Macro-Raw Harmony

Make a conscious decision to see harmony where others choose to find contradictions

Raw food purist and macrobiotic teachers may both be appalled by my combination of the two paths to health. I have experienced times in my life living completely macrobiotic and others 100% Raw. During both extremes I felt great health, but never the total overall wellness that I do now being the macro-raw foodist. Each of these diets have documented healing every illness known and improved the health of millions.
Let's take a look at two food pyramids designed to sum up the diets.





In common they are plant based diets, mostly vegan with naturally sourced whole organic foods. On the raw food pyramid living leafy greens and fruits make up the base. The macro version base is whole grains and vegetables. Science has shown certain vegetables like spinach and broccoli to contain possibly harmful compounds in their raw state. Lightly steaming these may also provide greater amounts of antioxidants like beta-carotene and other carotenoids. Living raw foods with enzymes still intact are easily digested and super charge your bodies energy. Studying the pyramids and their many contradictions can leave ones head spinning. I have chosen to pick out the similarities in common and base my week on harmonious food choices. My raw food meals leave me feeling free and super-charged. In balance my macro meals ground and balance my body. I wish for my macro-raw way to bring others peace and harmony and the gift of total wellness!

I shared this salad with a friend today over some much needed catching up, wonderful conversation, and laughter. She added a macro cooked millet with apples to the side to round out the meal. I adapted the recipe by Diana von Cranach found in Purely Delicious Raw Food Lifestyle Magazine's Spring 2010 issue. It's Asian flare combines nicely with macro-raw style.

Asian Slaw
3 C Carrots, grated
1 t Cumin
1 t Garlic Powder
1 t Coriander
1 t Cloves
1 t Freshly Ground Black Peppercorns
1 T Raw Honey
1/4 C Lime Juice
1 Red Onion, sliced
2 T Raw Cashews
1 t Black Sesame Seeds
Meat of 1 Thai Baby Coconut
1 Small Red Asian Chili, diced

Combine all of the ingredients(except for the nuts, sesame seeds, and coconut meat) to make the slaw.

Take an organic clean dark green Chinese or Russian Kale and chop it into bite size pieces. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and sea salt over the greens. Lightly massage the dressing in and allow the kale to rest for fifteen minutes or more. The greens will wilt and become very tender. Place in a large pretty bowl and top with the Asian Slaw.

Garnish the salad with the cashews, sesame seeds, and coconut meat.

Share with a special friend and enjoy!

Radical Foods

Embrace uniqueness, expand your mind, expand your palate.





I have always been intrigued by the small assortment of tropical fruits and vegetables in the supermarket. As a child I'd get a special thrill if my mother would buy me a coconut or mango on a shopping trip. Along my macro-raw food journey I've discovered that much of this uncommon produce is not only delicious, but high in essential vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants. I'm actually rather concerned with the variety dwindling in the U.S marketplace. Even staple produce like tomatoes and apples once had thousands of varieties. Today they have been slaughtered off to only the hardiest few because of high yield demands and cross-country shipping.

A passion of mine it to seek out untypical foods, learn about their properties and uses, and experiment with them. My very favorite places to explore are Asian food markets. They are filled with foreign fare to excite my infatuation. Macrobiotics originates from traditional Japanese cooking. I visit the Asian market to get all of my macro staples, rice and other grains, sea vegetables, umeboshi and teas. However my favorite part of the markets are their produce sections.

On a recent trip to my local Asian market around my birthday I treated myself to all of the rarities on the shelves. One that I had never tried before was the Asian Long Bean, also called the Yard Long Bean. Similar to the American Green Bean, it can be eaten raw, but is a bit more tough. They are a great vegan source of vitamin A, vitamin C, protein and iron. I created a recipe based on light water steaming, common in macrobiotics. I made the dish a bit more spicy than would be advised for a macrobiotic diet, but I was in the mood for spice. A macrobiotic principal is to avoid most spices as they are too harsh for the body and create a more yin imbalance. However, I enjoy spicy dishes on occasion and believe they are fine in moderation as long as one is not trying to heal an illness.



