Raw food brownie recipe

Several people have asked for the raw food brownie recipe, so here goes:

Brownies (24 small)

4 1/2 cups fine cashew flour or pecan flour (put the nuts into a mixer to make flour)
3 cups cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup of maple syrup
1/2 cup agave
1 1/2 cups water
3/4 vanilla extract

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well. Put the mixture in a 9 x 13-inch pan lined with parchment paper or plastic wrap. Put the mixture in the pan and spread evenly. Put in dehydrator overnight. Take out the brownies, cut them into two-bite sizes, and turn them upside down. Place them in the dehydrator again for 4-6 hrs.

Enjoy!

Raw food cures for colds and flus

The raw food brownies I made last week were delicious. I did not even have time to take a photo of them before they were gobbled up by my family. I will definitely make these brownies again.

This weekend was a bit slow in our family. I volunteer at I's school in a program called "Read Naturally" where I sit and read with the children. Last week I had two kids with really bad snivels and so on Friday guess who was totally knocked out on the sofa the whole day. Enter raw food smoothies.

Yes, I decided to go completely raw and just vitamin boost my system. Hence green smoothie in the morning, citrus smoothie in the afternoon, and then another smoothie in the evening. I think it did the trick. At least, I would like to believe it did. Saturday and Sunday I was just a bit low and had a sore throat, and today I am good to go.

In the citrus smoothie I put one orange, one tangerine, one clementine, one kiwi, water, and a handful of frozen pineapple chunks. My 2 cents if you are experiencing a bad cold right now.

And, of course I stay away from sugar and dairy too.

Stay healthy out there!

Keeping it up is hard

I have already laid Vail and Colorado behind me and got straight back to working on my business. Some information about Vail is coming in a later blog post once I have transferred my photos to my computer.

With kids back in school, husband at work, and me in front of the computer a lot these days, it is hard to keep up the raw food explorations. I am at the point where I know the basics of raw food, can make a number of dishes, and enjoy trying different things out. However, with less time now that I am a business owner, I wish I just had a larger repertoire of recipes in my head.

That being said, I managed to get the dehydrator going this morning with corn tortillas, buckwheat for porridge, flour, and granola, and, last but not least, brownies. All raw food goodies. It is the first time that I make these brownies so I cannot wait to find out how they taste like. And yes, I have to wait a long time; they will be ready sometime tomorrow drying away as they are in the dehydrator. But then again, all the things I prepared for the dehydrator only took a few moments so it is well worth the wait.

I know that the corn tortilla does not look so tasty but they are, and when you add some salad, olives, tomatoes, and hummus it is better than ordinary wheat bread.

A raw morning

With rain dripping outside my kitchen window and the grayness of the day hanging heavy over me, I thought I badly needed some high energy food to cheer me up. Time to whip up some raw food mixes.

In a jiffy I had made zucchini bread, corn bread, and Brazilian nut and banana pancakes and put into the dehydrator. No photos I am afraid. These mixes tend to look rather drab (can food look drab? well I have just decided it can.) so let's see if I can take a photo once all the food is ready instead.

Raw food is so easy to make. All the above only took a few minutes to prepare and all I needed was a mixer, a spoon, a knife, and a cup. I don't understand why not more people are trying this way to make food. Healthy and delicious and easy to make.

Maybe I should have you over for an introduction to raw. Anyone interested? 

Papaya carpaccio

The Thanksgiving weekend is a long four-day feast of healthy food, book-reading, walks, and socializing for me. So relaxing.

For lunch today I made papaya carpaccio. So easy. Just some mixed salad as a base. Then thinly sliced papaya on top. Squeeze some lime, add some sea salt and olive oil and then sprinkle some pecan nuts on top.

What's for raw-food breakfast during fall and winter?

Many people say that they could never eat raw food because they want to have warm food during winter. I agree and I guess that is why I am not doing raw food all the time. I don't want to miss that nice hot soup during winter, especially after a day out in the cold. And there are other dishes too that I do not want to miss.

So how about breakfast? I would say that most people probably eat cold breakfasts during winter most of the time and drink something hot like tea or coffee.

