Hemp protein barz

These little green bars are full of protein and will keep you energized for hours. They are subtly sweet and have the consistency of fudge when left out at room temperature. They are also great for travel :)

Dry ingredients:

1cup raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

1cup coconut shreds **plus more for topping the bars 

1/2cup hemp protein powder (I used Nutiva brand)

4T chia seeds

4T flax seeds

dash of pink Himalayan sea salt

Wet ingredients:

1cup dates, pitted and soaked overnight

1cup prunes, soaked overnight

1t spiralina

4T raw cacao powder

1cup Brown rice puffs


In a food processor or blender, pulse the dry ingredients quickly. Do not over-process, or it will turn to nut butter. You want a chunky consistency. Place the mixture in a bowl and set aside. 

Add all wet ingredients to the food processor or high speed blender and blend to combine. This might take some time, and if your blender isn’t strong enough you might have to help out by stirring around a few times with a fork or add a dash of water.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients, add puffed brown rice and stir until well combined. 

Spread the batter evenly into a 11 x 7-inch (28 x 18 cm) baking dish, make sure it becomes quite compact. Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Cut into bars. **Optional: press extra coconut flakes onto the top of the bars**

Wrap them in paper and store in an air-tight container. Will keep around a week in the fridge.

my little poney juice and the cutest flax seed crackers ever!

I should start off by mentioning that the following recipes in this post do require some appliances that you might not have at home. The first is a juicer (which I actually bought for my mom for her birthday during her short-lived juice phase. She never used so when I moved into my new apartment she sort of re-gifted it back to me as a house warming gift. I was down) The juicer I have is by no means a fancy-shmancy industrial one, like those you find at a juice press. This is the exact juicer that I bought (yup, I have a pink juicer!) and it does the job just fine. Part two of this post calls for a dehydrator. I got my dehydrator as a holiday present a few years ago (isn't that what all 17 year-old girls wish for??) and it is probably the cheapest models out there, but it does exactly what I need it to. However, if you're not into obscure kitchen appliances like I am, you can definitely substitute with things you might already have in your kitchen, like a blender and an oven on a low-heat setting.

So, onto part I: My Little Poney Juice

Sometimes, on a [rare] day-off, when I have time to move really slowly in the morning and want something light, I will make some juice. I like juicing from time to time because it allows my body to take a break from working so hard at digesting all the (delicious and healthy) food that I put into it everyday. When my body takes a break from digesting, it has time to clean itself out. Raw juice is also full of enzymes and phytonutrients and really just makes you feel amazing. Hungover? Juice. About to get sick? Juice. This isn't so much a recipe (as I didn't measure anything and chose my ingredients based on what needed to use up in my fridge) but I wanted to share because it tasted great but most importantly made the silliest color.

Into the juicer went: red cabbage, kale and spinach stems (best use for these guys ever! since I stopped eating them raw in my salads after realizing they were a but hard to digest), 2 celery stalks, and a small pear. Afterwords, I added 1/2 tsp spiralina & a squeeze of lemon juice. Mmm.

mmm purple stuff

So after my little juice party, I went to clean up the mess I made and discovered inside the base of the juicer remained all the fibery veg pulp from my juice! I couldn't let this stuff go to waste!

Moving along to Part deux: The Cutest Flax Seed Crackers I Ever Done Seen!

The obvious decision was to make this carnival-colored puree of goodness into some flax seed crackers to be enjoyed at a later date. I walked you through how to make flax seeds crackers in detail in an earlier post. Again, not a real recipe, but if you ever find yourself with about 1.5 cups of vegetable mush (you'd be surprised how often that is in my household) simply stir it into a big bowl that has 1/2 cup of flax seeds that have been soaking in 1 cup of water until it turns into a jell (about 15 mins). I also added some garlic powder, black pepper and Himalayan sea salt to the mix. That's it. Spread the "dough" onto a dehydrator tray lined with parchment paper, plugged it in and went about my day only to come home to some funfetti-esqu flax crackers :) I've also made these over-night which is nice because I find they need a solid 10-12 hours to fully dehydrate and become crunchy. Otherwise you are left with more of a flax tortilla. Alternatively, you can make flax seed crackers in the oven, they just won't be entirely raw and you can't leave the house while they "cook".

