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Raw Vegan Valentines Day 80/10/10 Style: Cherry Mango Love Smoothie

February 13, 2012 by Veronica Grace 10 Comments

Whether or not you have a sweetie on Valentines Day this year, you can make your own 80/10/10 style holiday meal pretty easily. Make a beautiful breakfast smoothie for yourself or your loved one, or slice up some mangoes into heart shaped pieces. There you go, festive and edible!

It’s just starting to become mango season, you will see them available at grocery stores slowly, but they will be in full availability starting in April.

I got these mangoes from Costco and they are starting to ripen up.

How To Cut Mangos Into Heart Shape Pieces

To make heart shaped mango slices, you’re going to need a really sharp preferably thin knife. Slice off the cheeks of the mango (around the inner woody pit) and trace an outline on the skin in a heart shape, or any desired shape. Carefully cut out the mango trying to be as smooth in your cuts as possible. When you’re done you can trim any choppy bits after to make it look more streamlined.

Serve your mango pieces on top of a fresh fruit salad or smoothie. You can use any leftover scraps in a delicious smoothie as well. I saved mine for the smoothie below.

Raw Vegan Valentines Day Smoothie: Cherry Mango Love

Serves 1

Ingredients:

2-3 ripe bananas (spotted all over)
2 ripe mangoes (very soft and wrinkly all over)
1-2 cups frozen black cherries (Dole, H-E-B and Costco all have these available. Costco in Canada)

Directions:

Place mangoes in the bottom of your Vitamix or blender, then bananas and then frozen cherries on top. If you need to you can add a little water to make it blend easier, but I like my smoothies thick. Blend until smooth.

Serve and garnish if desired.

Additional Tips:

If you don’t have frozen black cherries, you can use frozen raspberries. Strawberries are a possibility, just make sure they are sweet.

You can easily make this a green smoothie by adding some spinach to it. The cherries will mask the green colour and make it look more purplish.

What do you think of this recipe? Are you doing anything special for a raw vegan Valentines Day?

Raw Vegan No Fat Sweet Onion Salad Dressing Recipe And Why Fast Food Salads Are Bad For Your Health

February 6, 2012 by Veronica Grace 38 Comments

This is an oil free and fat free bonus recipe that comes in my Savory Raw Dinner Recipes book and ebook (not shown in the dvd) that I’m going to share with you today. If you are looking for some amazingly delicious and healthy raw food recipes, please check it out. I’ve gotten so much positive feedback on my spin on oil free raw vegan dinner recipes. (Scroll down for the recipe.)

Travel update: We are back home now in Vancouver, BC this week after spending 2 months in Corpus Christi, Texas and enjoying the sun down there (and avoiding the dark clouds and rain here). It’s nice to be back home, but it feels a little surreal. I have to get used to my kitchen again and finding all of my seasonings and kitchen gadgets. So I’m going to ease back into making recipes, as I’ve totally broken my groove from traveling and moving back in and unpacking everything.

Sweet onion dressing was one of my favourite dressings I used to buy from a bottle (because it’s low fat), but it’s filled with high fructose corn syrup, so I decided to make my own and it tastes pretty similar and is much healthier.

Why Do I Make And Prefer Fat Free Raw or Vegan Salad Dressings?

Well because salad is supposed to be healthy and full of nutrients, and not be a fat bomb of a meal. When I was at the Houston, TX airport we grabbed a bite to eat at Wendy’s and I was just curiously looking around me at what other families were getting. I noticed the woman beside me was eating what she thought was a really healthy meal, because there were no burgers or fries in sight: a BLT Cobb Chicken Salad, a cup of chili and a large soda.

Now I don’t know if you know this, but all restaurants and fast food companies market their salads to women, especially mothers and older women who are trying to eat healthier, watch their weight (or lose weight) as their children and husbands love ordering a burger and fries regularly. Everyone generally thinks burgers and fries are less healthy and salads are on the top of the list of healthy meals so this can be misleading when it comes down to the details.

