Category: Enzymes!

Alive Smoothie

November 26th, 2010 · Marie-Claire · Alkaline Your Body, All About Raw Food, Anti oxidants, Chew, Chew, Chew!, Chlorophyll, Clean(s)ing, Colon Health, Enzymes!, Good Mood Food, Green Smoothies, Jazz Up Your Health!, Ravishing Raw Recipes, Superfoods 6 comments - Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I make smoothies every day. But sometimes you have that one smoothie which exceeds all others. It is a combination of factors and you don’t have them always under control. Each smoothie tastes different, even with the exact same ingredients. Simply because all vegetables and fruit add their own personal flavor. One banana can be soothing sweet and another hardly have any taste. Same with juices; one pound of carrots can taste like heaven and another will be rather bitter and spoil your sweet soup. So a lot depends on that willing touch of your chosen fruit of that day.

Notice the oxygen bubbling up in this smoothie! Ready to shake you up and make you come alive!

Sometimes you think you are brewing the greatest smoothie ever and when you take your first highly expecting sip, it turns out you can hardly swallow it down. It happens to everybody. So what can you do then with that rich smoothie, full of nutrients and expensive superfoods and greens and fruit? Drink it up with two fingers shutting your nose? Because the last thing you want to do is throw it out!

I discovered how to save those “failures” and have a wonderful drink after all. Just pour that smoothie in your nut milk bag and sssquuueeeze out the juice. The pulp is a great fertilizer for your wheatgrass (mingle it under your soil, all those minerals will be soaked by the grass and provide you strong shots!) and the juice… the juice is just great! The taste changes and you can pour all the glorious nutrients down to your body.

But now more about my Alive Smoothie. I always use what I have laying around and was lucky with the combination and the great tastes of the greens and fruits. My mustard greens were soft, the banana sweet, the spinach soothing, and then… my secret weapon: rejuvelac! You know how much I am into this elixir of life. I always use it to make my smoothies the best, both taste and content.

When you use rejuvelac instead of water, you add an extra dimension; life. And that is what you will feel in your body; life. You can make a whole lot of rejuvelac and store it easily for two weeks in your refrigerator or in your basement so you don’t have anything else to do but grab and smooth away.

Alive Smoothie

TOOLS YOU NEED

A blender

INGREDIENTS

  • One sweet banana
  • A handful of mustard greens
  • Two leaves of kale
  • A grab of parsley
  • Fill up the rest with spinach
  • A handful of Goiji Berries
  • A TBS Maca
  • A TBS bee pollen
  • Fill up the blender until halfway with rejuvelac

THE MAKING OF…

  • Blend and taste. Not sweet enough to your taste? Add a juicy pear…

Drink, chew and be alive!

Mustard Green

Sprouting

November 2nd, 2010 · Marie-Claire · All About Raw Food, Enzymes!, Soaking and Sprouting, Sprouts & Seeds, Tools in the Kitchen 9 comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Day One - Soaking

Sprouting is fun! Isn’t it wonderful how the seeds burst open and reveal new life? I love watching and following the process and I can’t get enough of it.  The other thing about sprouting is that anyone can do it, you don’t need much space or special tools, it is easy and exciting. But most of all: sprouts are your alive food which make you come alive!

Added to smoothies, salads or pates, they upgrade each dish to soft crunchiness and increased health. Don’t overeat in sprouts though; one cup a day will provide you more than you can imagine. Because sprouts are beginning life they have to protect  themselves from being eaten before growing by toxins. But don’t let this take you off of them; their benefits are so much higher.

Why are they so nutritious? Because they contain all elements a plant needs to come alive and grow. They are packed with carbohydrates, proteins and oil. After germinating those become amino acids and natural sugars for the plant to develop. When you eat them, they will reveal their life force of enzymes to your body. It is essential to a raw food diet so let’s start sprouting those beauties.

Sunflower Pits after One Night of Soaking

Even if sprouting is easy, you have to know a basic rule to be successful. Seeds need darkness to sprout. If you are having trouble with growing those small tails, think of how a seed is developing in nature. They are mostly covered up with a light blanket of soil where they can gather all their power to reach out for the light.

So if you want to see those tails come out, you have to cover them up with a dark cloth or towel or place them in a dark place at room temperature. But let’s start from the beginning.

WHAT CAN YOU SPROUT?

