Nut Milk

As promised here is not only a picture of my nut milk bag (I know it sounds totally weird), but instructions on how to make any kind of nut milk. My favorites are almond milk and hazelnut milk. You can also use Brazil nuts, cashews, hemp seeds, or sesame seeds (I'm sure there are others, but these are the main ones I've tried).

Okay, so this is super simple and quick. I can make a batch and clean-up in about 5 minutes. Take 1 cup of the nuts of your choice (soaked in water for about 4 hours and then drained) and put it in the blender with 4 cups of fresh drinking water. And blend very good.


Pour the contents of the blender into your nut milk bag until fully strained. If you do not have a bag, you can put cheese cloth over a bowl and use that as strainer, but it is much harder and messier.


Next, squeeze the bag to get all the liquid out. Just keep squeezing until nothing else is coming out.

You will be left with a bowl of milk. I usually pour this back into the blender and sweeten the milk with a little raw honey or raw agave nectar and a few dashes of cinnamon. You can also add a dash or two of vanilla, if you like that. Blend for a couple of seconds and chill in the fridge.


The remaining pulp in the bag can be saved in the fridge for a couple of days. You can make garden burgers out of them or dehydrate them into flour for other recipes. I usually just save the pulp and add it to one of our green smoothies as a protein boost.


There you have it. A beautiful, delicious, nutritious, dairy-free milk!!

Green Smoothies

Many of us are looking to find easy, tasty ways to add not only fresh fruits and vegetables into our diet, but fresh greens.

What is a Green Smoothie? A Green Smoothie is simply a smoothie made with fresh, organic (whenever possible) greens, fruit, and water or juice.

What are greens? Here are a few of the greens that can be added to your daily smoothies:

Arugula

Asparagus

Beet Greens (the tops)

Bok Choy

Broccoli

Carrot Tops

Chard

Celery

Collard Greens

Endive

Escarole

Frisee

Kale

Green and Red Leaf Lettuce

Mustard Greens

Romaine

Green and Red Leaf Lettuce

Spinach

You can also add weeds, herbs, or sprouts such as:

Weeds:

Chickweed

Clover

Dandelion

Lambsquarters

Purslane

Stinging Nettles

Herbs:

Aloe Vera

Baby dill

Basil

Cilantro

Fennel

Mint

Parsley

Peppermint Leaves

Spearmint

Sprouts:

Alfalfa

Broccoli

Clover

Fenugreek

Radish

Sunflower

Why do we need greens? A few of the many great benefits greens provide include:

*An abundance of protein in the form of readily available essential amino acids (as opposed to long molecules of protein found in other sources that the body has to break down and then reassemble).

*An abundance of insoluble fiber, a *sponge* that can absorb large amounts of toxins and take them out of the body.

*An abundance of Chlorophyll which counteracts toxins, provides iron to organs, helps purify the liver, cleanses the bowels, and eliminates body odors, to name a few.

*They can raise or maintain an appropriate level of stomach acid. (Stomach acid is responsible for the proper absorption and assimilation of vital nutrients, the destruction of harmful microorganisms such as bacteria, and the digestion of large protein molecules which can prevent allergies from forming).

*They make the body more alkaline. (Most diseases, including cancer, thrive in an acidic environment, sokeeping the body alkaline is essential for health).

Why is blending our greens so great? Greens are full of nutrients, but most people don't receive them because of two main reasons: 1) People cook them, destroying up to 80% of their nutrients and enzymes; and 2) People eat them raw but don't chew them well enough. Greens have a tough cellular wall that must be completely ruptured to release the vital nutrients inside. Blending your greens is the perfect solution.

* I received the bulk of this information from *Green for Life,* written by Victoria Boutenko.*

My Weekly Menu

It occurred to me that it would fun to occasionally post my weekly menu plan- just to give you an insight as to what we are eating. Today Savanna and I spent about 3 hours in the kitchen preparing foods for the week. I will try to post the recipes in the next few days, but in the meantime here is what we made today, and what we will be serving the rest of the week! (We learned many of these from our recent trip to the Raw Spirit Festival in Santa Barbara.)