The woman who ordered this was also probably 35-45 lbs over her ideal weight. I don’t say this to be critical, just to give you an idea of who buys these fast food salads and how they are being seriously deceived. The thing that shocked me the most was that she squeezed every last drop of dressing out of her packet and then proceeded to suck on the packet just to double check! Gross! I thought people knew these dressings were very fatty and to only use half the packet or less. I guess not in Texas…

Why Wendy’s and Fast Food Salads Are

NOT Healthy and Actually Bad For You.

Let’s take a look at her “healthy” Wendy’s meal. <- Go here for the nutritional info.

BLT Cobb salad, chicken, bacon, feta cheese, tortilla strips, dressing

Let’s add up her totals here just to get an idea of how “healthy” this meal is. I’ll pretend she only got a small soda, as Wendy’s doesn’t want to acknowledge people drink more than this… yeah right!

Menu Item	Calories	Fat	Sat Fat	Cholest	Sodium	Fiber
Wendy’s BLT Cobb Salad	450	25g	11g	270mg	1610mg	3g
Thousand Island Dressing	160	15g	2.5g	15mg	290mg	0g
Large Chili	310	9g	3.5g	60mg	1330mg	10g
Small Cola Or Sprite	160	0g	0g	0g	0mg	0g
Total:	1080	49g	17g	345mg	3230mg	13g
Rec. D. Allowance:	2000	65g	20g	300mg	1500mg	25g

Thousand Island Dressing is the highest calorie dressing they offer. Avoid it at all costs!

Sodas: Wendy’s CONVENIENTLY only lists the amounts for a SMALL cup of every beverage in their nutritional info. This is insanity. Combo meals come with a medium or large drink! This is total deception.

This salad meal with chili is over half the recommended daily calories for an athletic adult women or an inactive man. Most woman in their 40-60’s only need 1600-1800 calories if they are fairly sedentary. So the RDA of 2000 calories is obviously too high for her. It blows the RDA for cholesterol and sodium out of the water, and is almost maxing out the fat and sat fat for the entire day.

Let’s compare this to a typical combo meal at Wendy’s, just to see how it stacks up as a “healthy choice” for woman.

Menu Item	Calories	Fat	Sat Fat	Cholest	Sodium	Fiber
Single 1/4 pounder	580	33g	14g	105mg	1240mg	3g
Med. Fries	420	21g	4g	0mg	450mg	6g
Small Cola or Sprite	160	0g	0g	0g	0g	0g
Total:	1160	54g	18g	105mg	1690mg	9g
Diff Between Salad Meal and Burger Combo	-80	-5g	-1g	+240mg	+1540mg	-3g

There isn’t any real health benefit in going for a salad with chicken, bacon, feta cheese, creamy dressing, croutons/tortilla strips, and ground beef chili instead of a burger and fries. You save a little bit of calories, but let’s face it, if you’re a woman you blew your calorie budget for almost 2 meals on one meal, and you killed your cholesterol and sodium recommendations for the day. This is bad news for your heart, arteries, blood pressure, and waistline ladies. Don’t be fooled that restaurant and fast food salads are in ANY way shape or form healthy, low in fat, or low in calories. If you want a salad, the best bet is to bring your own fat free dressing (store bought or homemade) and get a large green garden salad. No croutons, no cheese, no bacon, no meat, no fried noodles, no tortilla strips etc. You can also bring or order a fruit plate, fruit cup, piece of fruit (if available). Or try going somewhere that can do steamed vegetables and plain rice, that’s a healthy meal as well.

Now, are you curious what we got instead at Wendy’s? Bet you had no idea you could eat Low Fat Vegan at Wendy’s!

We got a side salad and a plain baked potato each with a small packet of Italian dressing (they didn’t have light so we made do).

(DO NOT eat the fried croutons this can come with the garden salad!)

Menu Item:	Calories	Fat	Sat Fat	Cholest	Sodium	Fiber
Wendy’s Garden Side Salad	25	0g	0g	0g	30mg	2g
Wendy’s Plain Baked Potato	270	0g	0g	0g	25mg	7g
Italian Vinaigrette (Low Fat)	70	6g	1g	0g	180mg	0g
Total:	365	6g	1g	0g	235mg	9g

This is your best option at Wendy’s for a low fat, filling, nutrient and fiber rich meal. You can even get an extra baked potato for a more filling meal.

