Category Archives: Living Food

Living Food Recipes

Quick & Easy Soup “Salads”

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Here are some quick and easy recipes using canned soups that will help you to get more raw veggies in your diet, particularly on a cold day when a bowl full of salad isn’t that inviting.

Celery Tomato Soup

This soup is a good one when you only want a small salad with your meal, since it contains lots of raw veggies.

Use a blender to finely chop equal amounts of:

  • fresh parsley
  • green onion (both white and green portions)
  • celery, cut in 1/2 inch sections (preferably inner stalks and leaves)

Turn off blender and pour in Imagine Foods Creamy Tomato Soup, Roasted Tomato and Red Bell Pepper or an UnDiet compatible commercial brand of tomato soup (one that contains no refined sugars) and a little vegetable broth.

Place the top on your blender and puree until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

 

Quick Black Bean Soup

This soup is another good one to have when you only want a small salad with your meal, since it also contains lots of raw veggies.

Puree some fresh tomato salsa.

Heat a can of vegetarian refried black beans until very hot. Stir in pureed salsa at a ratio of about 1/4 cup salsa to 3/4 cup beans.

Variations: If you don’t have any salsa stir V-8 juice into your black beans. This won’t qualify as raw veggies but it’s still veggies.

 

Quick Carrot Risotto

Risotto isn’t really as time consuming as most people think that it is. There’s no need to stand in front of the stove watching the rice cook – in between adding broth you can be making a salad, setting the table, cleaning the kitchen … Before you know it you’re risotto is done and dinner is on.

  • 1 large peeled carrot, finely shredded on the smallest setting on your grater
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 garlic clove, finely diced
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 2 cups instant brown rice
  • 2 – 3 cups vegetable broth

Saute onion in olive oil over medium heat. Season with sea salt and black pepper while sauteeing. When onion becomes translucent (about 5 minutes) add garlic. Stir occasionally to keep onion from browning. It may get light brown, but it shouldn’t get crispy.

Set onion aside and add butter to the pan along with the rice. Stir until rice starts to brown then add 1/2 cup vegetable broth and 1/4 teaspoon sea salt.

Let simmer without covering pan. When rice is almost dry add another 1/2 cup broth. Continue doing this until you’ve used 2 cups of broth.

Taste the rice. It should be chewy but not crunchy. You can stop adding liquid at this point or add up to another 1 cup of broth in 1/2 cup increments.

When liquid is absorbed remove from heat and stir in carrot puree and cooked onion. Taste and add more sea salt if needed.

Living Food Neutral Recipes

Watermelon Salad

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I LOVE watermelon salad! It’s the perfect thing for lunch or dinner on a hot day. There are so many variations and they’re all fabulous. I’m going to give you this recipe without any measurements because i’s summer and we want to be casual.

Basic Watermelon Salad

  • cubed watermelon
  • sea salt
  • crumbled feta cheese
  • julienned mint leaves

Toss and serve ice cold.

You can add one or more of the following to the basic recipe:

  • cucumber
  • lime juice
  • extra-virgin olive oil
  • red onion
  • jicama
  • cilantro
  • cumin
  • flat leaf parsley
  • hot pepper
  • crispy bacon
  • crispy pancetta

What will you add to your watermelon salad?

 

Living Food Neutral Recipes Vegetarian

Delicious Healthy Salad Recipe to Help You Lose Weight

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As half of your plate should consist of salad and/or vegetables, it helps to have lots of healthy and tasty salad recipes at hand. Bulking up your meals with salad and/or veggies is also a great way to cut down on the calorie and fat. To help you with some tasty and healthy salad ideas, I will share with you one of my favorite recipes. Here it is:

Tomatoes in Spicy Dressing

The first time I made this recipe I was extremely impressed. It is one of the most delicious salads I have tasted yet.

Info:

Serves: 4
Number of fat burning foods: 3 (tomatoes, chili spice and avo oil)
Calories per serving:225
Fat per serving:17.5g
Ingredients:

  • 700g large ripe tomatoes, sliced
  • 1 red onion, sliced
  • 4 pickled gherkins

For the dressing:

  • 2 tablespoons avocado oil
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  • Salt and pepper to season

Instructions:
Cut the gherkins into thin slices length ways and then into thin strips. Mix all the dressing ingredients to make a dressing. Arrange half of the tomatoes in a dish, followed by some onions and gherkins. Continue layering until all the ingredients are done. Pour the dressing over the salad and leave to stand for 5 minutes before serving.

I hope that you enjoyed the salad recipe and that you make it also one of your favorites. It goes great with almost anything. Adding salads to your meals will help you to get lots of vitamins and minerals in your diet so that your body can become healthier and stronger. It will also help you to eat less of the foods and it may even help you to lose weight.

Just remember that to be more healthy and to maybe lose some weight, you also have to exercise regularly. The best exercises for weight loss are cardio and weight training. One of my favorite cardio machines is the eliptical exercise machine. And for weight training I prefer adjustable dumbbells.

