This is a colorful and delicious italian style recipe - Raw Ratatouille! It's fast and easy to make, great for a filling fall dinner.

Here's what you'll need:

1 Avocado
2 Tomatoes
1/4 cup of Cilantro (optional)
2 cloves of Garlic
1 Squash
1 Tblsp Raw Tahini
1 Tsp Raw Honey
Celtic Sea Salt to taste

Here's how you make it:

Chop up all vegetables and put in serving bowl. In a separate bowl, add tahini, honey and celtic sea salt. Mix well. Top the vegetables with this thick and tasty dressing! Serves 2.

The dressing can also be used for other dishes, including salads.

Inspired by Storm and Jinjee from their Garden Diet series.

Enjoy!

Mark
Vegan Raw Diet

During the winter months, some on a raw diet look for warming foods. Normally after some time on the raw food diet, the want for physically heated foods diminishes for most.

For those looking to 'warm' up in the colder months, here's a list of warming foods from raw food coach Karen Knowler:
Read more...

I've just returned from a 9 day vacation with my daughter... a road trip from Arizona to the mid west and back. It was her first driving trip and we both had a ball enjoying the scenery, time together and visiting family.

I noticed much about our society along the way as well as how easy it is to eat a healthy diet on the road while traveling.

First I noticed how unhealthy most people we ran across looked. It's no wonder with the type of food available at highway stops... fast foods like hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, tacos, ice cream and the like. In fact we joked (kindly) that many people looked just like the fast food they were eating (think big and super-sized). We made good use of McDonalds and Taco Bell's along the way... they had clean and mostly empty restrooms! While visiting a McDonalds for a restroom break we decided to walk into the restaurant to see the highway below (a great view) and noticed most folks eating there overweight and weren't very happy. Interesting.

We decided to stop at Whole Foods before leaving and packing a large cooler with freezer packs and food for 2-3 days of meals. My daughter does eat some cooked food and we brought some pre-made soups for quick meals for her along with plenty of organic fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. I brought my Vita-Mix blender (won't leave home without it!) and we started each day with a fresh blended fruit smoothie, more fruit throughout the day, a soup for my daughter and a larger salad for me and a smoothie for dessert.

There were 2 Whole Foods Markets along the way not far from the highways we were traveling on, and we stopped at both on the way there and back to stock up and sit down for a fresh and healthy meal. We noticed each store had different locally grown fruits and vegetables and made sure to try them all.

We both felt great throughout our trip, had nice picnics in scenic areas off the highway and thoroughly enjoyed our fresh and organic meals. Fun!

I believe one of the important parts of getting back to a natural diet and lifestyle is to spend time with our children, families and loved ones. Away from televisions and many of the modern technologies we have grown accustomed to in our society today. Time in nature, noticing the flowers, mountains, creeks, fresh breeze and beautiful sunsets. We experienced all that and more on this trip, and it was priceless.

Have you heard of the about documentary film Simply Raw or its companion, Raw For Life?

Simply Raw shows the dramatic effect that eating raw and living foods can have on our health. It highlights how by making simple healthy choices when it comes to our food that we can allow our bodies to heal.

Read more...

Looking for a healthy, live-food dish? Try this satisfying and easy to make salad I call "Avo-Veg Delight".

What you'll need:

(all fresh, uncooked and preferably organic)

• 1-1 1/2 Avocado
• 1-2 Tomatoes
• Handful Cilantro
• 2-3 Kale Leaves
• 1-2 Green Onions
• 1/3 Red Pepper
• 1/2 Corn on the Cob
• 3-4 Large Romaine Leaves
• Handful Parsely
• Juice of 1/2 Lemon
• 1 tsp Cumin

Optional:

• Sea Salt to taste
• Flax Crackers (GoRaw makes a great -very thick- original flax variety)
• Pumpkin seeds
• Sunflower seeds

Here's How To Make It:

In a large mixing bowl mash up avocado. Add all chopped vegetables, squeeze lemon, add cumin and optionally sea salt to taste. Mix up well. Lay out 3-4 large romaine lettuce leaves and add one large scoop of salad on each romaine leaf. Eat as a salad or wrap lettuce leaves around salad and eat burrito style! Enjoy with live flax crackers or your favorite veggies.

Makes 1-2 servings.

This is a very satisfying dish! Enjoy experimenting with different veggies and have fun.

Enjoy and all the best for your health...with living foods!

Mark

Let's get a good start by defining what "vegan" is.... by definition, it's a person that eats a plant-based diet. That means they don't eat meat, fish, dairy, egg, honey and all foods made with these ingredients. I prefer to concentrate on the positive aspect of what vegan's choose to eat rather than what they avoid though.

There are additional aspects to being vegan that some adopt, including respect for life (environment, human and animal) , ethical treatment of animals, electing to purchase non-animal based products among others. In this forum, I will focus primarily on the health aspects of the vegan lifestyle and the benefits I believe it offers.

Related links for more information:

http://www.vegan.com
http://www.vegweb.com
http://www.vegan.org/going_vegan
http://www.vegsource.com

Peace.

Appetizers are great, especially when they're delicious and raw! Here's a wonderful dish inspired by Living Nutrition Magazine... "Poppers".

Here's what you'll need:

1-1/2 cups of sun dried tomatoes (soaked)
1 cup of macadamia nuts
Basil (about 10 leaves)
2 zucchini
1 pint large cherry tomatoes

Here's how you make them:

First, soak the sun-dried tomatoes for about an hour. Drain and save the soak water. Process the macadamia nuts in a blender or a food processor. Then add the sun-dried tomatoes. You'll want a nice pate-like consistency. If it's too thick, add the soak water slowly. Lastly add the basil and finish processing.

Slice zucchini with a madolin or peeler into long, thin strips. Add the pate and roll up the zucchini slices. Scoop out the middle of the cherry tomatoes and fill them with pate. Arrange on a plate and garnish to your preference.

These were a real hit over the holidays with my family and friends. Great for veggies and meat eaters alike (you might even inspire a few friends).

Enjoy!

Mark
"The Raw Guy!"
Vegan Raw Diet