If you want to know more about why oils, nuts and seeds are NOT good for your health check out this great dvd by vegan RD and Nutritionist Jeff Novick From Oil To Nut s. It will dispel every half truth and myth you’ve ever heard about oils and nuts being “heart healthy”, “good for weightloss” “super foods” and more. I’ve shown it to all of my friends and they were just shocked. They are much more conscientious about their food choices now and have lost weight and lowered their cholesterol and risk for heart disease and cancer.

Wow, what a difference it makes just ordering vegan sides (that are not deep fried and free of creamy dressings/butter/margarine) compared to the regular fast food fare. You can get a large snack or a mini meal, for about $3.50 or less. If you want a larger meal, just order 2 baked potatoes. We always skip the butter, margarine, sour cream and fatty dressings. You can use ketchup or a vinaigrette to season it, or better yet bring a little packet or container of salsa, or barbecue sauce etc if you’re planning ahead.

It is actually NOT that hard to eat vegan and relatively low fat when traveling. Of course it’s not 100% unrefined and ideal, but it’s a heck of a lot better than just saying oh well and getting that pack of fries or fatty oil and cheese salad like many vegans and vegetarians do.

Our first option of course when in airports is always to scope out the Asian food and look for steamed veggies, rice, vegan sushi rolls, rice paper wraps, or stir fries. Keep that in mind next time, if you are new to eating vegan or low fat vegan and worry about eating on the go.

Now on to my recipe oil free vegan salad dressing recipe.

This is a really easy no oil, fat free vegan salad dressing recipe that you can make with ingredients you probably already have on hand. I know I had all of these already, so it was simple enough. I put mine into an empty condiment style bottle so it could be squirted easily on the salad in small amounts.

(Oil Free) No Fat Raw Vegan Sweet Onion Salad Dressing

Makes about 1 1/2 cups of dressing

Ingredients:

5-6 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
1 cup peeled cucumber, chopped
1 clove of garlic
1 cup of sweet vidalia onion, diced (about 1/2 large onion) (Walla Walla is another variety you can use too)
8 small dates, pitted
1/4 tsp salt
pepper to taste
2+ tbsp water (to blend or thin as necessary)

Directions:

1. Place ingredients into a Vitamix or food processor and blend until smooth.
2. Taste test and adjust seasonings if desired.
3. Serve over green salad and refrigerate any leftovers.

Tip:

To make the onion flavour more mild, you can chop the onion in advance and let it sit out or in the fridge and oxidize so that some of the strong oils dissipate and it won’t be as intense.

This is a dressing I would use in smaller quantities because of the bite. I wouldn’t make an entire family sized salad with it, and eat it myself. It might sting your tongue a little if you eat the whole recipe in one meal. Side salads or a medium sized salad would be best with this recipe.

For more information on Savory Raw Dinner Recipes click here

What do you think of this recipe? What was your favourite salad dressing you now make vegan or raw?

How To Make Raw Vegan Veggie Stuffed Collard Wraps

January 24, 2012 by Veronica Grace 21 Comments

How To Make Raw Vegan Veggie Collard Wrap Sandwich

Raw Collard Wraps With Veggies, Sprouts and Guacamole

Are you looking for a quick and healthy wrap that’s maybe low in calories and more whole foods based? Or maybe you’re looking for a gluten or wheat free sandwich option. Well check out my raw veggie collard wraps!

So… I totally forgot to add these delicious collard wraps to my recipe program Savory Raw Dinner Recipes because they were so easy to make I did not write the recipe down! LOL. When I compiled the recipe book I did not have it on my computer and I forgot about it. So I’m posting it here for you instead. These raw collard wraps are really easy to make if you have access to large size flat collard green leaves and are really impressive to non raw foodies.

If you haven’t checked out Savory Raw Dinner Recipes, I highly recommend you do. I created the recipes and did all the photography myself. These are possibly the sexiest lower fat gourmet recipes you’ve ever seen. Even if you just enjoy some healthy food porn photos, you should check it out!

If you live in the south you can find collard greens at most grocery stores or Walmart, but if you live in the north or in Canada you’ll have to go to Whole Foods or your local community health food store.

