Day 1 Canada Juice Fast

Juice Set Up

After a long night of feasting on the last of our raw desserts… ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate mousse and a variety of sauces; we began our juice fast at the stroke of midnight. I don’t recommend binging on desserts or anything else prior to a fast. I’ve actually heard stories of people having a last meal of McDonald’s before starting a fast and it turns my stomach, but

Juice Queen

everyone makes their own choices and reaps the results.

The morning began with licorice tea followed by green juice an hour or so later. We got a late start to the day only getting up after 10am and making the juice by noon. The morning juice combo that filled both of our cups consisted of:

• 2 large cucumbers
• 4 celery ribs
• 2 kale leaves
• 2 romain leaves
• a nub of fresh ginger
• 1 quarter of a lemon, peel and all

All of this went through the juicer. I lined the pulp container with the seed mylk bag and as you can see I was able to collect a decent amount of juice by squeezing the pulp.

Squeeze that pulp

The rest of the days liquids will include hot tea and more green juice. Heathy is talking about a blend of celery, ginger, lemon and apple for later today. I can’t wait.

Juice Fast/Feast 2010 – In Canada

Green Juice - Mutha's Milk

Tis the season to be fasting now that we’ve got the feasting out of the way. A pattern seems to emerge at this time of the year when everyone awakens from the holidaze of excess and over indulgence. What’s the remedy for this holiday hangover? A juice fast/feast of course! I use the term fast/feast to allow flexibility regarding the recovery route you choose to take. Fasting is a more restricted and more powerful method of healing while feasting achieves similar results with less restrictions. Fasting is best done in a relaxed and supportive environment like a tropical spa setting. For those of us that don’t have a spa at our disposal the feast option is the next best choice.

Fasting: willingly abstaining from food, drink and/or specific activities for a set duration of time.

Feasting: consumption without limitations.

The component that is missing from the above definitions is the juice… green juice that is. Fresh organic green vegetable juice is the next best thing to mother’s milk and that is the core ingredient to a healing juice fast/feast. The foundation for my own green juice fasting/feasting protocol is based on what I learned while working at The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center. While it is possible to fast on fruit juices, water and a variety of other liquids it is not recommended that you do this unless you know what you are doing and what you can expect. The high sugar content of fresh fruit and root (carrot, beet) juices can be unbalancing when consume in high amounts during a liquid fast. With the fiber removed from the fruit/root you end up with an unnaturally high concentration of sugars. If drinking these juices it is best to thin them with water or combine them with green vegetable juices.

The equipment needed to have a successful green juicing experience is either a high power blender like a vita-mix or blendtec or a masticating juicer. Centrifuge juicers are ok but many of them don’t handle leafy greens very well. I have a trick I use to maximize my juice output with both masticating and centrifuge juicers. Line the pulp catching container with a seed mylk bag (paint strainer bag from Home Depot). Once you have finished your initial juicing, taking the bag of pulp and squeeze it dry. You’ll find that a good bit of juice is left in the pulp, juice that would be thrown away.

It’s optimal to consume fresh green juice but it often isn’t practical to make the the juice on the spot. A routine of making your days juice either the morning of or the night before is usually the option of choice. If you have a FoodSaver kitchen gadget with the mason jar vacuum sealing attachment you’ll be stylin. With this set up you can vacuum seal your juice and extend it’s vitality and slow oxidation.

The juice blend I prefer while juice fasting/feasting is:

• 2-3 cucumbers,
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1 handful of leafy greens (kale, spinach, lettuce)
• fresh herbs (cilantro, parsley, basil)

For a bit of sweetness I might add 1 ounce of fresh carrot, beet or apple juice. When doing I long term fast I notice that people tend to want to drink their sweet juice straight… they’re jonezing for their sugar fix. The key to a healthy fast/feast is balance and shooting fruit juices is not very balancing… so don’t do it.

Fasting/Feasting on liquids during cold months can be quite a challenge. Here are some tips to take the edge off cold weather fasting.

Enjoy at least 4 ten ounce green juices a day with water and tea throughout the day. Below is a prospective fast/feast schedule.

