Raw Pizza - Part 1

dehydrating soaked seeds

Making raw vegan pizza is not a simple task...  There are many many tasks spread over a number of days...
For the crust, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds need to be soaked and dehydrated.  Almond meal also needs to be prepared.
In preparation for the nut cheese, macadamia nuts and pine nuts need to be soaked and dehydrated.
So, I went about soaking a bunch of different things so as to use the dehydrator efficiently.  I dehydrated all these seeds and nuts a couple days ago when I made the flax crackers too!
After all the soaking and dehydrating is done, it is time to dig in to the crust.

soaking nuts for raw pizza and much more....

HHI Raw Pizza Crust Recipe as follows:
1 cup sunflower seeds (soaked and dehydrated)
1 cup almond meal
1 cup pumpkin seeds (soaked and dehydrated)
3/4 cup flax seeds, ground
1 clove garlic
2 teaspoons psyllium husks powder
3 teaspoons herbs de provence
5 drops liquid stevia extract (optional)
2 Tablespoons Braggs Aminos (also optional)
1 2/3 cup water

1. In food processor, combine all the nuts/seeds, psyllium, and dried herbs.
2. Process until a fine crumble is achieved.

processing pizza dough

3. Add the remaining ingredients and process well.  The mixture will come together as a slightly sticky dough.  During the Kitchen Techniques Class at HHI, Chef Ken said this part of the mixing could also be done by hand in a bowl..
4. By hand, take the mixture and form it into a large ball.  If necessary, this can be put in fridge for next day.
5. Using a paraflex sheet or unbleached parchment paper, place the dough ball on a dehydrator tray. 
6. Smooth out to form a large round, leaving the edges raised as the cruts.

pizza dough ready for dehydrator

7. Dehydrate overnight.
8. Flip and dehydrate for the remainder of the day. Removing paraflex.
9. Sauce and top with your choice of toppings and dehydrate again overnight.


 I pretty much followed the recipe as above with the following exceptions.
- I halved the recipe.
- I didn't have Herbs De Provence so I used "Italian Herb" mixture instead.
- I used 1 teaspoon Braggs Liquid Aminos.
- I forgot to add the garlic clove...
- I used pre-packaged organic coarsely ground flax seed.  But, one of these days I will grind my own in the vitamix.

Stay tuned for Raw Pizza - Part 2...

Mung Bean Sprouts are taking over!!!

~4 cups mung bean sprouts (green)

I'm completely amazed by the mung bean sprouts!  They keep expanding and growing and growing and growing....
I previously blogged about the mung bean sprouts
At that time I was thinking I probably should have done half the amount I had started...
And now I'm thinking I should have done only one quarter what I started!!! 
I originally started soaking 2 cups dry mung bean sprout seeds.  Those 2 cups quickly expanded into 4 cups of soaked seeds...
Three days ago, I split the 4 cups of soaked seeds into two pitchers.
And now I'm pretty sure that I should have only started with 1/2 cup of dry mung beans!  I now have about 8 to 10 cups of sprouts and they're not done growing yet!!!!  I love mung bean sprouts but I don't know what I'm going to do with all of these when they're done!


mung bean sprouts into 2 pitchers

The mung bean sprouts are about to toss off the top weighted pitcher!!!


mung bean sprouts about to toss off top pitcher, other set in bowl

Currently they are now in a 3-pitcher set-up.  The bottom pitcher is the solid catch-water pitcher.  The middle pitcher has holes drilled into the bottom so that rinse water drains into the bottom solid pitcher.  Thank you wonderful significant other for handy drill work!  The middle pitcher has the sprouts.  On top of the sprouts and middle pitcher is the top pitcher, which is solid and which has a mason jar full of water to apply weight to the sprouts.  The sprouts are now getting so full that I doubt the air flow is ideal.  I'm fairly confident it is less than ideal!  Next round, I'm only going to soak 1/2 cup of mung bean sprouts at one time...

I'm not sure what to do at this point as they're getting ready to outgrow the only containers I have ready for them!  I bought out the pitchers at Wal-Mart and I'm not sure they've restocked or if they will restock.  I may have to look for different pitchers!!  I'm afraid I might go to bed tonight and wake up tomorrow morning with a kitchen full of mung bean sprouts!!  Take over of the sprouts!!!!



Flax Crackers

flax seed crackers, yum :)

My first attempt at flax crackers...
HHI recipe given as follows:
5 red peppers
1/2 red onion
3 cloves garlic
3 Tablespoons chili powder
2 1/2 cup flax seed
1 cup ground flax seed
3 oz. fresh lemon juice
3 stalks celery
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 pinch cayenne powder
5 1/2 cups water



1. Soak flax seed in water for at least 3 hours and set aside.
2. Blend remaining ingredients and add to soaked flax seds.
3. Mix in ground flax seed.
4. Spread out on a paraflex sheet.
5. Score to desired size of crackers.
6. Dehydrate overnight then peel off the paraflex sheet.
7. Dehydrate again until the crackers are crispy.

My dehydrator was already planned to be fairly full with trays of different nuts I had soaked for 24 hours so I used a smaller recipe than the above, with two additions, as follows:

flax seed ingredients

~ one cup of chopped red peppers
~ one cup of chopped carrot
~ one cup of chopped celery
~ 1/3 cup of chopped parsley
~ one Tablespoon chopped sweet onion
1 clove of garlic
~ one ounce of fresh lemon juice
1 cup flax seed (pre soak)
~1/3 cup coarsely ground flax seed (no soaking)
1 Tablespoon chili powder
no garlic powder (didn't have any)
1 small dash cayenne pepper
1 cup water

I'm positive I ended up soaking the flax seeds for more than three hours...  When I returned for a beautiful bike ride in the Florida sunny weather, I went to rinse the soaked flax seeds and found a gelatinous goop (see photo above).  Not sure if this is normal result of soaking flax seeds...?

