The PCOS journey and fertility

Well I am not planning to change from a "vegan " into "raw foods " anytime soon !
but I am open to some of the ideas and principles of a raw food diet as it is in line somewhat to the vegan diet

so I will list some of my raw food recipes from time to time now .

Homemade Vegan RAW Bacon
(adapted from No Meat Athlete)
THIS RECIPE HAS BEEN ADAPTED FROM BAKE AND FRIED TO DEHYDRATED!

1/2 cup dried adzuki beans, or other small red beans
1/3 cup whole grain buckwheat groats (not buckwheat flour)
1 tsp onion powder
1/3 tsp garlic powder
1/3 tsp rubbed sage
1/2 tsp thyme
1-1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp liquid smoke*
3 tbsp pure organic maple syrup
1-1/2 tbsp coconut aminos (if no need to be soy-free, sub bragg's, tamari, or soy sauce)*
1 tbsp tomato paste (you can make a tomato paste from sun-dried tomatoes and water pulsed in a coffee grinder)
1-1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
1 tsp coconut oil (may sub any oil you prefer)
1/2 tsp salt

Rinse the beans and buckwheat, place in large bowl covered with several inches of cold filtered water; let soak
overnight so they can sprout.
Drain and rinse the soaked beans and buckwheat. Place in the bowl of a food processor fitted with an s-blade,
along with all of the other ingredients. Pulse several times to combine, scrape down the sides and bottom of
bowl and continue pulsing until uniform, but not completely pureed.
Line a dehydrator sheet with teflex. Place bacon batter on sheet and spread evenly with a spatula. You may choose to take another teflex sheet and press on top of the mixture and flatten with your hands. Remove the top piece of teflex, then use a spatula to spread over and fill in any bare spots.

Dehydrate at 115 degrees for a couple hours. Remove from dehydrator and let cool for 10 minutes. Slice into 24-32 strips, whatever size you prefer, I cut mine into 1 inch by 4 inches slices. (Do this by making one lengthwise cut down the center, and then 12-16 cuts across the shorter side.)

At this point freeze any strips your don't plan on eating immediately. Frozen strips can go back into the dehydrator at a later date, no need to thaw first. To "fry", brush the strips with a very light coating of olive oil and place back into the dehydrator till they reach your desired crispness.

Gingersnaps

Ingredients:

Gingersnaps

1 C almond flour (soaked/dehydrated almonds, then vita-mixed and/or processed)
1 C oat flour (oat groats vita-mixed)
.5 C date powder (date sugar vita-mixed)
.25 C maple syrup
2 T black strap molasses
1-2 T freshly grated ginger
1 T cinnamon
1.5 tsp ground cloves
1.25 tsp sea salt
.75 tsp nutmeg
Preparation:

In a food processor, process all dry ingredients. Slowly add in wet ingredients and pulse until ingredients start to stick together. Once combined, use hands to work into one large ball. On a silpat, roll dough out using quick and short strokes (trust me, don’t go back-and-forth). Using a cookie cutter, cut to desired shape and place on a mesh dehydrator sheet. Dehydrate at 105 for 12 hours, or, 24 for a firmer gingersnap

Sweet & Sour Slaw: Coleslaw with Explosive Flavor

Servings:
2-3

Contrary to popular belief, a diet of raw foods does not have to be bland, or boring. Once we remove the highly processed, salty, and overly sweetened foods found in the standard American diet we find that our taste buds perk up and introduce us to a spectrum of flavors previously undetected. The following raw food recipe for Sweet & Sour Slaw was created to celebrate a complexity of flavors as bright and uplifting to the mouth as it is to the eye. Visit www.meamoeba.com for the complete article.
Ingredients:

Sweet & Sour Slaw

1 cup Carrot, grated
1 cup Green Cabbage, thinly sliced
½ cup Purple Cabbage, thinly sliced
½ Tart Apple, chopped
¼ cup Onion, thinly sliced
⅓ cup Raisins

Sweet and Sour Dressing:

2 ½ Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar **
2 Tbsp Agave **
1 tsp Lemon juice
¼ tsp Nama Shoyu
¼ tsp Ginger powder
¼ tsp Curry powder

** You may want to bump the agave to 2 ½ Tbs and reduce the vinegar to 2 Tbs depending on your preference and the tartness of your apple.
Preparation:

Thinly slice then lightly chop cabbage and onion. Place in a mixing bowl. Add grated carrot, chopped apple, and raisins.

