Summer Squash, Eggplant, cucumbers

Eggplant, Cucumbers and Summer Squash

are coming on strong!

John Goode of Goode Acres, Wathena is growing these beauties! Go to John's web site for farmer's market schedule. www.goodeacres.com.

Or, order organic fresh produce on-line at freshconnectkc.com. Let them know I recommended them to you and get $5 off your first order. Delivery is free!

Recipes:

Easy Taziki Sauce

Ingredients:

Mostly cucumbers

Add: onion, garlic and lemon juice to preference.

Add a little cumin or parsley, if you like.

Chop or blend. Mix with goat yogurt or cashew cheese or just leave it as is. Chopped, serve as a salad with parsley. Blended, use as a raw soup or condiment with Middle Eastern foods. Keep refrigerated for 1 week to 10 days.

Recipes I like for egg-plant and squash:

Awesome Raw Food Recipe for Baba Ganoush : The Renegade Health Show Episode #617

Related Tags: baba ganoush, baba ghanoush, babaganoush, raw eggplant recipes, Raw Food Recipes, tahini

We’re going back through the list of raw food recipes that you wanted and raw Baba Ganoush was right at top…

The reason we’ve been hesitating to give you a raw recipe for Baba Ganoush is because we didn’t know what to do with the eggplant to make it soft.

Annmarie did a little research and now we have the secret. (Freeze it over night. Thaw.)

Link to: Raw Food Recipe for Delicious Summer Squash with Dill Sauce : The Renegade Health Show Episode #627 - 2010-08-04 17:13:28-04

It’s about that time… When summer squash is so abundant, you really have no idea what to do with it. In this recipe, Annmarie prepares a raw food recipe using summer squash.

Here’s the raw food recipe for Baba Ganoush:

Raw Baba Ganoush

1 Large Eggplant
3 Tablespoons Tahini
Juice of 1 Large Lemon
2 Cloves Garlic
2 Chopped Scallions
1 Tablespoon Chopped Parsley
1-2 Teaspoons of Olive Oil
Sea salt to taste

Peel and slice the eggplant into medallions and freeze overnight. In the morning, take the eggplant out and let it defrost. Once it’s defrosted, all all ingredients into your food processor or Vitamix. Blend or process to desired consistency. Serve with raw veggies, crackers or whatever else you like!

Try chipotle pepper, smokey paprika, smokey nutritional yeast or mesquite powder to give it a little smoked flavor.

The tip about the frozen raw eggplant came from Live Awesome!

Kev (Kevin Gianni, Renegade Health Show)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Val Rae Jacobson, Living Foods Chef, Kitchen Coach & Educator

To schedule a live meal delivery, private consultation or group demo, please contact me:

studiolevel@stjoelive.com

816-364-6922.

For recipes from my Demo and Dine Live Programs, please visit my blog.

You can Google: "What's Not Cooking at Val's"

or go to: http://demoanddinelive.blogspot.com

For a catalog of the world's finest cutlery, go to:

cutco.com. Please use Rep# 33142656.

For an alternative food distribution system that provides organic produce (local, family-farmed when available) go to:

http://www.freshconnectkc.com/

Use "Trader St. Joe's" as the discount code to receive $5-off your first order.

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Beautiful Kazy Kracker Lady Chips!

I'm not the Krazy Kracker Lady. I'm the Krazy-about Kracker's Lady! I love great-tasting crackers. Why make any other kind? I LOVE the texture and the flavors of Abeba's dehydrator recipes.

I found this recipe better for summer because of the abundance of fresh tomatoes. I also like that I can get really light thin "chips." I used this recipe as the coating for cauliflower, zucchini slices, baby brocholi and batter for wraps. AND, best of best of all: Onion Rings! YUM!

To see live instructions of this reciepe go to: http://renegadehealth.com/blog/2010/07/28/raw-food-recipe-for-crunchy-bbq-chips/

Abeba’s Crunchy BBQ Chips

1 1/2 cup clean-source water
2 carrots (with or without tops)
2 tomatoes
2-3 dates (soaked for 30 mins)
3/4 tsp chili powder
1 celery stalk (strings removed)
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes (soaked 30 mins)
dash of cayenne pepper
nama shoyu sauce or celtic salt to taste
2/3 cup flax seeds (soaked over night)

Put all ingredients in blender except the flax seeds. Blend well and check taste. Then add flax seeds, blend well again. Mixture should be slimy and a little thick, but runny like pancake batter.

Drop by spoonfuls on Teflex sheet. Dehydrate for 10-12 hours at 105 degrees. Flip krackers and remove sheet. Continue dehydrating 8-10 hours or until desired crispness is obtained.

Yields 4-5 trays or approximately 100-200 krackers.

If you want to check out Abeba’s site, here is that link… http://www.absolutelyabebaskrazykrackers.com/

Love Beets All!

You have heard of Dinosaur Kale?

I'm calling these Elephant Beets!