gelatinous soaked flax seeds

soaked flax seeds

I then made the mistake of putting the gelatinous goopy flax seeds into a strainer with holes larger than the seeds!  So, I lost some of the seeds before transferring the goop back into soaking jar.  I then proceeded to try and rinse the seeds using a small mesh stainless steel strainer.  The goopy slimy feeling on the seeds never did go away and I couldn't seem to get all the gelatinous fluids to leave so I think that may be why my flax concoction was a little runny...  Next time, if the seeds are that goopy, I'll use less water.


flax cracker mix pre-dehydration

After getting everything together, I spread the mixture out onto two Excaliber paraflex sheets.  About 3 cups of the mixture onto one sheet and about 2 cups onto the second sheet.  As I mentioned, my mixture came out a bit runny so it wasn't really possible to "score" to desired size crackers.  So, mine dried in one huge cracker! 
I pre-heated dehydrator at 120 degrees Fahrenheit just briefly before putting the flax mixture in.  I kept the dehydrator on 120 inadvertently for probably a hour or so...  Then, when I was walking by and remembered...  I turned down to 115 degrees Fahrenheit.  Time for a timer!
I dehydrated overnight, took out paraflex and flipped the large flax crackers and continued to dehydrate while I was away for the day.  Got home late afternoon and the crackers were pretty crispy.  Since they hadn't been scored, I simply broke them into pieces.  Next time less water so I can maybe make them a little thicker.  Either way, a delicious snack! :)  Good for movie theaters instead of salty high temp oil cooked popcorn!

Sunflower Almond Pate

Sunflower Almond Pate

Last night I made sunflower almond pate from the Healthful Cuisine book by Anna Maria Clement with Chef Kelly Serobonich.
It is delicious!  I had it for lunch today too! 
This is the first recipe I've tried from this book.  Once the soaking was done this recipe was a flash!  Snap of the fingers done!
Since the whole and parts of the book are copyright, I can't post the recipe here...
however, if you have the book, I can tell you the modifications I made...
The measurements for sunflowers and almonds I used post-soak.
I didn't have any onion powder so I didn't use that.
Since I try to stay minimum on the salt, I only used about 1/2 teaspoon of Braggs Liquid Aminos and I added 1/2 teaspoon of kelp powder.

Almond Milk and Almond "Meat"

This recipe was fabulous and I know truly raw almonds are expensive but, this is delicious and worth it! 
Getting closer to a Hippocrates meal since had both fresh clover and broccoli sprouts!  Unfortunately the sprouts are still more of a side than the rest.  That will be changing more gradually as my sprouts are starting to grow!!!!
I'm out of pea sprouts and wheatgrass again.  It really is a bugger trying to order that stuff to keep the fridge stocked but not too stocked so stuff is fresh.

I also made truly raw almond milk last night.  This morning I took about one cup of the milk and added a small scoop of stevia and a tiny dash of vanilla and it was superb mid-morning snack since I wasn't going to be eating lunch until 1 p.m.  The milk volume in the photo is after I took some already.  The almond "meat" was my original purpose in preparation for making RAW PIZZA some night soon!!! stay tuned!!!

Oleic Acid... Nuts... Olive Oil... Vitamin K... OH MY!

So while I was doing some web-searching about cashews... I read an article that indicated that cashews are high in oleic acids, the same oleic acid as in olive oil... and, it sent me into a tailspin of thoughts!!  Why...??? 
Because I have high blood pressure (I prefer the phrase "elevated blood pressure") the nurse at Hippocrates Health Institute (Hippo) recommended I consume very minimal, if any, olive oil!  Olive oil apparently thickens the blood, although I don't know exactly why... 
So now I'm wondering... Is it the oleic acid...???
Which is also found in the nuts I've been consuming a bit liberally...
I haven't been eating cashews because Hippo doesn't use them.  As I mentioned in previous post, Anna Maria Clement indicated in one of her lectures that cashews (and peanuts) have a fungus that has been found to be a carcinogen.
So...  what about these oleic acids and how much are in the nuts I'm eating...
But as my search on this subject continues I start to wonder if it is actually the Vitamin K content of olive oil that results in thickening of the blood.... and nothing to do with the oleic acid...
As chance would have it, I was just talking to my mom some days ago about vitamin K.  She recently had knee replacement surgery and was saying that the instructions she received from the doctor/nurses included avoiding vitamin K and dark leafy green vegetables (e.g. spinach, broccoli, etc.) because they would off-set the blood thinning (blood clot-avoiding) medicine she is on...

Well, low and behold if I didn't find a random writing on the web that indicated that "Vitamin K is a nutrient found in the small intestine where it combines with protein to produce clotting of the blood" and listed the following foods high in vitamin K :
Kale Mustard, collard and turnip greens, Lettuce, Spinach, Cabbage, Broccoli, Red leaf lettuce, Coleslaw, Sauerkraut
Now, I know you can't trust everything you read on the web but, it seems to correlate with the instructions my mom received from the doctor/nurses to minimize blood thickening.  I also found another article that indicated vitamin K as important for blood clotting and therefore could be considered a blood thickener...  That same article indicated,"1 tablespoon of olive oil provides 8.1 micrograms," which isn't very much compared to the vegetables (i.e. broccoli-220, swiss chard-299, spinach-145)...  So, it can't be the vitamin K in olive oil that thickens blood.  Otherwise I think the nurse would have recommended I also avoid the leafy green veggies... and sauerkraut!  Sauerkraut is recommended at Hippo 1 to 2 spoonfuls before each meal to aid in digestion...

So, I'm still not sure why olive oil thickens blood... I think it's time for a question into Hippocrates to get this straightened out!  I'll update this blog post when I find out!
UPDATE: I emailed Hippocrates to find out what it was about olive oil that thickened the blood...  The answer from Anna Maria Clement is that olive oil does not thicken the blood...  hmmm... the plot thickens...  I thought she had said something in one of her classes...  I need to go back and check my notes!  I wonder why the nurse said so...  I guess I should have asked then...