8am – skin brush and shower

8:30 – hot water and lemon juice

9 am – 10 oz green juice

10:30 – tea or water

Noon – green juice, 1 oz apple with ginger/cayenne

1: 30 – tea or water

3pm – green juice, 1 oz carrot with ginger/cayenne

4:30 – tea or water

6pm – green juice with ginger and lemon

• Take your produce out of the fridge and allow it to warm up to room temp. before juicing it
• Enjoy hot/warm tea between green juices
• Add warming ingredients to your juices like fresh ginger juice, garlic, hot peppers, cayenne and turmeric
• Allow refrigerated juice to warm before drinking
• Exercise periodically through out the day: yoga, rebounding, breath work – see “Breath of Fire”
• Blend unpasteurized organic miso, lemon juice with hot water to make a warming soup

To really experience the benefits of a juice fast/feast you need to go for at least 3 days. 7 days is optimal and once you’ve gone beyond 7 just listen to your body and go until you feel you’ve satisfied your bodies healing needs.

Basil and Spice Article

Candied Pecans

Recently I submitted a recipe to Basil and Spice. The site features tons of cool health oriented content.

Take a look at this holiday recipe… candied nuts, yummy.

Chocolate is “Yes”!

Jack-Fruit of Hearts

For those out there that are chocolatiers, you are familiar with the intoxicating smell of cacao butter melting in the dehydrator and also with the way cacao powder seems to gravitate towards all things white. I spent last night in the kitchen preparing chocolate for a promotional holiday party. Free raw chocolate is a great way to promote your business. What’s my business these days? Good question. As usual I’m playing “the Jack” as in “Jack of all Trades”. The Jack is cool and all. It’s royalty, but it ain’t The King or even The Ace. So I’m selling super foods, teaching classes, consulting, hosting dinners and preparing packaged foods… oh yeah and occasionally making videos, posting blogs and working on a recipe book. Wow, when I look it like that I feel like I’m spreading myself thin. Don’t get me wrong it’s not like I’m doing all of those things everyday, some of them I’ll only do once a month. Believe me I find time in there for surfing and other forms of recreation.

So where was I? Making free chocolate for a promotional event, ah yes. That’s the whole dynamic of “you’ve got to spend money to make money”, but whose in it for money? My motto is “you gotta do what you love to love what your doing”, which I can affirm. So playing The Jack(fruit) and occasionally The Joker is cool with me…

Here’s a sampling of what I made last night:

Candied Pecans dipped in chocolate, I made little sandwiches by dipping the flat half of the pecan and then placing another flat half

Hearts and Caramel Squares

on top of the other. This way you can pick up the choccie pecan sandwich without it melting in your fingers.

Chocolate Caramel Squares: I busted out the casserole dish, layed down some wax paper and poured a layer of chocolate for this creation. I set the chocolate in the fridge, made a caramel, poured that over set chocolate and spread it within a quarter inch of the edges of the chocolate, back in the freezer to set and the caramel layer with a layer of chocolate that went to the edges. At this point I should have set it in the fridge because I eventually had to cut it into squares. A casserole sized chocolate caramel bar is a little excessive. Trying to cut it directly out of the freezer caused some of the chocolate to crack… little patients and thawing allowed me to make clean cuts.

Chocolate Hearts with Goji and Coconunt: this is a Valentines Day classic that never fails to please. I sprinkled the goji and coconut into the molds before I poured the chocolate in. This heart molds are super easy to use. I scored them at Target in the bargain bin just after Valentines last year… Score!

So that was it for free chocolate schwag. I’m hoping that I’ll have some left overs to share with family and friends. Myself I’m choco’d-out. Making chocolate takes its toll on me with all the sampling you have to do. By the end of the night I feel like flying and I this funny sensation in my chest like my heart is radiating out of my chest: raw chocolate is a true heart opener. So I’ve come down of the cacao cloud. I tend to burn out quick on cacao powder and that’s why I stick to the nibs.

Choco Candied Pecans

Here’s the basic chocolate recipe I used:

Cacao Butter – 10 oz. about 1 1/2 C melted

Agave – 1/4 C

Palm Sugar – 1/2 C

Lucuma – 1/4 C

Cacao Powder – 8 oz about 1 3/4 C

pinch of Himalayan salt

Chocolate dipped Candied Pecans

I melted the cacao butter in the dehydrator in a metal bowl with a fork laying in the bowl. I do this to draw heat into the center of the melting cacao. The metal bowl conducts heat better than glass or pyrex which are actually an insulators. I then moved to my double boiler set up which is a crock pot filled enough to float the metal bowl. I check the water temp. with a small thermometer and turn the crock off and on accordingly. Next I mix in the agave, salt and palm sugar with the melted butter. I do this in the bowl using a blending wand. These things are cheap and very useful for blending directly inside of bowls and even wide mouthed jars. It’s good to have a second set of hands at this point but it can be done alone… Once the cacao butter, agave and palm sugar is blended I start adding the cacao butter and mixing. You can sift the cacao powder into the mixture as well which makes things easier. With the hand blender there is the danger of spraying chocolate all over the place. I like to live on the edge. I only had minor splatters from this undertaking.

