Raw Apple Chips

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Apple chips are one of the easiest raw food snacks to make, and great for taking on the road. Simply slice apples (you can go vertically for slices or cut cored apples horizontally for apple rings), and place them in a bowl of water with either sea salt, lemon juice, or both, for several minutes. Then remove and place on dehydrator trays. Try to keep from overlapping, as they will dry faster.


Put the dehydrator on a setting of 115* or lower in order to keep your snacks live. They should take a good day or two to dry out. How long you let them go is up to you. A shorter dehydrating time will produce a more leathery fruit snack, and a longer drying time will produce a crispy chip. Either way, they are D-Lish!

Unbelievable Raw White Cake with Ganache Frosting

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"To dream the impossible dream..." In the world of raw foods, I think the "impossible dream" is probably that of making a white cake that really tastes like white cake. Sure, we can come up with carrot cakes and nut breads that compare with their traditionally baked counterparts, but white cake? I didn't think so, until my experimenting eventually yielded this raw food delight!



Made with approximately equal parts macadamia nut meal, almond meal made from blanched almonds (no-boiling method), dried coconut, and any raw sweetening agent you wish (I usually use raw honey), ingredient amounts can be adjusted to suit your taste. Mix in a food processor and put in an oiled dish. Cover and place in the fridge for a day or even two. Cake will firm up. Remove, cut in half to form layers and ice with raw ganache, which is made from 2 parts each raw cacao powder and agave, mixed with one part softened (room temp) coconut butter. (My ganache didn't come out so smooth this time, but the taste was good.)

As with all truly raw-vegan recipes, this recipe is gluten-free and dairy-free. I make this in very small batches, as it can be a little pricey.

Raw Mushroom Pie, Amazing "Mmmm" -Factor

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This raw mushroom pie has an amazing flavor that comes from the blend of peanut oil, balsamic vinegar, and raw agave nectar. It is sometimes hard to find oils that are truly raw, even when they say "cold-pressed," so just do the best you can and substitute if necessary.

However, I truly feel that the peanut/balsamic/agave blend (equal parts) is what really makes this dish.

Start preparation a day or so before by soaking some cashews and running the drained nuts through a food processor with some sea salt, onion, and garlic, all done to taste. Then pack the mixture into a pan of appropriate size, I try always to use glass.

Now, slice mushrooms and toss with a marinade made of about equal parts adjust according to taste) peanut oil, balsamic vinegar, and raw agave nectar.

Top the cashew mixture with the mushroom mixture, cover, and put inside the fridge for a day or to allow the pie to set up and the flavors to blend. When just about ready to serve, slice some sweet red peppers and place on lettuce leaves, and top with a square of the mushroom pie. Garnish, if you like, and enjoy! This makes a wonderful raw main course for company.

You can mix all the veggies with the peanut/balsamic/agave marinade if you like. This allows all the veggies to soften slightly and allow flavors to blend. This works great as a marinade for lots of other veggies as well.

Raw Chocolate Ice Cream, No Guilt

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Did you get enough ice cream this summer? It sure did taste good, didn't it? But if you're anything like me, it probably left you feeling all gummed up inside. Maybe now you're constantly clearing your throat or blowing your stuffy nose trying to get rid of all the mucous. Yuck!

But here is a raw ice cream you can feel good about. It is made with dates, bananas, and raw ground cacao. Just mix those ingredients in a food processor in whatever combination  tastes best to you, adding a little agave nectar or honey if you really feel it needs it. Then stick in the freezer in a stainless steel bowl. Take it out every half hour or so and stir the outside to the inside until the dessert is frozen through. This reduces ice crystals. 

Enjoy!!! 

Canteloupe Juice with Sea Salt, So Refreshing!

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Melons are so plentiful right now, so it's the perfect time for a sweet drink I first tried in Mexico. Fresh canteloupe juice with sea salt is an electrolyte drink that cannot compare with those prepared commercial concoctions. Canteloupe is loaded with potassium and some of the other electolyte minerals, and when sea salt is thrown in, the sodium/potassium balance allows for water to pass in and out of cells, carrying critical electrical impulses as it goes.

The body requires a delicate balance between the electrolyte minerals, especially sodium and potassium. Salts are formed in the body by the combination of acidic minerals with alkaline minerals. Alone these minerals could be death-dealing, but combined they neutralize one another and form salts that are not only beneficial, but necessary for life. If too much of our electrolyte-laden water of life leaves our bodies too quickly, as it sometimes does when we sweat too much, we can quickly become dehydrated. Replacing the water volume with plain water often does very little, as this electrolyte balance is what allows water to enter and leave the cells. Without enough sodium, water cannot enter the cells and remain there long enough to do its job. Without potassium, water cannot leave the cells to transfer from cell to cell. This is what allows for the huge market for electrolyte drinks. But, of course, these drinks are loaded with all kinds of food colorings and refined sweeteners, along with the electrolytes.

