This is one of those recipes where you just raid your fridge and make something. And, in this case, it turned out pretty well. Now, if you don’t have papaya, you can sub mango, but keep in mind that it’ll completely change the character of the sauce, both in texture and flavor.

Serves one

3-4 ears of corn, kernels separated

A handful of broccoli florets

1/2 of a cucumber, diced 

A couple mushrooms, diced (optional)

4-5 medium tomatoes

1/2 of a papaya

Arugula to taste

Combine the first four ingredients in a bowl. Blend the tomatoes and papaya, adding in the arugula slowly. Check every so often to see if it’s too arugula-y for you. When it’s perfect, put that into the bowl and mix well.

Pretty simple, no?

So, I know it’s been a long time since my last post. Almost a month, in fact. Not that it’s any excuse, but things have been…well, a little crazy lately. Last week I relocated, as I do every three months, from the jungles of Hawaii to the suburbs of Pittsburgh. Now that I’m somewhat settled (and the internet’s reliable), I should be able to post more regularly.

So, without further ado, here’s a little something my dad cooked (or uncooked, heh heh) up using the ingredients we had on hand. And wowza, is it good! Pretty high in fat, though, so don’t go eating ten bowlfuls a day. But you can lower the fat by using jelly coconut meat as opposed to hard, thick meat - or even leave that part out, if you feel like it. It’ll be more watery, but hey, you can have a lot more of it. I don’t know, you can figure it out. There are options.

I put in cucumber because it was what I had at the time (the picture below was taken of a slightly different version of this soup, and doesn’t include the broccoli…definitely use the broccoli). You can put it in, but you don’t have to. It changes the overall feeling of the dish, and you can decide for yourself whether you like that or not.

Serves two for lunch or an appetizer

6 cups of coconut milk*

1 broccoli head

2 large handfuls of cilantro

9-12” of lemongrass

1 key lime OR 1/2 a lemon

1 jelly coconut OR kelp noodles

1 cucumber (optional)

*Coconut milk is made by blending hard coconut meat with coconut water - or regular water, if you don’t have it - and straining out the pulp. You can play with the quantities until you get the consistency the way you want it, but do keep in mind that the more coconut you add, the fattier it gets.

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Cut the stem of the broccoli head into chunks. Put the coconut milk, broccoli stem, and lemongrass into the blender and blend well. Strain that. Put the strained broth back into the blender and add 3/4 of the total cilantro and the lime or lemon juice and blend again. Pour into a pretty bowl. Cut the broccoli top into bite-sized florets, dice the cucumber (if using) and fashion the jelly coconut into noodle-like strips. If you don’t have a jelly coconut, you can use kelp noodles instead. Mix into the broth, and top with the remaining cilantro. Try not to scarf it down in two seconds.

Black sapotes are a close relative of the persimmon. They’re picked hard and are ripe and ready, like persimmons, when they’re very soft. Only use them when they’re super soft! They grow where persimmons do, so you can probably find them fresh in Florida or California, or you can buy them online here when they’re in season.

I would have let you guys see it, except it was gone about two minutes after I pulled it out of the freezer. It. Was. So. Freaking. Good. And the only fat was a little bit of coconut in the crust! So it’s a guilt-free dessert that definitely doesn’t taste guilt-free. What are you waiting for?!

Serves…well, one person, but in reality, however many people you end up sharing with

2 black (chocolate) sapotes

1.5-1.75 pounds of bananas

Young coconut water, as needed

The equivalent of about 1/2 a vanilla bean

.5-.75 pounds of dates

1/2 of a hard coconut (or about 3/4 cup of shredded coconut)

(Note: Find the dish you want to use. Plan all your amounts accordingly.)

Blend the dates and coconut on a low speed until a doughy consistency. Press into a dish and put in the freezer.

Scoop the black sapotes into the blender first, and start to blend on a low-medium setting. Add in the bananas as you blend, making sure not to change the color. Add in coconut water if needed to blend, but you want the mixture to be pretty thick. When you’ve got the right amount and texture, add in the vanilla and blend thoroughly.

