy. He’s turning yellow and shrivelling up. It’s very hard for me to grow dill here it seems, it gets to a certain height and just says “No way, I can’t do it anymore”. Shame, I really really love using dill! It’s awesome in salads, raw dressings, and raw blended soups or savory stews. I have one plant that is from last year and is still alive, but after picking from it the other day I don’t know how much more it will give me before it goes to seed. My cucumber and squash plants are a little unhappy, they were flowering and reaching for the trellis but the leaves are getting that white yellow spotty look from too much rain.

The good thing is I planted a huge variety, so it will help with the disappointment if certain plants completely bite the dust this year. It’s always a challenge growing in a climate that is so rainy and cloudy and you only get patches of sun or a few hours of full sun every few days.

But something that cheers me up when it’s so gloomy is to have a delicious summer fruit smoothie for breakfast. In particular one based on mangoes. I call blended mangoes liquid sunshine because they taste amazing (when ripe of course) and you get so much energy after drinking a glass of them. Even if you were feeling down and bummed out there’s no way you wouldn’t feel at least a little better after having a mango based smoothie. They’re that amazing!

So check out my Mellow Yellow Summer Smoothie down below, I know you’re going to love it!

Fat Free Raw Vegan Mellow Yellow Summer Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

juice from 3 navel or valencia oranges
2 ripe ataulfo/champagne or honey mangoes (flesh only)
1 ripe banana
1 ripe peach or 3/4 cup frozen peach slices

Directions:

Use a hand juicer or citrus juicer to juice the oranges. Place ingredients into blender or Vitamix and blend until smooth. Add a little bit of water if desired for a thinner consistency. Garnish with a slice of orange if desired!

What’s your favourite mango based summer smoothie? Have you ever tried ataulfo mangoes before?

80/10/10 Recipe: Purple People Eater Green Smoothie with Chard and Blackberries

June 19, 2012 by Veronica Grace 9 Comments

So maybe this smoothie is not a “people eater” per se, but it is purple and it is delicious so I think you need to make this green (err purple) smoothie recipe so you can become a purple smoothie eater! “Purple People Eater” is just a silly song from the late 1950’s about a monster that comes to earth because he wants to be in a rock band. He happens to have only one eye and one horn as and he apparently only eats purple people, so most of us should be ok… I said should… if you drink a lot of this smoothie there’s no guarantee that might not turn purple! Just sayin. I warned ya…

I like to keep my green smoothie recipes fairly simple, so bananas are a very common choice as a base flavour and natural sweetener for my green smoothies. Next I like to throw in some ripe mangoes if I have it (or frozen if I don’t). Make sure your mangoes are soft to the touch like a ripe avocado and the skin will be slightly wrinkled. Ripe mangoes should smell fragrant and have a dark yellow or yellow/orange flesh on the inside. If your mango is still firm, not very fragrant and pale yellow and too tart when you cut it open, it’s not ripe enough yet. It’s not a bad mango, you just didn’t let it ripen and let those enzymes do their job and create the natural sugars that make fruit sweet when ripe.

Baby spinach is a really easy addition to any green smoothie recipe, and if you don’t have any other greens to work with I suggest to start with that or even some leaf lettuce. Swiss chard is a great green to use in smoothies as it’s generally fairly available at the grocery store or farmers markets. If not you can easily grow it at home. It comes in green, red and rainbow coloured stems, any kind will do for a green smoothie. You can either just use the green portion or blend the stalk and the green. The stalks are actually really tasty steamed if you want to save them as well or add them to a fresh stir fry.

One of the best parts about a purple green smoothie is that it looks fairly similar to store made smoothies and no one will know you put some greens in there. So it’s good to give to children or your spouse and they won’t be as likely to turn their nose up to it on account of it being green and looking like a swap smoothie. But you never know, green smoothies are fairly popular, even trendy nowadays and many people who aren’t even into raw or vegan foods are making green smoothies and throwing things like green vegetables into their blenders assuming that will do the trick…

By the way I don’t recommend you throw anything like a bunch of broccoli or really strong cruciferous vegetables (Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower etc) into your green (fruit) smoothie either. They contain sulfur and can be pretty strong and untasty in combination with sweet fruits. Save those veggies for blended soups or raw vegan blended salads or savory smoothies and mask the taste of them with a combo of tomatoes, cucumbers and mangoes (or dates) and this will mellow out the flavour.

