Sweet Brown Rice & Toasted Sunflower Seed Salad

White balsamic vinegar and fresh mint are the star ingredients in this simple brown rice and sunflower seed salad. To make a complete meal, I served mine with hummus, diced avocado and two kinds of salsa on a bed of chopped romaine lettuce and homegrown mung bean sprouts.

Sweet Brown Rice & Toasted Sunflower Seed Salad

For the Oil-free Vinaigrette:

2 Tbs white balsamic vinegar

1 Tbs coconut aminos or tamari

1 medium clove garlic, minced or grated

1 tsp honey or agave

1/4 tsp cayenne 

Combine dressing ingredients, mix well with a fork and set aside while preparing the brown rice salad. 

For the Brown Rice Salad:

2 cups cooked brown rice

1 cup toasted sunflower seeds

3/4 cup diced tomatoes

3/4 cup diced cucumbers

8 black olives, pitted and chopped 

10 fresh peppermint leaves, minced

Start toasting sunflower seeds in a dry cast iron pan over medium to low heat, stirring as needed to prevent burning. While seeds are toasting, prep remaining salad ingredients. When seeds begin to brown nicely, remove pan from heat and allow to cool. Store cooled seeds in an airtight container until final step.  

Add brown rice to a large mixing bowl. Pour dressing over rice, stir well and allow it all to soak together for a few minutes.

Add tomatoes, cucumbers and olives. Stir gently to combine.

Stir in mint leaves, cover and chill. When ready to eat, mix in about two thirds of the toasted sunflower seeds. (This is done last so that the seeds will remain crunchy and crisp!) To serve, top salad with remaining seeds and garnish with additional mint leaves. 

This salad can be made ahead and keeps nicely for two or three days, even after the sunflower seeds are mixed in and become chewy rather than crisp. Enjoy leftovers as part of a composed salad, as shown below. Bon appetit! 💚

Baked Potato Basics

Simple chopped frisée salad with warm baked potato, raw sheep Gorgonzola, black pepper.

One of the most convenient and tasty foods to build a meal around is the humble baked potato. Red and gold potatoes are my favorites: moist and sweet.

To prepare, just scrub, prick with a fork so it won't explode—this actually happened to me once!—and pop in a 400 degree oven for one hour. (45 minutes at 450 works, too.) Wrap in foil only if you don't want the skin to crisp up. 

I like to eat a baked potato for lunch with salad. I'll serve it on the side with a little organic butter, or chop it up and toss right into the mix. With avocado and salsa it's a fiesta. Or add a little of your favorite raw milk cheese, like I did today—it gets nice and melty. Mmmm.

Feeding Your Energy Matrix with Color and Life ~ Rainbow Bell Peppers with Chickpeas, Dill & Honey-Dijon Vinaigrette

 

In the service of eating to evolve, I find it useful to remind myself often that Everything is Energy, and this includes Me and You.

We may feel heavy and dense from time to time, but the truth beyond the illusion is that our bodies, and the foods with which we choose to nourish them, are all made up of electromagnetic vibrations: charged particles, biophotons, waves, and space.

When we eat any food, what we are really consuming is an energy field—an actual vibrational imprint of atoms—oscillating within a particular form, and at a particular speed. Depending on the vibrational rate and geometric patterning of any given food, eating it will shift our own vibration in a distinct or subtle way.

When we eat fresh, water-containing plants or raw/lightly cooked natural foods, the high quotient of life force energy within the food interfaces with our energy matrix and supports the vibrancy of our own energy field. (On the other hand, we can't expect much of a boost from such items as Jello, hamburger buns, processed meats, sugary cereals, etc.)

It is easy to see that the more alive our food is, the more it will resonate with the life force vibration within our bodies, and contribute to our energetic aliveness. The shape and color of our food also has a distinct influence on our bodies' energetic response to it—imagine interfacing with the creamy symmetry of an avocado sliced down the middle, or the firm flower of a red bell pepper. Beautiful foods feeds us with the beauty of sacred geometry, color and light.

Dietary science provides minimum daily requirements for quantifiable nutrients such as calories, proteins and vitamins. But what is our daily requirement for Life Force Energy? Or for color itself - say, ORANGE? Or GREEN? We need life and color as much as we need calories.  

