Savory pasta with marinara sauce

Zucchini pasta is pretty much a staple in the raw world. It's easy, it's affordable, and it's approachable for those new to the lifestyle. However, it has always been one of my least favorite meals to make. Every time I would make it I would come to the conclusion that the taste was great but that there was something off with the mouth feel. I just didn't like it.

Then, the other day I just wanted it, bad. And so I began making the sauce, throwing things into the blender that seemed to work. I pulled out two zucchinis and then just stared at them. What in the world was I going to do with those two??

I didn't want to spiralize them. Though I love my gadget and I think it's the coolest "fancifier" in the kitchen, I just couldn't bring myself to have spiralized zucchini, again. While I was contemplating the last zucchini pasta I had I mindlessly grabbed my vegetable peeler and began peeling the zucchini. And then I continued ... and continued ... until I had beautiful zucchini ribbons.

Deliciously delicate ribbons.

I've used this technique before so I'm not quite sure what made it so special this time. This time, though, was the first time I used it for a simple marinara pasta dish. Finally, I felt like the dish was complete, was a joy to eat, and easy to create.

Even my SO liked it, which means that it basically rocked. (he's not a fan of, err, the raw feel ...)

The other trick that I used for this dish was inspired by Fully Raw Kristina (the cutest little 80101er ever) .. In one of her YouTube videos she strained her pasta sauce in a colander before using. I thought this was such a simple and genius idea and was also a little annoyed I didn't think of it myself! It is such a turn off when there is a pool of water at the bottom of my dish when I near the end ....

This winning idea and my AH-mazing marinara sauce paired with the ribbons really just made a fantastic meal. The funny thing is that all of these components are really things that are very simple and things that I do with other meals ... but together?! It's outta this world.

Simple Savory Marinara:

a recipe

1 pint grape tomatoes

3-4 sundried tomatoes, soaked in hot water until soft, roughly chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 T olive oil

1/2 red bell pepper, roughly chopped

1-2 T fresh oregano

sea salt to taste

Place everything into a high speed blender and blend until smooth, about a minute or two. Pour the sauce into a colander that is resting on a bowl and let it drain while you peel your zucchini.

Pasta:

the method

2 large zucchinis

1/4 t sea salt

Peel the outer layer of the zucchini and discard. Continue to peel the zucchini so you get ribbons, lengthwise. Continue until you reach the seeds and then discard the core. Sprinkle the salt over the ribbons and gently mix with your hands. Place this over a fine mesh sieve and let drain over a bowl. Once the water has drained out, gently squeeze the ribbons and pat with a towel to remove excess water and salt.

I separated the ribbons by hand, then placed in a bowl and mixed with the sauce. This isn't necessary but I found that the ribbons clumped together when I squeezed the excess water out of them ... do what you gotta do!

Try it out and let me know what you think! You can serve with fresh basil, like I did, pine nuts, raw olives, etc. 

Pizza from Real Raw

http://www.realrawkitchen.com/2013/06/recipe-pizza-night-raw-style.html
Pizza is just one of those things that is special, delicious, and always a cheat meal ... even when it's raw. I mostly avoid raw pizza because it's very heavy on the nuts and seeds (nut crust with a seed spread and nut cheese covered in veggies-soaked-in-oil ...). I also tend to stay away from pizzas because they also take a lot of work to make.

This is the way it is with most dehydrated foods. I treat my dehydrator like a mistress, visiting her in secret when the SO is away and only for very special occasions. Desserts make an appearance more often than dinners, but when I use the dehydrator I go all the way.

As a disclaimer, this recipe is a lot of work. It is not something I typically do and not something I'm proud to admit I spend my time doing. But when I do it I am so glad I did. It's like a really special meal; a gourmet take on pizza. So if you're up for the challenge then I think you will love this. If you're trying to make something quick and easy ... keep scrolling. 

Also, to be clear, no special talents are needed to make this. Just patience and time.

This particular dish was an excellent compromise for me. I got to indulge in pizza but then also stayed away from the heavy and hard-to-digest nuts. Instead, I used chia seeds and sweet potato as the base. It gave a lot of flavor but also left the crust a little bit chewy ... which I like.

I might add some hemp seeds the next time I make this just to try out the crunch-factor, and so if you're looking for a crunchy crust then maybe you can try that, this time.

You know what the most satisfying part about this pizza is? It was a success, even with my regular pizza-loving SO. He is not a fan of these "fake" versions of cheat meals, and he's especially not a fan of, what he calls, "that dehydrator taste". And even he said this was really good. So for me, I'm over the moon excited to share this with you.

