Spaghetti Sauce

Raw AND cheap! I can't believe how much money is saved when you make your own instead of buying it at the store, and an added bonus is that there is no sugar. Here is the recipe I used:

 2 tubes of pure 100% tomato paste
1 box of Organic chopped tomatoes (you can find this at Tesco's, you can easily sub a large handful of fresh tomatoes, however)
1 1/2 Cups water
4 tsp oil (I used rapeseed oil)
4 Cloves of garlic
1 1/4 Tsp fleur de sel (or sea salt)
1/2 tsp maple syrup or agave nectar
1/2 tsp mixed spice/Italian spices
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp garlic powder
A few squeezes of fresh lemon
Pinch of chili powder (optional)
Dash of mustardseed (optional)

Everything goes in the blender-stir to remove the air pockets while you blend.
You can also mix this up and use whatever seasonings you like instead, the ones I've listed are just my personal preference. This makes a fantastic sauce over (cooked) barley, alternatively you can make raw noodles out of spiralled zucchini or shredded squash. Bon apetit! x

Char-grilled Mushroom Burgers (Not Raw)

These...are not raw. HOWEVER. They are DELICIOUS (they taste JUST like real burgers!!), totally fat-free and jam packed with good nutrients. I got the inspiration for them from a mushroom burger recipe that I found at vegalicious.com. Note, I hate mushrooms normally...but I LOVE these!                          

240 Ml/1 Cup Brown Rice
480 Ml/2 Cups Oat Flour (I will teach you how to make your own below if you don't have any on hand)
200g Mushrooms (I used chestnut, but you may use portabello or other if you like)
3 Cloves Garlic (raw)
5 Cherry Tomatoes, rinsed
2 Tbsp Tomato Paste (or pasta sauce will do fine)
1 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
Seasonings...I use:
1/2 tsp Fleur De Sel/sea salt
1/4 tsp Onion Granules (/Onion powder)
1/4 tsp Chipotle Powder
1/4 tsp Thyme
1/4 tsp Ground Mustardseed
1/4 tsp Black Pepper

Set the rice to cook. Rinse your veggies & put them in the food processor at high speed. Blend thoroughly. Make some oat flour if needed by putting 480 Ml or 2 Cups of oats in a blender, blending and stirring until you have something that is majoratively powder. Strain your rice and put it and the spices/seasonings in the food processor with the mushroom mix, allow it to be a bit bitty/chunky the way ground beef is. Now put the mushroom mixture in a large bowl and stir in the oat flour. Form into balls and put straight on a grill (George Foreman works great for this) or, alternatively, a lightly oiled frying pan. Cook until golden & crispy on both sides. Enjoy however way you will-add some raw by eating them with greens leaves in place of a bun, or alternatively you may eat them in a tortilla or with some rye bread. Whatever suits your fancy.

                                                                                             

Smokey BBQ Sauce

I gotta say-I like this BETTER than SAD (Standard American Diet) type BBQ!

240 Ml(1 Cup) Chopped Tomatoes or Cherry tomatoes
9 Sundried Tomatoes
7-8 Dried Pitted Dates
2 Tbsp Sunflower Oil
1 Large Clove Garlic
1/2 Tbsp Water
1/4 Tbsp Agave Nectar
1/4 Tsp Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tsp Chipotle Powder
1 tsp Mixed Herbs; or Thyme
1 tsp Nutritional Yeast
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Cayenne Powder
1/4 tsp Ground Mustard Seed
Pinch of Cumin (optional)
Pinch of Onion Powder/granules (optional)

Everything goes in the blender @ high speed until well mixed. This may take a while. This recipe will be easier if you double it, however I didn't have enough ingredients on hand to make a larger batch.

Garlic Spinach Soup

MORE SOUP!? Yes. Great, unusual way to get your greens...

3 Big Handfuls of Spinach or Baby Spinach
6 Cherry Tomatoes
4 Cloves of Organic (or small cloves of regular) Garlic
1 Cube (vegan, yeast & gluten free, organic) Vegetable Stock
1 3/4 Cups Warm Water
3 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
2 Tbsp Basic Cashew Cheeze
1 Tbsp Sunflower Oil
1 Tsp Black Pepper
1/4 Tsp Onion Granules (or you may use fresh Onion)
A couple squeezes of Fresh Lemon
Pinch of Salt

Blend on high speed until smooth & enjoy!

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...

