The Box - Raw Food Delivered to Your Door

We ordered THE BOX! Pictured here is all the food we had delivered from Brooklyn, NY. The Box contains a cooling bag with a re-usable cold pack to keep the raw food cool. Inside were plastic sealed bags for each food - two soups, four sides, four entrees, and two desserts. The packaged food is labeled and you even get a blip-and-save "coupon"! Save several of these and you can redeem them for a Box.

I found out about the box from Matt Amsden's Rawvolution book. The uncookbook has several great pictures that whet anyones appetite for raw food. I ordered The Box this week because the Big Matt w/ Cheese was on the menu, also pictured in his book. It's one recipe I wanted to try, but not make... so, this week was the week for The Box.

We opened four packages for supper today and tried to place them neatly on a dish. Today's supper is Scarborough Fair Soup, Egg-less Egg Salad, Broccoli Salad, and Coconut Haystacks. Our favorite is the egg-less egg salad. And, of course, the dessert. It was all absolutely delicious! Kurt is literally licking the plate!!!

This food is so simple and very much in its natural state... who would have guessed we would be enjoying it this much! ...maybe its because we know just how good whole, natural food is for our bodies. Our maybe our bodies have felt the difference... our minds know... and our taste buds have been 'trained'! Which reminds me... next Wednesday, Dave McNeill invited us to a lecture at Janelia Farms in Ashburn, VA. The lecture is “Common Sense about Taste - from the Tongue to the Brain: How We Transform Sensation into Perception” given by Charles S. Zuker, Ph.D. He discovered the receptors that... detect sweet, sour, bitter, and umami (which is probably spicy receptor). He is working on the "salt receptor". We plan on attending!

Back to the Box... some of the food looks pretty 'sad' in the plastic wrap, but just fix it on the plate with garnish and it's good. I didn't wait for that... so we ate our soup from a cup! Well, at least we used a spoon.

I don't think we'll be doing this often (given the price), but it sure was nice try the food. Click here to order your box.

Homemade Pickles (vinegar free)

"Careful when you open a jar of these; the only way to stop eating them is to finish the jar" - David McNeill

When our friend, David McNeill, served these pickles to us, I couldn't believe how good they were. So, today, we are making them. They will be ready in 24-48 hours. Yumm!

Click here for the recipe which was posted on Gone Raw.

Backpacking Assateague

Backpacking Assateague was like backpacking a dessert with cold wind coming from the direction of the Atlantic Ocean. Brrrrr. Even with this blazing fire we were still cold.

The wild horses in the park were quite tame. Here is one I could see from my tent. Park regulations don't allow us to pet them.

Overall, it was a fun trip with no biting mosquitos Assategue is known for, chemical toilets, good exercise, just enough warm clothing (day & night), huddling around a fire with Craig's leftover 2x4 & 2x6s, and a big tent to get us out of the cold temperature and in for a game of Rook.

Reaching Hearts International: Raw Food Class

We hope you enjoyed the raw food class. Here are links to most of the recipes...and then some. Please print the recipes out or put a bookmark to them (and not to our website), since this website changes constantly. Thank you. You can always email us if you have questions or need more resources.

Note: Some recipes (if not all) may not use all raw ingredients. But, they are certainly "high" in raw ingredients! Sample of non-raw ingredients are spices, almonds (see Almond Board of California about pasteurization), bulgar, agar, braggs, lecithin.

Lebanese Layered Salad
Equipment: None
Click here for recipe. Makes for a beautiful display. Use first cold-pressed olive oil.


Date Nute Torte
Equipment: Food processor
Click here for recipe. Top with raspberries.


Mango Cheesecake by CheFlandria
Equipment: Food processor & high-speed blender like the VitaMix or BlendTec
Click here for recipe. Irish moss is hard to find. Instead, I used one tablespoon agar and 3/4 cup boiling water, later cooled before adding the rest of the ingredients. Top with raspberries. This recipe freezes quite well. To make almond milk:

Almond Milk for Cheesecake
1/3 cup almonds
1 1/2 cup water
Blend. Squeeze almond milk through a cheesecloth or nut milk bag. You will need about 1 to 1 1/2 cups almond milk for the cheesecake.

