I began adding more raw meals to my daily eating practices in January, and I feel so much better as a result. It’s so much fun to experiment with familiar flavors, like pesto, in the context of a raw entree or snack. The Raw Truth: Recipes and Resources for the Living Foods Lifestyle, 2nd ed. is a fascinating, just-released cookbook by Jeremy A. Safron. Here are some tempting and delectable recipes from the book.

Pesto Wraps (My son loves pesto and would definitely give these a shot. They remind me of pigs in a blanket!)

Serves 4 to 6

3 large zucchini, peeled

Pinch of sun-dried sea salt

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Presto Pesto

2 cups chopped walnuts

2 cups loosely packed fresh green and purple basil leaves

3 cloves garlic

1 heaping tablespoon red miso

2 tomatoes, cubed

Chopped green and purple basil, for garnish

Using a vegetable peeler or mandoline, cut thin, wide strips lengthwise down the zucchini. Place the zucchini strips in a bowl, cover with water, add the sea salt and lemon juice, and soak for 2 hours, or until they taste clean (not starchy). Drain, rinse, and drain again.

To prepare the pesto, place the walnuts, basil leaves, and garlic in a homogenizer juicer or food processor and homogenize, creating an oily paste. Transfer the paste to a bowl and stir in the miso.

To prepare each wrap, lay a zucchini strip flat on your work surface. Drop a teaspoon of pesto in the center of the zucchini strip. Press a small piece of tomato into the pesto. Fold or roll up the zucchini strip. Secure the wrap by piercing it with a toothpick or place it, seam side down, on a serving plate. Serve garnished with the chopped basil.

Mixed Melon Ball Salad (a.k.a., a sneak peek of summer’s glory!)

Serves 4 to 6

1 cantaloupe, halved and seeded

1 honeydew melon, halved and seeded

1 watermelon, halved

Juice of 2 limes

Scoop out the flesh of the melons with a melon baller, place in a large serving bowl, and mix gently. Splash with the lime juice and serve.

If you’re more experienced with raw food prep, check out this recipe for Falafel. It does require dehydrating and a juicer, according to the recipe, although I’m sure you could employ work-arounds.

Falafel

Makes four 8-inch crusts or eight 4-inch crusts

6 cups sprouted garbanzo beans (see page 20)

1 cup loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

1 cup raw tahini

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 onion, minced

2 tablespoons ground cumin

6 tablespoons Bragg Liquid Aminos, or 2 tablespoons sun-dried sea salt

1 cup sesame seeds

Using a homogenizing juicer with the blank plate in place [or a food processor (Candace's note)], homogenize the garbanzo beans and parsley and place in a large bowl. Place the tahini, lemon juice, onion, cumin, and Braggs in a blender and blend. Stir the tahini mixture into the garbanzo paste. In a spice grinder, grind the sesame seeds into a fine powder. Mix into the garbanzo paste. Press into 1/4-inch-thick crusts, each 4 or 8 inches in diameter. Dehydrate for 12 to 14 hours, flipping at least once during the drying time.

How to Sprout

Sprouting is the easiest way to grow foods for yourself. You can grow sprouts in any climate anywhere in the world. If you can live there, so can sprouts. To sprout, first select the type of seed you wish to grow and refer to the chart on pages 22–23 to find out the optimal soaking time. You can sprout seeds in just about any container, including a cloth bag or even a wicker basket, although a large glass jar (1/2 to 1 gallon) with a screen cover is the most popular setup. As a general rule, for a yield of 1/2 gallon of sprouted seeds, use 2 to 3 tablespoons of small seeds such as alfalfa or clover; 11/2 cups of medium seeds such as wheat, oat, or garbanzo; or 2 to 3 cups of nuts and rice. After soaking them for the appropriate amount of time, drain them and then rinse the sprouts with fresh water at least twice a day until the tails are at least three times the size of the seed in length. Next, expose your sprouts, still in the jar, to sunlight for about 15 minutes to activate the abundance of chlorophyll. Now, chow down!

