Mia, 22, Sweden. Trying to live a healthier and happier life.
Simple Instructions on Sprouting and Soaking Nuts and Seeds
If you’ve started reading raw cookbooks, you’ve probably noticed that soaking nuts and seeds is a pretty common practice!
The main reason soaking nuts and seeds is so important is because they contain enzyme inhibitors.
The purpose of these enzyme inhibitors is to protect the nut or seed until it has what it needs for growing.
Nature allowed the inhibitors and toxic substances to be easily removed when the conditions (enough rain and sun) were met.
In nature, when it rains the nut gets enough moisture so it can germinate and produce a plant. The plant then continues to grow with the sunlight.
By soaking nuts and seeds, you release these toxic enzyme inhibitors AND increase the life and vitality contained within them!
The Benefits of Soaking Nuts and SeedsEnzyme inhibitors get neutralized.
The amount of vitamins your body can absorb increases.
Gluten breaks down so digestion is much easier.
Phytic acid, which inhibits the absorption of vital minerals, is reduced.
Soaking times vary with the nut. Generally the more dense the nut, the longer the soaking time. Ideally, soaking should be done at room temperature.
Soaking Nuts and Seeds
Gather your raw, organic nuts or seeds.
Rinse them in purified or distilled water.
Place them in a glass or stainless steel bowl.
Cover with twice as much water as the nuts or seeds. (1 cup of nuts to 2 cups of water).Cover the bowl with something breathable like a cloth towel.
Drain and rinse the nuts or seeds every 3 or 4 hours.
The soak water will contain the enzyme inhibitors which is very acidic to the body so make sure to rinse your nuts and seeds well.
Sprouting Nuts and SeedsFollow the process above for soaking nuts and seeds.
Place the soaked and rinsed nuts or seeds in a sprouting jar. You can get this online or at a health food store.
Cover the jar with screening, cheesecloth, or sprouting lids.
Put the jar face down, at an angle in a low light place. A dish rack or a high rimmed bowl works well because it allows the excess water to drain out.Rinse every 8 hours. To rinse: Fill jar with water. Shake vigorously. Drain. Repeat 2-3 times.
Make sure you drain the jar well. Seeds
that sit in water can spoil the whole jar!Once sprouting begins, place in a sun lit area. Don’t place in direct sunlight though. Continue to rinse every 8 hours.
Let the sprouts grow for the suggested number of days.
After the final rinse, let the sprouts dry completely! They should be dry to the touch. This is very important! Refrigerated produce dies quickly.
The sprouts can then be stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 weeks.
(via yummyrawfood)
I turned my parents deck into an edible garden! Romaine lettuce, Arugula, & Spinach for now. Also got a Goji berry bush (which looks dead now but is seasonal). I also recently planted carrots, tomatoes, & parsley. Here’s the transformation from the past six weeks! All organic vegan soil. Good compost + wormcastings + lots of love = happy plants. Time to harvest some :)
Raw Tacos!
Recipe here:
http://mynewroots.blogspot.com/2011/07/raw-taco-fiesta.html
(Source: yummyrawfood, via motiveweight)
Raw chocolate and banana ice cream cups
Ingredients:
For chocolate cups:
- 120g/1cup buckwheaties
- 20g/3tbsp cacao powder
- 3 medjool dates
- 75ml/1/3 cup water
- For sauce:
- 25g/2tbsp tahini
- 10g/1½tbsp cacao powder
- 1 medjool date
- c. ¼ cup water
For ice-cream:
- 250g 3 frozen bananas (you should break these into chunk and place into a freezer bag before freezing)
- 1/2 vanilla pod (optional)
Preparation:
Make the chocolate cups:
• In the processor process half the buckwheaties to a flour.
• Into a bowl place the whole buckwheaties, the buckwheat flour, and the cacao.
• Put 3 dates into the processor and add the water. Process into a sticky jam-like mixture.
• Add the date mixture to the buckwheat and cacao and work together well until you have a sticky dough.
• Line the base and side of four 3-inch muffin tins with the mixture.
• Place these into the freezer while you make the other parts of the dish.Make the sauce:
• In the processor, combine the tahini, cacao and dates, adding the water bit by bit until you have thick and creamy sauce.Make the ice-cream:
• Take the banana chunks out of the freezer. Leave them in the bag and break them up – this will be too difficult to do if you take them out as they are really cold!.
• Working quickly, deseed the vanilla (if using) and put to one side.
- If you are using a juicer:
• Put the banana chucks through the masticating juicer, catching the resulting ice-cream in a bowl. Add the vanilla seeds and mix well, work quickly!
- If you are using a food processor:
• Add the chucks of frozen banana and vanilla seeds to the bowl and process, including a piece of fresh banana if needed to help the processor.Assemble the dish:
• Upturn the chocolate cups to get them out of the muffin cases and place on your serving dish.
• Scoop a generous spoonful of banana ice-cream into each chocolate cup.
• Pour over a smooth and creamy portion of sauce.
(via maristy)
I could eat at this place! Hey I do have a smoothie page if you haven’t already noticed it.. click here x
(Source: fashionnistta)
Tonight’s smoothie
Recipe: 3 pears, 4 celery sticks, half a cucumber, big lump of fresh ginger root, and water.
Vegetable pasta. Favorite new dish? Definitely.