Greens like Swiss chard and kale can still get by in smoothies without being too overpowering or strong if you use them in moderation. I would start with 1 leaf (stalk removed) if you’re new to green smoothies and blend it with the rest of the fruit and taste test it before deciding to experiment with more. Even myself I don’t really like more than 2 large leaves of chard or kale in my smoothies as they can add a stronger flavour and some grittiness to it. Baby spinach can always be added as it barely affects the taste of a green smoothie, so that’s why I’m throwing it into the mix as well.

Purple People Eater Green Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

2 ripe spotted bananas
1 ripe mango (flesh only) (about 1 cup)
1 handful of baby spinach
1-2 leaves of Swiss chard (stalks optional)
3/4 cup fresh or frozen blackberries
1/2 cup of water (or more to blend as desired)

Directions:

Place ingredients into Vitamix or blender in order above using the tamper if necessary and blend. If you have a low powered blender you may want to blend the bananas and water first, then add the mango and blend, then add the spinach and blend and so on so that each item is incorporated in the smoothie. Add more water if necessary for your type of blender.

Additional Tips:

To make this smoothie nice and cool you can use frozen blackberries and frozen mango or substitute one fresh banana for a ripe frozen one.

Have you ever used Swiss chard in a smoothie? What combination did you use?

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Pineapple Mango Delight Smoothie

May 23, 2012 by Veronica Grace 12 Comments

This delicious breakfast smoothie kind of reminds me of a Pina Colada but gets it’s creaminess from bananas instead of coconut. I was going to throw some other fruit into it, but once I tasted it, it was too delicious to mess around with so I left it with just 3 simple ingredients and it’s definitely one of my favourite smoothies.

The best smoothies are made with fresh ripe produce, so I always make sure to select the best sweetest pineapples, (See my video on How To Select and Cut A Pineapple) and let my mangoes fully ripen on the counter until they are soft and wrinkly (this is when they are at their peak flavour and sweetness).

My favourite mangoes are ataulfo mangoes and right now they are in season until June or so. Generally April-June is prime ataulfo mango season so I always pop down to China Town and get a case or two as these are my favourite. They’re stringless, creamy and the best. You can see part of one in my picture above, it’s on the right. Ataulfo mangoes also have some cousins called the champagne mango, Filipino mango, Thai mango or Indian/Pakistani honey mango. So wherever you are keep an eye out for these yellow skinned (orange inside) mangoes they have a much better flavour than the red and green Tommy mangoes and frozen mango at the store.

We’re actually moving today to a new place today changing from an apartment to a bigger house (in the suburbs), so I wanted to post a recipe on the blog before I get really busy this weekend. I still have some packing to do! So I should get on that…. (who likes packing? I think it’s one of my least favourite things…)

On to the recipe!

Raw Vegan Pineapple Mango Delight Smoothie (Fat Free Pina Without The Colada!)

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1 ripe ataulfo mango
1 1/2 cups fresh pineapple (or frozen if needed)
1 medium ripe banana
handful of ice cubes (or none if using frozen fruit)
1/3-1/2 cup water to blend

Directions:

Place ingredients into blender in the order listed and blend until smooth. Serve with a pineapple wedge if desired and enjoy!

Wow that was easy wasn’t it! For variations you could also scoop in some fresh young coconut meat, or add some coconut water instead of the water for a really raw Pina Colada!

Sinless Fat Free Vegan Chocolate Banana Shake Recipe

May 10, 2012 by Veronica Grace 12 Comments

I don’t usually eat a lot of chocolate or use cocoa or cacao in my smoothie recipes, but I’m sure some of you out there have cravings for a chocolate milk shake or smoothie once in a while and I thought I’d make a little treat for us!

There are few things more delicious than the combination of bananas with chocolate and even without the traditional ice-cream, this shake is still delicious. The key to making it creamy and naturally sweet is to use fully ripe (lots and lots of spots) bananas. To make this recipe truly fat free I just use a little water, but you can use some soy or almond milk if desired instead.