Think about it!

And now, for a color-rich recipe. This one is made with a festive rainbow trio of crisp bell peppers, a juicy matrix for infusing our cells with vitality.

It being the dead of winter, I was thrilled last week to receive a gift of six gigantic red, orange and yellow Whole Trade® peppers from my local Whole Foods Market, where I participated in a Wellness Fair last Friday. Who could resist these beauties? Aren't they gorgeous?!

 

As an aside,  while I believe in building the diet around native and local foods, I also appreciate the wider choices that modern food transportation systems provide. Our ancestors struggled to thrive on sparse winter pickings; we have options. How fortunate to have ongoing access to fresh, living foods—whether organically grown, local, or Fair Trade certified. The more whole, beautiful and alive our food, the more it will support our radiance and health, in any season.

Rainbow Bell Peppers with Chickpeas, Dill & Honey-Dijon Vinaigrette

Main Ingredients
4 large, multicolored bell peppers (5 cups diced)
1 15.5 oz can organic chickpeas, well-rinsed and drained
1 cup chopped fresh dill weed

Honey-Dijon Vinaigrette
2 Tbs lime juice
2 Tbs flaxseed oil
1 Tbs raw honey
1 tsp sea salt or Himalayan pink salt
1 tsp prepared Dijon mustard

Directions
Wisk together all vinaigrette ingredients and set aside.

Cut peppers in half; remove tops and white pith.

Dice peppers and add to bowl with chickpeas and chopped dill.

Pour in vinaigrette, toss well and refrigerate for at least one hour to allow flavors to marry.

 

Stir again and garnish with dill before serving. May be made ahead for next day dining. Stays nice and crisp for two days. Bon appetit!

Christmas Kale Salad with Creamy Hempseed Dressing

 

Christmas Kale Salad is a festive, cleansing raw salad that's perfect for holiday season, when sugary treats and heavy fare abound. I made a double big batch to bring to a potluck dinner tonight, starting with two gigantic bags of winter kale that I bought at the Amherst indoor farmer’s market on Saturday: one curly, one rainbow. 

Tender-sweet winter kale is my favorite kale, and it makes a stellar massaged kale salad, as you will see. I made this salad by feel, using basic massaged kale salad principles. This post includes more precise measurements, but here's what I did today:

After removing stems (which I saved for juicing) and cutting the larger kale leaves into smaller pieces, I was able to fill two large mixing bowls with kale. Over the mounded top of each bowl, I squeezed the juice of one and a half lemons (using 3 lemons total), sprinkled a hefty pinch of Himalayan pink salt, and drizzled on some extra virgin olive oil—not too much, just a light, controlled, spiral pour over the leaves on top.

 

 

Next, with very clean hands and alternating between bowls, I gently massaged the kale until every nook and cranny was thoroughly coated with oil, salt and lemon juice. During this process, the citric acid and salt break down the cell walls and allow the kale to soften and “cook.” While massaging, I removed stray stems and tore some leaves into smaller pieces. After about ten minutes of going back and forth this way between bowls, the total volume was reduced in size by half, and I was able to combine all the kale into one bowl.

To add a splash of color and some textural variety, I added one large, organic red bell pepper, chopped into a bite-sized dice. Isn’t it beautiful?

 After tossing red pepper and kale together with wooden spoons...

it was time to prepare the Creamy Hempseed Dressing. For this, I used a base of Raw Vegan Hemp Boursin with Fine Herbs (the recipe which I shared with you in my last post). 

Turning Hemp Boursin into dressing couldn't be easier. Simply add two tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar and four tablespoons of water to a half cup of Hemp Boursin, and whisk it all together with a fork. Pour over the kale salad...

 ...and toss well. Voila! The Christmas Kale Salad is complete! I can't wait to eat it!

 

  

Merry Christmas everybody! And a joyful end of 2012 to all. 

Love and light, 

Diana

Pesto-Veggie Wraps with Vegan Hemp Seed Pesto

I’m so excited to be sharing a CSA share this year with my good neighbor Emily! Every Tuesday after work, I drive to the Kitchen Garden Farm in Sunderland and pick up a big green cardboard box pre-packed with beautiful, fresh-picked vegetables. Emily and I decided on a Deluxe Share which means we also get fruit, from a neighboring farm. The first week, our fruit consisted of two quarts of the sweetest organic strawberries we’d ever tasted. The next it was currants, then blackberries. Today we are getting gooseberries!


