Almond Milk (post by daughter)

Almond Milk- lasts for about 2 days.

Ingredients: Yields 1 cup maybe?

1/2 cup raw almonds

2 cups water 

add vanilla or cinnamon or whatever else you want! 

*If it is in exchange for milk in a recipe, keep it plain.

P.S. if your blender isn't blending it well enough, try soaking them ahead of time  for 1/2 hour or so.

Directions:

1) put raw almonds in blender

2) put water in blender

3) blend (with vitamix blend for 30 sec on HIGH)

4) strain in cheese cloth or nut bag (I kind of squeeze it out b/c  I'm impatient)

5) DONE! 

So I put this in smoothies, make vegan tomato soup, mac and cheese, cereal, etc. 

Vegan Cheese!! (from daughter)

Okay LOVE THIS STUFF!! It is cheese... made out of cashews. There are a ton of recipes out there to make it different consistencies. This one is for crackers, manicotti, lasagna and wraps! 

Ingredients: Makes a LOT!! maybe like 2 cups
2 cups raw cashews
                   3/4 cup olive oil
                   squeeze a whole lemon in there
                   a clove or less of garlic (it is super potent when raw!)
                   pepper to taste
                   whatever spices you want
                   the red one above has sun dried tomatoes in it.... i prefer the plain one

Steps:
 1) soak cashews for 2 hours in water
 2) drain cashews
 3) mix everything in the food processor- I would advise mixing in 2 or 3 batches because it is too dry for the blade to handle that much. And if you do it in more than one batch, you can make different flavors... as seen below. I did one with sun dried tomatoes, and one without.

I put it in lasagna last night instead of putting ricotta or mozerella. It was so good and my boyfriend even liked it! Now I just need to find whole wheat lasagna noodles. 

Juicing and Shakes (post by mom)

Juicing and Shakes (Post by Mom)

Today I wanted to show you my daily morning green juice. The main reason for having your juices in the morning is because the nutrients are absorbed quickly on an empty stomach. I also juice heavily concentrated greens instead of taking vitamin pills. This is just something I choose to do for myself. See the nutrient details below.

The list of vegetable staples are:  

Dino Kale

Celery

Cucumber

Apple

Lime

Ginger

Juice, then strain. 


Another vegetable I recently discovered that I absolutely love in my green juices is fennel. It adds a light sweetness with a hint of licorice flavor. Enjoy!!! 

The following information is from Dr. Joel Fuhrman's Website (http://www.drfuhrman.com), which I refer to often. 

The Best Food for Bones: Fruits and Vegetables

Millions of women have been falsely led to believe that there is a correlation between osteoporosis and the inadequate intake of dairy foods.  Bone health is much more than just calcium. Vegetables, beans, fruits, and nuts are rich sources of calcium, potassium, vitamin K, magnesium, and vegetable protein, as well as the phytochemicals and micronutrients that are gaining recognition to be important for bone strength. Calcium is an important component, but like protein, we don’t need as much of it as most people think. The current U.S. daily calcium recommendation of 1200 to 1500 milligrams for postmenopausal women is an attempt to offset the ill-effects of the Standard American Diet which creates excessive calcium loss in the urine because most people consume so much sodium, caffeine and animal protein.

Contrary to popular belief, you do not need dairy products to get sufficient calcium. Every natural food contains calcium. When you eat a healthy diet, rich in natural foods such as vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds, it is impossible not to obtain sufficient calcium. In fact, the addition of more natural plant foods to the diet has been shown to have a powerful effect on increasing bone density and bone health.  Fruits and vegetables strengthen bones.  Researchers found that those who eat the most fruits and vegetables have denser bones.⁴ These researchers concluded that fruits and vegetables are not only rich in potassium, magnesium, calcium and other nutrients essential for bone health, but, because they are alkaline, not acid-producing, they do not induce urinary calcium loss. Green vegetables, in particular have a powerful effect on reducing hip fractures, for they are not only rich in calcium, but other nutrients as well, such a vitamin K, which is crucial for bone health.⁵

So most unprocessed, natural foods contain calcium and green vegetables have particularly high levels. In fact, one four-ounce serving of steamed collards or kale has about the same amount of calcium as one cup of milk. Take a look at some natural foods and their approximated calcium levels.

