Marinade My Mushroom

BBQ Eggplant and Shrooms

They say the secrets in the sauce, which is true. But the magic is in the marinade. The trick to making raw foods that really knock the socks off of skeptics and lovers alike is dialing in a boot shootin marinade. Good news kids, most marinades are raw and vegan already. The basic ingredients are an acid, an oil, a sweetener, salt and spices. Unpasteurized apple cider vinegar or citrus juice is your acid. You can choose from any number of organic cold pressed oils. Use agave, palm sugar or yacon syrup if your hardcore raw vegan. And if you’re not so strict use raw honey or maple syrup for sweeteners. Use a healthy sun dried sea salt or Himalayan salt.  Spices… take your pick of chemical free options.

The recipe below is a BBQ style sauce/marinade which I used to marinade eggplant and crimini mushrooms. I marinaded these guys over night and then warmed up the mixture in the dehydrator for a couple hours. The results were delicious fabulous goodness.

This recipe is featured in my soon to be released recipe book entitled “The Live Food Experience”. Subscribe to my blog and be the first kid on your block to have your very own “Live Food Experience”.

BBQ Marinade

Amount	Measure	Ingredient	Preparation / Option
3/4	C	sundried tomatoes	soaked 2 hours
1	C	water	use STS water
1/4	C	palm sugar
3	T	ACV
2	T	tamari
1	T	miso
2	cloves	garlic
2	t	ginger	minced
1	t	chili powder
1	t	paprika
1	pinch	salt
Blend all the ingredients. Pour marinade over chopped mushrooms or veggies. Marinade overnight. Add marinade veggies to salads, soups and wraps.

The Live Food Experience… In your very own kitchen!

Recently I prepared an in home dinner for 4 in Jacksonville, Florida. I have to say this is one of my favorite ways of introducing people to the magic of living foods. I’ve done a few these dinners in the past they all have been a great success. Most of the time there is a skeptic in the bunch or at least someone who doubts they will enjoy or feel satisfied with the meal. So far I’ve been able to leave everyone satiated, satisfied and smiling. Now there’s no telling whether or not they throw a pot pie in the microwave or thaw out a pizza once I’m out the door.

Thai Miso Soup

The menu from the other evening began with Thai style miso soup. Here’s the basic procedure:

1. Start by warming 3 Cups filtered water on the stove, not boiling just hot to touch.
2. Transfer the water to a blender. I had brought my Vitamix but any blender will do.
3. Add 3 T of unpasteurized miso.  I used my favorite chick pea miso from South River Miso to make the broth. Add 1/2 an avocado, 1/2 or a full bell pepper (yellow preferred), 1 T of Thai Curry Spice from Mountain Rose Herbs,1-2 cloves of garlic, 2 t lime juice and 1-2 t of fresh ginger..
4. Blend for for 30 seconds.
5. Cut up some fresh basil add to blender and blend for 5 seconds.
6. Pour into cups and add fresh cucumber batons, shredded carrot and bell pepper chunks.
7. Garnish with a fresh basil leaf.

Next on the menu was a veggie medley Pad Thai creation. I used kelp noodles from Sea Tangle Noodle Co., spiralized zucchini and carrots and diced jicama to make the noodles. The sauce consisted of:

• almond butter
• water
• unpasteurized miso
• tamari
• lemon juice
• olive oil
• palm sugar
• ginger
• hot pepper

Pad Thai with Almond Miso Sauce

I’m a big fan of this sauce. To me it’s good enough to drink straight. After I blend up a batch I swish water in the bottom of the blender and drink what’s left. Nothing goes to waste in the live food kitchen.

Dessert was the next order of business. I like to keep things delicious and easy at these dinner parties. I chose to make a mango banana sorbet. The sorbet is a easy 1, 2 recipe… 1. cut up and freeze fruit 2. pass frozen fruit through a masticating juicer with the blank plate… done.

I did make a special sauce to top the sorbet with. It was an agave cinnamon sauce. It consisted of:

• agave
• maple syrup
• almond butter
• agave powder
• cinnamon
• salt

I blended this mixture and put it in a squirt bottle. The agave came across very sweet to me and in the future I’d probably make this again with soaked dates or palm sugar instead of agave… regardless, it was still delicious! Schedule a Dinner Experience in your home today.