The other confusion I had was that I thought Potassium and Vitamin K were the same.  But, they are NOT!  I was confused because I was remembering that in chemistry class, potassium is shortened to the letter K.  But, that doesn't mean it's vitamin K!  Vitamin K is phylloquinone.
I have also since found out that oleic acid is omega-9 and considered a "good fat."

Raw Vegan Egg Salad... Still Experimenting...



first attempt raw vegan egg salad - only so-so

One recipe I'm currently working on is raw vegan egg salad...
My significant other had the genius idea early last week that Renate's Better Than Tuna could be a good starting point for eggless egg salad!


second attempt raw vegan egg salad

I've made a couple attempts that I'm still not happy with sharing quite yet...  So, I'm still working on it.

I've noticed a lot of raw recipes for raw vegan egg salad use cashews and/or almonds.  I just found in my notes from a lecture by Anna Maria Clement that cashews and peanuts have a fungus that has been found to be a carcinogen! 


second attempt raw vegan egg salad-
not even as good as first...

It's also my understanding that it's difficult to find truly raw cashews.  Often when processed they are heated above 115 degrees Fahrenheit, i.e. not raw.  Food heated above 115 starts losing enzymes that make it easier for us to digest the food.  Same is true for raw almonds.  Any almonds, even organic, coming from California have been pasteurized (not truly raw).  It is possible to get truly raw (imported) almonds from The Raw Food World.  They also appear to have truly raw cashews but, since cashews have a fungus, I probably won't go for them.  It's sad because cashews use to be the secret ingredient in my broccoli green bean casserole!!! 
I read a suggestion for using pine nuts and macadamias in place of cashews so, I'll be continuing to experiment!  Some other ideas I've been experimenting with are varying amounts of turmeric, mustard, cauliflower...



Mixed Burrito Lunch and Sprouts

mixed leftover burrito lunch

A couple days ago I used leftovers to make a mixed burrito lunch, which was absolutely delicious!
Starting with a lettuce leaf, I used the following for fillers...
- Leftover walnut taco mix
- Leftover cheezy sauce
- Leftover raw red pepper sauce
- Leftover veggie mix (zucchini, yellow squash, asparagus, fenugreek sprouts)
- Leftover lightly steamed broccoli (cold)
- New clover sprouts (which just finished that day)
- Avocado

Still not quite a HHI meal... LOL.  But, at least there's some sprouts in it!  fenugreek and clover sprouts.


Got Sprouts? delivery 1 pound each

A Hippo meal should be 1/2 by weight sprouts and the "heavy" nut/seed/starchy dishes should be treated as side dishes...  Haven't gotten to that point quite yet as still working on getting the sprouts growing.  It would start to get really expensive juicing and eating sprouts since I'm still purchasing through www.gotsprouts.com.  I've been ordering wheatgrass and pea sprouts from Got Sprouts? and each pound is $10 each.  Shipping and handling adds another $15 to the $20 order.  So, one pound of either wheatgrass or pea sprouts is costing me about $17.50ish each.  That gets pricey since I'm going through both one pound of wheatgrass and one pound of pea sprouts every few days...  I'm about to run out of these today and I don't think UPS delivers on a Sunday...  Oh well, still doing my best and not giving up just because I can't do it perfect.  The way I'm eating now is still WAY better than how I was treating my body previously!!!

Mung Bean Sprouts

mung beans in pitcher set-up

I love mung bean sprouts but I may have gotten overly zealous when I decided to soak 2 cups of mung bean sprouts at one time...  The 2 cups of dried mung bean seeds turned into 6 cups after soaking!!!  I've had to split them up into two pitchers!  Mung bean sprouts are hydroponic and, like sunflower seeds, require weighting.  So currently I have the mung bean sprouts in one pitcher with a second pitcher inside the second pitcher on top of the seeds.  Inside that pitcher is a 1 quart mason jar filled with water.
My very supportive significant other (did I mention he was awesome...?) is currently, this very minute, in the process of drilling small holes into the bottom of two more of these identical BPA free plastic pitchers, which I found at Wal-Mart.  Once those pitchers have holes in bottoms (for draining), I'll transfer the mung bean sprouts into the draining pitchers and the setup will go as follows:
1. Solid pitcher.
2. Inside solid pitcher will be draining pitcher with mung bean sprouts.
3. Inside draining pitcher and on top of seeds will be another solid pitcher.
4. Inside the solid pitcher may either be water (for weighting) or, to reduce potential for spillage, I've put water into a 1 quart mason jar and then put the mason jar inside the top solid pitcher.

I'm choosing the three-pitcher method with mason jar of water because having the middle draining pitcher allows excess water to drain and better air-flow, which is important for sprouts, and the top solid pitcher allows better distribution of weight over the mung bean sprouts. 

I'm going to keep looking for more of these soft BPA-free plastic pitchers because I'd like to use the draining and solid pitcher set-up for soaking and 1.5-day rinsing of the sunflower, pea shoots, and wheatgrass seeds.  Using all the various draining devices and pots in my kitchen was a little crazy!

Soil Sprouting Part 2

sprouts into soil trays - Day 1
LtoR: sunflower, pea shoots, wheatgrass

Soil sprouting trays arrived yesterday, yae!  I probably should have "planted" the soaked and rinsed wheatgrass, pea, and sunflower seeds last night... but, just too tired.  So, I planted them today!  Waiting too long might mean that the roots are a little longer than desired and might get tangled.  Hopefully that won't be too much of an issue.  We shall see!
Steps as follows:
1. Put a slotted tray on top of a solid tray so that excess water can drain through; 3 sets. 
2. Put soil into the top slotted tray. 
3. Tamp down the soil with an empty tray to even it out.  I forgot this step... oh well, next time! 
4. Spread the sprouting seeds into each tray set for wheatgrass, pea shoots, and sunflower.

