Plant-based Summer Berry Smoothie

Smoothies, especially in the summer months, are a great way to get in all your vitamins and keep your calories up, when you're appetite is less than normal because of the heat.

I love to start my mornings with a nice cold smoothie when I'm not pounding back a 15 lb watermelon!

My newest obsession is my Summer Berry Smoothie which I whipped up on a whim while trying to jazz up my standard "Dateorade" of dates, water, dash of cinnamon or a few drops of Sweetleaf Liquid Stevia Drops, and a bit of ice.

Give this once a try too! Dates make the BEST base for a smoothie because they are sweet and their texture, when blended, makes for a frothy/milkshake like consistency. Mmmm mmm!

This particular blend of organic mixed berries is blackberry-free which makes this the perfect berry mix in my opinion -- too many seeds that never officially break down in the Vitamix which makes for a less than enjoyable smoothie experience because I'm constantly biting down on tiny seed particles. Just not a fan..

It's SO good, I just had to share it with you guys so you can try it too!

Ingredients:

1 lb of your favorite dates

1.5 cups of Sunrise Growers Organic Berry Mix 

(Can be purchased at Costco in the frozen fruit section!) 

24 oz-32 oz of water depending on desired thickness 

Make Your Smoothie:

Blend your dates and water in your high speed blender until fully combined. Next blend in your frozen berries.  Blend for 30 seconds and taste to make sure consistency is to your liking. 

Poor into your favorite smoothie glass and slurp it up! 

(P.S. Don't forget to chew your smoothie for optimal digestion!) 

I will be back early next week with another Tour de Cane Juice update for Week 2 so make sure to check back! 

And don't forget to "like" my Facebook Page, Positively Plant-Powered, check out my website, and follow me on Instagram @RawFoodNerd! 

Raw Vegan Zucchini Chips and Organic Tomato Corn Salsa

For years the notion of a crispy chip has alluded me on the raw food lifestyle. My chips, be it savory or sweet, were always chewy. The exception being only my beloved kale chips. (Who would have ever thought kale chips would become so popular?!)

Kale chips are even Kardashian-approved (Oh lord.) with Kourtney Kardashian espousing the benefits of kale chips vs. regular snore bore 'tater chips. But this isn't really about kale chips, which seemingly always give me a weird reflux reaction where I feel like I've got shards of kale stuck in my throat (not fun) for days. And since I avoid gut-bombing condiments like vinegar, oil, & salt, these days I much prefer a crispy zucchini chipper.

Bring it!

The beauty of this crunch-satisfying chip is not just in texture, but also in simplicity in that once you put them in the dehydrator at the standard temperature for raw-fooding-- 115-118 degrees-- you can forget about them for about 2 days. The longer you let them dry the more crispness your chip will bestow upon you.

Recipe? Sure.

1-2 organic zucchini peeled or unpeeled whatever is your groove, sliced thinly on the mandolin
Juice of 1 lemon
For me, I love dill or thyme so I chop them up really well and sprinkle on generously.

I let my zucchini and herbs soak overnight, but an hour or two will do.

Then I put them in the dehydrator at 118 degrees and let those babies go, only checking periodically to flip them over if need be.

After two days they are as crispy as a gosh darn Lays chip MINUS the gmos, preservatives, oils, and salt.

I eat them with guac or my fav. Mango And Sweet Organic Corn Salsa and they are righteously and absurdly delicious.

By the way, that insanely-mind-blowing salsa that eeks of summer bounty goes as follows: (all ripe and organic)

1 mango
2 heirloom tomatoes
1 ripe peach or nectarine
2 ears of corn
1 bell pepper (any color but green which are unripe, therefore, inedible)
Small handful of chives or the top of one green onion
Massive fistful of cilantro
Half a peeled lime

Pulse to your desired consistency and use your chips to go to town!

I would imagine if you were joansing for some serious chip-age of the Cheeze-y variety you could add a heaping tablespoon of Nooch to the lemon juice and dill and then lovingly MASSAGE it into the zucchini. (Is meditation through the vehicle of food possible? Anyone? Anyone?)

Happy Chipping my fellow raw food nerds!

Raw Vegan Sorbet

Sorry if this seems redundant, but I've really been loving my soft serve ice kreams as of late. And who doesn't love ice kream? Cool, sweet, light & airy-- It's like infinite possibilities of deliciousness in a bowl.
 
I've always been kind of an ice cream freak. At the height of my disordered eating I could and would polish off a pint for lunch and then two or three bowls of "low carb" ice cream after dinner. In my eyes, low carb meant no impact. (Fat? Calories? Hahhaha!)