Today we made Banana Quinoa Muffins, "Ranch" Dressing (cashew/avocado based), Buckwheat Crispies cereal with Hazelnut milk, Pistachio-Lime Hummus, Cashew Mock Chicken Salad, and Sun dried Tomatoes!

Banana Quinoa Muffins

Cashew "Mock Chicken" Salad

Cashew "Ranch"

Buckwheat Crispies with Hazelnut Milk

Marinated tomatoes (they will go into the dehydrator tomorrow and voila! Sun dried Tomatoes- Mmmm!)

As for the rest of the week, besides the above, we will make:

Monday: Nori Rolls filled with avocado, cucumber, cauliflower rice, and sprouts with Tamari dipping sauce

Tuesday: Spring Rolls filled with shredded carrot, jicama, sprouts, and sun dried tomatoes with a Chinese dipping sauce

Wednesday: Whole Wheat Blueberry pancakes and fruit salad

Thursday: Veggie burgers wrapped in lettuce leaves

Friday: Veggie sandwiches and salad

In addition to this we've been making some killer Green Smoothies lately. James and I started a 30 day green smoothie challenge 4 days ago. We are each going to drink a quart (32 oz) of green smoothie daily for one month- good stuff!

Green Smoothie Recipes

I posted this on a friend's food blog, but thought I'd post it here too!

Our family has been making green smoothies pretty much daily for about a year and half. I have noticed TREMENDOUS benefits in our health from adding more servings of fruit and dark greens. We are a veggie-eating family, but some of those dense, leafy greens are hard to get down. If you want to learn more about the benefits of making and drinking green smoothies, I HIGHLY recommend the book "GREEN FOR LIFE" by Victoria Boutenko. It's a quick read and chalked full of great nutritional info.

In the meantime, I thought I'd post a few of our family-favorites! You may need to add less greens in the beginning and more fruit (especially for the kiddos), but as you do this more and more, you will be able to drink more greens and like them! I sometimes sweeten our smoothies with a little agave nectar or raw honey. However, that's not really necessary if you use very ripe fruits. I hit the sales on super ripe bananas or day-old strawberries and freeze them in large batches. Frozen grapes are really good for smoothies too.

Smoothie #1
3 bananas

1 cup of papaya

4 big handfuls of baby spinach

2 cups of water


Smoothie #2 (similar to #1, but still a hit)
3 bananas

3 huge handfuls of baby spinach

2 cups of water


Smoothie #3
2 bananas

6-7 strawberries

juice from 2 oranges

2 handfuls of romaine

1 cup of water


Smoothie #4
Half a head of green or red leaf lettuce

2 bananas

juice from 2 tangelos

1/2 a bag of frozen mangoes

1 pear

1 cup of water


Smoothie #5
6 ounces of orange juice

1 cup of pineapple

1/2 cup of coconut milk (this is the best if you get a Thai coconut and use the water and meat, but the canned stuff works too)

2 handfuls of romaine/spring mix/or red leaf lettuce


Smoothie #6
1 stalk of celery

2 cups of blueberries

1 banana

2 cups of water


Smoothie #7
6 to 7 romaine leaves

1 cup of red grapes

1 medium orange (peeled, but whole, not juiced)

1 banana

2 cups of water


Smoothie #8
2 large grapefruits- juiced

6-7 frozen strawberries

1 cup of peaches

2 handfuls of bok choy


Smoothie #9
4 ripe pears

4-5 kale leaves

1/2 bunch of mint

2 cups of water

(I would add sweetener on this one!)


Smoothie #10
2 bananas

2 large collard or chard leaves

1/2 pack of Trader Joes frozen "Mangolicious" blend (has frozen mango, raspberries, and blueberries)

1-2 cups of water or orange juice

**You can substitute water with any juice you like. The amount you put in depends upon the consistency you like. My kids like it thick like ice cream...I like it almost as thin as juice.

The possibilities are endless really. You can add greens to any of your usual smoothie favorites. It will change the color, but if you do it in a small amount, it shouldn't take away from the flavor much. You can substitute in these recipes for any greens you like. Our favorites are KALE, COLLARD GREENS, SWISS CHARD, SPINACH, ROMAINE, and BOK CHOY. I sometimes also add ground flax or nuts/nut butter for added protein. Most of these recipes will yield a quart of green smoothies (32 oz). Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!