Although the bananas in my smoothie picture do have lots of spots on them, I still prefer mine slightly riper (by a day or two with even more spots) and no green at all on the stems of my bananas for the absolute best tasting smoothie recipes. The bananas are still firm (not mushy or over ripe) and are even sweeter this way and then you don’t need to add any additional sweetener. The best smoothies always start with quality fully ripe fruit, so it’s best to taste test things before tossing them in a smoothie if you are unsure if they are sweet or tart.

Fat Free Vegan Chocolate Banana Shake

Serves 1

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas (see my post on ripe bananas)
1/4 cup water or as needed for your type/size of blender
1 tbsp cocoa powder
Handful of ice cubes (or sub 1 fresh banana for a frozen banana)

Directions:

Place ingredients into Vitamix or Blendtec or other blender in the order listed aboove and blend until smooth. If your bananas aren’t quite sweet enough add a teaspoon or two of liquid sweetener of choice and blend again.

Serve in your favourite smoothie cup or in a glass with a glass straw!

Variations:

If you’d prefer raw cacao powder you can use that instead. I find I don’t like it as much as cocoa personally and I find it less stimulating. You can also substitute carob powder if you’re looking for a caffeine/chocolate-free option.

To get some greens in this recipe you can throw in a handful or two of fresh spinach.

What’s your favourite chocolate smoothie or shake recipe?

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Berrylicious (Banana Mango Berry) Smoothie Recipe

May 3, 2012 by Veronica Grace 9 Comments

Happy Friday everyone!

I’m back home in Vancouver after spending 2 weeks in Oahu and Kauai. Hawaii is still one of my top favourite places in the world. Probably because as an island state it has many more amenities than most smaller tropical islands I’ve been to (and loads of fresh fruit and veggie friendly restaurant options).

It’s rather chilly and rainy here right now as we’re getting a late start on warm sunny weather, but it’s the perfect time to start eating more fresh fruits and vegetables now that summer is approaching.

Smoothies are something that there is no standard recipe for, and generally what you get when you purchase one is a lot of added sugar, processed juice or milk (for the base) an unripe banana and a little sour frozen fruit. Generally I don’t like smoothies at smoothie bars, unless they are from places that don’t use processed juice or added sugar.

I actually never have to add sugar or milks to my smoothies because I make sure my fruit has completely ripened before using it. Vegetables generally come ripe when you buy them from the store (except for tomatoes and peppers are they are fruit-vegetables and need to ripen.)

How To Make Great Vegan Smoothies Every Time

The key to making a delicious whole food and sugar free smoothie is to use fully ripe and quality ingredients. Also you don’t have to throw a lot of things into it like some witch’s brew. I prefer to use only 2-4 ingredients to make a fruit smoothie and I generally start with a base of ripe (very spotted) bananas or ataulfo/champagne (yellow skinned) mangoes and then I add other things like ripe papaya, pineapple, berries, peaches, plums, spinach, etc. Whatever is ripe and sweet tasting can go into a great tasting smoothie.

The biggest crime at smoothie bars is probably using underripe yellow bananas or even worse yellow bananas with green still on them. Bananas contain a lot of starch and the enzymes in the bananas have to process the raw starch and convert it into natural sugars for it to taste sweet instead of sticky and pasty. To compensate they put in sugar, when it’s really not necessary.

The best tip for having quality ripe produce every day for smoothies or recipes is to make sure you are buying it at least a week in advance. I always have bananas and mangoes or papayas (when in season) ripening on the counter. It generally takes 4-8 days to ripen (I’m in Canada and it’s not hot or humid right now) on the counter in cooler climates. In tropical and subtropical places fruit can ripen in 3-4 days and then be stored in the refrigerator when it’s ripe. Frozen berries or bags of pineapple or mango are great additions to a base of ripe bananas or even fresh papaya.