Famous Onion Bread by Matt Amsdem
Equipment: Food processor, dehydrator, & optional mandolin/spiral slicer
Click here for recipe. Try vidalia onion or sweet yellow onion for this recipe. If the mixture is not mixed thoroughly, the bread will turn out crumbly. Look for a subtle milky, white-ish color.

Spicy "Bean" Tacos by Sarma Melngailis & Matthew Kenney
Equipment: Dehydrator & food processor
Click here for recipe. In class, we had these with the sunflower sour cream recipe which follows:

Sunflower Sour Cream:
1 2/3 cups water
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1 1/3 cups raw sunflower seeds ( or cashews)
1/3 cups lemon juice

Blend all ingredients well until very smooth. Refrigerate. Good served as a salad dressing or as a dip for raw cauliflower and broccoli.

Vietnamese Zoodle Salad, inspired by a cooked dish
Equipment: Small blender & optional spiral slicer
Click here for recipe.


Cucumber Dressing by Jurea Dawson
Equipment: High-speed blender for creamy dressing
There is no link to Jurea's Cucumber Dressing recipe but here is one similar, just search for Creamy Cucumber Dressing. There are so many ways to make this recipe. You can use cashews for a fruit dip or sunflower seeds for a salad dressing. You can add more cucumber. You can add more lemons for 'taste'. You can use raw honey or agave. But, skip the garlic salt altogether. Play with it.

Coconut Macaroons
Equipment: Optional dehydrator
Based on a recipe by Sarma Melngailis & Matthew Kenney
This recipe is yummy, fast, easy-to-make dessert and does not use maple syrup like the original recipe.
Coconut Carob Macaroons
3.5-5 cups dried, shredded coconut flakes
1/2 cup carob powder
1 cup agave
1/2 teaspoon maple syrup extract (alcohol free)
2 Tbsp cup almond pulp (optional)
1 Tbsp vanilla extract (alcohol free)
1/2 tsp sea salt
Combine 3 cups coconut flakes and all the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well. Add more coconut so the mixture is not too wet nor too dry. Form into small truffle-sized balls. Optional: Dehydrate at 115F for 12 hours.

Sprouting
Refer to SproutPeople.com for sprouting.
We buy our sprouts from Sprout Man and we have had a good experience with successfully sprouting their seeds.


Raw Food 'Essential' Ingredients
A list of ingredients you may want to add to your grocery list to make raw recipes!
* Greens, greens, greens! Vary your greens. Try kale, chard, collard greens. Yes, you can eat them raw! Try marinating or wilting.
* Fruits and vegetables.
* Agave
* Dates
* Coconut butter/oil
* Lemons/Limes
* Flaxseed
* Nuts/Seeds like sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds
* Cashews
* Sea salt or a wet salt like Celtic salt

Places to Shop for Raw Ingredients
You can buy special raw products online or locally. Here are a few:
* Natural Zing.com They are in Maryland and carry the Spirooli (spiral slicer). You'll find unpasteurized almonds here, as well as raw carob and raw shredded coconut!
* Roots Market in Olney and Clarksville, MD. An organic market that is also raw food friendly! They have raw crackers, cookies, bars.
* My Organic Market I found the one in Elkridge, MD that sells steam pasteurized almonds that will still sprout. In other words, raw & living.
* The Common Market in Frederick, MD. You can find raw agave, coconut oil/butter, nuts, grains, seeds, first cold-pressed olive oils, and more.
* Whole Foods You can find most ingredients here like raw nuts, seeds, and first cold-pressed oils.

