Live Vibe: Easy Persimon Freezey

Nature Knows How to Make Dessert!

I asked for extra persimmons in my Fresh Connect Box this week, so I would have an extra-easy, extra-special dessert for friends and family. Yum!

Organic Ingredients:

One persimmon per person (plus a few extras for those repeat "desserters")

Instructions:

Wash gently, pat dry, pop into the freezer. Forget about it until later.

Bring out the frozen persimmons 1/2 hour to 40 minutes before serving for a frosty sorbet. (Or give it 1 1/2 to 2 hours thaw-time for a bright pudding.) Pop the stems off, slice an "X" in the top of each fruit and eat them right out of the skins with a sharp-edged spoon.

PS

For proper food combining, we actually eat dessert first!

Eating fruit, by itself, 20 minutes to an hour before consuming other foods is cleansing and aids in proper digestion.

For more information, take Val's nutrition/un-cooking class:

Demo & Dine

Most Weds. and Thurs. eve's starting Jan. 6

Call 816-364-6922 for reservations.

Unbelievable Natural Yumminess!

Frugal Raw Gourmet--Use Juicer Pulp to Make Doggie Treats

Doggie Biscuits for Jena

Good Girl!

I tried to get a photo of the biscuit in my hand with the dog coming to get it. However the dog-powered vacuum hole was too much for mere shutter speed time!

Okay, I'm serious. She LOVEs these! Her favorite is Pumpkin Apple with Celery and Burdock Root. But, any veggie-based juice-pulp will do. If you have a centrifuge juicer, you will need to run the pulp through the food processor first. Then, add in the other ingredients.

Yes, dogs need vegetables too! Jena is old and has arthritis. We use ground flax and pumpkin or sweet potato as anti-inflammatory agents in these biscuits. You can leave them out and it will be just as successful as a daily treat. You can also purchase joint support formulas for dogs and add the powders to this mix. (E-3 Live has a couple of good ones. ) The sea veggie provide important mineralization (for people too!)

Organic Ingredients:

• 1 to 2 cups of left-over pulp from making veggie juice for "people-consumption" (pumpkin, apple, kale, celery, lettuce cores, cabbage, pears, sweet potatoes, burdock root, lemon grass, carrots, beats, or you name it -- just NOT peanuts, grapes or melons.)
• 1/2 cup of sprouted buckwheat grouts or teff meal
• 1 cup of ground brown flax seeds
• 1/4 cup of kelp flakes or crumbled sea veggies of choice
• optional: 1 TBS raw honey or maple syrup
• optional: splash of namu shoyu or pinch of living sea salt
• optional: 1/2 cup of nutritional yeast flakes
• clean-source water, as needed

Instructions:

Place ingredients in a large food processor, make a mushy globby sticky mess, adding small amounts of water as needed. Pulse at first then let it run until it's pretty much consistent all the way through. (It can have some chunks too. She seems to enjoy celery strings. Go figure!)

Use a spoon to transfer dog-bite-sized globs to a dehydrator sheet. Don't worry about the shape or outer texture of the glob at this point. You can mold them into shapes after dehydrating for a few hours, if you like. Otherwise, Jena doesn't mind a biscuit shaped like a dried glob. She thinks it's extra special!

Dehydrate until crunchy. They keep longer that way. Transfer to you favorite doggie's cookie jar. If your favorite doggie does not have a cookie jar, get on it! What else are you going to do with all that veggie pulp?

The more we juice, the more doggie treats there are! It's a win-win!

Live Vibe: Sprouted Seed & Coconut Crackers

Super Easy Basic Living Seed Crackers

Organic Ingredients:

• 4 cup golden flax seed (dry measure), soaked and sprouted over-night to two days.
• 1 TBS Himalayan pink salt or other high-quality unprocessed salt
• 4 cups of macaroon coconut (soaked for an hour in 2 cups of clean source water)
• 3 TBS raw honey or organic clover honey
• 1/2 cup sprouted pumpkin seeds, soaked overnight in Namu Shoyu, Optional
• Add pretty and tasty herbs or dried flowers if you have them! (I like Safflower petals. they keep their bright color and add a slight saffron flavor)

Instructions: Wash, then soak flax seeds overnight or up to 3 days in cool location, adding water to cover as needed. Do not rinse after soaking. You need the gelatinous goo to hold the crackers together.

When ready to make the crackers, get a REALLY BIG BOWL. It helps if you soak the coconut in a really big bowel and then you can add all the other ingredients to it.

add pumpkin seeds and herbs, if using.

Mix everything up. Pour onto teflex sheets, dehydrate at 105 degrees overnight. Flip once, if needed.

Cyndi's Crackers!

Cyndi James requested these custom crackers for her Juice Plus distributor's holiday gathering. I hope you got to keep a few crumbs! They sure went fast!

Sunny Coconut Crackers

Organic Ingredients:

• 1 cup golden flax seed (dry measure)
• 4-inch piece of dried seaweed of choice
• 1 TBS coarse ground salt or other high-quality unprocessed salt
• 4 cups large coconut flakes
• or 2 1/2 cups of macaroon coconut
• 3 TBS raw honey
• 1/2 cup sprouted pumpkin seeds (soaked overnight in Namu Shoyu)
• Fresh ground nut meg to taste
• Juice of two Valencia oranges
• Additional clean-source water (4 to 5 cups)
• Herbs and seasonings : rosemerry, safflowers, pressed garlic, chopped Katabala olives, pits removed, and red onions to taste.

