Photo Credit

This is a guest post by Laura-Jane the Rawtarian.

In North American culture, we are accustomed to eating because it tastes great, rather than eating for nourishment. When the average person hears the words “raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds” they cringe and picture dry carrots sticks and tasteless iceberg lettuce salads. In fact, to most people, the idea that healthy food can actually taste great and satiate sounds like a myth.

But if you’ve tasted any of the raw food recipes here at the this web site, you’ll know that healthy and delicious are not mutually exclusive!

Here are 5 easy raw food meals that save you time and taste great, too.

1. Raw pate

All raw fooders should have a standyby raw pate recipe in their raw recipe arsenal. And Nathalie’s Indian-inspired pate is one of the greats!

Raw pates are versatile, quick to make and, best of all, they keep well in the refrigerator. I make a batch of raw nut pate on the weekend so that I can easily pull together a raw meal quickly later in the week.

Raw nut pate can be served in collard wraps, in nori rolls, on raw crackers, on cucumber rounds, or, my personal favorite, eaten out of a small bowl with a crisp gala apple on the side.

2. Raw veggie burgers

If you have a dehydrator, raw veggie burgers are a great meal option. Make large batches of veggie burgers and be sure to dehydrate them thoroughly so that they can be kept in your pantry or refrigerator.

Raw veggie burgers are simply made by processing nuts, veggies and a binding agent (such as flax seeds), forming them into patties, and dehydrating them in a dehydrator.

I like to serve raw veggie burgers in romaine lettuce wraps. Serve with raw ketchup or raw mayonnaise for extra zip!

3. Your favorite raw salad

Every raw fooder should have a favorite raw salad that tastes great and is easy to prepare. My favorite salad recipe involves mesclun (wild greens) and tomatoes with a basic avocado and nutritional yeast dressing.

The trick to a good salad is to keep it simple. Don’t try to add every vegetable on earth into one salad. Keep it simple and enjoy just two or three flavors per salad.

Watch Nathalie make her Simple Raw Salad Recipe on video here.

4. Raw pasta and sauce

I love creamy tastes, and I absolutely love raw alfredo sauce served with zuchinni or kelp noodles.

Here’s my favorite alfredo sauce recipe:

• 2 cups unsoaked cashews
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon thyme spice
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Simply combine all ingredients in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth! This recipe keeps in the refrigerator very well.

5. Green smoothies

I drink green smoothies for breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner, and dessert! They are one of the quickest and easiest meals to prepare, and they can be altered easily to fit your mood or what you have in your refrigerator.

I usually start my green smoothies with one banana, a heaping cup or two of baby spinach, and then I get creative from there. Lately, I’ve been loving making raspberry lemon green smoothies. They are so tangy! If you’re looking for tips on green smoothie making, check out 13 witchy ways green smoothies make you feel great.

And, of course, any proper raw meal should be followed by a raw vegan dessert! Try pumpkin pie, raw ice cream or a plate of divine, crisp, fresh fruit. Want more raw dessert ideas? Grab Nathalie’s free e-book 28 Desserts You Can Eat Every Day.

Photo Credit

Laura-Jane the Rawtarian is a raw fooder who loves eating simple, satisfying raw food recipes and inspiring others to change their lives with the raw food lifestyle. Looking for ways to help friends and family go raw, she recently launched a comprehensive raw food diet plan to make going raw easier than ever. Laura-Jane loves eating raw chia pudding, and she always keeps a wide variety of nuts and fruit stashed in her purse!

Photo by Rachel

I write a lot about green smoothies and the benefits of drinking green smoothies. I’m also a huge advocate of juicing your greens. But one of the important aspects of drinking your greens is the rotation of plants.

Let me explain.

When you consume the exact same variety of green leafy vegetables, your body is always getting the same nutrients. Each variety of plant will give you different nutrients, minerals, and antioxidants.

But it goes even further than that. You see, each plant has a self-defense mechanism to keep animals from completely devastating their favorite plant. For example, if monkeys loved spinach and decided to eat all the spinach around then the plant could not procreate and it would die out.

Nature’s system is so smart because it knows that it’s important to keep greens around (hello! most nutritious food pound for pound!). So green leafy plants actually have a minute amount of alkaloids, which act like a poison if ingested regularly.

That’s where rotating your greens comes in! If you switch between different types of green plans, your body’s immune system is actually getting a boost because it is working on different alkaloids all the time.

So my recommendation, backed up by Victoria Boutenko is to switch between at least 10-12 types of greens. You can have say two or three days on one green like spinach, and then two or three days on kale, then two or three days on gai lan, you get the picture.

This actually ties in well with the Traditional Chinese Medicine system of hot and cold foods. Some people do well on certain types of greens, while others are better off with different types.

I think it’s super important to swap greens regularly! Oh, and the reason we don’t need to focus on swapping fruit as much as greens is that fruit were designed to be eaten and spread by animals. Greens would rather grow, and have their seeds blow in the wind or be pollinated by insects.