2 Calorie Salad Spritzers!


Delicious and only 2 calories per spritz! You can dress a salad for under 20 calories! That’s amazing! And these taste good, just make sure to shake them up before spritzing so you don’t miss any of the flavor.

Living Food Vegetarian

Value of Juicing Fruits and Vegetables

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There are many reasons why juicing is becoming a very popular and an important part of a healthy diet for so many people. Juicing offers many health benefits associated with consuming vital nutrients and minerals that our bodies sorely lack with the typical diet of modern society. It is important to incorporate both fruits and vegetable juicer recipes routinely to keep a stable balance of nutrients and natural sugars. Finding new recipes is easy given the resources available online. There are also countless recipe books available in your local bookstore.

We know that eating fruits and vegetables in abundance is important to a healthy balanced diet. But the benefits of juicing these ingredients make it hard to ignore. Juicing liquefies the fruits and vegetables which allow the micro nutrients, mineral and other essential ingredients of life to be released from the solid particles. This makes it more efficient for the body to absorb them into the blood stream and redistribute to parts of the body where they are needed. It is a way of concentrating all the nutrients into a single glass of juice making it a very potent drink.

It is just as important to eat these fruits and vegetables as solids to provide your body with everything it needs. Do not think that drinking the juice will substitute for eating a healthy diet, since juicing is a way to complement a healthy lifestyle not to compensate for a bad one.

Of course healthy juicer recipes are only as good as the ingredients that go into them. You want to use fresh and organically grown fruits and vegetables to minimize the amount of toxins consumed. Produce grown without pesticides and chemical fertilizers might be more expensive but it is worth the health of your body. Try farmers markets for produce since local farm products often travel a lot less distance than typical grocery store produce. This means they are fresher and many are grown organically.

Juicing Recipes

If you can choose fresh and organic fruits and vegetables for your juicing. You’ll get the most nutritional benefits with these. If you can’t get fresh then frozen is a good option, but stay away from canned fruits and veggies when you’re juicing.

 

Pineapple Delight

1 large handful of fresh baby spinach

1/2 fresh pineapple

10 strawberries

1/2 cucumber

Juice in the order listed above. Pour over ice and drink up!

 

Virgin Bloody Mary

2 tomatoes

1 celery stalk

1 large carrot

1 cup chopped broccoli

1 cucumber

1/2 lemon – peeled

1 garlic clove

dash or two of hot sauce

Run everything through your juicer and enjoy!

 

Dr. Oz’s Green Drink

So many of you have asked us for the drink Dr. Oz swears by that we had to end with this one.  This “green drink” is high in fiber, very low-cal and extremely rich in vitamins. You can make this in a juicer or a blender. If you’re making it in a blender be sure to chop all veggies and fruit first, juice and zest the lemon and lime and discard the rest, core and peel the apple, use only the leaves of the parsley.

2 cups spinach

2 cups chopped cucumber

1 head of celery

1/2 inch of teaspoon of ginger root

1 bunch parsley

2 apples

1 lime

1/2 lemon

 

 

Fruit Living Food Neutral Recipes Vegetarian

Tarragon Waldorf Salad

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This salad is a grownup take on the traditional Waldorf Salad, suitable for a dinner party, the beach or a barbecue. If the salad will be sitting out for awhile you may want to use yogurt in place of mayonnaise.

In a bowl whisk together dressing ingredients:

2 tablespoons mayonnaise, or lowfat yogurt
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon unfiltered, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon unrefined sugar
1 teaspoon fresh tarragon, minced
sea salt and black pepper to taste

Add to bowl and lightly toss until coated with dressing

4 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 medium apple, quartered & thinly sliced
Living Food Neutral Recipes

Garlic Cucumber Salad

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Mix 1/4 cup mayonnaise and 1 teaspoon white balsamic vinegar or apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar.

Start with recommended amount of next 4 ingredients, then adjust to taste.

1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons onion, minced (red, yellow, white, or green)

Peel (if needed) and slice 3 large cucumbers. Stir into dressing. Let cucumbers marinate for at least 2 hours and up to all day.

Living Food Neutral Recipes Vegetarian

Raw Tacos

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These tacos are VERY spicy. You can scroll to the end of the recipe for a less spicy version.

Chop 1 large onion. Sprinkle with sea salt and set aside in a colander for at least fifteen minutes. Rinse with water and pat dry. This process removes some of the bite from raw onions.

Cut 3 avocado into chunks. Place in bowl of food processor. Pour 1/4 cup lemon juice over avocado.

Add to processor bowl:

  • chopped, onion
  • 1 & 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 1/4 cup fresh parsley or cilantro, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 to 3 chopped jalapenos, seeds & membranes removed or Anaheim chilies
  • 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked and chopped
  • 1 & 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

and process untill smooth.

Spoon some of the mixture into a lettuce leaf and wrap the leaf around the filling. Or you can use a lettuce such as Boston that forms it’s own cup.

The onion makes this dish VERY spicy. You can use zucchini in place of the onion. You’ll still want to salt it first to remove some of the water.