Local Raw Food Restaurant
The nearest all-raw-food restaurant is Loving Life Cafe, opening Summer 2008 in Hanover, PA. I think they are not re-opening the one in New Oxford. They have the best ice cream and cheesecake! We took a raw class there, but it was a very basic course. It was fun, but the class I teach you has so much more information in it! However, I do encourage you to learn more about raw foods, health, and nutrition... then, share what you've learned!

[UPDATE, 04/24/09]  We have since found these local restaurants which offer raw food dishes on their menu!   Java Green Cafe , Senbeb Cafe, and Great Sage.  Great Sage recently offers a night of raw dinner with guest speakers.  They just started in April 2009.

Loving Life Cafe is no longer in business.

Some Common Raw Kitchen Appliances/Tools
Food processor, sprout jars, nut milk bags, dehydrator, juicer, high-speed blender, spiral slicer, mandolin slicer, salad spinner, salad crisper, coffee grinder (for small seeds and spices), and a good knife to break open coconuts.

Germinate
Remember, all ingredients use germinated nuts, grains, and seeds. ...except for a few like flax, cashews, almonds. Flaxseed is simply ground and added to recipes... probably because soaking them would end-up in a goopy texture. Sometimes cashews are soaked in water, but only for a short time. Almost all almonds are pasteurized now, so if you cannot find unpasteurized almonds, there is no need to germinate/soak them for recipes. See Almond Board of California about pasteurization.

Less Green Smoothies

The green smoothies we were drinking daily stopped about Day 55. It seemed that digestion had slowed... I later found out that all the fiber in the green smoothies was slowing our digestion. We weren't drinking enough water! I know I wasn't drinking my 64 oz. of water a day. Lesson learned. I think we'll alternate between green smoothies and no green smoothies... but since we stopped, we haven't drank one yet! *funny* how that is. But, we did notice we craved greens. All I wanted was a salad or a salad burrito. And, I could just gobble up the cilantro all by itself, and I didn't want the other non-green ingredients. This is a *strange* affect considering I have such a sweet tooth.

The Voice in the Wilderness Mission

In April, I had a cleanse done at The Voice in the Wilderness Mission. Many of you have already heard me talk about it. I did journal while I was there, so if you're curious about it... send me an email. The mission just updated their website, and it is much nicer and has more information than before. I went for a 10-day cleanse (nothing invasive), and it was the most intense cleanse I ever had. The cost was under $2,500 (which is very reasonable) and the results were amazing. Some of the people I met that were doing the cleanse were their for weight loss. I did hear stories about a woman with cancer who did the cleanse twice a year and got 6 more years to her life; the doctors told her she had months to live. Then, there was a story of a women who had the cleanse so that she could get pregnant; two months after the cleanse, she was pregnant!

After a cleanse, there is still maintenance to do at home (on your own), like eating less sweets, no snacking, food combining, etc... but, in the meantime you feel so great! And 6 months later, it catches up to you. Which is why the mission recommends to return after 6 months for a mini-cleanse. I have not returned because I can do a similar mini-cleanse at home and it has been beneficial. Talking about this is reminding me I need another mini-cleanse. But, I would rather change my diet than do a mini-cleanse. If that doesn't work (because I'm not eating the right foods and exercising), then I'll do a mini-cleanse.

So why cleanse? You want the waste out so toxins do not build-up in the body. Essentially, that's what the cleanse at the mission was, along with some 'building up'. We don't realize how important it is to digest our food properly and for the waste to make its way out at a reasonable time. The waste must come out! And diet helps that, as well as exercise and water. Click here to see their website. If you do contact them, please be patient since they are busy people and can be hard to get a hold of over the phone.

Don't You Just Want to Take a Bite

Mango Cheezecake!