What are your favorite raw recipes or dishes?

It’s a new world when it comes to the concept of “sweet.” Growing up, my mother used Sugar in the Raw, and we stayed far away from Sweet ‘n’ Low.

As a parent, I gravitate toward agave nectar, but have wondered about the glycemic index impact. I also like stevia in my tea, but find that it’s bitter in coffee. I love the way my son’s teacher makes birthday cakes with maple syrup and yogurt. It’s so good!

Recently I’ve been experimenting with Susta. It’s a new natural sweetener that contains fructose, fiber, and even probiotics. It has a really low glycemic index, and is recommended for people with diabetes (including gestational diabetes). I also like the way it tastes in homemade baked goods. Here’s a recipe for brownies made with Susta. Yum.

Homemade Brownies

2 sticks butter (softened) or
1 cup Smart Balance
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1cup flour (all purpose)
½ cup cocoa (Hersheys type)
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup SUSTABOWL
1 cup granulated sugar

(chopped nuts are optional)

Use an electric mixer or Kitchen Aid mixer: Whip butter until fluffy, add eggs, one at a time, then add vanilla and mix on high speed for 5 minutes or until smooth. In a separate bowl, mix together, flour, cocoa, baking powder, SustaBowl and sugar. Slowly add dry ingredients into mixer and mix for 2 minutes until uniform.

Spead batter into 9 x 9 inch or 9 x 13 inch pan that has been well greased and dusted with cocoa. Batter will be thick and creamy.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes if using the 9 x 9 inch pan and 25 minutes if using the 9 x 13 inch pan or until toothpick comes out clean.

Yield: 16-20 brownies

If you have any questions about Susta, leave them in the comments section and I’ll do my best to get them answered.

WINNER CHOSEN: Ashleigh Walter!

Welcome to Feed Me Friday.

I love the weekend because it gives me time to meal-plan, try new recipes, and browse my way through cooking magazines and food blogs. Leisurely pancake breakfasts…slow-cooker meals…and even zucchini chips drying out in the dehydrator. The kitchen gets a workout!

Today, I have an awesome giveaway of a swag-a-delic NEW Ashley Koff Approved Happy Belly Bag, with a value of $122, as well as a guest blog post and recipe for teething bagels by Bill Prescott of Los Bagels of Arcata, CA.

Happy Belly Bags is a new allergy-free, all-natural gift business, which offers a variety of organic gift baskets, gluten free gift baskets, vegan, raw, kosher food gifts, and much more. How cool is that? You can support the ___-free people in your life by turning them on to new products, or replenishing their existing stashes. You can also arrange for a bag to arrive at your hotel if you will be traveling and otherwise be at the mercy of the closest grocery stores.

Happy Belly Bags is also offering a 10% off discount code to Mothering readers. The code is MOTHERING.

Ashley Koff is an amazing woman and a very wise dietician. I met her recently at a press event, and she completely changed my digestive life. I had such a bad scene going on with slow digestion, indigestion, stomach discomfort, and other things (I’ll spare you the details). She advised that I take the Align probiotic supplement, Natural Calm, continue with the bitters I was taking, and it really shifted things for me.

It is loaded with the following:

Recipes for IBS by Ashley Koff RD (cookbook)

Align probiotic, 28 capsule (supplement)

Peter Gillham’s Natural Calm Rasp/Lemon, 8 oz. (Supplement) – “Bye bye stress! I recommend starting with 1 teaspoon of this in hot water at night and hour before bed to resolve anxiety, sleeplessness, constipation and bloating.
Note: this is not recommended if you have diarrhea or loose stools;

Urban Moonshine Organic Bitters Spray, 10 ml (Condiment) – “Bitters are a digestif that can help resolve any digestive issue. Spray before or after a meal, great on an airplane, too.”