When the crust is frozen, pour in the filling and put back in the freezer. It took overnight to completely freeze ours.

Serve frozen and eat quickly! (It melts into goop if you let it sit too long, but that’s alright too - all tastes the same!)

veganinsuburbia:

Seriously, if you haven’t tried doing this before - do it. I get more excited about eating this than I have done any other dessert. Well, other than apple crumble :D

You can mix in berries or mango, or make a date sauce, or put it in a pie…the possibilities are endless!

(Source: built-from-raw, via lakesimon)

When you’re eating fruits and vegetables exclusively, you can run into issues. Most pressing: getting enough to eat. If you’re a newbie to this way of eating, or have simply fallen into the pattern of eating smaller quantities, not only are you not going to be satisfied, but you’re not going to be getting the nutrients you need in sufficient quantities.

I don’t care how small your stomach is, ya need more, dude.

First off, you need to have enough food available. Buy bananas by the case (or truckload, if you have a large family). I’m being totally serious. Plan for eating about 2500-3000 calories a day, or more if you’re exercising. There are calorie trackers online that can help you to figure out what that translates to. (In my experience, two 8-cup strawberry-banana smoothies, 3-4 pounds of oranges, a large salad, and a date/raisin snack gets the job done.)

Now that your pantry’s well-stocked (read: overflowing) let’s get your stomach to its rightful capacity. If, at the moment, you can only drink a quart of banana smoothie, or one head of lettuce in your salad, that’s cool. But each smoothie, add an extra banana, and in each salad, add a few leaves of lettuce. While you don’t want to feel nauseous, you should be feeling very, very full. This is good. Eventually, you’ll be able to build up to eating the right amount of fruit.

We’ll split it?

When you’re eating this way, you don’t need to cut calories. In fact, you shouldn’t. This isn’t a diet for losing weight in a month or two, this is a lifestyle for long-term health and vitality. Treat it as such, and your body will thank you in years to come.

So, I’m back in Hawaii. There’s not a lot in season at the moment, but we have craploads of lemongrass, so this awesome soup came into being. It tastes so complex and…well, not raw. And it has no fat. Bring it on, I say!

Serves two as a starter

4 cups of coconut water

1-2T lemongrass shoots

1/4 cup of your favorite seaweed

4-5 Keffir lime leaves (or a bit of lime juice)

1t-1T ginger (optional)

1/2 lemon, juiced

2T cilantro

Two or three cups of your favorite chopped veggies

Put the seaweed in half a cup of water and soak for about fifteen to twenty minutes. Then, blend a cup of coconut water with the lemongrass, lime leaves, ginger, and lemon juice. Strain that mixture and blend with the remaining coconut water and cilantro. Mix in the veggies, and you’re done!

For the veggies, I used shredded carrot, Chinese cabbage, diced zucchini, Bell pepper, and some mushrooms, but you can use whatever turns you on. The broth is the important part.

This recipe was borne out of part of an apple pie recipe I made recently. It is so good and so like conventional applesauce it’s crazy. And it’s just two (or three) ingredients!

Makes a sizable portion for one

4 apples, chopped into large-ish pieces

10-15 dates

Cinnamon to taste (optional)

Blend until applesauce-y consistency. Seriously, it’s that easy.

For those of you who are unaware, tahini is a sesame seed paste most commonly used in its roasted form to make hummus. In its raw form, it’s milder, and is used for everything from salad dressings to raw mayonnaise and back. It’s generally praised for its high nutritional content and, well, deliciousness. But what’s really going on here?

First, the good stuff. Tahini has high amounts of multiple B vitamins (1, 2, 3, 5, and 15). These are important because they promote healthy cells, speed metabolism, help out your immune system, and generally do a lot of good things (including preventing pancreatic cancer, according to a scientific study). It also has 35% of your RDA for calcium. I don’t need to tell you why calcium is important - especially for us girls. It also makes an addictive salad dressing.