And if you weren't previously aware, even though I did give a nod to this in my previous ice kream post, here's why you should chose NOT to eat dairy:

 Dairy is perhaps one of the most deleterious foods. Despite all the hype, dairy is NOT good for building "strong bones." When metabolized, dairy is extremely acid-forming and your body actually has to release calcium from your bones to re-alkalize (counter-act the acidity) which over time causes osteoporosis. Dairy also packs a pretty fatty punch to the gut as it is high in cholesterol and saturated fat; heart disease anyone? Not to mention, it's like pure mucous- which can present a whole new host of problems from allergies, colds, fevers, ear-infections to eczema, acne, digestive distress, inflammation, and even type 1 diabetes.

No thank you! I don't know about you, but the mere mention of mucous, can turn me away from anything! And that's why plant-based ice kreams are the BOMB! You can get all that creamy, soft-whipped lightness of  dairy-laden soft serve without the fat, puss, and degenerative diseases that come with eating conventional dairy.

Now onto the goods, ahhh, summer fruit abundance!

Peaches and nectarines are finally in season and they have been awesome sauce; Hence their inclusion in just about all my ice kream dinners as of late!

 So, here it goes- 'scream on fruity friends!

Mango Peach Swirl 
with Freeze Dried Raspberries

Raspberry & Strawberry Kream

topped w. Frozen Raspberries

 

 Blueberry Raspberry & Mango Nectarine
 topped with Frozen Blueberries

 'Kookies & Kream' Banana Soft Serve

Let me tell you, seriously, there is nothing better than this. Guilt-free, cruelty-free, and readily affordable -- fruit-based ice kreams will transform your notion of traditional "ice cream" and you'll be wondering what took you so long!

How to Make Raw Vegan Banana Ice Cream

There is nothing more perfect than a bunch of ripe bananas, sunning on a window sill all spotty and friggin' awesome, begging to be turned into a big ol' bowl of creamy sweet banana ice cream.

God, I love ice cream. Always have, always will. But common, "real" ice cream (if we can call it that, because...no, no, I'm not going to go there with the graphic verbalization of what milk, cream, etc. actually is. I'll spare you, THIS time...it's a food post after all..) is soooo sup-par and it will never, ever love you the way you love it. Yes, ice cream of the barn yard variety, is an unrequited love story of sorts.

To which you should console yourself with some banana ice cream in all its many variations! Banana ice cream will love you back! Promise!

'Nanner ice cream is kinda like that though, it will never make you mucous-y, or give you acne or that inflamed skin rash that no one can pronounce but we know Kim Kardashian has. Nor will it cause sinus infections or strep throat or any of the other nasty afflictions that spawn from dairy consumption.

So here it is, in all it's glory, the one (the many)--

The Ice Cream:
7-10 spotty ripe bananas
Vanilla bean (powder)

Process your bananas In whatever manner you like; high-powered blender, food processor, champion juicer, hand blender.

Put back in the freezer until ready to eat. Especially if you haven't made the date caramel yet.

Date Caramel Sauce (Aka the how to get people to worship at your feet..sauce):

1lb. Of preferably fresh dates of your choosing
Coconut water, adjusted for desired thickness
Blend/process

Ok, so, I like to use a variety of my favorite dates like bahri, blonde, halaway, etc. and I pit/soak them in coconut water overnight (you can use any kind of coconut water, but the one that makes it taste like friggin' god is Amy & Brian's Coconut Juice- seriously, it's like marshmallow whip. I die.)

But, fear not, if you don't have time to soak them you can just blend them up with the coconut water and it will be just as good.

Serve it up! Ahhh, bliss!

I spoon on gross amounts of date caramel sauce as well as mixing it in. I'm not going to apologize either. I love my sugar and I love my carbs and the best thing about living a whole food lifestyle is that you never have to sacrifice or be a slave to calories and moderation.

The important thing to note is that the carbs and sugar I'm loading up on are fruit-based and not artificial or processed in any way. Remember, your brain runs on sugar (glycogen) and everything you eat needs to be broken down into sugar so that way it can be utilized as energy aka fuel. Why not go easy on your body and just give it the healthy whole food sugar it requires??

Besides, the caramel tastes like marshmallow graham crackers. And you can eat this for breakfast.. Or lunch...or dinner. Mind.Blown.

And then of course, I top it off with black and white mulberries. If you haven't tried black mulberries, get some. They are sweet, yet tart. And remind me of Berry Berry Kix.

And when I'm feeling really wild (ha ha) I like to get a little cray cray and mix in some carob with all my sauce-y 'nanner business. Which looks a little something like THIS:

Just follow the same instructions for making banana ice cream, but add some carob for a chocolate-y twist!

I've always been a Swirl kind of girl so I only mixed a bit with carob.

There are endless variations to banana ice cream! Be creative and "indulge" yourself without every having to feel guilty.

Food guilt is for the birds.