How To Select And Ripen Mangoes

Mangoes can be hard to understand for those new to tropical fruits. They often don’t know how to select them, when they are ripe, or know how to cut them. Generally I buy the yellow skinned ataulfo/champagne style mangoes because they don’t have a stringy flesh and are very sweet and creamy when ripe. Most people buy the Tommy green/red type mangoes. When ripe these can be good too but they are much stringier and have a larger woody core in them.

Mangoes will take 5-10 days to ripen depending on when they were picked and what kind of climate you live in. You can tell a mango is ripe when it is starting to wrinkle on the skin and get soft. (Just like an avocado gets soft to the touch when ripe.) It should not have any hard spots on it and should be slightly soft and juicy inside and not taught and rock hard. The inside colour will change from light yellow to dark yellow or orange depending on the variety. Unripe mangoes don’t make for tasty recipes, and when it doubt leave it another day or two. Even I sometimes get impatient and open a mango too early and am disappointed that it’s not at it’s peak ripeness yet.

Another tip I have to getting good mangoes is to NOT buy them at the regular grocery or mainstream grocery stores. I find that their supplies are often poor, they are picked super early and don’t always ripen properly. This is a terrible place to buy mangoes. Bananas can generally be bought anywhere and will ripen, but not mangoes or papayas. Buy your mangoes from fruit markets, farmers markets, China Town/Asian fruit markets, Indian markets, Whole Foods, health food stores or Costco. (Costco’s ataulfo mangoes are usually fine, but the red/green mangoes when bought out of season often don’t ripen so I avoid those until the spring/summer.)

If you live in tropical places or states like California, Hawaii or Florida you may be able to get mangoes at the regular grocery stores that are fine, but this is usually because they were shipped shorter distances and thus did not need to be picked so hard and unripe or gassed. If you live in the northern states, Canada or northern European countries, you’ll want to avoid the regular grocery stores for tropical fruit purchases because of their bulk suppliers and slow turn around times.

Now onto my smoothies. I make raw smoothies because they are the tastiest and are completely whole food based. I don’t like adding supplements or super foods (especially cacao and maca as they are too addicting and stimulating) so my goal is to show you how to enjoy a simple delicious whole food fruit based smoothie. Many people don’t get enough servings of fruit in their diet, including vegans who tend to eat more packaged foods. But breakfast is the perfect time for a juicy water rich easy to digest fruit meal whether it is a smoothie or a large fruit salad. Often I only feel like eating fruit in the morning because it’s so hydrating and a great choice for eating before or after a workout. My smoothies are also enough for a whole meal, so I’m not having a little glass of smoothie and a bunch of toast or heavy breakfast foods. If you’re a woman with a small stomach or not used to eating smoothies you may only use half of this recipe, but you will soon be hungry again and probably want something again, so you can take the other half with you or keep in the fridge. If your an active man you may need to add a few more bananas to this recipe to accommodate for your higher caloric needs. When I have a smoothie this size it’s all I need for breakfast and it will hold me over until lunch. So with this information you can decide how to accommodate your needs with breakfast smoothies.

Also for those new to my site I do have a print button option on the top of every post so you can decide exactly what information to print and print with or without pictures if necessary.

(80/10/10 Style) Raw Vegan Berrylicious (Banana Mango Berry) Smoothie Recipe

Makes 2 medium glasses

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas (see my post on ripe bananas)
2 ataulfo/champagne mangoes (cut around the inner woody seed and scoop out the flesh from the skin)
1 cup frozen mixed berries (I used raspberry, blackberry, blueberry and strawberry)
1/3 cup water

Directions:

Add ingredients to your Vitamix or blender starting with the mangoes and bananas at the bottom, add the water and place the frozen fruit on top. Blend until smooth.

Drink and enjoy!

Variations:

You can also use frozen cherries, just raspberries, or just blackberries instead of the mixed berries if desired.

If you don’t have bananas just add another mango, if you don’t have mangoes add another banana.

You can easily make this a green smoothie by throwing in a handful or two of baby spinach or chopped kale (remove the stems first though).

Have you ever eaten an ataulfo/champagne mango before?