Spirited Long Beans
1 Big bunch of Long Beans washed and cut into about 2" pieces
1 2" piece of fresh ginger
1 2" piece of fresh turmeric (also found in most Asian markets)
3-4 Thai hot peppers chopped

Fill a pan with about 3 inches of water. Grate the ginger and turmeric into the water. Bring this to a boil. Add the beans and peppers and let simmer for 7-10 minutes. Alternately, to keep the dish raw, place all of the ingredients in a large glass bowl and put in a dehydrator set to 105 degrees for 5-7 hours.

Back in Balance

"Your body is precious. It is your vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care"
- Buddha

I was flying high this past weekend, it was my birthday and I celebrate me to the extreme! I packed all of the things that bring me bliss into one lush weekend. My body had been treated to little sleep, restaurant food, muscle strain, and perhaps the worst culprit, my new creation...the Raw Chocolate Peanut Butter Divine Decadence Birthday Cake

(Sorry, this recipe is too naughty for the Macro-Raw Foodist, however it will be featured in a recipe book I'm working on. Keep an eye out). Coming down from this overjoyed, blissful high all I could think about was regaining balance.

To ground and balance my body I needed a pure complete macrobiotic meal. I try and have at least one every week, but it had been longer than that. Life was busy and throwing together raw food dinners is much easier and faster. Macrobiotic cooking requires a bit more preparation, time, and care. I plunged into the kitchen and appreciated creating a harmonious meal. My children expressed gratitude for the familiar dishes and ate many bowls of miso soup. The food brought peace, fulfilment and calmness back to my body.





Care in preparation and mindfulness are most important when creating a balance of yin and yang for a complete macrobiotic experience



Brown Rice
For authentic macro rice use a pressure cooker. If you do not have one the rice may be boiled in a heavy pot.
2 c short grain brown rice
5 c water
1 piece of kombu
a few pinches of sea salt

Wash, rise, and drain the rice with loving kindness. Gently transfer it to the pot with the water and kombu. Bring to a boil on medium high heat. Lower the heat all the way down and let cook for 50 min. or until all of the water is absorbed. Sprinkle with a small amount of sea salt.

Miso Soup
2 quarts water
1/4 c soaked wakame
6-8 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced
1 c of sliced fresh daikon
1 1/2 tbl. barley miso, puree in 1/4 c water
2 tbl. chopped scallions

Bring the water to a boil and add wakame, mushrooms, and daikon. Let simmer for 10-12minutes. Turn the burner off. Add the miso that had been pureed in water and top with scallions.

Boiled Bok Choy
3 Bok Choy, separate and wash
Water

Place about an inch of water in a medium pot and bring to a boil. Add the Bok Choy and simmer for 3 minutes. The Asian green should become tender, yet stay slightly crisp. Drain and rinse under cold water.

Red Lentils
3 c red lentils
5 c water
1 piece of kombu, soaked
3 medium onions chopped
2 tbl. fresh parsley chopped
pinch of sea salt

Wash, rinse, and drain the lentils with loving kindness. Place them in a pot with the water, kombu, and onions and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce to medium-low and cook for 40 minutes. Add the chopped parsley and salt and cook uncovered for another 5-7 minuets.

Baked Tofu
1 block firm tofu
2 tbl. light sesame oil
1/2 cup rice flour
1 tsp. powdered fennel
1 tsp. powdered cloves,
1 tsp. powdered star anise
1 tsp. ground white pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. Slice the tofu into half inch thick slices and place on a towel to drain. Mix the flour and spices on a plate. Pour the oil onto a cookie sheet and place it in the oven to heat. Dredge the tofu slices in the flour mixture and place them on the pan. Bake for 10 minutes and turn over. Bake for another 10 minutes and remove from oven.

Gomashio
A Japanese condiment which may be used to add flavor to macrobiotic dishes
2 tbl. sea salt
1 cup black or white sesame seeds

Grind together in a coffee grinder, high speed blender, or traditionally in with a suribachi.

May you live in peace and balance.

Gomashio Cookie Cravers

Listen to your body, it will never steer you wrong

Around a year ago, when I first delved into the raw food way, I noticed that I could hear my body. Actually hearing our bodies is something that we take for granted as children. Young children don't eat things that don't appeal to them. They know when they are hungry. For most adults that intuitive feeling around eating has long been forgotten. We follow our minds and not our stomachs in our food choices. Bombarded by ads, sugar, empty calories, and all the misconceptions surrounding nutrition, we're led to destroy our digestive tracks and along with it our natural cravings and ability to truly hear our bodies. After feeding my body the super rich living foods that it needed and detoxing my digestive track, I began having certain strong cravings. I was surprised that the strongest of these was for sweets.

