Herbs and Tomato

It is a special treat to eat herbs from your own garden.

Herbs are very easy to grow and do not need a lot of space.

This dish is full of flavor.

Whatever herbs you have, just mix it all up, chop it and add to a cut up tomato.

This recipe is:

cut up tomato

sea salt on tomato

drizzle olive oil

herbs I used: dill, basil, oregano, lemon balm, tarragon, peppermint

Super delicious!

My Healthy Business

I became a certified raw food chef, instructor and teacher through Alissa Cohen's program, "The Living and Raw Food Diet". To understand it, live it and teach other's was my goal. I have been enjoying this amazing way of eating. I am not always 100% raw.....I am fine with that. I am vegetarian. To me it is a clean and healthy way of putting good things into my body.

The benefits of eating this way is immense.

skin is clearer and smoother

definitely have a slimmer belly

if weight is an issue, weight comes off easily

you can eat as much raw food as you want

have more energy

circulation improves

clear and alert

.......and so much more

If you are interested in purchasing any items relating to a healthy lifestyle with the living and raw food diet, please visit my site

www.rawteachers.com/jessicatorok.

Click on Raw Food Store on the upper right corner to enter.

I highly recommend Alissa Cohen's book, "Living on Live Food".

It is a chunky book filled with life stories, nutritional information and great recipes.

I do receive a small commission on any purchases.

If you make a purchase, I do thank you in advance.

Banana Strawberry Pudding

Opal had this beautiful looking strawberry banana pudding on her site. I had to make it. Hers is a vibrant, beautiful color....probably more strawberries. I did not add ginger. This is so delicious. Will be making it a lot since strawberries are in season. I made this for a friend's one year old and he loved it.


blend:
3 bananas
1 cup strawberries

decorate with pieces of strawberries and mint leaves

Collard Leaf Nori Wrap

5 collard leaves

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp. sea salt

Cut stems off at the base of the collard leaf.

Cut the thick, center stem evenly, making it flat to the leaf. It will help in the rolling.

Mix lemon juice and salt together in a large mixing bowl.

Coat one leaf at a time in the mixture.

Place in a long dish and let it marinate several hours at room temprature or over night in the refrigerator.

Dry the leaves well.

Layer:

collard leaf

nori, cut to fit leaf

mashed avocado, seasoned with sea salt

1 teaspoon of hemp seed

sprouts

tahini

Love this meal.

Try other combos, most anything could be wrapped.

Raffle for Cascalheira

Hello Dear Friends,

Since last posting about Cascalheira, I had an idea of doing a raffle. This should be fun and hopefully bring in some money for this desperately poor village.

I sewed this 6" x 6" little wool lamb. I know it looks more like a puppy. Oh well, it is cute. It is chubby, I was envisioning abundance for Cascalheira. Around it's neck is the Bonfim ribbon of Bahia, Brazil. This is a tradition in Bahia, it is normally tied onto the wrist with three knots for three wishes. I did make three nice wishes for the people of Cascalheira. It is an imperfect little lamb, but made with love and care. Ready to make someone smile. I hope you like it and will take a chance on it.

Each raffle is $1 (one dollar). Send as much money as you like.For each dollar, put your name and contact information on a 3" x 5" (7.6 x 12.7 cm) more or less piece of paper.When it reaches the $50 mark and hopefully it will be more than that, I will draw the winner.

Also, whoever wants to offer an item that they made or not made for the raffle is welcome to join. Just let me know.

We will focus on one raffle at a time, so not to get confused and to raise as much money as we can.

I will be traveling to Brazil around July/August and will have an update of Cascalheira.

Thank you for being a part of this fun event and making a difference in some people's lives.

Please feel free to email me jtanyu@aol.com with any questions about this project and raffle.

Please send raffle money to:
Jessica Torok
P.O. Box 249
Mill Neck, NY 11765

Chocolate Cayenne Drink

I love chocolate. This drink truly satisfies my desire for chocolate

....it is heavenly. Yummy!
When I do not have or cannot get fresh coconut,

I use Amy & Brian's Coconut Juice with pulp.

Blend:
Coconut water with some of the pulp
Cacao powder - 2 tablespoons, adjust to liking
Cashews - about 1/4 cup, soaked for 20 minutes
OR
Cashew butter- 1 tablespoon
Vanilla
Cayenne - a few shakes. Add less. Increase if you like it with a kick

.....I do.