Raw Vegan Antioxidant Rich Apple Celery Carrot Beet Juice

April 26, 2012 by Veronica Grace 11 Comments

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you’ve enjoyed your week so far. I know I have. I’m still in Kauai for a few more days and have been doing some kayaking, hiking, and snorkelling and taking lots of photos. If you’re curious to see what it’s like on Kauai (the oldest Hawaiian island) check out my Kauai Travel Pics post. It’s the end of their rainy season here so we’ve been getting a little bit of rain but nothing like what they get in the winter time. It’s about 82-84 F (27-29 C) a day here so it’s quite nice!

We’ve been eating a TON of Maui Gold pineapple here along with Hawaiian papayas, bananas, watermelon, cantaloupe, salads and veggies. Just keeping things pretty simple as I’m not really making specific recipes while I’m here. The Maui Gold pineapple is really out of this world, it’s so sweet and not acidic at all. I get the mini ones and I eat a whole one for breakfast and it doesn’t bother my tongue. Some of the larger pineapples we’ve got were pale yellow inside and not ripe enough and too acidic to eat, ripe dark yellow (inside) pineapples are really the best. We always smell the bottoms of our pineapples to see if they seem sweet or ripe. If your fresh pineapple smells like nothing chances are it’s been picked too early and isn’t ripe enough and will burn your tongue and taste tart.

Today I wanted to share with you one of my favourite veggie juice recipes. I don’t generally buy juices from juice and smoothie bars because #1 they are far to expensive and small for the price and #2 they are usually super foamy on top, and I can make them better at home. The juicer I have is a Breville and has this nice jug that has a foam blocker in it so when you pour the juice it skims off the top portion of foam before it goes into your glass. So this is nice. Especially for people new to drinking fresh juices (vs. something lie V8) who might be turned off by the natural occurring foam when you juice with a centrifugal juicer.

I love putting apples and beets together in juice the flavour is really rich and energizing. Apple and beets, carrots and beets, carrots and celery, and celery and apples all go great together flavor-wise, so when you combine them all you get a really tasty vitamin and mineral rich juice!

Raw Vegan Apple Celery Carrot Beet Juice

Serves 2

Ingredients:

3 medium apples, peeled (unless organic)
1 large beet, peeled and cut if necessary
8 large stalks of celery (leaves removed)
3 medium carrots, peeled (unless organic)

Directions:

Prepare vegetables, peel apples if desired. Cut veggies into chunks if required for your type of juicer. Run everything through a juicer and serve immediately.

Additional Tips:

Feel free to 1/2 the recipe if you’d only like a small juice. I usually make a big one after a work out.

You may enjoy serving this juice over ice. Depending on your tastes you can add more or less apple, carrot or beets. People new to drinking fresh juices may enjoy more of an apple flavour for the base. If you are trying to juice all at once and want to save some juice for later, it should only be stored in a glass airtight mason jar. Fresh juice spoils quite quickly because it is raw and uncooked. It will not keep in the fridge unless it’s completely sealed and airtight. So make sure to use a jar of the appropriate size to ensure it’s filled to the top and sealed.

What do you think of this juice? What’s your favourite fruit+veggie juice recipe?

Also check out my photos of Kauai if you missed them.

Mobic

Restaurant Worthy Raw Vegan Strawberry Pecan Spinach Salad

April 18, 2012 by Veronica Grace 32 Comments

I wanted to share this special and healthy salad recipe with you today for a few reasons. It’s also my friend Karmyn Malone’s top favourite raw recipe. She is a raw foodists and is always on the look out for delicious and simple oil free raw recipes, so this is right up her alley.

Another great thing about this recipe is that it has few ingredients and is easy to make. You don’t have to spend a lot of time making it and the ingredients are fairly easy to find at the grocery store.

As spring is here and it’s looking like it’s going to be a nice warm summer you’ll be able to make this recipe many times for yourself or for entertaining. It’s perfect to bring to a potluck, barbecue or to serve as a first course for dinner guests.

The problem with most salads is that they rely on store bought dressings that are neither nutritious or great tasting. The ones that people generally do like are full of cream and fat and are not part of a healthy life style if you eat them every day. The oil free ones are basically vinegar, sugar, salt and flavourings and after a while most people can’t stand another vinegary dressing!