Mix dressing ingredients in a separate container.

Pour the Sweet & Sour Dressing over the slaw mixture, toss, and serve.

Makes 2-3 servings. Or 1 large serving for a sinless 206 calories and 6.6 grams of fiber.

Sweet Potato “Pasta” with Tangy Marinara

Servings:
2

Sweet potato noodles are nothing more than finely shredded or spiralized raw sweet potato. It has the texture of shredded coconut and makes a good al dente noodle. You can also use a zester to create shorter pieces and use in place of rice. The tangy marinara in this recipe balances the starch present in the raw potato, leaving you with a taste of old-world Italy.

Ingredients:

1 sweet potato
2 Roma tomatoes
¼ cup raw almonds, soaked
7 sun-dried tomato halves
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil
½ tsp oregano
½ tsp basil
½ tsp salt
dash of red pepper flakes
water
Preparation:

Place sun-dried tomatoes in warm water to start softening. Set aside. **Raw foodists take care not to use water hotter than 118 degrees.

Choose to peel the sweet potato or leave the skin on (I leave it on). Shred into lengthy strips using the small side of a standard shredder or spiralizer. Set aside.

Dry presoaked almonds (soak for 2-4 hours) with a paper towel. Place them in a blender or food processor and blend into a flour-like consistency. Add lemon juice, olive oil, and seasonings. Blend until mixed, adding a splash of water as necessary.

Chop Roma and sun-dried tomatoes and add to the sauce base. Blend into a thick, creamy marinara sauce.

Divide sweet potato noodles into two servings and top with tangy marinara sauce. Garnish with additional red pepper flakes if you wish.

Serves 2. Sauce will keep in the fridge for two days.

Thai Carrot Soup

Servings:
3

This is a creamy and flavorful - yet still nice and light - thai soup made from carrot, red peppers and cashew. The version here is relatively mild but you can amp up the flavor a bit by adding more ginger, cilantro, lemongrass or chili peppers. For more tasty raw food recipes, check out http://eatingfoodraw.com

Ingredients:

1cup carrot, shredded
⅓cup red pepper, diced
⅓cup cashew, soaked
½cup water or coconut water
1T coconut oil, warmed
1T lime juice
2tsp soy sauce
1tsp ginger, minced
2tsp garlic, minced
1tsp lemongrass, minced
1T cilantro, minced
1tsp scallion, minced
to taste red thai chili peppers, minced
Preparation:

Soak cashew in advance for 6 hours. Then, add all ingredients except cilantro and blend until smooth. Mix the cilantro in at the end.

Sweet Tart Collards

Servings:
4

A simple and quick collard green recipe with a dynamic twist. Recipe was adapted and tweaked a little from one offered by the Yabba Pot Vegatarian Restaurant in Baltimore. Check them out.
ngredients:

1 Bunch of Collards (or such that will fit into a 12 cup bowl with room to manipulate)
1/2 large Onion (cut lengthwise to create sickle shapes)
1 1/2 T Date Syrup
2 T Fresh lime juice
1 T Olive Oil
1 t Sea Salt
1 dash (or sprinkle lightly to color top)
Preparation:

Soak collard leaves for a few hours in sea salt and lemon juice (I usually soak them over night to soften the leaves). Stem the collard leaves. Roll and cut across the roll to create long strips. Cut onion lengthwise to create thin spears or sickles. Blend the remaining ingredients in large bowl and sprinkle with cayenne pepper. Sit in the frig for and allow the ingredients to get to know each other. Garnish with local cherrie tomatoes. Enjoy.

almond brownie with strawberry

Preparation time: 20-25 minutes, makes 4 servings
Ingredients:

1. 3/4 C raw almonds; 2. 2 table spoons sesame seeds; 3. 1,5 C pitted dates; 4. 1/4 C raw cacao powder; 5. 1/2 C strawberries.
Preparation:

1. Soak almonds in warm water over night;
2. Process almonds in food processor, combine with pitted dates and process again;
4. Combine this mixture with sesame seeds and cacao powder. Mix it well by your hand;
5. Shape this mixture into a bar. Refrigerate for 1 hour, cut this bar into 1" thick slices. Use strawberries for decoration. Bon appetit!