Making Sorbet

Mango Banana Sorbet

Coming off the Fast – Do it Right or Don’t Fast

Finish Right - Smoothie

Now that you’ve finished your fast, what do you do? What “not to do” is to return to business as usual. You’ve just honored your body and done some deep healing. Don’t blow the benefits with a thoughtless food binge.

Properly coming off the fast/feast is more important than doing the fast/feast itself. Great care must be taken not to undo all the benefits of the fast. Take an amount of days equal to the length of the fast/feast to reintroduce solid foods into your diet. A 1 day fast requires 1 day of reintroduction. Your stomach will have shrunk during the fast so start with small portions and listen to your body. A fast is meant to reset your body to its optimal functioning. If you force yourself to eat the way you ate prior to the fast you might as well not fast at all. Simple foods in small portions is your key to success whether coming off a fast or just living life. If you can apply this rule to your life you will experience health and longevity.

Heathy and I went 4 days and broke the fast on day 5 with citrus. We’ve continued having juice each day while eating fruit and doing green smoothies. The smoothie above was made with Swiss chard, spinach, strawberries, apple, lecithin and a superfood blend of maca, lucuma, mesquite, cinnamon and bee pollen. It was really creamy and smooth.

My Typical break-fast meals for 7 day fast – no fats until day 5:

• Start each morning with hot water and lemon or  water and apple cider vinegar

Day 1 – water, tea and green juice through out day

Salud!

• morning: 1/2 of a ripe papaya
• mid-day: 1/2 of a ripe papaya or melon
• evening: green juice or miso soup

Day 2 – water, tea and green juice through out day

• morning: oranges, grapefruit or pomelo
• mid-day: oranges, grapefruit or pomelo
• evening: apples, green juice or miso soup

Day 3 – water, tea and green juice through out day

• morning: melon
• mid-day: green smoothie- apple, berries, spinach, maca, lucuma
• evening: apples, green juice or miso soup

Day 4 – water, tea and green juice through out day

• morning: diced apples, soaked gojis and cinnamon
• mid-day: mixed green salad with light vinegar herb dressing
• evening: miso soup and sea veggie salad with kimchi

Day 5 – water, tea and green juice through out day

• morning: diced apples, soaked gojis and cinnamon
• mid-day: mixed green salad with avocado and a light vinegar herb dressing
• evening: blended soup, gazpacho,with avocado

After day 5 you may slowly introduce oils into soups, sauces and dressings. It’s best to slowly reintroduce dehydrated foods, nuts, seeds and nut butters. Any heavy desserts like pies, chocolates and ice creams should be introduced after day 7. If you can’t hold out that long be sure the portion you eat is 1/3 of a serving and listen to how your body responds. Be conscious while eating and establish new health supporting eating habits.

Check out my next post when I share with you the details of our Liver/Gallbladder Flush… never a dull moment in Canada!

Day 2 – Canada Juice Fast

Jar O' Juice

As day 1 came to a close Heathy and I had each consumed a large green juice and a large glass of the celery, apple, ginger and cranberry blend. Spaced out between those 2 juices I had 4 large mugs of warm/hot tea and a glass of water. So the green juice fast is shaping up to be a hot tea fast. I guess I should share with you the tea blend of choice on the fast. At the moment we’re making a lose tea mixture of reishi mushroom, pau d’arco, cat’s claw, oat straw and chaga. Last night we added some astragalus root to the blend and were both in agreement that it was a bit overpowering.

Juice me!

The tea blend is chocked full of immune boosting, anti-viral, fungal, bacterial and health enhancing herbs. I was happy to read about the yeast eliminating properties of pau d’arco. I’ve been sweetening my teas with maple syrup or raw honey. Both of which are local.

The sleep schedule has had us getting to bed later than usual. Last night being New Year’s Eve, we had an excuse to stay up a bit late drinking tea. Late to bed equals late to rise. In the snowy Canadian landscape I’m cool with slipping into hibernation mode. We weren’t out of bed until 11am this morning. I made juice while sipping hot water with lemon. Both Heathy and I noticed how sore our lower backs were. We had done yoga the day before but we think the soreness had to do with multiple factors, one of them being the fast. A little yoga loosened things up.

By 4pm we were out the door and visiting Heathy’s parents house. While there we had a real treat: hot miso soup with garlic. We blended it smooth in the vita-mix. It truly hit the spot. This was followed through out the evening with mugs of hot tea and honey. We ended up staying late and missing our evening juice. We both felt ok with this though and retired for bed by 11pm.

