Radishes, avocados, and other salady things...

Yeah. I'm a raw-foodist so I WILL have an occassional salad post on here. The enemy of the standard american diet (ironically enough abbreviated to SAD), eating a simple salad every day may just be what you need in order to acheive a better overall health.

Don't let is bore you. Dont force yourself to choke down a plate of green stuff for a weak until you get sick and decide just to give up on it. Put some flavor into it. Put some taste on it. Do it right and make it taste good. I dont have that obsession with salads that some raw=foodies do and i've been doing this for almost a bit over a year. When done right though, it can taste good.

Radish-Avocado Salad

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

-2c. Mixed Baby Greens

-4 small Red Radishes (sliced)

-1 avocado (pitted, skinned, and cubed)

-2 tbsp. Olive-oil (cold-pressed)

-1 tbsp. lemon or lime juice (freshly squeezed)

-2 tbsp. ground flax seed

-2 tbsp. pumpkin seeds (raw, shelled)

Method:

-Mix together the baby greens, radishes, and avocado together.

-Mix in the olive oil and lemon or lime juice.

-Sprinkle the flax seed and pumpkin seeds.

-Enjoy.

So many different flavors mixed together to form one magnificent salad. This is one of my favorite recipes due to my love for avocado, radishes, and pumpkin seeds but don't let this stop you from making up your own combination.

Radishes tend to have high silicon and sulfur contents which helps to dissolve excess mucus in the digestive track which can be caused by eating heavy loads of carbs (pastas, breads, etc). They help to cleanse out your system and also are one of the highest vegetable sources of vitamin c.

With all of this said, they do have an incredibly strong flavor to them, so I almost always add a bit of avocado with my radishes to cut down some of it without sacrificing the benefits. An added bonus is when a healthy fat is added to a potent food, they tend to help one another digest.

I've always heard my family say after eating something unhealthy, "i'll just have a salad, and that will fix it". Every cell in your body is built based off of what you feed and nourish yourself with so eating junk food may have a toll on this but though a salad won't prevent all of the damage done, it can and will help to ease it a bit by both making your body a bit more alkaline and by putting some nutrients in your system to give you a little something better for your cells to feast off of.

Just remember for your salad that the more leafy and green, the better. Greens are both rich minerals and help to balance your bodies pH by increasing alkalinity.

A truer statement has never been made than "You are what you eat"

What foods are in your ultimate salad?

-Andrew D. Morrison-

Raw Macadamia-Hemp Cake (with chocolate-fig icing)

Making a raw cake actually taste somewhat good was a bit of a challenge, as most of the ones i've found and tried all pretty much tasted the same. They tasted like walnuts, dates, and chocolate. I mean, theres nothing wrong with that, but its too simple for me. No matter what the recipe was, it tasted like that and it just gets old after a while.

That needs to change around here.

Using the subtly sweet and crunchy macadamia nut and the soft texture of hemp seeds, I created a raw cake that is a bit different from the rest. Ladies and gentleman I give you:

Raw Macadamia-Hemp Cake

(w/ Chocolate-Fig Icing)

Serves 2

Cake Ingredients:

1 c. Macadamia Nuts(raw)

1/4 c. Hemp Seeds (raw, shelled)

2 dried Figs

1/8 c. Raw Honey

2 tbsp. Coconut Oil (raw)

1/4 tsp. Himalayan Pink Sea Salt

Method:

-Set your figs in a jar or glass of water for about 5 minutes, or until soft.

-Blend your macadamia nuts and hemp seeds in a food processor until coarse.

-Add the remaining cake ingredients and continue to process until you get a dough-like consistancy.

-Mold your dough into the shape of a cake, and set aside as you make the icing.

Icing ingredients:

3 dried Figs

3 tbsp. Coconut oil (raw)'

1/8 c. raw Honey

1/4 c. raw Cacao Powder

Method:

-set your figs in a jar or glass of water to soak for about 5 minutes, or until soft.

-Put all of your ingredients into a food processor and blend until you get a thick, paste like consistency.

-Add your icing to the cake any way you'd like and enjoy!

This actually turned out exactly as I had hoped. Rich, sweet, crunchy, and delicious. The fig frosting didnt look as beautiful as I wanted due to the figs, but they added a bit of fudginess that made it taste so much better. Definatley better than a walnut cake.

Whats in it?

Hemp seeds are one of the most mineral-rich foods on the planet. In light of not boring you with millions of words, iron, sulfur, and calcium are just a few well-known ones. They also contain the highest protein source on the planet per weight (33.6% of the seed), with the exception of algae. Not only that, but the protein form itself is globular which doesnt cause protein digestion problems. Hemp seeds also are the only seed known to contain the perfect ratio of essential fatty acids (one part omega-3 to three pares Omega-6).

Macadamia nuts have been well established as an unusually rich source of healthy, beautifying oils. They are the highest source of monounsaturated fats (80%), even more so than olive oil. They also the richest source of the beautifying oleic acid(omega-9).

Figs are one of the only dried fruits I ever buy. They are one of the most mineral and alkaline of all fruits and act as both for congestion and digestion.

Both nutrient-dense and better tasting? I would take this over a walnut-based cake anyday.

Whats your favorite nut?

-Andrew David Morrison-