Bold n' Spicy Veggie Soup

I know. ANOTHER SOUP! Sorry. but I love them! They are low-cal, rich in flavour, cheap, easy and PACKED with veggie goodness and, SO flavourful. I'll let you in on a little secret...I...don't even like vegetables on their own! OK, I do, but not so much. It's boring. My taste buds have been ruined by the horrible standard of eating I once had. I long to be this forager who eats single ingredient meals, and just stuff my face full of naked spinach and broccoli, no dressings required day in and day out. However until that day comes, I shall blend my beautiful, precious vegetables into soups, smoothies, and so forth-and get their raw goodness in any form I can get it. I did something a little different for this soup, however, than my "routine"soup base and I am impressed with the results.

2 Large Organic Carrots (Use 2 Small to Regular Size "Normal" Carrots if Organic Absolutely Cannot Be Obtained)
1 Large Organic Parsnip (Or 1 Small to Medium Size "Normal" Parsnip)
2 Organic Celery Stalks
2 Cups Vegetable Stock (You can make your own raw stock by googling how or you can just buy some organic, yeast & gluten free in the store and mix  it with 1 1/2 cups of water like I did. Lazy, I know.)
1 Big ripe Tomato
2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 1/2 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
3 Cloves raw garlic
1 Tsp Black Pepper
1/2 Tsp Fleur De Sel (or sea salt)
1/4 Tsp Dill
A few sprigs of fresh basil (optional)
Pinch of ground mustard seed (optional)

Toss everything in the blender and...blend. Garnish with pine nuts if you like-they are delicious and like crutons in a savoury soup. Mm, mm mmm

Rawkin' Raw Ranch Dip

JUST like the real thing! I got the inspiration for this fromThe Rawtarian's Raw Ranch Dressing Recipe, but I made it my own because I prefer my ranch a little bit thicker, peppery and less "tart"/sour (or more sweet, whatever). So here is my version, which I hope you will like:

300 ml (1 1/4 cup) Cashews
180 ml (About 3/4 Cup) Water
2 1/2-3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
40 ml (1/6 Cup) Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar
80 ml (1/3 Cup) EVOO
3 Tbsp Agave nectar
3 Large Cloves Garlic
3 Tsp Onion Granules
1 Tsp Dill
1 Tsp Fleur De Sel
1/2 Tsp Black Pepperhh

Throw it all in the blender & mix on high speed. Add a little more water if you want it to be more of a salad dressing and less of a dip. Keep in the fridge in old syrup containers or hummous tubs (ect)-tastes fantastic with fresh veggies...cherry tomatoes & carrots...mmmm

All-purpouse Ground "Feef"

Admission; MY guilty pleasure, the thing keeping me from going vegan for a time was ground beef. I love love love the taste. I've been missing it for a long time. So I had to recreate it. I think I've done a pretty decent job, because this really hits the spot.

Raw Feef (Fake Ground Beef):
3 Organic Carrots
480 ml/2 cups Walnut halves/chopped Walnuts
24 Sundried tomatoes
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Sesame Seeds
3 Cloves Garlic (remove the green bits in the middle if raw garlic tends to give you indigestion)
1 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1/3 tsp Fleur De Sel
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
Pinch of ground mustardseed (optional)
Pinch of basil (optional)

Pulse, stir, pulse stir ect until you have a gritty, paste-y texture. You can make meatballs(as I have done in the photo above by scooping with a tablespoon!), form burgers (which are great on a bun of greens with mustard), use as taco meat, ect. Pile on some Basic Cashew Cheeze to a meatball and this is out of this world. Yum!

Rawnnaise

Time for a sauce. A sauce which is admittedly, not my favourite. Why? Because mayonnaise DISGUSTS me and I mean REALLY, REALLY disgusts me. However, my husband LOOOOOVED the stuff. He could have eaten a mayonnaise sandwich (hmm, not unlike my brother...if only I lived close enough to convince him to try this)! So I like a lot of the "raw" versions of things, but this one tastes exactly like mayonnaise. Wow. I have offended myself. Paul, on the other hand, I have made a happy man. So if you are like Paul, and you love mayonnaise, try my recipe:

175ml (3/4 cup) Macadamia Nuts
175 ml (3/4 cup) Cashews
120 ml (1/2 cup) Water-Add a little bit more if you want this to be more of a "salad dressing" type mayo.
2-3 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Raw, Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Clove of Garlic
1/4 to 1/3 tsp Fleur De Sel
1/4 tsp ground Mustard seed/Mustard powder
Pinch of Basil
Pinch of Cayenne powder

Blend it up, and there ya go!

The cancer cure: BURGERS?!

OK, these might not magically cure cancer, but the ingredients contained in these brrgers will come a long way in helping to prevent cancer and will also help you fight cancer if you are unfortunate enough to already be doing so. Plus, they are pretty darn tasty, so what have you got to lose?