soil sprouts with covers

5. Water...  I still haven't found a good method for watering these.  So far I'm having best luck not making a mess by simply heavy misting...  Misting takes a lot longer than watering so, I'm going to keep trying different watering methods.  Unfortunately I don't have a nice adjustable hose nozzle at the kitchen sink, or anywhere except outside for that matter.  The watering cans I got just end up "flooding" the trays. Oh well, living and learning...
6. Put weighted cover (tray filled with soil) over sunflower sprouts.  Weighted cover helps sunflower sprouts to grow up and not get tangled.
7. Put un-weighted covers over pea shoots and wheatgrass.  I guess the pea shoots and wheatgrass already know which way is up... we shall see!  I can't tell from my notes if these are to be weighted or not...  I think not but, I'm not sure.  I may send email to HHI to check.
8. Water once a day and heavy mist twice a day.  Not sure how that works out for a busy working person...  HHI recommendations are to water sprouts 1 cup of water for every 10"x10" size of tray.  So my 10"x20" trays need 2 cups of water each for watering.  This is different than the heavy misting.  I'm guessing heavy misting is about 1/2 cup of water or maybe even 1 cup of water for the entire 10"x20" tray...  We'll see how it goes...
9. Determine how many days a tray will last once ready to harvest so you know when to start the next trays...

I bought a metal wire stand for soil sprouting indoors.  I found this stand to be less expensive at Home Depot, compared to Office Depot.  A separate wheel kit comes with this stand if you want to be able to wheel it around to your kitchen if you do happen to have a nice hose spray nozzle at your kitchen sink.  I wonder what it would take to get one of those installed...  For watering the soil sprouts, I'm probably going to have to give up the ghost of trying to water with bottled distilled water.  That might get a little crazy.  I'll still be useing distilled water for soaking and rinsing sprouts in the Easy Sprouters and for soaking the wheatgrass, pea shoots, sunflower, and mung bean seeds.

Showering & Lymph Massage

A non-food thing that has changed since going to Hippocrates is my morning routine.  I use to be on the earthy-crunchy side of showering... that is, not necessarily showering every day...  gotta conserve water ya know! LOL :)   If I don't feel dirty...  why waste the water?  I also have this strange thing about not wanting to get wet...
Anyways, that's all changed now.  In the book, Hippocrates Health Program, A Proven Guide to Healthful Living, by Brian Clement, it states that "bathing should be done a minimum of every 24 hours."  Of course, it's probably best to bathe with filtered water.  The home filter systems are pricey but I may look into getting a shower-head filter.  I just found an H2O International shower head filter that removes 99% chlorine on Amazon.com for $35! but, shipping is extra.  The HHI store online lists it for $70, and you might have to pay shipping too.  Some things at the HHI store are okay priced, some are really pricey.  It's good to support HHI but, if price prevents you from doing it, look elsewhere!
While filtered water is still in the works, I have started showering every day, even when I don't feel like it, LOL.  It's becoming a self-care time for me.

Dry brushes and towels for self lymph massaging

While at Hippocrates there are a LOT of lectures/classes to go to.  They're not all required and the schedule can be overwhelming.  But, I did decide to go to the dry brushing class and the lymph massage class.  I went to the dry brushing class first.  I don't remember the name of the person that gave that class.  She recommended it was quicker to use two brushes at once.  I already had one at home from many years ago, so I went and got another.  That was before I went to Linda Neubert-Cloward's Lymphatic System Lecture...  She indicated that dry brushing wasn't really necessary to get the lymph system moving.  A simple wash cloth would suffice.  She taught us how to do a fairly simple self surficial lymph massage that could be done with a wash cloth.  She said we could do the lymph massage with dry wash cloth on dry skin (similar to dry brushing technique).  Then she suggested we could take it one and two steps further using the wash cloth in the shower to wash the body using the same strokes used for the lymph massage and then using a dry towel to dry the body using the same strokes.  Lymph massage 3 times!  Each day should be a clean wash cloth.  So now that is my routine although, I do use the two dry brushes for the first round.  I went out and bought a six pack of new wash cloths and a couple new soft hand towels.  All 100% cotton.  I found it's easier to dry using the lymph massage strokes when using a hand towel rather than a large towel.
My recommendation if you're at or going to Hippocrates is to see Linda Neubert-Cloward's lecture!  I wish I had seen it sooner in my stay there because I probably would have looked into upgrading one of my Swedish massages to a lymph massage with Linda.  Shucks.
Of note, if you're on Facebook, you can look up Linda by searching for "The Rapha Center"
On that site Linda has some videos for self lymph massage.  To see them, click on "photos" then click on "albums" and then click on "videos" and select the video you wish to watch.  She doesn't have the whole body yet but she does have face and breast (great for women and good for men too!).  She said she'll be getting some new videos up soon....  I'll post when I find out when the new ones are up.  Still good to check out what she has up already!

Raw Vegan Cheezy Sauce

Yesterday I finally went out and bought some organic pine nuts because I really wanted to make a raw vegan cheezy sauce for dinner.  Although, I'm not sure the pine nuts were raw but, I'd make this the same way either way.  I ordered raw organic pine nuts from Tierra Farm and they should be coming in today....
So, the Hippocrates Health Institute chefs have a few different cheezy recipes.  They have recipes for a cheezy sauce for Pasta Carbonara; Nut Cheese for Raw Pizza; and, an Alfredo Sauce.


ingredients for cheezy sauce

I took all these recipes and sort of mixed and matched.  I also tried to half the recipe since the recipe amounts in the HHI notes make large quantities.
The recipe I formulated from the above as follows:
1 cup macadamia nuts (soaked, rinsed, dehydrated, soaked, rinsed)
1/2 cup pine nuts (soaked and rinsed)
1 teaspoon kelp powder
dash of cayenne pepper
2 cloves of garlic (just thrown in to blender)
1 teaspoon Italian herb infused olive oil (yum)
1 small scoop dry Stevia (I still don't have liquid)
1 teaspoon Frontier Pizza Seasoning
small dash of nutmeg
1/4 to 1/3 lemon squeezed for ~1 ounce of juice
water to top of nuts (once all is in blender)
1. In a blender, combine all ingredients.  Blend until very smooth and season to taste.