I just love this drink. Cacao is high in minerals, especially magnesium. My body must be needing something from it....I am craving it lately. Like daily.

Protein

An important article on protein and as always, well done by Karen Knowler.

"Where Do You Get Your Protein?"
By far, and you probably know it as well as I do, one of the most common questions you will be asked when you dabble with raw foods is: "Sounds great, but... where do you get your protein? "

Well, I have known for years that to become protein deficient on ANY diet can take some doing (although isn't impossible), but on a raw diet there are some interesting surprises when it comes to discovering what has a little and what has a lot.

Read on for the facts and figures that will either help you to feel at peace with your raw diet or help you make some positive changes.

First of all, let's be clear that we are not eating protein per se, but amino acids which combine together to create protein. So as long as we are eating a good quantity and quality of food (ideally organic as standard) and eat a wide variety of foods in the necessary amounts, then our protein needs should be more than adequately met.

There are 22 amino acids that our body needs to thrive - or at least that is what science has identified to date (we must always remember that nutrition is not yet a complete science and may well never be). Eight of these are termed "essential amino acids" because the body cannot manufacture them itself and therefore needs to obtain them from food. In a raw vegan diet, the best and most concentrated sources of amino acids come from those food groups listed below, although protein is present in every living thing, so not getting enough, while not impossible, is generally difficult!

Green Leafy Vegetables ~ Nuts ~ Seeds ~ Sprouted Grains ~ Sprouted Beans

And some good examples of foods from each of these food groups are:
Spinach, kale, broccoli, sprouted wild rice, carob, cacao, oats, raisins, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds (linseed), sprouted wheat, sprouted buckwheat, sprouted soya beans, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, hemp seeds, hemp protein powder (excellent), sprouted quinoa, mung beans, lentils, aduki, chickpeas etc, bee pollen, spirulina, E3 Live, Pure Synergy, maca, avocado, and many more - so plenty of choice!

If you eat dairy produce, the cleanest source widely available in the UK that I currently know of is Emmental Organic Cheese which is available in the organic dairy section in Tesco. This is unpasteurised cheese so is a raw food, but not vegan.

Raw Protein Facts & Figures
The RDA of protein for an adult female is cited as being somewhere between 45g and 50g per day, with an additional 25g required when breastfeeding. For adult males the figures cited stretches between 45g and 65g per day, depending on who you listen to. More protein is needed by those especially active or athletes.

Our bodies recycle approximately 80% of our protein; cooked protein is denatured and largely unusable, thus our protein need may very well be far lower than what is taught by conventional dietetics.

35g of bee pollen can satisfy one man's protein requirements for a whole day - it contains more protein per gram than meat or fish.

High Protein Content Vegan Raw Foods
1 cup sprouted lentils = 49g
1 cup haricot beans (navy) = 46g
1 cup sprouted aduki beans (adzuki) = 39g
1 cup broad beans (fava) = 39g
1 cup sprouted black eye beans (cowpea) = 39g
1 cup sprouted chickpeas = 38g
1 cup peanuts = 37g
1 cup pumpkin seeds = 33g
1 cup sunflower seeds = 32g
1 cup almonds = 28g
1 cup oats = 26g
1 cup sprouted wheat = 21g

The key, as you can see, is to ideally eat sprouts every day - especially if you are trying to eat low fat - and to eat lots of greens (which are about 1-2g protein per cup) with them. An avocado - most raw fooders great love - offers 4g of protein per fruit, not great, but it all adds up. (Many raw fooders eat 3+ avocadoes per day, which equates to a quarter of an individuals protein needs before anything else has even been eaten.)

My final and potentially most useful piece of advice for this short piece is to visit www.fitday.com. Here you can enter what you have eaten in a day and get a reading for the fat, protein, carbs and calories eaten that day. It also shows you what percentage of your daily intake comes from where - very enlightening!

So, a lot of info here but I hope you feel confident enough now that you can indeed receive adequate protein on a raw food diet. Naturally as a first stop I would recommend that you get sprouting those seeds and beans and check out fitday.com to see how you are faring so far. Then it's just a case of further exploration and refinement until you find what works for you.

© 2007 Karen Knowler, The Raw Food Coach publishes "Successfully Raw" - a free weekly eZine for raw food lovers everywhere. If you're ready to look good, feel great and create a raw life you love get your FREE tips, tools and recipes now at www.TheRawFoodCoach.com.