Living Food Neutral Recipes

Celery Pesto

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salmon-w-pesto

This pesto is a delicious way to use up all the inner leaves and stalks in a head of celery. Try it, I promise you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Pulse the following ingredients in a food processor or blender until just short of being a puree:

1 cup celery leaves & tender inner stalks
1 cup green onion, white & green parts
2 cups parsley
1/2 cup roasted garlic
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Drizzle extra-virgin olive oil in slow stream just until mixture holds together.

Use pesto to make:

  • Sandwich spread in place of mayo.
  • Milder sandwich spread: mix pesto and mayo.
  • Spoon over fish, chicken, steak, pork, or turkey.
  • Salad Dressing: mix pesto and mayo, add a little fresh lemon juice, thin with buttermilk. Taste and add sea salt and/or black pepper to taste.
  • Pasta Sauce: mix pesto and extra-virgin olive oil. Taste and add sea salt and/or black pepper to taste.
  • Garden Fresh Tomato Soup: mix a little pesto into Tomato Soup.

 

Basic Information Living Food Neutral Recipes Tips Vegetarian

Raw Mashed “Potatoes”

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This is a living foods version of the popular cauliflower-based mashed “potato” recipe. Scroll to the end of the recipe for a version that those in your family who aren’t interested in eating raw foods will enjoy.

Process 1 small head cauliflower, chopped in a food processor until it looks grainy.
Place cauliflower in a pot, slow cooker, or electric skillet set to the lowest temperature possible. Stir in 1/4 c extra virgin olive oil. Season to taste with sea salt, black pepper & powdered broth. Stir until warmed. If you have a thermometer, this dish should be warmed to 105 degrees but if you don’t have a thermometer, just stir until cauliflower is hot. Remove from heat immediately.

If the rest of your family isn’t into living foods you can set aside a portion for yourself and then continue cooking the cauliflower until it’s soft. If desired you can then use a potato masher or fork to make the “potatoes” creamier.

 

 

 

Basic Information Living Food Neutral Recipes Tips Vegetarian

Extend Your Living Foods Menu with Dehydrated Foods

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A good food dehydrator will allow you to mimic many cooked foods and yet still keep your intake raw. Set the temperature to 115 degrees or lower to preserve the living enzymes. Make sure to scroll to the bottom of the page for family friendly ideas.

 

recipes for your food dehydrator

Zucchini Chips

Slice zucchini into 1/4 inch thick rounds.
Dry the chips in a food dehydrator set to 105 degrees.
The chips are good as is; used as a dipper for guacamole, salsa or hummus; or used in place of a cracker in a Living Foods menu or a Protein Power menu; salad or soup garnish.

If you like, before placing in the dehydrator you can season the zucchini with your choice of seasonings such as:

  • sea salt
  • black pepper
  • cayenne pepper
  • taco seasoning
  • fajita seasoning
  • chili powder
  • garlic powder or garlic salt

Stuffed Mushrooms

Pulse in a food processor several times:

  • 1/3 cup pine nuts
  • 2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/3 C fresh parsley, chopped
  • 1/3 C fresh basil, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Stop to scrape down the sides and repeat. Add 1 cup tomato, chopped or 1/2 cup dried tomato*, rehydrated and chopped. Continue to pulse until the ingredients hold together but are not pureed. Remove stems from mushrooms and spoon the filling into the cap of each mushroom. Place filled mushrooms on a dehydrator tray and dehydrate at 105 degrees for 2-4 hours.

If you don’t want to subject your family to your raw food adventure you can cook half of your stuffed mushrooms to serve along with your raw version. Place them on a lightly oiled baking sheet in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.

* I prefer using dried tomato as the flavor is much richer. If you use dried tomato you may need to add broth to the filling to get it to hold together.

Flax Crackers

Soak 4 cups whole flax seed for 4 to 6 hours in just enough water to cover seeds. Check after 2 hours and add water if the mixture is looking dry. Stir in 1/3 to 1/2 cup Bragg’s Liquid Aminos and juice from 2-3 lemons.

Spread this mixture as thin as possible on dehydrator trays with a Teflex sheet on top. Keep your hands wet as this will help to keep the mixture from sticking to your hands. Alternately, you may find that a spatula works better.

Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 5-6 hours. Flip the mixture and remove the Teflex sheet. Continue dehydrating for 5-6 hours until the mixture is dry.

You can make flavored crackers by adding any of the following to the mixture before spreading on dehydrator tray:

  • carrot, tomato or apple juice
  • finely grated veggies such as: carrot, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper,
  • Anaheim chili, onion, or garlic
  • finely grated apple
  • taco, fajita or Italian seasoning
  • chili powder
  • ground cumin
  • cayenne pepper

  

serve a family friendly raw menu

Whenever you serve any of these “strange” foods serve them up with foods your family is more familiar with. For instance you can serve up a “deli dinner” with a food bar they can pick and choose from. Try:

  • crackers
  • cheese
  • pickles
  • hard-boiled eggs
  • sliced fruit
  • selection of raw veggies
  • chicken, turkey, crab, egg or ham salad
  • marinated veggies
  • whatever else you have in your fridge that would work as finger food