Traditional Medicinals Ginger Tea, 16 Bags (Beverages) – helps reduce nausea and corrects inappropriate inflammation (is anti-inflammatory

The Pure Bar Apple Cinnamon, 1.7 oz. (Nutritional Bar) — organic, gluten-free vegan protein, delicious and portable –yum!

22 Days Chocolate Cherry Bar, 50 gm (Nutritional Bar)– organic, gluten-free vegan protein, delicious and portable

Nature’s Path Optimum Slim Cereal, 10.5 oz. (Cereal) – organic means food only and no chemicals – optimum provides optimal nutrition including fiber

Nutiva Organic Hemp Seeds, 8 oz. (Seed/Grain) – organic vegan protein that doesn’t contain carbohydrates; hemp seeds also contain GLA, a fatty acid that helps with hair, skin, nails, and hormones.

Better Than Roasted Raw Almond Butter, 4 oz. (Spread)- “Nut butters, and almond butter specifically, is a great choice to provide protein and healthy fats, as well as to use it in place of other known digestive irritants, to help achieve nutrient balance at any eating occasion.”-Ashley

So to enter to win the giveaway, leave a comment below. Thank you for participating!

Guest Blogger Bill Prescott on Teething Bagels, plus recipe!

In the charming town of Arcata, nestled on the redwood coast of northern California, there is a bagel shop that has been pleasing teething babies and their moms for over a quarter of a century. New customers at Los Bagels often see the “Free Teething Bagels” sign and just have to ask…what is a teething bagel? Parents figure it out first.

The creative bakers at Los Bagels make a batch of their traditional (boiled then baked) bagels, except, they make the bagels extra small. After they cool down, the bagels are frozen, thus creating an ideal treat for a teething baby. The bagels numb the little ones’ gums, and since they are made from only five wholesome ingredients (flour, water, salt, malt and a pinch of yeast) this is a natural, preservative-free way to soothe your baby.

In any department store today, you will find plastic teething rings, designed to be put in the freezer. Made in industrial factories…do you really know what’s in this plastic your baby is gnawing on? Why not make a batch of “teething bagels” and freeze them to use when baby is getting fussy? Use organic ingredients to ensure your baby has a natural way to relieve those sore gums. When the bagel warms up it can be tossed out, or even composted.

If you are in Arcata, you can swing by Los Bagels and grab a free teething bagel. However, since most of us don’t live in the hills of northern California, there are two great ways to treat your baby to a teething bagel. Los Bagels has generously shared their bagel recipe with us. It is included in their fantastic cookbook, Los Bagels Recipes and Lore which is available on their website at, www.losbagels.com.

As with many new parents, if you don’t have time to hop in the kitchen and knock out a batch of baked then boiled bagels, you can order a batch of teething bagels right off www.losbagels.com and they will ship them to your door.

Plain Bagels (for teething bagels)

Yield: 1 Dozen
1 ¾ cups lukewarm water
½ teaspoon dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 ½ tablespoons dry malt (sugar may be substituted)
4-5 cups high-gluten flour*
*Bread flour may be substituted

Mix all ingredients except flour. Add flour and mix into a ball. Knead for 10-15 minutes, adding more flour if necessary. The dough should be stiff. Let dough rest 10 minutes, and then cut into 14-18 pieces with a sharp knife for teething bagels, 12 pieces for regular sized bagels.

Now roll each piece of dough on a table to form long cigar-like shapes. Then connect up the two ends by overlapping them about ¾ inch and rolling the ends together to connect the dough and make a ring shape. Make sure the joint is secure or it will come apart while boiling. Sometimes a bit of water on the two ends makes joining easier.

Cover with a damp towel and let rise 1-1 ½ hours in a warm spot. In a large pot of kettle bring 1-2 gallons of water to a rolling boil. Place bagels in boiling water and boil until they float (approx. 15-30 seconds). Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 500 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Yummy! Now I have a craving for a delicious bagel…or seven.