Chili Kale Chips

We have an  abundance of kale at the moment, so it is Kale Chip time. This recipe is from Ani's Raw Food Essential. This is very sweet. Next time we will reduce the agave and increase the chili powder and salt.
Ingredients:
6 ups of kale
3 tablespoons agave
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt (we used 1/4 tsp)
1/2-1 teaspoon chili powder (we used 1/2 tsp) (Ani suggests Chipotle chili powder)

Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix. Add the chili powder to taste.
Dehydrate at 104 for 4-6 hours.

Raw BBQ "meatless" balls

We made mango jalapeno meatball BBQ subs for the hubby and wanted raw BBQ "meatless' ball for us. We found the following recipe at http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/recipes/bbq-22meat-balls22.html and made our modifications to fit our needs and taste. These are some of the best "meatless" balls we have eaten.

Meatball ingredients:
3/4 cup zucchini pulp (left over from juicing)

3/4 cup walnuts, soaked for 6 hours, drained, rinsed (we used soaked pumpkin seeds instead)
3/4 cup almonds, soaked 6 hours, drained, rinsed (soaked sunflower seeds instead)
1 cups marinated (marinade recipe below) portobello mushrooms, chopped small
1/2 Tbsp fresh garlic, minced
2 TBS fresh cilantro, minced
2 TBSp fresh Italian parsley, minced
1/4 cup celery, finely chopped
1/2 cup red pepper, finely chopped
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, minced
1/2 Tbsp fresh oregano, minced
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ginger, finely grated
1/4 cup sweet yellow onion, minced
1 Tbsp sun dried tomato powder

Marinade for Mushrooms 
1/2 cup nama shoyu
2 TBS olive oil
dash black pepper freshly ground

BBQ Sauce is a combination of this recipe and from Ani's Raw Food Essentials p 202 (this makes roughly a pint)
1/2 cup tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soak 2 hours to soften, drain and then chop
3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup sweet yellow onion, chopped
1 tsp garlic, minced
3 whole dates, chopped
1 TBS chili powder
1/3 cup dried mango 

Directions: Chop mushrooms and make the ’Marinade for Mushrooms’ place all ingredients in a separate bowl. Set the marinating mushrooms aside while preparing other ingredients.

Cut and chop all your fresh ingredients. Then place them into a large mixing bowl.

Add dry ingredients to same bowl

Drain and rinse the nuts. Then place them into a food processor. Drain the marinade from the mushrooms and add it (the marinade) to the nuts in the food processor. Blend the ingredients until smooth. Add the zucchini pulp and process the mixture until it takes on a doughy consistency

Remove the nut mixture from the processor and add it to your chopped and dry ingredients bowl.

Add the mushrooms to the meat ball mixture bowl and hand blend well.

Shape the mixture into 2 – 3 inch meat balls. Place on a Paraflexx sheet and dehydrate for 2 hours at 105 degrees.

Prepare BBQ sauce by combining all sauce ingredients in blender, except the mango. Blend until creamy and smooth. Add the mango slowly until desired thickness.

Remove the meat balls from the tray and place in glass baking dish (9 X 13 works great!). Pour some of the barbecue sauce over the meat balls and cover with plastic wrap and continue to dehydrate for 4–5 more hours.

The remaining BBQ sauce can be served on the side with your meat balls. Sauce keeps for 5–7 days in an air tight container in the refrigerator. Any remaining meat balls, should be stored the same way.

Herbal Snacks for Families from Bless Botanicals

We listened to a wonderful webinar last night hosted by Herb Fairies. These are the recipes given by Julie Onnie-Hay

Funky Not Junky Herbal Snacks for Families

Julia Onnie-Hay, Bless Botanicals

www.blessbotanicals.weebly.com

Funky Herbal Food: Herbal High-C
Replaces Junky Foods Like: Kool-Aid or Fruit Punch
Benefits: High in Vitamin C & super easy to make!
Ingredients: Hibiscus Flowers &/or Leaves (dried or fresh), Liquid Stevia or Raw Local
Honey, Water, Spanish Needle Flowers (optional)
Supplies: Glass jar with lid, cups
Instructions: Place Hibiscus Flowers &/or Leaves in the glass jar. Pick some Spanish
Needle Flowers if they are growing close by & add them to the glass jar. Fill glass jar
with water and cover to keep bugs out. Put glass jar in the sunshine for a few hours.
When the water is pink or red, add Liquid Stevia or Raw Local Honey to taste and enjoy!

Funky Herbal Food: Cold STOP! Soda POP!
Replaces Junky Foods Like: Regular or Diet Soda
Benefits: Anti-viral, anti-inflammatory & yummy!
Ingredients: Elderberry Syrup, Ginger Decoction OR Juiced Ginger, Fizzy Water
Supplies: Cups, spoons
Instructions: Combine all three ingredients to taste.

Funky Herbal Food: Green Thumb Popcorn
Replaces Junky Foods Like: Hot Cheetos, Potato Chips, French Fries
Benefits: Packed so full of nutrition, a whole family could live off it while camping at the
Florida Herbal Conference!
Ingredients: Popcorn, Spirulina, Nutritional Yeast, Kelp or Other Seaweed, Cayenne,
Powdered Garlic, Sea Salt
Supplies: Brown Bags
Instructions: Pop the popcorn. Fill brown bag with popcorn. Add all other desired
ingredients one-by-one, shaking bag and tasting popcorn in-between adding new
ingredients.

