Sure it can–but you have to make it that way!  So much to do, so little time.  Make breakfast, eat breakfast, get the kids off to school, get yourself off to work, make lunch, eat lunch, grocery shopping, make dinner, eat dinner, get everyone ready for bed.  Wake up and do it all over again the next day.  But wait…..what about Dr. appointments, laundry, paying the bills, getting your haircut?  Ok that last one I just can’t compromise on. I’m actually going to drive to VT from VA next week just to get my hair cut! 

Let’s start with your morning routine.  Are you jumping out of bed with the alarm or are you setting your alarm for fifteen minutes before you actually have to get up?  Try it.  During that fifteen minutes spend some time “waking up”.  Take some deep breaths from your toes through your head.  Get some extra oxygen in your body and your cells.  Stretch in bed or out of bed.  Don’t have time for a yoga or daily exercise routine?  Yes, you can do yoga in your pj’s.  Very simple to twist, stretch and just breathe before you even get out of bed.

Is breakfast every morning a chore instead of a great way to start the day?  Have you tried simply juicing or blending your morning meal?  Grab some fresh greens and some frozen fruit and you’ve got yourself a very healthy and filling breakfast AND lunch.  And you’ve just made more time in your day. This great green smoothie can be made and you. Here’s another idea.  I just started making a chocolate oatmeal milkshake for my morning/lunchtime meal.  I bought a bag of buckwheat flakes (the kind you’d use for oatmeal).  I also have some organic buckwheat seed.  The night before I soak in one bowl, 3-4 dates(the big ones).  In another bowl I soak about a quarter cup of the flakes, a small handful of the seed and 4-6 almonds.  In the morning, I am ready to blend up my concoction.  I add all of the above and some ground flax seed, cinnamon, a little more water (I use all the water from soaking), 4-6 ice cubes, some crushed sesame seeds and a teaspoon of raw cacao.  What a treat.  With my Vitamix, there is hardly any pulpand definitely very little clean up.  Got more people to feed in the family?  Just double up the recipe.  And making soy or nut milk has now, never been easier.  Fifteen minutes?  Really?  Of course you can add fruit to your drink or use these alternatives to dairy for a healthier alternative on your cereal or oatmeal in the morning.  I love it when I can do things the night before.  You can make your own yogurt and you will have breakfast, lunch or put this in your smoothie.

What are you going to do for lunch? Well, if you made a green or chocolate smoothie before you left for work, you’d have your meal already.  Other than that, something crunchy and colorful for lunch.  Veggies are everywhere and it’s almost summer veggie season!  Try dipping your veggies in yogurt or light salad dressing.  There are some great alternatives to your fast food lunch out there. 

And then there’s dinner.  Who has time?  I need to do the laundry.  I need to pick the kids up.  And I can’t go another day without vacuuming this house!  I know, I have the same problems, only for me it’s feeding the animals.  The other day I asked my housemates if they had any jeans they wanted to wash because I didn’t want to just wash my jeans in one small load.   Well….now they have countertop washing machines and dryers!  How many times has your washing machine spin cycle not worked?  And you (or one of your teenagers) really want those jeans….tonight!  But back to dinner…one word…crockpot.  Or rice cooker…maybe two words.  I must admit, I just used one of these for the first time a few weeks ago.  Really? Cooked rice that fast?  It must be a mistake.  But there it was.  Stir fry your veggies and the rice is done at the same time.  Love foods that can make it through the week and can be enjoyed at a variety of meals.  How about dehydrating ?  Fresh fruit wraps instead of the store bought version.  Nuts with your own seasoning.  You decide.  Fresh, easy and you have it to take to work for snacking.

Start taking advantage of your free time by MAKING more free time! 

Good luck!

My biggest reason I never bought an avocado was because I would take it home intending to use it and when I cut it open, it would be bad inside.  And let’s face it, they are a little pricey.  But are they worth it?  Oh yeah, definitely.  Since I found the living food lifestyle, I found so much more to do with them AND how to keep them ripe and never throw away another one.

The avocado was discovered by Charles Avocad in 1762, and is botanically a fruit.   It is often treated as a vegetable and in some cuisines; this luscious green fruit/vegetable is used in desserts.  The cultivation of avocados began over 10,000 years ago.  These grew mainly in tropical areas.  Some believe even further back!  Maybe avocado trees fed the dinosaurs!  Now North and Central America lead the world in production, with California, Texas and Florida providing us with different varieties of avocado.  If you want to avoid the toxicity and cholesterol of meats, avocados are the substitute for you.  They are a great way to transition to a healthier vegetarian or raw food lifestyle.