I listened to my body and ate a ton of fruit and raw food desserts. I was confused because the sweet cravings never ceased. Then I read a story written by Victoria Boutenko in which she told of her similar experience. Her research led to find that many sweet fruits such as strawberries are so because they absorb a lot of magnesium from soil. Therefore, she hypothesized that a craving for sweet foods must indicate the bodies deficient in magnesium. Boutenko's further studies found that sesame seeds are one of the greatest sources of magnesium. Just one ounce of the little jems contain almost 100mg and 277mg of calcium. That's triple the amount found in cows milk. Following her advice I made and drank a huge amount of sesame seed milk everyday. After about a week, I was eating a banana and could not believe how sweet it tasted to me, almost too sweet. I realized that my craving for sweets had completely diminished.

I haven't had the sesame seed milk for quite some time. Last night, standing in front of my pantry I noticed the jar of black sesame seeds. They looked so appealing, I just had to have some. I sprinkled a couple of teaspoons onto a salad and they tasted amazing. After the salad I kept thinking about those precious seeds and was lead to create this new recipe for Gomashio Cookies. Gomashio is a staple condiment in the macrobiotic kitchen. It is simply ground up sesame seeds mixed with sea salt.

GOMASHIO COOKIE CRAVERS

1 cup raw walnuts
1/2 cup raw black sesame seeds
2 tbl. raw cacao (also high in magnesium)
4 tbl. raw honey
1 tsp. pure vanilla
1/2 tsp. Himalayan pink salt

Grind the nuts and seeds into a flour in a high-speed blender. Transfer the flour to a bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Stir to combine and form a slightly sticky dough. Roll into cookie balls. Enjoy!

I use walnuts in the recipe because they are the only truly healthful nut, in that they contain greater omega 6's than 3's. If you prefer almonds could be substituted, but you may need to add a tablespoon of water to help the dough stick. You may also use white sesame in the recipe in place of the black. I choose black ones since they credited in Asia for glowing, lustrous skin. Vegans may substitute the honey for agave or brown rice syrup, I love the taste and feel of honey, so I choose to be a BEEGAN!

More great benefits of the amazing sesame seed from www.vegpeace.org:

Sesame Antioxidants
Sesame seeds are loaded with powerful antioxidants: IP-6 (AKA: Phytate; one of the most powerful antioxidants yet found, and one of the most potent natural anti-cancer substances. Especially abundant in grain and sesame.), lignans, sesamin, sesaminol, sesamolinol, sesamolin, pinoresinol, vitamin E, lecithin, myristic acid, and linoleate.

Lignans are fat-soluble antioxidants such as sesaminol, sesamolinol and sesamolin. They prevent free radical formation, and scavenge free radicals that have already formed. Black sesame seeds contain higher levels of antioxidants than brown.

Sesame Antioxidant Research
◦Sesamolin inhibits lipid peroxidation (free radical formation).
◦Sesame has a variety of effective antioxidants.
◦Antioxidant activity of sesaminol in defatted sesame flour protects against oxidative stress from dietary cholesterol (so don't eat just the oil).
◦Sesamin decreases formation of inflammatory prostaglandins.
◦Sesame enhances antioxidant activity of Vitamin E. Sesame lignans have a sparing effect on Vitamin E, preventing damage to Vitamin E.
◦DHA (from fish oils) decreases Vitamin E level, sesame raises it.
◦DHA (from fish oils) creates lipid peroxidation (free radicals), damages red blood cells. Sesame decreases the damage to fats and red blood cells, raises Vitamin E levels.
◦Sesamin decreases breakdown of Vitamin E.
◦Sesame provides gamma-tocopherol (an especially helpful form of Vitamin E). Sesame lignans lower cholesterol levels, flax lignans don't.
◦Sesame muffins significantly raised gamma tocopherol levels in people. Muffins containing the same amount of gamma tocopherol from soy or walnut didn't do anything. Gamma tocophorol is a very effective form of Vitamin E.
◦Sesaminol more effective antioxidant than alpha-Tocopherol (most common form of Vitamin E).