Greens are the most powerful healing foods out there, so it’s great to make them a staple part of your diet!

List of Greens to Get You Started

Your best bet is to go to a farmer’s market and look a the vast array of colorful greens. Pick some up, smell it, ask the farmer what it tastes like, and give it a try! If you’ve got the space and inclination, I’d highly recommend you start a garden. Plant a few of these vegetables and see which ones you like!

• Spinach
• Swiss Chard
• Kale
• Bok Choy
• Gai Lan
• Dandelion Greens
• Mustard Greens
• Carrot Tops
• Yu Choy
• Sunflower sprouts (sprouts in general)
• Romaine lettuce
• Buttercrunch lettuce
• Boston lettuce
• Arugula (Rocket)
• Collard greens
• Cabbage
• Watercress
• Purslane
• Sorrel
• Tatsoi
• Turnip Greens
• Radish Greens
• Beet Greens
• Basil leaves
• Coriander / Cilantro
• Parsley
• Mint leaves

What other greens do you enjoy?

There are literally hundreds of different green edible plants out there. Which ones are your favorites and what have you tried that you didn’t quite like?

Alright, so you’ve read my 13 Witchy Ways Green Smoothies will rock your socks post. You’ve learned about the difference between smoothies and juicing. You’ve probably heard me talk about green smoothies on Twitter (follow me, I’m @hyperlinked) and Facebook.

But are you ready for International Green Smoothie Day – August 15th?

It’s time for the second annual green smoothie celebration. I’m one of the sponsors of International Green Smoothie day, so if you’ve been itching to work with me one on one, you could win a session as part of the celebration! Sign up and you’ll also get a chance to win a brand new blender. To make more delicious green magickal “goop” of course. :)

Enjoy it!

Are you overwhelmed by the number of accessories and machines “Raw Food Gurus” tell you are needed to make eating a raw food diet successful? With the help of this guide you’ll be able to decide whether you should invest in a blender or a juicer, and figure out which one is more likely to give you the biggest nutritional bang for your buck.

The Benefits of Blenders and Smoothies

1. Smoothies keep longer in the refrigerator than juice does.

Smoothies contain all of the fiber that the fruits and vegetables initially came with, albeit in a blended form. Because everything is still in the drink itself, you can actually store smoothies longer without losing too much nutritional value.

To preserve a smoothie you simply need to put it in a glass container like a mason jar filled to the brim. This keeps the air out, so that the smoothie will not oxidize. Seal the jar and drink it within 24 to 32 hours. You might need to shake it if the water separates.

2. The fiber of a green smoothie acts like chimney sweepers.

Smoothies have a cleansing effect on the bowel. Since smoothies still contain all of the fiber from the fruits and vegetables, you get a chimney sweeping effect. One of the reasons I’m so fond of smoothies is that they keep me regular, and cleanse my body on their way out.

3. Sugar is absorbed slower because of the built-in fiber.

Green smoothies allow you to have fruit without experiencing the aftermath of a sugar spike and crash. The fiber will keep the flow of sugar regular as your body digests it and it enters the bloodstream. Fruit smoothies will have the effect as eating whole fruits, so you may experience a bit of an up and down, but nothing compared to fruit juice. (By the way, store bought fruit juices are the worst, and I don’t recommend them at all.)

4. Commercial smoothies are “tainted”.

Most store-bought or juice-bar smoothies are less than ideal. These smoothies are made with frozen fruit, with store-bought sugary juices and liquors for added taste. Most store-bought smoothies are packed with sugar so that they taste extra yummy. These smoothies also tend to include dairy of a questionable quality and source.

Though commercial smoothies are tainted, commercial juices are even worse. Bottled juices are almost pure sugar with very little nutrition at all. They are also high in calories, and just plain bad for the health.

5. Blenders are easy to clean.

A blender is easily cleaned by running it under the tap. Or adding a bit of water and soap to the blender and pushing the clean cycle button for a few seconds. Because blenders are so easy to assemble and clean a lot of people gravitate towards blending instead of juicing.

6. Fruit smoothies are great tasting for the whole family.

Smoothies are great for making fruit-based drinks because it contains the whole fruit. They are also great for green smoothies because you can mix and match to please the taste buds of anyone in your household. A little extra fruit, or maybe a spoonful of cacao for an added twist.

7. With a blender you can make sauces, salsas, and dips.

Blenders are great for making sauces and dips. With a blender you can make all kinds of different things aside from smoothies, like salsas, guacamole, sauces, and soups. Though you can most certainly make soups with a juicer, blended soups tend to be thicker and creamier.

8. You can easily add supplements and superfoods into smoothies.

When you’re making a smoothie you can add a spoonful of hemp protein powder, spirulina, maca root powder, and so on. You wouldn’t necessarily add these supplements to a glass of juice, either because of the taste or the texture. That makes smoothies ideal for superfoods and giving yourself a nutritional edge.