My raw-food breakfasts during winter consist of a lot of raw food porridge with fruit which works perfectly since it is a bit more filling than a bowl of fruit. And with this I have some hot green tea.

One of my favorite porridge options, which my oldest daughter also willingly eats, is buckwheat with a banana and a date topped with chia seeds and nuts.

The other day I added some raspberries which made the porridge go a bit red.

Add a bit of nut milk and you will last for a long time.

Nearly over

My raw food challenge is nearing its end. On Tuesday I can celebrate that I was disciplined enough to go without cooked food for one month and no fish and meat. And what a challenge it was at times. Standing in the kitchen cooking Pad Thai, Chicken Tacos, and other mouth watering dishes was not easy, but I made sure I had something to snack on while cooking.

So what have I been eating during this month? For breakfast I usually have a bowl of fruit, berries, seeds, nuts, and nut milk or granola. Some mornings when the weather is a bit colder I make porridge based on buckwheat or oat with fruit. And a glass of watermelon juice, which is my favorite drink during summer.

Since I am working, it has been easier to bring my own lunch to work. Usually salad with crackers.

For dinner I make an effort since I have the tools I need, such as my blender and dehydrator.

How about avocado soup with tomatoes.

Or zucchini noodles with marinara sauce and mushrooms.

And during the weekends when I have more time, I make pizza or wild rice and vegetable curry for instance.

So did I noticed any changes to my body? Not as much as I thought. Maybe you have to be on raw food for a longer period of time to notice significant changes. Also, I almost always eat raw food breakfast normally, no gluten, very little dairy and egg, and processed sugar and salt have been removed from our house. I guess the more unhealthy you are the greater the changes. I think the biggest change is the fact of knowing that I am feeding my body with really good and healthy produce and therefore I feel really happy. And for those of you who want to loose weight it is the best diet. You can eat as much as you want and the pounds just fall off. For me, I decided to eat food that contained more calories, such as nuts, olives, and avocados, so that I would not loose too much weight.

I do not think I will do a month of raw food again for the simple fact that I really love fish, shellfish, rice, noodles, and meat. Also, I do not have any health problems that require attention. However, I will try to change the amount of different foods that I put on my plate. How about 60 % salad and then add some rice/pasta/quinoa and meat/fish/chicken. I wish there were more progressive restaurants that took an interest in the health aspect rather than just pouring cream, butter, sugar, salt and other fatty and unhealthy ingredients into their dishes. I guess the best thing is to support the restaurants that do care about health.

For Seattle, these are some of the vegan and raw food restaurants to go to:

• Thrive
• Chaco Canyon
• Graces 5
• Jodee's desserts (I have not actually been here, but next time I go walking around Green Lake I will try it out.)

The easiest raw food strawberry jam ever

It is a very good idea to reduce white sugar in your diet, or actually remove it altogether if you can. If you watch this video about why you should cut down on sugar you might think twice about that next big cupcake that you want to have with your coffee.

When it comes to jam, there is really no reason to buy ready-made jam from stores that contains more sugar than fruit.

Instead you can make your own jam in less than 1 minute. And the only ingredients you need is fruit and dates.

To make strawberry jam, take one cup of strawberries and three dates and mix them together in a mixer or blender until smooth. It is really that easy.

And voilà, the strawberry jam is ready for your breakfast or pancakes.

You can use all kinds of fruit to make raw food jam. Perhaps you want to mix different fruits together.

Remember that it will only keep for about three days in the fridge, so make a small batch if you only plan to use it for one occasion.

Raw food challenge

I think most people in Seattle would agree when I say that the weather has been pretty shitty here for a while. And still is. I have been waiting for warm weather in order to get inspiration to eat more raw food. I fear that I will have to wait for a long time and then, suddenly, summer is over. Therefore I have decided to start my own raw food challenge during July. This means that I will only eat raw vegetables, fruit, seeds, nuts, spices. I have decided to include an occasional glass of wine and green tea. Wish me luck.

This morning I had raw oat meal with banana, pear, dates, cinnamon, and chia seeds. It tastes so much better than it looks.

