Ruby Red Grapefruit That Lives Up to Its Name

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I love to start the day with a glass of fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice whenever I can. My favorite Texas roadside market had some amazing grapefruit this week. They were green on the outside, but ruby red on the inside. Most "ruby reds" we get in the grocery store are actually pink, but these really lived up to their name!

Grapefruit contains a good quality, organic salicylic acid (unlike the salicylic acid in, say, aspirin) that is helpful in removing inorganic calcium deposits. 

While I'm not good about doing this, the rinds of grapefruit can be grated and dried and saved for use as a tea during those long winters when fresh fruits are not always available. 

 I have to exercise caution not to go overboard with any fruits - especially fresh fruit juices - as their high potassium content can really mess with the right balance of electrolytes, especially for people who follow a low-salt diet. Since a raw food diet is already quite low in sodium, guzzling fruit juices can have quite the diuretic effect and cause sudden dehydration to occur. Sodium and potassium have to be in balance, so to get a lot of potassium while getting very little sodium is not a good thing for most people.

Anyway, enjoy your Ruby Reds - in moderation!

Guaco-Walnut Meat Tacos

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There's probably nothing I miss more when I give up cooked foods than tacos. But I don't miss them at all when I have these Guaco-Walnut Meat Tacos. I start with two green leaves of organic romaine, load up with guacamole, top with walnut meat taco mixture, and top with red pepper salsa. Nothing to miss with these. There's so much flavor. 

As usual, I don't really follow a recipe. I play it by ear and season by taste. But here are some approximates. I'll try to get a more precise recipe soon. 

• Walnut meat: a few cups of walnuts, soaked in filtered water for about eight hours, strained, with chili powder, cumin, onion powder, and sea salt
  
  
• Salsa: finely chopped or processed sweet red pepper, orange pepper, yellow pepper, onion, jalapenos, garlic, and lime juice.

Spinach Pumpkin Seed Crackers with Cashew Cheese

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Yum. Raw spinach pumpkin seed crackers with raw lemon cashew cheese spread.

These dehydrated crackers started with equal parts of ground pumpkin seed, ground flax seed, and ground sunflower seeds. To that, I added some raw spinach, a bit of lemon juice, sea salt and blended in the Vitamix, adding water until it reached a spreadable consistency. You may add nutritional yeast if you like, but I prefer these without.



Then I mixed in some whole pumpkin seed, flax seed, and sunflower seeds and let the mixture set for several hours in the fridge. This allows a chance for the flavors to blend and for the whole seeds to absorb moisture.

Next, I spread the mixture out on the Teflex sheets of my dehydrator and dehydrated for several hours (about 6, I think) and turned the Teflex sheet over, removing it slowly so that the soft underside is exposed. I dehydrate a few more hours, then score into serving sizes - larger squares for crackers, smaller squares or rectangles for dipping. Continue to dehydrate until the crackers reach the crispness you desire. You may wish to remove some at the halfway stage to use as a flatbread, while letting the rest get dry all the way through.

The cashew cheese is made with soaked cashews, lemon juice, garlic, sea salt and a bit of nutritional yeast to give it that cheesy flavor. I really don't tolerate nutritional yeast well at all and will be looking for another option for that, as it does give it the cheesy taste. I don't have the recipe I had originally, but I think you can find the same thing here. 

How to Choose a Young Coconut

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The other day I went to the Asian food store to pick up a couple of cases of young coconuts, and I was so disappointed. 18 coconuts and only 8 of them were good. So sad. I have never had that happen before. Sure, I will always have a couple of coconuts per case that are bad, but never, in  8 years of cracking coconuts, have I ever experienced this.

Well, I guess I will be trying to get back to the store to see what we can do about that, but in the mean time I thought I would make a short little video that might help someone else avoid this problem. In the future, I will probably choose my coconuts individually instead of just taking a random case. It's probably worth sacrificing the 10% off.

Raw Apple Dessert

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This raw apple dessert was so yummy and so near an actual baked apple pie. Yes, it is possible to get the apple slices soft, rather than crisp.

After slicing the apple (I made this little dessert with just one apple), I sprinkled the slices with a bit of sea salt and then tossed them in some coconut sugar and cinnamon.


Then I laid the slices out flat on my Excalibur dehydrator and dehydrated them for a few hours on 105 degrees, which softened the apples considerably.

Once the apples were soft, I placed the slices in a bowl and drizzled a very small amount of raw local honey over them and mixed it all up a bit. Besides adding a little extra sweetness, the honey gave the effect of that wonderful apple glaze you get in a baked apple pie.

I put some pecans and dates in the food processor, along with a very small amount of coconut oil, and processed to get the crumb crust. Then I pressed the mixture into a small baking dish, which was not destined for the oven. Then I arranged the apple slices inside. I could have just as easily placed the apple slices in first and then put the crumbs on top and called it apple crisp, but either way you arrange it, it really did taste yummy!

Raw Pear Crisp

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Treat time! I had some pears in the fridge that needed to be used up, so I sliced them, tossed them with a little coconut sugar (not raw, but less refined) and sea salt, then topped with a crumb topping made of chopped pecans, coconut sugar, coconut oil, and coconut flakes. Yummy!