My first months raw, I ate one avocado a day.  I ate it alone, put it in a wrap with other raw veggies, made guacamole or added to my salad.  Those three months I lost over 10 pounds.   We know enough now that cooked foods, breads, pastas, refined sugars, meats, dairy and processed foods are what is causing a high rate of obesity, not to mention lack of exercise and holding on to old emotional habits and patterns.  Avocados and other fruit and plant foods are rich in vitamins, minerals, soluble fiber, active enzymes, proteins, and easily digested fats.  They contain 74% water and have no cholesterol.

Let’s first figure out how to pick an avocado.  Take some of the fear out of shopping for expensive fruit.  If it’s large, it will perish quicker.  Bruising inside?  Hard to tell, right?  Right.  Unfortunately.  I try to buy them when they are not ripe.  Then I refrigerate the whole avocado and take out only when I need them.  Allow to ripen on the counter for 1-3 days, depending.  In the refrigerator they will not ripen, so good to store there.  Depending on the state it comes from will depend on how to choose.  Florida avocados will yield to gentle squeezing when ripe.  California avocados need one day if they yield to pressure.  But, the big thing is….once you cut that luscious fruit/vegetable, the process of ripening ends.  At that time you are stuck with it.  To store your cut avocado, wrap tightly in saran wrap or in a tight container.  Lemon juice may stop the blackening also.  Basically, eat the whole thing in one sitting and play it safe.

There are a few ways to cut open an avocado.  I like to cut it lengthwise around, twist, open and spear the pit with a knife.  If I’m making guacamole, raw chocolate pudding or a smoothie, I just squeeze each half into a bowl.  If I’m making a pretty salad or sandwich, I will peel the skin and cut in strips or use one of those handy, dandy plastic avocado cutter outers. 

And then there are the benefits of avocados.  They are filled with healthy fats, vitamins like A, B-complex, C, H, K and E, beta-carotene and alpha-carotene, plus minerals like magnesium, copper, iron, calcium, potassium and other trace elements.  They contain more protein than cow’s milk and provide you with 18 amino acids and 7 fatty acids.  When you combine the fats from avocado with nutrients in your other foods like vitamin A, D, E, K, lutien, lycopene and calcium, these vitamins are better and more easily absorbed by your body.  You don’t need a lot of avocado for this process.  They are high in fat and also give you a good amount of magnesium and fiber. 

Just took a little break to eat an avocado.  I’m back.  How about some recipes?  Ok then……

Smoothies are easy.  Use half or whole pitted avocado in your blender with about two cups of coconut, rice or almond milk.  Add raw cacao for the chocolatey smooth richness.  You can sweeten with fruit or agave if needed.  These recipes are from Kelly Serbonich and Anna Maria Clement’s Healthful Cuisine Book.

Guacamole

3 cups mashed avocado, 1/2 cup finely diced red onion, 1/2 cup finely diced red bell pepper, 1/2 cup shredded carrot, 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, 1-2 cloves pressed garlic, teaspoon ground cumin, 2 Tbl fresh lemon juice, cayenne and Bragg Liq Amino to taste.  You can also add kelp granules or sea salt.  I like to put something like this into a portobello mushroom soaked in Bragg’s.  Yum.

Avocado Pudding

1 avocado, 12 dates(pitted and soaked), 1 cup soak water from dates or coconut water, 1 tsp cinnamon.  Blend all the ingredients until smooth and sprinkle the cinnamon on top.  You can add banana, mango or carob powder or cacao.

Have fun and experiment.  Wishing you healthy eating!

People always ask me…”Is it hard not having all your stuff?”  I say “No, I always travel with my Vitamix!  That and my toothbrush.  Good to go.”