Nut Free Pizza Crust:

a recipe

6 T chia seeds

1 sweet potato

1 handful fresh oregano

1 handful fresh basil

2-3 cups spinach

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 t sea salt and ground pepper

any other seasoning, to taste

hemp seeds (optional)

Put the chia seeds into a jar (about a 12 ounce jar will work, think: an old almond butter jar) and fill the jar with water. Shake vigorously and then place in the fridge for at least an hour, up to an overnight soak. Give it a shake every once in awhile to make sure all the chia seeds get nice and swell-ey. 

When you're about ready to start dehydrating the crust you can begin the next steps. Chop the cleaned sweet potato and place in your food processor. Process until it is broken down quite a bit, almost to a pulp. Then start add the oregano, basil, spinach, and seasoning, until it is all well incorporated. Lastly, add the chia seeds and then process until a dough is formed. This will not necessarily be dry like a dough but it will be pudding-like.

Pour everything onto a Teflex sheet and spread into a circle as big as the tray. Place into the dehydrator at 105-115, depending on your preference. Allow this to dehydrate for at least a few hours before flipping onto a mesh tray and peeling the Teflex sheet. I waited almost 8 hours, waiting until the entire top portion is dry to the touch.

The ends will curl up as it dehydrates, just as a warning!! Once it's flipped it flattens back out. Continue to dehydrate until dried, through. You can allow it to dry to your desired texture. 

Basic Marinara Chunky Sauce:

a recipe

1 pint cherry tomatoes

3-4 sundried tomato halves, soaked

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 handful fresh oregano

sea salt and pepper to taste

2 T olive oil

Place everything into a food processor and process until saucey, leaving some chunks behind. Pour into a colander that is resting over a bowl and drain the excess liquid while you work on the other layers.

Spinach Layer:

a method

2-3 cups fresh spinach

Run this through the food processor until chunky. Then squeeze the excess liquid out through a nut mylk bag so you're left with a nice, dry spinach pulp.

Marinated Mushrooms and Onions:

a method

2 cups mushroom slices, any variety

1/2 onion, sliced thinly

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 lemon, juiced

2 T olive oil

Combine the lemon, garlic, and oil in a bowl and whisk vigorously. Pour over the mushrooms slices and onion slices and let them marinate for a few hours to overnight. When you are about 3-5 hours away from serving the pizza, pop them into the dehydrator. The warmth and the juices wilt the veggies, giving them that sauteed feel.

To Do:

• Take the crust out of the dehydrator when it's done.
• Pour the drained marinara sauce over the top and spread out, evenly.
• Sprinkle the spinach over the top in an even layer.
• Spread the sauteed veggies over the top, evenly.
• Garnish with fresh herbs, like basil, and sliced tomatoes if you'd like
• Place back into the dehydrator to warm through, 10-15 minutes.

Take out, slice up and serve!

You can also add a nut cheese if you'd like. I'm curious what it would have been like with a cheesy sauce or drops of fermented macadamia cheese. But like I said, I really do not like eating such dense and dehydrated foods so I tend to stay away from them. But if you add some, let me know!

the lymph and exercise

Benefit 5 – Detoxification
Many of us do not realize that our breath is an important detoxification tool. The lower lobes of the lungs are loaded with 60-80% of the blood filled, oxygen rich alveoli that are dispersed through all 5 lobes of our lungs. Alveoli exchange oxygen for CO2 and efficiently remove the CO2 waste.
When you start to huff and puff through your mouth during exercise it is because the upper lobes are less efficient at removing the CO2 waste. Though the upper lobes can provide enough oxygen for exchange into the blood, they can’t remove the CO2 waste as well. The way to do this efficiently is to breathe deeply through the nose during a demanding activity like exercise.*
Benefit Six – A Major Lymph Mover
The rib cage is a dynamic series of levels with elastic recoil that massage the heart and lungs during breathing. When breathing through the nose the entire rib cage moves. When breathing through the mouth, only the upper rib cage moves, which forces shallow and inefficient breathing.
With deep, efficient nasal breathing during exercise, the rib cage acts as a lymphatic pump designed to move toxic waste out of the heart and lungs and pull toxic lymph from the Gut Associated Lymphatic Tissue or GALT.* (Look for my next series of video newsletters on the Miracle of Lymph.)
Proper breathing pulls lymphatic waste from various parts of the body,* such as the:

• digestive system – belly fat and bloating.*
• legs – cellulite.*
• feet – arthritis.*
• reproductive organs – hormonal problems.*

I have received numerous emails from folks who have seen dramatic improvements in all these areas just by following the nasal breathing principles in my book Body, Mind and Sport. In addition, they have experienced an overwhelming improvement in mood, energy and sleep.
There are many more benefits that I discuss in Body Mind and Sport that are too numerous to cover in this article. Let’s just say that I never thought the results from such a simple technique would be so amazing!

