Eating Raw- Getting Back to Our Roots

Photo by: Amanda DiGiovanna

"What if you could live disease-free, lose weight and keep it off all while enhancing natural beauty and reversing the aging process? Sign me up, right? Well, you can do all these things by simply adding raw/living foods into your diet.

Raw food, what? Um, I promise it’s not what you think! There’s more to going raw than grazing on the grass in your backyard. Yes, it involves going back to our primal culinary roots—eating organic plant-based whole foods in their pure, natural state, as nature intended. But these foods can still be presented as culinarian AND sexy, and are delicious!

Raw foods are what we here at Regeneration Raw like to categorize as being in the “un” group: uncooked, unprocessed and unaltered food. We believe foods that heal shouldn’t lack in the taste department. Forget the health food adage: “Food that’s good for you can't taste good.” This, thankfully, doesn’t apply to raw foods. Actually, it’s almost impossible for raw foods not to excite and awaken your taste buds. Think about it, if you eat food before cooking the life and vitality out of it, the flavor profile is abundant—bottom line is that YOU CAN EAT FOOD THAT TASTES GOOD AND IS GOOD FOR YOU!
Get "Un"cookin!

Eating raw is easy. Besides, its “rawkin” taste, raw foods heal your body & soul both physically and mentally. Seriously? Yes! “Raw” regenerates you at the cellular level, reshaping and restructuring your body from the inside out by ridding your cells of toxins and unwanted stored fat."-- Excerpt from How2EatRaw.comBy Regeneration Raw’s owner, Andrea McNinch

Visit her site for raw food lessons and in person trainings. 

HOW TO DO IT AT HOME??? Your online resource here.

Check out Living-Foods.com For Articles, recipies, and community recources!

Teaching Every Child About Food

Sharing powerful stories from his anti-obesity project in Huntington, W. Va., TED Prize winner Jamie Oliver makes the case for an all-out assault on our ignorance of food.

Secret to Longevity: Restricting Calories?

Secret to Longevity: Restricting Calories?

18 November 2005 - Called “undernutrition without malnutrition,” caloric restriction has been shown to extend both the maximal and average life spans of worms, insects and mice. Researchers at the University of Washington have recently found that the link between caloric restriction and longevity is related to a genetic pathway in yeast cells. They report their results in the 18 November issue of the journal Science.

The theory behind caloric restriction is based on metabolism rates. Imagine every individual is given a set amount of life to live. The more you eat, the higher your metabolism and the faster you burn through your life, shortening your lifespan. Conversely, the less you eat, the lower your metabolism and the slower you burn through your life, as a consequence extending your time here on earth....continued

Vegan Devil's Food Cake!

This cake can go from "merely delicious" to "extraordinary" by splitting the layers as described in the Cherry-Filled Lemon Cake recipe and making four cream-filled layers. If you do this, be sure to double the Mocha Cream Filling recipe. 

12 servings 

CAKE INGREDIENTS:

2 Tbs. flaxseeds

1/2 cup unfiltered apple juice
2 cups unbleached white flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbs. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups soy milk
1 1/4 cups maple syrup
3/4 cup canola oil
2 Tbs. pure vanilla extract
1 Tbs. cider vinegar

MOCHA CREAM INGREDIENTS:

Ingredients

Makes 2 1/4 cups 
1 cup unfiltered apple juice
3 1/2 Tbs. agar-agar flakes
1 Tbs. kudzu
2 cups vanilla soy milk
3 Tbs. maple syrup
2 Tbs. pure vanilla extract
2 tsp. almond extract
2 Tbs. almond butter
2 tsp. coffee granules
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cardamom

MOCHA CREAM DIRECTIONS:
In small saucepan, mix apple juice and agar-agar flakes. Let stand 10 minutes. 
Bring mixture to slow simmer over medium heat, whisking occasionally, about 5 minutes. Cook, whisking often, 10 minutes, lowering heat if necessary (do not boil). 
Meanwhile, in medium bowl, dissolve kudzu in 1/4 cup soy milk. Whisk in remaining soy milk, maple syrup, both extracts, almond butter, coffee, salt and cardamom. 
Whisk kudzu mixture into apple juice mixture and cook over medium-low heat, whisking often, about 15 minutes. Pour into shallow dish and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Transfer to food processor and puree before using.