My 14-year old decided to join me, but she is off to Costa Rica on Friday so it will only be for a few days.

Already at lunch my daughter decided that she cannot only eat raw, but maybe do 30% or so. It would have been nice with the company, but I think you have to be committed for this. Otherwise it won't work.

Lunch (no photo I am afraid) consisted of raw food zucchini and carrot noodles with cherry tomatoes and pesto. And for dessert, I made some brownies with pecan nuts, cacao powder, dates, honey, and a pinch of sea salt. Yummy!

Why Raw Food?

I have started to experiment with raw food. A new world has opened up to me.

Quite a long time ago, I was reading about raw food to learn a bit more about this movement. After a while I realized that there were not enough incentives for me to go down that path. Well, that is what I thought at the time. My experience was that most people who started eating raw food did so mainly out of three reasons; they were overweight, they had some kind of health related problem, or they had environmental reasons (think meat-eating not good for the planet and environment, to cut a long explanation short). The first two reasons did not really apply to me, and although the third reason appealed to me, I felt that I did not need to go raw to reduce my carbon footprint on the Earth.

Then it turns out that my daughters and I all have gluten intolerance which means that we cannot eat wheat, barley, and rye. Also, we cannot eat oat, which does not contain gluten in itself, but can be cross-contaminated during the milling process. Further, I found out that I was allergic to eggs, and should greatly reduce the intake of dairy products based on cow milk, almonds, sesame seeds, yeast, and a few other things. My oldest daughter also had reaction against dairy products and eggs. We are still waiting for lab results as regards to my youngest one. They youngest one is also the one with the worst symptoms.

She started complaining about tummy aches and had eczema in various places on her body, but mainly concentrated on her arms, legs, and cheeks. Occasionally, she also threw up. When she stopped eating gluten, she stopped having tummy aches and throwing up. Her eczema became better, but continued to bother her. Now we are hoping the lab results will tell us about her other allergies, which I am sure she has, so that we can get rid of her eczema.

Just a quick note about my oldest daughter’s and my symptoms. My oldest daughter has only showed tiredness, and so have I. But I have also suffered from iron deficiency off and on throughout my life, and something I would call “acne” related problems. When I went off gluten my skin problems disappeared. Regarding being tired, Zoe and I are still waiting for results, but she is a night owl and have to go to school very early, and I just stay up a bit too late, so it will take time and discipline before there will be any change in that department.

So, as you can see, suddenly there might be a reason to start considering raw food. So what is raw food? Well basically, you are supposed to just eat raw, uncooked food. This means raw vegetables, fruit, nuts, seed, herbs and spices, and grains that have been sprouted. So forget about hot food, meat, fish, dairy, egg, and everything else you eat daily.

A raw foodist most important tools are a mixer, a dehydrator (“torkugn” for you Swedes), a food processor, knives, and chopping boards.

Over the last few months, the content of my kitchen cupboards and fridge have slowly started to change; more nuts and seeds, carob powder, sprouted grains, fruit, and vegetables.

Above everything, I have bought a good mixer to make smoothies, soups, and once I buy a dehydrator I will start exploring how to make tortillas, crackers and bread.

There is no doubt that it is healthy to eat raw food. Raw foodist says they feel great, their skin is glowing, they hardly ever get sick, and they have so much more energy than they used to have. However, there are critics who say that raw foodist do not get enough carbohydrates and protein, but I think it is the same as with any type of diet; you need to make an effort to ensure that you eat a varied diet.

Someone says that they could never go without hot food. A bowl of hot soup and freshly baked bread on a cold winter’s day. Well, maybe you do not have to go 100% raw, but how about 30% or 50%? Or how about just removing some of the food items that are really bad for you.

I am on a raw food exploratory journey. I have no intention of becoming 100% raw, but I would be happy if I had enough energy to become partly raw.

Yesterday dinner consisted of raw pad thai made by sea kelp, thinly sliced basil and cabbage, and a sauce that I made in the mixer (nuts, chili seeds, water, red pepper, coconut oil, and coconut soy sauce) and it was yummy. No photo I am afraid.

It would be great to get feedback on this post.