In the South it’s about 88 cents (USD) for a bunch of collards. In Canada, it costs us about $2.99 (CAD) for a large bunch. Overall, it’s a pretty cheap wrapper to make a raw burrito or sandwich, just make sure you select a bunch of collards that have lots of large flat leaves, not bent, crushed or small leaves as you’ll more likely end up having to make tiny raw vegan tacos instead because you can’t wrap the collards like a burrito.

If you DON’T have collard greens, it won’t really turn out the same. The key to this wrap is the collard green’s very large, strong and pliable leaf. You can try using other greens, but what you’ll get instead is more of an open face sandwich/taco/boat that you sprinkle toppings in and eat kind of like a hot dog! Probably tastes the same, but will look different. You can try both style of raw wrap.

This is what a collard leaf looks like whole. You will see it’s flat and not curly like kale.

Raw Collard Wraps With Veggies, Sprouts and Guacamole

How To Make Raw Vegan Collard Wraps

Serves 2

For this recipe you’re going to need:

2 large collard green leaves, washed
1/2 ripe avocado (should give to your thumb when pressed)
julienned or spiralized carrot and/or beets
julienned cucumber
julienned pepper
julienned zucchini
A few sprouts (If you have, I used alfalfa, you can use sunflower, pea shoots etc)
Seasonings if desired: lime/lemon, salt, pepper, olives

Tools:

A sharp knife
Flat surface

Step 1: Lay your collard leaf out flat on a cutting board stem side facing UP. Next take your sharp knife (it needs to be sharp, and not a serrated one, I cut myself once sawing into my finger) and angle it down and into the stem of the leaf. Shave the stem from the leaf horizontally and away from you. You want to do this so you can roll and fold your collard leaf without it cracking and splitting. Keep shaving down the stem a bit at a time, until it is flush with the leaf and then cut the edge off the stem end so it is straight at the bottom. Test your collard leaf now to see if it will roll easily into a small burrito. If it does, you’ve got your collard stem thin enough. Once you do this once, you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

Step 2: Spread 1/4 of a ripe avocado (half of your 1/2 avocado) onto you collard leaf leaving an inch or two from the bottom end of the stem. Spread it in the middle area only, not all the way out to the sides and top. Season if desired over the avocado for flavour.

Step 3: Lay your veggies and sprouts nicely in the bottom portion to middle of your collard leaf, still leaving and inch or two at the bottom part of the stem. Keep everything in the middle and far away from the top and sides, just like you would fill a burrito.

Step 4: Roll the bottom stem end of your collard leaf up and away from you and make a full roll. Tuck in the sides of the leaf and continue rolling and tucking in as you go. Keep your roll tight so when you cut it your filling doesn’t fall out.

Step 5: Hold your wrap tightly and then carefully slice it in half. If desired you can skewer it with a toothpick to hold it together and set it on a plate.

Step 6: Repeat for the other wrap.

I would recommend sticking with a thick creamy filling like avocado, guacamole or my Lower Fat Hemp Hummus (from Savory Raw Dinner Recipes) instead of using a fruit or vinegar based dressing, as the taste of collards is quite strong and with just a vinegar or lemon base it won’t really be that delicious. Unless you’re like a hard core raw foodist, in which case you probably eat raw kale by the bunchfuls… every day… Just kidding! Rock on! 🙂

Serve this wrap with a raw soup, green salad or fruit salad. This is not a low fat recipe, technically because the veggies and wrap have so little calories. This is why I did not use an entire avocado for the recipe, otherwise it would be very fatty. I want to emphasize that on it’s own this is a very LOW CALORIE wrap, pretty much a snack. Since we don’t want to load up on nuts, seeds and oil on a low fat raw vegan or 80/10/10 diet, this should be part of a meal. We enjoyed this with a fat free soup recipe from Savory Raw Dinner Recipes and lots veggie sticks with my raw hummus. You just can’t see it from the photo, but the soup was present!

I have seen some restaurants steam the collard leaves as well for those who prefer a milder taste (sort of like steamed cabbage in a cabbage roll) so that’s always an option if you’re looking for a softer texture in your wrap!

What do you think of these wraps? What did you fill yours with?