I mentioned this in my earlier post, but adding spices is a great idea as the flax seed crackers are pretty neutral on their own. Garlic powder, nutritional yeast, a dash of cayenne and pumpkin seeds have all been winners in my experience.

What is your favorite way to use up veg pulp? Ever tried making flax seed crackers?

RAWmadan

So while all my roommates were Austin Texas for SXSW this past week week, and left in the apartment was just me, Mr. Bones and the residue of four girls with crazy hectic lives and probably the remains of a few parties that our hung-over selves did a skimpy job of cleaning up after. I took this week as a perfect opportunity to do a little detox; of our home and myself. I cleaned all surfaces and scraped the crust that collected on the bottom of our fridge and tossed anything that had been living in there for too long.

Like I said, I also felt that I needed to detox myself a little bit of the sludge that built up over midterms week. I figured since I would finally have some time (ended up not being nearly as much as I thought) I would try to stick to only clean, raw foods. I had dabbled in raw foodism a few summers ago but I think the fact that I lacked my own kitchen and general knowledge of nutrition back then, I didn’t really go about it in the best way.

While actually preparing all these raw meals was a bit time consuming, it was totally worth it and I definitely reaped many benefits including more energy, clearer skin (like, actually cleared up all existing blemishes and I still haven’t gotten any new ones since!) diminished food cravings, minimized anxiety and just all around boosted my mood! I was about 90% raw for 5 consecutive days (I think my tahini is not raw and I may have had some roasted nuts while baby sitting...whoops o well) but I felt better almost immediately and would suggest trying to go raw for a day here and there or even just incorporating more raw foods into your diet. I think since the weather is starting to get warmer (…and then randomly cold again?) we tend to naturally gravitate towards more fresh and lighter cooked foods. Some other things that I think also attributed to me feeling great this week include:

-taking vitamins daily

-dry brushing (exfoliates, good for blood flow and release of toxins)

-rubbed coconut oil all over my hair and body (and I’m so silky smooth because of it :)

-apple cider vinegar (diluted into a hair rinse and toner balances ph levels)

-yoga (felt like I was really able to concentrate on each movement and how it affected my body. Sounds all hippy-dippy I know, but I truly just felt so much more in-touch with my body. I also accidentally went to a Bikram yoga class for the first time (hey, it was advertised as “hot yoga”) and instead of running out of studio, I stayed, gave it a try and…absolutely LOVED IT. It was one of the most intense things I’ve ever done but it was great and I plan to incorporate it into my normal yoga routine. One of the best mistakes I’ve ever made!)

-went on a few jogs outside with Mr. Bones (although I don’t think running is good for our bodies (or at least mine) these run-jogs I went on made me feel strong and energized. It also forced me to spend more time out side, I got explore parts of my neighborhood I don’t generally get to and it also made Mr. Bones very happy, which made me happy.

-sleep (something I often don’t get as much as I like of.)

-no T.V.-I’m really not a big T.V. watcher, I’ll usually just watch a few shows on my computer from time to time but I really made and effort to spend less time in front of screens.

Okay…now onto the recipes!! Breakfast usually consisted of smoothies (which I actually ate with a spoon, out of a bowl, parfait-style, much more satisfying and pretty. Lunch and dinner were either salads or veg dishes and I really tried my best to be experiemental and keep things interesting. I’m going to post the recipes over a couple of days with some updates of other (non-food related!!) things I’ve been up to this week. Hope you try some of these recipes out and enjoy!

My oatmeal replacer:

So I’ve mentioned on here before that I pretty much eat oatmeal everyday for breakfast. While oatmeal is delicious and nutritious, it is not raw. Therefore I set out to find a way to fit all a filling mix of carbs and protein into my morning meal. Enter the smoothie parfait. The general formula was this:

1-2T ground flax seeds, soaked in 2-4T water for a bit before in the same bowl I ended up eating out of

1 cup frozen fruit

1 cup liquid for blending (this was either water or almond milk for me but you could also use juice)

1 stalk of whatever leafy greens you have lying around (virtually tasteless and then boom- you just ate raw leafy greens for breakfast without even realizing!)

Agave nectar for sweetness

Superfoods!

