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

]]> http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/2010/11/26/alive-smoothie/feed/ 6 http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/2010/11/08/good-mood-juices/ http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/2010/11/08/good-mood-juices/#comments Tue, 09 Nov 2010 01:17:36 +0000 Marie-Claire http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/?p=935 Dark weather all day long, rain, cold wind, the birds stopped singing: winter can’t be far away. I feel like looking at colors… and drinking them to juice up my mood. I took what I could find in the refrigerator; beets, carrots en fennel. I grabbed apples and oranges and decided to make very simple, pure drinks. Oh, this beauty!

Color your mood!

I have to share these good mood juices. Even if you can almost predict by looking at them what they are. Some got a little twist.

Sweet Fennel Juice

Have you ever thought of drinking fennel just as it is? I mostly add it to salads or to mixed juices to sweeten and freshen it up. But eaten on its own it can be a quiet overwhelming after a while. As a juice though, you can’t get it enough. With its extraordinary anise flavor, it is like no other juice. A great choice if you are longing for a drink in the evening. You can leave that bottle of Ricard; juice a fennel and you have the same taste. With much more benefits! Fennel is very rich in phytoestrogens and therefor helping with a lot of issues such as…

• colic, wind, irritable bowel
• spleen
• liver
• lungs
• kidneys
• digestive system
• menstruation
• increased urine flow

Fennel Green

But fennel is also used to treat…

• asthma
• anxiety
• depression
• high blood pressure
• decreased libido
• coughs
• heartburn

And the list goes on. But let’s juice now and “feel” instead of read about benefits.

TOOLS YOU NEED

• A juicer
• A sharp knife and cutting board

INGREDIENTS

• One big fennel

THE MAKING OF…

Juice and enjoy heaven!

Sweet Fennel Juice

]]> http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/2010/11/08/good-mood-juices/feed/ 5 http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/2010/11/06/amazing-grape/ http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/2010/11/06/amazing-grape/#comments Sat, 06 Nov 2010 17:10:26 +0000 Marie-Claire http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/?p=913 Another day, another juice! I am improvising and jazzing. That’s what a true musician does. So what did I come up with today?  A very simple pink grape juice. Later on I used this juice as a basis to add other fruits and that was a delicious surprise. Here they come.

AMAZING GRAPE

Amazing Grape

TOOLS YOU NEED

• A juicer

INGREDIENTS

• A bunch of pink grapes

THE MAKING OF…

Juice and Jazz!

JAZZY JUICE!

Jazzy Juice!

Leave some of the grapes so you can make fresh juice and improvise with that basis.

TOOLS YOU NEED

• A juicer
• A sharp knife and cutting board

INGREDIENTS

• One or two cups of amazing grape juice
• One or two apples
• One kiwi
• One orange
• Half a lemon
  
• One stalk of lemon grass (a most lovely add!)
  

THE MAKING OFF…

Juice, share and sing! Cheers!

Jazzy Juice!

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

A year ago, more precisely in September 2009, I grabbed an apple out of a bowl on the service desk of a hotel  In New York to have something to eat on my way to the airport. I was hungry but for some reason the shiny dark red apple didn’t attract me. It was perfectly shaped, as every other apple in that bowl, almost looking like clones. No apple was shaped bigger or different than the other. So I put it away in my purse ‘for later’.

When I got home and unpacked, I found the apple, looked at it and put it on my kitchen counter ‘for later.’ After a week it was still just as shiny and showing off its beauty. I am so disappointed now that I didn’t take a picture of it, made a study of it. But who could have suspected that…

…this  very same apple was still staring me in the face a few weeks later. My fruit bowl had been filled up and eaten several times and I had to throw out a rotting apple from time to time. But no sir, not my apple from the Big Apple. It was standing up against time, beating coming and going fruits and facing my amazed looks with pride. Sometimes I would take the apple, push it a little to feel if something was happening inside but nope. Nothing happening there either, not one spot or imperfection, everything as firm as freshly picked fruit.

This apple became the center of my growing stupefaction. I even talked to it, encouraging it to start rotting. Or asking it how long it would stay this stubborn. Nope, it didn’t rot. It didn’t start moving, no maggot interested in its red cheeks, the fruit flies who were attacking my fruit bowl in summer flew around it. I didn’t even have to store it in the refrigerator. Amazing! I was intrigued! But after a while I started forgetting from time to time. A few months later I found it back, pushed away and lost in the back of my counter. And guess what! It was just as fresh and shiny as the first day I took it!

Now THAT drew my attention! I put it on a spot I could keep an eye on it. Just in case. No need. It was the perfect apple. You could keep it for months. What am I saying? For… no not yet.

I kinda started loving my apple. I got attached to it. It was a subject for discussion with a friend who was just amazed as I was. But I also got very happy I didn’t eat this apple. What was on there? Or no, what was IN there?  What happens to all the people who are eating a few of those every day? Will they be conserved just as well? Or will they… I should have then taken it to a lab and have it investigated. I didn’t think of it then. I do now.

My Big Apple fading after one year!