A couple tips for using the hand blender.

1. Make sure your bowl is wide and deep enough to prevent from slinging your mix everywhere.
2. Lift the mixing wand up out of the mixer to create a vortex of chocolate spray. Do this carefully because this the “wall splatter”danger zone. Tilting the wand on an angle will also pull floating ingredients down into the blending vortex.
3. Unplug hand blender before licking the blade.

Joker is Wild

Santa’s Rawfood Workshop

Seasons Greetings from The Live Food Experience,

I’m working in the kitchen this weekend making holiday goodies. The holidays are full of not so healthy temptations. Be sure to have plenty of healthy sweet and savory alternatives on hand. And they make perfect stocking stuffers. If you see something you like call or email me and I’ll set you up. I head out of town for the holiday on Sunday the 20th so contact me before then.

Lots of Zesty Goji Granola

Zesty Goji Granola – $1.50 per oz.

Pecans, walnuts, sprouted buckwheat, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, gojis, mesquite, lucuma, palm sugar, agave, cinnamon, vanilla, oranges, orange zest, Himalayan salt

Candied Pecans – $2 per oz.

Local pecans, mesquite, lucuma, cinnamon, cardamom, agave, palm sugar, orange zest, orange juice, Himalayan salt

G’dunions (Savory Breaded Onions) – $1.50 per oz.

G'dunion - good eat'n

Sweet onions, pumpkin seeds, nutritional yeast, mesquite, chia, spirulina, Himalayan salt, cayenne

Kale Chips – $2.00 per oz – price change due to expensive kale… sorry

Kale, cashews, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, chia, Himalayan salt

Fak’n Bac’n Strips (Savory Eggplant) – $1.50 per oz.

Eggplant, pumpkin seeds, nutritional yeast, tamari, lemon juice, palm sugar, olive oil, curry spice, Himalayan salt

Kimchi – $5 for a 6 oz jar or $9 for 12 oz jar – .50 off with jar exchange

Cabbage, carrots, garlic, onion, hot peppers, ginger, Himalayan salt, probiotic

Kimchi does the body good!

Most of the goodies listed on the website are available as well. Get’m while you can.

Seasons Blissings,

Adam

Kimchi for You and Me

This jar will take 5 cabbages

Tis the season for fermenting vegetables… the weather is cooling off in Florida and the cold weather veggies are coming into season. I’m in the process of editing a kimchi making video and I just wanted to share the recipe while I had a chance. This recipe should safely fit into a 1 gallon jar when mashed down.

2 heads of cabbage – save several large outer leaves to cover the finished product
2 large carrots
shred and salt, shred it good and massage salt in so cabbage sweats, you want it juicy.

Puree these ingredients and mix in with cabbage and carrots

Everything you need

1 onion
1 clove of garlic
3 hot peppers, dry or fresh
3 T fresh ginger

Optional: 1 T  probiotic (Body Ecology)

1. Shred cabbage and carrots, salt and massage.
2. Puree above ingredients and mix in with shredded cabbage.
3. Stuff cabbage mixture into jar and mash down removing all the air pockets and bring up the juice level.
4. Place saved cabbage leaves on top of kimchi. Press down completely covering kimchi. Use a ceramic bowl, mug, small plate… anything to weigh down the leaves. You want enough pressure to bring the juice above the level of the kimchi mixture. Get creative, make it work. If all else fails add a mixture of 1 T salt to 1/2 C water. Add enough to bring level up.
5. Cover with a towel to prevent bugs from getting into it and place in a cool dark place. Check on it regularly. It should be read to refrigerate in a week.

Kimchi and ferments like sauerkraut and miso are great immune boosters and they also help to repopulate your healthy internal flora. Fermented veggies are a daily staple in countries like Korea, China and Japan where cancer rates are much lower. These foods must be unpasteurized. Don’t think you’re getting the benefits from eating a kraut covered hot dog, it ain’t the same. Check out The Body Ecology website for great information about friendly ferments and how they can change your life.

I’ll be posting a video shortly. Keep it Live!

Hoop’n for Health

Adam, Laura Marie, Jen and Ariana

This past summer I had the magical experience of being a vendor and demo chef at Raw Spirit Fest East 2009 in Maryland. During the festival found myself gravitating towards the Hooping Harmony booth at every opportunity. Fortunately I had the opportunity to sit down with chat with Laura Marie and her mother Ariana between hooping sessions. Enjoy the video below and drop by Hooping Harmony for more information.