In the HHI recipes the macadamias are simply indicated as "soaked and rinsed."  I had already soaked and dehydrated macadamias the other day so, I simply took the soaked and dehydrated macadamias and soaked them again for another 1+ hours while I was soaking the pine nuts.

pine nuts soaking - water was clear to start!

I couldn't find anywhere in the HHI notes how long to soak the pine nuts...  So, I searched online...  I found various recommendations from "don't soak pine nuts" to the extended 12+ hour version.  I couldn't believe pine nuts would need 12+ hours to soak...  and, I really wanted cheezy sauce dinner!  So, I soaked the pine nuts for 2 hours.  After seeing the distilled water turn cloudy while soaking the pine nuts, I'm glad I soaked them!  At a minimum I would rinse them! 
After 1/2 hour I poured off the cloudy water and added fresh distilled water for the remaining 1.5 hours of soak.  When I did this, I also put the macadamias in with the pine nuts to soak concurrently.

For the blender, I'm using the Vitamix Turboblend VS.  This is a new machine.  I had a Vitamix previously years ago and loved it.  I had that one for 15 years and then I foolishly gave it away...  I hope the person I gave it to is still loving it!  If you're looking into getting a Vitamix, I definitely recommend getting the VS, variable speed, version!  Since HHI-store is running a 20% discount on their kitchen equipment in January, it was actually cheaper for me to purchase through the HHI-store (I didn't have to pay for shipping either since I was picking it up in-person).

I think the above recipe is delicious!  If you're not enamored by garlic and you're only using this sauce over zucchini noodles, you may want to reduce to one clove of garlic.  As you can see in the photo, the sauce is a little thick.  For thinner, I think you can simply add more water.  Or... maybe it would have been smoother if I had simply soaked but not dehydrated the macadamias... Soaking nuts just in time for using in a recipe takes some planning...


cheezy sauce dinner

We put the cheezy sauce over left-over zucchini noodles from previous night's zucchini noodle and raw red pepper sauce dinner.  We also put it over some steamed green beans.  I have to say, and my significant other agrees whole-heartedly, that the cheezy sauce over the steamed green beans was absolutely delicious!  It was also nice to have something warm since it's been "Florida cold" the past couple nights.  Tonight I'll probably put the cheezy sauce over steamed broccoli.  I was okay'd by the nurse at HHI to have 80% raw and 20% cooked so I've been taking advantage of that at dinner time...  Also makes the significant other happy since he's still adjusting.  He is the best though.  So supportive, which is awesome!  Still not an HHI meal, since still no sprouts...  getting there...  and, while I was writing this post, FedEx came with the soil sprouting trays, yae!

Overflowing sprouts and mason jars...

sprouting seeds in myriad containers...

I'm really hoping the soil sprouting trays come in today!!!  
My kitchen counter has been overtaken by wheatgrass, pea shoots, sunflower, and mung bean sprouting seeds! 
I learned a big lesson last night... 
There are different kinds of mason jars!
When I went into Wal-Mart a few days ago and bought mason jars, I simply picked up the quart size 12-pack that they had on the shelf.  It never occurred to me that the jar openings might come in different sizes... such as "wide-mouth," which is apparently the preferred size for sprouting.  This makes sense for increased air flow.  So, if you're planning to sprout in mason jars, take note!  Also, I'd never seen 1/2 gallon size mason jars!  I've determined the 1/2 gallon size will be better for soaking 2 cups each of pea shoots (most definitely), wheatgrass, and mung bean.  The pea shoot seeds started shooting out of the top of the quart jar during soaking.  Although the other seeds didn't come out the top, they definitely got wedged in the bottom of the jars and I had to use a spoon to chisel them out.  They were wedged tight.  For this amount of these seeds, they definitely need larger jars. 


sprouting seeds to bed

Once the soaking was done, there was really no room left in the jars for the rinsing phase.  So, I ransacked through my cupboards to find different strainer-type containers to put them in...  Then, I rinsed and put the seeds to bed.  I really hope those sprouting trays come in....  The sprouting seeds have taken over my counter-space!The other thing I discovered last night is that when you buy the plastic sprouting jar lids...  they all come in "wide-mouth" mason jar size.  I couldn't find any lids that came in the small mouth mason jar size.
So, I placed an order on Amazon last night for the wide-mouth 1/2 gallon mason jars.  I didn't ever see any that size in stores I searched in-person.

Soaking Seeds - wheat, pea, sunflower, mung

2 cups of each seed in jars

Starting to sprout soil sprouts!!!  Wheatgrass, pea sprouts, and sunflower sprouts! As well as hydroponic mung bean sprouts!!!
Here we go!
In preparation for coming home from HHI, I purchased from the HHI-store one pound each of black oil sunflower, mung bean, hard red winter wheat, and peas for shoots seeds.  With 10% "member" discount, I paid the following: $4.46, $5.36, $3.15, $3.56, respectively.
I was hoping to get these all started right away but, I didn't realize how difficult it would be to find the correct sprouting trays, which I forgot to purchase from the HHI-store.  At any rate, I found them at Greenhouse Megastore and I think they will be arriving soon!
So, I'm getting ready.  I've soaked the seeds today and will be starting the rinsing cycle this evening.  Mung bean, pea, and wheatgrass have an 8 hour soak time; and, sunflowers have a 6 hour soak time.  Doing things together, they're all going to get about 8+ hours soaking.

start of soak

According to the HHI sprouting info, to plant 10"x20" sprouting trays of wheatgrass, sunflower, and pea shoots, 2 cups of each are to be used.  So, I put 2 cups of each into Ball jars and nearly filled with distilled water to soak.  Mung bean spouts are hydroponic and won't be soil grown but I'm starting 2 cups anyways because I love them...  this may be a mistake if I don't find a sufficiently sized container to sprout them...
So, what I noticed when I took 2 cups of each of the sprouts out of the one pound bags is that some bags had more seeds remaining than others.  Obviously, some seeds weigh more than others.  It was just a little surprising to me that, except for the sunflower seeds, the other one pound bags of seeds are now essentially gone after taking 2 cups for one each 10"x20" tray.  I guess I didn't expect that.

