Raw Rice

There are a few recipes floating out there for raw versions of rice. I have come to love this rice and I make it weekly to either add to my sushi rolls or eat it with veggies. It's simply delicious, inexpensive and not that hard to make. My daughter loves this, too....and she will even eat it wrapped in nori with avocado. This recipe is from Rawlicious.

3-5 turnips, parsnips, or white yams (I used turnips)
1/4 cup macadamia nuts or pine nuts (I used cashews)
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. Himalayan rock salt (I used sea salt)

Place all the ingredients ina food processor and blend until a ricelike consistency is reached.

"Taco" Meat

Would you believe taco meat could be made from ground walnuts? Hard to believe, yet true! I have created dishes using nut meat and what I hear from people is, "I don't miss the meat." I use this meat with the tostadas I make....even my 3yo loves nut meat. Here's the recipe.

1 1/2 cups raw walnuts, finely ground in a food processor
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. ground coriander
2 tbsp. Nama Shoyu (soy sauce)

In a small mixing bowl, combine the walnuts, cumin, chili powder, and coriander and mix well. Add the Nama Shoy and mix well again.

From the book: RAWvolution

Sprouting

Last night I prepared a dish called, Sprouted Quinoa Salad. It required 3 cups of sprouted quinoa, which led into the discussion of why to sprout and how to go about doing it. First of all, let's talk about that little word with a big punch called.....sprout!

What is it and why do it?

Sprouting is taking any seed or nut and allowing it to germinate. When this happens, they turn into a superfood becoming rich in enzymes, amino acids, minerals and trace minerals and chlorophyll. Because of this, they are able to facilitate digestion, detoxification and weight loss! Sprouts are also healing and therapeutic, cleansing and alkalizing. And guess what else? They are filled with antiaging antioxidants!
When we buy sprouts at the grocery store we can be paying up to TEN times the amount if we were to sprout them at home.

How do I get started?

There are different ways to sprout and several sprouting kits out there, but the easist way is the glass jar method. You take a wide-mouthed Mason jar with the screw top lid and place a screen in between to rinse and drain your seeds. You can buy window screening at Home Depot and cut out some circles to match your jar.....that's what I did. Super easy and cheap! You can also purchase a lid for your jar online that comes with a screen or you can place the screen on your jar with a rubberband around the lip.

Once you've done that, you can place your seeds in the jar, but be mindful that they will expand, so leave room for that process to happen. Place your lid on and fill with filtered water to rinse your seeds. Then flip over and drain. Once all the water has drained, fill your jar with water again and allow your seeds to soak overnight. The next morning, drain and rinse your seeds, leaving the lid on. Once all the water is out of the jar, allow your jar to rest on its side (tipped on slight slant if you can) to allow water to drain. Rinse and repeat twice a day for two days. You should already see your seeds starting to sprout by day one. Harvest them between 3 to seven days by taking them out of their jar and placing them in plastic baggies for refrigeration.

Some of the easiest sprouts to grow are alfalfa, mung beans, broccoli, chickpeas, quinoa, lentils, pea sprouts and wheat seeds. For most sprouts, continue to sprout until they have developed a long tail or their first leaves have begun to go green. Chickpeas, quinoa, pea sprouts and lentils are ready to eat as soon as their tails begin to unfurl or emerge from the seed.

Enjoy your new adventure! I will be selling more sprouting jars in the near future....but I need to go to my dad's basement in Michigan first. ;)

Mexican Fiesta Night

So this weekend was a bit of a whirlwind. I had one raw party on Friday, which was a basics class....turned out to be a wonderful evening and I was asked to possibly make a pasta salad for an event. Nice! From that party, I was asked to do another one by the hostess for the ladies who missed it. I loved how everyone was amazed at how delicious raw food can be.
Last night I had my first themed class, Raw Mexican Fiesta. We started with rawgaritas, then moved to a sprouted quinoa salad. From there we ventured into the entree.....TOSTADAS....which had four parts to it - onion bread, nut meat, nut cheese and a killer salsa! I've come to love this dish! The onion bread is dehydrated, so I was able to show everyone two examples of a dehydrator and encourage investing in one, since it's super easy and you never have to worry about burning your food when you step away from it! We topped off our evening with maca-cacao truffles. Topics of discussion were protein, sprouting, and dehydrating all while the hostess's husband served us cocktails! I remember at one point I had a glass of wine and a margarita in both hands.
Thanks to everyone who attended both events! I had a great time preparing and showing how to prepare all of these delicious meals.