Happy Holidays….Ring in the New Year!  Yes, my Vitamix is always with me.  Thought I’d help you out with some recipes for this season.  Of course, I use my Vitamix most for green smoothies.  It always surprises me that I can drink these on cold winter mornings.  Your body gets used to having them and starts to crave them.  The past few days I was able to purchase some great organic cukes from the local store and have been juicing them in my Champion.  A great start to a day filled with healthy eating.  Then a great way to end the day is with some raw ice cream from the Champion using the blank screen.  It’s tough to eat healthy, especially during this time.  Try eating raw veggies or drinking water before your big meal.  If I start the day with something healthy and then eat a big salad for lunch, I feel a lot better if I splurge a little at dinner.   Plus I’m not as hungry.  My body has already gotten a lot of good nutrients and vitamins for breakfast and lunch.

Banana Cream Pie (Raw)  This is for my brother!

Crust:  3 cups walnuts, soaked and dehydrated (you can buy these in health food stores)  1/4 cup dates, pitted and soaked (3 hours or more)  1/2 tspn Bragg Liquid Aminos or pinch of salt

Filling:  2 cups young coconut meat, 3 medium ripe bananas, cut into pieces  2/3 cup macadamia nuts, soaked   10 dates, pitted and soaked  2 Tblspns psyllium husks powder  1/2 cup water of one young coconut  2 Tblspns alcohol-free vanilla extract or 1/2 vanilla bean  4 ripe bananas

For the crust: Using your food processor, finely grind the walnuts to a crumble.  Add the 1/4 cup dates and Braggs and process until combined.  The mixture should be slightly sticky.  Press the dough into a pie plate.  You can dehydrate overnight if you want a crunchy crust.

For the filling:  In a Vitamix or strong blender, combine the coconut meat and coconut water, bananas, macadamia nuts, 10 dates, psyllium, and vanilla.  Blend until very smooth and creamy. Stir in the sliced bananas and spread this filling evenly over the crust.  You can decorate the top with sliced bananas, tossing them in lemon juice to prevent browning first.

This is so easy, right?  Even if you do not eat a raw diet, all of these ingredients are found in your local store.  Treat your family and loved ones with something they’d never expect.  And they will be sure to love it.

Did you happen to catch one of the episodes of “Dinner Impossible”, where the chef was at Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory in VT and he made these really weird ice cream concoctions?  Well here’s one that sounds weird, but is rather lovely!

Banana Ice Cream with Date Carob Sauce (Raw)

6 bananas, peeled and frozen

Sauce:  1 cup dates, soaked  1/2 vanilla bean, chopped  4 black olives, pitted  3 Tblspns raw carob powder  1/2 tspn ground cinnamon  1 cup water

Use your Champion with the blank screen to process the frozen bananas.  They will come out looking and tasting like soft serve ice cream.  For the sauce, in your blender, combine all ingredients until smooth and creamy.  If it’s thick, add water.  Add anything else that sounds interesting to you for a sauce….strawberries, orange…you get the idea.

Thanks, Chef Kelly Serbonich for these great ideas!

Here’s a recipe from a Paula Deen magazine.  It’s simple and you can use store bought pudding or make your own with raw ingredients and freeze.  Use the recipe above for the vanilla ice cream and add carob for the chocolate.  I hope you’ll try the living food way, this is a great start.  You can also eliminate the nuts if you’d like.

Frozen Striped Mousse

1 3.9 ounce package instant chocolate pudding  2 cups heavy whipping cream, divided  2 cups milk, divided  1 3.3 ounce package instant white-chocolate pudding  1/2 cup finely chopped pecans.

In a bowl, combine chocolate pudding, 1 cup cream, and 1 cup milk.  Beat until thickened.  In a separate bowl, combine white chocolate pudding, 1 cup cream, 1 cup milk and beat until thickened.  Take 8 (7 ounce) paper cups and spoon 2 Tblspns chocolate into them. Add a layer of nuts then a layer of 2 Tblspns of the vanilla mix and repeat again.  Freeze overnight.  Invert the cups and peel back the cup.  Garnish with chocolate sauce or fresh fruit.

 

Enjoy your holiday!  And remember….less is more.  It’s nice to share.

 

 

 

I remember eating salad growing up.  I remember carrots and potatoes placed beside the meat on my plate.  I remember tuna added to the spaghetti sauce.  I’m sure we had vegetables.  My brother had a garden in our backyard.  I remember pictures of him tending to it.  Most of my knowledge about vegetarian and living food comes from my parents, but not when I was a kid.  I learned most of it later on in life when they both started their own vegetarian/living food lifestyle. 