Yup, it IS tropically delicious. It is absolutely amazing. The almost tangy mango glaze on top was a nice compliment to the sweet filling. It turned out a little sweet, so I thought a couple bites is about all I could handle. Instead, it left me wanting for more. I will definitely be making this for my next raw food classes. For the recipe, I used agar instead of irish moss. The texture is a bit soft and may not hold up well for too long. It could be because I didn't blend the filling long enough in the high-speed blender. I put the rest in the freezer to get a nice clean cut serving and to store for longer enjoyment. It freezes well. Prepared raw food (not dehydrated nor germinated) lasts four to five days in the refrigerator. Eating this whole cheezecake within 4 days is too much for us. So, while it's still in the freezer, stop by and visit us... we'll share!

Click here for Mango Cheesecake recipe.

Here is another raw bread we made... Mediterranean Almond Bread:

Onion Bread & Avocado

Here it is! The yummy (yet salty) onion bread with avocado. We will be serving this at our next raw food class.

Right now, a raw mango cheesecake is setting in the refrigerator. I remember my baking days... My family and I would make brownies, birthday cakes, banana nut breads (usually not from scratch). We'd pour the batter into the pan and the bowl was left with a batter. I never licked the bowl; the thought of eating processed food or egg in its uncooked state was not something I wanted to dip my fingers and eat, even if it had chocolate. I waited patiently until it was baked before I would taste it. A true chef would probably taste the batter. Fortunately, with raw food batters, I can taste my food before it gets put into the fridge, served, or while its being prepared. (except for recipes requiring dehydration since dehydrating concentrates flavors). So, it's easy to tell what will turn out good, bad, and exceptional. The mango cheesecake is exceptional! Soon, I will post the recipe and a picture of the deliciously glazed mango cheesecake.

47 Green Days

I may have skipped one day, but 47 days of green smoothies made with lots of dark leafy greens, water, and a couple fruits is finally showing results! My cravings for sugar has reduced significantly and my tolerance for the amount of sweetness in a dessert has decreased. Before, the sweeter it was, the more I liked it. I still eat sweets, but I now crave salty things like tostada chips. Pass the sea salt please. What a complete turn around. I am pleased with the results. I also feel our nutritional needs are being met since we find that we are less... Hungry? We still eat the free donut and bagel at work for breakfast on Wednesday; the rest of our diet hasn't changed much (from before green smoothies). We typically eat two meals a day, so it's a great feeling to have our appetite satisfied... all by green smoothies and, at times, not feel like we need a third meal.

Basic green smoothie recipe (makes 2-4 servings)
6-8 cups dark edible leafy greens and/or edible weeds
2-4 cups filtered water
2-3 handfuls of fresh or frozen fruits of choice
Blend all in a high-speed blender.

Onion Bread

We are making onion bread. Here is the flattened mixture of ground flax seed, ground sunflower seeds, and onions finely sliced with the spirooli. The bread sticks together by the thinly sliced onions and the flax when moistened with first cold-pressed olive oil and Braggs aminos. We are about to pop it into the dehydrator for 24 hours or more. I've almost forgotten what it tastes like, and I want to know if it will go well with the wilted kale. We plan to demonstrate and serve this at the upcoming living foods class. I recently became part of the Reaching Hearts health ministry team and I will probably teach a living foods class there. To visit our church website, go to www.reachinghearts.org or to hear one of Pastor Oxentenko's sermons, go to Reaching Your Heart Radio (I recommend: When "Why" Won't Work and The 666 Fix)

Onion Bread Recipe

Wilted Kale Recipe

Sprouted Peas

A before-and-after picture of organic green snow peas. They are 3 1/2 days old and have even begun to grow a 2nd tail. This sprouted bunch was less than half the size before sprouting. There are so many to eat, we had them wrapped in a chile tortilla with red leaf lettuce for breakfast. (no time o make a delicious hummus for it this morning) To learn how to sprout, check out www.sproutpeople.com

Day 30 of Green Smoothies

Today is day 30 of green smoothies. Our goal was to reach 30 days, but we will continue the green smoothies. Today's smoothie has plenty of spinach, water, mango, pineapple, and orange juice. Spinach is rich in iron. Mango is good for blood sugar levels. Pinneapple has bromelain (enzyme) to aid in the digestion of protein, and of which is more concentrated in the core of the pineapple. And orange juice for vitamin C to aid in the absorption of iron.