Which brings me to the however part. It has a similar macronutrient profile to an almond (17-12-71, carb-protein-fat), and contains 7.2 grams of fat to every tablespoon. Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but consider this: avocado has 2.3. Looking a bit high now, isn’t it? So it needs to be eaten in moderation on a low-fat diet. But that’s not the worst part: it swells in your body. I have experience with this. In three months, doing nothing differently diet-wise but adding about two tablespoons of tahini to my salad every day, I gained seven pounds. Keeping in mind that I hadn’t gained a single pound since I began eating raw foods last January - and had lost over twenty pounds - it’s a real bummer to have gained nearly half of that back. And over such a simple thing. Now, granted, I’d stopped running regularly, but for a three-month stretch, my exercising was sporadic at best, and my weight didn’t fluctuate in any way.

Not looking so innocent now, are you?

I’ve been off tahini for about two weeks now. We’ll see how it goes. But let this be a warning to you all: moderation, moderation, moderation. If you’re going to eat tahini, let it be sparingly and in small amounts. The LFRV diet calls for you to eat fruit - do so, and you’ll be much happier.

I made this soup last night. It was pretty delicious! I added in a couple sun-dried tomatoes and didn’t use as much OJ, but it was still something worth making again. I highly recommend checking out her Youtube channel; she has a lot of good LFRV meal ideas. (I really want to try the first savory summer recipe, but I’ve recently gone off tahini. :( )

The recipe:

Makes enough for two semi-hungry people

2 1/2 cups of tomato

1 1/2 cups of thawed (or fresh) berries

1 cup of orange juice

squeeze of lemon juice

two leaves of basil

two leaves of sage

For us low-fat raw vegans, bananas are a staple food, much like pasta or bread in a standard diet. I personally eat, on average, two 7-8 cup smoothies a day when I’m in Pittsburgh, or three-four hands when I’m in Hawaii. One of my cats is named Musa. So what’s the dealio? Why is a tropical fruit the most popular food in America?

What’s so special about you?

Well, to get a fuller story, I highly recommend you read this book. But I’ll let you in on a few facts about the banana:

• Not that you’d know it by looking at it, but the banana is actually a berry. Yes, it’s grouped with other oddities like avocados and watermelons in addition to cranberries and grapes. The botanical definition of a berry is “a simple fruit having seeds and pulp produced from a single ovary”. This being the case, pumpkins are considered berries while strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and the like are not. Weird?
• The banana plant is a type of grass, not a tree. It shoots off offspring via its roots. In fact, the fruit is entirely unnecessary for reproduction.
• Some people say that it was a banana that Adam and Eve supposedly consumed in Eden, not an apple. The banana’s leaves make much better clothes, if you think about it.
• For a while there was a rumor that bananas had a lot of fat. This is utterly ridiculous. Four percent of a banana’s calories come from fat. Compared to, say, an egg (64%) or “extra lean” beef (60%) it doesn’t seem so bad, does it?
• Most likely the banana you’re familiar with is the Cavendish. Let me tell you now: you’re getting the short end of the stick. I haven’t had the opportunity to try many varieties (if you’re up to it, there’s a seemingly infinite amount) but I have had apple bananas, ice cream bananas, quad bananas, ladyfingers, and Williams, just to name a few. Apple bananas are my favorite, and if you’re ever in Hawaii, I highly recommend you get some.
• In parts of Africa, people rely on bananas to stay alive the way people in China used to rely on rice, or Europeans relied on wheat.
• When monkeys eat too many unripe bananas, their eyes and tongue turn green. Eat ripe food!
• Mosquitoes are more apt to bite you if you’ve recently eaten bananas. Maybe this explains my legs the first time I went to Hawaii. (It’s since cleared up a lot, but that’s not to say they don’t still love me.)

Nom nom nom.

So, what about you? Are you bananas for bananas?

Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts are not typically what you would call raw-friendly. Or even healthy. So you have to find your own way to do things.

