Here’s a Juice, Smoothie and Salad Recipe you’ll love!

I can’t believe it’s been 2 months already of eating a mostly raw vegan diet. I’m not a big fan of labels because I don’t want to deter anyone from my main message which is that fruits and vegetables ROCK!!! The more fruits and veggies you add to your diet the healthier you will be and feel… guaranteed! I do appreciate labels though for how important they are in having discussions of any kind. In my quest to attain greater health this year, those words (raw and vegan) are the IT words. My diet has sloooooowly evolved in the past 9 years (since I read Never Be Sick Again by Raymond Francis) and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve never gone cold turkey on anything. Cold turkey does not work for me. I am much further along than most people I know who for years have quit this, that or the other, announced it to the world and sworn by everything, only to be smothered in grease on a Friday night and decide that eating healthy is too hard. Nice and slow works, no need for torture 🙂 I know my why and that keeps me going. I’ve had a few cooked non-vegan meals (one or two a week on average) since this journey began but I’m not sweating them! I am focusing on how easy and delicious it is to have simple and fast raw vegan meals! Here are 3 new recipes I made in one day. I actually wasn’t trying to create new recipes, it just happened! and then of course I thought to myself… better run and get that camera so you can share this with everyone. Enjoy folks. Every recipe was deeeeeelicous 🙂

Juice Recipe #32: Orange Glow

I love 3 ingredient juice recipes, they’re so easy! This juice was sweet and had a great zing thanks to the ginger. Remember… go for organic ingredients if possible. This recipe is very reminiscent of this ABC and ginger recipe but it tastes and looks very different. I used my Breville Juice Fountain Plus instead of the Omega J8006 for this recipe because they were all hard ingredients that the Breville just juices faster.

  • 1 large golden beet (this was my first time using them and they are gorgeous)
  • 5 carrots
  • 1 inch of ginger

golden beets

organic juice recipe orange glow

Smoothie Recipe #9: Hubby’s Fruit Medley

I have a confession. This was my husband’s creation, not mine. It is THE joy of my life that eating this way (and sharing it with others) inspires anyone, and most importantly the people I love so deeply. Hubby has become quite the smoothie maker so when he came up with this winner I knew I had to share it. If you want to do it hubby’s style just throw everything in your Vitamix (blender) in whatever proportions you like, add ‘some’ water and voila! If you’re like me, you’ll use…

  • 1 mango, peeled and chopped
  • 1 cup of strawberries
  • 1 large banana, frozen
  • 1 cup of pineapple, frozen
  • 1 apple
  • 1 cup of water

It doesn’t matter what fruits are fresh or frozen, I just indicated which ones I used that happened to be frozen. I particularly love using only frozen bananas for smoothies. It somehow tastes better to me.

hubby's fruit medley smoothie

Salad Recipe

This salad was filling and out of this world good!

  • 3 large handfuls of baby kale, chopped
  • 1/2 cucumber, chopped
  • 1 large carrot, shredded
  • 3/4 cup of broccoli florets
  • 2 large handful of a variety of sprouts (garbanzo, alfalfa and bean sprouts)

Salad Dressing: 5 strawberries, 1 orange and 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar.

Ok, so balsamic vinegar is obviously not raw but I loooooove the one I have and it is fantastic for making salad dressings. The recipe would actually be just fine with only strawberries and oranges so feel free to leave it out.

salad recipe

~Add more fruits and vegetables to your diet, juice and enjoy!~

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Healthy, Simple Raw Lunch and Snacks

Here’s a healthy and simple raw lunch I have just finished preparing and packing to take with me to work tomorrow. I get such a kick out of preparing my lunch and snacks especially when they look this yummy 🙂  It reminds me of my childhood and being a student in primary school. I hated the lunch my school served so I packed my own lunch (most days) and snacks. School lunch was usually under or overcooked and lacked any flavor whatsoever but it was prepared from scratch with real whole foods. In hindsight it was definitely so much healthier than what most public schools serve children here in the US, hence the childhood obesity epidemic. If only everyone listened to Jamie Oliver. Snack time & Lunch time, at work now, are still one of my favorite parts of the day so why not take the time to prepare something tasty and healthy for the day ahead or early in the morning if you can manage that. A longer work day means you should pack even more food so as not to succumb to temptation. Don’t forget to hydrate 🙂 with water and your favorite no-fuss juice recipe.