Recipe:
7 cups spinach
2.5 - 3 cups filtered water
1 mango
1 cup pineapple
2 Tbs orange juice
Blend in a high speed blender until liquified.

Yesterday's smoothie was yummy:
7 cups mixed spring salad
2.5 - 3 cups filtered water
1 banana
2 kiwi, with skins (ends chopped)
1 bosc pear
Blend in a high speed blender until liquified.

Another favorite smoothie:
7 cups mixed spring salad, spinach, and/or chard
2.5 - 3 cups filtered water
1 mango
Handful of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries
2 Tbs orange juice
Blend in a high speed blender until liquified.

Afterward, we eat mini bliss-full blueberry cheesecake made from blueberries, cashew, coconut butter, agave, carob powder, lemon juice, and sea salt. Slightly modified from the recipe on http://thesunnyrawkitchen.blogspot.com

Day 13 of Green Smoothies

Mixed greens, mache (lamb's lettuce), dandelion, mint, fuji apple, & dried pineapple.

Water and Stuff

Ok, I need my own blog... before I take over this joint blog (Kurt & Melissa) and make it all about health! I just saw this on We Like It Raw. It's about the amount of water we use; click here.

Then, you should check this out... and because people have asked us what we're doing, I've decided to post here... but you have to watch the Story of Stuff first; click here.

(Kurt) It took a generation or so to become this way in the first place, so it will take a generation or so to go back to the way we were 100 years ago. The problem is most people consider being less of a consumer a step back, lowering our living standards, or even unpatriotic. This anti-consumerism also shouldn't (even if it could) happen over night because if it did, millions of people would be out of jobs creating just as big social problems. What do people do if they aren't making stuff that will end up getting thrown away? The same thing we did 100 years ago... farming, along with other "third world" activities. So you can see why many people think this would be a reduction in living standards.

What are we doing? Well, we have already stopped buying things we don't need. Years ago I committed myself to not buying things I don't really need. I use the stuff I have until it really can't be used anymore. As much as I want a new cell phone, mine is still working and with a new battery will probably still work another three years, even if the face is cracked a bit. Even though we don't have curb-side recycling in our neighborhood, we've found out where to take our recyclables, so we're doing that now. Instead of throwing away usable stuff, we put it on Craigs list or freecycle. Gotten rid of some obsolete but perfectly usable stuff that way, and it's still getting used! And the people there are just as committed to using, re-using, and recycling. So that's a start. We've converted many of our light fixtures to compact fluorescent bulbs, bought energy star kitchen appliances, use less energy for cooking (since we eat more raw), we carpool almost everywhere we go, our water heater is turned down to 120 degrees, we use a programmable thermostat that saves us a bunch on energy bills, and we dress warmly in the winter. We sometimes ride our bikes to work and walk to the grocery store. If we could, we'd be composting our trash (80% is compostable). I'm switching our bills to electronic billing so there will be less printing and mailing (not to mention reduced possibility for interception by fraudsters). Next year we plan to support CSA--community supported agriculture. We pay a fixed fee and a local farm grows organic food for us. Pretty neat, huh?

As for tips/ideas...
Recycling is the last of the three R's. Re-use is even better than recycling, and reducing is even better than re-using. If it never is manufactured in the first place, then there are many fewer problems downstream. So, the most helpful thing you can do is to reduce consumption; if nobody buys junk, they'll make less of it (eventually). Buy quality goods that last a long time and aren't designed to be thrown away and/or replaced.

(Melissa)
As far as cleaning... Sometimes I use lemon peels to clean our tub. But, it's rare. We take 12 lemons that were juiced and throw them into the tub full of water. After several hours (overnight or after work), I drain and wipe. It takes a little elbow power at first. But, more lemon cleanses like that, and it would be good. We eat a lot of lemons when on the raw food diet, so this is feasible for us. We use glycerin soap w/ a loofa to wash... and I don't get any soap scum at all. So, it takes a while before the tub needs cleaning. Nice! Also, I wash my hair every 2nd day or 3rd day.