Fat Free Raw Vegan Cabbage Slaw – Costa Rican Style

January 20, 2012 by Veronica Grace 23 Comments

Fat Free Oil Free Raw Vegan Costa Rican Cabbage Slaw Salad

Raw Vegan Cabbage Slaw Costa Rican Style

This is a really easy and fast recipe that happens to be oil free, fat free and raw vegan. When we lived in Costa Rica we would eat this salad a lot and it’s a staple dish because cabbage is so abundant there. Most of the tender lettuces don’t last very long in the humidity down there even in the fridge, but cabbage never had a problem. So we ate a lot of cabbage while we were there. The Costa Ricans use VERY SIMPLE seasonings to flavour their dishes, this one only has a balance of lime juice and salt. You don’t have to add the salt, but it’s used to help wilt the cabbage and to cut the acidity of the lime and make it tangy. The tomato adds some juiciness to the recipe as well, so make sure you use a good tomato.

If you get store bought coleslaw mix you can have this salad ready in minutes and then put it in the fridge while you prep your main dish.

I’ve served this to raw foodies and non raw eaters and both love it as a tangy topping to latin style dishes. Typically this Costa Rican cabbage salad would be eaten with seasoned rice and black beans which is also called gallo pinto.

Cabbage has a very nice flavour and does not require any oil. Please don’t drown your healthy cabbage in olive oil or creamy dressing! Oil free coleslaw recipes are delicious.

Fat Free Raw Vegan Cabbage Slaw Costa Rican Style

Serves 4 as a side dish

Ingredients:

5 cups green cabbage, sliced (or slaw mix)
1 medium ripe tomato, diced
1/3 cup white onion, diced
1 -1 1/2 large limes, juiced
1/2 tsp herbamare or salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper or to taste

Directions:

1. Place cabbage or slaw mix into a bowl. Add tomatoes and onions and seasonings. Roughly squeeze and massage the cabbage to wilt it and make the tomatoes release their juices.

2. Taste test and add more lime or salt if desired.

3. Let sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to soften before serving.

4. Serve with raw entrees or as a topping for vegan tacos or rice and beans.

Variations:

You can also add some chopped raw cilantro (coriander) or parsley if desired. Julienned carrot or celery, red cabbage, or jicama can be used to mix it up as well for more raw salad creations.

What do you think of this recipe? What did you serve it with?

Karmyn Malone’s Review Of My Savory Raw Dinner Recipes DVD and Book Set

January 5, 2012 by Veronica Grace 2 Comments

—————–
If you’d like to give the DVD set Savory Raw Dinner Recipes a try, you won’t
regret it.

Go to: http://www.plantbasedu.com/savory

Mediterranean Flax Tortilla Wrap

——————
My review of Veronica Grace’s Savory Raw Dinner Recipes System

by Karmyn Malone
——————

Aloha!

I want to share with you my thoughts on the new Savory Raw Dinner Recipes system
created by Veronica Grace the Low Fat Vegan Chef.

Once our daughter Rainbow was born I was ready for some new, raw, and savory recipes.
I’ve been getting “fruited out”really easily post pregnancy and need something savory
after each fruit meal.

Since I’m busy taking care of Rainbow (and Andrew!) I don’t have a lot of time to spend
in the kitchen creating new recipes.

I kept “bugging” Veronica to share her recipes with me,and once I tried making a few of
them I was thrilled at how most of them came out.

Strawberry Pecan Spinach Salad

My ABSOLUTE FAVORITE recipe is her “Strawberry Pecan Spinach Salad.” This
recipe alone makes owning her “Savory Raw Dinner Recipes” WORTH IT. If I could
make it everyday I would. It’s so good that once I went to four different stores looking for
fresh strawberries and was so disappointed when I had to come home empty handed!

Lower Fat Taco Salad

That day I decided to “settle” and made her “Low Fat Taco Salad” instead because I didn’t have
any strawberries. I have a similar taco salad recipe that I enjoy but she used a couple of KEY
ingredients in her salad that WOWED me! Hmmmmmm …. why didn’t I think to use those?

Thai Tom Kha Soup

“Easy Fat-Free Veggie Soup” is very light and refreshing. Another delicious, spicy and
hearty soup is ” Thai Tom Kha Coconut Soup.” I felt like I was in a cooked food Thai
restaurant but of course it’s prepared raw.

