Mexican Fiesta: Secret Hot Pepper Kale Chips!
This article has been reposted from www.ChristianBates.com with permission from Christian. I had to repost this – this is the most delicious kale chips I’ve ever had and I guarantee if you make them, you will clamor over them! Christian’s blog is jam-packed with cutting edge Superfood nutrition information, my goodness!
You’ll notice that the larger natural food stores these days will have a whole section just for kale chips as big as the rest of the raw food section! This snack/dinner item is healthfully addictive, but unlike potato and corn chips, it is bursting with minerals without the carbs and congestive cooked oils. Now you can make yours at home fresh, the Mexican-style hot pepper way!
Take 4 large bunches of kale (Farmers Market or garden grown is best) and de-stem each leaf: hold the lower stem with one hand, take your other hand and pull out to the tip, stripping the leaf from the fibrous stem. Shred the leaves with your hands and place in a large bowl. If you don’t want to compost the stems, chop or dice them up and mix into fresh guacamole: this will make the guacamole take longer to be gobbled up! Fact: Guacamole is always eaten up faster than any other dish at a raw food potluck…at least until these kale chips came along!
Place the following in a high-speed blender:
2 Cups spring water
1 1/2 Cup sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, or sesame seeds or combination of all three, soaked
1 Cup hemp seeds
1/2 Cup cold-pressed organic olive oil
5 Brazil nuts, soaked
Juice of 3 to 4 limes (or lemons, but limes really hit the spot with raw Mexican fair)
1/2 medium-sized heirloom tomato
1/2 medium-sized sweet bell pepper
2 medium-sized garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 teaspoon dried chipotle or cayenne
1/4 teaspoon dried jalepeno (or 1/2 teaspoon fresh)
1/4 teaspoon cumin seed
1 pinch dried habanero (careful not to get this under your fingernails)
OPTIONAL: 3 Tablespoons fresh aloe vera inner gel
Blend on high until creamy, then add:
1/2 bunch cilantro, de-stemmed
OPTIONAL: 2 teaspoons of your choice of medicinal mushrooms extract powders (reishi, cordyceps, chaga, etc)
Blend lightly, keeping the cilantro in tiny bits, but not turning the batter into a homogenous green. Pour into the bowl of kale and sprinkle on:
3 Tablespoons spirulina powder
Mix together with your bare hands, coating every kale leaf. Spread thinly on dehydrator trays with sheets and dehydrate at 120*F or less for 24 to 48 hours.
Eat by itself or serve with a Mexican dinner containing other highly mineralized dishes:
RawFried Beans (Bean free mock refried pinto Bean Recipe)
White Nacho Cheeze, Dairy Free
Spicy Meat-free Ground Beef
Raw Health Expo, Sonoma Cty, CA: July 31-Aug 1
Looking for an inexpensive way to spend a weekend among the super health conscious? The Expo coming up next weekend will be a place to see inspirational speakers and to surround yourself by like-minded people if you’re into raw foods. I feel honored that I was asked to be a speaker on natural beauty and skincare, yet with too little time to prepare for a talk I don’t often give publicly, I will be there as an attendee to support the community anyway!
Second Annual Raw Health Expo Saturday, July 31 and Sunday, August 1, 2010; Sonoma County, California (about 1 hour north of San Francisco)
Discover The Secrets To Thriving On A Raw Food Diet ~
At This Mouth-Watering Raw Health Expo…
· You’ll meet top raw food chefs and educators – With over two dozen of today’s most talented raw food teachers and chefs you are sure to learn important information and time saving tips you will not hear anywhere else.
· You’ll learn how to prepare delicious raw food recipes – There will be sixteen raw food recipe demonstrations where you will learn how to create easy-to-prepare, delicious and healthy raw foods.
· You’ll discover how to save money by growing your own food – With a half-dozen talks on growing food, from hydroponics, converting your front lawn to edible landscaping, and growing mineral rich produce, you will have the knowledge you need to start growing your own food.
· You’ll get to meet and connect with others who enjoy raw foods – Feel the support and camaraderie of others that live your lifestyle.
· You’ll go home with the knowledge and recipes you need to be successful in the long term – From growing, preparing and the reasons for eating raw food, you will be better prepared after attending the Raw Health Expo.
For further information and to purchase tickets visit the web site http://www.rawhealthexpo.com
This is the most affordable raw food event anywhere!
At the door, the two day ticket price will be $79.99.
If you purchase your ticket after July 15 (which it will be once this posts), YOU WILL SAVE 37.5% off – Awesome savings!