Funky Herbal Food: Bumble Balm Bomb
Replaces Junky Foods Like: Regular Cookies, Cakes, Pastries
Benefits: Full of Nervine Herbs that help kids (& parents) chill out with getting sleep,
offers a good dose of protein & full of immune-strengthening bee products!
Ingredients: Oats, Raw Local Honey infused with Lemon Balm leaves (dried or fresh),
Bee Pollen, Almond or Other Nut Butter, Cinnamon
Supplies: Plastic baggies or bowls, spoons
Instructions: Put all ingredients into a plastic baggie or bowl and mash up. Either eat
with a spoon out of the plastic baggie or roll into little balls and stick into fridge to get
more solid.

Recommended Resources:
Herb Fairies – Visit HerbFairies.com
Rosemary Gladstar – Herbal Remedies for Children’s Health
Susun Weed – Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year
Lesley Tierra – A Kid’s Herb Book: For Children of All Ages

Raw Jambalaya

We thought we would try a raw version of vegan Jambalaya. We modified the vegan version we have used in the winter from http://cleaneatingchelsey.com/2012/06/12/lentil-jambalaya/
The Cajun Seasoning makes the recipe delicious.

Ingredients: 4 servings

• 4-6 roma tomatoes
• 1 cup soaked sundried tomatoes, add the soaking water.
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1/2  onion, diced
• 1  pepper, roughly chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, roughly chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 1 cup mushrooms, chopped marinaded in the liquid aminos for at least an hour prior to adding to the bowl
• 1 tsp. liquid aminos
• 1 tbsp. Cajun seasoning
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions: add the sundried tomatoes and Roma tomatoes to a food processor to make the base for the Jambalaya. Pulse process, so it is still chunky. Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl. Serve 

Nutritional information:
calories: 123.3
fat: 1.0 g
carbs: 28.6 g
fiber: 7.0 g
protein: 5.1 g

Raw Coconut Lime Tart

We purchased two young coconuts at the farmers market thinking we needed them for one recipe but didn't. The recipe we used  is from The Complete Book of Raw Food with Julie Rodwell as the editor, p. 346

Coconut Lime Tarts
Ingredients:
for the crust
2 cups almond pulp (dried pulp from making almond milk)
1  cup of coconut flour (1.5 cups of dried shredded coconut)
3 TBS honey or maple syrup
2 TBS flaxseed meal
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup melted coconut butter

for the filling
1 cup of coconut meat from ~2 young coconuts (the water we saved and used to make raw carrot cake)
juice from 3-4 limes (3/4 cups)
5-7 large dates

Directions: Combine all crust ingredients in a mixing bowl with 1/4 cup of water, adding coconut butter last. Mix the dough. Divided the dough into 24 balls. Using a small tart pan line the tart pan and press the dough balls into the tart cups, hollowing each cup.
Blend the filling ingredients until smooth
Fill the tart shells.  Chill before serving. They can be decorated with a thin slice of lime or shredded coconut and a pistachio/pumpkin seed.

Juicing verses Smoothies

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-10183/juicing-vs-blending-infographic.html

Raw Spaghetti and Meatless Balls

We love spaghetti and meatballs. The hubby will eat gluten free pasta and meatballs with the marinara sauce recipe below. His will be heated on the stove. We found this raw recipe for meatless balls for the two of us.

Raw Seedy Meatballs

by Michelle Hunt

Prep Time: 10 minutes + Overnight

Ingredients (Serves 2)

• 4 portobello mushrooms
• 1 tbsp tamari or liquid aminos
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup (60g) sunflower seeds
• 2 tbsp (20g) chia seeds
• 1 clove of garlic minced
• 2 tsp fresh oregano
• Small handful of fresh basil
• Zucchini noodles
• Fresh basil to garnish

Instructions

Place portobello mushrooms in a bowl, cover with tamari and apple cider vinegar and leave to marinade for at least one hour. Toss to coat.

Place mushrooms, sunflower seeds, basil, oregano, and garlic in to a food processor and pulse to combine until everything is finely chopped. Place mixture in a bowl and mix with chia seeds. Set to one side for 10 minutes to firm up before rolling in to four medium “meatballs”. Place in the fridge for at least 2 hours but ideally overnight for both flavour and texture purposes.

Serve over a bed of zucchini noodles, raw or slow roasted tomatoes and basil cashew cream. Garnish with fresh basil to serve!

http://peachypalate.com/2013/08/23/no-cook-meatless-meatballs/

The marinara sauce recipe is from  http://www.rawguru.com/recipe13.html

Tomato Sauce

2 cups sun dried tomatoes soaked for 6 hrs.
7 roma tomatoes
4 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbs. red or yellow onion
2 tbs. lemon juice
2 tbs. fresh basil
1 tbs. fresh oregano
2 tsp. fresh thyme
1 tbs. agave nectar or 3 pitted dates

How to: Blend everything together till smooth. Set aside.