Definitely a recipe for the raw Thai food connoisseurs out there.

It’s so nice to have another raw recipe system that tastes great without resorting to using tons
of oil and salt (although some of the recipes do use a TINY amount of salt).

Also the recipes don’t take all day to prepare like the ultra complicated gourmet raw recipes
that will make you thirsty enough to drink toilet water, nor will they make you sick due to
the nuts, oils and avocado used in them!

I’m not kidding — many of those gourmet raw recipes will use nuts, oil AND avocado in one
recipe! I had a recipe like that recently that a friend prepared and I was sick to my stomach
for the rest of that night. I’m talking painful and laying in bed kind of sick.

Veronica Grace’s “Savory Raw Dinner Recipes” nicely compliments Roger Haeske’s
Savory Veggie Stews (http://www.veggiestews.com). In other words, they’re two distinctly different recipe systems.

Veronica's Amazing Raw Lasagna

There are simple recipes that you can make everyday as well as dinner party oriented recipes
to make for special occasions (I’m really looking forward to making “Veronica’s Amazing
Raw Lasagna”)

Some of the recipes do call for salt, onions and garlic. Of course this is completely
optional.

I’ve made some of those recipes without any salt and they’re still delicious.

And mind you the quantity of salt in these recipes is MUCH lower than what you’d find at
a typical gourmet raw food restaurant. I’m talking a pinch of salt.

BTW, I had a mega bowl of “Strawberry Pecan Spinach Salad” for lunch just before writing
this review today. Boy that salad really hits the spot.

A great thing about their system is if you’re not at all into using garlic, onions,
apple cider vinegar and salt, the recipes still taste great even if you omit these
ingredients. I was surprised that the flavor was still good when I omitted some of
these ingredients.

Also you can adjust the seasonings to your taste preferences and they still taste
great whether you like your food mildly seasoned, medium or super seasoned! There
were even certain condiments that I didn’t use at all and the recipes I made still
tasted AMAZING!

Fat Free Stuffed Peppers

Overall I’ve found the “Savory Raw Dinner Recipes” to be just what I needed to
balance out my sweet fruit consumption with more savory meals.

As a nursing mom, my dietary needs are much different than when I wasn’t nursing.
A constant source of mineral rich savory meals after fruit is now mandatory for me.

I think you’re going to find a number of recipes that’ll satisfy your need for
something hearty and savory and yet are easy to prepare.

With much aloha,

Karmyn

P.S. My 4 1/2 year old son Andrew just loves these recipes. He constantly asks me to make
Veronica’s recipes.

He licked his bowl CLEAN after eating her “Strawberry Pecan Spinach Salad” and her “Low
Fat Taco Salad” (when he does that then I KNOW it’s a new favorite dish for him!)
————–

Click the picture below to find out more about my program Savory Raw Dinner Recipes.

If you’d like to give the DVD set Savory Raw Dinner Recipes
a try, you won’t regret it.

Go to: http://www.plantbasedu.com/savory

If you’d like to find out more about Karmyn Malone and her raw food journey go to http://karmynmalone.com/ or find her on Facebook

80/10/10 Recipe: Grapefruit Soup With Step By Step Pictures!

December 14, 2011 by Veronica Grace 5 Comments

Grapefruit soup is an easy 1 ingredient (mono) meal you can have for a breakfast or a snack. It’s 80/10/10 friendly and fat free. They key is to use very sweet juicy grapefruits. My favourite are red grapefruits. Right now we’re in Texas for Christmas, so we are using the Texas Star Grapefruits here. They’re quite good. I wouldn’t suggest using this recipe for more sour white grapefruits.

My friend made this for me and I photographed him doing so, so you can easily see how to get an easy to eat grapefruit meal with no seeds or excess peel or skins.

For this recipe I used 3 grapefruits. 2 to cut into chunks and 1 to juice over the chunks.

(Fat Free Raw Vegan) Grapefruit Soup

Using a sharp knife, cut off both ends of the grapefruit so you can see the flesh inside. Cut away enough that you don’t have any white pith or peel left.