Halfway September  I looked at my apple. It was its birthday; Happy Birthday Big Apple. You are one year old and you look so much younger, only like a day or so! Still not one spot, a perfectly firm shaped body, no bumps, no cellulite, no nothing.

We are now October 14. Last week I looked at my apple and saw something was happening. Oh no! My apple! It started to wrinkle, it got a little bump and it started to feel soft. I was moved. I told my friend. We looked at my apple in silence. I took a picture and said; “I have to write about my apple”. After all this time together…

Today I felt the end is near. All of a sudden it is soft, bruised, dented, still standing out, but fading. My poor apple. I put it on a place where I can watch  it closely.  I must be cruel, watching it die slowly. But I can hardly imagine my intriguing, beautiful, poisoned apple will be gone soon now.

Happy Birhday To My Big Apple!

Something else happened today. I got a message from my friend; “You will laugh at this, but read the Huffington Post…” You can too, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/13/mcdonalds-happy-meal-photos-6-months_n_761364.html

The title of the article; “McDonald’s Happy Meal Unchanged After 6 Months.”

]]> http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/2010/10/14/the-big-apple-a-story/feed/ 5 http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/2010/10/11/pink-pineapple-smoothie/ http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/2010/10/11/pink-pineapple-smoothie/#comments Tue, 12 Oct 2010 06:47:41 +0000 Marie-Claire http://ravishingraw.com/wordpress/?p=780 As promised here is the pink smoothie you saw a picture of in my post of the pineapple tool. It is a very easy and fast recipe and you don’t need much. This can serve four people if you use smaller glasses than I did. One drink  delivers you lots and lots of antioxidants and a boost of Bromelian. Pure Food for Radiant Health!

Pink Pineapple Smoothie

TOOLS

• A sharp knife or a cool pineapple peel tool
• A blender

INGREDIENTS

Ingredients

• One pineapple, peeled
• A bunch of strawberries
• Some mint in fine slices

THE MAKING OF…

Glorious colors!

• Cut the pineapple in large pieces
• Throw about two hands full of strawberries (with green tops if they are organic) into the blender
• Blend

Pink Pineapple Juice

• Pour in a nice large wine glass and top with a cubed strawberry and mint
• Yum!

This must be the shortest post I ever wrote. But I wanted to get something up before leaving for my organic farmers to buy my weekly supply. I will show you later what I purchase for a week. If you are new at raw you might want to know how much you need. You will love this abundance!

You would like to try out raw food but don’t know how to start, what to get, what to make. I wrote a FREE eBook for you to help you on your way. Leave your email address in the sign up box and my eBook is all yours to go green.

It started as a book with ten easy raw recipes when I wondered if you would know how to implement them when you are new to raw food.  This is why I am guiding you with “Your Step-By-Step FooDprint, From Mindset to Ravishing Recipes” through an introduction to raw food. I looked for a way to make it easy and nice for you with lots of explaining  step by step pictures,. as I am doing here on my blog.  Because I want you to feel the first differences of eating raw, I decided to make it three raw days from morning to snack to dinner and why not, a lovely dessert.

Knowing how important defining your motivation is when you start eating raw food, I created a list of questions to help you investigate your mindset. By writing down where you are now you will be more aware of how much you want to commit to where you want to be. Finding your big “WHY?” will make you reach your goals. Feeling ready to dive into raw food is the step which will support you towards health.

When you are already raw but at a cross point in your journey, this eBook will help to invigorate your motivation. I hope you will all enjoy what I have for you.

What can you expect in “Raw For 3 Days?”

To start with some answers to find your motivation, fast and easy recipes for each part of the day with step by step pictures and an introduction, tips, tools and a shopping list for each day.

How can you receive my free eBook?

By joining  my emailing list in the right side bar. All you have to do is send me your email address through the sign up box so I can forward you the link to download “Raw For  3 Days!”

“Raw For 3 Days! Your Step By Step Mindset”

But this isn’t all. I made a follow up questionnaire for you. Raw food isn’t just about food but about your whole life and the way you want to live it. It isn’t about counting calories to lose weight but about living healthy and regulate your body balances. It is a journey, a lifestyle. Once you can commit to changing your diet, you will lose the weight you are struggling with, become energized, feel better and look younger. If you know someone who made the leap and who’s success is making you consider to try it yourself, you will know what I am talking about.

This is why I want to invite you to answer the questions for yourself in all honesty. Find out what these three days meant to you, what they can mean for your health and well being in the future and how you can go on from here. This free eBook is an inner survey, “Your Step By Step Mindset”  after you finished your 3 raw days and will  help you discover the shifts you felt, what this experience means to you and how it can add new value to your life. The questions you answered can make the difference for you to add more healthy food to your diet or to go and stay raw and reach your ultimate dream goal!

I would love hearing from you what you liked about my eBook, if you liked the recipes, how you defined your motivation, if it made a difference for you, what your goals are, your questions… Email me with your thoughts and comments on my eBook so I  know what is on your mind, what you like me to write about a next time.

Take this Chance For Change, sign up and enjoy!

I am looking forward to hearing from you. Marie-Claire