Even though I am splitting this CSA share, it's still a challenge to eat everything up in time for the next installment of bounty. So on Monday nights, it's time to make room for the incoming haul. For instance, say I was left with a generous portion of salad greens, radicchio and basil. Sounds like the perfect ingredients with which to make Pesto Veggie Wraps! If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, try this. Trust me, you'll be glad you did!


First, put together a nice raw salad with torn red leaf lettuce and radicchio, diced cucumber and dill.



Next, whip up a single-serving portion of Vegan Hemp Seed Pesto with the basil, garlic, olive oil and hemp seeds, plus some Himalayan pink salt (my favorite!). Spread the pesto inside of two cabbage leaves, layer on heaps of salad and add a generous squirt of fresh lemon juice. From there, it's just a matter of rolling… and voila!


In the absence of pesto fixings, I’d consider making Miso-Tahini Veggie Wraps or Salsa-Avocado Veggie Wraps or Honey-Almond Butter Veggie Wraps. The sweet, supple outer leaves of a freshly picked cabbage lend themselves to all manner of fillings.

One of my favorite things about this meal is the no-fork-required aspect. I absolutely LOVE salads, but let's face it, they can be tedious to plow through! Wrapping it up makes salad fun and easy to eat. Not to mention a mouthwatering delight. Enjoy!


Vegan Hemp Seed Pesto

Makes one serving

1 cup basil leaves, washed
1 small clove of garlic, minced
1.5 to 2 Tbs hemp seeds
1 to 2 Tbs olive oil
up to ¼ tsp sea salt, or to taste

In a food processor fitted with the S-blade, add basil, garlic, hemp seeds and sea salt and pulse until basil is finely chopped. Drizzle in olive oil while the processor is running. I use only enough oil to get the pesto to hold together and form a paste, stopping frequently and using a rubber spatula to bring everything down into the base. Taste and adjust seasonings. This would be good with a little crushed red pepper in it, too. Or some sundried tomatoes. Or a squeeze of lime juice. Or…!

Practically Raw Baked Potato Salad

Are you planning on baking potatoes any time soon? If so, cook a few extras and use them to make this Practically Raw Potato Salad.

Practically Raw is my fun little way of saying two things: 1) containing a high percentage of raw food, and 2) a raw or raw-based recipe that is simple and practical to prepare. (Stay tuned for my Eat to Evolve Practically Raw Recipes E-Book coming this year!!)

This Practically Raw recipe relies on a pre-baked organic potato. I happened to have an organic baked Yukon Gold potato on hand, but feel free to use any organic baked potato you like (such as red, or even blue or purple potato, if you want to get fancy). I suggest you stay away from Russet and Idaho varieties as a rule, as they are a) too dry and b) too starchy for optimum carb healthyness. Red, blue and gold potatoes are more nutritious, moist and delicious!

Aside from the potato, everything else in the recipe (except the mustard) is raw and/or alive. For instance, instead of mayonnaise, I use mashed avocado and lemon juice, a brilliant idea I gleaned from a fellow Detox Community member over at detoxtheworld.com (that's Natalia Rose's awesome website, fyi). Avocado combines as a starch so its a perfect addition to potato salad. Just mash avocado with lemon juice and add miso and mustard for a tasty, creamy dressing.


Next, add a few handfulls of colorful veggies to the avocado mayonnaise. It's a rainbow for your tummy.


Finally, stir in the diced baked potato. Note: it was easy to peel the skin off the baked potato so I did, but you could leave it on if you prefer.


Here is the recipe I used in its entirety. Feel free to improvise with whatever raw veggies you happen to have on hand... to make this baked potato salad even more practically raw! :)

Practically Raw Baked Potato Salad

1 good sized organic baked potato, sliced and diced
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 ripe avocado
1/4 to 1/2 red bell pepper, minced
1/4 bunch cilantro, chopped (a big handful, basically)
1/4 red onion, minced
1 teaspoon miso
1 teaspoon mustard (i used whole grain but dijon would be good, too)

Directions
Mash the avocado with lemon juice, then stir in mustard and miso. Mix this with the red pepper, red onion and cilantro, saving a little minced pepper or cilantro for garnish. Add chopped potato and gently stir everything together. Garnish and enjoy! Serves one as a stand alone meal, two as a side with green salad.