Flip the grapefruit onto one of the cut ends and start cutting off the sides of the peel and pith all the way around.

Now cut the grapefruit into 3 slices and remove any seeds you see.

Continue cutting into slices.

Stand up the centre piece and cut around the middle, like you would the core of an apple. Discard this piece.

Line up your slices and now cut into bite sized chunks.

Your first grapefruit is done. Continue the same process with the second grapefruit and place the pieces into a bowl.

Slice the 3rd grapefruit in half. Remove the seeds.

Using a knife or a citrus reamer squeeze the grapefruit and turn to release the juice. Alternatively you can use a citrus juicer.

Continue juicing the other side of the grapefruit.

Serve!

What do you think of this simple recipe? You can also do this with sweet oranges or pineapple. The key is to use sweet ripe fruit. Makes sure to eat this right away as the fresh juice will oxidize and go sour if you leave it out or in the fridge for a few days.

How To Enjoy Eating A Lot Of Apples or How To Have an Apple Happy Meal!

October 22, 2011 by Veronica Grace 6 Comments

FTC Notice: This post contains affiliate links that go towards supporting the blog.

So you live in a Northern climate, it’s winter, there’s not a lot of tropical fruit around, there’s not really any “ripe” fruit around, you don’t have a lot of money to spend on produce; you’re hungry and want an easy inexpensive meal.

My friends, let me introduce to you the apple. It’s quite versatile and easy to get ALL over the world all year round. They keep well, can lasts for weeks if not months in the fridge or a cold cellar.

But how do you get this apply-goodness inside you without it being a pain in the jaw and eating all those waxy peels?…

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Pomegranate Apple Grape Juice

October 19, 2011 by Veronica Grace 4 Comments

FTC Notice: This blog post contains affiliate links which go towards supporting the blog. We got some delicious pomegranates from Costco this week, so I’ve been eating them different ways, snacking on the seeds, straight juice and mixed juice. Today I’m having an (80/10/10 diet approved) antioxidant rich breakfast: a bowl of raspberries and a pomegranate, red grape, apple juice. Pomegranite juice on it’s own isn’t so bad, it just has a really bitter aftertaste. If you find it too strong and want to enjoy some nutritious juice this season, mix it with other sweet juices. Apple, grape, or pear works best. Maybe even an apple celery pomegranate concoction would be nice as well. To juice a pomegranate you’re going to want to use a citrus juicer. The kind you press the handle down onto it. I have a Breville 800CPXL that works great You can try a hand held citrus juicer, but they’re not easy to juice like oranges, and you will find you get whole pieces stuck in crevasses near the peel. For the rest of my raw vegan juice I used my regular Breville centrifugal juicer , which I enjoy as it’s much easier to use and clean than my previous Jack Lalane juicer. I tried that one and actually returned it, it was too messy to use and clean.

Raw Vegan Pomegranate Apple Grape Juice

Ingredients: 1 pomegranate 2-3 peeled apples 2 cups of red grapes (sweet) Directions: Cut the pomegranate in half and using a citrus juicer, juice half of the pomegranate at a time. Really press down with the juicer until the pomegranate seeds all come out. Repeat with the other half. For any seeds you missed in the strainer, use a spoon and push down on them to pop out the last bits of juice. Take your apples and grapes and run them through a centrifugal juicer. Pour into a tall glass, ensuring the extra foam stays in the container and doesn’t go into the glass. Now pour your pomegranate juice into the glass with the other juice and mix. Serve with ice cubes if desired. Enjoy your delicious juice without the bitter aftertaste of pomegranate!

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Banana Pear Berry Smoothie

October 13, 2011 by Veronica Grace 3 Comments

FTC Notice: This blog post contains affiliate links that go towards supporting the blog.

This is a really easy 80/10/10 and raw vegan fruit smoothie to make, using some ripe fruit. You want to use ripe bananas that are soft and lightly brown speckled and pears that have turned from rock hard green to soft yellow with some brown flecks.

Make sure you have ripe pears as well. If your pears have any bad spots in them cut them out before using. If your pears are really ripe like mine were it won’t add much of a gritty texture to your smoothie. Unripe, hard pears are NOT good in smoothies!