The body requires electrically charged foods.  This energy comes from sunlight and many veggies are a prime source of chlorophyll.  Chlorophyll is vital for photosynthesis, which is what plants use to obtain their energy from light.  The body needs vegetables to aid in the making of essential nutrients.  Leafy greens are a high alkaline food.  They contain protein and important amino acids used in breaking down protein.  Past eating habits have built up highly acidic environments in our bodies. 

Broccoli-all parts of the broccoli are highly nutritious.  An antioxidant, it also contains potassium, calcium, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, magnesium, beta-carotene and Lutein.  Great for dipping, lightly sauteing or blanching.   You can also make a raw broccoli soup by putting all parts of the broccoli into your Vitamix blender, combined with water, onion and any spices that float your boat.

Cauliflower-contains calcium, potassium, sulphur and silicon.  Try juicing the leaves and the flower for a highly beneficial drink.  You can also eat raw, make a mock mashed potato either cold or cooked, by adding garlic, olive oil and onion.  Cauliflower also has sulforaphane which enters your bloodstream and helps your antioxidant defense systems.

Celery-mmmmmmm. A highly nutritious, alkaline veggie.  Juice it with the leaves on or eat raw with almond butter topping.  Celery can reduce blood pressure and help with appetite control.  It contains chlorine, sodium, potassium and magnesium.

Kale-a favorite of mine for making green smoothies.  Kale has phytochemicals high in sulphur and aids the body’s detoxification enzymes.  It contains sulphorapahne which comes out when kale is chopped, chewed or juiced.  Other nutrients in kale are calcium, iron, Vitamin A, C and K, beta-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin, with are known to help protect against molecular degeneration.

Beets-Ok, this in one veggie I haven’t gotten my daughter to eat.  I think they taste like apple and absolutely love them either raw or lightly cooked.  Victoria Boutenko says eating beets should not turn your urine red.  Juiced beets can have a high sugar concentrate.  Sugar beet juice was used in Chicago to help prevent ice build up on the roads (just a little tid bit for you).  Beets are a very good source of betaine, potassium and folate and can help to replenish iron that is lost during the menstrual cycle.  It is good for the liver and heart health.

Red Bell Pepper-source of Vitamin A, C and Potassium, it also contains Lycopene.  Red is better than green when it comes to peppers.  Green peppers can be hard on the digestion.

Avocado-another yummy veggie.  High in heart healthy monounsaturated fat, it also contains Vitamin E and glutathione.  We need fats in order for the body to work.  Make guacamole by adding tomatoes, sea salt, and onion (optional).  Dip other veggies like carrots, cucumbers, or mushrooms into it instead of chips. 

Put a salad together with all the above ingredients and add flaxseed oil, a dash of any seasonings that you enjoy.  You can also add apple cider vinegar or liquid amino and top with any sprouts you found at the local market. 

How can you get your children to eat them if they won’t?  First, keep trying to add different veggies to their plate.  Babies have taste buds not only on their tongue, but on the sides and roof of their mouth.  This means they could be very sensitive to certain foods.  But as they grow, the taste buds disappear from the sides of the mouth.  As you get older, your taste buds become less sensitive and you will most likely be able to eat foods that you didn’t when you were younger.  Change it up.  Add color and mix veggies in with pasta or soup, or use veggies to dip into their favorite dressing.

Enjoy your veggies!

I was sitting out on my back deck enjoying the river flow by.  The sun finally came out today and it feels like summer is finally showing up.  I just drank my green smoothie, and I started to think about what my body wants now.  Apples and raisins came to mind and I found a great recipe for Apple Raisin Squares.  It only requires a half cup of sugar and you can substitute sugar with anything from agave and stevia to maple syrup or honey. If you do this, you would have to decrease liquid in the recipe.  Also try substituting some raw ingredients when you can, like raw walnuts, or make your own flour!  If that sounds interesting to you, here are some conversions to help you out.

1 1/2 pounds of wheat equal about 4 cups flour, 1 pound of oats equal about 3 cups flour, 1 pound of corn equals about 3 1/2 cups flour and 1 pound of millet equals about 2 1/2 cups flour.  Here’s that recipe:

Apple Raisin Squares

1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter or margarine, 1/4 cup corn, safflower or light olive oil, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 2 cups finely chopped apples, 1 cup raisins, 1 cup chopped walnuts.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, butter, oil, sugar, vanilla and apples.  Add raisins and walnuts. Stir in flour mixture until thoroughly mixed.  Pour into 2 greased 8×8 pans.  Bake for 35-40 minutes and cool and cut into squares.