Autumn Empress Salad with Currried Hemp Seed Dressing

It’s been more than a month since I posted my last blog from the beaches of Florida...and suddenly, its twenty degrees outside and Thanksgiving Day! How did that happen? And what better occasion to share a delicious harvest recipe featuring a cornucopial favorite: winter squash.

But first, a brief explanation for my absence. No—I didn’t run away with a pod of dolphins (sigh). I’ve been home in Western Massachusetts, witnessing the emergence of bare branches and absorbing, activating and working with Reiki, the healing energy system transmitted and taught to me in Florida last month by Reiki master, psychic healer and author Diane Stein. After intensive practice and further attunement, I am pleased to begin offering Reiki healings and energy balancing as an adjunct to nutritional counseling for my clients.

Of course during these many weeks of inner transformation, I have still been eating and preparing food! I’ve had a lot of new "raw materials" to work with as well, lol, brought to market by the wonderful organic farmers of the Pioneer Valley. I’m astounded at the variety of never-before-seen fruits and vegetables our farmers introduce to the locally-grown table each year… new and unusual shapes and colors of peppers, heirloom tomatoes, baby potatoes, squashes, apples, pears and more. Amazing!

My latest vegetable crush is on Orange Sunshine kabocha. This hefty baby is the red/orange-skinned version of my beloved "buttercup" squash, formerly the sweetest, most velvety winter squash I had tasted. That is to say, before my new squash crush changed things forever.

Orange Sunshine’s bumpy, scarlet-tinged outer skin hides richly hued, orange-gold flesh within. When baked at 400 degrees, cut side down in a pan of water, the flesh of this beauty becomes soft, smooth and sugary enough to give garnet yams a run for their money. Eaten raw, it is surprisingly crisp, juicy and, yes, super sweet! Who knew?

The raw winter squash raw-velation came to me while preparing my first Orange Sunshine for the oven. Once I started crunching on thin slivers of fresh squash and realized how DELICIOUS it was in its natural state, I couldn’t bring myself to bake the whole thing! Setting some hunks aside, snugly wrapped in a plastic bag in the fridge, I came up with this recipe the following day.

Combining gorgeous Orange Sunshine kabocha with royal Purple Cabbage creates a magnificent color combination, a visual feast fit for a queen. In my Autumn Empress Salad, this imperial vegetable duo is topped with an exotic savory dressing, spiced with curry and rich in protein and healthy omega-3 fatty acids from golden hemp and thickening chia seeds. For a hotter version, double the curry powder and add cayenne pepper to taste.

Enjoy Autumn Empress Salad as a main meal or simple side. For a regal presentation, spoon into pale green butter lettuce boats and imagine them as crunchy royal barges, floating straight down your plate in the direction of your happy mouth and belly. ☺


Autumn Empress Salad with Curried Hemp Seed Dressing

Salad Ingredients
1½ - 2 cups shredded purple cabbage
1½ - 2 cups grated Orange Sunshine kabocha squash

Dressing Ingredients
¼ cup hemp seeds
1 Tbs white chia seeds
½ lemon, peeled and pitted
1 lime’s juice
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp each curry powder, turmeric powder
1 tsp raw honey or agave, or 3 drops liquid stevia extract
1 cup cold water

Serving Suggestion Ingredients
2 butter lettuce leaves per person
4 slices honeycrisp apple per plate

Directions
Shred or finely chop purple cabbage leaves after removing the thick inner stem. Grate kabocha squash in hunks, by first cutting off a slice and removing any seeds clinging to the center, then cutting a wedge that will grate easily. Hold the skin side of the squash towards your palm and grate only the inner flesh. The remaining strip of skin may be eaten by you, composted or given to the dog. (My dog is crazy for squash!) Place shredded cabbage and grated squash in a large bowl and toss gently to combine.

Add all dressing ingredients to a high speed blender and blend on high until creamy. Taste and adjust seasonings. Pour dressing over salad and toss to coat. Spoon into butter lettuce leaves if desired and garnish plates with crisp, sweet apple slices. Apples combine well with this beautiful raw salad, provided no starches, cooked veggies or animal proteins are eaten at the same meal.