nearly done soaking

Of the four types of seeds, they all sunk to the bottom of the water except for the sunflower seeds.  I'm assuming they're mostly floating because of the air inside their shells.  I hope this doesn't affect the soaking process...  I swooshed them around and turned them upside down at least a few times during soaking.  Now nearly 8 hours later, they still float...  See "nearly done soaking" photo.  Also notice in this photo that the pea seeds are nearly coming out of the top of the jar!  I've kept adding water to stay on top of them but they're bursting.  I need to get them another container for the rinsing stage, which should only be about 1 to 1.5 days for these seeds.  Time to start looking for other sources of seeds and comparing...  I know the HHI staff recommend using the HHI seeds because they've already spent years finding the best seeds, particularly for the wheatgrass... but, I'm still curious... They must be getting them from somewhere...  stay tuned for price comparisons.


Zucchini "Spaghetti" and Raw Red Pepper Marinara Sauce

zucchini spaghetti via Paderno Turning Slicer

Last night I used my new Paderno Turning Slicer to make zucchini "Spaghetti."  I also made raw red pepper marinara sauce.  The slicer is awesome!  I bought mine through Amazon.com.
It's so simple!  Just wash zucchini, cut both ends off the zucchini, insert into slicer, push and turn, and Wa La!  Zucchini Spaghetti!

For the Raw Red Pepper Marinara Sauce..
Recipe given as follows:

4 chopped red bell peppers
1/2 red onion, roughly chopped
1 bunch fresh basil, chopped
1 clove garlic
1 Tablespoon Frontier Pizza Seasoning
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Fresh oregano, to taste
Fresh Thyme, to taste
Braggs Aminos, Dulse, Or Kelp granules, to taste
Liquid Stevia Extract, to taste

1. In food processor, combine all ingredients.
2. Season to taste.
3. If a thicker sauce is desired, add 1 teaspoon psyllium husks powder.

This is trial #1....
Although I was just at Worden's Organic Farm today for veggie pick-up, they didn't have any of the fresh herbs noted in the recipe.  So, I just used dried.
This is also a pretty big recipe for just two people so, I halved the recipe as follows:
I chopped two red bell peppers. 

ingredients for raw red pepper marinara sauce

My significant other isn't a huge onion fan and raw onion can be pretty strong so I only used about maybe 1/8 cup of chopped sweet onion.  For the herbs, I used a teaspoon each of the following dry herbs... basil, oregano, thyme, and kelp powder.  I used about 3/4 Tablespoon of the pizza seasoning.  Instead of 1 whole clove of garlic, I used two cloves that I pressed through garlic press.  I didn't use the fibers remaining in the garlic press.
I squeezed about 1/3 of a lemon for the fresh lemon juice.
I don't yet have any liquid Stevia so I used a tiny scoop of dry Stevia.
Although I'm suppose to be minimizing salt and olive oil intake because of my elevated blood pressure....  I did use a tiny squirt (probably only 1/2 teaspoon) of Braggs and 1 Tablespoon (which I found to be about 1/3 of 1/4 cup) of basil infused olive oil.  I figure 1 Tablespoon spread throughout the recipe wouldn't be too bad... 
Because I love cayenne pepper, I also added a large dash of cayenne :)
The halved recipe served two and there are enough leftovers for another round for two.
The recipe came out super delicious!!!  And my significant other liked it too!!!  The amazing part of that is....  he has always claimed not to like peppers, LOL :)  But, red are definitely more yummy than green, and when seasoned and prepared in different ways, you wouldn't even really know...
I served with lightly steamed broccoli...  which I know is still not an HHI meal, since no sprouts...
We finished the meal off with some soaked and dehydrated pecans for dessert.
This was actually quite filling.  Although, while we were sitting watching our favorite comedy TV show, Modern Family... the familiar cravings of sweet chocolate were felt by both of us.  Before I went to Hippocrates Health Institute, we use to have vegan chocolate chips every night after dinner while watching TV...  Quite a habit we had gotten into...  We didn't give in last night though, we just went to sleep. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Nearly Out of Sprouts!



HHI Sprout House

I'm nearly out of sprouts! 

All the sprouts that I had ordered from the HHI-store and picked up the day I left HHI (4 days ago) are now used up.  I had ordered one pound each sunflower, pea sprouts, and wheatgrass.  Two days ago I used up the sunflower sprouts.  Yesterday afternoon I used the last of the pea sprouts.  This morning I used up the last of the wheatgrass... squeaking out less than one ounce of wheatgrass juice. 
So, yesterday I placed an order with Got Sprouts? for another pound each of pea sprouts and wheatgrass, which should arrive sometime today.  As it turns out, when you order sprouts from the HHI-store... you actually end up getting sprouts from Got Sprouts?.  I was kind of hoping to get the HHI sprouts!!  No biggie I guess.. I was just hoping for the HHI sprouts since I ordered from the HHI-store...  Wouldn't you think?  The HHI sprout house is truly beautiful.  The sprouts magnificent.
Oh well, and speaking of...  when I was at HHI, I wondered if they ordered sprouts/wheatgrass to meet demands when they have a "full house" of attendees...  The first week I was at HHI, I thought the wheatgrass was really pretty good, for wheatgrass...  The second week, during which there were about 110 people staying at HHI, the wheatgrass didn't seem to taste quite as good to me.  I thought I would get more use to it but, it seemed the opposite...  I don't know though so, maybe it was just me.