All seeds such as alfalfa, sunflower seeds, red cabbage, broccoli, fenugreek, celery, oats, radish, leek, you name it.

Grains as wheat grass, barley, rye, millet, rice and buckwheat.

Legumes require a longer soaking time (about 15 hours) because they are much harder. But lentils, chick peas and mung beans are very worth wild waiting for.

WHAT DO YOU NEED?

  • Any glass jar will do. Take a few jars for different seeds or grains. Or you can buy a system as you are seeing here.
  • A cheese cloth and a rubber band to hold the cloth tight around the mouth of the jar.
  • Or you can use a sprout bag instead.
  • Organic seeds, grains and legumes.

DAY ONE

Day One - Sunflower, Wheat grass & Alfalfa

  • All you need to do is place one or two tablespoons of seeds or grains to your choice in the jars and cover them up with pure water. If you soak legumes, double the amount; they aren’t swelling as much as seeds.
  • Put them in a dark place at room temperature overnight.

DAY TWO

Alfalfa, Sunflower and Wheat grass Day Two

  • In the morning, rinse the seeds very well and turn the jars upside down so all the water can leak out and the seeds won’t get a chance to get mold.
  • Rinse 2 to 3 times a day. If the weather is warm, rinse more often.
  • Always turn the jars upside down and cover up or place dark.
  • Depending on the kind of seed, you will already notice some tails ready to come out

DAY THREE

Wheat grass Day Three

  • Continue rinsing and draining.
  • Some sprouts will be ready, others will need another day such as wheat grass.

DAY FOUR

Alfalfa Sprouts on Day Four

  • Are your sprouts having nice tails? Then they are ready to come into the light!
  • Place the jars upside down in bright light, preferably in the sun light.
  • You will see photosynthesis take place and watch your sprouts turn green in only a few hours.
  • Keep them in the light for a whole day until they are nice and green
  • Store them in a sealed container in the refrigerator. They keep well for about a week. But don’t wait that long; just eat them to benefit fully their life forces!

Isn’t it amazing how much alive and nutritious food you can grow of almost nothing?

Sunflower Sprouts

Rejuvenating Rejuvelac

August 6th, 2010 · Marie-Claire · Alkaline Your Body, All About Raw Food, Enzymes!, Rejuvelac 3 comments

Rejuvelac for Rejuvenation

Rejuvelac is my favorite drink! It is comforting at times I long for a tingling feeling on my tongue, an old reminder to bubbles in water or soft drinks. It has a subtle tartness and the character of a soft -but healthy-  lemonade. I always have several bottles in my refrigerator because rejuvelac is packed with life: enzymes!

There is so much to tell about this life lengthening drink. These are only a few of the wonderful benefits.

  • Fermented food is filled with enzymes. Rejuvelac is THE enzyme drink!
  • Enzymes are life lengthening!
  • The pro-biotics help the process of fermentation in foods so yes, you can make your own nut cheese and yogurt easily
  • Rejuvelac is a pre-digested food. This means that proteins are broken down into amino acids and carbohydrates into simple sugars. All nutrients are assimilated very soon after drinking without loss of energy.
  • Drinking rejuvelac helps digestion and is a very effective cure for stomach and colon problems.
  • Use Rejuvelac instead of water in your smoothies and drink some glasses in between meals to cleanse your colon, flush your system and to gain energy.
  • Rejuvelac is a natural pro-biotic: the enzymes help the friendly bacteria such as lactobacillus bifidus to grow.
  • Your colon becomes cleaner by drinking rejuvelac every day: it prevents sludge to collect on the colon walls.
  • The cleaner your colon, the less chance diseases will arise and the healthier you will be.
  • Rejuvelac is a rich source of B vitamins, vitamine E and K.
  • And last but not least: it is very easy and cheap to make!

The only thing rejuvelac needs is time and darkness. So if you like this drink, be sure you start sprouting wheat berries in time. This takes about two days, depending if it’s warm or cold. Same when you ferment the berries: warmth is an important factor; in a hot summer it might be possible you have to halve time and check in every now and then. With a little bit of practice you won’t fall without this healing drink.

There are several ways to make rejuvelac and I always used Dr. Ann Wigmore’s using the berries whole. But a few weeks ago I tried out a basic recipe of “Raw Soul” in New York. They usual blend the berries before the whole fermentation process starts. I was curious what would happen if you combine the two of them, blending after the second time you drain the berries and it worked just as well.