I prefer to make my own salad dressings at home with fresh ingredients and combine them in a blender. You can even use a basic blender or a hand blender to make this recipe.

This Raw Vegan Strawberry Pecan Spinach Salad recipe is delicious AND nutritious! Even Karmyn’s young son Andrew loved this recipe, and as you know it can be hard to get some kids to eat raw greens and vegetables. But not Andrew, he was begging for more!

This recipe is part of my Savory Raw Dinner Recipes DVD and book collection that has received many rave reviews from friends and customers. They’re 100% oil free and much lower in fat than traditional gourmet raw salad and nut heavy entree recipes.
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For more yummy recipes go to:

Savory Raw Dinner Recipes

(We even have a 100% digital version for those who don’t want to wait for shipping!)
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With this set of recipes you’ll be on your way to enjoying more fresh salads and learn my tips and tricks for making delicious oil free low fat vegan dressings that you will actually enjoy eating! No more buying expensive store bought dressings that only last a few meals that don’t tickle your taste buds anymore.

I have to say that I wish I could have this salad right now as we bought a big bag of spinach and I’m having a craving for it! (Sadly I did not bring any chia seeds with me to Hawaii!)

Raw Vegan Strawberry Pecan Spinach Salad

Makes 2 dinner servings or 4 side servings

Ingredients:

Strawberry Pecan Spinach Salad:

11 oz. container baby spinach leaves
2 cups of sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 cup red onion, diced or sliced (your choice)
1/3 cup raw pecans

Strawberry Chia Dressing:

1 cup fresh sliced strawberries
1/4 cup clementine mandarin orange juice (use the sweetest FRESH oranges you can find)
4 small dates, pitted (or you can sub 1-2 tbsp of liquid sweetener)
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp chia gel (or 1 tsp chia seeds)

Directions:

Slice pecans lengthwise on a cutting board so they are in long halves. (This makes them go farther and you’ll use less in the recipe)
Arrange salad ingredients into 2 large bowls or 4 medium sized bowls for starter salads.
Blend dressing ingredients together and drizzle over salad.
Serve immediately.

Additional Tips:

I don’t recommend using frozen strawberries for this recipe as they are usually too tart and sour. Use dark sweet strawberries. Store bought orange juice is also not a good base for this dressing. I don’t like store bought orange juice because it’s highly processed and quite acidic compared to fresh squeezed orange juice. Clementines or mandarins are preferable because they are mild and sweet, but you can also use Cara Cara or Valencia oranges if that’s what you can find.

You can make this dressing and keep it for 2-3 days in the fridge. Raw dressings ARE perishable and will not stay fresh for weeks like cooked salad dressings. So this is best enjoyed soon after making it.

What is Chia Gel?

Chia gel is just chia seeds mixed with water. I learned this from Victoria and Valya Boutenko when I met them in my home town of Calgary. When chia seeds absorb water they create this gel that suspends them and it great to add to dressings because it will hold it together much like oil would. So when you use blended fruits or juices for the base of your dressing it will be a little thicker and a better consistency. You can also use psyllium husk powder if you don’t have or don’t want to use chia gel. Psyllium husk powder is something people often add with some flavour to water to get extra fibre in their diet (not something we generally need as a whole food vegan) BUT it is useful in making dressings because it add some bulk to the liquid and holds it together nicely. You cannot taste it and it will not affect the flavour of your dressing. It just makes it more into a thin gel than just stay a watery dressing.

To make chia gel I mix 1/3 cup chia seeds into a container (that can go in the fridge) with 2 cups of water. You have to add chia to the water, and not pour water over the chia to prevent it from clumping together in uneven clumps. This lasts for 2-3 weeks in the fridge and you can add a tablespoon or two to your dressings or smoothies to get some whole food omega 3’s into your diet. This is more of a recommendation for raw foodists, if you’re not into raw food and won’t use this amount of chia gel you can just add 1 tsp of chia seeds to your dressing or smoothie if desired instead.

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For more information go to:

Savory Raw Dinner Recipes

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What do you think of this recipe? Have you ever had strawberry spinach salad before or chia seeds?