Special Bonus.. because you are reading my blog, use the discount code MYBLOG to save an additional 20% off.
I’ll be there and I look forward to seeing YOU there! =)
Raising Children Consciously With Raw Foods (Guest Blog Post by Tera McCurdy)
Today’s guest post is written exclusively for the Edible Goddess blog by Tera McCurdy, an inspiring raw mom of one of the most adorable (and truly healthy) kids you’ve ever seen. To connect with Tera and learn more about her lifestyle, visit her on Facebook!
It has been close to three years since the first day I decided to follow the road not so commonly followed and yet is as ancient as the oldest of carvings… a raw, organic, live food diet – truly an illumined life path paved with deep greens, rich reds, golden hues with purples & blues – a yellow brick road of sorts.
I am a mother of one sweet little boy who has grown up thus far to love his greens not because I have made him eat them, but because we discuss where are food originates from and why it’s important to enrich the soil to feed the plants, which in turn feed our bodies that nourish our minds and spirit. I remember at about age 2 he would occasionally remark with a cute little spark….“Mmmm, this is so good and it’s really good for my body!“ I tell this to you all not to glorify that my son likes his fruits & veggies but to share the nuggets of experience to those that yearn and are willing to fill their little munchkins golden tummies with precious foods of the enamored rainbow that has been continually gifted to us from the ground up.
I truly believe that it is instinctive for children to lean towards the most high connection of the vibrant green’s & shiny pigmented fruits. In a child’s eyes, color is of primitive importance. I believe that a varied selection can be enticing especially if there are fruits – and more importantly – vegetables present for them to touch, feel, taste and learn about. We have a modest garden in our backyard with an array of fruits and vegetables that I have cultivated over the past few years, tending to the compost on a year round basis, feeding the worms (Vermiculture) kitchen scraps and so on. While doing this he has witnessed my passion and determination to enrich that soil of ours, plant the seeds and then wait in excited anticipation for the new growth.
I think that above all he has felt that he too is a part of this integral process and to have the ability to walk outside with a sense of confidence and in freedom to choose a tender young piece of Kale out of the garden or a fresh ripe Tomato has given him much gratitude and warmth for the origins of life and respect for himself and life in general.
I allow him to help me in the garden and talk with him as I would as if he were a little friend or a little person, which is what he is, rather than a baby. I feel that by practicing this form of communication with him has taught me more then I could have ever imagined. The intelligence of children is amazing and I feel that by honoring them this way is sacred and is a gift in itself. It’s interesting because really a child just wants the attention of his or her parent and by spending the time together and really engaging in the exchange is actually a time saver in the long run because just like us, children want to be listened to, noticed, loved and appreciated.
As a collective society of people on this glistening globe of color, we as individuals influence each other everyday with unique facial expressions, varied thoughts twinkling in our consciousness, and the words we weave. We all are connected in this quilt of life like the most eye catching patchwork that one has ever encountered. Ultimately we each behold a magnificence so beautiful and full of shimmering light that I believe we are all meant to shine. Wouldn’t it be pretty amazing if we can all truly realize the patch of warmth that we can offer to one another! Now that would be one high quality quilt of life worth snuggling up to!
Let’s lead and feed ourselves, along with our children, the foods that contain the sun’s energy – after all, it’s here to lure you to your highest potential. Consider creating a garden patch and grow cabbage, carrots, kale, whatever your heart desires! But mostly, have fun in the sun and enjoy the process.
With warmth from my patch to yours,
Tera McCurdy
Top 24 Health Benefits of Goji Berries
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard about goji berries. They are sweet little red scrumptious berries that comes to us mostly in dried form or in synergistic Superfood powder blends like Fruits of the Earth. If you’re looking for the ultimate complete raw protein that you can nibble on throughout the day, or, a nutrient-dense addition to your smoothie to start your day off Superhero-style, you’ve found it! Read more
Addictive Spirulina Guacamole
This summer, I am absolutely addicted to making guacamole! (As if this is any different from other times of the year)
My new favorite version of this ultra healthy dip is…
The ADDICTIVE SPIRULINA GUACAMOLE
4 medium avocados
1/2 fresh squeezed lemon
1/2 fresh squeezed lime
2 cloves minced fresh garlic
1/2 – 1 chopped heirloom tomato
1/4 tsp cayenne (or to your ‘hot factor’ liking)
few pinches Celtic salt
Put everything in a bamboo or ceramic bowl and mash it all together. Then LIGHTLY stir in:
1 tsp Spirulina Manna and/or Spirulina Azteca (by HealthForce Nutritionals)
You can add more Spirulina to make the guacamole more dense and filling. Adding Spirulina gives a (blue green) cheesy quality to your vegan Mexican food.