Breakfast: I’ll make this green smoothie recipe early in the morning in the Vitamix before I head out the door! I LOOOOVE that Vitamix. It is so incredibly powerful, fast and easy to clean. I have gotten so much use out of it! Can’t imagine our kitchen without it. *Thanks babe*

Snack time #1: Peeled and quartered juicy oranges

I bought a huge box of these oranges wholesale at Costco and to be honest they are the juiciest and most delicious oranges I’ve ever had. Hubby & I finished a box in a few days so I joyfully took at trip back to Costco last Friday for box #2 . Let’s see how long they last this time…

oranges

Lunch time: Large Green Salad with your healthy dressing of choice

  • organic mixed organic greens
  • cherry tomatoes from mummy’s garden
  • mini bell peppers from my other mama’s (MIL) garden
  • sliced cucumber
  • organic baby carrots

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Snack time #2: Mangoes & Strawberries

Are you salivating like I am?

mangoes and strawberries

Bonus snack: Trail mix

*nuts are all raw and measure half a cup all together

  • cashews
  • pumpkin seeds
  • almonds
  • sunflower seeds
  • 1 heaped tbsp of dried cranberries

raw trail mix

Ready to go!

healthy raw lunch and snacks

What are your favorite easy peasy healthy and simple snack and lunch ideas?

Comeback Creations: Sprout salad recipe

Oh dear, has it really been since January 16th since I last posted to my beloved blog? I feel so terrible about that and I also feel like I owe my beloved followers and myself a huge apology. I am so very sorry. I have just had a super sucky time since then. It would only feed ‘the ego’ to delve into the one million reasons the past few months haven’t been so peachy for me so I’m not going there and Eckhart Tolle taught me better anyway! 🙂 In an effort to turn things around and bring some joy back into my life I will slowly make the time to get back in my kitchen and create recipes that I really love. Not the cooking-so-we-don’t-starve I’ve been doing lately. My kitchen is the one place I can go to and it doesn’t cost a fortune to create my recipes, I don’t need anyone’s approval, I don’t have any deadlines and better yet I don’t need to wait to enjoy my creations. Can you tell I need therapy? LOL!

A few weeks ago my dad was really ill so I went home and made him some fresh juice (and soup). It had been so long since I juiced and for a few minutes I felt joyful. Juicing again and seeing my parents so happy and enjoying what I made for them literally almost made me burst into tears in my mama’s kitchen. That moment reminded me that in spite of any seemingly never ending crap we may be going through we’ve got to find and do things that bring us joy. It may not fix everything but for a few minutes we feel the peace and joy that those activities bring.

Thanks to the painfully cold weather we’ve been having I’ve been drinking tea but craving juice the entire time!

This is what I’ve been drinking…

tea

But this is what I really want… Any kind of green juice!

celery apple and romaine green juice

This is one of the few things I’ve made…

vegetable soup

I’m so over soups now and I’d much rather be munching on this healthy salad recipe…

sprout salad recipeIngredients:

  • organic mixed greens
  • 1/2 an avocado, cubed
  • 1/2 a a mango, cubed
  • handful of organic cooked/sprouted garbanzo beans/chickpeas
  • handful of organic sprouts (I used broccoli sprouts)

There’s something about the combo of avocado and mango in a salad that really tastes great. Dress the salad however you’d prefer and enjoy 🙂

As for where I’d rather be…  on the Kenyan Coast! Can’t think of a place more beautiful.

Sweet Clemetine Salad

Clementines are not safe in our house. I bought a box of them and between my husband and I they were gone in four days. I don’t know how many the box holds but I would estimate probably about 35. They were perfect to have for breakfast, as a snack and as you will see in today’s post, they were a great addition to this salad. This salad was incredibly filling, delicious, crunchy, sweet and a little tangy thanks to the yummy dressing I used.

Here’s the simple recipe:

  • Organic mixed greens
  • Organic baby carrots
  • Organic cherry tomatoes, halved
  • One clementine

Sweet Clementine Salad

Yup! That’s it! Simple is best. I used Cindy’s Kitchen Sundried Tomato dressing which I purchased at my local Whole Foods Market but feel free to use whatever dressing you have on hand or better yet make one.

Clementines have Folate, Potassium, Fiber and are of course loaded with Vitamin C.

~Munch & Enjoy!~