3 Organic Carrots (see my note on organic fruit & veg)
100g Sesame Seeds
A small handful's worth of Broccoli-heads only
4 Sun Dried Tomatoes
2 Tbsp Olive Oil (the herbed OO from the Sun-Dried Tomato jar-optional, but it is so much yummier than regular olive oil)-NOTE: I think my burgers may have came out more pliable with less liquid, so feel free to only add 1 tbsp, nonetheless I love the taste!!)
1 Fresh Tomato
About 1 tsp Leek
1 small handful of Pine Nuts
2 Garlic cloves
A few sprigs each of fresh Parsley & Basil
1 Tbsp Fleur De Sel (grey salt)
1 tbsp Black pepper
1/3 tsp Mustard seed
1/2 tsp Cayenne powder
1 Tbsp Basic Cashew Cheeze, optional

Pulse, stir, repeat until you get a gritty but well blended burger mix. I served ours using Cornish Greens leaves in place of buns, but you may use some flatbread or linseed/rye bread (wheat free, score) if you feel so inclined. These go nicely with American mustard or hummous.

HOW do these fight cancer, you ask? Well...you may read more in detail here and here. This is also a great blend of foods for recalcification of the body, to reverse tooth and bone decay. I had 4 visible cavities before I began recalcifying, now I cannot notice any tooth decay!

Butternut Soup and...Nutterbutt Ice Cream!

Creamy Winter Squash Soup:

About 240 ml/1 cup Butternut Squash, peeled and chopped
1 Small carrot
1/2 to one whole small leek leaf, depending how you want it to taste
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tbsp ground Black Pepper
2 tbsp Sunflower oil
2 tbsp Basic Cashew Cheeze
1 Tbsp Pine Nuts
1 Clove Garlic
1 tsp Fleur de Sel (which you can read about here, it is so good and loaded with minerals-I highly reccomend ditching your white salt and opting for this instead!)
240 ml/1 cup warm Water
Dash of Allspice, optional.

...You know the drill...toss it in the blender and mix on high speed until creamy and smooth. Serves 2.

Carob Nut Ice Cream

The bottom (round plump part) half of a Winter/Butternut Squash, peeled, seeded and chopped (I left about half of the mulch/pulp inside, but not the seeds.)
1 large handful of dried, pitted/stoned Dates
2 handfuls of nuts (I used 1 ea of Walnuts and a "Mixed Nuts" blend that contained Almonds, Peanuts and Walnuts)
3 Tbsp Maple Syrup
3 1/2 tsp Raw Carob Powder
1/3 tsp Allspice (I know, I use this stuff in everything...but it's so damn good!)
1 Tbsp Rice, Almond, Coconut or Breastmilk (for this particular batch I used Provamel's Rice Milk, which is one of the nicer milks I think)

It is important to note that this is not one of my easier recipes, so, I apologise in advance (but HEY, give me some credit, most of my things are pretty cheap and easy). This might not be the case however if you have a really good food processor, but if you are like me and are working with a cheap blender, be prepared to put in a bit of elbow grease.

Now. Chop up that squash into small pieces because otherwise you will do what I did and be stuck blending the darn thing a bit longer than you will like to. I put in very large pieces and was blending for ages. Toss the squash in with the liquid ingredients and pulse, stir, pulse, stir until you've got it into a chunky mush. Now add the dates and nuts and continue doing that pulse and stir thing until you have a consistency you are happy with, it should be like runny home-made ice cream with small chunks (I like chunks in my ice cream, don't you?) now add the powdered ingredients, pulse and stir a couple more times, and you can put this into a couple of plastic tubs and freeze it. I used two large hummous pots and managed to fill them to the brink, so in other words this will easily serve 4, or could just as easily serve only 2 if you keep it on hand in your freezer for those occasions, you know, when a friend needs you to come over pronto with a tub of ice cream...keep this on hand for just such occasions. What a favour you'll be doing them, bringing something so delicious AND giving their body to a raw treat... :) This has a very carob-y, nutty, ice-cream esque taste and consistancy and is just. YUM.

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.

Basic Cashew Cheeze

200ml Cashews
About 3 tbsp Sunflower oil
1 Clove Raw Garlic
Sea Salt
Black Pepper

Soak cashews in water overnight. Put drained cashews, oil & garlic into blender or food processor, add a fair amount of sea salt (maybe a half a tablespoon, but your taste buds are your best guide) and a couple of grinds of black pepper. Blend, stir, blend, stir, blend, stir, ect until smooth and creamy...and enjoy! Tastes great on everything and you can hardly tell it's not real cheese!