Sunflower Sprouts from Jessica's Organic Farm

 

Harvested Sunflower Sprouts

At any rate and luckily, I have a beautiful tray of sunflower sprouts from Jessica's Organic Farm.  Although I hadn't liked the wheatgrass and pea sprout trays they had on Sunday, I did think the sunflower sprouts looked pretty good.  Since I ran out of the Got Sprouts? sunflower sprouts a couple days ago, I've been using the tray from Jessica's.  The green juice I've been making with the sunflower sprouts from Jessica's tastes much milder than when using the sunflower sprouts from Got Sprouts?.  I don't recall what type of seed the Got Sprout? sunflowers were..  You can see the type of sunflower seed Jessica's uses in the picture below.  They're not using the black oil sunflower seed recommended by HHI.  So, it will be interesting to see the taste difference once I get some of my own black oil sunflower seeds sprouting...  Hopefully soon!  I finally found sprouting trays and ordered them from Greenhouse Megastore.  They have 10 trays for $12, plus shipping.  They have both with holes and without.  I ordered them on Monday night shipping FedEx Ground.  They departed FedEx Champaign, IL, this morning...  Hopefully they'll arrive tomorrow or Friday.  I should probably start getting the seeds ready!  I just realized I need more larger jars...

I really enjoy harvesting the sunflower sprouts!  It is so awesome to be able to cut them fresh!

Of note, the one pound each of wheatgrass, pea sprouts, and sunflower sprouts ran out in 3 days for the level of use I was doing...  4 ounces of wheatgrass juice daily (really only for 3 days, Sun/Mon/Tues and one ounce today); 12 ounces of sunflower and pea sprout juice for green drinks daily (really only for 3 days).  I was consuming about 8 ounces of the sprout juice and my significant other was getting about 4 ounces daily.  My drinks were 8 ounces each and his were about 6 ounces each as he's slowly adjusting...  We weren't eating any of the sprouts.  Just using them for juices.  This will change as I start to grow my own!

Walnut Tacos

Last night I made the walnut tacos, which are pretty famous around the HHI campus!
Recipe given as follows:


3 cups walnuts (soaked and dehydrated)
1-2 cloves garlic
2 Tablespoons chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon Braggs Aminos

1. In food processor, combine all ingredients.
2. Process by pulsing until desired texture is achieved.
3. Season to taste.

To Make a Taco:
1. Use a romaine lettuce leaf for a hard shell taco or a collard green for a soft shell taco.
2. Add some taco meat and toppings (shredded carrot, scallion, chopped onion, hot sauce, shredded lettuce, etc.)
3. Fold or roll and serve.

This is trial #1....
After learning from trial #1 of Renate's Better Than Tuna recipe... I used 3 cups of walnuts measured after they were soaked and dehydrated.  I later learned that I did not dehydrate the walnuts long enough and I think this led to my mixture not staying as large chunks as was served at HHI... not sure...
I love garlic so I used 2 cloves.  I just threw them into the blender whole.  Next time I may crush first....
I used chili powder and cayenne as indicated in the recipe.  I even used the Braggs as indicated since it is only 1 teaspoon spread over 3 cups of walnuts.  I try not to use too much Braggs because of the salt and working on my blood pressure but, I figured this amount is probably okay...
I made my taco with collard green.  My significant other used romaine lettuce leaf.

We then simply topped with leftover chopped celery, zucchini, carrot, cucumber, and I threw some avocado on mine too. 

All in all, once you have a stock of soaked and dehydrated walnuts, this recipe is a breeze and is quite delicious!
Next time I have ingredients for nut-cheez, I may make that to add on as well...

Still not an HHI meal since no sprouts...  sprouts coming soon...  I have been pretty good though about having 1.5 to 2 ounces of wheatgrass juice twice a day and 8 ounces of green juice twice a day.  It's difficult to get it all worked out right away.  I keep plugging!

Soaking Nuts and Seeds

soaking nuts and seeds

To ease digestion of seeds and nuts, they get soaked.  



I did my first round of soaking a couple nights ago.  I started by soaking sunflower seeds, pecans, walnuts, and macadamia nuts.  I put 3 dry cups into each Ball jar.  I then filled the jars up to almost tippy-top with distilled water.

I ended up soaking these for a while... over the minimum 12 hours recommended...  I read in some other places that it's okay to soak nuts up to 24 hours but, I would definitely need to put less nuts and more water for that to happen in the current size jars that I'm using.  Soaked longer, the nuts would definitely expand right out of the top!  They were getting bound up in the jar as it was...

So, about 15+ hours later...  I opened up the jars and found, what you might expect, expanded nuts and seeds!  Some expanded more than others.  The sunflower seeds, which should have only been soaked for maybe 8 hours, had grown from 3 dry cups to 4+ cups.  The walnuts had expanded from about 3 dry cups to about 3 1/4-ish cups, similar for macadamias, and a little more for the pecans.

pecans on dehydrator tray

After the nuts soaked, I used the sunflower seeds for Renate's Better Than Tuna recipe (see blog entry) and I put the nuts into the dehydrator.  About 2 to 3 hours later, the nuts seemed to be done and I put them into Ball jars in the cupboard...

The temperature I used for the dehydrator was 115 degrees Fahrenheit.  Food enzymes are apparently damaged or destroyed when foods are heated over 115-120 degrees Fahrenheit.  However, dehydration may be a little different, at least initially...  I heard from one of my HHI roommates that HHI Chef Renate mentioned in one of her cooking classes that the dehydrator should be set a little higher initially, as well as warmed up.  The reasoning is...  when raw food, especially wetter food, is first put into the dehydrator, it will be giving off a lot of moisture initially and the food won't really be at the set temperature.  If food takes a while to get up to temp, it may actually ferment, which is not so good.  I found an article online about this. There may also be other more recent articles and recommendations...???  Also reading this article I'm thinking that I should be dehydrating the nuts for a longer period of time!!!   I just quick searched a few different places that also indicate nuts should be dehydrated overnight until completely dry and crisp!  Not sure how I feel about having an electricity pulling machine running all night long...  But, I guess if that's what's best...  Nuts back into the dehydrator!
My cat Peppermint Patty has been most interested in all the new happenings in the kitchen!  She's been checking out all the new equipment! even though she's not allowed on the counters...