2T hulled, raw hemp seeds (for protein! But you can also use raw protein powder. Nutiva makes a great one)

1-2T cacao/ maca powder blend

1T cacao nibs sprinkled on top for a pretty presentation, energizing kick and satisfying crunch!

1T of whatever else I’ve got (this was mostly some pumpkin or sesame seeds-I’m really into crunchy smoothies- but gogi berries are great to. Other stand-out super foods I use when I can are spirilina, chia seeds...

**A note on superfoods: These are NOT SUPER hard to find. They can pretty much be found at any health food store or at Whole Foods. I got mine from the bulk bins at the 4th Street Food Co-op because it was the cheapest option and I was able to bring my own bags to eliminate packaging and not shipping! The Navitas Naturals site has an amazing selection as well as an array of recipes to give you ideas of how to actually use them.

Even when I’m not eating all raw, I think flax seed crackers make a fabulous snack. Unfortunately, packed varieties are so stupidly expensive that I never get to have them unless I make them myself (which I should really do more often). They are quite simple to make, the only thing is you have plan ahead about 12 hours before want to eat them. They’re great with dips, crumbled onto soups or salads, made into an open-face sandwich with avocado and veggies or eaten on their own like chips.

Flax Seed Crackers:

½ cup ground flax seeds, placed in a mixing bowl and soaked over night in 1 cup of water

½ white onion

crushed garlic to taste (I used just under a whole clove because I am a garlic fiend)

½ red bell pepper

½ orange bell pepper

1 stalk of celery

1 jalapeño pepper

1 large handful of mixed leafy greens

sea salt and black pepper to taste

Roughly chop all the veggies. I should mention that no two batches of flax seed crackers I make have ever been the same. I always use whatever I have on hand (I should mention that this is a great way to put to use whatever veggies you have that are on their way out) but this batch was particularly tasty so I decided to write down exactly what I put in, but feel free to shake it up! Anyways, so the veggies are chopped and then I decided to put them in the blender, but you can choose not to if you want a chunkier cracker. Then I dumped in the flax seeds, which are now a jelly-like substance from soaking. I whirled everything together and poured it back into the original bowl and stirred in the salt and pepper.

Then, using a spoon, I spread it onto my dehydrator trays **lined with parchment paper** very important to do this so that you do not end up with bumpy crackers and a crusty dehydrator (I know this from experience) I did this by cutting one strip of parchment paper the same width as the tray and then using it as a template to make more. Don’t worry too much about wasting so much parchment paper, you can totally just wipe them off and reuse! I found it to be easiest to drop a blob of the “batter” on the end of the parchment paper where it overlaps another, and spread it across in order to hold them all in place, making sure that each “loaf” is equal in thickness.

Then repeat until all the mix is on the tray, plug that bad boy in and walk away. The great thing about dehydrating is that you can’t really burn/ overcook/ mess anything up (at least I haven’t found a way to do so…yet) I left mine for about 10 hours, but you’re gonna want to switch the order of the trays around at least once so that they dehydrate evenly, and I also flipped the crackers about 2 hours before they were completely dehydrated. Return to find yummy and addictive crackers, Yay!

*While making these I felt inspired and decided to experiment with something I had never tried before. For a small portion of the batch I added some nutritional yeast and pressed some pumpkin seeds on top once I spread the mix on the tray. These were totally out of this world and I will definitely make them again. They were a bit denser tasting than the others, so I was happy to have both on hand for variation. The pumpkin seeds on top tasted great also looked really beautiful.

Here’s a salad recipe I used these flax crackers in. It’s really exceptional and filling too!

The Cheezer:

Dressing:

Juice of one lemon

1 T tahini

1t barley miso

1 splash of braggs liquid aminos

2 garlic “sections”, crushed

1 T nutritional yeast plus more for topping

black pepper, to taste

The salad:

Mixed greens

Gingered carrots (grated carrots and ginger mixed and refrigerated overnight)

Onion

Scallion

Daikon

Broccoli

Jalapeño pepper

Cheesy-pumpkin seed flax cracker, crushed

(red cabbage could be nice/ add color but I didn’t have any on hand)

Keep checking back for new recipes this week!

Do you have any favorite raw snacks you'd like to create on your own?