Raw Vegan Banana Pear Berry Smoothie

Ingredients:

3 large ripe bananas
2 very ripe bartlet pears, seeded
2 cups frozen mixed berries

Directions:

Place bananas, pears and berries into Vitamix or blender. (If you don’t have a Vitamix you need to add some water to blend) Using the tamper, push the fruit down towards the blade and turn onto 5 and then up to high. Blend for 45 sec to a minute until smooth.

Enjoy!

What do you think of this smoothie recipe?

How To Make Homemade Low Fat Raw Vegan Almond Milk In A Blender

October 7, 2011 by Veronica Grace 16 Comments

FTC Notice: This blog post contains affiliate links that go towards supporting the blog.

Almond milk is something that many people use nowadays, whether they are vegan or have dairy allergies. Sure you can buy some (non raw) almond milk at the store for your smoothies or cooking, but there’s likely going to be sugar, preservatives and other additives and synthetic stuff in it as well. While it is convenient to use pre made almond milk, it’s not a good idea to base your whole diet on processed packaged foods.

It’s very easy to make at home, and most cost effective if you enjoy using almond pulp in recipes like raw bars, cookies, crackers, or drying it out to use for almond flour. This raw almond milk is great for using in raw smoothies, raw banana ice-cream and raw dressings.

This low fat almond milk is also a nice pretty white colour and not browny tinged from additives like processed almond milk! Beautiful.

How To Make Your Own Homemade Raw Vegan Almond Milk

Ingredients:

1 cup of whole raw shelled almonds
Enough water to cover almonds if soaking overnight
4 cups filtered water (for making milk) If you want it even thinner use 5 cups of water.

Required tools:

Container to soak almonds
Metal mesh strainer/nut milk bag
Vitamix, Blendtec or other blender

Directions:

1. Soak almonds in a bowl or container with enough water to cover and let sit overnight, around 8 hours. (You can skip this step if you have a Vitamix or Blendtec)

2. Drain and rinse the almonds. Place into Vitamix or other blender with 4 cups of filtered water. Blend for about 45 sec to a minute on high. Just until all the almonds are in tiny pieces and it’s frothy.

3a. If using a nut milk bag hold the bag open over a large bowl and gently pour the blended almond milk into the middle of the open bag. Be careful not to spill pulp over the sides. Pour a little at a time and put the blender container down and close the bag at the top and squeeze the bag into the bowl to separate the almond pulp from the almond milk. You can either save the squeezed almond pulp to dry into almond flour or use to make cookies or nut balls or compost it. Continue this process until you have separate all the milk from the almond pulp. If you can’t stand and squeeze you can hang the bag filled with pulp and almond milk up above the bowl and let it drain for a while or in between breaks. Using a good quality nut milk bag you should only have to strain the milk one time if you didn’t spill any pulp over the edge.

3b. If using metal mesh strainers: get out 3 medium bowls or containers. Hold your small metal mesh strainer over one of the bowls and pour the almond mixture slowly into it. Fill up the strainer and then use a spoon to push the liquid down from the pulp. Place the extra pulp in one of the bowls if you want to save it for later. This will take a while. If using a metal strainer, keep filling it up with almond mixture and filtering the pulp from the milk with your spoon and set the pulp aside. Rinsing your strainer in between each filter will make it easier to strain and get rid of the little pieces stuck to it. After you have filtered your almond milk once, you may want to filter the whole thing a few more times for a smooth milk. Place your filter over the last clean bowl and pour your filtered almond milk over it. You should see some froth and a little pulp being filtered out the second time. Rinse your other bowl and strainer and filter back and forth until your almond milk is smooth to your liking. I do this 6-8 times with a metal strainer for the smoothest milk.

5. Once you’re done you can store the almond milk in the fridge. Depending what you want to do with it you can leave it plain, or blend in a date and some vanilla for sweet almond milk.

I leave mine plain so I can use it for things like banana ice-cream, chia “tapioca” pudding, smoothie base, dressing base etc. I just add pitted dates or vanilla extract or fresh vanilla bean to the recipe if I need a sweet milk.

Best used within 3 days. Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.

Have you ever made your own plant based milk at home? What’s your favourite?