80/10/10 Recipe: Beginner’s Green Smoothie Banana Blueberry Spinach

April 11, 2012 by Veronica Grace 20 Comments

For some of you green smoothies might be something new, or something you’ve heard of but never tried. Others may make green smoothies regularly and enjoy them. I wanted to share a really easy green smoothie recipe with you today. Something I would call a “basic” or “beginner’s green smoothie”.

#1. Because it’s not too frightening looking and you can tell it has berries in it (this may seem a little normal looking). This may also appeal to people who are afraid of drinking something that looks like green grass!

#2. It tastes very nice and you cannot detect any greens in it at all. Baby spinach is probably the best green to start with when dipping your toes (and taste buds) into making a green smoothie.

Green smoothies are basically just a mixture of fresh ripe fruits, some mild greens, maybe some frozen berries and a little water. They need not be complicated, and they don’t need any kind of protein powders, raw pseudo “super foods” or oils like coconut or flax oil. The goodness of a simple green smoothie comes from whole foods. Whole fruit and whole greens is all I put into my smoothies.

Green smoothies can also help get some more greens into your diet (especially since they don’t need dressing) and can be good for children or people with a compromised ability to chew their food really well.

I only blend my smoothies for about 30-45 seconds in my Vitamix. I don’t like to let it run on too long and get too thin, or warm.

Another good thing to do is to not gulp your smoothie but drink it and chew it a bit. I don’t recommend sipping on smoothies for hours at a time or all day (this can cause dental problems and weaken your enamel from feeding the carries and bacteria in your mouth sugar all day) though. Consuming a smoothie in 10-20 minutes should be fine, and then you can wait 30 minutes before brushing your teeth and rinse your mouth with water if you desire. When using berries that have little seeds I like to use a water pik as well as there can be little pieces that are hard to get out between your teeth.

To make a basic green smoothie you want to start out with a base of either ripe bananas or ripe mangoes (I like ataulfo mangoes) or even a mixture of both. Then you can use 2 cups of mild greens like baby spinach, lettuce, mache (lambs lettuce/corn salad), or 2-3 leaves of kale or Swiss chard (remove the big stems). If desired you can add another fruit like berries, pineapple, mango, papaya, grapes, even watermelon. Depending on what blender you have you may need to add a little water as well, just enough to blend or to get the consistency you like. I like really thick smoothies so I chew them. Some people like only very thin ones so it’s like fruit juice. It’s up to you. Always stack the smoothie in your blender with water at the bottom, then bananas, then greens, and then frozen fruit. Use a tamper (if you have a Vitamix) or break up the chunks of banana before blending to get everything to combine easily. If you have a basic blender you may want to blend the banana, water and greens first, and then add a little additional fresh or frozen fruit and blend again.

Ok, now that I’ve shared some tips on green smoothies, let’s go on to the recipe.

80/10/10 Recipe: Banana Blueberry Green Smoothie

Serves 1

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas (see my post on how to tell if your bananas are ripe enough)
2 cups baby spinach, packed
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/4-1/2 cup water (as desired)

Directions:

Place ingredients into blender in the order above putting the bananas on the bottom. Add a little water if desired to help it liquify.
Blend for 30-45 seconds if you have a Vitamix. (If you have a regular blender you may need to break up the banana pieces into smaller chunks and blend with a little more water or a little longer depending on how strong the motor is.)

I find that having frozen fruit gets the smoothie cool enough without the need to add ice. Unless you have a Vitamix adding ice to a smoothie can make it too gritty and not very smooth to drink.

Have you ever made a green smoothie before? If so what’s your favourite?

80/10/10 Recipe: Morning Sunrise (Pineapple Grapefruit Ginger) Juice

April 4, 2012 by Veronica Grace 9 Comments

This is a really delicious juice recipe that combines red grapefruits with fresh pineapple that I wanted to try. I really love Texas Star grapefruits as they are sweeter and even nice to eat on their own.

Did you know that the reason people used to put sugar on their grapefruit halves is because grapefruits used less sweet? Even sour compared to today? The scary thing is I still notice people putting sugar on their grapefruit halves thinking they are “sour” and that’s what you’re supposed to do. They have no idea how sweet and delicious grapefruits are now and they don’t need any additional sugar. Generally people who eat a lot of processed foods, don’t enjoy raw fruits and vegetables because they aren’t sweet or salty enough compared to their favourite packaged foods.

