Make Your Own Mini Green-za's!

NOTE: THIS RECIPE REQUIRES A DEHYDRATOR.

This is just plain old FUN! I like inspiring people to try healthier, raw options, and I know for me that was an issue of convenience for a long time. For a lot of you, an issue is that you have older kids who are not vegan/raw and convincing them to switch to a diet like this might be hard. So you might need some yummy, fun to eat finger-foods for the family. I've got one for you right here! A wonderful, truly green pizza. Now, this takes a while, so you're gonna have to put in some prep work beforehand...

Crust:
480 Ml (2 Cups) Milled Flax Seed
360 Ml (1 1/2 Cups) Ground Almonds
240 Ml +  1 Tsp Water
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Mixed Herbs (Or just equal parts Thyme and Oregano will do)
1 Tbsp Basil
1 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
1/2 Tbsp Rosemary
1/4 Tbsp Local, Organic Honey
A Couple Pinches of Salt

Stir all ingredients in a bowl or, better yet, use your hands! Roll out into golf balls, smack in your hands to flatten to a little less than a quarter-inch thick and pop onto the dehydrator trays-dehydrate on 40 degrees C for about 7 hours. This is a lovely GF Italian herb bread and you can use it for anything, sandwiches too, whatever you like.

Green Cheeze (This is for you Ali-an easy Cheezy for my nut-allergic friend!):

240 Ml (1 Cup) Pumpkin Seeds
2 Tbsp Pine Nuts
2 Tbsp Sunflower Oil
1 Tbsp Rejuvelac (I make quinoa rejuvelac because it is gluten free)
1 Clove Garlic
1/4 to 1/2 tsp Fleur De Sel (or sea salt)
Pinch of white or black pepper
Pinch of ground mustardseed (optional)

Soak the Pumpkin Seeds for about 4 hours or so. Drain and put in a food processor or a blender (but the food processor will work much better) and mix with all the other ingredients, stopping and stirring continuously until you have it well blended.

Once your crusts and cheeze are ready, put the cheeze in a bowl and the crusts on a plate. Slice up some organic cherry tomatoes onto another plate and you're ready to serve your make-your-own mini pizzas! These are AWESOME with My Rawkin' Raw Ranch Dip. Pizza + Ranch, and it's all healthy and raw?! I must be joking, right? Nope. Give it a try for yourself. Out of this world, and tons of fun! I finished it off with some raw carob brownies, but those are for another time...

Hot & Earthy Carrot Basil Soup

I make a lot of soups, the majority of which I do not post the recipe to (sorry) because they are just spur of the moment things I do not bother to measure out. I love raw soups because they are so cheap, easy, delicious, healthy, and did I mention easy? I like that. A lot. I think this is one is tied with my Creamy Spiced Corn Chowder for my favourite soup recipe.

Hot & Earthy Carrot Basil Soup:

4 Organic Carrots
1 Stick of Celery
4 Sun Dried Tomatoes
Large Handful of Fresh Basil
A Few sprigs of Fresh Parsley
360 ml (1 1/2 cups) Warm Water
2 Tbsp Sunflower Oil
2-3 Tbsp Basic Cashew Cheeze, optional
1 tsp Black Pepper
A few grinds of Mustard Seed, optional
A pinch of Fleur De Sel, optional

Blend all ingredients together in a blender. Garnish with nutritional yeast if you like (as I did). Mmmm! Serves 2.

Mambo Italiano!

This meal is a beauty (and very heart-healthy with all the tomatoey goodness :)) it is not entirely raw, but mostly so and is jam packed with Italian inspired flavours.

For a starter, we have:

Stuffed Tomatoes with Pine Nut Pesto

2 large Aromatic Tomatoes
1 large Greens leaf (I don't know what kind of "greens" these are...at the store it just says "Cornish Greens" :/ The leaves are however HUGE, very long and dark green and they come in a big bulb somewhat like cabbage does, I hope that helps some...they are similar to spinach so spinach could easily be substituted if you cannot find something like this! )
Pine Nut Pesto, which I will detail below.

Gently cut off only the very tops of the tomatoes. Cut them in half and scoop out the innards. Chop and dice your greens and divide them into quarters. If you desire, you may gently cook the tomatoes open-face down on a skillet-but be careful not to cook them too much because A. the nutrient content will be drastically altered with cooking which is why we eat raw to begin with and B. they will fall apart when you try to "stuff" them. Now, simply stuff the greens inside and garnish with as much pine-nut pesto as you like. Serves 1-4, depending on how much you want to eat ;)

Pine Nut Pesto

3 Handfuls of Pine Nuts
2-3 tablespoons Olive Oil (I used the nice flavoured oo from the sun dried tomato jar, but EVOO will substitute fine.)
1 clove Raw Garlic
A few sprigs of fresh Basil
A few grinds of black pepper

Add all ingredients to a blender or food processor. Pulse, stir, and repeat a few times, noting that it will be chunky.

Pasta

Whole-wheat spaghetti
Sauce of your choice (I used Napolina's Tomato & Basil, I know...lazy!)
Pine Nut Pesto

Cook, top with sauce and pesto, enjoy!

Superfood Soup

This soup is very healthy - loaded with rich vegetable antioxidants such as vitamin A, B vitamins, calcium, lycopene, fatty acids, omegas and protein. To health!

1/2 of a large, ripe Hass Avocado
1 Small Carrot
2 Large Aromatic Vine-Ripened Tomatoes
A small handful of uncooked, thawed frozen spinach-one or two large handfuls of fresh spinach would do equally well.
1 Sun Dried Tomato (from a jar if possible, soaked in olive oil)
2 tbsp Olive Oil from the sun-dried tomato jar, seasonings included (optional-I just think it makes it taste better. You may use regular EVOO if this is not available.)
A few sprigs of fresh parsley
1/2 clove raw garlic
240 ml/1 cup warm water
1/4 tbsp dried basil
Black pepper for garnish

Cut the very tops only off of the tomatoes & carrots. Chop carrot and spoon out avocado. Add all ingredients to blender and pulse until smooth and creamy. A spoonful or two of Basic Cashew Cheeze may be added if you wish to make the soup creamier. Serve and crack black pepper on top to garnish. Serves 2.