Even More Good Things Sesame Does
◦Sesame lignans improve fat metabolism in the liver.
◦Sesamin could help control hypertension, and prevent blood clots that cause strokes.
◦Lignans such as pinoresinol “may play a major role in the health promoting effects of the Mediterranean diet”. (They're talking here about olive oil, but sesame is a better source.)
Sesame Prevents Sunburn, Skin Cancer
Dietary Tocotrienol Reduces UVB-Induced Skin Damage and Sesamin Enhances Tocotrienol Effects in Hairless Mice - Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology

Sesame Oil Heals Burns
Sesame oil burn ointment decreases pain, helps heal wounds. Moist exposed burn ointment (MEBO) contains sesame oil and herbal extracts. MEBO decreases pain better than conventional medical treatment, so that burn patients need fewer opiates. The sesame oil ointment controls infection as well as the conventional treatment does.
Sesame oil ointment helps heal chronic wounds, skin ulcers.
Sesame oil, used all by itself, has a reputation in Ayurveda as a burn treatment.

Rawfully Good Baby's First Birthday Cake

Good food from the beginning is a gift of lifelong health and prosperity

Raw food desserts are almost always filled with nuts. Many raw pies call for two or three cups of nuts for the crust alone. For me, that's an insane amount of fats and too much of an imbalance of omegas. For these reasons I eat fruit for desserts and save the fancy raw recipes for parties and potlucks.

Recently I was honored to be asked to make the birthday cake for my sweet surrogate twins first birthday. Instantly I knew that I wanted it to be raw
and filled with life force energy to empower their little bodies. On top of my reasons for avoiding nuts, young children shouldn't have nuts because of the high potential of allergens. A dilemma arose, how was I going to make a raw cake without nuts? After much experimentation I came up with a beautiful, delicious cake made entirely of fruit, flax and chia seeds!






Crust and Fondant Topping:
4 Bananas
1/2 cup Flax

For the crust and fondant like top I blended four bananas with a half of cup of flax seeds in a high speed blender. I spread this mixture onto two dehydrator trays covered in teleflex sheets and dehydrated at 105 degrees for five hours.
I took a 9" spring form pan and placed one dehydrated banana sheet in the bottom, letting the edges fill in the sides and cut the excess off the top.







Filling:
2 Thai Baby Coconuts
2 Bananas
1/2 cup Chia Seeds
Variety of Tropical Fruits - Mango, Papaya, Pineapple, Banana...whatever you like.

For the cream filling I blended the water and meat of two Thai baby coconuts with two bananas and the chia seeds. I alternated layering this filling with slices of tropical fruits.

After three layers of cream and fruit I placed the other sheet of dehydrated banana on top and cut it to fit. This looked like



a fondant covered cake. Then I used strawberry slices and blueberries to decorate. I let the cake set in the refrigerator overnight. It sliced beautifully! The twins, and everyone at the party loved it!





Please visit http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Cartwheeling-On-Clouds-Photography/134314226654689 for more pictures of the Super Twins First Birthday Party

Have The Sweetest Day Ever!

Raw Love Makes the World Go Round

Valentine's day, that special day to embrace love. In our home everyday is filled with love. Still I do relish in the holiday and take the opportunity to give extra special treats, hidden notes, and love inspired meals all week long. The extra bit of JOY brightens up winter and showers us with that warmth of knowing that spring is almost here.

I am a baker at heart, born from a long line of bakers. These days in my natural way of eating I do very little baking. However, my history and family tradition of baking is cherished because it taught my to put extra special care and love into food preparation. It wasn't until I became a macro-raw foodist did I really taste and feel how very important that lesson is. I feel excitement, joy , and love overflowing when I'm preparing food for my family or friends and that can really be tasted. At times I'll have to throw together a lunch on a busy day and it just won't taste right.

Raw food desserts are super rich and decadent. They are among the best things I've ever eaten. I prepare raw desserts very rarely because they are often made mostly of raw nuts. Raw food purist argue that nuts are not truly living foods. Most raw nuts are super high in fat and omega 6's. The body functions best with a healthy ratio of omega 3's to omega 6's. Choosing walnuts, and flax oil over other nuts and oils is best to keep a healthy balance. I find that I feel best when sticking to simple fruits and greens and keeping nuts, seeds, and oils for raw food potlucks and holidays.