My energy level has been pretty consistent. I am experiencing occasional hot flashes accompanied by shaky fatigue. I just go with it and eventually it passes.

Fasting in subzero temperatures is a new experience for me so I’m not going to push things. At the moment the outside air temp is -24C which is -15F. Fasting is a real heat sucker so if I feel things getting a little to intense I’m not going to hesitate in backing off. Day 3 should be very telling.

Busy October

Marinara and Cheeze Pepper Platter

Lots of fun stuff to think about for October. I’ve been working on a recipe book and working with a friend to produce a DVD to accompany it. Every time I visit a book store or go online I see more live food recipe books but I also see scores of … well, “dead food” books. I look at the people on the covers and it’s hard not to notice even with the make up and airbrushing that they aren’t radiating health. Am I judging a book by it’s cover? These books are big budget full color Food Network endorsed circus acts. Wow, how can a person compete with that? My feeling is that I’m not really competing with “that”, I shouldn’t even be concerned with “that”. It’s nice to know that “that” exists but I shouldn’t spend my energy on it. Besides, I’ve got my hands full working the recipe book, there’s also media nights going here in Atlantic Beach at Shakti and there’s a juice feast scheduled to happen. Still with all this going on there’s still time to play in the kitchen and test out recipes… like this one:

Almond Cashew Cheeze

1 C almonds

1 C cashews

1/2 C water or rejuvalac

1 t salt

*** If you don’t use rejuvalac add 1 t of apple cider vinegar and 1 T miso

Process all ingredients smooth in blender or food processor

Classic Marinara

2 C sundried tomato

1 whole tomato

3 T lemon juice

3 T C Italian herb

1 T olive oil

salt to taste

Process all ingredients smooth in blender or food processor

Add sun dried tomato soak water to blender if sauce it too thick.

Keep it Live!

Summer Spinach Soup

Fresh Produce

Down in Florida the local gardens are producing goodies in all shades of the rainbow. Recently I visited the local beaches farmers market and picked up some fresh produce. With my purchases spread out before me I saw a vision of soup, spinach soup and the rest is history. Enjoy this simple Summer Spinach Soup recipe.

2 Cups nut or seed mylk

1 Bunch of Spinach, rinsed and chopped

2 T chick pea miso

1 fresh tomato or 1/4 C soaked sundried tomato

6 black olives, pitted

1 T Mexican Seasoning Blend – cilantro, cayenne, black pepper, coriander, cumin

1 t cumin

salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in blender. Bleand until smooth. Transfer into a bowl. Garnish with diced veggies… corn, tomato, bell pepper, fresh herbs. Enjoy.

Rolling With the Nori Part 2

That's a tight roll

Sequels are rarely better than the original but this may be an exception to the rule… well at least this video is shorter. I actually get my roll on. I ended up making a ridiculous amount of filling for these nori sticks. I rolled for about an hour and had only gone through a third of the mix. I recorded this towards the end once I had figured out this advanced rolling technique. If you’re going to roll nori sticks, invite some friends over and make a party of it. No sense in rolling alone. I’ll post my recipe for goji beer and then you got no excuses not to Rawk and Roll.

Love, Adam

Rolling With Nori

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the kitchen, I’ve done and gone it again… ? Yes, I’ve been huffing rejuvalac. Not really. I made some tasty ginger almond nori roll ups last week and now the video is edited and ready for viewing.

The recipe I made on the video was a double batch which is a cruel thing to do to yourself if you’re on your own when it comes time to roll. My prayers weren’t answered and a bunch of escaped Cuban cigar rollers did not show up to help out. And none of the high school kids in the neighborhood were willing to roll up what I had to offer… Below is a half version of the recipe on made on camera.

Happy rolling and Keep It Live!

Nori Almond Sticks

1 C almond (soaked)

1/2 C sunflower seed (soaked)

1/4 pumpkin seeds

1/4 C sts water

1 T ACV

1 t turmeric

¼ t ground black pepper

2 T ground chia seed

1 clove garlic, pressed

1 pinch cayenne

10 Nori sheets – cut in half across the grain

2 T lemon juice (to moisten nori)

Process the above ingredients into a thick paste. Spread a bead of paste on the cut nori sheets and roll. Moisten the edge of the nori and seal it. Dehydrate at 125 for 3 hours then lower to 115 and continue dehydrating until completely dry. 10-12 hours. Nori sticks can be cut in half after dehydrating.