Wishing you all a very Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving!
With grateful ♥, Diana

The Rose Cleanse - Day 2

It's a hot summer day and I'm deep into day two of The Rose Cleanse here. All going well. I got some nice beets at the coop to make my rooty juice today, which ended up being a sweet beet-carrot-ginger-lemon-apple-celery-cuke combo. My green juice was the same as yesterday. So far, I've consumed about 32 ounces of fresh juice.

It's late afternoon and I find myself feeling both a little tired and...a little empty! I was thinking earlier how easy it is to turn empty into full. There's really no harm in sitting with emptiness once in a while. Nothing bad will happen to you if you don't eat the second you experience hunger.

I sure am looking forward to dinner at six, though! Tonight's menu includes a leafy green salad, baked buttercup squash and more of the tasty dish I made for last night's potluck dinner, pictured above and below. I had planned on making Cheezy Cauliflower, but since the farm stand did not have any cauliflower, I changed course and purchased some beautiful organic broccoli instead, which I used to create a nice Rainbow Salad with Creamy Lemon-Hempseed Dressing.


To make this salad, start with a nice big bunch, say, a pound and a half of fresh green broccoli, chopped small and drizzled with lemon juice, tamari, olive oil and a sprinkle of Himalayan crystal salt. Toss and let that marinate while you dice one large or two small sweet red bell peppers and thinly slice a nice big (is there any other kind?) white daikon radish after quartering it lengthwise. Throw in some halved sungold cherry tomatoes and mix all your colorful veggies together. Then... pour on a cup of Creamy Lemon-Hempseed Dressing, which is basically Kristen Suzanne's Cheezy Hemp Nacho Sauce with extra lemon juice, one or two tablespoons of clear agave nectar and a handful of fresh chopped oregano added. Sprinkle with cayenne if desired, stir well and eat. Very yummy!

If you still haven't tried making Cheezy Hemp Nacho Sauce for some reason, maybe this video of Kristen Suzanne making her signature dish will inspire you:



Doesn't that look good?!

Meanwhile back at the potluck last night, I was glad to find some raw baby carrots to munch on, along with basil pesto and raw peanuts to complement my crunchy Rainbow Salad. I also enjoyed a few cooked veggies from an amazing, spicy Chinese dish made by our multitalented host, Cai Silver. Cai is an incredible painter, artist and chef who operates the C.X. Silver Gallery in Brattleboro with her husband Adam. The potluck was held at the gallery, which showcases Cai's oil paintings plus features a variety of Asian and Tibetan arts. All this meant we guests were treated to some luscious visuals and a private tour on top of all the good food and company. What a delight!

When I got home, I still felt a little hungry so I ate a few blueberries and baby peaches. Technically one wouldn't put fruit on top of cooked veggies, but since most of my dinner was in the raw veggie or seed/nut category, the fruit settled fine. And it made me feel happy. Which is what really matters, don't you agree?

My potluck experience shows that it is possible to "have a life" and cleanse at the same time. I might not plan a detox during a week that I had a wedding to go to, mind you! But for everyday outings, The Rose Cleanse program is super doable.

Garlic Mustard Greens and Marinated Cauliflower Salad

As I write this, autumn is in full swing. We’re entering the far side of peak fall foliage, following a somewhat subdued but still beautiful color show. Nights are cold now (most days, too) and a hard frost or two has already had its way with my basil, among other tender things.

In other words, winter is coming. In my neck of the woods, this means spending more time indoors with the windows locked up tight, breathing heated, recirculated air that may be seeded with – uh-oh – other people’s germs.

It’s been proposed that sickness increases in colder months not due to an actual increase in the amount of environmental pathogens but simply because we can’t get away from them. Indoor activities are preferred, public transportation is more crowded, fresh air is reduced, less time is spent in the sun producing Vitamin D and, of course, sugar intake skyrockets during the Holidays. All of these factors lead to increased susceptibility to disease.

It’s almost impossible not to be alarmed as news reports about "swine flu deaths" abound. What those reports fail to mention is that the sad instances of reported deaths related to H1N1 – or any flu in this country – typically occur in children and people who are already quite ill to begin with. But in a culture where "sensationalism sells" strategies support a dollar-driven healthcare system, even those of us in the natural health field may need to work harder to listen to our own sound voice of good reason.