This was my Thanksgiving turkey. His name was Steve. He was made out of a honeydew, bosc pear, two raisins, a triangle of orange pepper, a waddle-shaped piece of red pepper, grapes, clementines, and bamboo skewers. He was delicious.

This was my edible Christmas tree. Yes, I realize it looks like: a) a sea monster, b) a round hairbrush, or c) a car wash. I imagined it being more…regal. But it just turned out kookily. Those are green beans, cranberries, and a cucumber.

Edible sculptures are a very easy way to have a holiday meal. They’re fun, decorative, and usually a big hit.

Or you can go with something a little fancier. I don’t have pictures, but I made a super-delicious lasagna with thick zucchini noodles, a cashew ricotta, and a tomato-sun dried tomato-mango-date sauce. It was literally my favorite thing I ever made. If (when) I make it again, I’ll make sure to post a recipe. I made it on Christmas Eve and let it sit in the fridge overnight. I had leftover cheese and sauce after making it, so for Christmas Eve dinner I made bite-sized raviolis with circular zucchini slices (I just cut the end off and used a potato peeler). Those were a huge hit; very gourmet-looking, yet so simple to make!

Though I am a low-fat raw vegan, I’ll occasionally make something with cashews or almonds. Though it’s delicious, I don’t recommend doing it very often. At least when I eat nuts, they aren’t filling and I always end up eating too many of them. But hey, if you aren’t going to indulge a little bit during the holidays, when can you?

What did you guys have for Christmas/Thanksgiving dinner?

Makes a light lunch for one

2 small-medium tomatoes

1/2 mango

small handful of raisins (optional)

1 zucchini

Blend the first three ingredients. Make the zucchini into noodles, using a spiralizer or potato peeler. A peeler will make fettuccine-like noodles, whereas a spiralizer will make spaghetti.

The raisins are optional. They make the sauce thicker and sweeter, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on what you’re going for. It’s good either way.

Many of us LFRVs believe in natural hygiene. Basically, that’s a fancy term for letting your body heal itself. No medications necessary. Pretty crazy, right?

Now, this isn’t naturopathy. That’s the metaphor of the medical world; medications are still used, but they’re herb-based and don’t have long, unpronounceable names (in most cases). In my opinion, this is a little like pescetarianism. It’s better than most people are doing, but the medications are still used to treat symptoms, not the disease.

Prevention is key in natural hygiene. I mean, who wants to get sick in the first place? We eat as healthfully as we can, get lots of rest, soak up the sun, and exercise whenever we can, so our bodies are fit, ready, and able to take care of whatever potential illnesses may arise. (A lot of people don’t believe that germs as we define them even exist…but that’s a story for another day.)

Your typical natural hygiener. Okay, maybe not. And that’s not a bad thing.

But sometimes we get sick despite all that, and there’s one answer we have for that: fasting.

Your meal plan for the next week.

Yes, we are talking about the same thing. You eat nothing for a certain amount of time - 4 days to a week or two, depending on how sick you are - to let your body focus on healing the sickness. Take away digestion, and it has a lot of free time on its hands. While it’s at it, you’ll probably get clearer skin, any scratches or bruises you have will be gone, and you might even get whiter teeth. Lots of good stuff will happen, in other words.

So now that you know I’m a raw vegan hippie that once didn’t eat for a week, what do you think about all this? Would you ever fast for your health?

Seriously. This is delicious. Just make sure you get good tomatoes and fresh corn; that’ll make it or break it.

Serves 1 - makes about four tacos

1 small avocado

1 medium tomato

chunk of bell pepper (maybe about 3” by 4”)

2 green onions

1 ear’s worth of corn kernels

half of a lime, juiced

1.5t cumin (optional)

dash of black pepper (optional)

Mash the avocado. Mix in the cumin, black pepper, and lime juice. Chop the tomato, pepper, and onion. Add those and the corn to the avocado. Mix well.

You can use it in lettuce leaves, for tacos:

Or just eat it plain:

Either way, it’s really freaking good.