My Recommended Blender of Choice

If you’ve got the means then I definitely recommend you go with a Vitamix blender. Otherwise, Amazon has a nice selection of mid-range blenders like the Oster Professional Series Blender.

The Benefits of Juicing and Freshly Squeezed Juice

Many long time raw foodists (ugh there we go with labels again!) state that their success is in part due to juicing.

1. Fresh juices are the shortcut to pure nutrition.

Freshly made juice gives you all the nutrients without any of the associated digestion. A freshly made juice bypasses your need to digest through the fibers before you get all the nutrients of the fruits and vegetables. This is ideal for people who have digestion problems and who need to heal themselves before they can absorb nutrients from whole foods. This ability to bypass your digestion and go straight into your nutritional system is important for giving your body a break and allowing it to heal itself fully.

2. Juice is ideal for cleansing and healing.

Many people have healed themselves and undergone complete transformations by following a supervised juice fast or juice feast. The idea is to drink only freshly made juicer for an extended period of time to allow your body to take a break and work on deeper issues that require healing. Remember to consider the benefits of organic produce when you’re juicing, especially if you aren’t peeling your produce.

3. Juice vegetables, but eat fruits.

Jay Kordich (The Juice Daddy) believes that you should juice vegetables and eat fruits. Vegetables are better juiced whereas fruits are better eaten whole. Fruits need all of the fiber in order to slow down the absorption of sugar in your blood stream. The exception is that of mixing apple juice with vegetables. Vegetables contain less sugar and therefore don’t need as much fiber to slow down the absorption. This goes back to the idea that store bought fruit juices are not a healthy drink.

4. Juice gives you an instant energy boost.

When you’re drinking freshly made juice, you’re getting all of the energy right away without waiting for your body to digest through it. Whenever I drink freshly squeezed vegetable juice I always feel energized and more alert.

5. Even without fiber juice is a great way to flush your system out.

Even without all of the fiber of smoothies, juices are a great way to give your body a chance to expel things via bowel movements. If you “chew your juice” as recommended, you give your body a signal that begins peristalsis and gets your bowels moving. That leads to a bowel movement and you are cleansing your body even without eating the fiber.

6. Cleaning a juicer can be quite a task.

I think it’s a tossup between making juice and making a smoothie in terms of time. For a smoothie you need to cut the fruits that you’re going blend, and for a juice you might need to cut apples or carrots if they don’t fit in the juicer.

A juicer definitely requires a little bit more time for cleanup. Although I’ve been able to time myself and make an entire batch of juice in less than 15 minutes, I think all of these things come with practice.

7. Juices don’t make you feel full.

After drinking juice you might be satisfied for 30 minutes to an hour. After drinking a smoothie, you might be satisfied for two to three hours. So I see juice more as a way to add nutrition into your day, and not as much as a meal like a smoothie might be.

8. Juice allows you to juice almost any produce.

You might never put a beet or a carrot in one of your smoothies, but you can definitely make juice out of these ingredients. Interestingly enough, you can disguise bad tasting vegetables with other better tasting vegetables and apples to make juices that contain a larger variety of ingredients. Not necessarily so with smoothies.

9. The debate over unlocked nutrition in juice and smoothies.

It’s still up for debate whether juice or smoothies unlock all the nutritional value in fruits and vegetables. Some juicer and blender manufacturers say that all of the nutrition is unlocked and is therefore superior to eating the fruits and vegetables themselves. This would potentially lead to increased absorption of nutrition. This is certainly the case for the elderly, or people who have a hard time chewing through foods properly.

While I cannot quote any scientific studies, I can definitely vouch with my experience that it is very easy to digest smoothies and juices.

My Recommended Juicer of Choice

Earlier this year I bought an Omega Masticating Juicer, and I’m so pleased with it! There are also some great mid-range juicers available like the Breville Juice Fountain.

Watch the Cliff Notes Version via Video

(Watch the video here if it’s not viewable.)

Is Juicing Better for you than Smoothies? Or vice versa?

I think it really comes down to what you’re more likely to use on a daily basis. The blender might work better if you’re in a rush and you need a very filling meal. In this case I definitely recommend making lots of blended green smoothies.

If you have a lot of produce from your garden or from a weekly produce delivery service and you don’t know what to do with all of it, I definitely recommend a juicer. Remember not to mix fruits and vegetables in the same juice except for apples and to some extent lemons. Though it is preferable to make vegetable juices over fruit juices.

When I first went raw I bought a blender and a juicer. If I had to do it all over again I would have just bought a blender. Now I have both a blender and a juicer and I’m definitely making good use of my juicer because of all the produce in my garden.

If money is an issue then I definitely think a blender is a better investment because you’re not wasting the fiber of the fruits and vegetables that you’re blending.

I do think that juice have an advantage in terms of nutrition because it simply gives your digestion system a break.

Have your say…

So if you were starting over with raw foods, or if you’re in that place now… which one would you recommend to others in this situation? A blender or a juicer? Let us know in the comments!