Today is a special day and I've indulged in creating a new cookie recipe to share my RAW LOVE! My daughter, Ellie, whipped up her favorite raw ice cream in vanilla bean adapted from Ani Phyo's Raw Food Essentials and some dark cacao sauce topped it all off. Enjoy your day of love, but remember to spread love everyday!




Raw Love Cookies
2 c Almond Flour
1 c Cashew Flour
10 Dates made into a paste
2 tbl. raw honey (may be omitted for vegan version)
pinch sea salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 c dry goji berries ground into a powder (topping)

Make raw nut flour by grinding the nuts in a high-speed blender or coffee grinder. Alternatively, you could use nut pulp left over from making nut milk. I like to save my pulp in the freezer or dehydrate it into a flour and store in the refrigerator. To make date paste, soak the dates overnight and blend with just enough pure water to make a smooth paste. Combine the flour and date paste in a food processor. Add the raw honey, sea salt, vanilla, and cinnamon and pulse to combine. You will have a sticky dough. Coat a bamboo board with coconut oil and flatten and smooth the dough with your hands to about 1/4" thickness. Use a heart shaped (or any other) cookie cutter on the flattened dough. Remove from the board with a coconut oiled spatula. Dip the cookie shape into a bowl of the goji berry powder to coat. This gives the cookie a pretty "sugar cookie" topping look. Place the cookies on the mesh tray of a dehydrator and dehydrate at 105 degrees for two to four hours. Less if you like a chewy cookie, longer if you like a crisp cookie. If pressed for time, the cookies are yummy still if you skip the whole cutting and dehydrating part and just roll the dough into balls right out of the food processor. To make these raw balls pretty and special roll them into the goji berry powder. Enjoy and remember to always add the love!

Green Smoothies, I LOVE YOU!

THE food for abundant life on our precious planet is chlorophyll, nourish your body with as much as possible and reap the benefits!

Chlorophyll is the fastest way for our bodies to absorb the supreme energy from the sun. Amazingly chlorophyll is very similar to the make up of human blood. The only real difference is that the central atom is magnesium and our blood's is iron. This fascinating green plant food has been proven to repair human tissue, neutralize pollution, carry oxygen to cells, neutralize free radicals, it has antimutagenic and anti-carcinogenic properties, plus adds a ton vitamins to our diet.

I am very interested in the work of Victoria Boutenko and especially in her book Green for Life. She questions why the human diet shouldn't be more like that of our closest relative in the animal kingdom, the primates. Boutenko even worked with Jane Goodall in her extensive research. The one problem with eating a diet like a chimp or gorilla is that they eat for more than six hours a day in order to digest enough calories from fruit and greens. Here is where the "green smoothie" was born. We can easily consume 2-3 cups of greens when they are blended with fruit into a delicious smoothie. Not only can we pack the nutrients in, but they taste fantastic.

I start my day off with a huge green smoothie and feel nourished and fulfilled! There are endless combinations of fruit and greens so they never get boring. I'll add seeds and super foods some days for protein and anti-oxidants. I make sure to have my evening meal by six p.m. and try not to snack after that. A person can lose ten extra pounds if they do nothing else but stop eating by six p.m. In the early morning I drink a few liters of water before and during my yoga and I'm not hungry for my smoothie until around 11:00, this way my body has plenty of time for proper digestion and detoxification.

I get so excited over the many varieties and possibilities of green smoothies. When I make a really good one it's almost an erotic experience for me! I like to keep the ingredients simple on most days. I love my Vitamix for blending them up super smooth, but if you don't have a high speed blender (add one to your vision board), just be sure to blend your ingredients well.
Here are a couple of my favorite blends:



Quick Fix
1 Banana
2 cups of Kale
1tsp. Sprulina
1tbl. Hemp seeds
1/2 cup Water



Deep Blue C
1 Orange
1 cup Wild Blueberries
2 cups Kale
2 tsp. Sprulina
1/2 cup water

I hope you'll have a green smoothie today and feel the love!