How Do You Do It?

Steps to Learn Nasal Breathing:

• Start nasal breathing by going for a walk. Walk intentionally slow for 5-10 minutes while you breathe deeply in and out through your nose. During this phase we are “exercising the lungs first”. While you are doing this, tune into the rhythm of the deep nasal breathing and notice the natural space or link that exists between each breath.
• Next, begin to increase the pace of your walk. As you walk faster, watch the rate of the nasal breathing.
• As soon as the breath starts to shorten or you lose that spacing between each breath, slow your walking pace down to the pace you started with. This process resets the breath rate to the original pace, or perhaps even a deeper, slower rhythm.
• Once the breath is reset, start to walk faster again while watching your breath rate. Typically you will see yourself walking faster than before but your breath rate will stay slow and stable while maintaining the natural spacing between each nasal breath.
• At some point, as you increase the walk/jog pace, the breath rate will shorten and you will need to slow down to reset the original slower and deeper breath rate. Then increase the pace again.
• Repeat this process and start enjoying exercise gains without the strain.
• Are you having difficulty breathing through your nose? Read about Shilajit in my free article Ayurvedic Fitness. You may also benefit from using Nasya Oil in your nose before exercising.

The Goal
The goal is to reach a level of respiratory efficiency which allows you to increase your pace while slowing your breath rate. The body will choose longer, deeper and slower breaths as you increase the pace of the workout.

This is “the zone” – a place where you feel both the freedom to move dynamically in your body and a total sense of peace and calm in your mind.

mango coconut basil wraps

WARNING: this. is. so. good.

I have been playing with this idea for quite some time better never brought it to life because I can't bear to part with a juicy ripe mango without first devouring it and I can't handle the thought of not eating coconut meat straight from the coconut.

Finally, I did it anyway. And BOY am I glad I did. This was so simple and pretty easy and was THE BEST raw wrap I've ever had. Even my hubby loved it and he hates anything that comes from the dehydrator! (#hashtaghubbyapproved)

If you do not have a dehydrator then my heart aches for you only because you will not be able to make this. I do not think a dehydrator is worth the money in a raw kitchen .. sure, it's a neat gadget but most of the food coming out of it isn't that great and isn't truly fresh and raw like I believe in, anyway. Every once in awhile, though, I get my money's worth. It's usually in the form of kale chips. This time it was a wrap.

If you're like me and you do not own some serious coconut-opening tools then use a chef's knife and open a coconut like the video demonstrates above.

I lined my wraps with my turmeric sauce and julienned cucumber and carrot, sliced green onions, fresh lettuce, and a couple slices of avocado. I served an enormous salad alongside it that had a head of romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, green onion, diced cucumber, and a couple tablespoons more of turmeric dressing. 

Mango Wraps:

a recipe

1 juice mango

1 cup young coconut meat

handful fresh basil

Add the mango to your high speed blender. Take your coconut meat and chop it up finely (this helps the blender) and add to the blender. Blend on low to incorporate the ingredients. Increase the speed and use your tamper to push the ingredients down. Blend on high until everything is completely smooth. Pour into a bowl.

Cut your fresh basil chiffonade style and add to the mango-coconut mixture. Stir everything together and then spread onto a Teflex sheet for the dehydrator. Dehydrate at 105 degrees until dried but still flexible. Peel off the liner and use as a wrap!

YUM! I hope you get to try this out and experience the bliss that is in a wrap

mini falafel salad

I love falafel. I love how silly it sounds, I love how flavorful it is and I love how versatile it can be. Traditional falafel, however, isn't all that healthy. It's deep friend and sometimes greasy. So even when I'm at a restaurant that serves authentic falafel I steer clear for fear of what it might do to my digestion and/or skin.

Then, I discovered the falafel wrap at Cafe Gratitude in California. Ever since then I've been hooked. It has single-handedly changed my views on dehydration and imitation raw foods (my general opinion is that dehydration is a pain and imitation foods are an insult to the original raw food creations we could be making). 

When I left California I was so sad to also be leaving Cafe Gratitude. Then, two years later, I finally thought: 

why don't I make my own falafel?

Duh. So simple. And it's probably easy.

In fact, this was incredibly easy. I just looked up traditional recipes and made note of the underlying flavors and consistency. Then I threw a bunch of things in a food processor, scooped out mini ball shapes and plopped them onto a dehydrator sheet.