Check out these substitutions for some favorite baked good recipes:

Barley flour has a mild flavor and can be substituted in pancakes, cookies and quick breads.  You can replace up to half of any wheat flour in a recipe.

Buckwheat flour is the same for substituting as barley, but in baked goods it will be heavier.

Brown rice flour is great for those with wheat allergies.  You can replace up to 1/4 of any wheat flour. Rice flour absorbs more moisture, so you may need to add more liquid.

Quinoa flour is higher in fat and tends to make a moister baked good.  Replace up to 1/2 of wheat or white flour in your recipe.

Wheat germ can make for a more nutritious baked good.  Replace up to 1/3 of flour.

Spelt flour tends to make heavier baked goods so you would need to increase your baking powder.  I look for baked goods that contain spelt flour when I am shopping for treats.  People with wheat allergies can tolerate spelt and is great for making pasta and bread.

My favorite, almond flour.  Less carbs than white flour and they help raise HDL (the good cholesterol) and lower LDL (the bad).  Using almond flour instead of wheat flour in your favorite baking recipes will result in a similar taste.  Baked goods tend to brown more quickly with almond flour, so adjust your oven temp about twenty degrees.

This one I’d like to try myself….coconut flour.  It is the highest in fiber of any flour available.  It’s gluten free and you can substitute a quarter of your regular flour with it.  Add an equivalent amount of liquid to the recipe.  If you want to only use it, add one egg per ounce of coconut flour otherwise it may taste dry.

If you are allergic to wheat, try gluten free.  You can purchase great gluten-free products at most health food stores and now a lot of grocery stores have gluten-free isles.  You can even buy gluten-free flour.  When you substitute gluten-free for wheat flour, your best bet would be to stick with recipes that have a small amount of flour.  You can make pastry dough with maize cornflour, milk powder, coconut and butter.  Replace gluten in your baking with xanthum gum, guar gum or pre-gel starch.

Instead of oil?  How about apple sauce?  It may make cakes a bit heavier, but still good.  When substituting for sugar, honey for example, will taste sweeter than granulated, so you would need less.  When substituting with maple syrup, grade B is thicker and darker and better for baking and costs less.  Use 3/4 cup for every cup of white sugar and decrease the liquid by 3 tablespoons.  Date sugar, made by grinding dates, can be used exactly the same way as ordinary sugar.  I could write a whole blog on sugar substitutes like Nutra-Sweet and Equal, but I’ll just end with this, “The final report of a seven-year study by the Ramiazzini Foundation on aspartame (also known as Nutra-Sweet or Equal) has linked it to high rates of lymphomas, luekemias, urinary tumors, tumors of certain nerves and other cancers in rats.”

Here’s to substituting some good things with even better things!

Here’s another topic I’m way too familiar with.  Fortunately I suffer from seasonal allergies and this is the season for me.  Spring and pollen.  Pollens are small, microscopic particles that are produced by plants and trees during the process of reproduction.  Hello spring and new growth!  I was in Connecticut a couple of weeks ago and I was feeling it then, but Vermont is behind its southern states by a couple of weeks.  So here I go again.  The only time I didn’t have any symptoms at all was when I had been eating a 100% raw diet for at least three months.  They aren’t as bad as they have been in the past and I have been keeping with a high raw lifestyle.  I also try to keep the windows closed, don’t go out of the house when it’s windy and I never walk in the fields!  It’s supposed to rain the next few days and that will help.

What can help?  Not only increasing your raw food intake, but decreasing your processed and cooked food intake.  Allergy symptoms include: Asthma and coughing, sinus pressure and congestion, red itchy eyes and discharge, skin rashes, general itching of every part of your body and throat, hives and runny nose.  The causes of allergies?  Everything from hereditary factors, long term exposure to drugs, especially antibiotics, adverse drug reactions, airborn pollens, food additives, colorings, perservatives and flavorings.  Liver dysfuntion can cause an increased work load for your immune system.  I never suffered from allergies in my childhood, they started during pregnancy.  Not only am I allergic to spring pollens, I’m also allergic to the skin of certain fruits and veggies, even if they are organic. 