Birthday Cake Alternative - Date and Nut Torte

We used a food processor to whip this up but you may be able to get away with using a blender if that's all you have on hand.
ngredients:

2 cups of raisins
2 cups of walnuts (or try cashes or another fave) - (preferably soaked ahead of time)
1 cups of pitted dates (preferably soaked ahead of time)
1/2 of a juiced lemon
Preparation:

For easier digestion and better assimilation, it might be best to have your nuts and dates soaked beforehand.

For the base:
Blend up the raisins and walnuts and perhaps a few dates in the food processor.
Form onto a plate in whatever shape you want.

For the frosting:
Blend up the dates and the lemon juice and spread over the base.
Try adding a bit of raw cacao powder to the torte base for that 'hint of chocolate'. ... yum.

Melon Milk

Servings:
1

Excellent for breakfast!! we love it during summer in France!!!
Ingredients:

1/2 sweet melon of your choice
1/2 glass water or fruit kefir (excellent!!!)
Preparation:

Just put all into your blender and blend well to have a smooth milk

I also blend melon with ice and a little water for better blending in my blender !!!

Avocado and carrot dip

Delicious dip for sharing with crudites - Broccoli, Carrot, Celery and sugersnap peas.
Ingredients:

1 avocado
1 carrot
1/2 cup of almonds (soaked overnight)
1/4 cucumber (peeled)
1 medium slice melon (canteloupe)
Pinch of black pepper
Cup of water
Preparation:

Peel and chop all ingredients. Whizz in blender till smooth. Pop in a bowl. Serve.

p.s. If you add extra water you can have this as a delicious cold soup.

Yam and Caraway Pizza Crust

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/2 sunflower seeds and hemp seeds, mix together
1 enormous (or two small) yam, chopped
about 1 cup fresh spinachs
3 onions, roughly chopped
caraway, salt, garlic, to taste (didn't looked at the mesurement... at all!)
Preparation:

Put everything exepted the seeds in your food processor and process!
Add the veggies with enough water to process.
Divide the mixture on two equal parts and gently spread in a large round on 2 teflex sheets. You may want the edges thicker, to mimick traditional pizzas.
Dehydrate 1 hour at 145F and then lower the temperature to 104F.
When dry enough to touch, flip on a dehydrator mesh and dehydrate overnight until.

Crusts may easily rest in the fridge 1 day or 2

Put your favorite raw sauce on, dehydrate 1 hour.
Put your favorite veggies, marinated or not, with extra "cheese" or not, and dehydrate one hour more.

Cashew Cheese

* 2 cups of cashews soaked 2 hours (measured before soaking)
* 2 shallots/spring onions
* 1 red capsicum (you could use yellow or orange instead if you like)
* 2 cloves of garlic
* the juice of 1 - 2 lemons
* pinch of salt

Tomato Sauce

* 2 1/2 cups of tomatoes
* 12 sundried tomatoes soaked one hour
* 3 pitted dates soaked one hour
* 2 cloves of garlic
* 1 table spoon of olive oil
* 1 teaspoon of salt

This recipe is an adaption of Alissa Cohen's Marina Sauce from her Living On Live Foods book.

In the video the toppings we used were:

First Pizza

* 3 button mushrooms washed and peeled and sliced
* 1/2 large zucchini grated
* 1/2 red capsicum, you could use other colours
* 1/2 tomato
* Some parsley chopped roughly
* Some perrenial basil chopped finely
* 8 olives chopped. We used Sunfood Herbed Olives this time

Mix all of these ingredients together in a bowl. Put some alfalfa on your base then top with the zucchini mix. You could add a dash of salt here if you wanted to also.

Second Pizza

I didn't record this sorry. We were off to a social event and had promised to bring a dish. I forgot and topped one of these bases and ran out in a hurry! I can tell you what was on there however:

* 1 avocado mashed with some salt and lemon juice
* 1/2 an orange capsicum sliced finely
* cherry tomatoes about 10 chopped in quarters
* 1 mango (minus a few bites that I couldn't help but eat)
* 1 spring onion/shallot
* topped with shredded perennial basil

Methods/steps

ShareThis

Base

Put your celery, carrots, shallots, tomatoes, and garlic in your food processor with the S blade. Process until everything is chopped very finely but not like it's blended.