If you don't have a dehydrator sheet you can bake at a low temperature. Though, be warned, I have not baked these so I don't even know a suggested temperature or duration.

Mini Falafels:

a recipe

1 1/2 cup walnuts, soaked

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/3 cup each fresh parsley, cilantro

1 1/4 t cumin

1/2 t dried oregano

2 T olive oil

1/2 t sea salt

1/4 t ground pepper

~2 T water, as needed

Combine the greens, oil, water, garlic and spices into a food processor and process until a paste/liquid forms, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed. Once the liquid forms, add your walnuts and process until a dough forms. Be careful with the water, it is needed more to facilitate the processing than as a major component; too much will make it too wet

Scoop out, using a Tablespoon measurer, and place on the mesh sheet of a dehydrator tray. Mine only made about 6 mini falafels. If you want more, double the recipe or add another cup of nuts. Dehydrate at 105 overnight. The outer layer should be firm and almost crispy. The inside should be soft but dried.

Serve as you'd like! I served mine with a zucchini hummus dressing over lettuce and zucchini noodles. YUM!

Let me know what you think when you try them!

xo

pasta marinara with grated parmesan

For some reason I was craving this dish for an entire week. So when I finally got to it you can only imagine how excited I was. Everything came together so beautifully that it made this dish even more special.

There's something so special about fresh and ripe food. Preparing food becomes so much more meaningful when working with whole foods. The fragrant smells of the basil, oregano, garlic ... it fills my kitchen and my heart. I become transported into another time and place whenever I'm preparing a meal.

The washing, the drying, the chopping, the spiralizing, the grating ... and then that moment when it all comes together and looks just as beautiful as it tastes... it's just such a wonderfully peaceful experience for me. So many people ask me, "but isn't it so hard to eat that way?" Nope. Not at all. Because to me this food is a healing experience, a beautiful form of art that serves as a way to express myself creatively.

And that is a beautiful thing.

Basic Marinara Sauce:

a recipe

1 cup cherry tomatoes

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

3-4 sundried tomatoes, soaked and chopped

1 clove garlic

1 T fresh oregano

1 T fresh basil

sea salt and pepper to taste

Blend everything on high until smooth. Pour into a strainer placed over a bowl and let it drain while you work on your zucchini. I used a spiralized zucchini for this dish, but you can use any veggie and make it into a pasta, if you'd like.

Easy Raw Parmesan:

a recipe

1 Brazil Nut

I'm not even kidding with this. Just grate one Brazil Nut over your pasta and voila!!

noodles with cheezy sauce

http://www.realrawkitchen.com/p/the-recipes.html

A raw kitchen will likely have lots of little gadgets to help you get creative with your food. The problem with this is that it can run up the tab on your kitchen tools. I don't know about you but I can hardly afford to have the nicest tools on the market, let alone all the tools on the market. So I've found ways to get creative, or simply use the cheap versions only to find they work just as well!

(the only exception is the Vitamix. It is, unequivocally, the best big purchase I've ever made. And they currently have an increased selection of reconditioned blenders for significantly less!)

I am often asked about what tools I use in order to create certain dishes. I'm fortunate enough to have a small collection of fancy gadgets in my kitchen, but I thought I'd introduce you to a few gadgets just in case you haven't had the pleasure of using them for yourself, already.

Let me introduce you to the Mandolin. It is such a neat and affordable gadget that is easy to use and can be used in many different facets. I like to make noodles with it, sometimes, and also make slices when I'm layering fruit or making dehydrated chips. It allows you to quickly slice up your food without worrying about whether or not you've made even slices.

For this particular dish I was feeling drawn to the mandolin, as opposed to the usual spiralizer, and so I quickly sliced and shredded my veggies for this amazingly simple and delicious meal. I served it with a garlic-tahini-zucchini sauce and sprinkled nutritional yeast over it.

Simple Noodles:

a method

2 large zucchinis

1 large carrot

Using a mandolin (carefully) shred your veggies using the thinnest slots available. Below is the mandolin that I use in my kitchen and it works perfectly. Please be careful, we've had some mandolin accidents in our kitchen, so go slowly!

 

Simple Cheezy Sauce:

a recipe

1 zucchini, chopped

2 T tahini

1/2 lemon, juiced

2-3 T nutritional yeast

1 clove garlic

 2-4 T water

Combine everything in a high speed blender and blend until smooth. Pour over the noodles and mic until coated. Top the noodle with a little bit more nutritional yeast for some extra cheezy flavor!