Sprouting! and, possible mistake....

clover sprouts

I started 4 different sprouting seeds 3 nights ago...  garlic, clover, broccoli, fenugreek.
First night they were soaked overnight (a bit of a long soak...). 
The following couple days I've been trying to remember to rinse them twice a day.
To minimize addition of chemicals and unknown substances to the sprouts, I've been using distilled water for the soaking and rinsing. 
I don't have a distiller, I'm simply purchasing gallon jugs of distilled water. 
To conserve water, I save the soaking and rinsing water in an empty gallon jug.  I then use the conserved water to water the sunflower sprout tray that I bought on Sunday. 


garlic sprouts

To minimize rinsing water, I pour fresh distilled water into the first sprouting container, just enough to cover the seeds and give them a good swoosh around.  With the Easy Sprouter I can then lift the inner container to drain off the water into the outer container.  I then pour the rinse water from the outer container into the next set of sprouts to be rinsed; and so on...
So today, a little less than 3 days from start of soak, I decided the fenugreek sprouts were done.  They were probably actually done last night (only 2 days from start of soak!).  We walked into the house this afternoon and definitely smelled the fenugreek!  I got about 3/4 cup of fenugreek sprouts from 1 tablespoon of seeds!  These sprouts were done in half the time noted on the HHI soaking and rinsing times table.  So, I wonder if because I soaked them for so long initially, that they sprouted faster...? 

fenugreek sprouts - done in less than 3 days

A little fruit fly flew out of the sprout containers of fenugreek and I think the clover...  Not sure if anything can be done about fruit flies...???  Fenugreek sprouts are now in the fridge ready for feasting.

Whereas the fenugreek seemed to sprout speedily, the other sprouts seem slower.  Granted, the rinsing time indicated for fenugreek is 4 days and for broccoli and clover is 6 days.  So, still 3 more days for those, except....


suspicious broccoli sprouts

I was doing a check of the other sprouts prior to rinsing...  and it looked to me like the broccoli sprouts were moldy!  ugh :(  I dumped the sprouts into the trash...  Then I thought...  I wonder if what I was seeing was just the fine hairs of roots...???  I grabbed a bunch of the sprouts back out of the trash for a closer inspection.  Upon closer inspection, they did not look moldy after all...  But, my close-up vision isn't what it use to be...  I hear it's possible to improve vision on the HHI diet and doing daily eye exercises.  I hope to work on that at some point too!
At any rate, I showed the suspicious sprouts to my significant other for further philosophizing.  He didn't think they looked moldy either.  But, I had already thrown them in the trash and I didn't exactly want to pull them out of the trash and use them...  So, in the trash they stay and another batch will be started.  Next time I'll shake them up a bit and look closer before throwing the baby out with the bathwater...  poor sprouts :(



Renate's "Better than Tuna"

I've been looking forward to making Renate's "Better than Tuna" recipe at home!

Recipe given as follows:

Renate's "Better Than Tuna"

3 cups hulled sunflower seeds (soaked 4 to 8 hours, rinsed)
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 squirts of Braggs Amino Acid or kelp to taste

1. Process in food processor until thick and creamy.
2. Put pate into large bowl.

Add:
1 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced white onions

This is trial #1....
I found organic raw hulled sunflower seeds at Earth Origins.  Whole Foods was all out!
I soaked them all night...  again a long night as it was only second night sleeping in my own bed.  I'm still getting caught up on sleep from the 3 weeks of less than ideal sleep at HHI...
So, by the time I slept for 10ish hours, made wheatgrass juice, made green juices, and finally got around to making lunch... the sunflower seeds probably soaked for a good 15 hours...  Not sure whether or not that's a problem...  went for it anyways!


Better Than Tuna ingredients

The 3 cups of sunflower seeds I had put into distilled water to soak were now at a volume of 4+ cups.

I'm still a little confused by the recipe...  I'm not sure if the 3 cups of hulled sunflower seeds (soaked 4 to 8 hours, rinsed) means 3 cups prior to soaking or 3 cups after soaking... 
I suppose I should have assumed the later but, I didn't want to waste all the seeds I had soaked.
So, I made the recipe assuming 3 cups prior to soaking...
For the water, I used distilled water.
For the lemon juice, I squeezed 1.5 lemons to get 1/4 cup lemon juice.


sunflower pate in bowl with celery and onion

For spices... I find it a little sketchy the first time around when a recipe says, "to taste."  Usually I like some kind of starting point and then I can go from there...  So, since my blood pressure is still an issue and I'm trying to be no to low salt, what I decided to do was cut back on the Braggs to 1/2 teaspoon.  In 1/2 teaspoon of Braggs there are 160 milligrams of sodium.  And I used 1 teaspoon of kelp powder.  I ordered the kelp powder from Maine Coast Sea Vegetables.
I put all these ingredients into my brand new food processor and blended until thick and somewhat creamy...  At this point I was really thinking that the 3 cups of sunflower seeds should be the measurement after soaking...
But, it looked okay.  I then put the blend into a big bowl, added the diced celery and sweet onions (rather than white), and mixed with my hands.
Served on a lettuce leaf with a salad topped with a tablespoon of hemp oil.
I admit, this isn't quite the HHI meal, since there are no sprouts...  I'm working on it...
Definitely also need to work on the flavoring since this batch was a bit bland.
Notes to self for next trial of this recipe are as follows:
3 cups sunflower seeds means 3 cups sunflower seeds AFTER soaking.  So, I'm only going to soak maybe 2 cups of sunflower seeds to get closer to the 3 cups after soaking.  I'll also try to soak for shorter period of time.
I may just start with these changes to the sunflower seeds and see how the flavors are when mixed with 3 cups soaked sunflower seeds rather than mixed with 3 cups pre-soaked (4+ cups after soaking) sunflower seeds.
If that doesn't make sense and you have a question, feel free to ask a question in the comments to this blog post.