The key to enjoying grapefruit is to eat it before you eat anything else. When you eat grapefruit or grapefruit juice on it’s own it will taste more naturally sweet than if you ate it with sugary coffee, cereal, muffins, pastries, sweet fruits like mango and other sugary foods.

For instance if you ate a bite of mango and then went to eat some grapefruit it would taste very sour in comparison because your tastebuds had to adjust to the sweet taste of mango. A tip I have for you is to eat mangoes last if you’re having a few fruits for breakfast, as everything will taste less appetizing in comparison. Similarly eat your grapefruit first, and then everything you eat later will taste it’s best. I don’t recommend putting grapefruits in fruit salad either, as they will taste sour in comparison.

Now I don’t drink a lot of juice myself, I only drink homemade juice and never store bought bottled juice. But it is nice to have fresh pressed juice before or after a workout or on days that you will be traveling or being inside an air conditioned building for long periods of time. I like to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice before traveling on a plane as it’s a good way to get some extra hydration and use up whatever’s left in the fridge before we leave!

Having a small glass of this juice for breakfast will brighten your day and the little bit of ginger adds another layer of flavour to it. I don’t like really gingery juices, but this is just right. You can also leave it out, or add more ginger depending on how much you like the flavour.

It’s best to use fresh sweet pineapple for this recipe. See my video on How To Select And Cut a Ripe Pineapple. If you’re buying pre-cut pineapple from the store, look for one that was packed recently, and has the darkest yellow colour you can find. If it is really pale and mostly white with only a little tinge of yellow it isn’t a ripe pineapple and won’t be sweet enough. You can also use defrosted frozen pineapple if you let it sit overnight in the fridge or out on the counter for a half hour on a tray, but generally frozen pineapple is not as sweet as fresh ripe pineapple.

Also did you know you can peel ginger very easily with a spoon? Check out my post How To Peel Ginger With A Spoon.

Morning Sunrise (Pineapple Grapefruit Ginger) Juice

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

2 large Ruby Red or Texas Star grapefruits (or use a sweeter less tart variety available in your country)
4 cups pineapple chunks (fresh is best)
1 knob of ginger the size of your thumb, peeled (use more or less to your tastes)

Directions:

Juice the grapefruit in a citrus juicer or handheld citrus juicer. (This way you get more juice than putting it through a centrifugal juicer).
Run the pineapple chunks and ginger through a centrifugal or Green Star style juicer.
Combine juices and pour into glasses.
Garnish with pineapple chunk if desired.
Serve.

What do you think of this breakfast juice? Do you enjoy the taste of fresh red grapefruits?

80/10/10 Recipe: Banana Raspberry Pineapple Smoothie

March 30, 2012 by Veronica Grace 6 Comments

80/10/10 Raw Vegan Banana Raspberry Pineapple Smoothie

Raw Banana Raspberry Pineapple Smoothie

Spring is coming! I know it! We’re getting a few sunny days in between the rain here in Vancouver. So sometimes I can take my pictures outside. Yay!

I really love pineapple and raspberries in smoothies, I think they make almost as good of a combination as pineapple and black cherries.

This is a smoothie I regularly make as it has creaminess from the bananas, the tartness from raspberries, and a tropical pineapple twist to it. As long as you’re using fully ripe, spotted bananas as the base you can pretty much throw any frozen fruit into the blender with it and make a delicious smoothie.

80/10/10 Banana Raspberry Pineapple Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

2-3 bananas (ripe with lots of brown spots)
1 cup of frozen raspberries
1 cup of frozen pineapple
a little water to blend

Directions:

Add ingredients to blender starting with the bananas at the bottom and the water and frozen fruit on top. Blend until smooth.

Drink and enjoy!

Variations:

You can easily make this a green smoothie by adding a few handfuls of spinach or kale (destemmed of course)

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What smoothie combination have you been wanting to try but have never had before? What fruits are you excited about coming into season again?