Raw Recipes - Pad Thai with Kelp Noodles

The night before or 8 hours before you want to make your Pad Thai, soak a half cup of raw pine nuts, and 3/8 cup of raw almonds each in its own bowl of water.  If you won’t be making the recipe soon after this 8 hour soak, just put these two bowls in the refrigerator until you are ready to “cook.” (within a 24 hour period)

Sauce:
Blend 2 chipotle peppers dry in a vitamix. Remove half of this powder to a food processor.
Strain and rinse the pine nuts - add to the vitamix with 1/2 c water, lime and salt. Blend until creamy.

Topping:
Reserved chipotle powder from the vitamix
Sorrano chile - Use as little as a 1 millimeter slice or as much as you prefer. Remember, these are hot.Jjuice of 1 lime
1/2 tsp salt (or more if desired)
1 tbsp olive oil
Soaked almonds (all)
1/2 c chopped pecans
6-8 large fresh basil leaves
1/2 c cilantro
2 tbsp fresh mint

Add the soaked almonds, salt, chili, lime, olive oil, pecans to food processor and pulse quickly so that you have a chunky mixture. Add the basil, cilantro, and mint and pulse a few more times to blend, still keeping it chunky.

Put it all together:
Rinse 2 packages of kelp noodles in a bowl, then strain. Put the noodles in a clean bowl and pour in the pine nut cream sauce and mix into the noodles using your hands to get them coated well. Serve (will make 3 large or 4 medium size servings) and add a generous helping of the topping.

This is a spicy dish! I love it this way, but you can adjust the chili component to your taste, adding a little at a time.

Kelp noodles are extrememly low calorie, so the substance or substantial part of the meal is in the nuts.  Many people get fearful about nuts because they think that nuts have a lot of calories.  Raw nuts, however, have enzymes and plant fats that our bodies need, because they are not degraded by heat nor mixed with low quality oils for processing and roasting purposes.  I love Raw!  Raw foods nourish and energize.  Don’t be bamboozled into eating processed foods because of fat myths.  We need healthy plant fats for cell health, brain function, and all sorts of things.

Now let’s do a reality check on the calories:
The total calories in the large portion of this recipe (when divided into 3 servings) is about 450.  The total calories when divided into 4 servings is under 350. For calorie amounts, these would qualify as on the level with someone on a diet.  The nutritional content of a raw meal like this is far higher than a small portion of lasagna. Take that Jenny!

Macadamia - Myths and Science

Another great food gets a bad rap?

When most people think of macadamia nuts, they say, “Oh, but they are so fattening!”
This is simply untrue!  It is another belief based on misinformation. Similar to the bad rap coconut oil got and continues to get in many circles, processed macadamia nuts are confused with their raw counterparts.

Confusion also comes from the presence of saturated fats.  Macadamia nuts, however, contain a high level of monounsaturated fats. Just don’t eat them roasted and salted!

Saturated fats are highly misunderstood:  we need some saturated fats for cell health.  A poor diet - one high in animal fats and other acid causing practices, poor food combining, processed foods, a lack of vegetables, and a plethora of  low quality ingredients - nullifies any argument about good fats and bad fats, or the nature of saturated, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated fats.  Good foods get vilified in the midst of an ill paradigm.

Macademia nuts are now being recognized as a healthy part of a good diet - especially concerning heart health. See: http://live.psu.edu/story/30112?nw=1

“The Healthy Heart diet with macadamia nuts did reduce total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride levels compared with the standard American diet. The researchers reported in the current issue of the Journal of Nutrition, that the macadamia nuts reduced total cholesterol by 9.4 percent and low-density lipoprotein by 8.9 percent.”

I usually order mine from Living Tree Community.

I found raw organic macadamia nuts  for a lower price here, which I haven’t yet tried. (Still working on my last 10lb order!)

I’m Cuckoo for Coconuts

I adore young coconuts.  There is nothing in the world so refreshing to me as young coconut water - the light, almost clear water that forms inside (not to be confused with coconut milk).

Coconuts have health benefits far greater than most of us are aware of, so I have included below the highlights from an article at:
http://www.living-foods.com/articles/coconutwater.html

‘Here is some information about Coconut Water:

“It’s a natural isotonic beverage, with the same level of electrolytic balance as we have in our blood. It’s the fluid of life, so to speak.” In fact, during the Pacific War of 1941-45, both sides in the conflict regularly used coconut water - siphoned directly from the nut - to give emergency plasma trasfusions to wounded soldiers.

Most coconut water is still consumed fresh in tropical coastal areas - once exposed to air, the liquid rapidly loses most of its organoleptic and nutritional characteristics, and begins to ferment.

• Coconut Water is More Nutritious than whole milk - Less fat and NO cholesterol!
• Coconut Water is More Healthy than Orange Juice - Much lower calories
• Coconut Water is Better than processed baby milk- It contains lauric acid, which is present in human mother’s milk
• Coconut water is naturally sterile — Water permeates though the filtering husk!
• Coconut water is a universal donor– Its identical to human blook plasma
• Coconut Water is a Natural Isotonic Beverage - The same level we have in our blood.
• Coconut water has saved lives in 3rd world countries thru Coconut IV.

“Coconut water is the very stuff of Nature, biologically Pure, full of Natural Sugars, Salts, and Vitamins to ward off fatigue… and is the next wave of energy drinks BUT natural!”, according to Mortin Satin, Chielf of the United Nation’s Food & Agriculture Organization.

Coconut water contains more potassium (at about 294 mg) than most sports drinks (117 mg) and most energy drinks.

Coconut water has less sodium (25mg) where sports drinks have around 41mg and energy drinks have about 200 mg!

Coconut water has 5mg of Natural Sugars where sports and energy drinks range from 10-25mg of Altered Sugars.

Coconut water is very high in Chloride at 118mg, compared to sports drinks at about 39mg.’