Raw Vegan Macadamia Nut Pâté

2 cups macadamia’s, soaked
1 tomato
1 cup bell pepper, chopped
1/3 cup basil, minced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
cayenne
sea salt or himalayan pink salt

Mix all ingredients, except for the basil, with a handhold blender or food processor.
Add cayenne and salt to taste.
Add minced basil afterwards.

This pâté tastes great on a dehydrated cracker, in a wrap or in sushi, or with a salad.
You can keep it in the fridge for about 3 days.

Sprouting Radishes for Your Fresh Green Salad

Both the red and black radish (Raphanus Sativus) make good sprouts. Radish is a member of the mustard family and has a tangy, peppery taste. It's best to combine them with other sprouts, because of their strong taste. They taste great in green salads.

Radishes are easy to sprout. They are very good, if you have eaten a lot of animal food and dairy in the past. They help you to get rid of the stored animal fat. Harvest when they are 1/2 - 1 inch long.

This video shows how to grow them.

Raw Food Chocolate-Orange Snack

This recipe is made with the leftover almond pulp from the nut milk recipe, that you can find on the blog.
You can also use 3 ounces of soaked almonds instead. Take the brown skins off (see nut milk recipe).

Ingredients:
leftover pulp of 3 ounces of almonds for almond milk
1 orange
1 heaped tablespoon raw chocolate
10 drops of stevia
shredded coconut
30 koji berries

Mix everything except the koji berries and shredded coconut with a handhold blender or food-processor.
Mix the dry koji berries in by hand. They take up water, which makes your snack a little dryer. I'f your snack is too wet, use more of them.
You can also use dry raisins instead of koji berries.
Form little balls (about 2 inched diameter) and roll them through the shredded coconut.
Cool and store in fridge. They keep for about 3 days.

Enjoy!

Seven Ways to Increase Your Brain Power

Dr. Mercola gives you Seven Easy Ways to Increase Your Brain Capacity.

1 Exercise.
This brings more energy to your brain.
2 Get outside, especially in the daylight.
3 Get a good night's sleep, between 6 and 8 hours.
Go to bed before midnight, earlier is even better. Don't sleep more than 8 hours!
4 Stay away from processed foods.
Unprocessed, raw, organic food is best.
5 Improve the fat content in your diet with a high quality fish or krill oil.
6 Keep your brain active.
7 Use the right visualization techniques.
If you didn't see the movie "The Secret" yet, take a look.
This movie is about “The Law of Attraction”.
You manifest, what you focus your intention on.

I hope this information will benifit you in this fast 21th, information age.

What Can a Raw Food Diet Do for You?

Some of you are already very familiar with a raw food diet and some of you may be totally new to it. Here I will explain a a little about raw food and how to introduce it into your diet. If you know a lot already, maybe you can find some helpful information to get friends and family started.

Why rawfood?
Of course there are many theoretical answers to this question, that you can find everywhere. But my best answer to this question is always: try it for one week and see what happens. For most people, there is no return afterwards. If you are not used to eating any raw food, try adding some fresh fruits and vegetables to every meal. For instance fruits for breakfast, and an extra salad with greens, tomato's, avocado's, cucumber and fresh herbs for both your lunch and dinner. In the meantime avoid chemicals and preservatives as much as possible, and take less sugar, coffee and alcohol. Just try this raw food diet for a week and feel the difference.

A mistake which is often made, is changing too quickly to a different diet. The body starts to detox very fast with a lot of trouble, that could be avoided. Changing slower is always easier and causes less stress to the body. If you want to go faster because you have a certain health challenge, make sure to have the appropriate medical support.

I know that there are people, who just want to use supplements as quick fixes and don't want to bother with raw food or special diets. To those people I want to say: It's not just what you add to your diet, that makes the difference, but what you eat on a daily basis and (very important) what you don't eat. Just adding artificial supplements (whatever you call them, supplements made up a different vitamins and mineral are artificial) is not comparable to eating a good diet with a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables and avoiding "all the bad stuff".

Yes, you can feel better by adding supplements, but until you try a natural raw food diet with a lot of fresh organic vegetables and fruits, you don't know what you are missing. There is a difference between feeling good and feeling super energetic and happy. Of course feeling super not only depends on your diet. There are many other important factors like exercise, balancing your emotions, good relationships with your friends and family, spiritual practise, and doing what you really love. But a good diet can make a huge difference. And I know what I'm talking about, having much more energy for my four children, my a household, my a business and all the rest, since I eat a raw food diet.

For now I would say, try it! Add more fruits and green vegetables to your diet and feel fantastic! If you are already doing this: great! For the longterm rawfoodists amongst us, make sure to include enough green vegetables.

Have a fantastic day!

Raw Food Diet Inspiration

Mouthwatering Raw Food Dishes. They look fantastic!

