Ravishing Raw » smoothies

Raw Food Tour Through New York 1

Marie-Claire — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 20:28:02 +0000

My trip to New York was in one word… ravishing! Even though my favorite store Westerly was closed due to renovations and Raw Soul is no longer active as a restaurant I was delighted by the new places I discovered and the known ones I re-visited.

I was sitting in a Starbuck cafe drinking a mint tea, looking at people passing by and thought; “Let me count how many people on ten are overweighed.” I was shocked that the number was “ten” during that next minute. How ironic and sad to see this in a city were magnificent whole food stores are within reach behind every corner, where organic and raw foods are for sale in many supermarkets and lovely specialized stores, where communities are organizing themselves to sell organically, locally grown produce at affordable prices.

New York is full of opportunities to make healthy choices. My dear friend guided me through town from South to North so I could write about these lovely places. This healthy raw food tour will show you where to go if you are living in this wonderful city. Or if you are raw and visiting New York but don’t know where to go to, then be my guest and put your teeth in the juiciest, biggest apple you ever had…

THE ORGANIC AVENUE

“Welcome to the Space of Love” it says on the blackboard at the door of 116, Suffolk Street. And oh my, you do feel welcome between all the lovely bottled juices, alkaline water, superfoods, friendly smiles, the beautiful bar, the inviting wooden table. The space is grand, clean, simple, tasteful, peaceful and perfect for the many events the Organic Avenue organizes. In April for instance, you can join them for a three day long workshop with James Russell. I wish I was there!

I talked to the lady of the house and when she heard that I am a raw food coach she invited me to organize one of my events at her place. I was, AM thrilled and so looking forward to giving my first raw food workshop in New York.

But a lot more is going on at the Organic Avenue. They make gorgeous juices and smoothies. You want to do a cleanse but have no juicer? Order your cleanse and it will be delivered right at your door in a cool box. You can’t get confused; the bottles are numbered and you don’t have to worry about anything. It can’t get much easier than that!

The Organic Avenue has charming cafés and shops all over town, you can check out the locations here, they are within everybody’s reach. My dear friend who guided me and I enjoyed a wonderful mint smoothie in a cute bottle and went off to the next stop.

Super Chia Smoothie

Marie-Claire — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 11:26:06 +0000

You will love, love LOVE this smooth smoothie! I do! I am enjoying it right now while I am writing. I simply have to share this wonderful recipe which started in some kind of a minor because I was out of bananas and leafy green vegetables and didn’t feel like going out in the rain. My throat was feeling soar since last night and I felt tired when I woke up this morning so I had to make a super smoothie fast!

I was wondering how to replace the smoothness of a banana in my smoothie. I opened my fridge, hm, soaked chia seeds could do the trick. And ripe pears for some sweetness. My favorite loyal coconut oil would help too for sure. This is how I brew this overnice super boosting smoothie. After drinking one glass I feel the energy coming back and the sourness has gone.

This smoothie is packed with essential fatty oils (3 to 10 times the oil concentrations of most grains), proteins (one and a half to two times the protein concentrations of other grains), linoleic (the unsaturated fatty acid which the body can’t produce) and calcium ( it contains the important mineral boron, a catalyst for the absorption of calcium).

TOOLS YOU NEED

A blender
A sharp knife
A cutting board

INGREDIENTS FOR ALMOST 1 QUART

About 3-4 cups rejuvelac (you can also use water, tea or coconut water… but the rejuvelac is so great!)
1 C soaked chia seeds
2 C blueberries (when you take frozen berries in winter, you don’t have to add ice)
2 ripe pears
2 TBS coconut oil
2 tsp maca
1 tsp bee pollen
2 TBS supergreen powder (Amazing Grass is very good and tasting lovely!)
2 TBS hemp seeds
2 TBS honey

THE MAKING OF…

Blend until very smooth ( a bit longer to break down all the chia seeds) and soak all the goodies in this goddess drink…

TIPS

Chia seeds have no taste so you can easily add other flavors while enjoying all the great nutrients of chia (EFA’s!)
You can add chocolate, goji berries… their rich flavors will always take over from the chia seeds
Soak a few cups of chia seeds overnight and store what you don’t need in a sealed glass container in the refrigerator; they stay good for two weeks
Chia seeds can help you to lose weight because of their good fats. Moreover they are very filling and help you control hunger in a natural way

Alive Smoothie

Marie-Claire — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 11:04:45 +0000

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

Pink Pineapple Smoothie

Marie-Claire — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 06:47:41 +0000

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!