But to start with I will give you the fastest way so you have some results soon and with a higher amount: by blending the berries. This recipe is based on 1 C of sprouted wheat berries. You can double or triple if you want larger amounts easily.

You can experiment with what fruits you put in the rejuvalac. This combination I use to make is a very nice one and will make you think of lemonade.

TOOLS

All you need is:

  • A glass jar or a nut milk bag for the sprouting
  • A big glass container that you can close for the fermentation
  • A blender or hand mixer

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 C of wheat berries
  • Pure water

After two days of sprouting

SPROUTING

  • Soak one cup of wheat berries overnight, covered with pure water
  • Next morning: drain and rinse
  • Turn the jar upside down on one side so all the water can drip out and the berries get fresh air
  • Rinse the berries 2 or 3 times a day for about two days
  • When a little ‘tail’ appears, they are ready!

1 Cup of Sprouted Wheat Berries

FERMENTING

You will see that after soaking the amount of berries almost doubled. This means you have almost 2 Cups and you can make more than you thought: make a pure jar and a variation with mint and lime or the fruits of your choice for a drink in the evening when you are craving wine or soft drinks.

Blend for five seconds

  • Place 1 C of wheat berries in the blender and add 1 C of water
  • Blend for five seconds

Before adding water, pure Rejuvelac

  • Pour this blend into your big glass jar
  • If you want the rejuvelac pure and simple, only add one gallon of pure water. That’s it!
  • If you want another taste, put layers of lemon, ginger, mint or whatever you like in there on top of the blend.
  • Then add a gallon of pure water
  • Close the jar and put it away in a cool dark place or in a cupboard for three days. Lovely!
  • If it is hot, check in every day and have a taste; if it is tart it is ready. If not, let it sit another day.
  • After three days, pour off the rejuvelac through a sieve into bottles; they keep well for two weeks in a refrigerator
  • You can add mint, lime and ice before drinking and experiment with you own preferences!

Staple of Rejuvelac and My Smoothie For Today

Smooth Health

June 26th, 2010 · Marie-Claire · Alkaline Your Body, Chew, Chew, Chew!, Chlorophyll, Clean(s)ing, Colon Health, Enzymes!, Green Smoothies, Jazz Up Your Health!, Keeping Your Body Clean, Ravishing Raw Recipes No comments

Your Green Breakfast

The best way to start your day is make some fresh vegetable juice or a smooth smoothie. Your body has to wake up in the morning and is taking its time until about noon to process your meals of the day before. During morning you are releasing eventual toxins and waste. So if you are not feeling great, look back for a second and think of what you ate yesterday. Try to avoid these energy blocks next time.
All these lovely greens are the best way to do this. Moreover you will have ‘eaten’ more vegetables and fruit than you would on a normal day. You can make this most nutritious breakfast in no time. With a large blender -about 1,5 to 2 quarts of volume- you still have a few glasses to take with you to work, or to feed whoever is around and give them the best start for their day as well.
Dishes are done as quickly; just rinse under running water and you can close the door behind you without leaving any mess.

Green smoothies make miracles happen for your general health, both physically and mentally. I will write more about the benefits soon. But first I want to seduce you with this very simple and easy recipe. It’s the ideal smoothie that makes beginners ask for more and well, you can have more because this is enough for a whole bottle extra. If you have a small blender, just fill it up completely. Making another one is done in a minute.

Your first smoothies are usual very sweet. You need a bit time to adjust to new tastes and your body to the large amount of greens it is receiving all of a sudden. If you have some trouble with the green taste, then add more sweet fruit until you really like it. The only rule in this game is: make your smoothies real yummy, totally to your very own taste. Gradually add more vegetables than fruit until you are used to the pureness of greens. Your body will very quickly start asking for more, a feeling that will surprise you. This means you are on the right track to health and ready for new, stronger combinations with wild edibles.

A good tip is: always have frozen fruit in your freezer. Don’t throw out overripe bananas, but break them into pieces and freeze them in a zip bag, same with mango, pineapple, berries… Using frozen fruit in summer is just lovely and you don’t have to add ice anymore. Also you can make the most delicious ice sorbet in a minute when you are craving sweet. But this is for a next post.

You will find this recipe in my FREE eBook “Raw For 3 Days!”

To receive this eBook, join my email list and I will send you the link where you can download it.

Your daily health in a bottle. Bon appetite!