Ever since my obsession with carrot pasta first began, I have been searching for other vegetables to make a “pasta” dish. Luck was on my side because I stumbled upon this beautiful picture from the Kitchen Confidante. The different colors were a feast to my eyes! Unlike the Kitchen Confidante, I did not make a sauce, but I am sure the noodles would have tasted amazing with anything since the vegetables absorb lots of flavor. Maybe next time? This dish is unbelievably easy to make and healthy! It took me a little over fifteen minutes to make.
- Wash the vegetables, then dry.
- Use a julienne peeler to form noodle shapes from the zucchini, squash, and carrot. I peeled the entire vegetables.
- Steam the noodles.
- Once cooked, place the noodles in a bowl and top with freshly grated parmesan cheese and some lemon juice.
Use Parma!
(via vegpocalypsenow)
Only humans and domesticated animals eat cooked and processed foods. The cooking and processing of food has become so common that most of us do not even consider questioning it. Raw food is plant-based, uncooked food - the way nature provides it to us.
Cooking means heating anything beyond about 116.6F. Why 116.F? At this temperature enzymes in food begin to be destroyed. It is easy to test whether you have breached this temperature threshold, if your finger can’t stand the heat, your food can’t either.
What are plant-based foods?
* fruits
* vegetables
* nuts
* seeds
* herbs
* flowers
* leaves
* seaweeds
* superfoods
* sprouts
When you look at what is done to food before it is eaten, you can only conclude that people believe nature has made a mistake. We get fresh, natural food and alter it. Mother nature does not need to be taught how to feed us. We need to realize that the Earth provides us with everything we need for our time here, and by tampering with what she provides, we compromise the quality of our food, health, and planet.
Why Eat Raw Foods?
Ucooked foods provide us with more nutrients. The cooking process has been shown to destroy nutrients. The higher the temperature, the more nutrients are destroyed. Low-temperature dehydration is the best method for warming or drying your food. Most food is cooked at well over 320F. At such high temperatures up to 80 percent of the nutritional value of food is lost and replaced with toxic waste.
Here is a summary of some of the research findings regarding cooking and its effect on food:
* Heat-sensitive vitamins like vitamin C and the B vitamins, including B12, are destroyed.
* Good fats become bad fats and eventually turn into trans fats, the higly toxic type of fat formed in baking and frying.
* 50 percent or more of the bioavailability of minerals is lost when mineral-rich foods are cooked, and is replaced with toxic waste.
* A known human carcinogen called acrylamide is formed in the high-temperature cooking of carbohydrates and protein.
* When more than 50 percent of your meal (by weight) is cooked, your body experiences an increased white blood cell count. This means that your immune system has been activated to fight a potential threat: the unrecognizable food you just ate!
* Cooking destroys the electrical charge of the cells of our food. Our cells in turn lose their charge and can’t function properly.
* Red blood cells clump together and can’t efficiently carry oxygen or detoxify the body.
Because of the destruction of all enzymes, cooked food requires far more energy to digest. Animal foods, especially meat, are considered the most energetically draining to try and digest.
Cooking also increased the acid-forming nature of food. Our internal acid-alkaline balance is one of our primary health balances. If our bodies become too acidic, diease follows. If our bodies are alkaline, disease cannot take hold. We are not acidified just by food; stress, environmental toxins, medication, dehydration, and negative emotional states all have an acidic effect. Alkaline forming foods include green leaves, fruits, vegetables, herbs, sprouts, and sea vegetables.
What you are reading now is simply information. If you test out these concepts and practice the principles, you will have personal experience, which is wisdom. The benefits of eating a plant-based raw diet are many, but until you experience them for yourself they are just stories.
One of the most common benefits of going raw is a feeling of lightness and clarity. It’s as if a cloud lifts off the mind. Emotions become more stable; it becomes easy to smile for no apparent reason. A sense of anxiousness and uncertainty vanishes and is replaced by a calm, centered confidence and feeling of connectedness. On a physical level, many chronic conditions show remarkable improvement and true healing occurs. The quality of skin, nails, and hair improves. Recovery time for exercise greatly improves and stamina and strength increase. The body naturally and easily releases excess weight. You produce far less garbage at home and the so-called waste becomes compost, which continues the circle of life. Colds and flue become a thing of the past. Your body is able to adjust to changing seasonal temperatures more easily. You eat less food as hunger is truly satisfied - a feeling of being content. The list goes on and on.
Our potential for health and wellness is truly amazing. Act, experience, and know!
-Excerpt from Rawlicious by Peter and Beryn Daniel
Submitted by: sun-hawk
(Source: yummyrawfood)
Raw lettuce wraps
(via yummyrawfood)
Chocolate Pudding
- 1 medium avocado
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup agave
- 1/3 cup pitted dates
- 1/4 cup cacao powder
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla
Blend all ingredients in a blender, until smooth and creamy.
For Orange Chocolate Pudding:
Sub orange juice for the water. Add 1/2 teaspoon orange zest.
(via yummyrawfood)
Mixed bean sprout salad
(via yummyrawfood)
Healthy Strawberry Banana Ice Cream
Simply blend and freeze the following ingredients
1 small banana
1 cup strawberries
⅓ cup almond milk
(source: rawfoodnation.org)