Using organic produce when you can, can be a relief from many food allergies.  These do not contain pesticides and additives.  Selenium and zinc reduce inflammation.  Other supplements for you to try are: Fatty acids found in flaxseed oil, olive oil and oily fish, vitamin C, garlic and horseradish tablets, MSM powder.  And foods that promote liver function like, artichoke, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, or eggs.  How about some juice recipes for allergies?

Place in your juicer:

 one radish, one clove of garlic, one carrot, one pear and 2 cabbage leaves

or

tablespoon of fresh ginger, one apple, one carrot, 2 cabbage leaves, 1/2 red onion

or

one cup rice, almond or coconut milk, one banana, one pear, one Tblspn flaxseed oil, one Tblspn ground flaxseed.  Sprinkle with a pinch of nutmeg.

Victoria Boutenko, in her book, Green For Life, says this, “….consuming green smoothies greatly benefits the health of people through improving the level of hydrochloric acid…….consumers of green smoothies should expect…to heal allergies……”.

Some other natural allergy cures are: Eucalyptus.  In a lozenge form it can increase production of saliva.  It can calm coughs and relieve nasal congestion and is also an antiseptic and has antibiotic properties.  The vapor from eucalyptus can clear congestion and loosen mucus.

A traditional remedy for asthma is red clover.  In tea form, red clover can reduce allergy symptoms.  Alfalfa can improve runny noses, sneezing and itching.  Alfalfa is believed to nourish the nervous system and calm the immune system.  And there’s always apple cider vinegar (this should be a staple in your kitchen), which contains many healing properties and is used to treat allergies.  It is rich in vitamins E, A, B1, B2 and B6 and contains potassium and calcium and can reduce mucus in the sinuses and reduce throat inflammation. 

Here’s what Louise Hay says about allergies (hay fever):  Emotional congestion. Fear of the calendar.  A belief in persecution. Guilt.  Your mantra for allergy time? “I am one with ALL OF LIFE.  I am safe at all times.

Grab your juicer and your tissues.  Be well and happy SPRING!

Donna Bergonzi-Boyle

 

If any of these natural cures cause your symptoms to worsen, consult your primary health care physician.

Uh….that would be the environment of your body!  What’s the difference between an acidic and an alkaline environment?  Well first and foremost, if your body is highly acidic, cancer cells can thrive.  And, it’s not just about the food that goes in that effects your body’s pH balance….it’s about everything that goes in, on, and comes out of or comes near your body.  Stress, toxins…both can make the body more acidic.  Check out the previous blog about keeping toxins out of your body. 

A healthy pH is about 30% acid and 70% alkaline.  Processed and cooked foods, meat, cheese, caffeine, nicotine, white bread, and alcohol all reverse this proportion, creating a high acid state, affecting all your body’s systems and their ability to function.  Every book I’ve read has said the same thing, there isn’t a person in a diseased state that is not highly acidic.  If food is not fully digested, it will create and become waste in the blood stream, thereby increasing the acid level in the body.  Pain in the body can also be caused by acidic accumulations throughout the nervous system.

In 1931, Otto Warburg won the Noble Peace Prize for discovering that cancer thrives in an anaerobic (without oxygen) environment and is also due to a lack of oxygen at the cellular level.  This condition damages cells, resulting in low pH (acidity) at the cellular level.  This was over 75 years ago!  So in 2009, why, still, are doctors not testing the pH of their patients routinely?  Victoria Boutenko states in her book, Green For Life, that we should be teaching children about the pH index of foods and that the pH index should be printed on the label of our foods in addition to calories and nutrients.  Exactly.  Lemon, she says, is one of the most alkalizing fruits.  Doesn’t seem right, right?  Lemon equals acid.  That’s why I love green smoothies!  That’s why I put lemon in my water. That’s why I can go a whole day and drink nothing but lemon water.  Almonds?  Alkaline.  Cheese?  Acidic.

Steve Meyerowitz, in his book Wheatgrass, Nature’s Finest Medicine  says, “Wheatgrass…is a potent restorer of cellular and blood alkalinity..”  Greens make the body more alkaline.  Consuming large amounts of dark leafy greens.  The only way I can see that happening for most of us is juicing the greens.  Juicing can neutralize the acidic body.  If you are eating large amounts of greens, don’t forget to chew thoroughly, making liquid in your mouth before swallowing.  Tis’ the season for fresh greens!  How about cucumber, celery and cabbage juice?  All great for balancing the pH levels, which will dramatically increase energy and well being.