Shameless (and in my opinion, irresponsible) advertisements for free flu shots and free antibiotics are popping up at pharmacies all over town – on billboards, LED displays, flyers – you name it. Last month, Walgreen’s was even advertising seasonal flu shots on the very same red-lit flashing outdoor sign as discounted double 12-packs of Coke and Big Grab bags of Doritos on sale. Talk about guerilla marketing.

There is nothing free about pharmaceutical drugs. On one side, just follow the money trail; on the other, the toll these poisons take on individual health and stamina. Whether today or in the future, the pipers will be paid if you buy into that system without asking questions.

I’m not saying that no one should ever take an antibiotic, or even a flu shot. Drugs like these absolutely have their place in the medicinal arsenal. But I do believe that most of the time, most of us really, honestly don’t need them.

There are many safe, natural steps we can take to boost our immune resistance to disease. A few of them are listed here, in an article I wrote for a local paper on fighting the flu with natural immune support. If there had been room, I would have definitely included a few more preventive measures, including one of my all-time favorite anti-viral aids: GARLIC!

If you think about it, garlic’s reputation for repelling vampires may not be so far-fetched. Flu viruses are merely lifeless protein packets, programmed to inject their DNA into the cellular nuclei of another, living being in order to replicate themselves. There’s definitely something vampire-like about that mechanism. (Alien and creepy, too, if not evil.)

The good news is that legends aside, garlic is a potent, scientifically proven protector against viral infection.

I have been taking advantage of garlic’s miraculous abilities since the chilly fall and winter of my nineteenth year. Due to unexpected life circumstances, I lived those frigid months just this side of homeless, spending most nights in an abandoned chicken shack and, when that flooded out, an unheated farmhouse attic. Every morning I would wake up, clamber out of my trusty down sleeping bag, get dressed with a quickness and then ride my bike down to Atkins’ Farms, the local orchard, to select a large, fresh-picked Empire apple for breakfast. This I would eat with one good-sized clove of raw garlic – a tasty combo for those who haven’t tried it. It is to the garlic that I have always attributed the fact that despite the challenges of my living situation, I did not once get sick that year, not even a sniffle.

Fortunately today I live in a cozy house, complete with wood stove and all the fixings, and from here, continue to love raw garlic. Although I generally skip the apple routine, I do consume as much as possible, especially at this time of year. Fresh chopped garlic goes well in or on just about everything - from fresh salads, raw soups and green smoothies to roasted potatoes, lentil stews, steamed veggies and more.

This winter salad is packed with immune boosting raw garlic and alkalizing mustard greens. Mustard greens, with their peppery, pungent flavor, happen to be an excellent source of vitamins A, C, E and K. The first three of these are premium cell-protective antioxidants, and eating the greens raw (though softened in a marinade) keeps levels high. A few jewel-like goji berries tossed in provide a festive air, plus sweetness and added antioxidant benefits.
Garlic Mustard Greens and Marinated Cauliflower Salad

INGREDIENTS
1 bunch mustard greens, washed and spun dry
1 head organic cauliflower, chopped into small florets
1 handful each dulse (chopped), goji berries, raisins
½ cup pine nuts

½ cup extra virgin cold-pressed olive oil
2 lemons’ juice
1 Tablespoon maple syrup or raw honey
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons Dill
1 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt or favorite sea salt, more to taste
½ teaspoon black pepper or crushed red pepper flakes, more to taste

DIRECTIONS
Combine fresh lemon juice, maple syrup or raw honey, garlic, dill, salt, and pepper and set aside. Finely chop the mustard greens and place in a large bowl. Pour olive oil over the greens and massage with your hands until every nook and cranny is coated. Add chopped cauliflower, chopped dulse, goji berries and raisins and stir to combine, either with your hands again, or a spoon. Add lemon juice mixture and mix well until greens, cauliflower and dried fruits are evenly coated with marinade.

Let the salad stand at room temperature for about three to four hours, stirring occasionally. I like to mix in pine nuts just before serving so they remain crispy, but you could add them earlier if you prefer. Store salad in fridge; keeps a few days…so tasty!