Do your best to not eat it all before you serve it on the dining table =)
If you make guacamole like this often, you’ll find your metabolism is fired up, your skin glows, your hair shines, your nervous system is calm, and your belly is deeply satisfied.
I like using Spirulina Manna and Spirulina Azteca for countless reasons and you can hear about them all on the FREE Immunity and Longevity Superfood Nutrition Education tele-seminar Wed June 16 at 7pm PST.
3 Steps to Making a Superfood Smoothie
To make an extraordinary Superfood smoothie, there are a few significant things you can do to bring it to that next level. There are 3 steps that take this creation from a regular ole’ smoothie to one that will knock your yoga socks off!
1) Make a super tonic herbal tea. An outrageous tea can replace about half the water you put into the smoothie or the nut mylk base of a smoothie. Read more
How-To Make Smooth, Delicious & Balanced Nut Mylks
To replace dairy and packaged milks, there’s a quick and easy way to make it yourself at home that will completely surprise your taste buds.
Ideally, you’ll soak the nuts and seeds for several hours - usually overnight, but you can check in basic raw food books or online for guidelines. Nuts should be soaked for longer than seeds. Then, if you have a dehydrator, dehydrate them for 24 hours. Honestly, I didn’t used to do this because I didn’t have a dehydrator, but now that I have one and do it this way, I just think it’s so much better! Read more
Eat Like A Queen Without Paying For It
Typical situation: You want to eat the absolute highest quality foods yet at the same time you’d prefer to not break the bank doing so. I’ve found it’s best to have a purchasing strategy and know where to get the best deals so you can afford your desired healthful lifestyle without the financial stress. Now with that said, I do know that in order to reach the ultimate levels of health, YOU MUST BE WILLING TO INVEST IN YOURSELF. Read more
Do You Fear Getting Fat?
If you fear packing on the pounds, my suggestion is to let that go immediately and make it your New Years Resolution. Making decisions regarding health should not be based in fear. Decisions to prevent disease is fine I suppose, but I’d rather decide to be outrageously healthy because it feels amazing now, and avoiding all illness and dis-ease is the natural result (and bonus!) of these mindful choices.
Weight is such a touchy subject with women and it can make so many of us feel uncomfortable in our own skin. Yet, if you are making progress with your eating habits and constantly searching, reading, listening, and saturating yourself with health-promoting material, then THAT is what counts. The rest will fall into place in time if you’re studying the right material.
If you want to take more control though and are feeling impatient, then juice. Add a fresh green vegetable juice to your diet EVERY SINGLE DAY and you will experience such weight loss and easy weight management that you won’t believe your eyes.
When I began living the raw food lifestyle 2 years ago, I didn’t have much weight to lose (if any, between 1-5 lbs). I was already super health-conscious and had been eating Superfoods for 6 years prior which had given me an effortless balance in my body in countless ways. However, what I did realize was that my body started to really take a different shape! This occurred without great effort in thinking about how to look thinner, more lean, and taller. For the 1st time EVER, I had a flat stomach and less fat and cellulite on my thighs!
Those who knew me in my early 20s know that I used to weigh 20-25 lbs more than I currently do. This is directly related to living an entirely different lifestyle that initiated with better eating habits. Until I began eating a high raw diet (90-100%), there was always struggle and frustration (we all have areas we’re ‘working on’). I did not realize that there was a way of eating (cliche but ever so true – a ‘lifestyle’) that would allow me to eat all I wanted – ideally with proper food combining. I could now have a similar body to the one I had before hormones, laziness, and poor food choices took over.
I bring up my background with this because fear was always present – I did not want to gain weight when I was younger and it was something I thought about often. Instead of focusing what I DID want, I made choices that were because I knew what I didn’t want to be. I did not have this retrospect of course until I ate living food and became more conscious (which was yet another surprise of the sexy, fun lifestyle). You have to decide who you want to be, in addition to who you don’t want to be!
When you are brought back to your natural weight through eating raw and living food, you can eat without being concerned about calories, fat grams, carbs, sodium, etc. on the label (because there are very few labels & they don’t matter anyway!). Give yourself the chance to experience this freedom from obsessive, destructive thought patterns that lead to disappointment. Make it your resolution to live your best life yet ~ Only put food into your body that truly feeds you and gives you life.