The Fresh Connect beets are gorgeous. I want to do a painting of them! But, there are hungry people to be fed and one of the first things to eat in the Fresh Connect Box will be the beet tops! They are most likely to wilt later in the week and become soup stock. So, I try to get to them first. Plus I love sautéed and/or wilted beet tops so-much, I could eat them every day!

Beets, also known as beetroot, are high in potassium, folacin, and fiber, yet low in calories. Their edible leaves offer protein, calcium, fiber, beta-carotene, vitamins A and C, and some B vitamins. They're known in the arena of natural healing for their ability to purify the blood and the liver.

Celebrate beets by eating the beet tops! They are highly nutritious. Add them to green smoothies, save the small ones to mix with other salad greens, slice and add to raw and cooked soups, sauté’s and loafs. Use in fermented chim chees and krauts.

Leave the beets in tact until you are ready to use them. (Another reason to eat them first: Elephants tend to be huge and take up much needed fridge space.)

Val's Favorite Beet Top Recipe

(Not 100% Raw)

Sauté them with Onion & Garlic

Get Ready:

Make a bunch. They are great leftover!

Make a workspace:

Clear sink, cutting board, knife, strainer, large stainless steal skillet or pan with wide surface area, wooden spatula, and camera. Check!

When ready, cut off the tops, leaving at least 1 inch of stem attached to the bulb, place the bulbs in a waxed paper bag or brown paper lunch sack to keep the dirt out of the produce bin in your fridge. Leave the dirt on the bulbs. It's good for them! I'm serious. Beets, carrots, potatoes continue to draw nutrients form the soil while in storage. Celebrate the dirt! (You'll need the bulbs for juicing later in the weekend!) Wash the tops in clean source water and drain.

Separate the stems from the leaves. Chop the stems. You will add the stems with the garlic and onion to the pan first. Then, add the more tender leaves last. Chiffonade the leaves. (Save the small ones to mix with other salad greens

Gather organic ingredients:

• A grip of beet tops (A "grip" is however many you have an/or however many you can carry. That way, you've always got a grip!)
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 a large white onion (refrigerated for an hour, or more, to avoid onion-gas-tears)
• 1/2 tsp living sea salt
• 1 tsp to 1 TBS of clover honey (to taste)
• Juice of one orange plus 1/2 a lemon (Or substitute a TBS of raw apple-cider vinegar mixed with 1/4 cup clean-source water)
• Ground Black Pepper
• Optional Garnish: 1/2 cup sprouted Sicilian almonds, soaked in inland seawater, dehydrated until crunchy (I make them in batches and store them in glass jars to keep on hand.)

Recipe:

1. Chop onion, sprinkle with sea salt

2. Sweat the onion first in a hot pan, on lowest of low heat, covered until clear. Add honey, stir, and a few tablespoons of water if needed. The amount of water will depend on the type of cookware you are using and the temp of your stove. So, don't get stuck on the phone in the middle of this step.

3. Chop the beat stems and garlic, add them to the onions, and continue to sweat on low heat, covered. Stir a few times.

4. Add chiffonade of beet leaves last. They should be slightly damp with clean-source water. Stir them into the onions, stems and garlic. Add fruit juice or vinegar when bottom of pan is sticky or leaves start to get wilted or a little dry, to preference. I know I'm close when the onions have turned bright pink.

5. Adjust seasoning, salt, pepper, and honey. Garnish with almonds very last so they stay white.

5 1/2. Hide it from everyone so you can eat it all! Just kidding. Sort of.

6. Actually, I shared and served the beet tops three ways:

• (Not pictured) As a warm topping over white Quinoa with a large side salad, New Year's Eve.
• (Pictured below left) Cold as a salad topping. They "jell" in the ridge overnight and the colors intensify. The almonds turn bright pink! I topped it with more white almonds, too.)
• (Pictured below right) Warm, as a base for the Vegan Hopin' John on New Years Day. I topped it with chopped white onion.

Store left-overs refrigerated, if you have any! The almonds will turn pink too. It's pretty. But, you can also garnish with more white almonds, if you prefer.

Demo and Dine

" Let your medicine be your food and let your food be your medicine." -Hippocretise (Physician, born in 460 BC on the island of Cos, Greece. He became known as the founder of medicine.)

"Let me show you how to make it taste great!" -Val Rea (Gourmand turned Raw Foods Chef, born in 1963 in the Midwest. She survived cancer without medical intervention and became vibrantly healthy by changing from the Standard American Diet to a more natural way of eating!) This is her blog.

I will be posting recipes and resources for innovative affordable natural living in the modern world. I will use the weekly delivery of mixed organic seasonal fruits and veggies from Fresh Connect KC, pantry items from Trader St. Joe's, 2201 Frederick Ave, St. Joseph, MO 64506 and a few Superfoods from Ultimate Superfoods Universe to create healthy gourmet meals, treats and health-treatments.