I also use a Thai stone for deodorant. None of the natural ones worked for me at all... I always had to switch back to the regular anti-perspirants with aluminum. But, this stone works wonders... even put it through the test of working out with it. It costs $8... but it is said to last YEARS! Also, lemon peels work too... but I haven't tried that; I like my stone.

I dry my clothes indoor on a wire rack... except sheets, towels, and whites. We are saving the lint from the dryer... and later we'll mix it with wax to make a fire-starter for the camp fire.

There are more improvements we can make... but, I'm not as "green" as Kurt.

But, we do use more energy with a toaster oven and dehydrator... since we don't have a microwave that will *zap* our food in seconds (thank goodness).

Plus, it's greener to be vegan than it is to own a green car!

More On Greens

I want to write more on the lecture we attended yesterday. Victoria recommended green smoothies to return HCl levels in the stomach back to a normal range. From what I remember (in the lecture), it takes 30 days of green smoothies for this to happen. A high-speed blender, like the Vita-Mix or BlendTech, was recommended to break the fibrous greens down to a size that the body can digest 'more easily'... since afteral, low HCl prevents you from digesting food well. If one cannot digest the smoothie, then juicing should be done.... and later move "up" to a green smoothie.

She also recommended not to eat one kind of green for 3 months... but recommended a variety of greens. This was important. (Email me for details.) Stinging Nettle is the richest green in iron. Dandelion is richest in calcium. (Although, I thought it was lambs quarters greens.) And, I'm planning to add some of these to our greens... although, I hope they are not too bitter. Unlike a juiced green, green smoothies can last for 3 days, oxidizing slower than a juiced green since the fiber in the smoothie slows down the oxidation. So, making 2 batches of green smoothies a days sounds like a great idea! Less work.

Other things she mentioned... greens have more amino acids (building blocks of protein) than... other foods. WoW.

We're starting with what she recommended, that is 1-2 bunches of greens a day... or that in 2 qts of a smoothie. This morning, Kurt blended a lot of mixed greens, with one apple, a handful of grapes, and about less than one cup of water. It served two tall glasses. And, it was yummy. I'm waiting for day 10 when my cravings should go away... I have such a strong sweet tooth.

Another fascinating thing was when she mentioned that whatever babies eat between 9-18 months, that is what they crave for, for the rest of their life. I'd like to see that research!

Valya (Victoria's daughter) also talked about being raw as a child. She gained clear thinking and got straight A's in school after being raw for 2 months. She also found school boring, so she began homeschooling. She finished school at the age of 14... went to college has a Bachelors of Arts in Fine Arts. She is now 21. She has a great story. I recommend attending one of the lectures. Check out their calendar on their website: http://www.rawfamily.com/

Greens Can Save Your Life

Today, we prepared 2 nut pates and a green salad with cucumber dressing for the raw potluck. Victoria & Valya Boutenko spoke about the importance of greens in our diet. Greens, not to be confused with vegetables. They had a wealth of information that was just the tip of the iceburg. We are going to start drinking green smoothies everyday for some time. And, mixing with some fruit or fruit juice. No need to worry about food combining of fruits and vegetables... These are not vegetables, but GREENS! Victoria mentioned that when combining vegetables (aka root vegetables, not geens) with fruit, it is the starch in the vegetable... when mixed with the sugar in the fruit... that causes fermentation.

Raw "Bean" Enchiladas

After a brisk walk on the W&OD trail this evening, Melissa and her mother made Raw "Bean" Enchiladas. Bean is in quotes because they don't really have beans in them. The "beans" are mainly a mix of soaked sunflower seeds and miso. The tortillas-- made from corn, flax seed, and bell pepper--will be ready after four to six hours in the dehydrator at 115 degrees.