A warning about canteloupe and other high-potassium foods: If a person eats a lot of these foods and happens to be even a little deficient in sodium, it can produce severe sodium deficiencies, which can be very dangerous. Especially is this the case with a person who is sticking to a raw food diet and not getting all the sodium-based preservatives that goes into processed foods, for which sodium has received its underdeserved bad name. So enjoy canteloupe juice with sea salt in moderation :o)

Macaroons, Blonde or Chocolate

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Among my favorite dehydrated goodies are coconut macaroons! They are so yummy and really great for on-the-go snacks. This all goes according to taste, but they go something like this:








1 cup blended young coconut meat (optional)
1/2 cup coconut oil (optional)
1 cup agave nectar or raw honey (more or less to taste)
3 cups dehydrated almond meal (or something of that nature)
3 cups dried coconut (the good stuff, no additives)

These measurements are just approximate.You can use less almond meal, more coconut or vice versa--just go by taste and what you have on hand. You can add vanilla if you want. If you want chocolate, add about 1/2 cup raw cacao powder and increase the sweetener if necessary.

Now, I roll it out (or you can leave it in the fridge a few hours first), using some parchment paper between the dough and the roller to prevent sticking, or pat it out, to a thickness of about 1/3 to 1/2 inch and use a small round cookie cutter to cut. I carefully use a frosting spatula to lift the macaroons up and place them on the dehydrator tray and start dehydrating at a temp of about 105*.

This will take several hours. I check on them every so often, and take out any that seem to be getting done faster than the others. I like to take them out at different stages so I have some that are chewy, some that are crunchy. The chewy ones are wonderful, but the crunchy ones carry better.

Curried Jicama for Something Different

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This is a dish I made a while back and really liked--I had a jicama that I wanted to jazz up, and someone had recently talked about going to a Thai restaurant, so it got me thinking along those lines. I threw in some curry, onion, green onion, and a little cabbage with my diced jicama and it was pretty good and took no time at all!

Almond Hazelnut Crackers

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My dehydrator conked out on me a while back, and I have really been missing it somethin' awful! I keep torturing myself by looking at some of my old dehydrated favorites, while waiting for another dehydrator to arrive. I keep to raw foods a lot better when I have dehydrated goodies that I can take with me on the run--like these almond hazelnut crackers. Very filling, very satisfying!

I started with almond meal (left over from making raw almond milk and then dehydrated), added some raw coconut butter and just a teeny bit of blended soaked dates, some sea salt, and then some coarsely ground hazelnuts. I then spread the mixture in a 9 x13 glass pan, covered it, and put it in the fridge for a day. Then I cut into squares, removed the squares carefully with a rubber spatula, flattened each out individually, and placed on dehydrator trays. I dehydrated them pretty much overnight; they were nice and crispy. I shared them with friends and got some rave reviews.

Yummy Grapefruit Salad!

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Lately Jamie and I have both been craving ruby red grapefruit like crazy! I especially like them when I take a few extra minutes to clean them (remove the skins and membrane). They are so refreshing! But I can't seem to eat a lot of fruit without it doing things to my blood sugar and hydration levels unless I eat it along with some protein and/or something high in good fats. Like....avocados! Well, I wasn't too sure at first, but I decided to try them together and I loved the combination! Then I decided to add some cilantro--Even better!

Start by peeling and sectioning your grapefruit. Then take each section and make a cut along the inside edge, cutting away just a sliver to allow you to pull back the membrane from each side of the section. Pull the membrane back carefully, and slowly continue pulling until the white thick membrane comes loose from the back as well. Once you have your cleaned grapefruit sections, simply arrange with avocado slices as pictured above.

Hot and Sour Soup~A Raw Foods Treat

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Well, before I leave off this little spew about coconuts, I will throw in another delightful raw foods idea that I threw together a week ago or so.

I love hot and sour soup, so I went online looking at some raw foods recipes to make some, but in the end, I wound up just throwing some things together like I always do. I'm not much for recipes - even when I was cooking all the time, I was always one to throw in some of this and some of that.

In this case, I took some red and green peppers, some mild, some hot, and some green cabbage and green onions, and I put them through the food processor to chop, then I added them to some young coconut water and cut some strips from the fairly firm coconut flesh for noodles, tossed in some sea salt and a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar (mostly for a little color), and there it was. (The next day, I had some leftovers and added some little strips of mushrooms, and that was good too.) I was afraid it would taste too "coconut-y", but it was amazingly similar to a light chicken broth.

I ate this at room temperature, but it was still very satisfying. I was amazed at how filling it was! And even a little warming, since the high good fat content of coconuts and coconut water is always very warming to me anyway. I'm sure it will be a favorite of mine in any season.