Instructions: Wash, then soak flax seeds overnight. Do not rinse after soaking. You need the gelatinous goo to hold the crackers together. (For crisper crackers, soak seeds 2 nights. Then, sun sprout 15 minutes to 3 hours on the 3^rd day.) Add water to the flax seeds daily to cover.

Grind coconut and seaweed in a coffee grinder or spice mill, one cup at a time. Add to the flax goo.

If needed soften honey. Stir raw honey, salt, fresh squeezed juice and nutmeg into the coconut flax mixture. (See, it’s not a “goo” any more! Now, it’s “a mixture.”)

Let stand 10 minutes or overnight. Add more clean-source water as needed.

Pour onto teflex sheets, dehydrate at 105 degrees overnight. Flip once, if needed.

Variations and additions: For fun, add a cup or two of soaked pumpkin seeds and/ or sunflower seeds to the mix. Make a batch with mint, oregano, rosemary or other winter herbs. Use orange zest or grated ginger in one tray of crackers to see what you think. Add 4 saffron threads and soaking water on special occasions. Adding a cup of nutritional yeast flakes and 1 TBs of turmeric make “cheddar” flavored crackers. Add peppery things or oniony things! Add chopped olives! Add chopped or dried fruits! Yum! Add nuts and nut oils. Have fun. Make crackers!

Adding local black walnuts and fennel

Give Zinny Butter!!!

Zinny, the queen of the universe (who we ALL serve), is quite refined. Except when she requires butter. This is when she jumps on the counter. Not to worry. The universe is safe. I've got it covered. I know where the butter is kept in the queen's palace and I will give her only the finest organic local butter. If I can't find that, she will have unsalted Irish butter. She approves.

Domestic cats have co-evolved with dairy animals. Unlike humans, who are generally intolerant of un-fermented dairy, cats require fatty whole milk products for optimal health. (Goat milk is superior.) I give her about a teaspoon a day and occasionally a saucer of un-pasteurized goats milk or kefir. She also eats organic cat kibble and fresh fish daily.

I might be prejudiced, but I noticed immediate health and behavioral improvements in my cats after discovering this nutritional need. Also the lush coat of a butter-eatin' queen is something to behold! (Hey, if you ate nothing but processed canned food and kibble, your coat would look like heck too!)

Live Vibe: Blended Soups!

The Sultan's Soup

Cool Pumpkin-Apple-Ginger Soup with Exotic Sprouted Black Lentils

Forget what food is "supposed to" taste like and enjoy the rich, sweet, savory, mildly spiced exotic flavor. It is reminiscent of pumpkin pie - but forget that part. Just enjoy it like a the sultan king or queen that you are, experiencing pumpkin for the first time!

In addition to warming, beautiful and unique, this simple elegant soup is great medicine! Raw foods contain enzymatic activity that our bodies need to grow, rebuild and heal. Cooking foods destroys these important enzymes.

Do not try this with an ordinary blender. You will need a high-powered Vitamix or other work-horse industrial machine of choice.

Start with frozen pumpkin.(Not difficult this time of year.) I recommend leaving the pumpkin whole in a clean area of a porch or garage where you can carve chunks away, leaving the core in tact until the last wedge is used. A pumpkin will continue to "live" as long as it has it's seeds. You can also cube it up and put it into "stasis" in the freezer for use later.

Pumpkin, apples and celery are all cleansing foods. Grade B Maple syrup and Ginger are anti-microbial, anti-bacterial and immune-boosting.

Organic Ingredients:

• Chunks of peeled, frozen or fresh pumpkin to fill 3/4 of the blender pitcher
• 1 celery stalk, strings removed
• 1/2 of a large apple (or more, to taste)
• 1/2 inch of peeled fresh ginger root
• 1 to 2 TBS of Grade B Maple syrup
• 1 tsp (or less) of living sea salt
• 1 tsp of Garham Marsala seasoning (Usually a mix of dried ginger, ground cloves, nutmeg, cardamon, fenugreek, cinnamon, cumin or coriander) Five Chinese Spice or Allspice can be substituted. Go light on the seasonings! These are powerful flavors. You will love the taste of the pumpkin, so do not cover it up!

Instructions:

Place all the ingredients in the Vitamix and let it run until smooth but still cool. Pour into goblets or soup bowels. Serve immediately.

Optional Garnish: Sprouted or cooked exotic black lentils mixed with sea salt.

Sprouted Black Lentils:

Soak in water overnight, wash and drain the next day, let rest damp and covered for 8 to 24 hours. Wash lentils under clean-source water in a sieve before plunging into a warm salt-water bath. Let cool to room temp or serve warm.

For a warm salt water bath:

Boil water, use a candy thermometer or a momma's wrist to be sure the water cools to between 105 and 115 degrees before adding lentils and salt. Dissolve salt (about 1/2 tsp per cup of water). Plunge the sprouted lentils into the pot. Cover for 10 minutes as the lentils continue to soften and cool slightly. Use a slotted spoon to serve. Reserve extra lentils for use as lentil salad with chopped veggies and vinaigrette dressing or to add to miso soups.

Hippy Health Tip: Use stainless steel pots and pans. Look into it. Your pots and pans may be poisoning you. Surgical stainless, waterless cookware, like Salad-master brand, is superior.