100 Life Saving Health Food Tips

Water promotes weight loss, combats cancer, conquers kidney stones and smoothes the skin. See what cherries, oranges, apples, watermelons, lemons, strawberries, bananas, pineapple, tomatoes, chili peppers, broccoli, avocado and mushrooms do for you.

Most Astonishing Health Disaster of the 20th Century

Just watch and think of all your friends and relatives. I think of my father who died last September at the age of 86 after having had many useless and cruel cancer operations. He finally died from (an overdose of) morphine given by a physician, who didn't even know him.

Take responsibility for your own (and your family's) health. It's your everyday lifestyle that counts. Eat healthy, exercise, avoid stress and do what you love. Don’t expect doctors and medicines to save you, once you get into trouble. Yes, sometimes they can help you, but not always ….. Watch the video.

Recipe for Cream of Parsley Soup

Ingredients:

1 bunch of parsley, chopped
1 avocado
1 tomato, cut in small pieces
4 cups of water
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of agave nectar
Salt or shoyu and pepper or cayenne

Mix everything, except the pieces of tomato with a blender or handhold mixer.
Season with salt or shoyu and pepper or cayenne, as you like.
Add pieces of tomato.
Garnish with some parsley.

Enjoy your delicious raw soup!

Green Smoothie with Victoria Boutenko

Greens contain all the nutrients we need, except vitamin B12. By mixing greens with fruits in a blender, the greens become very easy to digest and taste great. Victoria describes how she lost all her cravings by adding green smoothies to her raw food diet. Her grey hairs disappeared, red dots on her chest disappeared, moles fell off, her vision became clear, her nails became stronger, she didn't lose hair anymore, her weight feel down without effort, her mood got better, she got so much energy.

Especially for compulsive eaters a raw food diet is very good. They tend to intoxicate themselves by eating too much of the wrong foods. If they keep a raw food diet, this doesn't happen. For normal eaters it's less important to be all raw. They stop eating when they have had enough. They have a natural pattern and don't intoxicate themselves so easily.

Health benefits of a green smoothie:
1 It is extremely palatable
2 It is extremely easy to make
3 It cleans the blood
4 It is without oil or salt
5 A green smoothie protects itself from being oxidize for 3 days

Nourishing Green Salad with Tahini Dressing

Ingredients:
2 ounces of baby greens (different kinds of lettuce)
young dandelion (optional)
1 tomato
5 olives
cucumber and/or paprika
parsley, cilantro, chives or dill
1/2 ounce of arugula (optional)

Tahini dressing:
2 tablespoons of tahini (preferably raw)
some lemon juice
some salt or shoyu
3 tablespoons of water
a pinch of cayenne or white pepper

Cut the tomatoes, cucumber, paprika and olives in small pieces.
Make the herbs fine with your scissors.
Mix everything together in a nice bowl.

Mix the dressing in a little bowl with a spoon or fork.
Pour the dressing over the vegetables and mix everything thoroughly.

This is a very nourishing salad.
If you add some dehydrated crackers or some of your favorite nuts, it’s a complete meal.

Enjoy!

Gabriel Cousens: Organic Raw Food for Children

Gabriel Cousens speaks about the importance a organic compared to commercial food.

The main cause of death and disease among children under 15 is cancer. Commercial food contains many pesticides and herbicides, which are carcinogens. By giving your children organic raw food, the amount of carcinogens in their blood drops to 1/4 to 1/6. Children are small. This means that the same amount of carcinogens has a much greater impact on them than on us.

Inspiration from the Kabbalah

I just received a great raw apple ;-) quote from the Kabbalah:

A worm inside an apple has a limited view of the world. When it works its way out, it discovers a landscape far beyond what it imagined.

This is how we live. We have limited perspectives, and we don’t see what we’re missing. We only see what we are — we don’t see what we can become.

Today, worm your way outside your apple. What do you want to become next week, next month, next year? Where can you grow more, do more, be more? Dream big and you will be big.

By Jehuda Berg from the Kabbalah Centre International.

Note from Annet: It would be even more interesting, if this worm would be a caterpillar on it's way to become a butterfly.

Easy and Fast Green Smoothie

Inspired by yesterday's green smoothie video of Victoria Boutenko on the blog, I just made a nourishing green smoothies from a banana and endive. I takes about 1 minute to prepare.

Ingredients:
1 banana
5 leaves of organic endive (or less if you prefer)
1 cup of water

Blend with a handhold mixer or blender until smooth.
Enjoy!

Raw Food Recipe Orange-Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:
fresh orange juice of 2 oranges
1 banana
1 tablespoon of hemp oil (if you don't have this, you can do without)
1 tablespoon of coconut oil
optional: some fresh mint

Blend with handhold mixer or blender untill smooth.
Garnish with some orange or fresh mint.

Coconut oil and hempoil form a great combination.
By taking them together, you get all your essential fatty acids.
This is a great breakfast smoothie, also for children.

Enjoy!