Add your flax/salt mix and process again. Add water as needed. Depending on the vegetables, you might not use all of the water or you might need more. It doesn't matter if you add too much. It will dehydrate out.

Spread your base on a non stick sheet and put them in your dehdyrator for 3-4 hours. After this time you should be able to flip them onto a mesh sheet. I've shown how to do this in the video. If you're going to work, or your busy or even if you forget, and can't flip them, don't worry. You can do it later. Leave the bases for another 6-8 hours depending on their thickness.

Then they should be done! You can test by breaking off a little piece and trying it. Yum yum.

Cashew Cheese

Put all of the cheese ingredients in your blender and blend until smooth. If you need to, you can add some water or more lemon juice but if the cashews are soaked long enough they should have enough water in them.

Remove from blender immediately because the cashew cheese does thicken on standing.

Tomato Sauce

Put most of your fresh tomatoes in your food processor with your soaked dried tomatoes and soaked dates.

In your Tribest Personal Blender put your garlic, salt, olive oil, and a couple of chunks of fresh tomato. Blend until smooth. This saves you needing to worry about getting chunks of garlic and ensures and even flavour through the sauce.

Add your blended garlic mix to the food processor and whizz until smooth.
Assembly

Spread the tomato sauce on a base then return base to dehydrator for 1-2 hours

Spread the cashew cheese onto the base, then return to dehydrator (again!) for another 1-2 hours

INGREDIENTS FOR THE ‘MEATBALLS’

* 2 slices of dry wholemeal bread (crusts cut off)
* 1 medium red onion
* 2 cloves garlic
* 1 tbsp fresh mint (or half the amount in dried mint)
* 2 tbsp flat leaf parsley (use a little stem too)
* ½ a grated carrot
* 2 tsp nutritional yeast
* 1 tsp wheatgerm
* 1 tsp vegetable stock granules (use a salted version)
* 1 tsp curry
* ½ tsp cinnamon
* ½ tsp ground cardamon
* ½ tsp coriander seeds
* 3 large mushroom, roughly chopped (and fried)
* 1 tsp egg replacer (mixed with 1 tsp water into a paste)
* 14 pecan halves
* 3 tbsp wholemeal flour
* 1 cup of red quinoa, washed and boiled (remove and drain when ready)
* extra virgin olive oil for frying
METHOD FOR THE BALLS

Start off by placing the bread, nuts, herbs and spices in a food processor, and process until all are very finely chopped. Next, put in the onions, garlic and carrot, and process for a further minute or so.

Add the remaining ingredients, except for the olive oil and quinoa, and process (whilst removing any excess from the sides of the mixer using a spatula). Now add in the cooked quinoa, cooked mushrooms, and egg replacer mix, and process for a few seconds only, so that you are left with a very thick mixture. Remove into a large bowl, and place in the refrigerator for half an hour.

Next sprinkle a large plate with flour, then make sure your hands are totally dry and floured. At this point, begin to take a tablespoon of the meatball mixture at a time, and roll for a few seconds in the palms of your hands, until a ball is formed. Continue to do this, placing the balls on the floured plate, until you have used all the mixture. Sprinkle a little more flour on the top of them, and place them in the fridge for a further 40 minutes or longer if preferrede, so that they bind well prior to frying.

After this, heat a little olive oil in a large non-stick frying plan, and one by one place the balls in the pan, and allow to fry on a medium to low heat, until they are a nice golden brown all over. Then transfer them into an oven-glass, and place in the oven on a low heat. Now it’s time to make the sauce.

SAUCE INGREDIENTS

* extra virgin olive oil
* lots of garlic finely chopped (4 – 5 cloves will do)
* 8 cherry tomatoes, left whole (to compete with the ‘meatballs’ !)
* 4 tbsps tomato puree
* 2 tins (800g) of chopped tomatoes
* a handful of fresh oregano, finely chopped
* salt to taste
* 2 tbsps HP sauce (brown sauce)
* ½ glass of red wine
* ½ tsp fennel seeds
* 1 tsp muscovado sugar

The PCOS journey and fertility

Friday, October 7, 2011

OUTCOME

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

raw foodie dabbler-Raw food recipes"

Monday, February 28, 2011

chick pea,cherry tomato,orange pepper salad

A new take on Dalmas

GREEK STEW

MY favorite vegan meatballs!!

Easy and delicious scrambled eggs