ICING INGREDIENTS:

Makes 2 2/3 cups 
2 Tbs. unfiltered apple juice, or more if needed
1 Tbs. kudzu
10 oz. dairy-free chocolate chips (1 1/2 cups)
1/3 cup rice syrup
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

ICING DIRECTIONS
Place chocolate chips in top of double boiler over barely simmering water over medium heat. Stir until melted. Stir in rice syrup and vanilla extract until blended. 
In cup, dissolve kudzu in apple juice; stir into chocolate mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until creamy and cloudiness has disappeared, 2 to 3 minutes. If icing is too thick to spread easily, stir in a little more apple juice. Use immediat

CAKE DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans. In coffee grinder or small food processor, grind flaxseeds. Transfer to blender along with apple juice. Let mixture soak 5 minutes. 

Meanwhile, in large bowl, sift both flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  

To mixture in blender, add soy milk, maple syrup, oil, vanilla extract and vinegar and blend thoroughly. Gradually add maple syrup mixture to flour mixture and mix well with rubber spatula. 

Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake until cake pulls away from sides of pan and is firm with a little spring to the touch, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes in pan. To remove from pan, run knife around edge of pan and turn cake out onto wire rack. Cool completely.

Reserve best cake layer for top. Place other layer upside-down on serving plate andsmear thick layer of mocha cream.

Top with remaining layer and gently press into place. Pour Glossy Chocolate Icing onto center of cake. Using metal spatula, spread icing over sides and top of cake. Let stand 10 minutes to set.

ENJOY!

(adapted fromVegetarian Times Issue: May 1, 1999 p.49)

Macaroons

Makes 30 cookies 

1 2/3 cups (9 oz.) whole blanched almonds

1 1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar

3 1/2-oz. pkg. almond paste

1/3 cup (2 to 3 large) egg whites

1/2 tsp. almond extract

1 tsp. honey

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Line several baking sheets with foil.

Spread the almonds in a baking pan and toast in the oven, stirring occasionally, until the nuts begin to turn brown, 7 to 8 minutes. Let cool. Increase oven temperature to 350°F. 

In food processor, combine cooled almonds and sugar and process until almonds are ground to a powder, 1 to 2 minutes. With machine running, add almond paste through the feed tube, processing until mixture is smooth. Add egg whites and continue processing until mixture is well blended, about 1 minute.

Transfer the mixture to a large heavy saucepan and place over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring constantly until mixture thickens slightly, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in almond extract. Let mixture cool 15 minutes or until slightly stiff but not firm.

Drop batter by level tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart.

Bake until cookies are just beginning to turn brown, 11 to 14 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand on foil until cool. Then carefully transfer them to wire racks to cool completely. 

Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

The Balancing Act- a Dosha balancing diet

The Dosha Balancing Diet

The Ayurvedic approach to eating allows us to make intelligent food choices, avoid cravings, and satisfy our hunger. 

By Miriam Hospodar

Why do we gobble down a chocolate bar when our stomach is pleading for us not to? What makes us reach for a third helping when we are already full? According to Ayurveda, when we are in balance, we automatically desire foods that are good for us. But if our mind, body, or spirit is out of sync, our connection to our body's inner intelligence goes awry. The modern afflictions that affect our eating habits, like excessive consumption and fast-paced living, can be looked at through the lens of the ancient science of Ayurveda.

TAKE THIS QUIZ TO DETERMINE YOUR DOSHA-The DOSHA QUIZ

Healing with Food- The Ayurvedic Lifestyle

Healing with Food

According to Ayurveda, an illness indicates that one's constitution, or dosha, is out of balance, a condition that can be exacerbated or improved by eating certain foods. 

By Lizette Montgomery