Bok-choy  two cups ……………………..  300 mg
Broccoli, two cups . . . . . . . . . …………  150 mg
Collard greens, two cups . . . . . . . . . . . . 600 mg
Calcium-fortified orange juice (8 oz) . .    300 mg
Garbanzo beans, one cup . . . . . . . . . . . 150 mg
Kale, two cups . . . . . . . . . . . . …………  350 mg
Milk  one cup  ……………………………...300 mg
Orange (one) ……………………………….60 mg
Romaine Lettuce 4 cups…………………150 mg
Sesame seeds ¼ cup…………………….350 mg
Soybeans, one cup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  175 mg
Spinach, two cups…………………………500 mg
Sweet potato, two cups . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 mg
Tahini (sesame seed paste) two tbsp. . ..300 mg
Tofu one cup………………………………150 mg
Turnip greens, two cups . . . . . . …………500 mg

Green vegetables also have calcium absorption rates of over 50 percent, compared with about 32 percent for milk.⁶ And, since animal protein induces calcium excretion in the urine, compared to dairy, the calcium retention from vegetables is higher.  All green vegetables are high in calcium. 

Shakes 

I made myself a shake today for lunch. I am doing a 5 mile run and I wanted to have a high concentration of nutritious foods to put into my body before and after the run. So, I made a shake that consists of:

 

Spinach

Banana

Orange

Apple

Dates

Almond Butter

Almond Milk (homemade)

Coconut Water (for the electrolytes)

 

My husband is slow coming around to these shakes. He says, "When I don't have teeth anymore and am forced to have baby food, then I will have your shakes!" He's so funny about all this, but I don't pressure him, he just sees the visible results when I no longer complain about arthritic symptoms in my hands, toes, and elbows, and also I have severe dry eyes, and that goes away when I juice and eat mainly raw foods. My weight is also down and stabilizing!

I will probably make some sort of wrap with the coconut meat. More to post later!!!

Collard Wraps- time to be creative! (post by daughter)

My mom and I have been eating these for lunch like everyday! She can eat them at her desk and I can eat them at school or clinical. I found a waterbottle like container to carry them in, because otherwise you go through a lot of tin foil. 

So you can really put anything in them, but you need something paste-like to help hold everything together. 

I've been doing a similar version of hummus (on the right), and sweet potato with cauliflower (on the left) My mom has a different version that she will post about. But you can buy already made hummus and use that!  

 Then you need vegetables to put on top of the paste-like ingredients. I did shredded carrots, radishes, and cucumbers. I use whatever vegetable I have. I ALWAYS include raw sunflower seeds... they stick in the paste first. And ALWAYS add little bits of fresh ginger... it gives you a surprise bite throughout the wrap!

 Here is my board that I use in the kitchen... In the middle is the ingredient list for the wrap. I have listed: carrot, cukes, red pepper. I ended up not using red pepper...it is a very overpowering vegetable. Then I have the chickpea concoction: chickpeas (not from can), lemon, tahini, agave and pepper. I have a goal of eating slower and to not over eat.... which is very hard to do! Then I was listening to Jilian Michael's podcast and wrote down 5 things to stay healthy: 1) good nutrition-antioxidants, avoid sugar, increase protein. 2) exercise 3) seek out pleasure- and nuture it 4) believe in something- a reason to live 5) communicate- using "I" statements

 Here's the wrap before it's wrapped up! So you take the collard leaves, cut the thick stem either out, or shave it so it is thinner. Then put it in steaming water in a sautee pan for 5 sec on each side to soften them. To wrap: tuck in the stem side and the top, start rolling from either side... I used a sushi roller to help me. I am still really bad at rolling... I need my mom to do this for me!

gluten free and dairy free pancakes (either sweet potato or banana) (post by daughter)

Easy......... ingredients list:
banana pancakes:                                                               sweet potato:    
1) 2 eggs                                                                            1) 2 eggs
2) 2 bananas                                                                      2) 3/4 cup smashed up cooked sweet potato
3) 1/2 cup peanut or almond butter                                   3) 1/2 cup peanut or almond butter
* chocolate or carob chips if you want chocolate banana pancakes or chocolate sweet potato pancakes.
and either agave or syrup

Directions: mix ingredients up well, either in blender or by hand (less chunks the better). Heat up skillet with oil or butter, and make pancakes! Do a small trial one at first, to get the temperature right.

Enjoy!! The extras can be put in the freezer and can be eaten at room temperature as a snack.
                         

Introduction

Hello!

My mom and I started a blog to share our meals with you. I am 25, in nursing school in Seattle, and my mom works in a private college in Northfield, Minnesota. We started cooking together after I lived with her after college, and now that we live apart, it is something we can share over the phone and via email. She comes up with an idea from either a blog, a book, or pinterest, and I tweak it to my own preference. We go back and forth with ideas and this way, come up with something that is perfect for our wallets and pallets.
We both strive for about 80-90% raw meals (all foods in their natural state and heated minimally) so that leads to no dairy, no meat, no processed foods, and minimal gluten products. But that leaves us with amazing greens, nuts, seeds, grains, and colorful fruits.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to e-mail us at foodmomdaughter@gmail.com

Kelsey (daughter) and Mary (mother)