What can you do to bring your body to an alkaline state?  If you want to cure yourself from any dis-ease in the body, you must get the toxins out and stop putting them in there, eliminate the emotional and mental stress(mostly unconscious), and work on the electromagnetic chaos that you are exposing yourself to.  These things will bring your body pH to an alkaline state where it is almost impossible for disease to exist.  Drinking wheatgrass and other juices will also help.

What, besides food, can make your body more alkaline?  Victoria says, receiving or giving a hug, laughing (go rent a funny movie), seeing a puppy (betcha a kitten would work too), being in nature, walking, singing (in the shower or in the car), and many others.

I think I will go out today and have my pH tested.  You can go to your doctor for this, check the local drug store, or purchase online.  I think I’ll order mine today.  I’ve been under a lot of stress lately and also in a lot of physical pain.  After writing this blog, I’m a little concerned about me!

Find out more about YOU.  Be well.

What happens when you “go raw“?  Below are some great answers to that question.  These come from Karen Knowler, The Raw Food Coach.  I’m sure she wouldn’t mind me sharing.  Because it’s nice to share.

1. You Wake UP!

2. You become more sensitive (things feel much better or worse depending on what they are)

3. You get to hear your own voice more clearly

4. You start to be kinder to yourself and the world around you

5. You start to believe in a more “magical” way of living and being (because you can feel it running through your veins)

6.  You feel more pain when things aren’t a good fit for you (and don’t use food to block that fact out)

7.  You have more energy to take action

8. You are generally more positive and upbeat; you begin to believe (and witness) that anything is possible

9. You start to meet others like you and learn through what they have to say and what they have done that there is another way

10. You begin to feel brave enough and vital enough to take the action required to make some big changes, if required, in order to be true to you

Ok, you are asking yourself, what does this have to do with coffee?  Because this next raw green smoothie recipe tastes just like coffee!!!!  I discovered this by accident.  Most of my raw treats are by accident or found by adding or subtracting something from a recipe.  You just have to let go of that fear of being wrong or not being worthy of feeling good.  So, here’s that recipe:

Uncoffee Smoothie

Handful of collard greens

Handful of spinach

One frozen banana

1 1/2 cup water

One shot of flax oil

3 frozen strawberries

Throw it all in your Vitamix or BlendTec and enjoy

Here’s another one that tastes like those Orange frozen drinks you find at fairs.

Raw Orange Smoothie

1 1/2 cup almond milk….here’s what I do for this.  Take about a cup of raw almonds and about 1and 1/2 cups of water and put in your blender.  Blend until it breaks down the almonds(it will become white, like milk).  Drain the milk through your mesh bag.  Save the nut pulp for a great substitute for morning cereal, and put the nut milk back in the blender.

The juice of two oranges (or if you are using a Vitamix or BlendTec….THE WHOLE ORANGE)

1/2 cup frozen pineapple

That’s it.  How simple, right?  All for you to get started on a living food journey that’s all your own.  It’s really about your journey.   What’s your journey look like?  I am not, by any means, 100% raw.  There are days when all I do eat is raw.  I always manage to get in some sort of smoothie in the morning.  If there’s enough, I’ll drink through the day.  That fills me up.  Then I have something cooked for dinner.  It’s a small portion of cooked food.  The more cooked I eat, the worse I feel.  That’s where I am at this moment.  I’m working on number 6 from the list above right now.  We’re really not that different.  Me and you.  The journey up the mountain is different for everyone.  The view from the top is the same!  I take a lot of small steps. Sometimes I’m pushed to make a large step forward, but that’s only with a lot of prior warning.

To end my entry today, here’s that recipe I promised for Halva:

1 1/2 cup almonds

1/2 cup raw tahini (I just grind sesame seeds)

3 Tablespoons honey

1 Teaspoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon carob powder

Place almonds in your food processor until ground.  Add tahini, honey and vanilla and process thoroughly.  Put 1/2 of the mixture in a bowl and set aside.  Add carob to remainder and process.  From here, either roll both parts together into a ball, form to a pie plate or eat right out of the food processor.  Now that’s what I love about my raw food!

Be happy and healthy.

Donna Bergonzi-Boyle