Personally practice a vegan- friendly, glutton-free, mucusless, flexitarian lifestyle. So, I will occasionally include free-range eggs, unpasteurized goat-milk products and clean source meat and fish seasonally when there is a bountiful supply. I will give vegan substitutions for any and all animal products I use in the posted recipes. I will give special diet considerations for those with food allergies. Please let me know your special needs and requests!

"What's Not Cooking at Val's" features raw recipes that raw-food enthusiasts and regular folks alike love to eat!

"The Frugal Raw Gourmet" is a resource for tips on stretching your healthy eating budget. Inspired by world-famous chef, author and 1980's TV personality Jeff Smith, the frugal gourmet and by my mother, Virginia, who never waisted a thi

ng!

"Demo and Dine" features step-by-step instructions for raw and cooked food preparation techniques (including dehydrating, marinating, sun-drying and macerating) to preserve the live enzymatic integrity of food and make it taste great!

"Demo and Dine Live" is the weekly hands-on living-foods workshop held most Wednesdays at my home in St. Joseph, MO 64506 (1/2 hour North of KCI).

We will use Fresh Connect produce and Trader St. Joe's pantry items to create a meal together. Everybody eats! Family members are welcome. The cost is a sliding-scale, free-will offering of $10 to $25 per person. (A good rule-of -thumb is to plan to pay what you would pay to eat at a casual restaurant.) Please e-mail or call for reservations and directions. studiolevel@stjoelive.com, 816-364-6922.

"Demo and Dine Live" February Schedule:

Weds. Feb. 3 - Demo and Dine Live: Vegan for Lent

5:30 – Optional “Stump the Chef” (Bring an unusual organic item to be incorporated into the meal.)

6:00 to 8:00 PM - Live Food Demo and Meal (Learn to prepare a living foods meal from common ingredients. Sample live seed crackers and sun breads!)

8:00 PM – No additional charge, Live Seed Cracker Workshop

Weds. Feb. 10 - Demo and Dine Live: Romantic Vegan Valentine

5:30 – Jitters-Be-Gone-In-60-Seconds!!! Learn the VAST Breathing Technique for Stress Reduction & Love Making

6:00 – 8:00 PM - Live Food Demo and Meal – Lovely Live Foods for Your Libido!

Weds. Feb. 17 – Demo and Dine Live: Happy "Side-effects" of eating High Raw!

5:30 – Optional “Stump the Chef” (Bring an unusual organic item to be incorporated into the meal.)

6:00 – 8:00 PM - Live Food Demo – Good Fats for Weight-loss and Toning

Weds. Feb. 24– Demo and Dine Live: Combining Sea Veggies and Optimal Antioxidant Foods

5:30 – Optional “Stump the Chef” (Bring an unusual organic item to be incorporated into the meal.)

6:00 – 8:00 PM - Live Food Demo – Mineralizing for Optimal Winter Health!

Hippy Health Tip

Low-cost environmentally-friendly solutions and suggestions to enjoy life!

Useful tips on using this blog:

Securing a steady supply of fresh food is essential to this life-style and probably the most challenging part, for most people.

If you have not done so already, sign up for Fresh Connect home produce delivery. It costs less than shopping for produce at the store and it's way-super-convenient! You are assured of REAL organic foods and you are helping to create organic markets for local growers.

The corporate foods at most grocery stores, especially the big-ones, are mono-cropped, hybridized food-like substances that are making us sick, even if its labeled as organic. Refuse to participate in the corporate-organic scam! Buy from small family farmers. (Go to: Freshconnectkc.com, sign up, use "Trader St. Joe's" as the discount code.)

Join Trader St. Joe's or a buying club in your area to secure pantry items. group-buying of staples in bulk is much more affordable than pre-packaged foods or the bulk bins at the grocery store. Make sure your buying club is only purchasing sustainable, organic and fresh pantry items! We are working on offering pantry items through Fresh Connect delivery. I'll keep you posted.

Grow some food. Try sprouting, now that's winter. Keep a few herb plants in the kitchen to add fresh green chlorophyll to all your home-made foods. Join a loc

al chapter of Food-not-lawns and plan for a some potted plants or a garden next spring.

Eat sea vegetables! We all need a little more mineralization in this world! Make sure they are hand-harvested. (Machine-harvesting is detrimental to our environment and it ADDs toxins to your diet!) Purchase from reputable, seasonal, hand-harvesters who practice the aboriginal techniques. Trader St. Joe's buys from Mendocino Sea Vegetable Company. Check them out at www.seaweed.net/ if you want to buy in bulk quantities. Otherwise, you can pick up a 1 or 2 oz package at Trader St. Joe's.

Go for it! I encourage you, as an experiment, eat REAL food and watch as your health, mood, learning capability and physical energy improves. Also, as a side effect, you will heal the planet!

I am open to questions and suggestions. I enjoy the interactive nature of the blog.

Much gratitude,

Val Rae